Licorice Pizza is a term for a record and that is rather appropriate because this movie feels more like an album than a movie. We are treated to a variety of scenes. Some are great and can be singles and others are solid b-sides. Like an album track order is important to build a narrative or story to the record. To unite all the songs together and be an album and not just a collection of songs. I think that for me is where this movie stumbles. There is a lot going on a like and the weird power dynamic love story between the leads is there throughout but at times it seems so minor that we forget that’s what this album is suppose to be about. Rather it seems more like a best of Paul Thomas Anderson album. With scenes and moments that hint at his other works from the power relationship of Phantom Thread, the 70s valley of Boogie Nights, the selling of beds of Punch Drunk Love wand the weirdly racist “motto pankeku” of Inherit Vice. All his films are touched upon and if you are a big fan of PTA’s works, admittedly I am, it plays upon that love for his works and you get the connections. The tribute and love for the time and old Hollywood characters is the real story the movie is driving on and I wished that allowed the “love” story to shine more to make the ending really pay off.