Palo Alto (**3/4)

Not about the tech industry, as the title might suggest, nor even, to my eyes, recognizably set in any particular place, this is a mash-up of stories about high school kids based on some stories by James Franco. Franco, who grew up in the posh northern California town, plays a crush-worthy girls’ soccer coach, and Emma Roberts plays April, a nice girl who has a bit of a crush on him. Director Gia Coppola also focuses on Teddy (Jack Kilmer), a boy who has a crush of April, but spends much of his time hanging out with his pal Fred, the two seeming to inspire each other’s self-destructive behavior. [With Coppola being the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and niece of Sofia Coppola, Roberts being the daughter of Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts, and Kilmer being the son of Val Kilmer (who plays April’s dad), this is quite the showcase for Hollywood talent once- (or twice-) removed.]

In the beginning of the movie April and several of the other female characters play “never have I ever,” a variation of truth or dare, and the depiction of high school here makes life seem like an ongoing game in which kids fear to be truthful, or dare themselves to do often foolish things. (Naturally, alcohol, drugs, sex, and property destruction come up in various ways.) The adults range from harmful to clueless. The tone is more somber, less humorous than most movies about teens.

It’s not bad overall, or sensationalized, except when Coppola tries to be a little arty, as with a weird scene with a whispery voiceover that I think was supposed to be Fred talking to himself. However, the multiple storylines don’t cohere into a real story. Though I liked the actors, the film didn’t feel like it was saying anything new or different.

IMDb link

viewed 5/12/14 7:30 pm at Roxy [PFS screening] and posted 5/23/14

Elegy (***)

There’s perhaps something unsavory about the May-December romance. While it may occasionally happen otherwise, the typical situation is that the older partner, a man, is in a position whereby he can use his higher status to attract the younger one, a woman with whom he would not likely befriend were it not for sexual attraction. The professor played here by Ben Kinsley is certainly conscious of this implicit trade as he tries to pick up attractive student Consuela (Penélope Cruz) at a post-semester party. (He’s conscious of ethics, too, having waited until then.) It’s when the conquest becomes a relationship that things become less clear. Implicitly, the power has shifted to her, even though she doesn’t use it, as he becomes increasingly worried she will no longer want a boyfriend thirty years her senior. The first half plays out the romance as it develops, along with a jealousy and insecurity the professor struggles with. Adapted from a Philip Roth novel, the story thus far is as one expects. (The screenplay is by Nicholas Meyer, who adapted another Roth novel for The Human Stain.)

Director Isabel Coixet and Penélope Cruz bring out a great deal of Consuela’s personality, but the story is from the professor’s viewpoint. (I was especially impressed with Cruz after watching her the next night playing a very different character in Vicky Cristina Barcelona.) Still, things pick up as the stories of the other characters—the best friend (Dennis Hopper), the cheated-on girlfriend (Patricia Clarkson), the estranged son (Peter Sarsgaard), and Consuela herself—impinge upon the professor. I slightly preferred Steve Martin’s wry, less sentimentalized take on the same kind of relationship in Shopgirl.

IMDB link

viewed 8/18/08 at Ritz Bourse (screening); reviewed 8/22/08