That’s The Way It Was Made.
We went to see Licorice Pizza at the theatre. It was Shane’s choice although really, it was more my kind of movie than Shane’s.
Bill tagged along. Bill’s idea of a good movie is one with barely any plot, non-stop fighting and car chases, and extraordinary special effects. Still, Bill was able to find the value in Licorice Pizza.
On our way home Bill said, “It wasn’t the kind of movie I normally watch but it was well-done and I can appreciate that.”
I asked Shane what he thought. He said, “I really, really, really did not like it.”
This came as a complete shock to me, since it was a very long movie and Shane sat right next to me, silently, the entire time. So I pressed for details.
“Nothing happened the entire time,” Shane said. “And I didn’t care about the people in this movie and I feel like they left a ton of loose ends and no one knows what even happened with most of the storylines. Stuff just kind of randomly happened for no reason.”
Without giving up too much, I will say that Licorice Pizza is the story of two people who encounter a variety of small adventures during their friendship. So technically, Shane was right.
“That’s the way it was made,” I told him. “They were focusing more on the feelings of the characters than the things that happened. One of the ways they used film to do that is to only show the parts of the story where they were included. They let the audience determine, in their imaginations, what happened after the main characters were no longer around.”
I went into a detailed example of the camera angle in one particular scene, where three people were involved but only one character was shown full-on. It was an amazing feat of camera work and direction that pulled off more in two minutes than some books can accomplish in 1,300 pages.
Shane was still miffed. “I feel like a movie didn’t do it’s job at telling a story if it lets you decide what happens. That’s what those little choose your own adventure books are for.”
Hm, I thought. I always liked those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, except they always finished the story for me. I prefer imagination above all else.
Shane sees things so differently than I do. He wants to watch a movie that has a definitive story and everything wrapped neatly in a bow by the end. I didn’t realize this until we watched Licorice Pizza.
To be honest, I would have rather seen American Underdog. I absolutely love sports movies. If I had known that Shane wasn’t going to like the movie that he suggested, I would have gone to see the reality-based football movie by myself. Shane’s least favorite type of movie is one based on real-life sports, so if I wanted to see a movie with him, it had to be one he wanted to see.
Now that I’ve seen Licorice Pizza, I would like to recommend it to anyone who likes artsy, independent films. I haven’t seen anything I liked so much since Little Miss Sunshine, many years ago. To be fair, Little Miss Sunshine won a whole bunch of Academy Awards and had some serious laugh-out-loud moments.
Licorice Pizza is more of a tilt-your-head-to-the-side-and-wonder movie. If you like that kind, go see it.
But don’t take Shane.