i read online that james franco was doing a fundraiser, kinda like kickstarter but not, to turn his collection of short stories, "palo alto" into a movie.
before i go on, quick rant about celebrities doing kickstarters. seriously?!?! doesn't the general public give you enough money by watching your movies and tv shows? i mean don't you already get paid a ridiculous amount of money for acting yet you are begging common folk for money? fund your own projects, you can afford it!
back to "palo alto", though i didn't agree with his fundraising, i was excited about reading his work. i admire his acting and he seems to be pretty intelligent and cultured. he did go to UCLA and he sat with marina abramovic during her piece "the artist is present" (he was featured in the doc). so i had pretty high expectations for his writing, but his fundraiser should have been a red flag.
i mean it did seem odd that james franco would have to do a kickstarter with all of his hollywood success but this collection of stories was horrible. so bad that its no wonder he couldn't find anyone in hollywood to back it, you would have to be an idiot to. it was bad. it was like a sad attempt to be "jesus' son" but whereas denis johnson has talent and a way with words, franco has nothing.
i mean i knew it was going to be horrible after reading the first line of the first story, "halloween":
ten years ago, my sophomore year in high school, i killed a woman on halloween.
i swear to god, i am not making this up. that was the first line. it reminded me of that "girls" episode when hannah goes to the reading for her old professor and she reads that poorly-written and forced story about her online boyfriend dying. and her first line is about him dying and she doesn't get a reaction so she repeats the line about him dying assuming people didn't catch it the first time. so embarrassing. in my head, i imagined franco repeating "killed" for a reaction and for effect.
so that line set the tone for the rest of the stories and after that i couldn't take anything seriously. everything felt forced. i know what franco was trying to write, he wanted to create some great beat manifesto for generation y but sadly didn't come close. i mean franco did capture the pretentious ignorance of gen y hipsters. it was shocking yet lacked any real depth or edge. it was all self-righteous intensity, kinda like hipsters. franco's characters were soulless druggies yet would namecheck kerouac, faulkner, and hemingway. it was as if the mention of their names would result in literary greatness, instead franco just came off like a wannabe beat.
his characters were bad people, i was disgusted by everything i had read in the story. they were bad just for the shock value versus finding a deeper truth. it was full of lines that i am sure franco wanted his readers' minds to explode as they read but everything was overdone and cliché.
franco's stories were filled with bad stereotypes as well. the second story is the tale of girl who is . . . good at math! what girls can't be good at math?!?! or the slutty asian girl who will love you long time. there was also a lot of half breeds and even a mormon. but a mormon who knows nothing about scriptures (mormons, even the bad ones can discuss scriptures). and just way too many bat shitty crazy boys with too much time and drugs on their hands.
and i mean i get wayward youth, i enjoyed "a clockwork orange" and "trainspotting". i revered sal paradise. but there was nothing enjoyable or enlightening about the reckless youth of "palo alto". it was so bad that i now have a better appreciation for "jesus' son".
but i will add i did enjoy one thing. i genuinely enjoyed franco's mention of the children books author bill peet. i actually checked out a handful of his books because they are alluded to in a story. though i did not believe anyone would let a druggie do service hours at a library.
but in the end, i am glad i read "palo alto" because now i won't waste my money to help fund a film version or pay for a movie ticket to see it.
