Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#176 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 27, 2021 4:32 am

If Magnolia was influenced by Altman's sprawling webbed narratives of recurring arcs in Nashville and HealtH, Licorice Pizza is indebted to the serial, episodic structure of M*A*S*H* and California Split- a loose, meandering shaggy-dog narrative where events and people come and go, fluidly floating in with fire and gracefully exterminated from our peripheries as we orbit around the central duo's concurrent development. This isn't going to be a film for everyone- surely some will read its intentionally-uneven composition as tiresome and ineffective, but I'll be damned if this wasn't one of the most fruitful, sublime movies I've ever seen.

In a sense, it's an appropriate antidote to Phantom Thread. That film was a complex, mature deconstruction of adult relationships, validating the innate and conditioned hindrances of personality that are perseverated by age and experience, pitting our progressively-growing, tragically-irreversible individualism against the incongruous need for dynamic partnership. Anderson's latest is, by contrast, planted within the innocence of youth (and yes, Alana Haim, despite her age, absolutely fits within the same immature developmental stage as Cooper Hoffman- though this is not an insult!). Both films involve characters playing 'games' with one another, but Alana and Gary's games are juvenile, simple, and pure; yet they speak to a similarly enigmatic and indiscernible energy born from that subconscious itch one has when they feel romantic feelings towards a friend, walking an emotional tightrope of vulnerability with irregular behavior shifts, and cannot figure out how to realise a clear path from these feelings they are not prepared to fully indulge. While Phantom Thread's climax offered a tangible yet intricately conceived solution, this film's denouement empowers simplicity as a possible answer to these confounding states.

That's not to say that the content is all candidly surface-level, and Anderson certainly doesn't attempt to undermine the youths' struggle with a didacticism for shedding egos to receive the rewards of love through effortlessness, but that's where the director's empathy towards youth hits just the right note: Alana and Cooper are not "immature" in a pejorative light, but their naïvete is a gift. Their virginal exposures to these passions are portrayed as supremely valuable, and polarized opposites to the 'adults' in the film- who in one way or another embody stagnant, inhibited, and desensitized states of being, approaching social relationships through narcissistic, detached behavioral responses, stuck in their own personalities like Reynolds Woodcock. So it's appropriate that this narrative is an organically-flowing series of mini-adventures where Alana and Gary greet life with gusto, liberated via movement in disparity with the adults' staticity. Sometimes this movement looks like literally running through their physical environments (as seen copiously in the trailer), sometimes it's elastically shifting from actualizing one impetuous idea after the other, or moving from vignette to vignette- occasionally encountering 'adults' transiently emerging and disappearing from the vicinity. Yet the movement is always escorted by profound perceptiveness, fearless immersion, and existential capitalization of each and every impulse with uninhibited activity, even if they don't know how to organize these skills with identities not yet fully formed. It's a necessarily messy trajectory of narrative to emulate that messy experience of growing up.
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One might read the scene where Alana comforts Wachs' lover as the impetus for her to reach the next stage of development, in forfeiting her self-constructed barriers towards following her heart to Gary, and I think that's mostly right. She becomes sober to the 'reality' of the adults' she has admired (and has half-wanted to 'be' throughout this story- identifying as both adult and child, a discomfort of internal discord that has prevented her movement in full-measures in either circle), particularly in Safdie's dismissive reaction to his partner's worth and, worse, rigid inattentiveness to welcoming feedback against the cemented prioritization of his career. However, I think it would be a mistake to see this contact as informing her choice to go to Gary because her idealization of adulthood has been shattered, leaving youth left as the untouched grace. Alana has a revelation that she has been posturing towards Wachs' behavioral alienation (there is an excellent, and unexpected juxtaposition in an earlier scene between Alana's sour, aloof disposition and Gary and his friends' hilarious antics with the gas canisters in silhouette physical comedy), and simultaneously realizes that this isn't her- that her actual identity is one that is magnetized towards seizing life and squeezing all its juice with energetic gratitude.

Her choice to be with Gary is not about Gary being the guy who will save her from this cynical, inevitable (or not- has Anderson reversed his previous film's deterministic thesis of inherent compromise- or perhaps he simply doesn't care enough because in a vacuum 'now' is all that matters?) fate of adulthood's narcissistic traps; instead, her choice is driven by the discovery that she has been limiting herself from accessing just a little bit more of her heart, of being just a little bit more vulnerable and making the moment count with the guy she loves. Her tunnel vision has widened to accept and become empowered by the revelation that she doesn’t have to resign herself to the closed mentality and lifestyle she had prescribed for herself- the caves the adults around her have descended into mechanically with faux-glamour.
I know not everybody is comfortable going to a theatre right now, and I respect that. However, I do need to quickly plug that this is a comedy where the majority of the laughs are very idiosyncratic to the theatre experience. I can say with confidence that the times I laughed the hardest were not from rich lines of dialogue (though there are plenty of those!) but during slight situational mannerisms based on specific timing that requires, for me, an audience to call attention to the hysterical peculiarities in unison. If I watched this from my couch, it would've been a great 'film', but I'm not sure I'd be declaring this a great 'comedy'. I'm still thinking about certain moments near the beginning and laughing to myself, yet I could never explain why they're funny if someone paid me to try. Anyways, this is one of the best films of the year, and my personal favorite, and I already can't wait to see it again with a lively audience, entering this film with the same youthful appetite Alana and Gary bring to every facet of their lives, if only for two hours. I'm grateful for this movie, and all movies that let me tap into that part of myself for a little while, making me feel a bit more alive, and motivating me to try to approach my personal life with a bit more whimsy after the lights come up.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#177 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:47 pm

Agreed on all points, TWBB. No need to add. No notes. Best film of 2021, a Brewster McCloud for a new generation that will inspire more young filmmakers than old ones to tell exciting new stories. One of Anderson's very best.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#178 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:56 pm

I didn't even think of Brewster McCloud, but that might be the best Altman to compare it to!

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#179 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Sat Nov 27, 2021 2:51 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:47 pm
Agreed on all points, TWBB. No need to add. No notes. Best film of 2021, a Brewster McCloud for a new generation that will inspire more young filmmakers than old ones to tell exciting new stories. One of Anderson's very best.
Super astute comparison. It’s the closest Altman analog for sure.

I also want to praise this film but don’t feel completely comfortable sharing thoughrs until its wider release and upon viewing it again. I will say, for anyone fascinated with Los Angeles history and landscapes, it’s a must-see as you’ll appreciate the views of Ventura Blvd., references to conservative former mayor Sam Yorty, and a brief scene at Cupid’s, my favorite hot dog stand in the Valley.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#180 Post by Red Screamer » Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:18 pm

I don't know guys, I think Melvin and Howard is the obvious comparison here (haven't seen it).

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#181 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 27, 2021 3:19 pm

The film unsurprisingly also has a knockout OST of 60s/70s jams, including a few very inspired choices. Not sure if it beats the eclectic fine-tuned perfection of The Worst Person in the World (the other best movie of the year)’s soundtrack, but it’s close, and they’re incomparable anyways as the sprawling needledrops are fitting for the already-mentioned lax vibe Anderson cultivates here

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#182 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Nov 27, 2021 7:15 pm

Oh and because there are so many wonderful bit-part acting jobs, I expect everyone is going to respond to the passive perfs with variance as to what stands out on a subjective level, but my personal favorites were:
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Harriet Sansom Harris and John Michael Higgins, and of course Ben Stiller (barely-recognizable in his Pynchonesque disguise), who steals his brief scene with just a couple lines of dialogue

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#183 Post by knives » Sat Nov 27, 2021 11:24 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Nov 27, 2021 1:56 pm
I didn't even think of Brewster McCloud, but that might be the best Altman to compare it to!
That’s one way to sell me on a movie.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#184 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Nov 28, 2021 3:07 am

I know he's not exactly a forum favorite (tho' I like him!), but David Ehrlich's review is the best written appreciation, and most spot-on interpretation, that I've read so far

Also, I found this IMDb trivia "fact" to be particularly hilarious:
The cast includes 4 actor/directors: Benny Safdie (Good Time), Sean Penn (Into the Wild), Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born), and Sam Harpoon (Hurdy Gurdy Summer)

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#185 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:01 pm

Must have missed Stiller.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#186 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:59 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:01 pm
Must have missed Stiller.
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He's heavily disguised, to the point where I surely wouldn't have placed him had I not been looking for a masked-Stiller going in, but he's the guy sitting next to Sean Penn interviewing Alana in her first audition with/introduction to Penn. Some people might denounce this, but all signs point to it- from the play-dumb answers PTA gave in that interview ("what character?" from a filmmaker so precise and deliberate and in touch with his casting/crew) to the omission in the film's credits, where seemingly every bit part is credited except for his character (not even as Sam Harpoon).

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#187 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:07 pm

Can't wait to rewatch already.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#188 Post by hearthesilence » Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:19 pm

Richard Brody's glowing review: "he turns the film into a full-blown version of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, albeit one that’s vastly superior to Quentin Tarantino’s, because, unlike Tarantino, Anderson doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid. He doesn’t defer to Hollywood’s self-serving and self-aggrandizing mythology but, rather, submits it to sharply detailed, dramatically exhilarating, satirically incisive examination."

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#189 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:47 pm

Such a silly point of comparison. The two films have little if anything to do with each other aside from the city in which they take place.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#190 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:49 pm

Such a strange point of comparison, though I suppose I "get" where he's coming from. Still, while PTA doesn't magnetize himself towards the Hollywood movie industry's majestic nature, that's not even in the peripheries of the film's focus, and he absolutely writes a love-letter to the era. Even if he uses the deflation of value in myth-making icons to channel personal development for his leads, the characters and events could be anything that sobers youth to look inward rather than outward. Tarantino's film is also about finding emotional validation in others, but since his characters are in the film industry, it makes sense that their peers/vehicles sought for that validation would remain in the Hollywood circle. I guess I don't really see a difference along the lines Brody is superfluously drawing, considering the differentiated milieus the lead principals are operating within to find that existential juice. If there's a key difference, it's that Tarantino's film's thesis rests in a firmly-pointed recognition that we need others to boost our egos, whereas Anderson focuses on an individualized acknowledgement of existential direction prior to fully giving ourselves to access the fruits of that social support, but it's marginally distinguishable in that broad area, and they are very different films with different interests in exploring and expressing that human nature.

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#191 Post by Mr Sausage » Thu Dec 02, 2021 4:00 pm

Imagine writing of the creator of the most gleefully anti-Manson-cult movie ever made that he has “drank the kool aid”.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#192 Post by onedimension » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:03 pm

hearthesilence wrote:
Thu Dec 02, 2021 2:19 pm
Richard Brody's glowing review: "he turns the film into a full-blown version of Once Upon a Time . . . in Hollywood, albeit one that’s vastly superior to Quentin Tarantino’s, because, unlike Tarantino, Anderson doesn’t drink the Kool-Aid. He doesn’t defer to Hollywood’s self-serving and self-aggrandizing mythology but, rather, submits it to sharply detailed, dramatically exhilarating, satirically incisive examination."
Is the Tarantino really that deferential? The characters have plenty of turns to look foolish and the mythologizing of Tate is shallow. The era is "aggrandized", maybe, not the place.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#193 Post by domino harvey » Thu Dec 02, 2021 5:09 pm

I think Tarantino’s film heavily fawns over the period in its attention to endless pop culture markers in both foreground and background. I found it rather suffocating in this regard, but I’ve been calling out period fetishization for years so this is wholly on brand for me at least and def not something Tarantino is alone in employing

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#194 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Dec 06, 2021 10:05 pm

A bit late to post (and too late for some) but there are special advance screenings coming to various cities across the country this coming Sat. 12/11 at 7pm, two weeks ahead of the Christmas Day release. The 70mm screening at the Coolidge in Brookline, MA sold out almost immediately but some cities still have tix per the link above, though not all are 70mm (some are 35 and DCP) and are organized on the site by format

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#195 Post by Drucker » Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:03 pm

Count me in as someone who loved TWBB's post and thought this was masterful. I've posted here long enough to realize I'm not one of the more eloquent posters, so I'll just make one comment which is that this film made me feel like I was 15 again. It completely captures the confusion, mood, and feelings of teenage love and being a teenager. I remember seeing Superbad as a millenial and explaining to my mom that "yes, this is exactly how my generation is now." But what PTA has captured here is the timeless feeling of being a teenager.
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There are two moments in the film where Hoffman delicately goes in to make a move on Haim. At one moment they are sitting on a table, and we get to see the moment their knees touch. Later on, they are on a waterbed, and stares at her waistline, which has been minimally exposed. Those frenetic moments as a teenager where you are discovering your body, your sexuality, and have these urges are so beautifully shown in this film. I don't think I've ever seen a film which so perfectly made me feel the way Hoffman is feeling in those moments, and the confusion that stems from them.

Another reading I have is that PTA does such a beautiful job of illustrating love for things one should not love. The admiration of the Master, the lust for oil, the adult film industry. PTA has such an affection for these things which most people would probably say, "why do you have such love for this?" Here, PTA illustrates the small-timers and the hustlers and the others exist at the periphery of the film industry. Those people that are the biggest thing in the world to themselves, and nobody else. Whether it's a washed up moviestar, a child actor extra, or Barbara Streisand's boyfriend, they are shown the love in this film generally reserved for A-listers.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#196 Post by The Fanciful Norwegian » Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:09 pm

I really hope a 70mm print comes to Austin, but the only Drafthouse with a 70mm setup closed this year and the only other regular theater that could screen it is a rather unfashionable strip mall multiplex. They do have the film down as coming soon, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The Austin Film Society is hosting a members' screening on Thursday that I got tickets to, with an intro from Richard Linklater. No word on whether it'll be 35mm so I suspect it's a DCP.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#197 Post by therewillbeblus » Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:19 pm

Drucker wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:03 pm
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Later on, they are on a waterbed, and stares at her waistline, which has been minimally exposed. Those frenetic moments as a teenager where you are discovering your body, your sexuality, and have these urges are so beautifully shown in this film. I don't think I've ever seen a film which so perfectly made me feel the way Hoffman is feeling in those moments, and the confusion that stems from them.
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Couldn't agree more- the POV shot of Gary's/our gaze lingering on Alana's jeans, just slightly elevated from her belly, is at the perfect leveled angle to encapsulate an ascension from merely a sexual urge, but towards the comprehensive urge to connect, to experience, to bridge and consummate their intimacy in every possible tangible way imaginable. It's so innocent and pure and, like you, reminded me of many youthful experiences that defied a simplified sexual drive cast into the infinite ambitions of romanticism populating my youth. That one image speaks a thousand words and feelings, stops time and will be forever imprinted in Gary's memory as ours- or to speak for myself- mine are.
Drucker wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 1:03 pm
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Another reading I have is that PTA does such a beautiful job of illustrating love for things one should not love. The admiration of the Master, the lust for oil, the adult film industry. PTA has such an affection for these things which most people would probably say, "why do you have such love for this?" Here, PTA illustrates the small-timers and the hustlers and the others exist at the periphery of the film industry. Those people that are the biggest thing in the world to themselves, and nobody else. Whether it's a washed up moviestar, a child actor extra, or Barbara Streisand's boyfriend, they are shown the love in this film generally reserved for A-listers.
Interesting point, and while I'm not sure I see the exact connective tissue that you do, I do think there's a common theme where PTA acknowledges that attraction subverts the confining question of 'Why?'- whether that's asked by outside, objective observers (i.e. your idea that people would say, "why do you have such love for this?") or even the characters asking themselves introspectively. Ehrlich hit on this point well by connecting PTA's interest in enigmatic love across his filmography: Why does Lena, a seemingly stable individual, pursue Barry with such aggressive conviction? Or Woodcock and Alma, unable to part with one another? Or Quell and Dodd's erratic and nebulous reciprocal magneticism, that confounds each of them perhaps more than it does the audience? It's attraction or love, or whatever label you want to cage the ineffable feeling with, that transcends logic and just 'is' because it's felt. I'm not sure PTA is intentionally drawing scenarios with perversity, but he is interested in the sensitive parts of people- sometimes through identifying social outcasts or eccentric characters, but he's also inclusive of stereotypical normalcy in characterization. I believe his interest lies more in expanding our peripheries to recognize that we are all eccentric and vulnerable, if we are honest with ourselves (and we have Daniel Plainview as a case in point for what consequences we face if we refuse this opportunity).

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#198 Post by Self » Tue Dec 07, 2021 5:17 pm

The Fanciful Norwegian wrote:
Tue Dec 07, 2021 2:09 pm
I really hope a 70mm print comes to Austin, but the only Drafthouse with a 70mm setup closed this year and the only other regular theater that could screen it is a rather unfashionable strip mall multiplex. They do have the film down as coming soon, so maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

The Austin Film Society is hosting a members' screening on Thursday that I got tickets to, with an intro from Richard Linklater. No word on whether it'll be 35mm so I suspect it's a DCP.
Still hoping for a 70mm showing in Austin as well. However, was able to snag tickets to the 35mm at the South Lamar Drafthouse on 12/4. Before the show, Tim League came out to introduce the film and Alana Haim joined him. After the screening he read a note from her that said “Q&As are dumb, how about a concert instead.” Her sisters were in town as well and we were taken to the bar for an intimate Haim concert. One heck of a moviegoing experience.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#199 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Dec 08, 2021 1:27 am

A final thought: I haven't been able to shake my own mental categorization between this film and Rushmore, my favorite American movie, and suddenly their relationship clicked (and it's not the similarities of youthful first love with an older woman, which really isn't an appropriate comparison since Alana Kane's developmental age is in sync with Gary Valentine's). Both are films about an enigmatic connection of feeling that is hardly comprehensible, with impulsive grand gestures and faux-posings of aloof confidence attempting to simultaneously generate love and defend against vulnerability. Yet while the Wes Anderson was concocted by an artist still struggling with angst on the road to self-actualization, the PTA moves past that raw emotional tornado and looks back with a more focused and mature fondness, yet never negating the urgency, of this elusive yet temporally attainable energy.

Even though Wes' film utilized Murray as an older character still finding difficulty with the nonlinear everpresent internal conflict of existential-emotional fulfillment, PTA's older men represent the opposite: inadvertence to Murray's cognizance. This consciousness is the sole greatest quality a person can possess in both filmmakers' worlds, one that can locate the key of willingness to unlock their opportunistic potential of participation in this world. The difference is that Wes saw consciousness as still harnessed and bound, at-times fatally, by barriers of 'self', himself still wrestling with these self-constructed obstructions as one does in their 20s. PTA is older and wiser and lays these obstacles bare as illusions born from fear-based habits, a simple truth that a younger person cannot access- and thus coats his film with an infinitely empowering sheen of possibility (and, I'd wager, helps him weigh the experience of both male and female principals with valued equity, while Rushmore inevitably deviates towards the two men as complementary broken halves of Wes' immature idealist and withered soul still tender from dysphoric cynicism-perpetuating experience).

Licorice Pizza is the grown-up version of Rushmore, at least as far as what each film means to me; and that's not to say that PTA's is better or more complex, because it isn't. Both are equally appropriate approaches to this intimate content from divergent vantage points of respective development, and when I think of both films I see a "Then vs. Now" picture of my own evolved worldviews, that still oscillate back and forth dependent on my own nonlinear retreat-liberation spectrum between the tunnel-vision weight from devolution into 'self' and freedom from this state cast back into peripheral sobriety. At times I find myself back in the myopic pain and surging desire to actualize the exuberant bravados of Rushmore, and need that film to recycle my will with humility; and I also need films like Licorice Pizza to remind myself that there is a simpler solution, to go with my gut, and that there are infinite opportunities within reach when I just get out of my head but retain my heart.

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Re: Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)

#200 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Dec 12, 2021 12:13 am

Saw this again tonight and noticed something new (but not exactly 'subtle'):
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The final immersion of Alana and Gary in front of the Live and Let Die banner is a winking sublimation of the film's themes following Alana's observations during the dinner with Wachs regarding her self and socially-constructed obstacles prohibiting her from accessing the depths of her feelings towards Gary, which is the only Truth that matters (cue significance of the Bond film's broadened meaning). The fact that it's sloppy, with them merging so intensely that they fall down in a slapstick folly, transcends the appropriately substantial embraces they've shared in hugs thus far, pushing the possibilities of tangibility into a new realm of uninhibited force each of them has failed to unlock the willingness to be sober to before this moment.

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