Latest / The Bechdel Cast / Legally Blonde
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Bechdel Cast. My name is
- 0:02Speaker 1: Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Darante, and welcome to
- 0:06Speaker 1: a very special episode of the beck Doel Cast. We
- 0:09Speaker 1: have a little treat for you today, So if if
- 0:12Speaker 1: you're new to the show, we'll catch you up in
- 0:15Speaker 1: a second. But for for our loyal listeners, um, we
- 0:18Speaker 1: are unlocking a much demanded episode of the Bechtel Cast
- 0:22Speaker 1: today from our patreon ak Matreon page. So what you're
- 0:27Speaker 1: going to here today is an episode that people who
- 0:29Speaker 1: do not subscribe to our Patreon have been asking for
- 0:32Speaker 1: us for years and all of our matrons have been
- 0:35Speaker 1: sneakily enjoying for a long time. But it's the Legally
- 0:37Speaker 1: Blond episode. Yes, we recorded and released this quite some
- 0:42Speaker 1: time ago. I think it's around two yeah, two years
- 0:46Speaker 1: ago at least, So it's one of our older episodes
- 0:51Speaker 1: and it's been it's been behind the paywall, but we decided, hey,
- 0:55Speaker 1: we could use a break now more than ever, and yeah,
- 0:59Speaker 1: what a what a delightful movie and episode to share
- 1:02Speaker 1: with people, So we we decided to share. It's unlocked. Yeah,
- 1:07Speaker 1: so it's it's unlocked, And if you like this episode,
- 1:10Speaker 1: and you're not already a matron, it will hopefully give
- 1:13Speaker 1: you an idea of what our Matreon episodes are like.
- 1:16Speaker 1: They're a little looser, they're fun. We don't have to
- 1:20Speaker 1: go into all the detail about explaining what the Bechtel
- 1:22Speaker 1: test is. You already know. If you're a matron, we're
- 1:25Speaker 1: just like you got it. But but if you if
- 1:28Speaker 1: this is your first episode, interesting choice of first episode,
- 1:31Speaker 1: but we will get you caught up, so we since
- 1:34Speaker 1: we don't introduce it this way in in the episode,
- 1:36Speaker 1: we're unlocking. The Bechtel test is a media metric invented
- 1:41Speaker 1: by cartoonist Alice and Bechtel, sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test,
- 1:45Speaker 1: that requires uh piece of media have the following qualifications
- 1:51Speaker 1: that it has an exchange in which too female identified
- 1:55Speaker 1: named characters talk to each other about something other than
- 1:58Speaker 1: a man for two lines of dialogue. Does it usually happen?
- 2:04Speaker 1: Not so much, But today's movie might fare a little
- 2:08Speaker 1: bit better than normal. Jamie, can we demonstrate the Bectal
- 2:11Speaker 1: test and how how one might love? Okay, Hey Jamie,
- 2:16Speaker 1: Hey Caitlin, would you join me in a little bend
- 2:21Speaker 1: and snap choreographed move with me? Today. This is a
- 2:27Speaker 1: polite way to refer to would you care to engage
- 2:30Speaker 1: in a bit of a bend and then immediately followed
- 2:32Speaker 1: by a snap, uh, well yes, Caitlin, I would love that. Oh,
- 2:36Speaker 1: thank you so much. We're gonna have to do it
- 2:37Speaker 1: separately in separate rooms because we were still social disting,
- 2:43Speaker 1: of course, but I think that would be a nice
- 2:46Speaker 1: little activity for us to make us feel closer together.
- 2:49Speaker 1: A man baby a woman A wow, look at her
- 2:56Speaker 1: challenging the status quo, changing the world as we know it,
- 3:00Speaker 1: eld boss Um. Uh yeah, so so we're we're excited
- 3:04Speaker 1: to be unlocking this episode for your enjoyment. If you
- 3:07Speaker 1: enjoy it, Like Caitlin was saying, check out our Matreon
- 3:10Speaker 1: It's patreon dot com slash Bechtel Cast. It's five bucks
- 3:15Speaker 1: a month and you get two extra full blown bonus
- 3:19Speaker 1: episodes of the Bechtel Cast a month, and it's it's
- 3:22Speaker 1: a little casual, and it's also we tend to do
- 3:24Speaker 1: less popular movies there maybe stuff that's a little more
- 3:27Speaker 1: niche uh little it's in the episodes are just they're
- 3:30Speaker 1: just silly, fun stuff. And also there's an episode on
- 3:34Speaker 1: doubt in there. What's your weight? What's your favorite Matreon
- 3:37Speaker 1: episode outside of this one? Because this is this is
- 3:40Speaker 1: a quite good one if if you don't mind my
- 3:42Speaker 1: saying so, I agree. Um, oh my goodness. I love
- 3:46Speaker 1: our Christmas Prints episodes. Yes, there's never a bad time
- 3:52Speaker 1: for it. We also have extra Titanic episodes over there
- 3:56Speaker 1: if you if you could have possibly needed one, they're there. Uh.
- 4:00Speaker 1: We just have a lot of fun stuff. The frame
- 4:03Speaker 1: Roger rabbits over there, into the Spider verses over there. Um,
- 4:07Speaker 1: we've got oh and we One of my favorite things
- 4:10Speaker 1: about the Matreon is we do absurd themes such as
- 4:15Speaker 1: Zach Martron. We've got Pegentuary, We've got um Portman July,
- 4:21Speaker 1: Portman July, which we did not observe in July, but
- 4:24Speaker 1: we did do America July. We did Share Share March, yes,
- 4:28Speaker 1: Share March recently. And and it's a nice place. It's
- 4:31Speaker 1: the Also, the community on the Matreon is really lovely,
- 4:36Speaker 1: and I mean we have the greatest fans on every feed,
- 4:40Speaker 1: but it's a very wholesome, lovely place to be and
- 4:43Speaker 1: you get I think over fifty additional full blown episodes
- 4:47Speaker 1: of the Bechtel Cast. When you sign up. Yeah, I
- 4:49Speaker 1: think we're close to, if not exceeded, sixty. So you
- 4:53Speaker 1: you you get access to the entire catalog when you
- 4:57Speaker 1: join the Matreon now, so now's the time if you're able.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Highly encourage, highly recommend. Freaky Friday. That was a fun one.
- 5:07Speaker 1: Oh yeah. We did Ghost Months, which in which we
- 5:11Speaker 1: did not cover the movie ghost because we already did
- 5:13Speaker 1: that on the main feed with Nicole Buyer, of course.
- 5:15Speaker 1: But we did the original Ghostbusters movie from eight four
- 5:19Speaker 1: or whatever, and then we did the all female reboot,
- 5:22Speaker 1: did Pregnancy June. All of our themes are the worst,
- 5:28Speaker 1: but in the best way, and you have to you know,
- 5:30Speaker 1: we highly recommend you join the community because it's really
- 5:33Speaker 1: really fun. Yes, without further ado, please enjoy this very
- 5:37Speaker 1: special unlocked episode legally Blonde. On the Doe Cast, the
- 5:41Speaker 1: questions asked if movies have women in them? Are all
- 5:45Speaker 1: their discussions just boyfriends and husbands? Do they have individualism?
- 5:49Speaker 1: The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing it with the beck
- 5:53Speaker 1: Del Cast. It's a bonus episode of the Bedel Cast.
- 5:58Speaker 1: Is a bonus episode of cast. I think we should
- 6:00Speaker 1: address what's happening here first, so we released two. This
- 6:05Speaker 1: is a Matreon Patreon only episode of the Betel Cast.
- 6:10Speaker 1: We were locked and loaded a month in advance with
- 6:13Speaker 1: two bonus episodes for this month, and then realized that
- 6:17Speaker 1: our doubling down on Titanic, that was the original plan.
- 6:21Speaker 1: Maybe someday we'll release some of the moments they hit
- 6:24Speaker 1: the cutting room floor, but all together we came to
- 6:26Speaker 1: the conclusion that both covering the same movie, particularly covering
- 6:30Speaker 1: the same movie well pretty aggressively drunk, was not the
- 6:35Speaker 1: premium content that you subscribed to the podcast, right. I
- 6:40Speaker 1: went back and listen to that title, the second title,
- 6:44Speaker 1: it is a disaster, and that not good. It's okay. Well,
- 6:53Speaker 1: just just to give ourselves a pat on the back,
- 6:55Speaker 1: we reconvene. We replanned, we both had a bad feeling
- 6:59Speaker 1: that we were both two drunk and to saying the
- 7:02Speaker 1: exact same things, which is that we Likeditanic over and over,
- 7:08Speaker 1: and we've come back with a clear mind and a
- 7:12Speaker 1: full heart. I'm sober, although I'm sick. I don't know
- 7:15Speaker 1: if you can hear it in my voice, but I
- 7:17Speaker 1: do not feel well. I've had two beers. I'm I'm,
- 7:20Speaker 1: I'm it's vacation. Jamie has been activated. She hasn't been
- 7:23Speaker 1: around for literally a full calendar year. Everyone's going to
- 7:27Speaker 1: have to deal with it. But we are. We are
- 7:29Speaker 1: fully prepared for today's episode, which is on Legally Blood.
- 7:35Speaker 1: We just watched it together. We are in Caitlin's bed.
- 7:38Speaker 1: I feel like that's the bonus episode way kind of. Yeah,
- 7:41Speaker 1: it's like the audio is always a little worse and
- 7:43Speaker 1: we are sitting in my bed recording on my iPhone.
- 7:46Speaker 1: It's we shouldn't tell them that. I mean, we have
- 7:50Speaker 1: really good equipment. Everywhere we go. We're swamped with the
- 7:56Speaker 1: finest of microphone as though. I like the reason that
- 8:00Speaker 1: we're in the bed. And then it's like maybe people
- 8:02Speaker 1: were like maybe Aristotle is also in the bed. It
- 8:07Speaker 1: chased in to the bed. Anyways, all I had to
- 8:08Speaker 1: say we are recording and releasing us on a rather
- 8:11Speaker 1: tight turned around because we were so prepared that we
- 8:14Speaker 1: got drunk and did a bad job. But I feel
- 8:18Speaker 1: good about this episode. We both have a wealth of notes.
- 8:24Speaker 1: So what is your history with Legally Blonde? Legally Blonde?
- 8:27Speaker 1: I believe so this movie came out in No One.
- 8:30Speaker 1: I was too young to see this movie when it
- 8:31Speaker 1: came out. For sure, I think I saw it at
- 8:35Speaker 1: some point. My friend in middle school I think, had
- 8:39Speaker 1: a copy of it and we watched it as sleep over,
- 8:41Speaker 1: and then I think I saw it again in high
- 8:44Speaker 1: school and possibly again. I feel like I've seen this
- 8:46Speaker 1: movie maybe three times. Like I'm pretty I know the
- 8:49Speaker 1: general beats of it, but there was a lot of
- 8:51Speaker 1: details that I forgot. I liked this movie. I remember
- 8:55Speaker 1: liking it, and I think like this was one of
- 8:57Speaker 1: those viewing experiences that I was like kind of lunching
- 9:00Speaker 1: my butt a little bit because I was like, oh,
- 9:02Speaker 1: I hope that this movie was as fun as I
- 9:04Speaker 1: remember it being, which generally I think it was generally. Yeah. Yes,
- 9:10Speaker 1: I went for many, many years without seeing this movie.
- 9:12Speaker 1: I didn't see it until I was a grad student
- 9:15Speaker 1: at Boston University where I was getting my masters in screenwriting.
- 9:18Speaker 1: I don't like to bring it up, but I'll be
- 9:21Speaker 1: goddamn classmate of mind did a project on Legally Blonde.
- 9:26Speaker 1: I was like, well, I guess I got to see it,
- 9:28Speaker 1: and I think I didn't necessarily avoid it for so long,
- 9:31Speaker 1: but I didn't actively seek it out because it's the
- 9:34Speaker 1: type of movie that doesn't really appeal to my sensibilities. Well, yeah,
- 9:39Speaker 1: I've given your his I mean, I'm surprised that I
- 9:41Speaker 1: wasn't more into Llegally Blond. I think it was just
- 9:43Speaker 1: like I wasn't the right age when it came out. Sure, yeah,
- 9:46Speaker 1: because I would. I would have been very intellgally Blond
- 9:49Speaker 1: if I had been old enough to see it when
- 9:50Speaker 1: it was released. That makes sense. Yeah, Yeah, generally it's
- 9:54Speaker 1: a fun movie. I'm trying to think of movies that
- 9:56Speaker 1: we have covered. I think Mean Girls as the main
- 9:59Speaker 1: one that jumps to mind of Like, I'm very leary
- 10:03Speaker 1: of covering movies that, you know, it's like I try
- 10:06Speaker 1: try to read sort of what's been written about the movie,
- 10:09Speaker 1: especially in regards to gender based topics. But this is
- 10:13Speaker 1: one of those movies where there's five million clickbit articles
- 10:16Speaker 1: about why Legally Blonde it's a feminist masterpiece. And I'm
- 10:20Speaker 1: always extremely leary of movies that have a million listicles
- 10:26Speaker 1: written about what a feminist masterpiece it is, because usually
- 10:29Speaker 1: that means that there is a fundamental issue, because a
- 10:34Speaker 1: lot of quote unquote feminist masterpieces have to do with
- 10:36Speaker 1: like this is feminism that's palatable for a wide audience,
- 10:40Speaker 1: as opposed to that said, I still think the movie
- 10:44Speaker 1: does pretty well. That's I have not read any of those.
- 10:47Speaker 1: I've read a lot of them. I mean, mean girls,
- 10:49Speaker 1: there's a billion of them. And then there's some about
- 10:52Speaker 1: specific characters like Lydia Diets in feministic Beetlejuice, there's a
- 10:57Speaker 1: million listicles every fucking Halloween about how she's a feminist
- 11:01Speaker 1: icon when she's right and she's not because beetle Juices.
- 11:05Speaker 1: Sometimes they pick the only because feminist icon. I know.
- 11:13Speaker 1: I was like, dude, why are you not reacting to
- 11:15Speaker 1: be amazing shows vacation, Jamie's cards are lowered, her friends
- 11:21Speaker 1: operating lower, and you've also you've played it so straight. Yeah,
- 11:30Speaker 1: obviously beetle Juices. Beetle Juice is the only feminist icon
- 11:35Speaker 1: in the movie. But but all I have to say,
- 11:38Speaker 1: listical feminism is stupid. And I'll say for the five
- 11:43Speaker 1: trillionth time, even though they'll still write up some of
- 11:46Speaker 1: my ship every once in a while, Bustle can kiss
- 11:49Speaker 1: my ass. In terms of like corporate palatable feminism funded
- 11:53Speaker 1: pie a male's hedge fund, so like, it's a tricky
- 11:57Speaker 1: but again, legally blonde most does well. Okay, I'm done, Okay,
- 12:01Speaker 1: got it? Shall I do the recap? Let's okay. L
- 12:05Speaker 1: Woods is a sorority sister. In her senior year of college,
- 12:09Speaker 1: she caught what is it, Delta New or I don't
- 12:12Speaker 1: even know what the night I don't know. She she
- 12:14Speaker 1: goes to a I think it's like c U l A,
- 12:18Speaker 1: which is basically U l Ala. She basically is the
- 12:22Speaker 1: U c l A. Yeah, a good school. So she
- 12:26Speaker 1: is about to graduate. She has a boyfriend named Warner,
- 12:30Speaker 1: who she thinks it's about to propose to her, and
- 12:32Speaker 1: she's very excited about it, and all of her sorority
- 12:35Speaker 1: sisters are very excited that she's about to be proposed to,
- 12:38Speaker 1: but turns out he takes her to dinner to instead
- 12:41Speaker 1: break up with her because he's like, I'm going to
- 12:44Speaker 1: Harvard Law School. He says something the ef fact that like,
- 12:47Speaker 1: I needed Jackie and you're Maryland basically yeah, it's like
- 12:51Speaker 1: you're like he views her. He views her, even though
- 12:54Speaker 1: we know very early on in the movie she has
- 12:56Speaker 1: a four point of g p A at Coula. We
- 12:59Speaker 1: don't on how hard that is, but she has one.
- 13:02Speaker 1: She has the highest g p A in her sorority.
- 13:04Speaker 1: We hear a lot of this, but yeah, he's looking
- 13:06Speaker 1: for a convince. He's looking for an East Coast elite, right.
- 13:10Speaker 1: He doesn't take her seriously. She's like, you know, I
- 13:12Speaker 1: need someone serious, and I just this has been fun,
- 13:15Speaker 1: but I cannot take you seriously. So she's devastated, and
- 13:20Speaker 1: she decides that in order to earn his love back
- 13:25Speaker 1: and prove that she is worthy of his love, she's
- 13:28Speaker 1: also going to go to Harvard Law School. We will
- 13:32Speaker 1: get into this because Warner, while the worst across the board,
- 13:39Speaker 1: has the right to break up with someone, even if
- 13:41Speaker 1: it's for a shitty reason. Everyone has the right to
- 13:44Speaker 1: break up with anyone else. That is just something that
- 13:48Speaker 1: they do not tell you for some reason. That sometimes
- 13:50Speaker 1: if someone says I don't want to be in a
- 13:52Speaker 1: relationship with you anymore, you have to be like, well,
- 13:54Speaker 1: I don't feel great about that, but okay, like anyways, Yes,
- 13:59Speaker 1: that is a fun to my till issue with this movie,
- 14:01Speaker 1: and so is her behavior after that, where she basically
- 14:05Speaker 1: shapes her entire future around essentially stalking him to try
- 14:10Speaker 1: to win him back. It's not essentially following him, you know,
- 14:14Speaker 1: but we'll get there. So she does. She does put
- 14:16Speaker 1: in the work to study Ford and take the l
- 14:19Speaker 1: sads and you know, do this video and the video
- 14:24Speaker 1: essay is iconic. Directed by a Coppola week later in
- 14:28Speaker 1: the movie possibly Sophia, we don't know. I don't know.
- 14:31Speaker 1: She would later go on to direct the worst movie
- 14:33Speaker 1: I've ever seen, The Big Guy Old, you're being dramatic.
- 14:37Speaker 1: But she puts in all the work and she manages
- 14:40Speaker 1: to get accepted to Harvard Law School. And so she
- 14:43Speaker 1: shows up and on the first day she's like, hi,
- 14:46Speaker 1: Warner and he's like, oh, what are you doing here? Again?
- 14:49Speaker 1: Totally fair reaction. This movie would have you believe the
- 14:52Speaker 1: opposite of like, yeah, of course she's here, Like whatever. Anyways, Well,
- 14:57Speaker 1: I mean so many movies depict like a romantic pursuit
- 15:02Speaker 1: in the worst possible ways. So just hang around long enough,
- 15:07Speaker 1: like yeah, just wear them down until they agree to
- 15:10Speaker 1: be in love with you. To wear them down. Narrative
- 15:13Speaker 1: is honestly terrible. But sometimes I'm like, maybe there's something
- 15:17Speaker 1: to this, but there I guess what, there's not, you know, Okay, Sorry,
- 15:22Speaker 1: So she's like, yeah, I'm here, and you know, I'm
- 15:25Speaker 1: showing you that I can be taken seriously. But she
- 15:28Speaker 1: immediately learned that he over the summer has gotten engaged
- 15:32Speaker 1: to Vivian the Jackie that he was looking for Vivian
- 15:38Speaker 1: van Hula or whatever. Yeah, Kensington or something like that. Kensington,
- 15:46Speaker 1: And she's played by Samma Blair and hot. She's a
- 15:49Speaker 1: little be at first, but so a huge be at first,
- 15:55Speaker 1: to a comical degree that I would argue does not
- 15:58Speaker 1: make narrative sense. Anyways, continued agreed. So then she's like, Okay, well,
- 16:03Speaker 1: I will steal him back. Now that's my new plan.
- 16:06Speaker 1: But that's not her idea. That's Jennifer Coolidge's idea. Yeah,
- 16:10Speaker 1: Jennifer Coolidge is she not French? Right, So there's this
- 16:16Speaker 1: whole sequence. So she's like, oh, this is the worst
- 16:18Speaker 1: day of my life. My one true love is gotten
- 16:21Speaker 1: engaged to someone else. I have to get a manicure.
- 16:25Speaker 1: And then Jennifer Coolies like, I did I have a loon?
- 16:32Speaker 1: Hi Hiish she's you know, listen, she's a fellow Emerson
- 16:38Speaker 1: Lione and I respect, she's one of our she's our
- 16:41Speaker 1: God fuck, I fucked that school. I stopped paying their bills.
- 16:44Speaker 1: But like, also she is one of the esteemed graduates.
- 16:51Speaker 1: Jenifer Coolish, well, she yeah, she gives l the idea
- 16:55Speaker 1: that she needs to steal Warner back, so she's like, okay,
- 16:59Speaker 1: I'll just do that. So then she starts to like
- 17:01Speaker 1: really take her studies seriously and proved to her classmates
- 17:05Speaker 1: and her professors that she is smart, because the thing
- 17:10Speaker 1: about her is that she's like still this you know
- 17:13Speaker 1: bel Air raised, wealthy, blonde white girl who is very
- 17:19Speaker 1: privileged and you know, a sorority gal in a very
- 17:23Speaker 1: stereotypical way where she's like, oh my god, like getting
- 17:26Speaker 1: into Harvard, what's hard? And no one takes her seriously, right,
- 17:30Speaker 1: So she's like, I need to do she starts to
- 17:35Speaker 1: like really buckle down and prove to everyone that she
- 17:38Speaker 1: is intelligent and she is capable, and in so doing,
- 17:41Speaker 1: she manages to land an internship with one of her professors,
- 17:45Speaker 1: Calahan played by Victor Garber, and then that leads hot
- 17:50Speaker 1: to a storyline where she helps with this murder case
- 17:55Speaker 1: where one of her former sorority sisters, who like graduated
- 17:59Speaker 1: a few year ahead of her, is accused of murdering
- 18:02Speaker 1: her husband, Van Taylor. Sorry, yes, every wealthy woman's name
- 18:09Speaker 1: is Van Hulu. So because they have this sisterhood L
- 18:14Speaker 1: and Brooke bond and she's like, yeah, I'm gonna look
- 18:17Speaker 1: out for you. Meanwhile, Callahan, who ends up being a
- 18:22Speaker 1: predatory scumbag, is like, I think my client's guilty. I'm
- 18:26Speaker 1: barely going to help her. And then, to be fair,
- 18:29Speaker 1: she looks pretty fucking guilty for a while. What does
- 18:33Speaker 1: guilty look like, Jamie, like standing over her husband's dead
- 18:37Speaker 1: body covered in his blood. Sure, but anyways, so the
- 18:43Speaker 1: movie ends with like her helping with this case to
- 18:46Speaker 1: the point where Brooke fires Callahan after he has like
- 18:51Speaker 1: groped L and it's been made clear to her several
- 18:54Speaker 1: times that he does not believe her. Brooke is a
- 18:58Speaker 1: good character. I like her a lot. Yeah, so she
- 19:00Speaker 1: fires Callahan. She hires L, who is still only in
- 19:03Speaker 1: her first year of law school, to defend her in
- 19:06Speaker 1: this murder case objectively on paper, terrible idea and and
- 19:12Speaker 1: and as capable and as pro l woods as I am.
- 19:16Speaker 1: Really a lucky break that she wins the case and
- 19:19Speaker 1: immediately gets a confession from a Brunette promptly goes to jail.
- 19:25Speaker 1: I'm not pro sending Brunette's to jail, but sure, I mean,
- 19:31Speaker 1: maybe it's intentional that she's a brunette. Maybe it's just
- 19:35Speaker 1: first No, it is for sure, I mean every because
- 19:38Speaker 1: there are barely any women of color in this movie.
- 19:40Speaker 1: The way that the movie indicates don't root for this
- 19:43Speaker 1: one is with brunette hair. That's literally what happened anyways, Sorry,
- 19:48Speaker 1: that's true, Jennifer. The characters we are conditioned to root
- 19:51Speaker 1: for our obviously l Jennifer, Coolidge, Brooke, those are the
- 19:56Speaker 1: three big ones, and they're all blonde, white and Vivian's
- 20:00Speaker 1: Arcter who later comes around for Danning. She she has
- 20:03Speaker 1: front hair. The killer ends up being Burnett, the poorly
- 20:08Speaker 1: handled gay character in it is also well, I guess
- 20:11Speaker 1: she's she's got some weird highlights. It's it's unclear what
- 20:13Speaker 1: her natural hair colors, but I think she's Burnett. Yeah,
- 20:16Speaker 1: she's got darker hair. Basically, she gets a lucky break
- 20:20Speaker 1: pretty much, although it's through her like sort of skill
- 20:23Speaker 1: and deductive reasoning. But she manages to crack the case.
- 20:27Speaker 1: They win, and everything's great, and she has a dumbline
- 20:29Speaker 1: where she's like, hair care is essential. Any cosmo girl
- 20:34Speaker 1: would know that or something like that, and then yeah,
- 20:38Speaker 1: she wins, and then there's like the graduation. At the end,
- 20:41Speaker 1: she's like at the top of her class and meanwhile
- 20:43Speaker 1: Warner sucks. And now she and Vivian are bfs friends,
- 20:48Speaker 1: which this story does go out of its way to
- 20:50Speaker 1: be like by the way, they're best friends, and Warner
- 20:53Speaker 1: ended up alone, which is exciting. I also didn't mention
- 20:56Speaker 1: at all the sort of romantic subplot, although it doesn't
- 21:00Speaker 1: really end up being that. Taken to the very end
- 21:02Speaker 1: with Luke Wilson's character, it's flourte from the beginning and
- 21:05Speaker 1: a star turn by Luke Wilson's middle part. Lots of
- 21:11Speaker 1: crazy two one was a big moment for the middle part. Yes, yeah,
- 21:17Speaker 1: we've got to take a quick break. We've got some
- 21:19Speaker 1: bending and snapping to do, but then we'll come right back.
- 21:28Speaker 1: So that's the story, and there is an awful lot
- 21:32Speaker 1: to unpack. I have pages and pages of notes. Shall
- 21:35Speaker 1: we go by character or topic? God? Well, this is
- 21:39Speaker 1: the fun part about the bonus episode. You get to
- 21:41Speaker 1: hear part of the process, right, So I kind of
- 21:44Speaker 1: want to start just by saying that I think the
- 21:48Speaker 1: reason that I'm kind of lukewarm Luke Wilson lukewarm allout
- 21:53Speaker 1: to a little middle part. I fall in the middle part.
- 22:01Speaker 1: So the first like to act it's really only like
- 22:05Speaker 1: an act three of the movie where all of her
- 22:07Speaker 1: sort of empowerment happens and she turns around and it
- 22:11Speaker 1: goes from her doing everything that she's doing because she's
- 22:14Speaker 1: trying to win back her boyfriend and she's entirely motivated
- 22:19Speaker 1: by proving herself worthy to a man. Well, let's let's
- 22:22Speaker 1: start with that then, because that is and there's two
- 22:26Speaker 1: prominent examples that come to mind. I'm sure there's other
- 22:29Speaker 1: examples that I'm not thinking of, but in regards to
- 22:32Speaker 1: I mean and there's other there's also examples of the
- 22:34Speaker 1: opposite of a man chasing a woman in order to
- 22:37Speaker 1: prove himself and wear her down. But this weird plot,
- 22:42Speaker 1: which at the beginning of the series Crazy Ex Girlfriend
- 22:45Speaker 1: duplicates exactly, is like a woman who has been scorned
- 22:51Speaker 1: or rejected or is feeling very insecure because of a man,
- 22:56Speaker 1: decides to uproot her entire life in order to relocate
- 23:01Speaker 1: improve herself to a man, and then in doing so,
- 23:05Speaker 1: discovers herself in the process. I do not like this
- 23:10Speaker 1: setup at all, and it really frustrates me because I
- 23:13Speaker 1: like this movie. But the inciting incident to this movie
- 23:16Speaker 1: is just like all I it's I don't know, Like
- 23:20Speaker 1: there's a lot of moments in this movie in particular
- 23:23Speaker 1: where it's like there are so many seeds for very
- 23:28Speaker 1: wrong thinking that is being implanted into young girls heads
- 23:32Speaker 1: that I really don't like of just like, you know,
- 23:36Speaker 1: the only way to realize your own potential is to
- 23:39Speaker 1: first be rejected by a man and then change everything
- 23:42Speaker 1: about you, Like it's almost little Little mermaid e like
- 23:45Speaker 1: that would be another example of this of like my
- 23:48Speaker 1: current forum isn't working, so what have I change? And
- 23:51Speaker 1: let's make all the necessary adjustments. And it does like
- 23:54Speaker 1: you're saying, like the third act does have l realizing
- 23:58Speaker 1: oh I actually am, But logistically she never would have
- 24:02Speaker 1: recognized her own potential if Warner hadn't broken up with her,
- 24:06Speaker 1: And I don't like that. I think it's so frustrating
- 24:09Speaker 1: the same, Yes, I was trying to think of movies
- 24:13Speaker 1: where there is a female protagonist who pursues something she
- 24:17Speaker 1: something like going to law school and becoming a lawyer,
- 24:20Speaker 1: just because she's interested in that already, and not because
- 24:22Speaker 1: she's motivated by a man. And I had trouble thinking
- 24:25Speaker 1: of examples, well, one, because there are just so few
- 24:28Speaker 1: movies with a female protagonist, and the ones that do
- 24:31Speaker 1: have a female protagonist, it's often a rom com or
- 24:35Speaker 1: something where she is just straight up pursuing a man
- 24:39Speaker 1: and that's the main storyline. And to be fair, that's
- 24:42Speaker 1: not to say there aren't any examples. I just no, no, no,
- 24:44Speaker 1: I know my like six sore throat head, Well, I
- 24:48Speaker 1: have any trouble thinking of any Well, I also don't
- 24:50Speaker 1: think that like unless there's some sort of like and
- 24:54Speaker 1: it's this, The narrative of a woman going to law
- 24:57Speaker 1: school because she is interested in law is not a
- 25:00Speaker 1: picularly compelling log wine For like, a woman goes to
- 25:03Speaker 1: law school because she's interested in the law and is
- 25:05Speaker 1: smart is a great thing, but maybe not the most
- 25:09Speaker 1: exciting story, so I get. But but again, that does
- 25:13Speaker 1: not justify the ends to to this true, But it
- 25:17Speaker 1: doesn't even have to. I mean, you know, law going
- 25:19Speaker 1: to law school and becoming a lawyer is just an
- 25:21Speaker 1: example something some sort of either professional or creative pursuit
- 25:25Speaker 1: that a woman just does because that's what she wants
- 25:28Speaker 1: to do, and not because she's motivated by proving her
- 25:31Speaker 1: worth to a man and even if she meets a
- 25:34Speaker 1: romantic partner when she is pursuing that thing, that is
- 25:37Speaker 1: a far better president to say. It's like she followed
- 25:40Speaker 1: whatever her ambition was and worked hard and happened to
- 25:43Speaker 1: me this great person. Like that's the right idea. Chasing
- 25:48Speaker 1: a man in order to discover your own potential is
- 25:52Speaker 1: just not a good message to be sending, particularly if
- 25:56Speaker 1: you're aiming at a younger slash teen audience, which this
- 26:00Speaker 1: movie is. Well. It is nice to see a female
- 26:05Speaker 1: character like l who has a lot of drive and determination,
- 26:09Speaker 1: Like she's extremely driven to the point where she within
- 26:13Speaker 1: a matter of maybe a couple of weeks, studies for
- 26:17Speaker 1: and does well enough on the lstats to get into Harvard.
- 26:20Speaker 1: Although murders eales like Elwoods Is with a lot of flaws,
- 26:26Speaker 1: I think a really good character. I think she's great,
- 26:29Speaker 1: and part of that is like nostalgia attachment, but I
- 26:32Speaker 1: really do like her. I agree. I like that she
- 26:36Speaker 1: is extremely driven and active. Her motivation at the beginning
- 26:40Speaker 1: and throughout most of the movie is misguided, and it does.
- 26:44Speaker 1: It does turn around because by the end that storyline
- 26:47Speaker 1: with Warner resolves itself. By he comes around, He's like actually,
- 26:52Speaker 1: I just saw you in that case, and you are
- 26:53Speaker 1: the woman I've wanted this whole time. I can't take
- 26:56Speaker 1: you seriously now. And she's like, She's like, I've been
- 27:00Speaker 1: waiting so long for you to hear this. But if
- 27:03Speaker 1: I want to be a partner in a law firm
- 27:06Speaker 1: by the time I'm thirty, I'm going to need a
- 27:08Speaker 1: boyfriend who wasn't such a bone head. And to be honest,
- 27:11Speaker 1: Caitlin clapped and I was crying. So however it worked.
- 27:15Speaker 1: To me. That's kind of one of those moments where
- 27:18Speaker 1: it's like, cool line, cool feminist line. So I think
- 27:24Speaker 1: that this more responsibly than a lot of movies of
- 27:27Speaker 1: its type, but does play into the like you go
- 27:30Speaker 1: girl style of feminism. That and here's what I'm interested
- 27:34Speaker 1: in hearing your thoughts on this, because I my notes
- 27:36Speaker 1: kind of looped in on themselves on this topic. But
- 27:42Speaker 1: so l Wood, there's this whole overarching narrative in this
- 27:46Speaker 1: movie of weird, very black and white West Coast East
- 27:50Speaker 1: Coast stereotypes of like everyone from the East Coast is
- 27:54Speaker 1: mean and not horny at all. Everyone from the West
- 27:58Speaker 1: Coast is really hot and rich and like more fun
- 28:02Speaker 1: and it's clear like the East Coast is like demonized
- 28:05Speaker 1: for the bulk of this movie and all the characters
- 28:08Speaker 1: who we meet there, with the exception of the East
- 28:11Speaker 1: Coast white trash community, which I appreciate regardless, it's like
- 28:15Speaker 1: there's a lot of this movie to me feels like
- 28:19Speaker 1: l Wood's reclaiming the pink, reclaiming you know, this feminine
- 28:25Speaker 1: appearance in this very visually motivated Oh god, I sound
- 28:30Speaker 1: a million years old, but like this like you know,
- 28:33Speaker 1: like reclaiming conventional hotness in an intellectual sense, but it
- 28:39Speaker 1: feels like kind of a safe, very marketable choice to
- 28:44Speaker 1: be like we're going to reclaim hot women, you know,
- 28:47Speaker 1: like it's to an extent, is like the good thing
- 28:52Speaker 1: about it. And this is where my nose caved in themselves,
- 28:54Speaker 1: because like, oh, is she just like reclaiming conventional hotness
- 28:58Speaker 1: that's not particularly interesting, Like oh, hot women can be
- 29:01Speaker 1: lawyers too, It's like okay, like okay, great, But with
- 29:07Speaker 1: the way Ellen her friends on both coasts, who were
- 29:10Speaker 1: more traditionally feminine, they do seem to be doing it
- 29:14Speaker 1: for themselves. And it's not that I noticed very like that.
- 29:18Speaker 1: You don't get those lines of like, well, if I
- 29:21Speaker 1: don't do this, A man won't like me if I
- 29:23Speaker 1: don't do that. Like it does seem like they do
- 29:24Speaker 1: it because they just like they place value on it.
- 29:27Speaker 1: But the whole like she's wearing pink in a courtroom
- 29:32Speaker 1: and her boobs are big, does not totally track with me.
- 29:36Speaker 1: Of like we're going to reclaim Victoria's secret hotness but
- 29:40Speaker 1: in that current room, Like it just I don't know
- 29:42Speaker 1: it was that supposed to be empowering, you know, like
- 29:45Speaker 1: Victoria's secret models who have higher ambitions. It's just a
- 29:49Speaker 1: very small group, you know, right. I also had trouble
- 29:53Speaker 1: processing this idea of she's a very cartoonish character. Not
- 29:58Speaker 1: to say that there aren't some people like that out there.
- 30:03Speaker 1: I mean she is, and she's a great great cartoon
- 30:06Speaker 1: but so she's, you know, this very stereotypical like loves pink,
- 30:11Speaker 1: loves shopping, knows fashion, loves to get her nails done,
- 30:14Speaker 1: like feminine, she's smart, right, there is a there is
- 30:19Speaker 1: a like, but the twisted Yeah, so she's just like
- 30:23Speaker 1: sort of you know, hyper feminine woman. And I think
- 30:26Speaker 1: the movie seeks to sort of dismantle this stereotype that
- 30:30Speaker 1: pretty blonde sorority girls can also be intelligent and good lawyers,
- 30:35Speaker 1: which is true and fair, but who the message that
- 30:39Speaker 1: it just seems like a very narrow It's like, who
- 30:42Speaker 1: is this for exactly? Not to say that, like stereotypes
- 30:46Speaker 1: shouldn't be dismantled, it just seems like a very bizarrely specific,
- 30:51Speaker 1: deeply marketable. There were barbies of Elwoods, you know, like there,
- 30:55Speaker 1: it's a very marketable stereotype to be dismantling, and it's
- 30:59Speaker 1: not even it's not dismantling it in a visual way
- 31:02Speaker 1: at all. So the visual aspect is kept intact, therefore
- 31:06Speaker 1: keeping all the marketable parts of it kept intact. There
- 31:09Speaker 1: is a part where, like her costume choices, they change
- 31:12Speaker 1: a bit in the middle of the movie where she
- 31:14Speaker 1: doesn't dress quite so pink. She has a blue outfit
- 31:18Speaker 1: on at one point, but then it's a beanie You're
- 31:21Speaker 1: just like she's lost herself. But then towards the end again,
- 31:26Speaker 1: when she makes her grand appearance as the new person
- 31:29Speaker 1: that Brooke Taylor hired to defend her, she's got this
- 31:32Speaker 1: like it is a great I mean, her entrance in
- 31:35Speaker 1: that scene. To be fair, they do a full body
- 31:38Speaker 1: shot of her, which I usually take issue with, but
- 31:42Speaker 1: the outfit is more than the outfit in that scene.
- 31:46Speaker 1: To me, that outfit also represents like she's going to
- 31:49Speaker 1: be herself and do this as well, which I think
- 31:52Speaker 1: is a good message, like represent yourself the way you
- 31:55Speaker 1: want to, but your I will. You mentioned like there
- 31:59Speaker 1: was a r B of l Woods, and that's why
- 32:03Speaker 1: I know, throughout Western cultural history, the beautiful blonde female
- 32:11Speaker 1: form has been the most sort of easily digestible feminine
- 32:16Speaker 1: form for like Western culture to consume, and like that's
- 32:20Speaker 1: sort of been the ideal and we all have to
- 32:22Speaker 1: strive for that and da da da, Right, So maybe
- 32:26Speaker 1: that's why that choice was made to like represent that
- 32:29Speaker 1: type of archetypal stereotypical character in this movie. I mean, okay, now,
- 32:34Speaker 1: no not. My mind is kind of changing a little bit,
- 32:37Speaker 1: where for sure there are more pervasive, culturally relevant, immediately
- 32:43Speaker 1: relevant to people's everyday lives stereotypes to be dismantled in
- 32:49Speaker 1: major releases. I think it is sort of a sneaky
- 32:53Speaker 1: win on behalf of the of the filmmakers that they're
- 32:56Speaker 1: able to make that commentary pretty effectively while keeping all
- 33:00Speaker 1: the visual marketing intact. But then I mean now that
- 33:04Speaker 1: you when you said, like, you know, the whatever, the
- 33:07Speaker 1: sort of playboy ideal of shout out to my former employer,
- 33:12Speaker 1: playboy who can truly kiss masks um, but the the
- 33:15Speaker 1: you know, like that conventional ideal of the blonde women.
- 33:19Speaker 1: I guess it is sort of like where that that
- 33:21Speaker 1: trope is very much like. As much as the boobs
- 33:25Speaker 1: and the hair are critical to that image, what is
- 33:28Speaker 1: equally critical to that image is complacency doing whatever they're told.
- 33:35Speaker 1: And the way that women who look like that are
- 33:37Speaker 1: are viewed from like just a camera aspect is always
- 33:42Speaker 1: in a way that's supposed to be pleasing, and thought
- 33:45Speaker 1: is never implied. So now that you said that, I'm like,
- 33:49Speaker 1: maybe it is like it it is interesting. I don't
- 33:52Speaker 1: think it's the most relevant commentary, but it is interesting.
- 33:57Speaker 1: I don't think it doesn't one like there's right now
- 34:00Speaker 1: we should have been thinking about a lot of things
- 34:02Speaker 1: in two thousand one, and maybe blonde wealthy women were
- 34:06Speaker 1: not women the list. But but it is comment They
- 34:10Speaker 1: do comment a lot on it. I think by the
- 34:13Speaker 1: end it takes a while, but by the end it's effective.
- 34:17Speaker 1: I mean there are moments where she does say like
- 34:20Speaker 1: you know, no one takes me like I get sort
- 34:22Speaker 1: of discriminated against because of my hair color because I'm
- 34:25Speaker 1: a blonde. Imagine being in an actually marginalized person saying
- 34:29Speaker 1: that I'm like, oh, I'm so fucking sorry that you're
- 34:32Speaker 1: so hot and red and you got it. You still
- 34:36Speaker 1: got it into Harvard like, well, can we talk ye,
- 34:39Speaker 1: let's talk about good segment. Well, I wantn't to just
- 34:42Speaker 1: really say quickly that I think that we should, right now,
- 34:46Speaker 1: right here, claim the new stereotype for a female character,
- 34:51Speaker 1: which is the but the twist is where it's like
- 34:55Speaker 1: she's either she's very hot or she's very ugly, but
- 35:00Speaker 1: the twist is she's smart or she could be hot.
- 35:04Speaker 1: Maybe maybe take off her glasses it right, Yeah, it's
- 35:08Speaker 1: like she's hot, but the twist is she's smart or
- 35:12Speaker 1: she's smart, and the twist is she's also beautiful. There's
- 35:16Speaker 1: a really I have not seen the show, but my
- 35:19Speaker 1: my good pal Catherine Cohen in New York does a
- 35:21Speaker 1: great one woman show called but the twist is she's
- 35:24Speaker 1: gorgeous one of my favorites. Great turn of phrase, and
- 35:27Speaker 1: I feel like it's a trope that's used a lot. Yeah, Okay,
- 35:31Speaker 1: So the scene with the admissions board at Harvard who
- 35:34Speaker 1: are reviewing her video essay and trying to determine whether
- 35:38Speaker 1: or not to accept her I think the only all
- 35:41Speaker 1: males scene in the movie that I can think of
- 35:43Speaker 1: same with more than it's no no. There's a few
- 35:47Speaker 1: times where middle Park Wilson and Victor Garber, or as
- 35:51Speaker 1: I like to call him, Thomas Andrews Mr Andrews like
- 36:00Speaker 1: I'll try, I didn't build stronger, she's oh, and then
- 36:04Speaker 1: earlier the mo she's strong and true just like you,
- 36:07Speaker 1: dumb fuck Oh, but it's sad when he does and
- 36:11Speaker 1: stops the clock. Anyways, But there there are a few
- 36:14Speaker 1: I feel like one on one scenes with Luke Wilson
- 36:16Speaker 1: and Victor Carbert. But in terms of like this is
- 36:19Speaker 1: a scene full of men versus the number of scenes
- 36:21Speaker 1: in this movie that are full of women in a
- 36:23Speaker 1: way that it's just like, whoa great, this is the
- 36:26Speaker 1: only one. Yeah. So in this scene we see around
- 36:29Speaker 1: eight six or eight eight old white guys old mostly yeah,
- 36:34Speaker 1: mostly older for sure, all white men, basically deliberating on
- 36:38Speaker 1: whether or not to except l to Harvard, and they're
- 36:40Speaker 1: looking at her essay, which most of the time. She
- 36:43Speaker 1: isn't a swimsuit. She's a weird choice. But also I
- 36:47Speaker 1: feel like that is like an unabashedly Elwood's choice. That is,
- 36:52Speaker 1: for all the implications of it, I do appreciate that
- 36:56Speaker 1: she is true to herself in the video. I mean
- 36:59Speaker 1: she's playing to her strengths, which is that she was
- 37:03Speaker 1: the president of her sorority. Yes, like, that's one of
- 37:06Speaker 1: my favorite parts of the movie. It is an iconic
- 37:09Speaker 1: the days of our lives, like the evil Stephano and
- 37:12Speaker 1: like it's it's great. It's I used to watch the
- 37:15Speaker 1: soap operas amas, so basically the whole scene is them.
- 37:19Speaker 1: I think there's one guy who's like, I don't know,
- 37:22Speaker 1: and then all of the other ones are trying to
- 37:24Speaker 1: They have decided they want to accept her, basically because
- 37:27Speaker 1: they find her attractive, and they're trying to rationalize why
- 37:30Speaker 1: it's an okay decision to let her in, right, because
- 37:33Speaker 1: they're like, well, she cares about animals, and she's creative
- 37:36Speaker 1: and she likes music because she was in a Ricky
- 37:38Speaker 1: Martin video. And it's like, this is a challenging scene
- 37:43Speaker 1: because written on paper, nothing that is being vocalized is
- 37:49Speaker 1: inaccurate or wrong. Does l Woods necessarily deserve to be
- 37:56Speaker 1: at Harvard at the beginning of the movie, and don't
- 38:00Speaker 1: really think so. I mean, she has the correct scores
- 38:03Speaker 1: and she has good grades, but it just I don't know,
- 38:07Speaker 1: Like I I struggle with the fact that she has
- 38:11Speaker 1: lit Like, it seems unlikely to me that someone who
- 38:14Speaker 1: has a bachelor's degree in fashion management and has no
- 38:18Speaker 1: background or previously indicated interest in law would get into
- 38:22Speaker 1: Harvard Law School realistically, no matter who you are, that
- 38:27Speaker 1: just seems unlikely, especially because Harvard. It's Harvard, probably the
- 38:33Speaker 1: hardest school in the US. Ticket you could get into
- 38:35Speaker 1: a law school with those qualifications, good els at scores
- 38:39Speaker 1: four point oh and whatever you happen to major in
- 38:41Speaker 1: Harvard Law School. I don't think so. But we also
- 38:45Speaker 1: find out later that Warner also doesn't totally deserve to
- 38:48Speaker 1: be there, so because Harvard's a fucking like you know,
- 38:52Speaker 1: Harvard is like sort of known for that sort of
- 38:55Speaker 1: weird nempotis, Oh, his father gave a call to somebody
- 39:00Speaker 1: then he I mean, regardless on paper, that scene would
- 39:05Speaker 1: look in theory like they are naming her qualifications, and
- 39:09Speaker 1: it ends by saying el Woods Welcome to Harvard. But
- 39:12Speaker 1: the tone of that scene is very she's hot, we
- 39:16Speaker 1: got a letter, you know. However, it just I feel
- 39:20Speaker 1: like it just credits they're protecting this a little bit
- 39:22Speaker 1: in a way that's like, well, so there's a whole
- 39:24Speaker 1: lot I want to say about that one. I think
- 39:27Speaker 1: that is sort of almost a foreshadowing of what happens
- 39:30Speaker 1: later on, where she learns that she basically only got
- 39:33Speaker 1: that internship because her professor found her attractive, because he
- 39:36Speaker 1: makes a pass at her, and then she has this
- 39:38Speaker 1: whole thing where she's like, garber crap. Law school was
- 39:41Speaker 1: a mistake. I don't even deserve anything I got because
- 39:45Speaker 1: we wanted me for my looks and stuff like that,
- 39:48Speaker 1: which is a whole thing I want to get into later.
- 39:51Speaker 1: So it's I think foreshadowing that. However, I think a
- 39:55Speaker 1: lot of people would come to Elwood's defense, and I
- 39:59Speaker 1: think it theirs, because the thing is that she is
- 40:03Speaker 1: extremely determined, and yes, she does have the resources to
- 40:07Speaker 1: pay for a nicely produced video essay that a lot
- 40:11Speaker 1: of people would not have the resources to do because
- 40:14Speaker 1: like her get We'll get to the class thing too,
- 40:17Speaker 1: because her class thing is a major thing in this
- 40:19Speaker 1: but like her sort of advocating for herself as a
- 40:22Speaker 1: reason that she should be accepted to Harvard in the
- 40:24Speaker 1: video essay, are not that compelling of reasons because she's
- 40:28Speaker 1: saying I already use lawyer jargon in everyday use because
- 40:32Speaker 1: like you see someone cat calling her and then she
- 40:34Speaker 1: turns out and she's like, I object another iconic from it.
- 40:38Speaker 1: It's great, But I think that her main qualities in
- 40:44Speaker 1: the movie that I like her for because I'm not
- 40:47Speaker 1: necessarily as on board with Ellwoods as maybe you or
- 40:52Speaker 1: bigger fans of the movie. However, I do appreciate her
- 40:55Speaker 1: for her determination because she and I think that quality alone,
- 41:01Speaker 1: I mean, maybe not alone, but that because later on
- 41:03Speaker 1: she she does show a lot of improvement when she
- 41:05Speaker 1: first gets to law school. By the end, she one thousand.
- 41:09Speaker 1: Like I mean, even at the midpoint in the movie,
- 41:11Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, this woman does deserve to be here.
- 41:13Speaker 1: She's working really hard. And to clarify, I mean at
- 41:17Speaker 1: the time of this scene, sure, I don't think that.
- 41:20Speaker 1: It's like by the end, it's like, man, she really coasted,
- 41:22Speaker 1: Like she works so fucking hard and does a lot
- 41:25Speaker 1: of amazing stuff. I just mean, in regards to this scene,
- 41:29Speaker 1: the movie is implying that she is perhaps not being
- 41:32Speaker 1: admitted for all the right reasons, regardless of who she
- 41:36Speaker 1: is as a person and the fact that she clearly
- 41:39Speaker 1: you know, deserves to be there. But this scene kind
- 41:43Speaker 1: of nags her in a weird way. Right. There's a
- 41:47Speaker 1: part where these group of men who are deliberating about
- 41:49Speaker 1: this says something like, oh, well, she's a fashion major,
- 41:54Speaker 1: is if like that's the reason why she shouldn't be here?
- 41:57Speaker 1: But then another one says, well, we've never had one
- 41:59Speaker 1: be for and aren't we always looking for? Diversity is
- 42:04Speaker 1: clearly not the type of diversity that like admissions board
- 42:07Speaker 1: people should be considering. But I think that's played as
- 42:11Speaker 1: a joke. I think so too. Yeah, but I think
- 42:14Speaker 1: this scene is a comment on how it's so often
- 42:17Speaker 1: a group of rich, old, straight white men making decisions
- 42:22Speaker 1: that affect the fate of a whole bunch of different
- 42:26Speaker 1: types of people. They end up making the right call
- 42:30Speaker 1: for l because she does prove herself eventually, but it's
- 42:32Speaker 1: kind of a fluid. But yeah, basically, like I said,
- 42:36Speaker 1: they accept her because most of the men in this
- 42:39Speaker 1: room have seen this video of her in her bathing
- 42:41Speaker 1: suit and been like, yeah, I definitely see her here
- 42:45Speaker 1: at Harvard. And the implication is it because I want
- 42:47Speaker 1: to see her here at Harvard, Yeah, and not because
- 42:50Speaker 1: she necessarily has the qualifications. Because there's one character who
- 42:53Speaker 1: keeps me like, well, I don't know what about this thing,
- 42:56Speaker 1: and they're like, no, it's she's a friend of the animal.
- 42:59Speaker 1: The thing is like that he Okay, not to harbor
- 43:02Speaker 1: in the scene too much because this is a small
- 43:03Speaker 1: scene in but yeah, I don't mean to demonize el
- 43:09Speaker 1: in any way. In that scene. She has no control
- 43:12Speaker 1: over how these men are viewing her. I do think
- 43:16Speaker 1: that the movie is implying perhaps at the very beginning
- 43:19Speaker 1: of the movie, and you could view that as possibly
- 43:23Speaker 1: like maybe she's not a character of any gender who's
- 43:27Speaker 1: randomly like, you know, my ex boyfriend's gonna do this,
- 43:30Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go on their exact career path, like
- 43:33Speaker 1: they probably wouldn't get into a graduate school of the
- 43:36Speaker 1: career path that's the opposite of what they've been doing,
- 43:39Speaker 1: just because they decided three weeks before the hell sets
- 43:41Speaker 1: that they wanted to whatever. El Woods is still a
- 43:45Speaker 1: great character to be. That scene is weird. It's not
- 43:49Speaker 1: I don't even think it's bad because I don't I
- 43:51Speaker 1: don't want to like be like, oh, they're making you know,
- 43:54Speaker 1: they're not saying exactly what I want to be said,
- 43:56Speaker 1: and therefore it cannot be a scene in a movie.
- 43:59Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of commentary, but I don't
- 44:01Speaker 1: like that it negs the main character, even though she
- 44:05Speaker 1: overcomes it. Anyways, Yeah, I'm sorry. This is a very
- 44:10Speaker 1: complex movie. You know. I just realized how many things
- 44:13Speaker 1: we have to talk about. I'm like, I'm ted, And
- 44:17Speaker 1: this is Jamie saying that we need to take a
- 44:19Speaker 1: quick ad break. But we'll be right back to the
- 44:22Speaker 1: year eighteen in just a second, and we're back to Okay.
- 44:32Speaker 1: The next thing I want to talk about is while
- 44:35Speaker 1: she does have a number of female friends in the
- 44:38Speaker 1: beginning of the movie with her two sorority sisters, one
- 44:41Speaker 1: we know his name is Margot. I think they both
- 44:44Speaker 1: have names. We if the second character of the to
- 44:48Speaker 1: her two main friends in California is named Blinking, you
- 44:52Speaker 1: would have missed it because we missed it. Yeah. Yeah,
- 44:54Speaker 1: I was like trying to pay close attention and I
- 44:57Speaker 1: never figured it out. So there's the there's a a
- 45:00Speaker 1: blonde woman whose name is Marco. And I hate that
- 45:02Speaker 1: I'm reducing women to their hair colors, but because we
- 45:06Speaker 1: don't know their names, I don't know how those are
- 45:08Speaker 1: the only time. For the most part, there's are the
- 45:10Speaker 1: only two types of women we see in this movie
- 45:12Speaker 1: are blonde. White blonde and white brunette. Were with a
- 45:16Speaker 1: few but mostly yes. Right, so there the woman with
- 45:19Speaker 1: like shorter, kind of auburn burnette hair. I don't think
- 45:22Speaker 1: we ever actually learned her name on screen. I hope
- 45:25Speaker 1: we do. She does have those friendships, and those are
- 45:27Speaker 1: two women who support her, except that they're basically supporting
- 45:32Speaker 1: l in her pursuit of being proposed to buy Warner
- 45:36Speaker 1: and not necessarily her pursuit of going because whenever L'
- 45:39Speaker 1: is like, oh, I'm studying for the els ads, I'm
- 45:41Speaker 1: gonna go to Harvard Law School, and they're like, why
- 45:43Speaker 1: would you do that? And then there's a phone call
- 45:46Speaker 1: later on when they again, to be fair, she's never
- 45:50Speaker 1: displayed an interest in law. Never Yeah, And then but
- 45:54Speaker 1: there's a scene whenever, like she gives them a call
- 45:57Speaker 1: and she's like, has he proposed yet? We want you
- 45:59Speaker 1: to come back so that you can leave law school.
- 46:01Speaker 1: That scenes sucks. At first. I appreciate how her friends
- 46:04Speaker 1: in California are supportive of what she's trying. I don't
- 46:07Speaker 1: think that they should, like, you know, a real friend
- 46:09Speaker 1: would be like, you don't do that, Like you know,
- 46:12Speaker 1: like if you were like, hey, I've fallen in love
- 46:15Speaker 1: with a carpenter, I need to start working in construction
- 46:20Speaker 1: in Indiana tomorrow, I would say, hold the fund. Actually,
- 46:25Speaker 1: do not do that. That's a bad idea. However, their
- 46:28Speaker 1: support of can't discredit them for that. But then when
- 46:31Speaker 1: even when she does go to Harvard and starts to
- 46:36Speaker 1: have a vested interest in her own education, that whole
- 46:39Speaker 1: scene they don't ask about school at all, and it's like,
- 46:42Speaker 1: the whole scene is about the blonde woman's wedding and
- 46:46Speaker 1: we miss you, and also we didn't tell you that
- 46:49Speaker 1: one of us is getting married before we went wedding
- 46:51Speaker 1: dress shopping, but we're friends. Weird. Anyways, that storyline does
- 46:55Speaker 1: resolve itself by the two of them showing up in
- 46:59Speaker 1: her big case of the end a lot of third magic,
- 47:02Speaker 1: But until then, it's just a whole lot of like
- 47:05Speaker 1: why are you in law school? Law schools for losers?
- 47:08Speaker 1: But she to have her displayed in interesting like, which
- 47:12Speaker 1: is as that does make sense, which is part of
- 47:14Speaker 1: the problem about a movie where the main character the
- 47:19Speaker 1: thing that they're not interested in. Also, it seems like
- 47:22Speaker 1: she was very like I mean, even if we go
- 47:24Speaker 1: back to that admission scene where she did have all
- 47:27Speaker 1: these fashion industry based accomplishments, seems like you were passionate
- 47:30Speaker 1: about that and then she and I mean, it's a
- 47:35Speaker 1: testament to her intelligence and her character that she's able
- 47:38Speaker 1: to make a total switch and still excel at it.
- 47:40Speaker 1: But it's like you seemed like you're doing pretty well,
- 47:43Speaker 1: like you had a four point oh in this industry
- 47:46Speaker 1: that you were already working in. But sure old wait
- 47:49Speaker 1: list showed Warrener, you know, throw all that away. Maybe
- 47:54Speaker 1: though she gets her law degree and then she ends
- 47:57Speaker 1: up working in fashion law. You know that branch of
- 47:59Speaker 1: law off I'm sure exists. I mean, like well, I mean,
- 48:02Speaker 1: and in terms of like Elwoods character staying always tur
- 48:08Speaker 1: which I think is why regardless of all the issues
- 48:11Speaker 1: of like she's a rich white lady with limitless means,
- 48:16Speaker 1: I think that the reason people connect with this character
- 48:19Speaker 1: so strongly is she never abandons her interests and her
- 48:24Speaker 1: like the essence of who she is. At the beginning
- 48:26Speaker 1: of the movie, we see her grow as a person
- 48:28Speaker 1: and grow into herself a little bit, but like she doesn't.
- 48:31Speaker 1: There's not that total Princess Diaries style one eighty from
- 48:38Speaker 1: I was like this and now I'm the opposite, and
- 48:40Speaker 1: it's better where Elwood's remains herself and grows as a person.
- 48:44Speaker 1: I think that. I mean, that's why I like her
- 48:46Speaker 1: a lot. And even though it's very like God in
- 48:50Speaker 1: the Machinery at the in the in the scene where
- 48:54Speaker 1: she's able to extract a murder confession from a brunette
- 48:58Speaker 1: because of her knowledge of how perms work, which is
- 49:02Speaker 1: I think a really well written scene and goofy, you
- 49:06Speaker 1: know see, I think I have some problems with that scene,
- 49:08Speaker 1: but I mean I think that it's one of those
- 49:13Speaker 1: things where for me it's like comes down to like
- 49:16Speaker 1: from an entertainment aspect, I feel like the right choice
- 49:19Speaker 1: was made of like that is fun to watch, of
- 49:21Speaker 1: like she's using her knowledge she's had the whole time
- 49:24Speaker 1: in order to accomplish a new goal. I think that
- 49:27Speaker 1: that at its core is interesting. I think that on
- 49:29Speaker 1: the other hand, having her be like really heteronormative girl
- 49:34Speaker 1: knowledge put a brunette in jail. You know, like that
- 49:40Speaker 1: not as good because like it would be great to
- 49:42Speaker 1: see her definitely use the law to put her as
- 49:45Speaker 1: opposed to using perm knowledge. Character Wise, it makes sense
- 49:49Speaker 1: to me, right exactly because the movie sets it up
- 49:51Speaker 1: that like L is the only one who could have
- 49:53Speaker 1: figured this out because of her knowledge of hair care
- 49:57Speaker 1: and fashionality, because she's a similar thing happened where a
- 50:00Speaker 1: character that she's trying to sort of incriminate the pool
- 50:06Speaker 1: boy whose characters they mightn't remember into but salvataere yeah,
- 50:11Speaker 1: because he has made the statement that Brook Taylor, the
- 50:14Speaker 1: person that they're defending in this case, he and her
- 50:17Speaker 1: were lovers. And she's like, hang on a minute, that
- 50:20Speaker 1: doesn't check out. And then he says something like yeah,
- 50:23Speaker 1: he makes a comment on her like product shoes. She's like,
- 50:27Speaker 1: wait a minute, he can't have had an affair with her.
- 50:30Speaker 1: He's gay because he knows about product. This movie's queer
- 50:34Speaker 1: characters are not treated well before we get there. I
- 50:39Speaker 1: think that the movie does make that commentary of L
- 50:42Speaker 1: being uniquely qualified to law is made time and time
- 50:46Speaker 1: again because and again it's set up plot wise, it
- 50:50Speaker 1: very easily. If the plot had gone literally in any
- 50:53Speaker 1: other less convenient direction, would not be true and we'd
- 50:56Speaker 1: see her struggle more. But when the main legal of
- 51:00Speaker 1: the movie is a sorority sister who the East Coast
- 51:04Speaker 1: elite have trouble communicating with, L again is the one
- 51:08Speaker 1: who's uniquely qualified to communicate with her. So to me,
- 51:12Speaker 1: because we had already seen LB positioned as like she
- 51:16Speaker 1: is learning and doing very well in law school, and
- 51:19Speaker 1: it's like accomplishing and doing all the things she should
- 51:22Speaker 1: be doing. But the twist is she is also able
- 51:26Speaker 1: to communicate with wealthy blonde women. To me, that tracked
- 51:31Speaker 1: through the end of like where her wealthy blonde woman
- 51:34Speaker 1: knowledge was able to put a wealthy brunette woman in jail.
- 51:39Speaker 1: I don't know. But but even if it is a
- 51:41Speaker 1: problematic through line, it is a through line sure. I mean,
- 51:45Speaker 1: like I said, the movie does make a point to demonstrate, Yeah,
- 51:50Speaker 1: L is the only one that could have won this
- 51:51Speaker 1: case because of her knowledge about you know, hair and
- 51:54Speaker 1: fashion that no one else had. And she makes all
- 51:57Speaker 1: these breakthroughs in this case because her like sisterhood with
- 52:00Speaker 1: the client and all that stuff. So it's being like, hey,
- 52:03Speaker 1: this type of woman can be an asset in the world. However, Okay,
- 52:07Speaker 1: so she does figure out the case by using deductive
- 52:11Speaker 1: reasoning and using her intelligence just figuring it out law,
- 52:15Speaker 1: but like maybe not the core of it, but her
- 52:18Speaker 1: prime skill that makes her figure all this out is
- 52:21Speaker 1: like a very stereotypical, hyper feminine thing where it's like, yes,
- 52:27Speaker 1: hair and beauty and vanity kind of thing bugged me
- 52:31Speaker 1: a little bit, not so much that I still wasn't
- 52:34Speaker 1: on board with that whole, but it's just it was
- 52:38Speaker 1: just a little frustrating that, like, and the thing that
- 52:40Speaker 1: gets her to win the cases marketable, Yeah, like marketable
- 52:46Speaker 1: traditionally feminine qualities. Like, yeah, she is a tricky character
- 52:51Speaker 1: because it's like it's very easy to see almost everything
- 52:54Speaker 1: she does in two very different rice. Again going back
- 52:57Speaker 1: to the movie, really doubling down on like l is
- 53:01Speaker 1: herself and this is what is the cause of her succeeding,
- 53:06Speaker 1: is like sticking to her guns and this sort of
- 53:09Speaker 1: I guess that weighs into the East Coast Women and
- 53:11Speaker 1: Vivian in particular, is that where she has this very
- 53:15Speaker 1: contentious relationship with Vivian for the at least the first
- 53:19Speaker 1: half of the movie, it's her being herself by honoring
- 53:24Speaker 1: the sisterhood Delta new vows between she and Brooke that
- 53:28Speaker 1: wins Vivian's respect. So again, it's like l doing a
- 53:32Speaker 1: very l thing that ends up winning the respect of
- 53:35Speaker 1: someone you wouldn't expect And I really like that. Yeah,
- 53:40Speaker 1: more on that, especially her friendship arc with Vivian and
- 53:44Speaker 1: then one of the other notable female characters, Enid. So,
- 53:50Speaker 1: as I said many many moons ago, she has a
- 53:53Speaker 1: couple of female friendships that are strong and supportive and
- 53:57Speaker 1: that's great, and then she has another one in Paulette,
- 53:59Speaker 1: which can talk about in a second. But then she
- 54:02Speaker 1: has these The movie sort of poises her against these
- 54:07Speaker 1: couple other female characters who are classmates of her. So
- 54:10Speaker 1: it's basically saying like, oh, well, these, you know, Vivian
- 54:13Speaker 1: and l and Enid our classmates, and therefore they're sort
- 54:17Speaker 1: of in competition because everyone's going to be vying for
- 54:19Speaker 1: the best grades and these coveted internships and and stuff
- 54:22Speaker 1: like that. I mean that makes sense, and also that
- 54:26Speaker 1: it does. However, Vivian is introduced and immediately their enemies
- 54:30Speaker 1: because the first scene you see Vivian is her being like, yes,
- 54:34Speaker 1: I agree, professor, she's unprepared kick her out of class,
- 54:37Speaker 1: and then the scene right after that is yeah. The
- 54:40Speaker 1: scene right after that is L learning that Vivian and
- 54:43Speaker 1: Warner are engaged, and then there's a bunch of scenes
- 54:47Speaker 1: after that where Vivian like makes a point to flaunt
- 54:50Speaker 1: her engagement to Warner in front of L. So basically,
- 54:55Speaker 1: even though she's in law school and pursuing alat and like,
- 54:57Speaker 1: this is a passion of hers that we are meant
- 54:59Speaker 1: to believe throughout her whole life, unlike L, who just
- 55:02Speaker 1: decided two months ago, I'm going to go to law school,
- 55:06Speaker 1: which is that's another Still, it's a fun Victor Garver's
- 55:09Speaker 1: character sucks, but that's a fun line in the movie Wait,
- 55:11Speaker 1: which one slightly misogynsts, but it is fun. It's like,
- 55:14Speaker 1: I do you think she woke up one day and
- 55:15Speaker 1: was like, oh, go to law school? Because that is
- 55:17Speaker 1: literally what happened. That is what happened. But so with Vivian,
- 55:21Speaker 1: we're meant to believe is this passionate about law person.
- 55:25Speaker 1: Yet the movie spends so much time showing her being
- 55:29Speaker 1: very petty toward L and basically only caring about her
- 55:33Speaker 1: engagement to Warner. I think Vivian is a totally dissonant,
- 55:40Speaker 1: underwritten character as a whole. Again, switching to the other
- 55:46Speaker 1: side of this, the movie has everyone wanting to be
- 55:51Speaker 1: firmly in Elwood's corner the entire movie. The way Vivian
- 55:54Speaker 1: reacts to l in the first third to half of
- 55:58Speaker 1: the movie is always too much, Like it's always too much,
- 56:01Speaker 1: hey's my boyfriend now, and like I want you to
- 56:05Speaker 1: leave class because I don't like you, Like it's too much,
- 56:08Speaker 1: and they're they're laying it on too thick. Fundamentally, I
- 56:13Speaker 1: don't think it's fair to demonize Vivian to have it
- 56:17Speaker 1: seem like how ridiculous that she feels like it's weird
- 56:21Speaker 1: that her fiance's ex girlfriend uprooted her life to go
- 56:27Speaker 1: to the same school as him, Right, that's uncomfortable and
- 56:31Speaker 1: they're forced together over and over. The scene where this
- 56:35Speaker 1: was clearest to me because there are Vivian, by and
- 56:39Speaker 1: large overreacts is too mean, goes too out of her
- 56:44Speaker 1: way to make l unhappy, like, and there's the big
- 56:48Speaker 1: plot points of like, oh, it's a costing party but
- 56:50Speaker 1: it's not actually a cost part and stuff like that.
- 56:52Speaker 1: But there is one scene in which it's another just
- 56:56Speaker 1: weird bizarrow like okay two thousand one kind of scene
- 57:00Speaker 1: where L shows up because she wants to join Warner's
- 57:03Speaker 1: study group, and Vivian is clearly uncomfortable, and I don't
- 57:09Speaker 1: think the movie wants us on her side, but it's like, yeah,
- 57:13Speaker 1: of course, she's like, you don't want this person who
- 57:18Speaker 1: objectively would seem perhaps a little unhinged forcing themselves to
- 57:22Speaker 1: be ready, like I'm fully on Vivian. Vivian's corner in
- 57:25Speaker 1: that scene, and she is not nice about it, but
- 57:29Speaker 1: in that particular scene, she's not overly rude about it,
- 57:32Speaker 1: and L, to her credit, takes the hint and says, Okay,
- 57:36Speaker 1: I'm gonna go, And then this very strange thing happens
- 57:39Speaker 1: that she leaves the scene where Enid the only queer
- 57:43Speaker 1: female character we see in the movie. I wasn't sure
- 57:46Speaker 1: if it's like she had heard a rumor that Ellen
- 57:48Speaker 1: said something, or like was just making an assumption about
- 57:52Speaker 1: L based on her appearance or what it was, But
- 57:55Speaker 1: she was basically saying like whatever, like she saidn't like
- 57:59Speaker 1: like maybe there's like a sorority you can join, like
- 58:03Speaker 1: making fun of her, like you said, based on her,
- 58:05Speaker 1: like the way she presents herself in talks and looks,
- 58:08Speaker 1: and then there's a weird like, oh, wouldn't you call
- 58:12Speaker 1: me a dyke? And then l makes a very weird choice,
- 58:19Speaker 1: after just gracefully exciting a tense situation that she caused,
- 58:24Speaker 1: says I don't use that word, but Vivian probably does,
- 58:29Speaker 1: and so she's just like, um, I know I can't
- 58:32Speaker 1: be in the study group. Vivian hates gay people goodbye,
- 58:36Speaker 1: and you're just like that seems of it Like that's
- 58:40Speaker 1: because L, again, to that character's credit, does not go
- 58:44Speaker 1: after Vivian in as rude and antagonistic away that Vivian
- 58:49Speaker 1: goes after her for part of the movie. Granted, it
- 58:51Speaker 1: is a major motivation of her to take quote unquote
- 58:55Speaker 1: Warner from again, it's it's a lot like Warner's should
- 59:00Speaker 1: have been just allowed to break up with L and
- 59:02Speaker 1: be an asshole for the rest of his life, but
- 59:05Speaker 1: then we wouldn't have the movie. So right, A quick
- 59:08Speaker 1: point I want to make about the way that Enid
- 59:11Speaker 1: and Vivian, at least in the beginning of the movie,
- 59:13Speaker 1: and then Vivian has a like a girlfriend character whose
- 59:16Speaker 1: name I don't think we ever learned, but the three
- 59:19Speaker 1: of them are all very mean to bitches, right. They
- 59:24Speaker 1: mock her the way that she looks, in the way
- 59:27Speaker 1: that she talks, which is suggesting that all of these
- 59:29Speaker 1: women who are adults and in law school are so
- 59:33Speaker 1: petty that they are judging L solely on the way
- 59:37Speaker 1: she presents herself, and you know, they're meant to be vilified.
- 59:40Speaker 1: And most of these characters come around at the end
- 59:43Speaker 1: and say I was wrong to judge you like that,
- 59:46Speaker 1: but it's basically saying, like, look how petty these women
- 59:50Speaker 1: are for no reason, which was weird to me. And
- 59:55Speaker 1: then yeah, definitely that scene where Enid's like, you probably
- 59:58Speaker 1: call me a and say something like weird. If you
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: had come to a party, I would have been nice
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: to you, which I believe because that is what we like.
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: A nice character. L reminds me a lot of share
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: from Clueless and even share like chair you know um
- 1:00:23Speaker 1: that share no share from Clueless. Who we see share
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: who is like I think we talked about on the
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: Clueless episode is an example of you know, a rich,
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: blonde white girl who we often see sort of vilified
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: in movies, but as a nice person who's really who
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: sweet and oh that's that's nectually. I didn't even thought
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: of the share parallels in this movie, but there are,
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: especially with the share lels, the sharp share parallels, and
- 1:00:57Speaker 1: the share lels. I accept it um because at the
- 1:01:03Speaker 1: top of the movie, when especially when they're on the
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: West Coast, people can't start talking about how much money
- 1:01:07Speaker 1: they have, where Warner's literally driving beside El in a
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: convertible and she's like, I grew up in bel Air.
- 1:01:14Speaker 1: I'm not white trash, which is like, um triggered, but
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: we are sort of like, oh, you know, L is
- 1:01:19Speaker 1: kind of a rich bitch, which she she's rich, but
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: she's not a bit and that while again it is
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: not the most pressing commentary to be making in a movie,
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: I think is generally positive of like L seems. I mean,
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: she vocalizes several times she is aware of her own privilege,
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: but still works hard and is by and large decent
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: to everyone she comes into contact with. And the main
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: I mean, granted, this is a very white movie, but
- 1:01:50Speaker 1: we do see her come into contact with people who
- 1:01:54Speaker 1: are a different class than she is via Jennifer Coolidge's
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: character Paulette who is sort of like plays into this
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: like white trash New England trope and l never. I mean,
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: there's not even an exchange where any judgment is passed
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: about her class, So you know, again it's like this
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: isn't like we need to be seeing that rich white
- 1:02:19Speaker 1: women can be good people. But if that is the
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: protagonist of the movie, I appreciate that choice. That brings
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: me to a very bizarre scene that happens in the movie,
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: which is the Bendon Snap. I love the Bendon Snap
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: scene and if you've seen I haven't seen it on
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: Broadway because I'm not a millionaire, but I have seen
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: videos of it. The Legally Blond musical is banging. It's
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: really good. The Bendon Snap song rules. The Bendon Snap
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: scene is so weird because it's sort of like, look
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: at l Woods teaching these poor women how to do
- 1:02:56Speaker 1: this weird thing. I love that thing. Well, the context
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: of the scene is like that her teaching these women
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: how to appeal to a man better with something that
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: looks crazy, because it's like the bend over because you
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: drop something and then snap back up and show your
- 1:03:15Speaker 1: perky body and it's like really bizarre. It feels so
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: out of place in the movie. But it is one
- 1:03:21Speaker 1: of the few scenes where you see any women of color,
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: but it's they're all Bendon and snap. It's really bizarre.
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: And then this gay man comes out at the end,
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: or someone who were supposed to perceive as being gay,
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: and he says something like, oh the abndon snap and done.
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: That cuts to the last ten seconds of these scenes.
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: The whole scenes crazy, but the last ten seconds of
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: the scene particularly baffling. It's like a woman like breakdancing
- 1:03:49Speaker 1: after Benson and snapping, and then cutting to game in
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: and like a waiters uniform and Elson bringing something out
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: and being like, oh yeah, it's like, oh, Bendon snap,
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: cut to two dogs panting and the scene its bonkers bananas.
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: I encourage rewatch of that scene. You know, if there
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: is something problematic in that scene, I was too sensory
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: overloaded to recognize it. It was just it's just a
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: weird fucking scene, and to me, one of the best
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: parts of the whole movie because the only time that
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: Bendon is also to the point of like the scene
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: probably should have been cut. The only time the Bendon
- 1:04:32Speaker 1: snap scene is brought back is when Jennifer Coolidge's character
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: tries it and it doesn't work. It fails because she
- 1:04:38Speaker 1: brings we never see a successful bendon sny accomplixed a
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: very long scene of it being introduced to forty people
- 1:04:47Speaker 1: for some reason, and then the one time it's brought back,
- 1:04:50Speaker 1: it breaks someone's nose. But she still manages to quote
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: unquote snag that guy, that the ups guy who she
- 1:04:58Speaker 1: was interested in, which is perhaps a comment on you
- 1:05:01Speaker 1: don't need to do this elaborate movement to attract a mate.
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: You can just, I don't know, talk to someone and
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: see if they might be interested in you too. Well,
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: can we can we tackle the Jennifer Coolish Yeah, because
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: she's there's so many females. I mean, this is a
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: good problem to have, but there's a lot here. Um yeah, wait,
- 1:05:20Speaker 1: let me. We've been recording for about an hour and
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: I still have a lot to say that because there's
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: a whole callahan, I'm exhausted. Um, this is gonna be
- 1:05:33Speaker 1: a two hour episode. It can't be. I literally will
- 1:05:37Speaker 1: pass out, Okay, Jennifer Coolidge, Yes, Jennifer Coolidge is our
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: resident poor person in this movie. Her name is pault.
- 1:05:45Speaker 1: In this movie, L meets her when she has a
- 1:05:48Speaker 1: full body panic because she has you know, she's she
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: needs and I do. I think character wise, she's seeking
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: out something familiar in an unfamiliar place. I do this
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: with eyehop everywhere I go Duncan Donuts exactly, like yeah,
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: like I understand that. She's like, oh, this is somewhere
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: that makes sense to me. It's a character based decision
- 1:06:07Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. So she meets Jennifer Cold,
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: who's a nail technician at this place. Paula introduces herself
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: as She's like, I'm a middle aged woman who did
- 1:06:16Speaker 1: not graduate from high school. I dated the same man
- 1:06:20Speaker 1: for eight years and he randomly left me. This is
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: the worst blah blah blah. Like she she clearly finds
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: herself to be a very tragic, irredeemable character. Didn't even
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: get to celebrate my dog's birthday. Yeah right, she and
- 1:06:34Speaker 1: she misses her dog and l at this point in
- 1:06:37Speaker 1: the movie is like, yeah, that's pretty freaking sad. I'm
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: so sorry that this happens. And then Jennifer cools. I mean,
- 1:06:44Speaker 1: her character, I would argue, top to bottom, with the
- 1:06:48Speaker 1: exception of one scene, really does not send the right
- 1:06:51Speaker 1: message at any point where right after being like, you know,
- 1:06:55Speaker 1: she's like one of the only women over forty we've
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: see in this movie. I'm assuming I don't know if
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: she had, but like her character says, she's middle aged.
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: You know, she clearly feels she is a spinster and
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: without a man, even though clearly a crummy man because
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: he randomly left her without a man. She has no
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: prospects or value. L seems to agree with this at first,
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: and then before we even find out the next thing
- 1:07:18Speaker 1: about that character, Jennifer Coolidge says, you know, she finds
- 1:07:21Speaker 1: out about El's predicament and it's like, well, if someone
- 1:07:24Speaker 1: is haw does you can't get a man, there's no
- 1:07:26Speaker 1: hope for the rest of us, which is like that
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: one fucking sucks. And then and then she suggests you've
- 1:07:34Speaker 1: got to steal him from Vivian, and it's just like, well,
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: this character is really derailing anything positive. But she's the
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: only poor person and the only not super young person
- 1:07:47Speaker 1: that we and we have the professor, you know, we
- 1:07:49Speaker 1: have other stuff, but the most main character that is older.
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: The one scene that I would say is really good
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: that she's in is there's one scene focus on her
- 1:08:01Speaker 1: character where she and L go to the trailer of
- 1:08:05Speaker 1: her loser ex boyfriend, who looks and sounds like a loser,
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: clearly irredeemable. And I remember that scene clearly, And I
- 1:08:15Speaker 1: forgot a lot about this movie, but I remember that
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: scene because of how Paula's character behaves in that scene. Really,
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: I don't know, like hurt my heart a little bit
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: because it felt real in a movie that does not
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: very often feel real. She's like psyching herself up to
- 1:08:31Speaker 1: go and talk to her ex boyfriend. She's like, this time,
- 1:08:33Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna get what I want
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: and blah blah blah, and he opens the door immediately
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: is obviously dismissive, an asshole, calls her ugly, basically saying like, oh,
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: let's see what I'm not missing out on, and it
- 1:08:46Speaker 1: crushes her and she's like clearly very affected by it
- 1:08:50Speaker 1: and starts to back down, and you know, like she's
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: clearly planned this big confrontation and it sort of like
- 1:08:56Speaker 1: devolves into these mumbles, and that was, like, I think
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: it was like a beautiful character moment that was very sad,
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: and unfortunately L's there and spews out a bunch of
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: granted made up, but like we're you know, scares him
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: enough that you know their friendship is solidified, and that
- 1:09:14Speaker 1: L is able to get Paulette her dog back. I
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: like that sounds a great scene to me too, because
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: one you see L empowering Paulett and sort of uppresting
- 1:09:25Speaker 1: another female character, and it's the first time you see
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: L being super lawyery, where there are a few scenes
- 1:09:31Speaker 1: before that where she like says the right answer in class.
- 1:09:34Speaker 1: That's beginning to see her kind of like, oh, she
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: does have a knack for this laughing. And then this
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: is a scene where you're like, oh, I do see
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: her potential and she's kizing herself because even though she
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: wings it, she manages to convince this guy and what
- 1:09:51Speaker 1: she's saying is not total nonsense, almost makes total sec right, Yeah,
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: it's clitches. She seemed very lawyery in the moment, and
- 1:10:01Speaker 1: we're like it still looked like at once while doing it,
- 1:10:03Speaker 1: which is great. I loved I loved that scene. I
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: think that that's the peak of Paulett's character, and I
- 1:10:09Speaker 1: feel like they sell her out later by you know,
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: she has a crush on this UPS guy, which do
- 1:10:14Speaker 1: they say Ups like, is that product placement? I think
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: they do yea so weird. But anyways, she you know,
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: ends up. She has a crush on this ups guy.
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: She breaks his nose with the bend and snap, but
- 1:10:24Speaker 1: they still end up together. That I think, you know,
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: like that is not a negative thing. I just don't
- 1:10:31Speaker 1: like that. It's like, Paul, it's clearly in a lot
- 1:10:33Speaker 1: of pain from this really bad relationship. She confronts him,
- 1:10:37Speaker 1: she gets what she wants, and now she can use
- 1:10:40Speaker 1: all this new empowerment to be in a relationship with
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: another man. And I just I felt like her character
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: was sold out a little bit because that one scene
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: with her and Hell was so great for both of
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: them that I would have preferred her to. I would
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: have preferred to see her finish her high school degree,
- 1:10:57Speaker 1: you know, like something like that. That wasn't just like
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: now she does right, which maybe she did, but like,
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: that's not your attention is called to Oh gosh, she
- 1:11:06Speaker 1: broke her nose, but it is her boyfriend now, which
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: is funny. But I just like she's a b character,
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: but I think she deserved better. I agree, And that's
- 1:11:14Speaker 1: a rap on Jennifer Bold. The next character I want
- 1:11:18Speaker 1: to talk about is Professor Callahan a k a. Victor Garber,
- 1:11:26Speaker 1: and how he is a total scumbag. We start to
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: get a clue of this because at first he seems
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: like he believes in L and that he you know,
- 1:11:38Speaker 1: he sees potential in her because she she speaks up
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: in his class and he's like, oh, yeah, she's got
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: some good opinions. You and I value her and she's intelligent.
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: But then you get some hints that he's maybe not
- 1:11:49Speaker 1: so great because he takes on this case of with
- 1:11:52Speaker 1: this this Brook Taylor murdering her husband, possibly case that
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: he is the defense attorney for, and the whole time
- 1:11:59Speaker 1: he's no, I'm pretty sure she killed him. I think
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: she's guilty, and like, basically, I think we can take
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: away that he does not respect or trust his client
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: because she's a young and attractive woman, one who married
- 1:12:12Speaker 1: an older man, but not for his money, basically because
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: she says flat out, because he's got a good d right,
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: but he's just like, well, she's a woman and she's
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: young and beautiful. Therefore cannot be taken seriously. Because later
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: there's the scene where he makes a pass at L
- 1:12:30Speaker 1: but under the pretense of like here, let let's discuss
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: your future in your career. What a what a relevant scene?
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: What a weirdly relevant scene and in otherwise not super relevant. Yes,
- 1:12:42Speaker 1: he's telling her these things, and at first he's like, Oh,
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: he's going to hire her to be a part of
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: his law firm or something, or you know, he sees
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: potential in her as a as a lawyer. But then
- 1:12:51Speaker 1: he puts his hand on her knee, which I would
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: argue is the equivalent of a surprise kiss. It's not
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: a kiss, it's it's a group but it it's unsolicited,
- 1:13:02Speaker 1: it is non consensual. And this movie does a great
- 1:13:05Speaker 1: job of treating how this type of act should be treated,
- 1:13:08Speaker 1: which is, don't touch me. I did not invite you
- 1:13:11Speaker 1: to touch me. And in the moment that what she says,
- 1:13:13Speaker 1: she says funk off and is clearly like and even vocalizes, oh,
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: so you didn't mean anything you just said to me
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: about my What I forgot about this sequence that also
- 1:13:24Speaker 1: feels just as relevant is that we see the immediate
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: that prompts a crisis of faith in herself. That makes
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: a lot of sense of like, she is capable. We
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: know that we've been watching her develop and do very well,
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: but hearing, you know, just for the sake of this
- 1:13:40Speaker 1: guy's fucking disgusting inability to respect a woman like she
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: doubts everything positive she knows about herself, and it prompts
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: her to, I mean, I think, for the sake of
- 1:13:53Speaker 1: the plot, immediately abandon any hope of being Alwert. And
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: and at that point we're like, well, this is a
- 1:13:59Speaker 1: loss for everybody. Like it's just like that was who
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: that was like kind of a devastating sequence to Yeah,
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: it's sort of very closely parallels a lot of things
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: that are happening, you know, in different industries today, where
- 1:14:13Speaker 1: it's not unsimilar to all the women who quit comedy
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: because Louis c. K jerked off in front of them
- 1:14:18Speaker 1: in a hotel room, right, and all the women that
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: like left journalism because of people like Matt Lowery and
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: Mark Halbert, like all the women who did not go
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: into directing and producing because of Halvedy fucking wines, you know,
- 1:14:32Speaker 1: every industry. And in this case, it's law, and I
- 1:14:35Speaker 1: feel pretty certain that it probably does happen in the
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: law community, which any of those industry that men are
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: a part of. It happened, which is all industries and
- 1:14:45Speaker 1: therefore and they're usually in charge of them too, and
- 1:14:48Speaker 1: and seeing that play out is like really hard. And
- 1:14:53Speaker 1: then the other thing I forgot that happens is and
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: Luke Wilson's character. You know, he's a good character. He's
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: a good like Emmett, middle part Emmett, feminist icon loves
- 1:15:06Speaker 1: L is good at his job, pretty across the board,
- 1:15:10Speaker 1: both a effective, hot and uninteresting character. The thing I
- 1:15:15Speaker 1: thought was really cool, if from a plot sense, did
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: not make a lot of sense, was that L goes
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: to the nail salon to say goodbye, to pull it
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: and say like I love you whatever, but this is
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: too much. I have to go home because I don't
- 1:15:31Speaker 1: believe I can be a lawyer anymore. And somehow we
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: haven't talked about this character yet because she's really only
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: in two scenes doing very different things. But there is
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: an older female law professor who at first is very
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: hard on L in a way that is like what
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: But she picks her out of her class because she
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: didn't read an assignment that L didn't know she had,
- 1:15:56Speaker 1: which which I can see happening. What I can't see
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: happening is her being like Vivian other character we need
- 1:16:02Speaker 1: to meet at some point, should L be forced to leave?
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: And Vivian says, yes, I think she should. I was like, well,
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: that would never happen in a class. Why would you
- 1:16:09Speaker 1: ask another student for consent to dismiss your own stiff?
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: I can see L getting kicked out like whatever. That
- 1:16:15Speaker 1: was bizarre. So so we're taught to think, oh, she's
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: very stern, and that didn't seem like even a gendered
- 1:16:22Speaker 1: comment because all the law professors we see are very stern.
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: But the second time we see her, she somehow goes
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: to the white trash nail salon. That seems a little
- 1:16:32Speaker 1: bit out of the way as well. She's in the background.
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: I was like, okay, sure, but at least they make
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: the most of that sort of baffling reveal of remember
- 1:16:44Speaker 1: that weird scene from earlier. She's back and she has
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: that great line of like if you're letting this, what
- 1:16:52Speaker 1: if you're gonna let one stupid prick rue in your life?
- 1:16:55Speaker 1: You're not the woman I thought you were, which that
- 1:16:57Speaker 1: powers L to be like, you're right, I'm going to
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: go back, and that's that's the sort of catalyst that
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: makes her return to Brooke and finish the Yeah, Brooke
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: hires her to be her defense attorney, and then the
- 1:17:10Speaker 1: whole sequence plays out where she solved the case and wins.
- 1:17:13Speaker 1: And I think that that was like a really cool
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: choice because at that point we've already seen Luke Wilson
- 1:17:20Speaker 1: say no, you're great, you should you should stay, and
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: he's right. But I think that that is like kind
- 1:17:26Speaker 1: of in the interest cassos of how a situation like
- 1:17:30Speaker 1: this plays out. Hearing another man say you're great, you
- 1:17:33Speaker 1: should stay, It makes sense to me that L would
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: be like, thank you, I appreciate that, but it doesn't
- 1:17:39Speaker 1: carry the same weight of a successful female lawyer saying no,
- 1:17:43Speaker 1: you should be here, And so that I got a
- 1:17:46Speaker 1: choked up. I thought was such a cool moment. If
- 1:17:50Speaker 1: even if the fact that Professor strongwill high powered lawyer
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: goes to the same white trash nails ang L what
- 1:17:57Speaker 1: stumbles into I'm assuming in malden By accident makes no
- 1:18:04Speaker 1: fucking sense. That was like one of my favorite moments
- 1:18:07Speaker 1: in the whole movie. Yes, I do like that. Also,
- 1:18:10Speaker 1: not to give any male characters any credit for anything,
- 1:18:14Speaker 1: but the sequence plays out where Callahan surprise touches l.
- 1:18:19Speaker 1: She has the reaction that we're always hoping to see,
- 1:18:22Speaker 1: which is like, oh, are you hitting on me bad?
- 1:18:26Speaker 1: Immediately yeah, because he said something like what, I'm just
- 1:18:29Speaker 1: a man who knows what he wants. And she responds
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: with and I'm a law student who just realized her
- 1:18:34Speaker 1: professor is a pathetic asshole. And she gets up, she runs,
- 1:18:38Speaker 1: and then she runs into Luke Wilson and tells her like,
- 1:18:41Speaker 1: this whole thing was a mistake. Me coming to law
- 1:18:42Speaker 1: school was a mistake. And he's like, what are you
- 1:18:44Speaker 1: talking about? What? And then she tells him Callahan just
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: hit on me. And he believes her immediately, and it's
- 1:18:50Speaker 1: like clearly upset by the news, but does not doubt her.
- 1:18:55Speaker 1: And then in turn, and this was like a good
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: character moment for again, I think the not super well
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: written Vivian character where Vivian another lots of fun convenient
- 1:19:08Speaker 1: moments taking place in the late second into the third
- 1:19:12Speaker 1: act of this movie. But just as Elwoods is surprised
- 1:19:16Speaker 1: touched by Victor Garber, Vivian sees that touch happened, does
- 1:19:22Speaker 1: not see what happens immediately after, which is l making
- 1:19:26Speaker 1: it clear that that is unwelcome. So Vivian there's this
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: moment where she's like, she confronts l and an elevator
- 1:19:33Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, so you almost had me fooled.
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: I almost thought you were, you know, a good, capable lawyer,
- 1:19:38Speaker 1: but it turns out, you know, it looks like you're
- 1:19:40Speaker 1: fucking the professor. And that's another sort of wrench thrown
- 1:19:43Speaker 1: into their friendship that was developing at that point. So
- 1:19:47Speaker 1: like that's, you know whatever, that's a plot point to
- 1:19:49Speaker 1: Vivian's character's credit. Later in the movie, when Brooke finds
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: out l quit, Luke wilson middle part just his part
- 1:20:01Speaker 1: is just oiled and shining, just a beam of light
- 1:20:05Speaker 1: is coming out of Luke Wilson's middle part in every
- 1:20:09Speaker 1: scene he appears in. But he says, you know, she
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: quit and the main reason she quit, which again is
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: like credit to that character, The main reason she quit
- 1:20:19Speaker 1: is because Victor Garber hit on her and she wanted
- 1:20:23Speaker 1: no part of it. And immediately Vivian says, oh my god,
- 1:20:27Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I've made literally arrested developments out.
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: I've made a huge mistake, which is good and again
- 1:20:35Speaker 1: tracks with the character of L who even when the
- 1:20:39Speaker 1: logline of this movie is not good. She is an
- 1:20:43Speaker 1: honest character through, like she doesn't lie to anybody ever,
- 1:20:46Speaker 1: and that's like sort of the part of like, that's
- 1:20:48Speaker 1: part of her core. So it makes sense that, like,
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: of course she would believe her because Victor Garber's character
- 1:20:54Speaker 1: is notoriously fucking sus as hell, you know, like yeah,
- 1:20:58Speaker 1: Earlier in the movie, Vivian even makes a condiment at
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: one point where she's like, do you ever notice how
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: Calahan will make you get him coffee but he never
- 1:21:06Speaker 1: makes any of the male interns get And then I
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: have a conversation about how men are useless, and this
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: is sort of the spark of the beginning of their
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: friendship because they kind over like Warner being an idiot,
- 1:21:19Speaker 1: men being useless and her being a little weightless bit yeah,
- 1:21:24Speaker 1: I love. Then the catalyst that gets Vivian to turn
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: around from like hating L is that she sees L
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: sort of protecting the client because you know, there's the
- 1:21:36Speaker 1: whole thing with her alibi and like, I can't reveal
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: what my albi is because it would ruin my career.
- 1:21:41Speaker 1: And I was like, sure, I will. I will keep
- 1:21:43Speaker 1: your secret as safe as I can, and Vivian's like
- 1:21:46Speaker 1: that was actually pretty classy, so that makes her respect
- 1:21:51Speaker 1: l and opens the channel for that like made me
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: feel great. I've had not to be like this is
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: like my fucking life right now, but I've had experiences
- 1:22:01Speaker 1: like that tour. It's like you just get off on
- 1:22:04Speaker 1: the wrong foot with someone, usually because of a man,
- 1:22:07Speaker 1: and then later like realized that perhaps the man is
- 1:22:12Speaker 1: the big fucking idiot, and it is good and we
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: can be friends even though we're different. That scene really
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: did it for me. Loved that scene and was a
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: good moment for Vivian. I just Vivian at the beginning
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: of this movie, just like she. I feel like her
- 1:22:28Speaker 1: character is exploited to set up fun scenes. I don't
- 1:22:31Speaker 1: think that it is something that tracks with her character
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: to be like it's a costume party, see you there.
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: I mean that from a studio notes standpoint, is because
- 1:22:42Speaker 1: people want to see Reese Weather's been dressed up like
- 1:22:44Speaker 1: a bunny. That is why they managed to fit it
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: into the plot. But sort of at the expensive Vivian's
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: character in that moment. I think there's a few other
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: clues that so this is I think it's worth noting
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: that this movie was written by two women, Karen McCullough
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: and Astin Smith, and it's based on a novel written
- 1:23:02Speaker 1: by another woman, Amanda Brown. However, it was directed by
- 1:23:05Speaker 1: a man, Robert Luke Headick or something, and I think
- 1:23:11Speaker 1: there are clues sprinkled throughout the movie that it was
- 1:23:14Speaker 1: in fact directed by a man. Basically, the opening montage
- 1:23:17Speaker 1: of the movie is this whole thing where people are
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: signing a card for L, which is basically just like
- 1:23:22Speaker 1: congrats on probably getting engaged tonight, which doesn't end up happening.
- 1:23:27Speaker 1: And um, there's all these shots of her sorority sisters
- 1:23:31Speaker 1: and sometimes they're wearing next to nothing and they're in
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: a steamy bathroom getting showers or they're like exercise. They're
- 1:23:39Speaker 1: just like sexualized and their shots and the like, Yeah,
- 1:23:43Speaker 1: the whole visual medium, like the way women, the way
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: the sorority girls are framed is very exactly how you
- 1:23:49Speaker 1: think the sorority girls will be framed. Nothing is subverted,
- 1:23:53Speaker 1: which is weird because I think the whole point of
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: the movie is to sort of try to subvert the
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: stereotype of you know, a on sorority. Yeah that that
- 1:24:02Speaker 1: L's character is, Yeah, but they're like, but actually all
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: these other sorority girls, they're still all white head her
- 1:24:10Speaker 1: own ormies who are hot and blonde, and we're going
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: to frame them like they're basically pieces of meat wearing bikinis.
- 1:24:18Speaker 1: Speaking of bikinis, there's another scene where l is like
- 1:24:22Speaker 1: outside sunbathing in what's probably like September October in Boston,
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: which is not appropriate weather to be sunbathing in, but
- 1:24:32Speaker 1: she's got this k babe, but can be. I don't know,
- 1:24:36Speaker 1: it's just but like I advocate, the point is she's outside,
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: she's wearing like a sequin bikini or something. It's basically
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: to like show Warner what he's missing out on because
- 1:24:50Speaker 1: he's playing football with like all these other dude bros
- 1:24:52Speaker 1: outside and they all just like basically stopped playing football
- 1:24:56Speaker 1: and just leer at her for a good twenty seconds,
- 1:24:59Speaker 1: and she just gives this smile like, Yeah, I'm glad
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: that you're all leering at me. And it's like a
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: weird choice. I just did the most cursory amount of
- 1:25:07Speaker 1: research on this director possible and found out some truly
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: insane information. If you don't like so. Director Robert Luketic
- 1:25:18Speaker 1: was first of all, was when this movie came out
- 1:25:23Speaker 1: the first major director, young director. He was given this
- 1:25:27Speaker 1: opportunity because of a short film he had that went
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: to Sundance. Which what an exciting male experience to do
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: one fucking thing and then be given a massive opportunity. Wow,
- 1:25:38Speaker 1: what an amazing thing. That will never happen to us.
- 1:25:42Speaker 1: But the movie that he debuted at Sundance and other
- 1:25:48Speaker 1: places was called titsian A Booberini. Just again here what
- 1:26:02Speaker 1: I said the first time. At age three, Robert Lukendick
- 1:26:07Speaker 1: made an eleven minute movie cop Titsiana Booberini. And people
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: saw Titsiana Booberini and he said, this guy's going place
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: give him off features losing my money, Titsiana Booberini. And
- 1:26:26Speaker 1: so I was like, well, what could Titsiana Booberini be about?
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: And it's not what you think it's about, but it's
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: still bad. It's about shaming women for a different part
- 1:26:39Speaker 1: of their body than the title Titsiana Booberini. Would wouldn't
- 1:26:45Speaker 1: fly this. This sounds fucking crazy. It won Best Film
- 1:26:50Speaker 1: at Aspen Shorts Fest. It won all these awards, and
- 1:26:54Speaker 1: without Titsiana Booberini, we don't have legally blonde crazy, which
- 1:26:59Speaker 1: you know, maybe was an original working title Bouberini to Okay.
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: It's a musical comedy with the story focusing on Titsiana,
- 1:27:11Speaker 1: an Italian checkout girl at a suburban supermarket who is
- 1:27:15Speaker 1: ridiculed by her fellow employees for her stute upper lip,
- 1:27:20Speaker 1: meaning she has a dark she has like a light mustache,
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: as do I let us vote right. So so it's
- 1:27:28Speaker 1: about a girl with a dark upper lip. The resolution
- 1:27:31Speaker 1: to this eleven minute film, Titsiana, is that it's a
- 1:27:35Speaker 1: weird Italian joke Titsiana Booberini. There, Titsiana gains new confidence
- 1:27:42Speaker 1: and acceptance when she discovers a hair removal treatment, and
- 1:27:47Speaker 1: so she it's sorry, that was the most insane Google
- 1:27:51Speaker 1: experience life, Titsiana Booberini. What else is there to say?
- 1:28:00Speaker 1: We wouldn't have this, so we cannot possibly consider legally
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: Blonde a feminist masterpieces Bustle dot com would lead us
- 1:28:07Speaker 1: to believe, because it wouldn't exist without Titsie on a Booberini,
- 1:28:12Speaker 1: I can't. He also directed Monster in Law, which is
- 1:28:15Speaker 1: a j Lo romcom, which is my ship. Also, Jane
- 1:28:18Speaker 1: Fonda shines in that movie. It's not a good movie.
- 1:28:21Speaker 1: I haven't seen it. But it wouldn't happen with that, TITSI. No,
- 1:28:25Speaker 1: I cannot believe that. Okay, okay, we're good. Hey yeah,
- 1:28:29Speaker 1: its officially on the movie officially longer than definitely because
- 1:28:33Speaker 1: the movie is only an hour and thirty six minutes,
- 1:28:35Speaker 1: which I appreciate. Keep it tight, I love a short movie.
- 1:28:38Speaker 1: Keep those TITSI on a booberies nice and tight and hairless.
- 1:28:42Speaker 1: But what the fun? That's crazy, Titsian. Just a few
- 1:28:49Speaker 1: final thoughts. Yeah, blond, I know it's so late and
- 1:28:54Speaker 1: we're dying. I wanted to say that Aristotle gets mentioned. Yeah,
- 1:28:58Speaker 1: that was exciting, but we were like Aristotle, shout out
- 1:29:02Speaker 1: to our producer Aristotle. Also, I we touched on this before.
- 1:29:07Speaker 1: But there's only really three main male characters, Warner Emmett,
- 1:29:12Speaker 1: which is Luke Wilson's character, and Callahan Victor Garber. The
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: rest of the characters with speaking roles, of which there
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: are many many many are women, which is great. But
- 1:29:22Speaker 1: I would say before we call this a women's movie,
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: we have to call it a white woman's movie. Yes. Absolutely.
- 1:29:29Speaker 1: The only really notable woman of color in the movie
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: is the judge, which is great. Yes, that is great.
- 1:29:36Speaker 1: There were However, many opportunities for other characters to be
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: women of color, other students in law school, women in
- 1:29:45Speaker 1: her sorority women anywhere else in the movie. There. Fortunately,
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: there's no lack of women in this movie, no excuse
- 1:29:54Speaker 1: for them to not be women of all shape sides,
- 1:29:57Speaker 1: of colors and in that van. And we've already touched
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: on this too, but there are two notable queer characters
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: in the movie, and neither of them really get fair treatment.
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: The movie is really subscribing to, like some pretty problematic
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: stereotypes in the way that they portray the lesbian character Enid,
- 1:30:14Speaker 1: and the gay guy's name is Salvator, right, um, because like,
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: the gay guy knows about fashion and that's what incriminates him,
- 1:30:24Speaker 1: and the lesbian is like this shrewy woman studies male
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: hating feminists perfectly right where especially Enid character falls into
- 1:30:34Speaker 1: I mean, both of these characters are literally handicapped by
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: their own queerness by the plot where Salvator is not
- 1:30:42Speaker 1: able to pull off his little scheme because of his queerness.
- 1:30:46Speaker 1: In a scene that I do think it's very funny,
- 1:30:49Speaker 1: where Luke Wilson's like bla blah blah blah blah, blah,
- 1:30:52Speaker 1: what was your boyfriend's name? And then he's like, whatever
- 1:30:54Speaker 1: is the Chuck? Chuck? And then Chuck is there there,
- 1:30:58Speaker 1: He's like what the hell. It's like, Chuck, why are
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: you because why are you playing party to this? Chuck?
- 1:31:03Speaker 1: You deserve better than this Chuck. Salvatore is a little sneak,
- 1:31:06Speaker 1: but because he says something like I misunderstood. He's just
- 1:31:11Speaker 1: a friend of mine. And then and then Chuck stands up.
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: He's like, you bitch. It's like, wow, Chuck is drawn
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: aline in the which Chuck deserves better obviously, we also Chuck,
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: why are you there, buddy? Like is it a money thing?
- 1:31:22Speaker 1: That's the only thing that you're thinking? But his Salvatore
- 1:31:25Speaker 1: is literally handicapped by his own queerness. Bad Enid. She
- 1:31:29Speaker 1: does not fail in the movie. Isn't quite in the
- 1:31:32Speaker 1: spectacular fun way that Salvator fails, but you really don't
- 1:31:37Speaker 1: see her speak in a scene where she just she
- 1:31:40Speaker 1: can't stop talking about the fact that she's a lesbian,
- 1:31:43Speaker 1: like she's just like it's a cartoon character. Although I
- 1:31:46Speaker 1: did I enjoy the moment where she's talking to Luke Wilson,
- 1:31:50Speaker 1: who is I guess at this I think the movie
- 1:31:52Speaker 1: tricks you into thinking that he's a law student, and
- 1:31:55Speaker 1: then later there's this reveal it's like, no, he's actually
- 1:31:58Speaker 1: an associate at this No, he's just hanging out with
- 1:32:02Speaker 1: a bunch of law kids. A whole anyway, So he's
- 1:32:04Speaker 1: in with a bunch of students and you know, it
- 1:32:08Speaker 1: is talking to him and she's like, oh, the whole
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: semester is a male term. I'm gonna petition for them
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: to be called oh Vester's from now on. And I
- 1:32:19Speaker 1: was like, that's the type of thing that I would
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: probably say, so I get it, or I would at
- 1:32:24Speaker 1: least tweet as a joke. But anyway, Um, the very
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: few people of color in this movie, the very few
- 1:32:30Speaker 1: queer characters you see, are not done justice at all
- 1:32:33Speaker 1: by the movie. I will say that I enjoy that
- 1:32:36Speaker 1: there are several female characters and most of them are white,
- 1:32:41Speaker 1: who are law professors at the most prestigious school in America.
- 1:32:45Speaker 1: The prosecuting attorney in the courtroom scenes is a woman.
- 1:32:49Speaker 1: The courtroom as with most interesting But it's like, you know,
- 1:32:52Speaker 1: it's not necessarily like a statement to have a male
- 1:32:56Speaker 1: salon with a lot of female characters that are certainly
- 1:32:59Speaker 1: not a statement to have a sort already full of
- 1:33:00Speaker 1: a lot of female characters. The courtroom thing felt like,
- 1:33:03Speaker 1: oh cool, yeah, she's a woman, and the prosecuting attorney
- 1:33:09Speaker 1: who does most and granted she's clearly poisoned. This character
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: who does not, like many of the characters in the movie,
- 1:33:16Speaker 1: take l seriously and whenever she's like, yeah, let this
- 1:33:19Speaker 1: first year law student, but trying to defend her to
- 1:33:22Speaker 1: find that kind of point L's outfit, you know, it's like,
- 1:33:25Speaker 1: it makes sense, it makes it's not an illogical Okay,
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: do we have anything else to say before it passes
- 1:33:35Speaker 1: the Bechtel test? Obviously? In fact, I stopped. There are
- 1:33:39Speaker 1: many scenes where women are talking where they are talking
- 1:33:41Speaker 1: about any number of male characters, oftentimes Warner and some
- 1:33:45Speaker 1: other people. But I stopped. I stop being able to
- 1:33:48Speaker 1: even keep track of the scenes where women are interacting
- 1:33:50Speaker 1: and saying things that passed the Bechtel tests, which is
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: because there are so many. My only criticism is that
- 1:33:55Speaker 1: this movie has trouble. I can't I don't even know
- 1:33:58Speaker 1: if it's like the issues, They're just not enough male
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: characters to have this be an issue for them as well.
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: But the movie is like not great at naming their characters,
- 1:34:06Speaker 1: but there are so many, so it takes a while
- 1:34:08Speaker 1: for it to pass our version of the test because
- 1:34:12Speaker 1: there story sisters don't have names, But it passes handily,
- 1:34:17Speaker 1: although there are several times where two women are talking
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: to each other but they're being really mean to each other,
- 1:34:23Speaker 1: which like, I don't like that. But there's like one
- 1:34:27Speaker 1: see in particular where like Vivian says to L, nice
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: outfit when she shows up in the bunny costume, and
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: then L says, thanks, you too, accept that when I
- 1:34:36Speaker 1: dress up as a frigid bitch, I try to not
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: to look so constipated, and it's like, wow, feminism. And
- 1:34:42Speaker 1: then and then the last line is you have the ring.
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: You're just like, oh, how does this scene? The other
- 1:34:50Speaker 1: thing I did want to say about that is that
- 1:34:54Speaker 1: I really I feel like we were robbed of a
- 1:34:56Speaker 1: scene where L and Vivian kind of reconciled because it
- 1:35:00Speaker 1: leaves off where Vivian realizes she's made a huge mistake
- 1:35:04Speaker 1: because she misinterprets what she saw happening between Callahan and L.
- 1:35:08Speaker 1: But then we don't really get to see any sort
- 1:35:11Speaker 1: of apology or reconciliation there kind a minute out of
- 1:35:14Speaker 1: the forty five bended snap sequence and give us that. Yeah,
- 1:35:19Speaker 1: I also would have speaking to let's write Vivian a
- 1:35:23Speaker 1: little bit better. I would have liked to see Vivian
- 1:35:27Speaker 1: confront Warner as well, because because clearly there's a lot
- 1:35:31Speaker 1: to unpacked there, and we found out midway through the
- 1:35:33Speaker 1: movie that Vivian doesn't take Warner seriously either. Shall we
- 1:35:37Speaker 1: write the movie, Bob, Yeah, I'm gonna give it. I'm
- 1:35:48Speaker 1: gonna say this is like a three nipple or like
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: a lost blood. I've also lot of blood this week.
- 1:35:54Speaker 1: My larynx is literally torn to shreds. Anyway, Okay, so
- 1:36:00Speaker 1: I'm gonna give this movie three nipples. Um, it might
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: deserve higher and might deserve lower. I'm not really sure.
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: To me, it's still like it's a movie in which
- 1:36:10Speaker 1: the character in the third act is very empowered and
- 1:36:14Speaker 1: she ends up realizing the thing that she was pursuing
- 1:36:16Speaker 1: for the wrong reasons is her calling and that she
- 1:36:19Speaker 1: is good at it and that she is passionate about it,
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: and that's great. However, the whole first very long chunk
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: of the movie is her pursuing something for the very
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: wrong reasons. So that's a little frustrating to watch. Also,
- 1:36:32Speaker 1: we had the whole discussion about a movie that's kind
- 1:36:35Speaker 1: of trying to like dismantle and subvert the tropes and
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: the stereotypes of a blonde, hot sorority girl, which she's
- 1:36:43Speaker 1: also but because the movie is just so fucking pink
- 1:36:48Speaker 1: to me, it almost reads is like those like big
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: brand pens that were like these are for women because
- 1:36:54Speaker 1: they're pink, and it's like, there's a movie for women
- 1:36:57Speaker 1: because look how pink it. There is a level ref
- 1:37:00Speaker 1: feinism to this movie that isn't as egregious as it
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: could be, but it's present. It's there, The product placement
- 1:37:07Speaker 1: is there. I'm with you, you're both having a stroke. Um, so, yeah,
- 1:37:18Speaker 1: there's certainly some problems. I do like the third act
- 1:37:20Speaker 1: of the movie, when basically there's the whole turn of
- 1:37:23Speaker 1: her coming into her own but not necessarily abandoning who
- 1:37:26Speaker 1: she is as a person. But she's empowered and she's
- 1:37:30Speaker 1: found her calling accidentally slashed by stalking her ex boyfriend.
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: But it works out, so that's good, I guess. Yeah.
- 1:37:39Speaker 1: So three nipples, one of them belongs to Bruiser, the
- 1:37:44Speaker 1: dog love Bruiser. I usually hate movie dogs, as you know.
- 1:37:48Speaker 1: I mean, I think Bruiser should have been a cat,
- 1:37:51Speaker 1: in which case I would have given the movie eight nipples,
- 1:37:54Speaker 1: and all of them would have been to the bruiser
- 1:37:56Speaker 1: of the cat in cat facts or whatever whatever I
- 1:38:00Speaker 1: usually say. But one of them goes to Bruiser and
- 1:38:04Speaker 1: the other two one to pull it, And I'm going
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: to give one to Professor Stromwell, the strong independent woman
- 1:38:15Speaker 1: who empowers l at the end to not quit law
- 1:38:19Speaker 1: school and to be the lawyer she was meant to be. Yes, Queen, Queen, Yes,
- 1:38:26Speaker 1: we love it. I'm so tired. Okay, So what do
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: I have left? What do I have left? We're so
- 1:38:36Speaker 1: close to the end. Do I have left in my
- 1:38:38Speaker 1: body that it's stolen from me? At this point I
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: think I decid my having crises. Okay, I have to
- 1:38:46Speaker 1: give this movie two and a half nipples. As much
- 1:38:49Speaker 1: as I do genuinely like it and think it's generally
- 1:38:52Speaker 1: it is coming from the right place, I would be
- 1:38:55Speaker 1: lying if I said that, Oh God, what is the
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: name of the movie again? Legally blond No, no, no, no,
- 1:39:04Speaker 1: the movie You just forgot what we've been talking about.
- 1:39:07Speaker 1: I've been bullshit. No, the iconic film that came before it,
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: uh Titsiana boober I would be lying if I said
- 1:39:19Speaker 1: that the reveal that Titsiana Booberrelli led to this movie
- 1:39:23Speaker 1: The Man didn't impact my general view of it. I
- 1:39:27Speaker 1: hope in affectors do. That's a pretty horrifying rug to
- 1:39:30Speaker 1: have pulled out from underneath you. It's like finding out
- 1:39:34Speaker 1: that like Moanna wouldn't have been made if there wasn't
- 1:39:38Speaker 1: like Dick Rangers. For like the director of Dick Rangers
- 1:39:45Speaker 1: four hadn't made a snapchat video that had won an
- 1:39:47Speaker 1: award It's Sundance. I just it's upsetting. My main issue
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: with this movie for all the little stuff we picked
- 1:39:55Speaker 1: apart which is valid, not to make our job sound useless.
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: That Sagan bitching we just did moment one. I don't
- 1:40:03Speaker 1: like the message this communicates to its very young audience
- 1:40:08Speaker 1: that an appropriate way to deal with a breakup as
- 1:40:13Speaker 1: a young person is to not accept a breakup. That
- 1:40:18Speaker 1: is such a horrible idea. And I embarrassingly did this
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: exact thing in high school because I'd seen movies like
- 1:40:26Speaker 1: this where it works out for me. I took a
- 1:40:30Speaker 1: bus to Connecticut. It did not work out. It was
- 1:40:32Speaker 1: deeply embarrassing. I think about it easily once a day there.
- 1:40:36Speaker 1: But I mean, like speaking to that larger thing, I
- 1:40:40Speaker 1: am not alone in having done something like that because
- 1:40:44Speaker 1: of movies like this that convey the message just basically
- 1:40:48Speaker 1: empowering unhealthy behaviors. And even though it is positive, obviously
- 1:40:54Speaker 1: the el's plan to win warnerback does not work out,
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: and does not work out for the right reasons. The
- 1:41:00Speaker 1: fact that she still does have this new, fulfilling life
- 1:41:04Speaker 1: because of this deeply flawed, problematic plan is just not
- 1:41:09Speaker 1: a good message to be sending to children who don't
- 1:41:12Speaker 1: know anything. Just remember, they will believe what hot people
- 1:41:17Speaker 1: tell them. Like that's just how children very easily influenced.
- 1:41:21Speaker 1: And the reason we do this podcast is because movies
- 1:41:25Speaker 1: do have a significant impact on our the way that
- 1:41:29Speaker 1: we yeah. So the fact that so many movies portray
- 1:41:35Speaker 1: romantic relationships is like or breakups is like, well, the know,
- 1:41:39Speaker 1: the way I'm going to win him or her back
- 1:41:42Speaker 1: is to stock them for a long time. And sometimes
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: in movies that works and it's like it happened, And
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: I can't think of an example top of dumb, but
- 1:41:50Speaker 1: there are a lot of examples of men doing this
- 1:41:52Speaker 1: to women in movies as well, probably more. It's just
- 1:41:55Speaker 1: not good. It's like right up there with my least
- 1:41:57Speaker 1: favorite movie setups, right up there with the let me
- 1:42:00Speaker 1: kidnap and re educate a woman and then we'll be
- 1:42:03Speaker 1: in love. They're just I just don't like the foundation
- 1:42:07Speaker 1: of this movie. To me, along with Tensiana, Boobarella is
- 1:42:13Speaker 1: deeply flawed. I can't deal with it. L Woods, I
- 1:42:18Speaker 1: think it's an awesome character. Most of the female characters
- 1:42:21Speaker 1: have elements of great characters but are not fully fleshed out,
- 1:42:24Speaker 1: possibly because the narrative is a little saturated with a
- 1:42:27Speaker 1: lot of characters. Anyways, I like the movie. I'm so
- 1:42:30Speaker 1: tired two and a half nipples. I've given one to Elwoods.
- 1:42:34Speaker 1: She fucking earned it. I'll give a nippy to pull
- 1:42:38Speaker 1: it as well, because she deserved better. And I'll give
- 1:42:40Speaker 1: my last half nip to Vivian. No no inspired awards here,
- 1:42:44Speaker 1: just giving it to people who are in them. Well. Also,
- 1:42:49Speaker 1: I wanted to known I literally had a physical response
- 1:42:53Speaker 1: to you, says, so that's our way, way, way, way
- 1:42:58Speaker 1: too long, and I'm sorrnest I not sorry. You, just
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: so you know, this is a far better product than
- 1:43:04Speaker 1: we were originally delivering, which is us drunkenly slowly about
- 1:43:07Speaker 1: how we like Titanic. Yeah, so for maybe a half hour,
- 1:43:11Speaker 1: and you're welcome that you're not listening to that garbage,
- 1:43:15Speaker 1: physically winded, just like, yeah, we got to go to
- 1:43:19Speaker 1: bed time. I hope you enjoyed this. I think you should.
- 1:43:23Speaker 1: You you fucking should. That was a lot of nuances
- 1:43:26Speaker 1: we did. We didn't. In fact, I feel like if
- 1:43:28Speaker 1: we had cut it any shorter, we would have left
- 1:43:31Speaker 1: out some valuable discourse. So here we are giving it
- 1:43:35Speaker 1: to you straight, to all you, marian. We'll try not
- 1:43:40Speaker 1: to make all their episodes this long, but hey, they
- 1:43:43Speaker 1: don't care. Who knows what will happen? Do you love
- 1:43:46Speaker 1: it to it? They're sick? All right? Well, yes, I
- 1:43:51Speaker 1: hope you're not too tired. Happy, happy New Years and
- 1:43:59Speaker 1: good time tidings to you, good job wah and a
- 1:44:05Speaker 1: happy bality. So that was our unlocked Matron episode, available
- 1:44:13Speaker 1: now on the main feed on the film legally Blonde,
- 1:44:17Speaker 1: And we don't get used to it. Don't get used
- 1:44:19Speaker 1: to it. All the other ones are. They're staying there,
- 1:44:22Speaker 1: they're they're locked in the Disney vault, except the Bechtel
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: the Bechtel Vault. But yes, thank you for listening. We
- 1:44:28Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed it. It was fun for us to
- 1:44:31Speaker 1: revisit as well. Um and just like there's no better
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: like legally it's a good time to watch legally Blonde,
- 1:44:37Speaker 1: and now in history's darkest hour, it's a fun time
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: to watch legally Blonde. Indeed, so thank you for listening. Uh.
- 1:44:44Speaker 1: You can find us online in all the normal places.
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at Bechtel Cast.
- 1:44:51Speaker 1: You can of course join the damn Matreon Patreon dot
- 1:44:54Speaker 1: com slash Becktel Cast. There's other stuff. I just remembered
- 1:44:58Speaker 1: another theme we did, Revenge bur Oh yeah, every every title.
- 1:45:05Speaker 1: The titles are horrific. I love them so much. There's
- 1:45:11Speaker 1: but we've done a lot and then and then we'll
- 1:45:13Speaker 1: also do like annual Oscar roundups and stuff like that,
- 1:45:16Speaker 1: so a little a little more niche fun stuff going
- 1:45:19Speaker 1: on over there. Um, So I hope you enjoyed this,
- 1:45:21Speaker 1: And you can also get our merchant t public dot
- 1:45:23Speaker 1: com slash the Bechdel Cast, and we'll see you next week.
- 1:45:28Speaker 1: Gang ye