Some movies, especially comedies, feel like they’re operating on pure impulse. They throw everything at the wall, from gross-out gags to surreal detours to hyper-specific bits, yet somehow still find a rhythm in the chaos. Pizza Movie, the latest absurdist swing from comedy duo Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher (collectively known as BriTANicK), is very much that kind of movie. It’s loud, random, and increasingly ridiculous, but once it locks into its weird no-holds-barred wavelength, it becomes a genuinely fun time.
The film follows Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), two college outcasts stuck at the absolute bottom of the social food chain. They’re the kind of guys who’ve had no choice but to fully embrace their loser status, even as it continues to make their lives a living hell. Jack, in particular, has become a campus punching bag after an incident with the football team that’s best left unspoiled. Meanwhile, the meek and awkward Monty, with his hilariously self-described “little old man” voice, clings to the hope that he can somehow reinvent himself into the kind of alpha who might win over his crush, Ashley (Peyton Elizabeth Lee).
There’s also Lizzy (Lulu Wilson), who was once friends with Jack and Monty before climbing the social ladder on campus. While offered plenty of her own hilarious moments, she also provides a surprisingly grounded emotional throughline amid all the insanity that follows. Her dynamic with the boys hints at something more sincere underneath the film’s relentless barrage of jokes, even if it never lingers on it too long (much to its strength).
After a genuinely gross encounter with a group of bullies led by the proudly idiotic Logan (Marcus Scribner), a hidden stash of mysterious drugs literally falls from the dorm room ceiling into the hands of Jack and Monty. The two down-on-their-luck best buddies throw caution to the wind and try the pills out. What could go wrong?
The brilliantly titled Pizza Movie quickly turns into a harebrained stoner odyssey, albeit one where the characters take a completely illogical, made-up drug as opposed to just smoking pot regularly. Because they didn’t take the drug with food, the boys are forced into a race against time to retrieve a pizza from the downstairs lobby of their dorm that has been delivered via a robotic courier named Snackatron. If they fail to eat said pizza, the unknown substance they’ve ingested will completely destroy their minds and bodies.
It’s a feature length premise that’s ramshackle by design. Pizza Movie isn’t interested in logic so much as escalation, although the film doesn’t exactly hit the ground running. The opening stretch is the definition of a rocky start, and the initial introduction of this heightened college setting and its cast can feel more off-putting than funny. It takes a little time for the movie to find its groove, and there’s a real risk early on that it might never quite recover. Thankfully, once it does, it rarely lets up.
Once Jack and Monty take the drugs and leave the safety of their room, the film finally clicks into place, embracing a structure that allows for increasingly bizarre set pieces and awesome gags. Time bends, reality fractures, and the movie gleefully adopts a loose sci-fi playground that lets it justify just about anything. It’s a smart choice, because it means every new sequence can push things just a little further into different modes of absurdity.
That looseness is what allows the film to showcase its best comedic instincts. I personally love how the gang of Resident Advisors - which include their ruthless leader Blake (Jack Martin) and new recruit Sidney (Caleb Hearon) - is portrayed as a kind of hyper-militarized, secret police unit. I’m also quite fond of Ashley and her band, Flesh Grenade (awesome name), who perform what they describe as “new wave non-consensual death metal folk music”. This is after we have the great fortune of seeing Monty attempting to listen to “clowncore vomit opera”. If those two genres don’t become actual things following the success of this movie, we’ve all failed.
What ultimately makes Pizza Movie work is its commitment to nearly every bit. This is a (pizza) movie that plays everything big: every performance, every gag, every stylistic swing. The cast clearly understands the assignment, leaning into the material with an energy that keeps even the weaker jokes from completely falling flat. Not every gag is gonna land, but enough of them do that the film maintains a steady comedic momentum.
It’s also surprisingly thoughtful in its structure. The different “phases” of the drug trip give the film a loose framework, allowing friendships and character dynamics to shift and evolve as the night spirals further out of control. It’s not exactly profound, but it adds just enough shape to keep the chaos from feeling aimless.
Most importantly though, there’s a moment in Pizza Movie where a perfectly gooey microwave mac and cheese is being prepared by a character literally named Stoner Kid (Chris Schmidt Jr.). It is shot by cinematographer Bella Gonzales (Twisted) with the kind of reverence usually reserved for fine dining. I was immediately transported back to my own college days in a specific, profound, Ratatouille-esque way. I wasn’t expecting to be so affected by something like Pizza Movie, of all things, but here we are. Godspeed, Jack and Monty. I’ve been there.
'Pizza Movie' is now streaming on Hulu / Disney+.
