Licorice Pizza: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Valentine to 70s-Era California is Exhilarating

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A+

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the best and most interesting writer/directors around. He’s in command of his craft and could easily make a movie in his genre of choice with a conventional storyline.

Instead, he makes movies with more complicated stories that are, for those of us willing to go along with him, crazy, wonderful joyrides.

And so it is with Licorice Pizza. Madcap, complex, and already controversial — bursting with fabulous acting from two newcomers and some of the best cameos of the year — it’s a character study, a (sort of) coming-of-age story, a platonic rom-com, and a tribute to life in the suburban San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles where Anderson grew up, among other things. In short, it’s one of the most exhilarating movies of the year.

Set in 1973, the film focuses on two people, including 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman). He’s lining up for school photos when he sees the slouchy, cranky Alana Kane (Alana Haim, best known as one-third of the pop-rock sibling trio Haim), who is working for the company taking the pictures. Gary is immediately smitten. He wastes no time trying to pick her up, even after she tells him she’s 25.

Gary has serious chutzpah, an irrepressible confidence, joie de vivre, and the patter of someone slightly older. He invites her to meet him for dinner at his favorite local bar/restaurant, the Tail o’ the Cock, where he’s treated like a regular. And even she’s surprised when she shows up. Alana greets almost everything in her life with some form of exasperation, including Gary, so the two of them spar, but there’s a click there.

Gary is a child actor at the end of that career, but he has the soul of an entrepreneur, and he is an opportunist. And when he stumbles on a new product called a waterbed, Gary decides he’s going into business. Alana joins as a partner. He also thinks Alana could be an actress, so he takes her to meet his agent Mary Grady (Harriet Sansom Harris in one of the film’s many terrific cameos).

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

There are two main characters here, but the film is really about Alana. She’s smart, but reactive. Alana still lives at home with her parents and two sisters (all played by her real parents and sisters) and hasn’t really found herself yet.

And seen through her eyes, the world of adults is filled with a lot of creeps and people who maybe have compromised too much. You get that sense that to Alana, Gary — with his big ideas and indefatigable spirit — is a relief. He’s not perfect, but he is confident, determined, and radiates a lot of joy. There’s depth there.

It is an odd match for sure, and the age difference between Alana and Gary has been controversial since the film was first screened. There is a spark between these two, and in many ways Licorice Pizza plays like a rom-com. But that isn’t what Anderson is driving at here.

Anderson creates these great, often outsized or unusual characters. And their motivation sometimes changes as the movie goes on, making them more interesting and complex.

At essence, his movies are about relationships; in particular, the power struggles that take place between people as they try to figure things out and settle into whatever their relationship will become. In Licorice Pizza, Alana tries to find what looks like sensible and adult stability in her life but the push-pull of what happens when she’s hanging around with Gary, and what it shows her about herself, is what the movie is centres on.

It’s risky, and Anderson has added to that by hanging his movie on two first-time actors. But boy, are they good. Anderson wrote the film for Alana Haim. He’d directed a few videos for the group and felt she was a natural. His instincts are dead on. Unselfconscious and committed, she delivers one of the best, most interesting performances of the year.

And the same can be said for her co-star. Hoffman, son of the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman, shows a natural talent. He’s created a warm, funny, nuanced character. The chemistry between the two makes you believe these two characters could find solace in each other’s company.

Adding to the delight is the fact that there’s reality behind some of the escapades in the film, as it is loosely based on producer Gary Goetzman.

Goetzman grew up in the San Fernando Valley, was a child actor, and hung out at Tail o’ the Cock restaurant. He also sold waterbeds, including to Hollywood hairdresser-turned-producer Jon Peters. In the film Gary delivers a waterbed to the house of Jon Peters, with Bradley Cooper playing a fictionalized version of Peters in another one of the film’s wild, crazy, and wonderful cameos.

It’s hard to overstate how fabulous these cameos are. They show up at regular intervals in the film, and are based on real people or Hollywood types. Sean Penn plays Jack Holden, apparently a riff on William Holden, who takes Alana out for a drink, and speaks to her in odd non sequiturs until he’s showily pulled away by a pal played by Tom Waits. Benny Safdie plays politician Joel Wachs.

Not everything in the movie lands. John Michael Higgens plays an American man who owns a Japanese restaurant. He speaks English to his Japanese wife with an exaggerated Japanese accent. It’s meant to show the character as a buffoon but doesn’t really work and is uncomfortable.

That aside, Licorice Pizza is terrifically satisfying. The movie is smart, a lot of fun, and crazily unpredictable, some of the best things a movie can be. At times it seems to be flying off in different directions, but that’s an illusion. This is typical of Paul Thomas Anderson’s storytelling style, and, as always he knows exactly where he’s taking us.

Licorice Pizza. Written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Starring Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, and Bradley Cooper. In theatres December 24.