Palo Alto

Even to those outside of the family, nepotism can certainly have its advantages, especially when you have the opportunity to experience their art as a result of it; see Sofia Coppola or The Strokes. But it can also lead to some painful experiences for both the members of the family and those outside of it; see Jaden Smith and Kelly Obama. Who is Kelly Obama you ask? Well that is my dream last name! It wouldn't even matter to me if I was just a third cousin of our President; I would use my last name to book speaking engagements all over the world! And all I would do is tell the same pointless stories that I tell here. "Today at O' Henry Middle School :Kelly Obama on Holiday Pool Parties" Why would I pollute the young minds of kids that are just going through puberty with stories of girls getting champagne poured down their throats? Well putting aside the fact that I'd be preparing these kids for life in the streets; it's so I can get groupie teachers of course! They never get to meet anyone famous; they're too busy working crazy hours and getting wasted at happy hours just so they can cope.

The point of all this is, is I was hoping that Gia Coppola would fall into the former category. Would she simply try and copy her sister's style or would she bring her own form of abstract art to the screen? I love Sophia Coppola but a lot of her films are just random beautiful shots with cool music playing over them. And it isn't until the final 10 minutes of the movie that she remembers that there's supposed to be an actual story, so she throws in a line like "let them eat cake" to try and make all of the scenes come together. Well Palo Alto has a similar feel and style to it, and at first glance could be seen as a character study; but it never quite digs deep enough into the characters to qualify, so it's more a social commentary than anything.

It's based off of James Franco's Palo Alto Stories and mainly focuses on 4 characters : April (Emma Roberts) who is the innocent virgin that lives with her stoner stepdad and self involved mom; Teddy, a talented kid who actually has a fairly normal environment at home but falls prey to peer pressure and the bad influences in his life; Emily, an attractive girl with low self esteem that feels the need to physically please every boy she comes into contact with; and finally the seemingly self destructive Fred, who is Teddy's best friend.

The story basically follows them from party to party, and as it does you see that April and Teddy have a thing for one another but due to random occurrences and poor timing they never actually hook up. So as a result they both take alternate paths that have negative consequences in their lives, one of which is an affair with a local high school teacher. You feel for poor Emily as she desperately tries to latch onto to anything that will love her back and Fred manages to equal her desperation, as his over the top jackassery is an obvious distraction from his own identity issues.

It seems as if the Coppolas are, to an extent, very adept at recreating an environment that is similar to their own upbringing. I realize that is a very big assumption on my part but I cannot imagine that growing up in a household where your dad is responsible for making maybe the greatest movies in American history, leads to a normal childhood. Their main focus is on young kids that through either life's natural experiences such as death or divorce or through choices they've made on their own, have to take on adult situations that they are just not yet equipped to handle. It may seem at the time that drinking, having sex, doing drugs, or even having parents that do recreational drugs is fun and cool; but they don't see the consequences that lie ahead. And that's mainly what this film's focus is. While Gia's style is very similar to that of her sister's, she's not quite as reliant on the film's soundtrack to aid in her storytelling. And because of this, I'm cautiously excited about what the future holds for her.

With that said, this movie is the very definition of what you call an art house film; so it's not for everyone. I give it a rating of FRESH and suggest you see it with a significant other.