Pizza Movie Review: Meet the New Stoner Comedy Classic
If there is a genre that you can always rely on making a premiere at SXSW, it would be the stoner comedy. This year’s festival was no exception as it was filled with several entries such as Cornbread Mafia, I Love Boosters, The Shitheads, and Pizza Movie. The latter is Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney’s feature directorial debut and it’s a film that is gloriously stupid and relentlessly fun. Pizza Movie takes an incredibly simple premise and turns into a chaotically ridiculous romp.
A shy college student named Montgomery (Sean Giambrone, The Goldbergs) and his reckless roommate, Jack (Gaten Matarazzo, Stranger Things) set out on a simple mission, to grab some delicious pizza for their Friday night. However, after taking a dose of a mind-bending experimental drug, they are thrust into a chaotic night of absurd encounters, wild hallucinations, and unexpected revelations that could change their lives forever.
Even if stoner comedies are not your cup of tea, there is something undeniably admirable about how much Pizza Movie throws itself into its own absurdity. It doesn’t just flirt with the chaos, the film is the chaos. With our two characters used to being as sober as a judge, their trip hits even harder as they are not accustom to warped reality and the transformative power of psychedelics. The result is a psychedelic odyssey that pushes them into an explosive, surreal, and totally off the rails high.
Pizza Movie cycles through increasingly bizarre scenarios with reckless enthusiasm. One minute, Montgomery and Jack are trapped in the bodies of talking puppets and they watch their own heads detonate the next before dealing with body-swap madness. And when they are in between trips, they are having to deal with over-bearing RAs who are trying to get them expelled. With each scenario being wilder than the last one, Pizza Movie becomes a rollercoaster of a trip gone bad. Sure, in between the trips, Pizza Movie does try to comment upon friendships and the growing responsibilities of being in college, and it doesn’t really land. But it still doesn’t take away how fun this film is.
In the end, everyone involved with Pizza Movie knows exactly what kind of film this is. It never pretends to be anything more. It’s messy, excessive, and profoundly juvenile. However, underneath that chaos, there is a sense of control that prevents this film from totally going off the rails. Sure not every gag lands and the absurdity of the film can become exhausting at points, but when Pizza Movie hits, it’s a fun romp that is surprisingly inventive. It’s the kind of movie that doesn’t ask for your approval. It’s a film that dares you to keep up with it and if you are willing to sit with some friends and eat some pizza, it’s a fun ride for everyone involved.
Pizza Movie is now Hulu and Disney+.
