The Icky Age Gap of Licorice Pizza and the Double Standard of Consent on Film

“Licorice Pizza” is being lauded among critics though very few are mentioning the glaring problem wherein a 25-year-old woman doesn’t shut down the advances of a 15-year-old man. The relationship is described as chaste by most critics.Alison Wilmore attempts to downplay, it for example, with the headline “Licorice Pizza’s Unlikely Romance is the least interesting thing about it.”

First, let’s be clear, the movie ends in a romantic kiss (more on this movie trope here) and the 25-year-old professing “I love you” as the closing credits role. The ending is criminal and has been deemed unacceptable in 98% of contexts outside of this one

For example, Indiana Jones (and its three venerable screenwriters: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, and Lawrence Kadsan) nearly got cancelled because of the ickiness of the Marion-Indiana dynamic and there was a miniseries on TV less than a year ago “The Teacher” in which a young teacher who seduces her 17-year old student is seen as the devil. Additionally, in real life we have been pretty unforgiving of Woody Allen’s courtship with a 19-year-old Soon Yi Previn was “the heart wants what it wants” and have rejected the “It was the 70s” approach with Roman Polanski’s rape defense.