Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

Mystic Pizza Blu-ray Movie Review

Girls Just Wanna Grow Up

Reviewed by Michael Reuben July 27, 2011

An influential woman in my life once observed that most coming-of-age films are about boys. Female versions are the exception, which is why good ones, when they get made, tend to have staying power. Of course, it never hurts when one of your film's leads goes on to become a huge star, as Mystic Pizza's Julia Roberts did two years later in Pretty Woman. But even if Roberts had never made another film, Mystic Pizza would still hold up, because it's sharply written, skillfully directed, and performed with an emphasis on character that studios were already in the process of abandoning (and the independent cinema movement hadn't yet developed to salvage). The best way to watch Mystic Pizza today isn't so much as an early Roberts film (though, Julia-haters beware, all the trademark gestures are already in place) as an unlikely ensemble piece in which three working class friends on the cusp of adulthood have to face up to who they are. While the film's script tends to smooth out a lot of rough edges, and the entire enterprise is bathed in a storybook glow, complete with fairy godmother, Mystic Pizza explores issues that you wouldn't encounter in a film with male protagonists. Over twenty years before An Education, these girls were learning many of the same lessons in a far less glamorous environment.

The film is about three young women in their early twenties, friends since childhood. All of them work as waitresses in a pizza parlor in the seaport town of Mystic, Connecticut. In the opening scene, JoJo (Lili Taylor) is standing at the altar with her long-time boyfriend, Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio, younger and slimmer than Law and Order: CI's Det. Goren and still using his middle name "Phillip"). Her bridesmaids are the Arujo sisters, Daisy (Roberts) and Kat (Annabeth Gish). All their family and friends are there, including Leona (Conchata Ferrell), the proprietor of Mystic Pizza, and Manny (Arthur Walsh), the long-suffering dishwasher.

But JoJo can't go through with it. As the prospect of all those years of married life unfolds before her eyes, she faints dead away. The families are furious, the town is scandalized, and for the rest of the film JoJo and Bill engage in a tug of war about their future (or whether they even have one).

The Arujo girls are the stereotypical sisters who have been typecast, fairly or not, as opposites. Daisy is the "pretty" one, and because boys like her, she's learned to use her looks aggressively, acquiring a loose reputation that, on the strength of what's shown in the film, is grossly exaggerated. (It probably doesn't take much in this small town for a girl to be branded a slut.) Kat is the "smart" one who studies, and she's just been accepted for mid-year entrance at Yale with a partial scholarship. Their mother (Joanna Merlin) is proud of Kat and worried about Daisy. She doesn't want Daisy to repeat her mistakes and end up like her, supporting herself and two kids by working at the docks sorting and banding lobsters for market.

Besides working at Mystic Pizza, Kat has multiple part-time jobs to supplement her partial scholarship. The latest is a baby-sitting position for Tim Travers (William R. Moses), a restorer of classic old houses who needs help with his daughter, Phoebe (Porsha Radcliffe), because his wife is currently on assignment in England. Kat's latest job turns out to have a fringe benefit, when Tim learns about her Yale acceptance and congratulates her as a fellow Eli. As Tim begins detailing to Kat all the wonderful experiences her future has in store, the two become closer, dangerously so.

Kat's sister, Daisy, is working on her own infatuation with a rich kid named Charlie, or rather: Charles Gordon Windsor, Jr. (Adam Storke). He drives a red Porsche and spots Daisy when he and some friends venture into a local bar one night. Days later he shows up at the Arujo home looking for Daisy, and Mama Arujo gets appropriately concerned. Like too many pretty young women, Daisy thinks she can marry up on the strength of her looks, but her mother is worldly enough to be skeptical. What neither of them knows is that Charlie isn't what he seems. Like Daisy, he's in open revolt against where he came from, but unlike Daisy, he doesn't know where he wants to go. It's a perfect recipe for a combustible relationship.

(As an aside, if anyone finds the behavior of Charlie's family members to be exaggerated, I can assure you that it isn't. I grew up knowing many such people, and while today they might be less overt in their expression, the unpleasant sentiments are entirely authentic.)

The main characters in Mystic Pizza are all of Portugese descent, but aside from wedding customs and a tradition of fishing, the main marker of their heritage is Leona's secret recipe for pizza sauce, passed down through the generations and zealously guarded until Leona hands over Mystic Pizza to her successor, whoever that turns out to be. First, though, the place has to survive. Business is down and hopes are pinned on a favorable review from a finicky TV restaurant critic named Hector Pleshette (Louis Turenne). Does anyone really need to be told how this story turns out?

As for our three heroines, some things go badly, some things work out, and some things are left up in the air. Mystic Pizza unwinds its plot mechanics by predictable beats and draws its characters in broad strokes. What distinguishes it is the brisk pace with which director Donald Petrie (Grumpy Old Men) keeps writer Amy Jones's story moving along, and the cheerful energy (and, in Gish's case, genuine poignancy) with which the cast, especially the female members, infuse their roles. (Jones had help writing the script from Oscar winner Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) as well as Perry and Randy Howze, who went on to write the eccentric romance Chances Are.) Mystic Pizza is a small film, but like Leona's creations, it never fails to satisfy.

Trivia note: Watch for a young Matt Damon, who has about ten seconds of screen time. This was his first film. He plays Charlie's younger brother. It would be thirteen years before he and Roberts shared the screen again in Ocean's 11.

Mystic Pizza Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

I'm always intrigued when the same director of photography shows up on so many cult classics and guilty pleasures. Here's a partial list of DP Tim Suhrstedt's credits: Teen Wolf, Mannequin, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, The Wedding Singer and -- wait for it! -- Office Space. And let's not forget the recent awards favorite Little Miss Sunshine. Add Mystic Pizza to the list.

The source material is in good condition, with only a few stray specks. The 1080p, AVC-encoded image accurately reproduces the film's low-budget, naturalistic look. This is a colorful world, but not a glossy one, and the natural grain has been left intact without becoming intrusive. Fleshtones appear accurate, black levels are deep enough to preserve good shadow detail in night scenes, and the image is finely detailed overall. There does not appear to have been any DNR or artificial sharpening, and the use of a BD-50 for a 104 minute film with no extras has ensured a lack of compression-related issues.

Mystic Pizza Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The original "Ultra-Stereo" soundtrack (the poor man's Dolby Surround) is presented in DTS lossless, and it sounds just fine. Dialogue is clear and centered, while the sounds of water and boats, traffic and bar patrons, wedding guests and the great outdoors, bleed lightly into the surrounds for a gentle sense of ambiance. Bass extension is almost non-existent, but this is not the kind of film that calls for deep rumbles, even when the three leads are barreling down the road in a pick-up trick singing along to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" (because it's only a car radio). The original score by David McHugh is serviceable.

Mystic Pizza Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Mastered with the usual cut-rate approach that Fox employs on MGM discs, Mystic Pizza features BD-Java, no main menu, no bookmarking capability, no advanced features and only one "special" feature:

• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 1.85:1, enhanced; 1:50). The source material is in very rough shape, washed out and with substantial print damage. The trailer is lively but ends with what some might consider a major spoiler, although it's a development most viewers will see coming from a mile away.

Mystic Pizza Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

One has to be careful not to oversell a little film like Mystic Pizza, and yet it's hard to get around the fact that simple dramas about ordinary people have become an endangered species on the American scene. The major studios have abandoned them altogether, and even their specialty divisions seem to need some sort of clever marketing hook before they'll take a chance. For a similar film to be made today, it would probably have to be subtitled and set in Europe. Strasbourg Croissant, anyone?