Film

Palo Alto

Name: Palo Alto
Genre: Drama
Released: 2014
Cast: Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, James Franco, Zoe Levin

Coming-of-age

Gia Coppola's directorial debut captures the specific ennui of privileged teenage life in Silicon Valley—boredom, impulsiveness, and the kind of self-destruction that masquerades as freedom. Shot with a dreamy, handheld intimacy, it's less interested in moralizing than in observing how easily the young hurt themselves and each other. For anyone who remembers that age, or wonders what it looks like now.

TMDb rating

3.0

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like slow, observational portraits of teenage drift where nothing much happens and the mood does the work, with boredom becoming its own kind of texture.

Skip it if you need plot momentum or characters who sharpen into clearer people; these teenagers mostly drift, and the numb, aimless mood can feel like hanging out with nobody going anywhere for long stretches.

What it asks of you: Long quiet scenes, a loose episodic shape and a low, wandering pulse; it rewards patience more than it rewards being followed closely.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Spectacular Now2013

Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley navigate first love with genuine tenderness and humor. It captures the luminous feeling of youth without pretending it's uncomplicated—sex, drinking, family mess, all of it tangled together.

But The third act trades observation for plot mechanics, and it stumbles a little when it tries to be profound about things the first half handled better.

Kids1995

Larry Clark's unsparing look at teenage sexuality and peer pressure in New York. Shot like a documentary, it finds the beauty in the careless cruelty of youth. Deeply uncomfortable and unforgettable.

But It is genuinely difficult to watch—the depiction of harm isn't there to titillate, but it doesn't soften the impact. Not a comfort watch.

Spring Breakers2013

Harmony Korine transforms a teen hedonism premise into something lyrical and hallucinatory. The neon, the repetition, the way it layers pop music and violence into a fever dream. Visually intoxicating.

But It's deliberately difficult and won't explain itself to you. If you need narrative clarity or like your indie films earnest, this will frustrate you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Palo Alto

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Ginger Snaps2000

Both films excavate the ugliness beneath affluent teenage life, using that specific California/North American suburb as their hunting ground. Ginger Snaps just uses the monster movie form to say what Palo Alto circles around.

A Canadian horror film that uses werewolves as a metaphor for female adolescence—rage, body horror, isolation, the way girlhood can feel like a curse. Darkly funny and unexpectedly moving.

But It's a genre film first, so if you're allergic to horror conventions or gore, the package might repel you from the deeper stuff inside.

Dazed and Confused1993

Linklater's ensemble portrait of teenage Texas in the 1970s. Everyone's just trying to get through the day, the summer, adolescence. Funny, lived-in, full of small moments that add up to something true.

But The plot is gossamer-thin. If you're looking for narrative momentum, you'll find none—it's a mood and a place, not a story.

Thirteen2003

Catherine Hardwicke and Nikki Reed expose the raw speed of adolescent corruption—how quickly friendship becomes complicity, how an adult can miss the unraveling happening in front of them. Unsettling and honest.

But It's exploitative in places and doesn't quite interrogate that choice. The middle section can feel sensationalized rather than observed.

American Animals2018

Evan Keeling's hybrid film (part documentary, part dramatization) about college kids planning a library heist. It's clever about privilege and boredom, and asks what line separates adventure from crime.

But The formal experiment works but doesn't fully justify itself—the back-and-forth between real and acted footage can feel gimmicky rather than illuminating.

The Fault in Our Stars2014

Shailene Woodley and Ansel Elgort as teenagers falling in love while facing mortality. It's sentimental without being maudlin, and it takes their emotional experience seriously.

But It leans hard on the romance of tragedy. If you find that mode cloying, the film won't convince you otherwise.

It Follows2015

A supernatural metaphor for teenage sexuality and consequence that works as both horror and character study. Gorgeously shot, genuinely unsettling, and sad in ways the genre rarely achieves.

But The rules are deliberately vague, and the pacing is slow. If you need explicit answers or quick scares, this will feel obscure and tedious.

After the Ball2015

A quiet, observant look at friendship dissolving among privileged teenagers. Less flashy than Palo Alto, but the small silences and misunderstandings carry real weight.

But Almost nothing happens. The film's power is cumulative and subtle, so if you prefer drama with shape and incident, you'll find this slight.

Lean on Pete2018

Both are quiet films about adolescence adrift, but Lean on Pete achieves its effect through absence and kindness, whereas Palo Alto works through excess and numbness. They're moral inverses—same wound, opposite remedies.

Andrew Haigh's devastating film about a teenage boy who bonds with a racehorse and eventually has to leave everything behind. It's tender and quiet, and the devastation builds so slowly you don't see it coming.

But It's a story about a kid with almost nothing, which is tonally very different from Palo Alto's privilege. Some viewers find its passivity depressing rather than powerful.