Licorice Pizza (2021) review by Hannah Pooley

Set in sun drenched early 1970's California, Licorice Pizza is a coming-of-age comedy/drama directed by beloved auteur Paul Thomas Anderson. Gary (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana (Alana Haim) have a wonderful meet cute where their chemistry bubbles right away. The problem? Gary is 15 years old and Alana is 25, which even in the 70’s is considered off. Alana is at his school to help take the class photographs, and on their first meeting Gary throws in all matters of charm and flattery on her. Alana is firstly baffled by his bravado and tells him outright that he is far too young for her. But despite herself, she winds up going to meet him for dinner. 

Whereas Alana seems stuck her in suburban life and craving direction, Gary is already an actor and helps with his mum’s business, working his way around California with a jarringly confident manner. What follows is a will-they, won’t-they friendship with Gary and Alana most definitely flirting with anyone else except each other. Gary even starts up his own water mattress business and Alana starts working on a political campaign for a potential Mayor, but Licorice Pizza is far more than that. It is deliberately sprawling, and infectious with the spirit of being young, with some excellent cameos along the way, and most endearingly - it has an authenticity and patience with its story telling. 

Our lead couple, Gary and Alana are played by first-time performers Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. It is hard to believe both actors are only making their debuts – they embody their characters and capture the hopeful, mischievous nature of adolescents looking for something more from life. Cooper Hoffman is the son of the late,, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who director Paul Thomas Anderson worked with on The Master and Boogie Nights. Just like his father, Cooper is fiercely engaging on screen, however, he brings out more naivety and more of a goofy charm. Alana Haim, of the American rock band Haim, blooms in the role of a 20 something trying to find her way and feeling like she is going nowhere. She’s sassy, independent, and ultimately wants to find love (her family Shabbat meal with a prospective boyfriend crashes and burns as quickly as it begins, when he tells them he is atheist!). Haim, who has worked with the director before in music videos, really captures something raw and authentic, and she fits in with ease to many chaotic and bizarre (and hilarious) plot points. Her bandmate sisters also play her sisters here and her folks are cast as her parents in this too! Despite the connections to Hollywood, carrying a film isn’t easy, and Hoffman and Haim both prove they are the ones to watch for the future.

For a period piece, Licorice Pizza sometimes has a contemporary feel to it in that the audience are left in suspense as to what will happen next and that feels so original, a breath of fresh air too, to know that non-superhero movies are still being produced! Some scenes feel drawn out, others accelerate with no warning, and I think this is deliberate by Paul Thomas Anderson. It echoes how things can change up for an adolescent, especially for those looking for a quick dime in California. A run-in with Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper) who is Barbara Streisand’s boyfriend leads Gary, Alana and the gang into a literal freefall in a truck going down the San Fernando valley (in the midst of the early 70’s oil crisis) as they have no gas and need to escape the megalomanic coked up Peters. They can only rely on Alana’s fortunate driving skills to decide their fate, after a deliberate botch job installing Peters’ waterbed, as he was such an asshole.

Cooper isn’t the only notable cameo either – Sean Penn shows up as motorcycle-riding actor Jack Holden, who is based on Oscar-winning movie star William Holden. Penn, as expected, chews up the scenery for his part and Jack makes a move for Alana when she auditions for a role in a film opposite him. What follows is almost a standoff between Alana with Gary who is mad with jealousy, and Jack Holden persuades Alana into an ill-judged (booze-drenched) motorbike ‘stunt’ out on a restaurant backlot and ends with Alana taking another dent to her pride. Poor Gary to the rescue once again. So, with these obstacles in their way, will they make it work and more over will it be everything they imagined?

Licorice Pizza is a film fully in the moment and feels like Paul Thomas Anderson’s most relaxed picture, even in the chaos, and most effectively in the nostalgia. It will leave you with butterflies in your stomach, retrospectively looking at your own life too. Despite the fact that 20 or so minutes could have been taken off for a more concise narrative, Licorice Pizza will hook you in with an excellent cast and outstanding debut performances from its leads, gorgeous 70’s embellishments and a killer soundtrack. 

                                                                                                                     

9/10