#1350 Licorice Pizza

[Kasi Mir]

"Licorice Pizza" is director Paul Thomas Anderson's ninth feature-length film in about 25 years so far. Of his eight previous works, #0437 "Punch-Drunk Love" was a very weird romantic comedy, #0945 was an exploration into a scientology-like cult, and #1201 "Phantom Thread" was a strange mix of romance, suspense drama and an excursion into high fashion. So, you have to be prepared for some "out there" moments whenever Mr. Anderson puts something on screen; this time, he made a coming-of-age love story about a clueless, seemingly innocent teen actor and a directionless woman more than ten years his senior, set in San Fernando (a suburb of Los Angeles) in 1973. The two leads go through the ups and downs of their not-quite relationship plus their other efforts to find meaning in life, all the while encountering some of the "colourful" characters L.A. seems to have in spades.

Here's the trailer:



And how did you like this eclectic romp? How did you enjoy the perfomances, first and foremost of course the leads, Cooper Hoffman (son of the late Philip Seymore Hoffman) as Gary and Alana Haim (a rock musician by trade, Anderson has directed quite a few music videos for the band "Haim" which consists of Alana and two of her sisters) as Alana, but also the whole family Haim (playing Alana's family in the movie), and stars such as Sean Penn, Tom Waits, and Bradley Cooper in bit parts? How did you like the soundtrack, the recreation of the early 1970s, and the storytelling of "Licorice Pizza" (which is a tougue-in-cheek nickname for vinyl records)? Tell us in a reply to this posting.