Paul T. Anderson crafts unique coming-of-age story with Licorice Pizza

December 27, 2021 Published by

Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has had one of the more eclectic careers in Hollywood, making movies about everything from the 1970s porn industry to an oil baron to a fastidious dressmaker. The majority of his films have been set in or around the Los Angeles area, a location to which he returns again with Licorice Pizza. The ’70s-set film centers on Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman), a 15-year-old whose self-confidence and ambitions are not commensurate with…