MOVIE REVIEW : ‘Pizza Man’ Has the Right Ingredients

J.D. Athens’ “Pizza Man” (at the Vista, 4473 Sunset Drive, Hollywood) delivers lots of laughs--and more food for thought than you would ever expect from a low-budget underground production. A private-eye spoof that deftly evolves into a sophisticated political satire, “Pizza Man” is a thinking person’s midnight movie.

It’s too off-the-wall, too artless in style and just plain too smart for the mainstream, but it has all the ingredients for accruing a cult following.

Bill Maher’s Elmo Bunn is the Philip Marlowe of L.A. pizza delivery men, spouting Raymond Chandleresque tough talk. His partner delivered an extra large pizza with sausage and anchovies to a warehouse in East Hollywood and was never seen again. When the same order comes through from the same place, a man’s gotta do what he’s gotta do--right?

Although Elmo walks straight into the big trouble he anticipated, he has a miraculous opportunity to escape--but he’s determined to gets his $15.23 for the pizza. He’s not about to spoil his reputation as the pizza man who has never been stiffed or ever delivered a cold pizza.

The entire film turns upon Elmo’s stubbornness in collecting what’s due him. Very early on, Athens lets us know we’re not in for just another film noir send-up when none other than Tom Bradley (Bob Delegall) pops up in that warehouse, aiming a machine gun at Elmo.

Pretty soon, the screen is full of carbons of Ronald Reagan (who’s having an affair with Geraldine Ferraro, to whom he refers, in a moment of pique, as “just a political tax-and-spend slut”), Michael Dukakis, Bob Woodward, Michael Milken, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, Dan and Marilyn Quayle and finally, Donald Trump. By then, it’s clear that Athens is thumbing his nose at the ‘80s and that Elmo is the American Everyman, representative of the middle class pulverized in the course of that decade.

Athens is the nom d’auteur for Jonathan F. Lawton, who wrote none other than “Pretty Woman,” that box-office phenomenon that has grossed more than $400 million worldwide, and whose first foray as Athens was “Cannibal Women and the Avocado Jungle of Death,” a feminist send-up of “Heart of Darkness.” To be sure, Lawton has a string of suitably big-deal projects lined up, but clearly “Pizza Man” is his wholly admirable way of staying in touch with himself, his values and his low-budget roots.

Although as a director he’s good with actors, “Pizza Man” (Times-rated Mature for language, adult situations and themes) is not surprisingly a writer’s film, which here means that there are some stretches that could do with less talk and more action. Lawton has a real winner in Maher, a hairy-chested macho guy with a great sense of humor, and with also the femme fatale of his plot, Annabelle Gurwitch, who has no trouble being glamorous and funny at the same time.

‘Pizza Man’

Bill Maher Elmo Bunn

Annabelle Gurwitch The Dame

David McKnight Vince

Sam Pancake The Kid

A Megalomania production. Writer-director-editor J.D. Athens (Jonathan F. Lawton). Producer Gary W. Goldstein. Executive producer Teresa Lawton. Cinematographer Fred Samia. Costumes Debra Y. Goold. Music David May. Production design Theodore Charles Smudde. Art director Francisco Gutierrez. Set decorator Jane van Tamelen. Sound Clifford (Kip) Gynn. Running time: 1 hour, 25 minutes.

Times-rated Mature (language, adult situations and themes).