Licorice & Peanuts

Paul Thomas Anderson refuses to go the commercial route in the films he writes and directs, and for that I’m grateful. I’ve never seen any of the myriad music videos he has done, but I’ve seen all of his full-length features. Each is challenging, as is his latest, Licorice Pizza (2021). Set in the Nixon era of long gas lines at the pump, it is the story of a successful young actor just shy of 16, who falls for a woman in her mid 20’s who looks as young as he. Their relationship remains platonic, I believe (one ambiguous scene), until the final moments. Along the way they branch out into entrepreneurship, selling waterbeds. Soon the teen opens an arcade, while the woman goes to work for a young politician. There isn’t much more to the story, but there are many quirky intervals involving others. If the title is explained during the narrative, I missed it. According to a Google search, it has two meanings. It was the name of a popular record store, which is not seen in the movie, and it’s a metaphor for vinyl records, which, to my surprise, I don’t recall having ever heard. The latter makes more sense, as the soundtrack features 20 tracks across a wide spectrum: jazz, folk, rock, pop. This was the first full length feature for the leads, Cooper Hoffman, 19, and Alaina Haim, 31. The latter fronts a band comprised of family members and stars in videos shot by Anderson. Sean Penn has a brief role as a character based on William Holden, as does Christine Ebersole as a Lucille Ball-type; and Tom Waits as an oddball; and Anderson’s wife Maya Rudolph of SNL fame as an auditioner; and John C. Reilly, perfectly cast as Herman Munster, although, to my chagrin, I didn’t spot him; and Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters, an unflattering portrait of someone still living. I was unable to find any comments Peters, once married to Streisand, has made about the part. 99,000+ users at Amazon have rated Licorice Pizza, forging to a consensus of 7.2 on a scale of ten, a bit high in my opinion. Then again, it received three Oscar nominations: Picture, Screenplay, Direction. Anderson has received eleven nods but has yet to take home a statuette. Now that I think of it, Licorice Pizza is sort of a lighter version of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Here are Hoffman and Haim in character:

Headline from foxnews.com: “U.K. residents are facing an 80% increase in their annual household energy bills.” Vlad has them by the …

It was a beautiful day to sell stuff curbside. My thanks to the couple who bought a kids’ book; and to the gentleman who purchased The Rat Pack (1998) and The Fountain (2006) on DVD; and to the woman who took home Asian Noodles: 86 Classic Recipes from Vietnam, Thailand, China, Korea and Japan by Maki Watanabe, and this gem:

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