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Licorice Pizza


Licorice Pizza
Paul Thomas Anderson, the creative force behind films like Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and There Will Be Blood has made a big splash with an offbeat and atmospheric romantic drama called Licorice Pizza that finds Anderson's directorial eye in serious overdrive, but is fighting his somewhat convoluted screenplay all the way.

The 2021 film. like a lot of Anderson's work, is set in his favorite period, San Fernando Valley in the 1970's, where we meet Gary, a teenage aspiring actor who meets and becomes obsessed with Alana, a tough, but lonely amateur photographer who fights her mutual attraction to Gary with every fiber of her being. The budding romance becomes complicated when Gary gives up acting and decides to open a business selling waterbeds and Alana becomes his partner.

Anderson has earned three Oscar nominations for this film, and the one he has the best shot at is for his direction, which involves Anderson's almost flawless recreation of the San Fernando Valley of the 1970's with the same artistry he applied to Boogie Nights. This film beautifully transported this reviewer back to the 1970's with a breezy free love changing of the times atmosphere and a hedonistic underside that has been found in so many films centered around the 70's. Anderson creates some truly arresting visual images through the camera, where certain shots in the films actually look like paintings. This film is absolutely gorgeous to look at and brings fresh life to well-worn images to the screen.

This reviewer found the all over the place screenplay for this simple love story a little troubling. As the film opens, we find Alana expressing nothing but contempt for Gary, but 30 minutes later they are in business together. We never get any explanation as to where a 15 year old kid gets the finances to open two separate businesses. Gary and Alana separate and reunite at least four times during the film with little or no explanation, making the film about 30 minutes longer than it needs to be. We think we're getting to the end when Gary and Alana mess up a job selling a waterbed to future movie producer Jon Peters (brilliant cameo by Bradley Cooper), but the final third of the film finds them again separated, Gary trying to open his own pinball machine parlor while Alana becomes involved with a creepy politician. The scene with Jon Peters was the best scene in the film and after that, I wanted it to be over. Had to applaud a beautiful piece of nostalgia near the beginning of the film where Gary is appearing in a stage version of Yours, Mine, and Ours, utilizing the original theme song from the 1968 film.

As he always does, Anderson does get some interesting performances from his cast. Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, does a real movie star turn as Gary and Alana Haim manages to make the abrasiveness of her character work. Mention should also be made of a terrific cameo by Sean Penn as a greasy Hollywood producer, Benny Hafdie as the creepy politician, Tom Waites as Penn's old buddy, and Christine Ebersole as a bitchy, aging actress. As a textbook on the art of filmmaking, this one hits a bullseye, but misses as a complete cinematic experience due to a screenplay that had just a few too many holes for this reviewer's tastes.