Licorice Pizza Review

Licorice Pizza is a ‘70s set coming-of-age film from the acclaimed filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson.  His latest film sees an unusual relationship between a 15-year-old and an older woman.

Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) is a child actor who flirts with Alana Kane (Alana Haim), a photographer assistant on school picture day. Despite the 10-year age difference Gary charms his way to a date with Alana, leading to a turbulent relationship between the pair.

Paul Thomas Anderson is a director who needs little introduction. He has films like Boogie Nights, Punch-Drunk Love, and There Will Be Blood to his name, and like those films, Licorice Pizza has been met with near-universal acclaim. This acclaim is mostly deserved.

Licorice Pizza was a meandering experience as Gary and Alana go through different ventures together, from a trip to New York to forming a business together to the pair working on a political campaign. Whilst this approach seemed scattershot, it revolved around the relationship of its two leads who brought out both the best and worst from each other.

Gary and Alana’s relationship was a toxic one. It started with Gary flirting with Alana and he comes across as charming but what he really does is grind her down. Both characters suffer from bouts of jealousy when another potential romantic partner comes into the picture. Gary made a creepy silent call to Alana after he saw her on a date with another man and Alana acted erratically when she saw Gary interested in a girl his own age. Gary and Alana were at times antagonistic to each other, especially when one told the other to do something.

A scene that showed all the facets of their relationship was when they were at a restaurant. Gary and Alana were having dinner with different people from the opposite sex and the pair deliberately tried to antagonise each other to try and make the other jealous. However, when something bad happened to one of the pair, the other came rushing to their aid. It was a powerful moment as well boiling the film down to its essence.

Licorice Pizza required two talented actors for the main roles and the film got that from Hoffman and Haim. Haim was a musician and Licorice Pizza was her first acting role. She was a natural performer who played a young woman who wasn’t fulfilling her potential. Alana was smart and skilled in business when she was working with Gary in his waterbed business. But Alana has a confrontational personality because she acted defiantly when anyone told her to do something. She was unlikeable at times because she could be so aggressive. Oddly, by hanging out with teenagers Alana was able to grow up and get her act together.

Hoffman as Gary was playing a teenager who had abilities beyond his years. He had an ear for the market and was a natural salesman. But Gary was still young. He wanted to have fun and party and at times he didn’t take things seriously. An example of this was when the Oil Crisis started, and he was unaware of how it would affect his business. Whilst Gary was charming most of the time there were times when he could be vindictive, and he had learned to be confrontational from Alana. This mix of charm and darkness made me think Cooper Hoffman had a Philip Seymour Hoffman quality to him. When I did my research after viewing the film I discovered Cooper was Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son. He takes after his dad.

Licorice Pizza did share some similarities to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon in Hollywood. Both films were made by acclaimed directors and were made as nostalgic love letters to Hollywood. In Licorice Pizza’s case, Gary was already a child actor and Alana attempts an acting career. This leads them to meet various industry professionals and go to auditions. The scene at the restaurant had a Tarantino quality to it because it showed an actor and director with forceful personalities, and they re-enact a scene from one of their films. A subplot in the film involved Gary and Alana delivering a waterbed to the hairdresser turned producer Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper). Peters was an unhinged lunatic who threatened violence to everyone and anyone. Every time Peters appeared on screen I kept thinking of Kevin Smith’s talk about when he had to work with the producer on Superman Lives.

Licorice Pizza was stronger than Once Upon a Time in Hollywood because Licorice Pizza did have focus. Everything in the film rotated around Gary and Alana and the evolution of their relationship. There was direction compared to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood which meandered all over the place and had no story.

Licorice Pizza was a compelling film thanks to its characters and central performers. Paul Thomas Anderson showed once again why he’s such a celebrated director.