1970s Los Angeles, there’s truly nothing like it. Licorice Pizza is Paul Thomas Anderson’s Belfast. The uber talented and beloved critical darling takes us back to the world of his roots, and gives us a coming of age story that befits its time and place. Like most PTA movies, you’ll probably leave Licorice Pizza icky, confused, impressed, surreal, and most importantly downright entertained at what the director has in store for you. Like Licorice Pizza! I get it now…I think?
It’s picture day at Gary Valentine’s (Cooper Hoffman) high school. The 15 year old becomes smitten with Alana (Alana Haim), the 25 year old photographer’s assistant. Gary’s persistence puts Alana in his orbit over the next couple months, as the business savvy Gary pulls Alana into the various schemes he concocts during the summer of 1973.
PTA uses the Alana/Gary will they won’t they tension to build Licorice Pizza around. This nicely vignettes the movie into little scenes that build upon one another. No one crafts those mini scenes within movies better than PTA, and here he makes some of the best he’s ever done, right up there with the Alfred Molina Boogie Nights sequence. The highlight one is the Bradley Cooper sequence in the middle, that could almost be nominated as a dramatic short at the Oscars. Those little scenes have mini stories, amazing characters, and mini arcs within them as they careen towards their conclusions, sometimes, absurd, sometimes, scary, sometimes sad, etc. The stories are also grounded in the movie’s time: the gas shortage, horrific cultural caricatures, and 1970s popular businesses (arcades/waterbeds) all add period specific richness to help PTA build the almost surreal world Alana and Gary happen to be born into and romantically entangle in.
As seedy as their relationship is, Licorice Pizza stitches together nicely because of Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son. Cooper is charming as hell as Gary, using that family charisma (and in the movie, child actor stardom) to slowly win over the older Alana. You also feel the pissy, naive nature of Gary when he sees Alana potentially finding other romantic suitors. But as good as Cooper Hoffman is, Alana Haim is the story here. Haim embodies Alana perfectly: she’s always ready to work, but is emotionally and personally stunted by strict parenting and dead end jobs. Her connection with Gary opens her eyes, and you feel the tug of war of Alana being pulled into directions she both is and isn’t comfortable with. Haim nails PTA’s dialogue too, extracting the perfect emotional response to whatever scenario she’s put into. If PTA is Phil Jackson, Haim is the Michael Jordan of this movie.
What a crazy place 1970s Los Angeles was. With Paul Thomas Anderson, you understand exactly what makes this time and place worthy of a movie in Licorice Pizza, also a defunct record store chain from the area. But come on man, Haim can pass for 18 without much of a struggle; why she gotta be 25? It almost single handedly defuncts your career like LP record stores.