Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson's paean to the 1970s California teenager fidgets around so much--what with stop-and-start episodes that don't really go anywhere in particular but, instead, "build momentum" as they say--some viewers may start wondering around the one-hour mark what the movie is going to be about. Cooper Hoffman (the son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a real find as a 15-year-old go-getter; rushing around on pure youthful adrenaline, he's a sweet kid who hustles himself first before delivering product, parlaying his schemes into reality. Before she knows it, Alana Haim's "older woman", a kids' photographer in her twenties, is meeting this kid for a soda. She's dazzled by his self-assurance but keeps her awe somewhat in check. This seems an unlikely match--what 20-year-old girl hangs around with a teenage boy?--but with Anderson guiding us through their many assorted misadventures, it's easy to buy into this relationship. "Licorice Pizza" is slight, but admirers of Anderson's style will likely be captivated and won't care. Initially, the dialogue between Hoffman and Haim is unreal (she's at his school for Picture Day); however, once Hoffman demonstrates to her that he's a doer--a teenage actor, an entrepreneur, a businessman--she becomes his partner, his driver...but not his girlfriend! It's an amusingly simple movie with complicated emotions running all the way through it. I don't feel Anderson brought the film to a satisfactory close (the editing seems a little lax and the staging is disappointing), but these kids are quite extraordinary to watch and the eclectic supporting cast is full of interesting oddballs. *** from ****
Review of Licorice Pizza
