Okay so. This movie should not work. It's a very thin line as it should be on paper: two college roommates take a homemade drug and the whole story is about how they are trying to walk down two flights of stairs and get a pizza delivery. That's it. That's it for the whole movie. Then, against all odds, it totally dominates!
the world's most mismatched pair of college roommates (one a disgraced former mascot clinging to a reputation he can never completely justify while the other is the shy one who can't talk to his crush without exploding), dose themselves with a homemade concoction called M.I.N.T.S. just before their pizza arrives, the movie takes off and never really lands until the credits roll. In what should've been 5 minutes, I find myself hallucinating, having to watch a whole host of mad, increasingly deranged side characters, and a few twists that had me rolling my eyes and bursting into laughter in a manner that not many comedies evoke anymore.
That's the key to this being a one-joke success instead of a disaster: the commitment. Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone dive into this, no holding back, no wink-wink at the camera and "we know this is dumb.Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone go all in, no-half-way-jobs, no wink-wink at the camera "we know this is dumb. They are playing all the stupid things with complete sincerity, which is why they're so funnier. Lulu Wilson is a scene-stealer, too, and just about the entire cast, including Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Marcus Scribner, Caleb Hearon, and Sarah Sherman, all seem to get it: go bigger, go weirder, commit harder. Oh, there's even a wonderful and rather unexpected appearance by Daniel Radcliffe that had the entire theater in splits.
But I was most impressed by the meta change in the second half. The film doesn't get too much more confusing about what's "real" in its own world, but without getting too much into the specifics of exactly what happens, it is not a cheap trick, but a very clever one that recontextualizes everything preceding it. It's a type of swing that would have thrown the whole film off, but somehow it does. There's a nice, down-to-earth friendship story here, too, underneath all the hallucination gags and slapstick fueled by drugs. The emotional moments aren't simply ignored after the trip is over, though: Montgomery finally realizes who he wants to be with, one of the friends throws an unhinged hanger-on in the trash, and the friends are once again reunited in their dorm room, wiser for the experience, but much more connected than they were at the beginning of the night, and back to their tabletop-gaming selves. It's a simple and humble act, but it provides a real emotional place to land off the entire absurd journey instead of just finishing with a punchline.
Is this high art? No, if it did the world would not have been able to endure it. It knows exactly what it is and it is a fast, loose, gleefully stupid stoner comedy and it is that kind of comedy from frame one to frame last. The gags strike home again and again, the action never flattens out with its thin plot, and there's a bit of love in the bedlam that makes you feel sorry for these fools by the end.
Pizza Movie spins the most laugh-out-loud, joyfully ridiculous material that's held together by a cast that can't help but roll their eyes at their own jokes and a surprisingly brilliant structural trick that makes it more than just stoner-comedy filler. It's moronic in the best sense of the word. It is Ridiculous, hilarious, and certainly smarter than any pizza movie.
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Rating: 80/100
