REVIEW:
Licorice Pizza
if Boogie Nights and Magnolia were dispiriting Valley epics about how the carelessness of others can break you down and rot you from the outside in, this is the companion piece to Punch-Drunk Love, surveying the boundless wells of joy that simple affection and acknowledgment can drill out of the nameless figures of the city-state. Licorice Pizza goes a different route from Punch-Drunk, forgoing the dreamlike happenstances and superhero story for a more subtle (but still Valley-weird) coming-of-age one.
Alana Haim is Alana (juxtaposed against a cast full of the children and parents of Hollywood stars) who finds a charming boy by the name of Gary Valentine. she humors his crush; he manages to bring back some of the fun in her, all buried under the weight of her 20s. unsure of her north, men extract from and reflect onto her—including Gary, who’s got a lot of growing up to do. she tries growing up herself, only to be thrown asunder (literally, from the back of a motorbike) and charmed for more pathetic purposes.
Gary knows what it’s like to be seen. he’s a child actor, regularly bumping shoulders and heads with the world-famous and making sure he’s at least in the room. he can’t help but see Alana. he takes a moment to stare when she sits next to him at the bar to accept his date offer; he sees her behind the bright headlight of a motorbike eight holes away on the golf course, when she falls straight onto her back, and runs full speed to her, only to give her a long, silent look before picking her up onto her feet.
in 1973, Nixon’s America, Joel Wachs runs as a Republican populist for Los Angeles’s mayorship. he’s an expert in seeing people where they’re at: he emphasizes to every reporter that he’s too busy working for everyone to focus on dating one person. (the real life Wachs would establish neighborhood councils for the first time in Los Angeles, getting residents to be, but most importantly feel, more involved in civics.) he gains the trust of Alana by telling her her presence in the office has made him more present with his work. he ends up exploiting her eagerness by using her as an impromptu beard for his aggrieved boyfriend, who he can’t be seen alone in a room with. in the end, Wachs would come in fifth in the race. how could he really see others as they are if he so viciously hid from his own reflection? perhaps voters could tell. in fact, despite two more runs in the next 40 years, he would never become mayor at all.
despite it all, the growing pains and the detours thrown at them, Alana and Gary always spot each other a mile away and will run towards each other. it’s apparent they’ll never be in love, but they’re bonded by some combination of admiration, respect, and care for each other. in other words: love.