Gia Coppola & James Franco's Palo Alto

In the past few months, I have been putting in an effort to watch more movies to find better inspiration as I get ever closer to the filming of my high school final film. As a part of this, I've started watching movies I never heard about and/or considered obscure with my girlfriend by her recommendation, and this time we stumbled upon Palo Alto.

Originally a book by sex-addict and accused-sex offender James Franco, Palo Alto is supposed to be a drama about a group of teenagers facing the challenges of adolescence. The main characters are April, a shy girl who plays in her school's women's football team, and Teddy, a unique-looking kid who is pulled into a problematic life because of his friend Fred (tried not putting any spoilers).

Now, firstly, I want to say that if the rumors about James Franco are true then it explains a lot about this movie. He played a weirdly good creepy teacher who made both my girlfriend and I feel like he was right in the room with us and whispering uncomfortably into our ears. In my opinion, his acting was one of the things most worthy of complimenting, unless he was genuinely just being himself.

I really liked the cinematography as it made me realise that cameras have actually been very high quality for decades now and it really just depends on how good you are at using them (and note, I am the cameraman for my high school film project). The cold colours and extremely high quality of the movie game it a very specific feeling which fit the narrative, and lighting was used in a way I really appreciated.

Otherwise? This movie sucked ass. Lately I have come to realise that the Coppolas are not very good at wrapping up their movies but are incredible at dragging them on and keeping you curious to how they'll end through its entirety. The movie the entire time was building up to something only for literally nothing to happen in the end. Of course, it might have been an artistic choice to represent real life or something like that, but even then it was done horribly in my opinion, as it leaves you in a place where you can only be like "that's it?"

The movie kept me interested the entire time because I was genuinely fucking confused, if I can be honest. And so was my girlfriend! It was nothing but absurd, which I kinda liked, but I couldn't continue liking it when I realised that an hour and a half of my life was spent waiting for nothing to happen.

I guess the only compliment I can give to the story is that it shines a light on the issue of teachers using their position to manipulate and use vulnerable young girls, and MAYBE how drug addiction, bad parenting, and a lack of open-mindedness can lead to someone committing horrible acts to others in order to cope with their mental illness??? But you can only like this if you look hard for things to compliment in this movie.

My personal score? 4/10. The Coppolas haven't made a good move since 1979 in my humble opinion, but I invite you to change my mind! ◾︎