LOVE THE BUSINESS (LICORICE PIZZA)

Paul Thomas Anderson is one of those directors who could devise a movie about a tax return and make it magical.

Every three to five years when a film of his comes out, he garners considerable critical acclaim and his picture seems to be a big awards season contender.

Yet Hollywood has never awarded the insanely talented 51 year old an Oscar.

Any director would bite his or her arm off to have at least one film as good as 'Hard Eight,' 'Boogie Nights,' 'Magnolia,' 'Punch Drunk Love,' 'There Will Be Blood,' 'The Master,' 'Inherent Vice' and 'Phantom Thread'.

And yet, just like Orson Welles, Alfred Hitchcock, Sidney Lumet, Quentin Tarantino Stanley Kubrick, Robert Altman and Spike Lee, it seems the Academy Awards are reluctant to recognise his considerable skill.

Critical expectations are usually sky high for an Anderson movie and that has certainly been true for 'Licorice Pizza' - a coming of age tale about a teenager with a flair for business and a romantic obsession with a 25 year old.

The film has inevitably drawn some controversy - given the ten year age difference in the film between Cooper Hoffman's Gary Valentine and his love interest Alana Haim's Alana Kane.

Not only that but some critics and audiences have expressed unease about the tendency of one character, John Michael Higgins' restaurant owner Jerry Frick in the film to speak in a mock Japanese accent to the Japanese women working there.

We'll return to those controversies later.

'Licorice Pizza' is a celebration of the potential of youth and of a far from conventional romance.

It's about a time in a person's life where anything seems possible before the reality of becoming an adult bites.

As a viewer you kind of go along for the ride in Anderson's film, wondering where it may take you.

Set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973, Alana Haim's Alana and Cooper Hoffman's Gary are two souls trying to find their way in the world.

Alana hops from job to job and flirtations with young and older men, making mistakes as she goes along. 

Gary is a kid who doesn't lack confidence either in business or love but whose precociousness often lands him in trouble.

At the start of Anderson's film, Alana is working as a photographer's assistant when she runs into Gary in his high school.

Deploying his gift of the gab, he immediately tries to land a date with her and while Alana is amused, she mocks the age difference.

However charmed by him, she takes up his offer to meet later for drinks and dinner at the Tail of the Cock Inn.

Gary reveals he has been a child star, appearing in films and auditioning for commercials.

He has plans to go on a national press tour to promote a film he is in starring Christine Ebersole's comedy star Lucy Dolittle.

However he needs an adult to chaperone him on the tour as his mum, Mary Elizabeth Ellis' Anita is unable to do it because of work commitments 

Alana is hired and heads to New York with him, attracting the attention of an older co-star, Skyler Gisondo's Lance Brannigan on the flight.

During a performance on the tour, Gary tries to impress Alana with an in-joke and incurs the wrath of a furious Lucy.

Much to his chagrin, Alana and Lance start dating on their return to California until a dinner with her family goes badly.

Gary has other interests on the go including a public relations business he runs with his mum and a waterbed business which he draws Alana into as his assistant.

During the course of the movie, he repeatedly shows a flair for business - even when the oil crisis starts to hit California hard.

His romantic aspirations towards Alana fluctuates as both he and she dip in and out of relationships.

However it also becomes clear that Alana has a deep fondness for him, as he starts to date girls his own age.

At one stage with Gary's encouragement, Alana toys with becoming an actress and also goes to work on a political campaign for Bennie Safdie's mayoral hopeful, Joel Wachs.

But will the duo settle on a fulfilling career path and be able to reconcile their complex relationship?

Nominated for three Academy Awards, four Golden Globes and five BAFTAs, 'Licorice Pizza' kind of rolls along with Gary and Alana's adventures.

These include a brush with the law that sees Gary being wrongfully arrested, an insane night on the town with Sean Penn's movie star Jack Holden and Tom Waits' director Rex Blau and an even crazier encounter with Bradley Cooper's film producer Jon Peters.

At its heart, though, is a well crafted script by Anderson which is packed with nods to movies that have influenced it.

At first, Gary's precociousness and prolific CV is reminiscent of Max Fischer in Wes Anderson's superb 1999 comedy 'Rushmore'.

Although, unlike Jason Schwartzman's character in Wes Anderson's movie, Gary undoubtedly has the talent to back up some of his more ambitious enterprises.

The director has been very open about the influence of Richard Linklater's 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' and George Lucas' 'American Graffiti' on the look and tone of the film.

There's no doubt that 'Licorice Pizza' shares Linklater's tendency in 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High,' 'Dazed and Confused' and 'Everybody Wants Some' to make his audience feel like they are just hanging out with the gang of young people portrayed in the film.

The film also recreates the drive-in fast food culture of Lucas' film and directly references a high school bathroom scene in 'American Graffiti'.

A lot has been made too of the fact that Gary is based on the real life movie producer Gary Goetzman, who was a child star and whose paths crossed with Jon Peters.

Goetzman eventually wound up making movies with one of Anderson's cinematic heroes, the late Jonathan Demme.

A motorcycle scene involving Penn's William Holden-style star is also a knowing reference to the beginning of Demme's 'Melvin and Howard'.

The political campaign office is a clear hat tip to Martin Scorsese's 'Taxi Driver'.

In a sequence where Alana skilfully steers a truck down a hill to a gas station, he also salutes Henri-George Clouzot's tense 1953 thriller 'The Wages of Fear' or William Friedkin's 1977 remake 'Sorcerer' - take your pick.

While spotting these references and, no doubt many more, is fun for the cinephile, 'Licorice Pizza' stands and falls on the quality of Anderson's BAFTA winning screenplay. 

Fortunately, 'Licorice Pizza' is never dull as it seeks to tap into Gary and Alana's embrace of all the oportunities that 1970s California slings their way. 

While some people have struggled with the age gap between the two central characters, Gary's obsession and pursuit of Alana is again reminiscent of Max Fischer's misguided advances towards Olivia Williams' much older elementary school teacher Rosemary Cross in 'Rushmore'.

There's also a twist on the climax of Woody Allen's 'Manhattan' which also had a problematic age gap between two lovers.

While it is clear there is a deep, deep bond between Alana and Gary, Anderson is careful not to completely overstep the bounds of decency.

However the film treads a very thin tightrope in its depiction of the relationship and it's easy to see why some people would feel uncomfortable about it.

The Japanese restaurant owner gag simply misfires.

While Anderson may be trying to satirise racial attitudes of the time, it's easy to see how his motives could be misinterpreted.

Nevertheless 'Licorice Pizza' is an enjoyable trek through two young lives and it thrives on charming debut performances from Hoffman and Haim.

It is inevitable, like Michael Gandolfini in 'The Many Saints of Newark,' that you find yourself detecting mannerisms of Cooper Hoffman's father, the late Philip Seymour Hoffman - another Paul Thomas Anderson favourite.

Like Michael Gandolfini, there's alsp loads to suggest he could go on to have as stellar a career as his old man.

Haim is much more like a muse in a French Nouvelle Vague film like Jeanne Morreau in 'Jules et Jim', Corinne Marchand in 'Cleo From 5 to 7' or Jean Seberg in 'Au Bout de Souffle'.

There's a flightiness at times to her performance but as the film wears on, there's increasing grit.

As with most Anderson films, the movie is packed with electric performances from character actors and more famous faces.

Cooper is very amusing in a white jumpsuit as the volatile and big headed Jon Peters, while Penn brings a combination of old style Hollywood glamour and recklessness as Holden.

Waits crackles onscreen as Blau who is based on the director of 'Champion,' 'Von Ryan's Express' and 'Valley of the Dolls,' Mark Robson whose 'The Bridges of Toko-Ri' with William Holden and Grace Kelly is specifically referenced.

Gisondo amuses as Lance who spectacularly blows his chance with Alana.

Harriet Sansom Harris, who audiences will know from 'Frasier' as his immoral agent Bebe Glazer, memorably pops up as another chain smoking agent who Gary introduces Alana to.

Christine Ebersole relishes her chance to depict a cantankerous Lucille Ball-style comedienne, while Benny Safdie is striking as a promising young Mayoral candidate with a secret.

In a smart move, Alana Haim's real life sisters Danielle and Este, who are in the successful indie band Haim with her, portray her sisters.

Their real father, the former Israeli footballer Mordechai "Moti" Haim and mother, Donna also play her character's parents.

Eagle eyed viewers will spot and hear long time Anderson collaborator John C Reilly in an uncredited, very brief cameo as 'The Munsters' star Fred Gwynne.

Maya Rudolph also surfaces briefly as a casting agent in a commercial that Gary enthusiastically auditions for.

But while the performances are good, Anderson's film is a typical technical triumph.

With Michael Bauman and Paul Thomas Anderson both taking on cinematography duties, the camera leisurely follows its characters' antics.

Andy Jurgensen does a superb job as the film editor keeping it at just the right pace and Florencia Martin's production design and Mark Bridges' costume design get the period detail just right.

Amid tracks ranging from David Bowie's 'Life on Mars' to The Doors' 'Peace Frog' and Paul McCartney and Wings' 'Let Me Roll It' to Gordon Lightfoot's 'If You Could Read My Mind,' Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood pulls together an eclectic soundtrack that also features Nina Simone, Bing Crosby, Donovan, Sonny and Cher and Taj Mahal as well as his own original guitar track.

But ultimately it is the youthful energy of Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman and the vivacity of Sean Penn, Tom Waits and Bradley Cooper's performances that you remember.

Prior to 'Licorice Pizza,' Paul Thomas Anderson's greatness as a director was never in doubt.

This film, while not quite reaching the high watermarks of 'Magnolia,' 'Punch Drunk Love' and 'There Will Be Blood' merely confirms it.

Having walked away empty handed at this year's Oscars, the question begs: will Hollywood eventually recognise Anderson's talent and honour a movie of his worthy of such adulation?

Or will they do what they did with Martin Scorsese and honour a good film but not one of his best? 

Time will tell.

('Licorice Pizza' was released in the UK and Ireland on January 1, 2022)