Licorice Pizza *** (2021, Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie) – Classic Movie Review 13,973

Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman make their film debuts as a photographer’s assistant and a teen actor, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2021 American coming-of-age comedy drama film Licorice Pizza,

Cooper Hoffman makes his film debut in the 2021 American coming-of-age comedy drama film Licorice Pizza, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, a frequent collaborator of his father Philip Seymour Hoffman.

It also stars Alana Haim in her film debut, alongside Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, and Benny Safdie.

Set in 1973 in California’s San Fernando Valley, the film follows the romantic relationship between 15-year-old actor Gary Valentine (Hoffman) and the 25-year-old photographer’s assistant Alana Kane (Haim) he meets at his school picture day. 

Licorice Pizza is amusing enough, and witty in places, even sometimes charming, but it is a Marmite movie, love it or loathe it. (That could be said about all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies, by the way.) Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman give good performances, but don’t show enough charisma to carry the movie. Some of the other performances are off key; others are entertaining.

Cooper Hoffman’s performance was acclaimed and nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

It received three nominations at the 94th Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

It was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute, received four nominations at the 79th Golden Globe Awards (including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy), and won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

It is named after a former chain of record shops in southern California. Anderson said: ‘If there’s two words that make me kind of have a Pavlovian response and memory of being a child and running around, it’s ‘licorice’ and ‘pizza’. It instantly takes me back to that time. They seem like a catch-all for the feeling of the film that go well together and maybe capture a mood.’

He names Fast Times at Ridgemont High and American Graffiti as major influences on the film. But, though Licorice Pizza has its charms and laughs, it isn’t as fresh and funny as those two.

© Derek Winnert 2026 Classic Movie Review 13,973

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com