The main characters are a 25-year-old woman who gets involved with a 15-year-old high school boy. (They were played by a woman who is now 30, and a man who is now 18.) They both have pimples on their faces and there are lots of extreme closeups to examine their blemishes. The acceptance of pedophilia and the possibility of statutory rape got creepy, right from the start.
There are lots of songs from artists of the 1970s, but these are not the memorable ones that got onto record charts. A 15-year-old is not old enough to make a contract in the USA and would not be able to start and run the businesses that he does in this film.
If this gets film award nominations, then the Oscars should really hire Kevin Spacey to be their host in 2022. Bill Cosby could introduce several categories. He could give tips to teenage boys on how to make it with grown women, the fast way.
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Reply by rooprect
on January 13, 2022 at 4:59 PM
Hollywood has always had a sort of "convenient morality" on the subjects of rape, pedophilia and incest. That's a euphemism. In pain terms, Hollywood loves stories of sexual depravity and calls them "art". Just look at the most applauded films of Woody Allen which were almost always about a creepy old guy and a very young girl. Even beyond the scandal of him marrying his own stepdaughter, even beyond the scandal of Woody's other (7-year old) adopted daughter publicly exposing him for sexually abusing her, Hollywood didn't bat an eyelid because Woody was making big $$$ for the industry. That's like firing your best worker because you caught him jacking off outside the women's restroom; they'll do everything they can to overlook it. It takes an avalanche of scandals for Hollywood to admit something stinks, and then of course they all jump on the bandwagon and pretend like they were against it all along. I'm pretty sure Roman Polanski is still the Hollywood darling even though he can't set foot in America because he'll be locked up on rape charges. If these creeps can get away with it, then directors like PTA have free rein because at least PTA doesn't have any charges pending (yet). Moral of the story, Hollywood doesn't lead progress, it follows but loud enough to make themselves look good.
Reply by rooprect
on January 13, 2022 at 6:20 PM
So blinded by your agenda that you missed the point again, mech.
Reply by rooprect
on January 13, 2022 at 6:32 PM
well alllrighty then
Reply by D-magic
on March 4, 2022 at 10:04 AM
Sometimes people need to know how to separate fiction from reality. OP, don't google Lolita.
Reply by defjeff
on March 8, 2022 at 12:35 PM
@rooprect I thought about Woody Allen as I watched this, and there is a difference. One is that the love interest in Manhattan is 17, not 15. One is less than a year away from legality, and the other still has a ways to go. The other is that Woody Allen's character doesn't get the girl in the end. In Licorice Pizza, they kiss and run off like the relationship is going to continue.
I wish they would have gotten an actual 15-year-old to play the part because then he would have looked a bit younger and people wouldn't handwave it so much. The fact that he's 18 prevents people from being critical about the situation. I bet they didn't want it to be a distraction, which is funny because it's as if they wanted to indulge in the fantasy without the moral baggage that comes with it. They want it for free.
Reply by Mon-Star
on March 8, 2022 at 1:26 PM
Filming on Licorice Pizza took place over 68 days, starting in August 2020 and wrapping in November 2020. Alana Haim (born Dec 13, 1991) was 28 at the time. Cooper Hoffman (born Mar 1, 2003) was 17 when it was filmed. Alana Haim is 11 years and 2.5 months older than Cooper Hoffman.
During the film, another adult woman, who apparently had been previously driving Gary around, told Alana that she had been giving Gary "hand-jobs. Now you can do it." In real life, there have been plenty of adult women who have gone to prison for having sexual relations with minor boys. They probably all thought "we were meant for each other."
In this film, Gary is a budding entrepreneur, a winner with vision. A girl his own age was involved with him romantically, at one point. Alana is a 25-year-old loser, who was taking high school yearbook pictures for money, and living with her parents. She wanted to bring home a nice Jewish man to impress her parents, and couldn't find one. They were not "meant for each other."
Paul Thomas Anderson was born in 1970 and this film is set in the summer-autumn of 1973. So he had no first-hand knowledge of what anything was like at that time.
Reply by rooprect
on March 9, 2022 at 9:15 AM
This is such an important thought, I wish more people would realize how it applies to cinema in so many areas. Like you said, when they get older actors to play sexualized minors it has the effect of airbrushing the disturbing implications, and people find themselves excusing or even salivating at disturbing content. Don't get me started on that show Euphoria about a bunch of horny 'teenagers' played by a cast that's mostly in their mid to late 20s, some pushing 30. Like you said, the audience gets to indulge in a voyeuristic fantasy without the moral baggage.
Switching gears but on the exact same theme, how about the way mainstream movies have always handled violence? The 'good guy' kills the 'bad guy' with a quick bop on the head, or a quippy 1-liner to punctuate a bullet shot to a swelling symphony soundtrack, and the audience goes home happy. Once again, it's fantasy without the moral baggage of realism. I think it was "Heavenly Creatures" (1994) where I first saw a killing that truly disturbed me to my core because it showed how damn hard & messy it is to kill a person. No emotional manipulation or schlocky theatrics, we see a woman get murdered and it's ugly as hell.