Licorice Pizza (15, 133 mins)
Verdict: Gorgeous quirky romcom
Rating: 
The Electric Life of Louis Wain (Also 111 minutes)
Verdict: Hate to be catty, but…
Rating: 
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, which opens in cinemas tomorrow, is the metaphorical shot in the arm we all need right now, to go with the real one.
It’s an irresistibly quirky romantic comedy, full of effervescent charm as well as some proper belly laughs. It is calculatedly bold, almost as though Anderson wants to make people laugh. It was a wonderful experience that I treasured.
It’s a boy-meets-girl-at-high-school story set in California’s San Fernando Valley in 1973, which sounds like standard romcom fare. But part of the movie’s daring springs from the age gap, because only one of them is at school.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, which opens in cinemas tomorrow, is the metaphorical shot in the arm we all need right now, to go with the real one
That’s 15-year-old Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), who plays an experienced child actor with charisma and confidence well beyond his years, not to mention the entrepreneurial flair to set up a waterbed company he calls Soggy Bottom.
On the day pictures are taken for the school yearbook, Gary strikes up conversation with the photographer’s assistant Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and quickly falls for her, entirely undaunted by the fact that she is a good deal older (she’s 25).
Anderson is aware, of course, that Gary’s tender age could lead the film into uncomfortable territory, which is doubtless why the relationship stays largely chaste. Additionally, Alana, who is just as charmingly precocious as Gary, helps to reduce the distance as they help each other in various adventures.
The movie tells two comings-of-age stories: his and hers. It also includes narrative tangents that occasionally occur, some which are incorrigibly funny, and others slightly more menacing.
John Michael Higgins portrays a Japanese-American restaurateur and his wife in an example of the latter. His comedy draws from the Benny Hill playbook, which is a challenge to modern sensibilities.
You’ll either find it hilarious . . . or you won’t. Either way this episodic storytelling works well and is filled with innocent humor.
In some ways the film reminded me of Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time . . . In Hollywood — not so much because it’s lovingly set in the same area at around the same time; more in the way that real-life characters intrude on the fiction, notably Gary’s waterbed customer Jon Peters, the wildly volatile hairdresser boyfriend of Barbra Streisand, gleefully hammed up by Bradley Cooper.
Licorice Pizza is not short of familiar names or faces. The two wonderful leads are both amazing and newcomers, but the truly inspiring casting decisions are their respective roles.
Both Hoffman and Seymour Hoffman are not strangers to the spotlight. Hoffman is a rock star of Haim and has filmed many of their videos. He has the same burly physique and screen presence as his father Philip Seymour Hoffman.
It’s a boy-meets-girl-at-high-school story set in California’s San Fernando Valley in 1973, which sounds like standard romcom fare
She is portrayed by her two older sisters Este (and Danielle), who also play in the band. Their actual Israeli father plays the role of screen father. This film is very authentic and funny. It depicts a Friday dinner with Jewish friends, in which bickering turns into warmth.
I loved Anderson’s last film, 2017’s Phantom Thread, and this one has the same meticulous period detail — only this time it’s personal.
The writer-director has mined memories of his own Valley childhood, and the film’s curious title is borrowed from a Southern Californian chain of 1970s record stores (Licorice Pizza, apparently, was a slang term for a vinyl LP).
The soundtrack featuring Nina Simone and The Doors, along with David Bowie and Nina Simone is a fitting tribute. The film is a masterpiece of devotion, with a little bit of mischief. It’s a beguiling combination.
I wasn’t at all beguiled by The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain, an overly whimsical, excessively mannered biopic of the Victorian artist who, by anthropomorphising cats in his drawings for the Illustrated London News, popularised the idea of keeping them as pets rather than simply to suppress mice.
I wasn’t at all beguiled by The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain – I wouldn’t want to drink a whole bottle of advocaat and I wouldn’t want to sit through this film again
With an unseen Olivia Colman providing twee narration, Benedict Cumberbatch plays Wain with the same repertoire of tics he used in the TV drama Sherlock, here signifying that his character’s genius is indivisible from mental fragility.
Claire Foy is Emily, the governess for his younger sister, who falls in love with him and then, to insult the social order of the day, marries.
Their relationship is at the heart of all that is best about Will Sharpe’s film, and a fine supporting cast is led by Toby Jones as Wain’s editor.
The illustrations are beautiful, but the entire exercise feels too heavy handed for Christmas. I wouldn’t want to drink a whole bottle of advocaat and I wouldn’t want to sit through this film again.
It is possible that eight of ten cats owners will love it.
We wish you a happy new year!