Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, November 26, 2021) Movie • Page 16

If it was gender swapped it wouldn't make sense in the same way because the way Gary pursues her is very alpha male.

It isn't like Alana is preying upon Gary. She is struggling between two very different worlds. Maybe they end up together in the end, but that happens in life. There are much "worse" age gaps out there and not all of those relationships are predatory or abusive. It isn't like this is a Woody Allen situation.

 

No, but underage is underage, and a 15 year old being romantically linked to a 25 year old is fucked up even if the situation isn't predatory. And she definitely freaks out in the movie that he's talking to and kissing another girl his age, which is...you know...normal.

And I see what you mean about the characters being swapped not matching their own personalities, but I still think that we would automatically judge anything (rightfully, to me) where an older male is linked to an underage female as predatory, but that exists less when the roles are reversed.

 

Nobody is saying she doesn’t have feelings for him that are stronger than friendship or whatever. But she never acts on them if she does. Alana (the character) says more than once that they can’t be together because of the age gap. Even at the end, he’s the one who kisses her, not the other way around. And yeah she says she loves him but there are more kinds of love than romantic love. Also Alana (the real person) herself has said that in her mind right after that final moment they have another fight and don’t speak to each other again for a week. It’s not like they’re suddenly dating each other.

 

But also even if all the bad things people are saying about this movie are true (they’re not), depiction is not endorsement etc. etc.

 

I also take him calling her Alana Valentine and her calling him an idiot is her realizing how young and dumb he is and they aren’t really dating or anything.

 

The two characters are both living outside of their generation. Alana finds Gary charming because he has the charm and moxie of someone twice his age, while Alana is far behind what society expects of a woman in her mid-twenties in the 1970's. To Gary, adults are equals so it makes sense that he would prefer an older woman to those his age.

She gets jealous of the other girl because she liked having that attention. She feels inferior to her sisters so to be fawned over by a successful teenager is probably very flattering. However, she dates or pursues multiple other men, some on the complete other side of the age gap, because she doesn't know what she wants. If the movie was twenty minutes longer she might end up dating her co-worker on the campaign.

It's a movie about the connections we make that make life exciting and worth living. Maybe they end up dating one day, maybe not. Gary could get an acting job in New York and never see her again. It will probably be an important relationship they think about for the rest of their lives, even if it isn't necessarily a romantic one.

 

Dang, the woman I ended up sitting next to was physically incapable of shutting up. She was deeply distressed by that guy with the 12 on his shirt and thought he was gonna stalk Alana at the end, lol.

Really loved this. Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman were as good as everyone's already said. Loved following Alana down this journey. The whole Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters sequence was a blast. It was fun randomly hearing John C. Reilly's voice, and cool when I realized that cute girl Gary flirts with on the plane was Emma Dumont (who played Polaris, one of my favorite X-Men, on The Gifted). Overall just a top tier film about youth and relationships.

 

Does this movie benefit from seeing it in the theater or can I watch it at home on a smaller screen (aka my laptop)?

Trying to decide if I need to go to the theater during the COVID surge to see this.

 

The theater has popcorn and cookie dough bites.

 

Theater near me is playing this in 70mm, gonna be the one movie I risk it for then have to VOD/wait for streaming on everything else I missed this year

 

seeing PTA in the theater is a ritual for me

 

Now I wonder who I always see in a theater. Anderson (Paul and Wes), Malick (when it opens around here), Coens, Scorsese. There are a lot more that I would always attend but their films either don't open here or are too far.

Spielberg almost made the list but I can't be bothered to pay money to see The Adventures of Tintin or Ready Player One.

 

Of course I was too young to see Boogie Nights or Magnolia at the theater but I’ve hit every PTA on the big screen since TWBB

 

tarantino?

 

I knew I forgot someone. Actually I think I never saw The Hateful Eight in theaters.

 

seeing it at the roadshow type thing was better than the actual movie was

 

yeah I saw that on Christmas. It was pretty cool.

 

I think the screener leaked early that year so it was an easier choice.

 

seems like you’d love a screening with built in intermission, though

 

Saw this last night in 70mm and I loved it so much. Tonally it felt like it had a lot of Boogie Nights by way of Inherent Vice to it, and as someone who prefers the first half of PTA's career to the second, it was refreshing to see him return to a lighter narrative.

The performances were fantastic. Cooper was great even when not uncannily reminding me of his dad, and Alana's performance is the entire reason the age gap is workable. There's a real defeated desperation to her character that she sells effortlessly. I suspect if this were more of a straight forward love story it would be harder to look past it, but I don't really think it was. To me it was more of a coming of age for both of them, and an essential part of that for Alana is that going along with the ride of Gary's friendship and affection enables her to find it in herself to do that.

And finally, Bradley Cooper was just delightful. Show stealer.

 

can't wait to watch this again

 

This was good. The heaviest he’s leaned into his New Hollywood influences in a long time.

 

Visually between the running and lens flair this gave me huge Punch Drunk Love vibes