Licorice Pizza Review: Alana Haim & Cooper Hoffman's performances steer this charming slice of young love

Licorice Pizza

Licorice Pizza Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Bradley Cooper

Licorice Pizza Director: Paul Thomas Anderson

Licorice Pizza Stars: 3.5/5

The thing about first love is that more often than not, you will find yourself attracted to someone who in some way soothes all the insecurities you have about yourself. High-school romances provide a sense of self-validation during a phase when it's easiest to question oneself and your capabilities. In the case of Licorice Pizza's leads, Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), it's a love story that necessarily may not stand the test of time but it's one that will help their characters grow out of the phases they're stuck in. 

Youth is all about falling in love, making mistakes and repeating them. More importantly, it thrives on the feeling that the 'world is your oyster'. Paul Thomas Anderson captures these emotions beautifully in a nostalgic ride to the 70s through Alana and Gary's journey that's wrapped up in the warm California sun that I may not have experienced first hand but thanks to auteurs like Anderson, have come close to embracing it through the screen. Just the title of Licorice Pizza is enough to gear you up for the oddly appetising combo that the film is set to be with a font that is significant of the good old times. 

Every rom-com has a meet-cute and it's that moment in the film when even the viewer is forced to blush and get that queasy feeling in their stomach as the protagonists have their first exchange, following which the world as they know it is about to change. In Licorice Pizza, Anderson scores early on as he gives Alana and Gary an unusually sweet meeting, when she offers him a comb and a mirror while he notoriously tries to hit on her and even gets called out for it as she quips, "Stop pressurising me." The beauty of this meet-cute is that while it's apt given the film's timeline, there's also a sense of self-awareness to it regarding how it may be perceived today. 

As smooth-talking, 15-year-old, Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) tries to woo a supposedly 25-year-old Alana Kane (Alana Haim), who is assisting a photographer clicking yearbook photos at the former's school, there's a sense you get early on that whatever these two decide to embark on together, it's going to be an awkward ride. Initially hesitant, Alana does get amused by Gary's charm and it is this sheer amusement that drives her to see him at a local watering hole. What follows is the two forming an unusual bond. Not long after, Alana also takes on the role of Gary's chaperone when he's asked to fly to New York for a special episode shoot of Under One Roof, where he and the young cast perform a song with Lucille Doolittle (Christine Ebersole) aka fictionalised version of Lucille Ball. 

Amid Alana and Gary's friendship that's steered with feelings of attraction for each other at different points in their relationship, the two find themselves playing a dangerous game of jealousy and love as they grab each other's attention by moving on to different people. While it starts with Alana holding hands with Gary's fellow child star from Under One Roof, Lance (Skyler Gisondo), she later finds herself getting involved with other men as well including senior actor Jack Holden (Sean Penn, based on real-life star William Holden) and also Congressman Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie). Gary on the other hand settles for wooing young women of his age during the same. 

The thing about Alana and Gary's romance is that the age factor makes it difficult to look at it as just another love story. Although, Licorice Pizza is well aware of it and hence at multiple points, the film puts its protagonists, in turn, us in that dilemma of whether it's okay to let your inner child run free when society won't let you. Men older than Alana at various points in the film prey on her, including the unnecessary spank that her photographer boss gives her when she's working at the high school and hence when she falls for a teenager it suddenly doesn't seem as much of a troublesome relationship although problematically much it all happens with the male gaze perspective. 

The film's contrasting leads make for an interesting combination. If Gary's cocksure nature is any less enticing, his constant hustling and entrepreneurial abilities lead him to open up not one but two businesses through the film, which also change the nature of his relationship with Alana as they become business partners. While Alana's confident, she's clueless about her future and as for Gary, he's replacing his swiftly losing child star career thanks to his growing waistline by trying to trick everyone into believing he's already grown up, be it by seducing an older woman or with his business ventures that range from waterbeds to pinball machine parlours. 

Paul Thomas Anderson who writes and directs this film returns to his favourite setting of San Fernando Valley, where he previously we death with his other two famous films including Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love. It's one setting that Anderson is not only sure of, but it's something that he creates from pure nostalgia for this one considering he grew up there. From actors of the 70s  to other elements such as Gary and Alana meeting each other under the theatre marquee showing a double feature of Live and Let Die, there's several little things you will find nostalgic of the era in the film. The film is an immersive experience even without a definite timeline and flows in beautiful fashion through the lives of its characters with montages of the leads running toward one another that keep giving us a sense of how time and again Alana and Gary's characters have been drawn to each other irrespective of how they parted ways. The running (literally, running) also beautifully summarises that feeling of being invincible and carefree in your youth and how it's the similar kind of fearlessness that love evokes.

While the first act is easy on the eyes with Alana and Gary's fast-talking repartee similar to that of Woody Allen movies, it's the second act that doesn't necessarily follow through with equal ease. Bits with Bradley Cooper's cameo as Jon Peters, who is a customer for Alana and Gary's waterbed business remain the highlight in the second half. Not to mention an excellent scene involving Alana driving a truck that runs out of gas as Anderson gives a nod to the 1970s energy crisis in the film. Among glaring issues with the film though is the bit about a white male restaurateur, played by John Michael Higgins, speaking to his Japanese wife with a fake Asian accent. It seems tasteless to include this under the idea of it being an era-appropriate gag, not to mention how completely unnecessary it is to the storyline. 

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For Licorice Pizza though, most of the negatives are turned into positives thanks to its lead performances. Alana Haim is an absolute revelation as she owns the screen in every frame. Much like what the film suggests, she does have a Grace Kelly meets Barbra Streisand charm to her and it's without a doubt the most confident debuts you must have seen in recent times. As for Cooper Hoffman whose, late father Philip Seymour Hoffman was a regular collaborator on Anderson's films, the actor brings a charming side to Gary that could have easily gone the other way round thanks to his character's obnoxious nature. Cooper's wink and smile moment at one point in the film also seems like a homage to Sr. Hoffman whose youth seems to be embodied by Cooper in the most endearing way. As for the cameos, there are many including Leonardo DiCaprio's father but the ones that impress are certainly Bradley Cooper's overzealous Jon Peters and Penn's bike-riding Holden. 

The appeal of Licorice Pizza lies in its ability to rise above being a mere coming-of-age romance. It celebrates a feeling that is often lost as we grow up. It captures the messiness, sexual tension, the sound of the nervous heavy breathing and the endless blushing incurred by the feelings of first love. It's not meant to be a fairy tale romance, it's like that safely preserved, withered rose in your old diary that is reminiscent of a time that can only be lived once and of feelings that can only be felt the first time.