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Movie Review: Licorice Pizza

Mike Tyrkus

Featuring potentially star-making turns from Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Licorice Pizza, is not only one of the director’s more interesting character-driven films, but also possibly one of his best. 

With Licorice Pizza, Anderson takes a stab at the portrayal of young love in the San Fernando Valley, circa the early 1970s. Specifically, the story centers around Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana Kane (Alana Haim) as they meet, fall in love, have relationship problems, make up (sort of), and seemingly move on together with their lives. 

As with many of his other films, Anderson wears more than one hat in addition to directing Licorice Pizza. He is also the writer of the screenplay as well as a co-cinematographer (along with Michael Bauman). That kind of hands-on involvement permeates the film throughout and gives it a cohesive feel from beginning to end. Much like many of his other films, the main characters go through a cycle of likeability, starting out as seemingly innocent then progressing to slightly less so and eventually becoming likable once again, but not before behaving so atrociously they seem more like anti-heroes than characters you are intended to care or root for. 

There are also quite a few cameos by famous actors playing other famous actors that teeter between eerily spot on and frighteningly shocking. John C. Reilly as Fred Gwynne on the set of The Munsters is one of the spot-on portrayals (although it is quite brief) as is Bradley Cooper’s scene-stealing work as Jon Peters (though he does straddle the line between credible and outrageous). Sean Penn’s portrayal of Hollywood stalwart Jack Holden is of the frightening variety in that he is so possessed by Holden’s spirit that he disappears within his portrayal a few times. 

Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim in “Licorice Pizza.”

Cinematography provided by Anderson and Bauman captures the look of Seventies cinema and that immerses the viewer into the period from the first frame of the film. Andy Jurgensen’s editing keeps the film flowing at the right speed and changes course when appropriate.

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood provides the scoring for the film while a soundtrack (overseen by Anderson) provides the wall of sound that blankets the entirety of the film. As in his other films, Anderson delivers an eclectic collection of songs that range from Nina Simone’s “July Tree,” to “Peace Frog” by The Doors, and finally to Jonny Greenwood’s own “Licorice Pizza.” Like his other films, these songs paint a parallel sound canvas to the visual one provided by the celluloid images that allows each to resonate with more depth than were they left alone to achieve the desired effect. 

While Licorice Pizza may feel like a sort of lesser attempt at recreating the magic of his earlier Boogie Nights (1997), Anderson instead adds another intricate and stirring character-driven exploration of young love to his portfolio of arguably impressive films.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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