Licorice Pizza

When it comes to the quintessential independent, quirky film, the names Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson certainly come to mind. Between the two of them, they have offered us many films that span topics that are as different as they are quirky. "Licorice Pizza" a film by Paul Thomas Anderson is offered to us about two young people that couldn't be any more different in their character and personalities than a writer could write about. 

Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) grow up, run around and ultimately fall in love in California's San Fernando Valley in the 1970's. The film unfolds into several vignettes with other odd characters that Alana and Gary encounter, such as producer Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper), an actor Jack Holden (Sean Penn), Councilman Joel Wachs (Ben Safdie), Rex Blau (Tom Waits), Matthew (Joseph Cross), Lucy Doolittle (Christine Ebersole) and others, all the while using the main characters, Alana and Gary to keep these vignettes together. Gary is younger than Alana and they met at his high school photo shoot for school pictures, her being a photography assistant. Gary has been a child/teen actor and as he goes to his frequent acting gigs, he uses Alana as his assistant so he can stay near her. Back and forth, they endure bad times and enjoy good times, but all in all, they are in it for the long haul. 

Others to round out the cast are Will Angarola as Kirk, Griff Giacchino as Mark, James Kelley as Tim, John Michael Higgins as Jerry Frick, Danielle Haim as Danielle, Este Haim as Este, Donna Haim as Donna, Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Momma Anita, Skylar Gisondo as Lance Brannigan and Tim Conway Jr. as Vic, the director. 

This was eclectically directed by the incomparable Paul Thomas Anderson ("Hard Eight" '96, "Boogie Nights" '97, "Magnolia" '99, "Punch-Drunk Love" '02, "There Will Be Blood" '07, "The Master" '12, "Inherent Vice" '14, "Junun" (documentary) '15, "Phantom Thread" '17) plus TV, music videos, video shorts and shorts. Not only does Anderson direct his films, but also writes them as well, and each one of them, while being similar in the aspects of how he is able to get his actors to emit just the emotion he wants, they are very distinct in their storyline. It will be interesting to see what he directs next. As mentioned, it is also written by Anderson (see above resume), where he is incredibly clever at writing such different, eclectic, quirky screenplays. This wasn't his best to date, however considering his record of well crafted work, this is still high praise. Out of his impressive resume, I believe his shining moment was that of "There Will Be Blood". It was well acted with Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano, well shot by Robert Elswitt asc and, of course, well written and directed by Anderson. The meaty premise of the starting of and cutthroat oil rigging business was gritty while still being odd and quirky. With "Licorice Pizza", it got slightly bogged down with parts that didn't seem to have a reason why they were in the film, and it was a bit long-in-the-tooth, but otherwise this storyline simply moved and was captivating with his usual powder dry humor that he can write with expertise.

If you're an Anderson fan, you will certainly revel with this film. He gives his audience that quirky and odd premise and characters that only he can direct and write so well. Some of the characters that are represented here by Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits and Sean Penn are meaty, funny and odd. They weren't in the film for very long, but it looked as though they just wanted to be in an Anderson film, and I can't much blame them. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                                                Rated: R                                         134mins.