The movie theater business is still struggling post-Covid, with audiences largely only showing up for “event” movies and preferring to wait (often not for long) for less effects-heavy fare to make its way to one of the myriad streaming services they subscribe to. Serious dramas, mature thrillers, romance, and comedy in particular seem to have been hardest hit by this trend, with most people feeling there is nothing to be gained by watching them on a big screen. They’re wrong in my opinion, and a slowly growing percentage of the population seems to agree with me, but it isn’t likely to change much in the short term. And so it is that Pizza Movie, the sort of late-teens / early-20s targeted stoner comedy that could have once been relied upon to drum up at least a modest profit is now instead sent directly to streaming. At least that should make it easier for the film to gather the sort of cult fandom it deserves.
College roommates Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone) are possibly the least popular students at school. Both are just weird enough that they would be likely to struggle anyway, but an incident Jack triggered involving the football team has left him completely reviled by his classmates. Popular idiot Logan (Marcus Scribner) is particularly cruel to the duo, and after one of his organized humiliation rituals against them, the dejected pair discover a tin of mysterious pills labelled M.I.N.T.S. in their room and decide to order a pizza and give them a try in the hopes of forgetting their problems.
Too late they discover that they are in for a wild and potentially very unpleasant night if they don’t consume food before the last of the drug’s many stages begins, and so set off on a quest to get down to the lobby and retrieve their pizza from delivery robot Snackatron 3000 (Bobby Moynihan), which is itself incapable of navigating stairs. With the effects of the drug coming in waves and a variety of obstacles blocking their progress, most notably a squad of overzealous RAs led by the gleefully maniacal Blake (Jack Martin), they team up with their ex-friend Lizzy (Lulu Wilson) who also took one of the pills and Montgomery’s pet butterfly Lysander Featherhelm (Daniel Radcliffe) to make their way downstairs.
The stages of the drugs, introduced via a charmingly retro video by their creator Frankie (Sarah Sherman), allow the writing and directing duo of Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher (aka internet sketch comedy duo BriTANicK) to take the story in some hysterically outrageous directions. At various times they are body swapped, only able to tell the truth, dropped into flashbacks from each other’s lives, and subjected to persistent head explosions, among other indignities, with each seeming to kick in at the most inopportune times. Fulling leaning into its potential for absurdity, this is one of the most consistently funny quests in years, like a bizarre, narcotics-laden update of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, complete with a sweet bit of well-earned personal growth for our characters at the end.
Matarazzo and Giambrone make for a winning team up, sharing an easy-going, believable chemistry with each other, even in the moments when their friendship is on thin ice. If this turns out to be enough of a success for Hulu, I could easily see these two being paired up again. The material is sometimes a little cheesy, possibly due to the presumably limited budget, but everyone gives it their all and the majority of the gags work.
This is the sort of film that is going to really connect with certain viewers, becoming a favorite that they gather together and watch over and over again, repeating some of the more quotable lines to each other ad nauseum. And good for them. Every generation needs an over-the-top, ridiculous comedy like this to call their own. That Pizza Movie is also so funny to anyone with a sense of humor that leans both to the absurd and the crass (aka internet movie critic me) is a bonus. You have to be very smart to write stupid jokes effectively, so Kocher and McElhaney might be geniuses. ★★★★
rated TV-MA. contains strong language throughout including sexual references, brief nudity, bloody violence, and drug use.
★★★★★ = Excellent | ★★★★ = Very Good | ★★★ = Good | ★★ = Fair | ★ = Poor
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