Mystic Pizza [Blu-ray]

Director: Donald Petrie Donald Petrie

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	04/05/2011
UPC:	0883904230359
Original Release:	1988
Rating:	R
Source:	Mgm (Video & Dvd)
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:45:00
Sales rank:	4,435

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Julia Roberts	Daisy Arujo
Annabeth Gish	Kat Arujo
Lili Taylor	Jojo,Actor
Vincent D'Onofrio	Bill Montijo
William R. Moses	Tim Travers
Adam Storke	Charles Gordon Windsor
Conchata Ferrell	Leona
Porscha Radcliffe	Phoebe Travers
Joanna Merlin	Mrs. Arujo
Arthur Walsh	Manny
John Fiore	Jake
Gene Amoroso	Mr. Barbosa
Janet Zarish	Nicole "Nikki" Travers
Ray Zuppa	Actor
Louis Turenne	Hector "The Fireside
Wiley Moore	Actor
Ann Flood	Polly Windsor
Suzanne Shepherd	Aunt Tweedy
Jody Raymond	Teresa
Matt Damon	Steamer
Marrisa Carey	Actor
Keith Jochim	Tourist #2
Al Hodgkins	Priest
Lew Resseguie	Maitre D'
David McHugh	Composer
Sheila Ferrini	Mrs. Barboza
Lauren O'Brien	Serena
John Cunningham	Mr. Windsor
Geraldine Leer	Lorna
Robin Joss	Carrie

Technical Credits

Alfred Uhry

Joanne Pagliaro

Perry Howze

Amy Holden Jones

Donald Petrie	Director
Scott Rosenfelt	Producer,Producer
Samuel Goldwyn Jr.	Executive Producer
Ken Levin	Special Effects
Mark Levinson	Producer
Alfred Uhry	Screenwriter
Joanne Pagliaro	Screenwriter
Perry Howze	Screenwriter,Screenwriter
Amy Holden Jones	Screenwriter
Russell Fager	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

A quirky cornerstone of cute-and-corny '80s moviemaking, Mystic Pizza follows three working class high school age girls as they learn important life lessons while serving slices in the resort town of Mystic, Connecticut. Julia Roberts made her first serious big-screen impression as Daisy, a rebellious soul in search of a future. When law school dropout Charlie (Adam Strout) courts her to anger his upper-class family, Daisy gets schooled in self-respect 101. Annabelle Gish is also memorable as Kat, who falls in love with a married Yale grad while babysitting his kid. Nostalgia is half the fun here: bad haircuts, homey sentimentality, and class tensions of the Reaganomics era abound. The brand new wide-screen DVD edition of the film includes the theatrical trailer, and is the perfect accompaniment for a 12" deep dish with everything on it.

Barnes & Noble - Daniel Weizmann

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.

All Movie Guide - Brian J. Dillard