'Licorice Pizza' film review: PTA's nostalgic valentine to first love & the '70s
Paul Thomas Anderson's latest, the coming-of-age romance 'Licorice Pizza' (in theaters nationwide Dec. 25), is a throwback to young love in the era of bell bottoms.
In short: In the San Fernando Valley in 1973, high school student Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) is convinced he's met his future wife when he meets twentysomething Alana Kane (Alana Haim).
Although PTA is probably best known for 'Boogies Nights' and 'There Will Be Blood,' Anderson has several unconventionally romantic films in his catalogue, including the manic rom-com 'Punch-Drunk Love' and the intense tragicomedy 'Phantom Thread.' The aforementioned 'Boogie Nights' and trippy noir 'Inherent Vice' also reveals his affection for the 1970s. 'Licorice Pizza' is easily the PTA film that celebrates the exhalation of love and his affection for the '70s.
'Licorice' all about the emotional ups-and-downs of that tumultuous first love. Most films usually fall into the bucket of either character or plot driven films - but 'Licorice' takes all its cues from the twists and turns of one young couple's relationship. From the moment Gary meets Alana, he's absolutely certain she is "the one" - yet for his precocious maturity, he's still very much a teenager prone to immaturity and silliness. For her part Alana is a listless young woman in her 20s who quickly points out the age gap between her and Gary - but she cannot deny how drawn she is to him. 'Licorice' evokes the feeling of "falling in love" as these two characters ride the highs and lows of their peculiar romance.
The film has an odd specificity infused in the story, seemingly biographical at times. If one just read the plot synopsis, 'Licorice' would seem like a bizarrely random movie - and on paper, the movie looks like an odd mash-up of Gary and Alana's misadventures through the San Fernando Valley in the early '70s. At one point they encounter an aging movie star (Sean Penn) challenged to complete a dangerous stunt during a dinner date, a charming but closeted politician (Benny Safdie) running for office and a racist buffoon (John Michael Higgins) who opens a Japanese restaurant in the Valley. The most ridiculous of these seemingly random side characters is a cartoonishly unhinged and irrationally volatile Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper).
All these disparate little vignettes feel like 'life in the San Fernando Valley' anecdotes brought to life on screen, except with Gary and Alana dropped into these stories. And this is where 'Licorice' feels like a personal story on two different levels - PTA's experiences growing up in Valley intertwined with a universally accessible story of young love. Not everyone knows who Jon Peters is or what it was like to live during the gas crisis - but virtually anyone can relate to the whirlwind of young love. And as seemingly random as 'Licorice' feels at times, each segment is rooted in either Gary or Alana. This is their story - two young people circling each other, coming together and pushing each other apart - as the elation and heartache of first love puts them through the wringer.
Final verdict: Fans of 'Punch-Drunk Love' will love PTA's return to romantic comedy anchored by a pair of star-making turns by co-leads Haim and Hoffman.
Score: 4.5/5
'Licorice Pizza' opens in theaters nationwide Dec. 25. This film has a running time of 133 minutes and is rated R for language, sexual material and some drug use.
