Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, November 26, 2021) Movie • Page 23

Hmm speak on that

 

Watching this for the first time at home, 4th time overall, and yeah, this is one of my favorite movies ever and my favorite PTA (not his best, but probably my favorite)

 

Need this to stream online

Edit: Oh it looks like there's a good copy out there now

 

found a For Your Consideration DVD of this in a thrift shop today pretty psyched

 

I was worried about this one but ended up wishing it was even longer than it was. PTA nailed it. Alana was so perfect as the lead.

 

Is this coming out on blu-ray this Tuesday?

 

Apparently not!

 

Yupp. No idea when it's actually coming out.

 

It's the Boyhood Mexican repairman all over again.

 

It’s amazing to me that PTA himself can have a fair, nuanced response to good faith criticism of the scene. And yet, we’re still stuck in this hell where either the scene is obviously racist, or people who didn’t react well to it are obviously children.

Not remotely the worst example of the internet rotting people’s brains, of course, but still a cartoonishly stupid discourse.

 

It just makes me uncomfortable how many of the loudest and most obnoxious voices on the matter are white, on both sides. Doesn’t seem like my place to comment either way on the situation

 

A big problem is the virtiol being spewed about how it is a racist scene. It is a criticism of his behavior, not an endorsement. Now, it is debatable how well the scene works (it definitely isn't the best two scenes in the movie), but there shouldn't be a debate about Anderson's intention.

 

There was also a weird giddiness (not necessarily on here but I've seen it on Twitter and actually in real life once or twice) of white people "warning" others about the scene. I just...didn't understand that at all and don't think that I've ever seen that before. Or at least to that level.

 

I clicked on one response to it from a POC writer I enjoy. Then I got like six different “recommended” tweets from people going back and forth about it. Twitter is clearly trying to stoke the flames of this even more.

 

Oscar season is what stokes the flames. This is the legacy of Harvey Weinstein and scorched earth campaigning.

 

It’s a little bit of that and also since the movie is on torrent sites, people can post out of context clips of it, which obviously makes it look worse.

 

I mean, most of the Asian critics I follow were bothered by it, and I was bothered by it when I had to hear a few people in my theater laugh. Even within context, its tactless execution invites the criticism it's getting. Obviously, PTA's intent was to depict Frick as someone to be derided, but judging by his responses in interviews he didn't put too much thought into it or consider the implications of how it would play to audiences.

 

Algorithms certainly are a big factor in this, and in so much bad internet in general. Who knew the machine apocalypse would be so tedious.

 

This was pretty entertaining. Age thing is weird, which is obviously the point, but someone said earlier what I couldn’t really stop thinking throughout—why couldn’t Gary just be 18 instead of 15? Alana Haim’s performance in this was easily the best part of the film. Loved the music too.

 

I absolutely fucking loved this. Alana is a queen and I want her in every movie. This hit me so damn good.

I can see why people might feel weird about the age gap here. But, well, for me, I had a massive infatuation with an older woman when I was in high school. I was 17 and she was around 25 I think. No lines were ever crossed. But we hung out a ton, went out to meals that were essentially dates, coffee dates, but again, beyond hugs or holding hands, the relationship never became physical. We did love each other. But it was not necessarily romantic. But we often told each other “I love you.” Sadly, we drifted apart, honestly mostly my fault, she then moved away a year later and has no social media so I’ve lost contact with her. So the age gap here and how it plays out made total sense to me. But, yea, for those who didn’t have anything similar like I did could feel awkward about it.

The movie and dynamic between them would be pretty different if he had been 18. Her resistance to dating him wouldnt make as much sense. I just read this entire thread, and as someone pointed out she immediately and repeatedly says they can’t date due to it. They do clearly grow close over the film and she does say I love you, but love has more layers than romantic love. It would not has been as relatable to me either, where it hits hard for me because of it. So I’m quite glad of it as it spoke to my soul and a part of it that I’ve not given much thought to for a long time.

bradley cooper was hilarious the little screen time he got. Would have loved to see more of him, especially after he finds the smashed car and the flooded house.

the scene where they run out of gas and they are going down a hill and run a stop sign/red light (I swear they show a red light but say stop sign. I’m too lazy to go back and check at the moment) took me back to high school night with me and my friends. We didn’t rub out of gas, what we did was a lot dumber. There was 7 of us piled into a jeep, two up front, three in the middle, and 2 in the back “trunk” space (no seatbelts). It was late at night and we just wanted to drive around. Initially my one friend was driving, but for some reason we switch at one point and another took over. We were all sober, but the new driver was actually on pain pills and probably shouldn’t have been driving. We were driving around and came to the top of a hill with a long road but a stop sign at one point. We brilliantly decide to floor it as fast as we could to run it. We did it and thank god we didn’t crash or anything, the two in the far back would have been fucked. Man, we did a ton of dumb shit. So, yea, the movie unlocked a lot of shit from my teenage years for me.

okay, I feel like I have to comment on the racist scenes. I thought it was funny to laugh at the racist as being a piece of shit. But I don’t think it was necessary for the story or crucial in any way. As others have said, could easily have been cut. They could have made him a piece of shit in some other way if they wanted to keep another character for Gary to interact with. I’m not really that important to listen to about it as I’m just another white dude, but there it is.

thanks to anyone who bothers to read this long rambling.

 

My girlfriend is watching this right now. I just walked in at the start of the Sean Penn part and all she said to me was "this movie is weird" lol.