‘Licorice Pizza‘ Trailer: Paul Thomas Anderson Returns to the ’70s
Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough film was 1997’s Boogie Nights, a brilliant and thrilling tour through the world of the 1970s L.A. porn scene. After many excellent movies, including Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, The Master, There Will Be Blood, and Phantom Thread — finally returns to the time and place that made him famous with Licorice Pizza. (The name comes from a now defunct record chain that was popular in the area during the period.)
The film stars Cooper Hoffman, the son of the late actor (and frequent Paul Thomas Anderson collaborator) Philip Seymour Hoffman, along with Alana Haim from the band Haim. (They have released several music videos directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.) Cooper Hoffman plays a child actor and high school student who falls for Alana Haim’s character, although things clearly do not go smoothly from there.
The adult cast around them is a typically exceptional PTA ensemble, including Sean Penn, John C. Reilly, Christopher Walken, Tom Waits, Maya Rudolph, Ben Stiller, and Bradley Cooper as real-life film producer (and later big-time studio executive) Jon Peters.
The trailer for the film has been playing exclusively in movie theaters for a few weeks but now it’s finally online. Watch it below (and yes, the real Peters dated the real Barbra Streisand during the period; he was her hairdresser first, and after they started dating he broke into the movie business):
Well, that looks absolutely sensational. Here’s the film’s official synopsis:
LICORICE PIZZA is the story of Alana Kane and Gary Valentine growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Written and Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film tracks the treacherous navigation of first love.
Licorice Pizza is scheduled to open in theaters on November 26, 2021.