Licorice Pizza || Spoiler-Free Review

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Genre:  Comedy, Drama, Coming-of-Age
Directed by:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Written by:  Paul Thomas Anderson
Starring:  Alaina Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie
Score by:  Jonny Greenwood  ||  Cinematography by:  Michael Bauman & Paul Thomas Anderson
RottenTomatoes - 91% from Critics, 69% from Audiences  ||  IMDB Average 7.9 out of 10  ||  Letterboxd Average 3.9 out of 5


Brief Thoughts on the Movie 

"P. T. Anderson's Licorice Pizza is an entertaining, if overly indulgent, coming-of-age story that authentically recreates the 1970s (for better and worse) while placing primary focus on fleshing out its phenomenal leads - Cooper Hoffman & Alaina Haim."

What's It About?

Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza is the nostalgic coming-of-age story of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and their ever-evolving relationship in San Fernando Valley, California in the 1970s.



What Worked?

Licorice Pizza is leisurely paced, overly indulgent, and (for some) frustratingly opaque...and yet it's a movie that that still completely works thanks to its engrossing atmosphere and fascinatingly imperfect cast of characters. Though the plot is tenuously strung together through vignette-like chapters, this unusual and loose structure fittingly serves to highlighting the unconventional relationship at the heart of Licorice Pizza. Though the storytelling might seem to lack any strong narrative drive upon first glance - I believe this meandering pace is not only deliberate, but winds up being one of Licorice Pizza's biggest strengths.

By eschewing the formula utilized by similar coming-of-age movies and focusing solely on a handful of carefully chosen moments, Licorice Pizza more authentically captures its specific period - 1970s Los Angeles. More importantly, this attention to detail doesn't just benefit the movie's setting, but helps in providing additional commentary thanks to the dominant and pervasive attitudes held during this time period - all these problematic behaviors and mindsets are unflinchingly captured and on full display in Licorice Pizza. This helps make the already nuanced story feel even more earnest and genuine as it contextualizes and further informs the two leads, Gary and Alana - both as a team and as individual characters. As a result, the two have quickly become some of my favorite characters Paul Thomas Anderson (the writer/director of Licorice Pizza) has invented.

Every choice in Licorice Pizza seems purposeful without ever feeling overworked or on-the-nose. Paul Thomas Anderson has always been a director who has been much more interested in letting the audience find their own meaning within his stories, often offering little guidance. That's not to say that Licorice Pizza is unnavigable in its theming and imagery - but Anderson does ask the audience to put in some work in order to get at something deeper. While this approach can often leave a movie feeling overly vague and frustrating - Licorice Pizza sprinkles enough of these storytelling clues throughout that any audience member actively paying attention should be able to find some meaningful takeaway.

And if none of that works for you, there's still the fantastic soundtrack - an altogether fitting and enjoyably eclectic mix of hits from the early 70s. Licorice Pizza has an immaculately curated time capsule of a soundtrack, including tracks from The Doors, Gordon Lightfoot, Chuck Berry, Sonny & Cher, Nina Simone, Paul McCartney and Wings, and David Bowie. This is all topped off by a beautiful score from Radiohead guitarist and film composer, Jonny Greenwood - who brings an added layer of emotion in a wonderfully composed arrangement of soft, staccato strings and a wistfully hazy atmosphere that permeates every song.



What Didn't Work?

As much as I found myself digging into the subtext slowly revealed throughout Licorice Pizza's admittedly overlong 2+ hour runtime, there will be those who find their patience tested and inevitably strained by the film's methodical pacing. Likewise, the commitment to showing the 1970s and the very different mindsets and norms of that time period, or at least how Anderson remembers them, has already proven to be off-putting and alienating to a vocal portion of the audience. The relatively chaste depiction of the partnership between Gary and Alana isn't enough to quell questions about the problematic age difference between the two.

On a similarly off-putting note, John Michael Higgins - a character actor from several of the Christopher Guest mockumentaries, notably Best in Show and A Mighty Wind...an actor that I genuinely delight in seeing whenever he pops up in a movie or series - ends up giving a cringeworthy performance as one of the most ill-conceived characters I've seen in ages. Even if Higgins' performance didn't come off like a modern-day Mickey Rooney from Breakfast at Tiffany's, there's not really a great need for the inclusion of these scenes. Taken with assumed best intentions, these scenes serve a singular theme that's already hit on multiple times (and with more resonating impact) elsewhere in Licorice Pizza. Taken with assumed worst intentions, these scenes are structured after typical comedy beats and ironically lampshade some truly unfunny and offensive stereotypes.



Standout Scene

One of the vignettes centers around Bradley Cooper's character, Jon Peters - based off of the real-life film producer known for many things, such as: his often talked about start in Hollywood as a hairdresser, his 12 day marriage to Pamela Anderson, his claims of fighting Steven Seagal (and winning!), and giving Kevin Smith and Tim Burton a headache over the infamously troubled production of the failed Superman Lives movie! Cooper plays Peters as an unhinged, drugged up force of nature who poses quite a few problems for Gary and Alana. This entire sequence centered on Peters and the LA gas shortages, along with Cooper's gloriously manic performance, is the clear highlight of Licorice Pizza. The scene perfectly balances the tension and humor inherent to the comically odd situation these characters find themselves in.

Standout Performance

Licorice Pizza succeeds as a character study thanks to several fantastic performances from the fantastic supporting performances from Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, and Tom Waits to the fresh-faced and refreshingly new voices found in the movie's leads - Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. Everyone is ideally cast and is given great, substantial material to work with.

That being said, Licorice Pizza is 100% Alana Haim's movie. The musician-turned-actress ends up being something of a revelation in her debut performance. Haim imbues Alana with a fierceness and general contempt and impatience for the larger world around her. An impatience that fittingly extends to her anxieties around the fact that she can feel her youth slowly slipping away from her. In its place are insecurities and anxieties about her purpose and identity - all of which is Haim ably sells. Haim gives an effortlessly confident performance, one that be impressive even if this wasn't her first time in a Hollywood production.



Behind-the-Scenes Trivia

  • Both leading actors, Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim have some notable pedigrees. Gary (played by Cooper Hoffman) might seem familiar to you with his passing resemblance of his late father Phillip Seymour Hoffman - a frequent collaborator of director Paul Thomas Anderson's. Additionally, you might recognize Alana Haim from the music group Haim right alongside her two sisters, Este and Danielle - who happen to have supporting roles in Licorice Pizza.
  • Keep an eye (and an ear) out for a quick cameo from a Paul Thomas Anderson regular donning a Herman Munster outfit during the Teen-Age Fair scene.
  • Originally using the working title of Soggy Bottom, this movie's title eventually shifted to Licorice Pizza - an enigmatic and puzzling combination of words that has been throwing some for a loop. "Licorice pizza" is a common slang term used to describe a vinyl record, but this movie's title could also be a nod to Licorice Pizza - a popular chain of record stores during the 1970s located in Glendale, California (the time period and setting this movie is set within).

Pairs Well With...


Film-FTW Rating  ||  8 Stars
"Great / Memorable"

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