Cinema: ‘Licorice Pizza’ Tumultuous Young Love in 1973
Love is… a complicated feeling. Through the goggles of nostalgia, Licorice Pizza encapsulates the feeling of young love with the backdrop of California in the 1970’s. The story and setting are brought to life by the costume design, music and most of all two new actors with total chemistry bringing a story about growing up and falling in love to the big screen. The film bounces gracefully between funny, hilarious, heartfelt and tense. Licorice Pizza is one of the best films of 2021.
Licorice Pizza is set in 1973 San Fernando Valley, California. The film follows Gary (Cooper Hoffman) a Sophomore in high school who is a tireless entrepreneur. He meets 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim) during his school photoshoot. With total confidence, Gary proceeds to shower her with compliments and asks her out on a date. The film then goes on to show the ups and downs of their relationship as they face obstacles together. Sometimes they overcome them, other times they split up. What matters most is that they always find their way back to each other. The writer and director, Paul Thomas Anderson, has a long track record of critically successful films. Licorice Pizza is his ninth feature-length film.
It is extremely evident that Anderson wanted to make a film that perfectly captures what it felt like for him growing up in the San Fernando Valley during the mid-1970’s. The film’s wardrobe captures all of the bright colors from the time period, the indoor scenes showing the tacky home décor from the decade as well. The soundtrack is filled with music from the time period, with songs from Nina Simone, Sonny & Cher, The Doors and David Bowie just to name a few. Period pieces are nothing new for Anderson as There Will Be Blood is set in the early 1910’s and his second feature film Boogie Nights is set in the late 1970’s. Each of his films are consistent in well done set design, costume design and soundtrack, but it should be noted that it is another well done job by Anderson and his creative team. The music, the time period, and the choice of actors all come together to emanate feelings of nostalgia and romance for the audience, feelings that are heavily pronounced throughout the film.
Nostalgia is a heavy emotion. The feeling of looking back and remembering a time, a place or a person is something innately human. Romantic films are not always period pieces but some of the best ones are. Why? Because love is a feeling best remembered rather than experienced. The past is filled with longing, and that is why this love story is set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973. Nothing about the film is autobiographical (at least not what Anderson will ever admit) but it features key aspects from its time and setting. For example, the water bed craze, the gas shortage, and everyone hanging out at arcades playing pinball, all play key roles in how the characters live and work in their world.
Nostalgia also has flaws that need to be addressed. During two scenes in the film, a White restaurateur, who is married to a Japanese woman, begins to talk to her in a bad and hammy Japanese accent. Anderson came under fire for these scenes and in response to this, he told a journalist with The New York Times, “I think it would be a mistake to tell a period film through the eyes of 2021. You can’t have a crystal ball, you have to be honest to that time…” Racism was alive and well in 1973 and the scenes are there to showcase Asian racism at the time, but they just end up being racist today and serve nothing to the plot outside of unfunny comedic relief. These two scenes were the film's only mistake, especially because the entire film already has funny situations that are played very deadpan by all of its actors and creates a lot of laughs. While the film is funny at times, it remains grounded in the two main characters that epitomize what it means to be young and in love.
Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, both new actors, kick off their feature film debut with Licorice Pizza. They do not disappoint. They have a passion and energy to impress knowing they are in a Paul Thomas Anderson film, but they seem to stay relaxed and natural in their roles. They play two characters with a ten-year age difference that fall in love with each other for two very different reasons. Gary sees Alana as the girl of his dreams. He talks about her as if he will marry her one day and is completely infatuated with her. Alana on the other hand is annoyed by the young Gary trying to date her, but he makes her smile. As the story moves forward, they find new reasons to fall back in love and other new reasons to fall out of love. Their relationship faces many ups and downs like any new relationship does. There is a whole cast of big actors in the film as well such as Bradley Cooper playing Jon Peters and Sean Penn playing William Holden (both real people that lived in California at the time) but they are there as plot devices to challenge and expand upon the relationship between Gary and Alana. The film is enjoyable because it focuses on the feelings and complications of first love. Licorice Pizza is a romance film first, and it takes its audience on Gary and Alana’s unconventional relationship journey, as they try to work things out and fall deeper and deeper in love. The film supports this young love story by using certain genre conventions to its advantage.
The film takes great pride in embracing romantic film conventions and expanding upon them to better capture what it means to watch a romantic film. This is done in two different ways; the break-up/make-up plot line and the act of running. Many romantic movies focus on two characters falling in love, then they break up and get back together before the film finally ends. In Licorice Pizza, there are a total of three break-ups and make-ups in the film. This is done to emphasize how complicated love is. Relationships are not simple or easy, they require work, understanding, and, most of all, forgiveness. Through these three major break-ups and make-ups, the audience is able to experience a much more realistic love story.
The other topic of running is present throughout the entire film. Something that defines all romance movies is either the physical or emotional act of running. It is the only visual motif that somewhat illustrates the act of love. Running is physical exertion to reach a goal. Breathing begins to quicken and the heart starts to race. Love is the same way. It gets the heart beating faster, it is tiring and it is rewarding all at the same time. Throughout the film, Anderson has Alana and Gary constantly running. They run together while in love and they run towards each other when they are trying to get back together. Running on screen is also a visceral experience that an audience can understand and associate with as well. Visceral shots are key to audience connection.
On December 2nd, 2021, The National Board of Review, which has voted on what it believes to be the best films of the year since 1909, announced that Licorice Pizza is the Best Film of the Year, with Paul Thomas Anderson as the Best Director of 2021. So, what makes Licorice Pizza so great? A simple answer… the film is an experience. The dialogue makes a theater filled with people laugh uproariously at moments, and sit quietly and attentively to what is happening on-screen during others. Everyone sitting in their seats is enthralled by what is happening on screen because Anderson has invested narrative time into two down-to-earth characters falling in and out of love. Both people who were teenagers in the 1970s and younger viewers today can enjoy the film with how it captures the feeling of growing up, getting into trouble, or looking at the girl or boy of your dreams running toward you in the street. That nostalgic moment of falling in love all over again is something that anyone can re-feel when they watch Licorice Pizza. The film ends with classic Anderson ambiguity. He always leaves his characters on a high note, but with unresolved character flaws that are never addressed. Although, in this film, there is this feeling of calm associated with ambiguity that has never been seen in his past films. Gary and Alana remain flawed like any Anderson character but, for the first time, it feels okay. Their flaws, rather than bringing them down, defines who they are. Anderson has always understood that our past defines who we are today, but the experience of the past is finally not depressing or violent, but energetic, playful and bursting with emotion. The film is set to be released on December 25th, 2021, and the best time to see it is in a packed theater where the shared experience of watching a great film with others can be had again after a long pandemic has taken that away.