One of the most anticipated films in 2021 was Licorice Pizza, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Licorice Pizza takes place in 1970’s San Fernando Valley, where most of Anderson’s films take place. Anderson grew up in the San Fernando Valley and wrote the movie based on his experiences of being a suburban kid chasing after big Hollywood dreams. Anderson’s familiarity and fondness of the 1970’s San Fernando Valley are apparent in the movie. People who are foreign to the San Fernando Valley may think the area is dull, but Anderson paints it as an area of opportunity and hope.

Licorice Pizza was the name of a record store Anderson used to visit as a kid. Licorice Pizza seems to be an ode to Anderson’s upbringing; he not only fills it with the 1970’s stars and technology that were groovy but also filled it with actors who are dear to him in his adult years. Licorice Pizza is the two main characters’ debut film. Cooper Hoffman plays Gary Valentine, a suave 15-year-old actor and cunning businessman. Cooper Hoffman is the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman and a friend of Anderson. Philip Seymour Hoffman often collaborated with Anderson in five of Anderson’s movies, including the distinguished Boogie Nights. The lead actress is Alana Haim, who plays Alana Kane, a feisty 25-year-old who seems to be at a dead-end in life until she meets Gary Valentine.

According to an interview Anderson did with the New York Times while Anderson was writing Licorice Pizza, he already knew he wanted Alana Haim to star in it. In the same interview with the New York Times, Anderson reveals that Alana Haim brought him nostalgia for his childhood. He first discovered Alana after hearing a song from Alana’s band, Haim, on the radio. Anderson searched up the band Haim and found that they were a group of sisters from Studio City, so he invited them to dinner. During this dinner, Anderson found out that the Haim sisters’ mom was Anderson’s teacher at some point. The girls’ mom inspired Anderson; she sparked creativity in Anderson. Anderson was drawn to Alana because of how much she resembled her mother. Anderson made a puzzle of the things that inspired him to make a Licorice Pizza, a movie to recreate his adolescence while also reminding us of ours.

Licorice Pizza was Cooper Hoffman, and Alana Haim’s first lead role, especially in such a big production as a Paul Thomas Anderson movie, is shocking. Both Hoffman and Haim are phenomenal actors. Hoffman and Haim felt so natural in their roles. Sometimes it felt like you were there in real-time, sensing the tension shift and experiencing the emotions with the characters. Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction and cinematography were a huge part of the movie’s authenticity.

Each frame felt like being in the room. Sometimes being in that room made me physically cringe, mostly because of the characters’ age difference. The 25-year-old Alana met the 15-year-old Gary while she was working for a yearbook company taking pictures at Gary’s high school. Gary sees her and is smitten, and he spares no time asking Alana out on a date. Alana plays hard to get, telling him that he is just a kid and couldn’t take an adult like her on a real date. Gary has a witty response to all of Alana’s oppositions. He reveals that he can afford the date because he has a job as an actor and is a businessman. Gary tells Alana where he will be for dinner that night and would love it if she would join. Alana tells him no but ends up meeting him for dinner.

From that point on, the two forms a peculiar relationship. Alana goes from being Gary’s chaperone on a trip to New York for an acting gig to being his business partner in multiple endeavors, and then the relationship goes past friendship. The beginning of this relationship is inappropriate; a 25-year-old woman should not be going out to dinner with a 15-year-old boy she met at a high school. Personally, this factor made the film very hard to watch. The most consistent thing in the movie is that Gary is trying to get into Alana’s pants – making sexual jokes with her, hitting on her, and asking to see her boobs. While this teenage boy is a dumb teenage boy, a grown woman is entertaining it. It is disturbing that people in Hollywood today are still making grooming seem like true love, even after the Hollywood elite have been exposed to real-life pedophilia and grooming. In the New York Times interview with Anderson, he said that age difference shouldn’t make people unsettled, “It would surprise me if there were some kind of kerfuffle about it because there’s not that much there. That’s not the story that we made in any kind of way. There isn’t a provocative bone in this film’s body,” I would disagree. There are a few provocative moments of a young boy exploring his sexuality. Even if there were no sexual innuendos, there is a difference in emotional maturity.

Besides the unpleasant age difference, Anderson captures the 1970s with the innovative trends, artists, and politicians that were around then. Gary shifts his business ideas to the new fads; there was no way to guess what would happen next throughout the movie. Gary was an actor, then a waterbed salesman, then a pinball arcade owner. These business moves showed Gary’s eagerness and intelligence, but I did think some scenes of these shifts did drag on for too long. During these business ventures, Gary ran into Jon Peters, a film producer who was Barbra Streisand’s boyfriend at the time. While Gary is busy keeping up with the times, Alana would keep up with him. Gary helped Alana get into acting and quit working for the yearbook company. Alana becomes weirded out by hanging out with kids and decides to do some good for the community by volunteering to campaign for a politician. This politician Joel Wachs is a real politician; Anderson showcases the beginning of Wachs’ career and his effort to save the mountains in the valley.

Rate 3 out of 5

Overall, the film was beautiful and nostalgic. I just had a hard time watching a kid and a woman run around together. There could’ve been the same plot with two people closer in age. Anderson did an amazing job of encapsulating the essence of San Fernando in the 1970s.