Part of the appeal of “Licorice Pizza” is figuring out what it is really about along the way. It is not entirely clear from the start, except maybe one thing: it is probably not a good idea for Alana (Alana Haim) and Gary (Cooper Hoffman) to get together.

Their very first conversation says it all. Gary’s insistent flirting flatters Alana, who works as an assistant for the photography company his school hired to take yearbook pictures. She states the obvious, unavoidable facts—she is 25 and he is 15. Romantic or not, however, there is chemistry between them. In just the opening scene, both manage to make the other laugh, rage, but most of all, feel alive. Thus, a friendship begins, one that is so electric and brims with fascination and desire as both Gary and Alana try to understand what is drawing them toward each other. 

Gary is an aspiring actor and hustler, viewing everything and everyone he happens upon in the San Fernando Valley as an opportunity to make money, though it is not as if he needs it; his mother seems affluent enough to book him small acting gigs. At first, it seems Gary only uses Alana for his own benefit, whether as his chaperone on a New York trip or eye candy to promote his waterbed business, but when opportunities arise, he can not seem to let her go. Alana does not even attempt to define herself. She does not have a secure job and has not gone to college, so helping Gary and his 15-year-old friends build small, unstable franchises and scam Jon Peters (played by Bradley Cooper in one of the most off-the-wall movie moments of the last decade) is the perfect escape route from her responsibilities. Through the hilarity and tenderness, as Alana’s and Gary’s essences are slowly rolled out, it becomes painfully clear Gary just wants to be an adult already and Alana just wants to be a teenager again. Their relationship, undefined but strong, only furthers their ignorant blindness to the rest of the world, keeping them trapped in their own bubble.

That bubble never pops for Gary. Alana finds a way out of it and is able to see Gary for what he is, but will never admit to himself—lost. She is forced to reckon with the rest of the world when it becomes too overbearing to ignore, choosing to take on a job working for the liberal political office for mayoral candidate, Joel Wachs (Benny Safdie). Her heart is not in the job, though. Even if she boasts to Gary that it is, for Alana, being an adult isn’t as easy as flipping a light switch. Her eventful workplace tribulations help her understand what she had with Gary, a stupid teenager who used her as much as she used him, was the best she had at the moment—and she can not deny her innate love for the act.

And thus, the nature of “Licorice Pizza” is revealed to be about the power and joy of settling for someone.