here<\/a>). I also can quickly tire of \u201chang-out\u201d films where we just pass the time with some characters until it\u2019s time for the closing credits, so this doesn\u2019t exactly feel tailor-made to my preferences.<\/p>\nReader, I loved it. There\u2019s something so beguiling about Cooper Hoffman (in his film debut, but man, those Hoffman genes are strong) as whizz-kid entrepreneur and child star Gary Valentine pinballing from press tours to water beds to \u2013 well, pinball machines; while at the same time pursuing Alana Haim\u2019s 25-year-old photographer\u2019s assistant who has started to give up on her dreams. It\u2019s such a fresh, novel, endlessly fascinating relationship that I couldn\u2019t tear my eyes away from the screen.<\/p>\n
And lucky I didn\u2019t, as there\u2019s a delightful parade of cameos, many of them evoking or just playing real people from the period, whether it\u2019s faux-Lucille Ball, actual Jon Peters or if-you-squint William Holden.<\/p>\n
True, the ending is never in doubt, and if you told me you got restless waiting for it, then I would totally understand why, but if this were to win Best Picture (and I don\u2019t think it stands much of a chance), then I would practically skip upstairs in order to sit down and watch it again. I don\u2019t think it will change the world, and I don\u2019t think it has anything very profound to say about Age, The Past, Men and Women or The Human Condition but it\u2019s blazingly original, beautifully played, with an exceptional score and a faultless period feel.<\/p>\n
Drive My Car<\/h3>\n
Drive My Car<\/em> is a harder film to love. Featuring an emotionally closed-off central character which only adds to the barriers erected in front of an English-speaking audience watching a story told mainly in Japanese (plus some Korean and some sign language) about a Russian play written in 1899. If Licorice Pizza <\/em>feels long at two hours and ten minutes, Ryusuke Hamaguchi\u2019s film feels glacial at three hours, and if one was so minded, one could certainly make a case for axing most of the first hour, since all the key events depicted are later recounted by other characters, and often have more power the second time around.<\/p>\nI think I would have struggled with this far more if I hadn\u2019t already seen Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy <\/em>by the same director, which taught me something about his rhythms and his interests in a more digestible version \u2013 it\u2019s three short films together running for less time than Licorice Pizza<\/em>. And as I watched, gradually my restlessness began to subside as firstly the characters began to blossom and bloom and secondly, the architecture of the story began to reveal itself.<\/p>\nOf particular interest to me was the relationship between director Kafuku and his driver Misaki Watari, whose fierce stoicism is brilliantly evoked by T\u014dko Miura. In the end, this is a story about loss, set in \u2013 of all places \u2013 Hiroshima (although the bombing is scarcely mentioned). Loss of a loved one, loss of dignity, loss of autonomy and loss of control. The all-powerful director who is king of the rehearsal room but can no longer steer his own vehicle is just one potent image among many.<\/p>\n
Again, I don\u2019t think this stands a chance of winning Best Picture, but unlike Licorice Pizza, that\u2019s not because it\u2019s in any way flimsy or insubstantial. But The Power of the Dog<\/em> feels just as daring while giving Academy voters a more familiar structure and setting to guide them through. I think I\u2019d have to see both again to be absolutely sure, but possibly \u2013 just possibly \u2013 I might prefer the Russo-Japanese story over the New Zealand-American one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Licorice Pizza I blow hot-and-cold on Paul Thomas Anderson, with only Magnolia really ringing my bell (Boogie Nights is fine, Punch Drunk Love is fine, There Will Be Blood doesn\u2019t seem to be aware of how silly much of it is, The Master is good but gets locked into a repetitive cycle, Inherent Vice is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[13,530,19],"class_list":["post-2830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-the-cinema","category-culture","tag-oscars","tag-oscars-2022","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-JE","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2833,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2830\/revisions\/2833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}