Licorice Pizza (2021)

This charming multi-layered rom-com, set in 1973, about a 15 year old actor and the 25 year old girl he's crushing on is great fun and stars newcomers Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim literally running around the 1973 San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. Director/writer Paul Thomas Anderson grew up in the Valley, though he turned only three in 1973, but he experienced the coexistence of Hollywood and suburban California. The big and noteworthy cast includes Sean Penn, John Turturro, Christine Ebersole, and Bradley Cooper as stars playing stars in some funny bits. Jack DiCaprio, Leonardo's father, has a cameo in a black and white wig.

There are too many juicy trivia bits to recount but here are a few of my favorites. Licorice Pizza was the name of a vinyl record store chain in L.A. around that time (including when I moved there nine years later), as well as being slang for a vinyl record, but those facts are inexplicably omitted from the movie. Haim's character's first name, Alana, is the same as her own and her parents and sisters are played by her parents and sisters, using their own first names as well as improvising most of their dialogue. Anderson says he was infatuated with Alana's mother Donna when she was his elementary school art teacher.

I was a little confused about the character Alana's age, since she says 28 early on, but apparently it was a goof that Anderson decided to keep in.

Jonny Greenwood is credited with the score, and I found one track on YouTube, but you may not notice his music because of the great soundtrack of 70s songs, available on Apple Music and elsewhere.

Anderson was last blogged for Phantom Thread, Penn for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Turturro for Landline, Ebersole for The Wolf of Wall Street, Cooper for Nightmare Alley, and Greenwood for The Power of the Dog. Haim and Hoffman may be making their feature acting debuts in this movie, but she is in the Grammy-winning band Haim with her sisters, and he is the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, acclaimed actor and frequent Anderson collaborator and friend.

As of this writing, the movie has 53 wins and 184 nominations, including Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. Here's my running list of awards and nominations sorted by title.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are spinning over this one, averaging 91%, but its audiences abandoned their turntables with a tepid 65. I was too eager to see it to wait for renting, so we bought it on iTunes on March 4, a few days after its release, and we're glad we did!