It’s an endearing, risqué tale about Gary, a 15-year-old boy ( Cooper Hoffman, son of the late Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Alana, a 25-year-old woman ( Alana Haim, of the sister-trio rock band Haim) who form an immediate, curious bond that borders on an inappropriate romance. He’s lived in this slip of Los Angeles for much of his life and set several of his genre-defying, rabidly obsessed-over films there, including his most recent-the ’70s-era coming-of-age story Licorice Pizza.
“Where else would I be?” the Oscar-nominated writer-director exclaims when I ask. Paul Thomas Anderson is calling from the Valley.
