MovieChat Forums > Licorice Pizza (2021) Discussion > This movie is like a deleted scenes "Pla...

This movie is like a deleted scenes "Play All" menu

posted 3 years ago by SlackerInc (1101)
18 replies | jump to latest

Like on the Blu-ray for an imaginary PTA film that's much better and more cohesive than this one.

The Lucy Doolittle scene is fun, but she sets up like an antagonist and then never appears again. Same with John Peters: it looks like he's going to be an antagonist but he also just evaporates--much like Alana's acting career does, along with the Hollywood types she briefly interacts with. Nor does Alana's conflict with her family ever amount to anything.

Probably the part of the movie that most cries out to be a deleted scene is everything to do with the political campaign. That totally came out of nowhere and has nothing to do with anything else in this film, even more than all the other things that don't have anything to do with anything else.

Of course, there really isn't any secret great film behind it all, just all these anecdotes that don't go anywhere. It was a revelation to learn that the characters are based on actual anecdotes PTA has shared or heard from others. Because of course, no one would purposely write a movie with all these random dropped plot threads. But in real life, things often don't go anywhere and don't tie together. That doesn't mean this kind of realism is a good idea for a movie.

I do BTW actually kind of like the mistaken identity arrest. Obviously that's totally random too, but it's not bad to have one element like that to underline the randomness of life--and it does build the relationship of the two principal characters.

[–] andreaahr (2337) 3 years ago

I agree that there were some scenes that should have been edited out of the movie like the motorcycle scene with Sean Penn. The movie was good but a little long winded….

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

The motorcycle scene needs to be there to depict the selfishness and how self-absorbed these big stars Hollywood types actors and directors are.

Thay said, the movie is long-winded I agree.

[–] andreaahr (2337) 3 years ago

I kind of wonder what scenes were eliminated….

[–] actionkamen (23176) 3 years ago

If it's up to me, the movie should have ended after Gary got released from the police false arrest and embraced Alana. It's basically the same exact scene as the actual ending. Everything in between were just fluffs that could be edited out without changing the story at all.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I kind of wonder what scenes were eliminated….

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Quite a few if you go by the main trailer and one of the TV commercials :

In the trailer but not in the movie:

Jon Peters(Bradley Cooper) at the gas station, smashes the side view mirrors of two cars in a rage.

Some girl in a bikini(but not Alana Kane/Haim) walks into a sliding glass door from a pool(the girl is beefier than Alana)

(Same scene?) Alana in a bikini relaxing by a pool at night -- after HER scene at the waterbed place in a bikini at night?

Alana, about to ride on Jack Holden's motorcycle, nastily saying to Gary "You're not my director."

In the TV ad but not in the movie:

In the car with candidate Joel Wachs, Alana in the front seat, Gary in the back -- a fart is heard. Wachs rolls down the window. Cut to: Alana in the kitchen(before her big argument with Gary in the movie) asking "Who farted in the car?" and then saying: "I knew it was you. I could smell it."

Will these scenes make it to the DVD. Maybe not. The only deleted scene announced for the DVD is entitled "The Hand Man." Which ties into ANOTHER scene in the movie, yes?

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

If it's up to me, the movie should have ended after Gary got released from the police false arrest and embraced Alana. It's basically the same exact scene as the actual ending

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SPOILERS

Not really. When they reach the REAL end of the movie:

a. Gary kisses Alana(for the first time) and she lovingly and sexily allows it.
b. Final shot and line: Alana running hand in hand with Gary: "I love you, Gary."

That's two BIG developments.

Alana's not ready for either of those things outside the police station.

And this: the trailer shows that one of the shots for the couple embracing by the police station was, indeed, Alana tackling and knocking Gary down as at the end.

That doesn't happen in the movie.

PTA saved it for the end.

[–] SteveG (1370) 3 years ago

Yup. Its fluff and contributes nothing in terms of narrative, story, plot, character dev etc. It was a nice couple of shots though.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

i actually think that's a great way of describing it.

personally, i don't think of that as a criticism. this is a shaggy, aimless hangout movie, and i love films like that.

i wouldn't want every film to be like this, but i'm glad this one is.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 3 years ago

I respect that. I'm currently watching a classic foreign film that is actually even way more seemingly aimless (Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles) but a half hour in I'm finding it mesmerizing although there's still three hours to go.

[–] yatzo376 (7717) 3 years ago

I agree it doesn’t hang together as well as it should have.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 3 years ago

Especially given the master craftsman behind it.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I think the master craftsman is still in evidence.

As I post this, tomorrow we will learn if PTA's Licorice Pizza script wins the Best Original Screenplay Oscar.

Maybe yes, maybe no. The film is getting attacked hard -- by competing studios -- over its Japanese restaurant scenes.

But the script is actually carefully written, with a line-by-line precision. Even the Japanese restaurant scenes. And I don't feel that the whole script should be rejected over those scenes.

PTA has expertly grabbed a bunch of stories told to him about Hollywood lore and mixed the real story with HIS version of it, to create his own world.

Take the Senn Penn scenes.

Penn plays "Jack Holden" based on William Holden(the hair style and tailoring are Holden's.) Jack quotes lines from "The Bridges at Toko-San" when the REAL Holden was in "The Bridges at Toko-Ri." And Bill Holden supposedly really hung out at the Tail of the Cock for drinks.

But: PTA mixes in some Steve McQueen(Jack Holden is big in motorcycle movies, like McQueen was) and an Evel Knievel story(Knieval actually DID jump a motorcycle at the golf course near Tail o' the Cock.)

So various facts are merged into fiction.

But every scene in the script exists for a reason, and every scene advances the story.

Take the Sean Penn scenes.

To help out his "not quite a girlfriend," Gary has set Alana up with an agent -- and that agent sends Alana to read for a movie with Jack Holden. So Gary sent Alana right into Jack Holden's clutches.

Meanwhile, one scene before, Gary has rejected Alana's drugged advances(in a bikini,yet) to make out with an age-appropriate old flame. Alana is hurt and angry -- and she tries to use Jack Holden to make Gary jealous.

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

Its coincidence that Gary discovers Jack and Alana "at my place" -- but he moves into ferocious action. "I don't want any trouble," pleads the restaurant owner who holds Gary in esteem as a regular. Gary promises there won't be trouble...but he does demand a specific table ("Number 38") with "clear sight lines" both to challenge Jack Holden(who doesn't notice him at all) and to confront Alana(who does notice him , and alternates jealous-making moves with real love looks at Gary -- she misses HIM.)

More detail: Alana gets drunk quick on martinis(just as she got high quick at Gary's waterbed opening). Holden can only speak lines from his old movie script or in "old Hollywood fart" buddy talk with his old director friend ("You son of a bitch from hell!")

And then the big scene. Alana clings to Jack's back on the motorcycle, asks him a drunken question -- "Do you remember my real name?" -- and is unceremoniously dumped to the ground as Jack speeds off. Jack doesn't even notice. Everybody else runs after Jack. ONLY Gary runs to Alana to check on her condition. "I fucking broke Danielle's guitar" says Alana. That's her SISTER Danielle, (played by her REAL sister, Danielle Haim) who, we realize , loaned Alana the guitar for her audition.

That audition, by the way, used REAL lines from a REAL movie (Breezy of 1973) that starred the REAL William Holden as a 50 something man who has a relationship with a teenage hippie girl. So the themes of Licorice Pizza are touched upon. (Evidently, the REAL actress who played Breezy -- Kay Lenz -- had a REAL relationship with the REAL Gary who REALLY sold waterbeds.)

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

And then the big moment: as everybody else runs after Jack Holden(who will evidently never care about Alana again), Gary helps Alana and stares into her eyes and between the two of them is expressed a very deep, very loving, somewhat carnal love that...just...cannot be. Yet.

They retreat to his waterbed store and lie side by side on a waterbed(possible sex?) but no, they CAN'T , and Gary can't even bring himself to touch the unconscious Alana's breast. He keeps it chaste.

And the story moves on to its NEXT "episodic" scene, just as carefully written as this one.

The Licorice Pizza script is rambling and shaggy and meandering, but it is ALWAYS about something, scene by scene, line by line, development by development.

Its a great script that reveals more every new time that one sees the film.

It will be a pity if the script loses over a trumped-up attack campaign on it.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 3 years ago

I agree that it would be a shame for it to lose over that, because that was actually one of the parts of the movie I enjoyed the most. But you're not going to be able to talk me into loving a movie that I thought was just kind of blah. Not bad, but certainly nowhere close to great.

The real travesty is that this film was nominated for Best Picture and Wes Anderson's magnum opus "The French Dispatch" was not even nominated for production design! That other Anderson has also made disappointing movies, notably his previous one "Isle of Dogs". Yet that picture did get Oscar nominations and this one was completely snubbed, which I just don't understand at all.

[–] ecarle (14979) 3 years ago

I agree that it would be a shame for it to lose over that, because that was actually one of the parts of the movie I enjoyed the most.

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Yes. The character played by Higgins is really quite kind and helpful to the struggling Gary and his mother -- he is trying to give them work.

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But you're not going to be able to talk me into loving a movie that I thought was just kind of blah.

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I promise that I am not trying to talk you into loving it.

I'm responding more (in general "to all") to the idea that just because the LP script is shambling and episodic ((and it IS) .. that doesn't mean it isn't precise and well-planned and multi-levelled. (and it IS.)

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Not bad, but certainly nowhere close to great.

--

Well, it got some initial rave reviews that called it the Best Movie of 2021 but the fever has faded and now its not favored at all for the Best Picture Oscar.

I don't much care about that. I just care about how it surprised me(easily the "nicest" PTA movie ever) and how it engaged me. I love the time, the setting, the people.

--
The real travesty is that this film was nominated for Best Picture and Wes Anderson's magnum opus "The French Dispatch" was not even nominated for production design!

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Well, one thing the Oscars has always been about is ...snubs. When the Academy doesn't even NOMINATE our favorite films for their good qualities...it creates anger and shows us that we DO have a passion about the movies.

---That other Anderson has also made disappointing movies, notably his previous one "Isle of Dogs". Yet that picture did get Oscar nominations and this one was completely snubbed, which I just don't understand at all.

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Ha. That mysterious Academy. Its hell trying to figure them out.

Anyway, I liked Licorice Pizza but I wouldn't force it on anyone.

[–] TheArgentinian (7062) 3 years ago

you must watch only one type of movies if you've never seen this kind of slice-of-life movies.

I've seen this kind of dumb criticism for Tarantino's Once...

Wait until you watch some Fellini films with a bunch of "random deleted scenes" put together. I'll blow your mind.

[–] SlackerInc (1101) 3 years ago

You mean like 8 1/2? One of my favorites, as is Tarantino's OUATIH. Robert Altman's SHORT CUTS is another great film made up of vignettes. All three of those get 9/10 from me, as does PTA's BOOGIE NIGHTS. His best two films, MAGNOLIA and HARD EIGHT (aka SIDNEY), are 10/10. This latest outing just seems so lazy and lackluster by comparison. It's not flat out bad, but it's a 6/10, a gentleman's C.