Once he was the fresh faced teen, but now the one time Freeks and Geek-er, James Franco is playing the high school teacher to Emma Roberts’ disillusioned teen in Gia ‘niece of Sofia’ Coppola’s directorial debut.
Based on the series of short stories by Franco and adapted for the screen by Coppola, Alto is based in the titular Californian suburb and tells of Roberts’ precocious April and her aches and longings, her clashes with cultural norms and, of course, boys, hormones, you name it.
Old before her years it is no surprise she catches the eyes of Franco’s youthful teacher Mr B. ‘One of the best movies ever made about high school life in America,’ the critics have fawned, and judging by what we’ve seen, Gia shares all the zeitgeist snaffling tendencies – nuanced, visually stylish, musically adroit, intimately observed – of her aunt.
When: On general release October 18 via Metrodome.
