Y’all ready for 1100 words about how Bradley Cooper should be the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor for his role in my favorite PTA movie ever? Put aside the hyperbole, these are the straight facts about the new release into the Oscar season, Licorice Pizza.
Paul Thomas Anderson artfully tells the story of child-star and awkward entrepreneur Gary Valentine falling in love and mayyyyyyybe vice-versa with Alana Kane, a twenty-something girl trying to find her place in the rapidly changing LA of the 1970’s. Gary is played by first-time star Cooper Hoffman and Alana is brought to screen by fellow debut star Alana Haim. Those names should sound familiar to PTA experts. He is the son of frequent collaborator, the late Philip Seymour. And she, well she has the same name as the gal she portrays on screen because PTA came up with the part with the youngest Haim sister in mind.
What We Expect From the Oscar Winning Director
Anderson’s movies have a type. They are the kind of sprawling epics that tell tales of flawed men making their lasting mark on the world. Well not the whole world, just their very specific corner of it. Like the porn industry, or turn of the century oil fields, or some kind of cult-religious fervor, or whatever Adam Sandler was up to in Punch-Drunk Love. I don’t know what it was, but there’s never been another movie about it, I know that.
There’s always been a bit of Scorsese in the way these movies tell lives and themes through their characters. Is perfection (or the main character’s quest for a version of perfection) worth the price? How far is a man willing to go? I’ve never really enjoyed a PTA movie, but also does anyone really enjoy this kind of self-examining churn? I still like plenty of movies that don’t get me to stand up and cheer the way I did when Captain America caught Mjolnir. But more than not enjoying them, I don’t really like PTA’s movies either. Maybe they’re too dense. Maybe they’re about people I don’t relate to or care about. Honestly maybe I don’t enjoy the long average runtimes. But ya know one I did enjoy?
Licorice Pizza is Just Kinda Fun
Licorice Pizza has none of the slogging and preaching of other Anderson fair. It still has his passion and attention to detail, I doubt he could make a film any other way, but it doesn’t take itself as seriously. He allows a couple first time leads serve as the connective tissue between vignettes featuring truly unhinged performances. Enter Bradley Freaking Cooper.
Cooper plays real life film producer and lover of Barbra Streisand (Strisand? Strei-SAND? STRY-sand) Jon Peters. I do not care one bit if Peters is even a little bit like this because this was the performance of the year. Someone that really makes these kids feel small in the world of big Hollywood. PTA lets us feel the intimidation while still pulling back and allowing us to realize this is just a crazy person. It is my new definitive example of a character showing up twice in a movie and making every moment they are in better for it. Brad Cooper, future character actor. I’m here for it.
And All Those Other Stories Too
Proportionally, Bradley Cooper is in the trailer more than he is in the movie, so don’t go in expecting his magnum opus. I have fun driving his Oscar Hype Train, but it probably shouldn’t really be considered. That’s because this isn’t so much a story as it is several stories building who these two young people are. Los Angeles is happening around them and we are just here for the ride. Alana (the fictional character, not the actor. Probably. I don’t know her.) is taken by a whim to get caught up in anything, the perfect main character for a movie that just wants to set a vibe. This is LA in the 70’s and these are the kinds of things you might have stumbled on. Former child stars, creepy directors, political movements, start-ups in the age before the internet, gas shortages, and more. I’ve been through the tourist tour of Hollywood twice, and wasn’t alive in 1973, but I feel a connection to it now. I saw it through the eyes of someone who loves it.
A Softer Turn for PTA
You know how all of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies take place in Philadelphia? Well maybe you didn’t notice, but they do. I come from Pennsylvania so I know things like that. And how all of George A. Romero’s zombie flicks are filmed and set in Pittsburgh. The aforementioned Scorsese loves him a New York slice. Affleck and Damon can’t seem to get out of Boston. Directors are people too, that had childhoods and formative experiences in their hometowns. My favorite example of this is Richard Linklater. He just tees up his tripod in Texas and lets it roll. Texas and Southern California are about as opposite as they come culturally, but it was the films of Linklater that I couldn’t help but think about during Licorice Pizza.
The charm of Everybody Wants Some or Dazed and Confused is that nothing is really happening. We’re just part of the gang, hanging out when things were simple and life was good. Well PTA has never in his life told a story about good and simple things, so he gives some complicated weight to the story. Sure it’s just a hangout movie, but with two characters with dangerously different ages. Not too far divorced from real relationships that would have happened in this time.
So on the surface we get a chill vibe hangout in cool 70’s LA, but there is more. We should want to step into the time machine and visit but things never quite seemed to work out.
A Real Licorice Pizza
So picture biting into a pizza with licorice toppings. Even though I love both of those things, the sweet and savory don’t really go together. And if you did chomp down, it sure as heck wouldn’t be good for you. Licorice Pizza was a real record store in reference to the black circular shape and look of records. One of the guys that worked there called it “a great vibe, and it was a total hangout.” Well right fucking on, that’s what we’re going for in this movie. But it’s deeper than that and all that junk food you think is cool as a kid can look ridiculous from an adult perspective.
Beyond the Bradley Cooper campaign, Licorice Pizza really is my favorite for Best Picture so far. If you haven’t gotten into a Paul Thomas Anderson movie before, this may be a gateway. And if you are a devoted fan, this will still scratch your itch.
Licorice Pizza hits wide release in theaters near you next week. The Oscar Season is fully upon us, so throw back to a time pre-pandemic when we were arguing about dumber award season debates like this one.