Film Review - Palo Alto
May 22, 2014
Teenage ennui is pushed into the digital age in Gia Coppola’s “Palo Alto,” an adaptation of James Franco’s 2010 collection of short stories. If the name Coppola sounds familiar, it’s because Gia’s the granddaughter of maestro Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia. In fact, there is a host of second generation entertainers swarming the picture as well, with Val Kilmer’s son, Eric Roberts’s daughter, and Polly Draper’s son taking starring roles (Michael Madsen’s son and Amanda de Cadenet’s daughter also appear), and even a Gretsky is somewhere around here as well. While casting peculiarities are interesting, “Palo Alto” doesn’t match such oddity, playing it relatively safe with a tale of messed up kids toying with irresponsibility, guided by parents without a clue. It’s wonderfully shot, with moment of rawness, but Coppola can’t shake the suffocating been-there, done-that atmosphere of the film. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com