Latest / The Bechdel Cast / Easy A with Isa Mazzei
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the Beck dol Cast, the questions asked if movies
- 0:03Speaker 1: have women in them? Are all their discussions just boyfriends
- 0:07Speaker 1: and husbands? Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in
- 0:12Speaker 1: best start changing it with the beck Del Cast. Hello,
- 0:16Speaker 1: and welcome to the beck Del Cast. My name is
- 0:18Speaker 1: Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Toronte, and this is
- 0:21Speaker 1: our podcast where we look at how women are portrayed
- 0:24Speaker 1: in movies. Wow. I was trying to think of a
- 0:27Speaker 1: fun intro for today, and then all three of us
- 0:29Speaker 1: realized that none of us had actually read The Scarlet Letter,
- 0:32Speaker 1: and so it was impossible to reference it because we
- 0:34Speaker 1: never read the book, nor had I seen the Demi
- 0:38Speaker 1: Moore version of it. Nor have I Yeah, I kind
- 0:42Speaker 1: of want to now based on the description that she's
- 0:45Speaker 1: like naked in the bathtub and doing a fake British accent.
- 0:48Speaker 1: I do love a bad accent in a movie. It
- 0:50Speaker 1: doesn't take me out of it at all. He pulls
- 0:53Speaker 1: me closer, It gets me right where they want me,
- 0:58Speaker 1: and that pass the Bechdel test it which is if
- 1:01Speaker 1: you're not familiar. The media metric that we use as
- 1:04Speaker 1: a jumping off point, also called the Bechdel Wallace test,
- 1:07Speaker 1: and it requires that two female identifying characters speak to
- 1:11Speaker 1: each other in the movie that they're in. They should
- 1:13Speaker 1: have names, and they should not talk about a man. Yeah,
- 1:18Speaker 1: for at least two lines, which most movies, uh don't.
- 1:22Speaker 1: It's a lot of them just really don't. They don't
- 1:24Speaker 1: even try. We've got I'm excited to talk about the
- 1:27Speaker 1: movie today because we've got like a fun mixed bag
- 1:31Speaker 1: of of a movie. It's two thousand ten written all
- 1:35Speaker 1: over it. It's really having it both ways this movie. Um,
- 1:40Speaker 1: but I'm really excited. It's been like a long time request.
- 1:43Speaker 1: We've been getting this request for years, ignoring it for
- 1:45Speaker 1: some reason. And then our wonderful guest was like, how
- 1:49Speaker 1: have you not done this movie? We're like, I don't.
- 1:51Speaker 1: I don't know why. This was a hill we chose
- 1:53Speaker 1: to die on for so long. The Lovely movie. It's
- 1:56Speaker 1: it's fun, it's fun, the teaches in it, the two
- 2:00Speaker 1: She's firing on all cylinders. I can't wait to talk
- 2:03Speaker 1: about the tooch. Penn, how do you say his name?
- 2:06Speaker 1: Penn Badgley? I don't know Bedley, I don't know. He's
- 2:12Speaker 1: in that very scary show that I watched all of
- 2:15Speaker 1: even though it makes me feel horrible. Which one he
- 2:17Speaker 1: plays a stalker? You, Yeah, it's every It's so it's
- 2:22Speaker 1: I think that that show is like so every like
- 2:26Speaker 1: over the top problematic stalker trope that I don't even
- 2:28Speaker 1: feel anything watching it. Like it's just so it's all
- 2:31Speaker 1: of them at once. It's crazy. Probably won't watch it, Yeah,
- 2:35Speaker 1: probably don't. Um. We teased our guests, but then we
- 2:38Speaker 1: didn't actually introduce her, so let's do that now. She
- 2:41Speaker 1: is a screenwriter, producer. She's the writer of the film
- 2:44Speaker 1: cam on Netflix. She's the author of the upcoming memoir
- 2:48Speaker 1: cam Girl, coming out on November twelve. It's mataiea. Hi,
- 2:54Speaker 1: Hi guys, welcome, Thank you so much for having me
- 2:58Speaker 1: where cam Heads. We're so excited you're here and we're
- 3:03Speaker 1: talking about easy a Yes, two thousand ten teen comedy
- 3:08Speaker 1: is then we were short in this. Yeah, Emma Stone's
- 3:11Speaker 1: first starring vehicle. Remember the World before Emma Stone, I
- 3:16Speaker 1: barely do. And it's also Amanda Bindes is last. Yeah,
- 3:20Speaker 1: and Lane is in it for a second. Yeah, she
- 3:23Speaker 1: is from Lizzie McGuire. Yeah, Miranda, she shows up for
- 3:29Speaker 1: one line. Yeah, she doesn't even have a name in
- 3:31Speaker 1: the movie, like her credit is just girl on the
- 3:33Speaker 1: Street or something. Yeah that I forgot about that, but
- 3:36Speaker 1: it's every like I checked Lilane's I am dB. Maybe
- 3:40Speaker 1: we'll say once a year. It occurs to me to
- 3:42Speaker 1: just check in and I always see that credit. I'm like,
- 3:45Speaker 1: I have what was that? And now I know? Very good.
- 3:48Speaker 1: She shines Lisa Coudras in this movie. Yes she is,
- 3:53Speaker 1: and I think a role that we'll get to. But
- 3:55Speaker 1: it reminded me a lot of the Jessica Williams role
- 3:58Speaker 1: in books. Aren't oh sure the way that it plays
- 4:02Speaker 1: out and how much I didn't care for it. But
- 4:06Speaker 1: Amanda Binds is basically playing the same character that Mandy
- 4:10Speaker 1: Moore does. Yeah, yeah, which is I love Amanda Binds
- 4:16Speaker 1: to the end of year, but the Mandy Moore character
- 4:18Speaker 1: is way better. Sure, I need to rewatch Saved, but
- 4:22Speaker 1: saved it a long time. That would be an interesting one.
- 4:25Speaker 1: We've gotten requests, man, We've just we've ever well, the
- 4:31Speaker 1: thing is we just stop ignoring people. It's not that
- 4:34Speaker 1: we're annoying people, is that we've gotten requests for probably
- 4:37Speaker 1: every movie ever made. We've gotten thousands upon thousands of
- 4:42Speaker 1: requests were so cool and popular. Made a short film
- 4:46Speaker 1: fifteen years ago, and while it doesn't have much of
- 4:49Speaker 1: a cult following, I think there's a lot to discuss.
- 4:51Speaker 1: You're like, well, we'll get there. This podcast is going
- 4:53Speaker 1: to go on for five years and we'll get there. Uh, Sosa,
- 4:57Speaker 1: what's your history relationship with the movie? Easy? Um, it's
- 5:01Speaker 1: hard to say. You know, I don't like remember the
- 5:04Speaker 1: first time I saw it. Um. I know we had
- 5:06Speaker 1: it on DVD, and I remember it was a movie
- 5:08Speaker 1: that like my sister and I watched over and over
- 5:11Speaker 1: and over and over again. Um, both because we liked it,
- 5:14Speaker 1: but also because it was like one of the last
- 5:16Speaker 1: DVDs that we bought that we had, you know that,
- 5:19Speaker 1: Like it was right at the kind of the end
- 5:20Speaker 1: of like buying dv shots. And I just I remembered
- 5:25Speaker 1: really really relating to Emma Stone in it like a lot.
- 5:28Speaker 1: So yeah, So that's kind of like been my relationship
- 5:30Speaker 1: with it. It's been a movie that I've revisited a lot.
- 5:34Speaker 1: I would say, since it came out, Jamie, what about you.
- 5:38Speaker 1: I remember seeing this movie in theaters. It came out
- 5:42Speaker 1: when I was like like my senior year in high school. Um,
- 5:45Speaker 1: and so I went to see it with all my
- 5:47Speaker 1: friends and we were, I don't know, like we loved it.
- 5:50Speaker 1: We were really hyped on Emma Stone, and I think
- 5:53Speaker 1: in some ways like it. It felt like pretty different
- 5:56Speaker 1: to most of the team comedies that you see. And yeah,
- 6:00Speaker 1: I don't know, I really liked it. I've seen it
- 6:02Speaker 1: maybe four or five times before this, but never was
- 6:06Speaker 1: thinking about it as hard as I was this past time.
- 6:09Speaker 1: And I think that this is like one of my
- 6:11Speaker 1: favorite Stanley Tucci roles, Oh my goodness, and Patricia Clark said,
- 6:16Speaker 1: is great. That's the mother right, Yeah, she's so good. Yeah,
- 6:20Speaker 1: I and I forgot Ali. This is really the most
- 6:23Speaker 1: two thousand ten movie of all time. Ali Michalka of
- 6:26Speaker 1: Ali and the dental break up song. Okay, wait to
- 6:34Speaker 1: church Church something like that. It's really good. Do they
- 6:37Speaker 1: just released a song that I heard and I had
- 6:39Speaker 1: no idea with them and it's actually incredible. That's awesome.
- 6:43Speaker 1: Wait what character does she plays? She plays Rhiannon. Oh yeah, yeah, goodness. Yeah,
- 6:52Speaker 1: so it is the most two thousand time movie of
- 6:53Speaker 1: all time and uh for that, I have no choice,
- 6:57Speaker 1: but too, I mean class at two dozen tend gettle
- 6:59Speaker 1: of it. My goodness, what's your history? I saw it.
- 7:02Speaker 1: It came out when I was I guess, like probably
- 7:05Speaker 1: twenty four, and I wasn't necessarily like the target demo,
- 7:11Speaker 1: having aged out of being a teenager brag, But um,
- 7:17Speaker 1: I liked it. I remember thinking like, the jokes were
- 7:19Speaker 1: pretty funny, the dialogue was like quippy, and I enjoyed it.
- 7:25Speaker 1: But I think I only had seen it that one time,
- 7:29Speaker 1: and then revisiting it this time, I was like, oh, okay,
- 7:32Speaker 1: you you tried to do something and then you only
- 7:34Speaker 1: got part of the way there, and then he made
- 7:36Speaker 1: a bunch of missteps movie. So I'm excited to talk
- 7:41Speaker 1: about it. Yeah, yeah, I'm psycked. Um should I just
- 7:44Speaker 1: dive into the recap? Yeah? Okay and easy. You can
- 7:47Speaker 1: inter at the recap whenever you want. It's the best part,
- 7:51Speaker 1: every word. I have a lot to say. So the
- 7:57Speaker 1: story is told partly via Army Characters video blog or
- 8:03Speaker 1: vlog is the kids are calling it these days. I
- 8:06Speaker 1: love how prototypical it is in this movie, where there
- 8:10Speaker 1: she's like, you have to go to free alive dot com.
- 8:13Speaker 1: There's a live stream happening there. It won't be saved
- 8:16Speaker 1: six pm sharp. It was so it was great. And
- 8:23Speaker 1: what she's doing in this vlog is recounting the events
- 8:27Speaker 1: of the movie. So we meet all of Pendergast. That's
- 8:31Speaker 1: m A. Stone's character. She starts out, your average invisible
- 8:36Speaker 1: teen girl about to graduate from high school in she's
- 8:41Speaker 1: not like the other girls. She's not like the girls.
- 8:43Speaker 1: Um yeah, and OHI, yes, California. Ever heard of it? Um?
- 8:48Speaker 1: Probably not. That's a weird place I've never been. If
- 8:50Speaker 1: you don't feel like my writing partners from OHI, and
- 8:54Speaker 1: it's like very like mine and and all you OHI
- 8:58Speaker 1: heads dive into my mentions if I'm getting is completely wrong.
- 9:01Speaker 1: But there's a huge class disparity where it's like the
- 9:05Speaker 1: surfer class and then just insanely wealthy people. Just so
- 9:10Speaker 1: that there's and there's a lot of camps there. Oh sure.
- 9:12Speaker 1: It's like on the edge of like a huge national park,
- 9:15Speaker 1: I think park. It's a weird, fun place. My writing
- 9:19Speaker 1: partner's dad is in a surf cult in OHI. Oh
- 9:22Speaker 1: that's the guy who's in a surf called the Barbecue Surfers. Yeah,
- 9:26Speaker 1: I remember this from our point breakup star. Oh yeah, Okay,
- 9:30Speaker 1: I'll shut up about the barbecue surfers. We've rehashed this before.
- 9:33Speaker 1: That was quite all right. So they're in Ohai, California,
- 9:36Speaker 1: and Olive, yeah, she's, you know, not like the other girl.
- 9:40Speaker 1: She's invisible, and to avoid going camping with her best
- 9:44Speaker 1: friend Rhiannon and her weird family, she lies and says
- 9:48Speaker 1: that she has a date that weekend with this guy
- 9:51Speaker 1: named George, who we know she just made up um
- 9:55Speaker 1: and Rhannon becomes convinced that all of lost her for
- 10:00Speaker 1: ginity with this guy, but she instead she was doing
- 10:02Speaker 1: that really funny Natasha Beddingfield. But I've got a pucket
- 10:06Speaker 1: full of sensions. I still love at it playing it
- 10:09Speaker 1: from a greeting cars, so funny, great montage. Emma Stone
- 10:14Speaker 1: is really good. I like, I fluctuate on her so much,
- 10:18Speaker 1: but she's amazing in this movie I tend to agree with.
- 10:21Speaker 1: And so Rhannon thinks this about Alive and for some reason,
- 10:25Speaker 1: all of for reasons that she says she doesn't even understand.
- 10:28Speaker 1: She's like, yes, that did happen. I did have sex
- 10:31Speaker 1: with him, which is overheard in the bathroom by Mary
- 10:35Speaker 1: Ann Bryant. That's the Amanda Bind's character she's like the
- 10:39Speaker 1: like holier than now religious extremists, like goody two shoes type.
- 10:44Speaker 1: She's very like oppressively religious stereotype. And she starts spreading
- 10:50Speaker 1: rumors all over school about all of having sex. And
- 10:54Speaker 1: then suddenly everyone is paying attention to Olive because they
- 10:57Speaker 1: think that she has sex, and she tries to tell
- 11:01Speaker 1: Marian that she was just lying about having done that,
- 11:03Speaker 1: but it doesn't work. But also, like Olive admits that
- 11:07Speaker 1: she's like kind of enjoying the attention she's getting for
- 11:10Speaker 1: the first time because before this she was invisible. And
- 11:14Speaker 1: then during an English class discussion about the Scarlet Letter,
- 11:19Speaker 1: Marian Thomas Hayden Church cool guy teacher. Yeah, the adults
- 11:24Speaker 1: in this movie are maybe too cool, but we can
- 11:28Speaker 1: talk about that later. Yeah, unrealistic adult portrayal, because as
- 11:34Speaker 1: an adult right now, I am extremely uncool. I've never
- 11:38Speaker 1: I Also, there were a few times, I mean, and
- 11:40Speaker 1: it's like a teen movie, so it's like who cares,
- 11:42Speaker 1: But there were a few times where Thomas Hayden Church
- 11:44Speaker 1: was doing something dorky that was being very well received
- 11:47Speaker 1: in class, Like you would have been annihilate at Brockton
- 11:51Speaker 1: High School, Sir. He was like, let me wrap about
- 11:54Speaker 1: Jess kids and guys, I'm like, you would have been
- 11:57Speaker 1: on the floor, have been just People won't stand for that.
- 12:01Speaker 1: Teens will not stand for teachers wrapping. They won't um.
- 12:06Speaker 1: So then in during class, Marian's friend calls all of
- 12:10Speaker 1: a skank, and all of response by calling her a twat,
- 12:14Speaker 1: and it gets her sent to the principal's office. And
- 12:16Speaker 1: then she gets detention with this kid, Brandon, who is
- 12:20Speaker 1: being bullied for being gay, and then they talk about
- 12:23Speaker 1: the idea of like standing out and blending in, and
- 12:27Speaker 1: based on an idea that all of gives him, Brandon
- 12:31Speaker 1: decides to pretend to be straight at least until like
- 12:35Speaker 1: they all graduate and leave this town. And he convinces
- 12:39Speaker 1: her to help him make people think that the two
- 12:42Speaker 1: of them have sex, and she's like, okay, fine, there's
- 12:46Speaker 1: a party tomorrow night. Let's go and pretend to have
- 12:49Speaker 1: sex at this party. And then like everyone will overhear
- 12:52Speaker 1: and they'll think you're a stud, and they do just that.
- 12:55Speaker 1: Another funny scene jumping on the bed and screaming. Right,
- 13:00Speaker 1: the premises flawed, but the scene in the payoff is funny,
- 13:04Speaker 1: And then afterwards everyone does think that Brandon is a stud.
- 13:08Speaker 1: But then they're looking at Olive and they're like except
- 13:12Speaker 1: for Todd the pen Badgely he's not like the other boys.
- 13:19Speaker 1: He's the Mascot's the mascot. She's had a crash on
- 13:23Speaker 1: him since she was in eighth grade. They almost kissed
- 13:27Speaker 1: back then, but then they didn't because he wasn't ready
- 13:29Speaker 1: to kiss yet. And they're friendly and they chat and
- 13:32Speaker 1: then also maybe he even likes her question mark pen bag.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Really he was on Gossip Girl, right, I never watched that.
- 13:41Speaker 1: I don't know either. I think he was Okay, I
- 13:44Speaker 1: think so, which is funny because they she references that
- 13:47Speaker 1: show in this movie. Do you think pens in the
- 13:50Speaker 1: audience like Hollywood's crazy? I do think that he's like
- 13:56Speaker 1: that all the time. So then she receives a gift
- 14:02Speaker 1: card from Brandon, which one does. She I was trying
- 14:05Speaker 1: to keep track of who gives her what gift card
- 14:07Speaker 1: because that target compelling to me? Okay, targeting hundred dollar
- 14:10Speaker 1: I think target gift card. And he gives her a vibrator, Yeah,
- 14:13Speaker 1: he vibrator, which is good looking out sure in high
- 14:17Speaker 1: school though, like I don't believe that, right, is there
- 14:22Speaker 1: a sex shop in OHI or did he have to
- 14:24Speaker 1: drive down to Los Angeles their seniors in high school? Right, yeah,
- 14:28Speaker 1: they don't have they are because she gets the Natasha
- 14:33Speaker 1: Beddingfield card that she gets is a graduation card. It's
- 14:36Speaker 1: like congratulations yeah from her grandma. It right. So she
- 14:42Speaker 1: hears from Rhiannon that everyone thinks that all of is
- 14:46Speaker 1: a dirty skank, and then they're getting a big fight
- 14:49Speaker 1: about it, and then all of decides to double down
- 14:52Speaker 1: on this quote dirty skank image. So there's a sewing
- 14:56Speaker 1: montage because women be sewing. And then she shows up
- 15:01Speaker 1: to school in this very sultry outfit with a big
- 15:05Speaker 1: red as onto her tongue or like what a dork
- 15:10Speaker 1: just making a literary reference in her outfit. Yeah, And
- 15:14Speaker 1: then she gets approached by this kid, Evan, who knows
- 15:18Speaker 1: the truth about what happened with Brandon, and he offers
- 15:23Speaker 1: all of another hundred dollar gift card to also spread
- 15:26Speaker 1: rumors about them doing sex stuff, and it turns out
- 15:30Speaker 1: to be from auto Zone. I think it's later confirmed.
- 15:34Speaker 1: He offers her a different one, but then when she
- 15:37Speaker 1: confronts him later about it, she's like, it was from
- 15:39Speaker 1: Autozon and I don't even have a car, like if
- 15:45Speaker 1: cards are funny because they were all like there was
- 15:47Speaker 1: like the home depot, there was auto zone. It's like
- 15:50Speaker 1: you're like, what is in this? For one was like
- 15:55Speaker 1: a bed bath then beyond cupan yeah yeah, yeah yeah.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Not a great negotiator, and she eventually agrees to this,
- 16:04Speaker 1: and then she starts doing it for several other boys
- 16:06Speaker 1: in her school as well, and then the rumor that
- 16:09Speaker 1: all of solicits sex for money also starts spreading rapidly
- 16:13Speaker 1: throughout the school. And then things take a turn when
- 16:17Speaker 1: she learns that one of her classmates, Mica, which is
- 16:21Speaker 1: Maryanne Bryant's boyfriend, got claimidia from the guidance counselor Mrs
- 16:28Speaker 1: Griffith Lisa Trudre Thomas Hayden Churches his wife, and all
- 16:35Speaker 1: of agrees to take the fall for it, saying that
- 16:37Speaker 1: she's the one who gave Mica clamidia so that Mrs
- 16:40Speaker 1: Griffith doesn't get fired for having sex with a student.
- 16:44Speaker 1: And then people are protesting all of led by Marian Bryant,
- 16:49Speaker 1: and they're trying to get her expelled. Ran And joins
- 16:52Speaker 1: in for some reason, Yes, that absolutely, it's because Olive
- 16:59Speaker 1: goes on the date with the guy that she likes.
- 17:03Speaker 1: But I think she turns on her way before that though,
- 17:06Speaker 1: why But I feel like she joins the Amanda bindsafter
- 17:12Speaker 1: on that. I think that makes sense. Yeah, And then
- 17:16Speaker 1: meanwhile Todd the Woodchuck boy Penn Badgeley, yes is uh.
- 17:22Speaker 1: He keeps popping up And then she's trying to figure
- 17:25Speaker 1: out if she should come clean about everything. And then
- 17:28Speaker 1: this guy Anson asks her out on a date and
- 17:31Speaker 1: it turns out that he just went out with her
- 17:33Speaker 1: so that he could say that they had sex, and
- 17:35Speaker 1: he tries to give her the two home Depot gift card,
- 17:38Speaker 1: and then he tries to kiss her. She has to
- 17:40Speaker 1: fight him off. And then Todd shows up right then
- 17:43Speaker 1: and he gives her a ride home and he's like,
- 17:45Speaker 1: I think you're great and maybe I can, like I
- 17:47Speaker 1: don't know, help you out with this whole thing. And
- 17:50Speaker 1: because all the guys that she had helped previously refused
- 17:55Speaker 1: to come clean about the whole situation, she decides to
- 17:59Speaker 1: do this vlog that we've been watching to tell her
- 18:03Speaker 1: side of the story, which she prefaces by performing a
- 18:07Speaker 1: musical number at a school pepper rally. Because I guess
- 18:14Speaker 1: she wishes that her life was Ferris Spieler's day off.
- 18:18Speaker 1: One of the more annoying aspects of the movie for me, Yeah,
- 18:23Speaker 1: I I do like in retrospect, like watching that scene
- 18:26Speaker 1: like almost ten years later and being like, oh, for
- 18:28Speaker 1: sure that Like everyone on set was like, the scene
- 18:30Speaker 1: is going to be iconic, and I did not remember
- 18:35Speaker 1: it had not remembered. Every time, I'm like, what is happening?
- 18:41Speaker 1: This is going to be in a montage at the
- 18:42Speaker 1: oscar It's like, and then she rides off with Todd
- 18:49Speaker 1: on a lawnmower and then they kiss, and then that's
- 18:53Speaker 1: the end of the movie. At the end of the
- 18:55Speaker 1: movie killing you know what, I was really impressed by
- 18:59Speaker 1: an easy what what what? I really loved and respected
- 19:03Speaker 1: the marriage between Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson's characters. It
- 19:07Speaker 1: seemed very healthy, very functional. They had fun. They do
- 19:10Speaker 1: have fun at the house. You know what I bet
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- 21:36Speaker 1: by going to Zola zo A dot com slash tbc
- 21:41Speaker 1: and there's no easier a than that Wow, where to
- 21:49Speaker 1: begin with this. There's a lot of there's a there's
- 21:51Speaker 1: a lot Well, I here's my initial thoughts. Right, So
- 21:56Speaker 1: the movie, thank you so much, thank you for giving
- 21:59Speaker 1: me this platform. I'm reclaiming my time. Thank you. Um.
- 22:05Speaker 1: This movie does some things right which are progressive and feminist,
- 22:13Speaker 1: and then it does a lot of things that are
- 22:15Speaker 1: very wrong because one of the themes of the movie,
- 22:17Speaker 1: it's like the core message, let's say, is the double
- 22:22Speaker 1: standard of sexually active men being considered studs and sexually
- 22:26Speaker 1: active women being considered sluts. In the movie draws attention
- 22:30Speaker 1: to that, calls it out, and we're like, whoa, yeah,
- 22:34Speaker 1: But the movie only goes so far with that message
- 22:37Speaker 1: because it ends up like demonizing the idea of women
- 22:41Speaker 1: having a lot of sex and having multiple sexual partners
- 22:43Speaker 1: through various lines of dialogue and different attitudes that characters have, etcetera.
- 22:50Speaker 1: My main thing with this movie that well, there was
- 22:53Speaker 1: first of all, like, in most respects, like I thought,
- 22:55Speaker 1: especially when I first saw the movie, I thought Emiston's
- 22:57Speaker 1: character was like the fucking coolest person the world. I
- 23:00Speaker 1: was like, I wish I were more like this character.
- 23:03Speaker 1: She was so cool. But most of the other women
- 23:06Speaker 1: outside of her mom, who is like, I feel like
- 23:09Speaker 1: pretty positive and supportive, but like all the other female
- 23:13Speaker 1: characters in this story are like vicious and trophy in
- 23:19Speaker 1: a lot of ways, and you get some shades of gray,
- 23:21Speaker 1: like with you get a little bit with the Rhiannon character.
- 23:24Speaker 1: You don't really get that much with the Marianne character.
- 23:26Speaker 1: But it's it's like this weird. I don't know, it
- 23:29Speaker 1: just felt a little off to me the way that
- 23:32Speaker 1: she is basically like, it seems like the movie has
- 23:35Speaker 1: decided like, well, women will turn on each other and
- 23:39Speaker 1: call each other sleds and this is the main problem,
- 23:42Speaker 1: you know what I mean, And whereas I feel like
- 23:44Speaker 1: kind of the guys end up looking a little more
- 23:47Speaker 1: goofy rather than very much a part of it. And
- 23:52Speaker 1: even the mom is kind of like sled Shaney, Like
- 23:54Speaker 1: when they have that conversation on the car, her mom
- 23:57Speaker 1: is like, you know, I used to sleep with a
- 23:58Speaker 1: ton of people and it was because I had really
- 24:01Speaker 1: low self esteem and then I met your dad and
- 24:03Speaker 1: now I'm like fine. And so even her mom, like
- 24:06Speaker 1: as supportive as she is, she's still slut shaming. So yeah,
- 24:11Speaker 1: every it's like every female I mean, everyone in this
- 24:14Speaker 1: movie is slut shaming, and that's part of the point,
- 24:16Speaker 1: but it just seems like the female characters, especially at
- 24:19Speaker 1: that high school, were so incredibly vicious. The Lisa Kudra
- 24:23Speaker 1: character is totally sold out and like literally is called
- 24:28Speaker 1: like an evil person. And I think that this movie
- 24:31Speaker 1: wouldn't have treated its main character the same way if
- 24:34Speaker 1: she had had sex, Like the that's what I'm saying, yeah,
- 24:38Speaker 1: like there's no I feel like the implication is, well,
- 24:41Speaker 1: she's a redeemable Like I like the end message of
- 24:44Speaker 1: the movie, like no matter what, it's no one's fucking business.
- 24:48Speaker 1: But that's not really what the movie was saying the
- 24:50Speaker 1: whole time, because because she was a virgin the whole time,
- 24:54Speaker 1: you don't need to really question what you're supposed to be, right.
- 24:58Speaker 1: I think if that character was actually having a lot
- 25:01Speaker 1: of sex with multiple partners, I don't think that is
- 25:06Speaker 1: not what happened in the movie, because I think the
- 25:08Speaker 1: movie really comes down against that type of behavior. For example,
- 25:13Speaker 1: so the romantic storyline with Todd, which there's parts of
- 25:17Speaker 1: it I like in parts of it, I don't like.
- 25:19Speaker 1: The part that I don't like is when they're like
- 25:22Speaker 1: in the car he's giving her a ride home, and
- 25:25Speaker 1: she's like, well, haven't you heard all these rumors about me?
- 25:27Speaker 1: And he's like, yeah, I've heard them, but I don't
- 25:30Speaker 1: believe them, which implies that he still likes her because
- 25:34Speaker 1: he doesn't think she's been sleeping with a bunch of
- 25:36Speaker 1: different people, implying that if he thought she was sleeping
- 25:39Speaker 1: with a bunch of different people, he would not like her. Yeah. Yeah,
- 25:44Speaker 1: there's like all this and it's weird because I definitely
- 25:47Speaker 1: I don't know. I I definitely did not pick up
- 25:49Speaker 1: on this when I first watched. But he's like, it's
- 25:53Speaker 1: all these little exchanges and lines that the subtext is like, well,
- 25:57Speaker 1: because this is a lie, that's the only reason this
- 26:00Speaker 1: is okay, and she were telling the truth, she's irredeemable
- 26:03Speaker 1: and bad. And then you know, so even at the end,
- 26:07Speaker 1: she says that line where when she's on her vlog
- 26:09Speaker 1: dot com and she's like, you know how shitty it
- 26:12Speaker 1: feels to be an outcast warranted or not? And you're like,
- 26:15Speaker 1: what is the warranted or I didn't even catch that.
- 26:19Speaker 1: It's just like a little line that you're like, okay,
- 26:21Speaker 1: I like, that's the values of this movie aren't really
- 26:24Speaker 1: what they're advertising. And then a few other lines like
- 26:27Speaker 1: the one that you said Lisa about like her mom
- 26:29Speaker 1: being like, yeah, I slept around because I had no
- 26:31Speaker 1: self worth, and then like Lisa kudrow House a line
- 26:35Speaker 1: that says, my god, character disaster, where is it? It's
- 26:40Speaker 1: something like, oh, it's real horror. Can't admit it to herself,
- 26:43Speaker 1: trust me? Yeah. Well, the what's confusing is that there
- 26:48Speaker 1: are some characters who are slut shaming, and they're framed
- 26:53Speaker 1: as being bad and wrong, like the Amanda Bind's character
- 26:56Speaker 1: and like her whole friend group. But then the movie
- 26:59Speaker 1: turns around owned and then like I interpreted that to
- 27:02Speaker 1: be like again, it's just like a this movie was
- 27:05Speaker 1: written by a queer writer, but a queer male writer
- 27:09Speaker 1: who I guess like he went on, you know, he
- 27:12Speaker 1: did interviews around this movie and said that the character
- 27:14Speaker 1: Brandon was based on his experience in high school closet. Yeah, Like,
- 27:19Speaker 1: it does give you some good subtext, but it does.
- 27:21Speaker 1: It does seem like the like decision being made by
- 27:24Speaker 1: like the writer, director, whomever else is that teen girls
- 27:29Speaker 1: are so fickle and we'll turn on you for absolutely
- 27:33Speaker 1: no reason, and we'll one eight, And I mean, I
- 27:36Speaker 1: think you almost see that in Rhiannon's character. At the beginning,
- 27:40Speaker 1: she's like, you have to be a slut. And then
- 27:43Speaker 1: when Emma Stones's character is like okay, and then she's
- 27:46Speaker 1: like I hate you, You're horrible, Like yeah, it's like not,
- 27:50Speaker 1: it's hard to trace her logic, Like she starts. Rhiannon
- 27:54Speaker 1: starts out by talking openly about sex. She like screams
- 27:58Speaker 1: the word climax and of their teacher, like she's so
- 28:02Speaker 1: excited when she thinks that all of has had sex
- 28:05Speaker 1: for the first time, she's like, oh, you've joined the
- 28:07Speaker 1: super slut club with me. And then as soon as
- 28:12Speaker 1: all of starts to get this reputation for reasons that
- 28:16Speaker 1: I don't understand, she's like, well, everyone thinks you're a
- 28:20Speaker 1: dirty skank, and so do I. And it's like, well,
- 28:22Speaker 1: which is it, Like are you excited about like your
- 28:26Speaker 1: friend's sexuality or And then I think what happened. It's
- 28:29Speaker 1: like the writer needed to like heighten the conflict for
- 28:32Speaker 1: all of So it's like, let's put her in conflict
- 28:34Speaker 1: with her best friend. How do I do that make
- 28:38Speaker 1: her completely change everything about the character that I've established,
- 28:42Speaker 1: Like it just doesn't. But see, I for me disagree
- 28:45Speaker 1: a little bit because I think my experience in high
- 28:48Speaker 1: school was actually I knew girls that were very similar
- 28:50Speaker 1: to that, and I think, maybe to give the writer
- 28:53Speaker 1: too much credit, but I almost feel like it's pointing
- 28:55Speaker 1: a finger at the fact that this kind of like
- 28:57Speaker 1: the toxic ideas that we hold around owned virginity and
- 29:01Speaker 1: chastity with women kind of necessarily pit women against each other,
- 29:06Speaker 1: and this almost like who's a virgin, who's not a virgin,
- 29:08Speaker 1: who's sluttier, who's not sluttier? And like I remember there
- 29:11Speaker 1: was a girl in my high school who like used
- 29:13Speaker 1: to lord her virginity over other people, but then it
- 29:18Speaker 1: which it turned out that she was like having anal
- 29:20Speaker 1: sex the whole time, but like her virginity was intact,
- 29:24Speaker 1: and so it was like always this and then as
- 29:26Speaker 1: soon as people found that out, then all of a
- 29:27Speaker 1: sudden she was slutty and horrible, and then others were good.
- 29:31Speaker 1: And like even girls I knew who were like really
- 29:34Speaker 1: proud of being, you know, slutty, there was always like
- 29:37Speaker 1: like a limit and then if you went past that limit,
- 29:39Speaker 1: then you were bad. And I feel like this like
- 29:42Speaker 1: hierarchy of sluttery actually is really at least two to
- 29:49Speaker 1: my high school experience. I don't know if it's too think. Yeah,
- 29:52Speaker 1: there's a bit of that in my high school as well. Yeah,
- 29:56Speaker 1: so I feel like maybe Rhiannon is like comfortable with
- 29:58Speaker 1: like up to a certain point. Sure it doesn't because
- 30:01Speaker 1: she does and then she does. She does celebrate it
- 30:03Speaker 1: until the point where like Emma Stone stops telling her
- 30:06Speaker 1: about it. That's true, and she's like a betrayal best friend. Yeah,
- 30:12Speaker 1: and then she and then when it gets to be
- 30:14Speaker 1: her crush, it's I mean, honestly, I would join the
- 30:18Speaker 1: picket line as well. She don't grun a day with
- 30:20Speaker 1: your best friend's crush, it's the rule. No. And it's
- 30:22Speaker 1: super weird that Emma Stone only gets upset that they
- 30:25Speaker 1: might get seen. She's like, I don't want them to
- 30:27Speaker 1: I don't want her to see us, But it's like
- 30:29Speaker 1: you still went see I still I would argue I
- 30:32Speaker 1: wish that we knew more about Rhannon in general, because
- 30:35Speaker 1: I agree that you're saying, and I think that like
- 30:37Speaker 1: that is like an interesting thing to explore, but it's
- 30:41Speaker 1: but we don't really know that much about her, So
- 30:43Speaker 1: it was like hard for me to glean, like we
- 30:45Speaker 1: don't really know much about like what her sexual history is,
- 30:49Speaker 1: because I feel like this whole movie is kind of
- 30:51Speaker 1: hinged around, like you know, exaggeration of what your sexual
- 30:56Speaker 1: experiences for social acceptance, cloud whatever, and we don't really
- 31:00Speaker 1: know if Rhannon is, you know, telling the truth, is
- 31:03Speaker 1: she exaggerating? We don't really know. Yeah, that's true. She's
- 31:06Speaker 1: not given a lot of backstory, no, which is a bummer.
- 31:09Speaker 1: I feel like there's there's space for that. And from
- 31:12Speaker 1: the very beginning, I was like, Ama Stone is not
- 31:14Speaker 1: a freakod friend to her because she's just like she
- 31:17Speaker 1: she lies about well, I mean, she she lies to
- 31:20Speaker 1: get out of that trip. And then yeah, I I
- 31:23Speaker 1: don't know Ema Stone. At times I understood her motivations
- 31:26Speaker 1: and other times I was like, you're just like fucking
- 31:29Speaker 1: yourself over. I think they're both not good friends to
- 31:32Speaker 1: each other. That's true. Yeah, that's really true, which is
- 31:35Speaker 1: a lot of high school friendships like that. Tracks. Yeah,
- 31:40Speaker 1: although they're supposed to be like best friends, I feel
- 31:42Speaker 1: like like how they're yea since like forever right unless
- 31:45Speaker 1: her desktop image, that's like serious friendship. I mean, and
- 31:51Speaker 1: I think this is pretty standard for like teen movies,
- 31:53Speaker 1: but I don't think the complications that come with many
- 31:58Speaker 1: teen best friendships, like the portrayal of it in this
- 32:01Speaker 1: movie and in most teen movies, it's not very nuanced. Yeah,
- 32:05Speaker 1: I think it's like it was clear to me just
- 32:09Speaker 1: like based on how their friendship was right, And I
- 32:10Speaker 1: was like, I don't think a woman wrote this movie,
- 32:12Speaker 1: and then I checked it, like, no they did not,
- 32:16Speaker 1: because there is there are like it feels like some
- 32:18Speaker 1: kernels of like authenticity, and I like to see like,
- 32:22Speaker 1: you know, female characters in conflict with each other and
- 32:24Speaker 1: like both kind of being assholes in different ways. Like
- 32:28Speaker 1: that's great, but it just sometimes it was a little
- 32:30Speaker 1: bit uncanny valley to track in this one. For sure.
- 32:35Speaker 1: I wanted to touch a little bit more on the
- 32:37Speaker 1: romantic storyline with all of and Todd and badly. Yes,
- 32:43Speaker 1: I kept forgetting he was in the movie, and then
- 32:45Speaker 1: he would show up again. I was like, oh, yeah,
- 32:47Speaker 1: I guess that this is you know, we care about this. Yeah.
- 32:49Speaker 1: He also wasn't given a lot of a story, No, No,
- 32:52Speaker 1: he was just kind of there, right. The little back
- 32:55Speaker 1: story we do get about him is that all of
- 32:58Speaker 1: him played seven minute in Heaven when they were in
- 33:01Speaker 1: eighth grade. So they go into this room and he's like, oh, actually,
- 33:05Speaker 1: I'm not ready to kiss yet. Could we just tell
- 33:08Speaker 1: everyone that we kissed? And she's like sure. And then
- 33:12Speaker 1: I liked that. You know, you see like a young
- 33:14Speaker 1: boy who's not ready to kiss, because there's like so
- 33:17Speaker 1: much pressure on boys starting at a very young age
- 33:21Speaker 1: to like be sexually active and to like start as
- 33:25Speaker 1: soon as possible. So I was like, oh, that's that's nice,
- 33:28Speaker 1: because like the idea of like a boy not being
- 33:30Speaker 1: ready yet, there's an idea that there's no such thing
- 33:33Speaker 1: is that? And of course there's so and it's very damaging.
- 33:37Speaker 1: And yeah, I like that moment. I like that the
- 33:39Speaker 1: little boy was able to be not ready for something
- 33:42Speaker 1: and that was like treated very respectfully. Yeah, it wasn't
- 33:44Speaker 1: like an emasculation thing. It was like yeah. And then
- 33:48Speaker 1: so like all of goes on that date with Anson,
- 33:53Speaker 1: he tries to surprise kiss her several times. That's framed
- 33:56Speaker 1: as being wrong, unwanted, assaulty. In the contrast, she gets
- 34:01Speaker 1: in the car with Todd and he's been framed as
- 34:04Speaker 1: being this viable romantic option for Olive Chuck Todd Chuck
- 34:09Speaker 1: Todd and then he asks permission to kiss her. She
- 34:12Speaker 1: says no, and then he's like visibly disappointed, but then
- 34:16Speaker 1: he apologizes. He's like, oh, I'm so sorry, and she's like, no,
- 34:19Speaker 1: I just mean like I don't want to kiss you
- 34:21Speaker 1: right now, but I do want to french you some
- 34:24Speaker 1: other time. So just the fact that we see like
- 34:27Speaker 1: a boy asking for permission to kiss a woman appreciate
- 34:31Speaker 1: taking the no. Yeah, he didn't really push it. Yeah,
- 34:35Speaker 1: so that was like, oh cool, that was a yeah,
- 34:37Speaker 1: I liked that scene too. But then there's like that
- 34:40Speaker 1: we're I mean, it's just such a mixed bag, that
- 34:42Speaker 1: very mixed where he's like, well, I want to kiss
- 34:44Speaker 1: you because you because you because you're in text. He
- 34:49Speaker 1: asks that, she's like why are you interested in me
- 34:51Speaker 1: all of a sudden, and then he's given this line
- 34:54Speaker 1: which is just kind of a non answer. He's like
- 34:56Speaker 1: I don't know, and we're like, do you, because like,
- 35:00Speaker 1: you know, she's been around this whole time, but all
- 35:02Speaker 1: of a sudden, now you're in love with I guess.
- 35:05Speaker 1: But don't we see her like kind of trying to
- 35:07Speaker 1: talk to her before like the rumors start. Does that happen.
- 35:11Speaker 1: I can't totally remember they we see them like we
- 35:13Speaker 1: see like they're kind of flirty. Yeah, yeah, they have
- 35:16Speaker 1: like they have like a moment, I guess, yeah, but
- 35:18Speaker 1: he does like explicitly stayed like, oh well I don't
- 35:21Speaker 1: believe those rumors, which is why I still have a
- 35:23Speaker 1: crush on your right, yeah, which is gosh, so yeah,
- 35:29Speaker 1: I don't, I don't know. And and there, I mean,
- 35:31Speaker 1: this is sort of this like hearkens back to like
- 35:34Speaker 1: I feel like a million episodes we've done at this point.
- 35:36Speaker 1: But the whole like obsession with eighties movies I've found
- 35:41Speaker 1: so annoying. They're just like a montage of movies that
- 35:45Speaker 1: we've already fucking Like, what is the dog that gets shot?
- 35:49Speaker 1: It's not Lassie old Yeller, old Yeller. Yeah, we've already
- 35:53Speaker 1: old yellow these movies and Emma Stones out here, Like
- 35:56Speaker 1: I just wish there were more Judd Nells that you're like, oh,
- 36:00Speaker 1: I was, like I love John Hughes. Was then it
- 36:04Speaker 1: literally ends with the sisso of them together. The whole
- 36:15Speaker 1: thing a lot out of me. That part she likes
- 36:19Speaker 1: sites these very problematic like rape movies like sixteen Candles
- 36:24Speaker 1: and Breakfast club and it's like, oh, this is what
- 36:27Speaker 1: you're aspiring too well, which is again, I mean it's
- 36:30Speaker 1: very two. And it's also like another kind of like
- 36:33Speaker 1: little missed opportunity for like it's not even it's like
- 36:37Speaker 1: not uncommon for people to be like, oh, I wish
- 36:40Speaker 1: my life were like this movie that happened before I
- 36:43Speaker 1: was born. But then it just doesn't challenge your examine
- 36:47Speaker 1: anything of like oh maybe that shouldn't be what and
- 36:50Speaker 1: then she just gets it. But I feel like often
- 36:51Speaker 1: that's all we remember about those movies, right, It's like
- 36:53Speaker 1: you just remember like the iconic moment where you're like
- 36:56Speaker 1: overcome with love and emotion and you're like, oh, it's
- 36:58Speaker 1: so beautiful, and then you go back and actually watch
- 37:00Speaker 1: it and you're like, oh, wait, disaster. So that I mean, yeah,
- 37:08Speaker 1: in general, the there are parts of the Olive Todd Romantics.
- 37:14Speaker 1: It was it's not the worst teen comedy relationship by
- 37:18Speaker 1: a long shot. Or there's definitely room for improvement. Yeah yeah,
- 37:23Speaker 1: that's I mean, that's that's this whole movie. For me.
- 37:26Speaker 1: It's like we are on the right track. I can
- 37:29Speaker 1: I can feel it doesn't quite go the whole way.
- 37:33Speaker 1: Can we talking about the Lisa Kujar character that was
- 37:38Speaker 1: so and it did remind me a lot of like
- 37:41Speaker 1: a very similar storyline and failing of the Jessica Williams
- 37:45Speaker 1: character in Book Smart this year, where it's like, oh,
- 37:49Speaker 1: they want to have I think something that would have
- 37:51Speaker 1: been done in the eighties without making it clear what
- 37:54Speaker 1: the age you know, content is. But they're just trying
- 37:57Speaker 1: to update that, you know, like Trophy story line of
- 38:00Speaker 1: like the teacher and the student hooking up but they're legal,
- 38:03Speaker 1: so it's okay, but it's still not good and like, yeah,
- 38:07Speaker 1: Lisa Kutro is made out to be such an evil
- 38:09Speaker 1: shrew from moment one, like it just it sucked, right.
- 38:14Speaker 1: She's like, the first thing we hear her say, I
- 38:16Speaker 1: think is, um, I'm the guidance counselor. I should know
- 38:20Speaker 1: who all my students are, especially the ones who dressed
- 38:22Speaker 1: like prostitutes, and I'm supposed to be like and then
- 38:26Speaker 1: she just kind of like shoves condoms at her. She's like,
- 38:29Speaker 1: I'm always here to support you and listen to you.
- 38:32Speaker 1: And then but and Emma Stone is legitimately trying to
- 38:34Speaker 1: talk to her, and she's like, I want to tell
- 38:36Speaker 1: you what's going on? Because it's terrible and I'm really upset,
- 38:39Speaker 1: and she's just kind of like, here, take the condoms,
- 38:41Speaker 1: get out of my office, right. And then there's that
- 38:43Speaker 1: scene their last scene together, which is like so egregious
- 38:47Speaker 1: and you're like, oh, I hope Lisa Kudro got paid
- 38:49Speaker 1: a lot of money to say this. But that whole
- 38:52Speaker 1: scene where this is during sort of the like series
- 38:55Speaker 1: of scenes where Emma Stone is going back to the
- 38:58Speaker 1: people she's agreed to lie for and say I can't
- 39:00Speaker 1: do this anymore. So she gets Lisa Coudro, and Lisa
- 39:04Speaker 1: Coudro is like, who are people going to believe? They're
- 39:06Speaker 1: not gonna believe you, They're gonna believe me that. You're like,
- 39:09Speaker 1: oh right, boy, this is so yeah. That was like
- 39:12Speaker 1: a brutal just I mean, there's really nothing to sell
- 39:16Speaker 1: out with this character because she's presented as unsympathetic like it.
- 39:21Speaker 1: I like, that's like the best example in this movie
- 39:23Speaker 1: of how the movie really feels about women having sex.
- 39:27Speaker 1: Is they like and then her husband is like perfect exactly,
- 39:31Speaker 1: he does nothing wrong. He's like the students love him,
- 39:34Speaker 1: everyone loves him. He's devastated she, like Emmas don't apologizes
- 39:39Speaker 1: to him on her web. That's what really especially join
- 39:42Speaker 1: me crazy about this too, is that like all of
- 39:45Speaker 1: takes responsibility for being a home wrecker, and she's like,
- 39:49Speaker 1: oh man, I shouldn't have told it. I feel I
- 39:51Speaker 1: regret telling him, and it's like, you didn't do anything,
- 39:56Speaker 1: like it was these two other parties of Mrs Griffith
- 39:59Speaker 1: and then this Mica kid who ruined that marriage, not you,
- 40:05Speaker 1: and the Mica character by extension too, it was like
- 40:08Speaker 1: even there was like a little something in that character
- 40:11Speaker 1: we barely see. But the only reason that he, you know, says,
- 40:15Speaker 1: oh I had sex with all of Pendergast and she
- 40:18Speaker 1: gave me chlamydia was because his like shrewy mom character
- 40:23Speaker 1: was like tell me what happened. She was literally hitting
- 40:25Speaker 1: him in the hospital. Yeah, like in his hospital bed.
- 40:30Speaker 1: So like even that like little moment finds a way
- 40:33Speaker 1: to like push the blame off on a female character
- 40:36Speaker 1: we barely know, Like he wouldn't have just done it
- 40:38Speaker 1: his mom was whacking him at the hospital and then yeah,
- 40:43Speaker 1: so it's just like all these little you're just like, ah,
- 40:45Speaker 1: come on, we and I don't know, and just the
- 40:49Speaker 1: I don't know it was it made clear I was
- 40:52Speaker 1: having trouble figuring out was it implied that Lisa Kudro's
- 40:56Speaker 1: character had given Mica clamidia? What was Yes, I believe
- 41:01Speaker 1: that is. I think that's what Olive said when she
- 41:05Speaker 1: like yelled it at the teacher. She was like, your
- 41:08Speaker 1: wife gave a student clamydia. And then also the like
- 41:12Speaker 1: a kid when he's like talking on the phone to
- 41:14Speaker 1: the person who we don't know who it is yet
- 41:18Speaker 1: and he's like, I don't care that you gave me chlamydia.
- 41:20Speaker 1: I still love you. And then it cuts to Lisa Kudro,
- 41:24Speaker 1: which is just a total fumble of like handling a
- 41:27Speaker 1: storyline with a character who has uh sexually transmitted disease.
- 41:31Speaker 1: It like plays it off as a joke, and it
- 41:33Speaker 1: also serves to make Lusa Kudrow's character I think the
- 41:36Speaker 1: movie intends to like by giving her clamdia. That's like
- 41:40Speaker 1: a slut shamy like things that the movie is doing
- 41:43Speaker 1: because because she wants to make her less sympathetic, right
- 41:47Speaker 1: because she she didn't get it from Micah. Mica got
- 41:49Speaker 1: it from her. As far as we understand, she might
- 41:53Speaker 1: have gotten it from her husband, Mr Griffith, the person
- 41:56Speaker 1: that we all are supposed to love, right, but I
- 41:58Speaker 1: probably think it so I guess she got it from
- 42:01Speaker 1: someone else. Yeah, so it's like you get punished for
- 42:04Speaker 1: being for having multiple sexual partners. Yeah. It also bothered
- 42:11Speaker 1: me how like later, like Michael was exiled to like
- 42:14Speaker 1: his grandparents house in Florida or whatever, and he's still
- 42:17Speaker 1: like scratching his crotch like like as if chlamydia you
- 42:20Speaker 1: can't just get rid of it during forever. He's now
- 42:24Speaker 1: tarnished and it's gross, And I was just like, that's
- 42:27Speaker 1: not It's just like it's like the writer either was
- 42:31Speaker 1: making a joke of it or had just not even
- 42:33Speaker 1: done a light google of like what that which sucks
- 42:37Speaker 1: because it's like st D S, S, T I S,
- 42:40Speaker 1: whichever are like so stigmatized and played as a like
- 42:44Speaker 1: thoughtless joke in so many I think in like this
- 42:47Speaker 1: genre is like probably one of the more casual offenders
- 42:52Speaker 1: of just like playing it off and and it you know,
- 42:55Speaker 1: it's it's not helpful to anyone he gets. I mean, yeah,
- 43:00Speaker 1: if you if you have chlamydia, you don't have to
- 43:02Speaker 1: move to Florida. That's just what I want everyone to know.
- 43:06Speaker 1: Just like it's okay you can't get an anibiotic and
- 43:11Speaker 1: you're really just move on with your life a miracle.
- 43:16Speaker 1: We got to take another quick break, but then we'll
- 43:18Speaker 1: come right back. Can we talk about man, wow, Jamie
- 43:29Speaker 1: Not to get controversial on the pod, yes, please go on.
- 43:35Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about how boys
- 43:39Speaker 1: or men. I don't think they're supposed to be boys,
- 43:41Speaker 1: but everyone's visibly but you know how the boys who
- 43:47Speaker 1: ask all of to lie for them are portrayed in
- 43:50Speaker 1: because I thought it was like something that I had
- 43:53Speaker 1: to go back and like rewatch, especially that scene with
- 43:56Speaker 1: the Evan where we do see at every step of
- 44:00Speaker 1: the way, starting with Brandon, all of has to be convinced.
- 44:05Speaker 1: I would almost throw the word coerced out there in
- 44:08Speaker 1: some cases of to do it in the first place,
- 44:12Speaker 1: where she starts out with the very like two thousand
- 44:17Speaker 1: ten high school or thoughtless idea of like, oh, well,
- 44:19Speaker 1: you don't want people to make fun of you because
- 44:21Speaker 1: you're gay, just tell him you're straight. You're like, okay,
- 44:24Speaker 1: that's okay. But then it's like that, I mean, the
- 44:29Speaker 1: writer is pulling from his own experience from that, so
- 44:31Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, uh, if that is what's happening. But
- 44:34Speaker 1: then he you know, I feel like the reason that
- 44:38Speaker 1: it is okay for them to do that is because
- 44:40Speaker 1: they are quote unquote bullied, and so it makes it
- 44:42Speaker 1: okay for them to ask this unreasonable favor of Olive.
- 44:47Speaker 1: And like, I thought that the Evans seen stuck out
- 44:51Speaker 1: to me the most, as you know, because he asks her,
- 44:55Speaker 1: will you do this for me? She says no, fuck you,
- 45:00Speaker 1: and then he says, yeah, I mean, of course you're
- 45:03Speaker 1: saying no, I'm such a loser. Before before he says,
- 45:08Speaker 1: I'll pay you a hundred dollars. Also, I don't need
- 45:12Speaker 1: your permission here, which means like, I'm going to take
- 45:16Speaker 1: advantage of your reputation and exploit it from my own
- 45:20Speaker 1: personal gain, and I'm going to do it whether you
- 45:22Speaker 1: like it or not. And she's furious with him, rightfully so.
- 45:26Speaker 1: And then he does the one guilds her and says,
- 45:29Speaker 1: I'm just you know, he calls himself a fat piece
- 45:32Speaker 1: of ship, and then she takes pity on him, and
- 45:35Speaker 1: then she and I feel like the movie, they're like, oh,
- 45:38Speaker 1: well of course she would, you know, Like it's just
- 45:41Speaker 1: she has every right to be like, no, like, sort
- 45:43Speaker 1: this out on your own right, go you know, go
- 45:45Speaker 1: talk to Lisa Kudrow, I don't know, like and then
- 45:48Speaker 1: just you know, telling them. But but she's kind of
- 45:51Speaker 1: repeatedly guilted by these outcast, misfic guys, and it sort
- 45:56Speaker 1: of I mean, because this movie talks so much about
- 45:58Speaker 1: eighties tropes, it feels like almost a like a John
- 46:01Speaker 1: Hughes Nerd character that is like an character who is
- 46:09Speaker 1: like I feel entitled to this and because I can't
- 46:13Speaker 1: have it, you know, you have to do this for me.
- 46:16Speaker 1: That kind of like coercion narrative, which sucks because again,
- 46:19Speaker 1: it's like it's a there there is the opportunity here
- 46:23Speaker 1: for those themes to be like explored a little more thoughtfully.
- 46:27Speaker 1: And it's the thing that always bugs me is was like,
- 46:29Speaker 1: there's like it would be funnier too, if she was
- 46:32Speaker 1: like pushing back on this stuff instead of just folding
- 46:36Speaker 1: or like negotiating for herself. Like that's the thing that
- 46:38Speaker 1: irritated me to because there's this moment where she's like,
- 46:40Speaker 1: all right, this is happening, I'm just going to own
- 46:42Speaker 1: it and I'll just do it. But then yeah, like
- 46:44Speaker 1: we said, she's getting like cent off to the body
- 46:47Speaker 1: shop and like, you know, an AutoZone gift card or
- 46:50Speaker 1: whatever and like stuff that she can't actually use. And
- 46:53Speaker 1: I really wanted her to like build an empire and
- 46:56Speaker 1: be like, actually, you know, I want five hundred dollars
- 46:59Speaker 1: to the store that actually shop at, right, because in
- 47:02Speaker 1: that scene with Evan, she's like, Okay, I want a
- 47:05Speaker 1: hundred dollar gift card in my locker and she says, um,
- 47:13Speaker 1: but we didn't have sex. You can tell people that
- 47:16Speaker 1: you like, fondled my chest And he's like, a hundred
- 47:20Speaker 1: bucks is pretty steep for that. Can't you say that?
- 47:22Speaker 1: Like you rubbed my pants and I touched your butt
- 47:25Speaker 1: and stuff like that, And she's just like whatever, And
- 47:28Speaker 1: it maybe it's commentary on how like girls and women
- 47:32Speaker 1: are never taught to negotiate. Who knows, it's probably not
- 47:35Speaker 1: as well. That then kind of brings up the conversation
- 47:40Speaker 1: of sex work and is this character could she be
- 47:45Speaker 1: considered a sex worker? Yeah? I mean I think so,
- 47:49Speaker 1: Like I think a lot of sex work doesn't have
- 47:52Speaker 1: to be literal sex, and a lot of it is
- 47:54Speaker 1: not a lot of it isn't, and a lot of
- 47:55Speaker 1: it is like caretaking and even helping with image and
- 48:00Speaker 1: with public persona and all of that is a huge
- 48:02Speaker 1: element of sex work. So I think, yeah, there's definitely
- 48:06Speaker 1: sex work in this movie. I would say for sure.
- 48:09Speaker 1: But then the movie also like shames sex work and
- 48:13Speaker 1: sex workers at different points. Yeah, like it calls her
- 48:16Speaker 1: says she dresses like a prostitute or she looks like
- 48:19Speaker 1: a stripper, but don't worry a high class strippers like
- 48:23Speaker 1: for governors. I think her dad says that it disappointing.
- 48:29Speaker 1: And then there's a moment where she is talking to
- 48:32Speaker 1: the ants and guy and she's like, I'm not actually
- 48:36Speaker 1: having sex with people for money, with like this tone
- 48:38Speaker 1: of disgust in her voice. It's just like another way
- 48:41Speaker 1: that this movie is trying to have it very much
- 48:44Speaker 1: both ways, where they will like go all the way
- 48:47Speaker 1: up to the line of like showing sex work, but
- 48:51Speaker 1: they won't call it that, and they have to condemn
- 48:53Speaker 1: everything else that falls under umbrella. It's only okay because
- 48:56Speaker 1: she's not actually sexual, right, And yeah, it's just Oh,
- 49:03Speaker 1: also she's given gift cards to retail stores because women
- 49:06Speaker 1: be shopping. There's I know, I'm just think that was
- 49:10Speaker 1: I was. And then like male coded stores, which they
- 49:13Speaker 1: play as a oftentimes why would a woman want to
- 49:15Speaker 1: go to home depot And it's like, okay, why bad joke,
- 49:20Speaker 1: just bad just not yeah there, Yeah, I was. I
- 49:24Speaker 1: was frustrated. I never really thought about how little she
- 49:28Speaker 1: negotiates um because that's like I feel like that raises
- 49:32Speaker 1: the stakes in a cooler way too, if she like
- 49:34Speaker 1: has this empire and there's more for her to lose
- 49:38Speaker 1: as opposed to she's just taking whatever is offered and
- 49:41Speaker 1: it's all you know, reputation game. Yeah, and I feel
- 49:45Speaker 1: like the fact that she doesn't really get anything that
- 49:48Speaker 1: she wants out of it just kind of doubles down
- 49:50Speaker 1: on the idea that you know, like she owes someone something,
- 49:55Speaker 1: you know, like it's just it's you know. The moment
- 49:58Speaker 1: I did like was when she pays when she goes
- 50:00Speaker 1: on the date with Anson before he turns on her,
- 50:03Speaker 1: and she just pays for it with one of the
- 50:05Speaker 1: gift cards. I thought that was a cool moment where
- 50:07Speaker 1: like a lot of those movies at that time, like
- 50:09Speaker 1: you know, see women paying for dates, and she doesn't
- 50:11Speaker 1: without making it. She's just like, yeah, I have money now,
- 50:13Speaker 1: and I'm going to just pay for this lobster din
- 50:15Speaker 1: or no problem. Um, it's kind of a badass moment,
- 50:19Speaker 1: just like keep the tip we're leaving because they go
- 50:22Speaker 1: to the lobster the Lobster Shock, and then Rhiannon's there.
- 50:27Speaker 1: I have to like sneak out when you run into
- 50:29Speaker 1: your ex Bustia lobster shop, you know, with her parents.
- 50:35Speaker 1: Also that parent drug is so corny of like we're
- 50:38Speaker 1: in California, so everyone's like naked, you're eating Payotie burgers,
- 50:44Speaker 1: right Like that was like a little I don't know.
- 50:51Speaker 1: But then I texted Michaela, who's from oh Hi, about
- 50:54Speaker 1: that scene and she was like, oh, that was the
- 50:56Speaker 1: only part that I thought they got right about. She
- 51:00Speaker 1: was just like, yeah, but you know, we don't we
- 51:04Speaker 1: all oh Hi heads way and did you feel like
- 51:07Speaker 1: that was good? Oh Hi visibility? Let us know. But
- 51:11Speaker 1: another like set of parents or adults in this movie
- 51:14Speaker 1: here were like just like so freaking cool, right because
- 51:19Speaker 1: man is as much as I love the Tooch and
- 51:22Speaker 1: he is the best part of every movie he's in.
- 51:27Speaker 1: But like the like her parents are, I don't know,
- 51:30Speaker 1: it's everyone's just it's like they're like so much of this.
- 51:35Speaker 1: You can tell that the writer of this movie has
- 51:37Speaker 1: watched a lot of Gilmore Girls based on how this
- 51:40Speaker 1: movie is written, which I love, but I feel like
- 51:44Speaker 1: they go the Gilmore Girls style of parenting too, to
- 51:47Speaker 1: the point where it seems like at some points it's
- 51:49Speaker 1: like your daughter is like having a tough time and
- 51:52Speaker 1: you just keep like poking your head and your room
- 51:54Speaker 1: being like hey, uh, don't worry by and I'm like, okay,
- 51:59Speaker 1: this is right right right that, And then a lot
- 52:03Speaker 1: of the conversations are like her parents making fun of
- 52:08Speaker 1: her for having a gay boyfriend and she like that's
- 52:12Speaker 1: not the thing, and they both do the I think,
- 52:15Speaker 1: like the casual they both are like, oh, I was
- 52:18Speaker 1: gay for a couple of weeks in college, like that
- 52:21Speaker 1: very two thousand thoughtless joke. I mean, the way queerness
- 52:26Speaker 1: is presented in general was peculiar, let's say, um, And
- 52:33Speaker 1: it is helpful to know the context of the writer
- 52:36Speaker 1: being a gay man who who is like pulling from
- 52:40Speaker 1: his personal experience and that's part of like what inspired
- 52:44Speaker 1: this story that he wrote, but again it's just kind
- 52:47Speaker 1: of under explored in the actual movie. And then the
- 52:51Speaker 1: way they talk about it as well, like the language
- 52:55Speaker 1: that gets used a lot of the times, and it
- 52:57Speaker 1: never takes challenges, you know, all of us like oh,
- 53:00Speaker 1: you know that Brandon kid and Rhanon's like, yeah, isn't
- 53:03Speaker 1: he a homo? And they like time they say like
- 53:08Speaker 1: the word homosexual with this just like hint of disdain
- 53:14Speaker 1: or dismissive and then like other otherness like oh, well
- 53:19Speaker 1: he's a homosexual. He's aid he's different, which I think
- 53:22Speaker 1: is a very two thousand ten of their like well,
- 53:24Speaker 1: I don't have a problem with it, but like gross,
- 53:26Speaker 1: you know, like yeah, like having it both ways, nos
- 53:30Speaker 1: of of this like time and then yeah, the whole
- 53:33Speaker 1: we already touched on this, but like the straight person
- 53:36Speaker 1: encouraging a queer person to like suppress your sexuality, and
- 53:41Speaker 1: then he's like, oh, hadn't thought of that? You're likely
- 53:45Speaker 1: And I get like a lot of like queer young
- 53:48Speaker 1: people do end up doing that to some degree, like
- 53:52Speaker 1: in high school, because they're trying to you know, it's
- 53:54Speaker 1: a self preservation thing. They're trying to avoid being bullied
- 53:57Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But and he gives this what
- 53:59Speaker 1: I've out was like a fairly well done verge of
- 54:03Speaker 1: tears monologue where he's talking about being tormented every day
- 54:06Speaker 1: at school and you know, we can fantasize about how
- 54:09Speaker 1: things will be different one day, but this is today
- 54:10Speaker 1: and today sucks, and like, please help me, I don't
- 54:13Speaker 1: know what I'm gonna do. And like that wasn't that
- 54:15Speaker 1: was like a that felt like a good authentic yes,
- 54:18Speaker 1: yeah I thought so. Yeah, but yeah, I'm interested to
- 54:20Speaker 1: hear from our queer listeners how they thought queerness in
- 54:25Speaker 1: general was depicted in this movie because it just rang
- 54:28Speaker 1: a little off, it was, I mean. And also the
- 54:31Speaker 1: fact that Brandon kind of disappears after like when she
- 54:35Speaker 1: goes back to talk to him. Oh, and then there's
- 54:37Speaker 1: that very bizarre, like problematic Huckleberry Finn joke that keeps
- 54:42Speaker 1: coming back that you're just like, has he read Huckleberry?
- 54:46Speaker 1: Like it was, so Brandon is gone. He like he
- 54:50Speaker 1: finds a boyfriend, and then does he finish high school?
- 54:53Speaker 1: He seems to have run away from it, runs away
- 54:55Speaker 1: from he seems okay, so he drops out and and
- 54:58Speaker 1: and leaves. But it's like character, we just see him
- 55:01Speaker 1: in a flash forward scene with a tasteless joke and
- 55:04Speaker 1: that's the last we see you. And I think it
- 55:06Speaker 1: kind of frames that whole thing is like a good thing.
- 55:09Speaker 1: It's almost like, look, he ran away and is in
- 55:11Speaker 1: love and everything's fine, and it's like he left his
- 55:14Speaker 1: home and he's a child and this is probably really
- 55:17Speaker 1: bad and like, but there's no nuance to it. It's
- 55:20Speaker 1: just like it's a joke. It's just a joke. Race
- 55:23Speaker 1: in general is another thing that it's not handled especially
- 55:26Speaker 1: well in this movie. Um it's a very white movie. Um,
- 55:32Speaker 1: most of the cast is white. The school that they
- 55:35Speaker 1: go to is predominantly white. I'm not sure how diverse
- 55:38Speaker 1: are like just seen in background shots at the high
- 55:42Speaker 1: school is people of color? Yeah, they're treated as like tokens,
- 55:46Speaker 1: props or punch lines. Basically all of has an adopted
- 55:49Speaker 1: brother who was black. But that just feels like a
- 55:52Speaker 1: very tokenized character with all the jokes about him being
- 55:57Speaker 1: adopted to Like that felt a little bit off to me.
- 56:02Speaker 1: I was like, how does it's played as like, Oh,
- 56:04Speaker 1: this is a jovial family moment. I'm like, but how
- 56:05Speaker 1: does he feel about these jokes? Right? All we know
- 56:09Speaker 1: about him is that he got a B plus on
- 56:10Speaker 1: his spelling test. All we find out about the whole
- 56:14Speaker 1: man He doesn't want to watch the bucket List because
- 56:17Speaker 1: why they still get Netflix DVDs in that household, and
- 56:21Speaker 1: I was like important representation, but yeah, I feel like
- 56:27Speaker 1: her brother is literally just there for Stanley to g
- 56:31Speaker 1: to be like, well, it's obvious he's adopted because he's
- 56:33Speaker 1: not white like us, Like that is the function of
- 56:37Speaker 1: that character. And then and then the way that the
- 56:40Speaker 1: Huckleberry Finn the So, how is that line first presented?
- 56:44Speaker 1: I don't want to get it wrong. Yeah, I've got
- 56:46Speaker 1: it here because it was cringe e the first time,
- 56:48Speaker 1: and then it came back and then yeah, so here's
- 56:52Speaker 1: what happens. Early on in the movie, all of is
- 56:55Speaker 1: talking about how, oh, the books we read in school
- 56:58Speaker 1: always seem to reflect like the t and age ankst
- 57:00Speaker 1: that we're going through, because she's talking about how the
- 57:02Speaker 1: scarlet letter relates to what's happening with her, uh in
- 57:06Speaker 1: present time. And then she's like, but the exception is
- 57:09Speaker 1: Huckleberry Finn. I don't know any teenage boys who have
- 57:13Speaker 1: run away with a big, hulking black guy. And then
- 57:16Speaker 1: at the end of the movie, Brandon has run away
- 57:20Speaker 1: from home with a black man. And then we see
- 57:22Speaker 1: them together watching Huckleberry Finn on film and they're watching
- 57:27Speaker 1: it like, oh, yeah, this is us, I guess, and
- 57:31Speaker 1: it's like, okay, so this black guy is the punch
- 57:34Speaker 1: line to this stupid joke that you set up and
- 57:37Speaker 1: was stupid then and it's stupid when we see it
- 57:39Speaker 1: again called back to and it's just like really icky
- 57:42Speaker 1: and weird. That was like a joke that you're just like,
- 57:47Speaker 1: has this writer read Huckleberry Finn? It just was confusing
- 57:51Speaker 1: or ever talked to a black person? Unclear? But yeah,
- 57:55Speaker 1: I mean the way that the very few non white
- 57:59Speaker 1: characters are treated are literally it's only in regards to
- 58:02Speaker 1: their race. Yeah, here's another example. There's an Indian kid
- 58:05Speaker 1: who gives her the off the body cue pump, and
- 58:09Speaker 1: then she calls him amigo, and then the voiceover kicks
- 58:14Speaker 1: in and says, I knew he wasn't Latino, but for
- 58:17Speaker 1: some reason, all these shady backdoor deals had me talking
- 58:20Speaker 1: like Carlito. And then she calls him essay. So it's like,
- 58:24Speaker 1: whoof all brown people are the same that Emma Stone
- 58:27Speaker 1: right the movie? Ah, Yeah, that seems just sucks all over,
- 58:34Speaker 1: very not good, very very uncomfortable. Um. Yes, race in
- 58:39Speaker 1: general is um, believe it or not not handled well
- 58:42Speaker 1: in a movie. What believable in furiod. Yeah. The background
- 58:49Speaker 1: on the other major credit that this writer has is
- 58:54Speaker 1: he wrote the do you remember like the horny Charlie
- 58:57Speaker 1: Brown play Dog Sees Gone Odd? I think that a
- 59:02Speaker 1: lot of people did it when I was in high
- 59:03Speaker 1: school to be edgy, but it's like Charlie Brown is
- 59:06Speaker 1: fucked up and he's horny. And he also wrote that
- 59:09Speaker 1: point makes me uncomfortable. I'm probably underselling it and maybe
- 59:14Speaker 1: it's like wonderful, but I just remember seeing it at
- 59:16Speaker 1: like a drama competition and being like, oh my god,
- 59:19Speaker 1: why is Charlie Brown so horny? Like he's ten? But
- 59:25Speaker 1: you know that's and and then the director is Will Gluck,
- 59:30Speaker 1: who also has directed Peter Rabbit and Peter Rabbit Too
- 59:34Speaker 1: well good for him. And there you go. And that's
- 59:37Speaker 1: the beginning, middle, and end of that incredible Yeah did
- 59:40Speaker 1: you did? Did you have any other stuff you wanted to?
- 59:44Speaker 1: My last thing? Yeah, it's that there's a point in
- 59:47Speaker 1: the movie where all of notices that her name anagrams
- 59:52Speaker 1: I love, which presents an opportunity for me to mention
- 59:57Speaker 1: how Caitlin Durante anagrams to such things as Latin dancer,
- 1:00:03Speaker 1: U T I one classic nine tip Dracula. I don't
- 1:00:09Speaker 1: have any new ones, but I just want to These
- 1:00:12Speaker 1: are the classics. Okay, this is hard John Hughes one, right,
- 1:00:17Speaker 1: these are the eighties ones Lauren d Titanic. And then
- 1:00:21Speaker 1: a newer one that I think maybe other people aren't
- 1:00:24Speaker 1: familiar with yet is but Jamie, you know this one
- 1:00:26Speaker 1: because we texted about it a Tan clarinet. I U
- 1:00:31Speaker 1: D wow, I like that one. Thank you. That's really good.
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: You have a perfect numbers. Yeah, I feel like mine
- 1:00:38Speaker 1: would be very weird. Well, you have TSE disease, Like,
- 1:00:42Speaker 1: what do you do with that? Let's find out. Just
- 1:00:46Speaker 1: give me a few minutes I can. I'll work my
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: magic for this topic. But yeah, I think that's it
- 1:00:52Speaker 1: for me. Like the big thing with me for this
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: movie is like, there need to be narratives that empower
- 1:00:59Speaker 1: women's sexuality. There are almost none of them in this movie.
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: Like starts to attempt to do that by calling attention
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: to this double standard, but it doesn't take it far enough,
- 1:01:10Speaker 1: and it still resorts to a lot of just slut
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: shaming attitudes and other missteps along the way. It's weird.
- 1:01:18Speaker 1: This is like kind of a funny movie to tackle,
- 1:01:21Speaker 1: because I do think that it is well intentioned, but
- 1:01:25Speaker 1: still kind of just indicates it of the time and
- 1:01:28Speaker 1: probably of the creative team a little bit that they
- 1:01:32Speaker 1: hadn't you know, fully worked out, because I would be
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: very surprised if you know, they looked at this like, oh, yeah, well,
- 1:01:39Speaker 1: you know, we're not shaming anyone in this. I think
- 1:01:41Speaker 1: that that's what they thought, is that they were up
- 1:01:43Speaker 1: prefting Team Girls. I see what they're going for, and
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: you know it was two thousand ten. Oh. Actually, my
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: real last thought is this, Um. I always appreciate when
- 1:01:52Speaker 1: a teen movie does not end in like prom or
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: some kind of like passion graduation see, which they totally
- 1:02:01Speaker 1: could have done. They could have done. Um. Instead, it
- 1:02:04Speaker 1: ends with the weird the vlog. Prior to that, it's
- 1:02:08Speaker 1: that weird like big musical number at the PEP rally,
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: and then it's her like riding off into the sunset
- 1:02:16Speaker 1: with her new hetero boyfriend. Like I feel would rather
- 1:02:21Speaker 1: end in graduation than as a John Hughes movie, right,
- 1:02:26Speaker 1: I feel like, actually the way I saw it ending
- 1:02:28Speaker 1: was that it ends with a vlog, which I actually
- 1:02:31Speaker 1: think is really powerful. Like I think my last thought
- 1:02:34Speaker 1: is something I think the film did well, which is
- 1:02:36Speaker 1: the reference to the Scarlet Letter, which to be fair,
- 1:02:39Speaker 1: I haven't read, but my understanding is that in the
- 1:02:42Speaker 1: Scarlet Letter, you know, she's forced to wear the A
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: because she's like a supposed adulter, and so she has
- 1:02:49Speaker 1: to wear this A, and the A is kind of
- 1:02:50Speaker 1: like this punishment. And then I think there's something in
- 1:02:53Speaker 1: the way that Emma Stone decides to label herself with
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: the A and everyone hates her for that, and I
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: think there is a really powerful statement on like women
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: owning their sexuality and having that not be okay that
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: I think the movie does a good job of pointing out.
- 1:03:09Speaker 1: And yeah, yeah, and in a way, the vlog like
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: kind of couching this story is like the ultimate way
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: of Emma Stone trying to own her own narrative and
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: take it back from all these people that have, you know,
- 1:03:20Speaker 1: made it about themselves. And so in that way, if
- 1:03:23Speaker 1: you see the ending of the film, I mean, it
- 1:03:24Speaker 1: does have that little John Hughes like tacked on bit
- 1:03:27Speaker 1: after the blog the vlog, but I think the vlog
- 1:03:29Speaker 1: frame was actually really like a cool thing. I did
- 1:03:33Speaker 1: appreciate that. Yeah, I really liked that and I genuinely
- 1:03:37Speaker 1: like where the movie lands on the topic of their
- 1:03:40Speaker 1: just like you know that ending line where she's like,
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: I might lose my virginity today six months from now
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: on my wedding night. It's no one's goddamn business. That's
- 1:03:49Speaker 1: an awesome message to end on. And I just wished
- 1:03:52Speaker 1: that everything that happened before it was before a little
- 1:03:54Speaker 1: more consistently. But I do that's like stuff like that
- 1:03:58Speaker 1: where you're like, this, it was really they were trying,
- 1:04:01Speaker 1: and it wasn't it was it was not Brianna's forgives her.
- 1:04:04Speaker 1: I think she like apologizes or although I'm Brianna has
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: as much to apologize to there, but they're talking in
- 1:04:12Speaker 1: there like sidekick all caps apology, I am sorry. Maybe
- 1:04:19Speaker 1: I'll move you back into my top eight now. But
- 1:04:23Speaker 1: well so that's a great point though, about like her
- 1:04:25Speaker 1: like taking like she she's like, here's my version of
- 1:04:29Speaker 1: the story, and I'm telecasting it out. She's basically making
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: a podcast if we think about it. But she's like,
- 1:04:36Speaker 1: I want the truth out there. I do really enjoy that.
- 1:04:39Speaker 1: But the romantic storyline did feel a little wedged in,
- 1:04:42Speaker 1: and I think it was like a studio I think
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: it might have been. I didn't hate the way. I
- 1:04:48Speaker 1: mean again, it was like it wasn't the worst teen
- 1:04:52Speaker 1: comedy romantic shoehorns subplot of all time. But you know,
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: I didn't have to be there. It would have been
- 1:04:59Speaker 1: more powerful if the movie just ended with her being like, yeah,
- 1:05:02Speaker 1: here's my story and I'm telling it in you guys
- 1:05:06Speaker 1: are going to college by She didn't have that line
- 1:05:09Speaker 1: in there where she was like now that I was
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: like seeing us such like a slut in school, like
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: no one actually wanted to date me, which is kind
- 1:05:16Speaker 1: of her motivation for going out with Anson. Again, it
- 1:05:19Speaker 1: didn't really come from anywhere, so I did feel kind
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: of shoved in there, But I did think that was
- 1:05:23Speaker 1: like an interesting point of just like how even perceived
- 1:05:28Speaker 1: sexually active girls are the country. Yeah exactly, that's like
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: my Donna horror thing. Yeah, it's trying this movie and
- 1:05:40Speaker 1: and and it is like, I mean when we talk
- 1:05:41Speaker 1: about this all the time, but like movies that are
- 1:05:44Speaker 1: well intentioned but flawed in this way, for for movies
- 1:05:49Speaker 1: that are well intentioned and slightly less flawed, progress is slow.
- 1:05:56Speaker 1: And I think that scene, my favorite scene, I think
- 1:05:58Speaker 1: is when she comes out after having sex with Brandon,
- 1:06:01Speaker 1: and he just so clearly contrasts the two experiences of
- 1:06:06Speaker 1: Brandon coming out the hero and her coming out and
- 1:06:09Speaker 1: no one's talking to her. Some girls give her side
- 1:06:12Speaker 1: and she kind of sneaks out of the party like
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: like she did something wrong, and that seemed to me
- 1:06:17Speaker 1: felt really really progressive for that time. Oh, pretty good movie.
- 1:06:25Speaker 1: It's pretty good. But is it an A? Maybe? Not? Well?
- 1:06:33Speaker 1: Speaking of let's right, but before we do that, does
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: this movie pass the Bechtel tests? It definitely does? It does?
- 1:06:39Speaker 1: Yeah multiple times between Olive and Rhiannon, although they often
- 1:06:45Speaker 1: talk about George, the fake boy that she didn't but
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: George is more of an idea that's true, so is
- 1:06:53Speaker 1: it does it count an idea? Olive and Marianne talk,
- 1:06:58Speaker 1: although they mostly talk about how God he pronouns is
- 1:07:04Speaker 1: judging Olive and then like Olive and her mom talk,
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: but they often talk about Brandon. So a lot of
- 1:07:09Speaker 1: the conversations are about boys and men, but they're definitely
- 1:07:13Speaker 1: exchanges that pass yeah yeah between multiple characters. So does
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: it get an A? Or five nipples on our nipple
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: scale zero to five nipples based on this representation of
- 1:07:26Speaker 1: women um, I give it like a it's a half.
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: It's like in the middle, it's like really especially two
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: and a half, it's it's trying. It's two thousand and ten.
- 1:07:40Speaker 1: You know, we've only barely started trying to progress as
- 1:07:44Speaker 1: a society in this year, so it's doing it's best,
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: and it's best is not very good by our standard.
- 1:07:51Speaker 1: And a good point about all the other women in
- 1:07:53Speaker 1: the movie. You know, it's like a stone maybe pretty good,
- 1:07:58Speaker 1: everyone pretty villainized. Are are made to see him and
- 1:08:02Speaker 1: even in some ways, even in the ways that are
- 1:08:04Speaker 1: high school realistic, they're just it just doesn't the writing
- 1:08:07Speaker 1: doesn't go quite fair depth given to it. It is
- 1:08:09Speaker 1: all even if it's like realistic, it's still not really
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: realistic because there's no depth or backstory or motivation. It's
- 1:08:16Speaker 1: all just like they come off mean a very mean
- 1:08:18Speaker 1: and very petty super official And I think that the
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: male characters are kind of given a free past the
- 1:08:28Speaker 1: especially like Evan that kind of like he manipulated her,
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: and I mean that kind of reminded me of Emma
- 1:08:35Speaker 1: Stone's storyline in Super Bad, except in this one she
- 1:08:39Speaker 1: loses where you know, like the Jonah Health character is
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: like you never have a Kushia me, I'm a loser
- 1:08:45Speaker 1: and then she's like but in super Bad, it's actually
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: a little bit better because she's like, no, I don't
- 1:08:49Speaker 1: like you because you are fucking rude, and he's oh,
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: but then they still end up together ish or something,
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: but forget but at least he doesn't, you know. It
- 1:08:57Speaker 1: was like he doesn't get what he wants. In the
- 1:08:59Speaker 1: same scene, I don't know, literally two sentences after threatening her,
- 1:09:03Speaker 1: right right, and then she's like, oh, I guess I
- 1:09:05Speaker 1: feel bad for you, right right. Yeah. So I think
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: that that the boys trying to coerce all of our
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: kind of made to be more jokey than being examined
- 1:09:16Speaker 1: for being extremely fucking entitled. Yeah. Yes, I'll give it
- 1:09:20Speaker 1: a two and a half because I think the intention
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: of the movie is to expose like women are punished
- 1:09:26Speaker 1: for being sexually active, but it just didn't really go
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: all the way. Um, so two and a half nipples,
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: and I will give one to Amanda Binds, not her
- 1:09:39Speaker 1: character but her as a person, actually her her character
- 1:09:45Speaker 1: and she's the man gets one of my nipples. Um,
- 1:09:49Speaker 1: I'm gonna just go ahead and give Stanley Tucci another one.
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: Of my nipples and then I'll give my half nipple.
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: I'll give it to that poor little brother who, just
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: like Dame. You don't even remember what's his name? Justice
- 1:10:04Speaker 1: for a little brother, Chip. I guess his name was Chip.
- 1:10:08Speaker 1: I don't remember here in Chip, but that was that
- 1:10:11Speaker 1: was his name. Uh yeah, I'm gonna go to a
- 1:10:13Speaker 1: half as well. I think that this movie has its
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: heart in the right place. I would wager that it's
- 1:10:18Speaker 1: at least attempting to do more than most movies in
- 1:10:22Speaker 1: We're attempting. I think that it's it's always good to
- 1:10:27Speaker 1: have a female lead comedy. It's not super common, and
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: this movie falls heavier on the comedy side than the
- 1:10:35Speaker 1: romance side, which is nice. Um, it's cool that. I mean,
- 1:10:39Speaker 1: this movie almost definitely made way for more movies like
- 1:10:43Speaker 1: it because it was super successful. It was like eight
- 1:10:45Speaker 1: million dollar budget, seventy five million dollar box office, so
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: you know, I it has its place in time. There's
- 1:10:52Speaker 1: a lot there's I would say about half of it
- 1:10:55Speaker 1: doesn't really sit that well. But it's been almost ten
- 1:10:58Speaker 1: years since this movie came out. For its time, I
- 1:11:01Speaker 1: think it was a valiant effort and we we we
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: soldier on to better more fun movies for everyone involved.
- 1:11:10Speaker 1: We got to do Blockers sometimes soon we gotta do anyway,
- 1:11:17Speaker 1: let's just say about that movie. I've watched Blockers. I
- 1:11:19Speaker 1: think I've only seen it on planes, but I've seen
- 1:11:22Speaker 1: it too, right, yeah, and was like, oh, this will
- 1:11:24Speaker 1: be fun. It's like perfect plane movie. It's wild. It
- 1:11:29Speaker 1: was sometimes when I'm like, oh this movie was made
- 1:11:31Speaker 1: for planes, I'm not sure. Um, yeah we'll get but yeah,
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: i'll do. I'll do two and a half and I'll
- 1:11:39Speaker 1: give I'm gonna give two to Emma Stone this movie,
- 1:11:41Speaker 1: Like what Rewatching it reminded me like why people love
- 1:11:46Speaker 1: her so much? Like she's she's fun to watch, She's
- 1:11:48Speaker 1: very funny. I think that like a lesser actress in
- 1:11:51Speaker 1: this part would have been like, you know, cringeing, and
- 1:11:55Speaker 1: it would have you know, So give two to Emma
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: and then yeah, I'll give the other half to Ali Michalca.
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: Sure glad to see she's thriving ten years ago. I
- 1:12:06Speaker 1: don't know she's doing fun. Oh gosh, Well, I want
- 1:12:09Speaker 1: to be different. But I feel like two and a
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: half is like pretty perfect for this because it is
- 1:12:14Speaker 1: trying really hard. I feel like it does a good
- 1:12:16Speaker 1: job with like both like toxic masculinity and slut shaming
- 1:12:21Speaker 1: female like all of that it does, it's it's hinting
- 1:12:23Speaker 1: at it. So I was pleased with that. And I
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: remember when I watched it when I was younger, feeling,
- 1:12:30Speaker 1: particularly with Emma Stone, like I was a very big,
- 1:12:33Speaker 1: you know, reputed slut in high school too, and so
- 1:12:36Speaker 1: I really related to that and related to the fact that, like,
- 1:12:39Speaker 1: I don't know, it just it made me feel good
- 1:12:41Speaker 1: better about myself, I think when it first came out.
- 1:12:45Speaker 1: So yeah, so two and a half, I feel like
- 1:12:46Speaker 1: it's pretty good. Um, I definitely want to give one
- 1:12:50Speaker 1: to Patricia Clarkson because I feel like, even though she
- 1:12:55Speaker 1: does end up kind of slut shamy at the end, overall,
- 1:12:58Speaker 1: it was nice to see a mother care actor who
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: wasn't like forcing like puritanical standards on a daughter, which
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: I feel like is really often portrayed in movies, especially
- 1:13:07Speaker 1: back then, and so it was kind of nice to
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: have a mom who, like, although she didn't fully get there, um,
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: she was trying to get there and you know, and
- 1:13:17Speaker 1: you know she's like, oh, you can have a boy
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: in your room and you know he's gay. But at least,
- 1:13:21Speaker 1: you know, I don't know. Um, I feel like there
- 1:13:23Speaker 1: was there was something there, and then you know, I
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: want to give one to Emma Stone's lingerie because I
- 1:13:31Speaker 1: think that was a really that was really I really thought,
- 1:13:34Speaker 1: like the first moment when she walked to school in
- 1:13:36Speaker 1: a corset, I was like, Oh, there's gonna be a
- 1:13:38Speaker 1: whole dress code thing about this, right, um and uh,
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: And I thought it was cool how she just kind
- 1:13:44Speaker 1: of like owned wearing lingerie to high school and totally
- 1:13:47Speaker 1: rocked that. Um so, I think that deserves a nipple
- 1:13:50Speaker 1: to hell. Yeah, I liked that they during the like
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: montage where she's like re vamping her wardrobe. You see
- 1:13:57Speaker 1: the bag, it's like, oh high launder ray, Like sure,
- 1:14:02Speaker 1: it sounds like a business day, Like how did she
- 1:14:05Speaker 1: afford all this nice lunch? Yea that everyone is as
- 1:14:09Speaker 1: a wealthy person. I guess no team comedy that's true
- 1:14:13Speaker 1: for oh Hi. I mean I guess she's maybe on
- 1:14:16Speaker 1: the like she's in rich Oh Hi, it would appear.
- 1:14:20Speaker 1: There's I mean so many teams. I'm like, please more
- 1:14:22Speaker 1: team comedies that don't take place in like upper class,
- 1:14:26Speaker 1: because most team comedies don't work just the way that
- 1:14:29Speaker 1: they're written unless it's taking place in an upper class setting,
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: because uh, you know, Shenanigans are expensive. I don't know,
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: like really what, but but it is like from I
- 1:14:42Speaker 1: mean even I had the same criticism for a book smart.
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: It is just like every like this movie doesn't work
- 1:14:47Speaker 1: if people don't have infinite privilege to fall back on.
- 1:14:50Speaker 1: So you know, well someday, someday, but that's easy. A
- 1:14:54Speaker 1: gang that there it is. They did their best and
- 1:14:57Speaker 1: we respect it. ASA. Thank you so much for being here,
- 1:15:01Speaker 1: for having me. This is really fun. Tell us, tell
- 1:15:04Speaker 1: us about your book. Yeah, my book. It's a memoir.
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: It's funny, it's great. Thank you. Um. I'm I'm scared
- 1:15:14Speaker 1: for it to come out, but I'm also really excited.
- 1:15:16Speaker 1: I hope it. Like you know, I talk a lot
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: about being a slit in high school in it, so
- 1:15:19Speaker 1: it's very relevant, too easy. I talked a lot about
- 1:15:22Speaker 1: the rumors going around that somewhere true, somewhere it's so true. Um,
- 1:15:27Speaker 1: and then kind of just like always being labeled the
- 1:15:29Speaker 1: slut and how that kind of like made me realize,
- 1:15:32Speaker 1: you know, Okay, I kinda want to go into sex
- 1:15:34Speaker 1: work and seeing kind of what happens next? So yeah, excellent,
- 1:15:39Speaker 1: Please by the book watch cam on Netflix if you
- 1:15:43Speaker 1: haven't already. It is great. And where can people follow
- 1:15:46Speaker 1: you on the social media's Yes, I'm at Issa is
- 1:15:50Speaker 1: wrong awesome self blaming. I was wrong about everything always
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: all the time. I have no idea what I'm doing,
- 1:16:00Speaker 1: stumbling a lot. Thank you so much, thank you, thank
- 1:16:04Speaker 1: you so much for coming. So glad we've finally got
- 1:16:08Speaker 1: to do the movie we did? Yeah, are you happy? Geez?
- 1:16:12Speaker 1: It was fun. I don't know why we avoided it
- 1:16:14Speaker 1: for You can follow us online at Beckdel Cast on
- 1:16:18Speaker 1: almost all of the platforms and Twitter, Facebook, if you're
- 1:16:21Speaker 1: still on that website, Instagram, the whole bit. You can
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: pledge to our patreon ak Matreon, it's five dollars a
- 1:16:29Speaker 1: month to get to to bonus episodes every month to
- 1:16:33Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash Bechtel cast uh, and then if
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: you want some merch, you can go to t public
- 1:16:40Speaker 1: dot com slash v Bechdel Cast. And I think that
- 1:16:43Speaker 1: that's all our pluggies. How do we Oh god, it
- 1:16:46Speaker 1: was hard to open, and now how do we should
- 1:16:49Speaker 1: have practiced? I know we really should have done something
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: like a little coordinated number. We should have closed. So
- 1:16:56Speaker 1: what is the song that she sings at the end?
- 1:17:00Speaker 1: They must have How about this? I got a pocket,
- 1:17:02Speaker 1: got a pocket for ascension. I know there was Yeah, classic.
- 1:17:07Speaker 1: I gotta love that. I know there's a classic, sure
- 1:17:09Speaker 1: for sure. Okay, bye bye,