Licorice Pizza

2021 • 133 minutes

About this movie

Licorice Pizza" is the story of Alana Kane (Alana Haim) and Gary Valentine (Cooper Hoffman) growing up, running around and falling in love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973. Written and Directed by heralded filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson, this potent coming-of-age drama tracks the treacherous navigation of first love. Sean Penn, Bradley Cooper, Tom Waits, Benny Safdi, Christine Ebersole and Harriet Sansom Harris also star.

Ratings and reviews

Thought everyone was clutching their pearls when they said it was a pedophile movie, but had to drop this movie the moment I realized it really was glorifying a pedophilic relationship between a 15 year old teenager & a 25 year old adult. How is it a "coming of age story about a young couple" when one of them is ALREADY OF AGE? This is straight up normalizing pedophilia. There's a scene where she gets mad at him for being immature. I wonder why he's so immature? Maybe it's cause he's 15!!!!!!

This was an entertaining, casual love story set in the early 70's. I liked it. It's also, kind of, like an "inside Hollywood" piece. Though the main characters ages were far apart they were close in maturity and development. I was surprised by this clever balance of personalities. Those desiring to brand this relationship indecent are posing as pretentious dictators of societal and human relationships. Its real life, real love. Watch it for yourself.

Interesting twist on tales as old as time. Let's be honest, this movie got hype because of cover art. Sex sells and people don't know what a quality film is anymore.