Licorice Pizza - Speculation & General Reactions

[wilberfan]

Good point.  Maybe they're savin' it up....  There will certainly be pent up interest in hearing from PSH's son...

[Jeremy Blackman]

Remember when PTA was saying Jaws was a crime against art and ushered in an apocalypse of blockbusters? I think it's just that as you get older, you stop caring about certain things.

I haven't seen that particular quote but maybe he wasn't being serious. In the Lars von Trier interview his thoughts on Jaws are very enthusiastic:

LVT: Another film that is very dear to me is The Deer Hunter.
PTA: When did you see it? When it came out?
LVT: I've seen it ten times.
PTA: Really. What are the others? What else?
LVT: There's a lot of old Italian films. Pasolini. Antonioni, of course. It all depends on when you become aware of film. I was ready around the time of this German period, with Werner Herzog and Wim Wenders, but I was too late to be fascinated by the New French Wave. But it's very interesting, this question of when you are open to this--I don't think it's very many years, five years or something.
BB: Do you have your Deer Hunter, Paul?
PTA: Yeah, the first thing that comes to my mind is Jaws.
LVT: Jaws! I've never seen that.
PTA: Jaws was a big, big, big, big, big deal to me. My dad was in television in Los Angeles--he did voice-overs, so he was friends with all these technical guys, and really when it was possible to get a 3/4 inch VCR machine in your home, he taped The Wizard of Oz, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and he had a bootleg copy of Jaws. So those were the three movies that I was able to watch over and over. And the VCR was as big as this room, it was like a tank, and the tape was as big as a truck--and I would come home and watch every night, every day, Jaws, Monty Python, The Wizard of Oz. Then later, things happened here and there--like I was saying when I saw Breaking the Waves. And it was interesting because I felt confident enough that I didn't want to copy Breaking the Waves--I just felt, like, I'm allowed to do that. It was almost like it was OK to be that honest.

http://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/2011/04/flashback-friday-pt-anderson-talks-with.html

I could swear once upon a time, either in an interview or commentary, PTA discussed how Jaws and Star Wars kicked off the blockbuster phenomenon which ended the golden age of independent film in the 70s. And I remember him not pulling any punches in his commentary. This could have been in the Boogie Nights era.

[Montclair]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??! Imagine if a man in his 20s exposed his genitalia to a 15 year old little boy or 15 year old little girl! Even if the child "wanted it" that's still criminal, because they're too young to legally consent to it. This needs to be addressed by the filmmakers because it's not okay.

[ono]

Lol breasts != genitals, ye puritanical Americans.

[Dr_Chile]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??! Imagine if a man in his 20s exposed his genitalia to a 15 year old little boy or 15 year old little girl! Even if the child "wanted it" that's still criminal, because they're too young to legally consent to it. This needs to be addressed by the filmmakers because it's not okay.

You need context before you make a hall monitor statement like that. Depiction doesn't equal endorsement.

[wilberfan]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??!

Gary is very likely at least a seventeen year old ADOLESCENT.

And +1 for "hall monitor statement".

[Drill]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??! Imagine if a man in his 20s exposed his genitalia to a 15 year old little boy or 15 year old little girl! Even if the child "wanted it" that's still criminal, because they're too young to legally consent to it. This needs to be addressed by the filmmakers because it's not okay.

This is the poster who sounds like LastSnowKing (having recently become familiarized). Or a wannabe.

But anyways, I wonder why the social media accounts for the film haven't posted about this interview yet.

And per IMDb, "Sue Pomerantz" is the name of Isabelle Kusman's character.

[Drenk]

The tone of the trailer + the words used by Reilly to describe this « innocent » love story (no fucking, I presume) don't point toward the portrait of inappropriate behavior. We'll see if it plays a part in the story beyond the eye-rolling line about it being weird. You just need to watch to the screenshot included in a tweet quoted in the previous page to see that, yes, Alana with the kids look weird: strange of PTA not to trust his images and add that line, it sounds very corny in the trailer (the line itself and the awkward repetition after a little bit of Life on Mars).

Also, Montclair's statement has nothing to do with being American or European or a prude. The fact that Gary is seventeen, not fifteen, makes it less obviously criminal, but it's nonetheless creepy. The trailer makes it look like a comedic moment. I'm sure the overall tone will be deeper, this being a PTA movie and all. We thought The Master was about Scientology, maybe we merely think Licorice Pizza is supposed to be an uplifting romantic comedy!

If you agree that this relationship is inappropriate, it becomes central to the story, you can't  « depiction not endorsement » your way out of it or use an out of jail corny line. Especially when your actress is actually almost thirty. I saw a tweet describing the situation as « needlessly dodgy ». It sums it up.

[PaulElroy35]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??! Imagine if a man in his 20s exposed his genitalia to a 15 year old little boy or 15 year old little girl! Even if the child "wanted it" that's still criminal, because they're too young to legally consent to it. This needs to be addressed by the filmmakers because it's not okay.

I think REAL LIFE stuff needs to be addressed before something in a fictional film does.

[wilberfan]

I thought Lady Bird phenomenally overrated...

Perhaps this belongs elsewhere, but I'll put it here for now.   

As is my wont, I revisited a film (LADY BIRD, in this case) tonight--as it's being held up as a standard that many hope LP will meet.

This time no laptop, no cell phone, room lights off--minimal distractions.  This was going to get a serious re-watch.

It's a much better film than I gave it credit for 4 years ago.  (It's been that long?  Really?)  Very well written, directed, and performed.  Kudos to all involved.  It wasn't rapturous for me--I think it could have come closer to that had I been an adolescent girl at some point--but it was finely observed, and beautifully performed. (My favorite character, both during my initial viewing and tonight--was her dad.  He could have easily been writing in the "Mr. Adams (Dirk's dad) mode, so this was a refreshing surprise.) 

So a solid 3-stars (out of 5)--naw, OK, let's make that 3 1/2 stars for now.

My hope is still that LICORICE PIZZA exceeds this film and gets as close to rapturous as some of PTA's other films have been for me.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Seventies Porn

"I think it could have evolved into something because it was snuffed out before it had a chance to breathe. In the 70's you had porn filmmakers trying to inject plot, story and1 characters. These were people trying to attach something to what was basically fuck films. At the same time you had mainstream Hollywood which was being so subversive, so cutting edge and so cool during the Seventies. So it was like two locomotives that were coming at each other. Porn films trying to be legitimate but still catering to their market, and legitimate films that were getting more towards Clockwork Orange and Midnight Cowboy. Momentarily it seemed like they were going to collide and straight, legitimate films would have collided with porn and it would have resulted in some really interesting stuff. Porn got derailed by video and the wonderful Hollywood stuff in the Seventies got derailed by Star Wars."

https://cigsandredvines.blogspot.com/1998/03/interview-down-with-pta.html

I found one reference to what I was thinking of. I remember him talking about Jaws & Star Wars ending the 70s golden age and how sad that was, regardless of their merit as films. Perhaps in one of the BN commentaries?

[RudyBlatnoyd]

Why is a woman in her early 20s showing her breasts to a 15 year old CHILD??! Imagine if a man in his 20s exposed his genitalia to a 15 year old little boy or 15 year old little girl! Even if the child "wanted it" that's still criminal, because they're too young to legally consent to it. This needs to be addressed by the filmmakers because it's not okay.

This poster has a bad case of the condition I've coined 'Twitter brain'.

[PaulElroy35]

I thought Lady Bird phenomenally overrated...

Perhaps this belongs elsewhere, but I'll put it here for now.   

As is my wont, I revisited a film (LADY BIRD, in this case) tonight--as it's being held up as a standard that many hope LP will meet.

This time no laptop, no cell phone, room lights off--minimal distractions.  This was going to get a serious re-watch.

It's a much better film than I gave it credit for 4 years ago.  (It's been that long?  Really?)  Very well written, directed, and performed.  Kudos to all involved.  It wasn't rapturous for me--I think it could have come closer to that had I been an adolescent girl at some point--but it was finely observed, and beautifully performed. (My favorite character, both during my initial viewing and tonight--was her dad.  He could have easily been writing in the "Mr. Adams (Dirk's dad) mode, so this was a refreshing surprise.) 

So a solid 3-stars (out of 5)--naw, OK, let's make that 3 1/2 stars for now.

My hope is still that LICORICE PIZZA exceeds this film and gets as close to rapturous as some of PTA's other films have been for me.

I think you're are over thinking the 1 comparison with ladybird to be honest. Even if
Its similar in tone and Paul was inspired somewhat by that film it's going to be it's own thing I'm sure.

[Yes]

I thought Lady Bird phenomenally overrated...

Perhaps this belongs elsewhere, but I'll put it here for now.   

As is my wont, I revisited a film (LADY BIRD, in this case) tonight--as it's being held up as a standard that many hope LP will meet.

This time no laptop, no cell phone, room lights off--minimal distractions.  This was going to get a serious re-watch.

It's a much better film than I gave it credit for 4 years ago.  (It's been that long?  Really?)  Very well written, directed, and performed.  Kudos to all involved.  It wasn't rapturous for me--I think it could have come closer to that had I been an adolescent girl at some point--but it was finely observed, and beautifully performed. (My favorite character, both during my initial viewing and tonight--was her dad.  He could have easily been writing in the "Mr. Adams (Dirk's dad) mode, so this was a refreshing surprise.) 

So a solid 3-stars (out of 5)--naw, OK, let's make that 3 1/2 stars for now.

My hope is still that LICORICE PIZZA exceeds this film and gets as close to rapturous as some of PTA's other films have been for me.

I think you're are over thinking the 1 comparison with ladybird to be honest. Even if
Its similar in tone and Paul was inspired somewhat by that film it's going to be it's own thing I'm sure.

I know a couple of people who’ve seen and compared to Lady Bird. Some people are making a lot of personal assumptions based on trailer and preconceived notions than just listening to all the early word

[pynchonikon]

If Licorice is about to get Lady Bird-level of reception, then I apologize for the person I will become in the upcoming months.