David Farnor | On 03, Apr 2022

Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Cast: Cooper Hoffman, Alana Haim, Sean Penn, Tom White, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie
Certfiicate: 15

“Is this lines or is this real?” Those are the words of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) partway through Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest joint. It’s a question you may well be asking yourself as the film’s vividly realised world of Los Angeles hazily unfolds with a messy chaos that’s at once unpredictable, seemingly directionless and entirely compelling.

The plot, as much as there is one, follows former child actor Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) as he attempts to make the move into adulthood, and Alana Kane (Alana Haim), who is working for a school photographer and trying to find some purpose in her life. He’s 15, she’s 25, so in no sensible world would, should or could they ever be a couple. That doesn’t stop him naively asking her out, though, “if it’s convenient within your plans” – the kind of phrasing that we come to expect from a teenage blowhard with the confidence of a 30-year-old. “I can be your friend, but I can’t be your girlfriend,” she explains very clearly. “That’s illegal.”

What ensues is a friendship of sorts, as the two circle each other and form an affectionate connection. The complexity of that relationship is the beating heart of Licorice Pizza, as the duo make for a charming double-act, but a double-act that we know will never be anything more than that. The rest of the film is built on that amusingly shaky foundation and Anderson’s freewheeling script takes us everywhere from a con artist caper to showbiz satire, while still finding time for political scandals, telesales and awkward encounters at Japanese restaurants (run by an incredibly racist idiot, played with vigour by John Michael Higgins).

Cooper Hoffman is never less than magnetic as Gary, whose exuberant pseudo-adult mannerisms are delivered with such lightning-in-a-bottle talent that his surname should come as no surprise. Alana Haim, meanwhile, is a natural screen presence as the 20-something who is perhaps the only vaguely adult in the immature Peter Pan’s playground that is Hollywood.

This sneaking suspicion grows with every childish person she meets, from Bradley Cooper’s hysterical cameo as Barbra Streisand’s uptight producer, Jon Peters, to Sean Penn as a larger-than-life actor (modelled on William Holden) who performs anecdotes and motorbike tricks outside the local bar. It peaks in a jaw-dropping set piece that involves a removal van going backwards down a hill – a scene in which Alana quietly steals the show by being the only calm person in sight, confirming that this really is her story we’re watching. A disappointing dabble in a mayoral campaign with a promising, handsome candidate (Benny Safdie) only reinforces the appeal of the simpler, youthful life that Gary represents – it’s no coincidence that his entrepreneurial ventures primarily involve pinball machines and waterbeds.

With dialogue so well observed that it never feels scripted, the result is a shaggy dog story that’s realistically shambolic – a beautiful slice of coming-of-age nostalgia and a deceptively dark spin through the 1970s that’s silly, funny and faintly melancholic, even amid the purportedly feel-good relationship that’s apparently blossoming between its central odd couple. Dreamy, sweet and uncomfortable all at once – this is Paul Thomas Anderson’s world and they’re just living in it.

Add to Watchlist