Pizza Movie premieres April 3 on Hulu.
By Elazar Abrahams
In another era, Pizza Movie would absolutely be the type of film destined for cult classic status. A hilarious stoner comedy with the spirit of classic 2000s hangout flicks, it deserves throngs of high school boys losing their minds at it, and dorm room watch parties for eternity. I pray to the gods of cinema that it doesn’t get lost in the endless barrage of streaming content and relegated to the second page of Hulu search results, because this movie is awesome.
Written and directed by sketch duo Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, Pizza Movie has a simple setup: two college roommates, Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), take a new trippy durg and begin to experience a terrifying hallucinogenic high, to which the only antidote is pizza. While the delivered pies rest just a few floors below them in the building’s lobby, getting to the ‘za will naturally be an epic, night-long odyssey through absurdist and vulgar gags.
A huge part of why this works is the casting. I actually loved that so many of the stars are known for playing kids on TV. Matarazzo known for Stranger Things, and Giambrone for ABC’s The Goldbergs are joined by Marcus Scribner, who cut his teeth on Black-ish, as a comically over-the-top bully. Seeing this crew now act as college students is a natural progression of their career arcs.
Pizza Movie commits to being dumb to an astounding degree. The script is no holds barred, throw everything at the page kind of vibe, and if that doesn’t work for you, first of all, I’m sorry, but alas, mileage may vary with this sort of thing. For me, it was laugh-out-loud funny. Like a Hawaiian slice, it’s also sweet when it needs to be. There’s heart under the gross-out energy. The movie understands the buddy comedy tradition it’s pulling from very well.
The ensemble really adds to the greatness. Lulu Wilson, Caleb Hearon, and Jack Martin are standouts. As for specific bits, one that sticks out as particularly funny is a moment where the characters’ heads literally explode, then keep exploding, and just when you think it’s over, explode once again. Great stuff.
Pizza Movie is exactly the kind of movie they don’t make enough of anymore, and they certainly don’t make enough well-made versions of it anymore. Here’s hoping this finds an audience.
I give Pizza Movie an A.
TV and City 