Alana Kane's Great Outfits
Liocrice Pizza is set in 1973 and thus nostalgia is part of its pull. That its is set in sunny Los Angeles allows for the outfits and costuming to be things to be worn freely, without coats.
The costumes are fun in general -- nostalgia always is -- but Alana Haim as Alana Kane gets a series of really memorable ones. And -- in the great tradition of "realistic" filmmaking, she is shown wearing two of them...twice. Alana Kane is a 25-year old who lives at home with her two sisters, mom and dad, the budget is no doubt tight, she only has so many outifts TO wear.
But they are sweet and meaningful:
In this order:
Alana's "Tiny Toes" school photography uniform. A bright blue skintight shirt and a white "skirt-short" number that shows off Alana Haims great LEGS(a feature to be played up because her face sometimes photographs plain, with a prominent nose.) Young Gary Valentine makes his first play for a date(but not a date) with Alana when she wears this outfit -- which is also worn, we see, by a number of other pretty young girls in the employ of the photographer, perhaps to sell a little sex appeal with his photographs(and to hit on the girls themselves, as we see him do with Alana.)
Gary waits alone at the bar at the Tail o' the Cock and then -- Alana walks in behind him and then sits beside him. You can feel Gary's heart race, and ours do , too, a little. For Alana has chosen a dress -- probably her best dress -- that signals "Yes, this IS a date." Brown with a flower pattern, that fits her thin but hourglass curved body well and worn (we see later) with tres 70's thigh high black boots. Alana may not want this 15-year old "man boy" as a boyfriend, but he intrigues her enough that she has dressed up for him -- professional(the dress), a little bit sexy(the boots.) Indeed, elsewhere in the film, Alana wears the bellbottom pants of the time, or jeans --- she selected a DRESS to meet Gary for the first time. Its a date.
For the flight to NYC (and to "chaperone" Gary in his actor's guise for a TV appearance), Alana wears a very 1973 corduroy vest over a white flowered blouse. It is a bit little-girlish, as is she even as she tries to convey adulthood ("I'm the chaperone" she tells people in the TV audience, in the first of her announcements as to her professional role in life.) In this sequence, Alana also wears some blue eyeshadow on her girlish face that reminds me very much of what teen girls wore back then when I encountered them. A perfect detail.
After things go wrong with her "Jewish movie star boyfriend," Alana re-enters Gary's life at the "Teen Fair" and is wearing an oufit designed to show off her midriff and cling to her body...she's a "summer girl" here, The outfit is essentially equipped with a bikini top that shows off her back. Its an outfit built to run alongside her "best non-romantic friend" in.) (Mid-riff bearing outfits on girls were big in 1973.)
My favorite outfit is Alana's brown professional dress with boots for her "first date" with Gary, but my second favorite outfit has got to be that bright red dress Alana wears for her interview with a movie/TV actors agent. The red dress is coordinated with bright red lipstick to make Alana Haim look as pretty as possible(she CAN do it, she's a rock star in a manner that belies her plainness.) But the funny part is that this bright red dress -- otherwise fairly simple -- has these big oversized white patches sewed onto each shoulder, they scream "amateur." This is the dress that Alana famously pulls down so as to give Gary(but not us) a view of her "boobs." It kind of fits that Alana's "show biz dress" is the one that she sexualizes herself in for Gary(but...look, don't touch.)
On to the Opening Day(and Opening Night) bash for Fat Bernie's Waterbed Outlet. Alana dutifully and proudly wears a bikini for her male entrepreneur friend to promote his products, and wears it all day and all night in a room where everyone else is fully clothed. The "movie star" move here is, again, to show us that Alana HAIM has a great, sleek, solid BODY and to shift attention away from her face. Note in passing: The purple bikini is exactly the same one worn earlier in the film by a model paid by Gary for another promotion. Did Gary put Alana in the SAME bikini? Eww. One hopes, no he bought a duplicate. But who knows.
As the film moves into its final act, we get "repeat" outfits. Alana wears the corduroy vest and white blouse to report for work as volunteer for Joel Wachs' mayor's campaign("I have integrity" she tells him on first meeting,") and she wears the professional brown dress and boots(again, my favorite outfit, and perhaps PTA's as well) for the hillside campaign commercial and her key late breaking fight with Gary ("I'm a politician," announces Alana, who had earlier announced "I'm the chaperone" and "I'm an actress.")
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