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Sunday, May 18, 2014
MOVIE REVIEW
Palo Alto
Walking (Precariously) In A Teenage Wonderland
James Franco
as Mr. B and Emma Roberts as April in Gia Coppola's "Palo Alto", based on Mr.
Franco's book.
Tribeca Film
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Sunday,
May 18,
2014
Few films burrow into the hearts, minds and feelings of
teenagers as perceptively and as brilliantly as Gia Coppola's "Palo Alto".
A wonderfully intimate and tactile drama, Ms. Coppola's film follows three
teenagers in the Northern California Bay Area city going through crisis and a
transition to adulthood. Teddy (Jack Kilmer) is doing community service
for a DUI (driving under the influence). Fred (Nat Wolff), an angry,
insulated figure, is Teddy's best pal and loosest cannon. April (Emma
Roberts) is a sensitive soccer player whose affair with her lonely single-dad
coach Mr. B. (James Franco) threatens to boil over.
Evoking the tone and mood of such films as "The Last Picture Show", "Palo Alto"
isn't just a coming-of-age drama. It's a culmination of feelings,
impressions and emotions, and this is what Ms. Coppola, in her superb feature
directing debut, captures so ably and thoroughly, with picture-perfect
cinematography from Autumn Durald. A scene showing April's first sexual
experience is shot in a fragmented way, personalizing and intellectualizing the
sensations April feels. It's an accurate depiction of a sexual episode,
and, from a woman's perspective. So much more is felt and absorbed from
this choice of filmmaking style for a sex scene than from a standard show of
naked bodies heaving and writhing. With this fresher approach Ms. Durald
and Ms. Coppola keep the level of psychology and mental immersion consistent
throughout and in doing so attain something deeper, more meaningful, erotic and
lasting.
The world "Palo Alto" inhabits is much less about the city itself than the state
of mind of its principal minors, who could be anywhere in the world let alone a
city about an hour or so south of San Francisco. In this film the teens
are literally anywhere: immersed in drugs, drink, riddles and conundrums or Big
Bad Wolves-as-adults. In the film's teen sphere adults (a DUI victim, a
scolding city administration official, a police officer, a friend's dad among
others) can look or sound ridiculous or awkward. Rules seem foolish.
A parent or adult saying "I love you" to a teenager is often hollow or
desperate. Quite deliberately, the film's adult voices are often heard for
a good few moments before their faces are seen. And we hear their voices
after their faces are long gone.
It's that voice of nagging, annoying moralizing that feels empty to a teenager,
as the adults who lecture themselves possess contradictions. One scene
involving a woman and Teddy highlights the absurdity and hypocrisy of it all, a
funny moment the film caricatures less than Teddy's point-of-view look does.
"Palo Alto" is a sensitive film with authentic, unabashed teenage voices we feel
from deep within and identify with. These voices needn't make sense or be
comforting to adults or teens. Where films like Larry Clark's "Kids" were
fueled by a generation of angry, volatile renegades and dysfunctional outcasts
against the backdrop of an indifferent society, "Palo Alto" focuses distinctly
on a generation struggling to define itself and assimilate in society.
These teens want to define themselves on their own terms and in their own time.
They don't necessarily want to be praised by adults but want to coexist and be
respected by them at the very least. The bill of goods the adults sell are
often viewed with the expected skepticism and eye-rolling.
With the oft-mentioned "scandals" involving teachers and students having sex on
and off school property, it's well past time to say that the media covering
these affairs are well and truly behind the times. People having
consensual sex across authority lines, on office property and off it, and vast
age differences, has happened since time immemorial. Newsflash: it won't
stop. "Palo Alto" addresses these realities simply in a scene with Mr. B's
son and April, who babysits him. April's despairs about life are often
reinforced by adults who haven't a clue but are uplifted by pure, well-meaning
wayward spirits like Teddy.
Speaking of which, Jack Kilmer is a revelation as Teddy. Excellent here as
a kind-hearted soul wise beyond his years, Mr. Kilmer gives Teddy a likable
everyday teen quality, making Teddy and Mr. Kilmer himself the boy most likely
to succeed in life. A teen audience member recently told Mr. Kilmer, whose
father Val appears in "Palo Alto" as April's drug-addled stepfather, that "when
I saw Teddy on the screen it was like I saw a friend up there." That's the
ultimate compliment and testament to Mr. Kilmer, who has never acted before on
camera. He has a great future if casting directors ever choose to take
notice.
"Palo Alto" is a sensational, generation-defining film very much in tune with
its subjects. It views life through a teen's eyes while showing adults to
be as confused and underdeveloped as their junior counterparts. No one
ever graduates from that thing called life let alone figures it out.
There's a smartness and absence of judgment of adults and teens by Ms. Coppola,
who adapted "Palo Alto" from Mr. Franco's anthology. This, along with Mr.
Kilmer's great performance, is the film's best asset.
Also with: Zoe Levin, Talia Shire, Jacqueline Getty, Chris Messina, Micah
Nelson, Janet Jones Gretzky.
"Palo Alto" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of
America for strong sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and pervasive language
- all involving teens. The film's running time is one hour and 40 minutes.
COPYRIGHT 2014. POPCORNREEL.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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