Like it's a dogged teenage dreamer/schemer who's so wrapped up in his own goals that he hurts other people and a 20-something who everyone agrees is beautiful but has no real skills/desires/direction so she falls in with a bunch of teenagers. They're both kind of fuckup messes in different ways
― jpg trouble in wallo gina (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 19:26 (two years ago) link
alana's character in particular seemed to have an incredibly low opinion of herself, craving validation in the form of male attention. she was intensely flirtatious with everyone she interacted with, so of course she's more likely to entertain gary's puppy dog advances way longer than an emotionally mature woman of her age might have. alana haim's natural ebullience hides that a bit, and it's probably why annoying internet people are complaining because the film didn't explicitly spell out "this relationship is unhealthy and weird"
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 19:30 (two years ago) link
They are both fuck-ups, but the whole mise en scene of the movie views them as so much more adorkable than say Woodcock and Alma, cos PTA is shamelessly making a film with his buddies about his own childhood. It's indulgence - tho not without its charms - rather than nuance.
― Piedie Gimbel, Wednesday, 12 January 2022 19:48 (two years ago) link
Not knowing anything about Anderson’s childhood I def got that the whole thing was inflected with fondness but still got nuance from the relationships - as I say the ending in particular felt heavily ambiguous to me
― Nerd Ragequit (wins), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 20:01 (two years ago) link
All the sequences of Gary lolloping through the streets like a huge, zitty Andrex puppy made me somehow think of Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha, and occurred to me that LP is a quixotic attempt to contrive a manic pixie dreamboy, whose daft ebullience and charm are *so refreshing* compared to the maniacs, sleazebags and cynical careerists who seemingly comprise the adult male LA population of the movie. Except Gary seems like a kind of apprentice sleazebag himself, trying to cop off with any available hotpants chick as soon as the opportunity arises :/
― Piedie Gimbel, Wednesday, January 12, 2022 1:07 PM (three hours ago)
FRANCES HA is my favorite film of the 2010s and I see where you’re going with this, but gary and frances are totally different characters — there is an innocence in frances, who seems younger than her age, that the rakish wannabe gary (who seems older) lacks. 7w6 vs 7w8 stuff ultimately
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 21:45 (two years ago) link
some of the reactions to this — lolita, really? — are so predictably bourgeois… anyway I really enjoyed this review I saw on letterboxd:
https://boxd.it/2pUpCn
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 21:47 (two years ago) link
otm
I'll admit that much of my wincing whenever Gary appeared rested with my thinking Hoffmann too irritating a screen presence; he doesn't have an actor's training in modulating his effects on audience. Half the time I couldn't figure out why or how a teen like him got money for his ventures.
otoh Haim I believed. She differs from Frances in her wariness; in her eyes I can see worry if not anxiety about where her life will go. With Frances, though, I can see her happily driving Haim's moving truck backward if it means she can preserve her youthful insouciance forever.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 21:50 (two years ago) link
and if it means she can hang with Benji and Sophie forever too
lolita, really?
nah i wasn't comparing this to lolita, but more commenting on the annoying tendency of some to proclaim "this film has an inappropriate relationship that it doesn't condemn and is therefore problematic" as if that's the end of critical discussion and not an extension of a conversation that's been happening forever.
― roflrofl fight (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 22:00 (two years ago) link
voodoo that wasn’t directed at you of course, completely agree w/ that
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 23:30 (two years ago) link
why is the only good film criticism happening for free on letterboxd
― Nedlene Grendel as Basenji Holmo (map), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 23:37 (two years ago) link
or here
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 23:39 (two years ago) link
I really love that review, it’s such a sensitive read
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 12 January 2022 23:58 (two years ago) link
yes. thank you for that.
― bulb after bulb, Thursday, 13 January 2022 00:05 (two years ago) link
showing my ass here maybe but brody also gave a rapturous review
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Thursday, 13 January 2022 00:11 (two years ago) link
Half the time I couldn't figure out why or how a teen like him got money for his ventures.
This seemed very clear: he made money from his acting, his mother was his manager, and they collaborated on the PR business as an offshoot of that. (Her work with hospitality venues in other states presumably came first, not that the Vegas deal was a client of Gary's, but either way it shows how the pair were suited for promoting local restaurants.)
Presumably she loosened the purse-strings enough for him to sell a handful of water beds with no more cost than buying some big balloons. His demonstrated schmoozing abilities helped him move enough at swap meets and with radio reads to require the call centre staff (added at their existing office?). That did well enough that they added frames and a retail space. The second he found out there was going to be a supply issue, he dropped 100% of the costs of electricity and payroll, and moved to liquidating inventory to clients who could pay for a full installation, not $39.95 shipped. They still had 10 months or so on the lease for that storefront, so he used it again on his next scheme, which was surefire enough that Mom let him put more of the waterbed profits into the lighting.
― dark end of the st. maud (sic), Thursday, 13 January 2022 02:48 (two years ago) link
holy shit -- you took good notes!
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 13 January 2022 02:49 (two years ago) link
(The scene at the radio station is essentially the lynchpin that the cyclical relationship hangs on; Alana seems so happy in that moment to be part of Gary's life, a scheme they worked on together going right ...but the scheme was his idea, not something that drives her)
wins' highlighting of the tonal shift reminds me how episodic the film is, through the Waits/Penn sequence is the only one to change visual style to match: most of the "chapters" would feel self-contained and tonally distinct if broken up with title cards. a lot of time gets elided in the movie!
nearly all PTA's films are funny, but I don't think I've ever GOLed as much in any of them previously btw
― dark end of the st. maud (sic), Thursday, 13 January 2022 03:22 (two years ago) link
I just saw it last night :)
(but also I started looking for those details because Gary seemed to be presented as such a doofus whose confidence outstripped his ability. it was delightful how quietly the film insisted that all his endeavours m/l worked out and how honest he was about them - multiple autofantasists are shown as contrast)
― dark end of the st. maud (sic), Thursday, 13 January 2022 03:42 (two years ago) link
Saw this today (in a mostly empty multiplex theater, ahhhhh). Lots of thoughts. Glad the Herman Munster celeb cameo hadn’t been spoiled for me.
― deep luminous trombone (Eazy), Saturday, 15 January 2022 03:43 (two years ago) link
thought this movie was dope and magical
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Saturday, 22 January 2022 22:43 (two years ago) link
looking forward to seeing it
― Dan S, Sunday, 23 January 2022 02:35 (two years ago) link
I wish the central relationship didn't exist tbh, not b/c it's 'inappropriate' or whatever -- I just didn't believe them.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 23 January 2022 11:07 (two years ago) link
the central relationship was the animating force of the entire movie! I found it very believable
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Sunday, 23 January 2022 11:15 (two years ago) link
I believe Haim and many of the bits of business from the rest of the cast; I didn't believe Cooper Hoffman and that kind of love he expressed.
I could've watched a 90-minute movie about Alana Haim driving backward in L.A. tho
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 23 January 2022 11:25 (two years ago) link
The Wages of Fairfax
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Sunday, 23 January 2022 13:30 (two years ago) link
I had a totally different reaction to the cooper/waits/penn bit of the film, it was a tonal shift but I felt it as a move into inherent vice mode, that sense of slippage: the audition into the wait, what are you even saying restaurant scene into the stunt; the whole truck sequence which was exhilarating to me
otm, this was my favorite part of the movie, the magical realist effect of a movie set intruding upon an already-heightened reality
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:17 (two years ago) link
the music was better than I expected from the advance song list (without ever being outstanding)
"peace frog" would like a word
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:22 (two years ago) link
although you mentioned how amazing "let me roll it" is in this film
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:23 (two years ago) link
and "peace frog" too! lol sorry clemenza i'm reading the thread very slowly
Not to nitpick, but I thought those two songs were good, not amazing or anything (which, for me, would be at least a half-dozen songs in Boogie Nights: "Magnet and Steel," "Spill the Wine," "Jessie's Girl," etc.). "Peace Frog" was the real surprise. If I had listed 10,000 songs beforehand that might work in a PTA film, "Peace Frog" would not have been on it. I don't think I'd so much as thought of the song since I used to play Weird Scenes a lot in high school 45 years ago.
― clemenza, Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:45 (two years ago) link
blood in the streets it’s up to my ankles!
― STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:48 (two years ago) link
I was just happy in general to see him using pop music again--I want to say "after a long break," but the internet tells me there was lots of pop music in Inherent Vice (Neil Young, Cascades, Can, Association, Radiohead...). Honestly, I don't remember any of it.
― clemenza, Sunday, 23 January 2022 16:58 (two years ago) link
The opening title scene was set to "Vitamin C". A couple nice Neil Young tunes were in the romantic flashbacks, I believe "Harvest" and one other.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Sunday, 23 January 2022 17:01 (two years ago) link
Also mother-in-law Minnie Riperton got in there
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Sunday, 23 January 2022 17:04 (two years ago) link
Will try to revisit...Not that I wanted him to anomalously sneak some pop music into There Will Be Blood Sofia Coppola-like, by the way; I like There Will Be Blood just the way it is.
― clemenza, Sunday, 23 January 2022 17:05 (two years ago) link
“july tree” was so good
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Sunday, 23 January 2022 17:56 (two years ago) link
I spent a very large part of this film pondering how it could be that PTA would give her sisters with the same names as her real life sisters, and cast actresses that looked vaguely like them, and not just cast her actual sisters. Then the credits rolled and I felt really dumb. I have no idea why I was convinced it wasn't them.
― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Saturday, 29 January 2022 15:25 (two years ago) link
alana rules, i love seeing a movie centered around a woman who is just generally pissed off and surlygary feels like max fischer but without the pathos (a character issue, not a performance issue)this is set up as a movie about gary and alana and their relationship but really it's about alana. gary is 15 and confident and successful, who cares, he's going to be finei was pretty disoriented by the start of the movie (gary immediately hitting on alana in this very suave way) but again, this movie is ABOUT alana and we're getting her perspective and it would be disorienting to be talked to by a 15-year-old boy that waythe john michael higgins scenes were as excruciating as described and not funny at all and could so easily have been cut, why were they there?????the sean penn extended cameo >>>>>> the bradley cooper extended cameoi always like seeing skyler gisondo in stuff even if he's one of those guys who always plays essentially the same character. he's good at that one thingthe one harriet sansom harris scene was the best standalone scene in a movie that mostly felt like a bunch of (enjoyable!) setpieces kind of thrown together. a+ to harriet sansom harris
― na (NA), Thursday, 3 February 2022 20:13 (two years ago) link
also apparently in the '70s you just ran everywhere. primary mode of transportation = running.
― na (NA), Thursday, 3 February 2022 20:18 (two years ago) link
the first scene with gary and alana is seriously just so good, such a sensitive portrait of tantalizingly taboo desire
― auld gang syne (k3vin k.), Friday, 4 February 2022 02:30 (two years ago) link
Just saw this. To me it felt like it was directed by a neural network that studied all of the shots seen in other movies about the 70s. Directed by transformer. And the characters too felt like they were impressions of impressions of impressions of typical characters from movies about the 70s to the point where it seemed like Fred Armisen could show up to do the same thing then break the fourth wall. Caricatures of specifically movie versions of 70s people.
― Evan, Monday, 21 February 2022 16:18 (two years ago) link
Liked this (loved the cinematography), but it reinforced my theory that if you have enough money to license amazing songs, you can make any movie seem better than it is.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 16:59 (two years ago) link
idk i just keep asking myself why this (powerful hollywood white man from a hollywood lineage) guy, at this point in his career, in 2022 decided to do a movie about this age gap shit. like really. why? 🤔 🤔 🤔 🤔
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 February 2022 17:56 (two years ago) link
Three bad takes in a row!
― Max Hamburgers (Eric H.), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:04 (two years ago) link
Agree with Darin's theory, although to me that's a plus--spend, spend.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:11 (two years ago) link
Minus its soundtrack (not the most expensive ever assembled--I guess Bowie cost enough), Licorice Pizza would evaporate.
― clemenza, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:13 (two years ago) link
I'll also give LP extra points for featuring the most authentically ugly onscreen 70s hair on men I've seen since the actual 1970s.
― bookmarkflaglink (Darin), Monday, 21 February 2022 18:26 (two years ago) link
the wigs were pretty bad
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:28 (two years ago) link
It’s kinda funny to see people call out a soundtrack that includes “My Ding-a-ling.”
― Chris L, Monday, 21 February 2022 18:51 (two years ago) link