The Movies That Licorice Pizza Steals From

Loved that line "... a wayward soul whose role in the relationship modulates between partner, muse, and pawn". What a fantastic commentary. Killed it again Ocean. Do you think you'll ever have a Richardson/Dallas-based meetup?

Philip Hoffman would be so damn proud of his son. Did an incredible job, everyone did. What a fun movie, and anything to enrich the cultural lore of Jon Peters is good with me!

To me this film was paradise.. Nothing happens. I mean, lots happens.. But also, nothing happens.. Which of course meant I had to watch it again.. And I enjoyed it just as much.

The man lurking at the campaign headquarters I think is supposed to visually recall the assassin in Altman's Nashville (1975).

At 5:06, you pointed out that Licorice Pizza actually makes an appearance in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. As you probably know, Licorice Pizza was a record store in the San Fernando Valley during the '70s. Promoting the film, PTA actually reopened the record store on Ventura in its old location. My parents grew up in the valley around the same time as PTA, so they had a great time reminiscing over this film and all its easter eggs

I love when Directors like PTA,Quentin Tarantino Make Hangout Movie like these

Y Tu Mama Tambien is a film that I had thought might have been an inspiration to Licorice Pizza as they both are dealing with exploring what it is to be young. That feeling of seemingly unlimited possibilities ahead of you with nothing locked down. Both films are following characters navigating these transitions between youth and adulthood.

I think a lot of the men Gary comes across are also a warning, like the John Michael Higgins character. He's an entrepreneur too, but not the kind that Gary should become.

Definitely felt the American Graffiti nods immediately, even prior to that first boy's room cherry bomb scene, starting with the bright green font on black screen credit cards which are a so reminiscent of the Lucasfilm Ltd. credit cards from that period. Also, then very much aware of the 1973 time setting for Licorice Pizza as being the same year as American Graffiti's release. The Techniscope and lighting/cinematography notes were really interesting. Anderson and Bauman and their team's work in this film (as well as Phantom Thread, Inherent Vice and The Master) is so effective at subtly capturing a simultaneously technical and emotional evocation of several of the seminal '60s-'70s European and New Hollywood films and filmmakers that influence the film at both a narrative and meta reference level. Really love the Fellini-Lucas-Anderson connections made here too. May need to try and make time for a I Vitelloni - American Graffiti - Licorice Pizza triple feature. Great stuff!

the fact that you made actual licorice pizza is an admirable dedication to the video, keep up the good work!

Licorice Pizza is my favorite movie in years. Happy to see you shine some light on it, PTA has made a career bending his favorite movies into something new(not unlike a different director named Anderson) and in my opinion Licorice Pizza is his most successful attempt at it. Very good video.

I loved this film and it’s to me further proof that Paul Thomas Anderson is a secret comedian and needs to make more comedies. To me this film reminded me of Amarcord in the way it appears the director is reflecting on his childhood and the wider historical events that subtly changed the course of his life.

As I had not seen many of the movies this filmed called back on, I viewed it more as just a film about growing up. The film is seemingly all connected but at the same time each scene almost feels random and the narrative isn't always 100% clear. Kind of like what being a young adult is like. Neither of our main stars really know what they are doing with their life, one just wants to be successful while the other just feels lost in big world. All of the adult characters that are introduced at first seem like they have life all figured out but the more they appear on screen the more that façade falls apart. This is a movie about being young, being lost, and being in love. I think its a movie that seems very loose because PTA wants all of us to find a character to connect with. He doesn't want us to view everyone as characters, but at projections as ourselves.

“Summer of 42” also falls into that teenage boy - adult woman relationship sub-genre

Minor correction: Techniscope is not an anamorphic format. It was cheaper to produce films in Techniscope not only because it exposed 35mm film at half height, but because filmmakers could use less expensive spherical lenses. Another part of the attraction of Techniscope was that dye-transfer printing mitigated the amount of grain in the frame when the film was printed anamorphically [since projectors could not run at half height] with its trademark "velvety" appearance. What’s particularly ironic is that PTA opted to film on 65mm, which is the antithesis of the Techniscope aesthetic.

Terrific as usual! Looking forward to seeing it again through this lens. One thing I noticed while watching it was that this new movie has a strong Robert Downey Sr vibe to it, more than his other movies (I know that this film is dedicated to Robert Downey Sr). The scene where everyone is hanging out in the waterbed store and Alana just starts dancing across the room reminded me of one of the commercials in Putney Swope. The whole thing had an air of “we’re going to do this now“ that was very fun and refreshing, and there is this level of looseness in some of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s other movies, but this feels entirely new. Thank you again for your insights!

I love videos like this. Reminds me of similar videos on Star Wars or Wes Anderson. I wish every film I liked had a 15-minute video explaining where the director stole all his ideas from.

Completely agree with the film's inspiration from, and evocation of American Graffiti - that was the first thing I thought after sitting through 20 minutes of the film. I also like the nice circularity that Licorice Pizza takes place in the same year ('73) that American Graffiti was actually released. It's a nostalgic 2020's film about the early 70s that draws from a nostalgic early 70's film about the early 60's.

Great video!... Anderson has also stated Manhattan being a big influence on those long, tracking conversation scenes. I hadn't thought of the Fellini influence.

Another influence to consider would be the film Dreyfuss made after Graffiti - The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz. The protagonists share many similarities - there's even a subplot with pinball machines! I came late to Kravitiz, but watching it I felt the similarities were not a coincidence.