Okay, these are unusual entries for this website, and he second one is downright weird for this site. In fact I only watched the second one because of the first one, and I'm not entirely sure that I don't regret watching it, frankly.
5-25-77
5-25-77 is a coming of age film released in 2022 that I think I've actually watched twice. Indeed, I started a review a long time ago, and like some other lingering posts, I thought I'd already posted it. Set in 1977 its a movie about and by somebody actually in the movie industry about his youth in the Midwest and his early obsession with movies, most specifically the movie Star Wars. The title of the movie is taken from the release date for the film. The conclusion of the film actually depicts the actual people the film portrays, at the time in which the film is set.
Apparently the director and producer of the film was simply obsessed with Star Wars when it was released. Much of the movie revolves around his efforts to see the film upon its initial release, but it also deals with a trip to California brought about through the efforts of his mother to try to introduce him to industry figures, and through persistence he does get to meet Steven Spielberg. The movie also involves a frustrating romance with a girl in his high school and (spoiler alert) her pushing him away as she wants him to pursue his dream of being a movie maker, while she wishes to stay in their small town in Illinois.
The film is well done, funny, and bittersweet. It does a really good job with material details and depicting the look and feel of the late 1970s, as well as the hype regarding Star Wars when it first came out, and before it was spoiled, in a way, by the numerous sequels. A small film, its still worth watching, and not just because May 25 is my birthday (and I saw Star Wars in the theater during its initial run). It catches the obsessiveness about films that had theater runs when they could be watched in no other fashion really well. It also catches the fascination that existed with space films of the time pretty well, with 2001 A Space Odyssey showing up as a reference.
It also does a pretty good job of showing teenage culture, at least in the middle of the country, at the time. A female character gets mixed in as one of the guys, basically, in a way that's really realistic in that she's a pal, and not overly a love interest focus, although the major female character is the main male protagonist's love interest and of course, there's the obligatory sex reference in the film. It's material details are well done.
This one isn't bad and is worth viewing.
Licorice Pizza
This one isn't. It varies from weird, to boring, to creepy.
Probably because I watched 5-25-77, this film came up on my feed recommendations and as it vaguely looked remotely similar, I watched it. The film is really hard to describe in more ways than one. It seems to have drawn critical favoritism and I'm not sure why.
This film deals with a high school student who may or may not be going to a school for young actors (it's hard to tell). On the first day of school when he's 15 (maybe his freshman year?) he meets a young woman whose working at the school who is an adult. Later in the film she gives her age as 25, at which time the male protagonist might still be 15, or maybe 16. It's hard to tell.
It's hard to tell what the plot of the story even is. On day one he asks the older girl, Alana, to dinner that night and he inexplicably is able to leave his house, where he seems to be in charge of his younger brother, to go to the restaurant to find that the 20 something girl is in fact there. From there, there's an endless serious of highly improbable developments that center around the teenage boy's business talents (he seem to have access to money at a rate that few teenagers so). He goes into the waterbed business (seriously) and later in the movie opens an arcade (seriously?). He introduces the girl to his acting agent (his acting career seems to have died with commercials as a child) at her requests, which leads later on to an argument (she feels she should have said she'd appear in films topless) which leads to her exposing herself (we only see her back) to her 15 year old male friend.
After a tour through vandalism, which makes no sense in the film whatsoever, a scene involving Sean Penn as an older actor, and lots of running, she declares her love for the male protagonist and they kiss.
If it had a male older actor and a teenage girl, it would be something like Lolita except in Lolita, I think, the creepy male predator comes across as a creepy male predator. Here, Alana is never condemned for what really is predatory behavior.
I'm not sure why people like this movie, but it's really creepy.
The film is set in the very early 1970s. 1973 is mentioned at one point. The clothing and hair styles are basically correct, although with the actresses the director or design person clearly took a braless trend that existed at the time and grossly over emphasized it, unless it had more of a following in Encino where this movie is set. As noted, the movie is creepy.
In watching it, I thought the film probably riffed off of 5-25-77 in that it has all young actors and is mostly retrospective in a weird sort of way. But this film is actually from 2021.
If the film has one virtue, which is doubtful, it's the seen with Sean Penn. The movie casts Penn as an older actor and there are sufficient references such that its clear he's supposed to be a combination Jack Holden and Steve McQueen. The movie The Bridges at Toko Ri are referenced with a barely disguised title. McQueen's ability with a motorcycle is used. A bar scene features a director who is fairly clearly supposed to be John Ford, who in fact died in 1973. The short portion of the film with both of them in it is the only part watching, if anything is worth watching, which it really isn't.
Don't bother.
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