Mystic Pizza Lessons

Watching the 1988 film Mystic Pizza made me nostalgic for the freedom of youth and the confines of early adulthood. Life can feel like Julia Roberts’ smile and it can feel like hell. The world is bigger than your hometown, but freedom comes with responsibility and bank accounts. That’s life and there will be cinema moments along the way.

I have a soft spot for coming-of-age films, especially if they feature young actors learning their craft playing adolescents earning and learning to navigate the tricky path to adulthood. Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor are three Portuguese-American waitresses at Mystic Pizza in a fishing town divided by privilege and class.

The actors succeed because you believe in the characters and their attachment to the pizza parlor. While their customer service is sometimes questionable, they are there for each other, work hard and it’s the place they return to after heartbreak, humiliation or triumph.

If work and social life can co-exist without affecting productivity it can enhance the customer experience and attract people to work and go there. The pizza parlor even has an origin story with its secret a generational hand‑down from the Algarve. After the movie came out, the real Mystic Pizza shop became so popular, lines would stretch to the sidewalk and patrons would regularly steal mementos from the restaurant.

There is a strong sense of community running through the film with young adults essential to the labour market whether it is babysitting, waitressing, fishing or working at the planetarium. The pizza parlor owners Vic and Leona do more than employ Roberts’ hedonistic Daisy, the academic Kat (Gish) and the romantically chaotic Jojo. They are part of their community offering feedback, challenge and safety to guide, not fix them, as they learn that stuff happens when you are busy dreaming.

Although the women are the stars, the film would not work without the men in their lives and their struggles with expectations on what it takes to be a man. They are all grappling with the aim to make something of yourself and maintaining your own identity. “I am just so worried about you” Daisy’s mum tells her, wanting her to make something of herself, not aspire to be something she will never be.

While the theme “we all wish we could stop time” highlights the perils of growing up and wishing you could have your time again, it’s easy to forget that being young is no cakewalk either. You “Don’t Monkey With Tradition” is the chant at the pizza parlor which depends on tourism to stay afloat, but the owners refuse to switch from the old country Mystic Pizza to designer pizzas that are all the rage.

The television food critic known as "The Fireside Gourmet" unexpectedly visits to taste the Mystic Pizza and leaves after a few bites. They fear the worst but despite not being a pizza fan, he gives it his highest rating, praising the perfect blend of ingredients. How many HR consultants and business leaders does it take to make an organisational pizza with the right ingredients?

The late film critic Roger Ebert highly rated the film, writing: "I have a feeling that Mystic Pizza may someday become known for the movie stars it showcased back before they became stars. All of the young actors in this movie have genuine gifts."

How right he was with Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish and Lili Taylor building successful careers to be proud of. The film also saw the debut of a young Matt Damon in a minor role. This film promotes female economic agency and the importance of working in your formative years.

Give young people the talent to shine and they can grow up to do the same for the next generation.

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