Thanks to this bastard COVID virus my in-theater movie going has slowed down to just a handful of films seen over the past 22 months. I used to catch 3 to 4 movies a month, sometimes more when the high quality releases hit big screens in the fall of each year.
Anyway, this year I was able to resume my long running Christmas Day tradition of seeing a film in the theater. (And I’m not even Jewish) I chose the much hyped “Licorice Pizza”, the latest offering from Paul Thomas Anderson. P.T. Anderson has written and directed great movies like “Boogie Nights,” “Hard Eight”, “Punch Drunk Love”, “Magnolia” and one of my very favorites, “There Will Be Blood.”
So, at 3:15 p.m. on Christmas Day I walked out of the Oak Brook AMC Theater (just 2 days after 4 people were injured by gunshot at the adjoining mall which is a story in and of itself) and tried to figure out what I just watched for the last 2 hours. From the grumblings I heard after the film from the crowd leaving that screening room, I think everyone else was in my boat too.
“Licorice Pizza” is a look at goings on in the San Fernando Valley circa 1973. Cooper Hoffman (son of the late great actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman) plays Gary, a fifteen-year-old child actor who pines for twenty-five-year-old photography assistant Alana played by Alana Haim, she from the real-life L.A. based sisters band Haim. Gary is upfront about his feelings but Alana plays him off as only a business partner in his water bed store. He then veers into other business attempts and Alana volunteers for a guy running for mayor of Encino, California.
I could tell you more but it would be hard to explain. Hard to explain the Japanese restaurant connection (which involves some complained about racial stereotypes) and the weirdness of Jon Peters (played by Bradley Cooper) who acts half-crazy over his affair with Barbra Streisand. Then there’s the 10 minutes of screen time devoted to Sean Penn as a movie maker and his old pal played by Tom Waits who re-live some past movie stunt they made but in the most insane and befuddling way!
“Licorice Pizza”, as many of the glowing reviews states, is a film more about incidents than plot. If you want a much better movie that is more about incidents than plot, right off the top of my head I’ll tell you to re-watch Barry Levinson’s classic “Diner.” And if you want a movie about a young guy meeting and wanting a woman in California, I’ll tell you to check out the criminally under-appreciated “Dean.”
The trailer for “Licorice Pizza” earns an A+ grade. Lots of fast cuts, wacky short glimpses and ‘boy meets girl/girl flashes bare chest to boy’ stuff shown. I read this movie was Paul Thomas Anderson’s nostalgic look at life in the Valley as he remembered it in the early 1970’s. Whatever. I gave the movie a C+ which may have been a plus sign too generous.
Regarding “Licorice Pizza’s” trailer, I put movie previews into three categories. The first trailer being like Anderson’s movie preview; weird, quirky parts of a film that make you say, “Hey, this looks like something different and special!” But it isn’t that special.
The second kind of trailer can show us those wacky glimpses but it IS special and memorable. Think of movies like “Rushmore,” “The Big Lebowski,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” or recent Oscar winner “Parasite.”
Then there’s my LEAST favorite movie trailer, the one where most if not all the twists, turns, jokes and spoilers are shown WITHIN the three-minute preview! Hollywood often treats us movie goers like five-year-olds who cannot wait or tolerate being surprised.
You want to see a quality movie trailer that gives away nothing and has more twists and turns than a tub full of snakes? Check out this old one for “The Usual Suspects.”
So here I close out 2021 with a disappointed look back at a movie that sure looked good or at least somewhat interesting. I hope 2022 brings us all good health, lower prices on goods we buy and yes, better films that fulfill the promise of their previews.
Mick Out
