A review of Licorice Pizza - a spinning, heart warming and complex teen romantic comedy, from the man who brought you the blistering, There Will be Blood

Introduction - Set around 1973, to a sun soaked American West Coast backdrop, this award winning movie is too interesting to be called a coming of age story.

Name of film: Licorice Pizza

Director and Writer: Paul Thomas Anderson

Year: 2021

Official Poster

Trailer

Review

A slick talking 15-year-old boy meets an uneasy 25-year-old young woman – she is amused, intrigued and confrontational when he chats her up with charm - slowly she realises she is interested after all – the thing is, she doesn't know why.
Anderson makes stars of two newcomers. Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, is as committed as his dad ever was, in his role as Gary Valentine, a slightly overweight boy, whose child-actor career in TV and movies is ending. Now he is beginning to hustle his way into the waterbed business - Alana Haim, of the pop band Haim, is charismatic as the volatile, Alana Kane, a young Jewish woman with grit and intelligence – there is a spark between them, but things do not run smoothly, although love it genuinely is - both can't help but look out for each other all the way through this wonderful film. And while there is much running to and from each other, break ups, false starts and false ends, the two meet a hilarious set of cameo actors like Bradley Cooper as Barbara Streisand’s mad, over reactive boyfriend Jon Peters and Sean Penn as slick, but nonsense talking movie star, Jack Holden. The couple are jealous of each other - they wind each other up, flirting, while always keeping their eyes on the real object of their desires. It's all very charming.
The 70's era is captured in detail, much the same way as Tarantino’s, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - the soundtrack is timeless, moving from Paul McCartney to David Bowie to The Doors and other 70's classics from more unknown artists.
Licorice Pizza is a funny, uplifting film, shot with fluidity and style. This is a light Anderson endeavour - he's never made anything like this before.
To think he directed, There Will be Blood, Magnolia and Inherent Vice - this is a world away.
A triumph.

Licorice Pizza was released in the United States in select theaters on November 26, 2021, and had wider release on December 25, 2021. The film received acclaim from critics and received three nominations at the 94th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. It also received three awards from the National Board of Review, including Best Film, was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute, and received four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, along with eight nominations at the 27th Critics' Choice Awards, including Best Picture, where it won Best Comedy. It received five nominations at the 75th British Academy Film Awards, including best film - it won Best Original Screenplay. Alana was nominated for a best actress BAFTA but had to bow down to Joanna Scanlan for her role in After Love
It is MGM's first fully produced, marketed and distributed film to be nominated for Best Picture in 33 years, after 1988's Best Picture winner Rain Man.

My favourite scene An unhinged Bradley Cooper tries to to talk to Gary.

Number of SUBs out of 10 - 9

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Thanks for reading my review, always up for comments and a chat about films and TV.