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Palo Alto

2013

Gia Coppola

Emma Roberts, James Franco, Val Kilmer, Nat Wolff ...

6.0

1,955

Drama A dark drama centered on a group of teens with a penchant for finding trouble. Shy, sensitive April (Emma Roberts) is the class virgin—a popular soccer player and frequent babysitter for her single-dad coach, Mr. B. (James Franco). Teddy (Jack Kilmer) is an introspective artist whose best friend and sidekick Fred (Nat Wolff) is an unpredictable live wire with few filters or boundaries. While April negotiates a dangerous affair with Mr. ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Peter Debruge Variety	"Gia Coppola proves to have quite the eye, if not quite the natural storytelling instinct of her cinematic kin, serving up a remarkably assured feature debut with “Palo Alto (...) drawn from James Franco’s short story collection, this wasted-youth pic goes to impressive lengths to develop the characters and shape their experience into something meaningful."	POS
United States	Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"The best feature film directed by someone named Coppola in a number of years"	POS
United States	Oliver Lyttelton IndieWire	"Coppola's screenplay neatly restructures Franco's source material into a deceptively tight narrative, and mostly proves to be raw, authentic and often very funny."	POS
United Kingdom	Tom Shone The Guardian	"Roberts is the standout. Away from her, the film drifts and drags, and some of the image-making is rote (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"The kids in Gia Coppola’s 'Palo Alto' move as through a dream. It’s a drifty, appealing story"	POS
United States	Sheila O'Malley rogerebert.com	"A very strong first feature, prioritizing mood over message (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Mark Olsen Los Angeles Times	"The film’s real discovery may in fact be the debut of [Jack] Kilmer (...) Among the best moments are the few scenes young Kilmer has with Roberts"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"Coppola makes us care, capturing the fever and fleetingness of first love in a way that marks a born filmmaker (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS

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