REVIEW #134 Licorice Pizza (2021)

Licorice Pizza is a coming of age film directed and written by Paul Thomas Anderson. The film follows the friendship between 15 year old Gary Valentine and 25 year old Alana Kane during the 1970’s. Gary is a young businessman always looking for the next opportunity and he recruits Alana to help as she attempts to resist his advances the pair go on a journey of friendship and love.

CAST & THE ACTING 

The acting is really good in Licorice Pizza, led by Cooper Hoffman as Gary Valentine and Alana Haim as Alana Kane. Considering this is one of Hoffman’s first film roles it seems he has certainly inherited his late fathers talent for acting because he was so comfortable and confident in the role. There are a lot of guest appearances from more familiar faces such as Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Skyler Gisondo, Maya Rudolph and even John C Reily. However the focus is definitely on the two leads who deliver such intimate and natural performances, that create authentic and relatable characters. The actors have a 12 year age gap in real life and portray two people who are 10 years apart in age so that must have helped bring to life the small details of their personalities. For example Gary’s sporadic childish outbursts and Alana’s more mature goals and aspirations later in the film. 

PLOT & THE STORYLINE 

The storyline is a coming of age story set in the 1970’s and it definitely has an indie film vibe in both the feeling of the film and the general aesthetic too. It does follow a sort of romantic journey between Gary and Alana but it also has a strong theme centred around the American Dream which was so prevalent in that time period. What makes the storyline so intriguing is how relatable the characters are, whether the audience is like Gary, full of aspirations and goals, or like Alana who finds herself at the age of 25 and sort of stuck in life, unsure where to go next. The audience can relate to both of them in some form, which gets you heavily invested in the characters. However I do have some issues with foundations of the storyline, Anderson made Gary 15 and Alana 25 and had them go on a journey of romance and friendship. I don’t like that, I know it’s for dramatic purposes but the storyline would have worked just as well if he was 18, she could have still had the ‘he’s to young’ approach and it would have still created this forbidden love storyline but at least then it wouldn’t have been creepy. If the genders were reversed this film wouldn’t have even got released, so that’s the aspect of the plot I didn’t like. I get the beneficial themes that come out of that such as accurately portraying the crushes one has when growing up and how many still feel like a kid even in their 20’s but I do see the argument for the age gap being problematic. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

The cinematography was excellent, the overall aesthetic of the film looked as though it was actually recorded in the 70’s which I really enjoyed. The costume, prop and set design really brought the time period to life and delivered an interesting indie vibe to the film. I would say the pacing was a little slow at times and that was probably down to it being 2 hours and 13 minutes long which I didn’t mind because I appreciate a longer run time but it could have certainly been shorter and not lost anything from the plot. Set in sunny San Fernando Valley, there were some beautiful organic visuals too. So the cinematography was a nice breath of fresh air compared to some of the heavily CGI focused films I’ve watched lately.  

OVERALL (8.3/10)

Licorice Pizza is an example of great film making, deploying an intimate coming of age storyline with characters the audience can relate too. The acting is great and the best thing about it is they portray reality so well that you forget that they’re even acting, a really good job. My biggest criticism is glamourising the age gap, a romance between a 25 year old women and a 15 year old boy. Yes it gives way for lots of other themes to enter the fray but throughout the whole film I was a little distracted by that. It would have worked just as well if Gary was 18 and it would have been less creepy. If the genders were swapped this film wouldn’t have even been released. I must reiterate it’s not like they are having a big sexual relationship in this film, it’s mainly just chemistry that isn’t acted on for the most part. Despite that it is a really enjoyable film, both actors are adults so it’s not hard to forget. The cinematography is excellent and if you’ve only really watched big blockbusters with heavy CGI, this will be a complete breath of fresh air. 

Thanks for reading

Callan