Movies:
Mystic Pizza
DVD Release
- Release Date: 2001
- English: stereo Surround
- French: mono
- Spanish: stereo Surround
- Original theatrical trailer
- French and Spanish subtitles
- Rating:
- Genre: Comedy Drama
- Movie Type: Ensemble Film, Coming-of-Age
- Themes: Women's Friendship, First Love, Sibling Relationships
- Director: Donald Petrie
- Main Cast: Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, Lili Taylor, Vincent D'Onofrio, William R. Moses
- Release Year: 1988
- Country: US
- Run Time: 101 minutes
- MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Three teenagers learn a lot about life and love one summer in this romantic comedy-drama. Kat (Annabeth Gish), Daisy (Julia Roberts), and Jojo (Lili Taylor) are three working-class women just out of high school who have jobs at the same pizza parlor in the resort community of Mystic, Connecticut. Kat wants to study astronomy at Yale; when she starts baby-sitting for Tim (William R. Moses), a wealthy Yale graduate summering in Mystic, she finds herself falling in love with him, even though he's married and nearly twice her age. Daisy, who isn't sure what she wants from life, starts going with Charlie (Adam Storke), a recent law school dropout, though she starts to think that it may be more to rebel against her family than out of genuine affection. And Jojo is attracted to Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio), but she doesn't want to get married (she's already left him at the altar once); when Bill announces that he's no longer willing to have sex without marriage, she has to decide if his affections are worth a lifetime commitment. Conchata Ferrell appears in a supporting role as Leona, the proprietor of the pizza parlor, who zealously guards the secret formula of her sauce. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie GuideReview
Her first major film role didn't make Julia Roberts a star, but Mystic Pizza did make great use of the actress' earthy sensuality and onscreen charisma. Playing one of a trio of working-class young women in coastal New England, Roberts provided the va-va-voom to Lili Taylor's quirkiness and Annabeth Gish's quiet intensity. Decidedly matriarchal and working-class in its depictions of these young characters' lives, the film uses the pizza parlor of kindly Leona (Conchata Ferrell) as a symbol of both the bond of female friendship and the joys and limitations of life in a seaside resort town. Mystic Pizza splits its storytelling time equally between the romantic entanglements of its three heroines, but a subtle class consciousness colors even these stock scenarios: Kat (Gish) glimpses the dissatisfactions of Ivy League privilege in the marriage of her wealthy boss; Daisy (Roberts) has to reconcile her boyfriend's blue-blooded loafing with her own hard-working existence; and Jojo (Taylor) has to choose between a comfortable marriage and an uncertain future. Alternately cheery, somber, and melodramatic, the sometimes uneven Mystic Pizza nonetheless serves up an engaging, if misty-eyed, slice of small-town life. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie GuideCast
- Annabeth Gish - Kat Araujo
- Julia Roberts - Daisy Araujo
- Lili Taylor - Jojo Barboza
- Vincent D'Onofrio - Bill Montijo
- William R. Moses - Tim Travers
Adam Storke - Charles Gordon Winsor; Conchata Ferrell - Leona Valsouano; Joanna Merlin - Mrs. Arujo; Gene Amoroso - Mr. Ed Barboza; John Cunningham - Mr. Windsor; Matt Damon - Steamer; John Fiore - Jake; Al Hodgkins - Priest; Keith Jochim - Tourist #2; Porscha Radcliffe - Phoebe Travers; Suzanne Shepherd - Aunt Tweedy; Louis Turenne - Everyday Gourmet; Janet Zarish - Nicole; Ray Zuppa - Mitch; Marrisa Carey - Flower Girl; Ann Flood - Polly Windsor; Wiley Moore - Newscaster; Jody Raymond - Teresa; Arthur Walsh - Manny
