LICORICE PIZZA
*****
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Principal cast:
Alana Haim
Cooper Hoffman
Sean Penn
Tom Waits
Bradley Cooper
Benny Safdie
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 133 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2021.
When child-actor Gary Valentine first claps eyes on photographer’s assistant Alana Kane at a photo-taking day at Gary’s high school, he is immediately smitten and launches into an effusive description of his acting career to date. He is completely unfazed by the fact that she is 25 and he’s just 15 and Alana finds his self-confidence hard to resist. Their meeting lays the groundwork for what follows in Paul Thomas Anderson’s exuberant new movie, Licorice Pizza, and it also shows the director’s playful approach to his screenplay – this opening encounter is dazzlingly recorded in one take (two cinematographers are listed in the end credits, Anderson himself and Michael Bauman). In this reviewer’s humble opinion, of the two films currently on release by auteur directors named Anderson (the other being Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch), this is the superior one. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association seems to agree because Licorice Pizza has received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, while the other Anderson’s pic has garnered only one, for Best Score.
The script is a kind of love-letter to the San Fernando Valley, where Anderson grew up. It’s set in 1973 when Licorice Pizza was the name of a chain of record stores in California, so the title is very evocative to anyone who lived in ‘the valley’ in the Seventies, and the film has a similar nostalgic feel to that other ode to southern California, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. The cast is outstanding and features the debut performances of two future stars: Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late lamented Philip Seymour Hoffman (who appeared in five of Anderson’s movies, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master) plays Gary and Alana Haim, of the rock band Haim, is Alana. Both are brilliantly believable and both have earned Golden Globe nominations for acting, deservedly so. We follow the pair over the weeks and months as their relationship develops, even when they are dating other people, and Alana winds up working for Gary when he starts a business selling waterbeds. The young man is quite the entrepreneur and, after his waterbed business goes under, he starts a pinball parlour (it seems that pinball machines were illegal in California until the early 1970s. Who knew?) Apparently, many of the stories in Licorice Pizza came from anecdotes told to Anderson by his friend, ex-child actor and successful producer Gary Goetzman, who really did start these businesses, but the witty and clever dialogue is all the director’s work. There are some very funny vignettes in the film, too: Sean Penn plays an aging movie star based on William Holden; Tom Waits appears as a movie director with the unlikely name of Rex Blau; and, uproariously, Bradley Cooper appears as Jon Peters, the hairdresser to the stars who went on to have a personal and business partnership with Barbra Streisand. How Anderson got away with this scarifying, hilarious depiction of the man is anyone’s guess – they must be very good pals.
In short, Licorice Pizza is a delight. It’s high on energy and youthful excitement and I defy anyone to come away from the cinema without a spring in their step after spending two-and-a-quarter hours in Gary and Alana’s company. Neither Hoffman or Haim are matinee idol types and they’re all the more credible for it. The large cast of supporting roles, many played by Anderson’s and Haim’s friends and family members, are engagingly quirky and the soundtrack of hits from David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Doors, Sonny & Cher et al, places you firmly and joyously in the period. Gary and Alana spend a lot of time running in Licorice Pizza and I suggest that you follow their lead – run to the cinema to catch this innovative and charming film. One of the year’s best.
Screenwriter: Paul Thomas Anderson
Principal cast:
Alana Haim
Cooper Hoffman
Sean Penn
Tom Waits
Bradley Cooper
Benny Safdie
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 133 mins.
Australian release date: 26 December 2021.
When child-actor Gary Valentine first claps eyes on photographer’s assistant Alana Kane at a photo-taking day at Gary’s high school, he is immediately smitten and launches into an effusive description of his acting career to date. He is completely unfazed by the fact that she is 25 and he’s just 15 and Alana finds his self-confidence hard to resist. Their meeting lays the groundwork for what follows in Paul Thomas Anderson’s exuberant new movie, Licorice Pizza, and it also shows the director’s playful approach to his screenplay – this opening encounter is dazzlingly recorded in one take (two cinematographers are listed in the end credits, Anderson himself and Michael Bauman). In this reviewer’s humble opinion, of the two films currently on release by auteur directors named Anderson (the other being Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch), this is the superior one. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association seems to agree because Licorice Pizza has received four Golden Globe nominations, including Best Picture – Musical or Comedy, while the other Anderson’s pic has garnered only one, for Best Score.
The script is a kind of love-letter to the San Fernando Valley, where Anderson grew up. It’s set in 1973 when Licorice Pizza was the name of a chain of record stores in California, so the title is very evocative to anyone who lived in ‘the valley’ in the Seventies, and the film has a similar nostalgic feel to that other ode to southern California, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. The cast is outstanding and features the debut performances of two future stars: Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late lamented Philip Seymour Hoffman (who appeared in five of Anderson’s movies, Hard Eight, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love and The Master) plays Gary and Alana Haim, of the rock band Haim, is Alana. Both are brilliantly believable and both have earned Golden Globe nominations for acting, deservedly so. We follow the pair over the weeks and months as their relationship develops, even when they are dating other people, and Alana winds up working for Gary when he starts a business selling waterbeds. The young man is quite the entrepreneur and, after his waterbed business goes under, he starts a pinball parlour (it seems that pinball machines were illegal in California until the early 1970s. Who knew?) Apparently, many of the stories in Licorice Pizza came from anecdotes told to Anderson by his friend, ex-child actor and successful producer Gary Goetzman, who really did start these businesses, but the witty and clever dialogue is all the director’s work. There are some very funny vignettes in the film, too: Sean Penn plays an aging movie star based on William Holden; Tom Waits appears as a movie director with the unlikely name of Rex Blau; and, uproariously, Bradley Cooper appears as Jon Peters, the hairdresser to the stars who went on to have a personal and business partnership with Barbra Streisand. How Anderson got away with this scarifying, hilarious depiction of the man is anyone’s guess – they must be very good pals.
In short, Licorice Pizza is a delight. It’s high on energy and youthful excitement and I defy anyone to come away from the cinema without a spring in their step after spending two-and-a-quarter hours in Gary and Alana’s company. Neither Hoffman or Haim are matinee idol types and they’re all the more credible for it. The large cast of supporting roles, many played by Anderson’s and Haim’s friends and family members, are engagingly quirky and the soundtrack of hits from David Bowie, Paul McCartney and Wings, The Doors, Sonny & Cher et al, places you firmly and joyously in the period. Gary and Alana spend a lot of time running in Licorice Pizza and I suggest that you follow their lead – run to the cinema to catch this innovative and charming film. One of the year’s best.