With three Oscar nominations in the major categories of Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay, this Paul Thomas Anderson film has to be the equivalent of the shaggy dog or dark horse of this year’s Academy Awards. The lead stars are Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim - and yes, you can be scratching your head now, wondering where you may have seen these two. And the answer is that this is the feature-film debuts of the two.
If you watch music videos, and know the girl band named Haim, then you’d have seen Alana, as she’s the youngest of the sisters. And in keeping with the ‘family’ theme, Cooper is the son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman (who worked with PT Anderson in The Master, which starred Hoffman and Joaquin Phoenix). So right off the bat, this is a Best Picture nominee with two neophyte actors carrying the film.
Set in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles county, in the early 1970’s, one could describe the film as an unconventional coming-of-age; but it’s really much more than that. It’s a love poem, written by Anderson to his adolescent years, and the LA he grew up in. And rather than finding answers or providing resolution, it’s about two young individuals discovering themselves, while striking a distinct bond, thinking they could be falling in love, resisting and frustrating each other, and generally getting on with life, and making each experience count in the long run.
After films such as Boogie Nights, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, and The Phantom Thread, this new film will have to be regarded as PTA at his most sweet and sentimental. The title refers to a slang word used to describe vinyl records, and there was a chain of record stores in the SoCal area in the 1970’s that went by that name. As for the film, it’s more a succession of vignettes and episodes over a short period of time in the lives of 15-year old child actor & budding entrepreneur Gary Valentine (Hoffman), and 25-year old photographer’s assistant Alana Kane (Haim).
What makes the film bubble and charm are the personalities of the two, and how real they are. Helping keep the film on its toes are the myriad characters they encounter, and here’s where PTA excels in his casting, and in squeezing out memorable cameos from this support cast.
Bradley Cooper plays Jon Peters, the one-time hairdresser/boyfriend of The Barbara Streisand. Sean Penn is a William Holden-type actor who frequents the local dining establishment. There’s Leonardo DiCaprio’s real-life father taking on the role of the huckster who convinces Gary to become a water bed salesman. And in the most potent example of making this a family affair, the Kane family is portrayed by the Haims - from Alana’s real-life parents, to her two sisters.
To be frank, when I read what the film was about, I wondered if this was too fluffy a subject for PTA to have taken on, whether it was going to be Boogie Nights without the porn stars and sleaze. But if you give the film a chance, you are literally beguiled and entranced by the intertwined stories of the two young characters. Gary Valentine is self-aware enough to know his career as a child actor is coming to an end, and he turns a young businessman with reckless abandon.
Alana Kane knows she’s emotionally stunted, hanging out with kids ten years younger than her - yet finding she can’t resist the ardor with which Gary pursues her, and seeing him and his friends as a weird part of her future and finally enjoying life. In short, there’s much to have empathy for, and with one of the most unconventional leading lady faces, Haim is a riveting presence.
Just wish that there’s enough interest so this film gets a theatrical run here. It deserves an audience, and it’s a film that vividly captures an era, while resonating with today’s audience. Smart, funny, dramatic, and real; it’s nostalgia Paul Thomas Anderson-style.