Licorice Pizza · reception & legacy

2021 · Paul Thomas Anderson

How Licorice Pizza has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

Landed in 2021 as a critics' darling — three Oscar nominations including Best Picture — but the online discourse was instantly stormy; a few years on it has settled into place as the beloved, rewatchable 'hangout movie' of late-period PTA.

What's debated

The debate that never dies: the age gap between 25-year-old Alana and 15-year-old Gary — is the film endorsing it, interrogating it, or just honestly depicting it?

Its footprint

The image everyone keeps: Alana Haim and Cooper Hoffman running — the film is practically built on running — while Bradley Cooper's ten-minute cameo as an unhinged Jon Peters became instant meme material.

Where it stands

A fixture of PTA-ranking discourse and a Letterboxd favourite — the 'minor PTA that's secretly major' pick.

★ Did you know? The real Jon Peters gave PTA permission to portray him on one condition: that the film include his favourite pickup line. Bradley Cooper duly delivers it. It was also a double debut — Alana Haim (of HAIM, whose videos PTA directed) and Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman, had never acted in a film before.

Named by the director

Influences Paul Thomas Anderson has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

American Graffiti (1973) — PTA cited its episodic, one-crazy-stretch-of-youth structure as a model for the film's loose, vignette-driven shape.
Melvin and Howard (1980) — PTA named Demme's film as a touchstone for its warmth and generosity toward ordinary dreamers.
Jonathan Demme — PTA's oft-declared hero; he repeatedly invoked Demme's open-hearted, judgment-free way with characters when discussing this film.