Greetings, reader!
And a delicious National Pizza Day to all. In order to celebrate this greatest of observances, I have combined my vast culinary knowledge with my well-versed cinematic wisdom, leading to a list of five excellent pairings of specific pizzas that go with specific films - nothing better than a pizza and a movie, after all. I hope you try one of these out either today or sometime during the post-Pizza-Day weekend festivities!
Here is my honorable mention: Pineapple and olive pizza with Deadpool (because of the scene where Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) prank-orders such a pizza for one of his victims).
5. Pizza Hut with Wayne's World (1992)
A good choice of pizza is sure to make the viewing experience even better with this comedy cult classic. Specifically, I'd go with an order from the Pizza Hut establishment, as this would neatly tie in with the film's ending - well, one of them, anyway.
As true fans will remember, Wayne's World features multiple endings, one of which sees Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) becoming sell-outs, doing their show with heavy product placement. The product in question is Pizza Hut pizzas, so it'll feel quite meta to enjoy the Hut's fine offerings while watching this amusing development unfold.
4. Healthy pizza with Inside Out (2015)
Much like a good pizza-eating experience, Pixar's Inside Out is quite the emotional rollercoaster. In order to really get into protagonist Riley's (Kaitlyn Dias) state of mind and see the film through her eyes, you should prepare a pizza similar to the one she's presented with during the film's first act.
As you may or may not recall, one of the symbols for Riley's disappointment in her family moving to San Francisco is the upsetting sight of a pizza with broccoli and other healthy shit on it. "Congratulations San Francisco, YOU'VE RUINED PIZZA!", she screams, begging the question: how funny would it be to watch this film while dealing with broccoli et cetera on your own pizza?
3. Extra cheese with Do the Right Thing (1989)
Do the Right Thing, the Spike Lee masterpiece that I would easily call one of the best films ever made, takes place on a culturally diverse and racially tense street on a very hot day. One of the street's chief locations is Sal's pizzeria, where protagonist Mookie (played by the Spike himself) works as a delivery boy. True Leenthusiasts will remember the scene where Buggin Out (Giancarlo Esposito) argues with Sal (Danny Aiello) about extra cheese on his pizza, as the restaurant owner has the audacity to charge two dollars for said complement.
In a truly Spike-Lee-ean act of rebellion against the system, Buggin Out proceeds to take matters (and the parmesan shaker) into his own hands, chaotically sprinkling cheese onto his pizza before Sal intervenes. For a truly authentic experience, one could consider starting the film out with a regular pizza, and adding the extra parmesan manually right when this scene arrives!
2. Home delivery with Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)
Comedy cinema is full of iconic stoner moments, but I dare you to come up with any that are more iconic than Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) ordering a pizza straight into his classroom in school. We could all learn a thing or two from the content lifestyle of Mr. Spicoli - I remember being way too proud of myself on that one fateful day during my freshman year, when I rolled up to campus with my backpack containing zero books, no laptop or any other study materials, but merely a half-eaten pizza wrapped in tin foil for me to enjoy while sitting in the back of the auditorium. As I opened my backpack and happily took the pizza out, my friends sitting next to me looked at this visual with facial expressions that were equal parts judgement, envy and respect.
So, the next time you want to relive your youth and watch or re-watch this early 80's classic, ordering a pizza will enhance the viewing experience in a (arguably) healthier and (depending on where you live) more legal manner than possible other ways of getting into the Jeff Spicoli spirit. Now that apps such as Wolt even offer the option of timing the ideal moment of delivery, you can try to create the dream scenario where your pizza arrives at the exact moment when Jeff's pizza arrives in the film!
1. Plain cheese with Home Alone (1990)
Even though my family is very loving and kind, and I don't have any violent tendencies, I still somehow found Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) to be very relatable as a little kid - I suppose it's his creativity and wit that resonated with me. To this day, I often find a plain cheese pizza to be one of the very best options to order, and it is very possible that my love for this delicacy traces back to this film (I'm often guilty of starting to like foods and beverages because of a psychological kinship to their use in fiction - I'm convinced that I started to like whiskey because enjoying it made me feel like I was a character in a Hemingway novel). So, I'd imagine that little Veikko's tendency to order plain cheese pizzas (to the amusement of his family) had something to do with low-key wanting to be like the hero from the world's greatest Christmas movie.
Whether you're watching the original Home Alone or the almost equally magnificent Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), a plain cheese pizza will be equally appropriate for either film; the first movie sees Kevin ordering such a pizza to his home and scaring the delivery boy away with some top-tier shenanigans, whereas the sequel features Kevin devouring a cheese pizza while sitting in a limousine - and at the end of the day, isn't that everyone's fantasy?
Thank you for reading! Tune in next week as I celebrate President's Day by ranking the top 5 fictional U.S. Presidents from movies and television, and the top 5 portrayals of real-life U.S. Presidents.
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