Anticipating Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza

yeah i was shocked he was able to pull a coherent adaptation out of such a nutso book

movie also snips one of doc's threads of inquiry, can't remember which, but it's for the better

― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, September 29, 2021 3:09 PM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

movie gets rid of the book's Vegas digression, which contains one of the best summations of Pynchon ever:

“Out there, all around them to the last fringes of occupancy, were Toobfreex at play in the video universe, the tropic isle, the Long Branch Saloon, the Starship Enterprise, Hawaiian crime fantasies, cute kids in make-believe living rooms with invisible audiences to laugh at everything they did, baseball highlights, Vietnam footage, helicopter gunships and firefights, and midnight jokes, and talking celebrities, and a slave girl in a bottle, and Arnold the pig, and here was Doc, on the natch, caught in a low-level bummer he couldn’t find a way out of, about how the Psychedelic Sixties, this little parenthesis of light, might close after all, and all be lost, taken back into darkness . . . how a certain hand might reach terribly out of darkness and reclaim the time, easy as taking a joint from a doper and stubbing it out for good.”

To some extent they morph this digression into Doc's encounter with Mickey in the asylum but I don't recall if it covers this passage.

I haven't read the book, but in the synopsis I did see (and that posted excerpt), it seems including that part would skirt extremely closely to bat Fear & Loathing country.

That sentence is a perfect example of why I've never been able to finish Gravity's Rainbow.

On a different note, this cleared up what I thought was just a psychedelic choice for naming a record store:

It’s from a self-deprecating joke by the comedy-folk duo Bud and Travis, who joke around the 9:30 mark of this video that one of their vinyl records is so unsuccessful that it’s being marketed as “licorice pizza” — since records are black and round.

Also initials L. P.

i like hard eight. it’s not his best, maybe even in his bottom 3. but it’s really good imho. i love philip baker hall

i get why a quirky LA neo-noir about people fucking up wasn’t the most original concept 3 years after pulp fiction. but it’s still a lot of fun

We have soundtrack: https://pitchfork.com/news/paul-thomas-anderson-licorice-pizza-soundtrack-announced/

Barabajagal, yessss

Well...He transformed some real junk in Boogie Nights, so anything's possible. (I can see him doing something memorable with "Diamond Girl.") Underwhelming, though. "My Ding-a-Ling" for Chuck Berry? That's insulting (and irredeemable, I'm guessing).

(I see it's a version from 1967 with the Steve Miller Band. So maybe it started out life sounding like Chuck Berry's supposed to sound.)

Kind of wishing there was more Have A Nice Day junk tbh, like I can totally see him doing something great with "How Do You Do?" or "Chick-A-Boom". Related: I really wish the trailer had been cut to Dwight Twilley's "I'm On Fire"...but then again I wish all trailers were cut to that.

Would look forward to either of those first two, basically the equivalent of what he did with "Sister Christian," "Driver's Seat," and Apollo 100's "Joy."

This looks like it’ll be fun.

Maybe he's paying tribute to the Canadian film Paperback Hero (1:15:45) with "If You Could Read My Mind," the one song on that list I unreservedly love (also used memorably in Mr. Robot).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ig2EL6WBEs

Walter Chaw: https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2021/11/licorice-pizza-ghostbusters-afterlife.html

I rewatched Inherent Vice, hoping that I would like it without the burden of expectations. I liked it a little more, but was stunned several times upon realizing there was still x much time left. "45 minutes? fuck..."

The original viewing put me off so much that I avoided the Phantom Thread. I also have a mild problem with costume dramas, but I should probably have a go at it. Licorice Pizza has me hopeful.

I also have a mild problem with costume dramas, but I should probably have a go at it. Licorice Pizza has me hopeful.

A movie set in the 1970s *is* a costume drama.

Yeah, what's a costume drama?

I watched Inherent Vice again recently, and somehow the pacing and tone settled in a lot better than on the first viewing. I don't think I had inappropriate expectations when I first saw it, but maybe having a vague memory about what was about to happen allowed me to pay more attention to what was occurring in the moment.

Yeah, what's a costume drama?

MOVIE REVIEWS

'Licorice Pizza' Is Paul Thomas Anderson's 1970s Power Ballad - and the Funkiest Love Story of the Year
A spiritual prequel to 'Punch Drunk Love,' the filmmaker's look back at a bygone era couldn't be more personal — or have better performers at its center
Have not read rest; ads are fucking w my computer:
https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/licorice-

Were there 1970s power ballads? "Fade Away and Radiate"?

Kiss's "Beth" The 70s were full of them.

Styx "Lady" comes to mind

Dust in the Wind

Buncha Elton: "Candle In The Wind"; "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me"; "Levon" etc.

PLUS THE FUCKIN' EAGLES

BOB GODDAMN SEGER

read a positive review of this which confirmed my lack of desire to see it

LYNRYD SHITKICKIN' SKYNYRD

Yeah but the 'power' in power ballad connotes an explosion of electric guitars and thundering drums

Otherwise it's just a ballad

ELECTRIC MELLONFARMIN' LIGHT ORCHESTRA

Yeah but the 'power' in power ballad connotes an explosion of electric guitars and thundering drums

Some if not all of those bands did that.

Ballads are Ballads but part of the "Power" is the showstopping, reach for the rafters sing-along chorus.

ANTHEMS

Possibly substitute Queen for ELO.

Juice Newton - “ Angel of the Morning” is a total 70’s powerballad

candle in the wind is just a ballad imo

I've always maintained that Whitesnake's Here I Go Again is just a rewrite of Angel of the Morning

Whoa Juice has kind of a crazy-eyed Kate Bush thing going here... pretty awesome

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTzGMEfbnAw

Nazareth: "Love Hurts" so good (their covers of "Hollis Brown" proto-folk-metal ritualizm, the Joni cover, though blanking on title, more ov a power folkie-ballad)(they should have done "Candle In The Wind," then it would have been proper power ballad) But I was thinking more "tasteful romantic move by 80s metal etc."

Joni cover = "This Flight Tonight"

Ramones had a few!

For an acoustic guy, Cat Stevens had a ton of these.

Licorice Pizza Love Jams

I don't even own a Film Twitter, but sorta surprised the grievance Chaw had that's getting run with is the age difference thing and not the racial thing, but OTOH I guess the former is easier to address without having yet seen the movie.

Between the trailers for THE TENDER BAR and LICORICE PIZZA this weekend, I was deeply irritated with lovingly recreated 70s scuzz. So of course AFI Silver just announced a 70mm screening of LP for this Saturday evening. (It previously was scheduled to open there Christmas Day; no word on analog or digital format.) Decisions, decisions.

goddamn i hated this so much. what a bullshit white dude nostalgia trip. and im a jew that grew up in the valley! it should have hit different. oh well.

These types of films aren't always (or even usually) aimed at people who shared in their era, experience, geography, etc.