Mystic Pizza
October. 13,1988 RThree teenage girls come of age while working at a pizza parlor in Mystic, Connecticut.
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Reviews
Redundant and unnecessary.
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
This "sleeper" hit looks just as good today as it did when it was first released. It follows the trials and tribulations of three childhood friends. They all work as waitresses in a pizza parlor and all are at a crossroad in their life. Kat (Annabeth Gish) is preparing to leave home for Yale to begin a career in Astronomy. Daisey (Julia Roberts) Kat's sister, seems to be floundering, with no real direction to go in life, and JoJo (Lili Taylor, who gives the film's most comedic performance), is torn between her love for her fiancé Bill, and settling down into a married life filled with screaming kids and massive weight gain.The film integrates all three stories and keeps the plot moving at a brisk pace. All three friends have very different personalities, allowing most of the audience to be able to identify with at least one of them. I will admit, however, that the ultra idealistic, goodie-goodie Kat does get on my nerves from time to time. (I particularly enjoyed the scene where Daisey hauls off and belts her across the face). The chemistry between the leads works extremely well which only strengthens the movie. Roberts gives a strong performance and shows the audience the first signs of the Hollywood powerhouse she would soon become. The three leads are admirabley backed up by a strong supporting cast as well, most notably, Conchata Ferrell as the owner of the pizza parlor. All in all, a very sweet movie about real people and real family situations, and it remains one of my favorite movies of all time. I literally never tire of this modern classic. My only quibble is that the last spoken line is disturbingly unimaginative and anti-climactic. After crafting such a superb screenplay, the writers just seemed to run out of inspiration at the last hurdle. As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating." Overall rating: 7 out of 10.
There is a genre known as the Three Girls Movie, in which, you guessed it, three girls learn about Life, which really means Men, and about themselves along the way. There is always a heroine, a naive, vulnerable one who gets hurt, and an eccentric one, who might be either wild or salty. Three Coins In a Fountain is a Three Girls Movie; so is The Best of Everything, and Where The Boys Are (although they threw in Connie Francis as a fourth so that she could sing). How to Marry a Millionaire is also a Three Girls Movie, with the twist that the three girls are grown women -- fashion models -- who already consider themselves fully wised up about Life and Men and find out they are wrong.Mystic Pizza is a very good Three Girls Movie, notable for launching the careers of the Three Actresses: Julia Roberts, of course, and to a lesser extent Lily Taylor and Annabeth Gish. They play three working class waitresses in a New England fishing town. Gish, the smart but naive one, gets hurt but will go off to college better armored against the snares of the world. Taylor, the eccentric one, finally accepts marriage and domesticity with the guy who has loved her all along. Roberts, the gorgeous, hot tempered but deeply sensible heroine, finds a rich guy who turns out to be flawed, but curably flawed; at the end she is making him over into the man who will deserve her. There are no real surprises here (except for one involving a misunderstanding and a parked convertible with the top down), and it's not great art by any means, but it is a well-executed variation of a reliable formula that should entertain anyone, or at least any female, from 13 on up.
Mystic Pizza A Review by Ashley I was making breakfast when I started watching Mystic Pizza. I can't be completely sure what I made myself that day, but knowing me it was probably a burger or spaghetti of some kind. I had decided to watch T.V. while I made breakfast because cooking can often be very boring, and I needed more stimulation. At first I was just watching the T.V. Guide channel, but I soon found myself switching to AMC to watch the last hour of Mystic Pizza. I have to admit; at first I was completely lost. There were so many conflicts and I spent a lot of time just trying to figure out who the head pizza lady was. She looked so familiar, and it was killing me. Once I settled down and watched the movie a little I really got into it. And although I didn't watch the whole thing I knew everything that had already happened or was going to happen simply by listening. Also I saw that awesome lobster dinner part with young Matt Damon! Pure gold!As I said before, there were a lot of conflicts in the movie. Some of the conflicts in the movie included, but were not limited to: a girl who had family problems, Julia Roberts being poor while her boyfriend was rich, problems paying tuition to Yale/ Harvard, a decline in restaurant profits, and last but not least, dealing with the olds. All I all it was a good movie. I give it seven Golden Apes up! Which is only a 3 on IMDb.
Tired, cutesy-poo romantic comedy-drama concerning the love lives of three young Connecticut women who work in a homey little pizza parlor. "Mystic Pizza" begins with a shot of fabricated group photos featuring the central characters in happy times, the faces of the actresses clearly cut out and pasted on other bodies. It's an immediate sign that not much know-how, cleverness, or talent was used in conceptualizing this picture, which is strictly an underachiever lucky enough to gain attention after Julia Roberts' career picked up. Young, impressionable girls might find something emotionally tangible here, but seasoned moviegoers should quickly detect the artificial flavoring. Amy Holden Jones co-wrote the screenplay (based on her original story) with help from Alfred Uhry and Perry and Randy Howze, all of whom seemed to have been raised on TV. *1/2 from ****