STUMBLING THROUGH // A FILM REVIEW OF "LICORICE PIZZA"
I won't bury the lead here: LICORICE PIZZA, the new film by Paul Thomas Anderson, is a freewheeling cathartic masterpiece. It has a tone much like his earlier films (Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love) that seems to zing every which way you don't expect but has a lightness and joy that can be found in some of his films but isn't often the main event. Here, joy is proudly worn on its shaggy dog sleeve. This 1970's-set period film, lovingly capturing a bygone era where anything seemed possible, stars Alana Haim of the Grammy nominated rock band "Haim" and Cooper Hoffman, son of the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman (also a frequent collaborator of Anderson). Both of the leads are making their film debuts and both turn in soulful, passionate and inspired performances.
Inspired by the exploits of Anderson's friend and "Playtone" co-founder Gary Goetzman, Hoffman plays Gary Valentine (a version of Goetzman) who goes from child actor to selling waterbeds and pinball machines in the Los Angeles summers of the 1970's. He's drawn to an twenty-something woman named Alana (Haim) and she's mystified by him, unsure of what to make of his mixture of smooth talking salesman and boldly truthful man of the town. She becomes his chaperone on a trip out of town promoting a project he's starring in when his mother can't make the flight. He aims to impress her in every moment. She thinks she's incredibly worldly but is just as seemingly lost as he is, but also just as confident. The ever-present gap in their age swims throughout the film, never letting us forget it all the way through the end. This is the 70's, but he is still a teenager boy and she is a woman in her early 20's. Yet their odd ball friendship and pairing never strikes a dangerous tone but a joyful and meaningful one. It's two strange oddball lost souls meeting up during a strange summer and finding in each other the confidence they need for themselves.
Every moment in the film feels like an event, spring boarding from one unexpected scenario to another. This isn't a film that follows a traditional plot model in any way. It feels like life, shaking you from one tree to another. The duo are marvelous throughout, never letting go of their great chemistry together and apart, shimmering alongside several big name cameos. Sean Penn shows up as an egotistical movie star who can't stop talking about his own triumphs and Bradley Cooper appears as a version of real life producer Jon Peters (who Cooper recently worked with in A Star is Born). They are both manic, wild and truly phenomenal turns. Musician Tom Waits also simmers here as does Benny Safdie (the co-director of Uncut Gems). Waits is the catalyst of chaos and Safdie is a politician with a secret and neither one of them waist a single moment of screen time. There's also a marvelous sequence of a moving truck with no gas speeding downhill, backwards, that feels as white knuckle edge of your seat as any action sequence you've seen this year. And yes, there is the somewhat talked about controversial moment which involves John Michael Higgins as a sleezy restaurant owner speaking in a very offensive Japanese accent to his Japanese wive(s). Yet even these moments, he is the joke, not them. It's fully understood in the moment that he is the creep and we are laughing at him, not with him. He's a buffon and also feels so specific and strange that I can almost guarantee it (like much of the film) is also inspired by a real life person.
Truthfully, I can't say enough good about LICORICE PIZZA. It's strange, absorbing and one of the most fun times I've spent at a theatre in recent times. It's by far one of the best films of the year and feels like it will go down as one of Anderson's most beloved own films, which is a tall order in itself. Take yourself out to the theatre and see this gem, in 75mm if you can. But take yourself there, no matter how you see it and disappear into the pure absurd joy Anderson has created here. Trust me, you'll enjoy your stay.
GRADE: A+
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY Paul Thomas Anderson STARRING Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, James Kelley NOW PLAYING IN SELECT THEATRES. OPENS NATIONWIDE DECEMBER 25TH. FOR MORE INFO: LICORICE PIZZA