Licorice Pizza (2021)
“Licorice Pizza” is a 2021 coming-of-age comedy-drama set in the San Fernando Valley in 1973. It follows the relationship between teenager Gary Valentine and young adult Alana Kane as they grow up, drift together, and navigate first love, ambition, and the oddball world around them. The film traces their on-and-off bond through acting, business ventures, and various misadventures, blending romance with a nostalgic portrait of the era.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
In 1973 in the San Fernando Valley, 15-year-old child actor Gary Valentine meets 25-year-old photographer’s assistant Alana Kane at school picture day and immediately tries to impress her with his confidence and businesslike self-assurance. She is initially put off by his age and forwardness, but she still agrees to stay in his orbit, setting up the film’s central push-and-pull between them.
Turning Point 1
Gary keeps pursuing Alana and brings her into his world, including inviting her to accompany him to New York when his mother cannot chaperone him on a press trip. On the trip and after, Alana starts seeing Gary’s co-star Lance, which makes Gary jealous, but that relationship collapses after Lance reveals he is an atheist during Shabbat dinner with Alana’s family.
Turning Point 2
Back in the Valley, Gary turns to hustling and starts selling waterbeds, eventually reconnecting with Alana at a teenage business expo. When Gary is mistakenly treated as a murder suspect and arrested, Alana chases after him to the police station, and after he is released she joins his waterbed business, helping him work the phones and court customers.
Turning Point 3
Gary and Alana open a “Fat Bernie’s” waterbed storefront and try to act like partners in business, but their attraction keeps surfacing in ugly, awkward ways. Gary becomes upset when Alana is willing to pose nude for his agent but refuses to let Gary touch her breasts, and later he is hurt again when she catches him flirting with his classmate Sue; in response, Alana kisses a stranger on the street and storms off.
Turning Point 4
Gary’s agent gets Alana an audition for a film with Jack Holden, which sends her into a new social world of actors, producers, and parties. At the Tail o’ the Cock restaurant, an intoxicated Alana flirts with attention from Holden and director Rex Blau, while Gary watches and grows more possessive, and the two continue circling each other without resolving their feelings.
Turning Point 5
Alana begins working for mayoral candidate Joel Wachs, trying to give her life some direction outside Gary, but that choice only deepens the emotional gap between them. Meanwhile, Gary’s own schemes and immaturity keep collapsing around him, and each reunion leaves them both more aware that their bond is less ordinary friendship than something neither can clearly define.
Ending
After a long night of searching and miscommunication, Gary and Alana finally run back into each other, rush into each other’s arms, and return to the arcade together. Gary introduces her as “Mrs. Alana Valentine,” they kiss, run into the night, and Alana tells him that she loves him.
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.