By: Andrew Wing

Licorice Pizza is a 2021 American coming-of-age comedy drama film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, The Master), who also serves as one of the film’s producers and cinematographers. The film stars and introduces first-time actors Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman (son of the late great Philip Seymour Hoffman) in the lead roles and the film follows the two as they grow up, run around and fall in love in the San Fernando Valley in 1973. It also features Sean Penn (Mystic River, Milk), Tom Waits (Seven Psychopaths, The Dead Don’t Die), Benny Safdie (best known for writing and directing Good Time and Uncut Gems with his brother Joshua), and Bradley Cooper (The Hangover, A Star Is Born, Nightmare Alley) in supporting roles.

Licorice Pizza was released in the United States in select theaters on November 26, 2021, and was widely released on December 25, 2021. The film received three awards from the National Board of Review, including Best Film. It was also named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute and received four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy (lost to West Side Story - see my full review here), along with eight nominations at the 27th Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Picture.

THE GOOD

Where do I even start? Licorice Pizza has been at the top of my list ever since I heard about it. I mean it is PTA’s (Paul Thomas Anderson) first film since 2017, and PTA is definitely one of my favorite directors as I have seen all of his films. Also, the fact that it features two newcomers to the movie industry in Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman was very exciting and only made me more intrigued. The film has been getting a ton of hype and has received widespread acclaim from critics, so I was very eager to see if my thoughts would fall in line with the rest of the bunch, and boy did they! Keep reading and find out why!

Let’s start with the head of the snake, the director. As I said, PTA is a filmmaker that I admire very much and he really is one of my favorites. His career trajectory has been very interesting to say the least. His past two films Inherent Vice and Phantom Thread were probably two of my least favorites films of his as I thought they were too plot heavy, but he really switched it up for Licorice Pizza and I will just say right now that I think it is definitely a top-3 film of his. This film was just a really damn good time and I had a smile on my face from start to finish. You can tell that this movie was sort of an ode to PTA’s own childhood growing up in California in the 1970s. It was also an ode to just living in the moment and enjoying life I thought too. PTA also writes all of his films and I absolutely loved his original screenplay here. There is just so much heart and soul in every line of dialogue, and trust me when I say there are also numerous lines in the film that will have you cracking up. All in all, I think he has a great shot at being nominated for Best Director, and I also think he has a good chance at not only getting nominated, but winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

Not only did PTA write and direct Licorice Pizza, but he also served as one of the film’s cinematographers alongside Michael Bauman, and let me just say, the cinematography in this is really good. It has a very hazy and almost dreamlike quality to it and I liked it a lot. It has this deep contrast look to it and the lighting in every scene is just pitch perfect, and the characters in the shots are always glowing as we get those famous PTA close up shots that we have seen so many times over the years. Every color just pops out of that frame and it is such a vibrant looking movie. The shots of California were just so exquisite that you yourself felt like you were in the 1970s just by watching. The film also has a ton of running scenes and I thought all those were expertly shot. I don’t know if it will get nominated for Best Cinematography just with the level of competition this year, but it was easily some of the best cinematography I’ve seen this year in film.

Don’t get me wrong, PTA was the main attraction here, but now it is time to discuss the incredible performances we got from the first time actors, Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Wow just wow. They were both just excellent in this movie and they both felt really comfortable in these roles, which is all the more impressive considering they’ve never been in a feature film before. Acting is clearly in Cooper Hoffman’s genes, and I just totally bought his character as he somehow balances the line of both being a showman, yet still incredibly authentic.

As for Alana Haim, she stole the show for me. It was remarkable how she was able to hit so many different notes throughout the film. Sometimes she comes off as this sweet and innocent girl from Los Angeles, while some other times she comes across very fierce and intimidating. I would love to see her get nominated for Best Actress, but that category is just stacked right now so who knows. I just can’t wait to see what the both of them do next, and the fact that we were watching these people we haven’t seen on screen before just gave the movie this purity that made me fall in love with it.

There were also some other performances worth mentioning that came from the supporting players, the first being the man himself, Bradley Cooper. Cooper plays Jon Peters, an American film producer and former hairdresser who was actually partners was Barbra Streisand for ten years back in the 70s, and he is just freaking awesome in his limited screen time. His character doesn’t do much in terms of moving the plot or anything, but his performance is so outrageous and hilarious that he just might get nominated for Best Supporting Actor which would just be wild considering how little time he is on screen. No surprise here but I also really liked Sean Penn in his small role that was very weird. I also liked both Benny Safdie and Tom Waits, but the two actors that were responsible for the majority of the laughs were Skyler Gisondo (Vacation, Psych) and John Michael Higgins (Pitch Perfect, America Says), and I promise you they will make you laugh out loud. They were honestly so so funny.

Other quick things I want to give some love include the score that comes to us from the man having himself one hell of a year in Jonny Greenwood (Spencer, The Power of the Dog). His score was very nostalgic without going overboard on classic 70s songs and it blended into the unique tone the movie wanted to set in my opinion. The editing too in this is just amazing, and it may seem like this small part of a movie, but the editing makes this movie flow so perfectly and the editor Andy Jurgensen will definitely be getting nominated. Also, I have to shout out the production design. I mean it’s a movie about 1970s Los Angeles County, California, and it just took us back in time in the best possible way.

Lastly, I loved this film. You can lock it in for a Best Picture nomination and I would be overjoyed to see it win. There is just something really special about the film as it is very insightful about relationships and just the way we navigate through life as we are growing up. I just can’t wait to watch it again and again and try to pick up on some of the pieces I may have missed.

THE BAD

Nothing. Honestly nothing. I guess you can critique it for being too long and also you could say it’s a little meandering at times as you don’t know what every scene is going for, but this is an overall fantastic movie at the end of the day.

THE VERDICT

Licorice Pizza is a masterpiece and an instant classic for the coming-of-age genre. The 9th feature film from acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson is definitely one his best and is in my opinion, the best film of 2021. PTA’s light and joyful original screenplay was made with so much love and care and it will just capture your heart. The numerous celebrity cameos in this are fun, especially Bradley Cooper’s, but first-time actors Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim steal the show with their amazing performances and magnetic chemistry.

I would love to see this win Best Picture, and I think it’s got as good a chance as any because we just don’t get films like this anymore. It’s a film devoid of a super strong plot carrying the story forward, and yet you will still be engaged and immersed throughout with how extraordinarily well made it is.