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Red, White, & Royal Blue · This Film is Lit

• 0:04
  Speaker A: This film is lit, the podcast where we finally settle the score on one simple question. Is the book really better than the movie? I'm Brian and I have a film degree, so I watch the movie but don't read the book.
• 0:15
  Speaker B: And I'm Katie. I have an english degree so I do things the right way and read the book before we watch the movie.
• 0:22
  Speaker A: So prepare to be wowed by our expertise and charm as we dissect all of your favorite film adaptations and decide if the silver screen or the written word did it better. So turn it up, settle in, and get ready for spoilers because this film is lit. Love who you want, its good foreign policy, its red, white and royal blue. And this film is lit. Hello and welcome back to this film is lit, the podcast where we talk about movies that are based on books. It's Pride month, and this month, well, this episode we're talking about. I say this month. I mean this month for pride month, but this episode specifically we're talking about red, white and royal blue. We have. We don't have all of our segments, no lost in adaptation this week, but we have everything else. So we're going to get right into a brief summary. If you have not read or watched red, white and royal blue, here is a brief summary. Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up this summary is sourced from Wikipedia. Alex Claremont Diaz, the first son of the United States, attends the wedding of Prince Philip, Duke of Cambridge. Alex had a longstanding feud with Prince Henry, Prince Philips younger brother. During the reception, Alex and Henry get into an argument that results in the wedding cake falling onto both of them. To mitigate the fallout and help his mothers re election campaign, Alex and Henry are forced into a series of interviews and appearances where they pose as friends. Alex later admits to Henry that he began to resent him after Henry rebuffed him at Alexs first appearance as a public figure. Henry apologizes, explaining that he had just lost his father and was forced to go to events and the two make amends, later beginning to text and become friends. Invited to Alex's annual New Year's party, Henry leaves abruptly after seeing Alex kiss several girls at midnight, Alex follows him outdoors to the White House grounds. Henry kisses Alex, but fails to respond to Alex's attempts to contact him. Over the following weeks. After confiding in Nora, his best friend, and the vice president's granddaughter, Alex realizes that he is attracted to Henry. Weeks later, Alex reunites with Henry and the pair become lovers, although they keep their involvement secret from everyone except close friends and family and their secret service and mi five bodyguards. When Alex comes up with a plan for his mother to win Texas in the upcoming election, he travels there to lead the campaign. Where he goes. When he goes to Brooklyn to speak at the democratic National Convention, Henry unexpectedly visits him. Alex later comes out to his mother, who is supportive but advises him to think about his relationship carefully. Alex invites Henry to his family's vacation home near Austin, Texas, and Alex begins to tell Henry that he is in love with him. But Henry, fearing that he cannot sustain a love relationship since the british royal family will not accept it, preemptively leaves the conversation and flees to England. He refuses to respond to Alex's attempts to contact him. Alex visits Henry in London unexpectedly and demands an explanation for his behavior. Henry admits that he also loves Alex, but explains that his royal position makes it impossible. Alex convinces Henry that their relationship is worth fighting for, and the two reconcile. Shortly after Alex returns to the US, Alex and Henry's personal emails to each other are he or are hacked and posted online and are being widely reported on in the press. Both the White House and the palace cut off all of Henry and Alex's means of contact. Zara Bankston, the White House deputy chief of staff, gets in touch with Sean, Henry's equerry, and Alex and Henry are finally able to talk. Alex immediately flies to London to reunite with Henry. King James III summons them to a meeting and tells them that they cannot be together since their relationship is incompatible with the royal traditional. However, Henry's supportive sister Beatrice, notices a crowd gathering in front of Buckingham palace in support of them, and news reports of similar crowds all over the UK. Alex and Henry step outside together onto the balcony and openly greet the public as a couple. On election night, Henry returns to the US to be with Alex, whose plan to win Texas for his mother ultimately results in her re election. Alex and Henry later visit Alex's childhood home in Austin to personally celebrate. That's a brief summary of red, white and royal blue, the film. We do have a couple guess who questions, so let's get into that right now. Who are you? No one of consequence. I must know.
• 4:58
  Speaker B: Get used to disappointment.
• 5:00
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 5:01
  Speaker B: All right. I think these are pretty easy. I think you'll get them. I believe in you.
• 5:06
  Speaker A: I don't.
• 5:06
  Speaker B: I believe in you. And there he is in the flesh, as classically handsome as ever in his tailored three piece suit, all tousled, sandy hair and high cheekbones and soft, friendly mouth.
• 5:20
  Speaker A: Okay, so that I will assume that that is Henry, because I'm only going here, because I actually don't know. Obviously, this is written from the perspective of one of the boys men in this movie. They're old, right? They're, like, in their twenties.
• 5:38
  Speaker B: They're, like, early twenties. Yeah.
• 5:42
  Speaker A: It's one of the two men in this movie. I don't. I mean, so I don't think anything there necessarily sticks out other than the sandy hair, because in the film, Alex is half hispanic. His father is from Mexico. Mexico. I couldn't remember exactly. And his mom's white, but. And obviously, Henry is british royalty, and thus. And has blonde hair. I say thus has blonde hair. Not all of them have blonde hair, famously, but has blonde hair. And so I'm assuming that this is Henry.
• 6:17
  Speaker B: Yes, it is.
• 6:18
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 6:18
  Speaker B: Her short curls are swept to one side with a silver pin shaped to match the sharp geometric lines on the bodice of her black dress.
• 6:28
  Speaker A: Short curls to one side with a silver pin. I I don't know why you thought this would be easy. This could be literally anybody. This could be the president. This could be the secretary, the chief deputy staff, whatever. This could be Beatrice. This could be his friend. Probably not his friend. Uh, I'm gonna guess short curls. Nobody has curly hair in the movie. Like, no women have. That I can recall. Yeah, that's not true. Whatever Nora or whatever her name is, does, but that does. This doesn't really fit her, in my opinion. I'll say this is short curls. I'll say this is Nora. Is that the girl, the friend? I'll say it's her.
• 7:14
  Speaker B: It is Nora.
• 7:15
  Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So then I did it. Yes. I don't think that one was easy. I literally only went off in the curls there. Is that why you thought it was easy, or.
• 7:24
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 7:24
  Speaker A: Okay. Because other than that, I was like, I don't know what about. That would scream any of these characters, but, yeah, okay, fair enough. Fair enough. So, yeah, that was crushed it. All right, I have some questions. Let's get into them. And was that in the book?
• 7:41
  Speaker B: Gaston, may I have my book, please?
• 7:43
  Speaker A: How can you read this? There's no pictures.
• 7:46
  Speaker B: Well, some people use their imagination.
• 7:48
  Speaker A: Basically, the movie opens up, and we kind of are introduced to both of our main characters. But specifically, Alex. The movie is kind of told from Alix's, not kind of basically is told from Alix's perspective, which it sounds like the book is, too, based on the guess who question there in the first one. And it's established that Alex, he's at the wedding for Prince Philip, as I said in the summary, and he does not like Henry. Prince Henry, who is the younger brother, bear to the throne. And he explains it's because he thinks, I think there's voiceover, right? Am I stupid?
• 8:24
  Speaker B: I don't think there was voiceover.
• 8:26
  Speaker A: Why is he, how do he.
• 8:28
  Speaker B: I think he was talking to Nora about it.
• 8:31
  Speaker A: Okay. Is she there at this part for the wedding? Yeah. Okay. I couldn't remember her being at the wedding. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. Okay. So yeah, he's talking to her. And basically he doesn't like Henry because he's like, he thinks he's very snooty, very snobbish because he's obviously royalty. And then we also find out that Henry does not like Alex because he thinks he's, he says to somebody that he's like, he's very loud and obnoxious and blah, blah, blah. He's a loud, dumb american. And so they have this very, this diet, this very adversarial dynamic because they don't like each other's personalities. And I wanted to know if that relationship dynamic came from the book.
• 9:10
  Speaker B: Yes. The enemies to lovers kind of set up at the beginning of the story is the same. I was not expecting this to be enemies to lovers. I don't know why I wasn't expecting that since it's like America and Britain.
• 9:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. It makes perfect sense. I was expecting it to be enemies to lovers.
• 9:29
  Speaker B: But the book, you are correct. It is in Alix's point of view. So we're obviously learning more about how he feels about Henry. But it's also pretty clear that Henry doesn't really like Alex all that much either. At the beginning.
• 9:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. So their adversarial relationship leads to them squabbling at this wedding and specifically squabbling right next to a giant, seven tiered, 800 pound birthday cake or whatever it is.
• 9:58
  Speaker B: This is a wedding cake. It's a wedding cake.
• 10:00
  Speaker A: Sorry, wedding cake. Like ten foot tall wedding cake that they're so they're arguing, blah, blah, blah. And also, at this point in the film, at least, Alix is drunk. He's been drinking. And so they're squabbling. And at some .1 of them stumbles kind of pushes some. I can't remember exactly how it plays out, but one of them does something. They're arguing and one of them stumbles. I think Alix stumbles into the table and knocks it off kilter. And this gigantic birthday wedding cake falls onto them, causing a gigantic scene and an international incident. And this is kind of the inciting incident that then requires them to pretend to be friends in order to smooth everything over. And I wanted to know if that the cake, them squabbling and the cake falling on them was the same inciting incident in the book.
• 10:50
  Speaker B: Yeah, that all plays out pretty much beat for beat. When I read the cake scene, I imagined I might have read it wrong. I imagine the cake falling and then them falling into the cake rather than the cake falling on top of them. But small. Small matter, small difference.
• 11:09
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I could see that being the case in the book. And then it just. The movie makes it more dramatic. Yeah, because having it fall on them is more dramatic because it's like, yes. We get the pov shot from them of this giant cake, like, falling, you know? Yeah, it's a more dramatic moment. Plus they. They're like, fall onto the ground, and then we see the cake, like, teetering and like, is it gonna fall? No. Well, yeah. As they begin their fake friendship to try to smooth everything over again, there's this apparently caused a. An international incident, and there's fears about the us british relationship over this, which.
• 11:45
  Speaker B: Seems a little silly, but seems a little dramatic.
• 11:47
  Speaker A: Yes, but whatever.
• 11:48
  Speaker B: Like, it would be a thing that got talked about, for sure, but, like, I feel like it wouldn't mess up.
• 11:54
  Speaker A: Which is what Alex, I think, actually says in the movie. Like, Alix says that in the movie, he's like, it'll blow over in a week. Like, nobody will care. You know, he's like, yeah, people are talking about. But anyway, so they got. They go on, like, a little press tour to, like, kind of make amends and pretend that they've actually been friends this whole time. The whole thing was just a silly, like, accident. It wasn't like they weren't, like, arguing or fighting or whatever. And there's this recurring thing that we see, like, twice in the opening of this film. It happens first when they first introduced in the second time, a little bit after that, where they tell Alix that when they're taking pictures, he has to stand on the right side of the prince, and he's like, oh, is that like royal tradition? And they're like, yes or no? He says, it's at your good side. And Henry says, yes, but also it's tradition or something like that. And so he has to stand on his right side for photos. And I wanted to know if that came from the book, because I. The second time it got mentioned, the camera very specifically lingers on the act of him walking around to the right side. And the fact that it happened a second time made me think this was going to be a thing that mattered. So I was like, oh, I bet this is going to be a thing at the end where when they get married, for some reason, stands on the left side. I don't know, like, they're gonna come find some way to, like, come up with a clever way to, like, subvert it or something, and that's gonna show that, like, they're. They've. They're not equals, but like, that, they're breaking with the tradition of the royal. You know what I mean? Like, I was expecting something like that. Spoilers. None of that just never comes back. It's just mentioned twice in the beginning, this movie, and never returns. But I wanted to know if it came from the book.
• 13:41
  Speaker B: This is not from the book. Or at least I don't remember this being a thing in the book.
• 13:48
  Speaker A: I think it's a thing in real life, the standing on the certain side of royalty. I think that is a thing.
• 13:53
  Speaker B: Yeah. But I agree with you that it seems like something that should have come back at some point after they made a point of telling us twice.
• 14:00
  Speaker A: Well, and I would have to go back and watch, but I swear, the second time, the camera does a very intentional. We cut to a very specific intentional angle, and it might even go to slow mo. Like, it. It draws extra attention to this moment in a way that to me, felt like, hey, remember this? This is going to be a thing that comes back in some way later.
• 14:23
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 14:23
  Speaker A: And it just never did. Okay, well, never mind. So, I don't know. Maybe I'm crazy. Maybe it was imagining, or maybe something else was happening in that moment that I missed. Maybe it was because it may be of something, like where their hands grazed each other as he walked around or something. I don't know. But there was some. It was just felt like the camera made a big point of focusing on that. But maybe I'm crazy. And then maybe my favorite moment in the entire film, we jump forward a little bit. They've been friends. They've been texting.
• 14:52
  Speaker B: Yeah, they're like friends at this point.
• 14:53
  Speaker A: They're friends at this point. They've been texting back and forth, blah, blah, blah, and they've become friends. And he invites, Alex invites Henry to his.
• 15:04
  Speaker B: Big New Year's Eve party.
• 15:05
  Speaker A: New Year's Eve party. Every year he does a big New year's Eve party. And he invited Henry to it. And Henry shows up, they're hanging out and they're dancing. And this, that and the other and Henry's like, oh, I don't really dance. Blah, blah. At one point, get low by little John starts playing, and Alex is like, this is my song. We gotta go dance. And he goes out on the dance floor, and he starts dancing, and Henry's like, ah. And he grabs a bottle of champagne. He goes out on the dance floor. They're standing, like, away from each other, like across the dance floor. Both kind of dance like Alex is dancing and Henry's like, kind of dancing. And then just an incredible moment, we get to the part of the song where Lil Jon says, let me see you get low. And that's the part where everybody goes down to the floor, the flow, as it were. And when that happens, it goes into slow mo and we get this wide shot of the two of them stay standing and their eyes meet across the pool, the sea of people getting low. And it's objectively hilarious, but also kind of beautiful. And I liked it a lot and I wanted to know if it came from the book.
• 16:17
  Speaker B: Okay, so they do dance to get low at the new Year's Eve party. In the book, the text makes a point of mentioning the specific song. And I like that they kept that because when a book is as full of pop culture references as this book was, I always wonder about that with movie adaptations because I'm like, maybe they're not going to be able to get the rights. Maybe they won't want to pay for the rights. Maybe we won't be able to dance to get low. But they did. They did get low.
• 16:47
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:49
  Speaker B: This particular moment is not from the book.
• 16:52
  Speaker A: Oh. Where everybody like, yeah.
• 16:55
  Speaker B: And it is cheesy.
• 16:57
  Speaker A: Oh, God, yes.
• 16:57
  Speaker B: But I also really liked it.
• 16:59
  Speaker A: It's great.
• 17:00
  Speaker B: I thought it was a super fun nod to, like, period romance movies. Like, it reminded me of the scene in the 2005 Pride and Prejudice where Elizabeth and Darcy are dancing and then they're like the only two people on the dance floor.
• 17:13
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 17:14
  Speaker B: Super fun.
• 17:15
  Speaker A: Yes. I think that's what they were going for. And because going back to my question about my nota or about that one moment with him going to the side, because I was thinking maybe they were doing the same thing there or trying to invoke the hand scene from pride and Prejudice. And I was like, oh, maybe I'm just slightly missed what happened in that scene. And what happened was that their hands, like, grazed each other as he walked around behind.
• 17:37
  Speaker B: Would have to watch it again.
• 17:38
  Speaker A: I would have to watch it again. I don't remember that being the case. But then. But because I also thought like, oh, I think they're doing like, they're kind of riffing on pride and prejudice a little bit here. I wonder if that's like they were going for the famous hand moment from pride and Prejudice with that scene, that thing. And it wasn't going to be a recurring thing with that, but yeah, because that the fact that this is another seemingly potential nod makes. Makes it more likely that maybe that earlier moment was in fact that like a nod to pride and prejudice with the hand thing and not a setup for a payoff later. But anyways, again, like you said, great moment. Fantastic. Honestly, should have been more moments like that, in my opinion. I don't know how much more they could have done, but that was the movie at its best, in my opinion, was stuff like that. At this New Year's party, though, at one point, as I said in the summary, at New Year's, Alix starts making out with some girls and kissing some girls when the clock hits zero. And Henry is like, ah. And then runs outside to go mope. And he's standing out on the grounds and Alex is like, oh. And comes and finds him. And they have a brief discussion and Henry is like, basically like, oh, you ever wonder what it's like to not be famous? Like, what if, you know, do you ever wonder what it's like to just be a normal person and moping about being the prince? And then he unexpectedly rushes over and kisses Alix and then rushes off. And I wanted to know if that moment played out like that in the book. That's the big dramatic first kiss.
• 19:13
  Speaker B: It is. It does pretty much exactly the same as the book.
• 19:17
  Speaker A: Yeah. So he's moping about.
• 19:19
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 19:19
  Speaker A: Okay. No, that makes sense.
• 19:22
  Speaker B: We love a good mope in the garden.
• 19:24
  Speaker A: Of course. So now their relationship has started up in earnest. They're romantically intimate at this point, moving from this point, moving forward. Well, other than some. But anyways, the point being they're in a relationship now and they're kind of get a montage of them, like hanging out and stuff. And then at one point, Henry invites Alex to come watch him play polo because he plays polo, because it's obviously he's a prince. Like, that's what they do. They play polo. And after he plays polo for a bit, they go and they sneak off to the polo equipment barn and they have sex in the polo equipment barn. And I wanted to know if in the book they have sex in the polo equipment barn because that may be the gayest thing imaginable. And I wanted to know the game from the book.
• 20:17
  Speaker B: First of all, it's called the tack room. Sorry, I had to put that in there because in the book, Alex, I don't think he calls it a polo equipment barn, but he doesn't know what it's called, and, like, refers to it as the wrong thing. And Henry says, first of all, it's called attack room. Fantastic. So I had to do that. And yes. Yes, they do. And yes, yes, it is.
• 20:41
  Speaker A: It's incredible. It's so funny. I love. Just because it's also very funny to me that the building is. It's so. I guess it makes sense. I don't know. It's so old. There's, like, light streaming through the, like, slatted. Like, it looks like a barn from, like, the which, again, it's Britain. Everything. A lot of stuff's old over there, but, like, it just. I don't know. The construction of the building was, which, again, works for a romance because it very much feels like the setting of a romantic tryst with, like, the light streaming through the wooden slats in the ceiling and stuff. So getting into some of the very specifics of their relationship, I feel like people need to know about this, Katie. So I have to ask, is the prince the bottom? I'm not saying it was obvious, but it seems pretty obvious that that was going to be the case just based on their relationship dynamic in the book. Is the prince the bottom?
• 21:40
  Speaker B: So I'm 99.9% sure this is book accurate. I found a lot of the sex scenes in the book to be a little, like, overly obscured.
• 21:52
  Speaker A: Oh. So, like, not as, like, explicit necessarily.
• 21:55
  Speaker B: As, like, you know, it's clear that they're having sex.
• 21:59
  Speaker A: Right.
• 22:00
  Speaker B: But kind of like, the way that the language is felt. Very careful and purposeful, which I did find fascinating. But I am pretty sure that him being the bottom is accurate to the book.
• 22:14
  Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. It wouldn't surprise me if. Cause we talked about at one point about this being kind of, like, on the verge between, like, ya. Yeah, like ya romance and actual romance.
• 22:27
  Speaker B: It's kind of living in that, like, new adult quote, unquote space, which is a genre that technically exists but never really took off in a publishing sense.
• 22:37
  Speaker A: Where it's not for, like, 14 year.
• 22:40
  Speaker B: Olds or 15 year olds. Yeah, it's not young adult, but it's kind of. And, like, stylistically, the way that it's written is, like, in my opinion, very heavily young adult.
• 22:49
  Speaker A: Yes. Like, it's written in the style of young adult, but it's touching. On more mature themes. So it's that in between, like, kind of space. One of the recurring themes are not themes. One of the subplots in the film is about the fact. So, obviously, as we mentioned, Alex is the first son.
• 23:05
  Speaker B: I guess that's what it's called.
• 23:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. And they. His mom is running for reelection, and she's from Texas. She's a Democrat from Texas running for reelection, presidential reelection. And he has this plan that they should try to flip Texas, which is relevant politically currently. That's a thing that people have been talking about that's maybe possible, would be to flip Texas. And he thinks it's doable. And so he's written up this proposal, this memo about how he thinks they can flip Texas in order to win the election, instead of focusing on the rust belt, which is, like, the traditional kind of thing that the Democrats and, you know, because those are where most of the swing states tend to be, and more of the. Some of the more important swing states tend to be in the Rust belt. He's like, let's focus on Texas. If we can flip Texas, that's. That'll win us the election. And so that's his plan. But at some point, they. His mom finds out about it or something, and they get into an argument, basically.
• 24:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 24:06
  Speaker A: They get into a political argument about his plan versus her plan and, like, her political philosophy versus, like, what he wants in this sort of thing. And I wanted to know if that specific or. It really only happens once in the film. And I wanted to know if that specific argument and his plan came from the book, because in the film, it was maybe one of the most vacuous political conversations that I have ever seen in a movie.
• 24:36
  Speaker B: Truly, nothing was said, which is fine.
• 24:39
  Speaker A: And, like, my ending note on that is that, which is fine in all cast, because I totally think it's fine. Fine for this movie. It's not the point of the movie. The movie is about romance. It's a romance. It's about these two guys falling in love. It's not about politics and political, like, the deep machinations of campaigning in America or whatever, but holy cow, the conversation they have is so vacuous and surface level. And I wanted to know if that's how the. If that conversation argument came from the book and if it was similarly, uh, vacuous.
• 25:15
  Speaker B: It is not from the book. Alix does work for his mom's campaign for a time in the book, but he doesn't have, like, his own voter initiative plan in Texas that he, like. He does do, like, a bunch of research into Texas at one point in the book and like, is looking at like the district lines and like, voter registration and all the kind of data and stuff. But he doesn't, like, have, this is my Texas memo voter initiative plan. And they don't send him to Texas to register voters. I do think that it made sense for the movie to add this in for Alix, especially given the big climax. Do I think the movie did the best job with it? It's a little surface level.
• 26:10
  Speaker A: A little surface level.
• 26:12
  Speaker B: And listen, the books, there's a lot more politic talk in the book, and it's not, not surface level, but I think it did a little bit better of a job of convincing me that there was actual politicking going on than the movie did, if that makes sense.
• 26:40
  Speaker A: We'll say this. I think in the movie, he's obviously a fairly young guy, so him having a kind of naive, surface level understanding of politics kind of makes sense for his character. But the movie also presents him as, like, being correct. And it's just kind of funny to me because the, the things he's arguing for in this conversation, he's like, he's like going to his mom. He's like, we can flip Texas. Here's what we do. We register new voters, which.
• 27:08
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 27:08
  Speaker A: Great. That's good. Yes. You should try to register new voters because generally speaking, if you can register new voters tend to be younger voters. Younger voters tend to vote Democrat for the, or, you know, tend to vote for the Democrat. So, like, generally speaking, that is a good way. But. But it's just like, he's just like, we register new voters and we start a grassroots campaign and we, we really get out there and talk to the people. And it's just like the most generic, like.
• 27:33
  Speaker B: Right. Like parts of the world. I could have come up with that idea.
• 27:37
  Speaker A: Really a plan. It's just like, we should do good politics instead of bad politics.
• 27:42
  Speaker B: Yeah. And, you know, I had a note about this later, but we.
• 27:45
  Speaker A: I made it, too.
• 27:46
  Speaker B: Yeah. I can't remember, but I do think. I think I had this under better in the book.
• 27:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, you do. Because that's where I am. I know.
• 27:54
  Speaker B: I think that the movie is maybe selling Alix a little short. I think not all of his character translated over because to me, especially at the beginning of the movie, he feels like more of a chaotic partier than he does in the book, whereas in the book, he's super smart and very ambitious and he has all of these career goals and he wants to be the youngest person ever elected to Congress to go on and do all these things. And I'm not sure that all of that translated over.
• 28:29
  Speaker A: I would agree. It kind of his political aspirations, I don't want to say come out of nowhere, but kind of come out of nowhere with this memo. And again, the memo itself is so, like, again, his plan is we need to invigorate the youth vote and start a grassroots movement. It's like, okay, that's like, that's just the thing you say. That doesn't mean anything.
• 28:49
  Speaker B: Like, that's not like, how do you plan to do that?
• 28:51
  Speaker A: Yes, like that. And again, for this movie, it's fine to not go into that, but it did make me chuckle. And I think you're right, though, that because his plan is so surface level and because we hadn't really seen him up until that point, up until that.
• 29:06
  Speaker B: Point, it doesn't really seem like he has these political aspirations or is even.
• 29:11
  Speaker A: Yeah, he just seems like a dude kind of vibing. It's like his whole deal, you know, he's just kind of living life and. Yeah. And then he ends up being like, oh, actually, I really want to get into this politics thing, and I think that's a fine direction. But it would have been nice, like you said, to establish a little more early in the film the fact that he had a little more depth, underlying depth and aspirations and goals and stuff. Like, when we first meet him somehow, as opposed to it just kind of like.
• 29:40
  Speaker B: Right, well, and I think the suddenness of that makes it feel even more surface level.
• 29:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 29:47
  Speaker B: Because it makes him feel like a guy who doesn't really know what he's talking about.
• 29:51
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah.
• 29:52
  Speaker B: And just decided he had a great political idea that no one had ever had before.
• 29:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, that's exactly. But again, and then that makes it even funnier when the movie is very clearly like, yeah, and he's right. And, like, he, like, gets to, like, stick it to his mom.
• 30:07
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:07
  Speaker A: Because he's like, you used to believe in something, mom. Now you only care about winning the. That's all you care about. Like, that's what. Like, I don't know what it. He's like, you know, we gotta get down there. And she's like, well, we think the rust Belt's more important. And he's like, well, you used to actually care. It's like, I don't know. It's just, again, it's all so surface level and so, which. It's. It's tough because for the movie, it's like, I don't care. But then when I put it in there, it just makes it, like, I can't help but, like, critique it slightly if you're gonna throw it in there. But at the same time, it doesn't. It doesn't mess with. It doesn't ruin the movie or anything, like. Yeah, I guess that's the point. It's not really detrimental to the movie as a whole that much. But it is somewhat detrimental to taking his character seriously.
• 30:55
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 30:55
  Speaker A: And thus is a little detrimental, I guess. I don't know.
• 30:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's not. Yeah, it's not detrimental to the plot and it's not detrimental to, like, the genre.
• 31:08
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 31:09
  Speaker B: But it is kind of detrimental to his character.
• 31:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. And just the reading, like, the viewing experience as a whole, as a somewhat informed person, I don't know. And again, I say that because it's not like a. You know, it's just. It's just. Yeah, it is kind of interesting. But like I said, it's not. I will say this because one of the things I alluded to, and I don't really have a specific note about it, so this is good a place to talk about it. I alluded to in the prequel coming in that I was fearful about the politics in this movie. And I will say I did not find, apart from how surface level everything is, which, again, I think is fine for what the movie is. It was not nearly as cringy as I was worried it was going to be. Like. I did not find the political stuff nearly as, one, it's not nearly as, like, important or present as I was kind of thinking it might be, potentially. And two, even when it does crop up, it's not as self satisfied as I was worried it could be.
• 32:14
  Speaker B: Not a sorkiny.
• 32:15
  Speaker A: It's not as sorkiny, not as. Not as haughty and self satisfied as I was worried it could be. It does a little bit of that at times, but it's not as bad. Like, again, I just. I didn't have a lot of moments throughout the film where I was like, oh, God, you know what I mean? Like. And I was worried there was gonna be a lot of that where we were gonna have, like, big, stirring, sorkiny speech which, again, Sorkin wasn't involved in this but the. The person who wrote the film was involved in newsroom and has worked with Sorkin and stuff like that. And so probably not fair to paint this with that brush. And I say that as somebody who has never really watched anything Sorkin has done with any amount. I've seen episodes of the West Wing, and I've seen episodes like an episode or two of newsroom, among other things, but I've not watched all of it. So I don't know, I might like it quite a bit. I have no idea. But I just. The thing that the vibe I've gotten from some of the stuff I've seen from Sorkin is that it can be sort of idealized, an idealized version of what the american political system can be. And it's also very self, kind of smug at times, and self satisfying and very like the clever liberal, like, smacks down the stupid Republican. You know what I mean? It has that at times can kind of have that level of smug self satisfaction that can feel a little gross or a little weird and a little disconnected from the actual political reality of the world. And so that was what I was worried about. And again, while this does have elements of that with it feeling very surface level, very. Again, whereas something like the West Wing is all. I mean, obviously it's about the people, but very much about the politics. This movie was not nearly as much about the politics as something like the west Wing, where it's a fused throughout this. In this, it's just more of like.
• 34:17
  Speaker B: It's like a thing going on.
• 34:18
  Speaker A: A thing going on in the background. So the fact. Yeah, so the fact that it was more surface level and more kind of flippant and whatever was fine for the most part. Again, I didn't find it as obnoxious as I was worried that it might be. Again, they've been sleeping together quite a bit at this point. I don't remember exactly the context of where this happens, but they're in a hotel.
• 34:38
  Speaker B: They're at the hotel. This is at the democratic National Convent.
• 34:42
  Speaker A: That's right. Henry comes to visit him at the democratic national Convention. And while they're there, they hook up that night. And then the next morning. Sean. What is her name? Shara. Zara. The other guy. The guy is.
• 34:58
  Speaker B: The guy is Sean.
• 34:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Zara comes in and she is the deputy head of. Whatever I said earlier. I can't remember. Head of staff. Chief of staff. Yeah, chief of staff. And she comes in and is trying to get Alix. She's like, alex, you gotta wake up. We gotta go. Blah, blah. We gotta go. And when she comes in, she realizes that somebody else has been there, and she assumes it was a woman.
• 35:21
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 35:22
  Speaker A: And as she's looking around trying to find this woman that he's been sleeping that he slept with. She's like, what are you doing? We're at the democratic national, like, blah, blah. She's like, we got stuff going on. And then she stumbles. She opens the closet, and it's the prince, and she, like, loses her mind. I will say I thought this acting moment from this actor was not. I thought she did the same thing too much.
• 35:41
  Speaker B: I agree.
• 35:42
  Speaker A: Little note. Just a little note. I thought she was very good overall, but her, like, befuddled reaction, or not befuddled, but, like, her shock reaction to finding the prince. She just repeated the same exact acting tick like, ten times in a row, and I felt like it needed a little more variable, like a little something else. I don't need to be an extra. Just a little actor's note for you there. Whatever. Because I can imagine what she was going for in that. Like, I could see what that moment was supposed to be where she can't figure out what to say. And she keeps repeating herself, and it's like. And she was doing that, but it was too similar the whole time. Needed some more var. Anyways, whatever. But she's freaking out because he's sleeping with the prince. And she has this great line, though, where she says she's chastising him, and she's like, I can't believe you put your dick into the air to the british throne. And I wanted to know if that line came from the book, but I also enjoyed that even she clocked who was the top and who was the bottom in this relationship.
• 36:47
  Speaker B: Is that a win for America? So, in the book, she has a similar line in that scene. She says, you are literally putting your dick into the leader of a foreign state. And I do think the movie's line is better. Yeah, I think it's funnier. Also, he's not the leader of a foreign state. That's incorrect.
• 37:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's incorrect.
• 37:09
  Speaker B: I mean, he's also not the heir to the british, but, like, it's closer.
• 37:13
  Speaker A: Well, but. And they get a good. They get a good follow up joke on that, because she says that, she goes, you put your dick in the air to the british stone, and he chimes in, like, actually on the spare or whatever. So, like, there's, like, an, uh. You get to tag that joke in a way that's even funnier. So. Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. So now they're fully into their relationship. Um, they're not out publicly, but, uh.
• 37:34
  Speaker B: He, like, most of their, like, most.
• 37:35
  Speaker A: Of their friends and family know, and this is where he invites Alex invites Henry to come stay at, uh, their house in Austin in Texas for, like, vacation or whatever. And they're enjoying their time together, getting to know his family. Henry's getting to know his family and stuff. And they have this scene where they lay on a floating dock in the middle in their lake or whatever, and they're talking covered in glitter. There's no way that there's not glitter in that glycerin they sprayed on them or whatever, because they're supposed to just look wet.
• 38:10
  Speaker B: Right.
• 38:10
  Speaker A: But they're shimmering like that is not just water. There is something else in that water. But Alix is about to tell Henry that he loves him, and Henry's like, nope. And dives off the dock and swims away. And I wanted to know if that plot beat came from the book because it felt like a very, you know, it's a very classic, like, rom.com escape moment from getting away from the person saying they love you kind of thing.
• 38:40
  Speaker B: Uh, the book is similar, but not exactly the same. In the book, they're not on a dock. They're, like, both in the water. And Henry dunks himself under the water to avoid hearing what Alix has to say.
• 38:53
  Speaker A: Mm hmm.
• 38:55
  Speaker B: I don't really have a preference for this one as close enough.
• 38:59
  Speaker A: Basically the same thing. Yeah, we move forward quite a bit. They. Henry rushes back to England because they're. Again, because he thinks that they can't be in a relationship. Well, and realistically realizes that they can't really be in a relationship because of his status as prince, and he can't be out publicly just because of tradition, all that sort of stuff. And he just knows it won't work. So he rushes back to England to basically break it off. But Alex is not taking that for an answer. So he comes back and he goes to England. A lot of oversea flights in this movie.
• 39:36
  Speaker B: Yes, absolutely.
• 39:38
  Speaker A: But he goes back to England to get an explanation for why Henry has been ignoring him and why he left and all that sort of stuff. And he confronts him in the foyer. In the palace. Yeah, it's not Buckingham. I think it's somewhere. Maybe it is Buckingham. I don't know.
• 39:53
  Speaker B: I thought it was somewhere else, some other palace.
• 39:55
  Speaker A: But he confronts him dripping wet in the foyer.
• 39:59
  Speaker B: Obviously, he had to stand outside in.
• 40:01
  Speaker A: The rain, outside of his castle, and confronts him and is like, hey, why did you leave this sort of thing? Don't you love me? Or like I told you, love me? And you're, you know, they have this big blow up kind of argument, and in order to explain why he can't. Why they can't be together, he takes Alix to. And I didn't know what museum it was, but I looked it up. It's the Victoria and Albert Museum, which is a specific, I guess, art history museum or something in England. And he tells a story about how when he was a little kid, he loved coming to the museum, but he would always come either before or after it, like, when it wasn't open, basically, so that he could walk around without everybody staring at him and, you know, that sort of thing. And basically, you know, explaining that I can't live a normal life because I'm a prince. And they had. I wanted. But specifically, I wanted to know if they had this very sweet moment where they get into, like, the main area of the. One of the galleries or whatever. And he says that he'd always had this dream of dancing with the person he loved in the museum or something like that. And Alix puts on some music, and he puts on a cover of can't help falling in love with you. And they dance to that in the museum in the middle of the night. And I wanted to know if that scene came from the book, because it is very sweet. It's very cute.
• 41:24
  Speaker B: That scene is from the book. In the book, they dance to your song by Elton John. But I prefer the movies. I didn't love the version of can't help falling in love.
• 41:37
  Speaker A: I think what they did is because. So with Elton John, I don't know if maybe that was a rights thing or what, or if they just wanted a different song. But what they did, I think, is they took. Cause they knew they were replacing an Elton John song. Yeah, they did. They picked a cover of can't help falling in love with you by a gay guy. I looked up the artist, at least I think. I'm pretty sure that's what I read from my memory. I only looked at it for a second because I was like, I've never heard this cover before. And so I think maybe that's. They wanted to, like, keep that element of it, maybe, but switch the song for some reason. I don't know.
• 42:12
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, I mean, I both are cute. I liked the song in the movie. Like, the choice of song, because I thought it felt really thematically resonant. Yeah. Otherwise, the scene is largely the same. This is another one that I was a little worried might not make it in because I was like, I wonder if the museum let them film. Or maybe they'll be in, like, a fake museum.
• 42:35
  Speaker A: But I don't know if that. They could have been in a fake. I have no idea like, what that museum actually looks. It looks like a real museum of some sort. I don't know if it's the actual Victoria and Albert museum or if it's, you know, a different one that they. But it sure looks like a museum. They have that moment where they reconcile, and then Alex has to go back home to get ready for the election. He has to go back home to the US, flies back home, and when he gets back home, they find out. Surprise. All of your emails have been leaked of all your romantic correspondence. And so now the whole world knows that the first kid is in a relationship with. Because I think first kid was the name of that movie from the nineties. Did you ever see that? I think it was called First Kid. Do you remember that?
• 43:24
  Speaker B: No.
• 43:25
  Speaker A: Pretty sure it was called First Kid. There was a movie in, like, the late nineties or early two. No, it probably would have been, like, mid late nineties. Around the time is like blank check. Remember the movie blank check in that same time in Wheelhouse where it was about a kid who's the first kid or whatever. And I'm pretty sure it was called First Kid. And I'm pretty sure Sinbad plays the head of his secret service. And it's kind of about the same thing. It's about this kid trying to lead a normal life while being the first kid, and Sinbad trying to help him meet a girl and go out. You know what I mean? Have friends and that kind of thing.
• 44:05
  Speaker B: I feel like there were several movies in a similar vein. The nineties and Richie Rich.
• 44:11
  Speaker A: First kid, blank check. All those. Yep.
• 44:13
  Speaker B: But, like, I was thinking specifically of. I cannot think of what it's called. There's a Mandy Moore movie from, like, the early two thousands where she's, like, the president's daughter. Oh, and she, like, runs away. Cause she wants to have, like, a normal life.
• 44:30
  Speaker A: I don't know. Yeah, that sounds familiar, but I don't.
• 44:33
  Speaker B: And then there's also an Amanda Bynes movie called what a girl wants. It's kind of similar. She's just like a normal teenager. But then she goes to find her dad in England, and it turns out he's a lord. So kind of a similar ish. Ish.
• 44:52
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, that's what it is. First kid, 1996. Aspiring Secret Service agent Sam Sims, played by Sinbad, is none too happy when he discovers that he's been assigned to guard teenager Luke, the rambunctious son of the United States president's the United States president. While Simms and Luke initially clash, they slowly form a friendship, particularly bonding over the young student's issues with bullies. The pair's improved relationship, however, doesn't stop the trouble prone kid from getting into plenty of antics.
• 45:27
  Speaker B: The Mandy Moore movie that I was thinking of is called Chasing Liberty.
• 45:31
  Speaker A: Ah, there you go.
• 45:34
  Speaker B: So we could put together a whole.
• 45:35
  Speaker A: Playlist, put together a team. Yeah.
• 45:41
  Speaker B: Did you actually ask your question?
• 45:42
  Speaker A: Yeah. So do their emails get hacked, revealing their relationship?
• 45:45
  Speaker B: Yes. Yes, they do. This is the main source of conflict for, like, the last between, like, a third and quarter of the book. It's honestly not as much of the book as I thought it would be. Yeah, but it is like, that main source of final conflict.
• 46:01
  Speaker A: After that happens, does Alix go to the press room in the White House and give an impassioned speech, basically being like, hey, I don't remember everything he says, but he basically gives a pro gay civil rights speech. Essentially. Does he give a speech like that in the.
• 46:21
  Speaker B: He does not.
• 46:22
  Speaker A: No, the book. No.
• 46:24
  Speaker B: No, it doesn't.
• 46:25
  Speaker A: Okay, so then we get this conversation. I think he's talking to Zara in this.
• 46:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, I think you're right.
• 46:33
  Speaker A: I think it's her that he's talking to. They're, like, sitting and watching tv or something. And, like, they're like.
• 46:37
  Speaker B: It's like, that's like, right after he gives this speech, I think they might.
• 46:40
  Speaker A: Even be watching his speech, like, play or something, or Rachel Maddow talk about it, which, by the way, Rachel Maddow's in this movie a ton, which made total sense to me. But so they're discussing it, and he's like, I think he says, like. Or she does, like, oh, do you know, did I just lose my mom the election? And I think Zara says, it's also possible you just won your mom the election. And so I was thinking about that because I thought it was an interesting idea. Like, what if this. If something like this were to happen in real life, like, if the first kid secretly revealed had been in a relationship with, like, Prince Harry or whatever, and I was like, that would absolutely, I think, win that presidential. Would win that presidential nominee the election. Yeah, I think. Cause I really think that if this were true, it would mobilize the youth vote more than, like, maybe anything, I think.
• 47:38
  Speaker B: Yeah. So this line is not from the book, but I agree with your assessment. I mean, I guess there would still be a question of whether or not that mobilizing that youth vote would be enough to win right. But, like, in real life, the campaign would absolutely just have to lean in and bank on it.
• 47:57
  Speaker A: Only option. Yeah, only option. You gotta.
• 47:59
  Speaker B: There's no coming back.
• 48:00
  Speaker A: You gotta rely on the tumblr stands to, like, come out in force and make you win this thing. Like, but I actually legitimately think that it might work. Like, I think it could work if you had a. This, like, reveal of a secret gay relationship between prince and the first son.
• 48:22
  Speaker B: People would eat that up.
• 48:23
  Speaker A: Eat it up. And I think it actually legitimately could work for mobilizing a significant portion of young voters, which is, you know, it.
• 48:35
  Speaker B: Is what it is.
• 48:35
  Speaker A: It is what it is. That that would be the thing. But it is, you know, I do think it would actually be a potentially a good thing. So after all this fallout, Henry falls back into his moping, his princely moping, which, you know, he's a prince. That's what they do. But Alix is, I guess, gets flies back over there.
• 48:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, well, they have all their communication cut offs.
• 49:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, they have all their communication cut offs.
• 49:02
  Speaker B: And then Zara, it turns out, has been in a relationship with Sean this whole time. So she orchestrates for them to let. For Alix to, like, go there.
• 49:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Well, they first, they have a phone conversation briefly, and then, yeah, he goes over there and he finds. He comes across, he walks in, and Henry is sitting in the library mopily playing sad piano. And it cracked me up one. I was just dying at Henry playing weepy piano in the library. But also once Alix actually gets there, he sits down next to him and I think Alix starts playing my country. Tis of thee. I could be wrong who plays what. But one of them, like, he's playing like God save the queen. And then the other one sits down and starts playing my country. Tiz of thee and I. Woof.
• 49:58
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 49:59
  Speaker A: Is maybe my, like, the most absurd. Sad. Weird. Not sad, just like, weirdest part of the movie. I did not like this, personally. I thought it was very strange.
• 50:11
  Speaker B: So this is not from the book. I thought it was cute. So Henry plays. He plays a couple bars of yankee doodle, and then Alix sits down and plays a few bars of God save the queen, which is the same tune as my country to save.
• 50:29
  Speaker A: Oh, okay.
• 50:31
  Speaker B: Well, then I missed the same tune.
• 50:32
  Speaker A: Okay. I missed what was going on there.
• 50:35
  Speaker B: I was also.
• 50:36
  Speaker A: I had it reversed.
• 50:37
  Speaker B: I know in this universe it would be God save the king, but God save the queen is, like, objectively a better song title. I'm sorry. It just is God save the king. Sounds ridiculous.
• 50:47
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I thought that was kind of silly. I don't know what it was about. I just didn't like it. I would have liked it more if they played like. Like a. I don't even know. Like, if he. If. If he had played Elton John and then the other one had played, like, queen or something. Like something that tied back to, like, an earlier part of the movie and wasn't just, like, their country song. I don't. It's just too on the nose and too cheesy for me, anyways. I just think it would have been better if they'd played something different that wasn't so, like. I don't know. It doesn't really matter. I just. That moment made me roll my eyes. I was like, okay. I just thought it was really silly and not in a cute way. Well, there's lots of silly stuff in.
• 51:32
  Speaker B: This movie that's silly. I thought it was cute. Please weigh in with your thoughts.
• 51:37
  Speaker A: And that's fair. There's lots of silly stuff in this movie that I did think was cute. That scene in particular, for whatever reason, didn't work for me. And then following that, maybe one of my favorite moments in the entire film, this is probably second only to the get low scene, is there, and I don't remember what the context of is this when they're talking to the king.
• 51:59
  Speaker B: Talking to the king.
• 51:59
  Speaker A: Okay, I thought so, but I wasn't 100%.
• 52:01
  Speaker B: The king of England comes in and.
• 52:03
  Speaker A: Played by Stephen Fry.
• 52:04
  Speaker B: Yeah. And he's like, you absolutely cannot go public with this because it's not tradition, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 52:10
  Speaker A: Yes. And there's this incredible moment. And is this before or after we find out about the people outside? I think it's. Might be right after.
• 52:19
  Speaker B: It might be right after.
• 52:20
  Speaker A: It might be like that one. Be what? Spars or spurs this line? Maybe, I think. I can't remember. But Henry turns and to himself quietly says, I will no longer be the prince of shame and secrets. And that I burst out laughing because that line, again, in the context, it's a big moment, and, like, it's something about, I will no longer be the Prince of shame and secrets is just so, like, overwrought that I couldn't not laugh at it. And does that line come from the book?
• 52:58
  Speaker B: It does not come from the book, but it is absolutely incredible. Better in the movie. Ten out of ten. Also, the prince of shame and secrets is like a ready made young adults fantasy novel. So take that one for your title. We love it.
• 53:14
  Speaker A: Yes, I love it. It was so gravely serious. And initially, because there's a pause when he delivers it between. And secrets and the word shame, because initially he just goes, I will no longer be the prince of shame. And I was. I was like, oh, my God. And then he's like, and secrets. I was like, okay. I mean, it's still silly, but, like, the prince of shame is. Yeah. The prince of shame in secrets is so funny, because. Yes. It absolutely sounds like a. Like a fantasy.
• 53:42
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 53:43
  Speaker A: Or I kept thinking of, like, it reminded me of something that the. It's not the shame monster. Or maybe it is the shame monster from big mouth. Remember the. Played by David Thewlis.
• 53:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 53:57
  Speaker A: Lupin from the Harry Potter movies. And he's like, yeah, I think he's like the shame monster or something. It reminded me, like, the prince of Shame and secrets sounds like something he would say. Anyways, I just thought it was hilarious. As I said, the king tells Henry he has to stay closeted, but then the crowd surrounds them. Or, well, Beatrice realizes there's a huge crowd outside of people, very supportive. They're all waving pride flags and all that sort of thing. And I wanted to know if that same thing happens in the book. Does the king tell them, no, you got to stay closeted. And then after they see all the support from the crowd, they're like, screw it, we're coming out.
• 54:35
  Speaker B: Yeah. So first, big difference. It's the queen in the book. It's not the king. An interesting choice. Have more thoughts on that later. There's a lot more to this scene in the book, but it's basically, the movie is kind of a whittled down version of what happens in the book, but it's basically the same outcome. The queen doesn't want him to go public, but then Bea opens up the curtains, and they see all of the supportive crowds, and then they look at their phones, and they can see all these other people are gathering in all these other places.
• 55:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. Also, I think that's absolutely what would happen.
• 55:12
  Speaker B: Oh. Like.
• 55:13
  Speaker A: Like, in terms of, like, the huge outpouring of support. Like, yeah, it would. Yeah, that would be a big. Would be a big thing. Obviously, there would be a ton of people who weren't supportive, but, like.
• 55:21
  Speaker B: Right.
• 55:21
  Speaker A: You would. You. Those people would mostly not. They would be outnumbered by the large number of people who would be supportive, I think, and would. Would march down to the Buckingham palace to be like, so then he has to go back home because it's election time, and we get to election night, and it's all coming down to Texas. They lost the Rust belt because they didn't focus on it. Because Alex is. Which is funny, though, because literally, Alex seems to be the only person doing anything in Texas.
• 55:52
  Speaker B: Right. So presumably everyone else, presumably the actual.
• 55:57
  Speaker A: Presidential nominee, could have been, you know, touring the Rust Belt or whatever. But sure, whatever. They say that they've basically lost the Rust Belt because they didn't focus on it and instead focused on Texas. And it all comes down. If they flip Texas, they win. If they don't flip Texas, they don't. And I wanted to know if they successfully flip Texas and win the election.
• 56:17
  Speaker B: They do flip Texas and win the election. As I mentioned, his, like, voter initiative thing isn't from the book, but the end result is the same.
• 56:27
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 56:27
  Speaker B: Which is why I thought it made sense to him.
• 56:28
  Speaker A: Yeah. They just make him a more integral part of it, which. Yeah, that makes total sense. And then finally, another moment that I really liked. The way the movie ends is they. After they. When they win the election, he takes, which I hadn't mentioned the key yet, which will, I'm sure you have a note about later. Alix wears a key around his neck of his childhood home.
• 56:47
  Speaker B: Yeah. That is from the book.
• 56:49
  Speaker A: Okay. And it's one of those things that it just, like he, you know, he liked, reminds him of a simpler time of when he just lived like, a normal life, basically growing up in this, like, working class home instead of being the first kid. And he takes, and he mentioned before he wanted to show Henry his home. And at the end, after everything's over, they ride bikes to his childhood home, and he opens the door, and they walk in, the camera pans up in the end. And I wanted to know if that's how the book ended, because I thought that was very cute. A very good ending.
• 57:19
  Speaker B: That is how the book ends.
• 57:22
  Speaker A: Sweet. All right. Those are all my questions. As I said, I do not have a lost in adaptation. So it's time to find out what Katie thought was better in the book. You like to read?
• 57:33
  Speaker B: Oh, yes, I love to read.
• 57:35
  Speaker A: What do you like to read?
• 57:39
  Speaker B: Everything. Okay. Right off the bat, first thing I noticed when this movie opened up, in the book, Alex has a sister named June. The movie appears to have written her out, combined her character with Nora, and I totally get that. It actually was one of my complaints about the book was that I thought there were too many characters to keep track of. However, I really liked her character.
• 58:09
  Speaker A: The sister.
• 58:10
  Speaker B: Yeah. And also, June and Nora play much larger roles in general in the book. They both act as a lot of support for Alex.
• 58:19
  Speaker A: I was disappointed. I had a note about it later, but I had it. I was disappointed that Nora wasn't in moral.
• 58:23
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, yeah, she's basically not in it either.
• 58:26
  Speaker A: She's in, like, one, two scenes in the beginning of the film and then, like, sporadically, like, pops in here and there throughout, but really isn't in much.
• 58:33
  Speaker B: Yeah. So, like, I. You know, I get it. We're taking a 418 page book and condensing it down into a two hour movie. I understand. But, you know, a little disappointing. There's also a little more breathing room at the start of the book. The royal wedding is very, very early in the book, but we don't jump straight into the royal wedding. We kind of meet all of the characters first, and then we go do that.
• 58:59
  Speaker A: It's a pretty traditional way to. That's a pretty common way to edit a book down, is to jump in significantly further into the book. That's the thing I actually do a lot while reading a book. Just as kind of like a mental exercise is when I'm reading a book that I haven't seen a film adaptation of yet or whether or not it even has a film adaptation. I always do this anyways. I kind of try to imagine how I would adapt a book I'm reading into a film. But one of the things I always think about is where would I start the film as I'm reading? And it's always, like, significantly further into the book than where the book actually starts.
• 59:31
  Speaker B: Usually, yeah.
• 59:32
  Speaker A: At least that's where my brain often thinks would make sense to start a little thing.
• 59:39
  Speaker B: When Alex goes to England for his mandated press tour with Henry in the movie, we see him enter that scene in, like, a zippy little sports car. And in the book, he enters on horseback.
• 59:56
  Speaker A: Oh, yeah.
• 59:57
  Speaker B: Like a knight. I was so disappointed in the movie. I was like, why wouldn't you just put that man on a horse? You had horses.
• 1:00:07
  Speaker A: I guess maybe they wanted to save the horse. Well, here's what maybe I think it is. They wanted to save the horse part for later, and at this point, they still wanted to make him seem douchier than he was. Right. So having him come cruising in in his, like, jaguar or whatever, that is, like, blaring music just makes him come across, like, more obnoxious initially. And I think that's maybe what they're doing. But I agree. It would have. The horse would have been great.
• 1:00:37
  Speaker B: The horse would have been great. It would have been better.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker A: Yes, absolutely.
• 1:00:41
  Speaker B: When they're at the hospital doing, like, the cancer kid tour.
• 1:00:47
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker B: The movie skips out on Alix, overhears Henry having a conversation with this little girl about Star wars and what she likes about Star wars, and they're talking about Princess Leia, and it's very cute. I have mixed feelings on having lots and lots of cultural references in your media. I think sometimes it can work.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker B: And other times it genuinely does nothing but date your tactics.
• 1:01:18
  Speaker A: Just dates it.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker B: And, yeah, I thought in this particular instance, it was a very cute scene. So I was a little disappointed that.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker A: That guy also, Star wars at this.
• 1:01:28
  Speaker B: Point is a fairly timeless property.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker A: Like, as long as you're not mentioning something very specific in Star wars, just saying Princess Leia is a timeless.
• 1:01:37
  Speaker B: Well, and. Yeah, and, like, especially focusing on, like, the original trilogy and not getting into, like, the prequels or the sequels.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. If they had had a conversation about how, like, he. Like, if he had made a joke about how he hated Jar Jar Binks or something, that would have been something like, don't include that. But if it's more just like a general thing where the little girl's like, I love Princess Leia, like, that's not like the same kind of obnoxious.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:02:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. A media reference that can be really annoying and stuff.
• 1:02:06
  Speaker B: Oh, speaking of cultural references, though, a little aside here, real quick. I don't have this in my notes. I mentioned in the prequel that the updated version of the book.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker A: Oh, yes.
• 1:02:20
  Speaker B: Edited out some references to Harry Potter as well as a reference to Israel. And I was reading this and I was initially disappointed. Cause I was like, oh, I have an old one. It has all the old references in it. But then I realized that I also borrowed the ebook from the library. And I was like, I bet the ebook is updated. And I looked and it was. So here's what they replaced things with. The reference to Israel was kind of just like a random aside thing that his mom says, and she says something like, are you an ambassador? Offended? Oh, what the fuck is the president of Israel's name?
• 1:03:00
  Speaker A: Netanyahu.
• 1:03:01
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker A: Netanyahu.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker B: Yeah. I was not sure how to pronounce it. I can see it in my head. But he offended his wife, so now I have to go apologize to him or something like that. And they just made that into the norwegian ambassador. So now we have to apologize to the norwegian ambassador. Okay.
• 1:03:22
  Speaker A: They just didn't want her apologizing to the prime minister of Israel. So a good choice.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker B: Yeah. In light of, you know, and then the. The Harry Potter references. There were three of them that were kind of scattered throughout. Nothing super gravely important. One of them got replaced with a Star Trek reference, another one got replaced with a reference to Dracula. And the third one they just took out entirely. Didn't replace it with anything.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker A: There you go.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker B: So now, you know.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker A: Fair enough. Was it just like, was somebody just like, say, like a spell or something? Or like. Or like, was it. How specific? Or. You know what I mean?
• 1:04:08
  Speaker B: The one that they changed to Star Trek was like a reference to, like, Harry Potter houses. It was like a slytherin hufflepuff reference kind of a thing. I would have to go back and find it to know exactly what it was. The one that they replaced with a Dracula reference was more interesting because it was a conversation. We dropped into a conversation between Alex and Henry, and one of them is saying, they're like, I don't care what Joanne says. Remus Lupin was gay. And they changed that to be a reference about Dracula being gay, which is true.
• 1:04:50
  Speaker A: Right. There's layers to that.
• 1:04:52
  Speaker B: There's layers.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker A: Cause already there's the whole criticism of the fact that, yeah, the werewolves tended to be coded as an AIDS epidemic kind of thing. And like the, like. Yeah, the gay people were kind of coded as werewolves in like a non great way. And, like, there's a lot of layers to that.
• 1:05:10
  Speaker B: That are a lot of layers to that one.
• 1:05:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. It just makes sense to remove all.
• 1:05:14
  Speaker B: Maybe talk about something else.
• 1:05:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, let's just remove it.
• 1:05:19
  Speaker B: All right. Moving forward. I really didn't love the movie's text message. Little thing that it.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker A: Oh, God.
• 1:05:33
  Speaker B: Where it's like they're texting and then they're like, in the same room and they have the characters appearing and disappearing with these little leaf.
• 1:05:42
  Speaker A: Yeah, they like, poof.
• 1:05:43
  Speaker B: Fluttering leaf animation.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker A: And then we get the text on screen as well. Yeah.
• 1:05:49
  Speaker B: And like, you have a note here. You said that. I don't envy having to put this to film.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker A: No, I.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker B: And you're absolutely right because there's a lot of, you know, they're in two different countries.
• 1:06:00
  Speaker A: I imagined this was from the books. Yeah. Like they had.
• 1:06:02
  Speaker B: So there's a lot. There's a lot. A lot. A lot of text exchange and email exchange in this book. And. Absolutely correct. I do not envy having to put that kind of thing to film because what do you do? Yeah, but maybe not this.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, I had the same note. I hated a lot of the texting back and forth. Like some of the parts where they're saying it out loud and I think the thing was, some of the performances of that, specifically where they're doing the voiceovers and stuff, of them saying the lines were so stilted and fake and, like, it just sounded ridiculous. I just. Yeah, I did not like that whole. That whole montage of that. I just. Again, it's hard. It's not. There's not really a good way still, even to do texting in movies. It's just every way that you do it kind of sucks that I've ever seen. If you just show the screen, it kind of sucks. If you do the graphic on the screen, it kind of sucks. If you have them say it out loud, it kind of, you know, like, this movie basically chose all of them, all of the above, and it just. It doesn't. I don't know. We got to come up with a better way. And I still don't know what that is yet, but that being said, I did my. I had one addendum on that is that I thought the final part of that. There's a scene at the end of. It's either at the end of the montage or a little bit later where Alex is in his bedroom and they're talking about, like, it's Thanksgiving and he's got, like, the turkey in his room and stuff like that. And I think that's when this scene takes place. And they're texting, and at that point. No, they're not texting. They're on the phone. He's on, like, a speaker call with him, and he sets the speaker, like, the speaker, the phone down on his thing, and then he, like, rolls over and then, like, Alix, like, appears in the bed next to him. Henry or Henry appears in the bed next to him, and they, like, have a conversation. Like that was. Cause it was a similar idea, but that scene overall, worked the best of all of that. But it.
• 1:07:59
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I agree. I thought that part of it was probably the best usage of this fun little technique. Yeah, but, like, overall, it just didn't hit for me.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker A: I agree. I felt exactly the same. It just didn't. And again, I don't know what. It's one of those things where I'm not sure what I would have done. I don't have, like, a good solution for them, but I just didn't. Wasn't a big fan of what they did, unfortunately.
• 1:08:28
  Speaker B: The movie remarried Alex's parents. They're divorced in the book. And honestly, this is really, like, neither here nor there for me, in terms of what I prefer. I think it makes a lot of sense for the movie to cut, something that they'd have to spend time explaining. But I also liked that in the book, it gave Alix this, like, one little bit of previous family trauma where he got to, like, connect with Henry a little bit more.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Good. See that?
• 1:08:56
  Speaker B: When he comes out to his mom in the movie, she makes a joke about, like, not having enough time to make a PowerPoint presentation for him. But except in the book, she does make a PowerPoint presentation for him, and it's actually pretty funny. One of the slide titles is federal funding, travel expenses, booty calls, and you. Yeah, actually pretty funny.
• 1:09:22
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:09:23
  Speaker B: Bea's character, Henry's sister, is not really in this movie a ton. She's not in the book a ton too. She's in the book a little bit more. But I really liked that in the book, her character had this, like, rocker chick kind of vibe.
• 1:09:37
  Speaker A: Really? Is that not at all?
• 1:09:39
  Speaker B: No, not at all.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker A: It's just, like, a classic.
• 1:09:41
  Speaker B: Yeah, she also. She has this, like, past of, like, having, like, being addicted to cocaine and having to go to rehab, but then she also, like, when we interact with her, she's just, like, very cool. Yeah, she's, like, cool girl.
• 1:09:53
  Speaker A: Completely different character in the film. She's just, like. She's, like. She's, like, a good friend of Henry's. She's, like, nice and understanding, but she's, like, very plain and boring. Like, she's just not much of anything in the film. Like, she doesn't have much of a personality at all other than being, like, nice and supportive, which is nice. I like that he has a nice, supportive sister, but it's not. Yeah, she's not particularly interesting as her own character.
• 1:10:21
  Speaker B: There was definitely not enough email exchanging in this movie for the email leak to feel big enough to me. Maybe you disagree, but, I mean, there's.
• 1:10:35
  Speaker A: Emails about them having sex, so, like.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:10:37
  Speaker A: It gets the point.
• 1:10:38
  Speaker B: I'm just saying. Okay. Comparing it to the book. In the book, you've read all of the emails.
• 1:10:46
  Speaker A: Mm hmm.
• 1:10:47
  Speaker B: And obviously, this whole thing is front loaded by remembering the 2016 election in real life and the private email servers, but her email. So, you know those emails are getting leaked. So the whole time you're reading these emails, you're like, oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.
• 1:11:11
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker B: What if. What'd you just say? Everybody's gonna read that.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker B: Dear God. Dear God.
• 1:11:16
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:11:17
  Speaker B: And it just doesn't. It didn't hit the same for me in the movie. Like, that kind of, like, tension.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker A: Okay. Yeah. That I could see? Yeah, I wasn't. Yeah, it didn't. I will say that I didn't have any tension with the emails leading up to the reveal, but once they're revealed, I was like, oh, yeah. Well, obviously that would be an issue because it confirms that they're in a relationship.
• 1:11:40
  Speaker B: Right. Something else that I missed from the book in regard to the emails was that they had this whole section of the book where they were including quotes back and forth to each other from historical letters and correspondence that, like, could be considered queer.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker A: That's fun.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker B: And I thought it was a really nice way to tie in the idea of their correspondence ultimately also being historic.
• 1:12:06
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:12:07
  Speaker B: Because it absolutely would be.
• 1:12:08
  Speaker A: Yeah. In a hundred years from now, they'll be.
• 1:12:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's, yeah.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker A: And it's also, I think it's also a fun. That's like, it seems like the kind of thing people like, that would do. Like, yeah, absolutely. Like, you know, like a prince in a. And the first kid, like, sending emails back and forth. They'd like clever little historical snippets from. I can't think of an example, but from whoever to whoever there was like, oh, historically, people have viewed it as, oh, they were friends or whatever. It's like, actually, no, they were friends. We all know they were probably not just friends. Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:12:46
  Speaker B: Overall, I did like the emails in the book, but I also don't want to forget to mention that it absolutely gave me 50 shades. Anytime you get emails and romance, anytime. I saw that little email.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker A: Similarly, like, layout wise and stuff. Oh, no.
• 1:13:03
  Speaker B: I will say that this book did do re subject and didn't make the absolutely insane choice to have them change the subject line every single time.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker A: Did it go subject?
• 1:13:20
  Speaker B: I don't think they didn't respond that.
• 1:13:21
  Speaker A: Many times to any.
• 1:13:24
  Speaker B: And the worst part, the worst part is that I was also listening to the audiobook. And for the text messages and the.
• 1:13:36
  Speaker A: Emails, did they add like a.
• 1:13:38
  Speaker B: They read every single thing every time. The entire email address, the timestamp, the date, the subject line, every single one. The whole thing.
• 1:13:52
  Speaker A: Smiling emoji, winking emoji.
• 1:13:53
  Speaker B: Yes, yes. And I listen, I know there's not a way around it because audiobooks are also for people who are not looking at the page on the book at that moment. I understand that I'm insane and I just listen to the audiobook at the same time that I'm reading the book. And most people aren't doing that. But also I will in fact, be hearing that audiobook narrator say, hrh Prince Dickhead. Poop emoji in my nightmares for the next several months.
• 1:14:32
  Speaker A: That's amazing.
• 1:14:34
  Speaker B: Okay, so in the movie, we find out that the emails were leaked by Miguel, who is a new character. He's not in the book. A new character that the movie invented. Miguel is a political journalist and also Alex's previous lover.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker A: Yeah. They were in a relationship at one point or slept together.
• 1:14:56
  Speaker B: Yeah. Or, like, had a one night stand or something.
• 1:14:58
  Speaker A: I don't know if they go into details about.
• 1:15:00
  Speaker B: But. Very dangerous combo.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 1:15:02
  Speaker B: As we can see.
• 1:15:04
  Speaker A: Also, Miguel in the film tries to kind of, like, tries to get back with them.
• 1:15:08
  Speaker B: Yeah. He wants to get with Alix and is disappointed when Alex does not want to hit that again. Now, I understand why the movie wanted to streamline things because the story in the book is kind of convoluted and it would have taken a lot to explain. So what happens in the book? There's this other character who's not in the movie named Raphael Luna, who is an independent congressman from Colorado. And he's, like, the first openly gay man elected to Congress in this universe. And him and Alix are, like, friends. Like, Alix had, like, interned on his campaign at one point, and, like, they. They know each other and they're, like, good friends. And then at one point in the book, Luna goes to work for the Republican. Like, he goes not to work for. I don't know, the correct. He, like, joins the Republicans opponent's camp.
• 1:16:13
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker B: Like, politically or whatever. Do you know what I mean?
• 1:16:18
  Speaker A: No.
• 1:16:18
  Speaker B: Like, he throws his support behind the republican opponent to Alex's mom. Okay, I'm doing a bad job of explaining this. I'm sorry.
• 1:16:27
  Speaker A: I'm sure you're doing fine. I don't know.
• 1:16:30
  Speaker B: So this is like, this big betrayal.
• 1:16:33
  Speaker A: Right?
• 1:16:33
  Speaker B: Okay. So. But then at the end, he ends up sending all of this evidence to them, proving that it was the republican guy's campaign that actually leaked the emails.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker B: That they, like, stalked and hacked the first son of the United States.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker A: So the republican party or somebody, some affiliate or whatever, like.
• 1:17:05
  Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. They committed treason or whatever. Or whatever it would be.
• 1:17:10
  Speaker A: Yeah. Espionage and something.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker B: Yeah, something or another. We're not legal people. Okay.
• 1:17:16
  Speaker A: No idea.
• 1:17:18
  Speaker B: And then it turns out that the whole reason that he joined up with this republican camp was because when he was younger, he had gone to work for this guy when he was, like, just a congressman. And the guy tried. The republican guy tried to sexually assault him, and he was trying to get evidence of that. So it's very convoluted. It's very convoluted. Lots of moving parts. But also I thought that the movie's solution felt like a little glossed over and a little too easy.
• 1:17:58
  Speaker A: I don't disagree. Yeah, I definitely think. But it didn't feel like a terrible solution to that. I felt like it made a little bit of sense to have it be like, this is this guy he used to sleep with who's trying to advance his career and is a sperm lover or whatever. And so like, leaks it, I guess. Like, I guess it. Yeah, it does kind of work, but it also. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
• 1:18:21
  Speaker B: Like, I don't. I don't think that what the book did would have worked in the movie because I think it would have been too convoluted and too difficult to explain.
• 1:18:29
  Speaker A: Too much trying to explain.
• 1:18:31
  Speaker B: Yeah. Especially in addition to everything else going on. But in the book, it works fine.
• 1:18:35
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:18:36
  Speaker B: Because we have these sprawling 400 pages to work it out.
• 1:18:40
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, yeah, totally. Yeah, that totally makes sense because I do agree that it just kind of, I don't know if the movie ever explains how Miguel got no, like, how.
• 1:18:49
  Speaker B: He got his email and honestly never explicitly confirms that he's the one who leaked it. Like, it's strongly implied, but yeah, cuz.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker A: He'S on the news and some person's like, how did you. The story came out, like the movie, that was actually another thing that I thought was kind of silly about this is like the. The reporter is like grilling. Yeah, Miguel over like. Or the news anchors, like grilling him. He's like, so your story came out at 02:00 a.m. but the emails were only leaked at midnight. How did you write that story? So it just felt like such a strain. I'm like, okay, we get it. The idea is that he leaked it. Like, we don't. I thought the movie almost like implied too hard. Like went too hard far. Like I was like, I get, I get that. I figured it was Miguel as soon as it got leaked.
• 1:19:33
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:19:34
  Speaker A: I didn't need this whole scene where the anchor like, grills him about how he got the information and implies that he's somehow, you know.
• 1:19:41
  Speaker B: No, I mean, I agree that the movie implies it incredibly strongly and maybe a little ham fisted.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:19:48
  Speaker B: My point was just that, like, it's not explicitly confirmed. It's not by the movie.
• 1:19:53
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:19:55
  Speaker B: Anyway, so, you know, kind of of two minds about that. But like, if I were to put them side to side, I do prefer the book's take on things and my last note here. For better. In the book, I mentioned that there's a lot more to the scene where the monarch is telling them that they have to keep it in the closet. And that's because we actually meet Henry's mom in the book. And she has been similarly, like, kind of an abstract absentee parent, has not been particularly active in her children's lives since their father died. But in the book, she comes out of retirement and she comes riding to Henry's defense and basically threatens to take the throne because she's like, hey, mom, you're not as sharp as you used to be. Notice you can't always remember the names of other political leaders and things.
• 1:20:59
  Speaker A: Oh, threatens to give Philip the throne.
• 1:21:01
  Speaker B: No, like, threatens to, like, I don't know what the technical term for it would be to, like, to, like, tell parliament that the current sitting queen is, like, not fit to lead.
• 1:21:15
  Speaker A: But wouldn't that make prince or Phillip the.
• 1:21:17
  Speaker B: No. Cause she's. She's still next in line.
• 1:21:20
  Speaker A: Oh, so the book's plot's different. Philip's not the heir to the throne in the. Cause.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker B: Well, I mean, he is one of the heirs. Yeah. I mean, it's similar to how when Queen Elizabeth died, whenever that happened.
• 1:21:34
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. How Charles.
• 1:21:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, Charles ascended to the throne. Not.
• 1:21:39
  Speaker A: But I thought in the movie, they. I don't even know if the parents are mentioned at all.
• 1:21:43
  Speaker B: I thought it was implied they mentioned his mom briefly.
• 1:21:46
  Speaker A: Oh, okay. I thought it was implied in the movie that Philip was literally the next heir to the throne, but maybe not.
• 1:21:54
  Speaker B: I mean, they do, like, they do call him the heir, I think. But I mean, they call, they call William. They call William the heir.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. No, I know. For some reason I just thought that his parents, their parents had died or so I don't know. I don't know what I did.
• 1:22:07
  Speaker B: The dad died. And they briefly mentioned in the movie that the mom is, like, off doing charity work or something and they, like, never see her.
• 1:22:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. That makes more sense, cuz. Yeah, I had assumed that Philip was, like, the next heir and that both.
• 1:22:23
  Speaker B: Of their parents were dead or something like that.
• 1:22:25
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay. That would make more sense. So is. Did they say what the mom's name is in the. Oh, you haven't known about this later, don't you? About, like, the royalty like stuff?
• 1:22:35
  Speaker B: I talk about the royalty of it. Yeah, the mom's.
• 1:22:37
  Speaker A: You're like, she's off doing charity. I was like, is she supposed to be Princess Di?
• 1:22:40
  Speaker B: Like, so her name in this is Katherine. Okay. And do I think that this book is a little, tiny bit an exploration of, like, what if Princess Diana, what if the supportive parent had been the one that lived?
• 1:23:02
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:23:02
  Speaker B: Do I think that?
• 1:23:04
  Speaker A: What if Charles had actually kicked?
• 1:23:06
  Speaker B: Kind of.
• 1:23:07
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's interesting.
• 1:23:09
  Speaker B: Although also, to be fair, their dad in this is not implied to be, like a whole horrible parent or anything like, it's also implied that he was a good parent to them.
• 1:23:19
  Speaker A: Okay, interesting. That's interesting. All right, let's go ahead now and find out what Katie thought was better in the movie. My life has taught me one lesson, Hugo, and not the one I thought it would. Happy endings only happen in the movies.
• 1:23:36
  Speaker B: There's a moment when they're first doing their. Their forced press tour where Alix makes a joke to try to embarrass Henry. And he says, like, Henry does the best freestyle raps, and it's a cheesy joke, but just the thought of that incredibly white british man rapping really got me. So I had to include this line. It does look a little sick.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker A: I had a note and I deleted it because he got more handsome as the movie went on.
• 1:24:07
  Speaker B: In my opinion. He did.
• 1:24:08
  Speaker A: But at the beginning of the movie, I was like, look, I get why people are into the actor that plays Alex.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:24:15
  Speaker A: I did not initially get why people.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker B: Would be into the actor. I was like, that guy?
• 1:24:21
  Speaker A: Yes. That was my same note. I was like, look, I get the thing with Alex. I do not get the thing with the actor who plays Henry. But as the movie went on, and maybe that was an intentional choice.
• 1:24:33
  Speaker B: I'm sure it was.
• 1:24:34
  Speaker A: But as the movie went on, he looked a little less sallow and sickly or whatever, he looked less. He got more handsome as the movie went on.
• 1:24:45
  Speaker B: We did talk quite a bit about Miguel, but before, when we were watching the movie, before we knew more about Miguel, when the movie just kind of introduced him as this person that Alix had previously been involved with, I was like, okay, I don't mind this giving a little hint at Alix's romantic past before we dive into this main relationship, because I spent the first chunk of this book truly questioning, because I could not figure out if Alix already knew that he was into guys or not.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker A: I also did not get that in the movie until this scene.
• 1:25:20
  Speaker B: Yeah, I wasn't sure I was reading it. And I was like, I genuinely cannot tell if he knows he's into men. And the answer is yes. And also no because he does not realize that he's bisexual. But also, he had previously done some experimenting with a friend.
• 1:25:44
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's interesting, because the movie, I almost felt the opposite, now that I think about it, is that I didn't. Because I didn't know the sexuality of the characters coming in, other than the fact that they end up in a relationship together. But I didn't know if they were bi, gay, whatever. I had no idea. And I. So I kind of assumed, I guess, that. I don't know if I assumed, but, like, I didn't know what any of their deal was, and so I. Other than knowing that they end up in a gay relationship, I feel like I read Alix is gay the whole time or in disguise the whole time.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker B: But because of that scene.
• 1:26:20
  Speaker A: What?
• 1:26:21
  Speaker B: Like, because of that scene with Miguel?
• 1:26:22
  Speaker A: Well, actually, because, like, I think I may have missed. So we had the note earlier about him kissing girls at New Year's. Yeah, I didn't see that. I must have been taking a note when that happened.
• 1:26:36
  Speaker B: He kisses at least one girl.
• 1:26:38
  Speaker A: I must have been taking a note when that happened because I didn't see him kiss any women. I just saw him dancing with. Just dancing with everybody. So I never saw him actually actively show any interest in women, like, at all. And so when he got to the point later where he's having the conversation with Nora, like, about his sex sexuality, I was like, oh, he doesn't. He's, like, still figuring out his sexuality. Like, I assumed he was, like, new and was comfortable and, like. And then. So when he's like, you know what?
• 1:27:06
  Speaker B: That's fair. That is fair.
• 1:27:08
  Speaker A: Again, I think it was just because I completely. I think it would have made more sense had I seen him kissing the girl or whatever, but I literally hadn't. Didn't see that. So I hadn't seen him show any interest in, regardless of gender in the film to that point. Like, he just seemed like a dude vibing. Like, I don't. Like. He didn't really seem particularly interested in men or women at that point, so I was unsure. And then when they had that conversation, I was like, oh, oh, he's bi. Okay. I didn't realize he was into women.
• 1:27:35
  Speaker B: Well, and also, a thing that we know in the book is that previously, he and Nora had dated, but they, like, decided they were better as friends.
• 1:27:44
  Speaker A: They might mention that in the movie.
• 1:27:46
  Speaker B: I don't remember.
• 1:27:47
  Speaker A: I think during that conversation, they may mention that. Maybe. I can't recall. But anyways.
• 1:27:53
  Speaker B: All right. Okay, so we'll be six of one on that. It was a little exchange. I think he has this exchange with Nora like they. Maybe they talk about something about Miguel and his previous trysts with Miguel.
• 1:28:13
  Speaker A: It's either that or it might be the head of the.
• 1:28:16
  Speaker B: It might be Zara.
• 1:28:18
  Speaker A: No, Zara's the chief of staff. Right. There's the other woman who's the head of like his security.
• 1:28:24
  Speaker B: I believe Amy is her name.
• 1:28:26
  Speaker A: I don't remember if they say her name in the movie, but he has a conversation with her at one point and it doesn't matter.
• 1:28:32
  Speaker B: Yeah, but at any rate, whoever he's talking to says something about Miguel. And Alix is like, but he's a journalist. And the other person is like, right. Closeted princes are much safer. Which. Fair point. Also, I liked that exchange generally. Overall, when Zara was reacting to finding out that the two of them were in a relationship, I kind of felt similarly to it. How you did. I didn't feel like it was the greatest, greatestly acted, but I did like when she called Henry little Lord fuckelroy. I did think that that was funny.
• 1:29:10
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:29:11
  Speaker B: And my last note here. So we see Henry give Alix his signet ring as like a memento, a part of him to keep. That is from the book. I liked that the movie took this one step further and had Alix give Henry the key that he wears around his neck. The key to his childhood home, which we mentioned earlier. Because in the book Henry gives him the signet ring and Alex adds it to the chain with the key. Yeah, but I thought having them do like an exchange was better.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker A: I agree. All right, time to find out what the movie nailed. As I expected, practically perfect in every way.
• 1:29:55
  Speaker B: The two of them do get shoved into a closet during the security breach at the hospital, which is kind of how the whole thing get started. I mentioned HRH Prince, dickhead poop emoji. Again, audiobook narrator saying, that is going to haunt my nightmares. Alex does have the Thanksgiving turkeys in his bedroom. The turkeys that are going to be pardoned.
• 1:30:20
  Speaker A: Is it plural in the book?
• 1:30:21
  Speaker B: Yeah, there's two of them and the movie is one. Okay.
• 1:30:25
  Speaker A: It doesn't matter.
• 1:30:26
  Speaker B: It really doesn't matter because I thought.
• 1:30:28
  Speaker A: They only pardoned one turkey. Did they pardon two?
• 1:30:30
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 1:30:31
  Speaker A: I don't know. I'm pretty sure he only has one in the movie.
• 1:30:33
  Speaker B: It's kind of a weird tradition. It's a very weird tradition.
• 1:30:36
  Speaker A: Yes, as the movie states, it's a very weird.
• 1:30:38
  Speaker B: It's kind of odd. We only spend a little bit of time with Henry's best friend, Percy, the black guy. Oh, yeah, he's into Nora.
• 1:30:49
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. He's in, like, one scene, and then he shows up at the election at the end.
• 1:30:54
  Speaker B: Yeah. But what we see of him is, like, pretty spot on to the book, except that he's actually in love with June in the book and not Nora. But, you know, June's not in this movie. So Alex's security guard does help. The two of them have a private moment in the red room at the political dinner, whatever. That was for something or whatever.
• 1:31:17
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:31:18
  Speaker B: Much like in the book. I felt this way in both the book and the movie. I was like, you two are not being nearly as slick about this as the text wants me to, but not even, like, not as. As covert as you think you are, but, like, not as covert as, like, the text is asking me to believe you are. Like, I felt similarly in that way in the book and the movie. I was like, you guys are not being careful at all. Yeah, like. Like, in the tac room.
• 1:31:51
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 1:31:52
  Speaker B: When the. Like, everyone was around.
• 1:31:53
  Speaker A: Everybody's around them.
• 1:31:55
  Speaker B: Like, what are you doing?
• 1:31:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, I hope you have this very sturdy locks on your tack room door or whatever, because they're in the middle of a freaking polo tournament or something.
• 1:32:09
  Speaker B: Henry literally does hide in the closet. When Zara finds them in the hotel room, they do go for a weekend trip to his dad's house in Texas. Alex does show up in the rain at Henry's house in the middle of the night. Zara and Sean's secret relationship is from the book. And a little moment at the very end that I thought was cute was Henry wearing a tie to the election thing with, like, little yellow roses on it for Texas. I thought that was cute. The little note that I meant to put in better in the book that I put in this section by accident, is that there's a scene in the book where some hotel lobby footage gets leaked, and we see, like, Henry and Alix get on the elevator together. We don't see them go into the same hotel room, but we see them get on the elevator together. But to keep it from becoming a scandal, June takes the heat for that and acts like she's the one who's in a relationship with Henry, which I thought was very nice of her.
• 1:33:09
  Speaker A: All right, we got a few odds and ends before we get to the final verdict. So every single, single time, there is a fake newscast in this movie. It's awful.
• 1:33:31
  Speaker B: They look so bad.
• 1:33:33
  Speaker A: I was astounded that a movie produced for Amazon that generally looks fine otherwise.
• 1:33:42
  Speaker B: It looks pretty fine.
• 1:33:43
  Speaker A: Pretty. Okay. It's never gorgeous. It's not like a stunning movie by.
• 1:33:46
  Speaker B: Any stretch, but it looks like a movie.
• 1:33:48
  Speaker A: Perfectly fine rom.com style, like, cinematography and all that sort of stuff. But every single time there is a fake news scene, it looks like. It looks like a Neil Breenfeld.
• 1:34:00
  Speaker B: It looks like news. News today.
• 1:34:02
  Speaker A: It's crazy. Like, because the green screen that they do for some of, like, the one at the end where they're like. I think it's like after she wins the election or whatever, like, there's like, this green screen of all of them standing on stage together and it's atrocious. It's dare. I couldn't believe I could do a better job. I'm not even kidding. I think I could do a better job editing that footage to look like they were actually standing on it. It's insane. It was so bad. So bad.
• 1:34:39
  Speaker B: We mentioned this already, but I just think it's so funny that they got Rachel mad out to be in this. Like, I mean, and it's obvious. Yes, of course they got Rachel Maddow to appear in this movie, but it also made me laugh.
• 1:34:55
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, I agree. It is. Yeah, it's fitting. But it was also funny. I really liked the actress who I don't think I had ever seen anything before.
• 1:35:06
  Speaker B: Yeah, there were a lot of people that I felt like I had not seen in anything in this.
• 1:35:11
  Speaker A: But the actress who plays Nora, her name's Rachel Hilson, I thought she was great. She's only in a few scenes, but I, like, really liked her and was like, what? She's gonna be in more stuff. I had a feeling. I was like, I bet she's gonna be in more stuff. And it was funny because I looked to see what she had been in or whatever. And then I saw that she's actually about to be in a, I believe, an HBO drama. Like one of the lead stars in an HBO drama. That is where she. It's, like, set in the seventies and it's about, like, crime. It's like a crime drama set in the seventies, but it looks like a big, like, a fairly large production, like, HBO, like, tv series or whatever that she looks like to be the lead in. So maybe she's gonna start getting more roles. But I was like, she was one of the people I, like, watched this. I was like, like, she's gonna start showing up in things. She's very good. And, like, she has, like, the look and the energy and, like, just everything about her. I thought. I was like, she's gonna. She's gonna blow up.
• 1:36:13
  Speaker B: So you usually have a good instinct for that kind of thing, so we'll watch out for her. I was cracking up during the scene where Alix is, like, talking to Nora about his sexuality and, like, what he thinks the label for his sexuality was because they have incredibly unsubtle by pride colors behind him on the wall the whole time. It was. And listen, Chef's kiss, you know, I love that. But also very funny.
• 1:36:51
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's what it was. It's called Duster. It's an upcoming coming crime thriller created by Latoya Morgan, who did Parenthood and shameless and some other tv shows, and JJ Abrams. And it's going to air on Max. And the other lead with her is. Keith David is in it, but the other lead with her is Josh Holloway, who's not that big anymore, but he was one of the main leads in lost. But, yeah, I bet that's going to be a pretty big show. We'll see. Maybe it'll suck, but JJ Abrams is kind of a coin flip sometimes. We'll see. I thought that along with the texting montage being terrible, the montage where he's campaigning in Texas, I also thought. I thought all of the montages, the.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker B: Montage segments were kind of particularly rough.
• 1:37:45
  Speaker A: I thought they were all really overacted in a weird way. It was very strange. I don't know what it was about him, but anytime there's a montage, it all feels. Felt like, very surreal.
• 1:37:56
  Speaker B: It felt like those segments were directed by a theater director.
• 1:38:02
  Speaker A: The whole movie was.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker B: But those segments in particular, it felt like they were up on a stage, and the director was, like, once more with feelings.
• 1:38:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. That whole Texas campaigning montage, I thought was rough. It just didn't work. I don't know. Yeah, that's.
• 1:38:21
  Speaker B: Speaking of rough things, Uma Thurman wear.
• 1:38:26
  Speaker A: The same note for this.
• 1:38:29
  Speaker B: Okay. First of all, I'm usually not very good at clocking when a fake accent is bad. And her accent was pretty atrocious.
• 1:38:38
  Speaker A: Not good.
• 1:38:39
  Speaker B: Like, it was pretty bad. And she strikes me as such an odd choice for this role. Like, if you had asked me, Reese Witherspoon.
• 1:38:50
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:38:51
  Speaker B: Like, Reese Witherspoon, sweet home Alabama. She can do a passable southern accent, and she, like, fits the bill of, like, because his mom is supposed to be, like, a petite blonde, right?
• 1:39:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. I think there's a lot of options. So I think they were going for a bit of a. This is a bit of a stunt casting. This movie has a handful of. Of like, stunt casting stuff.
• 1:39:14
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:39:15
  Speaker A: And so, like. And I think that's fine, but I also thought that, yeah. Having Uma Thurman was just such a strange choice.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker B: So weird.
• 1:39:23
  Speaker A: It just. It felt like if you want to do, like, a stunt casting of a Democrat from Texas, like, I get what they're going for, and I get why you want, like, this kind of, like, larger than life you want. I get stunt casting for that role. Like, the president, not in the movie. A ton has a few scenes here and there, get a big name people recognize. That's kind of fun to see in it. And so I think that would be. I think that's fine. I don't think Uma Thurman's, like, terrible in the role, but, yeah, the accent isn't great, and I just think there would have been better options. I think Reese Witherspoon's fine. I think. I was thinking what would have been fun? I don't know if she's done a Texas accent, but I was just thinking, and they're not too far apart in age. I think it would have worked. I thought Amy Adams could have been really interesting or somebody like that.
• 1:40:06
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker A: I don't know. I just think there are some other options of maybe somebody that could do an accent a little bit better who's also still, like, a big name.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker B: That's. I just feel like, no shade to miss Thurman.
• 1:40:20
  Speaker A: No, she's great in all stuff, and.
• 1:40:23
  Speaker B: She'S a beautiful woman, but I really felt like, especially after reading the book, that his mom needed to be more of a girl next door and less of, like, a model type.
• 1:40:36
  Speaker A: Yes, I would agree with that, which is why I think somebody like Amy Adams kind of hits it. Yeah, she has a little bit of that, like, kind of down home energy. Like, she can play, like, the girl next door, but, like, you know, I don't know. And I looked because I was like, I don't know if Amy. Amy Adams is 49. Uma Thurman is 54. So it's not like they're that far apart in age. Like, I think that could somebody like that. And again, maybe not even necessarily, but, like, I think there are other options that could have worked for that. And I. Yeah, it just. You know what actually would have been the best on casting? I don't know if the age. Yes, it's perfect. Amy Poehler. Come on, now. And it just ties into the parks and recreation universe. She's obviously not from Texas in that, but, like. Anyways. Yeah.
• 1:41:23
  Speaker B: I want to tell you about something stupid that I thought was reading this book. Okay. Henry has a line in both the book and the movie where he says that he's gay as a maypole, which is, like, a phrase I have since looked it up. And when he said it in the movie, I was like, oh, my God. He said may pole. Because when I was reading the book, I was listening to the audiobook only at that point because I was, like, doing the dishes or something. So I did not have the text in front of me. And I thought he said, gay as a maple, like a tree. And I was really, like, standing there, like, gay as a maple. What does that mean? Is that a phrase in England? Do they say that? Do they say things are gay as maples?
• 1:42:14
  Speaker A: I could see that as, like, a weird, like, thing where they, like. You think that it's like, a weird canadian stereotype, gay as a maple? I don't know. I'm trying to think, like, what it could be. I was like that because that could work, you know, it's like, former colony, I think Canada was.
• 1:42:38
  Speaker B: Yeah, they're, like, commonwealth.
• 1:42:39
  Speaker A: Yeah, they're commonwealth or whatever. Yeah, I guess maybe they weren't a colony, but whatever. I don't know the history of Canada at all. But, yeah, you know, it could be, like, the thing where they talk about, you know, they joke about how all the Australians are convicts and all the Canadians are gay. Maybe. I don't know, gays, a maple. It could be a thing.
• 1:43:01
  Speaker B: But I wish you could have been in my brain to see that pin drop during the movie.
• 1:43:07
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 1:43:09
  Speaker B: Did you notice the freaking dog portraits in Henry's bedroom he has on either side of his bed? He has those stupid millennial ass fake dog portraits where it's like, a dog wearing, like, a suit. Just the dumbest thing you could have possibly gone with.
• 1:43:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, I did not. I did not see that. No.
• 1:43:36
  Speaker B: Okay, so it was really interesting to me in the book that so, like, all of the american history is accurate. It up to Obama, and then at that point, the book becomes this, like, alternate history, what if? Exploration of the 2016 presidential election.
• 1:43:58
  Speaker A: Right.
• 1:43:59
  Speaker B: But then the author invented an entirely new royal family for this. And I. Like. I know why. Yeah, I understand why. But it's so interesting reading. There's, like, this weird, like, cognitive dissonance is not the right word, but it's kind of, like, the closest thing I can come up with.
• 1:44:21
  Speaker A: What is anti versus verisimilitude?
• 1:44:26
  Speaker B: Because. I don't know. But the world in the book is kind of correct. But also not just this weird. And then it was extra funny to me that the book decided to go with a king instead of a queen. And that was funny to me because Elizabeth kicked the bucket right after they finished filming. Yeah, it's like they predicted it. Like, honestly incredible.
• 1:44:52
  Speaker A: Well, so I think a couple things there with that. The particular casting to go with a king instead of a queen. I think, one, they. I think. I mean, everybody knew at this point, we were getting close to the end.
• 1:45:05
  Speaker B: So she was old as fuck. I understand you get that.
• 1:45:08
  Speaker A: That level of having it be. I think, actually a handful of things. One, you know, it's probably coming soon, so maybe let's make it the king. So it's a little. We get a little more time because it's gonna be a king for a while, whether it's Charles or William or whoever. Yeah, I don't think there's another woman for a while down the hierarchy.
• 1:45:25
  Speaker B: I think quite a few people would have to do that.
• 1:45:27
  Speaker A: Yeah, that's what I mean. Like, I think it's gonna be a king for a while. So they're like, let's make it a king. We can, you know, we future proof ourself for a while here. Two, you get the stunt casting with Stephen Fry, who is a very famous gay man.
• 1:45:40
  Speaker B: Right.
• 1:45:40
  Speaker A: So there's this fun irony of having him play the king telling them he has to stay in the closet. And three, having it be a man, just regardless of who was playing it, I think having it be a man telling him, you got to stay in the closet, there's an added layer of the patriarchal, traditional gender roley ness kind of stuff to it. You know what I mean? I think all of those things combined to be a reason why they would. Would go for.
• 1:46:11
  Speaker B: No, I understand.
• 1:46:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, no, I know.
• 1:46:14
  Speaker B: Yeah. Like, I get it. I just think it's funny.
• 1:46:17
  Speaker A: No, it is, it is. Yeah, it is pretty interesting.
• 1:46:20
  Speaker B: And my very last note here is about the most incredible thing to me of this whole experience of reading this book is that out of this entire 418 page Tumblr wet dream of a novel written between 2016 and 2018 that focuses heavily on american and british history, I did not clock a single Hamilton reference.
• 1:46:51
  Speaker A: That's truly insane.
• 1:46:52
  Speaker B: And now truly insane. I might have missed something. I'm certainly not a Hamilton expert, but not even a. You don't have the votes when they flip Texas. Incredible.
• 1:47:07
  Speaker A: I was gonna say what my expected reference would have been was at some point, because we have so many times where they, like, split up, where Alex and Henry, one of them has to go back to America or one of us. Go back. Not a single. You'll be back. No, that's where I. Or something. Yeah.
• 1:47:27
  Speaker B: There are mentions of the historical figures, like some of the historical figures that are in Hamilton, but I did not catch a single reference.
• 1:47:38
  Speaker A: Unbelievable.
• 1:47:39
  Speaker B: To the Lin Manuel Miranda musical. Hamilton.
• 1:47:42
  Speaker A: Yeah. Cause this is this, if anything. If anything, it's dripping with the trappings of.
• 1:47:50
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 1:47:51
  Speaker A: Yes. It's kind of amazing that the amount of restraint that Casey McQuiston.
• 1:47:57
  Speaker B: All I can think is that Casey McQuiston must not like Hamilton.
• 1:48:01
  Speaker A: Yeah. Or just isn't a Hamilton fan. I guess that's an option. It is possible they do exist there. There are dozens of them. Actually, there's a lot of people that don't like Hamilton, to be fair, if you're on Twitter.
• 1:48:11
  Speaker B: But then there were far more within this time period. What, people that like Hamilton.
• 1:48:16
  Speaker A: Oh, that liked Hamilton. Yes. Where at this point, when. When McQuiston was writing a book, Hamilton hadn't reached the point where it had the backlash yet of people being like, this sucks.
• 1:48:25
  Speaker B: That's fair.
• 1:48:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, it's even more surprising in that regard because, yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't cool to hate Hamilton. Yet when this book was being written, it was still in the honeymoon phase where everybody liked Hamilton stills, though. All right, before we wrap up, we wanted to remind you, you can do us a giant favor by heading over to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Goodreads threads. Any of those places interact. We'd love to hear what you have to say about red, white and royal blue. What did you think about it? What are your feelings? Let us know and we'll talk about it on the next prequel episode. You can also help us by hanging over to Apple podcasts or Spotify or YouTube, wherever you listen to us, drop us a five star rating, write us a nice little review. All that stuff's very helpful. If you really want to support us, head over to patreon.com. thisfilm is lit. Support us there. Get access to bonus content we just put out last week. I think our bonus episode for May a little bit late, which was our discussion on the land before time. If you want to hear us talk about the land before time, you can do that. And very soon, we will be recording our episode for June, where we are discussing the Rocketeer. If you want to hear us talk about one of my favorite childhood movies, which is why we're doing that for June, because it's my birth month, we're talking about the Rocketeer and you get access to that at the $5 and up level on Patreon, and at the $15 and up level, you get access to priority recommendations, which means if you have something that you would really like for us to talk about on the show, support us for $15 a month, stick around for a few months and request it, and we will throw it in our queue as soon as possible. It'll still be a ways out because we have our schedule made pretty far ahead, but we will put it in there as soon as we feasibly can. So, Katie, it's time for the final verdict.
• 1:50:02
  Speaker B: No sentence, fast verdict after that's stupid. Red, white and royal blue. Both the book and the movie offer an incredibly rosy view of american and british politics and culture. Both are cute and fun, but reading and watching them in 2024 makes them even more of a fantasy than they already were, something that was extremely difficult to set aside. I had my issues with the book. I thought that there were too many characters to easily keep track of. I felt that some of the plot points were a little convoluted and overall, the conclusion just seemed a little easy, even within the rose colored alternate history that McQuiston created. However, the movie, while very cute and fluffy and fun, felt like it was speed skating across the surface level of the narrative. I didnt really feel the connections between the characters the way that I did while reading the book. And for a story thats about relationships, thats a pretty grave sin in my book. Both had their faults, but the book pulled me in and held me in a way that the movie failed to do. And for that reason, I'm giving this one to the book.
• 1:51:27
  Speaker A: All right. And I actually realized, and not to, I'll just real quickly tack on. I never really gave my full thoughts on the movie. Like kind of, I thought it was fine. Like, I thought it was an okay movie. Very cute, a lot of fun, pretty surface level. It's a rom.com, but yeah, I think its biggest failing as a rom.com was that it wasn't super funny. Like, it was fairly funny throughout.
• 1:51:49
  Speaker B: There were moments that were pretty funny.
• 1:51:51
  Speaker A: Consistently funny. Yeah. And I thought, I actually thought, I actually think I maybe I thought the romance worked a little better than you did. I thought, like, in terms of the relationships and stuff, I felt like, I thought there were some really cute moments and I thought it, not that you said there was too, but like, I thought overall the relationship worked fairly well. And like, the way that the movie kind of shows their growing relationship and how they get together and stuff. And again, I thought it was very cute, but it wasn't like, yeah, I think some of the. Some of the detriments of the film, like some of the. The mediocre cinematography and the cg and stuff mixed with some of the, like, surface level politics and stuff, just kind of drug it down in a way where the. The relationship stuff would have had to be incredible for it to be like a very good movie, like a, you know, for me to think it was like a really good movie and that stuff just wasn't. It was just kind of all middling good. It was fine. And you know what? The gays deserve mediocre movies, too.
• 1:52:46
  Speaker B: So fair. That is fair.
• 1:52:50
  Speaker A: Katie, what's next?
• 1:52:51
  Speaker B: Up next, we have a switch episode, and we're going to be talking about Dune part two. Dose finally officially announced, so you have to finish reading it.
• 1:53:05
  Speaker A: Yeah, I'm already like 100 pages in.
• 1:53:09
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 1:53:09
  Speaker A: Yeah, I'm working on. I'm going. I've already read it once. I'm just rereading it. It's fine. Yeah. Yes. Dune part two coming in two weeks time. Yes, I'm currently rereading the whole thing so that I can get refreshed. We're gonna rewatch the first one here in the next week just to get a refresher on that. And then, yeah, we'll be talking about Dune part two in two weeks. So that's that. Until that time, guys, gals, non binary pals, and everybody else, keep reading books, keep watching movies, and keep being.