Palo Alto

Palo Alto follows a group of teenagers drifting through the affluent California town of the title, left largely to themselves by absent or distracted parents. April, a shy high-school student, finds herself drawn to Mr. B, the coach of her soccer team and the father of the child she babysits. Teddy, quiet and unsure of himself, carries a crush on April that he cannot bring himself to admit, while his friend Fred pushes against his comfortable upbringing by courting trouble with the law and spending time with Emily. The connections among them shift as their attempts to fill the time lead them toward choices with consequences beyond the town's quiet streets.

The film is based on a collection of short stories by James Franco, who also appears as Mr. B. It marked the directing debut of Gia Coppola, who also wrote the screenplay; she went on to direct Mainstream and The Last Showgirl. The cast includes Emma Roberts, Jack Kilmer, Nat Wolff, Zoe Levin and Val Kilmer, with 42 credited cast and 49 credited crew members.

Released in 2014 and running about 100 minutes, Palo Alto was made for roughly one million dollars and produced by American Zoetrope, Rabbit Bandini Productions and Tribeca Film. It holds a rating of 6.1 on IMDb across some 33,000 votes, 6.1 on TMDB from a much smaller base of 928 votes, and 6.2 from 129 critics' reviews.