MovieChat Forums > Licorice Pizza (2021) Discussion > Alana's Bi-Polar Rages

Alana's Bi-Polar Rages

posted 2 years ago by ecarle (14979)
6 replies | jump to latest

I liked Licorice Pizza very much, but there can be no doubt that the story can be "difficult" at times.

The film is very much a love story -- and those are very rare in these cynical times.

And yet the film puts "road blocks" in the way of that love. The age difference is the big one, and that gets discussed here a lot (my verdict: its no problem.)

Alana's looks(and to a lesser extent, Gary's) get criticized. But both of them are very pleasant looking "regular faced people"(without movie star looks) and that works for the film both as an "art film" and as a realistic story worth our time.

But I think one aspect not quite looked at is how Alana really RAGES. A lot. Out of nowhere.

Here is a simple example, in a very short scene between Alana and her older sister Danielle(and both are sisters in real life, and both have those names in real life):

Danielle: You've got to stop fighting with our family.
Alana: (Sudden rage and walks away): Oh...FUCK OFF DANIELLE!

That's as short and sweet a "take" on Alana's emotional state as any in the movie, but I rather more marvel at a scene later in the film that begins "nice and sweet": Gary and Alana are reading newspapers at breakfast; they exchange warm and friendly looks. Their relationship is in a good place, if still "holding off romance" because of the age thing.

And on TV we see then-President Nixon talking about "the gasoline shortage" and the need for cut down. We see a woman in a car in a long "gas line of the time."

And Alana isn't so warm anymore:

Alana: Are you watching this?
Gary: What? Uh no.
Alana: Do you UNDERSTAND this?
Gary: Not really.
Alana: (Getting increasingly judgmental and sarcastic) No gasoline...no oil...did you THINK about that?
Gary: Uh, no..
Alana: You idiot. Our waterbeds are made of plastic. They're made of OIL.
Gary: What?
Alana: Well what did you THINK they were made of?
Gary: I dunno. Special fiber. Rubber?
Alana: Rubber...which is ALSO made of oil! DIPSHIT!

This sudden rage -- especially when the breakfast started so warmly(even though we see that Gary is reading porn movie ads in the LA Times) is "typical Alana." Not only raging -- but raging AT her companion, Gary, and calling him stupid(in so many words) and a dipshit.

As one Youtube commenter said about Alana "Nice girl you've got there, Gary."

Alana Kane's capacity for rage all through Licorice Pizza is yet another reason why it is an "art film." Its one thing to say "she has a temper." But it feels worse than that. Its like she's maybe...bi-polar? Borderline?

And yet Gary stays infatuated with her. Why? Because there are always "up periods" when you are bi-polar. Alana can be very nice to Gary...sometimes. And look at hos graciously she bows to the Japanese wife of the American restaurant owner(a "grace note" in a scene that has been unfairly attacked.)

And certainly Alana is nice to Gary in her final words of the movie: "I love you, Gary."

Where ever this relationship is going, we can be sure that Gary will have to put up with more rages.

But some men do that.

---

Alana continues a tradition of "screaming men and caterwauling women' in PTA movies. While the director himself is a rather handsome, quiet, mild-mannered guy in interviews, his movies betray a real interest in RAGE:

Mark Wahlberg's mean and crazy yelling mother in Boogie Nights(and Wahlberg yelling back.)

Melora Waters' caterwauling junkie in Magnolia, and Julianne Moore's caterwauling trophy wife to a dying man in the same movie. Plus Tom Cruise's tirades in that film, including a public breakdown.

Punch Drunk Love: Adam Sandler yells into a Hawaiian phone booth death threats to his sister if she wont give him a phone number, and later gets into an even more angry phone shouting match with an even louder shouter(Shut up!SHUTUP! SHUT UP!)...Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

There Will Be Blood: DDL and Paul Dano screaming at each other iin the latter's church service. DDL's famous "I drink your milkshake" speech.

The Master: PSH's outta nowhere "You PIG FUCK!" scream.

Inherent Vice: Oh, I'm sure somebody yelled. Maybe Josh Brolin about Japanese pancakes.

And now...Alana Kane. The newsest of PTA's "ragers" and possibly the most psychotic.

But Gary loves her...and so do we.

Note in passing: as a mark of how good Alana HAIM acted in this film, there is not a trace of sarcasm, up-tightness or rage in her many "friendly" TV interviews for her sister band. The raging Alana Kane is solely a creation of PTA...who is a little messed up on the topic.

[–] Harlyville (24) 2 years ago

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

I suspect that one reason for Alana’s recurring rages towards Gary is that she feels the constant anger of being so drawn to a person that she cannot openly have a relationship with. She is probably annoyed that he is still in high school. If he were just a few years older, it was be so much easier for her.

--

I will certainly take that point..there is a pressure on her all the way through it...and somewhat on Gary too , as when he tells his old flame that Alana is not his girl friend, "she used to baby sit me."

On the other hand, who really notices them? They look pretty close in age.

Alana Haim's real life sister Danielle has a beautiful, almost child-like voice, and its nice how PTA gives her the role of the older sister who is TRYING to guide her impetuous and angry younger one. So we get this scene(in an empty baseball dugout, over a joint):

Alana: Do you think its weird that I like to hang out with Gary and his 15 year old friends all the time?
Danielle: No....it is what you think it is.
Alana: (Pause) I think its weird that I like to hang out with Gary and his 15 year old friends all the time.

(That's from memory -- I'm pretty sure that Alana says "weird that I LIKE to hang out" not just "that I hang out."

So the question is posed relatively early on and answered by the film's "wise woman" -- who keeps pointing Alana at Gary because she KNOWS its right. That's very nice.

--

CONT

[–] ecarle (14979) 2 years ago

Back to PTA's raging characters. He's a quieter interview than Tarantino but one suspects that there are rages WITHIN PTA himself. Some interviewer seems to have pressed PTA to admit that the cruel screaming mother in Boogie Nights was based on his own mother. And the two "TV big shots with cancer" in Magnolia(Philip Baker Hall and Jason Robards), portrayed as major adulterers when they were well -- are evidently influenced by PTA's father, who started off as a voiceover guy in Cleveland Ohio(and a TV horror host called Ghoulardi), but moved to LA to become a voice over man on local KABC TV and then (still based in LA) nationally (the voice of ABC..."This week on the Love Boat!) There was money and show business power in the Anderson family from that career and evidently PTA worked out some of his parental issues with the TV men in Magnolia.

And some of the rage.

So in other words, some of the rage of Alana Kane in LP may well be carried over rage within PTA himself. He even used the REAL Haim family to create a more claustrophobic and unsuccessful version of them, thus fueling Alana's rage. In real life, the parents made a living as teachers, in construction, as real estate agents, even as they maintained a family band that morphed into the three-sister Haim. And three-sister Haim has hit it big(without the parents, hmm.) That's one rich and fairly famous family now.

In LP, the parents are still realtors -- and so is eldest daughter Este -- but there is no wealth or fame or musical talent in that household. PTA convinced the Haim family to play less special people than they really are.

And that's interesting to me. I think it plays into Alana KANE's rage...

[–] Devo-McDuff (37) 2 years ago

I think you're right.

[–] liscarkat (18429) 2 years ago

I, too, have no problem with their age difference. I doubt anyone who didn't know them would even notice, because Gary is full-grown and looks older than fifteen, and Alana could still pass for eighteen if she wanted to. As for her rages--yes, that's a problem. She has a quickly flaring temper that she can't seem to control. Fortunately, we see that after she flares up, she usually cools down fairly quickly and becomes rational again, or even makes up for it, like the scene where she angrily walks out on Gary, but comes back a minute later to let him see her boobs. I like Alana a lot. I think she's a basically good person, and she and Gary could have a strong, long-lasting relationship. She does need to work on her temper, though.

[–] Thaisticks (3037) 2 years ago

Dumb post. She's normal, just a little immature for her age. Gary is mature for his age, so voila, a budding romcom romance.