Palo Alto (2007)

Written, directed and performed by a group of youngsters, in their early twenties, the film is reminiscent of college plays. The lack of experience is compensated by youthful enthusiasm and sincerity. The cinematic experience is dominated by the mood, not the plot. As most works of art---as opposed to journalism and pornography---the film reveals a little more than the authors intended to communicate.

Much of the mood of the picture is created by the title, "Palo Alto." (The Palo Alto familiar to the characters in the film, however, is different from the Palo Alto that greets a visitor or a Stanford kid.) There is a certain charm of defiance in affluence taken as a matter of course. There is luxury in watching the college kids suspended in time, the luxury that is afforded by the glimpse into the future experienced through the characters' emotions, however blurred this future is by the uncertainties of their youth.