All Hail, Make Me a Pizza: The Cult-Hit Proletariat Pizza Porno Perfect for Watching on Valentines Day

The Bait: The Pizza Guy Doesn’t Get to Just Decide What Pizza Is Worth

In a time when not every midnight movie passes the political sniff test, “Make Me a Pizza” earns five-star reviews from all the right customers. Filmmaker Talia Levin’s cult-hit short film has been described as a “Marxist pizza porno” by its mostly LA-based creative team — who in turn call themselves “an artistic collective of hot queer dorks.”

“One of the best parts in all of this recognition we’ve gotten has been coming together as one big Pizza Group,” Levin told IndieWire, describing a lively text thread. The “Make Me a Pizza” cast and crew’s local networking stories range from meeting on a spontaneous hike to connecting through the city’s clown community. “We do all really like each other. So, now it’s like, ‘What else can we make?’’”

Serving both anti-capitalist absurdism and pro-sex messaging hot, “Make Me a Pizza” premiered at SXSW 2024 in its midnight shorts program. In 2025, the outrageous and at-times nauseating comedy is also ideal viewing for late-night genre lovers awake and looking to explore [wink] on Valentine’s Day.

“The moment he pulls that first slice out, no matter how many times I’ve seen it, I still get excited,” Levin said, teasing her movie’s centerpiece ridiculousness. “There’s this surprise and this sense of satisfaction. Sometimes it’s even an audible gasp from the audience, like, ‘Oh my God, are they really going to show me a dick right now?’ And then it’s not that. It’s something more fun.”

The short’s brilliant script was written by Levin (who is also the film’s director and producer) with actor Woody Coyote, who plays leading man “Pizza Guy.” Coyote appears opposite co-star Sophie Neff as “Hungry Lady,” a scantily clad embodiment of a classic porn trope. The lonely housewife is in for a rude awakening when Pizza Guy won’t trade pizza for sex — and instead, he hand-delivers her a complex sociopolitical reason explaining why she’s just not worth the $29.99.

Shot using both 16mm Kodak film and an ‘80s-era broadcast tube camera to achieve its unique visual style, “Make Me a Pizza” follows the central not-couple as they embark on a different kind of corporeal journey. In less than 13 minutes, that initial sense of sweaty schlock gives way to an enlightening speech and a very pro-dairy sex scene. Then, it’s onto a saucy and sticky religious experience, before the frame explodes into a psychedelic revelation that’s almost impossible to describe — let alone spoil.

“Our movie comes on strong, but underneath that it’s extremely relatable and that’s made it sort of a chameleon on the festival circuit,” said producer Kara Grace Miller. “We have some awards from festivals where we were the best narrative short, but then we were the best experimental short at the next one. It really has taken on a new shape and met new criteria wherever it goes.”

Filmed over just three and half days in a Beverly Hills mansion and then a soundstage in the Valley (which “really smelled” by the end of production, Levin said), the final result is a genre blend of the highest order. Ironically enough, “Make Me A Pizza” is hard to put in a box, and finding its singular tone was a labor of love for Levin and editor Lynn Hong. The friends studied hours of archival footage to mimic the pacing of old-school pornos and finessed endlessly to get the ooey-gooey mood just right.

“It was really fun to edit in a different language than I or really anyone is used to,” Hong explained. “I edited it like a straight comedy at first, but it just wasn’t gelling. It was a challenge balancing the sex and humor with this harrowing monologue about all the work it takes for a pizza to be made. Recutting all the montages is when it clicked. We weren’t leaning hard enough into what we knew we wanted. “

Listening to the three creatives dig into the making of “Make Me a Pizza,” hard work rings true. Commingling the hallmarks of retro adult film with pops of soap opera theatricality and New Age spectacle (think Jimi Hendrix’s “Rainbow Bridge” with… pepperoni?), the self-proclaimed Pizza Group has made a short that’s strange, singular, and worth romanticizing in the spirit of the season. From IndieWire After Dark to you, please enjoy this crispy, sloppy, crunchy, melty, baffling, beguiling, and definitely not vegan piece of bite-sized cinema — or your money back, guaranteed.

“Make Me a Pizza” is available for free on Vimeo as a Staff Pick Premiere. 

The Bite: You Can’t Put Hot Cheese on Real People

As passionate Parmesan-sprinkled nudity reveals an alternate spiritual realm to Pizza Guy and Hungry Lady, the meat lovers find themselves in the middle of a terrifying exchange. With proper intimacy coordination in place and fake cheese swapped out for the real thing (“You can’t put hot melted cheese on real people,” per Levin), the actors had nothing to fear but the scene is scary.

“Will you leave your flesh behind?” booms a floating being, encrusted with meat and cheese. In response, the delivery guy and his not-paying customer drag BDSM pinwheels across their vulnerable human skin like mini pizza cutters. Genuflecting and shaking, they’re not just staring down the core of mass-produced Italian cuisine. They’re gazing into the under-belly of all society.

“I just think about that line, ‘How can I ever be worth more than pizza?’” said Hong. “That’s the heart of the film, really. Living through end-stage capitalism is very dark. You do feel like you’re worth less than a material thing. But art and community can transcend that reality.”

“There will always be people that watch this movie and think it is a ‘silly pizza sex movie’ and nothing else,” said Miller. “But there’s also always our audience, and they understand what we’re saying underneath it all. We make films for those people.”

Since debuting last spring, “Make Me A Pizza” has screened at over 40 film festivals and found a niche-but-fervent fanbase. Through travel, its team has also gained keen insight into “midnight” as an important and ever-evolving film label. Although Levin doesn’t classify her short as “horror” per se, the filmmaker and her producer have still taken it to many horror-specific events and found a “welcoming” crowd.

“At first, we’d tell the programmers who reached out to us, ‘We’re not traditional horror at all,’” Levin said. “But they really didn’t care.” She continued, “To me, intimacy and sex in storytelling is a lot like fear. It’s just another way to get a physical reaction.”

Sussing out that clever artistry and deeper meaning amid all the pizza pizzazz is what ultimately drives the “Make Me a Pizza” fandom, Miller said. From Chattanooga to Montreal, the self-proclaimed Pizza Group has enjoyed several pizza parties in their honor, won a slew of well-deserved awards (including one paying homage to American socialist Eugene V. Debs), and even witnessed some Pizza Guy cosplay. That’s a rare sign of devotion in the short film community but fitting for this oddly romantic fever dream.

“Are we still pizza?” Hungry Lady coos at the short’s end in a suddenly grounded moment of pillow talk. Coming down from their All You Can Eat Orgasm, she and Pizza Guy find comfort in each other amid the messy sheets. (Fun fact: The bulk-purchased tomato sauce surrounding them is real!) The scene would seem ripped from the middle of “1984” if George Orwell had known the convenience of Domino’s — and it suggests the very sense of camaraderie that brought the artists behind it together.

“The darker the world gets, it starts to become harder and harder to ask people to work on passion projects,” said Levin. “With this, it felt like everyone involved in it and everyone who saw it, for whatever reason, they needed the ‘Marxist pizza porno’ too.”

The Pizza Group is developing two more projects, including a feature-length expansion of the “Make Me a Pizza” universe and “a post-climate catastrophe sci-fi” film centering on “sex workers and commodified human emotions.” Both continue the team’s “love for sleaze, chaos, and goo,” they said.