But it’s
time to add a new undeniably talented family member into the Coppola repertoire
of masterpiece films, and to hand over that glorious glowing torch that
personifies directional conquest, because there is a new force to be reckoned
with in the art-house film genre, a force that is bringing a renewed perception
yet a completely nostalgic undertone, and that force, my friends, is Gia Coppola with her debut film, Palo
Alto.
Based from a collection of short stories by James Franco himself, Palo Alto follows the story of April (Emma Roberts), a high-school girl/virgin whom regularly babysits her devilishly handsome soccer coach (James Franco)’s son. April finds herself stuck between adolescence and maturity, battling the unconscious sexual spirits that surround these two realms of being. The film progresses slowly, but gains pace about three quarters of the way through, where characters become intertwined, love is lost and found and the epitome of self-realisation becomes evident.
Emma Roberts as Alice is an utter perfect bout, who steals the show throughout the
film. Roberts is the new Dunst, possessing a naturalistic
melancholia that is very Virgin-Suicides-esque.
The first time I had seen Roberts in a film was in one of her older films, Wild Child (a typical white-girl story
with a white-girl attitude who ends up not being so white in the end), but
since seeing her in Scream 4, playing
Jill Roberts, I was instantly
fascinated. She possessed a new energy that is captivating, creepy and
extremely relative.
To write
a review on Palo Alto would be to
write a review about modern romance, especially in the emerging generation. Gia Coppola presents us with these
characters that are amidst a battle with their individual selves, but she soon
leads us into a realm where we understand the characters mantra, their stories
and also reveal something about ourselves along the way.
I give Palo Alto four attractive
soccer-coaches out of five.