“Pizza Movie” locks onto a very dumb, very specific crisis and rides it for all it’s worth. After one terrible drug-based decision, the night keeps getting weirder, louder, and more desperate, with pizza becoming the only objective that matters. It keeps escalating without losing the thread, which is what makes it work. For all the bodily chaos and ridiculous panic, the movie understands something real about being that age: everything feels massive, nothing is in proportion, and sometimes your friends are the only reason the whole night doesn’t completely implode.
Written and directed by Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, the film follows a group of college freshmen whose night turns surreal after they take a drug that will fry their brains without pizza. What begins as a quick trip two floors down spirals into sketch-comedy chaos with a genuine coming-of-age core. Led by Gaten Matarazzo, Lulu Wilson, and Sean Giambrone, the ensemble gives the film its heart. It earned a raucous standing ovation at SXSW.
When the cast and filmmakers joined “The Discourse,” the chemistry clearly was not forced. They built it by hanging out, messing around, and growing into a believable unit.
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