On Friday nights, IndieWire After Darkish takes a beat to honor fringe cinema within the streaming age.
In February 2025, we’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with three weeks of Romantic Midnight Trysts.
First, learn the BAIT: a strange decide from any time in movie. Then, strive the BITE: a behind-the-scenes breakdown of the mission’s ending, affect, and every other spoilers you’d need.
The Bait: The Pizza Man Doesn’t Get to Simply Resolve What Pizza Is Value
In a time when not each midnight film passes the political sniff check, “Make Me a Pizza” earns five-star evaluations from all the proper clients. Filmmaker Talia Levin’s cult-hit quick movie has been described as a “Marxist pizza porno” by its principally LA-based artistic staff — who in flip name themselves “a creative collective of sizzling queer dorks.”
“Among the finest elements in all of this recognition we’ve gotten has been coming collectively as one large Pizza Group,” Levin instructed IndieWire, describing a full of life textual content thread. The “Make Me a Pizza” forged and crew’s native networking tales vary from assembly on a spontaneous hike to connecting via town‘s clown neighborhood. “We do all actually like one another. So, now it’s like, ‘What else can we make?’’”
Serving each anti-capitalist absurdism and pro-sex messaging sizzling, “Make Me a Pizza” premiered at SXSW 2024 in its midnight shorts program. In 2025, the outrageous and at-times nauseating comedy can also be very best viewing for late-night style lovers awake and seeking to discover [wink] on Valentine’s Day.
“The second he pulls that first slice out, irrespective of what number of occasions I’ve seen it, I nonetheless get excited,” Levin mentioned, teasing her film’s centerpiece ridiculousness. “There’s this shock and this sense of satisfaction. Generally it’s even an audible gasp from the viewers, like, ‘Oh my God, are they actually going to point out me a dick proper now?’ After which it’s not that. It’s one thing extra enjoyable.”
Th quick’s good script was written by Levin (who can also be movie’s director and producer) with actor Woody Coyote, who performs main man “Pizza Man.” Coyote seems reverse co-star Sophie Neff as “Hungry Girl,” a scantily clad embodiment of a basic porn trope. The lonely housewife is in for a impolite awakening when Pizza Man gained’t commerce pizza for intercourse — and as a substitute, he hand-delivers her a posh sociopolitical purpose explaining why she’s simply not definitely worth the $29.99.
Shot utilizing each 16mm Kodak movie and an ‘80s-era broadcast tube digicam to realize its distinctive visible type, “Make Me a Pizza” follows the central not-couple as they embark on a special sort of corporeal journey. In lower than 13 minutes, that preliminary sense of sweaty schlock offers approach to an enlightening speech and a really pro-dairy intercourse scene. Then, it’s onto a saucy and sticky spiritual expertise, earlier than the body explodes right into a psychedelic revelation that’s nearly not possible to explain — not to mention spoil.
“Our film comes on robust, however beneath that it’s extraordinarily relatable and that’s made it form of a chameleon on the pageant circuit,” mentioned producer Kara Grace Miller. “We’ve some awards from festivals the place we had been one of the best narrative quick, however then we had been one of the best experimental quick on the subsequent one. It actually has taken on a brand new form and met new standards wherever it goes.”
Filmed over simply three and half days in a Beverly Hills mansion after which a soundstage within the Valley (which “actually smelled” by the top of manufacturing, Levin mentioned), the ultimate result’s a style mix of the best order. Satirically sufficient, “Make Me A Pizza” is arduous to place in a field, and discovering its singular tone was a labor of affection for Levin and editor Lynn Hong. The buddies studied hours of archival footage to imitate the pacing of old-school pornos and finessed endlessly to get the ooey-gooey temper good.
“It was actually enjoyable to edit in a special language than I or actually anybody is used to,” Hong defined. “I edited it like a straight comedy at first, but it surely simply wasn’t gelling. It was a problem balancing the intercourse and humor with this harrowing monologue about all of the work it takes for a pizza to be made. Recutting all of the montages is when it clicked. We weren’t leaning arduous sufficient into what we knew we wished. “
Listening to the three creatives dig into the making of “Make Me a Pizza,” arduous work rings true. Commingling the hallmarks of retro grownup movie with pops of cleaning soap opera theatricality and New Age spectacle (assume Jimi Hendrix’s “Rainbow Bridge” with… pepperoni?), the self-proclaimed Pizza Group has made a brief that’s unusual, singular, and value romanticizing within the spirit of the season. From IndieWire After Darkish to you, please take pleasure in this crispy, sloppy, crunchy, melty, baffling, beguiling, and positively not vegan piece of bite-sized of cinema — or your a refund, assured.
“Make Me a Pizza” is obtainable at no cost on Vimeo as a Employees Choose Premiere.
The Chew: You Can’t Put Scorching Cheese on Actual Individuals
Examine again in a brief movie size! Are you watching “Make Me a Pizza”?
IndieWire After Darkish publishes midnight film suggestions each Friday night time.