TL;DR – A charming if debauched window into the world of American colleges.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service to view this film.

Warning – Contains scenes which may cause distress.

Warning – Contains scenes with flashing lights.

Pizza Film Review Introduction

Growing up on the internet at my age meant that at some moment, you came across BriTANicK’s work on YouTube, such as Academy Award Winning Movie Trailer. When you watch someone’s career grow over the years, it is a delight to see when it comes to fruition with their first major feature. Well, that has happened today, and I, of course, have to check it out.  

So, to set the scene, a long time in the past, a delinquent college freshman hid some drugs called M.I.N.T.S. in a slot in their ceiling. Years later, someone new lives in that room, Jack (Gaten Matarazzo), who is hated by the whole college thanks to an incident with the football team, and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), a quiet, nervous kind of guy, trying to become an alpha. Well, after a particularly awful day, which leads to the drugs getting dislodged from the ceiling, the boys decide to give them a try, not realising you need to have them with food, or six terrible phases will follow. Now, they must make their way down two stories to get the pizza waiting in the lobby before the final phase kicks in, and their lives are destroyed forever. Just hope the RAs don’t pick tonight to start their purge of undesirables.  

I’m a Libra

At this point in time, I have seen many, many, many drug trips displayed on film and television, and I was honestly surprised to see something novel in this space. Because they attack being on high with a vengeance. While every phase starts with a very traditional cavalcade of rainbow colours, thank you, Yellow Submarine. What plays out in each of the phases gets wilder and wilder as the film goes on. To be clear, the first phase involves singing heads as hands, and it only gets more from there. I don’t want to spoil each of them for you, but I will say there is one involving a certain visual perspective that was honestly a delight to witness.    

Let’s Take This Team to Victory

Everything about this movie is all about a heightened view of humanity, especially the humanity that exists on an American college campus that feels like what if all the petty nastiness of high school got turned up to 11. To make that work, you need to have a cast that is completely committed to the bit. This is one area where the film excels. Sure, some characters are very two-dimensional, but they know that they are, and so they play that two-dimensionality with a gusto you rarely see. Our two leads, Gaten Matarazzo & Sean Giambrone, are perfectly cast in this film. They bring all of themselves to the equation, and then some. It was also a smart choice to cast all of the smaller roles from YouTube and comedy tropes from the area, because there is that added joy of going ‘wait, was that?’. They also bring a lot of experience, so they nail that short runtime.  

What’s a Line from Twelfth Night?

Once you get to the setup, they didn’t take the drugs with food, there will be several phases, and you need to get to the lobby to eat the pizza before the final phase while the RAs are stalking the halls. You will probably sit back and be able to chart most of the film and its endpoint because once a film presents a very clear framework, there are really only two paths it can follow to lead to a satisfactory ending: it either follows the framework or chooses to deconstruct it.

But the film understands that you will probably be coming into that narrative with a certain understanding, so they make sure that while you know the film is going to transfer through all these phases, you will never work out just how they will do it. One example from the start of the film is that a solution was found after working out that the drugs were British, which is an absurd sentence to write, but that is only the start. There is a meta-absurdity to the film in which it refuses to conform, whether everything you are seeing is real or just in the characters’ heads. The film itself becomes an unreliable narrator, while also being the literal narrator, and it is delightful.

Not all of the film works; a good example of this is that I think the threat of the final phase would have worked just as well without us having to see it played out. A lot of the film’s humour works in a grey area, which is mostly fine for the type of film it wants to be; however, you can feel that one went too far. Some B and C plotlines don’t quite crystallise as well as they could have. A good example of this is a running set of gags with a character played by Caleb Hearon, which only really worked in one of the scenes he was in, and the rest feel like filler for time. Though it is not the film’s fault, given when it was written and filmed, but the RA subplot probably plays a lot differently than intended, given the state of the world today and the actions of ICE in the US.              

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Pizza Film? Look, a stoner college comedy about two dudes on drugs is both a mainstay of cinema, but also one you probably already know if you want to see or not because of the subject material alone. I will say that it is one of the better versions of this genre than I have seen in a while. It might also be the best use of Daniel Radcliffe this year. However, if you are not a fan of that type of comedy, then there is nothing here to recommend it to you.  

Have you watched Pizza Film? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Pizza Film, we would recommend Bottoms to you because it also works in that comedic space, so if you found this one funny, you will get a kick out of the latter.  

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Pizza Film
Directed by – Brian McElhaney & Nick Kocher
Written by – Brian McElhaney & Nick Kocher
Music by – Leo Birenberg & Zach Robinson
Cinematography by – Bella Gonzales
Edited by – Matt McBrayer
Production/Distribution Companies – LD Entertainment, American High, All Things Comedy, Hulu, & Disney+
Starring – Gaten Matarazzo, Sean Giambrone, Lulu Wilson, Jack Martin, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Caleb Hearon, Marcus Scribner, Sarah Sherman, Bobby Moynihan, & Daniel Radcliffe  
With – Miguel-Andres Garcia, Justin Cooley, Luke Burke, Hyde Healy, Ryan Micho, Lydia Hines, Tommy Armstrong, Kevin Matther Reyes, Aidan Micho, Ava Laborde, Pete Flack, Adam Ray, Nick Kocher, & Brian McElhaney
Rating – Australia: MA15+;