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‘Licorice Pizza’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who in the Latest PTA Film

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‘Licorice Pizza’ Cast and Character Guide: Who Plays Who in the Latest PTA Film

Paul Thomas Anderson was born and raised in San Fernando Valley, which means that the director is fond of depicting the lifestyle and ambiance of his hometown in his films. First, it was Boogie Nights, next Inherent Vice, and now with Licorice Pizza. The latest title has received major critic buzz since screenings began in late November, and the National Board of Review (NBR) named it the Best Film of 2021. If these insights aren’t enough to keep you guessing, the characters and cast portraying them might bump up the hype for Licorice Pizza. From first-time actors to household names within Hollywood, this handy guide will explain who plays who and where you have you seen these familiar faces before.

Before delving into this breakdown, here is a brief synopsis of what Licorice Pizza is all about. Set in the 70s, a 15-year-old named Gary Valentine is still trying to make it past high school while trying to land a promising career as an actor. During picture day, he meets Alana Kane, a woman in her mid-20s working as a photography assistant. The two bond over their hopes and dreams, leading their partnership to extend to platonic love.

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RELATED: Where ‘Licorice Pizza’ Ranks Against Paul Thomas Anderson’s Best Movies

Alana Kane (Alana Haim)

Alana Kane is one of the leads in Licorice Pizza. She is a photography assistant with a whole lot of wit and drive. She becomes Gary Valentine’s love interest as the two spend more time together in their many business endeavors throughout the film, such as poking her feet into politics and selling waterbeds. Even though she is 25, the more Alana hangs out with Gary and his friends, the more she learns about adulthood.


Marking her acting debut, Alana Haim stars as PTA’s leading lady. Popularly known for playing alongside her sisters Danielle and Este Haim in the indie-rock band HAIM, the musician has worked with Anderson previously on some of the band’s music videos before being slated to perform in Licorice Pizza. Haim admitted in an interview with Cleaveland.com that she would constantly think that she would be fired during the shooting process. Gladly, her critically acclaimed acting made her stick around and receive some awards nominations for 2022.

Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman)

The other main character in this coming-of-age tale, Gary Valentine is a teenager who dreams of becoming an actor. Balancing school assignments and a couple acting gigs, Valentine is a jack of all trades. His investment in weird business affairs connects him to Alana, for who he eventually develops feelings.

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Haim isn’t the only new actor to be cast in the film. Her counterpart, Cooper Hoffman, gave acting a go for the first time in Licorice Pizza, and according to critics, he nailed it. Both lead actors won for Best Breakout Performance by the NBR. Hoffman is the son of late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who participated in 5 of PTA’s films: The Master, Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and Hard Eight.

Jack Holden (Sean Penn)

Jack Holden is an alcoholic actor who comes across Gary and Alana’s path. The character is loosely based on old Hollywood actor William Holden, who starred in films like Sabrina and Stalag 17 (which led him to win an Academy Award for Best Actor).

It was only a matter of time for Sean Penn to join a PTA film. According to the director, Penn was considered for the role of Rahad Jackson in Boogie Nights before Alfred Molina landed the part. He also tried to cast the actor in Punch-Drunk Love, but it also didn’t work out. Fast forward to 2021, the two-time Academy Award recipient for Mystic River and Milk finally shows up in Licorice Pizza.


Jon Peters (Bradley Cooper)

Like Jack Holden, Jon Peters is inspired by a real-life Hollywood name. Peters was a renowned producer, who dated Barbra Streisand during the 70s. The character even jokingly teaches Gary to pronounce Streisand’s last name correctly. Peters comes across as an intimidating and even psychotic figure in the film.

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Jon Peters is played by Bradley Cooper, who recently starred in Nightmare Alley alongside Rooney Mara and Willem Dafoe. Although his character here sums up to a cameo appearance, Cooper’s performance in Licorice Pizza could potentially land another Academy Award nomination for the A Star is Born actor. This is the first time that Bradley Cooper has worked with Paul Thomas Anderson.

Rex Blau (Tom Waits)

Rex Blau is a film director working with Jack Holden. Blau is the person behind a stunt that Holden performs in a scene of Licorice Pizza. The character is played by another musician-turned-actor Tom Waits, known for his roles in The Outsiders and Down by Law. Waits is very much linked to the 70s (time frame of the film), given that his jazz-oriented albums “The Heart of Saturday Night” and “Small Change” came out during those years. This is his first cameo appearance in a PTA film, after doing cameos in various Francis Ford Coppola projects.


Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie)

Gary and Alana collaborate on many unusual business endeavors, even some linked to politics. Character Joel Wachs is inspired by the real-life former LA City Councilman, at the beginning of his career. At the time portrayed in Licorice Pizza, Wachs was running for mayor, but he didn’t succeed. Benny Safdie plays Wachs, and he is one of the masterminds behind Good Time and Uncut Gems. Both films were written and directed by him and his brother Josh Safdie. The actor is also set to star on the Disney + series Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Lucille Doolittle (Christine Ebersole)

Lucille Doolittle is the fictionalized form in Licorice Pizza of American actress Lucille Ball, popularly known for the show I Love Lucy. This actress has also been depicted on-screen recently in the Aaron Sorkin biopic Being the Ricardos. Christine Ebersole plays Lucille in PTA’s film, and the actress has been featured on tv, film, and on Broadway multiple times. From Saturday Night Live to musical Grey Gardens, Ebersole has two Tony Awards in her back pocket and now has a PTA title on her IMDB.


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Lance (Skyler Gisondo)

Like in any love story, there is always someone trying to get in the way of fate. In Licorice Pizza, Lance takes his chances on a romance with Alana but isn’t successful in the long term. The character is Gary’s co-star from an acting project he did and the two reconnect after his trip with Alana to New York. Although Lance and Alana go on a couple of dates, they part ways and she gets closer to Gary.

Lance is played by Skyler Gisondo, a prominent young actor in Hollywood nowadays, having starred in Santa Clarita’s Diet, Booksmart, and most recently in the Netflix original feature film The Starling.

Kane Family (Haim Family)

Although their role is minor, having Alana Kane’s family being played by Alana Haim’s family is an ultimate treat. Despite their real-life dynamic being far away from their characters’ in Licorice Pizza, they determine some of the personal moments in the film by adding an extra layer to understanding Alana Kane. Nothing like a good old family scene to understand a character’s background.



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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

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Review: SAMARITAN, A Sly Stallone Superhero Stumble

Hitting the three-quarter-century mark usually means a retirement home, a nursing facility, or if you’re lucky to be blessed with relatively good health and savings to match, living in a gated community in Arizona or Florida.

For Sylvester Stallone, however, it means something else entirely: starring in the first superhero-centered film of his decades-long career in the much-delayed Samaritan. Unfortunately for Stallone and the audience on the other side of the screen, the derivative, turgid, forgettable results won’t get mentioned in a career retrospective, let alone among the ever-expanding list of must-see entries in a genre already well past its peak.

For Stallone, however, it’s better late than never when it involves the superhero genre. Maybe in getting a taste of the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) with his walk-on role in the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel several years ago, Stallone thought anything Marvel can do, I can do even better (or just as good in the nebulous definition of the word).

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The property Stallone and his team found for him, Samaritan, a little-known graphic novel released by a small, almost negligible, publisher, certainly takes advantage of Stallone’s brute-force physicality and his often underrated talent for near-monosyllabic brooding (e.g., the Rambo series), but too often gives him to little do or say as the lone super-powered survivor, the so-called “Samaritan” of the title, of a lifelong rivalry with his brother, “Nemesis.” Two brothers entered a fire-ravaged building and while both were presumed dead, one brother did survive (Stallone’s Joe Smith, a garbageman by day, an appliance repairman by night).

In the Granite City of screenwriter Bragi F. Schut (Escape Room, Season of the Witch), the United States, and presumably the rest of the world, teeters on economic and political collapse, with a recession spiraling into a depression, steady gigs difficult, if not impossible, to obtain, and the city’s neighborhoods rocked by crime and violence. No one’s safe, not even 13-year-old Sam (Javon Walker), Joe’s neighbor.

When he’s not dodging bullies connected to a gang, he’s falling under the undue influence of Cyrus (Pilou Asbæk), a low-rent gang leader with an outsized ego and the conviction that he and only he can take on Nemesis’s mantle and along with that mantle, a hammer “forged in hate,” to orchestrate a Bane-like plan to plunge the city into chaos and become a wealthy power-broker in the process.

Schut’s woefully underwritten script takes a clumsy, haphazard approach to world-building, relying on a two-minute animated sequence to open Samaritan while a naive, worshipful Sam narrates Samaritan and Nemesis’s supposedly tragic, Cain and Abel-inspired backstory. Schut and director Julius Avery (Overlord) clumsily attempt to contrast Sam’s childish belief in messiah-like, superheroic saviors stepping in to save humanity from itself and its own worst excesses, but following that path leads to authoritarianism and fascism (ideas better, more thoroughly explored in Watchmen and The Boys).

While Sam continues to think otherwise, Stallone’s superhero, 25 years past his last, fatal encounter with his presumably deceased brother, obviously believes superheroes are the problem and not the solution (a somewhat reasonable position), but as Samaritan tracks Joe and Sam’s friendship, Sam giving Joe the son he never had, Joe giving Sam the father he lost to street violence well before the film’s opening scene, it gets closer and closer to embracing, if not outright endorsing Sam’s power fantasies, right through a literally and figuratively explosive ending. Might, as always, wins regardless of how righteous or justified the underlying action.

It’s what superhero audiences want, apparently, and what Samaritan uncritically delivers via a woefully under-rendered finale involving not just unconvincing CGI fire effects, but a videogame cut-scene quality Stallone in a late-film flashback sequence that’s meant to be subversively revelatory, but will instead lead to unintentional laughter for anyone who’s managed to sit the entirety of Samaritan’s one-hour and 40-minute running time.

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Samaritan is now streaming worldwide on Prime Video.

Samaritan

Cast
  • Sylvester Stallone
  • Javon ‘Wanna’ Walton
  • Pilou Asbæk

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Matt Shakman Is In Talks To Direct ‘Fantastic Four’

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According to a new report, Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct the upcoming MCU project, Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios has been very hush-hush regarding Fantastic Four to the point where no official announcements have been made other than the film’s release date. No casting news or literally anything other than rumors has been released regarding the project. We know that Fantastic Four is slated for release on November 8th, 2024, and will be a part of Marvel’s Phase 6. There are also rumors that the cast of the new Fantastic Four will be announced at the D23 Expo on September 9th.

Fantastic Four is still over two years from release, and we assume we will hear more news about the project in the coming months. However, the idea of the Fantastic Four has already been introduced into the MCU. John Krasinski played Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The cameo was a huge deal for fans who have been waiting a long time for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU. When Disney acquired Twenty Century Fox in 2019 we assumed that the Fox Marvel characters would eventually make their way into the MCU. It’s been 3 years and we already have had an X-Men and Fantastic Four cameo – even if they were from another universe.

Deadline is reporting that Wandavision’s Matt Shakman is in talks to direct Fantastic Four. Shakman served as the director for Wandavision and has had an extensive career. He directed two episodes of Game of Thrones and an episode of The Boys, and he had a long stint on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. There is nothing official yet, but Deadline’s sources say that Shakman is currently in talks for the job and things are headed in the right direction.

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To be honest, I was a bit more excited when Jon Watts was set to direct. I’m sure Shakman is a good director, but Watts proved he could handle a tentpole superhero film with Spider-Man: Homecoming. Wandavision was good, but Watts’ style would have been perfect for Fantastic Four. The film is probably one of the most anticipated films in Marvel’s upcoming slate films and they need to find the best person they can to direct. Is that Matt Shakman? It could be, but whoever takes the job must realize that Marvel has a lot riding on this movie. The other Fantastic Four films were awful and fans deserve better. Hopefully, Marvel knocks it out of the park as they usually do. You can see for yourself when Fantastic Four hits theaters on November 8th, 2024.

Film Synopsis: One of Marvel’s most iconic families makes it to the big screen: the Fantastic Four.

Source: Deadline

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Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase Star in ‘Zombie Town’ Mystery Teen Romancer (Exclusive)

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Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase have entered Zombie Town, a mystery teen romancer based on author R.L. Stine’s book of the same name.

The indie, now shooting in Ontario, also stars Henry Czerny and co-teen leads Marlon Kazadi and Madi Monroe. The ensemble cast includes Scott Thompson and Bruce McCulloch of the Canadian comedy show Kids in the Hall.

Canadian animator Peter Lepeniotis will direct Zombie Town. Stine’s kid’s book sees a quiet town upended when 12-year-old Mike and his friend, Karen, see a horror movie called Zombie Town and unexpectedly see the title characters leap off the screen and chase them through the theater.

Zombie Town will premiere in U.S. theaters before streaming on Hulu and then ABC Australia in 2023.

“We are delighted to bring the pages of R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town to the screen and equally thrilled to be working with such an exceptional cast and crew on this production. A three-time Nickelodeon Kids Choice Award winner with book sales of over $500 million, R.L. Stine has a phenomenal track record of crafting stories that engage and entertain audiences,” John Gillespie, Trimuse Entertainment founder and executive producer, said in a statement.

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Executive producers are Trimuse Entertainment, Toonz Media Group, Lookout Entertainment, Viva Pictures and Sons of Anarchy actor Kim Coates.  

Paco Alvarez and Mark Holdom of Trimuse negotiated the deal to acquire the rights to Stine’s Zombie Town book.

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