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Something That Makes Me Sad About Licorice Pizza

posted a year ago by roger1 (3626)
7 replies | jump to latest

(aka ecarle.)

This is "just me," but here it is:

I know that Paul Thomas Anderson has a lot of famous and highly respected movies on his resume -- from the San Fernando Valley based comic dramas of Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love to the "high falutin' prestige movies" There Will Be Blood, The Master, and Phantom Thread. (And throw Inherent Vice in there in between -- LA but not the San Fernando Valley, in the 70's.)

Anyway, of ALL of them, I like Licorice Pizza the best, because of its specific love story -- platonic held back -- between Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman -- and because of its heart(this is perhaps the nicest of PTA films) and its poignance.

And I don't think PTA is gonna make one like this again.

With Tarantino, I know whatever I'm going to get, it will have his unique dialogue and some murder and some violence and some action.

With Scorsese, I know I'm EITHER going to get crime action or some other use of his cinematic style.

Same with the Coens(if they ever come back.)

And back in the day, I knew what to expect from a Hitchcock movie(even in his last, old years -- a thriller), or a Don Siegel movie(Dirty Harry, Charley Varrick) or a Sam Peckinpah movie(violent action, either Western or modern day) or a Walter Hill movie(same.)

But I just don't think PTA will be giving us another Licorice Pizza-type San Fernando Valley love story next time. He'll probably do something more "high falutin'" -- like Phantom Thread.

And that makes me sad. "Licorice Pizza" is a one-off, a little masterpiece unto itself that won't repeat in the PTA canon.

[–] Lucia2016 (612) a year ago

I listened to the Marc Maron interview he did after Inherent Vice and he's a funny fellow because on the one hand he clearly is a high thinking genius but on the other he comes off as extremely humble and down to earth.

When talking about his favourite films he doesn't list Fellini type artsy Masterpieces but oddball comedies (similar to Kubrick) and he clearly has a so much affection for where he grew up so i wouldn't be surprised if deep down he would love to keep making these types of films but is aware enough to know to be seen as the best he has to mix things up make the prestige films.

You are probably right in that the next on will be more Phantom Thready but I'd love to think that he still has another up his sleeve to be able to return to this Universe.

I had a similar bittersweet feeling to Once upon a time in Hollywood in that although that was about the end of a bygone era it felt relevant now in that these films with Charismatic leads and unique stories will soon be obsolete with AI writing the scripts for bland new gen stars in straight to Netflix flooding the market .

It really felt like here's what a movie star looks like say goodbye

[–] roger1 (3626) a year ago

I listened to the Marc Maron interview he did after Inherent Vice and he's a funny fellow because on the one hand he clearly is a high thinking genius but on the other he comes off as extremely humble and down to earth.

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When he was doing interviews for Licorice Pizza, that personality shone through, I think maybe because he wasn't having to promote a "high brow project" and could, instead, reminisce about his own youth as a "showbiz kid" in the Valley. His friendship with the families of both Cooper Hoffman(who tragically lost his father Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Alana Haim(whose mother taught PTA art in school) shone through too.

---and he clearly has a so much affection for where he grew up so i wouldn't be surprised if deep down he would love to keep making these types of films but is aware enough to know to be seen as the best he has to mix things up make the prestige films.

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Well, maybe he can alternate them -- Phantom Threads with Licorice Pizzas. (There Will Be Blood seems to be his art epic.)
And maybe he can find another project for Alana Haim. (I looked them up, and I have noticed that since Licorice Pizza came out, Cooper Hoffman has been cast in several films but Alana Haim -- none. She and her sisters did a world tour on their own, then toured some with Taylor Swift, and are working on an album. Alana has no time to do a movie right now, I guess.

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) a year ago

I had a similar bittersweet feeling to Once upon a time in Hollywood

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...which was "linked" in several reviews to Licorice Pizza -- which came out later -- in that both films rather seeped themselves in nostalgia about the show business world in Hollywood and the valley circa 1969(OATIH) and 1973(LP.)

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in that although that was about the end of a bygone era it felt relevant now in that these films with Charismatic leads and unique stories will soon be obsolete with AI writing the scripts for bland new gen stars in straight to Netflix flooding the market .

It really felt like here's what a movie star looks like say goodbye

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Sad, but possibly true. I think Tarantino took note that while Ryan Reynolds is getting $50 million a "picture" paydays from Netflix, the "movies" he is in have very little resonance and will not leave much of a mark on movie history. And I actually think Reynolds COULD be an old-time star (rather a mix of Jack Lemmon AND Tony Curtis) in the right vehicles. But that doesa't matter now. $50 million a movie matters -- regardless of script quality.

Well, we will still have PTA movies for some time to come, I think. Add him in with X number of other talented filmmakers and there is still hope for what I call "the movie, not the movie star."

[–] [deleted] a year ago

[deleted]

[–] roger1 (3626) a year ago

Yes, that's very sad...

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

So now, in February of 2024, its been announced that not only does PTA have a follow up to Licorice Pizza , its already up and filming.

It does not have a title. The plot has not been revealed (which, I learned retroactively, was how news reports about Licorice Pizza began -- nobody knew what it was about and it was called "Soggy Bottom" for awhile, given its waterbed subplot) though one plot was leaked that involved a young martial arts artist of some sort -- but now all of that has been rejected as "false."

The casting is intriguing:

Back from "Licorice Pizza" are...Alana Haim (in her first movie AFTER Licorice Pizza) and Sean Penn(also from Licorice Pizza.)

Sean Penn was in Licorice Pizza(playing a barely-disguised William Holden with dapper tailoring, a too-deep voice, and that edge of how movie star personalities can disappoint you in real life.) But to the best of my knowledge, Penn never gave one promotional interview or one quote about Licorice Pizza. He left the promotion to the two young leads(and mainly to Alana Haim to spare Cooper questions about his late father Phillip Seymour Hoffman) and Bradley Cooper. And yet -- here is Penn back for more PTA. (PTA had wanted him, long ago, to play the nutcase drug kingpin played by Alfred Molina in Boogie Nights.)

Will Alana Haim end up "just making movies for Paul Thomas Anderson"? Couldn't hurt. The late great Phillip Seymour Hoffman made quite a few with PTA: Boogie Nights, then Magnolia, then Punch Drunk Love, then The Master.

But the BIGGEST star in PTA is one who hasn't worked with him before: Leo DiCaprio.

Leonardo DiCaprio in his first film for PTA. Leo's about as big as you can cast nowadays and from his side, he needs to add a PTA film after all this work for Scorsese and QT. Interesting: PTA cast Leo's FATHER in a small role in Licorice Pizza(as the cool bearded cat who sells the young lead on waterbeds); was that leverage to get Leo for this one?

CONT

[–] roger1 (3626) 9 months ago

In January and February of 2024, this untitled movie has been filming in California, but far away from the San Fernando Valley/Los Angeles area of previous PTA films such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love, and Inherent Vice.

Filming started in the far north of California, over on the coast in the city of Eureka in Humboldt County. The timber industry that founded the area has largely faded out. What remains is a college, pot, hippies of another era. Leo started filming up there -- and as of this post(February 2024) the movie has moved to the state capitol City of Sacramento for a car chase with helicopters, a shootout -- PTA says this will be his most commercial movie yet.

But it ain't Licorice Pizza...