Parents' Guide to Palo Alto

The movie's biggest strengths are its actors, particularly Kilmer, who imbues Teddy with palpable empathy, never mind that the character isn't often sympathetic or likeable. Equally impressive is Roberts, who captures a vulnerability that strains against the jadedness that's encroaching upon April. Their performances elevate the film from a standard-issue coming-of-age story into something that feels both tragic and true, though it's sometimes myopic to a fault. (Teddy's friend, Fred, also veers into caricature of the whacked-out, on-edge teen, though Wolff does the best he can with the one-note role.) The parents don't come off well in this movie; with the exception of one, they're not particularly malicious, but they are disengaged and unaware, a potent combination. But ultimately, the stories here aren't theirs.

Based on the novel of the same name by Franco, director Gia Coppola's debut -- she's the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and the niece of Sofia Coppola -- is a mesmerizing look at the lives of high school teens in Palo Alto, Calif., during that thrilling, confusing, and sometimes overwhelming purgatory that is the years before adulthood. Coppola weaves two distinct storylines -- April's and Teddy's -- seamlessly, peopling them with sadly familiar characters and having them connect at places where a basic yearning is shared: the need for ballast and coherence.