Licorice Pizza

UK Release Date. 28 December 2021
Certification. 15
Running Time. 2 hours 13 mins
Director. Paul Thomas Anderson 
Cast. Bradley Cooper, Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn.
Rating. 53%

Review.

In a protracted phylogeny that stems from films such as The Graduate, American Graffiti and The Breakfast Club to more more modern iterations such as Rushmore, Almost Famous and Lady Bird, Paul Thomas Anderson has, with Licorice Pizza, crafted a precious and personal odyssey through the San Fernando Valley of the 1970s.

High school student Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) meets twenty-something Alana Kane (Alana Haim), who’s working as an assistant to the school photographer. Initially, pretending they don’t care about each other, Gary and Alana inevitably fall for other people to avoid falling for each other.

In Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim - both making their feature length film debuts - Anderson, the director of Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood and Phantom Thread, has given the audience two intriguing tour guides who both seem perfectly at home in 1970s Los Angeles.

Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman - whose long and fruitful relationship with Anderson resulted in some memorable performances, ranging from the tragic (Boogie Nights) to the terrifying (The Master) - stars as Gary Valentine. An infectious, boyish optimism, Cooper Hoffman shares his late father’s intriguing screen presence.

Alana Kane is played by Alana Haim - the youngest of three sisters that comprise indie-rock band Haim - and her siblings, Danielle and Este (and parents) all appear in the film. Haim have their own long and fruitful relationship with the director. Anderson has directed several of Haim’s music videos, including Right Now, Summer Girl and Now I’m In It. A magnetic and radiant charisma, the first-time actress displays impeccable comic timing.

However, here’s the thing - she’s 25 and he’s 15, but what makes the amorphous romance make sense is that (a) its extremely chaste, (b) Alana is sort of emotionally stunted at the outset, and (c) Anderson wisely establishes early on that Gary has an intelligence beyond his years. It is noticeable that all the adults Gary encounters take him seriously and treat him as an equal. When he first meets Alana and is instantly smitten by her, he carries himself with such confidence and addresses her so directly that she can’t help but get drawn into his world.

Licorice Pizza shares a flavour with Anderson’s earlier offering, Punch-Drunk Love - a film I genuinely struggled to fathom. Indeed, I described Punch-Drunk Love as “a genuinely unpleasant viewing experience” when I reviewed the film in 2024. Licorice Pizza may not be as unpleasant, but is ultimately nothing more than intriguing.