Dennis Littrell (For the most part.)Here are some things to know about this movie:Gia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola's granddaughter) directed, her first outing. She also wrote the screenplay based on James Franco's short story collection also entitled "Palo Alto." She was 25-years- old at the time.Emma Roberts who plays April and was 22-years-old when this film was released in 2013 is Julia Roberts' niece. Her father is Eric Roberts (467 credits as an actor).Palo Alto, California is an upscale Silicon Valley community and home to Stanford University.Franco, who plays soccer coach Mr. B, is from Palo Alto. He has a degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from UCLA.There are no helicoptering parents in this movie.Initially I had a lot of trouble watching this because of all the unnecessary cigarette smoking apparently as product placements. It's sad that some producers can't get funding without taking big tobacco's money. However, I'll give that a pass since some of the smoking had relevance to the story—or "stories." The viewer can see that Coppola cleverly weaved parts of Franco's various stories and characters into a mostly coherent whole that plays as a larger story.The other problem for me was the intensity and raw teenage emotional abandonment depicted. This is life lived in the fast lane when you're still living at home and have an incredible need for experiences, sometimes regardless of the consequences.--Dennis Littrell, author of the movie review collection, "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote"

Floated2 Palo Alto is a high school coming of age drama, and like other coming of age films starring mainly teens, this film is quite similar with nothing much different or anything new to offer. Based on a novel, in which this film has the feel of a novel based upon it's characters and overall tone of the film. The plot of the film is quite thin and not something to watch for if you are looking for a deep complex plot. It is more so just a portrayal and 'real life' concept of teenagers and their everyday life and struggle, involving typical issues such as smoking, drinking, partying, depression, and peer pressure. James Franco is the headliner of the film being from the book of which this film is based on, though he only plays a small supporting character. Emma Roberts is the lead character in a role which she has played many times before (the shy, depressed, lonely teen girl). The other leads are two best friends, Teddy and Fred. Both have different backstories and appear very different in personalities yet are portrayed as best friends. Nothing too original or refreshing about this film. And in the end, we are wondering what the real point of the film was. Palo Alto reminded of several films by Harmony Korine, though his films have a more refreshing outlook in life, plot, characters and are overall more entertaining and interesting. Would recommend watching his films as opposed to Palo Alto.

Teddy Zaharijev Palo alto is one in thousands movies talking about young people, but the first one that make you think for real. First movie that make you think why young people do stuffs, cuz they are bored, hiperactive or just lost? In other movies you have protagonist and antagonist and at the end someone win and live happy, but this movie is talking about how young people have only one problem, to realize who are they. Teddy, April, Emily and Fred are friends who struggle to realize who are they, they are drinking, doing drugs, fall in love... We all were one of them Teddy and Fred are best friend but they are totally different, Ted is quiet boy who falls in love with April but he is just to shy to tell her that and on the way to tell her that he's making some really bad moves like cause car crash and runaway, drinking a lot just don't thinking about effects also he's best friend is Fred who just can't stop acting crazy fighting, screwing around but through the movie we can see how insecure he is. April is always nice with Teddy and it looks like she want him too but her coach who is played buy James Franco is wooing on her and she's like all, she made one bad step and give him a chance but he coach is older and hurt her very soon, now she need to think about school, love life, and all the other stuffs. And at the end Emily young girl who want a boy to love her doesn't matter who and she is giving a chance to everyone and people start looking at her like she's sl** It's just so realistic, and for me best generation movie ever even better than dazed and confused. So will Teddy find the way to tell the true, will April find the way to finally do something, will Emily find real love, will Fred wake up? Enjoy

MisterWhiplash Being that this is from a book of short stories (though inter-connected I believe) from James Franco, it's interesting that Palo Alto works as well as it does. At first I wasn't quite sure, and the first half of the movie appears like it'll be just a lot of aimless partying and following 'oh, whatever' teen angst and mishaps; as one girl (Emma Roberts) navigates her own feelings for the boys around her, another guy (Jack Kilmer) gets into car-crash trouble and has to serve community service. Meanwhile, Nat Wolf is like De Niro in Mean Streets transposed into sunny suburban California: a don't-give-a-f*** guy full of crazy - or just a little attention perhaps - and is very likely a sociopath at best.A lot of this is character stuff, and one could accuse Gia Coppola (daughter of the late Gian-Carlo, grand-daughter of Francis, the latter does a voice of the judge by the way), of doing some of the same middle-upper class navel-gazing as her Aunt Sofia has done in work like the Virgin Suicides or Somewhere. But the good news with Palo Alto is that, after kind of a rocky, ho-hum start, the characters gain some interest, some perspective. It helps that Robert's story involves her soccer coach with a romantic link and played by Franco himself and, whether it's due to his own material or not, he's really good here, subtle, damaged, creepy but not in an overt way, perfectly suburban. And Jack Kilmer's character - as does his performance - grows and deepens over the course of the movie through his work as an artist and in community service.Palo Alto edges out to be a satisfying experience, though it's more cumulative; you may wonder where this is going after the first half hour and if these self-important teenage-wasteland-ers will be worth following. But I think the creativity in Frano and Coppola's writing is that, meeting them halfway, there's more depth and heartbreak and genuine empathy you get for them as they experience more and more. The most original stuff? Maybe not. At the least it keeps things relatively low-key, and is a revelation for Nat Wolf as the live-wire of the group. It's less about 'oh, don't you feel bad for these well-off people, they have feelings too' than 'these are just people, they're pained, they're growing, give them time before they self-destruct.'Oh, and Val Kilmer's in it too as an off-in-his-world stoner step-dad. Which is awesome.