FIRST LOVE IN LICORICE PIZZA
Bradley Cooper, Alana Haim, Sean Penn+
The year is 1973, and the setting is the San Fernando Valley; our leads are teenagers Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman). We follow along as these two crazy kids come of age and fall in love over the summer of ‘73, seeing all of the ups and downs of that memorable adventure that is first love. Or, as the official synopsis put it, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza is: “The story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.”
Licorice Pizza marks the feature film debut of both Haim and Hoffman. Haim is, of course, best known as one-third of the pop-rock group Haim, which consists of her and her two older sisters, Este Haim and Danielle Haim. Before landing the leading role in this film, Hoffman was just another teenage kid. Albeit, a teenager who’d spent his whole life around Hollywood since his father was the late Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The cast is a veritable cadre of heavy hitters that includes Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie, Maya Rudolph, Ben Stiller, and John C. Reilly. The score was composed by Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. Leonardo DiCaprio was initially offered Cooper’s role, but he could not join this Anderson project due to scheduling conflicts with another project.
The movie was initially filmed under the working title Soggy Bottom but was changed to Licorice Pizza. The title is derived from a slang term for a record. If you still have any vinyl lying around, take a look, the distinct color is undoubtedly reminiscent of licorice, and the shape is the same as a pizza. There was also a chain of record stores in Glendale, California, called Licorice Pizza, open throughout the 1970s.
Licorice Pizza will have a limited theatrical release on November 26, 2021, before its wide release on December 25, 2021.
