This 2021 Paul Thomas Andersen coming-of-age comedy drama stars Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. That’s the son of cinema legend Philip Seymour Hoffman, with Cooper making his movie acting debut here.
Paul Thomas Anderson wrote and directed Licorice Pizza, which is an often heady and funny account of unconventional love in 1973 San Fernando Valley, California. It’s a thumbs up from us.
Plenty of Waterbeds to Sell in Licorice Pizza
Okay, so the title of the film is a nod to a now defunct South Californian record store chain from the 1970s. Being English, we didn’t get that reference at all until we looked it up.
Licorice Pizza lives and breathes its early ’70s vibes from the off. There’s a carefree swing to it all, plus the sense of a pulverising American summer.
The plot follows the antics of precocious 15-year-old child actor Gary Valentine (Hoffman) and his keen interest in 25-year-old photography assistant Alana Kane (Alana Haim… actor having the same name as their character vibes). During a school picture day, Gary swoops in to get Alana’s attention. She rebuffs him due to his age.
Paul Thomas Anderson has a way with these unusual love stories. Punch-Drunk Love (2002) with Adam Sandler and Emma Watson is a notable one, plus the excellent Phantom Thread (2017) with Daniel-Day Lewis. Both films focus on two autistic male characters and their unique allure for two women.
In Licorice Pizza, there’s no autism! And this time, it’s a man being infatuated with a woman. Upon seeing Alana, something clicks in Gary and he’s head over heels.
Due to his natural charm and several bits of happenstance, Alana ends up becoming part of Gary’s life. From there, the film explores their friendship as Gary’s character swings between conman and talented child actor.
He winds up selling waterbeds. Once again, Gary’s natural ability to bullshit charm his way into various marketing escapades pay off with a radio ad and the business starts to take off (cue a timely bit of Peace Frog song from The Doors).
Oh yeah, there’s a suitably ’70s soundtrack throughout the film. With a few noteworthy uses of Life on Mars by David Bowie.
But waterbeds really do dominate 1/3 of this film’s runtime (in a good way).
During his waterbed operation the staff runs into all sorts of people, such as the half-crazed hairstylist Jon Peters (played with real verve by Bradley Cooper). He’s very insistent on his relationship with Barbara Streisand.
The film is just over two hours long, features some madcap caper type moments, but all of it is geared in classic coming-of-age fashion. For two characters—Gary and Alana.
Gary’s bombastic personality does lapse into devious territory at times, there are a lot of red flags going on there and Alana would be wise to run a mile. But she sticks around, despite her clear understanding of the troubles ahead.
Licorice Pizza did court controversy due to the age difference between the two characters.
However, to be clear, there’s no romantic interest presented by Alana until the end of the film. At that point, Gary is no long a minor as the plot plays out over several years. SPOILER! They kiss at the end FYI.
Whilst this is definitely not Anderson’s best film, there’s still a lot to love here.
He wrote the script and it’s great. Charming, funny, and witty. It never feels like a deeply personal coming-of-age film, such as with the modern classic Lady Bird (2017). Not for us, anyway, the film leans into the caper territory a bit too much and we didn’t found ourselves fondly remembering our youths due to the thing.
But if you were around in San Fernando Valley back in 1973 you may well disagree with us.
Final note, too, this was the feature film debut for Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman. Both are excellent, with the latter casting particularly poignant. Paul Thomas Anderson worked with his acting legend father Philip Seymour Hoffman twice. Those were Boogie Nights (1997) and Magnolia (1999).
Cooper Hoffman is 23 now and so this film five years back was his chance to prove his acting mettle. He’s in two 2026 films, was in two last year, and two in 2024. So! Expect him to be a two films a year kinda actor.
The Production of Licorice Pizza
Unfortunately, the film was a box office flop. Its $40 million budget resulted in a $33.3 million global recoup. Bummer. Its failure was pinned on the aftermath of COVID-19, with the November 2021 launch following on from various lockdowns when people weren’t used to going to cinemas.
However, the controversy of the age gap between Alana and Gary also seemed to put a lot of people going to see it.
We read about the controversy prior to watching it, notably with various Reddit commenters being upset about the film’s presentation of what they consider to be “paedophilia“. Reading many of these comments almost put us off from streaming it, but then we convinced ourselves to go ahead anyway (as we’re big Paul Thomas Anderson fans) and the fuss is really about nothing.
The two leads have a quasi-romantic relationship for 99% of the film. When they kiss in the closing frame of the film, Gary is no longer a minor. It all seems very tame compared to the hilarious mayhem presented in Anderson’s One Battle After Another (2025), but that film didn’t get anywhere near the same moral panic reaction. Oh well.
Anyway, remember COVID? The film’s shoot was in Encino, California, from August to November 2020. The cast and crew managed quite an extensive shoot around all the pandemic issues.
For casting, Anderson actually picked Cooper Hoffman late in the pre-production process. He got the gig as he riffed well with Alana Haim’s natural acting skills. And of Alana Haim…
Did you know she’s also a musician!? She’s part of the threesome pop band Haim with her two older sisters. She’s a guitarist, pianist, and singer. Behold!
On a final note, whilst the film was a commercial disappointment and courted controversy, it was also a big critical hit. Reviews were strong and it got three Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay (without winning any).
Don’t be put off watching it. Here be a fun time of laughs, gasps, and a very realistic sense of ’70s heatwave vibes.
