Licorice Pizza * * * *

Ever since Boogie Nights and Magnolia I have always admired Paul Thomas Anderson, even when I have absolutely hated his work, such as Inherent Vice.  Though the film he made after that, Phantom Thread,  went a long way to redeem him, even if it was humorless.

With Licorice Pizza he has come up with a film that is much more accessible and pleasing, whilst remaining distinctly Anderson. (What is it with directors named Anderson and being an auteur?)

Set in the early seventies, Licorice Pizza is  unbelievable. In the hands of another director it might even be irritating.  

It's the name of a record store, okay?

The principal character is precocious and impossibly self confident for a fifteen year old.  But in the world that Anderson creates it doesn't greatly matter and you happily accept the brat.

Gary Valentine is an overly confident child actor.  He does some television work.  In spare time he lives like an adult; he starts companies, he has a reserved table at restaurant, he is cheeky and glib and comically confident.  At the same time he lives at home with Mum and goes to high school.  

It is at school that Gary meets Alana.  She is a twenty five year old who works for a company that takes school photographs.  She hates her job. Gary hits on her with the all the self assuredness of a forty year old playboy. 

Although there is a continuing narrative, there isn't an urgent need, other than for Alana who is desperate for a career change. Indeed, so desperate is Alana, she accepts a position working for Gary and his newly founded waterbed distribution business "Soggy Bottom". (Waterbeds, remember those?)  

It's Gary's dodgy business, and Alana's dissatisfaction with her direction in life,  that creates situation after situation, from Barbara Streisand's dangerously mad boyfriend to a burnt out actor who wants to do a crazy motorbike stunt, to the difficulty of being gay in the seventies. Nearly every scene is either funny, moving and exciting.  The whole thing is superbly acted and beautiful to look at. 

A lot has been written about the actors in this because of their background.  Gary Valentine is played by Cooper Hoffman; he is the son of Philip Seymour-Hoffman.  Alana is played by Alana Haim from the rock band of the same name.  They are excellently cast.

As a bonus, the craziest (near psychopathic) people who pepper this film are joyously played by guest actors including Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn, both of whom are let off the leash.