I was born in 1971, and am really anticipating all the detailed, time specific minutiae. It is exciting to hear that the substance of the film matches its style. Licorice Pizza will be our NYE movie, after dinner and drinks. Can't wait!
I was 9 during 1973 and I can vouch that he nailed the period detail. From the clothes to the restaurant decor to the gas crisis. It’s a mini time machine. Was a very nostalgic movie experience. As you mentioned there is a wistful quality from all the chance encounters and not being tethered to a cell phone. Wonderful performances all around. I think the film benefitted by not casting higher profile names for the leads. There is a wonderful freshness to their performances that I completely bought. Great film. Nice review,
Licorice 🍕 was a semi decent record store chain whose best store was across the street from The Whisky on Sunset Blvd. Had all the original punk records.
You hit the nail on the head. I felt so much American Graffiti, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and even Blue Velvet with the two misfits, one still in high school, getting into mischief. PTAs editing is unreal.
Thank you for this discussion. I am obsessed with Boogie Nights and was paranoid this film was being overhyped and would not live up to that highly influential classic. Listening to you as a trusted cinema source has helped me greatly. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. You are a top RUclips film speaker!
I watched Boogie Nights recently and had the idea to search youtube to see if deepfocuslens had reviewed it. The video was a few years old so idk if it's b/c her muscles for analysis and thematic insights were underdeveloped then compared to now (it seems to me she does the best film reviews on YT, ) or she just didn't get much out of it, but I feel it's a much deeper movie about people trying and inevitably failing to escape from themselves than she gave it credit for, only praising its surface style. She didn't even touch upon the psychosexual, Oedipal kind of stuff in it - which seems to be usually right up her alley, nor the strangely persistent innocence to the Wahlberg character that imo carries the movie. Or how it's a movie about sex that isn't about sex at all. It's the least impressive of her reviews that I've seen.
Boogie Nights was my favorite movie theater experience of all time. And There Will Be Blood shot for shot can be paused anywhere at all and any questions as to why he used that shot can be answered. I saw Licorice Pizza last night. I've been waiting for a goosebumps from-beginning-to-end movie like this one basically since Boogie Nights. And I wasn't disappointed. The problem is we live in an uptight Redditor age where people think a negative reaction is critical thinking. And so they won't let the movie wash over them. So I'm worried movies in general are never going to be loved by a society as a whole again unless it's Spider-Man or Marvel or what have you. And I grew up in the 70s and so grateful we had the radio on all the time. It really was a relaxed decade. For a kid like me then anyways. The most realistic 70s character I ever saw in a 70s period piece movie was in Licorice Pizza last night with that creepy guy that was watching them from across the street. By 73 long gone were the college educated hippies from the 60s. And so by then everyone had long hair. Especially guys that looked like that. It was just oddly realistic to me. Anyways, you just got a new subscriber after that amazing review.
Alot of mainstream audiences seem to hate character pieces. Hey need are straight forward story with a to b to c plot or they are bored for some reason.
How is it that lovers of this film don't have a problem with the film's ending? It literally shows a 25 year old woman being romantically tied with a 15 year old boy and to add to that, the film portrays this in a romanticised/quirky way, as if we are supposed to be rooting for this relationship.
I'm not sure wether I'm more disgusted bc of their age gap in the film or by the fact that most people seem to have no problem with that at all. People calling this film the best they've seen in a while. Seriously? Total p*dogarbage. I felt highly uncomfortable watching this.
listen i love to view this film as a myazaki but live action. humains come with impurity, imperfections and flaws, this film is a precise picture of specific time in early 70s california - the culture, trends, people, politics, racism, sexism, hollywood etc. and its all wrapped up in a pessimistic coming of age story of a two almost gothic era protagonists - decaying damsel and youthful spirit intertwined together in this toxic dynamic. alana searching for herself and grasping for purpose is the most relatable thing someone from late teens to late 20s can feel. she is flawed and does little things where most are pointless and lead to dead ends so she falls back to one thing that sparks joy but is just a temporary comfort for her existential crisis - gary. he is on the contrary to her, the epitome of american dream, jumping head first to opportunities since early age which is basically the story of every entrepreneur. basically film never glorified any of its themes nor is it’s purpose to teach you some important life lessons. as i said myiazaki but live action. any ghibli movie is so similar to it but it has its core differences - teaches you nothing but paints the reality and gives you no hope but reality itself. the ending is not them being together happily ever after. in the moment alana gave up on her tries and gave herself fully to a kid who will most probably grow out of his teen crush and accomplish big things and leave her behind to where she was. sorry for the long comment i hope it makes sense
This is an extremely surface level view of the film. The movie is about immaturity and growing out of it (something that our characters have not yet fully done by the end but have tried to [Gary stops seeing Alana as a sex object and Alana starts to “get her life together” in politics]). Gary is ambitious and wants to be seen as an adult; Alana is an adult that secretly wishes she were still a teenager trying to relive that past with Gary and his friends. In the middle we see the rest of the characters and the adults who also show their immature nature such as Dolittle, Holden and Peters. If you read the ending as a conventional happy ending I honestly don’t think we watched the same movie. It can be very easy to see it as a happy ending because the entire movie is supposed to feel like a memory and sometimes we can remember things a certain way even if it wasn’t acceptable by normative social standards, but, it’s more of a bittersweet ending because we don’t know what’s going to happen to the relationship even though we can all predict that it’ll be over in around three months. Edit: also, it’s not like Alma and Reynolds' relationship in Phantom Thread is healthy by any means of the imagination, yet PTA still made them love each other and depicted it very romantically. Do you think he's advocating for unhealthy relationships in that movie? Or maybe he writes characters that fall unto situations that happen in real life. If you want characters that have very little wrong with them so you can feel safe and pretend you’re as good as the main character I’d recommend something like Harry Potter or some other garbage like that.
@@paulelroy6650 And you weren't bothered by the racism? Thankfully I saw this film coutesy of a torrent site so my money stayed in the bank. You probably were laughinf. hysterically at the the racism. In the bootleg that I saw, you could hear people laughing load and hard. Very sick behavior.
@@bigby2k Just so you know there's no way you could interpret that as a joke towards Asians for their way of speaking. It’s literally making fun of Americans taking trophy wives from another country because they don’t have to communicate with them. It’s making fun of misogyny not Asians.
She's 29, not 25. Listen closely to the scene with Bradley Cooper when he jumps into the truck and starts putting the moves on her. That's the line that made the movie click for me
I could not get over the 10 year age difference between the characters. 15 & 25(28?) In the film and 18 & 30 irl. Finding out that PTA had a crush on the actresses mother when he was a child (she was his teacher I think?), then working with her kids later in life directing music videos, and then making this film. It all seemed even more creepy to me. The new poster seems weird to. It's literally a woman holding a "little" boy in her hand. As the actress interacted with the older men, I thought they were going to have her see how the age gap could be a abuse of power, and she was going to learn her lesson about what she was doing to Garry but it never happened. The director also said that they wouldn't end up together because that's not what happened in the life story of garry that this was loosely based on. But it ends with them running into each other's arms and kissing? I would have enjoyed the film so much more if it had ended with her straight up saying it's weird and not gonna happen and that they can just stay good friends and business partners. But the way they ended it ruins it all for me. Just my opinion but I just find the movie too uncomfortable to watch without much justification.
I can see why the age difference makes people uncomfortable. But then again, this is a movie about the directors life. The normality of age differences back in the 70s was shrugged off. Of course, today’s society is bothered by this. My opinion ( just like how everyone is sharing their opinions) is that everyone at a young age fantasized about someone older & would purposely be around older people. Movies that make people uncomfortable are movies that can be related to the most.
@@BIGTENFanatic you don't have to imagine they show her interactions with older men and how they use and manipulate her. It's just even worse she's doing it with a actual child
I tried so hard to like it but I just don’t think PTA is nearly as good at doing meandering storytelling as Tarantino or Linklater. The only subplot that worked for me was the dinner scene where it’s revealed that Wachs is pushing away his partner because he’s afraid of being openly gay. It was genuinely heartbreaking and I wished that had been the main subplot. The rest felt like a bunch of sitcom episodes strung together with fantastic cinematography.
To say the episodes are strung together is really doing it a deserves. Each one as a reason to be there each one adds layers to the story and characters
I love nostalgic life back in the day type films like American Graffiti and Stand by Me. The poster of this film even has the same caricature artwork that American Graffiti's poster had. I'm gonna have to see this one.
Licorice Pizza had about 34 stores in Southern California, but the Wherehouse Records chain dominated the San Fernando Valley and had a store in Encino near the filming locations. They had about 126 stores, many of which were converted to Blockbuster Video stores. When Tower Records came along, they took over the market like Walmart and Amazon did in retail. Gary Goetzman was a producer for The Silence of the Lambs. What Paul Thomas Anderson did for the San Fernando Valley, Martin Scorsese did for New York City. Paul Thomas Anderson did a lot of movies that didn't make much money, but he is not greedy. He did a short film, Cigarettes & Coffee, that was later expanded into Hard Eight. John C. Reilly was a new actor at that time. Philip Baker Hall did an excellent job of acting in it.
Am I the only one that thinks it’s hilarious how this film is getting praised for nostalgia? Isn’t “nostalgia” been a big complaint in filmmaking these days?
@@jimbeam2299 I agree with Maggie the nostalgia was done well, but I thought every thing else was done really poorly. One of the weakest screenplays of the year in my opinion. Which is shocking for me to say because I think The Master and Phantom Thread are masterpieces
I saw this movie tonight and loved it. I was 14 in 1973 and I grew up in L.A. (3 years in Encino) so it really it home for me. I liked that Paul McCartney’s song “Let Me Roll It” was used so well.
im interested if it painted the picture of entrepreneurship spirit of gary and feeling of loss of life direction of alana realistically for the time period?
super distracted by the left-right frame inversion. Noticed it trying to read shelved book titles, when I noticed McKee's Story. Then I began trying to read a few others and was like, WTF? Haven't seen Licorice Pizza but I will asap. Loved Phantom Thread.
You nailed it with the feeling and pacing and “vignettes”. It felt like both somehow an exaggerated yet realistic FEELING of being young and in love while being more realistic in the complexities of young love. I also like the way it explored age beyond its two main characters. I watched this movie not even knowing who did it and thought it was a debut film for some reason. I think watching it that way without expectations made me enjoy it even more because I had no expectations. Definitely the bets movie I watched in 2024 and one I imagine I will be going back to. It has that charm and warm glow that helps me feel that light hearted romance that can feel so liberating but the pay off is a long one. It doesn’t reward you immediately but I’ll just say I liked the ending. I also found the use of running through the movie to be an interesting story telling device. Running emphasizes youth and passion to me. People will run after what they care about and I think the movie used it wonderfully.
I had the opposite reaction, it was a poorly written and directed film, very uninspiring, and topped with mediocre acting and racially offensive scenes it made for a hideous watch, you expect better from PTA
@@AkshatJha I agree. The fact that people were laughing loud and clapping their hands during the racist scenes was absolutely appalling. Plus, I found the film boring as fuck.
@@iansmith8783 it does not offend me lol i just find it hilarious this movie can be in someone's "best movie I've seen in years" list. You have weird taste
I was getting The Graduate vibe from the ending only not as dower. They won the day and realized their relationship had deepened, but there are also some unspoken challenges that a relationship will certainly experience if they even survive together in the future. IRL, I am about Gary's little brother's age so actually experiencing all these events at that age really resonated. And because my twin brother and me have been musicians since we were 5 years old, these soundtracks really hit me in the feels. It was our lives.
Having only seen it once, I'm sure that there is plenty in this film that I missed and might pick up on during subsequent viewings. While I can certainly appreciate PTA's feel for the time & place (much like Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" and Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous", both of which I gather are semi-autobiographical), the ending felt like wish-fulfillment. It's clear that Alana is flattered and delighted by the attention that Gary showers her with, but their reunion in the final scene (and her last line, which sounded post-dubbed) struck me as just wrong...and not just in the prosecutable sense. Was it studio-mandated? Was that the only happy ending PTA could come up with? Look, Alana clearly cares about the kid, but he's a KID. By the time he's legal, she'll be close to thirty years old. I can imagine her sitting Gary down a few days later and reminding him of this, saying that she still lives in her parents' house with her older sisters and that she CANNOT stick around for him. Alana's at a point in her life that Gary won't reach for years. In my opinion, the film should have ended with her admiring his new enterprise but then saying goodbye, it's time for her to move on. Working with Wachs was a step in the right direction, and spending time with teenagers could then be the catalyst she needed to fully embrace her adulthood. There are a couple of scenes that are real standouts for me: Alana meeting Wachs and Matthew in the restaurant, and the truck-coasting sequence after it runs out of gas. The final moment where Bradley Cooper is distracted by the two women made me laugh hard, and I think I was the only person in the theater who did. Why didn't anybody else find that funny? I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the film, and will most likely remember them the next time I see it. Any plans to review "Red Rocket"?
Alana and Gary's relationship seems to be more of a metapor for acceptin your place in life and live for the moment. See their relationship in the end as an embrace of both adulthood and childhood.
The 70mm blowup prints look gorgeous. Better than the ones struck for Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread, but obviously not The Master, which was partially filmed in 65mm (the first reel in particular of that is just incredible)
I just got back from it. LOVED the film but HATED the ending. It left me feeling the exact opposite way the film wanted me to feel. I loved so much about the film and really thought it could be a modern classic. I thought the "meandering" quality of it was a brilliant way to chain together a series of truly hilarious and sometimes touching vignettes (I particularly loved the Bennie Safdie sequence; that was the moment it hit me that PTA was willing to indulge in both the nostalgia of the 70's while also recognizing the darkness of it for many people). But it really all comes down to that ending and the choice Alana makes, and given the trajectory of her story, that choice felt completely wrong and it unfortunately makes me feel less inclined to ever revisit the film.
I don't see the end as romanticizing the relationship. Here is how I interpreted it. There are some very silly scenes in this movie . To the point where it really seems that Anderson is making fun of Hollywood. The end scene is so over the top that I see it as also being part of the joke. Alana wanted to be an actress at the start of the movie and in the end while she moves towards more serious things she still gets that Hollywood ending. That's how I saw it anyhow.
Alana (the real Alana) says she doesn't think those two will actually be a couple. She'll probably "break up" with Gary in a day or two but they will always be a part of each other's lives.
Very excited to see this, always enjoyed PTS films that I've seen. Interested to know why some reviewers have used labels like 'disgusting' and 'problematic'. Fast becoming a favourite reviewer on this platform, thanks for posting.
Some people are very sensitive to any sort of relationship between kids and adults. While I think that the movie makes it clear there is a line that will never be crossed Anderson does like to get a bit close (i.e. Alana showing her boobs to Gary). That makes people uncomfortable but I think a major point of the movie is to make people feel uncomfortable. For the most part their relationship is just playful but even that can be too much for people.
@@whoopsie890 Yeah you didn't watch the movie, the 25 yr old literally ends up with the 15 yr old as the ending. It's disgusting and this reviewer is fu**in disgusting for defending it as "creative expression"
@@JayNSG0 They kiss yes but I did not perceive it as them ending up together. They could never end up together she is almost 30 and he's a teenager. It's not disgusting. Try to look at the movie with some empathy for they characters and don't assume the worst.
PTA is one of my all time favorite filmmakers and I'm not a prude by any means but I just couldn't get past the age gap here, I couldn't buy unto Alanah's character because I get her arch but for the film to answer her need for direction and purpose by giving her a will they won't they romance between an adult and a teenager was just bizzare. If the gendered were swapped no one would think twice about this movie
New fan here, haven’t seen the film, after this review I’m going. Quite possibly the best review I’ve seen. Depth of analysis, nuance and the way you triangulate the frame. Perfecto 💯
Paul Thomas Anderson is a director I took for granted for a long time. But I think if people in general just took a second look to his films they'd find a lot there
A movie that kind of felt like a RPG to me. There's story and there's world and there's wacky side characters that are kind of independent from each other but still create this immersive piece. It's not vague, yet leaves a lot of room for imagination. Unfortunately it was a bit of a drag to the end. What I really loved about this movie was its general look and feel and of course the cast. A very charming and intelligent film that still shouldn't be taken too seriously. Wonderful review, thanks :)
Just came home from seeing Licorice Pizza in the local cinema. I loved LOVED the first 85 minutes but then the rest of the movie started dragging and I couldn't get into the flow any more. Loved your review tho because you pointed out some powerful aspects that I wholeheartedly agree with, the world building IS tremendous and second to none, it DID feel like a fun summer day with my school friends, the subtlety of the themesm definitely found me off guard and I was expecting a point that never needed to happen (an actual shocker!!), etc. so all of this makes it worth a rewatch. Thank you for a wonderful review, you singlehandedly improved my opinion on the last 85 minutes and I have to say that of all the movies I saw in the last year, none provided as gut wrenchingly tense a moment as when the kids drove that truck down that slope!
I spent my teen years in that time period. Media was different. We thought we trusted government. It was a simpler time on the edge of the unknown.. Teens and people were different then. I have not seen the movie yet but the trailer seems so genuine to the period. Its a time machine to me..
@@paulelroy6650 Does Alana end up with Gary at the end of the movie, confess her love for him, and allow him to tell the entire arcade that that is his wife, yes or no? The answer is yes you idiot and not ONE TIME in the entire movie does anyone try to talk sense into her, her own sister tells Gary to chase after her despite it being absolutely wrong. You're a creep.
@4:15: Whether it's the periwinkle dresses or the aged oranges, yellows, and the greens ... and to that, I'll add a mama-san chair, carpet tapestries with subtle gradations of brown tones hung up as if they were "portraits", wooden or sometimes mirrored wall panels, some old records, safari suits (Bond villain / African dictator outfits)... and we've described the old house my uncle lived in with his first wife (who used to be my aunt Louise, and the mother of my first two cousins who are both now in their 50's) in Quebec. With his second partner, the domestic lifestyle graduated into the 80's, and got stuck there! Even though my next aunt, Nicole, is still the same age as the other two, all born in the early 1940's, she's still mentally a decade forward. LOL
Finally watched Licorice Pizza and I thought a lot of it was style over substance. Every thing about the dialogue, the acting and the direction felt like it was written and directed by an alien, it’s just so clinical and overly calculated. But the last 30 minutes saved it for me because I thought it was genuinely dramatic and emotional. Personally, I wish this was a miniseries instead
You are the second reviewer I value a lot, who says this movie is great. Sadly I wont be able to see it currently as it isnt out yet in my country. I will finish this video when I watched the movie
I can’t say for certain that it’s my favorite film of 2021 but I would easily say top 5. I hope that it ends up winning Best Picture at the Oscars this year.
For me Paul Thomas Anderson movies's stop interesting me after The Master. I accept that Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza are beautifully made, but it just don't get me. The Master was amazing. I wish somenthing new for him in that style or like There Will be blood.
I enjoyed the movie but at the same time I started thinking I don't remember anybody 15 years old owning real estate to open up a waterbed place or a pinball place please tell me I missed something and it was explained in the movie. The actors are not attractive not that they have to be but it helps what really got me was that movie marquee near the end that had live and let die playing with the mechanic I actually went to a drive-in movie in upstate New York and they had that exact double feature unbelievable. I enjoyed boogie nights a whole lot more.
Gary is a child actor so he had more opportunities than a typical 15 year old. The character is based on actor/producer Gary Goetzman, who actually did start waterbed and pinball businesses in Encino.
A bang-on review, thank you; I agree with your observations. I held off watching/reading any reviews before I saw Licorice Pizza to try to go in as uninformed as I could (beyond the trailer, which completely sold me on the movie - you had me at Paul Thomas Anderson and Life on Mars). Having now seen it, I agree it's a mature PTA movie - simultaneously both a 70s fever dream and utterly timeless. The two leads are outstanding, the cinematography authentic and luminous, and Jonny Greenwood's score is understated but effective. I will be seeing it at the cinema again. PTA is "a fucking master" indeed.
I LOVE PTA films but Licorice Pizza was such a disappointment. The trailer is so much more entertaining that the 2 plus hours of this meandering (not even in a good PTA way) movie. Its very messy and slapped together. The editing could have been better. Hoffman and Haim are solid actors. Other than Alana, there is little depth to any characters. Penn and Cooper make cameo's but their scenes could have been cut to make room for more back story to Gary and his family/friends. It's as if the Cooper and Penn asked PTA if they could be in the movie and he did them a favor and squeezed them in...both of their characters could have had PTA movies based on them alone. You'll notice watching the trailers and then the movie that some scenes did not make the final cut. I did enjoy the cinematography as a kid who grew up in SoCal in the 70s and 80s AND John C. Reilly was great as Herman Munster. Also, the fact that Alana falls in love with a 16 year old is very odd regardless of this taking place in 1973 or the fact that PTA once saw a kid hit on an older woman years ago. The age gap stayed in my mind the whole time. All the hype and 5 star ratings are a bit much.
Interesting. Nostalgia aside, this didn't punch me as much as his movies usually do. The Master, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Punch Drunk Love...I was so excited. Good moments...nothing hit hard.
Oh thank god. Our tastes are pretty similar so I know I'm going to love it; was in fact waiting for your review. I'm one of those who thought PTA hasn't had a great one since "Blood". I did not want to dislike "Pizza", as it totally IS in my experience: born late 60s, grew up in SoCal, got my FIRST LP at Licorice Pizza, and I remember when our store in S.D. went out of business around the mid-80s (maybe earlier). I cannot wait to see it!
I see some parallel narratives between Rushmore and Licorice Pizza. Just finished it. Child prodigy swooning over an older, yet still single woman....and their unusual, sometimes controversial, yet beautiful chemistry. Hope to see more for Alana Haim and especially Cooper Hoffman
All the theatres in my province closed right before this movie came out 😭. This was the one I was hoping would be my incredible moviegoing experience of this year... guess not.
what’s the point of a movie having so much “authenticity” is the some of its part are, yup, this was the general vibe back then. Thanks for showing up!
The way you describe "Licorice Pizza" is reminding me of a TV series that's in the back of my memory but for the life of me I can't think of the title, or even the characters' or actors' names. There was the same adult-ish adolescent world, or maybe the other way around, where people are trying to live their best lives but only when they make connections with each other does it ever work. It had the most unique, wonderful tone of anything I ever saw on TV.
Just saw this. Your review is better than the movie. Your review is what the movie should have been but completely failed at. Most disappointing movie of the year for me. Music was ok but editing was terrible & keeping it buried behind the movie audio ruined it. The big good scenes completely blew the landing. The bike jump and the truck scene. Felt zero chemistry between main characters. Would love a stand-alone movie based on Bradley Coopers character. The scene of him in the trailer was used only in the credits. Bullshit. He was the only redeeming thing for me. I really wanted to love this. Was my most anticipated movie of he year. Fuck. Ending was shit too. Unnecessary lens flare. Unnecessary racism. Unnecessary pedophilia? Come on.
Complicated or not, the brain fully develops at 25. Based off your review and the trailers I saw, the film doesn’t necessarily punish or challenge the main character for her irrational interest in the 15 year-old co-star, which is mad creepy. There was a clip in one of the trailers where she showed her breasts to what was essentially a minor, and it was played for laughs. Whether or not the film is technically masterful, something that is to be expected with P.T. Anderson’s work, shouldn’t wipe away the fact that the movie is romanticizing what is a toxic relationship. Although you said the characters don’t go all the way, I can see this film still validating those in their adult years who fantasize or wish to be in a relationship with a younger person. Hollywood is already full of creeps and pedophiles, I’m just sick and fucking tired of another film that doesn’t challenge them and the status quo. Also, saying “many teens fantasize about getting it on with an older person” is a poor excuse. It seems that the main character reciprocates those feelings to the 15 year-old character, which is wrong, and the film doesn’t really take a stance on it. As a teenager, I find that shit horrible.
Not sure if I’ve ever heard Seven described as being “wonderful.” But you’re right Zodiac is better. It’s funny, PTA hated Fight Club. But you really think this is better than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? I will definitely have to see it, hopefully in a theater!
PT Anderson is hit or miss for me, but when he hits I'm sent somewhere else which is the greatest compliment I can make about a film and there's so few director's who can do that nowadays.
Thank you for your open minded analysis. Yes, the age gap is controversial and I don’t condone it, but it’s such a great movie with more meaning behind what’s on the surface. You did a great job with this. 😊
I agree that it plunges you into the world. It's incredible like that. But I never for one moment believed in the relationship at the "heart" of the movie.
Some films and filmmakers can be trashed. Because they were ‘in it for the money’ and their art… is artless. But if a director reaches the level of adored Auteur. It is a crime to ‘diss’ them. For you’re siding with the dark side of film making. Where money and not art… are the driving force for the ‘product’ surfacing. And this is a 'product' ...but is it art? The director of Liquorice Pizza reached this beloved Auteur status, almost twenty-five years ago now. His films are eagerly anticipated. For many, Liquorice Pizza is already considered a classic. The appeal of this movie is very similar to its titular title. The literal one, rather than as a tasty metaphor for vinyl records. You either fancy liquorice on your pizza, or you don’t? I went into this ‘blind’ - Not knowing that the director has a mate, that told him a whole series of Hollywood anecdotes… ( salacious nonsense and gossip ) of when he was a famous child star in the seventies. Without this ‘key’ to unlocking the films episodic structure. You have to take it and the main protagonists at face value. As a series of quirky vignettes without any real narrative structure or end goal. A toe-dip into a now bygone age, of inappropriate behaviour, that wasn’t as ‘problematic’ then, as it must seem now. In this digital age of immediate access to pointing out shame and disgust, to the hordes of your new friends ‘you just haven’t made yet’. What immediately struck me was that both leads are ‘goofball’ actor casting choices. Their screen presence lapse into an amateurishness mess, and both are unashamedly uncharismatic. This is quite refreshing, to see two ‘asymmetrically’ facial featured/embodied and pimpled faces… so carefully arranged and tastefully shot. Yet the juxtaposition is unnerving… for a Hollywood film. It goes against so many conventional taboos of ‘cinema as an aspirational commercial ’. Beautiful people, beautifully shot for the dirty masses. If the leads were in anyway believable… or credible as actors. I might’ve been carried into their seemly ‘oddly untroubled’ lives. And followed their lazy meanderings into the films rose tinted artifice. But it was hard work and the male character, was particularly unlikeable... in the way he was written and played. ( Although, I found his famous father almost unwatchable too. His acting had a sort of fevered, restless, self-loathing energy, that was excruciating to view ...for more than a cameo. ) * I know I’m quite alone in seeing this aspect - of the much beloved actor. This film felt like the director wanted to make an epic tale, where nothing happened. Nothing within it or because of it, pulsated with any purpose. As a series of fanciful scenes with no sense of character arc, or danger… it feels like a pointless exercise in ‘art for art’s sake’. Which anywhere else in the world is life-affirming exuberance. But in the US... it's just nausea inducing decadence. The director, a rich kid from a ‘Hollywood family’ that makes movies… because he comes from a filmmaking town… and he can, because he's rich. Has made another deeply hedonistic movie, about nothing except itself. So should you see this film… absolutely! Because, whereas I found the two leads unengaging and the film a pointless waste of time. It is a slice of pizzazz, delivered with a smile and a wink …and littered, with liquorice cinematic litter. So unlike me, you may enjoy picking out the sparkly crumbs from the trash.
great review! my girlfriend and i are going to see it tonight! it'll be my first time seeing a PTA film in theaters, which is exciting bc he's my favorite director.
Terrific film! PTA really went full buffet with this one. Definitely in the 'slice of life' genre that we rarely see in movies these days. The long tracking shots, cinematography, you name it was amazeballs! The Tom Waits and Sean Penn scene even the Bradley Cooper ones were my favorites.
@@eb9165 tbh, it really didn't phase me much. Maybe it's because I've watched a lot of independent and arthouse films that had much darker, grimier themes to it.
I’ll have to check it out. I graduated from high school in 1976. So I do remember what the world was like before the Internet and smart phones 📱 And ironically, posting this comment on mine.
Acting was good, everything looked good, the characters were interesting but it needed more cohesion there was no sense of time each "episode" on its own is great but each part didn't seem to fit together just kind of felt like each "episode" consisted of them falling for each other then they both find someone they want to get with split again then get back together again.
That's the point though. Its alana and gary going through this time in their life going from one crazy adventure and person to the next. The small roles and characters all add something to gary and alanas life and their relationship. Its not just random vignettes for the sake of a random vignette.
Just heard of this film, now gotta see it ...does it have anything to do with the record store of that name that was on victory Blvd. Near coldwater cyn... where I spent hours there after highschool 70-74... Kieth Alexander ran that store, a great hangout 😎
I LOVE Licorice Pizza. It is fantastic. It is subtle, and hiliarious. Your review is quite good based on your feelings. The film reveals itself more on repeat viewings.
I loved Licorice Pizza too. I can’t really describe how I felt while watching it, because it makes me nostalgic for a time period that I wasn’t alive for.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past. -- DH Lawrence Go ahead, you may cry now.
Back in the day there used to be Licorice Pizza, Music Plus, The Wherehouse and the Big Kahuna, Tower Records. Spend a lot of time and mula at those places.
Happy Christmas Maggie! That review really cheered me up. I was a bit worried in case it turned out to be another Nicolas Cage gore-fest, but it's clearly not! 😂🌲☃️
Ok I saw the film, Cooper Hoffman miscast, the other child actor, the kid who has dinner with her parents was perfect the Hoffman role. That actor steels every scene he’s in. Alana Haim did a great job. PTA way to meandering with dull sub plots that fall flat. C- grade
Why? I’ve seen a lot of movies in 2021 in theater. This was easily the best. I’m biased of course but I’ll debate you. No way home, no time to die, west side story, Malcolm and Marie, Spencer, power of the dog, green knight, sing 2 etc etc they all paled in comparison to this. I’ll debate you any day. But It’s all subjective anyways 😂
I was born in 1971, and am really anticipating all the detailed, time specific minutiae. It is exciting to hear that the substance of the film matches its style. Licorice Pizza will be our NYE movie, after dinner and drinks. Can't wait!
I was 9 during 1973 and I can vouch that he nailed the period detail. From the clothes to the restaurant decor to the gas crisis. It’s a mini time machine. Was a very nostalgic movie experience. As you mentioned there is a wistful quality from all the chance encounters and not being tethered to a cell phone. Wonderful performances all around. I think the film benefitted by not casting higher profile names for the leads. There is a wonderful freshness to their performances that I completely bought. Great film. Nice review,
I was 9 also it so accurately matched every memory and image in my mind! Masterpiece!
Did you visit any pinball establishments? Had a waterbed?
Licorice 🍕 was a semi decent record store chain whose best store was across the street from The Whisky on Sunset Blvd. Had all the original punk records.
You hit the nail on the head. I felt so much American Graffiti, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and even Blue Velvet with the two misfits, one still in high school, getting into mischief. PTAs editing is unreal.
Thank you for this discussion. I am obsessed with Boogie Nights and was paranoid this film was being overhyped and would not live up to that highly influential classic. Listening to you as a trusted cinema source has helped me greatly. Merry Christmas and happy holidays. You are a top RUclips film speaker!
This film is not good
The film is pretty good
Pta never let's you down. I loved licorice pizza .
I watched Boogie Nights recently and had the idea to search youtube to see if deepfocuslens had reviewed it. The video was a few years old so idk if it's b/c her muscles for analysis and thematic insights were underdeveloped then compared to now (it seems to me she does the best film reviews on YT, ) or she just didn't get much out of it, but I feel it's a much deeper movie about people trying and inevitably failing to escape from themselves than she gave it credit for, only praising its surface style. She didn't even touch upon the psychosexual, Oedipal kind of stuff in it - which seems to be usually right up her alley, nor the strangely persistent innocence to the Wahlberg character that imo carries the movie. Or how it's a movie about sex that isn't about sex at all. It's the least impressive of her reviews that I've seen.
@@helvete_ingres4717
Oedipus stuff ? In boogie nights ? Between which characters ?
Boogie Nights was my favorite movie theater experience of all time.
And There Will Be Blood shot for shot can be paused anywhere at all and any questions as to why he used that shot can be answered.
I saw Licorice Pizza last night. I've been waiting for a goosebumps from-beginning-to-end movie like this one basically since Boogie Nights. And I wasn't disappointed.
The problem is we live in an uptight Redditor age where people think a negative reaction is critical thinking.
And so they won't let the movie wash over them.
So I'm worried movies in general are never going to be loved by a society as a whole again unless it's Spider-Man or Marvel or what have you.
And I grew up in the 70s and so grateful we had the radio on all the time. It really was a relaxed decade. For a kid like me then anyways.
The most realistic 70s character I ever saw in a 70s period piece movie was in Licorice Pizza last night with that creepy guy that was watching them from across the street.
By 73 long gone were the college educated hippies from the 60s. And so by then everyone had long hair. Especially guys that looked like that. It was just oddly realistic to me.
Anyways, you just got a new subscriber after that amazing review.
Whatevah happened to Gary Coopah?, The strong silent type
…he died
Linklater's "Everybody Wants Some" had a similar feel and was great but was underrated for some reason.
Alot of mainstream audiences seem to hate character pieces. Hey need are straight forward story with a to b to c plot or they are bored for some reason.
Best review I've seen for this film. Wonderfully spoken as always!
Haven’t seen the film, now I want to 💯
How is it that lovers of this film don't have a problem with the film's ending? It literally shows a 25 year old woman being romantically tied with a 15 year old boy and to add to that, the film portrays this in a romanticised/quirky way, as if we are supposed to be rooting for this relationship.
I'm not sure wether I'm more disgusted bc of their age gap in the film or by the fact that most people seem to have no problem with that at all. People calling this film the best they've seen in a while. Seriously? Total p*dogarbage. I felt highly uncomfortable watching this.
listen i love to view this film as a myazaki but live action. humains come with impurity, imperfections and flaws, this film is a precise picture of specific time in early 70s california - the culture, trends, people, politics, racism, sexism, hollywood etc. and its all wrapped up in a pessimistic coming of age story of a two almost gothic era protagonists - decaying damsel and youthful spirit intertwined together in this toxic dynamic.
alana searching for herself and grasping for purpose is the most relatable thing someone from late teens to late 20s can feel. she is flawed and does little things where most are pointless and lead to dead ends so she falls back to one thing that sparks joy but is just a temporary comfort for her existential crisis - gary.
he is on the contrary to her, the epitome of american dream, jumping head first to opportunities since early age which is basically the story of every entrepreneur.
basically film never glorified any of its themes nor is it’s purpose to teach you some important life lessons. as i said myiazaki but live action. any ghibli movie is so similar to it but it has its core differences - teaches you nothing but paints the reality and gives you no hope but reality itself. the ending is not them being together happily ever after. in the moment alana gave up on her tries and gave herself fully to a kid who will most probably grow out of his teen crush and accomplish big things and leave her behind to where she was.
sorry for the long comment i hope it makes sense
Because they’re s*x-pests, of course
This is an extremely surface level view of the film. The movie is about immaturity and growing out of it (something that our characters have not yet fully done by the end but have tried to [Gary stops seeing Alana as a sex object and Alana starts to “get her life together” in politics]). Gary is ambitious and wants to be seen as an adult; Alana is an adult that secretly wishes she were still a teenager trying to relive that past with Gary and his friends. In the middle we see the rest of the characters and the adults who also show their immature nature such as Dolittle, Holden and Peters.
If you read the ending as a conventional happy ending I honestly don’t think we watched the same movie. It can be very easy to see it as a happy ending because the entire movie is supposed to feel like a memory and sometimes we can remember things a certain way even if it wasn’t acceptable by normative social standards, but, it’s more of a bittersweet ending because we don’t know what’s going to happen to the relationship even though we can all predict that it’ll be over in around three months.
Edit: also, it’s not like Alma and Reynolds' relationship in Phantom Thread is healthy by any means of the imagination, yet PTA still made them love each other and depicted it very romantically. Do you think he's advocating for unhealthy relationships in that movie? Or maybe he writes characters that fall unto situations that happen in real life. If you want characters that have very little wrong with them so you can feel safe and pretend you’re as good as the main character I’d recommend something like Harry Potter or some other garbage like that.
unbelievably excited to see this tonight! great review as always
I saw it tonight and I thought it was boring AF. I was also put off by the racism. This film was not for me
Clearly
@@paulelroy6650 And you weren't bothered by the racism? Thankfully I saw this film coutesy of a torrent site so my money stayed in the bank. You probably were laughinf. hysterically at the the racism. In the bootleg that I saw, you could hear people laughing load and hard. Very sick behavior.
@@bigby2k Just so you know there's no way you could interpret that as a joke towards Asians for their way of speaking. It’s literally making fun of Americans taking trophy wives from another country because they don’t have to communicate with them. It’s making fun of misogyny not Asians.
Good review, no incoherent emotive pre-reaction that I see on many reviews. I found your review helpful and informative.
Superb review; your delivery is very natural and its smartly written.
She's 29, not 25. Listen closely to the scene with Bradley Cooper when he jumps into the truck and starts putting the moves on her. That's the line that made the movie click for me
actually Alana Haim said her real age by accident instead of saying 25 but PTA liked it so kept it in.
The review I have been anticipating for a whole week.
Merry Christmas 🎄 Maggie!
I could not get over the 10 year age difference between the characters. 15 & 25(28?) In the film and 18 & 30 irl.
Finding out that PTA had a crush on the actresses mother when he was a child (she was his teacher I think?), then working with her kids later in life directing music videos, and then making this film. It all seemed even more creepy to me.
The new poster seems weird to. It's literally a woman holding a "little" boy in her hand.
As the actress interacted with the older men, I thought they were going to have her see how the age gap could be a abuse of power, and she was going to learn her lesson about what she was doing to Garry but it never happened.
The director also said that they wouldn't end up together because that's not what happened in the life story of garry that this was loosely based on. But it ends with them running into each other's arms and kissing?
I would have enjoyed the film so much more if it had ended with her straight up saying it's weird and not gonna happen and that they can just stay good friends and business partners. But the way they ended it ruins it all for me.
Just my opinion but I just find the movie too uncomfortable to watch without much justification.
I can see why the age difference makes people uncomfortable. But then again, this is a movie about the directors life. The normality of age differences back in the 70s was shrugged off. Of course, today’s society is bothered by this. My opinion ( just like how everyone is sharing their opinions) is that everyone at a young age fantasized about someone older & would purposely be around older people. Movies that make people uncomfortable are movies that can be related to the most.
@@laurengap922 we don't need films for pedos to relate to...
If you didn’t grow up in the 70s this movie will not be the same except for those who are able to see it.
I’ve got to agree. Just saw it and I can’t look past it. Could you imagine if this was made about a 25 year old man and 15 year old girl?
@@BIGTENFanatic you don't have to imagine they show her interactions with older men and how they use and manipulate her. It's just even worse she's doing it with a actual child
I tried so hard to like it but I just don’t think PTA is nearly as good at doing meandering storytelling as Tarantino or Linklater.
The only subplot that worked for me was the dinner scene where it’s revealed that Wachs is pushing away his partner because he’s afraid of being openly gay. It was genuinely heartbreaking and I wished that had been the main subplot.
The rest felt like a bunch of sitcom episodes strung together with fantastic cinematography.
To say the episodes are strung together is really doing it a deserves. Each one as a reason to be there each one adds layers to the story and characters
@Wes & TKP 66-02 well its on you if you think theres no reason for the side plots and saying that theres no depth.
I love nostalgic life back in the day type films like American Graffiti and Stand by Me. The poster of this film even has the same caricature artwork that American Graffiti's poster had. I'm gonna have to see this one.
Merry Xmas Mags!! You've always giving the guys a run for their money with those awesome, deeper-than-average critiques and your verbal agility
Licorice Pizza had about 34 stores in Southern California, but the Wherehouse Records chain dominated the San Fernando Valley and had a store in Encino near the filming locations. They had about 126 stores, many of which were converted to Blockbuster Video stores. When Tower Records came along, they took over the market like Walmart and Amazon did in retail. Gary Goetzman was a producer for The Silence of the Lambs. What Paul Thomas Anderson did for the San Fernando Valley, Martin Scorsese did for New York City.
Paul Thomas Anderson did a lot of movies that didn't make much money, but he is not greedy. He did a short film, Cigarettes & Coffee, that was later expanded into Hard Eight. John C. Reilly was a new actor at that time. Philip Baker Hall did an excellent job of acting in it.
Am I the only one that thinks it’s hilarious how this film is getting praised for nostalgia?
Isn’t “nostalgia” been a big complaint in filmmaking these days?
I tend to agree. But this one gets it right.
@@deepfocuslens that’s refreshing considering the litany of films obsessed with attempting to milk nostalgia
@@jimbeam2299 I agree with Maggie the nostalgia was done well, but I thought every thing else was done really poorly. One of the weakest screenplays of the year in my opinion. Which is shocking for me to say because I think The Master and Phantom Thread are masterpieces
Saw it last night. Not my favorite PTA film but it was certainly extremely interesting!
This is better than once upon a time in Hollywood? That’s one of my top films of all time… we shall see
I saw this movie tonight and loved it. I was 14 in 1973 and I grew up in L.A. (3 years in Encino) so it really it home for me. I liked that Paul McCartney’s song “Let Me Roll It” was used so well.
im interested if it painted the picture of entrepreneurship spirit of gary and feeling of loss of life direction of alana realistically for the time period?
super distracted by the left-right frame inversion. Noticed it trying to read shelved book titles, when I noticed McKee's Story. Then I began trying to read a few others and was like, WTF? Haven't seen Licorice Pizza but I will asap. Loved Phantom Thread.
You nailed it with the feeling and pacing and “vignettes”. It felt like both somehow an exaggerated yet realistic FEELING of being young and in love while being more realistic in the complexities of young love. I also like the way it explored age beyond its two main characters. I watched this movie not even knowing who did it and thought it was a debut film for some reason. I think watching it that way without expectations made me enjoy it even more because I had no expectations. Definitely the bets movie I watched in 2024 and one I imagine I will be going back to. It has that charm and warm glow that helps me feel that light hearted romance that can feel so liberating but the pay off is a long one. It doesn’t reward you immediately but I’ll just say I liked the ending.
I also found the use of running through the movie to be an interesting story telling device. Running emphasizes youth and passion to me. People will run after what they care about and I think the movie used it wonderfully.
best movie I've seen in years. i didn't want it to end, but i came out of the theater feeling completely refreshed and inspired.
I had the opposite reaction, it was a poorly written and directed film, very uninspiring, and topped with mediocre acting and racially offensive scenes it made for a hideous watch, you expect better from PTA
@@AkshatJha I agree. The fact that people were laughing loud and clapping their hands during the racist scenes was absolutely appalling. Plus, I found the film boring as fuck.
"best movie I've seen in years."
Ah so you have seen no movies in years, got it
@@imicca sorry the fact that I liked a movie offends you so much.
@@iansmith8783 it does not offend me lol i just find it hilarious this movie can be in someone's "best movie I've seen in years" list. You have weird taste
I was getting The Graduate vibe from the ending only not as dower. They won the day and realized their relationship had deepened, but there are also some unspoken challenges that a relationship will certainly experience if they even survive together in the future. IRL, I am about Gary's little brother's age so actually experiencing all these events at that age really resonated. And because my twin brother and me have been musicians since we were 5 years old, these soundtracks really hit me in the feels. It was our lives.
Having only seen it once, I'm sure that there is plenty in this film that I missed and might pick up on during subsequent viewings. While I can certainly appreciate PTA's feel for the time & place (much like Linklater's "Dazed and Confused" and Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous", both of which I gather are semi-autobiographical), the ending felt like wish-fulfillment. It's clear that Alana is flattered and delighted by the attention that Gary showers her with, but their reunion in the final scene (and her last line, which sounded post-dubbed) struck me as just wrong...and not just in the prosecutable sense. Was it studio-mandated? Was that the only happy ending PTA could come up with?
Look, Alana clearly cares about the kid, but he's a KID. By the time he's legal, she'll be close to thirty years old. I can imagine her sitting Gary down a few days later and reminding him of this, saying that she still lives in her parents' house with her older sisters and that she CANNOT stick around for him. Alana's at a point in her life that Gary won't reach for years. In my opinion, the film should have ended with her admiring his new enterprise but then saying goodbye, it's time for her to move on. Working with Wachs was a step in the right direction, and spending time with teenagers could then be the catalyst she needed to fully embrace her adulthood.
There are a couple of scenes that are real standouts for me: Alana meeting Wachs and Matthew in the restaurant, and the truck-coasting sequence after it runs out of gas. The final moment where Bradley Cooper is distracted by the two women made me laugh hard, and I think I was the only person in the theater who did. Why didn't anybody else find that funny?
I really enjoyed hearing your thoughts on the film, and will most likely remember them the next time I see it. Any plans to review "Red Rocket"?
Agree...the ending could have been better. The entire movie was a huge disappointment for me.
Who says it was a happy ending?
@@whoopsie890 Well, it wasn't for me...
@@CineRam I don't think it should be for anyone
Alana and Gary's relationship seems to be more of a metapor for acceptin your place in life and live for the moment. See their relationship in the end as an embrace of both adulthood and childhood.
Paul's filmography is hit and (kinda) miss but I'm looking forward to this one. If he's using the "lumbering along" style that sounds good to me.
Inheret vice is the only miss for me
The 70mm blowup prints look gorgeous. Better than the ones struck for Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread, but obviously not The Master, which was partially filmed in 65mm (the first reel in particular of that is just incredible)
I just got back from it. LOVED the film but HATED the ending. It left me feeling the exact opposite way the film wanted me to feel. I loved so much about the film and really thought it could be a modern classic. I thought the "meandering" quality of it was a brilliant way to chain together a series of truly hilarious and sometimes touching vignettes (I particularly loved the Bennie Safdie sequence; that was the moment it hit me that PTA was willing to indulge in both the nostalgia of the 70's while also recognizing the darkness of it for many people). But it really all comes down to that ending and the choice Alana makes, and given the trajectory of her story, that choice felt completely wrong and it unfortunately makes me feel less inclined to ever revisit the film.
I don't see the end as romanticizing the relationship. Here is how I interpreted it. There are some very silly scenes in this movie . To the point where it really seems that Anderson is making fun of Hollywood. The end scene is so over the top that I see it as also being part of the joke. Alana wanted to be an actress at the start of the movie and in the end while she moves towards more serious things she still gets that Hollywood ending. That's how I saw it anyhow.
Alana (the real Alana) says she doesn't think those two will actually be a couple. She'll probably "break up" with Gary in a day or two but they will always be a part of each other's lives.
I watched this picture again this week as it was aired on the BBC. It is a good film. Very indulgent in colour.
Very excited to see this, always enjoyed PTS films that I've seen. Interested to know why some reviewers have used labels like 'disgusting' and 'problematic'.
Fast becoming a favourite reviewer on this platform, thanks for posting.
Because it’s about a relationship between a 15 yr old and a 25 yr old
Some people are very sensitive to any sort of relationship between kids and adults. While I think that the movie makes it clear there is a line that will never be crossed Anderson does like to get a bit close (i.e. Alana showing her boobs to Gary). That makes people uncomfortable but I think a major point of the movie is to make people feel uncomfortable. For the most part their relationship is just playful but even that can be too much for people.
@@whoopsie890 Yeah you didn't watch the movie, the 25 yr old literally ends up with the 15 yr old as the ending. It's disgusting and this reviewer is fu**in disgusting for defending it as "creative expression"
@@JayNSG0 They kiss yes but I did not perceive it as them ending up together. They could never end up together she is almost 30 and he's a teenager. It's not disgusting. Try to look at the movie with some empathy for they characters and don't assume the worst.
PTA is one of my all time favorite filmmakers and I'm not a prude by any means but I just couldn't get past the age gap here, I couldn't buy unto Alanah's character because I get her arch but for the film to answer her need for direction and purpose by giving her a will they won't they romance between an adult and a teenager was just bizzare. If the gendered were swapped no one would think twice about this movie
New fan here, haven’t seen the film, after this review I’m going. Quite possibly the best review I’ve seen. Depth of analysis, nuance and the way you triangulate the frame. Perfecto 💯
Paul Thomas Anderson is a director I took for granted for a long time. But I think if people in general just took a second look to his films they'd find a lot there
Very glad you liked this movie. I loved it. Definitely my favorite from the year.
A movie that kind of felt like a RPG to me. There's story and there's world and there's wacky side characters that are kind of independent from each other but still create this immersive piece. It's not vague, yet leaves a lot of room for imagination. Unfortunately it was a bit of a drag to the end.
What I really loved about this movie was its general look and feel and of course the cast. A very charming and intelligent film that still shouldn't be taken too seriously. Wonderful review, thanks :)
Just came home from seeing Licorice Pizza in the local cinema. I loved LOVED the first 85 minutes but then the rest of the movie started dragging and I couldn't get into the flow any more. Loved your review tho because you pointed out some powerful aspects that I wholeheartedly agree with, the world building IS tremendous and second to none, it DID feel like a fun summer day with my school friends, the subtlety of the themesm definitely found me off guard and I was expecting a point that never needed to happen (an actual shocker!!), etc. so all of this makes it worth a rewatch. Thank you for a wonderful review, you singlehandedly improved my opinion on the last 85 minutes and I have to say that of all the movies I saw in the last year, none provided as gut wrenchingly tense a moment as when the kids drove that truck down that slope!
He's one of my favourite directors. Thank you so much for doing this review.
I spent my teen years in that time period. Media was different. We thought we trusted government. It was a simpler time on the edge of the unknown.. Teens and people were different then. I have not seen the movie yet but the trailer seems so genuine to the period. Its a time machine to me..
What if this movie was made about a 15 year old girl and 25 year old man?
Watch a movie called Copenhagen
Either watch the film and see what its saying or stop bitchin about the age gap.
@@paulelroy6650 Does Alana end up with Gary at the end of the movie, confess her love for him, and allow him to tell the entire arcade that that is his wife, yes or no? The answer is yes you idiot and not ONE TIME in the entire movie does anyone try to talk sense into her, her own sister tells Gary to chase after her despite it being absolutely wrong.
You're a creep.
@@JayNSG0 get over it wimp
@4:15: Whether it's the periwinkle dresses or the aged oranges, yellows, and the greens ...
and to that, I'll add a mama-san chair, carpet tapestries with subtle gradations of brown tones hung up as if they were "portraits", wooden or sometimes mirrored wall panels, some old records, safari suits (Bond villain / African dictator outfits)... and we've described the old house my uncle lived in with his first wife (who used to be my aunt Louise, and the mother of my first two cousins who are both now in their 50's) in Quebec.
With his second partner, the domestic lifestyle graduated into the 80's, and got stuck there! Even though my next aunt, Nicole, is still the same age as the other two, all born in the early 1940's, she's still mentally a decade forward. LOL
Sold! The time and place fairly overlap with my own. So yeah. I'm in. When it comes to Tbilisi Georgia.
Finally watched Licorice Pizza and I thought a lot of it was style over substance. Every thing about the dialogue, the acting and the direction felt like it was written and directed by an alien, it’s just so clinical and overly calculated. But the last 30 minutes saved it for me because I thought it was genuinely dramatic and emotional. Personally, I wish this was a miniseries instead
You are the second reviewer I value a lot, who says this movie is great. Sadly I wont be able to see it currently as it isnt out yet in my country. I will finish this video when I watched the movie
May I know who's the first?
@@chandusiva1108 a german dude you most likely wouldnt understand, because his videos are in German.
Here is the name anyways: Behaind
I appreciated your review. You helped me see the film in a more magnanimous light.
That's a beautiful and extremely evocative review, so well articulated! Thanks for the recommendation, will definitely watch this soon :)
Licorice Pizza is my favorite movie of 2021.
I can’t say for certain that it’s my favorite film of 2021 but I would easily say top 5. I hope that it ends up winning Best Picture at the Oscars this year.
Worst film of 2021. Then again, 2021 was a shit year for movies. I'm glad that it didn't win a single Oscar or Golden Globe.
As always great review! You watch your audio levels though, between cuts it is very apparent. Compression or gain adjustment needed.
I agree with you about it feeling similar to Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Bradley Cooper was my favorite part of the whole movie, he killed it!
Every time I think of Licorice Pizza a smile comes to my face, I love it so much
For me Paul Thomas Anderson movies's stop interesting me after The Master. I accept that Phantom Thread and Licorice Pizza are beautifully made, but it just don't get me. The Master was amazing. I wish somenthing new for him in that style or like There Will be blood.
I enjoyed the movie but at the same time I started thinking I don't remember anybody 15 years old owning real estate to open up a waterbed place or a pinball place please tell me I missed something and it was explained in the movie. The actors are not attractive not that they have to be but it helps what really got me was that movie marquee near the end that had live and let die playing with the mechanic I actually went to a drive-in movie in upstate New York and they had that exact double feature unbelievable. I enjoyed boogie nights a whole lot more.
Gary is a child actor so he had more opportunities than a typical 15 year old. The character is based on actor/producer Gary Goetzman, who actually did start waterbed and pinball businesses in Encino.
A fun enough watch but clearly a step below Boogie and Blood. It felt like a Linklater film.
Linklater film is high praise....love all of his and PTA's films.
A bang-on review, thank you; I agree with your observations. I held off watching/reading any reviews before I saw Licorice Pizza to try to go in as uninformed as I could (beyond the trailer, which completely sold me on the movie - you had me at Paul Thomas Anderson and Life on Mars). Having now seen it, I agree it's a mature PTA movie - simultaneously both a 70s fever dream and utterly timeless. The two leads are outstanding, the cinematography authentic and luminous, and Jonny Greenwood's score is understated but effective. I will be seeing it at the cinema again. PTA is "a fucking master" indeed.
I LOVE PTA films but Licorice Pizza was such a disappointment. The trailer is so much more entertaining that the 2 plus hours of this meandering (not even in a good PTA way) movie. Its very messy and slapped together. The editing could have been better. Hoffman and Haim are solid actors. Other than Alana, there is little depth to any characters. Penn and Cooper make cameo's but their scenes could have been cut to make room for more back story to Gary and his family/friends. It's as if the Cooper and Penn asked PTA if they could be in the movie and he did them a favor and squeezed them in...both of their characters could have had PTA movies based on them alone. You'll notice watching the trailers and then the movie that some scenes did not make the final cut. I did enjoy the cinematography as a kid who grew up in SoCal in the 70s and 80s AND John C. Reilly was great as Herman Munster. Also, the fact that Alana falls in love with a 16 year old is very odd regardless of this taking place in 1973 or the fact that PTA once saw a kid hit on an older woman years ago. The age gap stayed in my mind the whole time. All the hype and 5 star ratings are a bit much.
Interesting. Nostalgia aside, this didn't punch me as much as his movies usually do. The Master, Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Punch Drunk Love...I was so excited. Good moments...nothing hit hard.
You're insightful and have class, wish the world was more like you.
Oh thank god. Our tastes are pretty similar so I know I'm going to love it; was in fact waiting for your review. I'm one of those who thought PTA hasn't had a great one since "Blood". I did not want to dislike "Pizza", as it totally IS in my experience: born late 60s, grew up in SoCal, got my FIRST LP at Licorice Pizza, and I remember when our store in S.D. went out of business around the mid-80s (maybe earlier). I cannot wait to see it!
THAT'S what it was. Licorice Pizza was a record store from back in the day. I was wondering where I've heard it before. Thanks.
Phantom Thread is one of his greatest films, easily better than his earlier work for me. I'd still put it just behind TWBB, but only just.
Phantom Thread and The Master are both WAY better than Licorice Pizza
100 percent agree. This was easily one of my favorite movies this year. This was absolutely wonderful
It was like opening a zip locked bag of air, caught in the 70s, but it's still fresh today.
I see some parallel narratives between Rushmore and Licorice Pizza. Just finished it. Child prodigy swooning over an older, yet still single woman....and their unusual, sometimes controversial, yet beautiful chemistry. Hope to see more for Alana Haim and especially Cooper Hoffman
All the theatres in my province closed right before this movie came out 😭. This was the one I was hoping would be my incredible moviegoing experience of this year... guess not.
what’s the point of a movie having so much “authenticity” is the some of its part are, yup, this was the general vibe back then. Thanks for showing up!
This film is the film equivalent of Big Star's song 13
The way you describe "Licorice Pizza" is reminding me of a TV series that's in the back of my memory but for the life of me I can't think of the title, or even the characters' or actors' names. There was the same adult-ish adolescent world, or maybe the other way around, where people are trying to live their best lives but only when they make connections with each other does it ever work. It had the most unique, wonderful tone of anything I ever saw on TV.
Russian Doll?
It's not anything from recent years. It's more in the 1990s ballpark.
Just saw this. Your review is better than the movie. Your review is what the movie should have been but completely failed at. Most disappointing movie of the year for me. Music was ok but editing was terrible & keeping it buried behind the movie audio ruined it. The big good scenes completely blew the landing. The bike jump and the truck scene. Felt zero chemistry between main characters. Would love a stand-alone movie based on Bradley Coopers character. The scene of him in the trailer was used only in the credits. Bullshit. He was the only redeeming thing for me. I really wanted to love this. Was my most anticipated movie of he year. Fuck. Ending was shit too. Unnecessary lens flare. Unnecessary racism. Unnecessary pedophilia? Come on.
I agree. The movie was a complete turd...and I love PTA.
Glad you made the Tarantino connection although I did prefer OUATIH
Complicated or not, the brain fully develops at 25. Based off your review and the trailers I saw, the film doesn’t necessarily punish or challenge the main character for her irrational interest in the 15 year-old co-star, which is mad creepy. There was a clip in one of the trailers where she showed her breasts to what was essentially a minor, and it was played for laughs. Whether or not the film is technically masterful, something that is to be expected with P.T. Anderson’s work, shouldn’t wipe away the fact that the movie is romanticizing what is a toxic relationship. Although you said the characters don’t go all the way, I can see this film still validating those in their adult years who fantasize or wish to be in a relationship with a younger person. Hollywood is already full of creeps and pedophiles, I’m just sick and fucking tired of another film that doesn’t challenge them and the status quo. Also, saying “many teens fantasize about getting it on with an older person” is a poor excuse. It seems that the main character reciprocates those feelings to the 15 year-old character, which is wrong, and the film doesn’t really take a stance on it. As a teenager, I find that shit horrible.
Wow you missed the point completely. Well maybe next time bud
@@paulelroy6650 what point
@@kandy1643 The whole point of the film is about the age gap if it wasnt there the story wouldnt make sense.
Alana does not have a sexual interest Gary. It's very clear in the movie.
Not sure if I’ve ever heard Seven described as being “wonderful.” But you’re right Zodiac is better. It’s funny, PTA hated Fight Club. But you really think this is better than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? I will definitely have to see it, hopefully in a theater!
PT Anderson is hit or miss for me, but when he hits I'm sent somewhere else which is the greatest compliment I can make about a film and there's so few director's who can do that nowadays.
So was this movie a hit or a miss for you?
It’s my favorite of the year by quite some distance it’s a wonderful movie.
Thank you for your open minded analysis. Yes, the age gap is controversial and I don’t condone it, but it’s such a great movie with more meaning behind what’s on the surface. You did a great job with this. 😊
I agree that it plunges you into the world. It's incredible like that. But I never for one moment believed in the relationship at the "heart" of the movie.
Looking forward to this after shit matrix and soprano movies
Merry Christmas people Salute
Can you please review a movie called 'Lake Mungo'. I advise watching it alone and at night for the best experience!
better than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood? i have to check this out, i HIGHLY doubt it but worth checking out
once upon a time in hollywood wasn't that great bro, neither is tarantino in general
I will dislike this movie
Some films and filmmakers can be trashed.
Because they were ‘in it for the money’ and their art… is artless.
But if a director reaches the level of adored Auteur.
It is a crime to ‘diss’ them. For you’re siding with the dark side of film making.
Where money and not art… are the driving force for the ‘product’ surfacing.
And this is a 'product' ...but is it art?
The director of Liquorice Pizza reached this beloved Auteur status,
almost twenty-five years ago now. His films are eagerly anticipated.
For many, Liquorice Pizza is already considered a classic.
The appeal of this movie is very similar to its titular title.
The literal one, rather than as a tasty metaphor for vinyl records.
You either fancy liquorice on your pizza, or you don’t?
I went into this ‘blind’ - Not knowing that the director has a mate,
that told him a whole series of Hollywood anecdotes… ( salacious nonsense and gossip )
of when he was a famous child star in the seventies.
Without this ‘key’ to unlocking the films episodic structure.
You have to take it and the main protagonists at face value.
As a series of quirky vignettes without any real narrative structure or end goal.
A toe-dip into a now bygone age, of inappropriate behaviour,
that wasn’t as ‘problematic’ then, as it must seem now.
In this digital age of immediate access to pointing out shame and disgust,
to the hordes of your new friends ‘you just haven’t made yet’.
What immediately struck me was that both leads are ‘goofball’ actor casting choices.
Their screen presence lapse into an amateurishness mess,
and both are unashamedly uncharismatic.
This is quite refreshing, to see two ‘asymmetrically’
facial featured/embodied and pimpled faces… so carefully arranged and tastefully shot.
Yet the juxtaposition is unnerving… for a Hollywood film.
It goes against so many conventional taboos of ‘cinema as an aspirational commercial ’.
Beautiful people, beautifully shot for the dirty masses.
If the leads were in anyway believable… or credible as actors.
I might’ve been carried into their seemly ‘oddly untroubled’ lives.
And followed their lazy meanderings into the films rose tinted artifice.
But it was hard work and the male character,
was particularly unlikeable... in the way he was written and played.
( Although, I found his famous father almost unwatchable too.
His acting had a sort of fevered, restless, self-loathing energy,
that was excruciating to view ...for more than a cameo. )
* I know I’m quite alone in seeing this aspect - of the much beloved actor.
This film felt like the director wanted to make an epic tale, where nothing happened.
Nothing within it or because of it, pulsated with any purpose.
As a series of fanciful scenes with no sense of character arc,
or danger… it feels like a pointless exercise in ‘art for art’s sake’.
Which anywhere else in the world is life-affirming exuberance.
But in the US... it's just nausea inducing decadence.
The director, a rich kid from a ‘Hollywood family’ that makes movies…
because he comes from a filmmaking town… and he can, because he's rich.
Has made another deeply hedonistic movie, about nothing except itself.
So should you see this film… absolutely!
Because, whereas I found the two leads unengaging and the film a pointless waste of time.
It is a slice of pizzazz, delivered with a smile and a wink …and littered, with liquorice cinematic litter.
So unlike me, you may enjoy picking out the sparkly crumbs from the trash.
great review! my girlfriend and i are going to see it tonight! it'll be my first time seeing a PTA film in theaters, which is exciting bc he's my favorite director.
Terrific film! PTA really went full buffet with this one. Definitely in the 'slice of life' genre that we rarely see in movies these days. The long tracking shots, cinematography, you name it was amazeballs! The Tom Waits and Sean Penn scene even the Bradley Cooper ones were my favorites.
I had a lot of trouble with the age gap of the two main characters.
@@eb9165 tbh, it really didn't phase me much. Maybe it's because I've watched a lot of independent and arthouse films that had much darker, grimier themes to it.
Wow - what a stunning review! =)
I’ll have to check it out.
I graduated from high school in 1976.
So I do remember what the world was like before the Internet and smart phones 📱
And ironically, posting this comment on mine.
Acting was good, everything looked good, the characters were interesting but it needed more cohesion there was no sense of time each "episode" on its own is great but each part didn't seem to fit together just kind of felt like each "episode" consisted of them falling for each other then they both find someone they want to get with split again then get back together again.
That's the point though. Its alana and gary going through this time in their life going from one crazy adventure and person to the next. The small roles and characters all add something to gary and alanas life and their relationship. Its not just random vignettes for the sake of a random vignette.
Love your reviews so much!!! happy xmas!
I’ll have to check it out having grown up going through middle school and high school in the 70s thanks again for you and your channel!
Just heard of this film, now gotta see it
...does it have anything to do with the record store of that name that was on victory Blvd. Near coldwater cyn... where I spent hours there after highschool 70-74... Kieth Alexander ran that store, a great hangout 😎
I LOVE Licorice Pizza. It is fantastic. It is subtle, and hiliarious. Your review is quite good based on your feelings. The film reveals itself more on repeat viewings.
Great review i cant wait to see this. I have to wait till january 27th where i am in new zealand though.
Just saw it today loved every minute of it.
I love this film. Best review of this that I have heard.
I loved Licorice Pizza too. I can’t really describe how I felt while watching it, because it makes me nostalgic for a time period that I wasn’t alive for.
So now it is vain for the singer to burst into clamor
With the great black piano appassionato. The glamour
Of childish days is upon me, my manhood is cast
Down in the flood of remembrance, I weep like a child for the past.
-- DH Lawrence
Go ahead, you may cry now.
Back in the day there used to be Licorice Pizza, Music Plus, The Wherehouse and the Big Kahuna, Tower Records. Spend a lot of time and mula at those places.
Happy Christmas Maggie! That review really cheered me up. I was a bit worried in case it turned out to be another Nicolas Cage gore-fest, but it's clearly not! 😂🌲☃️
Wrong video?
@@starsareangels She did a review of another film once, and it sounded great, but ...
Magnificent review Maggie ! Hope you had a great holiday! X O
Love the Fincher Zodiac/Seven analogy. Making my gal see it in an hour.
Ok I saw the film, Cooper Hoffman miscast, the other child actor, the kid who has dinner with her parents was perfect the Hoffman role. That actor steels every scene he’s in. Alana Haim did a great job. PTA way to meandering with dull sub plots that fall flat. C- grade
Haha nah skyler was perfect as lance and cooper was perfect as Gary
@@paulelroy6650 I respectfully disagree
@@gregthomas1323 fine
No.
The demographic for the people who gush over this film is so damn predictable it's embarrassing.
Why? I’ve seen a lot of movies in 2021 in theater. This was easily the best. I’m biased of course but I’ll debate you. No way home, no time to die, west side story, Malcolm and Marie, Spencer, power of the dog, green knight, sing 2 etc etc they all paled in comparison to this. I’ll debate you any day. But It’s all subjective anyways 😂
Well if gushing over great cinema is a bad thing then put me in that camp.
@@paulelroy6650 Yeah showing a 25 year old woman being in a relationship with a 15 year old boy is indeed "great cinema"
What's going on with your sound levels? Did you have to ADR part of this? Anyways, thanks for the review