52 | NOVEMBER 25 • 2021
A TOUR OF L.A. IN 1973,
LARSON’S KOSHER-
STYLE BIO, MORE
Licorice Pizza (opens Nov.
26) is a coming-of-age film
directed and written by
the “quirky” Paul Thomas
Anderson. Anderson is
a big fan of the popular
band “Haim” (three real-life
Jewish sisters) and he cast
Alana Haim, 29, in her
first acting role. The movie
takes place in the early
1970s and touches on a
lot of iconic ’70s moments,
especially those that took
place in Los Angeles.
(Advance reviews are
good).
Alana plays Alana Kane,
a Jewish woman about
20 who works as a pho-
tographer’s assistant.
During a photo shoot at
a high school, she meets
Gary Valentine, a 16-year-
old (non-Jewish) student.
Gary is played by Cooper
Hoffman, who is also mak-
ing his film debut. He is
the son of the late actor
Phillip Seymour Hoffman.
Kane and Valentine
become very good friends,
but never quite have a
physical relationship. Alana
is well-aware of their age
difference and Gary’s
social awkwardness — but
trumping all that is the sim-
ple fact that he is a good
guy.
Alana and Gary have lots
of ‘adventures’ that involve
name-actors that Anderson
got to appear (briefly) in
his film. Here are a few
adventures: They meet
a famous actor, modeled
on William Holden, who
is played by Sean Penn,
61; they start a waterbed
company, and a custom-
er is Jon Peters, a (real)
film producer who lived
with Barbra Streisand in
the early ’70s (Bradley
Cooper plays Peters); they
get involved in the real
(1973) mayoralty candidacy
of Joel Wachs, now 87.
Wachs is played by Benny
Safdie, 37.
The large support-
ing cast includes Maya
Rudolph, 49, Skyler
Gisondo, 25, Destry Allyn
Spielberg, 24, and Sasha
Spielberg, 31 (Steven’s
daughters). Alana’s real-life
sisters and parents appear
briefly as, respectively,
Alana Kane’s sisters and
parents.
LARSON’S BIOPIC
The musical film Tick, Tick
… Boom! had a very limited
theater opening on Nov.
12 and began streaming
on Netflix Nov. 19. I was
going to wait until I saw it
on the 19th before writing
about it. Why? Because
there is a long-standing
real problem that’s getting
worse in recent years. The
problem is the erasure
of the Jewish identity of
biographical figures or
the erasure of the Jewish
background of a fictional
print character when that
character becomes a TV or
movie character. I wanted
to see if Tick Tick … Boom!
was part of this trend.
A friend of mine was
kind enough to tell me on
Nov. 13 that he was reliably
informed that Tick, Tick …
Boom! is another “erasure”
case.
Tick Tick … Boom! is a
biographical film directed
by Lin Manuel-Miranda.
It’s about Jewish com-
poser Jonathan Larson,
who died suddenly of a
misdiagnosed heart con-
dition in 1996, age 35. He
died just before his most
famous work, the musical
Rent, was about to open.
In 1991, he wrote Tick Tick
… Boom! an autobiograph-
ical “one-man” show. It
has posthumously been
re-worked/rewritten a
number of times in stage
productions with a much
larger cast.
A writer for the Jewish
website Alma differs with
my friend. In a Nov. 15 arti-
cle, he praised the film for
having a heavily Jewish
cast. He also was very
happy that Larson (as the
Tick character) makes two
small Jewish references.
Frankly, I think that most
non-Jews wouldn’t even
notice or “get” these ref-
erences (using the word
kaddish and correcting,
under his breath, the way
that some non-Jews pro-
nounced challah).
This all said, reviews for
the film are mostly good.
Singled out for praise is
Andrew Garfield, 38, who
plays the Larson charac-
ter. This is Garfield’s first
musical and he really can
sing. The Jewish mem-
bers of the large cast
include Joel Grey, 89 (as
Jonathan’s father); Judith
Light, 72, Noah Robbins,
31, and Ben Levi Ross, 23.
Also, composer Stephen
Sondheim, now 91, a men-
tor of Larson, is a major
character.
Larson grew-up in a pret-
ty secular Jewish house-
hold. His paternal grand-
father changed the family
name from Lazarson to
Larson. Right after Larson’s
death, his father, Allan,
told the NY Times that his
son lived in a Lower East
Side tenement as he strug-
gled to write a hit show.
Allan said, “It was the
kind of place my father, a
Russian Jewish immigrant,
probably lived in when
he came here in 1900.”
Allan didn’t use cutesy
Jewish clues like “challah”
and “kaddish.” He said
“Jewish.” Why bio-film writ-
ers don’t use that word is a
discussion for another day.
Hawkeye, a Disney+
series, began streaming
Nov. 24. It’s another entry
in the “Marvel Universe”
with a complex backstory.
Suffice it to say, the heroes
are Clint Barton/AKA
Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner),
a master archer, and his
protégé, Kate Bishop,
(also) AKA Hawkeye.
Hailee Steinfeld, 24, plays
Bishop.
CELEBRITY NEWS
NATE BLOOM COLUMNIST
ARTS&LIFE
RAPH_PH – HAIMFOXPOMONA VIA WIKIMEDIA
Alana
Haim