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4dmc · 10 months ago

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Movie Reviews From Under A Rock: Licorice Pizza

Licorize Pizza is a 2021 American film directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.

A romantic, coming-of-age comedy film set in the 70s, centered around the 2 main characters: 25 year old Alana Kane and 15 year old Gary Valentine. The two struggle with their relationship, family issues, growing pains and finding ways to earn money.

WARNING: Some minor spoilers.

The Bad first: the whole age gap/different age romance is something that IS a great factor regarding the 2 main characters' struggles/conflict in the plot. The age-gap romance is intertwined with the movie's themes of how flawed people are.

My problem with it is that it does give us the same-old rhetoric about glorifying their age-difference romance. Gary is only 15 years old.

However, this Bad thing is part of the story highlighting the flaws of the reality that both characters are navigating as two fumbling teens/young adults do. But alright, I will be expanding upon this as we move forward....

Another Bad thing, and this is probably more so to the personal experience of any moviegoer if they're going to watch this film, is that the style of this film is quite unconventional. Licorice Pizza is highly a "Slice of Life" sort of movie.

Literally, a Slice of Licorice Pizza is near 3 hours long and to a moviegoer who wants things in a straightforward fashion or is used to conventional styles of plot and pace, this is going to be a chunky, near plotless, meandering movie.

That itself isn't truly a Bad thing for a format/style of a movie, but rather for the audience/viewer who will see something like this and may lose track of the story. Or feel like it's going nowhere.

There's also a few, miniscule moments of racist stereotyping; as this is set in the 70s, some Japanese/Asian characters are blatantly stereotyped. Without spoiling, it's because a few of the lead characters are involved with making business in opening the first "Japanese" restaurant chains in the USA. And you can imagine how awkward that is.

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Then the Good: Cinematography, the cast, the emotional beats and themes of the story are this film's greatest strengths.

It actually tells a rather simple, open-ended tale about two people having to grow up and making the best out of everything that they set their minds to. The lead, Alana, is in this state of painfully trying to become mature, especially since she's 25 years old. Gary, on the other hand, appears that he's trying his best to fit into this adult mold he thinks he ought to be, as any 15 year old tries to interpret their maturity.

And all the while the way the film shoots these moments are fantastic. Simple, everyday moments are just when every cast is simply in this still frame. Whilst tense, argumentative moments are further highlighted by both a quiet and this slight tilt in the over-the-shoulder perspective. The film wastes no time in using every camera technique to visually show a lot of the moments the characters go through: whether going to New York City to perform on stage, or on a waterbed falling asleep, it is eye-candy.

I think what's best about this coming-of-age film is its depictions of many adults, specifically Alana's new adulthood. She's young but she's literally now an adult and she has this urgency that she feels she's already missing out on what it is to be "an adult". Yet she's stuck with the same circle of friends, most of which are below 18 year olds, and you get a sense that she wants out of it. It also doesn't help that her own family, her fellow peers around her age group (mostly just her sisters) and even some adults in her various jobs further puts her in this dizzyingly exhausting situation. Like after everything that's happened, she's back to square one.

I discussed before in the Bad section about the age-gap thing. I want to make it clear that, yes, their romance is something the audience/viewer will definitely put into question and criticize. And its ending regarding Alana and Gary's relationship will likely not be different to the viewers criticizing this aspect.

But the film itself is grey-neutral about this flawed relationship. It's not neutral that it passively accepts the romance both Alana and Gary have for one another. But rather the entirety of this film presents a very flawed, mundane adulthood, and an honest imperfect journey to their maturity. Even if it actually means the two of them aren't there yet as the film ends. It knows their relationship is wrong, but the film isn't about making moral statements. Only honestly portraying it.

It's a comedy film; it shows their journey and the ups and downs of their relationship with one another, with other friends and adults, with a dash of absurdism. This is further highlighted as these young characters mingle with businessmen and Hollywood has-beens and aggressive, upcoming actors; all because they want to earn money and make it big.

And it's in these situations of trying to find income that Alana and Gary fight one another, all the while wrestling with their desires for one another: Gary, as a hormonal teen, speaks to Alana about seeing her breasts. Alana, on the other hand, being the adult, refuses at first, but in her impulsivity and anger, she eventually does show her breasts to him.

This is just among their many fights, some trivial, others about their values and singling out the other's flaws. And in their conflict, you can't help but awkwardly and even point out how absurd their fights are, and laugh. But in the end, in some ways you can't help but sympathize these 2 characters because their problems will likely be similar to ours.

Personally, I thought I was going to relate to Alana as she's the closest my age and also it's true that adults still go through a lot of growing up. Adulthood is not perfect. But I ended up more relating and even more entertained with Gary's character. He is forced to grow and mature because of his absent father, and felt he had to shoulder an equal share to his single mom's burden, particularly earning money.

Despite his age and even some of the typical 15 year old hi-jinks, Gary is shown strugglinh in this in-between state of just being young, a teen with ambitions but still not encumbered with any kind of adult responsibility, or at least he's not supposed to; but he is, as he had taken upon himself to hustle both for their family's financial state, as well as having to act like a grown-up, even taking on akin to being a "de facto" leader; as at one point in the film, he became a manager.

All in all, Licorice Pizza may visually intrigue us with the cinematic nostalgia for the 70s, but perhaps even more so for the current teens and new adults in their 20s, who may find the setting and meandering slice of life story, despite it being in a generation not of their own, reminiscent of what they used to be. Or what they want to be, and do, fully acknowledging the awkward and imperfect moments of teenhood and early adulthood.

And simultaneously, its visuals harmonizes with the overlapping themes of the story presented to us: the imperfections of growing up and becoming adults, or even as adults. And the relationships between people, no matter how bad it gets, are worth working hard to maintain.

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The Ugly: Visually, sonically and production-wise, this is a solid film in those arenas. And yes, this film is depicting an age-gap romance, not to mention some Asian stereotyping. There's even the actual length and pacing of the film. There's no denying this film is long and the attention span of the audience can be put to the test with this one, especially since its style of story telling is stylized.

But there's also Bradley Cooper's character here, Jon Peters. Jon Peters was a former hairdresser and film producer. He's also real. In here, he's depicted as among those aggro 70's director/producer, who's super rich and 100% an aHHhole.

The thing is, one research on Jon Peters himself reveals a lot of issues about him. Sure, he has an illustrious career, spanning 7 decades, all starting from when he was an extra from a 50s film The Ten Commandments, to when he became a hairdresser and designed a wig for Barbra Streisand, all the way to when he was a Hollywood producer.

But then there's the fact that he was among the reasons why The Sandman live adaptation had been stuck in development hell since 2011; to sexually harassing a secretary; having very wild ideas for the iconic character, Superman, that got him banned from Christopher Nolan's set of the Man of Steel film (according to him); and down to his own failed marriages.

So yeah...a very interesting little "ugly" thing that doesn't have any connection to this film....except Anderson had Bradley Cooper depict a fictional version of this guy in this movie.

Make of this info what you will.

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The Beauty: I already said it's cinematography is good, but the best thing I found in this film is this very precise perspectives and camera work. There is nothing too shaky when they characters are running or if there are any of these action scenes happening.

In fact, some of the most "Ah sh!t wtf!" moments are framed in with the camera so still, whilst that "AAhh! Wtf!" happened right before your eyes. It's like you, the audience, have just bear witnessed to some spectacular accident or even an incident as you happen to be there.

Despite these moments, the story is mostly set in these quiet, mundane moments. The perspective of the camera frames them as the moment is fit: if there's melodrama, the camera respects that moment and even hangs in there to let us view the emotion of a character. And this is even painstakingly done on minor characters.

The set design is done with verisimilitude in mind. This is not shot with the 70s glorified. The places where they go has trash strewn, the shop they converted to become an arcade has seen better days. The cars, the technology, the diner, even etc. could've been straight out of our parents' or grandparents' memories. And that's another thing: Paul Thomas Anderson wanted the 70s to come alive in this film, and he has referenced various people, places and even his own experiences when he was a kid into the film.

Costumes are definitely contemporaneous. People's fashions are definitely depicted to be as close to what ordinary people wore in the 70s. With some celebrity characters co-mingling with them, whilst others are from a subculture, the dresses and clothing are made for what they're supposed to do. Nothing more, nothing less.

Sonically, the soundtrack of this film definitely borrows from or are playing actual 70s songs to better fit the setting. To just truly put us into their world, combined with original songs that further color and highlight moments in this film. The original sounds excel in those slow, mundane and poignant points in the film, with some of their downbeat and slow sound harmonizing to the story.

I have never known what the 70s looks like, but at least with this film, it let me have a peek at someone's memories and style of what it may have been like.

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Overall: This is probably not for everyone. But still, this is neither a difficult, mental film, nor is it anything simplified. It's just unconventional in its approach on a simple story of a Girl Meets Boy Meets The World type of thing. I won't deny some of the problematic aspects of this film, both inside the story, and also outside, as there are some real-life people depicted in this movie who has done a lot of questionable stuff (yeah I'm talking about you Jon Peters). So if you want, give this a whirl on a long, listless, nothing-better-to-do weekend. And honestly, either Alana or Gary would've done the same thing.

When I 1st watched it, it was because my uncle and grandma wanted to watch something because they've got nothing else to do. My uncle let me picked something from whatever he had pirated (yeah he pirated Licorice Pizza, among other stuff). The title intrigued me and so, we brought out our chicharon (crispy pork snack), red wine and press play. Wouldn't trade that long afternoon for anything else.

#movie reviews from under a rock #movie review #licorice pizza #coming of age film #film #film review #2021 film #films 2021 #cinema #cinema review #paul thomas anderson

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