Licorice Pizza - Speculation & General Reactions

[Alethia]

Just nest it in 3 levels of spoiler tags.

So, merely speculating, but this is thread for that, right?

Spoiler: ShowHide

You asked for it

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this is your last warning

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Okay, so when she first tells Gary she's 25 in the opening walk-n-talk scene, she does so with a moment's hesitation, a subtle stutter, that suggests she's bullshitting. And then later, of course, she "fibs" to Jon Peters about being 28, then corrects herself back to 25 (it has been revealed that this was actually a spur of the moment improvisation by Alana irl flabbergasted to be suddenly going toe-to-toe with Bradley Cooper without any prior warning). This all, of course, could arguably imply that Alana (the character) is even older lol but I don't wanna go there.

Then there's the fact that she brings Lance (Skyler Gisondo) to her family's home for Shabbat Dinner...it's implied that he's a bit older than Gary, I'm guessing around 18 or 19? - and since her family seems fine with it, this suggests to me they're potentially closer in age, making her possibly more like 20.

Then there's the fact that, in at least two scenes, she's shown to be quite inexperienced with alcohol...could just be she doesn't drink, but perhaps it's also an indication that she's not far past the legal age of the day......

Food for thought? Perhaps.

[wilberfan]

Sorry.  Made me solid LOL...

https://twitter.com/mattmonagle/status/1465548656753491969

[wilberfan]

Viewing #5 of the Pizza.

Pretty sedate audience compared to 'opening day' two days ago.  Only about 20% of us were laughing-out-loud. 

Serious points deducted for this audience when only about 3 of them recognized Reilly.

[md]

Came back from a full house at the Village Regency in Westwood.  The line out the door was as if we were about to see Spanish Pantalones.

You've probably seen the pop up Fat Bernie's pinball arcade photos, so here are some more with a shot of the free stickers they were giving away: https://imgur.com/a/RfBGVBr

Going into the movie, after the pop up pinball arcade, the energy was electric.

The movie was great, weird, beautiful and funny just like life itself, all wrapped like a beautiful PTA package.

A few initial thoughts:

Serious kudos for how consistent the period piece execution was done.  After 3 minutes you are sucked into the 70's.

Everyone in the film has the hots for Alana Haim as if she is the most beautiful girl in the world.  She's fantastic in it, but it's hard for me to believe she is drop dead gorgeous in the traditional sense -- just my personal taste.

The 2nd act meanders a bit, and character motivation and scenarios they get thrown into, you just have to roll with it because it doesn't entirely make much sense.   

This has to be the film PTA was talking about writing with his daughter. 

Definitely not Spike Jonze as the photog.

Talks about racism is baloney.  Tonally the film is a pretty honest depiction of (what I would imagine) the 70's would have been like regarding social norms.  And most importantly it's consistent.

Cooper is an amazing actor.  Feels like he was available for about 3-4 days shooting, absolutely crushed the performance and was out. 

The cinematography at times was beautiful and the lenses were iconic, but there was a lot left to be desired from a technical and professional standpoint.  Elswitt is probably cringing at some of the scenes over exposure and 'naturalism'.  But, it probably works for the retro 70's look. 

[wilberfan]

The line out the door was as if we were about to see Spanish Pantalones.

[Rooty Poots]

You've probably seen the pop up Fat Bernie's pinball arcade photos, so here are some more with a shot of the free stickers they were giving away: https://imgur.com/a/RfBGVBr

Oh god, I would absolutely pay you more than is probably reasonable for those stickers.

[Drenk]

Just nest it in 3 levels of spoiler tags.

So, merely speculating, but this is thread for that, right?

Spoiler: ShowHide

You asked for it

Spoiler: ShowHide

this is your last warning

Spoiler: ShowHide

Okay, so when she first tells Gary she's 25 in the opening walk-n-talk scene, she does so with a moment's hesitation, a subtle stutter, that suggests she's bullshitting. And then later, of course, she "fibs" to Jon Peters about being 28, then corrects herself back to 25 (it has been revealed that this was actually a spur of the moment improvisation by Alana irl flabbergasted to be suddenly going toe-to-toe with Bradley Cooper without any prior warning). This all, of course, could arguably imply that Alana (the character) is even older lol but I don't wanna go there.

Then there's the fact that she brings Lance (Skyler Gisondo) to her family's home for Shabbat Dinner...it's implied that he's a bit older than Gary, I'm guessing around 18 or 19? - and since her family seems fine with it, this suggests to me they're potentially closer in age, making her possibly more like 20.

Then there's the fact that, in at least two scenes, she's shown to be quite inexperienced with alcohol...could just be she doesn't drink, but perhaps it's also an indication that she's not far past the legal age of the day......

Food for thought? Perhaps.

Spoiler: ShowHide

PTA mentioned « endless talks » about her age. And reading your post solidified my initial assumption: Alana being older was simply a problem, not a story, which is why you can deduct that she’s either the age she appears to be or a decade older. They talked and talked and didn’t male a final decision because, I suppose, the script was already written with the abstract age in mind. Methinks they tried to think as little as possible about it beyond a lukewarm:  « okay, she’s older than this kid! But she’s a kid too! »

That makes me think of the way that Tichenor gave agency to Alma in Phantom Thread after the movie was shot.

[md]

You've probably seen the pop up Fat Bernie's pinball arcade photos, so here are some more with a shot of the free stickers they were giving away: https://imgur.com/a/RfBGVBr

Oh god, I would absolutely pay you more than is probably reasonable for those stickers.

That's funny you say that because I was thinking of giving them away to someone who wanted them.  Younger me would treasure these all for myself. Older me wants someone else to cherish these gems.

How does $100 a sticker sound?

Oops,  channeling my inner Gary Valentine.

PM me.   I think I have a stamp somewhere and I'll ship it out this week.

[Drenk]

https://twitter.com/glenn__kenny/status/1465698907371962368?s=21

[Drenk]

https://twitter.com/BryWr/status/1465787003526647808?s=20

Must suck.

[wilberfan]

Yikes.  Where would he have seen it...?  His bio says Santa Fe, NM.   

[WorldForgot]

???
Skeptical of this if only cuz the projected image would then either have been off the screen (and onto walls or curtains or the ceiling) or it implies a malicious projectionist that knows how to change reels but not how to modify the framing.

[Alma]

Finally saw the trailer for this at the cinema for the first time, was very excitedly nudging my friends. Interestingly they cut the bit about seeing her boobs and replaced it with a couple of shots I hadn't seen yet. Must think we're prudes here.

[md]

You know a movie is good when it seeps into your consciousness well after the end credits have rolled.  This is a huge compliment these days in land of streaming hot garbagio.

The thing that is resonating with me is not Alana but fucking Cooper.  Going into the film, I thought he was going to be the weakest link.  And don't get my wrong Alana is amazing, fierce and charming with the perfect timing and consistency.  But Cooper, my god.  You can see the direct lineage.   And I think he was only like 15 or 16 at the time of filming.  The guy has his father's presence and larger than life personality channeled in Hard Eight.  There is a scene when Cooper smokes a cigarette and all I could think about was the scene in Hard Eight when PSH is lighting up a cig in front of PBH, wagging his hips going shabadoo or whatever he is doing.

I woke up thinking this.  That's how much a master PTA is.

One other thing that usually goes unmentioned or is something truly behind the scenes inside baseball is how good PTA and co are at making these larger than life movies with a fairly modest budget (40m).  I believe TWBB was around 70m?  But 40m to make a picture perfect period piece is tough.  My thoughts are that he HAD to get Cooper and Alana on board -- they probably came in around scale tbh - and he probably worked favors for Bradley Cooper and Sean Penn.  PTA could have gotten someone older, and was auditioning, for the Valentine role, but Cooper and Alana were most likely fairly cheap (for leading role standards) and were down to fuck and go through the ringer that is leading a major motion picture without any diva attitude and press responsibilities.   Same goes for the cinematography choice.  Elswitt was going alot of favors for PTA early on, probably working for less than market rate on points.  I can imagine alot of the beef being that those points never added up because the films weren't box offices success.  PTA could have brought on a younger cheaper DP, but I think he trusted his gut and knew he could pull it off himself.  Most likely saved 10 million on actor and cinematography cost that all went back into the expenses that are period pieces.

So this talk about age gaps, PTA perhaps just went head first with it knowing that he just had to use Cooper and Alana and that weirdness (yes their relationship is very weird) was the throughline and challenge that excited him while writing and directing this.   

[wilberfan]

And I think [Cooper] was only like 15 or 16 at the time of filming. 

One other thing that usually goes unmentioned or is something truly behind the scenes inside baseball is how good PTA and co are at making these larger than life movies with a fairly modest budget (40m).  I believe TWBB was around 70m?   

PTA could have brought on a younger cheaper DP, but I think he trusted his gut and knew he could pull it off himself. 

Pardon my hopefully polite pedanticism, but...

Cooper was not quite 17 1/2 at the start of principal photography last year.

According to wikipedia, TWBB was budgeted at $25M

Michael Bauman was there every day, was presumably getting paid, and is credited as co-Cinematographer. (I was told, by a crew member at one of the locations, that Bauman was the DP.)    Granted, I don't know whether Paul+Michael would have been cheaper than an 'outside' DP.

But to your larger point...yes, my first reaction in the first 2 minutes of my first viewing:  "Holy crap...[Cooper & Alana] are fine!  They're...actually good!"