Palo Alto: Stories

Now a provocative and impressive (Variety) film from director Gia Coppola (Francis Ford Coppola s granddaughter) starring Emma Roberts, James Franco, Nat Wolff, and Val Kilmer the fiction debut from James Franco that Vogue called compelling and gutsy.

James Franco s story collection traces the lives of a group of teenagers as they experiment with vices of all kinds, struggle with their families and one another, and succumb to self-destructive, often heartless nihilism. In Lockheed a young woman s summer spent working a dull internship is suddenly upended by a spectacular incident of violence at a house party. In American History a high school freshman attempts to impress a girl with a realistic portrayal of a slave owner during a classroom skit only to have his feigned bigotry avenged. In I Could Kill Someone, a lonely teenager buys a gun with the aim of killing his high school tormentor, but begins to wonder about his bully s own inner life.

These spare and riveting (O, The Oprah Magazine) stories are a compelling portrait of lives on the rough fringes of youth. Palo Alto is, a collection of beautifully written stories (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) that capture with perfect pitch the impossible exhilaration, the inevitable downbeatness, and the pure confusion of being an adolescent (Elle).

Features a bonus essay by James Franco on Gia Coppola's film adaptation.