A One Mann’s Movies review of “Licorice Pizza” (2022).
Occasionally a movie comes along that makes you think you have done a few rounds with Anthony Joshua. “Licorice Pizza” is one such movie. A riotous and helter-skelter script that never stays still long enough for you to work out whether you are actually enjoying the film or not. Some have thought it terrible, because of the aspects of under-age sex and racism. Whilst understanding those views, I came out thinking it was a Paul Thomas Anderson classic: impressive and memorable.
By the way, “Licorice Pizza” is not once referenced in the movie, but was a chain of record shops in the San Fernando area in the ’70s.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
It’s the San Fernando valley in 1973. “Live and Let Die” is in the movie theatres and the OPEC oil crisis is about to bite. Gary (Cooper Hoffman) is a precocious 15-year old child-star with ambitions to make it big in the world of commerce. He falls for the 28 (or 25?)-year old Alana (Alana Haim), a photographic assistant, and becomes her friend and mentor in progressing her to better things. We follow the tumultuous lives and business ventures of the pair over the next year.
Certification:
Talent:
Starring: Alana Hain, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper.
Directed by: Paul Thomas Anderson.
Written by: Paul Thomas Anderson.
“Licorice Pizza” Review:
Positives:
- The movie leaves you utterly breathless. It goes off in so many different directions as our hero Gary (based 100% on the teenage antics of producer and regular Tom Hanks collaborator Gary Goetzman) pursues riches through acting, water beds and pinball machines. I’ve heard an interview with Paul Thomas Anderson where he says that he writes his scripts by mentally putting two diverse protagonists in a cafe and letting them talk to each other to “see where it goes”. And the script has that feel about it. It rambles all over the place while keeping the central attraction between these two very different, yet somehow similar, characters at its heart.
- Although it’s PTA’s script, it’s Goetzman’s story in remarkable detail. He actually WAS a child star (in a show with Lucille Ball, loosely disguised in the movie); he actually DID have water-bed and pinball machine businesses; and he actually DID deliver a water-bed to the home of producer (and Barbra Steisand boyfriend) Jon Peters (played here in wonderfully outrageous fashion by Bradley Cooper). “Bill Holden” is obviously William Holden, who did “The Bridges at Toko-Ri” with Grace Kelly in 1954. All of this adds to a feeling of authenticity and nostalgia around the movie. In this regard it channels 70’s nostalgia in the same way that “Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood” did.
- The two leads – both amazingly in their movie debuts – act magnificently.
- Alana Haim is totally magnetic on screen. She’s a natural, and the family scenes at home seem totally realistic…. more so since the whole Haim family played themselves! Alana, with her sisters, are of course the girl group HAIM (for who family-friend Paul Thomas Anderson has directed numerous music videos).
- Cooper Hoffman (son of Anderson-regular, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) is totally assured in his role. As the cocksure teen he kept reminding me strongly of Michael Gandolfini as the young Tony Soprano in “The Many Saints of Newark“.
Negatives:
- Although Hoffman is wonderful, I didn’t belief that the -18-year-old actor got away with portraying the 15-year-old Gary in the movie. I know that Gary was supposed to be played as ‘old for his years’, but it was still a leap of imagination I couldn’t quite make. For me this, coupled with Alana Hain looking and playing the role much younger than her 30 years, made the age-difference between Gary and Alana less striking.
- The film obviously features a relationship between an older woman and a very much under-age boy. It also features casual racism: an agent comments on the “Jewishness” of Alana’s nose; and a restaurant owner assumes a truly cringeworthy Japanese accent when talking (in English) to his Japanese partner. Both these factors have driven fierce criticism from millenials in particular. For example, in her review from the excellent “Let’s Go To The Movies” site, Caz found the movie “disturbing” and only gave it 1/5. And Tyler Strandberg in this article asserts that Alana’s behaviour could be seen as “grooming”. Certainly, if the relationship did ‘develop’ (we don’t explicitly see this) then any sex would legally be classed as rape. And it’s a fair point, as Caz points out, that if the genders were reversed then the relationship would border on the icky nature of “Lolita” or “American Beauty”. I think all this debate is valid. But I also think, as a depiction of the morals and normal behaviours in the 70’s, its pretty much spot-on. (I was approaching Gary’s age at this time… but, ftaod, definitely not as advanced in any respect!) But does PTA’s depiction of these behaviours equate to ‘endorsement’? (I don’t think so). Should movies like this be “cancelled” as a result? (I – strongly – don’t think so).
Trivia
As an interesting piece of trivia, the guy who plays the water-bed salesman (who first sells the water-bed to Gary) is George DiCaprio…. Leo’s dad.
Summary Thoughts on “Licorice Pizza”
In a world of bland cinematic sameness, “Licorice Pizza” is a breath of fresh air. But there’s no doubt this is a ‘Marmite-movie’ that some will hate. I saw it as a free-wheeling, controversial, chaotic mess of a movie where this is – for once – in a good way. I enjoyed Paul Thomas Anderson’s last Oscar-lauded outing, “Phantom Thread“. But I REALLY enjoyed this one.
Trailer for “Licorice Pizza”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofnXPwUPENo .
