LWLies 92: The Licorice Piz­za Issue – On sale now!

In the new issue of LWLies, my august col­league Han­nah Strong inter­views writer/​director Paul Thomas Ander­son and our cov­er star Alana Haim about the pair’s sparkling new film, Licorice Pizza.

She asks Ander­son if there is an inter­con­nec­tion between the worlds in which his films take place. Is the San Fer­nan­do Val­ley of Boo­gie Nights or Mag­no­lia or Punch-Drunk Love the same San Fer­nan­do Val­ley as the one we see splayed out in front of us in Licorice Piz­za? His answer was a no, but not an emphat­ic one. The way it reads is, ​“I don’t think of it that way, but very hap­py if you do.” And yes, we do.

Per­haps more so than any of his films to date, Licorice Piz­za is a land­scape movie, where the care­ful­ly-cal­i­brat­ed details in the back­ground serve to enhance the dra­ma in the fore­ground. It is the sto­ry of two free-spir­it­ed young peo­ple – Haim and Coop­er Hoff­man – nur­tur­ing a con­nec­tion and try­ing to dis­cern across the film’s run­time whether it is love.

Ander­son has cit­ed films such as George Lucas’ Amer­i­can Graf­fi­ti and Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridge­mont High as inspi­ra­tions, and this is evi­dent not only in its focus on the rois­ter­ing antics of its viva­cious pro­tag­o­nists, but also the episod­ic, qua­si-exper­i­men­tal struc­ture of the film.

In the spir­it of our cov­er film, for this issue we have cho­sen to exist inside the world that PTA has built for us, send­ing the read­er back to Cal­i­for­nia cir­ca 1973 to expe­ri­ence the cul­tur­al highs and lows of that vaunt­ed era. Our aim for this was to pro­duce the ulti­mate shrine to Ander­son oeu­vre, and we hope that this issue is as fun to read (and explore) as it was for us to make. And for those who like east­er eggs, hold on to your hats…

On the cover

We’ve long been a fan of the illus­tra­tor Tim McDon­agh, with whom we col­lab­o­rat­ed on our 2014 illus­trat­ed book What I Love About Movies. Lucky for us, Tim is a mas­sive PTA fan, and so rel­ished the chance to take a deep-dive into this new film and his entire cin­e­mat­ic world. The por­trait of Alana Haim on the cov­er is backed by a ripped-out page of clas­si­fied ads, set­ting the visu­al tone for the remain­der of the issue.

Illus­tra­tors inside the issue include Beth Fen­ton, Beth Mor­ris, Nick Tay­lor, Raya Deussen, Jess Alexan­der, Jake Smithies, Simon Hayes, Stéphanie Sergeant

In this issue

We Got This!
An Inter­view with Paul Thomas Ander­son and Alana Haim
Han­nah Strong talks land­scape, music and love with Licorice Pizza’s writer/​direc­tor and its star.

Meet The World’s Biggest PTA Fan
Flow­ers Fos­ter heads to Seat­tle to meet an eccen­tric col­lege kid with a bizarre and anti­so­cial obsession.

Jacques Gites: Being Me in ​’73
Our chief film crit­ic rounds up all the prime cin­e­mat­ic cuts of 1973.

Mark Bridges: Cos­tu­mi­er to the Stars
The Licorice Piz­za cos­tume design­er on the film’s mem­o­rable look.

Oh, David, Give Me Your Hands
An encounter with David Bowie in 1973, by Cady Chrysler.

Hot to Trot: Gary Valen­tine
A pro­file of the new actor and entrepreneur.

Let­ters: Bring Back Pin­ball!
A young man wants to strike down a non­sense law from the statues.

Horo­scopes
By Lau­rel Canyon

Obit­u­ary: Bax­ter Con­rad
The enig­mat­ic icon is remem­bered by his opi­um deal­er, Lemuel Cruz-Campo.

Threads #20: The White Suit
Christi­na New­land tack­les this slick icon of sil­ver screen machismo.

In the back section

John­ny Knoxville
Han­nah Strong pens a touch­ing ode to the idio­syn­crat­ic prankster ahead of the release of a Jack­ass: For­ev­er in ear­ly 2022.

How We Made The Tragedy of Mac­beth
Joel Coen, Bruno Del­bon­nel, Mary Zophres and Ste­fan Dechant talk to Adam Wood­ward about how they brought togeth­er this haunt­ing mono­chrome Shake­speare adaptation.

Guiller­mo del Toro
The Night­mare Alley direc­tor and LWLies hero dis­cuss­es the doors that were opened to him after his big night at the Oscars.

Romo­la Garai
The British actress tran­si­tions to the director’s chair to deliv­er her ace debut fea­ture, Amulet. Inter­view by Kather­ine McLaughlin.

Apichat­pong Weerasethakul
Matt Turn­er unveils the com­mu­ni­ty vibe on the set of Memo­ria – the mag­nif­i­cent new film from the soft-spo­ken Thai maestro.

In review

Joana Had­jithomas and Khalil Joreige’s Mem­o­ry Box
Salomé Jashi’s Tam­ing the Gar­den
Eric Steel’s Minyan
Will Sharpe’s The Elec­tri­cal Life of Louis Wain
Asghar Farhardi’s A Hero
Apichat­pong Weerasethakul’s Memo­ria
Andrea Arnold’s Cow
Joe Wright’s Cyra­no
Kir­ill Serebrennikov’s Petrov’s Flu
Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tam­my Faye
Joan­na Hogg’s The Sou­venir Part II
Romo­la Garai’s Amulet
Jami­la Wignot’s Ailey
Fran Kranz’s Mass
Fred Bailiff’s La Mif
Roger Michell’s The Duke
Pedro Almodovar’s Par­al­lel Moth­ers
Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Mac­beth
Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s Flee
Mahamat Saleh Haroun’s Lin­gui, The Sacred Bonds
Clio Barnard’s Ali & Ava
Ryū­suke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of For­tune and Fan­ta­sy
Ken­neth Branagh’s Belfast
Abel Ferrara’s Zeros and Ones

LWLies 92 is avail­able to order online now from our online shop. Become a Mem­ber or sub­scribe today to make sure you nev­er miss an issue.