Licorice Pizza (2021) movie review

The way to watch a movie directed by Paul Thomas Anderson is to not presume what the movie is about. PTA, as he is sometimes referred to; his movies start as one thing and end up being completely different to my initial expectations. What doesn’t surprise me anymore though is how touching, thoughtful and grand the movie and the story end up being. And you learn something new, a completely different message from what you received the last time you watched the same movie. You feel stupid, ashamed almost at how much you missed before. But I have come to terms with those emotions. I have learnt to welcome them, in fact, cherish them.

So, all I can tell you is what I saw when I watched Licorice Pizza this time. The first time. It begins straight away. A boy sees a girl, the boy talks to the girl, the girl is interested enough to continue talking to him, the boy asks her out, and the girl refuses, but smiles enough for you to know she just might see him. On the surface, they seem like a regular, American boy and girl that’ll soon be a couple. However, there are reasons why that may not happen; the biggest being that the girl is nearly 10 years older than the boy. And the boy is only 15 years old.

Gary Valentine, the boy, played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s son Cooper Hoffman, is a student, an actor, an entrepreneur and an extremely confident and charming young man. Except for his age, nothing hints at him being a teenager. He is far too industrious for his age. This is the dilemma that Alana Kane, played by Alana Haim is dealing with. However, she can’t seem to dismiss the sheer energy that Gary has injected into her near-standstill life. When they first meet, she is working as the photographer’s assistant; where our hero is one of the kids the photographer is taking a picture of for his high school picture day. Alana goes to the dinner Gary invites her to. She is quite uncomfortable about the decision though. But, talking to Gary makes her feel at ease and they begin a friendship. She’s with him, sometimes as his friend and sometimes as his business partner, through the various endeavours Gary gets into. Even though Gary and Alana are never dating, their chemistry is undeniable. Their relationship, as it progresses, has all the ingredients of a beautiful romance.

Both the leads are excellent in their roles. This being both their first movie acting role, it was hard to separate the actor from the character. Along with the actors, the credit also goes to PTA as a storyteller, since one can empathize with both characters with equal palpability. There are small, yet entertaining performances from several familiar faces. It was a delight to see Maya Rudolph appear onscreen in her partner’s movie. She barely spoke but was fantastic as always. The entire sequence with Sean Penn and Tom Waits was enjoyable, too. And when Bradley Cooper finally shows up, he takes over the entire screen, literally, as he looms over Gary trying to scare the living shit out of him. 

The movie has several long, lingering shots of Gary and Alana running through the streets, hand in hand, living and breathing life with every moment they are together. As is expected with any PTA film, the photography is phenomenal. All elements of the film come together perfectly to take you back to the 1970s and back to when you were hopelessly in love. Like the music, for example. Anderson is a master filmmaker who proves time and again that he is a visionary director like no other.

There are only a few movies I’ve seen that end with a great last shot. The kind where the final few images stay with you for days on end, even coming back to you suddenly weeks or months after watching the movie and refusing to leave your mind. Casablanca, to name the obvious and Peeping Tom, to name the obscure, are a couple of good examples. Licorice Pizza has the most tender, lovely last shots ever displayed on film. The movie, in fact, is an instant classic, romantic comedy. I highly recommend watching this movie as soon as you can.