Queue Tips: Licorice Pizza (2021)

It's probably my fault for not paying close attention, but I have seen "Licorice Pizza" twice now and I still don't know what it refers to.  I don't think I've ever seen a Paul Thomas Anderson movie in a theatre but maybe if I saw this one there, I would have gotten it more.  I guess there's just too many distractions watching at home that you can't always really get into it.  Either that or this movie is just too boring to really get emerged into it.

Actually, I have seen a P. T. Anderson film in the theatre.  It was "There Will Be Blood".  I watched it way after it first came out, and so many people have been raving about how great it was.  I finally had to go and see it before somebody inevitably spoiled it for me.  Well, when I finally went, I was underwhelmed.  I guess I expected too much after all the hype.  I did watch it again after it came out on DVD and that second time, I actually enjoyed it.  That was kind of what I was hoping for when I rewatched "Licorice Pizza" the other day, but no, I still didn't like it.

I guess I just didn't like the characters.  And there wasn't really a clear story for me.  They were sort of just meandering from one thing to another.  But I guess maybe that was the point.  The protagonist is in her early twenties, and I did feel lost as well at that age.

I can't even remember her name, but she meets this fifteen year old at a high school.  They talk, and he confidently invites her to some bar, and she actually goes to meet him.  He looks way too old to be fifteen, but I guess it's possible to be that big for that age.  He turns out to be kind of a resourceful and industrious kid, and they end up doing some business together.  

They end up getting romantically involved, and I kind of felt cringey about the age difference.  I would feel the same way if the genders were reversed.  I recently rewatched "Parasite", and I was kind of incredulous because it seemed like culturally acceptable for a younger high school girl to have a relationship with an older college guy.  It's like when I watched "An Education".  I couldn't believe it.  I can't remember the reviews now, but everyone seemed to be okay with it.  As for this movie, I don't understand what the two like about each other, apart from that they don't really have a lot of options.  I guess I can see their point of view, but I just don't understand why this story needed to be told and why people should watch this.  And it's not that I find it offensive, but it's just that it was a waste of my time.

The film is set in the seventies.  I wonder why.  It didn't really add much to me.  If it was set to nowadays, the relationship would probably look even odder.

I really did not find anything likable about the characters.  One thing I learned after googalizing it now, is that the boy was played by Philip Seymour Hoffman's son.  I wonder if that clouded the reviewers' views of the film.  That is why I like seeing movies fresh, without trailers or reading about upcoming projects in the news.