The San Fernando Valley. This immensely charming coming of age comedy about a gifted — or at least, self-confident — 15 year old aspiring actor (played by Philip Seymour Hoffman’s son, Cooper) courting a bright but directionless young woman of 25 (Alana Haim) feels like it must be autobiographical, although PTA was only 3 years old in 1973. Taking place over a year or so, the movie is a celebration of chutzpah, entrepreneurship, and romance, but it’s also a critique of over-bearing, egocentric men, the pitfalls of the entertainment industry, and indeed the waterbed business. The title comes from a southern California record store chain, and this oddball, meandering but bittersweet love story hits its own sweet groove. It’s a long player that keeps on giving.
Sharply detailed, dramatically exhilarating, satirically incisive.
Richard Brody, The New Yorker
Looser and funnier than his recent efforts, sharper and more formally assured than his earliest films, this is Paul Thomas Anderson operating at full capacity. A master at work.
John Nugent, Empire
Paul Thomas Anderson
Cooper Hoffman, Alana Haim, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Bradley Cooper, Benny Safdie
USA
2021
English
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Credits
Executive Producer
Jason Cloth, Aaron L. Gilbert, Daniel Lupi, Sue McNamara, JoAnne Sellar
Producer
Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy, Adam Somner
Screenwriter
Paul Thomas Anderson
Cinematography
Paul Thomas Anderson, Michael Bauman
Editor
Andy Jurgensen
Original Music
Jonny Greenwood
Production Design
Florencia Martin
Also in This Series
Paul Thomas Anderson’s is a risky, unorthodox cinema, flexing between grand gestures and hidden depths, but to rewatch his films is always to discover that fleeting, elusive but profound possibility of connection.
Hard Eight
Anderson's debut is a deceptively modest character piece about a veteran gambler (Philip Baker Hall) who takes a much younger man under his wing and teaches him how to play the system and win. Until things take a darker turn...
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they criss-cross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.
Licorice Pizza
PTA's oddball courtship comedy takes us to the San Fernando Valley in 1973. 15-year-old aspiring actor Gary Valentine has the hots for 25 year-old Alana. She's bemused but admires his self confidence. It's quirky, meandering, but it sneaks up on you.
