Mystic Pizza

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: October 21, 1988

DVD Release Date: January 9, 2001

Plot 411: Three friends struggle with love and life in small town Connecticut.

Review: This movie is like the female version of Diner, and it stars Julia Roberts as Daisy, Annabeth Gish as Kat and Lili Taylor as JoJo. The three girls are best friends (with Daisy and Kat being sisters) who work at a pizza joint in a small fishing town in Connecticut. They are all struggling with different identity crisises. Daisy feels threatened by her sister's impending departure to Yale and wonders about her future. Her way of dealing with this is to live up to her rep of wild nights. However, when she meets rich guy Charlie (Adam Storke) she dares to hope for a better future. Studious Kat envies her sister's carefree attitude and longs to fall in love. When she takes on a new babysitting job, she is drawn to her boss Tim (William R. Moses) despite his age and the fact that he's married. JoJo's problem is not the lack of a lover nor any doubt about her future. These are, in fact, her problems. After fainting at the alter, she isn't sure she's ready to marry her fiance Bill (Vincent D'Onofrio) and feels suffocated by her impending future. This is a great coming-of-age flick with which most girls will be able to relate. Small-town girls with big-city dreams is always a good theme. I really liked Gish's subtlety contrasted with Roberts' brash nature. And boy, did Roberts' have some big assets in this movie that I didn't notice her having before. She was J-Lo before there even was a J-Lo. Taylor was perfectly neurotic in her role, which made it all the funnier. We even get a peak at a very young Matt Damon in this movie.

Watch It: For a great '80s teen flick of doubt, soul searching and hormones.

Skip It: And go straight to Diner.

Diner

Rating: R

Movie Release Date: March 5, 1982

DVD Release Date: April 4, 1999

Plot 411: Six best friends grow up and around the diner sharing experiences and memories to last a lifetime.

Review: This film featured a great ensemble cast of Mickey Rourke, Daniel Stern, Kevin Bacon, Paul Reiser, Tim Daly and Steve Guttenberg. The guys were so great in this film, which is about the lives of six twentysomethings in 1959. The group is so funny when they're together at the diner all squeezed into the booth. But, my favorite scene occurs when Daly's character lets loose at a strip club. It's awesome and not what you think. What I love most about this movie is that you can imagine these characters are still meeting up at that diner in 2009, 50 years after this snapshot of their lives was filmed. The bond between the guys is really touching - sort of the 50s version of a bromance. Rourke plays Boogie, a gambling playboy trying to find a way to pay off a $2,000 bet. He is really great in this role and how I'd like to remember him always. He makes Boogie charming and charismatic, with a voice that could convince you to do anything, yet still extremely likable and not conniving. Stern plays Shrevie, the first guy in the group to get married. Every group's got one and Stern does a good job at portraying the dichotomy between being single and married. Bacon plays a gross underacheiver, who seems embarrassed by his wealth and intelligence. His angst and desire to be independent from his family perhaps foreshadows his transformation into a 60s hippie. Reiser plays the comedian in the group, Daly the lovelorn college boy and Guttenberg the groom-to-be. This is definitely a must-see, especially because I think it really does a good job at showing us the time period. The score is filled with music selections from that era that help to really set the mood and take you back. I'm happy to say I knew more than 90% of the music played and enjoyed singing along. As a side note, I was shocked at how Reiser hasn't changed a bit since this film and how Daly seems to have gotten better looking with age.

Watch It: For a blast from the past, the soundtrack of your lives and great casting selection. The actors really fit their characters well and they all seemed so natural in them.

Skip It: If you're looking for something with a definite resolution. This movie depicts the lives of these guys between December 24, 1959 and January 1, 1960. You won't find a definite answer to some of the problems they face because they're still in the process of figuring it out. That's part of the genius of this film.

Trailer: