Film Review: "Licorice Pizza" (2021).

From the director of Boogie Nights and Phantom Thread comes Licorice Pizza. This coming-of-age comedy-drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film is the story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.

Around 2001, Anderson was walking by a middle school in Los Angeles on picture day. He observed one of the students nagging the female photographer and had an idea of the student having an adult relationship with the photographer. The screenplay for the film evolved from this experience and additional stories told to Anderson by his friend Gary Goetzman, who was a child actor who had starred in the film Yours, Mine and Ours (1968) with Lucille Ball, appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-71), and eventually started a waterbed company and pinball arcade. Goetzman at one time delivered a waterbed to Jon Peters's home. Anderson considered Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982) and American Graffiti (1973) as major influences for the film. Anderson received permission from Jon Peters to develop a character based on him, on the sole condition that Peters's favorite pick-up line is used. Anderson went on to create a "monster version" of Peters based on 1970s Hollywood producers who had "a reputation for a lot of bravado and aggro energy". By August 2020, Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, John Michael Higgins, Harriet Sansom Harris, Joseph Cross, Maya Rudolph and John C. Reilly were cast. Originally, Leonardo DiCaprio was offered the role of Jon Peters in this film, but at the same time was also offered the lead role in Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley (2021), which led Cooper to sign on to this film instead of DiCaprio. However, after a few weeks in negotiations, DiCaprio's deal with Del Toro fell through and he had to drop out, creating the opening for Cooper to take over from DiCaprio in both films. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in November. Filming took place throughout California under the working title of Soggy Bottom, and was shot on 35 mm film, using older lenses in order to create the film's 1970s texture. In September 2021, the film was officially titled Licorice Pizza.

The film stars Haim, Hoffman, Penn, Waits, Cooper, Safdie, Ellis, Higgins, Harris, Cross, Rudolph and Reilly. Haim and Hoffman are standouts in a movie chock-full of standouts.

Perhaps overshadowed by Anderson's other more ostensibly serious work, the film nevertheless represents both a highlight for the director and for its star. The film is an impassioned and creative portrait of American souls in distress from a passionate filmmaker who threw himself headlong into his movies. While certainly sweet, the film is more compelling as a veiled threat, with Anderson jerking the audience around, wielding abrasive characters and hostile situations in a manner I've come to adore. Anderson continues cements his reputation as one of the most gifted filmmakers of his generation.

Simon says Licorice Pizza receives:

Also, see my review for Phantom Thread.