Licorice Pizza. This is the most laid-back Paul Thomas Anderson film ever. Which is to say that you can feel Paul’s willingness to just let it rip. Obviously, there is structure. Obviously, there are clearly considered ideas brought to fruition visually. But there will be no frogs. There will be no surrealism. No milkshakes or powerfully long stretches of silence. No duality. No Phils, no Bill, no cobbler.
As a long-time Paul Thomas Anderson fan, Licorice Pizza is the first of his films I've had a great desire to see since There Will Be Blood. What made his first five films wonderful to watch was his understanding of intensely personal human relationships. His later films have a sort of rarified quality to them, almost as if he was trying to channel himself through Kubrick, where the relationships are held as arm's length sometimes. I'm thinking that Licorice Pizza (from the trailer alone) will be a return to the style that made PTA a name, and it might make it finally his time to earn the Oscar.
But a trailer is not a movie, and Oscar is fickle.
As a long-time Paul Thomas Anderson fan, Licorice Pizza is the first of his films I've had a great desire to see since There Will Be Blood. What made his first five films wonderful to watch was his understanding of intensely personal human relationships. His later films have a sort of rarified quality to them, almost as if he was trying to channel himself through Kubrick, where the relationships are held as arm's length sometimes. I'm thinking that Licorice Pizza (from the trailer alone) will be a return to the style that made PTA a name, and it might make it finally his time to earn the Oscar.
But a trailer is not a movie, and Oscar is fickle.