By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago
Young love is never easy, especially when you’re only 15 and the girl of your dreams is 25 and well into adulthood. While that dynamic may seem creepy by today’s standards for obvious reasons, 2021’s Licorice Pizza, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and set in 1973, never quite pushes into the uncomfortable territory you might expect. A true coming of age story about a forbidden relationship that should, by all measures, never work, Licorice Pizza is light and quirky yet surprisingly disarming and wholesome.
It’s a film about a young man with an entrepreneurial spirit tactfully zeroing in on the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with, and most of the humor comes from the fact that he’s still just a boy despite the maturity he exhibits outside of his romantic pursuit. There’s an expected amount of sexual tension between our protagonists, but there’s also a level of innocence from both parties, as if they want the same things out of their lives and from each other, but are afraid to pull the trigger and commit to the relationship.
Not Your Typical Raunchy Comedy
While Paul Thomas Anderson is no stranger to pushing plots to their extremes (Boogie Nights comes to mind), Licorice Pizza takes a more subdued approach to its storytelling without skimping on the familiar motifs we’ve come to love from his films. We’re introduced to 15-year-old actor and serial entrepreneur Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), who quickly becomes smitten with photographer’s assistant Alana Kane (Alana Haim) on school picture day. If there’s one thing you need to know about Gary, it’s that he’s an opportunist with a wildly disproportionate amount of confidence compared to most kids his age.
Alana is charmed by his advances and can-do attitude, which results in the two becoming friends of sorts when Gary asks her to chaperone his press tour in New York City after his mother can’t make the trip. Their relationship is platonic at best, but Gary wants more, while Alana is convinced they’re meant to be nothing more than friends. However, when Gary gets into trouble, Alana immediately comes to the rescue, which is exactly what happens when he’s mistakenly suspected of a nearby murder, arrested, and then quickly released.
Gary eventually gets into the waterbed trade, and Alana ends up working for him in sales. While their professional relationship seems to be going well, the 15-year-old part of Gary’s brain can’t get over the fact that she uses a sensual voice when talking to leads on the phone. He’s also upset to learn that if she ever landed an acting role requiring nudity, she’d do it without question, even though he’s never seen her naked. It’s territorial and immature, but it works in this context because we’re dealing with an otherwise decent kid blinded by teenage hormones.
Escalations Keep Making Them Closer
Licorice Pizza thrives on bizarre escalations. Alana falls victim to a botched motorcycle stunt thanks to Gary’s agent landing her an audition on a film starring acting legend Jack Holden (Sean Penn). Gary finds himself in trouble after installing a waterbed in Jon Peters’ (Bradley Cooper) mansion, prompting a fiery getaway in an 18-wheeler barreling backward down the Hollywood hills, driven by Alana. Gary jumps into yet another business venture while Alana tries to put the waterbed days behind her, but they still can’t stop thinking about each other, even as their paths diverge.
There’s a charm to Licorice Pizza that’s hard to pin down, and it likely comes from just how innocent both Gary and Alana really are. Social norms keep them from openly announcing their affection, and they have their fair share of blowups over their frustrating dynamic. At the same time, they function as each other’s ride-or-die, even as their circumstances keep their hearts and their heads at constant odds.
At the end of the day, a kid who’s not old enough to buy his first pack of cigarettes is head-over-heels in love with a woman who’s old enough to rent a car. He knows it’s weird, and so does she, but Licorice Pizza works by leaning into how guarded both Gary and Alana are when it comes to fully committing. Gary is aggressive in his pursuit, but he never crosses the obvious boundaries that would make him unsympathetic. Alana doesn’t know what she wants, but all signs keep pointing back to Gary. We can only hope they eventually see eye to eye and live happily ever after as the world around them grows more confusing and hostile.
Licorice Pizza is currently streaming on Netflix.