Anticipating Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza

They could swap this trailer out for the one for the Sopranos prequel and no one would notice

huh?

I think that was meant to be supporting evidence for Brad's assertion

Oh that makes sense, I read it as a dismissive thing about it being another period piece with an actor's kid.

Awards Blogger/Movie Lefsetz Jeffrey Wells serves up the hot takes re: the casting of Alana Haim

https://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2021/09/i-say-again/

FWIW, up until now I didn't know how old she is, but have people suddenly forgotten that actors (particularly those playing young folks) aren't playing their exact ages most of the time. I can certainly buy her playing younger, definitely either side of 20, which is what it looks like she's doing in the film.

it seems like there's an age difference between the characters in the film that will not go uncommented upon, for whatever that's worth

trying to hard for years to be less strident in my musical opinions but can arthouse movie bros please please give Hunky Dory era Bowie a rest for God's sake

*so hard

9.20.21: It seems to me that if you’re a major-league director making a supposedly important film about a couple of love-struck kids (even though the off-screen Haim is pushing 30), you can go with one unknown as long as you pair him/her with a skilled name-brand actor, but you can’t have two unknowns carrying the film because no one will care all that much.

I mean, movies deal in familiar faces and personalities for a reason…right?

There are basic rules about young person relationship movies. Rule #1 is that at least one of the kids should be a half-familiar face, which helps with the comfort factor. Rule #2 is that the kids have to be at least somewhat attractive, not just to each other but to the audience. I’m sorry but ginger-haired Cooper Hoffman looks nerdy and freckly. I can’t put myself in his shoes. I really can’t. Haim isn’t anyone’s idea of a knockout either. The idea seems to be “the odd couple.”

this guy gets paid to talk about movies? who is this mother fucker?

can i get a picture of this guy so i can talk about whether or not he's fuckable? hold on

He should be so lucky to look as attractive as Cooper Hoffman.

https://i.imgur.com/IGYUsmz.png

Haim isn’t anyone’s idea of a knockout either.

https://i.imgur.com/IGYUsmz.png

Haim isn’t anyone’s idea of a knockout either.

https://i.imgur.com/IGYUsmz.png

Haim isn’t anyone’s idea of a knockout either.

https://i.imgur.com/IGYUsmz.png

Haim isn’t anyone’s idea of a knockout either.

he couldn't be any more Incel in the Basement Criticizing Tits if he wanted to be

Rule #2 is that the kids have to be at least somewhat attractive, not just to each other but to the audience.

rules are meant to be broken in half and then used to beat the rulemakers

Oh, he's the "could you send me nude outtakes of Vinessa Shaw please" guy. I thought he rang a bell.

https://deadline.com/2007/09/creepiest-email-from-a-blogger-to-hollywood-3216/

He's such a sexist/racist/other -ist turd and he's been a turd for years. I have no doubt the same people that say "actors have to be pretty" mock actors that go sans makeup etc. in movies for chasing awards.

PTA's been on a roll since 2012 imo.

2014

PTA's been on a roll since his first movie, imo. Even his not great movies, whichever ones one thinks are not great, are always interesting and worth seeing.

And Jeffrey Wells has leaned so far into his role as an idiot villain he makes nu-Arm0nd look nuanced and insightful in comparison. At least the latter still watches and analyzes movies, some of the time.

i pledge to never read anything about movies ever again unless an ilxor wrote it

wells' review of Wizard of Oz (1939) - "judy garland is certainly a bombshell and a good casting decision, but what's with the long dress all the time? the tin man, scarecrow, and lion supporting cast was an absolute mess - all three are clearly older men in costumes and makeup. and why didn't scarecrow have a sex scene with dorothy at the end? clearly there was a connection there."

PTA's been on a roll since his first movie, imo. Even his not great movies, whichever ones one thinks are not great, are always interesting and worth seeing.

Counterpoint: nah

I really really did not like The Master but it was interesting and I guess worth seeing somehow. Moreso than say Hateful 8 which I didn't like either but didn't have as strong a negative reaction as with The Master.

I can watch Hard Eight anytime but can't finish Magnolia and will not dare to endure Punch Drunk Love again.

My hot take is that The Master had some wonderful scenes and incredible performances, but was not a very good movie.

i am not the one to be in this discussion, because i am a fool, but i'll bet that to some people, "some wonderful scenes and incredible performances" adds up to a "good movie", even if the rest of the elements aren't quite so impressive. kind of like a musical performance/album can be saved by some exceptional elements

i'm not sure i believe that, mind you -- i don't, i don't think -- but just wondrin

I hated "Hateful Eight" so much.

I was being a little flip, I just didn't think it all held together as a satisfying film. I loved PSH and Joaquin's performances and they had some incredible moments together, but I was frustrated that they only hinted at some of the more interesting things going on around them (Amy Adams was wasted, imo, and I think there was a more interesting thread about how her character influenced Dodd, but it was only hinted at). I didn't hate the move, it's just the last PTA movie I want to revisit at this point.

Eh I'm already wanted to walk back that Adams was "wasted", I just wanted more of her in it.

almost everyone in the movie was wasted to one degree or another though, haha, wouldn't surprise me

To borrow from Kael, The Master was straining so hard to be great it wasn't even good.

did you even SEE that scene where joaquin phoenix fucks the sand though? to me, that was everything

Paging Wakefield Poole.

I just reviewed the key plot lines of Boys in the Sand and I don’t see anything about fucking the actual sand. I will continue to believe that PT Anderson and Phoenix pioneered sand masturbation until confronted with earlier footage

straining so hard to be great it wasn't even good

This describes Boogie Nights perfectly.

I want to like Boogie Nights more than I do, but as a writer he fell in love with the character bits that didn't cohere into characters, then couldn't orchestrate them.

I've realized the PTA I like is the director of comedies and chamber dramas.

Except Boogie Nights is a comedy, imo, and a great one at that.

Straining so hard to be great it's not even any good describes stuff like The Irishman, not Boogie Nights, imo. Boogie Nights might be kids stuff, but he was practically a kid, and I can't fault the directing or the acting, and more than a handful of scenes are practically iconic at this point. Not even considering that movie good strikes me as revisionism, though I suppose if you don't like it you just don't like it.

"you" in this case being any of us.

xp to myself - At least the first 2/3rds before the heavy handedness kicks in.

His more explicit comedies, like Punch Drunk and Inherent Vice, are the ones I least want to see again. But all of his movies are funny, to an extent. Comedies of the human condition.

I was frustrated that they only hinted at some of the more interesting things going on around them

this is otm for me. i wish i saw what other people see in his last 3 but i just cant get there. they each feel like he's settled into this mode of where theres all these great actors filmed beautifully, arrayed into really interesting characters and relationships located in a really fascinating specific historical milieu, and as they orbit each other a movie always seems to be juuuust on the verge of breaking out but never quite does. eventually it feels like its all just about teeing up shots for Our Finest Actors to get to do Big Important Acting Moments, and i check out.

I can watch Phantom Thread any time.

The last half is a dare triumphantly realized, and as much as the film works as a depiction of masculine ego it's also damn funny, because, after all, we need good tea and sausage for breakfast and a martini with a twist after a hard day.

In other words: no consensus!

I still haven't seen Phantom Thread!

xpost That's just it, the fact that he's made so many movies yet there is no consensus which ones are the good/great ones really sets him apart for me. They're (mostly) all pretty interesting/novel.

What gets me is how often he fumbles in the last half-hour, to the point where I'm saying, "That's what he thinks this film is all about?!?" The Master is the only one with a great denouement, but they almost all have great scenes and performances (Inherent Vice lost me completely).

Just watched this, can I say it's simultaneously a good movie and a lousy one?

Good: Alana Haim is spectacular, Hoffmann is convincing enough, I did believe the relationship (though I don't have great hopes that it will last, it's so contingent on the specific points they're both at in their lives), I appreciate the continuing Haim family multiverse (see also "No Body No Crime")
Bad: the plot that moved the characters between emotional checkpoints...boring and way too long. Especially the Hollywood stuff that I've seen before. I wish I could have seen the same characters in a different film.

Ultimately the only PTA I've liked is Inherent Vice (have not seen The Phantom Thread), maybe we're not meant to be.

rewatching, can confirm still great

“Ugh, Danielle I’m eliminating property tax for the elderly and saving the mountains and you’re talking about free Pepsi”

that part in licorice pizza where you hear the todd rundgren radio ad is the closest i've come to experiencing asmr

— boss crude (@bosscrood) December 15, 2022

lol i love that part

the way Alana is reading Jack Holden’s face like an ancient text for ANY clue of what the fuck he’s talking about