Slice of Life: The American Dream. In Former Pizza Huts.

2024 / Dir. Matthew Salleh / 83 minutes

Though this documentary has a rather thin crust of a premise, it gets surprisingly deep dish as it profiles the various businesses operating in converted Pizza Hut buildings around the United States, including an LGBTQ-friendly church in Florida, a karaoke bar in Texas, a barbeque restaurant in Illinois, and a cannabis dispensary in Colorado (“we have our own salad bar with our own type of lettuce” says the owner). These vignettes are topped with talking heads from Pizza Hut’s founder and museum curator, professors, and a self-proclaimed “Pizza Hut nerd” who contextualize the birth, rise, and afterlife of the famous pizza chain and its unique architecture. And yet the film’s main concern is less Pizza Hut itself than the power of transformation, and the many ways new communities can be built out of old parts—or pizza joints.

Watch if you like: nostalgia-fueled documentaries, a rose-tinted look at franchise proliferation, and a light lunch that won’t fill you up but does hit the spot.