Review of Licorice Pizza (2021) by Indiefilmlover — 10 Jan 2022

A basic concept of a romance is you're supposed to be rooting for the central couple to get together. That's kind of hard to do when the couple involves a 15-year-old boy and a woman in her mid-20s. Given the fact that the woman is unremarkable in virtually every aspect, it severely limits her appeal to boy as nothing more than vessel to lose one's virginity.

While the boy is charming and loaded with ambition, the woman comes across as vapid and rudderless. Working as a photographer's assistant, she even confesses to the young man that she expects to still be working in the same position ten years later.

As a story about a friendship between two opposites the film works much better. Through the course of the film, you begin to get the sense that they truly care about each other. Set in the San Fernando Valley section of Los Angeles in 1973, the film is a nostalgia trip of various goings-on on at that time, but writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson goes a bit overboard with the details.

Unless you grew up in that era or relate to specific details about the characters (e.g., religion, hobbies, interests), you'll find the film overlong and meandering. That being said, the film is mostly entertaining with a fair amount of charm.