Dandy movie posters: "Nashville" and "Licorice Pizza"

First up, I love Robert Altman's 1975 film Nashville, and I also love the design of this particular German-language poster for the movie.

I first introduced to Nashville by a few of my Spartanburg Herald-Journal co-workers in the late 1990s, with it serving as a background movie for our card-playing. Honestly, it didn't make much of an impact on me at the time. But other viewings over the years, minus any focus on a crappy hand of cards, have paid rich dividends. It's an amazing film; a little bit of a miracle, even. 

It seems that Paul Thomas Anderson's newest film, Licorice Pizza, may have a bit of Nashville in its veins. I've been torn between wanting to know more about it and wanting to avoid too many spoilers. (And I've already read a few.) Today was the day that reviews, impressions and spoilers could first be posted on social media, so I think I might have to stay off @Papergreat on Twitter and the movie websites until after the national release on Christmas Day. It's not immediately clear how I'm going to manage that feat, though.

I did like this spoiler-free collection of thoughts on the Licorice Pizza from Rodrigo Perez (@YrOnlyHope). He wrote:

"If you consider PTA Altman PTA and Kubrick PTA (1st & 2nd halves of his career), then #LicoricePizza is like an early PTA Altman movie made by a later PTA Kubrick. Warm, nostalgic, romantic and affectionate, but cinematically ok with just hanging out and just vibin’

Maybe you could call it a Master-like pace.

In that sense it reminds me of Hal Ashby the most and true Altman (Boogie Nights is actually more coked up and Scorsese and Altman was never that keyed up as his early movies)

In a sense it’s much more Inherent Vice than it is Boogie Nights, minus the density of that film and the Zuckerberg jokes. It’s a PTA film that could potentially divide as much as IV did and there’s something exciting about it.

I’m still processing, but it’s largely great, if languid and baggy in spots (like a Long Goodbye), but Alana Haim is just luminous and outstanding.

Anyhow, it’s a film that don’t fit into one tweet, feels like 3 hrs, is sprawling, but still largely terrific."

That made all the sense in the world to me, and makes it sounds like Licorice Pizza might be Paul Thomas Anderson channeling Nashville through his own unique vision, sense of humor and style. Which sounds perfect. As is this poster.