Licorice Pizza (2021).
The Stage.
A fifteen-year-old high school student falls in love with a school photographer in 1973.
The Review.
Licorice Pizza is less of a plot driven film and more of a series of vignettes featuring one (or both) of our two main characters, high school entrepreneur Gary Valentine and school photographer Alana. Gary is a charismatic mover and shaker. Before he can obtain a driver’s license, he has appeared on a popular television show and owns several businesses. He spends his time between auditions for other shows and commercials by hanging around in fancy bars and restaurants, schmoozing owners and patrons alike. He’s played quite wonderfully by Cooper Hoffman, frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son. There were times when he’d turn and it seriously looked like PSH was back on screen again. The character of Alana, played by Haim’s lead singer Alana Haim, is much less charismatic, spending her time at home with her parents and two sisters.
Most of our time in Licorice Pizza is spent watching Gary doing things other than go to school like a normal sophomore, and Alana unsuccessfully dating other men. From well-mannered atheist childhood actors to big Hollywood producers, she is continuously railroaded, each time running back into the vicinity of Gary, although never directly into his arms. It seemed that everyone in 1973 was drawn to Alana for some reason. Unfortunately, that reason completely escaped me. While Alana is a nice looking woman, she never displayed much personality, other than being sullen and depressed. And other than pushing Gary away at every turn and having terrible taste in men of all age groups, she didn’t really have any interests or character traits to hang on to.
As in most Paul Thomas Anderson, the world building and actors placed in that world are amazing. It looks like 1973, from the cars to the storefronts to the fashion. There are cameos from people like Tom Waits, Sean Penn, Maya Rudolph, and John C. Reilly in a role that’s so small if you blink you’d miss it. The most memorable is Bradley Cooper as John Peters. His character is so unhinged and the situation so tense that although I was really amused, I was simultaneously feeling Uncut Gems levels of anxiety. That ten minute sequence was my favorite in the film.
Sadly, what I didn’t like about the film was what I was supposed to be attached to as the viewer…the connection between Gary and Alana. Gary seemed like a kid who could have had anyone. Why did he keep coming back to Alana? My opinion is compounded even further when you think about the age gap between the two. In interviews, Paul Thomas Anderson justified this by saying “There’s no line that’s crossed, and there’s nothing but the right intentions. It would surprise me if there was some kind of kerfuffle about it because there’s not that much there. That’s not the story that we made, in any kind of way. There isn’t a provocative bone in this film’s body.” If a twenty-five year old showing her breasts to a fifteen-year old isn’t considered a line being crossed, I invite you to switch the gender roles in your mind. Would a twenty-five-year-old guy showing his cock to a fifteen-year-old girl be considered “provocative”? And if your argument is just that it was the seventies, well, fuck off. As the film continued moseying towards its eventual conclusion, I really found myself hoping that Alana and Gary wouldn’t end up together, both because they’re not a good match and because it would have been fucking gross.
The End.
The feelings I have around Licorice Pizza mirror the thoughts I have about most PT Anderson projects. The film is extremely well made, everything looks fantastic, shots are well composed, the music is tremendous, and the performances are great…but I didn’t like the film as a whole. After Boogie Nights, maybe lightning just won’t strike twice. Oh, and how are you going to have a film called Licorice Pizza and NOT show a record store?
