LICORICE PIZZA
A funny, well-acted romance that belongs with discerning adults.
Should You Watch It?
Licorice Pizza is a well-acted, sometimes funny romantic comedy with appealing characters and quirky adventures. Its Los Angeles setting and unusual episodes give it a light, breezy quality, and the central friendship has enough warmth to keep you watching.
But the movie’s 133-minute length exposes its weaknesses. The story is too episodic, and many comic situations have little to do with Gary and Alana’s relationship. More importantly, the film’s worldview is secular and mixed, while its R-rated content includes more than 60 obscenities and profanities, lewd material, drunkenness, a reference to LSD, and a homosexual relationship between two minor male characters.
Adults who can weigh those concerns may find enough charm and craft to make the trip worthwhile. For families and young teens, this is not the choice.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESIn Los Angeles in 1973, Gary Valentine is a mature 15-year-old child actor who develops a crush on Alana Kane, a 25-year-old photographer’s assistant. Alana says they should remain friends, but she agrees to chaperone Gary and other young actors on a trip to New York.
Back in California, Gary explores life beyond acting, including waterbeds and pinball. Alana searches for work and direction of her own. Their friendship continues through a string of quirky adventures, leaving one question hanging: could it become something more?
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a good but uneven film. Licorice Pizza is well-acted and funny, with appealing characters and an abundance of quirky situations. The performances give the central relationship enough personality to carry many scenes.
The problem is cohesion. The story feels too episodic, and the movie is overlong. Its plot is not consistently energetic, and several comic episodes seem disconnected from Gary and Alana’s relationship. The result is an entertaining film with real charm, but also clear structural weaknesses.
The Worldview
Licorice Pizza presents a light, mixed worldview. Its outlook is pagan, Romantic, amoral, and secular, with no strong moral or spiritual themes. Gary and Alana display a nonreligious attitude, although they do not sleep around with other people. The film also includes some moral and pro-capitalist elements.
The movie treats the relationship between a 25-year-old woman and a 15-year-old boy as a romantic possibility, eventually showing Alana kissing Gary even though he is officially a minor. It also reveals that a supporting political character has a secret homosexual lover, presenting the situation with an implied politically correct attitude. These elements make the film’s treatment of romance and sexuality difficult to reconcile with a biblical view of holiness and appropriate relationships.
The film’s central longing is for connection, affection, and a meaningful future, but it does not ground those desires in God’s design. Scripture calls believers to holiness and self-control: “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements
Light mixed pagan worldview with some pagan, Romantic, and secular behavior, but some light moral elements such as young Jewish woman yells at her new Jewish boyfriend for claiming to be an atheist in front of her father at dinner when the father starts to lead a mealtime prayer, and some overt pro-capitalist elements, plus it’s revealed that a supporting character who’s running for mayor of Los Angeles has a secret homosexual lover, so the lead female character has an uncomfortable scene with them in a restaurant and drives the lover home, and there’s a light implied politically correct attitude toward this situation
Foul Language
About 52 obscenities (including many “f” and “s” words), seven GD profanities and four light profanities, plus young Jewish woman crudely asks her Jewish boyfriend about being circumcised because he embarrassed her earlier at dinner when he told her father that he’s an atheist
Violence
Light, sometimes comical, violence includes teenager takes golfclub and smashes windows of Ferrari because crazy absent owner threatened to kill his family, and reckless driving of truck backwards down a hill because the truck has run out of gas and man on motorcycle recklessly jumps a deliberately fire set on a golf course, and woman falls from the back of the cycle when he starts his run (no one’s really hurt in either incident)
Sex
No depicted or implied sex scenes but there are a few crude sexual references (including a short scene involving several visual jokes when teenagers horse around), 25-year-old woman eventually kisses teenage boy, and a young male political candidate turns out to have a secret homosexual lover who complains about the candidate trying to keep their affair a secret, plus some innuendoes about selling waterbeds, and man suddenly flirts with two younger women he sees on the street
Nudity
No nudity, but two or three girls wear bikinis in waterbed store, and father gets upset when his adult daughter comes home in a bikini
Alcohol Use
Some alcohol use and drunkenness
Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse
Brief smoking and one or two references to marijuana and a joke about LSD;
Miscellaneous Immorality
Light miscellaneous immorality such as vandalism, crazy rich man threatens boy’s family if he messes up his house, while he’s delivering and filling a waterbed to the man’s fancy house, some reckless driving of a truck and a motorcycle, but no one is really hurt, and two cops mistakenly arrest a teenage boy for murder because he matches the description, but an eyewitness right away says the boy’s not the killer.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
The film treats a relationship between a teenager and an adult as a romantic possibility. What boundaries does Scripture give us for honoring God and protecting one another?
1 Thessalonians 4:3–5 · 1 Timothy 5:1–2Gary pursues work in acting, waterbeds, and pinball. What makes work honorable, and how should success or failure shape our identity?
Colossians 3:23–24 · Proverbs 16:3Alana’s family tension includes a disagreement about atheism and prayer. How can Christians speak truthfully about belief while remaining respectful toward family members?
1 Peter 3:15 · Colossians 4:5–6The film presents romance and personal desire as powerful guides. How can we test our desires rather than simply follow them?
Proverbs 3:5–6 · Galatians 5:16The Final Word
Licorice Pizza offers adults appealing characters, good performances, and some genuine laughs, but its episodic story and strong content demand careful discernment. It is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY for viewers prepared to weigh those concerns. Families looking for something cleaner should begin here:.
