Very high on an experimental drug, a trio of college students embarks on a trippy odyssey against angry jocks and fascist RAs to descend a mere two floors to pick up their pizza in Nick Kocher & Brian McElaney’s hilarious, absurd comedy Pizza Movie, now on Hulu.
Pizza Movie is the sort that throws a supreme pie against the wall and sees what toppings stick, and what slide down with the tomato sauce streaks. Luckily, most of it works, garnering big laughs with the surreal drug-fueled odyssey. It’s a big, weird, goofy, and extra cheesy slice of fun; a brain off (in a good way) bite. The film, written and directed by Nick Kocher & Brian McElaney, known as BriTANicK in the comedy world, is a raucous blast for those in the mood for this sort of movie; a self-aware, energetic, clever, stupid stoner comedy in the right way. (BTW, did you know there is a Hamburger: The Motion Picture and Hot Dog: The Movie; unrelated, but let’s make them a cinematic universe, because why the fuck not?)
You know that sequence in so many flicks where the characters are high or drunk, and they have a weird, colorful, near-random trip with animation, an overabundance of color, and all that? That’s Kocher & McElaney’s Pizza Movie, but for 90 minutes, give or take. In a schoolof a satriic heightened reality that leans into the tropes and sterteotpes of college flicks, think Bottoms but one institute up the chain, two unpopular college freshmen, The Goldberg’s Sean Giambrone and Stranger Thing‘s Gaten Matarazzo, along with horror star of Haunting of Hill House and others, Lulu Wilson, just want to get down two floors, get a pizza, and bring it back. It might be closer than White Castle was for Harold & Kumar, but it’s not going to be an easy journey. It’s too bad everyone in the dorm, and the rest of the school, hates the boys and makes their lives hell. It’s also complicated by a gang of fascist RAs caputiing people and their phones to send all their “trouble” residents to the hell dorm miles away (an Inglorious Basterds riff of their storyline is a highlight). Oh, they’re high as fuck on an experimental drug. They find, and take, a drug left by a former student, Sarah Sherman of SNL, in a deliciously over-the-top extended cameo. To make it more than a standard drug freak out, this particular drug has six distinct phases that twist reality in hilarious ways, with the set sharing the distorted drug-laced hallucinations and changes as well (a great touch to call out the shared nature of their drug delusions, something that often bothers me in other media).
Pizza Movie is a very funny flick. Sometimes it’s sophomoric and scat-based (an extended bit of face farting), but it is also verbal, physical (the l “we are one” makes the characters work together with wonderful choreography), and more often than not, the “hey, we’re random!” But it works. Heck, just a repeated joke of “and fuck you, Jack” gets a solid chuckle each time. The variety of drug effects lends to a constantly shifting humor palette, keeping it fresh, funny, and running forward. It can get bizarrely surreal, head-blowingly bloody, and… puppets. One never knows when the game will shift the rules, and that’s a joy, especially since the characters have no idea how to deal with it all; the combination of the two scores belly laughs. Some of the humor comes in too obviously and forced, but for the most part, it lands well. No slacking here.
It helps that the main actors are all game. It’s hard not to see Matarazz’s Jack as anything but foul-mouthed Dustin, but he’s so damned good in that role, and we know him so strongly it’s hard. But he really is trying; it’s going to be a hard bump to get over. Monty, played by Giambrone, desperately wants to be an alpha male, and is anything but. The internal conflict and self-delusion are played with a fever pitch that reminded me of Gene Wilder. Lulu Wilson may be best known for dealing with the supernatural as a horror kid against Annabelle or Nazis in Becky, but she has real comedic chops as well. All are going for it all, willingly jumping into the give-everything-to-each-other oddity the movie tosses at them. The non-lead cast is solid, delivering the best bits for their needs. Kudos to Daniel Radcliffe, adding another weird film to his catalog, and Bobby Monyihan for hilarious voice cameos. 
Kocher & McElaney work the film visually, using the shifting aspect with heart work, using the camera as much as the jokes to get laughs. It’s a refreshing over-the-top style for the absurd journey and its effects. The production design of this twisted college world pushes it up a notch. Editorially, they and Matt McBrayer keep it moving at a great speed, not belaboring the jokes or keeping character moments (we know early the rift, make up, realize truths are coming; we’re not reinventing character notes here). Mostly. There’s a notable slowdown in approaching the last act, where one must slow down and use all the set-ups and use a plot instead of leaning on jokes. However, while it loses a bit of energy here, it remains pretty damned funny and has a fantastic last villain bit that goes to weird meta places.
Pizza Movie, written and directed by Nick Kocher & Brian McElaney, is a movie that knows exactly what it is and works very well for it, helped by production value and the central trio. As for Kocher & McElaney, the pair wrote the upcoming Jorma Taccone film Over Your Dead Body. I was already in for everyone else involved, and now I am more excited. Pizza Movie is on Hulu, settle in, order a pizza, do a drug (or not, I don’t, but still like stoner flicks), and dig in.