LICORICE PIZZA

Paul Thomas Anderson strings together an amazing coming of age romance taking place in 1973 in California. The film centers around young breakout star Gary (Cooper Hoffman) and Alana (Alana Haim) who happen to meet while Gary's getting his school picture taken and Alana's working for the photography company. Gary is immediately mesmerized by Alana's beauty; however, he's soon rebuffed when they reveal their ages (Gary's 15 and Alana's 25). Extremely persistent, charming, and confident, Gary doesn't accept Alana's rejection and after a few first couple of awkward meet ups ("they're not dates") they develop a friendship, even becoming business partners later in the film. Their relationship is constantly off-an-on with plenty of tension bubbling to the surface that fizzles before boiling over whereas at other times, they're purposefully trying to make the other jealous by introducing a member of the opposite sex. You already know what the payoffs going to be and when it happens, you're really happy for the kids because the film does use it's full 133 minute runtime. Hoffman really impressed me with his big screen debut; but then again, I guess I shouldn't be all that surprised being he's the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman. Finally, the star of the show is madman Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters. He's only in a few scenes but he chews up Gary while attempting to eat up Alana as they install a waterbed in his home. Great stuff! 7/10