This looks glorious. A dash of “Punch Drunk Love” mixed in with the character mosaic of “Boogie Nights.”
This is obviously an inferior quality screen-shot video of the the teaser for Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza, but goddamit if you don’t feel that cinematic energy and vibe coming through your screen.
The teaser clearly announces the film as being about the romance between Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim. There are side characters, including those played by Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, and Tom Waits, but that’s that. It’s all about the punch-drunk young romanace between Haim and Cooper — the chaos surrounding them feels theatrical and second-fiddle.
Doesn’t the trailer also feel like the culmination of all the styles he’s used in his career thus far? I sense a mix of “Punch-Drunk Love,” “Boogie Nights,” and “Inherent Vice” in this trailer. And yet, it all feels very fresh and of-the-moment. This could end up being the sweetest and most heartfelt movie of his career.