As far as dumb comedies go, Pizza Movie is a masterclass in throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. It doesn’t always land, but when it does, it really does. This is the latest production from Syracuse, NY-based American High, a company founded on making broad comedies mostly within a repurposed high school they use as a film studio. The debut feature from Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher (the sketch comedy duo known as BriTANicK), Pizza Movie plunges us deep into the psyche of the students at Caldwell College, following the (mis)adventures of roommates Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone). Jack is an eager-to-please guy introduced via an opening musical number—a “big man on campus” in his own mind who made the critical mistake of messing with the football team. Montgomery is more strait-laced, an aspiring alpha male with a high-pitched voice and a crush on Ashley (Peyton Elizabeth Lee).
What starts as a quiet night in the dorm goes awry when the guys find a tin of drugs that has dropped from the ceiling. After some Googling, they land on a YouTube video in which a chemistry student explains exactly what kind of night they are in for. To avoid a final phase of annihilation by their deepest fears, they simply have to eat yeast, tomato, and cheese. The good news: Montgomery has a pizza on the way. The bad news: they have to meet the delivery robot on the first floor, which means getting past the jocks who have it out for them and the evil RAs who are planning to banish the entire dorm to a grim facility on a satellite campus four hours away.
Pizza Movie, like Will Gluck’s debut feature Fired Up!, is exactly the kind of guilty pleasure that will undoubtedly be embraced in dorm rooms when it hits Hulu next month. Sharp and funny at times, utilizing every college archetype and then some, McElhaney and Kocher keep the laughs coming by blending gonzo, gross-out, and meta humor. It hits some relatable notes, too, as Jack and Montgomery lament how their old pal Lizzy (Lulu Wilson) has started hanging out with the cool kids like Ashley and Logan (Marcus Scribner). The drugs, of course, help the honesty come out as the characters pass through various phases—including a Groundhog Day-style loop where they can’t curse, lest their heads explode. In another, they switch bodies, with Montgomery swapping places with his pet butterfly in one of the film’s funnier moments.
Pizza Movie doesn’t always work, but you have to admire how McElhaney and Kocher keep throwing ideas at the wall, acknowledging the absurdity of their own premise. While not quite as loose or as profound regarding the nuances of male friendship as the new comedy classic Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie, Pizza Movie is often just as absurd. It provides all the usual tropes of the college movie (the bullies, the cliques) before moving into something darker, funnier, and more subversive than its initial premise suggests. First-act dealings prove a bit shaky, but once the film finds a rhythm, it—much like our heroes—becomes more confident. Between this and I Love Boosters, one can certainly see the impact Everything Everywhere All At Once has had on 2026 comedies: pulling out the rug while suspending both time and disbelief.
For landing on Hulu after a SXSW premiere, the film begets this question: as comedies become a disappearing theatrical genre, does this play better with a large audience on a Friday night or while stoned with friends in a dorm room? Perhaps it doesn’t matter when the latter is where it will ultimately live in perpetuity. Pizza Movie could use some trimming to help the action move along—sacrificing some of the low-hanging, gross-out fruit used to introduce Logan and the cool kids might have helped—but on the whole, McElhaney, Kocher, and their cast of former child stars making the leap to young adulthood clearly understand the assignment.
Pizza Movie premiered at SXSW and hits Hulu on April 3.
The post SXSW Review: Pizza Movie Is a Strange Dumb Trip That Understands the Assignment first appeared on The Film Stage.
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