The Great American Pie Company: A bit of a crusty affair

Is this worth your time?

Honestly, only if you have a very specific craving for black-and-white shorts from the golden age of pie-based dramas. If you’re looking for high stakes or fast pacing, you’ll probably want to skip this one. It's a quiet, talky little thing that feels like it belongs on a dusty shelf next to The City of Masks.

Mary Foy and Chic Sale have this weird, bickering energy that feels like they’ve been arguing about fruit fillings for twenty years too long. It’s not exactly chemistry, but it’s definitely something.

The pie problem

The whole premise hinges on a business merger. Imagine two people acting like they’re planning a heist, but they’re just talking about crust density and sugar ratios. It’s funny in a dry way, even if the movie doesn’t seem to realize it’s being funny.

There is this one moment where Sale looks directly into the camera lens for a split second too long. I’m not sure if he was checking his mark or just bored out of his mind. It felt incredibly human, like he realized the scene was going nowhere.

A few scattered thoughts:

• The lighting in the kitchen is surprisingly harsh. It makes every pie look like it’s made of cardboard.
• I spent most of the runtime wondering if these characters actually like each other or if they just hate being alone.
• There’s a tension here that feels less like a corporate takeover and more like a family dinner gone wrong.
• It reminds me of the pacing in A Day of Rest—slow, deliberate, and sometimes just plain static.

Maybe it’s just me, but the way they handle the secret motive is handled with all the subtlety of a falling anvil. You know exactly what’s happening by the second minute. Still, there’s a charm to watching people act like their tiny, local business is the center of the universe.

I kept waiting for a pie to get thrown. It never happened. That felt like a missed opportunity. 🥧