Written and directed by Talia Shea Levin, co-written by leading actor Woody Coyote, a bored housewife (Sophie Neff) seduces a pizza deliver guy (Coyote) for free pizza, but is desire worth $29.99?.
We jump right into 1980s soft-porno vibes, with some quintessential light jazz and a lot of warm, romantic colours. The aesthetic is immediately committed to where this is going and in the best of ways because it then follows an interestingly messy path. Starting off with some strong writing, the comedy is right where it needs to be, playing around with logic and simplicity versus sexual appetite. Turning the tables on your usual ready to roll delivery man, as the latter half of the 20th Century was very fond of.
It’s solidly funny but then it heads into the strictly sexual and there things might become fairly divisive, you might find it hilarious, or it might make you not want to eat pizza for a long time. Talia Shea Levin is playing around with a distasteful edge and pushing how far you can go with this, to create a form of parmesan porno. However, it does feel like the dialogue can be funnier earlier on than those over the top erotic moments but you can’t fault its slightly twisted imagination.
Especially because of how committed the performances are, Woody Coyote and Sophie Neff really throw everything at this. It cannot have been an easy few scenes to pull off in an erotic manner, trying to really sell the sexually driven side rather than playing up to the comedy. While still keeping that side of things going strong, it’s a very difficult line to walk. Coyote gives us an interesting twist with his delivery guy, he’s surprisingly more complicated than you might expect. Whereas for the most part Neff hits those bored housewives note really hard before giving us a little something extra towards the end.
Make Me a Pizza is somehow exactly what you might expect and yet surprising because it’s one thing to imagine and a very different thing to watch it unfold. Levin and Coyote get a lot of points for creativity for this one, taking something which has roots in a lot of other parody comedy, and making it completely their own. Whether or not it crosses a line or two might be up for debate, and depending on your sense of humour, you might end up skipping those slices for a bit but you can’t help but have respect for how much they commit to it.
FilmCarnage.com 