‘Licorice Pizza’ is the internet’s most anticipated film, beating ‘No Way Home’

A slew of new movies are slated to hit theaters next month, and with the holidays upon us — we’re all hoping to have a bit more free time on our hands. Fans everywhere are gearing up to see as many of the upcoming films as possible.

One of those films is Licorice Pizza.

Billed as a coming-of-age film, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza is certain to ooze nostalgia and looks to be the There Will Be Blood director’s warmest film to date.

The movie will star Alana Haim in her first acting role, but not her first time in front of the camera. PTA frequently directs music videos for her band, HAIM, which she founded alongside her sisters. Her co-star, Cooper Hoffman, may look a bit familiar. He is the son of Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who starred in Anderson’s previous films, The Master and Boogie Nights.

Haim and Hoffman’s characters, “grow up, run around and fall in love in California’s San Fernando Valley in the 1970s.” Hoffman plays a high school student transfixed by a yearbook photographer’s assistant a few years his senior, an age gap that has some potential viewers raising an eyebrow.

In an interview with The New York Times, PTA explained that the film’s stars may have a romance, but it isn’t physical.

Does it surprise you how some people are reacting to the age difference between Alana and Gary?

There’s no line that’s crossed, and there’s nothing but the right intentions. It would surprise me if there was some kind of kerfuffle about it, because there’s not that much there. That’s not the story that we made, in any kind of way. There isn’t a provocative bone in this film’s body.

When Letterboxd, a website where movie lovers share their reviews, asked fans on Twitter what movies they were most excited about on Twitter, it might come as a surprise that so many were looking forward to Licorice Pizza.

However, if you scroll through the replies, almost all of the comments had the movie listed somewhere within their top 4.

What films are you most excited about this December? Do you plan on watching Licorice Pizza? Let’s talk about it.