Palo Alto | Tribeca

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Shy, sensitive April (Emma Roberts) is the class virgin, torn between an illicit flirtation with her soccer coach Mr. B (James Franco) and an unrequited crush on sweet stoner Teddy (Jack Kilmer). Emily (Zoe Levin), meanwhile, offers sexual favors to every boy to cross her path — including both Teddy and his best friend Fred (Nat Wolff), a live wire without filters or boundaries. As one high school party bleeds into the next — and April and Teddy struggle to admit their mutual affection — Fred's escalating recklessness starts to spiral into chaos. An unflinching portrait of adolescent lust, boredom, and self-destruction, PALO ALTO is a teen movie for the ages — an astonishing debut feature from writer-director Gia Coppola, based on the book “Palo Alto: Stories” by James Franco and featuring new music from Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange).

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Shy, sensitive April (Emma Roberts) is the class virgin, torn between an illicit flirtation with her soccer coach Mr. B (James Franco) and an unrequited crush on sweet stoner Teddy (Jack Kilmer). Emily (Zoe Levin), meanwhile, offers sexual favors to every boy to cross her path — including both Teddy and his best friend Fred (Nat Wolff), a live wire without filters or boundaries. As one high school party bleeds into the next — and April and Teddy struggle to admit their mutual affection — Fred's escalating recklessness starts to spiral into chaos. An unflinching portrait of adolescent lust, boredom, and self-destruction, PALO ALTO is a teen movie for the ages — an astonishing debut feature from writer-director Gia Coppola, based on the book “Palo Alto: Stories” by James Franco and featuring new music from Devonté Hynes (Blood Orange).

Film Information

Year: 2014
Length: 100 minutes
Language: English
Country: USA

Cast & Credits

Screenwriter: Gia Coppola
Cinematographer: Autumn Cheyenne Durald
Editor: Leo Scott
Producers: Sebastian Pardo, Adriana Rotaru, Miles Levy, Vince Jolivette
Director: Gia Coppola
Original Music: Devonté Hynes, Robert Schwartzman
Cast: Emma Roberts, James Franco, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, Zoe Levin, Claudia Levy, Chris Messina, Val Kilmer

About the Director(s)

Gia Coppola was born in Los Angeles. She has directed fashion videos for Elle China and Vogue Japan, as well as the short film Writer's Block (2012). Palo Alto is her feature debut.

"A knockout. Gia Coppola's direction is amazingly free and relaxed, with a loose, lyrical visual style, and a firm sense of what's at stake for her characters that finally becomes genuinely suspenseful." – Gavin Smith, Film Comment

"Gia Coppola's debut film, PALO ALTO, would carry an emotional charge even if it weren't as good as it is — a third-generation Coppola working within her family's great tradition. But PALO ALTO is very good, and full of promise for a future that the heedless young people in it see dimly, if at all. Emma Roberts and Jack Kilmer play thus-far-failed nihilists; they want to have good lives, and you want them to succeed." – Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal

"PALO ALTO excels. It's a formidable debut that shows amazing promise, and care." – Nicolas Rapold, Film Comment

"One of the best movies ever made about high school life in America, blurring the lines between how unique it is to be a teenager, and how universal it is to feel like one." – David Ehrlich, Film.com

"PALO ALTO captures the lush, bruised vibe of growing up in a place that only looks like Paradise... almost eerily good at defining the great divide between the way teenagers experience the world and the way their parents do." – Ty Burr, The Boston Globe

"Luminous. Through the usual rites of smoking, drinking, hooking up, and hanging out, Coppola crafts fresh images that are alive both to her subjects' churning sexuality and their inner lives. A radiant, star-making turn from Emma Roberts as an object of desire still learning how to articulate what she herself wants." – Jon Frosch, The Atlantic