If scientists ever find a genetic predisposition for having a cinematic eye, chances are it’ll be in the Coppola family. Gia, niece of Sofia and granddaughter of Francis, directs her first feature in this adaptation of James Franco’s book of linked short stories, and the result is a thoughtful, dreamlike (at times, nightmarish) tour through the day-to-day lives of several suburban California teens.
April (Emma Roberts) is a good girl gone bored; known among her friends as the virginal one, she sneaks smokes at soccer practice and nurses a crush on her coach (James Franco), who’s giving her a little too much attention at the end of nights when she baby-sits his kid.
Teddy (Jack Kilmer) is a mop-headed skater and quasi-secret admirer of April, who may or may not return his affections; his best friend Fred (Nat Wolff, in the film’s best performance) is an ADHD ball of energy. And Emily (Zoe Levin, also quite good) is a pretty but lonely girl who seeks validation in one ill-advised hookup after another.
Like her aunt, this Coppola often seems mostly interested in vibe; the kids drift through a series of house parties, sports practices and restless, aimless hangouts. (At one point the movie gives a hat tip to the king of rambling high school movies, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” as April lets her young charge watch the infamous Phoebe Cates pool scene.)
As you’d expect, adults hover ineffectually at the periphery; Val Kilmer (Jack’s dad, incidentally) appears amusingly as April’s stoned, mumu’d father. Franco has a good read on his character’s creepiness (who better to do it than the author? And we’ll just leave alone the recent is-it-a-hoax story of his own alleged teen sexting) as he glibly flirts with April and makes smooth confessions.
“I’m older, and I know there aren’t a lot of good things around, and I know you’re really good,” he tells her. You get the feeling it’s not the first time he’s used the line.
Coppola shoots the story in a haze of color, with an eye for poignant, if obvious, details: bunny-rabbit socks on a sleeping teen girl who was partying raucously the night before; Teddy clad in an animal suit evocative of “Where the Wild Things Are”; sunlit treetops flying by overhead in a view from a car, that ultimate make-or-break facilitator of teen social life.
But the ethereal can become monotonous — which makes Wolff’s performance such a standout. As the possibly unhinged Fred, he’s the one you can’t take your eyes off. With his vaguely outlined penchant for chaos, he’s either just a kid being a kid, or another grim news story waiting to happen.