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Critics Consensus: A promising debut for director Gia Coppola, Palo Alto compensates for its drifting plot with solid performances and beautiful cinematography.
Critic Consensus: A promising debut for director Gia Coppola, Palo Alto compensates for its drifting plot with solid performances and beautiful cinematography.
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All Critics (122) | Top Critics (39) | Fresh (85) | Rotten (37)
A pale imitation of the early novels of Bret Easton Ellis, who wrote about young ennui and aimlessness from the inside out.
Ultimately, "Palo Alto" is a messy yet haunting portrait of a particular time in life.
It's accurate to say that "Palo Alto" is another movie by another Coppola about the lives of the rich, bored and disaffected, but that description sells the movie short.
While it shows Coppola has talent, it's also as aimless as her characters' self-absorbed, self-medicated, joyless lives.
That Coppola finds occasional grace and spirit here shows understanding and compassion. Her next assignment? Make a movie that's not about the troubles of the privileged and bored.
These slippery slices of life feel like the most honest, relevant film portrait of adolescence in ages.
A meandering contemplation on teen angst but with nothing new or interesting to say about it.
I know plenty of filmmakers tend to make the same movie over and over again, but when you're making the movie of another famous relative, I would think you'd feel silly.
A lackluster and slow-going film where its stories don't pan out well.
While not quite at the level of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused or Olivier Assayas' Cold Water, it comes closer than most contemporary American teen films dare.
Coppola's film is about what she knows; she's obviously more ambitious than her apathetic and self-obsessed characters, but she probably knows a few of them. Far from perfect, but a solid beginning.
While all the young actors are committed to their characters (though none of them particularly stand out), this film will likely drown in its own nothingness as far more thought-provoking teenage fare continues to prevail.
The meandering quality of the film's plot (which may put most viewers off) is in fact what I like the most about it, while the solid performances, nice cinematography and Gia Coppola's firm direction help make this a solid debut for her as a filmmaker.
Super Reviewer
The reviews for this aren't great, but I kind of liked it. It has that 90's indie film feel to it (it's not set in the 90's, or not so I could tell, but it really reminded me of films like Kids, All over me, Freeway etc). Just the kind of thing I love. My main criticism is that it doesn't have a true ending. It really felt like something was going to happen, but it didn't. And Emma Roberts is not a favourite of mine either, but she's not too awful in this one. I wasn't very impressed with all the smoking either. Is it really necessary to glamorise that disgusting habit? Those few sticking points lost it the star. But I did enjoy it overall and I think I need to watch it again, because it is subtle on some points. I suspect I missed a lot. The young cast do a good job. The actors playing Teddy and Emily were standouts.
Gripping teenage drama.
Towards the end of "Palo Alto," high school senior April(Emma Roberts) remarks on the pointlessness of current films. While I the perpetual optimist had not noticed, it is also possible that April had not noticed it about the film she is a character in. And in case you're wondering, this is not a movie clever enough for such meta criticism. Instead, "Palo Alto" falls prey to James Franco's patented pretentiousness with neophyte writer director Gia Coppola attempting to adapt some of his stories and doing little to make them more palatable on screen.(The only sign of original thought here is a scene of April sitting in her locker having lunch.) While the movie's pace and focus could best be termed as sluggish and hazy, to be fair, James Franco is a good actor, here playing a lecherous soccer coach. That character is emblematic of this cliched movie where all the adults are failing the kids by being either molesters, writing their term papers, letting them play violent video games or showing them inappropriate movies.(A clip of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" provides the only nudity.) So, it's no wonder that Teddy(Jack Kilmer) and Fred(Nat Wolff) have gloriously stupid conversations like the one that opens "Palo Alto" when in fact there is nothing wrong with teenagers having not figured everything out, yet.
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