‘Licorice Pizza’ Director’s Justification of Anti-Asian Scenes Misses Mark, Critics Say

Alongside buzz during this year’s awards season, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s film “Licorice Pizza” continues to draw accusations of anti-Asian racism. And critics and advocates say his explanations for the controversial scenes in questions have missed the mark.

Anderson, whose film is up for best picture, best original screenplay and best director Oscars, has remained relatively silent on the subject, having briefly spoke to Indiewire earlier this year about the uproar. Asian Americans have taken issue with the scenes in which white Japanese restaurant owner Jerry Frick, played by John Michael Higgins, launches into a slow, mock Asian accent, while speaking to his love interests, two separate Japanese women. The director, who claimed the joke was on Frick, the “idiot saying...

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Mar 28th 2022
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