"I'm not going to forget you. Just like you're not going to forget me."
— Gary Valentine
Licorice Pizza is a 2021 American comedy-drama-romance film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson and featuring an Ensemble Cast that includes Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Skyler Gisondo, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, John Michael Higgins, Christine Ebersole, and Harriet Sansom Harris.
Set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973, the movie follows the growing friendship between Gary Valentine (Hoffman), an ambitious businessman and teenage actor, and Alana Kane (Haim), an aimless photographer's assistant in her twenties. As they navigate the changing times and a gas crisis, start up a waterbed company, audition for several movies, get involved in Joel Wachs' (Safdie) mayoral campaign, and have run-ins with several of the most notable figures, real and fictional, in Old and New Hollywood.
The film was released in the United States in 2021 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer through their United Artists Releasing label: first through a limited release on November 26, followed by a wide release on December 25. Although it didn't perform well at the box office, it earned numerous critical accolades, including Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay.
See the trailer here.
Licorice Pizza contains examples of:
- The '70s: The film takes place in 1973 and, among other things, the oil crisis of that year as well as Joel Wachs' mayoral campaign play parts in the story.
- Above the Influence: In one scene, Gary stops himself just short of copping a feel on Alana's breasts while she's asleep, demonstrating his decency and respect for her boundaries.
- Actor Allusion: Bradley Cooper plays Jon Peters, a Real Life film producer who was in a relationship with Barbra Streisand, and who grills Gary about the pronunciation of Streisand's surname. Cooper was previously the director and male lead in the 2018 version of A Star Is Born, which had a previous version that starred Streisand and was produced by the real Peters.
- Age-Gap Romance: The film centers on the 15-year-old Gary's attraction to and complicated relationship with the 25-year-old Alana. The film ends with them becoming a couple.Alana: I love you, Gary.
- All of Them: Jon Peters challenges Gary, "Do you know how much tail I get?" After a nonplussed Gary says "no", Peters says "All of it."
- Answer Cut: Gary's mom tells him the bad news that she has to go to Vegas and can't go to New York with him. When he asks why that's a problem, she explains that he can't go to New York either as a result, because he won't have a chaperone. Cut to Gary and Alana, his adult chaperone, together on the plane to New York.
- Aspect Ratio Switch: The footage of Joel Wachs's speech in the field is displayed in the classic television's 4:3 aspect ratio, enhancing the nostalgic feel of the scene.
- Badass Israeli: Invoked by Alana, who tries to use her Krav Maga background as a selling point to a casting agent. When Alana explains that it's a martial art passed from her Israeli Army vet father, Mary is charmed by her spunk.Alana: It's more like, "How to use a pen to stab someone’s eye out."
Mary: You’re a goddamn fucking fighter, aren't you? I like that. I can see that. You come here trying to be all pretty for me, but really, you remind me… of a dog. - Bait-and-Switch Accusation: Gary and some of his friends try to get their hands on weed to sell in order to boost their waterbed business, and a few minutes later policemen appear and drag Gary to the station...because they mistook him for a murder suspect.
- The Beard: Alana is asked to be this for Wachs' partner in order to throw off the man implied to be digging up dirt on his campaign.
- The Big Damn Kiss: A passionate kiss between Alana and Gary in the last minute of the movie, after she's spent the entire film trying to deny her attraction to him.
- Bitch Slap: Alana slaps Gary when he inappropriately asks if he can touch her breasts after she shows them to him.
- Buffy Speak: Alana slips into this sometimes, particularly when she's angry. For instance, when she's accusing her sister of silently judging her:Alana: You're always thinking things! You thinker!
- The Cameo:
- P.T. Anderson's partner Maya Rudolph appears as a producer of a pimple cream commercial, for which Gary gives an awkward audition.
- John C. Reilly, a longtime member of P.T. Anderson's Production Posse, can be seen briefly as Fred Gwynne in his Herman Munster costume, at the convention where Gary is marketing waterbeds.
- Alana Haim's actual family, including her sisters Danielle and Este from their band HAIM, appear in the movie as Alana's family.
- Camp Gay: The caretaker at Jon Peters' mansion acts in an overly flamboyant and stereotypically gay manner.
- Cool Car: Gary's mom's blue Pontiac GTO convertible (which Alana drives onscreen more than anyone else).
- Cringe Comedy: The movie has its fair share. Particularly notable moments are an awkward audition for a pimple cream commercial, and a white restaurant owner speaking to his Japanese wife in a hideously offensive Asian Speekee Engrish accent.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance:
- No one speaks out against a white restaurant owner making jokes in an offensively stereotypical "Asian" accent, to his authentically Japanese wife (or rather, wives) on multiple occasions—although they do appear visibly uncomfortable.
- Joel Wachs has to remain firmly closeted because even the suggestion that he's gay would be political suicide for his career ambitions.
- Everybody Smokes, everywhere, all the time, and the only complaint anyone raises to Gary, who is 15, lighting up a pack is that he's too much of a coward to inhale without throwing up.
- At one point early in the movie a photographer casually slaps Alana on the rear, much to Alana's discomfort, in a room full of children. A reminder of the causal sexual harassment behavior of the 70's.
- The audition agent's comments about Alana's Jewish nose, some of them bordering on anti-Semitic, show how casual people could be with anti-Jewish prejudice in the '70s.
- The film is full of child characters running around barely supervised by adults, and the fifteen-year-old Gary manages two businesses in the course of the film.
- Mainstream newspapers are full of advertisements for pornographic films.
- Epic Tracking Shot: A hallmark of P.T. Anderson's career, here seen when Gary enters a trade fair convention room, and the camera follows him for a complicated tracking shot around the convention room floor.
- Flashback Cut: At the end, when Alana and Gary are running around the neighborhood trying to find each other, there are quick cuts back to her running after him when he got arrested, and him running after her when she fell off the back of Jack Holden's motorcycle.
- Flashing Discretion Shot: Alana, fed up with Gary's constant complaints about her refusal to show him her breasts, finally exposing herself to Gary while the camera remains focused on her back. When Gary asks to touch them, Alana sharply says "No!", slaps him, and storms out in anger.
- Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Early in the film, Alana, working as a photographer's assistant, is subjected to inappropriate behavior when the photographer smacks her butt as she walks by.
- Former Child Star: What Gary has become, if his audition for the pimple commercial is any indication. But he's landing on his feet as a teenage entrepreneur, with a waterbed business that he easily pivots to a pinball arcade when conditions change.note
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: The extremely creepy guy hanging around outside Joel Wachs's campaign office, who is strongly implied to be spying on him for the opposition and trying to dig up evidence that he's gay and in a relationship with a man.
- Gayngst: Joel Wachs remaining closeted is shown to both put strain on his relationship with his partner as well as having a person presumably from the opposition staking him out for any dirt to ruin his campaign.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Gary and Alana cast jealous glances whenever one of them is with someone else, highlighting their underlying feelings and insecurities about their relationship.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Jon Peters is shown to be a hyper-intense weirdo, from threatening to kill Gary's family if he messes up the waterbed installation, to threatening to set someone on fire so he can commandeer a gas pump.
- Alana has one as well, regularly getting into fights with Gary and her sisters over just about anything.
- Hands-On Approach: Jon Peters uses the pretense of helping Alana drive the truck past his parked sports car to get physically close to her.
- High-School Hustler: Gary starts two businesses in an actual storefront (the same one, consecutively), a waterbed store and a pinball arcade, before his 16th birthday.
- Historical Domain Character: Joel Wachs, then very early in his 30-year run on the LA city council, and movie producer Jon Peters, who has a very strange encounter with Gary and Alana.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: A weird case, in that while Jon Peters has a long history of aggressive, antisocial behavior, he was apparently nothing but polite in the encounter he had with Gary's real-life counterpart. For the sake of the subplot, Anderson wrote him as behaving more in line with what other people experienced.
- I'm Okay!: When Jack Holden tumbles off his bike, the audience holds its breath in concern until he pops up and cheerfully exclaims, "I'm all right!"
- Innocently Insensitive: Given that it’s the 1970s and Deliberate Values Dissonance is at play, the casting agents clearly well-meaning but unconsciously antisemitic comments on Alana's Jew Nose are very inappropriate.
- Intergenerational Friendship: The relationship between 15-year-old Gary and 25-year-old Alana is the crux of the movie, until the end when it becomes an Age-Gap Romance.
- I Resemble That Remark!: During their first conversation, Gary remarks that Alana says everything twice. Alana denies this—twice. Her sister Danielle also tells her later that she needs to stop getting angry and starting fights over minor stuff. Alana's response is to yell at her to fuck off.
- Jerkass: Jon Peters is rude, sleazy, threatening and confrontational in every scene he is in.
- Kavorka Man: Played with Alana. Not only is Gary obsessed with her from the first time he sees her, but she also dates a handsome actor, Lance; a campaign manager co-worker clearly has a crush on her; a famous actor takes her out to dinner; and both Jon Peters and her photographer boss leer over her. Men in the background also seem desperate to get her attention, while Alana herself is physically rather plain. However, much of this speaks to the lecherous attitudes of the period rather than the suggestion that she's a dude magnet, and notably, one of the only men she does seem to have feelings for and respect, who seems to reciprocate at first, is actually gay.
- Kid-anova: Gary. Even beyond his central attempts at wooing Alana, he's seen hitting on girls from his high school throughout as well.
- Larger-Than-Life Promo: The poster has Gary sat down in the palm of a giant Alana.
- Lip-Lock Sun-Block: During their The Big Damn Kiss, light from the pinball arcade shines like a halo behind Gary and Alana, adding a dramatic and romantic effect.
- Logo Joke: While the normal MGM logo is seen at the beginning (albeit the 2008-11 version minus the website address, as opposed to the then-current 2012 version), the end (on select prints) features the very short-lived 1968 MGM logo, only seen on two movies prior to this (The Subject Was Roses and, more famously, 2001: A Space Odyssey; that being said, it was also seen on trailers and used as a print logo much more often during the timeframe), to match the early 70s feel (though it's not clear why they simply didn't use the 1968 logo at the beginning as well).
- Love at First Sight: As soon as Gary lays eyes on Alana, he's obsessed.
- Love Epiphany: Towards the end of the film, Alana realizes that Gary is the right person for her.
- Meadow Run: The film parodies the classic romantic trope at the end, with Gary and Alana running towards each other but comically slipping and pulling each other down as they embrace.
- Mistaken for Murderer: Gary's attempt at selling his water beds is interrupted when he's abruptly arrested for murder, as the real murderer happens to look like him and wear the same clothes. He's dragged off to the police station and released just as quickly when the witness tells them he's not the guy.
- Moment Killer: After work, Alana shares a moment with her co-worker, but the mood is interrupted when the phone rings.
- Multiple-Choice Past: Alana's real age is left ambiguous. She claims that she's 25, but during a conversation with Jon Peters, she says that she's 28. note Some interpreted the scene as Alana really being 25 and pretending to be older in front of an older man. Others interpret Alana as actually being 28, given her awkward stumbling over her original age claim to Gary, and that her desperation to find a career path and worries that she'll be working low-wage jobs until she's 30 more fitting for someone who's nearing the end of their twenties and not the middle. A third group chooses to believe Alana is 25 no matter what, simply because the age gap would be even more off-putting if she were nearly twice his age.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: Alana, trying to make it as an actress, is talking to an agent. When the agent asks if she's willing to do nudity, she easily agrees, only for Gary to insist that she answer "no". This causes a major fight between the two of them, as Alana says she would have no problem getting nude for a camera while Gary whines that she'll let strange men look at her breasts but won't let him see them, even when she’s perfectly within her right not to.
- Nice Character, Mean Actor: Lucy Doolittle, played by Christine Ebersole, is an actress who initially seems like the pleasant star of a variety show. However, after Gary goes off-script (hitting her with a pillow and making a dirty joke), she begins screaming at him when they're backstage, with the crew practically dragging her away. Another character tells Alana that this is considered normal behaviour for her.
- Nice Guy: As immature and irresponsible as Gary can be, he is still a sweet and decent guy.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed:
- Downplayed with Gary himself, who is based on PTA's friend Gary Goetzman, who shares a background as a child star before launching a waterbed company and pinball parlor.
- Lucille Dolittle (Christine Ebersole), whom Gary is seen appearing in a movie with in the trailer, is based on Lucille Ball. (A young Gary Goetzman starred with Ball in Yours, Mine, and Ours.)
- Jack Holden, Sean Penn's character, is based on William Holden. (Jack Holden starred in something called The Bridges at Toko-San, while William Holden made a movie called The Bridges at Toko-Ri.) He and Alana even audition by reading a scene from one of Holden's actual films, the 1973 film Breezy directed by Clint Eastwood.
- Rex Blau, played by Tom Waits, is mostly based on the print-the-legend version of the director "Mad" Sam Peckinpah.
- Non-Actor Vehicle: For Alana Haim, who was known only as a musician and had no acting experience prior to making the film.
- Overly Long Gag: Gary struggling to remove, readjust, and safely fold a suit jacket and vest during an audition for a Sears commercial. Also, Jon Peters struggling to teach Gary how to pronounce "Streisand".
- Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: With Gary wanting to start a pinball business and Alana wanting to work on Joel Wachs's mayoral campaign, the two begin to argue and drift apart before eventually reconciling and confessing their love for each other.
- Production Throwback: Early in the film, a photographer is seen taking pictures of students. His old-fashioned camera, grungy voice, and inappropriate behavior towards Alana recall Freddie from Anderson's The Master.
- Proscenium Reveal: In one scene, Alana sits with a guitar and fabricates details about her upbringing to impress an older man, appearing to lie about her resume for an acting job. However, a director calls it "cut," revealing that this was an audition and Alana was in character.
- Racial Face Blindness: Gary mistakes Kimiko for the restauranteur's first wife.
- Random Events Plot: The film is presented more as a series of vignettes of Gary and Alana's misadventures rather than a conventionally structured movie.
- Sex Sells: Gary hires a curvy, bikini-clad model to lounge on his waterbed when he's marketing it at a trade fair. Then, when Alana is about to lose a prospective customer over the phone, Gary tells her directly to "make it more sexy." This proceeds to backfire for him when Alana turns the call into something close to phone sex, bothering Gary.
- Later, Gary gets Alana herself to wear a bikini while acting as a door greeter, for the opening night of the waterbed store.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: In the truck, when Jon Peters inquires about how long Gary and Alana have been together, they both quickly clarify that they are not a couple.
- Shout-Out: The film's title is taken from a long-defunct record chain of the same name that was based in Southern California.
- At one point Jon Peters tells Gary "You and me? We're from the streets", which is taken verbatim from a legendary story Kevin Smith told at a convention about Peters' complete insanity during the production of a failed Superman reboot.
- The name of Gary's waterbed company, Soggy Bottom, seems to be one to the Coen Brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, in which the vocal group formed by the three main characters records under the name "the Soggy Bottom Boys".
- At one point Jon Peters tells Gary "You and me? We're from the streets", which is taken verbatim from a legendary story Kevin Smith told at a convention
- Sizable Semitic Nose: An audition agent comments on Alana's Jewish nose, framing it as a trendy feature in the industry.
- Smoking Is Cool: Invoked as a test of coolness, when an angry Alana, telling Gary that "You are not cool!", points at a pack of cigarettes and says that if he tried to smoke them he'd vomit. Gary pulls a cigarette out of the pack and does in fact manage to smoke it, smugly blowing some Second-Face Smoke at Alana.
- Toplessness from the Back: Gary and Alana have a nasty argument about Alana the would-be actress possibly getting naked in movies. Finally Alana, exhausted with Gary's complaints about how she won't let him see her breasts, takes her top off for him. When he asks to touch them Alana says "No!", slaps him, and then stalks out in a rage.
- Trivial Title: Although Licorice Pizza is the name of a former record chain in California, it doesn't factor into the plot in any way (Anderson chose the title because, for him, the name evoked a sense of childhood nostalgia). Licorice Pizza is also an obscure slang term referring to a vinyl record (an LP, geddit?)
- Video Credits: All the main characters are presented in the end credits with video clips of their performances.
- Women Are Wiser: Played with. While Alana is prone to immature behaviour despite supposedly being in her mid-‘20s, she is still somewhat more mature and grounded than Gary and his friends, who are actual teenagers. Nonetheless, she ends up starting a romantic relationship with Gary, a teenager, ultimately averting this trope.
- Writing Around Trademarks; Yours, Mine, and Ours is referenced (as one of Goetzman's early acting credits it becomes one of Gary Valentine's) but as Under One Roof.
- Young Entrepreneur: Gary embodies the trope as a 15-year-old hustler launching a waterbed business and pinball arcade in the 1970s. His ventures, driven by charisma and youthful audacity, reflect the trope's focus on ingenuity, though Anderson subverts it with messy, incomplete successes tied to Gary's coming-of-age journey.