Latest / The Bechdel Cast / Now and Then with Callie Biggerstaff
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the Bedel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
- 0:03Speaker 1: women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
- 0:07Speaker 1: or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zef in best
- 0:12Speaker 1: start changing it with the beck Del Cast. Hello and
- 0:16Speaker 1: welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Caitlin Toronto
- 0:19Speaker 1: named Jamie Loftus, and we talk about the representation of
- 0:23Speaker 1: women in films. Yeah, what if this started twenty five
- 0:26Speaker 1: years from now and we were reflecting on how we
- 0:30Speaker 1: used to do the Bechdel Cast and then we always
- 0:32Speaker 1: promised that we're going to continue doing to come back
- 0:35Speaker 1: and come back any time you discourse to be had,
- 0:39Speaker 1: that we would up and start doing it. Jamie, let's
- 0:42Speaker 1: make that pact right now. Truth. Truth? Are you happy? No? Sam?
- 0:50Speaker 1: All right, I guess we're done here. Uh. This is
- 0:53Speaker 1: our funniest movie podcast. We use the Bechdel Test as
- 0:57Speaker 1: our jumping out point for discussion. Beckel Tests, I'm times
- 1:00Speaker 1: called the Bechtel Wallace test is a media metric invented
- 1:04Speaker 1: by cartoonist Alison Bechdel that requires that there be two
- 1:08Speaker 1: female identifying characters in a piece of media with names
- 1:13Speaker 1: that talk to each other about something other than a
- 1:15Speaker 1: man for more than two lines of dialogue? Can it
- 1:18Speaker 1: be done? Sometimes? Sometimes in this movie, yeah, quite a bit.
- 1:23Speaker 1: I was. I thought you were about to be like,
- 1:25Speaker 1: it doesn't. I was like, oh my god. I was like,
- 1:27Speaker 1: wait a second, did we see the same movie? O, Well,
- 1:30Speaker 1: you're spoiling it at the top. But I mean, I mean,
- 1:33Speaker 1: I still think that it's really funny whenever someone is like,
- 1:36Speaker 1: so do you just talk about the Becktel test? Like
- 1:38Speaker 1: what would that conversation even sound for an hour and
- 1:41Speaker 1: a half, which is argue with each other like one
- 1:43Speaker 1: text pro when when it's an indisputable thing through every
- 1:47Speaker 1: single line of dialogue in the movie, and be like
- 1:50Speaker 1: does that one pass? No? It doesn't because Michael Shannon
- 1:53Speaker 1: said it. Moving on, Like it's just like what I
- 1:57Speaker 1: think I'm getting into Michael Shannon. Oh well not Live's
- 2:00Speaker 1: Out is a great film. He's good in it. I
- 2:03Speaker 1: didn't really confused him with many other Michaels And you
- 2:06Speaker 1: can't blame me, but I think I'm getting into Michael Shannon.
- 2:11Speaker 1: It does not. But I'm surprised you weren't into him
- 2:14Speaker 1: starting with Shape of Water. I know, well, because I
- 2:17Speaker 1: kept confusing him with Michael Stolberg because it's too close,
- 2:20Speaker 1: too close to name too much Michael representation in that movie.
- 2:24Speaker 1: Just know from me. So yeah, this is the best.
- 2:29Speaker 1: And as always, we have a wonderful guest with us,
- 2:32Speaker 1: certainly today. She's one of my dearest friends. She's a photographer, extraordinary,
- 2:37Speaker 1: she's a circus historian. She's the absolute best. It's Callie Bickerstaff.
- 2:44Speaker 1: Welcome to you. Thanks for having me. Well, we're bringing
- 2:50Speaker 1: We're doing a movie that you were very very passionate
- 2:54Speaker 1: about recommending. And I was like, well, just come on
- 2:57Speaker 1: and talk about it because you're like, when are you
- 2:59Speaker 1: going to do it? Now? In an episode? So have
- 3:01Speaker 1: all of our fans everyone. I did not know that
- 3:05Speaker 1: this thing existed and I will disappoint and the website. So, Kelly,
- 3:09Speaker 1: what's your history with now? And I think I watched
- 3:14Speaker 1: in the theaters and I think, and I told you
- 3:17Speaker 1: this that I remember watching it and Demi Moore was
- 3:21Speaker 1: smoking and I was like, oh that is cool, and
- 3:24Speaker 1: rewatching it, I was like, I definitely started smoking because
- 3:27Speaker 1: of this, which is influential, Oh my god, but cool
- 3:33Speaker 1: at the time. Um, but yeah, I think to me
- 3:36Speaker 1: it seemed like like the sand Lot, stand by me,
- 3:39Speaker 1: merge for ladies. I don't know, but it was a
- 3:42Speaker 1: sweet teenage film for me. I think it's cute. I mean,
- 3:45Speaker 1: it has its moments, and it has it's like camaraderie thing.
- 3:48Speaker 1: There's personality for everyone in there, I think. And problematic parts.
- 3:54Speaker 1: Oh yes, we'll talk about what what some some be
- 3:58Speaker 1: phrased Brent and also is not credited in the movie.
- 4:03Speaker 1: I was. I watched it all the way through with
- 4:04Speaker 1: the credits. I paused because, like how because I was
- 4:08Speaker 1: playing this game I play with myself sometimes called how
- 4:12Speaker 1: high in the credits is Brendan Fraser because depending on
- 4:15Speaker 1: the year, it really fluctuates, right, And in this movie
- 4:18Speaker 1: he's not credited at all. Incredible. I know, Caitlyn, what's
- 4:22Speaker 1: your history? And now? And then? I grew up with
- 4:25Speaker 1: this movie, although I will say that I have not
- 4:27Speaker 1: seen it in probably twenty or more years, not unlike
- 4:34Speaker 1: the span of time between when we see them as
- 4:37Speaker 1: girls and when we see them as adults, you're now
- 4:39Speaker 1: and then ing now and then exactly that is true.
- 4:42Speaker 1: Um so I hadn't rewatched it, probably since I was
- 4:44Speaker 1: around the age of the characters, which is twelve, But
- 4:48Speaker 1: Prior to that, it wasn't a movie that we ever
- 4:50Speaker 1: had like on VHS at at my house or anything.
- 4:53Speaker 1: But it is a huge, like girls sleepover staple movie.
- 4:57Speaker 1: So I would go to sleepovers and it would be
- 4:59Speaker 1: on all the time. So I would watch this movie
- 5:02Speaker 1: often at sleepovers and I always rather enjoyed it. But again,
- 5:08Speaker 1: I haven't seen it in many, many years. What's your history, Jamie.
- 5:11Speaker 1: I think this is one of those weird movies that
- 5:14Speaker 1: it came out. It's like our age gap was not large,
- 5:17Speaker 1: but it I did not know this movie existed until
- 5:23Speaker 1: Callie told me it was on Netflix. I didn't know
- 5:26Speaker 1: that it existed. I told I did not know it
- 5:29Speaker 1: was the genre of movie it was. I don't know
- 5:31Speaker 1: who was in it, Yeah I was. I mean I
- 5:33Speaker 1: was like two when it came out, so I didn't
- 5:35Speaker 1: see it. It just missed me. So I watched it
- 5:39Speaker 1: to prepare for this episode. And you know, I love
- 5:44Speaker 1: female representation. This is I feel bad because I like,
- 5:46Speaker 1: I did the same thing on the The Little Woman
- 5:49Speaker 1: episode and you're like, it's wonderful coming of age. I
- 5:52Speaker 1: love it, but coming of age for anyone of any gender,
- 5:55Speaker 1: it can be kind of boring, not always the most
- 6:00Speaker 1: fun thing to watch, especially when like this group of
- 6:02Speaker 1: young women, they don't have actual I mean well, I
- 6:06Speaker 1: would say maybe one of them has problems that are significant,
- 6:10Speaker 1: but most of them are like, oh no, like it's
- 6:13Speaker 1: just very You're like, oh, okay, they're going to be fine,
- 6:16Speaker 1: and then we see that, guess what. They're fine. They're fine,
- 6:18Speaker 1: They're fine, everyone's fine. Sure, I mean the stakes, not
- 6:21Speaker 1: the stakes, but they rarely are incoming of age stories.
- 6:26Speaker 1: I think that just comes with the territory. Yes, it's
- 6:28Speaker 1: not my genre, I see, but yeah, so my history
- 6:31Speaker 1: is I watched it. Good great, good history. But this
- 6:36Speaker 1: is a widely beloved movie. I would say one of
- 6:40Speaker 1: our top requests of all time. We've gotten this request
- 6:44Speaker 1: more frequently than almost any movie. So let's dive in,
- 6:47Speaker 1: shall we. Let's do it. I've got the recap. Here.
- 6:50Speaker 1: We meet the four main characters, who are Roberta. She's
- 6:54Speaker 1: played by Christina Ricci as a youth and by Rosie
- 6:58Speaker 1: O'Donnell as an adult. Teeny is Thora Birch and Melanie Griffiths.
- 7:03Speaker 1: Samantha is Gabby Hoffman and Demi Moore, and Chrissie is
- 7:08Speaker 1: Ashley asketon More and Rita Wilson. It's crazy that everyone
- 7:14Speaker 1: like hitters, hitters, hitters in the task and you couldn't
- 7:20Speaker 1: have known that the child stars we're here there they were.
- 7:25Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, every person in this movie delivers a
- 7:29Speaker 1: pretty phenomenal performance. I would say, especially Brendan Fresher. I
- 7:35Speaker 1: could go on about that for hours. There's so many
- 7:39Speaker 1: What is what is this trope of? Because we just
- 7:43Speaker 1: covered it in Home Alone as well of like, you
- 7:46Speaker 1: know that neighbor that you get bad energy from who's
- 7:49Speaker 1: terrifying to you, you should talk to them. I'm like,
- 7:52Speaker 1: what the kind of lesson is that? I know what
- 7:55Speaker 1: they're going for, but it could lead to death potentially. Yeah,
- 8:00Speaker 1: it's the it's the Boo Radley trope. It is. Yeah,
- 8:04Speaker 1: so with this movie it is present, I know, and
- 8:07Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't want to discourage people from talking
- 8:12Speaker 1: to their elders people and and become being empathetic and
- 8:16Speaker 1: but in the same token, there is actually do talk
- 8:20Speaker 1: to strangers, especially if they are going to save your life.
- 8:25Speaker 1: I also, what do they call the neighbor in this movie?
- 8:27Speaker 1: Crazy pete? Okay, I think he killed his family. That's
- 8:32Speaker 1: my hottest. I think that dear Johnny is the new
- 8:37Speaker 1: his wife in terms of gravestone lad absolutely. And I
- 8:41Speaker 1: think that Pete killed his family and feels really bad.
- 8:45Speaker 1: I did have that thought as well. Really like the
- 8:48Speaker 1: way he's presented. I mean, he has a heroic moment
- 8:51Speaker 1: he saves Christina Ricchie from the gutter. It's y. I
- 8:56Speaker 1: also struggled with that because they look very similar as children.
- 8:59Speaker 1: I think it killed his family for sure, not he's
- 9:02Speaker 1: living with the I'm like, what about okay? It makes
- 9:05Speaker 1: it sound like he was a suspect in the murder
- 9:09Speaker 1: because he says to them, oh, I don't like seeing
- 9:13Speaker 1: people and people don't like seeing me. I was like,
- 9:16Speaker 1: because you went to trial, Like, I think that maybe
- 9:19Speaker 1: they should have looked at more micro fusion figured out
- 9:22Speaker 1: like was he a top suspect for this because they
- 9:25Speaker 1: don't say who killed They don't they don't ever find
- 9:27Speaker 1: out who killed. But but he was the one to
- 9:30Speaker 1: discover the bodies. And I don't remember what movie it
- 9:32Speaker 1: is that I just saw, and it actually might be
- 9:35Speaker 1: nives out that the character says you always look at
- 9:39Speaker 1: the person who found the body as a suspect. Is
- 9:43Speaker 1: that I think it's that in like others an other,
- 9:47Speaker 1: but like I was thinking of the staircase because I
- 9:50Speaker 1: was always thinking about the staircase. Yeah, the nineteen forties
- 9:55Speaker 1: way easier to cover up a murder. Also, and he's
- 9:59Speaker 1: and when he was like I shouldn't have been at
- 10:00Speaker 1: that bar, I was like, oh, you killed your family
- 10:04Speaker 1: in a drunken frenzy. And Melanie Griffith is sending him
- 10:07Speaker 1: money for years, this murderer. That is a pretty hot take.
- 10:12Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Anyway, So what is the movie about?
- 10:15Speaker 1: So um, We first see these characters as girls in
- 10:20Speaker 1: nineteen seventy and Shelby, Indiana. They're best friends. We see
- 10:23Speaker 1: them playing Red Rover. Then we cut to them as adults.
- 10:27Speaker 1: They are getting together because they had made a pact
- 10:30Speaker 1: that whenever they needed each other, they would be there
- 10:32Speaker 1: for each other. And right now Christie needs them to
- 10:35Speaker 1: be around because she is about to have a baby.
- 10:38Speaker 1: So we see um teeny. That is again Melanie Griffith,
- 10:43Speaker 1: she is a famous actress. Uh Roberta is Rosie o'donnald
- 10:47Speaker 1: she's an o b g y n. And Samantha Demimour
- 10:50Speaker 1: is a sci fi novelist and also the narrator of
- 10:54Speaker 1: the movie. So then we cut back to them in
- 10:57Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen seventy when they are twelve. We
- 11:00Speaker 1: get little glimpses of their lives, like Samantha's parents are
- 11:04Speaker 1: fighting a lot, and then her dad will eventually leave.
- 11:07Speaker 1: Roberta doesn't like how big her boobs are getting, so
- 11:10Speaker 1: she tapes them down. Um. She lives with her dad
- 11:14Speaker 1: and brothers because her mom died when she was four. Um.
- 11:17Speaker 1: Tina is the only child. She has rich parents who
- 11:20Speaker 1: are never around. She likes to dress up and be glamorous,
- 11:24Speaker 1: and Chrissie, whose mom is played by Bonnie Hunt, comes
- 11:28Speaker 1: in and gives her the sex talk, but she uses
- 11:32Speaker 1: very coded language about flowers and watering cans. Um. Then
- 11:37Speaker 1: we meet the Wormers, this group of den This is
- 11:45Speaker 1: the same year that Casper comes out, which is another
- 11:49Speaker 1: romance between Devin Sawa and Casting Lazy Casting Alert Senior rules. Yes,
- 12:00Speaker 1: I like her a lot, but they are this group
- 12:02Speaker 1: of I think brothers who tease and torment the girls.
- 12:07Speaker 1: They're throwing water balloons full of green jello at them.
- 12:10Speaker 1: The leader is Scott Devin Sawa and the girls they're
- 12:14Speaker 1: saving up money to buy a treehouse. They're twenty three
- 12:17Speaker 1: dollars away. We see them at a diner reading Cosmo.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Their server is will Adine Janine Garoffalo. Great bizarre. We're like, yep,
- 12:28Speaker 1: the two scenes feels about right for this character. What
- 12:32Speaker 1: is going on? So then the girls are like, let's
- 12:35Speaker 1: do a seance. They go to the cemetery. They see
- 12:39Speaker 1: the grave of Dear Johnny or Dear Johnny Johnny his
- 12:43Speaker 1: wife Dear Johnny large font, large large font. Because we
- 12:48Speaker 1: find out the character's real name, the boy's real name,
- 12:51Speaker 1: which is Jonathan Sims, but that is not what's on
- 12:53Speaker 1: his gravestone. On his gravestone says dear Johnny all caps.
- 13:00Speaker 1: And this I will say predates the rock by a year.
- 13:03Speaker 1: So true. Idea was literally Michael Bay saw now and
- 13:10Speaker 1: then and stole There's no way Michael based on now
- 13:13Speaker 1: and then. He was like, more than one woman's in
- 13:15Speaker 1: it and she's clothed, skipping it like there's no way
- 13:18Speaker 1: he saw it. But I like this theory. Dear Johnny.
- 13:22Speaker 1: It's such a like prop tub stone. Really yeah, um,
- 13:29Speaker 1: So dear Johnny died when he was a child in
- 13:32Speaker 1: the nineteen forties, and they think they've conjured up his spirit.
- 13:38Speaker 1: I also believed that they had conjured up his spirit.
- 13:41Speaker 1: It was pretty because like lightning strikes a nearby tree
- 13:45Speaker 1: and in the craft energy from it whend is blowing.
- 13:49Speaker 1: It's very was a cop out. My guess was that
- 13:56Speaker 1: he came later that night after they had left, and
- 13:58Speaker 1: then bro the They were both right, I think, so
- 14:04Speaker 1: I thought there was really a magic a foot, and
- 14:06Speaker 1: I was disappointed when it was revealed. They're like, anyways,
- 14:09Speaker 1: magic isn't real. Fast forward twenty five years. You're like, oh,
- 14:13Speaker 1: that's uh, that's so disappointing. Um. And then they also
- 14:17Speaker 1: see Crazy Pete as they call him, and he's riding
- 14:21Speaker 1: around on his bicycle and they freak out and they
- 14:23Speaker 1: run away. And then I think it's later that night
- 14:25Speaker 1: or maybe the following night, but what seems like a
- 14:28Speaker 1: ghostly presence comes into Samantha's room, so she rounds up
- 14:32Speaker 1: the girls and they go back to the cemetery, and
- 14:34Speaker 1: this is when they find out that dear Johnny's grave
- 14:37Speaker 1: has been smashed, and they think that he's definitely out
- 14:41Speaker 1: and about just hanging around town. Um, how as ghosts do,
- 14:47Speaker 1: and they want to learn more about dear Johnny's death,
- 14:49Speaker 1: but they have to ride their bikes to the nearby
- 14:51Speaker 1: town of Greenfield to go through their old newspaper archives.
- 14:56Speaker 1: On the way, they stopped for some lunch. They play
- 14:58Speaker 1: truth or Dare They talk of sex. Chrissie again doesn't
- 15:02Speaker 1: really know how sex works, because she's talking about flowers
- 15:06Speaker 1: and watering cants and they kind of they laugh at her.
- 15:08Speaker 1: It's cute. Yeah. Then a bird ships on Chrissie's head,
- 15:14Speaker 1: so they go to a pond to wash it off,
- 15:17Speaker 1: and they go swimming. Roberta fakes her death as a joke.
- 15:20Speaker 1: Chrissie gets really mad at her and punches her in
- 15:22Speaker 1: the face. There's a lot of punching. I can't wait
- 15:25Speaker 1: to talk about all the punching, and I'm not even kidding.
- 15:28Speaker 1: And then they see the wormer's skinny dipping nearby, so
- 15:31Speaker 1: they steal their clothes as payback from the jellow attack.
- 15:35Speaker 1: They finally make their way to the library. They go
- 15:38Speaker 1: through the old newspapers. Roberta sees a clipping about her
- 15:42Speaker 1: mother's car accident that caused her death and discovers that
- 15:45Speaker 1: it was more painful and prolonged than her dad had
- 15:48Speaker 1: led her to believe so sad because he she is
- 15:52Speaker 1: amazing in those scenes too. It's like, how old did
- 15:55Speaker 1: she She's like eleven and giving that kind of I
- 15:58Speaker 1: think she's actually like fifteen when he was filmed. Yeah,
- 16:02Speaker 1: she's a little bit older than her character. I might
- 16:04Speaker 1: be a little off, but I think she's older four Okay.
- 16:09Speaker 1: And then they do find something about Jonathan Simms in
- 16:11Speaker 1: the newspapers, but a lot of the pages have been
- 16:13Speaker 1: torn out Jonathan Sims do you mean? And so they're like, oh,
- 16:20Speaker 1: someone wanted to keep this information a secret. On their
- 16:23Speaker 1: way home from the library, they run into Brendan Fraser,
- 16:26Speaker 1: who is a Vietnam War event. Scene is a lot.
- 16:30Speaker 1: It's a lot like it's going for something, and then
- 16:33Speaker 1: it takes You're just like, don't give them cigarettes. What
- 16:38Speaker 1: do you do it? He's a hippie that he starts
- 16:41Speaker 1: smoking cigarette. Yeah. I was like, yeah, if he's doing it,
- 16:45Speaker 1: Demi Moore is doing it, I'm gonna do it bad.
- 16:47Speaker 1: That's bad. So they're still curious about Dear Johnny, Dear Johnny. Um.
- 16:53Speaker 1: So they go to will A Dean who is witchy,
- 16:57Speaker 1: and she does a tarot reading and the result of
- 17:00Speaker 1: which implied that dear Johnny was murdered. Then there's the
- 17:03Speaker 1: softball game. I want to talk all about this scene.
- 17:07Speaker 1: There's more punching. Girls are punching some more and totally
- 17:14Speaker 1: it's like everything that I didn't like about the sand lot,
- 17:19Speaker 1: the opposite happens. It's great. It's very satisfying. Child baseball scene. Yes, um.
- 17:25Speaker 1: And then Samith and Teeny have a heart to heart
- 17:29Speaker 1: in their new tree house, which they now have. We
- 17:32Speaker 1: didnt see them getting it, but they made Yeah. And
- 17:37Speaker 1: then Teeny gives Samantha a friendship bracelet, but on their
- 17:42Speaker 1: ride home, it falls off and goes down a storm drain,
- 17:45Speaker 1: and this is when Samantha goes into the sewer to
- 17:48Speaker 1: retrieve it, but she gets stuck because it starts raining
- 17:51Speaker 1: really hard. But luckily, crazy Pete shows up and saves her.
- 17:55Speaker 1: Uh and then they interact with him a little bit.
- 17:57Speaker 1: This is kind of a side note, but the tree
- 18:00Speaker 1: house they wanted to buy was a hundred dollars adjusted
- 18:03Speaker 1: for inflation. That is an eight hundred fifty dollar treehouse
- 18:07Speaker 1: that they were saving up for. No wonder it took
- 18:10Speaker 1: so long, yeah, eight hundred. I mean it was a
- 18:13Speaker 1: nice treehouse. God, that's rent. Yeah, anyways, we should all
- 18:18Speaker 1: live in a treehouse. You don't need to pay a
- 18:19Speaker 1: super nice treehouse. I would that they brought an infant
- 18:25Speaker 1: into that treehouse and it's very started. It's still there
- 18:29Speaker 1: twenty five years later. How did they get that baby
- 18:32Speaker 1: up there? How did they do that? How did they
- 18:33Speaker 1: get the treehouse up there? Also? That would have had
- 18:37Speaker 1: been like a crane or something, and it must have
- 18:40Speaker 1: taken days. Yeah, I don't know where parents involved. We
- 18:43Speaker 1: don't know. We skipped that entire involved in this movie.
- 18:47Speaker 1: Where aren't parents there there occasionally, but parents are not
- 18:50Speaker 1: painted in a very good light in this movie in general.
- 18:53Speaker 1: That is kind of what you don't mind. So, speaking
- 18:58Speaker 1: of parents, we see the girl's going to Samantha's grandmother's
- 19:03Speaker 1: house to look through her a gambling Chlorus Leachman. She
- 19:09Speaker 1: loves poker, and she wears a wild hairpiece. She that's
- 19:16Speaker 1: her classic wighead. I love it. That scene was both
- 19:19Speaker 1: not necessary and really fun. I don't think anything happens
- 19:23Speaker 1: in that scene really. She's like, oh well, she sort
- 19:26Speaker 1: of says like, oh, I know about dear Johnny, but
- 19:30Speaker 1: I can't tell you about it anyways, gotta go, and
- 19:33Speaker 1: that's basically but then they sneak into the sneak into
- 19:35Speaker 1: the attict and then find out more information about dear Johnny,
- 19:39Speaker 1: which is that he and his mother had indeed been
- 19:42Speaker 1: murdered and they were just the bodies were discovered by
- 19:46Speaker 1: Jonathan's father, Peter sa Um, but we don't make the
- 19:50Speaker 1: connection quite down my spot. And then Roberta, who had
- 19:55Speaker 1: been been like keeping the grief about her mother, kind
- 19:58Speaker 1: of bottled up. Let's it all out and starts crying
- 20:02Speaker 1: another great perform Samantha's Grandma's mirror. Oh yeah, that's chlorus.
- 20:07Speaker 1: Lea is going to find that, like, probably not that day,
- 20:10Speaker 1: but at some point, And I would be scared if
- 20:13Speaker 1: I were her, I wouldn't guess it was Christina Ricci.
- 20:16Speaker 1: She's like, how did this mirror get shattered? Ghosts, ghost
- 20:20Speaker 1: heavy ghost, dear Johnny Johnny um. And this is when
- 20:25Speaker 1: they make the pact that they will always be there
- 20:27Speaker 1: for each other. It's nice, it is nice. And then
- 20:30Speaker 1: they have another sance to put dear Johnny back to rest,
- 20:34Speaker 1: and then we see like his headstone is floating towards them,
- 20:37Speaker 1: but it turns out it's just the graveyard worker installing
- 20:41Speaker 1: the new headstone after he had knocked it over with
- 20:44Speaker 1: his tractor. And then the girls leave um, but Samantha
- 20:47Speaker 1: see's crazy. Pete goes back in and talks to him,
- 20:49Speaker 1: and then she realizes that he is Peter Sims, the
- 20:52Speaker 1: father of Dear Johnny. Uh. And he's always in the
- 20:56Speaker 1: cemetery because he's like paying his respects to his family
- 20:59Speaker 1: that he may remain him. I think he's kind of
- 21:01Speaker 1: like kind of getting off on it a little bit
- 21:05Speaker 1: revisiting and he's like, it's crazy. He goes there every night,
- 21:08Speaker 1: like crazy, I got away with that. It just I can't,
- 21:14Speaker 1: Dear Johnny, I can't believe that I got away with it.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Also never visiting his wife's grave stuff where his wife,
- 21:24Speaker 1: his wife, just Dear Johnny there. And then we cut
- 21:30Speaker 1: to the present with the adults and Christie's and labor.
- 21:33Speaker 1: They go to the hospital she has the baby, and
- 21:36Speaker 1: then afterwards they're all in the tree house and they're
- 21:39Speaker 1: talking about, you know, whether or not they're happy with
- 21:42Speaker 1: their lives. They're talking about the struggles that they're okay.
- 21:46Speaker 1: The ending questions, the series of questions is fascinating because
- 21:53Speaker 1: we find out we asked Demi Moore if she's happy,
- 21:57Speaker 1: she's she's not. We ask Rita will Us, and she's happy.
- 22:01Speaker 1: She is. We asked Rosie O'Donnell how big her boobs are?
- 22:05Speaker 1: And she doesn't answer. We asked Melanie Griffith, nothing. She
- 22:09Speaker 1: tells us she has a boob job. That's the check
- 22:13Speaker 1: in five years later, good round up and you're like sure, yeah, yeah, okay,
- 22:20Speaker 1: I guess we know what characters we were supposed to
- 22:22Speaker 1: care about the I was surprised that we didn't like
- 22:24Speaker 1: revisit Rosie o'donnald's character because in the in the flashbacks,
- 22:28Speaker 1: or I mean, most of the movie is the flashback,
- 22:30Speaker 1: but like, I feel like we spend a lot of
- 22:32Speaker 1: time with her character as a kid and then don't
- 22:37Speaker 1: really have any interest in her as an adult. Like
- 22:40Speaker 1: they're just sort of like, yeah, she's dating someone and
- 22:43Speaker 1: she's happy. How big are her boobs? Though? And you're like, what,
- 22:47Speaker 1: here's my guests. Um. I learned through my research that
- 22:50Speaker 1: her character was written as an out lesbian, but it
- 22:54Speaker 1: didn't test well with audiences, So I'm guessing any part
- 22:57Speaker 1: about that was cut with there were other scenes. This
- 23:01Speaker 1: is like part speculation but if there were other scenes
- 23:03Speaker 1: where we got to know her more as an adult,
- 23:06Speaker 1: they may have been cut for that reason. That's such
- 23:08Speaker 1: a bummer I found. I found an interview with the
- 23:10Speaker 1: writer I'm Marlene King a k A mss pretty Little
- 23:14Speaker 1: Liars herself saying stuff to that effect, and it's like
- 23:18Speaker 1: a bummer. I mean, I hope that those scenes existed,
- 23:21Speaker 1: and it kind of and not including it kind of
- 23:24Speaker 1: makes some of the coding that they try to do
- 23:28Speaker 1: with varying degrees of success, I think ring in this
- 23:32Speaker 1: kind of bizarre way because then you flash forward and
- 23:35Speaker 1: they're like, she's with someone. Don't worry about it, bigary boobs,
- 23:38Speaker 1: Okay bye. Is she a nurse in the future, Um No,
- 23:43Speaker 1: she's an okay, because I was just like, should she
- 23:45Speaker 1: be delivering the baby? Okay? She she's a doctor. That's legal.
- 23:49Speaker 1: That's good, friends, you can do it. It's funny. Very
- 23:53Speaker 1: was that a hospital? I don't know. It was like
- 23:56Speaker 1: it didn't really look like right. It looks kind of
- 23:58Speaker 1: like ahow. Also, final note on the birth scene. I
- 24:03Speaker 1: didn't need to see that realistic of a freshly born baby.
- 24:07Speaker 1: It was it was very bloody and blood Rosie o'donald
- 24:10Speaker 1: also covered in blood. I know that that's what it is,
- 24:13Speaker 1: but I watched movies for a reason. Do not see
- 24:16Speaker 1: bloody babies. I like to see babies born fresh and
- 24:20Speaker 1: fresh at three months old. Do you ever wonder gives
- 24:24Speaker 1: their baby for that role and it's like cover it
- 24:27Speaker 1: And I feel like it's usually the production. I feel
- 24:32Speaker 1: like it's like a production baby. Oftentimes two weeks old baby.
- 24:36Speaker 1: Cover it up. You know what we should do? Cover
- 24:39Speaker 1: it in fake blood. Were almost out breathe and it's
- 24:43Speaker 1: freezing on that set. You know, Just hand it to Rita.
- 24:46Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, I would love to be handed to
- 24:47Speaker 1: Rita Wilson as an adult. I have that story old
- 24:51Speaker 1: life that's um anyway, So that they do their truth
- 24:57Speaker 1: or dearek questions and then they make an other packed
- 25:01Speaker 1: to see more of each other, and then they play
- 25:03Speaker 1: red Rover with some neighborhood kids, which is weird. Wonder
- 25:09Speaker 1: the baby, where's the baby at? Is it with that daddy? That? Yeah,
- 25:14Speaker 1: that was there for because he's a dentist. But anyway,
- 25:19Speaker 1: that's how that's the movie. Let's take a quick break
- 25:21Speaker 1: and then we'll be right back. We're back We're back.
- 25:29Speaker 1: As much as I was saying that this movie was
- 25:31Speaker 1: a little boring to me, it reminds me a lot.
- 25:33Speaker 1: I mean, it's interesting. It seems like it is pulling
- 25:36Speaker 1: from movies that existed at that time. And you can
- 25:39Speaker 1: also see kind of its lineage as it goes down,
- 25:41Speaker 1: because there were a lot of parts of this movie
- 25:43Speaker 1: where I'm like, oh, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants stealing
- 25:46Speaker 1: from now and then at this moment where like a
- 25:48Speaker 1: lot of the scenes where it's the four of them
- 25:49Speaker 1: together in a secret location making a packed You're like, oh,
- 25:53Speaker 1: I see. The production team behind this movie is pretty cool,
- 25:58Speaker 1: pretty legendary. Directed by a woman, famous director, Leslie Lincoln Gladder,
- 26:04Speaker 1: who is directed I think primarily in TV, but she's
- 26:08Speaker 1: directed everything she's did, directing on Twin Peaks. She is
- 26:12Speaker 1: most famous, I think for Homeland, but she directed episodes
- 26:15Speaker 1: of Gilmore Girl. She did greg she did West Wang,
- 26:18Speaker 1: she did Weeds, she did True Blood, she did Pretty
- 26:21Speaker 1: Little Liars because I'm Marilyn King their Friends, she did
- 26:25Speaker 1: a ton of I mean, she's like a legendary director
- 26:28Speaker 1: who is still working all the time. Um, And it's
- 26:31Speaker 1: written by I'm Marline King who her actual names, I know,
- 26:35Speaker 1: Marlene King. I think this was her big break at
- 26:39Speaker 1: the time. This was her first screenplay that was produced,
- 26:44Speaker 1: and I think now she's most famous for Pretty Little Liars,
- 26:48Speaker 1: which is really funny because it is like so like
- 26:51Speaker 1: there was something and now and Then where I'm like, oh,
- 26:55Speaker 1: I'm Marilyne King loves writing scenes where four age or
- 27:00Speaker 1: four girls are in a graveyard planning something, because that's
- 27:05Speaker 1: every scene in Little Liars for ten years. But Little Liars,
- 27:09Speaker 1: I don't necessarily know that it's a feminist text, but
- 27:13Speaker 1: I have seen every episode. I have not seen a
- 27:16Speaker 1: single episode. You can guess what it's like. It's so fa,
- 27:21Speaker 1: I mean, like this is I had no idea that
- 27:24Speaker 1: this was written by her, and I've gone to my head.
- 27:26Speaker 1: Never would guess that Pretty Little Liars and Now and
- 27:30Speaker 1: Then we're written by one and the same other than
- 27:32Speaker 1: if I saw pound for pound the graveyard scenes. But
- 27:35Speaker 1: Pretty Little Liars are usually burying a teacher's body, like
- 27:38Speaker 1: they're not. It sounds like a good show. Yeah, everything
- 27:41Speaker 1: that now and that Now and Then girls want to
- 27:43Speaker 1: happen the prilli Little Liars do every single week. Okay,
- 27:48Speaker 1: they're killing people, they're conjuring people from the dead, they're
- 27:50Speaker 1: doing everything. Wow. Okay yeah. And then also the credited
- 27:54Speaker 1: producers are mostly women. It's also I Marlene King as
- 27:58Speaker 1: well as done more for Todd and Suzanne Todd and
- 28:02Speaker 1: then Eric McLeod yeah, man, the token token male, token producer. Um.
- 28:10Speaker 1: So yeah, it's largely women behind the scenes in the
- 28:14Speaker 1: major creative roles in this movie. So that's something we
- 28:17Speaker 1: do not see very often at all. Yes, so we
- 28:21Speaker 1: love that and it shows. It shows in the way
- 28:23Speaker 1: that the movie is written and frames. I mean there
- 28:27Speaker 1: it was not a female cinematographer I checked. But the
- 28:32Speaker 1: way it's directed is very respectful to its subjects, and
- 28:36Speaker 1: the way it's written is very respectful to its subjects
- 28:38Speaker 1: to Okay, So well, there's a lot to talk about.
- 28:42Speaker 1: As per usual, I wanted to start by just kind
- 28:46Speaker 1: of talking about how this is one of very few
- 28:52Speaker 1: stories we get to see about young girls, a group
- 28:57Speaker 1: of young girls having fun and living life, often being
- 29:01Speaker 1: like tween girls. Uh, It's really not something that's been
- 29:06Speaker 1: explored very much. There are a fair number of like
- 29:09Speaker 1: coming of age stories about women, but they're usually a
- 29:12Speaker 1: little bit older, and I think a lot of the time,
- 29:14Speaker 1: and this movie sort of includes this but doesn't really
- 29:18Speaker 1: harp on it too much. But I feel like a
- 29:20Speaker 1: lot of times you see movies about young girls, it
- 29:23Speaker 1: is focused specifically on like an extreme trauma and that
- 29:28Speaker 1: like young girls are not often allowed to just be,
- 29:32Speaker 1: like you said, like having fun and like living life,
- 29:34Speaker 1: and there's problems there always are, but like I feel
- 29:36Speaker 1: like there, yeah, there is a large amount of teen
- 29:39Speaker 1: girl movies where it's strictly focused on, especially of this age,
- 29:44Speaker 1: like twelve thirteen, because once you get to teenagers, then
- 29:48Speaker 1: it's all about sex and they always objectified a lot.
- 29:51Speaker 1: But in this age, I feel like sometimes you vote
- 29:53Speaker 1: just have like an extreme trauma harped on the entire
- 29:56Speaker 1: I remember the movie thirteen Stable. I mean like movies
- 30:00Speaker 1: like that where it was like, oh my god, where
- 30:04Speaker 1: they're like, hey, young girls, the world is out to
- 30:07Speaker 1: kill you. And so it is like it is kind
- 30:10Speaker 1: of nice to just see girls growing up being people.
- 30:15Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, they're turning into who they want to
- 30:17Speaker 1: be or they're finding themselves. So it's like this weird
- 30:20Speaker 1: in between time where they're like it seems like they're
- 30:23Speaker 1: friends because of their location they're all neighbors, and then
- 30:26Speaker 1: they're all like kind of branching out and finding what
- 30:29Speaker 1: they like and who they are. And it's nice, it's cute.
- 30:31Speaker 1: I think it's sweet because it's also a very relatable,
- 30:34Speaker 1: realistic experience for a lot of people, for very different characters.
- 30:40Speaker 1: My only confusion the whole movie was that I kept
- 30:42Speaker 1: mixing up Christina Richie and Gabby Hoffman and it got
- 30:46Speaker 1: hard for me. I might do it during the podcast too.
- 30:48Speaker 1: That's okay, I'll be here to set everything straight, Thank
- 30:52Speaker 1: you so much. Um. But I just wanted to kind
- 30:55Speaker 1: of talk a little bit about some of the things
- 30:57Speaker 1: we see them doing, because girls in movies usually we
- 31:01Speaker 1: see them doing pretty traditionally feminine things or not doing
- 31:06Speaker 1: anything at all. But in this movie, and there is
- 31:08Speaker 1: some like you know, traditionally feminine stuff we see them doing,
- 31:12Speaker 1: but a lot of it is just pretty neutral because
- 31:14Speaker 1: we see them like riding bikes, swimming, staving up to
- 31:18Speaker 1: buy a tree house eight hundred fifty dollars so much money. Um,
- 31:25Speaker 1: They're doing seances, They're hanging out at a diner. They
- 31:29Speaker 1: sometimes are you know, like talking about boys and sex
- 31:32Speaker 1: and the reading Cosmo. They're exchanging friendship bracelets. But then
- 31:35Speaker 1: we see them like painting a garage door. So we
- 31:38Speaker 1: see like this whole array of just like very normal stuff,
- 31:41Speaker 1: stuff that I did three teen at that age exactly,
- 31:44Speaker 1: And it was just really refreshing to see girls doing
- 31:48Speaker 1: normal things and then like what it felt like a
- 31:51Speaker 1: pretty realistic way. I mean, there was like more that
- 31:56Speaker 1: happened in this movie that I didn't expect. I mean
- 31:59Speaker 1: you saw them hurting each other's feelings sometimes you saw
- 32:04Speaker 1: them uh and and was that like weren't positive, but
- 32:07Speaker 1: we're realistic of like how kids that age make fun
- 32:10Speaker 1: of each other. They were teasing each other. You could
- 32:12Speaker 1: see moments where they wanted to understand each other, but
- 32:16Speaker 1: we're not equipped to understand each other quite yet. Like
- 32:19Speaker 1: just there were all these really cool, like well written
- 32:21Speaker 1: moments of like, oh, I think maybe I blocked that
- 32:24Speaker 1: out for like on that, but it felt Yeah, it
- 32:27Speaker 1: all felt pretty because a lot of what we see
- 32:30Speaker 1: and if there is like a twelve year old girl
- 32:31Speaker 1: in a movie, she's doing the thing that we hate,
- 32:33Speaker 1: which is the precocious child trope where she's like wise
- 32:36Speaker 1: beyond her years and just somehow knows everything about everything
- 32:39Speaker 1: but here we see like very realistic, age appropriate depictions
- 32:45Speaker 1: of these girls, like and yeah, they're not always right.
- 32:49Speaker 1: Sometimes they behave shitty a lot of times they're being
- 32:52Speaker 1: mean to each other. Um, but that is kind of
- 32:55Speaker 1: the human experience, especially when you're that age, and they're
- 32:59Speaker 1: like dealing with yeah, like how she fakes her own
- 33:01Speaker 1: death and she just doesn't know how to deal with it,
- 33:03Speaker 1: and they're just like, don't be an asshole, and but
- 33:05Speaker 1: they don't know how to communicate that quite And I
- 33:09Speaker 1: love the scenes when they're on their bikes, so I
- 33:10Speaker 1: think that's so cute. I love the music. It's yeah
- 33:14Speaker 1: the music track. I grew up in like a suburban town,
- 33:17Speaker 1: I guess, even though it's kind of in l a adjacent,
- 33:21Speaker 1: But we would do that stuff all the time when
- 33:22Speaker 1: I was like twelve, Like there would be like a
- 33:24Speaker 1: crew of girls because you know, it wasn't shitty where
- 33:27Speaker 1: I lived yet, and it was it was awesome. There's
- 33:30Speaker 1: like nobody around. There was no Brendan Frasier's yet, but
- 33:32Speaker 1: you know, there definitely was people that bought a cigarettes,
- 33:36Speaker 1: which is awful. Um. One of the first things you
- 33:41Speaker 1: see in the movie is they're all playing red rover
- 33:44Speaker 1: on their side. It's just the four of them, and
- 33:47Speaker 1: they call over a little boy I forget his name,
- 33:52Speaker 1: but he can't break their bond, symbolizing the friendship that
- 33:57Speaker 1: can't be broken. And then also it's like, oh, these
- 34:00Speaker 1: girls are triumphing over a boy in a game that
- 34:03Speaker 1: tests physical strength, and then we're just like strong female protectives.
- 34:08Speaker 1: We got them. It doesn't ring with the same message
- 34:10Speaker 1: when they do it again five years later, still with
- 34:14Speaker 1: a twelve year old boy, but you know, I get
- 34:16Speaker 1: what they were going for. I would have loved if
- 34:18Speaker 1: they brought back like Devin saw what twenty five years
- 34:21Speaker 1: later to be like run at our arms and he's like, no,
- 34:24Speaker 1: you just you just gave birth. I'm not going to
- 34:26Speaker 1: run at you. Um yeah, I mean. Another thing I
- 34:29Speaker 1: really like about this movie is that, as you said, Jamie, like,
- 34:32Speaker 1: they're characterized very differently. They have very different personalities, which
- 34:36Speaker 1: is kind of remarkable because usually a movie doesn't allow
- 34:40Speaker 1: more than one woman to be in it, and if
- 34:43Speaker 1: there are more than one woman, it's kind of hard
- 34:45Speaker 1: to differentiate them because they're not characterized very well. In
- 34:47Speaker 1: this movie, you get such strong characterizations of all of them,
- 34:51Speaker 1: and we get to know quite a bit about each one.
- 34:55Speaker 1: I think the character we learn least about is Teeny. Yeah,
- 34:59Speaker 1: I would say that's very thing, which I think again
- 35:02Speaker 1: is I mean, and this is a very very very
- 35:04Speaker 1: very very white movie. But I think the only like
- 35:08Speaker 1: one of the only people of color we see is
- 35:10Speaker 1: just kicked out of his own limo and left in
- 35:13Speaker 1: the dust. I was like, Limo driver, they don't even
- 35:17Speaker 1: drive his limo. He's not even allowed to drive his
- 35:20Speaker 1: ow damn limo. But so this is a small victory.
- 35:24Speaker 1: But I think that like a lesser movie would strictly
- 35:28Speaker 1: focus on Teeny and focus on the most like the
- 35:31Speaker 1: most hyperfeminine um of Like, I feel like there's a
- 35:35Speaker 1: tendency of movies to focus on the most hyperfeminine and
- 35:39Speaker 1: sideline characters who were not that we're in this one.
- 35:43Speaker 1: It's the exact opposite where it's kind of I think
- 35:45Speaker 1: that we're supposed to believe. I mean, if Demi Moore's
- 35:49Speaker 1: wardrobe is to be believed supposed to be a weird girl,
- 35:53Speaker 1: which is like, I'm never buying Demi Moore is a
- 35:55Speaker 1: weird girl. But like, I get it. I saw the sunglasses,
- 35:59Speaker 1: but like it focuses. I think onto like like the
- 36:02Speaker 1: quote unquote weird girls, and you see there's a little
- 36:06Speaker 1: bit of body diversity, especially when their kids, where Chrissie
- 36:11Speaker 1: is bigger and she is mercif for it in a
- 36:17Speaker 1: way that like almost turned my my stomach a little
- 36:20Speaker 1: bit because you're like, oh, I you know, like you
- 36:22Speaker 1: see kids be treated like that when you're a kid,
- 36:25Speaker 1: like and and and because at first, when I was
- 36:27Speaker 1: watching the scenes with Christy as an adult, I'm like,
- 36:30Speaker 1: she she's like kind of like being pretty hard on them,
- 36:33Speaker 1: and then you flash back and see how they used
- 36:34Speaker 1: to treat her. I'm like, Oh, she's right, greedy. Wilson's
- 36:37Speaker 1: totally right to be dumping on them. They she's just
- 36:40Speaker 1: getting worthy revenge. Here's I feel like my cousins and
- 36:44Speaker 1: I still do that to each other. Sometimes we're like,
- 36:46Speaker 1: I'm like, why would she just mean to me? And
- 36:48Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, probably because of that thing I did
- 36:50Speaker 1: with the like a thumb print pad into that I
- 36:55Speaker 1: was just I just had an my cousin bring up
- 36:57Speaker 1: an argument we had when we were six results about
- 37:01Speaker 1: one of those ink pads. Yeah, anyways, did you get
- 37:05Speaker 1: in call over her? No? I poured water on her
- 37:08Speaker 1: ink pad by mistake, and then there was no more
- 37:11Speaker 1: ink left in it, and I denied, denied, denied, and
- 37:14Speaker 1: then she got in trouble with her mom because she
- 37:17Speaker 1: had to get a new ink pad, and it was
- 37:20Speaker 1: a whole thing. We're still talking about it today. Apparently
- 37:23Speaker 1: I'm a liar. But I did like how Christie is like,
- 37:27Speaker 1: I'm not fat, and like she sticks up for herself
- 37:30Speaker 1: even though they kind of ras her. She's kind of
- 37:33Speaker 1: like I'm not I like how she's just like I'm
- 37:35Speaker 1: not painting that. I'm like I have to eat every
- 37:38Speaker 1: two hours. I love her character. She's great, Okay, her
- 37:44Speaker 1: friends are pretty cruel to her and behind her back
- 37:48Speaker 1: as well. That was most mad. Likewise, when Teeny and
- 37:53Speaker 1: Samantha Samantha, they're like making fun of Christie behind her
- 37:56Speaker 1: back as well. I'm like, get oh the scene they're
- 38:00Speaker 1: talking about, like if you were on an island and
- 38:02Speaker 1: there's nothing to eat, who of us would you eat?
- 38:05Speaker 1: And she says, Chrissy because she would feed more people. Yeah,
- 38:09Speaker 1: there's quite a few scenes like that. Um, it's so
- 38:13Speaker 1: like cringe e to watch. But you're like, but but
- 38:16Speaker 1: it's like, not like I'm ruling King's like making something up.
- 38:20Speaker 1: It's just it's really it's weird. It's it is conflicting
- 38:24Speaker 1: because it's on one hand, she's like depicting something that
- 38:26Speaker 1: for sure happens, and probably I would guess happened more
- 38:31Speaker 1: in the seventies than it would in nineteen because I
- 38:34Speaker 1: think I'm hoping kids are brought up to be a
- 38:38Speaker 1: little bit more accepting than they were back in the day. Um,
- 38:42Speaker 1: but you know woke kids out there. But um, yeah,
- 38:46Speaker 1: shout out my will kids. Um. I don't have any
- 38:48Speaker 1: children in my own obviously, none of us. But I
- 38:52Speaker 1: mean there's a lot of scenes like that where it's
- 38:55Speaker 1: not only the characters targeting her and being cruel of
- 39:00Speaker 1: her because of her weight, but it also is the
- 39:02Speaker 1: movie the narrative makes some choices which are that like
- 39:06Speaker 1: she when they're like bicycling to Greenfield, which is nine
- 39:10Speaker 1: miles away by the way, we see on a little
- 39:12Speaker 1: sign um that like she's the one who needs to
- 39:15Speaker 1: stop for a break. She's the one who like doesn't
- 39:19Speaker 1: want to participate in the painting of the garage door
- 39:22Speaker 1: because she has to eat when the girls are saving
- 39:26Speaker 1: like swimming really fast because I think Roberta is dead
- 39:29Speaker 1: in the water. She's like struggling really hard to swim
- 39:33Speaker 1: and keep up, like she's always just kind of like
- 39:34Speaker 1: lagging behind. They make her have a head start when
- 39:36Speaker 1: they steal the voice you better there. It's Yeah, I
- 39:43Speaker 1: think that like that it's not as sensitively written as
- 39:46Speaker 1: it should be, which is a bummer because like that
- 39:49Speaker 1: would be if we were a little more thoughtfully written,
- 39:50Speaker 1: it would be like that is something that happens with kids,
- 39:54Speaker 1: and I think it's worthy of exploring. But yeah, I
- 39:57Speaker 1: don't think she really ever got the chance still like
- 40:00Speaker 1: stand up for herself in a really meaningful way about
- 40:04Speaker 1: Gerry O'Connell. You know what I mean. We had a
- 40:10Speaker 1: discussion similar to this on Book Smart. But what what
- 40:13Speaker 1: I think a movie like Book Smart course corrects is that, like,
- 40:16Speaker 1: we do have a plus sized character in the Beanie
- 40:18Speaker 1: Feldstine character in that movie, and it's never her weight
- 40:22Speaker 1: and size is never called attention to, it's never made
- 40:25Speaker 1: fun of. And I think if this if now and
- 40:28Speaker 1: then we're like remade today, her size would be treated
- 40:33Speaker 1: very differently. But because it came out in the mid nineties,
- 40:37Speaker 1: it's treated the way it is and again I wonder
- 40:39Speaker 1: because it's like I'm rolling King is by all accounts
- 40:43Speaker 1: a pretty forward thinking writer, and the fact that she
- 40:46Speaker 1: wrote in an out character in the nineties, even though
- 40:50Speaker 1: it got you know, taken out, which is very nineties,
- 40:53Speaker 1: you know, I wonder if there was a draft where
- 40:55Speaker 1: that was like dealt with more thoughtfully. And then they're like, no,
- 40:58Speaker 1: body standards are still extremely rigid. I can't do it.
- 41:01Speaker 1: Could be I don't know, but yeah, I just I
- 41:03Speaker 1: don't love the way that the movie frames it in flashback.
- 41:07Speaker 1: I am glad to see her kind of like subtly
- 41:10Speaker 1: dump on her friends in the future because they were
- 41:12Speaker 1: assholds to her. Um, we had to take another quick break,
- 41:16Speaker 1: but then we'll come right back, and we're back just
- 41:25Speaker 1: to continue the conversation about Chrissie a little bit more.
- 41:29Speaker 1: And this is just kind of one of the things
- 41:31Speaker 1: that we see that like differentiates her from her friends
- 41:35Speaker 1: and that we see all these different personality types, is
- 41:38Speaker 1: that Chrissie has some somewhat regressive ideas and she really
- 41:43Speaker 1: subscribes to traditional feminine norms. Um, we're like Robertas splashing
- 41:50Speaker 1: around in some puddles and then like Chrissie says, like ROBERTA,
- 41:54Speaker 1: why can't you just act like a girl. And then
- 41:56Speaker 1: later during the softball fight, which I want to talk
- 41:58Speaker 1: all about, she's like, remember your lady when she's about
- 42:02Speaker 1: to go like punch a dude. Yeah, I mean I
- 42:05Speaker 1: was like I noticed, but it's for me. I'm like, okay,
- 42:09Speaker 1: First of all, it's nineteen seventy. Second of all, there
- 42:11Speaker 1: are enough diversities of opinions on what womanhood is. And
- 42:16Speaker 1: I feel like that's almost like what the whole flashback
- 42:19Speaker 1: is about, is like about each of them defining like
- 42:23Speaker 1: who am I and like what is womanhood to me?
- 42:27Speaker 1: Because they all sort of have like a different and
- 42:29Speaker 1: then at the end they're like, you know, we were
- 42:31Speaker 1: all trying to be the same person, but we're very different.
- 42:33Speaker 1: So I mean, just the fact that you see like
- 42:36Speaker 1: one of the characters like taping down her boobs and
- 42:38Speaker 1: then another one trying to augment them, like really just
- 42:45Speaker 1: telling again of like a very not the same person
- 42:48Speaker 1: these characters, Like really they really go for it there.
- 42:51Speaker 1: She's like brushing her hair, counting how many times, and
- 42:55Speaker 1: like Chris Sie, her mom is so just like put
- 42:58Speaker 1: this thing down and like yeah, Bonny Hunt and when
- 43:02Speaker 1: she says that thing about like, oh, I can't French
- 43:04Speaker 1: kiss the guy because like they want everything, which it's
- 43:10Speaker 1: such a twelve year old thing to say. My mom
- 43:12Speaker 1: told me when I was I think about that age.
- 43:15Speaker 1: She told me and my friend Lindsay that I don't
- 43:17Speaker 1: know why she would lie about this, but it was
- 43:19Speaker 1: I so believed her for so long. She was just
- 43:21Speaker 1: like because I think I read in a magazine about
- 43:24Speaker 1: French kissing and I must have just said it. And
- 43:27Speaker 1: she was like, I've never French kissed anyone before. I
- 43:30Speaker 1: was like what, and she's like, it's gross, there's germs.
- 43:34Speaker 1: Don't do it. I would never like. She was like
- 43:38Speaker 1: it was such a weird lie. But I like until
- 43:42Speaker 1: I was like at French kissing level myself, and I
- 43:46Speaker 1: was like, wait, there's no way she was telling the
- 43:48Speaker 1: truth about never having But what if she was telling
- 43:51Speaker 1: the truth, you know, we're not always never kissed with tongue.
- 43:54Speaker 1: I think she'll probably listen to this. And I never
- 43:57Speaker 1: talked to her about it, but later I just was like, oh,
- 43:59Speaker 1: what a weird lie. Jail tweet at us just the truth?
- 44:02Speaker 1: Truth or day or jail? Do you ever did you.
- 44:09Speaker 1: That would be such a cool fact about how are you?
- 44:12Speaker 1: How are you to children? I've never kissed with tome Um.
- 44:17Speaker 1: That reminds me kind of of one of my favorite
- 44:19Speaker 1: scenes in the movie when they have discovered the Wormer's
- 44:23Speaker 1: skinny dipping, which seeing boys their naked butts, their naked bodies,
- 44:29Speaker 1: minus we don't see their penises, but like, I don't know,
- 44:32Speaker 1: it's weird, it's but they're watching the Warmer's skinny dipping,
- 44:38Speaker 1: which is like a rare example of like a female
- 44:41Speaker 1: gaze moment in a movie. And then Teeny's like, I
- 44:46Speaker 1: saw Scott's penis, and then Roberto and Samantha like they
- 44:49Speaker 1: also sneak a peek, and then Chrissy is like, great,
- 44:52Speaker 1: now I'm the only one who hasn't seen it. It'll
- 44:53Speaker 1: be the topic of conversation and I'll be left out.
- 44:56Speaker 1: So I better see it. But only because you're forcing me,
- 44:58Speaker 1: and I do this out of protests and they're all,
- 45:00Speaker 1: we're not enforcing, and she's like, fine, I'll do it.
- 45:03Speaker 1: You're you're you're forcing my eyes. And then it's like
- 45:06Speaker 1: you just wanted to see a boy's dick and it's
- 45:09Speaker 1: not that big she said yeah. She's like it's not
- 45:11Speaker 1: that big, and then the Sara Birch is like, yeah,
- 45:14Speaker 1: he has to have a heart on and then she
- 45:16Speaker 1: puts her hands out as if like a hard on
- 45:19Speaker 1: is like a foot and a half long. To Suby
- 45:22Speaker 1: Sandwiches love it. It's adorable. I'm like wondering, I'm like,
- 45:28Speaker 1: how much did the I mean, I guess the actors
- 45:30Speaker 1: are like a few, like a year or two older
- 45:33Speaker 1: than their parts. I'm like, how much do they know
- 45:35Speaker 1: that this is a joke? Oh? True, don't because they're
- 45:39Speaker 1: still quite young. They're very young. They're actors brains, that's true.
- 45:45Speaker 1: They've they've lived many lives. They've grown up fast. Um.
- 45:50Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about another thing I really like
- 45:52Speaker 1: about this movie, which is the you see a lot
- 45:56Speaker 1: of moments where boys are underestimating girl. Um. We see
- 46:02Speaker 1: the like jello balloon fight, and then Robert is like
- 46:07Speaker 1: chasing after them and it's like we owe you wormers,
- 46:09Speaker 1: and we always pay our debts. And then Devin saw
- 46:12Speaker 1: his character responds um and he says, yeah, look, we're
- 46:15Speaker 1: really afraid of a bunch of girls. And she's like, yeah,
- 46:17Speaker 1: you should be. And then later they do enact revenge,
- 46:20Speaker 1: which is like sweet revenge by stealing their clothes. Again,
- 46:24Speaker 1: I don't want to see naked boy. Didn't need that shot,
- 46:27Speaker 1: but I like babies. They're a little yeah it's not.
- 46:35Speaker 1: And then the red Rover thing when they the little
- 46:38Speaker 1: boy can't break through their you know, unbreakable friendship and
- 46:44Speaker 1: dare and then the softball game softball game scene. Can
- 46:52Speaker 1: I go beat by beat with what happens here because
- 46:54Speaker 1: I love it so much, Everything except the creepy little
- 46:57Speaker 1: future husband being like any kind She's like, get lost, loser,
- 47:02Speaker 1: and now you're going to be my wife like assistance
- 47:07Speaker 1: and then wear her down. I mean, yes, everything else
- 47:12Speaker 1: is everything else. Here's here's what happens the girls here
- 47:16Speaker 1: about a softball game happening off in the distance, and
- 47:20Speaker 1: Roberta is like, let's go, and it's Roberta's turned to bat.
- 47:24Speaker 1: And then Devin Sawa was like, all right, everybody move
- 47:27Speaker 1: in because they are not anticipating that she will hit
- 47:30Speaker 1: the ball very hard or far. And then feminist icon
- 47:34Speaker 1: little boy who we've never seen before and we will
- 47:37Speaker 1: never see again. I don't think it is weird that
- 47:39Speaker 1: they don't just have one of the warmer brothers say it,
- 47:42Speaker 1: but they just choose it's a random kid, and he says,
- 47:46Speaker 1: it's just a pretty good performance. He's like sitting on
- 47:49Speaker 1: top of a fence with his arms crossed, like, hey, no,
- 47:53Speaker 1: I'm not even talking about you're not even no. Okay,
- 47:56Speaker 1: so true feminist icon. Little boy in the field who says,
- 48:01Speaker 1: come on, Roberta hit it over their heads. And then
- 48:04Speaker 1: another kids like showed up. He's doing the bare minimum.
- 48:07Speaker 1: He's a feminist okay um, and then Roberta she hits
- 48:14Speaker 1: the ball. First one is a foul ball, and then
- 48:16Speaker 1: shitty boy not feminist icon not playing. Yeah, it's not
- 48:22Speaker 1: even playing. He had extreme like resting bully face, like
- 48:26Speaker 1: the kid just looked like a bully and they went
- 48:29Speaker 1: hey and you're like, oh no, He's like, who are
- 48:32Speaker 1: you kidding? Girls can't play softball? And then she says
- 48:35Speaker 1: what did you say? And he says, I said girls
- 48:39Speaker 1: can't play softball, and then she throws down her bat
- 48:42Speaker 1: and storms toward him, and this is when Chrissy's like,
- 48:45Speaker 1: remember you're a lady. And then he's like, why don't
- 48:48Speaker 1: you go home and play with your dolls? And then
- 48:50Speaker 1: Chrissie says, the only doll Roberta has is a g
- 48:53Speaker 1: I Joe and then right, and then Roberta punches him
- 48:58Speaker 1: in the face. He falls down. She starts wailing on him.
- 49:02Speaker 1: It's great. Her friends pull her off of him. He
- 49:06Speaker 1: calls Roberta a crazy bitch. And then Samantha says, how
- 49:10Speaker 1: does it feel to get the crap kicked out of
- 49:12Speaker 1: you but a girl? Which I don't necessarily know how
- 49:15Speaker 1: I feel about that, But he says, too bad, your
- 49:18Speaker 1: mother's did. Somebody needs to teach you how to act
- 49:21Speaker 1: like a girl? Like who is this? How does he
- 49:24Speaker 1: know so much about in the city? Who? He doesn't
- 49:28Speaker 1: even go here exactly? And then Samantha tackles him and
- 49:33Speaker 1: then another fight ensues. It's great, love it and you've
- 49:36Speaker 1: all felt that feeling right. We were like, I'm gonna
- 49:38Speaker 1: fight for my friend, I mean not physically. Every actor
- 49:42Speaker 1: involved in this scene is wonderful. I also want to
- 49:45Speaker 1: shout out whoever edited in the sound effects, because it
- 49:48Speaker 1: makes the fight sound so brutal, like when Christina Riccie
- 49:52Speaker 1: throws the first punch and you hear it connects like
- 49:55Speaker 1: but you're like, oh my god, she like broke his nose,
- 49:58Speaker 1: Like it's so brutal, it's really good. So just to
- 50:01Speaker 1: kind of continue off of that sentiment on another thing
- 50:04Speaker 1: I really like about this movie is that you get
- 50:07Speaker 1: to see girls kind of misbehaving, not being like the
- 50:12Speaker 1: prim and proper societal expectation of what girls are supposed
- 50:17Speaker 1: to be. Because you see them throwing punches. You see
- 50:20Speaker 1: them smoking cigarettes and perhaps that was too influential and
- 50:24Speaker 1: it made people start smoking, but you know, you see
- 50:28Speaker 1: them it's like sneaking out at night being wrong. Yeah,
- 50:32Speaker 1: Like you get to see them make mistakes, and they
- 50:34Speaker 1: all make mistakes in different ways, and then you sort
- 50:37Speaker 1: of get enough background on each character to understand why
- 50:40Speaker 1: they are making these specific mistakes. I mean, I think
- 50:43Speaker 1: Roberta is probably the easiest example to draw from there.
- 50:47Speaker 1: Of um, sometimes you see her act out and it's
- 50:50Speaker 1: confusing to her friends, but it is like rooted in
- 50:52Speaker 1: this trauma she has with what happened with her mother,
- 50:55Speaker 1: And like you just you get to see a wide
- 50:56Speaker 1: range of emotions and reactions and most of them don't
- 51:01Speaker 1: seem like rooted in any stereotype because you just know
- 51:04Speaker 1: the character well enough to understand why they would do it.
- 51:07Speaker 1: Truly that simple. Yeah, It's almost as if when you
- 51:12Speaker 1: try hard at writing a female character, we get a
- 51:17Speaker 1: sense of who they are will come across go fair. Um,
- 51:23Speaker 1: can we talk about Roberta a little bit? So I
- 51:25Speaker 1: really liked that this I think the heaviest thing this
- 51:30Speaker 1: movie really tackles is her grief, right, and I think
- 51:34Speaker 1: they kind of want you to be equally sad about
- 51:36Speaker 1: Gabby Hoffman's parents divorce, even though I'm kind of like whatever,
- 51:40Speaker 1: But although it is like it does seem like it's
- 51:43Speaker 1: the kind of divorce, like a very nine seventy, like
- 51:45Speaker 1: dad leaves for milk and doesn't come back kind of divorce,
- 51:48Speaker 1: which is awful, especially because like divorce wasn't as popular
- 51:53Speaker 1: back then. Because I even say, it's so hot right now, Um,
- 51:58Speaker 1: no other families on the block or like that was
- 52:01Speaker 1: the first family that like divorce kind of thing? Absolutely,
- 52:05Speaker 1: I mean, but but I think in terms of like
- 52:07Speaker 1: lifelong drama, I mean, Roberta takes the case in the
- 52:10Speaker 1: trauma Wars of this movie, she because women being competition,
- 52:15Speaker 1: women be competing with each other over who's the most traumatized.
- 52:19Speaker 1: I liked that this movie and I feel like it
- 52:21Speaker 1: dealt with it pretty responsibly. Um tried to handle a
- 52:25Speaker 1: child grieving. I feel like that's not something you see
- 52:28Speaker 1: a lot really ever in a way that is I mean,
- 52:32Speaker 1: I I kind of I'm curious. I'm like, what kind
- 52:34Speaker 1: of research did I'm Erilyn King do when she was
- 52:36Speaker 1: writing this, because it seemed pretty grounded in, like you know,
- 52:40Speaker 1: she would act out. You would see she was trying to,
- 52:43Speaker 1: like when she would fake her own death. It was
- 52:46Speaker 1: like trying to normalize it for herself, trying to have
- 52:48Speaker 1: a sense of humor about it, and then having like
- 52:51Speaker 1: these really emotional moments. It was just like I thought
- 52:53Speaker 1: it was really like well done, beautiful, and especially because
- 52:58Speaker 1: Roberta's character and and now knowing that Roberta, who grows
- 53:02Speaker 1: up to be Rosie O'donnald was supposed to be kind
- 53:05Speaker 1: of this queer coded character that they later kind of
- 53:08Speaker 1: undo that work and then they're like, Okay, now Devin
- 53:10Speaker 1: saw what is here. There's there's there's a lot going
- 53:12Speaker 1: on with her character. I don't know, like Roberta just
- 53:15Speaker 1: she's such a rich character. And I wish that the
- 53:19Speaker 1: Devin saw what thing was like. I wish you could
- 53:20Speaker 1: just be out but the taping down her breasts thing
- 53:23Speaker 1: when she was younger, I thought was like, I was like, oh,
- 53:27Speaker 1: what is what are they trying to say here? And
- 53:30Speaker 1: I feel like that kind of gets a little bit muddled,
- 53:33Speaker 1: but it was, I mean, it was interesting to see
- 53:35Speaker 1: that period. You don't see that a lot in movies,
- 53:38Speaker 1: especially movies that are like directed at children. I don't know,
- 53:41Speaker 1: I just really like her, But it's just particularly pertaining
- 53:44Speaker 1: to how the movie tackles the idea of grief with
- 53:48Speaker 1: kids and doesn't ever really cut away to an adult
- 53:53Speaker 1: explaining her own grief to her. It's her figuring out
- 53:56Speaker 1: her grief with the kids that she knows, and them
- 54:00Speaker 1: all working it out kind of together as well as
- 54:02Speaker 1: they can. If that was like, it was beautiful. And
- 54:05Speaker 1: I think it's like suggested that no one is helping
- 54:08Speaker 1: her deal with it. She's in a nineteen seventies house
- 54:12Speaker 1: full of boys and dad probably like all emotionally repressed,
- 54:15Speaker 1: like like I don't know what to do. I mean yeah,
- 54:19Speaker 1: And I was like and and and seeing her just
- 54:21Speaker 1: I mean, god, I can't imagine how much that day
- 54:24Speaker 1: the library fucked her up in the years that followed,
- 54:26Speaker 1: because of course her dad wouldn't tell herself, so it's
- 54:32Speaker 1: like that's not a fault of her dad. It just
- 54:33Speaker 1: seems like her dad's got, you know, a lot on
- 54:35Speaker 1: his plate, and she just is like trained to suppress.
- 54:39Speaker 1: It's like sitty to see sad, but it's really nice
- 54:43Speaker 1: to see her get like support from her friends and
- 54:46Speaker 1: kind of that like twelve year old thing of like
- 54:48Speaker 1: they're trying to relate with each other. They're like, I
- 54:50Speaker 1: get it and they don't, but they want to and
- 54:52Speaker 1: that's enough. And kind of the same thing with the
- 54:55Speaker 1: divorce narrative. I guess I have a question about. One
- 54:58Speaker 1: of the things that felt a little weird to me
- 55:01Speaker 1: in this movie was how Samantha's mother was treated. I
- 55:05Speaker 1: didn't really like how they treated Samantha's mother. It's one
- 55:09Speaker 1: of those things I feel like it almost is like
- 55:11Speaker 1: I understand what they were going for, but the movie
- 55:14Speaker 1: seems to decide with the child a little too much,
- 55:17Speaker 1: and kind of the same way where they almost side
- 55:19Speaker 1: with the kids that are making fun of young Chrissie's
- 55:22Speaker 1: body a little too much. Where Samantha is not happy
- 55:26Speaker 1: that her you know, her parents are split up. Obviously,
- 55:29Speaker 1: most kids aren't happy when that happens, especially in nineteen seventy.
- 55:33Speaker 1: But then the way that we see Samantha's mother in
- 55:36Speaker 1: a different scene where it just all felt a little
- 55:39Speaker 1: weird and unrealistic, where the mother is inviting a first
- 55:42Speaker 1: date over to their house dinner or dinner, and then
- 55:46Speaker 1: like it's it's the writing is weird in this scene
- 55:49Speaker 1: because I think we're supposed to like interpret Samantha's mother
- 55:52Speaker 1: is kind of like this irresponsible villain, uh for bringing
- 55:56Speaker 1: home a first date her kids kind of sad, is
- 55:59Speaker 1: like she has good intentions but like doesn't really know
- 56:03Speaker 1: how to execute them adequately or something like that. And
- 56:08Speaker 1: what what adults brings a first date home to meet
- 56:10Speaker 1: their children? You know? Like I mean it was and
- 56:16Speaker 1: I kind of appreciate that this movie doesn't focus on
- 56:19Speaker 1: the parents significantly at all, and it's mostly about the
- 56:22Speaker 1: relationship between the girls, but yeah, I just felt like
- 56:25Speaker 1: it's a very small gripe. But I felt like Samantha's
- 56:28Speaker 1: mom kind of got shaft and and and no no
- 56:32Speaker 1: real opportunity to explain, you know, where she was coming
- 56:36Speaker 1: from or you know. But but also it's like I'm
- 56:39Speaker 1: sure parents weren't talking to their kids about the details
- 56:41Speaker 1: of their divorce as much. In these days. She had
- 56:43Speaker 1: a lot of wigs though, she had and get outfit,
- 56:47Speaker 1: and that poor guy on the first date was really
- 56:50Speaker 1: doing everything he got hankaz Area. Why did Hank gaz
- 56:53Speaker 1: Area accept that invitation? What was n seventy? Like listeners?
- 56:59Speaker 1: If you were a lot I've and like cognizant during
- 57:01Speaker 1: this time? Does this track for you at all? Like
- 57:04Speaker 1: did this happen? I feel like it's not unrealistic. I
- 57:08Speaker 1: don't know, I was not alive, but like, I just
- 57:10Speaker 1: think times were really wacky back they just moved a
- 57:14Speaker 1: little because there I could just come to your house
- 57:16Speaker 1: and wear are your dad's clothes? I mean that whatever?
- 57:19Speaker 1: I think so wild? Um what I do like about
- 57:23Speaker 1: that storyline, it's like the divorced parents and everything. Uh
- 57:28Speaker 1: Clors Leachman shows up at Samantha's house and she's like
- 57:31Speaker 1: banging on the doors and stuff like that, and um,
- 57:34Speaker 1: Samantha's mom is like I could not deal with her
- 57:36Speaker 1: right now. And then Samantha says, like why is she
- 57:40Speaker 1: coming here? Let grandma yell at him, meaning like her dad,
- 57:45Speaker 1: he's the one who left. So she's like she wants
- 57:48Speaker 1: the man to be accountable in this situation because the
- 57:51Speaker 1: grandmother is like mad at her mom for like being
- 57:56Speaker 1: left good to him, and it's like, no, yell the man,
- 58:00Speaker 1: he's the one who abandoned his family. Um. And then
- 58:03Speaker 1: there's a few even though like parents aren't the focus
- 58:05Speaker 1: of that of this movie, and I am again I'm
- 58:08Speaker 1: also fine with that. We get like a few glimpses
- 58:11Speaker 1: or a few like lines of dialogue where the girls
- 58:14Speaker 1: are learning things like and I think this is one
- 58:17Speaker 1: of Brendan Fraser's lines. But the lesson that he teaches
- 58:20Speaker 1: them is that, uh, you know, your parents aren't always right.
- 58:23Speaker 1: I wish someone had taught me that when I was
- 58:25Speaker 1: your age. Um, And there's a bunch of cigarettes. Here's
- 58:27Speaker 1: a bunch of cigarettes. I'm gonna drink all of your
- 58:30Speaker 1: Fanta and kind of flirt with you a little bit,
- 58:34Speaker 1: a little get how much of that is the performance
- 58:37Speaker 1: and how much of that is what's on the page
- 58:39Speaker 1: it was? What is that scene? I don't know, so
- 58:43Speaker 1: it could easily be cut, but listeners who are alive
- 58:46Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy that this happened to you again, I
- 58:49Speaker 1: think it cigarette. I'm glad girls like hitchhiking and like
- 58:56Speaker 1: do a manner of like very dangerous things. This was
- 58:58Speaker 1: like Cray Milk Carton. Yeah. But then there's also that
- 59:02Speaker 1: scene where Teeny and Samantha are talking because like Teeny
- 59:06Speaker 1: has pretty absentee parents, Samantha's parents are getting divorced. Uh,
- 59:10Speaker 1: they're siting like all these like TV families who are
- 59:14Speaker 1: like I love widowers and stuffing that She's just like,
- 59:16Speaker 1: you know, there are no perfect families. It's you know,
- 59:19Speaker 1: it's normal for things to be shitty. I loved that
- 59:21Speaker 1: they use and I was like, oh, that this scene
- 59:23Speaker 1: was written for our podcast because they're trying to normalize
- 59:27Speaker 1: her experience based on things they've seen in media, and
- 59:30Speaker 1: they're not quite able to do it because they can
- 59:32Speaker 1: only name widowers because they couldn't have you couldn't be
- 59:35Speaker 1: divorced on TV at this time. But I thought that
- 59:38Speaker 1: that was I was like, oh, that's like the perfect
- 59:40Speaker 1: Bechdel cast example of like they're trying to be like
- 59:43Speaker 1: it's okay because the Beverly Hillbillies did it, but I
- 59:46Speaker 1: guess they didn't, but they got kind of clothes. Um. Yeah,
- 59:52Speaker 1: that was a great interaction. Can we talk about the
- 59:57Speaker 1: Devin Sawa and Roberta kiss consent. Yes, he asked for
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: consent several times. I mean, first of all, I think
- 1:00:06Speaker 1: we all agree with Roberta should have just been allowed
- 1:00:08Speaker 1: to be gay. And well, here's the thing I think, like,
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: I think Rosie O'Donnell definitely should have been out as
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: a lesbian or queer woman in the now part of
- 1:00:18Speaker 1: the now and then storyline. Um. I think I'm like,
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: what if I was like, that's what the title um?
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: And I would love our queer listeners to weigh in here.
- 1:00:30Speaker 1: But I think it is perfectly in the in the
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: realm of possibility, where Roberta, who is twelve and only
- 1:00:36Speaker 1: just starting to discover her sexuality at all, would because
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: it's the norm, especially of Vent that she would be like, oh, well,
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: I'm a girl, so I'm supposed to be attracted to boys,
- 1:00:49Speaker 1: like I should kiss this boy. I get my I
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: guess my curiosity there because it's like I don't object
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: to it. I'm just I just would be cool to see, uh,
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: and it just is not going to happen in but
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: you know, a young girl recognized her sexuality and discuss
- 1:01:05Speaker 1: it definitely in any way. But I guess I'm just
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: curious more from like a production standpoint of like was
- 1:01:12Speaker 1: that added after I'm Rolling's king is told listen, we
- 1:01:16Speaker 1: are not going to have an out character in this movie,
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: Like was that my series? Now? And here is why
- 1:01:22Speaker 1: I want to go another kind of beat by beat
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: analysis of this scene, um, and my theory comes at
- 1:01:30Speaker 1: what happens at the end of the scene. So Roberta
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: is shooting hoops. The oldest Warmer boy ak Devin Swa
- 1:01:37Speaker 1: shows up and she misses a shot. He says, you're
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: not following through, so he's man explaining to her, and
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: then she says, who asked you? Like so applause for that,
- 1:01:48Speaker 1: and then they start playing one on one basketball. She
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: makes two shots, he makes zero shots, and then he's like, hey,
- 1:01:56Speaker 1: you're pretty good at basketball and not just for a girl,
- 1:01:59Speaker 1: which is not a compliment, but you don't realize that
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: when you're twelve years old. And then she just goes like,
- 1:02:05Speaker 1: thank you, good things. And I feel like if she
- 1:02:07Speaker 1: was just based on how we've seen her act already,
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: if she was in a less forgiving mood, she would
- 1:02:13Speaker 1: have yelled at him. She's just like, I'm not choosing
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: this battle. That was um and then they sit down
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: together and he's like, I think you're a really nice girl,
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: and she's like, I thought you always hated me and
- 1:02:25Speaker 1: he's like, so did I. And then he turns towards
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: her and says kiss you. And she says, what are
- 1:02:30Speaker 1: you mumbling? And he says, can I kiss you? So
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: he's again asking for consent. We do not often see
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: this I think three times total right now, because she says,
- 1:02:43Speaker 1: I guess and then he zooms towards her, great, are
- 1:02:47Speaker 1: you ready? And then she's like, oh, you want to
- 1:02:48Speaker 1: do it now? And he's like sure, I mean if
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: you want to. She says okay, and then they kiss
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: and then he pulls away. He's exhilarated. She's like that
- 1:02:58Speaker 1: was great, and she said it was okay. She think
- 1:03:03Speaker 1: she was written as like a queer young girl who
- 1:03:06Speaker 1: doesn't totally know her sexuality yet, but again, because of
- 1:03:08Speaker 1: societal norms, she thinks she's supposed to be kissing boys.
- 1:03:12Speaker 1: And then she says Scott and he turns towards her
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: like rapidly, ready for another kiss, and he's like yeah,
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: and she says, if you mentioned this to anyone, especially
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: your brothers, I will beat the ship out of you. Yes, um,
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: I hope So, I mean that would be that would
- 1:03:25Speaker 1: be cool. I liked, I mean I did like that scene.
- 1:03:28Speaker 1: I do agree with you. That's real and especially inventy like,
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: they wouldn't portray. I don't think you know a woman
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: or you know someone that's twelve like I mean, especially
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: like the small town of Shelby, Indiana in nineteen seventy.
- 1:03:44Speaker 1: I'm I'm guessing again I was not alive, but to
- 1:03:47Speaker 1: be like an out queer teen or preteen would not
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: have gone over well for community, I know, But I
- 1:03:57Speaker 1: just I just think, you know, it's it's it's a movie,
- 1:03:59Speaker 1: and we could have explored it. I mean, but it
- 1:04:03Speaker 1: becomes a null choice because they wouldn't allow it to
- 1:04:06Speaker 1: appear in That's what very frustrating to me about this. Yeah,
- 1:04:11Speaker 1: I mean even wouldn't right. But then again, another thing
- 1:04:16Speaker 1: that like a movie like Book Smart kind of course
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: crux is that we do in those characters a little
- 1:04:21Speaker 1: bit older, but we have and I don't remember the
- 1:04:24Speaker 1: actor's name, so Caitlin Diaver, Yes, well done, But that
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: was like a big deal, right, like to portray not
- 1:04:31Speaker 1: a big deal, but it was like refreshing to see
- 1:04:34Speaker 1: someone in high school being like this is this is
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: not a big deal. It was extremely normalized. Yes, which
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: was And that's the difference between you know, twenty nineteen
- 1:04:44Speaker 1: and exactly Yeah. Something interesting I thought about this movie
- 1:04:51Speaker 1: is if they culled classic now that it was not
- 1:04:54Speaker 1: received well at all. It was very, very very poorly reviewed.
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: I mean, we we've got some pull quotes here. I
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: think the most common criticism, as people are like the
- 1:05:07Speaker 1: vibe is kind of like all female reboot of stand
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: by Me, NOI thank you, which and and and this
- 1:05:12Speaker 1: is it's basically all white male reviewers who are basically saying, like, why,
- 1:05:18Speaker 1: I've already seen this with boys, so I like it better,
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: and like boyhood and girlhood same deaf to me because
- 1:05:25Speaker 1: I only care about boys. Uh, your your boy, Roger Ebert,
- 1:05:29Speaker 1: I think we came on our on the Matreon. I
- 1:05:31Speaker 1: think we came across the first thing that Roger Ebert
- 1:05:34Speaker 1: said that we've ever liked about ja Jack Frost just
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: saying how scary the puppet is. But he has to
- 1:05:42Speaker 1: say on this the adult actresses are completely superfluous to
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: the movie, which is a fully contrived stand by Me
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: kind of story, Like he's just dismissive of literally every
- 1:05:53Speaker 1: part of the movie, and it's just contempt disinterest. Why
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: why is this movie made? Who was it for? Which
- 1:06:00Speaker 1: is the vibe you get from a lot of this,
- 1:06:03Speaker 1: you know period of a hundred years that they were
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: basically only male reviewers of Like you get like who
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: is this for? When it's very clear that it's for me? Well,
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: I'm bored media for girls and women. But um, I
- 1:06:23Speaker 1: have an even more frustrating quote from this same review
- 1:06:26Speaker 1: by Roger Ebert um what distinguished stand by Me was
- 1:06:30Speaker 1: the psychological stundness of the story. We could believe it
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: and care about it now and then? Is made of
- 1:06:35Speaker 1: artificial bits and pieces. The director, Leslie Linka Gladder says
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: in the press notes that she started crying when she
- 1:06:42Speaker 1: first read the script quote because it captured that delicate
- 1:06:46Speaker 1: evolution from girlhood to womanhood. And you so rarely find
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: that end quote. I guess you didn't see Man in
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: the Moon, which has so much more truth and tenderness
- 1:06:57Speaker 1: that it exposes now and then for what it is,
- 1:06:59Speaker 1: a give a key sitcom end quote. Can you imagine
- 1:07:02Speaker 1: a review aging worse? They're like it's so frustrating because
- 1:07:08Speaker 1: it's so clear, like what he's missing and he is
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: so blissfully unaware of what can't believe he's coming. That's
- 1:07:15Speaker 1: a dumb comparison. Yeah, I am not familiar with that movie.
- 1:07:19Speaker 1: But you know, Roger Ebert again, safety assume everything he
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: says is basically wrong, terrible take as it pertains to gender.
- 1:07:28Speaker 1: He we found him to be universally correct about Jack
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: frost Um that all of his takes under like it's
- 1:07:35Speaker 1: not even that he has takes on gender. He just
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: is blissfully unaware that movies are made for people other
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: than him. Um. Anyways, but yeah, this movie was definitely
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: not um recognized in its time, but it was financially successful,
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: not gigantically financially successful, but it but it did you know,
- 1:07:54Speaker 1: it turned a profit. I think it, you know, helped
- 1:07:57Speaker 1: to continue to launch the new generation of young actresses careers.
- 1:08:03Speaker 1: And I mean girls were starved for media for them
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: at this time end always and still yeah, just if
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: you look on Rotten Tomatoes right now, it only has
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: a percent fresh but in audience score, which indicates cult classic.
- 1:08:20Speaker 1: The reviewers didn't understand it. I just wanted to quickly
- 1:08:24Speaker 1: shout out, rumor willis adorable as the little sister to Samantha.
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: Samantha Gabby, I'll get it, you'll get it by the end.
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: Like um, Brendon Fraser isn't credited. We don't know why.
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: What would be his credit? Creepy hippy like it literally
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: says on the Wikipedia page Brendan Fraser as Vietnam veteran
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: parentheses uncredited and you're just like what there? Um. He
- 1:08:54Speaker 1: informs them that although their parents are adults, they're not
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: always right, and that is his narrative purpose. And we
- 1:08:59Speaker 1: do not see him in in the shout out to
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: the actor who played young Chrissie, unfortunately passed away in
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: two thousand and seven. Um so r I p um
- 1:09:12Speaker 1: she was. She was so good in this movie. She
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: was such a good performance. I wish that, I guess
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: I wish that there was a little more of the
- 1:09:21Speaker 1: older group of women. I guess that I like the
- 1:09:24Speaker 1: framing device, but as adults, it felt like a few
- 1:09:27Speaker 1: things kind of fell a little short for me. More
- 1:09:31Speaker 1: now less than the same amount of that would more now.
- 1:09:34Speaker 1: I would have watched a little more movie to see
- 1:09:37Speaker 1: a little more now, Because you're sort of like, given
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: this barrage of information at the end, or in the
- 1:09:42Speaker 1: case of Roberta and teeny non information. Yeah, I don't know,
- 1:09:47Speaker 1: pitch okay ready for this? We get and unfortunately they'll
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: have to be some slight recasting with the actor who
- 1:09:55Speaker 1: played young Chrissy, but we get Thora Birch, b Hoffman
- 1:10:00Speaker 1: and Christina Ricci to play the adult versions in a
- 1:10:05Speaker 1: reboot this film, and then we cast a new squad
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: of young child actors to play the young counterparts of
- 1:10:16Speaker 1: those characters, and we update the not that there are
- 1:10:20Speaker 1: a ton but some of the problematic things that are,
- 1:10:23Speaker 1: and we can we can let riverta be out, Yes exactly,
- 1:10:26Speaker 1: we can have more characters of color, which brings me
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: to I wanted to read a quote from an essay
- 1:10:34Speaker 1: by Zoe s Mudzy. I might have very badly butchered
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: the pronunciation of that, but in a broadly article entitled
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: what white girl Coming of age movies don't do for
- 1:10:46Speaker 1: a black girl quote, These films about white female adolescents
- 1:10:50Speaker 1: and teen hood revolve around particular experiences of and meditations
- 1:10:54Speaker 1: on dissatisfaction and boredom, using nostalgia as their primary pool.
- 1:10:59Speaker 1: And yet For me, a projections of high school misery
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: and endless summers only served as a reminder that black
- 1:11:04Speaker 1: girls are never afforded the kind of ordinariness that would
- 1:11:08Speaker 1: make them relatable to white audiences. Um, which is kind
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: of the thing with almost every coming of age movie ever. Yeah,
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: so that is something that I will continue to be
- 1:11:23Speaker 1: mindful of. Um. And unfortunately, it's like progress is still
- 1:11:27Speaker 1: extremely slow on representing black girlhood at all, which is
- 1:11:33Speaker 1: still very, very frustrating. I think that there's also something
- 1:11:36Speaker 1: to be said for class as well, where definitely we're
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: given a very I mean and it's not it's not
- 1:11:43Speaker 1: even anything against the movie, it's just what we don't
- 1:11:45Speaker 1: get in media at all, Like because we're seeing a
- 1:11:49Speaker 1: solidly like middle class, maybe even a little upper middle class,
- 1:11:53Speaker 1: the scenic Americana La la la. We love it. They
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: have problems, but it's not the kind of problems poor
- 1:12:00Speaker 1: kids have, and you don't really see you know, kids
- 1:12:04Speaker 1: from lower classes ever really represented in movies like this,
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: which is unfortunate because guess what they are also children?
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: Um there, but yeah, I mean there there should I
- 1:12:17Speaker 1: hope that we will continue to progress and get to
- 1:12:19Speaker 1: see more reflections of black girlhood, of of girlhood from
- 1:12:24Speaker 1: different you know, from all walks of life of none
- 1:12:27Speaker 1: of like a gender discovery and like exploring your gender
- 1:12:31Speaker 1: and learning about your gender as your kid. There's there's
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: a lot of work to be done. Definitely. Yeah. Does
- 1:12:37Speaker 1: anyone have any other thoughts about the movie? I thought
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: it was interesting that and maybe either of you have
- 1:12:43Speaker 1: experiences where you have a you know, a circle of
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: friends when you're younger, and then a few stay back.
- 1:12:53Speaker 1: And that's very I think eccentric situation there where it
- 1:12:56Speaker 1: was like two of them were like we got out
- 1:12:59Speaker 1: of here, and then the other to her like, we
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: love it here. Was very funny. I really liked that,
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: especially because it seems like even though this wasn't quite
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: their relationship when they were like Roberta and Chrissie become
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: very codependent as adults like they see, which definitely is
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: something that happens. I liked how they were written as adults,
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: where like you kind of get the vibe from Samantha like, oh,
- 1:13:20Speaker 1: it's so weird here, I'm so glad I don't live here,
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: and then you get the vibe from Chrissie of like
- 1:13:25Speaker 1: she's so weird like everyone like everyone is like I
- 1:13:28Speaker 1: am normal, everyone else is a freak, which is how
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: everyone feels right. And it was nice to see everyone
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: get their moment in of like when Chrissy is just
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: like what are you wearing? What are you doing? What
- 1:13:39Speaker 1: is like yeah, yeah, I like it's lovely. I like.
- 1:13:43Speaker 1: I also liked how just like. A line I liked
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: was how they described Teeny's parents. They basically are, you know,
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: explaining what Teeny's deal is. She's hyper feminine, she wants
- 1:13:53Speaker 1: to be an actor, she wants to be a performer,
- 1:13:55Speaker 1: and Samantha says this is a typical upbringing for actors
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: and pathological liars, like oh ship, yeah, Teeny, who, by
- 1:14:03Speaker 1: the way, has a very fluffy white cat, and I
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: just this to serve as a reminder that cats do
- 1:14:10Speaker 1: have eight nipples and that's cat facts. With Caitlin Alfred
- 1:14:12Speaker 1: Bilena could have tell me he should I won't take
- 1:14:17Speaker 1: this role from Brendan Fraser because he needs it. He
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: needed he needs it because he always needs it. But like,
- 1:14:24Speaker 1: it's also weirdly a very Brendan Fraser role where you're
- 1:14:27Speaker 1: just like, yeah, Brendan Fraser could just wander in here,
- 1:14:30Speaker 1: like that's his vibe. But he could just wander in. Um.
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: He rolled on set and was ready. I'm like, was
- 1:14:37Speaker 1: this scripted? Like did he just come on and improvise?
- 1:14:40Speaker 1: And it's like, don't credit me. I don't want to
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: be paid for this, like like through the script away,
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: like I don't need it. Love Brendan Fraser. Maybe maybe
- 1:14:48Speaker 1: Alfred Bilenda could have been Pete. I think he should
- 1:14:51Speaker 1: have played the He could have played Pete with a
- 1:14:54Speaker 1: lot more pathos. I think that Alpha Blena would have
- 1:14:56Speaker 1: really been like if you if you need an actor
- 1:14:59Speaker 1: who could convince us that Pete didn't kill his family,
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: you gotta break see. I think from Elina should have
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: played the youngest warmer boy. They does have a forty
- 1:15:11Speaker 1: year old man in their crew, like like pen fifteen style.
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: He just plays Devin saw as best friend. I love it.
- 1:15:21Speaker 1: Girls can't play song fall. You're like, is that Alfred?
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: Oh my head? Okay, Well this movie is this movie
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: is a treat. It really is, and it and it
- 1:15:36Speaker 1: for it's doing a whole lot of things right. Indeed,
- 1:15:40Speaker 1: indeed it is um and as we hinted at before,
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: it absolutely passes the Bechdel test almost constantly. I don't
- 1:15:48Speaker 1: think you ever see two men or two boys talking
- 1:15:52Speaker 1: to each other really, or if they do, it's only
- 1:15:55Speaker 1: for a very small amount of time on screen. But
- 1:15:58Speaker 1: it is mostly girls and women interacting with each other,
- 1:16:02Speaker 1: so not something you see very much. But now and
- 1:16:06Speaker 1: then delivers it was fun. I think. I just like
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: sometimes I'm just like, you know what coming of age,
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: I did it. I don't need to see it again.
- 1:16:16Speaker 1: I understand. I'm glad it exists, and I'm especially glad
- 1:16:19Speaker 1: that it existed, and it's time for for like, just
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: like girls getting to see themselves on screen in any way,
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: shape or form is positive. Although it did make Calie
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: a smoker, but but she looked really cool. I mean
- 1:16:32Speaker 1: it's like she's smoking with the windows up, okay, and
- 1:16:36Speaker 1: then there's like points to like a map, and there's
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: a carton of Marlboro's. I'm just like, I know, the
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: constantly smoking like ashtray has like forty butts, and she's like,
- 1:16:48Speaker 1: I chose a bad week to stop smoking, and but
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: she and she is like the cool one of smoking
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: in the backyard with their pregnant friend and just like
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: and she's baby there. I also just this is like
- 1:17:03Speaker 1: a very like side thought. But when they were in
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: the limo driving to also, it's like, could you reunite
- 1:17:09Speaker 1: these women over a more stereotypical woman thing other than
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: like she's about to give birth that's true, which was
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: something that I was like, ding, But this movie does
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: so much right that I gave it a pass. But
- 1:17:18Speaker 1: when they're in the stolen limo going to somewhere, I'm
- 1:17:23Speaker 1: not totally sure where they are in that birth. Maybe
- 1:17:25Speaker 1: it was like a midwifery something like that. There's an
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: ivy so they're not just like anywhere, and Rosie Donald's
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: wearing scrubs, so I'm like, but I'm like where, Yeah,
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: maybe it's against a very comfortable hospital. Maybe she owns
- 1:17:41Speaker 1: the hospital, maybe it's her own hospital. It's a small town.
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: You never know, but but I liked just that. I
- 1:17:49Speaker 1: thought the scene of them in the limo is really funny,
- 1:17:51Speaker 1: where first it seems like a Donald like sort of
- 1:17:54Speaker 1: improvised part where she's like, hey, look it's your uncle
- 1:17:57Speaker 1: just kidding. No it's not. I was like, what was that?
- 1:17:59Speaker 1: It was just like really, and Rita Wilson is She's
- 1:18:02Speaker 1: like great, VCR Look, she's so funn I know. I
- 1:18:05Speaker 1: was just like, what are they? Are they going to
- 1:18:07Speaker 1: watch something? And then r in a limo too. I
- 1:18:11Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised if Rita Wilson and Ressie Odonnald are
- 1:18:13Speaker 1: just like friends, because it seems like they were sometimes
- 1:18:16Speaker 1: talking about stuff that had nothing to do with anything.
- 1:18:18Speaker 1: She's like, it's a VCR and she's like is there
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: a remote? They're just like, what are you guys talking about?
- 1:18:25Speaker 1: It was a great passing of the Bechdel test. I
- 1:18:27Speaker 1: think it was while she's in labor to um giving
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: birth to a bloody placenta baby and there is like
- 1:18:38Speaker 1: four people in that delivery room and no husband. Yeah,
- 1:18:43Speaker 1: we don't need it. Well that was maybe that was
- 1:18:45Speaker 1: my other thing. It was like it didn't look like
- 1:18:46Speaker 1: a hospital room, and it's very rare that there's just
- 1:18:49Speaker 1: one person attending a birth. It's usually like two or
- 1:18:53Speaker 1: three as far as professionals, not just like friends. Piece.
- 1:19:00Speaker 1: You got this Rosie right like like usually it's you know,
- 1:19:03Speaker 1: like there's a few people. She's just that good. She
- 1:19:06Speaker 1: doesn't need anybody else. Like maybe there's right out of budget.
- 1:19:09Speaker 1: At the end, they're like, just reuse the house set.
- 1:19:10Speaker 1: No one will know we only have one set of scrubs.
- 1:19:16Speaker 1: Shall we rate the movie on a nipple scale? Sure? Okay,
- 1:19:19Speaker 1: so zero to five nipples. Based on its representation of women,
- 1:19:23Speaker 1: I will give this a solid four. Yeah, I have
- 1:19:28Speaker 1: to deduct some nippleage based on the fact that it
- 1:19:31Speaker 1: makes absolutely no attempt whatsoever to meaningfully include any people
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: of color. It did make an attempt to meaningfully include queerness,
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: but because of homophobia in the nineties, audiences are like boo,
- 1:19:47Speaker 1: so that had to be removed from the story and
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: the narrative. Making the choice to characterize Christie in such
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: a way that it is often fat shaming her um
- 1:19:58Speaker 1: is not thing we like to see. But overall, I
- 1:20:02Speaker 1: think it does a pretty spectacular job, especially for in
- 1:20:08Speaker 1: showing a coming of age story of tween girls and
- 1:20:13Speaker 1: their lives and the issues that they would face. It's
- 1:20:17Speaker 1: so relatable, so much realism in the way they're characterized
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: and uh their friendships. I love that you never see
- 1:20:25Speaker 1: like they have conflict within their groups sometimes but it's
- 1:20:30Speaker 1: never about anything like petty or anything like that. The
- 1:20:34Speaker 1: way that we see like girls hating each other for
- 1:20:37Speaker 1: no reason, and it feels realistic for the age to
- 1:20:40Speaker 1: the reasons they have problems with each other seeing both
- 1:20:42Speaker 1: realistic and age appropriate exactly. Yes, that's what I'm trying
- 1:20:45Speaker 1: to say. Yeah, it's just a really wonderful female driven
- 1:20:50Speaker 1: story that you know, has some issues that have been
- 1:20:53Speaker 1: kind of I think course corrected in comparable coming of
- 1:20:57Speaker 1: age stories since I came out even and sister to
- 1:21:01Speaker 1: the Traveling Pants. I feel like, of course corrects a
- 1:21:03Speaker 1: few things that happen here that don't happen in there.
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: And that's like ten years later, right, so incremental progress exactly. Um,
- 1:21:10Speaker 1: but yeah, four nipples and I'll just make it easy,
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: give one to each of the four characters. I'm gonna
- 1:21:15Speaker 1: go four nipples to Um. Yeah. I think that it's
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: just for all the reasons you just described, and think
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: it's like a really not just like a movie that
- 1:21:24Speaker 1: made progress, but move a movie you can trace being
- 1:21:27Speaker 1: used as a template in future movies and being updated
- 1:21:31Speaker 1: for times as things become less societally taboo. I appreciate
- 1:21:35Speaker 1: that I'm Marly and King wanted to include a queer
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: storyline here. She does that, and Pretty Little Liars because
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: every relationship of regardless of gender, and Pretty Little Liars
- 1:21:45Speaker 1: deeply toxic. Yes, but there a all there's all sort
- 1:21:49Speaker 1: of every kind of toxic relationships explored on that show. Um. Yeah,
- 1:21:53Speaker 1: I think that it's like a huge step. I'm glad
- 1:21:56Speaker 1: that it's sort of stood the test of time. And uh,
- 1:21:59Speaker 1: you know, man, male critics very often don't get it. Um,
- 1:22:03Speaker 1: it's really nice seeing I mean it's it's a very
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: like solid middle class white girlhood that's reflected. Um. But
- 1:22:11Speaker 1: unfortunately that tends to be where, um, at least right now,
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: where people start with, like it always the first thing
- 1:22:18Speaker 1: that they're comfortable even seeing reflected. So it's you know,
- 1:22:22Speaker 1: progress need will continue to be built upon the work
- 1:22:25Speaker 1: that this movie did and so and it's just it's
- 1:22:27Speaker 1: it's I really I really liked it. I like that
- 1:22:29Speaker 1: scene in the limo a lot. Uh. Four nippies, um,
- 1:22:34Speaker 1: and I'm gonna give one to each two now they
- 1:22:36Speaker 1: both got a full set, all four of them. Kelly,
- 1:22:38Speaker 1: I agree, four nipples for all the reasons that you
- 1:22:41Speaker 1: guys listed. I really hate that there's no people of
- 1:22:44Speaker 1: color basically except for them stealing that gentleman's car. Why
- 1:22:50Speaker 1: couldn't he they have just let him drive his own limo?
- 1:22:53Speaker 1: Did he offer he's there, it's his car, he knows
- 1:22:59Speaker 1: the ins and yeah, that was very frustrating. But I
- 1:23:03Speaker 1: want to give a nipple to Johnny's mom because like,
- 1:23:07Speaker 1: where the fund is she Johnny? What don't they care
- 1:23:12Speaker 1: about her murder? Nobody cares about her, but Honorable mentioned
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: nipple to her. But for for all the ladies, each one, Yes,
- 1:23:20Speaker 1: she deserves. She deserves nipples at very least after her
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: husband killed her like that, Yeah, and then went out
- 1:23:26Speaker 1: drinking all night with a dick. The reboot also has
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: to address like what actually happens goes to real and
- 1:23:33Speaker 1: the reboot to no, no tractor, no, none of that
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: big That's another thing I'm really in king of course,
- 1:23:42Speaker 1: correct Son. She's like, you know what, I was hesitant
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: on the Supernatural and now and then I've really got
- 1:23:48Speaker 1: to let it loose. Spirits are I guess I got
- 1:23:51Speaker 1: to watch Pretty Little Liars. I would be fascinated to
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: you you will hate it, but I would be fascinated
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: to live tweet. I'll watched the pilot Liveshoot the Teacher.
- 1:24:04Speaker 1: It's illegal and it is the first episode. I always
- 1:24:09Speaker 1: confuse that show and Big Little Lies. So no, Pretty
- 1:24:14Speaker 1: Little Liars is like a CW style. It was ABC
- 1:24:17Speaker 1: Family I think technically or free form whatever they're calling
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: it's it's like it's it's a teen teen like it's
- 1:24:24Speaker 1: like toxic teenage content. The channel. I love it, the channel.
- 1:24:28Speaker 1: The Channel. Yeah, I'm incredible. Well, Callie, thank you so
- 1:24:32Speaker 1: much for being here. You're ruining us. Where can people
- 1:24:35Speaker 1: follow your work? Follow you online? I have my photography Instagram,
- 1:24:40Speaker 1: which is at Callie b Photo, and I have a
- 1:24:45Speaker 1: circus archive Instagram that's just a collection of my grandpa's
- 1:24:51Speaker 1: photos and my mom's photos and my own photos, and
- 1:24:55Speaker 1: you could read more about it on there, but it's
- 1:24:58Speaker 1: at Circus dot stories when it's really cool. Yeah, it's
- 1:25:02Speaker 1: just a bunch of old film circus photos and then
- 1:25:06Speaker 1: they get newer as we age, me and then my mom.
- 1:25:10Speaker 1: Now it's like it is like now and then time.
- 1:25:19Speaker 1: It's a circus, the circus of life. Okay, thank you
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: again so much for joining us. You can follow us
- 1:25:29Speaker 1: at bectel cast. On the social media places. You can
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: subscribe to our patreon a k R Matreon. It's five
- 1:25:37Speaker 1: dollars a month and it gets you to bonus episodes
- 1:25:40Speaker 1: every month, plus our entire backlog of bonus episodes. So
- 1:25:44Speaker 1: now it's the best time to check out our Patreon.
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: I love you guys now and when this is then
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: to my five years from now, we come back getting
- 1:25:59Speaker 1: the limel. No one has to give birth, but one
- 1:26:01Speaker 1: of us does have to pretend. Okay, that's the Volunteers
- 1:26:04Speaker 1: Tribute treehouse. Yes, oh yes, we all have to get
- 1:26:08Speaker 1: a treehouse. That treehouse was gigantic. Yeah, well time shirt
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: okay perfect. We love you gues By