Starring: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waites, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Joseph Cross, Maya Rudolph, John Michael Higgins, John C Reilly
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 133 mins. Reviewed in Dec 2021
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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Back to the 1970s, a highly enterprising former child actor 15-year-old Gary, teams up with the older Alana, begins selling waterbeds and then opening a pinball arcade! It is that kind of eccentric story.
Chalk and cheese, different as… Licorice and pizza, different as… Ugh as we might imagine what this recipe would taste like! But not Ugh as we review this journey back to 1974 under the guidance of Paul Thomas Anderson (and memories of such strong films as Magnolia, There Will be Blood, The Master).
We are taken back to the different neighbourhoods of Los Angeles, to schools, to homes, a flight to New York for a TV show, selling the new waterbeds, setting up a pinball Arcade after the machines become legal, restaurants and diners, Hollywood mansions, headquarters for a mayoral candidate’s campaign… And more. There is a look at the 1970s, media references, movie references, clothes and style, hair, and, a great pleasure for fans of the music of the period, a large selection of contemporary songs by the most prominent of composers.
This is a kind of LA neighbourhood star-crossed lovers’ story, comic style. At the centre is Gary, 15, going to get his class photo taken, smitten by the young woman that he gazes at, introduces himself, and then the brush off. Gary is played by Cooper Hoffman (yes, we see the resemblance, he is the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman). She, Alana, is played by Alana Haim, of music video fame, who appears at the dinner sequence with her actual parents and two real-life sisters. Despite the awkwardness of the age difference – she is 25 – and not having determined what she wants to do with her life, Alana continually encounters Gary who gives her some sense of security.
In a comically tense sequence, Alana proves that she has great skills in truck driving, even in reverse down LA Hills!
This is a kind of LA picaresque story, not exactly a cause-and-effect narrative. Rather, it is a series of episodes, which introduces a range of supporting characters, Gary and his friends from the TV show (with a send-up of a rather bitchy Lucille Ball (Christine Ebersole)), his showbiz connections, and the range of characters he meets with his hustling, especially his franchise with the waterbeds (which rely on oil, a scarce commodity, in this time of the 1970s), at his pinball arcade. Some of them are effective, such as an intense conversation initially between Gary and Alana, or Gary taking Alana to an acting interview with quite an interrogation from the agent.
There are some big star episodes which seem to detract from the Gary and Alana story, an indulgence with Sean Penn playing Jack Holden (with the explicit references to William Holden), and singer, Tom Waites. There is also a bizarre episode with Bradley Cooper playing hairdresser turned producer, Barbra Streisand companion, Jon Peters. (One wonders what Paul Thomas Anderson has against Peters.)
Alana helps on all Gary’s projects, is distracted by some of his friends, caught up with the celebrities, finally getting a job as a volunteer for the mayoral candidate (Safdie).
And then, a cheerful ending. And future? Perhaps Licorice Pizza 2. And, with the title, a suggestion that Alana is licorice and Gary is pizza!
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