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By Robert Scucci
| Published
Of all the Stranger Things characters I could possibly latch onto, I was always partial to ole Dusty Bun, portrayed by Gaten Matarazzo. He’s the only younger character throughout the entire series’ run who looked like he actually wanted to be on the adventure of a lifetime that everybody else seemed bored to death with by Season 5. Matarazzo brings that same energy to his most recent effort, Pizza Movie (2026), and it’s reason enough alone to check out the Hulu Original stoner comedy.
If you’re into the likes of Cheech & Chong, Harold & Kumar, and even some of the higher-quality Seth Rogen stuff, like Pineapple Expressyou’ll feel right at home with Pizza Movie because it hits most of the beats you’re familiar with. Pizza Movie is ultimately a stoner comedy, but with one caveat: its protagonists aren’t your typical stoners. They’re just college roommates who occasionally like to party and accidentally eat a very powerful hallucinogen.
Don’t Get This Twisted, Pizza Movie Is Very Funny
Most of the comedy in Pizza Movie comes from its visual effects, twists in perspective, facial reactions, and constant escalation. What I didn’t understand, though, was why this had to be an attempt at reviving the raunchy college comedy. Aside from the setting, this movie, and the humor driving it, could have taken place anywhere. In all honesty, it probably would have worked better in a random suburban house while the parents were out of town rather than on what appears to be a mid-tier college campus.
We’re introduced to roommates Jack (Gaten Matarazzo) and Montgomery (Sean Giambrone), who are relentlessly bullied after an incident earlier in the semester in which the former accidentally got the entire football team listed on the sex offender registry. Every so often, they hang out with Lizzy (Lulu Wilson), who has also distanced herself in order to preserve her reputation.
Dejected and wondering what to do after their coveted bottle of booze is smashed by their tormentors, the roommates stumble upon what appears to be an Altoids tin with the word M.I.N.T.S. written on top. They later learn it stands for Mind Igniting Neural Tuning Stimulants. They each ingest one of the little candies and are horrified to discover they’re about to go on the trip of a lifetime, complete with hallucinations, alternate timelines, nightmare flashbacks, and revelations about the true nature of reality.
They also learn that eating pizza, which they ordered earlier, can counteract the drug, so they set out to retrieve their pie knowing full well they’ll have to navigate hallways, dorm rooms, and stairwells filled with the jocks who hate them, as well as power-tripping RAs led by Blake (Jack Martin), who are allergic to fun and trying to get enough underclassmen documented so they can ship them off to Gralk Hall, the worst house on campus.
Not knowing any of this, Lizzy, who initially tries purchasing a party bus to impress the jocks, also ingests M.I.N.T. and reluctantly joins up with Jack and Montgomery, who are well past the point of tripping face. The only way they can save themselves from a complete break from reality is the pizza being kept warm by the Snackatron 3000 delivery robot downstairs.
This Didn’t Need To Be A College Comedy
While Pizza Movie wins serious points for leaning so hard into absurdity and physical comedy, especially in the third act, I’m completely confused as to why it had to be a college movie. On one hand, it makes sense for the setup because you need a group of antagonists and a bunch of young people packed into one condensed space to make it all work, but this could have just as easily, and more effectively, taken place in a suburban neighborhood while somebody’s parents were out of town.
A group of bullies could show up, our heroes barricade themselves upstairs after eating a M.I.N.T. given to them by one of their guests, and then learn they need to ride their bikes across town to get a pizza. If anything, this would enhance the story because they could get lost in the woods or be tripping so hard that they think the jungle gym at the playground is actually a Saw-style murder castle. The humor feels limited by making this whole thing yet another “run through the quad screaming” kind of endeavor.
It’s also worth noting that this is the first movie I’ve seen in a hot minute where college is portrayed as an average state school or low-tier private school experience. The living spaces are overcrowded and claustrophobic, and it’s actually a fairly accurate representation of what college life is like for a majority of underclassmen. While films like Animal House and From Wilder offer a more luxurious-looking experience where everybody lives in decked-out frat houses, what we get here is a dorm room shared by two, sometimes three people.
The classic raunchy college comedy made young adults think they were missing out on campus life. Pizza Movie makes me glad I commuted to the university and lived at home.
Still, as much as the college setting rubbed me the wrong way, Pizza Movie is a solid stoner comedy that successfully accomplishes what it sets out to do. It’s a drug-induced slapstick chase plot, and it’s done well.
Pizza Movie is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.
