Licorice Pizza

My wife and I spent an enjoyable evening watching this movie. I am puzzled by all the negativity. We found the film entertaining and fun. It was our first time seeing both lead actors in anything and they were both revelations. Cooper Hoffman nailed it as a confident, entrepreneurial teenager in love with an older woman. Alana Haim is perfect as the 25 year old who is knocked off balance by the teenage Gary Valentine's persistence and chutzpah. The LA setting was great, definitely evocative of the 70s. The "supporting" cast includes Sean Penn, Tom Waits, and a deranged Bradley Cooper. I would suggest you ignore some of these reviews, watch the film, decide for yourself.

What an experience watching "Licorice Pizza" was. In terms of aesthetic qualities like the ability to put the viewer in a setting (in this case 1970s Los Angeles), a wonderful soundtrack, some rollicking fun sequences, and phenomenal cinematography. Truly a technical masterpiece in nearly every sense.

Sadly, "Licorice Pizza" is also not all that great of a film for one very specific reason: it completely and utterly lacks a plot or overall meaning to all the technical expertise.

For a very basic overview, the movie tells the story of Gary (Cooper Hoffman), a high school student with a taste for showbiz, and Alana (Alana Haim), a 25-year-old Jewish "Valley Girl" stuck in neutral but always looking for the next adventure. As the two circle around each other trying to determine their romantic wants/needs, they stumble in and out of any number of period-specific historical events/schemes, such as a fuel shortage, waterbed craze, and pinball machine ban being lifted, to name a few.

Like I said, "Licorice Pizza" is truly remarkable at setting a scene. I felt like I was back in time and nothing ever broke that illusion. I was also extremely impressed by the acting performances from newcomers (at least to the big screen) Hoffman & Haim. They are more than capable of carrying the entire film, which is exactly what they are asked to do here.

But when the credits rolled--and even some time after--I'm struggling to figure out any discernible value or lasting concepts to take from the experience. In a certain sense, the viewing experience (plot-wise) felt like a cipher to which I wasn't given the key. A whole bunch of mini-escapades transpire--all at least somewhat entertaining--and the movie just ends. No more, no less.

I very much liken "Licorice Pizza" to 2019's "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood", though I have to say I liked that Tarentino film a bit more because even it hewed to the plot--not just the spirit--of the current events it was depicting. Here, director Paul Thomas Anderson creates a movie that is almost entirely aesthetic and eschews plot/meaning entirely. As such, it is difficult for me to grade it as "good" or "bad", hence the right-down-the-middle five stars.

This film is a good exercise in placing a story in a past decade. The production design shines with a very successful setting of the 70's. Unfortunately this is almost all that shines.

The script is repetitive and many times it doesn't get anywhere. The grounded and common appearances wanting to stand out are appreciated, but they fail to completely captivate in a totally forgettable story. There are some passages in the story that are funny, but there are others that are flat and boring.

The performances of the protagonists are good and very well supported by the big names that glow by themselves in the brief scenes in which they appear. The technical aspects such as editing and sound meet the standards of the director.

It is a movie I would never see again.

Oh Paul Thomas Anderson. Ever since the master your films have been on a slight down tick. The performances are great from all the new comers and the vets. The camera work and cinematography are stellar. Also the score is very good.

But as for the story, this is very poor. It's aimless in its vision and just seems to be random scenes written for the 2 leads to be a part of. The situations they get into are all over the place and there no real feel for how much time is passing from scene to scene. It feels as if the film is a sitcom from the 90s stretched out into a 2 hour film.

I love Paul Thomas Anderson but this is his second worst for me after Inherent Vice. Which isn't to say it's bad. I had a good time watching the film it's just not very memorable and not PTA at his best. I'll be waiting for the next film though without a doubt..

I love this movie but can't explain why, left the cinema same way I felt after watching "Once Upon A Time In Hollywood". Don't really know what to say apart from I enjoyed it. Was it the era it's based in, was it the chemistry the characters shared, was it the way it was filmed, the dialogues, or was it the idyll charm Alana and Gary created? I don't know. It felt like the writers just started writing with no actual plot line, let the story flow and develop on it's own, because I can tell you what happened in the movie but don't really know what the movie's about yet it was still perfect the way it was. Felt like just watching life unfold for the characters. It wasn't complicated, at no point do you feel the script was altered to make it more witty, funny or dramatic, everything was just natural. I think more movies like this should be made. I wasn't around in the 70's, but movies like this make it feel like I'm right there with them; nostalgia to a time I never knew. Come to think of it, maybe that's why I do love it.