The director, who is nominated for an Academy Award for this film, returns to the San Fernando Valley of his youth. The film is set in the 1970's and begins on an upbeat note, with a traveling shot following Alana down a line of high school students waiting to have their yearbook photographs taken, offering a mirror for last-minute primping. She catches the eye of 15-year-old Gary, played by Cooper Hoffman, who approaches her with an unnerving mix of puppyish adoration and glib confidence. The fact that she’s 25 has zero bearing on his resolve: He invites her to join him that evening at his regular place, the famous Valley watering hole Tail o’ the Cock. He is preternaturally mature, and she, in contrast, is stuck in a dead end job with no future and no idea of what she wants to do and who she wants to be. In a way, she is younger than him in all aspects except age. She also does not have a creepy predatory bent to her, and so there is none of that in their relationship, which is at heart romantic, but not terribly sexual. There are a lot of screwball comedy moments and Alana is accompanied on screen by her realife sisters and parents, all of which pays off beautifully in a hilarious, Friday-night shabbat dinner scene. The cherry on top is the cameo roles that an unrecognizable Bradley Cooper, and the quite familiar Sean Penn play that adds texture to this surprisingly sweet story.
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