There's Lots to Like About "Licorice Pizza"

I was not looking forward to Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza," which for a long time had the unappealing working title, "Soggy Bottom."  It takes place in 1973 and 1974 in the San Fernando Valley, and follows the relationship that develops between a fifteen year-old boy, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) and a twenty-five year old woman, Alana Kane (Alana Haim).  There's been a lot of grumbling from various corners about the significant age gap, and some Orientalist nonsense involving a restaurateur, one of the many, many people that Gary and Alana encounter during their adventures.  

I haven't had the best time with films set in this time period.  Especially ones made by directors who are nostalgic for their high school days.  Especially when they involve teenage boys getting into teenage boy antics.  What caught me off guard about "Licorice Pizza" is that the narrative is pretty even split between Gary and Alana, and despite the age gap, they're on about the same level maturity-wise.  Alana starts out as a photographer's assistant who is still living with her protective parents.  Gary, on the other hand, is a rapidly aging child actor who is used to fending for himself, since his mother Anita (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) is frequently away on business.  During the course of the film, Gary starts up multiple businesses on his own, including a successful waterbed retailer staffed by his own circle of friends.  He's also the one who approaches and pursues Alana from the opening scene.  

This isn't to say that the age gap isn't acknowledged and doesn't cause problems.  Alana immediately nixes anything romantic, but she likes hanging out with Gary and his friends, and really struggles to get her head around the idea that she likes hanging out with Gary and his friends.  She tries a few different jobs, including being an actress and working for a political campaign, trying to navigate her own path into adulthood.  Gary, meanwhile, knows what he wants from the start, but is often tripped up by his own immaturity.  However, his earnestness and confidence are great assets, and it helps that Gary isn't the typical horndog movie teenager with sex as his ultimate end goal.  To my surprise, aside from a couple of funny salacious moments, the romance is actually very sweet.          

 

For a film nerd, the film's secret weapon is its showbiz cameos.  Gary's experiences are based on the life of producer Gary Goetzman, and many of the people in the film are based on other celebrities.  Thinly disguised versions of a cranky Lucille Ball (Christine Ebersole) and self-obsessed William Holden (Sean Penn) appear.  Alana's campaigning work is for Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie), and there's a hysterical waterbed delivery encounter with a very intense Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper), known best as Barbara Streisand's boyfriend at the time.  And in spite of the star power, the very average-looking Haim and Cooper have no trouble at all carrying the film and holding their own.  I especially like Alana Haim in this film, who has a very appealing presence and vibe. 

Paul Thomas Anderson creates an immersive world, as always, full of little details.  It's great to watch the characters just get lost in the beautifully laid out environments, like the long tracking shots traveling through a high school gym or a convention where you can spot Herbie the Love Bug and John C. Reilly cameoing as Fred Gwynne.  The soundtrack and the film grain are era appropriate, of course, but what impresses me most is that Anderson is so good at making his characters feel like real people, and eliding the artifice of their construction, even when he's being as self-indulgent as he obviously is here.  I love that Alana Haim's parents and sisters are recruited to play her fractious family in the film, adding that extra little touch of authenticity to their interactions.

There's plenty of era-appropriate bad behavior going on - smoking, unsupervised children, ignorant racism, and predatory behavior by some of the adults - but most of it is used critically, often to show how ridiculous the people involved are.  One of the bits that has caused the most fuss has been about that awful restaurateur played by John Michael Higgins, who only speaks in horrible mock Japanese to his Asian wife, who speaks no English.  You're meant to cringe at the sheer absurdity of the situation, and Higgins really commits to it, which I respect.

    

I understand why some viewers would be uncomfortable with this, but it worked for me.  I laughed and I enjoyed myself, which is more than I can say for a lot of movies this year.

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