Tag: Licorice Pizza

Licorice Pizza Year: 2021 Rating: R Length: 133 minutes / 2.22 hours Paul Thomas Anderson is an acquired taste. Unfortunately, I don't think I've completely acquired it yet. I absolutely loved There Will Be Blood (2007), which was my first exposure to this director. I saw The Master (2012) after that and was so confused that I stayed away from Inherent Vice (2014). Maybe the magic came with Daniel Day-Lewis, which is why I gave Phantom Thread (2017) a shot. Still weird. With Paul Thomas Anderson's latest, Licorice Pizza (2021), the odd name prepared me for more weird, which it delivered. By "weird" I don't mean something filled with bizarre drug-induced visuals. It's more like the setting and plot ground it to reality, but the characters act strangely throughout. They're almost illogical. Luckily, most of these "weird" characters (like the ones portrayed by Sean Penn and Bradley Cooper) are minor distractions from the primary plot of the film. Still, having a child star who is...