'Pizza Movie' is late-night euphoria
Hulu
Even the best material that gets thrown into the “midnight movie” category often has a flaw that almost no one cares about: deep down, stuff like this isn’t usually about much of anything. By design.
“Pizza Movie,” a delirious good time that’s somehow delightfully original and also a recipe drawn from pieces of “21 Jump Street,” “Superbad,” and the deepest recesses of Edgar Wright’s (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” “Hot Fuzz”) brain, is both bonkers and unexpectedly wise about college-age mistakes.
Let’s see, what plot to share that is worth knowing and that will make sense: Everyone at school hates Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) for doing something to the football team that we don’t know yet; his roommate Montgomery (Sean Giambrone) is far less noticed by others, though he wants to get the attention of a girl (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) about whom he knows almost nothing. Any attempt to summarize the rest will sound absurd and spoil the discoveries, so just know there are drugs, pizza delivery robots, evil resident advisors, and a hefty dose of feeling like almost anything could happen, which is a nice way to feel in a movie like this.
I wish some characters had a little more to do and that certain relationships didn’t feel so one-note or predictable. But the laughs and pinball energy more than make up for any brief lapses in elation, as well as several good examples of characters taking accountability for their mistakes and genuinely learning something.
Can I call the terrifically cast and acted “Pizza Movie” (written and directed by “Over Your Dead Body” writers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney) generational if I’m not part of the generation? No. Did I text people about this very soon after watching? Yes. And that’s as high as praise gets these days.
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