Mystic Pizza

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Mystic Pizza
Movie poster for Mystic Pizza
Directed by	Donald Petrie
Produced by	Mark Levinson Scott M. Rosenfelt
Written by	Amy Holden Jones Perry Howze Randy Howze Alfred Uhry
Starring	Annabeth Gish Julia Roberts Lili Taylor Vincent Phillip D'Onfrio William R. Moses Adam Storke Conchata Ferrell
Music by	David McHugh
Cinematography	Tim Suhrstedt
Editing by	Don Brochu Marion Rothman
Distributed by	Samuel Goldwyn Company
Release date(s)	October 21, 1988
Running time	104 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6,000,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Mystic Pizza is a 1988 coming-of-age film directed by Donald Petrie and starring Annabeth Gish, Julia Roberts, and Lili Taylor. The film's tagline is: "A romantic comedy with the works."

[edit] Plot

The film is about the coming of age of two sisters and their friend, as seen through the romantic lives of the three main characters: Kat, Daisy, and Jojo, who all work as waitresses at Mystic Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut, a fishing town with a large Portuguese American population.

The movie also touches on an Old World work ethic. Kat and Daisy are sisters and rivals; the former works all the time and attends Yale University, while the latter just wants to have fun. Kat is the apple of her Portuguese mother's eye, while Daisy is not: She is promiscuous and is not as goal-oriented as her younger sister.

There is also a dynamic between Kat's Anglo-American employer and the resulting relationship between them. The class distinctions and variant European heritages are explored in various scenes of the film.

Vincent D'Onofrio and Adam Storke co-star; in his screen debut, Matt Damon has a small part (his sole line in the film being, "Mom, do you want my green stuff?").

The film was based on a pizza shop that caught the eye of Hollywood screen writer, Amy H. Jones. The actual Mystic Pizza in Mystic, Connecticut has become overwhelmingly popular due to the film's success.