Episode Details

Jamie and Marsh enthuse about Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film, Licorice Pizza – an energetic and uplifting tale of an eccentric romance set against the backdrop of 70s LA. Watch it, it’s fab.

• The 94th Academy Awards! Licorice Pizza woz robbed! Maybe?
• Billy Crystal getting covered in gob
• Who’s in this film then, eh?
• Alana Haim as Alana
• Cooper Hoffman as Gary
• Alana Haim’s entire actual family as Alana’s family
• John Michael Higgins as Jerry
• Skyler Gisondo as Lance (also seen in the excellent Righteous Gemstones)
• John C Reilly as Fred Gwynne, playing Herman Munster
• Harriet Sansen Harris as the talent scout
• Sean Penn as Jack Holden, based on William Holden
• Tom Waits as Rex Blau, based on Mark Robson
• Bradley Cooper as Jon Peters, a real-life hairdresser, hollywood mogul and, apparently, maniac who wanted Superman to fight a giant spider
• George Dicaprio
• Benny Safdie as Joel Wachs, and one part of the Safdie Brothers – who are not, as per Adam Sandler’s tremendous acceptance speech, homeless rabbis.
• Maya Rudolph has a cameo during one of the casting calls. She’s a tremendous actor who should be in more things, not necessarily shitting herself each time – but she is very good at that, as Bridesmaids attests.
• Andy Jurgensen is the editor and long-time collaborator of PTA. Here’s an interview with the fella.
• Licorice Pizza draws from some of the life experience of Gary Goetzman, former child actor, waterbed salesman and co-founder of Tom Hanks’ production company.
• Other films and filmmakers we mention:
• PTA’s previous films: Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, The Master, Phantom Thread
• Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• The Safdie brothers’ Good Time and Uncut Gems are panic attacks masquerading as films. They’re excellent. They should have both been in our Top 50 probably. Apols!
• Mank is a film saturated in nostalgia and reverence for an era that is inaccessible without a lot of shared knowledge.
• Wes Anderson and Edgar Wright also get name-checked for their playful cutting and framing which I find increasingly insufferable.
• PTA interviewing Robert Downey Senior about getting sexy with a monkey.

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