Joel Wachs Vignette Was Weak

I like Licorice Pizza very, very much -- its "vibe and feeling" in some ways matters more than ALL the vignettes to me. (And evidently each of them is based on a true story then modified into the storyline by PTA.)

I, too, felt that the veer off to the Wachs story was somewhat irrelevant (and predictable -- his protestations about his single life to interviewers, etc.)

There is this: the real Joel Wachs was REALLY the local politician representing the Valley when PTA was growing up there, or his parents, so he wasn't just plucked out of nowhere to be in the story. Wachs was evidently one of those well liked "good" politicians to his constituency, even if he didn't win that Mayor's race.

And some years later...he came out.

So PTA uses the Wachs vignette for two purposes:

A reminder that a mere 49 years or so ago, most politicians and public business figures absolutely could NOT come out as gay. In some states, gay behavior was still subject to criminal punishment. And the core of the argument -- witnessed by the still "stunted and unformed" Alana...is that Wachs cannot and will not sacrifice his public career to his private relationship.

In the frame of the story, Wachs is sort of "the last straw" in a series of men (young and older) who are more appropriate(says society) for Alana, than Gary. That includes Lance the actor(the most age appropriate, but his atheism is a "no go" to Alana and her deeply religious family, rebellious though she may be); Jack Holden (who is actually way too old for Alana -- MORE inappropriate than Gary) and who doesn't care about her anyway. Jon Peters is younger than Holden but his only role is to simply hit on Alana. Which leaves Brian -- known to her, age appropriate, "kissable" -- Gary's only real competition in the story.

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