Movie Review: Licorice Pizza

 

Michael's Movie Grade: A-

A top-notch film that holds its own with director Paul Thomas Anderson's best.

This movie has a slim story. A 15-year-old boy (Cooper Hoffman (in his film debut)) has a crush on a 25-year-old woman (Alana Haim (in her feature film debut)) and the two form an unlikely friendship. Yet upon this slim story hangs an incredible amount of irresistible charm. This movie's depiction of The San Fernando Valley in the 1970's is just as much a star of this film as any actor. This depiction is equally real and unreal. Though there are many great little details that make you feel as if you have traveled back to that place and time there is also a fairytale like quality to the picture. This setting is where Anderson grew up and because of this he looks back at the time and place with a large amount of nostalgia and youthful playfulness. Yet this film is not all sunshine and flowers. This film does not sugarcoat its setting or some of the characters' less moral decisions and the looks at the darker and less savory aspects are quite intelligent. Yet they do not in any distract from the pure charming and fun feel of this movie. This movie also benefits from an incredible sense of humor. I can't count how many times I laughed out loud watching this movie. The humor ranged from the highbrow to the lowbrow, the insightful to the just plain silly, yet all these types of humor were equally well handled. The two main characters are also excellent. They are very likable but also very faulted and human. They are far from the two-dimensional stereotypes they could have easily been but feel like fully fleshed out human beings. This is especially helped by the two main actors. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman were incredible and perfect in these roles and even outshining the more established and famous co-stars. 

All in all this is a great movie and a must watch film.