"There are forty kinds of lunacy but only one kind of common sense" - a proverb says. It appears that, similarly to modern politics, today's cinema tends to be polluted by aberrations of a certain kind - the aggressive, pervasive, and loud extremes representing a nasty insult to the common sense. Moreover, the once distinct line between the mainstream and the extreme appears to have blurred. Many mainstream movies can now be considered to be extreme in a certain sense while independent movies have grown so numerous, popular, well-organized, and influential that they managed to successfully form their own local "mainstream".

On one end of the specter reside many of the popular mainstream movies. Being predominately designed for the viewers with the mental capacity of a twelve year old and the moral awareness of Pinocchio before he became a boy, these are intellectual disasters and moral failures also lacking logic, vision, imagination, authenticity, good taste and all the remaining qualities of a decent movie.

On the other end, often obscure, pretentious, artificial, abstract, and whimsical, independent movies nowadays can be just as unsubstantial and inauthentic as most mainstream movies are. 

“Mystic pizza” - not a perfect movie by any means - comes across as naturally enjoyable, funny, emotional, and captivating precisely because it deals with the real life issues familiar to most people. It resides in the real world on planet Earth and not in one of the superficial, artificially enhanced imaginary universes that serve homes to so many movies, both mainstream and independent.

Secondly,  “Mystic pizza”  is a rare case of a movie that offers a good message without being forceful, contentious, or didactic. Just by telling its simple but touching and engaging coming of age story of three likable girls with all the challenges that they face, choices that they make, and mistakes that they learn on,  “Mystic pizza” manages to unobtrusively deliver a few simple life truths that appear to be easily discounted and overlooked by both mainstream and independent cinema. 

I think it never hurts to be reminded of such timeless truths as “true love is inseparable from honesty, commitment, and sacrifice”, “an affair is morally wrong, painful, and destructive”, or “hard work brings you dignity that money cannot buy”.

The three blue-collar girls from a small New England town of Mystic – genuine, hardworking, responsible, caring, strong and independent but overall respectful to their parents could serve as a positive role model for many modern teens.  

Unfortunately, the girls from the movie also represent a stark contrast to the ever-increasing number of self-obsessed, lazy, spoiled, irresponsible, immature young adults, who appear to be unprepared for the real world challenges and  somehow end up being both hopelessly dependent on their parents and disrespectful to them at the same time.

In 1989,  “Mystic pizza” earned a well-deserved Independent Spirit award for the Best First Feature. The movie still remains among the best works of its writer Amy Holden Jones and its director Donald Petrie who have both gone mainstream since then. 

Amy Holden Jones is now mostly known for the “Beethoven” franchise, whereas  Donald Petrie seems to have been recently focusing on the quite lightweight, purely entertaining formulaic comedies like “Miss Congeniality”, “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days”, or “My Life in Ruins”.

In addition to the good story and the solid directing,  “Mystic pizza” offers almost perfect casting and generally strong acting, both ensemble and individual. The movie happens to be one of the first full-length features with  Julia Roberts (Daisy Arujo). Right from the beginning, it becomes clear that  Ms. Roberts has a remarkable talent – something that she successfully proved in many movies that followed.

Annabeth Gish and  Lili Taylor were charming and convincing in the roles of the two other teen girls - Kat Arujo and Jojo.  Vincent D'Onofrio delivered a strong supporting performance as Jojo’s fiancé Bill - a simple (but not an ordinary) fisherman.   Adam Storke was able to find all the right accents for the role of the carefree and easygoing rich kid Charles Gordon Windsor, Jr., Daisy’s love interest.  Joanna Merlin was perfect in a small role of Mrs. Arujo - Kat’s and Daisy’s wise hardworking mother.

Despite being rated "R" (mostly because of some language and sensuality),  “Mystic pizza” seems to feature less questionable or offensive content than many of the more recent "PG-13" movies. 

It is a good chick-flick and a good date movie. It is also one of those movies that might be worth watching together with your high school age kids as a good illustration to the difficult choices that they will soon (or might already) be facing, conflicting feelings that they will soon (or might already) be experiencing, and hard decisions that they will soon (or might already) be making.