Review of Palo Alto (2014) by Leon B — 14 Mar 2015

Review:

Man, I really got fed up with watching these teenagers going around doing nothing but drinking and smoking. The characters were boring and the structure of the movie seemed to drift from one story to another without much point or substance. It seemed like low budget indie movie starring destructible children who don't have that much to do with there life's. Its hard to summarise what the film is actually about because it based around a group of school kids who are doing normal day to day things, which doesn't really end up anywhere. The main character in the film, who has a brief affair with her school teacher, finds out that her close friend loves her and then the film abruptly ends. Another one of the characters is a destructible youth who always pushes situation to the max but that doesn't really end up anywhere either. Basically, I don't know what the director was trying to achieve with this film because there isn't a moral to the story. There isn't any major situations which change the direction of the film so it's very one tone without much point. The director also, didn't really go into much depth with the characters so it did get quite boring after a while. I must admit, I am getting a bit fed up with these type of movies because the kids are just going around without a care in the world and there only problems are with relationships and friendships. Anyway, I think that you can tell that I didn't really enjoy this film, but if you want to watch a bunch of teenagers having sex, drinking and smoking then you might enjoy it. Dull!

Round-Up:

After seeing that this film was written by James Franco, I can only think that his mind was in a strange place when he wrote it. He has made some weird movies, like Child Of God and As I Lay Dying,Ã,  which are very different in many ways but not that great. This film is nothing like the others that he has made so he's obviously trying to cover every genre. Personally, I couldn't get into the film but there is an audience for this type of movie, in America. Along with James Franco, Nicolas Cages cousin, Gia Coppola, made the movie and at 28 years old, you can see that it was made from a young person who can relate to these type of teenage/college situations. As I didn't go to college in America, these teenage movies always seem a bit far fetched and unreal but maybe I have to experience it to understand it. Usually the comedy in this movies are quite funny, like in Superbad and the American Pie franchise but this film seemed like a serious drama which was the wrong genre to pick. Anyway, there wasn't anything interesting happening in the film from my point of view so it gets the thumbs down from me.

Budget: N/A.

Worldwide Gross: $900,000.

I recommend this movie to people who are into their teenage dramas about a group of school kids who have nothing to do with there life's but drink, smoke, love and party hard. 2/10.