Licorice Pizza - Speculation & General Reactions

[wilberfan]

We live in a world where great posters are, nearly exclusively, unofficial/fan made ones.

You may have a point there.   I never really liked the "official" Boogie Nights artwork--either big red star on the black poster, or the 'cartoon' DVD/Blu cover. I did see some BN posters I liked tho.   I stumbled upon one of my favorite fan-made Thread posters this morning and remembered how much I liked it at the time.   But do fan posters have an advantage in that they're always produced after the film is out?

[Yes]

The Boogie Nights marketing is fine but you get why PTA went ballistic over it and went so hands on with Magnolia

[HACKANUT]

Don't get me wrong, It would be nice to see PTA have a box office hit. But I wonder if that's the goal. Sure he doesn't want his movies to fail, but he seems content making the films he wants to make at the expense of mass appeal. Artistically, that's an honorable goal. And if someone keeps giving him money to make them because they either support the cause or want the prestige, he's winning.

[HACKANUT]

We live in a world where great posters are, nearly exclusively, unofficial/fan made ones.

You may have a point there.   I never really liked the "official" Boogie Nights artwork--either big red star on the black poster, or the 'cartoon' DVD/Blu cover. I did see some BN posters I liked tho.   I stumbled upon one of my favorite fan-made Thread posters this morning and remembered how much I liked it at the time.   But do fan posters have an advantage in that they're always produced after the film is out?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that phantom thread poster made before the official release? I could easily be misremembering.

But YES, I would agree, fan made posters benefit heavily from being made after the fact.

[wilberfan]

...and went so hands on with Magnolia.

Paul still has enough clout to be completely hands-on with this marketing campaign, right?  I mean we're basically second-guessing Paul Thomas Anderson, here, on how he wants to present something that's (if you're auteurish) his creation.

Having said that, tho, there's really nothing wrong with discussing what we'd like to have seen instead, but...does he deserve the benefit of the doubt here for the next six weeks at least? 

[Yes]

I'm not doubting the movie will be good.

It's surely making no money though. So MGM hopefully understands that and accepts the loss now. The poster is dumb but if PTA wants to cater and build buzz with the only people who'll see the movie (us) with trailer premieres, I'm all for it. It's nice whenever there's a film that's actually an event again

[Tdog]

Off topic: but has anybody watched PTA's movies chronologically in terms of when they are set?
Realised the other day when LP comes out there's going to be essentially 3 trilogies.

There Will Be Blood
The Master
Phantom Thread

Inherent Vice
Licorice Pizza
Boogie Nights

Sydney
Magnolia
Punch Drunk Love

[Yes]

Off topic: but has anybody watched PTA's movies chronologically in terms of when they are set?
Realised the other day when LP comes out there's going to be essentially 3 trilogies.

There Will Be Blood
The Master
Phantom Thread

Inherent Vice
Licorice Pizza
Boogie Nights

Sydney
Magnolia
Punch Drunk Love

That's pretty cool. Next 3 gotta be 2010-2020s now

[wilberfan]

You've spoiled Jeremy's surprise for next Summer's Xixax-Con!   They were going to be screened in that exact order...  (And I call dibs on dressing up as Rocky from Boogie Nights.)

[edit]  We've got some time.  Let's start working on the poster! 

[Tdog]

Ok I'm taking this a step further:

Trilogy 1 = The Joaquin Daniel Sandwich

Trilogy 2 = Paul's Wild Years

Trilogy 3 = ???????????

[Rooty Poots]

We live in a world where great posters are, nearly exclusively, unofficial/fan made ones.

You may have a point there.   I never really liked the "official" Boogie Nights artwork--either big red star on the black poster, or the 'cartoon' DVD/Blu cover. I did see some BN posters I liked tho.   I stumbled upon one of my favorite fan-made Thread posters this morning and remembered how much I liked it at the time.   But do fan posters have an advantage in that they're always produced after the film is out?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't that phantom thread poster made before the official release? I could easily be misremembering.

But YES, I would agree, fan made posters benefit heavily from being made after the fact.

Yes, it was. In fact, Phantom Thread never released theatrically in their country, if I'm remembering the specific artist correctly.

Regarding the Licorice Pizza poster artwork, I'm a big fan of the logo but agree that the poster's a big missed opportunity. I would've loved to see them go all-in on the '70s aesthetic—not just in the sense of it being a photo of a '70s scene, but I'd like to see it actually resemble movie marketing of the time; have it look like a movie poster would've actually looked back then.

Here are some posters I would've tried to ape if I were in Dustin Stanton's shoes (assuming he's the designer, as he's designed or art-directed most of PTA's posters so far):

[jviness02]

You guys are forgetting to mention the ( . ) on the poster. A+

[wilberfan]

To be honest, that was the second thing I noticed.  (The first detail, tho, I guess.)

[pynchonikon]

It was just yesterday when I showed the trailer to a young person close to me, who generally avoids watching trailers and has a fairly basic taste in movies - she is a regular Netflix subscriber and likes coming-of-age stories, she knows who PTA is (she has watched a couple of his films), and she doesn't know who Haim,  Jon Peters, Tom Waits or Benny Safdie are. I asked her what she thought of it, and she said she liked it and that she would watch the movie, though she complained a bit that she didn't quite get what exactly the story is about besides the general premise ("What Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn have to do with the main plot?" were her words). A fair response from a non-hardcore fan, I would assume.

[Drenk]

Yeah, "I don't understand what the story is" was also the response I received. I find it quite weird, in general.