Palo Alto

Started by wilder, August 29, 2013, 10:51:52 PM

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wilder





A dark drama centered on a group of teens with a penchant for finding trouble.

Written and Directed by Gia Coppola
Starring Emma Roberts, James Franco, Nat Wolff, and Val Kilmer
Release Date - May 9, 2014 (limited)


Sleepless

Should probably mention that this is based on the book of short stories written by James Franco.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.

Reel

I read it and liked it, but have a very vague recollection of what it was about. I think there's a shady drug dealer character and a death. Hopefully the movie will be more memorable.

wilder

Tribeca Film Taking 'Palo Alto' To North America
via Deadline

Tribeca Film has acquired North American rights to Gia Coppola's Venice debut Palo Alto. The ensemble teen drama stars Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, James Franco, Nat Wolff, Zoe Levin and Val Kilmer. It's written and directed by Coppola, based on Franco's short story collection of the same name. Tribeca is planning a spring theatrical release.

Pubrick

Quote from: Sleepless on August 30, 2013, 11:03:34 AM
Should probably mention that this is based on the book of short stories written by James Franco.

should also probably mention that Gia Coppola is granddaughter of Francis, daughter of his eldest son Gian-Carlo who died in a tragic boating accident aged 22. His widow was 2 months pregnant with Gia, who no doubt will be awarded an oscar at some point and give birth to royalty.
under the paving stones.

wilder



jenkins

palo alto leaves 2 theaters tomorrow
then it'll be a drive away, so
let's say today is palo alto's last theater day
i've heard so little about palo alto, today could be its day
but you know, the immigrants is still around
though the immigrants will be around next week
and the immigrants hasn't seduced me, because everyone likes it
everyone liking something ruins the mystery of art
maybe
at sundance, palo alto and [another movie?] will be replaced by
ida and filth
^what are those?
^^no nvm ida is already there, what is ida?
cold in july was around this week and will be there next week
tomorrow the arclight will have reichardt's night moves
tomorrow i'm seeing the polish movie the hourglass sanatorium
maybe i'll stay for mother joan of the angels, also
the trial is saturday, wonder if i'll be working
then sunday begins three days of the saragossa manuscript

ok good. seems like a good time to ask an opinion, about whether i should go see palo alto, or the immigrants, or cold in july, or ida (what is ida?)

wilder

Quote from: jenkins<3 on May 29, 2014, 02:09:01 PM
but you know, the immigrants is still around
though the immigrants will be around next week
and the immigrants hasn't seduced me, because everyone likes it

I had a similar reaction to The Immigrant as Drenk. Thought the first half hour was some of Gray's best work, but soon after, the story starts to fray, imo. Still, there are a few really beautiful scenes (my two favorites involved absinthe and a confession in a church), if placed in not necessarily the most affecting order. The character focus is a bit puzzling, too. Eva isn't uninteresting but has a repetitive conflict (Marion Cotillard does great things with the material, though). Joaquin's character of Bruno has so much more going on and more developmental possibilities and yet, in usual Gray fashion (Two Lovers exempted), all of this is abandoned midway to plot contrivance related to Renner's magician character, who is way too thinly drawn for the amount of screen time he has. He basically acts as a foil to Bruno in the latter half of the movie and yet we are expected to care about him and his potential effect on the story as if he were not one. There, you have a dissenter. But don't take my word - see The Immigrant and report back.

jenkins

the final showdown was ida vs. the immigrants. i chose the immigrants because that felt like a proper decision

well i've ruined the palo alto thread. but that's ok, because i have all kinds of nasty things to see about the immigrants. i was doing something like a hum during phoenix's last little lines, which reminds me of when my cousin once hummed during the embarrassing scene in my best friend's wedding. it's emberassing-on-embarassing because you know why the scene has to happen

thought the immigrants was very much about what had to happen. it was a drama constructed for its intersecting lines of people and themes. it shows how the system pushes people into being what they don't want to be and how that's awful, how it's awful that people can't become who they want to be, which is what two lovers was also about, and am i remembering wrong or is that what every gray movie is about, and the system in the immigrants is america in the 20th century, so the movie expresses the problems which arise as people and society rise, and even those who want to be good can't be good, it's all illusion, great job renner, it's all terrible, great job phoenix, then all together it's a monstrous fight, great job cotillard

i appreciate the emotions and i appreciate how cinema was used to create the emotions. that i liked. i didn't overall like the movie. i don't think living people are packaged into dramatic material, that's what most bothers me. that's what i myself don't like. real life is messy, it just is. the immigrants has "messy morality" but the story is too tidy for my tastes. it's a personal taste thing, of course

wilder

I watched this and was into it. The stories aren't anything new but did feel like fairly accurate renderings of teenagers: the way adolescent conversations flirt with something complex and then quickly die away, the feeling that something is wrong with the world but being too young to be able to articulate it, the frequent turnover rates of friendships... The movie is good at taking its characters' lives seriously without being overly serious or melodramatic, itself. Was also a breath of fresh air to see a movie where you can really feel the director's enthusiasm behind the camera instead of a desire to be "correct" or sophisticated in their filmmaking approach. Palo Alto is like Donnie Darko in the sense that you can feel Gia excited about what she's chosen to look at regardless of what anyone else might think, and it infects the material.

Basically: nice to see a film marching to the beat of its own drum without being conscious that it is in the first place.

wilder

French blu-ray on January 2, 2015 (DVD only release in the US)