‘Licorice Pizza’ Review: A Breezy Delight
While the new decade has gotten off to a rocky start, Paul Thomas Anderson has made the most of it by proving once again that he is one of America’s greatest (if not the greatest) working filmmakers with yet another excellent piece of work. Falling in line with his love of period pieces, he once again he turns back the clock to take a fond look at yesteryear, while also rewinding time in a different sort of way, giving us the kind of movie they just don’t make anymore. Licorice Pizza is an absolute blast to watch. Far removed from the more serious films of his later period, Licorice Pizza is something of a step backward, reminiscent of sprawling dramedies like Boogie Nights and Magnolia, but without the darkness of those films, leaving behind something pure and joyous.
Licorice Pizza is loosely based on Anderson’s childhood experiences growing up in the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s as well as the exploits of child-actor turned businessman Gary Goetzman, who inspired the character of Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman). The story follows the teenage Gary as he continually tries to be an adult, from his acting career, to his many get-rich-quick schemes, to his crush on the much older Alana Kane (Alana Haim), while also following Alana’s own attempts to break out of the arrested development she finds herself in. The movie doesn’t have much of a tightly wound plot, instead using a series of scenes and vignettes, stuffed full of classic, hilarious Anderson-esque cameos, to bring to life a fully realized world and tell the story of two young people trying their hardest to grow up.
The film looks great and floats along at a breezy pace, with Anderson’s technical skills working to support the fantastic dialogue and performances, from both the leads as well as the small army of side characters including Sean Penn, Benny Safdie, and an electric Bradley Cooper among many others. Many of the characters are real people or are loosely based on real people, helping to ground the dreamlike comedy of the film and giving it a sense of the uncanny, as though everything that happens has an amount truth to it, whether literally or in spirit. While more established actors drop in here and there to steal the show (Bradley Cooper especially), Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim are the film’s anchor, managing to be funny, charming, sincere, and vulnerable all at once, giving the audiences three-dimensional people to root for in spite of their many flaws.
The film is, in many ways, about the divisions between childhood and adulthood, and how those divisions often become blurred. Gary is 15 but is in a hurry to grow up, constantly trying to act older than he is, endlessly pursuing the affections of the muckiest older Alana, taking on responsibilities and starting businesses on a whim without ever appreciating his own youth and the risks it allows him to take. He’s idealistic and petty in the way children are often both. Alana, on the other hand, seems stuck in perpetual childhood despite being 25, failing to hold down meaningful jobs, living with her parents, and generally unable to relate to adults due to her tendency for tantrums and outbursts, finding she can be more herself around Gary and his friends. The two of them embark on a series of misadventures together, where they try to break into the adult worlds of show business, politics, and commerce, all the while being continually disappointed by the dishonesty, cynicism, and surprising immaturity of the much older people they look up to.
Licorice Pizza is hands-down one of the best movies of 2021. It manages to be charming and sweet while also having a great deal to say about life and growing up in the strange world we live in. There is an infectious sense of enthusiasm and happiness to it that is hard to resist, and it stays with you long after the credits roll. It’s the kind of cinematic excellence that seems to be more and more rare in this day and age, and without a doubt deserves to be seen.
