Won a BAFTA Award for Best Original Text

"Liquorish Pizza" .. Anderson raises the nostalgia of the seventies again

• Two new movie stars in Hollywood.

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The movie “Licorice Pizza” has nothing to do with food or restaurants, but rather it is a balanced story between narration and nostalgia without the tyranny of one over the other, although the latter raises its head from time to time, and there is no way to avoid it, especially in a movie about the childhood experiences of American writer and director Paul Thomas Anderson .

"Liquorish Pizza" means the music stores specializing in the sale of black records that were common in the United States from the late 1960s to the 1980s.

Although not a single store appears in the film;

However, Anderson said that the title of the film has nothing to do with its subject, but rather chose it because the title reflects the spirit of the seventies that the director lived through, and which he is trying to convey in the film.

The theme of the seventies is not new to Anderson, and this is the third time we see it in his films. He previously brought it up in Boogie Nights in 1997 and Inherent Vice in 2014.

Doesn't follow the laws

“Licorish Pizza”, which won the British BAFTA Award for Best Original Text, was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Text at the Oscar “The Slap”, based in part on the biography of Hollywood producer, Gary Goetzman, and Anderson plays with the tone and facts of the film. Sometimes we see the features of blog films Young people and their entry into adolescence, and at other times we see the characteristics of romantic comedies, and in both cases Anderson does not abide by the traditional laws of the two aforementioned categories, and goes beyond that to new areas.

Had Anderson called his movie “When Gary Met Alana” it might strike a strong nostalgia chord with audiences who will remember Rob Reiner’s classic “When Harry Met Sally” in 1989, a classic because it crossed the boundaries of romantic comedies in the eighties, and was a major reason for the emergence of a wave The romantic comedy of the nineties.

But the man chose a different and strange name for his movie, and the reason - in addition to what we mentioned - is that the completely new and strange name gives a kind of originality to his movie.

Gary (Cooper Hoffman, son of late star Philip Seymour Hoffman) meets Alana (Alana Hem) at his school gymnasium.

Gary wants to take a picture of himself, and Alana is there to help the photographer take the picture.

Telling Alana Gary that she is a decade older than him does not stop him from flirting with her and asking her out.

His mastery of flirting words and his response to her refusal to date impress her.

For Gary, this love at first sight, he decided that Alana was the girl he wanted to marry.

For Alana, the subject is complicated and confusing, she is somewhat attracted to him, but she is unable to believe that he is 15 years old, which is the illegal age for the development of their romantic relationship in the eyes of society.

They become friends, but Alana is jealous when she sees teenage girls of Gary's age being attracted to him, and he's jealous when he sees her hanging out with influential people in Hollywood.

Despite all this, they decide to start a business together and argue with each other like all friends do.

While the romantic relationship between the ambitious teenager and the perplexed woman in the film forms the backbone of the story, it is not the only thing the story revolves around.

In "Liquorish Pizza", we see Anderson dwelling on his past, as if opening a window into his mind through which we can see the events of the story for the viewer.

Memories details

Anderson grew up in California's San Fernando Valley in the '70s and '80s, and this movie takes place exactly in that place at the same time.

This allows him not only to relive those memories, but to recreate them in the film with excellent and accurate detail.

The coming-of-age aspect of the movie has to do with the two characters, but Gary's character is more complete at the beginning of the movie than Alana, and as a result this makes the movie her story of a girl who opens late and lives this journey of her life.

A quick glimpse at the film's cast reveals the famous names that Anderson chose for his characters, mentioning the hero Hoffman, and there is Spielberg, DiCaprio and Tim Conway, Jr., all of whom are relatives of Hollywood celebrities.

Sasha Spielberg is the daughter of the famous filmmaker Steven Spielberg, and Conway Jr. bears the exact name of his father, the late actor, and George DiCaprio, father of the star Leonardo DiCaprio.

This reflects Anderson's deep ties to the Hollywood community.

And of course there are big names with smaller roles, like Sean Bean as Jack Holden (inspired by 1950s Hollywood star William Holden), and Bradley Cooper as John Peters, a hairstylist turned film producer. .

The film's new protagonist in Hollywood, Gary was born into an artistic family and chose to engage in his father's profession, and Alana has known Anderson for five years and has two sisters who appear as two sisters in one of the scenes in this film.

This is Alana's first film, and here she is proving that she is a natural talent, and despite the 10-year age difference between them, they have a very strong harmony for 134 minutes.

Between realism and surrealism

"Licorice Pizza" is not like Paul Thomas Anderson's other films, as here it is as if Anderson is telling a story about the multiple situations of two characters, and nothing necessarily leads to something else.

In the 1990s Anderson's films were realistic, about broken families, and in the new millennium he went in the direction of surrealism.

In 2007 he reached the top with his masterpiece There Will Be Blood, and then returned to his beginnings in Inherent Vice, a movie that is completely incomprehensible, because it tells from the point of view of a detective hallucinating with severe drug use, all the way to the movie Phantom Thread that we wrote about here four years ago It tells the story of a man who owns a fashion design house with his sister and their relationship falls into crisis when he falls in love with a waitress.

• 134 minutes, duration of the film, based in part on the biography of Hollywood producer, Gary Goetzman.

• In the work we see Anderson loitering in his past, as if he opened for the viewer a window inside his mind from which we can see the events of the story.

• Anderson plays with the tone of the film and its facts. Sometimes we see the features of films when young people go into adolescence, and other times we see the features of romantic comedies.

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