End Credits #238 - March 9, 2022 (Licorice Pizza)

This week on End Credits we're going back to a time of social tumult and high gas prices. History comes around again in Licorice Pizza, the Academy Award-nominated new film from acclaimed director Paul Thomas Anderson. Before that, staying in the worlds of the man called PTA, we will consider some of the greatest characters he's ever created.

This Wednesday, March 2, at 3 pm, Adam A. Donaldson and Tim Phillips will discuss:

PTA's People. Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most acclaimed American filmmakers of the last 25 years. Each one of his nine films have been fairly perfect on their own, so ranking them would almost be a moot point, but those movies are filled with completely unique and compelling characters. So this week, we talk about the oil men, professional gamblers, adult film stars, and wayward young people that make up PTA's best characters.

REVIEW: Licorice Pizza (2021). For his ninth film, Paul Thomas Anderson returns to the San Fernando Valley in the 1970s, where child star Gary is making the transition to ambitious entrepreneur at the age of 15. Then he meets Alana, a direction-less young woman in her mid-20s who strikes up a friendship with Gary, although she insists that it can never, never, ever get romantic. Anderson's new movie tests the limits of good taste and appropriateness by 2022 standards, but how does it stand as a film, and in the PTA pantheon?

End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Wednesday at 3 pm.