Latest / The Bechdel Cast / Batman Returns with Karen Han
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: On the Bell Cast, the questions asked if movies have
- 0:04Speaker 1: women in them? Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
- 0:08Speaker 1: Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef In best start
- 0:13Speaker 1: changing it with the Bell Cast, Jamie, life's a bitch,
- 0:18Speaker 1: and now so am I thanks for telling me. I
- 0:21Speaker 1: guess you're welcome. I just want you to know I
- 0:27Speaker 1: underwent a transformation recently, and we'll see I'm actually running
- 0:33Speaker 1: for mayor. But but if it's if things like go south,
- 0:36Speaker 1: even the smallest bit, the first little snaffhoo I encounter,
- 0:41Speaker 1: I will then pivot and threaten to kill everyone's son,
- 0:45Speaker 1: all of the small children. Oh boy, does he want
- 0:49Speaker 1: eighty quickly on that one? It is wild. Um. I'm
- 0:54Speaker 1: trying to figure out who I'm most spiritually connected to.
- 0:57Speaker 1: I love I love Catwoman, but like, I don't know
- 0:59Speaker 1: if I could do what Catwoman does. I do feel
- 1:03Speaker 1: very connected to Christopher Walkin's big old son, you mean Chip,
- 1:09Speaker 1: who also talks like Christopher Walkin in his two lines
- 1:12Speaker 1: of dialogue. This is what I wanted to say. I'm
- 1:14Speaker 1: so sorry to interrupt it earlier, but literally, as soon
- 1:16Speaker 1: as they started talking, like, I completely forgotten that part
- 1:19Speaker 1: of his character is that he sounds like his father,
- 1:21Speaker 1: and so they're like get await that just run And
- 1:24Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, he's like doing a walk In impression. Yeah,
- 1:27Speaker 1: the idea that that would be a hereditary trait is
- 1:30Speaker 1: so funny. Or also like begs the question of like
- 1:33Speaker 1: how long did he spend only with his dad, so
- 1:36Speaker 1: that he's like, oh, that's like the normal way of talking,
- 1:38Speaker 1: like talk. Yeah, I had so many questions about the sun,
- 1:44Speaker 1: but the Sun was just like damseled time and time again.
- 1:48Speaker 1: And we don't talk in this community enough about damseling.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Christopher Walkins, big old son, his large adults. Yes, it's
- 1:56Speaker 1: a disturbing trend in meeting. It's a very harmful trope
- 2:01Speaker 1: and I won't stand for it. Oh my gosh, I
- 2:03Speaker 1: think that I am team large Adults Son. But also
- 2:05Speaker 1: there's but I'm also team the clown that's like, hey, penguin,
- 2:09Speaker 1: are you sure we want to steal everyone's son? And
- 2:12Speaker 1: then just gets shot immediately. There's so many goods. I'm
- 2:17Speaker 1: also on the side of the stilts clown that gets
- 2:20Speaker 1: knocked over by the batmobile. God, this movie fucking rules.
- 2:23Speaker 1: It's the batmobile just has devices, specifically for knocking over
- 2:28Speaker 1: people on stilts. He's thought through everything, Yeah, every contingency.
- 2:33Speaker 1: He's like, we gotta have something in the batmobile for this.
- 2:36Speaker 1: He's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, Alfred, what if And
- 2:39Speaker 1: it's gonna sound wild, but what if I needed to
- 2:43Speaker 1: feed a clown on stilts? We have to be ready.
- 2:46Speaker 1: I really, I really don't think I appreciated just how
- 2:49Speaker 1: much work Alfred has to do until this movie specifically,
- 2:53Speaker 1: and also like I'm sure we'll get to this, but
- 2:55Speaker 1: they at the end when Batman picks up a cat,
- 2:57Speaker 1: you can see it in Alfred's face where he's like, well,
- 2:59Speaker 1: I know he's not going to take care of that thing,
- 3:00Speaker 1: So that's my cat now, Like I'm going to have
- 3:03Speaker 1: to do everything for this cat. Yeah, who's scooping the
- 3:06Speaker 1: litter at the end of the days? Are not Bruce Wayne? Alright?
- 3:11Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. This okay, Well, let's just get into it.
- 3:14Speaker 1: Welcome to the Becktel Cast. My name is Jamie LOFTEV.
- 3:16Speaker 1: My name is Caitlin Darante, and this is the show
- 3:18Speaker 1: where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using
- 3:22Speaker 1: the Becktel test simply as a jumping off point, which
- 3:25Speaker 1: of course, is a media metric created by queer cartoonist
- 3:30Speaker 1: Alison Bechtel, sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace Test. Originally conceived
- 3:34Speaker 1: as a just kind of one off joke in Alison
- 3:38Speaker 1: Bechtel's comic Likes to Watch Out For, has since been
- 3:42Speaker 1: kind of co opted into the media metric that we
- 3:45Speaker 1: based an entire show on where Wow, yeah calling us out?
- 3:51Speaker 1: Um we Our version of this test is as follows.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Two people of a marginalized gender have to have names,
- 4:00Speaker 1: they have to speak to each other, and that conversation
- 4:02Speaker 1: has to be about something other than a man, and
- 4:06Speaker 1: ideally it's a narratively significant conversation, not just like a
- 4:10Speaker 1: throwaway exchange. Controversially, I think when Michelle Fiver talks to
- 4:15Speaker 1: her cats, we know is a woman because they're like hu,
- 4:20Speaker 1: they're communicating. All right, Well that's it for this episode
- 4:23Speaker 1: where yeah, We're done. I feel like the nonverbal, like
- 4:28Speaker 1: the nonverbal communication is strong and and could it be
- 4:31Speaker 1: more narratively impactful? No, no, brings her back to life
- 4:37Speaker 1: kind of amazing. That's pretty big, huge, Okay, so we
- 4:41Speaker 1: are we are covering up. Batman returns a Christmas movie
- 4:46Speaker 1: that came out in June. I thought was kind of interesting.
- 4:50Speaker 1: But in any case, let's get into it because clearly
- 4:53Speaker 1: we are at the crossing with thoughts, so let's get
- 4:58Speaker 1: our guests in here. We must also cat on my
- 5:02Speaker 1: literally fly is right. I really whenever Flee is represented
- 5:12Speaker 1: in movies, it means a lot to me. He was
- 5:15Speaker 1: sitting in my lap the whole time, riveted. He loves
- 5:18Speaker 1: a movie cat as he should. That's wonderful. So Flee
- 5:22Speaker 1: is our honorary guest, but our real guest for this
- 5:24Speaker 1: episode is culture writer and screenwriter Karen Hahn. Hello, Hi,
- 5:30Speaker 1: I'm so excited to be here and also so excited
- 5:33Speaker 1: to talk about this movie with you guys, because again,
- 5:36Speaker 1: I think we're all going like fully feral as Catwoman
- 5:41Speaker 1: would want. Yeah, we're so excited that you sent us
- 5:44Speaker 1: because we were we reached out to Karen being like, hey,
- 5:46Speaker 1: we want to do you know, it's it's holiday movie block,
- 5:49Speaker 1: and I don't think that we've ever like brought this
- 5:52Speaker 1: movie up, even though it's overtly a holiday movie. Yeah,
- 5:57Speaker 1: I mean the thing I think just because like the
- 6:00Speaker 1: iconography of Catwoman and the Penguin are so strong, like
- 6:02Speaker 1: you tend to forget that there is like Christmas and Gotham.
- 6:05Speaker 1: And also I feel like they forgot about that again,
- 6:08Speaker 1: as you say, like they put it out in summer.
- 6:10Speaker 1: Basically they were I think they were like, we'll have
- 6:12Speaker 1: our like superhero Ted Poole. But then it's like, oh,
- 6:14Speaker 1: it's like actually a Christmas movie. But I mean that's
- 6:17Speaker 1: now when I watch it. I will watch it when
- 6:19Speaker 1: it's cold, right. It feels like that's how people view
- 6:23Speaker 1: it now. And it's also like such an it's like
- 6:25Speaker 1: an anti Christmas movie too. It's so fun. It's a
- 6:30Speaker 1: perfect film. It just gets better every time I watch it.
- 6:34Speaker 1: It really does. So what's your relationship your history with
- 6:38Speaker 1: the movie, Karen, I Well, it came out the year
- 6:41Speaker 1: I was born, so I did not watch it in
- 6:43Speaker 1: theaters or around the time when it debuted. But I
- 6:46Speaker 1: watch it sometime in the last ten years, which I
- 6:48Speaker 1: know is not a super specific time frame. But that said,
- 6:52Speaker 1: it must have been post like Nolan Batman um, because
- 6:57Speaker 1: I know, like I started, I watched these like after
- 7:00Speaker 1: I saw the Christian Bail movie. But then watching this,
- 7:01Speaker 1: I was like, holy Cannoli, like this is really really good.
- 7:05Speaker 1: And also this and The Batman that precedes it with
- 7:08Speaker 1: Jack Nicholson at the Joker. It's just like there's so
- 7:10Speaker 1: much great stuff going on in both movies that it's
- 7:14Speaker 1: kind of shocking. And I was saying this to Caitlin
- 7:17Speaker 1: before we recorded that. It's like, I can't imagine any
- 7:20Speaker 1: exact green lighting this movie today, Like you would describe
- 7:23Speaker 1: some of the elements and be like, no, no, no, no
- 7:24Speaker 1: no no, we can't do that. That's too silly, or
- 7:26Speaker 1: that's too on the nose, or that's just weird. But
- 7:29Speaker 1: that's what makes this movie so fun and so memorable.
- 7:34Speaker 1: I'm realizing this is the third Batman movie we've covered
- 7:37Speaker 1: on the podcast, because we did the nineteen nine Batman
- 7:42Speaker 1: like six years ago. One of our first episode was
- 7:44Speaker 1: a really long time ago. I was I was like,
- 7:47Speaker 1: how did I see this movie? Originally? I was like, oh,
- 7:49Speaker 1: it was literally for this show the shows Brown ye yeah, yeah,
- 7:52Speaker 1: yeah yeah. And then we've covered The Dark Night a
- 7:55Speaker 1: few years ago, and so this is our this is
- 7:57Speaker 1: our third Batman episode, and I'm not mad about it.
- 8:01Speaker 1: I mean, if there's one thing about Batman movies is
- 8:03Speaker 1: that there's five hundred million of them, and I like
- 8:07Speaker 1: a lot of them. So Jamie, what's your relationship with Batman? Returns?
- 8:13Speaker 1: So I had not seen this movie before. That's so exciting.
- 8:16Speaker 1: It was really Um, I have had a hell of
- 8:19Speaker 1: a couple of days just like watching this movie. Uh
- 8:22Speaker 1: two and a half times. I really yeah, I really
- 8:25Speaker 1: loved it. I feel like every time I say I
- 8:27Speaker 1: haven't seen a popular movie, I'd like to remind Bethel
- 8:30Speaker 1: cast listeners that when we started this show, a big
- 8:33Speaker 1: thrust of the promise was that Caitlin has seen a
- 8:35Speaker 1: lot of movies, and I had not seen a lot
- 8:37Speaker 1: of movies. Over the years we it doesn't come up
- 8:41Speaker 1: as much, but um, there's still I still haven't seen
- 8:44Speaker 1: a lot of movies. Um, but this, yeah, I've never
- 8:47Speaker 1: seen it before. But I really enjoyed the first Tim
- 8:51Speaker 1: Burton Batman that this was like hailed as like one
- 8:55Speaker 1: of the best superhero slash just sequels in general, And yeah,
- 9:00Speaker 1: I totally agree with you, Karen, Like it's I don't know,
- 9:03Speaker 1: like this is like Tim Burton allowed to like Tim
- 9:06Speaker 1: Burton out at the peak of his Tim Burton is
- 9:09Speaker 1: with like the biggest budget possible, and I just but
- 9:12Speaker 1: the thing, it's like he nails it, Yeah, like it's
- 9:15Speaker 1: so it was really I think that, like I mean,
- 9:18Speaker 1: and this is not an original observation by a long shot,
- 9:21Speaker 1: but it's it's so like fun to watch a superhero
- 9:25Speaker 1: movie that's like fun to watch, and you kind of
- 9:27Speaker 1: forget that they were supposed to be fun to watch.
- 9:31Speaker 1: And I like a lot of like serious superhero movies,
- 9:33Speaker 1: like I enjoyed, you know, Robert Pattinson Batman, but it's
- 9:37Speaker 1: not I wasn't laughing, you know, and I wasn't supposed
- 9:41Speaker 1: to be laughing. But like, this was so fun and
- 9:44Speaker 1: such a like cool otory kind of movie. I loved
- 9:47Speaker 1: all the behind the scenes stuff that was that they
- 9:52Speaker 1: had real penguins. They have real penguins and animatronic penguins
- 9:55Speaker 1: and people dressed up as penguins. They had every kind
- 9:57Speaker 1: of penguin's wild It was so and then I read um,
- 10:02Speaker 1: I just was like, how did we end up with
- 10:04Speaker 1: the circus? I had a theory and then I checked
- 10:07Speaker 1: it and I was right. I was like, I bet
- 10:10Speaker 1: that Tim Burton was just like I just want a
- 10:13Speaker 1: circus because you're like, a circus is very obviously not
- 10:16Speaker 1: necessary to the plot, and it was I guess that
- 10:19Speaker 1: it was originally written as a band of performance artists,
- 10:23Speaker 1: and Tim Burton's like, that's going to have to be
- 10:25Speaker 1: a circus, honey, I won't do it with the clowns.
- 10:28Speaker 1: It's gotta be back flipping clowns. A lot of them
- 10:31Speaker 1: are going to have machine guns. They wrote out Santa
- 10:34Speaker 1: with mischine guns, which would have been awesome. But yeah,
- 10:39Speaker 1: I just I fell in love with this movie a
- 10:42Speaker 1: million percent. It's so good. And also I brag just
- 10:48Speaker 1: saw Danny Elfman in concert a couple of weeks ago,
- 10:51Speaker 1: so I was like triple pumped because I forgot how
- 10:54Speaker 1: great the scores to his Batman movies are so good.
- 10:58Speaker 1: He's such a weirdo and like the best way possible.
- 11:01Speaker 1: And also like one of those composers where whenever you're listening,
- 11:03Speaker 1: you're like, oh, that's Danny Elfman. Like he makes no
- 11:05Speaker 1: effort I think to like blend in. He's just like
- 11:08Speaker 1: here in it, here's Danny, and you're like, here's Danny.
- 11:12Speaker 1: Danny Elfan loves a horn. He loves a French horn
- 11:15Speaker 1: and he loves it. He loves one of those. Yeah,
- 11:20Speaker 1: my second favorite Danny Elfman's core right next to of
- 11:23Speaker 1: course Spider Man two. Oh my god, his best and
- 11:27Speaker 1: the best of your movie. I also wanted to say,
- 11:29Speaker 1: I think this is the first time that I can
- 11:31Speaker 1: say I'm following in Alfred Molina's footsteps to some degree
- 11:35Speaker 1: to give him that he was I think when when
- 11:38Speaker 1: it was a nun that he was going to be
- 11:39Speaker 1: on this podcast, I like started crying, like I lost
- 11:42Speaker 1: my mind. Alfred Molina is our friend, and yeah, I
- 11:46Speaker 1: was a guest on this podcast. Famously are esteemed incredible.
- 11:51Speaker 1: Haven't heard from them since, but all good, and we
- 11:55Speaker 1: we sold your on. But yeah, I hadn't seen this
- 11:59Speaker 1: movie before and I absolutely love it and I can't
- 12:02Speaker 1: wait to introduce it into my holiday rotation. Yeah, Caitlin,
- 12:07Speaker 1: what's your history with Batman Returns? I saw it for
- 12:10Speaker 1: the first time, probably as a freshman in college. I
- 12:13Speaker 1: was like, Oh, there's all these Batman movies I missed
- 12:16Speaker 1: when I was a kid. I gotta watch them, And
- 12:19Speaker 1: so I saw. I watched all four of the ones
- 12:22Speaker 1: from the late eighties into the nineties. It's a fun time.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Batman Returns is easily my favorite one, and I would
- 12:31Speaker 1: rank this probably my number two superhero movie of all
- 12:35Speaker 1: a time behind behind uh Spiderman into the Spider verse.
- 12:39Speaker 1: Oh see, I would put it Spiderman two is always
- 12:43Speaker 1: going to be number one for me. But this is
- 12:45Speaker 1: like top whatever, top of the list to percent pile
- 12:49Speaker 1: ten out of ten on Caitlin's rompo meter because Spider
- 12:52Speaker 1: versus kind of unbeatable in a Whalso, yeah, but yeah,
- 12:56Speaker 1: incredible movie. I love it so much. There's lots to discuss, like,
- 13:02Speaker 1: oh my gosh, I can't wait to dive in the
- 13:05Speaker 1: beginning with why do they have a baby cage at
- 13:09Speaker 1: their house there? Do you feel like, oh, they like
- 13:12Speaker 1: went onto craigslist or like rich craigslist or whatever, and
- 13:15Speaker 1: we're like, we require a little baby cage if anyone
- 13:18Speaker 1: knows where we could get one of those, or they
- 13:19Speaker 1: like hired someone to make it after they saw that
- 13:21Speaker 1: their baby had little webby hands. They called their good
- 13:25Speaker 1: to Blacksmith. They're like, they commissioned. They've got a guy,
- 13:30Speaker 1: for sure. They definitely have a guy. It scares me
- 13:33Speaker 1: to think what rich people have access to. But anyway,
- 13:37Speaker 1: but this movie talks about that so much. This I
- 13:40Speaker 1: was so surprised at how deep into like social commentary
- 13:43Speaker 1: this in a way that like, yeah, I mean, I
- 13:45Speaker 1: guess I wouldn't say it doesn't feel it just like
- 13:47Speaker 1: fits into the story very naturally in a way that
- 13:50Speaker 1: sometimes I feel like it's not like a here's the
- 13:52Speaker 1: moral of our story kind of thing. It's just like
- 13:55Speaker 1: it's naturally baked into it, woven right in. Yeah. I
- 13:59Speaker 1: love it. So, yeah, I love this movie. I'm so
- 14:02Speaker 1: excited to talk about it. And um, should I do
- 14:05Speaker 1: the recap and we'll go from there. Yeah, Okay, there's
- 14:09Speaker 1: gonna be a lot of interjections because every frame of
- 14:13Speaker 1: this movie, I have something, there's something they have to
- 14:17Speaker 1: be said about everything. Okay, so let's take a quick
- 14:20Speaker 1: break first and then we'll come back to recap. So
- 14:23Speaker 1: we'll be right back, and we're back. I mean, it
- 14:33Speaker 1: is wild to open your movie in the way that
- 14:35Speaker 1: this one opens, where it's basically like a silent sequence
- 14:39Speaker 1: of these two very rich people deciding that they don't
- 14:41Speaker 1: want their baby anymore and then throwing it into the sewer.
- 14:45Speaker 1: You've got a rich regnant lady, yeah, screaming because her
- 14:50Speaker 1: baby doesn't look the way she wants it to look.
- 14:53Speaker 1: They put it in a cage, the baby eats a cat,
- 14:56Speaker 1: and then they throw the baby in the river, which
- 15:00Speaker 1: is wildly as it was. As the movie was going on,
- 15:03Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, was the baby eating
- 15:05Speaker 1: a cat foreshadowing of him phasing off with Catwoman? I
- 15:11Speaker 1: think maybe? So. Also I was like, what is this
- 15:14Speaker 1: the creature from Shape of Water eating a cat also
- 15:19Speaker 1: in this movie? So and if he's not, he should be. Um, okay,
- 15:23Speaker 1: so we see this happen. Then we cut to thirty
- 15:27Speaker 1: three years later. So Danny Devita supposed to be thirty
- 15:30Speaker 1: three in the movie. Yes, okay, that made me laugh.
- 15:37Speaker 1: Actually that's a really good point. Also, I can see
- 15:39Speaker 1: my audio peaked, like, right, that's a really good question, big,
- 15:46Speaker 1: big question. I guess Penguin people age differently. Oh yeah,
- 15:51Speaker 1: he was like almost fifty already by the time. Yes,
- 15:54Speaker 1: this came out right, Yeah, I think so if you
- 15:57Speaker 1: live in the sewer age like a president is what
- 16:00Speaker 1: it is. Actually, you're right, Like he's got a lot
- 16:02Speaker 1: of city miles, a lot of road miles on him.
- 16:04Speaker 1: Like he's not lived an easy life. No, I get it,
- 16:07Speaker 1: he's had it rough. So it happens. Yeah, it's really funny. Yeah,
- 16:15Speaker 1: so he's he's dwelling in the sewers, people seem to
- 16:19Speaker 1: know about him, or there's rumors about his existence. This
- 16:22Speaker 1: you know, half man, half penguin person. It kind of
- 16:25Speaker 1: had Phantom of the Opera vibes. Yeah, absolutely, but like
- 16:30Speaker 1: more charming in a way. Also, his whole just his
- 16:32Speaker 1: underground water layer is like straight out of Phantom of
- 16:36Speaker 1: the Opera. Yeah. Yeah, it's kind of like in a
- 16:38Speaker 1: different world. You're like, oh, I could I could see
- 16:40Speaker 1: myself getting horny for the penguin, you know, in a
- 16:43Speaker 1: different world. I mean I was. I was kind of
- 16:48Speaker 1: horny for Colin Farrell penguin, but only because I knew
- 16:51Speaker 1: who was in there. Well, also like he was he
- 16:53Speaker 1: was funny, like the funniest part of the movie arguably
- 16:56Speaker 1: when they show him like the crime scene pictures. He's like,
- 16:58Speaker 1: oh come on, I was like, absolutely, yeah, he kind
- 17:02Speaker 1: of he kind of posted me pulled out a little
- 17:04Speaker 1: bit on that one. I liked it, but I don't
- 17:08Speaker 1: say I feel like I am like I am. I
- 17:11Speaker 1: love I love this penguin. I would let him into
- 17:13Speaker 1: my house, no question. I would say, yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 17:15Speaker 1: absolutely I would. I would vote for him for mayor
- 17:17Speaker 1: it well before the pivot, but not post pivot. Before
- 17:22Speaker 1: I got. There's so many elements, I mean, and there's
- 17:24Speaker 1: like stuff about the penguin that we definitely need to
- 17:26Speaker 1: like talk about when when the moment comes. But there's
- 17:29Speaker 1: a lot to unpack. But his whole like I think,
- 17:33Speaker 1: like coming off the l a mayoral race, so you're like, oh, yeah,
- 17:36Speaker 1: just a guy trying to buy the seat of mayor
- 17:40Speaker 1: um and almost doing it. And I was like, is
- 17:42Speaker 1: this going to be Rick Caruso's pivot? I kind of
- 17:45Speaker 1: just hope he goes back to building malls literally why.
- 17:48Speaker 1: I watched this with my partner last night and he
- 17:50Speaker 1: was like, oh, like I would vote for the penguin
- 17:52Speaker 1: over Rick Caruso, And I was like, You're right, I
- 17:54Speaker 1: would too, Honestly, at least he's got a story. Yeah,
- 17:58Speaker 1: he's much like sympathetic and he's not like rich brain pilled. No,
- 18:03Speaker 1: he's he's so quick to go back to the zoo. Ultimately,
- 18:06Speaker 1: his loyalties lie with the zoo. The zoo a problematic
- 18:10Speaker 1: entity all its own, but who knows that better than
- 18:12Speaker 1: the penguin exactly what I mean, Like, I guess I
- 18:15Speaker 1: assume he's like freed all the penguins that work for him,
- 18:19Speaker 1: like even liberated them from the zoo, right, I think, yeah,
- 18:23Speaker 1: But then he uses them as ponds and his little um. That's,
- 18:28Speaker 1: you know, destroy a Gotham scheme. I am very conflicted
- 18:30Speaker 1: about this because he does that but only arguably in
- 18:33Speaker 1: a moment of extreme desperation, and then he is really
- 18:36Speaker 1: like caring of them, and then they are very caring
- 18:39Speaker 1: of him in turn, like they become they know to do, like,
- 18:42Speaker 1: oh ship, we gotta be pall bearers now, and like
- 18:44Speaker 1: they know to do. That's he makes me cry. I'm
- 18:48Speaker 1: not like siously makes me cry. They make the animatronic
- 18:52Speaker 1: penguins frown. I paused it. I was like, how is
- 18:54Speaker 1: this penguin frowning? This is wild? Like yeah, I thought
- 18:58Speaker 1: that was like it was unclear. I was like, the
- 19:00Speaker 1: penguins kind of have like some Minions vibes where you're like,
- 19:05Speaker 1: oh my god, they just are like invested there. But
- 19:09Speaker 1: I understand where you're coming. He's crew. I'm just always
- 19:13Speaker 1: looking for who's the grow of the movie here. I mean,
- 19:18Speaker 1: all throughout my recap is just full of Minions references.
- 19:22Speaker 1: So thank god, Oh terrific cool. Okay, Sorry sorry for
- 19:27Speaker 1: derailing immediately. We have a lot of thoughts about the penguins, specifically,
- 19:30Speaker 1: we'll get to them. Yeah, yeah, we'll wait. We'll be
- 19:33Speaker 1: so good, no worries. Okay. So then we meet Selina
- 19:37Speaker 1: Kyle played by Michelle Peiffer, who is the assistant to
- 19:41Speaker 1: a prominent businessman and like energy mogul Max Shrek played
- 19:47Speaker 1: by Christopher Walkin, And now my blood pressure is skyrocketing.
- 19:51Speaker 1: You're just like, oh, there's a character named Shrek. My
- 19:55Speaker 1: favorite quote that because I was like, okay, you know, look,
- 19:59Speaker 1: Shrek called sure, it's come it's gone, it's come back.
- 20:02Speaker 1: My favorite one was it's nice to see you out
- 20:05Speaker 1: in the real world away from Shrek. I'm like, I
- 20:08Speaker 1: feel like I could relate with that. People should. I
- 20:13Speaker 1: wish someone would say that to me. I would go
- 20:14Speaker 1: on a date with them that said, this is an
- 20:16Speaker 1: extremely Shrekkian movie. We got Shrek, we got minions, we
- 20:22Speaker 1: got it all, we got clowns. There's so much what
- 20:24Speaker 1: don't we have? Okay, So Max Shrek gives a speech
- 20:31Speaker 1: to the people of Gotham during a Christmas tree lighting event,
- 20:36Speaker 1: but he's interrupted when a bunch of goons or minions
- 20:42Speaker 1: think about that aka the Red Triangle gang. You need
- 20:45Speaker 1: to get like a Minion soundboard whatever you mentioned it.
- 20:51Speaker 1: It's just it's like not the air horn noise. But
- 20:54Speaker 1: I actually don't really know what I I mean. It sounds like,
- 20:56Speaker 1: but oh well, what don't they sound like that's a
- 20:59Speaker 1: good you know, nana bello, bellow banana, etcetera. I'm learning
- 21:06Speaker 1: so much. It's like the time of year holidays. You're like, oh,
- 21:13Speaker 1: my Spotify wrapped list is gonna really bumm me out soon.
- 21:17Speaker 1: Mine's always like horrendous, so bad, right, Like it's if
- 21:21Speaker 1: you're proud enough to share it, it's you don't have
- 21:24Speaker 1: an interior life. It should be really embarrassing. I feel like, yeah,
- 21:28Speaker 1: I definitely share it, like for public shaming purposes, right,
- 21:33Speaker 1: as a way of holding yourself accountable. Yeah, here's what
- 21:36Speaker 1: I did, I guess. Yeah, yeah, I think that it's
- 21:40Speaker 1: it's very possible because I played it a lot as
- 21:42Speaker 1: a joke, and then it's such a short track that
- 21:44Speaker 1: it comes on a lot. But there's a track on
- 21:47Speaker 1: my like go to playlist that's the Minions singing the
- 21:52Speaker 1: Universal theme song. But I think I probably listened to
- 22:02Speaker 1: it three hundred times. It oh, a few years ago,
- 22:07Speaker 1: my most played song was the Lonesome Cowboy credits song
- 22:10Speaker 1: from Toy Story four, was like, this is song what
- 22:17Speaker 1: happened to you that year that you were really But
- 22:22Speaker 1: I also think that once I had stepped away from
- 22:23Speaker 1: my computer and left it on repeat without knowing it.
- 22:26Speaker 1: So that did check up the numbers. But that's not
- 22:27Speaker 1: to say that I didn't listen to it a lot,
- 22:29Speaker 1: because I definitely didn't. I gotta, really, I got to
- 22:32Speaker 1: revisit it. I can't conjure. What does it sound like?
- 22:35Speaker 1: He was aloneesome, cowboys beautiful? I'm crying there. I'm getting tried.
- 22:44Speaker 1: It's all about making friends. I've never sounded worse on
- 22:48Speaker 1: a podcast. Disagree, No, this is this is raw and uncut. Yeah,
- 22:59Speaker 1: all right. So the Indians, so Penguins minions show up
- 23:03Speaker 1: to re cavoc on the city. So the city lights
- 23:07Speaker 1: up the bat signal to summon Batman, of course, played
- 23:10Speaker 1: by Michael Keaton, who shows up and stops the minions.
- 23:14Speaker 1: He also saves Selena Kyle, who is being terrorized by
- 23:19Speaker 1: one of the minions. I know I said that we
- 23:23Speaker 1: would be so good dirty Custom recapt but number one.
- 23:27Speaker 1: I pointed this out again to Gala before the before
- 23:29Speaker 1: recording already, but I wore my Michael Keaton shirt specifically
- 23:31Speaker 1: for this recording. There's a um And also the shot
- 23:37Speaker 1: of him when the bad signal is lit is like
- 23:40Speaker 1: one of the best shots I've ever seen, where it
- 23:43Speaker 1: goes off on the wall of Wayne Manor and then
- 23:45Speaker 1: like he stands up in front of it and you're like,
- 23:48Speaker 1: it's just so good, It's so good, amazing. It also revided.
- 23:52Speaker 1: I was like, oh, yeah, superhero stories like it's fun
- 23:54Speaker 1: when they're very simple too, because you're like, what is
- 23:57Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne in the middle of doing. Is he just
- 23:59Speaker 1: like hoping that someone will commit a crime so he
- 24:02Speaker 1: has something to do. He's just sitting there, He's just
- 24:06Speaker 1: hanging out. There's not a light on in the room.
- 24:09Speaker 1: There's no evidence as to him having hobbies. No, No,
- 24:13Speaker 1: I think that that's a beautiful I was like, let
- 24:16Speaker 1: me give the scriptway too much credit and be like, well,
- 24:19Speaker 1: maybe that's them saying that, you know, billionaires have no
- 24:23Speaker 1: interior life. They're all essentially sitting in a dark room
- 24:28Speaker 1: at all times. I mean, yeah, I think you're right,
- 24:32Speaker 1: but who am I to castones? I also do that
- 24:36Speaker 1: mark like, yeah, people of all classes can sit in
- 24:39Speaker 1: a dark room. It's a very egalitarian. Yeah, it's a
- 24:42Speaker 1: great equalized right, yap wow. Okay, So during this havoc
- 24:48Speaker 1: that the minions are unleashing Max, Shrek is kidnapped by
- 24:53Speaker 1: the Penguin, who, of course is played by Danny de Vito,
- 24:56Speaker 1: and he is mad at Shrek for polluting the city
- 25:00Speaker 1: and he blackmails Shrek into helping Penguin so hard not
- 25:05Speaker 1: to make a joke, he's making Gotham his swamp. Yes,
- 25:11Speaker 1: he really is. Yeah, Gotham is getting a bit swampy.
- 25:16Speaker 1: Who's Shrek doesn't? Really? I think part of the I
- 25:18Speaker 1: think his son's son is Donkey, is his Donkey. He
- 25:24Speaker 1: is kind of his Donkey, which makes it even more
- 25:27Speaker 1: amazing when Shrek is like, t Penguin, take me. Yeah,
- 25:32Speaker 1: it lends new depths to the motion picture Shrek. Now,
- 25:35Speaker 1: Shrek would totally do that for Donkey. Also, he has
- 25:38Speaker 1: I've seen it evidence. Okay. I have to say I
- 25:45Speaker 1: love how talkatively is and he's such a cute voice.
- 25:49Speaker 1: It's so sweet. He knows that Catwoman is about to
- 25:54Speaker 1: appear on screen. Yeah, Flee loves to chat. He loves
- 25:58Speaker 1: to he loves to weigh in, and he knows that
- 26:01Speaker 1: this is a good time. Has he always been a
- 26:03Speaker 1: very talkative count? Yeah, I've never I've only had like
- 26:07Speaker 1: mostly coincidentally, I've I've had three black cats in my lifetime,
- 26:11Speaker 1: and I've never had one that made any noise. And
- 26:14Speaker 1: Flee is so loud. He always has been. He's a
- 26:18Speaker 1: he's a screamer. It's wonderful. Okay, So Penguin blackmails Shrek
- 26:24Speaker 1: into helping him figure out his backstory. He wants to
- 26:27Speaker 1: know where he came from, who his parents were, what
- 26:30Speaker 1: his real name is, and he no longer wants to
- 26:33Speaker 1: be seen as a monster. Meanwhile, Selena has to go
- 26:38Speaker 1: back to the office where she discovers dirt on Shrek
- 26:42Speaker 1: and all of his shady business stuff, and just then
- 26:47Speaker 1: Shrek shows up and realizes Selena knows all of this
- 26:51Speaker 1: incriminating information about him. So do you think he wants
- 26:55Speaker 1: her to get out of his swamp? There he kind
- 26:58Speaker 1: of shows up and he's like, get out of swan exactly, Yeah,
- 27:02Speaker 1: by Shrek at the beginning of Shrek one exactly, And
- 27:05Speaker 1: he gets her out of his swamp by throwing her
- 27:08Speaker 1: out of a window. That scene is awesome. So she
- 27:12Speaker 1: falls to the ground. She is lying there, presumably dead,
- 27:15Speaker 1: but then a bunch of street cats, and I like
- 27:18Speaker 1: to think that they are you know, rum Tum Tugger,
- 27:22Speaker 1: busta for Jones, magical, Mr Mustaphele every bed. Wow, everyone
- 27:30Speaker 1: showed up. I'm as a skimball shanks girly I but
- 27:35Speaker 1: I maybe he comes later when there's a random circus
- 27:39Speaker 1: train in the middle of Gotham. Because the railway cat
- 27:42Speaker 1: he has a job is a union man. I love him. Okay,
- 27:49Speaker 1: So these cats from the movie Cats seem to bring
- 27:53Speaker 1: Selena back to life. She returns home. She's chugging milk,
- 27:58Speaker 1: she's throwing away her stuffed anim she makes a new
- 28:01Speaker 1: outfit because guess what, she's catwoman now. She ruins her
- 28:05Speaker 1: dollhouse question mark, Yes, she makes it goth. I was
- 28:09Speaker 1: watching this and I was like, I do think, like
- 28:11Speaker 1: every woman goes through this at some point in her
- 28:13Speaker 1: life means like you either become goth or you become emo.
- 28:16Speaker 1: It's like you become like adjacent to Then to that scene,
- 28:20Speaker 1: every woman goes through this, every single woman. She turns
- 28:23Speaker 1: her hello there sign into hell here. I cheered iconic,
- 28:30Speaker 1: I cheered so good. There's so much fun like little
- 28:34Speaker 1: plants and payoffs in this movie that you're just like,
- 28:37Speaker 1: who thought of that? It's the production I forget the
- 28:40Speaker 1: production designers, like the Tim Burton guy bow something. I'll
- 28:44Speaker 1: look it up. Okay, So she's becoming Catwoman. Meanwhile, Penguin
- 28:50Speaker 1: stage as a situation where he saves a kidnapped baby
- 28:54Speaker 1: at a public event so that he can save it
- 28:57Speaker 1: and be seen as a hero by the people of Gotham,
- 29:01Speaker 1: which works, and everyone loves Penguin now. And he goes
- 29:06Speaker 1: to city hall or whatever, and he learns that his
- 29:09Speaker 1: real name is Oswald cobble Pot. He learns who his
- 29:13Speaker 1: parents were, but he's like, I forgive them for what
- 29:15Speaker 1: they did to me, and so people continue to sympathize
- 29:19Speaker 1: with him. But Bruce Wayne slash Batman, who by the way,
- 29:24Speaker 1: it were like thirty six ish minutes into the movie,
- 29:28Speaker 1: and it's only at this point when he actually starts
- 29:30Speaker 1: to become a character, because prior to that he's barely
- 29:34Speaker 1: in the movie. He's kind of like not in the
- 29:36Speaker 1: movie very much, and it doesn't know that that was Yeah,
- 29:41Speaker 1: I mean, I get why that was Like a criticism
- 29:44Speaker 1: of the movie at the time, but in retrospect you're
- 29:46Speaker 1: like he's sort of the most boring person. It works,
- 29:51Speaker 1: and also like I don't know, that's the fun thing
- 29:54Speaker 1: about his Michael Keaton is also a weird choice for Batman,
- 29:57Speaker 1: but like one that I love in a back but
- 29:59Speaker 1: like he's like a little awkward. He doesn't have like
- 30:03Speaker 1: the leading man features that I feel like everyone else
- 30:06Speaker 1: they want Batman to have, even just like thinking about
- 30:09Speaker 1: Batman the previous movie where like the Joker's goons or
- 30:14Speaker 1: whatever come to his house and he's like, you want
- 30:15Speaker 1: to get crazy, Let the Jokers Minions You're correct, yes,
- 30:19Speaker 1: the Minions Banana. They come to his house, and then
- 30:22Speaker 1: he like has this moment where he's also being like
- 30:25Speaker 1: very kind of aggressive towards them, which is not I think,
- 30:28Speaker 1: like you never see Batman and other movies being like uncool,
- 30:32Speaker 1: but he's so is as Michael Keaton, and like the
- 30:34Speaker 1: whole first scene or the second scene where he meets
- 30:38Speaker 1: Selena and he is just totally tripping over his words
- 30:41Speaker 1: just because he's instantly like, oh, she's like she's hot.
- 30:43Speaker 1: I have to talk to her. It's so good. It's
- 30:46Speaker 1: I I And again it's like it's like in a
- 30:49Speaker 1: modern context like scans more with like how a weird
- 30:54Speaker 1: guy with too much money would probably act like yeah,
- 30:58Speaker 1: I love you alive girl. Yeah, yes, okay, so so
- 31:04Speaker 1: Bruce slash Batman. He does not buy this whole like
- 31:08Speaker 1: Penguin is a sympathetic character thing. He thinks Penguin is
- 31:13Speaker 1: up to no good. Meanwhile, Catwoman goes out on the
- 31:16Speaker 1: streets and starts being a vigilante, not hero exactly, because
- 31:22Speaker 1: Catwoman is famously sort of a good guy and sort
- 31:25Speaker 1: of a bad guy. Maybe that's over oversimplifying. We will
- 31:28Speaker 1: talk about her at length. But she blows up a store,
- 31:31Speaker 1: but it's like empty, it's empty, and it's Shreks store,
- 31:37Speaker 1: So we're like, yeah, you're like, oh, I guess that
- 31:40Speaker 1: was evictiblest crime. It's fine. So Catwoman is on the
- 31:44Speaker 1: streets now. The next day she shows up to work
- 31:48Speaker 1: as Selena, and Shrek is surprised to see her back
- 31:52Speaker 1: in his swamp because he thought he killed her. Yeah,
- 31:55Speaker 1: he thought he drowned her in the swamp. Well guess what.
- 31:58Speaker 1: But also like shockingly unconcerned that a woman who has
- 32:02Speaker 1: fallen a significant distance out of a window is just
- 32:04Speaker 1: like back and not talking about that, and he says
- 32:07Speaker 1: something like, well, if she tries to blackmail me, I'll
- 32:10Speaker 1: push her out of a higher window. But until then
- 32:13Speaker 1: I have better fish to fry. Yeah, it's like the
- 32:18Speaker 1: shreky and logic here is kind of all over the
- 32:20Speaker 1: because he's like, okay, so he didn't check to make
- 32:23Speaker 1: sure she had died, right, Like, if he looked out
- 32:26Speaker 1: the window two minutes after that, he'd see her body
- 32:28Speaker 1: being swarmed by cats, which is highly unusual. But you know,
- 32:32Speaker 1: he's a he's a careless guys. I was like, okay, whatever,
- 32:34Speaker 1: but like there are things that happened throughout the movie
- 32:37Speaker 1: that you just think is going to get a big
- 32:38Speaker 1: reaction from him, and he just does not blink, such
- 32:41Speaker 1: as when Penguin bites someone's nose off. He's like, comes
- 32:45Speaker 1: over here, what sidebar? And I was like, oh my god,
- 32:48Speaker 1: he just like does not Yeah. I mean I don't
- 32:51Speaker 1: hate it, but I was like, yeah, sometimes his reactions
- 32:54Speaker 1: to things. I was like, well, I thought that would
- 32:56Speaker 1: have mattered more to you. I think the nose meaning
- 32:58Speaker 1: is especially funny because every one else freaks out and
- 33:01Speaker 1: then only Christopher walk and he's like all right, whatever,
- 33:03Speaker 1: he literally takes a society. He's like, I think we
- 33:05Speaker 1: should run you for mayor. It's really funny. Oh that's
- 33:12Speaker 1: so good. Okay. So Selena is back at work and
- 33:16Speaker 1: she meets Bruce Wayne, who is there for a meeting
- 33:20Speaker 1: because Shrek wants Bruce to help fund his new power plant,
- 33:23Speaker 1: which is actually not a power plant, is going to
- 33:25Speaker 1: suck energy out of Gotham rather than generating energy anyway.
- 33:30Speaker 1: He they meet and there seems to be a spark
- 33:32Speaker 1: between Bruce and Selina. And then meanwhile Shrek is trying
- 33:38Speaker 1: to have Oswald cobble Pot run for mayor because the
- 33:42Speaker 1: current mayor of Gotham is trying to stop shreks bogus
- 33:47Speaker 1: power plant. I think. But they need a catalyst to
- 33:51Speaker 1: drive out the current mayor some kind of like city crisis.
- 33:55Speaker 1: So Penguin's minions unleash more chaos on the streets, which
- 34:00Speaker 1: is basically just like assertain they just like militarized the
- 34:03Speaker 1: clowns or the penguins anytime they need shipped to get
- 34:06Speaker 1: stirred up there, like all right, all right, We're just
- 34:08Speaker 1: going to give the penguins guns and people will not
- 34:12Speaker 1: know what to do. And it's true they don't know
- 34:15Speaker 1: what to do. It's true panic. Yeah, so the clown
- 34:19Speaker 1: gymnasts are flipping around and just causing chaos. Separately, Catwoman
- 34:25Speaker 1: is wreaking her own havoc on the city. She This
- 34:28Speaker 1: is when she blows up Shreks department store. Then Batman
- 34:32Speaker 1: and Catwoman have like a face to face for the
- 34:34Speaker 1: first time. They fight for a bit. They then Catwoman
- 34:38Speaker 1: each I mean, well, she looks It's like a very
- 34:41Speaker 1: sexually charged movie. Oh it is the horny ist movie
- 34:46Speaker 1: I've ever seen. There's like a scene where he says
- 34:48Speaker 1: like I'm hard, like you're just there are a number
- 34:52Speaker 1: of times where I'm pretty sure she puts her hand
- 34:56Speaker 1: on his penis and he's just like all right. I
- 35:01Speaker 1: wonder if that's a rating thing where it's like you
- 35:03Speaker 1: can imply that her hand is there, but if he
- 35:06Speaker 1: reacts to it, then you're getting hard are then? Yeah,
- 35:10Speaker 1: I'm not sure who knows. I didn't hate it, but again,
- 35:15Speaker 1: very very horny movie, and for younger me definitely, I
- 35:18Speaker 1: was like, oh wow, like what is going on here?
- 35:23Speaker 1: So then Catwoman goes to Penguin to be like, hey,
- 35:27Speaker 1: help me get rid of Batman and Penguin's like sounds great,
- 35:31Speaker 1: he's horned up. Oh yeah, there's that scene that ends
- 35:35Speaker 1: with like, I mean because it's like, as the movie
- 35:37Speaker 1: goes on, Catwoman's horny nous just they just keep kind
- 35:41Speaker 1: of cranking it up and up and up and up.
- 35:43Speaker 1: To be fair, they're also doing that for Penguin. Like
- 35:46Speaker 1: everyone's getting hornier as it goes but like Catwoman's becoming
- 35:49Speaker 1: a very you know, like specific kind of horny. But
- 35:52Speaker 1: there's a scene that ends with her licking herself and
- 35:56Speaker 1: Penguin just sitting on the bed going like, were just horny.
- 36:01Speaker 1: He's been in the sewer for thirty three years, as
- 36:04Speaker 1: we now know, Like we don't know how much action
- 36:07Speaker 1: he's been getting, but I have to assume it's not
- 36:09Speaker 1: that much. And if you've been down there for thirty
- 36:11Speaker 1: three years and this is all you're thinking about, I
- 36:13Speaker 1: think he's justified. It really is Phantom of the Opera
- 36:16Speaker 1: vibes in that regards as well. We're just like, I
- 36:18Speaker 1: need a girlfriend. Finally he does. In a future scene
- 36:26Speaker 1: he is kind of going like our slash in cell
- 36:28Speaker 1: a little bit. Oh he's a complete full on predator. Yeah,
- 36:34Speaker 1: but we'll talk about that later. Um. Okay. So Catwoman
- 36:39Speaker 1: wants to get rid of Batman, but she as Selena,
- 36:44Speaker 1: goes on a date with Bruce, neither of them knowing
- 36:47Speaker 1: about the others alter ego. They're chatting, they're talking about duality.
- 36:53Speaker 1: They're like basically telling each other who they secretly are. Um.
- 36:58Speaker 1: Then Selena Lune is that Bruce to kiss him. They're
- 37:01Speaker 1: making out, but then Bruce has to leave abruptly because
- 37:05Speaker 1: Penguin is trying to frame Batman for kidnapping the Ice
- 37:09Speaker 1: Princess during the New Christmas tree lighting ceremony since the
- 37:14Speaker 1: other one got ruined by clowns by clown by clown gymnasts.
- 37:20Speaker 1: But don't worry, the next one will also be ruined
- 37:22Speaker 1: by by the same people. So Bruce puts on his
- 37:29Speaker 1: bat suit and heads down so hard. It's all a
- 37:32Speaker 1: horrible place to live, and also like feels like it's
- 37:35Speaker 1: perpetually a nighttime almost like I know logically that they're
- 37:39Speaker 1: hard day time shots, but it's just it's always under
- 37:42Speaker 1: the cover of darkness. I also appreciate that at one
- 37:45Speaker 1: point the mayor is like, yeah, I know that you
- 37:48Speaker 1: citizens of Gotham probably think that you know, these streets
- 37:53Speaker 1: are really funked up and scary, but don't worry. You're
- 37:56Speaker 1: elected officials and law enforcement have everything under control. And
- 38:00Speaker 1: it's like, no, you don't. You're attacked by clowns every
- 38:03Speaker 1: other day. How well could these public services be doing there?
- 38:07Speaker 1: The way that Gotham looks, I think of like all
- 38:09Speaker 1: the Batman franchises I've seen, I think, I mean, I've
- 38:13Speaker 1: seen like one from every whatever. But this is my
- 38:16Speaker 1: favorite Gotham visually because I love the Nolan movies, but
- 38:19Speaker 1: it does kind of just look like Chicago. I like
- 38:22Speaker 1: them for that reason, though, Like I do think this
- 38:24Speaker 1: is still my favorite Gotham. But I'm very sentimental watching
- 38:27Speaker 1: the Nolan Gotham because I grew up a lot in Illinois,
- 38:29Speaker 1: and I'm like, that's the best nice. I was like,
- 38:33Speaker 1: maybe if Gotham looked a little more like Boston, I
- 38:35Speaker 1: wouldn't be so critical. Every movie has to be made
- 38:38Speaker 1: for me specifically. I mean, I do feel like you
- 38:40Speaker 1: would feel very differently about it if Gotham looked like Boston.
- 38:43Speaker 1: I would actually be so thrilled. Have either of you
- 38:46Speaker 1: seen the menu? Not not yet, but I do want
- 38:49Speaker 1: to spoiler alert there's a character from my home town. Yeah,
- 38:56Speaker 1: although I couldn't really suspend my disbelief to believe that
- 38:59Speaker 1: Anya Taylor I could be from my hometown. There's I
- 39:03Speaker 1: was like, I don't think that there's beautiful people like
- 39:06Speaker 1: that in Brockton. But she came from Brockton. Jamie, you're beautiful.
- 39:10Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm not. I'm a tailor. Joyce swan Neck
- 39:15Speaker 1: defeating Ralph finds at a restaurant. Beautiful. But you know
- 39:19Speaker 1: who is? Who is? But her? It's true. She is
- 39:22Speaker 1: like an alien. She she is a gorgeous alien. I
- 39:25Speaker 1: really love her. Yeah, she came from a different like
- 39:28Speaker 1: the sailor moon planet or something. It's I do appreciate
- 39:32Speaker 1: her even being fictionally connected to Brockton. It's an honor.
- 39:37Speaker 1: There wasn't. There was a show a while ago that
- 39:39Speaker 1: was specifically set in the town in Illinois that I
- 39:42Speaker 1: mostly grew up in, but they didn't shoot any of
- 39:43Speaker 1: it there and didn't really make an attempt to make
- 39:45Speaker 1: it look like it. Not that there's that much going
- 39:47Speaker 1: for my hometown in Illinois, but every I remember, everyone
- 39:51Speaker 1: that I like went to high school with, we were
- 39:52Speaker 1: like watching the trailer. We were like, what the hell
- 39:54Speaker 1: is this? Like this is not at all, This doesn't
- 39:58Speaker 1: look like a done at all. Rude. Brockton gets constantly
- 40:02Speaker 1: disrespected because of like there have been like some movies
- 40:06Speaker 1: shot sequences there, but it's only like, oh, we need
- 40:10Speaker 1: somewhere that looks like it sucks and it's not safe.
- 40:14Speaker 1: So there were like a lot of key scenes from
- 40:16Speaker 1: Katherine Bigelow's Dumpster Fire of a movie Detroit was shot
- 40:20Speaker 1: at the streets of Brockton because they're like, we just
- 40:22Speaker 1: need a place that looks like it just blew up,
- 40:24Speaker 1: and so then they shot it in Brockton. Rude. Adam
- 40:28Speaker 1: McKay shot some of the scenes where like Timothy shallowm
- 40:32Speaker 1: is hanging out with his dumpster friends and don't look
- 40:34Speaker 1: up in Brockton. I'm just like, no fucking respect. Unbelievable.
- 40:42Speaker 1: They're like, okay, dumpster sequence, where can we go? Like
- 40:45Speaker 1: what the fuck? Okay? So the second tree lighting ceremony
- 40:53Speaker 1: is being interrupted by clowns, so Bruce puts on his
- 40:56Speaker 1: batsuit and heads downtown to save the day. But Catwoman
- 40:59Speaker 1: shows up and she and Penguin successfully frame Batman for
- 41:04Speaker 1: murdering the ice princess. So now everyone hates Batman, which
- 41:08Speaker 1: is a pity because she seems nice. She seems very nice. Yeah.
- 41:12Speaker 1: Also there's a sequence where Penguin hijacks the batmobile and
- 41:17Speaker 1: he's like crashing it into things, but then Batman regains
- 41:22Speaker 1: control of his vehicle. He's like doing it from like
- 41:26Speaker 1: an arcade. It's really fun, it's really really cute. It's awesome.
- 41:32Speaker 1: Then Penguin is able to gain more power and popularity
- 41:36Speaker 1: with his mayoral campaign. But while he's giving a speech,
- 41:40Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne Slash Batman leaks some audio where Penguin is
- 41:45Speaker 1: talking about how he's playing this stinking city like a
- 41:49Speaker 1: harp from hell, and so everyone turns on Penguin and
- 41:54Speaker 1: hates him now. So he returns to the Sewer to
- 41:57Speaker 1: plot his revenge. This is where he goes from semi
- 42:02Speaker 1: successful mayoral run too, I'm going to kill everyone's firstborn
- 42:07Speaker 1: son in about two minutes. I think he could have
- 42:10Speaker 1: recovered the campaign, could have recovered. I mean it reminded
- 42:13Speaker 1: me of, like, honestly, some key moments in the Trump campaign. Seriously,
- 42:17Speaker 1: I was saying the exact same thing. It reminds me
- 42:20Speaker 1: I was like that, Well, there is his Billy Bush
- 42:22Speaker 1: tape basically and against all odds, he was famously the president.
- 42:31Speaker 1: We don't need to talk about. So Penguin's campaign tanked,
- 42:35Speaker 1: but Trump's won't. What's going on makes you think? Okay,
- 42:43Speaker 1: so about Penguin, writes in this chat. So while Penguin
- 42:50Speaker 1: is plotting his plan to kill a bunch of babies,
- 42:54Speaker 1: very plagues of Egypt. Yeah, while that's happening, Bruce and
- 43:00Speaker 1: Selena go to this masquerade party, although it's called a
- 43:04Speaker 1: Max Scarade party because it's Max Shrek's party. Um, get it,
- 43:09Speaker 1: get it. It's a real stretch, it's hard, it's a mouthful.
- 43:14Speaker 1: When he walks in there playing an instrumental of super
- 43:17Speaker 1: super Freak, implication that super freak like exists in this universe,
- 43:23Speaker 1: which I'm glad to know that it does. Yeah, I
- 43:26Speaker 1: wonder if it only existed as an instrumental. Oh, interesting
- 43:32Speaker 1: could be Um okay. So they're dancing and Selena is
- 43:37Speaker 1: telling Bruce about how she's there to kill Shrek. She said,
- 43:41Speaker 1: no more swamp. No, I'm going to drain this swamp,
- 43:44Speaker 1: she says, And then they both say something that makes
- 43:49Speaker 1: Selena realize that Bruce's Batman, and he realizes that she
- 43:52Speaker 1: is catwoman. Um so they're like, oh my god, what
- 43:55Speaker 1: do we do now? But just then Penguin launches his attack.
- 43:59Speaker 1: He shows up. He kidnaps Max Shrek again as a
- 44:05Speaker 1: second choice he loves. She tries to kidnap Chip, but
- 44:09Speaker 1: then Shrek is like, no, don't hurt my donkey. Take
- 44:12Speaker 1: me instead. That's my donkey. I wish the Chip had
- 44:18Speaker 1: gotten to talk. There could be dead. Let him take
- 44:22Speaker 1: me I can. But honestly, like his christ ever walk
- 44:25Speaker 1: in the Freshman is shockingly good. Like it's just subtle enough. Yeah,
- 44:29Speaker 1: who was that guy? He killed it? I don't know,
- 44:32Speaker 1: feel like used to be in m M A or
- 44:35Speaker 1: something was my impression. Andrew brand Narski. He is an
- 44:40Speaker 1: American actor and former bodybuilder, best known for portraying leather
- 44:43Speaker 1: Face in the remake of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Saying
- 44:47Speaker 1: in Street Fighter, and Steve Latimer in the Program, and
- 44:51Speaker 1: obviously Chip in Batman returns his most iconic role. Okay,
- 44:59Speaker 1: so while that's happening, Penguin's minions are stealing babies all
- 45:03Speaker 1: over Gotham. But Batman stops this somehow. I didn't even
- 45:08Speaker 1: catch how he's able to stop that, but that he
- 45:10Speaker 1: puts an end to it. So Penguin sends out all
- 45:14Speaker 1: of his little penguins, like literal penguin birds with rockets
- 45:20Speaker 1: strapped to them to blow up Gotham. And I would
- 45:23Speaker 1: classify this scene as a bit of a march of
- 45:26Speaker 1: the penguins. Oh yeah, yeah, bit of happy feet marching
- 45:32Speaker 1: out onto the streets. Yeah, and I think that's all
- 45:36Speaker 1: the penguin movies. Well, there's also surf Surf's up. Is
- 45:39Speaker 1: that what it's called? Surfing penguins? I forgot about that.
- 45:43Speaker 1: Madagascar has penguins in it. They are not the prominently
- 45:48Speaker 1: it's true, really famous penguins. Yeah, they got their own
- 45:51Speaker 1: spin off, right, I thought so. My little cousin loved
- 45:56Speaker 1: the Madagascar movies. Okay, I haven't revisited it a while,
- 46:00Speaker 1: but I loved it when I was a kid. The
- 46:02Speaker 1: second one does a polka cover of New York, New York,
- 46:05Speaker 1: which is one of my favorite versions of it. Like
- 46:07Speaker 1: not ironically, it's very and that's going to show up
- 46:10Speaker 1: on your Spotify end of year to this year, it
- 46:14Speaker 1: probably has already. Um. Okay, so there's a march of
- 46:20Speaker 1: the penguins, but Batman shows up he jams their signal
- 46:23Speaker 1: and reroutes their gps IS to send them back to
- 46:26Speaker 1: Penguin's sewer layer. Penguin escapes, Batman catches up with him,
- 46:32Speaker 1: they fight, Rockets start going off. Meanwhile, Catwoman fights with
- 46:37Speaker 1: Shrek in the Penguin Layer. She's trying to kill him,
- 46:42Speaker 1: but Batman shows up and he's like, no, let's put
- 46:44Speaker 1: him in jail, and he's trying to appeal to her humanity.
- 46:48Speaker 1: He's like, we could be together. Batman was pissing me
- 46:51Speaker 1: off in that scene. I was like, leave her alone,
- 46:53Speaker 1: let her finish him. Seriously, totally agree, and also like
- 46:56Speaker 1: takes the very ill advised tack of saying her real
- 47:00Speaker 1: name and then taking off his mask in front of
- 47:02Speaker 1: Max StrEG in order to try to convince her. And
- 47:04Speaker 1: I'm like, if anything, that makes the case for killing
- 47:06Speaker 1: him even stronger, Like he can't be out there. No.
- 47:10Speaker 1: It is really funny though, When Shrek is like, why
- 47:13Speaker 1: is Bruce Wayne dressed up as Batman? Catwoman's like, because
- 47:17Speaker 1: he is, you, moron. It's good anyway. So Catwoman kills
- 47:23Speaker 1: Shrek via electrocution and then presumably scurries off with one
- 47:28Speaker 1: life left of her nine lives. Penguin shows up, he's dying.
- 47:33Speaker 1: He dies so that his little penguins drag him into
- 47:37Speaker 1: the water and Karen's crying. I I do cry every
- 47:41Speaker 1: time he dies in this movie, Like this is not
- 47:43Speaker 1: a joke, Like I cried and death scene every time
- 47:46Speaker 1: it is sad. They give him like a real proper
- 47:49Speaker 1: tragic hero or not tragic villain and send off. When
- 47:52Speaker 1: he pulls the umbrella out and it's and he's like,
- 47:55Speaker 1: pict a cute one again and then just falls her.
- 47:58Speaker 1: I was like, oh, he's an eight. He got he
- 48:04Speaker 1: should they should just give him. He's such a good actor.
- 48:09Speaker 1: And I feel like we all forget that because he's
- 48:11Speaker 1: so good at being like funny and weird and like
- 48:14Speaker 1: it's always sunny and stuff and posting his feet to Twitter.
- 48:18Speaker 1: But he's such a good actors. His performance is incredible.
- 48:23Speaker 1: He's amazing. Yeah, um okay. So then the movie ends
- 48:26Speaker 1: with Bruce. He's driving around with Alfred. He thinks he
- 48:30Speaker 1: sees catwoman in an alley. He gets out, he finds
- 48:33Speaker 1: her cat, which looks exactly like Fleet by the way.
- 48:37Speaker 1: He takes it home so that, like we said, Alfred
- 48:40Speaker 1: can take care of it and then Bruce Wayne says
- 48:43Speaker 1: Merry Christmas, Alfred goodwill toward men and women, and then
- 48:49Speaker 1: they go, oh like feminist icon. He nibbles a little
- 48:54Speaker 1: bit there. Wow, it is a really funny final line.
- 48:59Speaker 1: It's you see Catwoman and then you know, like, because
- 49:04Speaker 1: we live in the future, that she never comes back,
- 49:07Speaker 1: and it's sending you up for a movie that never happens. Okay,
- 49:11Speaker 1: let's take another quick break and we will come back
- 49:13Speaker 1: to discuss, and we're back. Karen, Where would you like
- 49:23Speaker 1: to begin? Uh, that's such a good question. There's so
- 49:30Speaker 1: much to talk about. I mean, I guess we'll start
- 49:31Speaker 1: with the penguin because he's fresh on my mind, where
- 49:34Speaker 1: I just love him so much, I would I would
- 49:36Speaker 1: give a little kiss. I don't mind that he's perfect.
- 49:41Speaker 1: The main conversation to be had about him as it
- 49:45Speaker 1: pertains to our show and the analysis we do here
- 49:50Speaker 1: is um the physical mothering and able ism that is
- 49:56Speaker 1: present in his character, even though no specific disability is
- 50:01Speaker 1: referenced when it comes to his character. And I'm pretty
- 50:04Speaker 1: sure that having penguin like features, to my knowledge, is
- 50:08Speaker 1: not a real thing, right. But the syndactyl ly or
- 50:15Speaker 1: what is it with his hands, I think is the
- 50:17Speaker 1: real thing. But obviously, again they don't put like a
- 50:19Speaker 1: name to any of what's going on, right right, Even so,
- 50:22Speaker 1: a villain in a movie having a typical physical features
- 50:26Speaker 1: and looking different from everybody else is just inherently ablest.
- 50:32Speaker 1: And in this case, I would say also fat phobic,
- 50:34Speaker 1: because Danny de Vito is wearing a fat suit as
- 50:39Speaker 1: the Penguin character. So there's just all of this again
- 50:42Speaker 1: physical mothering of his character. But this movie does something
- 50:46Speaker 1: interesting that I feel like a lot of movies don't
- 50:49Speaker 1: do when it comes to physically other movie villains, where
- 50:53Speaker 1: the movie will other the villain in some way, usually
- 50:58Speaker 1: with like very ablest under an overtones, but it's usually
- 51:02Speaker 1: not something that impacts this story or the character. It's
- 51:05Speaker 1: just like a trait that exists in a void for
- 51:07Speaker 1: that character. But Penguin's whole thing is that he was
- 51:11Speaker 1: discarded by his parents because he was physically different, which
- 51:16Speaker 1: led to a lifetime of isolation and resentment and longing,
- 51:22Speaker 1: which turned him into the villain that he is. So
- 51:27Speaker 1: you have this character who's like affected by everyone in
- 51:31Speaker 1: the community being ablest towards him, and yes, it does
- 51:36Speaker 1: turn him into a villain. I don't know. I don't
- 51:39Speaker 1: know what to make of it exactly, but it's it's tough,
- 51:41Speaker 1: I think, like, especially for the time period, Like it
- 51:44Speaker 1: feels pretty forward in that respect, where again, like the
- 51:47Speaker 1: fact that he looks the way he does is not
- 51:51Speaker 1: supposed to indicate that he's a villain, like I think,
- 51:54Speaker 1: especially because of the way that Tim Burton uses iconography,
- 51:57Speaker 1: like everyone looks a little bit weird it and especially
- 52:00Speaker 1: as you were sort of saying in the penguin's case,
- 52:02Speaker 1: like he is like this specifically because everyone else discriminates
- 52:05Speaker 1: against him because of the way he looks. So it's
- 52:07Speaker 1: not there as a storytelling shortcut or anything like that.
- 52:13Speaker 1: It's not there in the sense of, like I think
- 52:15Speaker 1: it's discussed the most with like Bond villains, where there's
- 52:17Speaker 1: always some kind of physical deformity that has no bearing
- 52:21Speaker 1: on their personality but just means look at them, they're evil,
- 52:24Speaker 1: which is not the case here. And I also feel
- 52:26Speaker 1: like the depths again, the fact that data Vito is
- 52:30Speaker 1: such a good and empathetic actor like goes a really
- 52:32Speaker 1: long way towards selling that point, because like then they
- 52:36Speaker 1: have the direct like rips from the elephant man, where
- 52:40Speaker 1: at first, like when he's being reintegrated into society, he's like,
- 52:42Speaker 1: I'm not a penguin, like I'm a man, I have
- 52:44Speaker 1: a name, And then when they reject him because of
- 52:48Speaker 1: the tape, and also I think because of inherent bias,
- 52:51Speaker 1: he's like, I am not a man, I'm a monster.
- 52:53Speaker 1: And it's like, again, it's because of the outside influences
- 52:57Speaker 1: that he is doing these bad things more so than
- 53:00Speaker 1: that being like an inherent part of his personality. Right,
- 53:03Speaker 1: I yeah, I like was it is like a tricky
- 53:07Speaker 1: I mean, it's like a tricky topic to take on
- 53:10Speaker 1: in any regard, and it's like so present in comic
- 53:13Speaker 1: books in general that I appreciate it, like even though
- 53:17Speaker 1: it's like certainly not like a perfect attempt to address it,
- 53:19Speaker 1: but like I thought it was like like you're saying, Caitlin,
- 53:22Speaker 1: and like it was trying to give context to like
- 53:26Speaker 1: he is not a villain because of how he looks.
- 53:29Speaker 1: He is a villain because of how society treats him
- 53:31Speaker 1: because of how it looks. And you know, it was
- 53:34Speaker 1: interesting and I don't know what actually we'll come back
- 53:41Speaker 1: to it. I lost it. Um Oh. I also I
- 53:44Speaker 1: saw some reads. It's tricky because it's like I certainly
- 53:49Speaker 1: see and like can acknowledge a lot of the able
- 53:51Speaker 1: is m that's built into the character. And then there's
- 53:53Speaker 1: also moments where it's like they're just trying to make
- 53:56Speaker 1: him look more like a penguin, and so it's like
- 54:00Speaker 1: two things kind of are happening at once. I saw
- 54:05Speaker 1: that at the time of this movie's release, and rightfully so.
- 54:08Speaker 1: I mean, and we've talked about anti Semitic tropes and
- 54:11Speaker 1: villains a number of times, and I think that, um,
- 54:14Speaker 1: some of those are certainly present in The Penguin as well.
- 54:18Speaker 1: The point that didn't register with me was like, here
- 54:21Speaker 1: is a villain who's being given anti Semitic styling, who
- 54:26Speaker 1: is determined to steal babies around Christmas, and you're like,
- 54:29Speaker 1: oh uh, yep, that is certainly what's happening. Um, so yeah,
- 54:36Speaker 1: I think that It's like I totally agree with Karen.
- 54:38Speaker 1: I think like Danny Devitto's performance is like so much
- 54:42Speaker 1: of like what humanizes this character. I like that he
- 54:45Speaker 1: gets so much context into why he is the way
- 54:49Speaker 1: he is. Danny DeVito is so perfect it's hard. He's perfect,
- 54:53Speaker 1: and Danny DeVito I think again, not to keep just
- 54:55Speaker 1: talking about his performance, but the fact that he never
- 54:58Speaker 1: plays also like a joke goes a long, long, long,
- 55:02Speaker 1: long long way towards this kind of coming off better,
- 55:05Speaker 1: I guess, because I think you could very easily play
- 55:07Speaker 1: it as like, Oh, he's so funny and weird look
- 55:10Speaker 1: at him, But I don't think he ever plays it
- 55:12Speaker 1: that way in the movie. Yeah, yeah, for sure. The
- 55:15Speaker 1: thing that puts me off about him the most as
- 55:20Speaker 1: far as his like villainous qualities, is his like predatory,
- 55:26Speaker 1: like sexual predatory behavior, where like he says stuff like, oh,
- 55:32Speaker 1: I'd like to fill her void, and he just like
- 55:35Speaker 1: is actively groping people and sexually harassing them. I viewed that,
- 55:40Speaker 1: though I didn't view that as like tying into anything
- 55:43Speaker 1: that had to do with his physical appearance. I viewed
- 55:45Speaker 1: that as like him getting corrupted by power the second
- 55:48Speaker 1: he gets a little bit of power, because that's like,
- 55:51Speaker 1: because like the coolest part about his character is like
- 55:54Speaker 1: he at the beginning, it's like you can totally see
- 55:57Speaker 1: like he wants to funk over Gotham because he's been
- 55:59Speaker 1: so thoroughly rejected and isolated from the society he should
- 56:03Speaker 1: have been growing up in but then the second he
- 56:05Speaker 1: gets a little taste of power, he immediately is like
- 56:09Speaker 1: horrible to everybody in all the expected ways, which I
- 56:13Speaker 1: think is like an awesome whatever. It's a it's a
- 56:15Speaker 1: it's a it's a good arc we know, we know
- 56:17Speaker 1: this arc um. Oh, that was what I was thinking.
- 56:20Speaker 1: It was earlier, was I feel like I mean, And
- 56:24Speaker 1: there's plenty of criticisms of Tim Burton. I wasn't even
- 56:27Speaker 1: going to get into them today really because we've talked
- 56:29Speaker 1: about them in previous episodes. But I do think that
- 56:32Speaker 1: like something that he dealt with well in a lot
- 56:36Speaker 1: of examples, especially in this era of his is like
- 56:39Speaker 1: taking another character and building them out to be someone
- 56:43Speaker 1: that you can empathize with, even if ultimately they're like
- 56:46Speaker 1: doing the wrong thing. And so for like it's like, yeah,
- 56:51Speaker 1: I guess like the penguin in Tim Burton and Mark
- 56:55Speaker 1: Water's hand because this was written by the guy who
- 56:57Speaker 1: wrote Heathers um like You've got two That is Daniel Waters.
- 57:02Speaker 1: Oh sorry, Daniel Waters. Mark Waters is his brother who
- 57:06Speaker 1: directed Mean Girls. Yeah, the whole Waters dynasty situation apparently,
- 57:12Speaker 1: but yeah, Daniel Waters wrote Heather's Tim Burton liked Heathers,
- 57:16Speaker 1: and he liked that Daniel Waters had no knowledge about
- 57:20Speaker 1: Batman Um and didn't care about Batman Cannon and like
- 57:25Speaker 1: it just like we're two people who were known for
- 57:27Speaker 1: dealing with humanizing misfits well and so for I think
- 57:33Speaker 1: that they did a pretty good job. But I also,
- 57:35Speaker 1: you know, totally understand all of the criticisms around the
- 57:38Speaker 1: penguin as well. Yeah, I think, I mean, I don't know,
- 57:43Speaker 1: it is very of its time in a way, like
- 57:44Speaker 1: even thinking about the uh, like phone sales calls that
- 57:50Speaker 1: Selena Gas where they're like, oh, if you wear this
- 57:53Speaker 1: at the office, your boss is going to invite you
- 57:55Speaker 1: to day late, like it's so gross, and Max's houltree
- 58:00Speaker 1: ement of her, and then even to an extent like
- 58:01Speaker 1: Bruce where he's just like he sees her and he's like, Oh,
- 58:04Speaker 1: that woman's hot. I want to talk to her more, right,
- 58:07Speaker 1: I think it's rare and maybe it doesn't even happen
- 58:11Speaker 1: for a man to come into contact with Selena and
- 58:13Speaker 1: not immediately say something, even though like I think the
- 58:16Speaker 1: most egregious thing is like the two security guards are like, yeah,
- 58:19Speaker 1: I don't know if I should arrest her or as
- 58:22Speaker 1: with her right, and you're just like, oh my god,
- 58:25Speaker 1: like okay, you can blow up those guys. And then
- 58:28Speaker 1: she's like, you're paid too much. Also watching her is
- 58:33Speaker 1: very cathartic. Oh yeah, absolutely. Also, Penguin turns on Catwoman
- 58:38Speaker 1: the second she's like, yeah, I don't want to have
- 58:40Speaker 1: sex with you or marry you, and he says, and
- 58:43Speaker 1: I quote you, lousy minx. I ought to have you spade.
- 58:46Speaker 1: You sent out all the signals, and I don't think
- 58:49Speaker 1: I like you anymore, and then he tries to kill her,
- 58:51Speaker 1: has her air lifted out of the scene. I mean,
- 58:54Speaker 1: it's an incredible, incredible way to get someone out of
- 58:57Speaker 1: your life. But also like he has no little to
- 59:01Speaker 1: no social interaction with people. Don't know, I'm not trying
- 59:04Speaker 1: to write off the behavior like you should not behave
- 59:06Speaker 1: that way towards anybody, but anyway, but that no, I
- 59:10Speaker 1: think that that's like part of why this character is
- 59:13Speaker 1: like kind of endured in spite of like all this
- 59:15Speaker 1: stuff is like I don't know, I feel like I
- 59:18Speaker 1: complain about modern movie villains a lot, and like the
- 59:22Speaker 1: movie doesn't go out of its way to like redeem
- 59:25Speaker 1: the Penguin, like he's still a villain, but you also
- 59:30Speaker 1: know enough about him that you do feel a little
- 59:33Speaker 1: bit bad or or in Karen's case, are full and
- 59:36Speaker 1: creeping um when he does die, because it's like, well, no,
- 59:42Speaker 1: like he you know, grew up extremely disadvantaged. He was
- 59:47Speaker 1: raised by penguins. He's not interacted with people. Um, you know,
- 59:52Speaker 1: he's dying a very horny virgin. Like there's a lot
- 59:54Speaker 1: of things that he lost the mayor mayoral campaign. His
- 59:58Speaker 1: dad was pee wee herman. He has a lot of baggage. Wait,
- 1:00:02Speaker 1: his dad is played by Paul Rubens. Yeah, I didn't know,
- 1:00:05Speaker 1: and Karen wasn't lying. Doug Jones is in this movie.
- 1:00:07Speaker 1: He plays a clown. Oh my gosh, he's the he's
- 1:00:11Speaker 1: the quote unquote thin clown. Oh why I mean described
- 1:00:16Speaker 1: Doug Jones in a better way. It's true, Like it's
- 1:00:19Speaker 1: right there, Oh my goodness. But like but but but
- 1:00:22Speaker 1: by the time Penguin dies, I just like I feel
- 1:00:25Speaker 1: like it's kind of a weird lost art in big
- 1:00:27Speaker 1: movies to have uh, you know, poetic villain that. Yeah,
- 1:00:32Speaker 1: it's like they're they're so clearly a path you can
- 1:00:35Speaker 1: see where he his life would have been fine or
- 1:00:37Speaker 1: like he would have been redeemed him some way, and
- 1:00:40Speaker 1: that's what makes that storyline powerful, that he is not
- 1:00:43Speaker 1: on it or did not manage to get on it
- 1:00:45Speaker 1: right and then like the first person to like accept
- 1:00:48Speaker 1: him into society. It happened to be like kind of
- 1:00:51Speaker 1: the most evil guy um where like nobody around him
- 1:00:55Speaker 1: has his best interests at his heart. Yeah, he was
- 1:00:56Speaker 1: only doing it because he was being blackmailed. And he
- 1:01:00Speaker 1: also was like, oh, I can use him as a
- 1:01:02Speaker 1: political pond so I can build my power plant, right
- 1:01:06Speaker 1: like if if I don't know, I mean it's like Penguin.
- 1:01:08Speaker 1: By the end, you're like, yeah, he's the villain. You know,
- 1:01:11Speaker 1: he's not going to make it out of the movie.
- 1:01:13Speaker 1: But but also we're frowning and it's sad, and he's
- 1:01:17Speaker 1: supposed to be thirty three years old. Yes, the last
- 1:01:24Speaker 1: thing I want to say about I feel like I
- 1:01:26Speaker 1: love I think almost across the board really like the
- 1:01:29Speaker 1: like political like corrupt politics commentary in this movie and
- 1:01:33Speaker 1: like those areas of the Penguin. I kind of am
- 1:01:35Speaker 1: like kind of above criticism for me, where it's like
- 1:01:38Speaker 1: commenting on how like people are so influenced by media
- 1:01:44Speaker 1: narratives that make them feel like good people, where it's
- 1:01:47Speaker 1: like these are the same people that have rejected and
- 1:01:49Speaker 1: been afraid of Penguin his whole life, but then there's
- 1:01:51Speaker 1: this false media narrative constructed by the penguin to be
- 1:01:55Speaker 1: like I'm good now you should feel so bad to
- 1:01:58Speaker 1: have been so horrible to me in the past. And
- 1:02:00Speaker 1: they're like, yeah, we love the penguin, now we're going
- 1:02:02Speaker 1: to vote for him. And then like he's like, oh, whatever,
- 1:02:06Speaker 1: fuck you. Um, that's absolutely true. Yeah, I was not.
- 1:02:09Speaker 1: I keep interrupting you, but I was thinking about that too,
- 1:02:11Speaker 1: Like in the scene where he goes to his parents
- 1:02:14Speaker 1: grave site and it's like a whole like media circus
- 1:02:18Speaker 1: out there, Like there are a lot of journalists, there's
- 1:02:20Speaker 1: a huge crowd that all are just wanting to gawk
- 1:02:23Speaker 1: at this yeah, and it's like he's, uh, so there's
- 1:02:27Speaker 1: so much about this movie that you're like, oh, it's
- 1:02:29Speaker 1: like rejecting all these things where it's like he's crafting
- 1:02:33Speaker 1: his own redemption arc while being completely unchanged, and like
- 1:02:37Speaker 1: people buy it because and people always buy ship like that.
- 1:02:41Speaker 1: They want to Yeah, are we to understand that Penguin
- 1:02:44Speaker 1: killed his own parents, like he knew who they were
- 1:02:46Speaker 1: and at some point went and killed them and that's
- 1:02:49Speaker 1: why they're dead or did I just kind of fill
- 1:02:51Speaker 1: in some blanks. I think they just died. Yeah, I
- 1:02:54Speaker 1: didn't think that he had he had killed them, Okay,
- 1:02:57Speaker 1: but well that's my headcanon that he did already know
- 1:03:00Speaker 1: who they were and he went and killed them, killed
- 1:03:02Speaker 1: Pee Wee. I mean that's going to dock him a
- 1:03:04Speaker 1: few points in my book. You really can't be killing
- 1:03:07Speaker 1: pee Wee Herman. But also like the fact that they
- 1:03:11Speaker 1: brought Pee Wee Herman back for the Gotham TV show
- 1:03:14Speaker 1: specifically because they're like, we gotta get him in. It's
- 1:03:17Speaker 1: a great cameo. Anyway, He's Cannon, he is, He's that
- 1:03:19Speaker 1: Makann and know he is. It makes me Also Jan
- 1:03:22Speaker 1: Hooks is in this movie. I love Jan Hooks Okay,
- 1:03:26Speaker 1: so oh yeah. But then and then like just like that,
- 1:03:30Speaker 1: they're like running him on this like law and order campaign,
- 1:03:32Speaker 1: like just all this stuff where it's like, yeah, I
- 1:03:35Speaker 1: love that. The people of Gotham are also always kind
- 1:03:39Speaker 1: of like not like complicit in the downfall of their city,
- 1:03:43Speaker 1: but like they kind of fall for everything, and you're
- 1:03:46Speaker 1: like well, guys, I mean you really should have been
- 1:03:50Speaker 1: reading between the lines on that whole Penguin redemption narrative.
- 1:03:53Speaker 1: But you know, I guess you're gonna get attacked by
- 1:03:56Speaker 1: a clown again just desserts, but like the like, oh
- 1:04:00Speaker 1: or city is so full of crime narrative also like
- 1:04:02Speaker 1: something that we see a lot in our contemporary society
- 1:04:05Speaker 1: and it's not always true. But yeah, can we talk
- 1:04:08Speaker 1: about before we get to because Catwoman, I know it's
- 1:04:10Speaker 1: like going to consume so much of the discussion and
- 1:04:13Speaker 1: rightfully so. But uh, I was reading about like the
- 1:04:18Speaker 1: creative production of this movie and a lot of the
- 1:04:20Speaker 1: back and forth that happened between Tim Burton and Daniel Waters,
- 1:04:26Speaker 1: and something that I liked because because Max Shrek. I
- 1:04:30Speaker 1: wouldn't have known this because I don't know about comic books,
- 1:04:33Speaker 1: but is an original character added to this movie was
- 1:04:35Speaker 1: not part of Batman. Cannon added him in specifically named
- 1:04:40Speaker 1: after the actor Max Shrek, who played I liked that.
- 1:04:46Speaker 1: You know, they wanted to have like you're kind of
- 1:04:49Speaker 1: like political villain to to counter to the Penguin, which
- 1:04:53Speaker 1: is like more kind of a classic comic book e
- 1:04:55Speaker 1: villain um. And they said that they wanted to do
- 1:04:57Speaker 1: that specifically so that they like decate there, like, oh,
- 1:05:00Speaker 1: the greatest evil is often just like an elected public
- 1:05:03Speaker 1: official or like a business person, and it's true, and
- 1:05:08Speaker 1: it's true. I just like it ages very well in
- 1:05:11Speaker 1: that regard. I really, I really liked it. And I
- 1:05:14Speaker 1: mean I don't like the character of Max Shrek is
- 1:05:17Speaker 1: so despicable, but like it just like it fits in Gotham.
- 1:05:21Speaker 1: I would prefer that to like another cartoony kind of villain.
- 1:05:24Speaker 1: And Christopher Walkin plays the hell out of him. Oh yeah,
- 1:05:27Speaker 1: Oh he looks so goofy. He looks great. Yeah, like
- 1:05:32Speaker 1: it's amazing. He's hot. He's oh my god, Christopher Walkin
- 1:05:36Speaker 1: is hot. And then every time everyone in this movie
- 1:05:38Speaker 1: is hot, and then we're always like, what happens on
- 1:05:40Speaker 1: the boat and Christopher walking what happened? Yeah, I cannot
- 1:05:43Speaker 1: forget that that he probably does know how Natalie would died.
- 1:05:46Speaker 1: I can never forget that. TikTok, you know, you gotta
- 1:05:50Speaker 1: let us know you're getting up there. And he hasn't
- 1:05:52Speaker 1: dropped that on the Dune to press tour. He's like
- 1:05:59Speaker 1: he's getting to There's been too many true crime podcasts
- 1:06:04Speaker 1: about Natalie would. I just want to say this now,
- 1:06:08Speaker 1: this is the best Christopher Rock and I can do.
- 1:06:10Speaker 1: And there I was. I love it. It's perfect, It's perfect.
- 1:06:15Speaker 1: All right. Shall we talk about Catwoman? Okay? That costume,
- 1:06:21Speaker 1: Oh my god, it's hot. Jeem So my note, my
- 1:06:28Speaker 1: notes are all over the place with her. But I
- 1:06:31Speaker 1: guess just like, okay, generally speaking, or to kick us off,
- 1:06:36Speaker 1: first of all, well, I love Catwoman. Incredible character, amazing.
- 1:06:40Speaker 1: Michelle Peiffer as Catwoman is iconic, just like she's the
- 1:06:43Speaker 1: best one, so good. What I like about the Selena
- 1:06:50Speaker 1: Slashcatwoman character is I mean, she's contextualized much like Penguin
- 1:06:56Speaker 1: is where you get the sense that Selena is constantly
- 1:07:01Speaker 1: being undermined by men in her life and her mom um.
- 1:07:07Speaker 1: She's constantly being disappointed by men in her life. She
- 1:07:11Speaker 1: is inundated with pressure to please men and kind of
- 1:07:16Speaker 1: adhere to rigid gender roles, you know, all of this
- 1:07:20Speaker 1: ship that she's dealing with. That like she's literally like
- 1:07:23Speaker 1: putting a pink collar job. The whole thing where she
- 1:07:27Speaker 1: keeps saying like I'm an assistant, it's like a secretary,
- 1:07:30Speaker 1: Like that whole distinction is so good and every yeah,
- 1:07:33Speaker 1: everyone keeps calling her secretary right, And then like at work,
- 1:07:37Speaker 1: when she tries to offer some input in a meeting,
- 1:07:39Speaker 1: she's shot down. Shrek doesn't want to hear what she
- 1:07:42Speaker 1: has to say. He says something like, you know, we
- 1:07:45Speaker 1: haven't properly how to feel that way about Fiona too,
- 1:07:48Speaker 1: and she I mean, exactly, okay, sorry, I thought love
- 1:07:55Speaker 1: was only true in fairy tales, but tributity lies within.
- 1:08:02Speaker 1: So everything about the point is Shrek undermines Selena. And
- 1:08:08Speaker 1: then she goes home. You see a bit of her
- 1:08:10Speaker 1: interior life. She has all of these messages on her
- 1:08:13Speaker 1: answering machine from people again either like disappointing her, undermining her,
- 1:08:19Speaker 1: like laying on this pressure was kind of like societal
- 1:08:22Speaker 1: patriarchal pressure. And then when she goes back to the
- 1:08:27Speaker 1: office and is murdered by her boss, that's obviously like
- 1:08:32Speaker 1: the catalyst that turns her into catwoman. You know, Skimble
- 1:08:37Speaker 1: Shanks is like Miamio and she's like a catwoman, and
- 1:08:41Speaker 1: he's like back from work, back from the clown train,
- 1:08:43Speaker 1: I work on um. And then she criticizes skimble Shanks
- 1:08:48Speaker 1: for not paying rent, which if true, is wild because
- 1:08:51Speaker 1: he we are to understand that he has a job.
- 1:08:53Speaker 1: That's right. He's one of the few cats that makes money,
- 1:08:55Speaker 1: so he should be paying rent. He's rich. Um, he
- 1:09:00Speaker 1: works on a train. What is it going to use
- 1:09:02Speaker 1: all that cat money for? He's a cat and he
- 1:09:05Speaker 1: takes it so seriously. That's the whole song is about
- 1:09:08Speaker 1: how seriously he takes his job and exactly how he
- 1:09:11Speaker 1: does it. He's like, I'm on time every day and
- 1:09:15Speaker 1: the train just kind of can't run without me. I
- 1:09:18Speaker 1: saw it at the Pantages a couple of weeks ago,
- 1:09:22Speaker 1: and he didn't tap in the stage adaptation. Heck, I
- 1:09:28Speaker 1: know Mr must Files tapped, and well Mr m is
- 1:09:32Speaker 1: a classic tapper, but he's like not a tapper in
- 1:09:35Speaker 1: the movie, but he is a tamper on stage. I
- 1:09:38Speaker 1: knew that, but I didn't know that there was no
- 1:09:41Speaker 1: Skimble Shanks tapping. I mean, it was a lovely dance,
- 1:09:44Speaker 1: but I did walk away disappointed. It's a lot more
- 1:09:46Speaker 1: of like this. It's yes now is Skimble Shanks taking
- 1:09:52Speaker 1: up space? Of course, during the number he's taking up
- 1:09:56Speaker 1: He's taking up space the way that Sebastian Maniscalco does
- 1:09:59Speaker 1: during his specials. He's back and forth back and forth,
- 1:10:02Speaker 1: like but but it just wasn't quite the tap number
- 1:10:06Speaker 1: I was expecting. Yeah, I'm sorry, Catwoman. Yes, okay, another
- 1:10:12Speaker 1: little context defect. And again I don't want to get
- 1:10:15Speaker 1: in the habit of hand to get to dim Burton
- 1:10:17Speaker 1: too hard. He has a lot of baggage. But I
- 1:10:21Speaker 1: guess when they were developing the scriptum According to scholarly
- 1:10:25Speaker 1: journal Wikipedia, Burton's only instruction to Daniel Watters writing the
- 1:10:30Speaker 1: script was that Catwoman had to be more than a
- 1:10:32Speaker 1: sexy vixen and like so he it was a definite
- 1:10:36Speaker 1: point of like we need to understand how she gets
- 1:10:38Speaker 1: from zero to Catwoman. It's not just sexy lady and
- 1:10:41Speaker 1: suit do crime and be a girlfriend. Which is why
- 1:10:45Speaker 1: I think she really works in this movie, like she
- 1:10:47Speaker 1: has more to do. Like I think that's kind of
- 1:10:49Speaker 1: the fatal flaw of like the other like film Catwoman
- 1:10:51Speaker 1: that we've seen where they don't have as much to
- 1:10:55Speaker 1: do or there's kind of too much assumed that we
- 1:10:56Speaker 1: would know about her already, that she falls kind of flat.
- 1:11:00Speaker 1: That this line is like she rules, I understand her,
- 1:11:03Speaker 1: talked about him like she's great and she has like
- 1:11:05Speaker 1: a real struggle like I'm trying to I I are. Honestly,
- 1:11:11Speaker 1: most of the Robert Pattins in Batman movie, I know,
- 1:11:13Speaker 1: I liked it, but most of it's already left my brain.
- 1:11:16Speaker 1: But Colin Farrell a little the strongest impression in that movie. Yeah,
- 1:11:20Speaker 1: I liked him, and I love Zoe Kravitz, but it's
- 1:11:22Speaker 1: like her Catwoman was so cool that it wasn't like, oh,
- 1:11:25Speaker 1: I wonder if she's going to get out of this.
- 1:11:27Speaker 1: It's like, well, she's so cool, she's probably gonna get
- 1:11:28Speaker 1: out of it. Michelle Peiffer's Catwoman. I genuinely was like,
- 1:11:32Speaker 1: I don't know what's going to happen now. She's very chaotic. Yeah,
- 1:11:35Speaker 1: the stakes are so high for her, and you know
- 1:11:37Speaker 1: that right away, and you also like, I guess I'm
- 1:11:40Speaker 1: curious what you both thought about this, because I I,
- 1:11:44Speaker 1: you know, I think that we're to believe that like
- 1:11:47Speaker 1: Selena is like unraveling as the story goes on, She's
- 1:11:51Speaker 1: like losing her you know, grip on reality. But I
- 1:11:56Speaker 1: thought that for the most part, that was like well
- 1:11:58Speaker 1: contextualized enough that it didn't super bother me. Like when
- 1:12:02Speaker 1: she goes nuclear on her house, I was like, yeah, totally.
- 1:12:05Speaker 1: There comes a day you just died and came back
- 1:12:08Speaker 1: like of course, yeah, I'm not going to call that
- 1:12:11Speaker 1: overly emotional behavior. I think it makes sense, right, because
- 1:12:15Speaker 1: she's reacting to all of this stuff that she had
- 1:12:18Speaker 1: been dealing with prior to that, the most drastic being
- 1:12:22Speaker 1: that she was murdered by her boss. But like she
- 1:12:26Speaker 1: to me, I see her transformation as like an extremely
- 1:12:29Speaker 1: liberating and empowering moment for her because she comes in,
- 1:12:34Speaker 1: she destroys all of the pink stuff, the her dollhouse,
- 1:12:40Speaker 1: her stuffed animals, She's spray painting things black to make
- 1:12:44Speaker 1: like her house goth. She pulls out like the one
- 1:12:48Speaker 1: black leather coat she has and she's like, this is
- 1:12:50Speaker 1: my outfit now. So she's like rejecting femininity, like traditional
- 1:12:53Speaker 1: femininity in this way. But I don't think the movie
- 1:12:57Speaker 1: is saying like feminine things bad, Like yeah, I don't
- 1:13:00Speaker 1: think so either. It's more just like she's I think,
- 1:13:04Speaker 1: fed up with the expectation to adhere to very rigid,
- 1:13:10Speaker 1: hyper feminine gender roles and she's like, funck this, Like
- 1:13:14Speaker 1: I'm going to break out of this prison basically of
- 1:13:18Speaker 1: gender role constraints and unleash havoc on the world. What
- 1:13:22Speaker 1: I don't quite get about her character is while I
- 1:13:27Speaker 1: think she has a really cool internal conflict like you
- 1:13:30Speaker 1: mentioned Jamie, as far as like she's struggling with this
- 1:13:33Speaker 1: dual identity, she doesn't really know who she has become.
- 1:13:37Speaker 1: This transformation is like really messing with her mentally and emotionally.
- 1:13:42Speaker 1: Her external conflict doesn't really make any sense to me.
- 1:13:46Speaker 1: She wants to take down Batman for why. I assume
- 1:13:51Speaker 1: she wanted to take down Max s Trek and knew
- 1:13:54Speaker 1: that and felt that Batman would be an obstacle for
- 1:13:56Speaker 1: that because like obviously what she was trying to do
- 1:13:58Speaker 1: is assassinate of his This man basically is not going
- 1:14:01Speaker 1: to allow that to happen on his watch no matter what.
- 1:14:03Speaker 1: That makes more sense, That's how because I was like
- 1:14:06Speaker 1: a little unclear in that at first, but then I
- 1:14:08Speaker 1: was like, oh, Selena is one thing I actually really
- 1:14:11Speaker 1: like about her is she goes full girl boss babe,
- 1:14:15Speaker 1: but she like she is like very strategic in the
- 1:14:19Speaker 1: way she does stuff where it's like if she has
- 1:14:21Speaker 1: to manipulate, like emotionally manipulate Batman in one scene to
- 1:14:25Speaker 1: like neutralize him temporarily and then go over to the penguin,
- 1:14:29Speaker 1: you know, like get what she needs from him, and
- 1:14:31Speaker 1: it's like all very strategic and like Batman is such
- 1:14:34Speaker 1: a like I was gonna say loser. He's not a loser,
- 1:14:38Speaker 1: but like he's so like lawful good that you know,
- 1:14:41Speaker 1: and his whole thing is he doesn't kill people and
- 1:14:44Speaker 1: she straight up does some I know, which I think
- 1:14:48Speaker 1: Batman heads don't Like, I don't care it works in
- 1:14:52Speaker 1: the movie. I'm not that mad about it. I like
- 1:14:54Speaker 1: that Daniel Waters, like he has so many quotes about
- 1:14:58Speaker 1: being like saying like, I don't care about pleasing fans.
- 1:15:02Speaker 1: Comic book fans mean nothing to me, Like they shouldn't
- 1:15:05Speaker 1: let me kill Selena. But it makes more sense if
- 1:15:07Speaker 1: Batman kills people, and you're just like, man damn Daniel
- 1:15:11Speaker 1: to borrow a phrase, Um, he just he just doesn't
- 1:15:17Speaker 1: give a rat's ass when it comes to great which
- 1:15:20Speaker 1: I do. I think that mores honestly more uh screenwriters
- 1:15:23Speaker 1: for like big franchises, they should hire more people who
- 1:15:26Speaker 1: don't give a ship because that's the only way you
- 1:15:28Speaker 1: get new stuff. Tony Gilroy, this is why Andor is
- 1:15:30Speaker 1: good because he hates Star Wars. Really, I hate Star Wars. Yeah,
- 1:15:35Speaker 1: and is so good. It's like I'm talking, I'm gonna
- 1:15:38Speaker 1: watch it still. There's an entire arc about the prison complex.
- 1:15:42Speaker 1: Like it's wild interesting, it's really really good. Yeah, maybe
- 1:15:45Speaker 1: less fans should be hired. And this is how I'm
- 1:15:47Speaker 1: going to get to write a big franchise movie. I'm like,
- 1:15:49Speaker 1: I don't know, you should hire me. I don't know anything. Um,
- 1:15:54Speaker 1: but like Batman is so like there you know, all
- 1:15:57Speaker 1: the obvious observations about Batman been made also on this show,
- 1:16:01Speaker 1: uh where it's like he's a billionaire and her, but like,
- 1:16:05Speaker 1: but I think for this that doesn't even really come
- 1:16:07Speaker 1: into it that much. Those are the kind of obvious
- 1:16:10Speaker 1: criticisms of him. But like that scene at the end
- 1:16:13Speaker 1: where they're like he's coming in lawful good and he's
- 1:16:17Speaker 1: like we just need to like bring him to the
- 1:16:20Speaker 1: police and it'll be fine. And Selena is like, what
- 1:16:23Speaker 1: the funk are you talking about? Like this guy lives
- 1:16:26Speaker 1: above the law and so do we, and he's like, no,
- 1:16:30Speaker 1: cops are amazing. I love God and p D and like, Commissioner,
- 1:16:37Speaker 1: my only friend, my only friend is a cops are
- 1:16:41Speaker 1: I was like, God, so pathetic, But like whatever, But
- 1:16:45Speaker 1: I just I just loved how like I don't know,
- 1:16:47Speaker 1: like in a way that totally fits like cartoonishly explicit
- 1:16:51Speaker 1: that conversation is and that he doesn't win her over
- 1:16:54Speaker 1: like that was I was sort of like nervous that
- 1:16:56Speaker 1: whole scene of like, oh God, is he going to
- 1:16:59Speaker 1: win her over? Is she gonna be like you're right,
- 1:17:01Speaker 1: let's just bring him downtown and like get him locked
- 1:17:05Speaker 1: up or another fear. This was like a Spider Man
- 1:17:08Speaker 1: two based fear, whereas like is Batman going to get
- 1:17:12Speaker 1: the killing blow on Max Shrek or something? Because I
- 1:17:14Speaker 1: always forget Batman's not supposed to kill people, So I
- 1:17:16Speaker 1: was like, oh, is he going to get to do it?
- 1:17:18Speaker 1: That would suck because it's so clearly Selena's kids to
- 1:17:22Speaker 1: do it. But none of that happens. Batman is literally
- 1:17:26Speaker 1: like knocked out for for Selena to get her killing
- 1:17:29Speaker 1: blow in. Honestly, his part in the final scenes is
- 1:17:31Speaker 1: so funny because he gets knocked out and then you
- 1:17:33Speaker 1: see him sort of like in the distance sort of
- 1:17:35Speaker 1: standing up and like here around and see what's going
- 1:17:37Speaker 1: on as these six penguins, uh score the body of
- 1:17:40Speaker 1: the penguin into the water, like, can you imagine being
- 1:17:43Speaker 1: Bruce Wayne in that moment, being like, huh, like what's
- 1:17:45Speaker 1: going on? Oh, the penguins are like having a funeral service,
- 1:17:48Speaker 1: and then Batmans goes like, oh, I gotta go. And
- 1:17:55Speaker 1: then Batman goes over to like the rubble and like
- 1:17:58Speaker 1: clear some of it away, and he's ease Max Shrek
- 1:18:01Speaker 1: just as like a yeah, like a burnt to a
- 1:18:03Speaker 1: crisp dead dude. Catwoman's nowhere. It's really good. It's awesome.
- 1:18:09Speaker 1: But I liked I totally agree with what you guys
- 1:18:12Speaker 1: are saying about Catwoman and her I guess spectrum of femininity,
- 1:18:15Speaker 1: because I think that's one of the fun things about
- 1:18:17Speaker 1: this movie, and I think something that will be relatable
- 1:18:20Speaker 1: to anyone who has ever sort of questioned how to
- 1:18:23Speaker 1: present gender in any way. Where the scene where she
- 1:18:27Speaker 1: saves that woman from being raped on the street, she's like, oh,
- 1:18:30Speaker 1: you make it so easy, always waiting for someone to
- 1:18:32Speaker 1: come save you. I think that's like a sort of
- 1:18:35Speaker 1: thing that we all wrestle with, where it's like, even
- 1:18:37Speaker 1: if you want to present in a very traditionally feminine matter,
- 1:18:40Speaker 1: or that's what you like more and what you want
- 1:18:42Speaker 1: to do, Like the stereotypes that have been laiden onto.
- 1:18:47Speaker 1: These particular aesthetics are so loaded and what people tell
- 1:18:51Speaker 1: you about like when, for instance, like someone is sexually assaulted,
- 1:18:56Speaker 1: like so much of the language is about like, oh, well,
- 1:18:58Speaker 1: what were you doing in that situation? So yeah, where
- 1:19:02Speaker 1: I don't know, it's it's interesting to watch her struggle
- 1:19:05Speaker 1: with that. Like they obviously don't go all the way
- 1:19:07Speaker 1: into like just talking about gender politics in this movie,
- 1:19:11Speaker 1: but it's a very interesting thing to touch on in general,
- 1:19:14Speaker 1: because like the iconography of Catwoman in this movie, where
- 1:19:18Speaker 1: she turns into this like all leather like girls dominatrix style,
- 1:19:24Speaker 1: like has such an impact on how we now perceive
- 1:19:27Speaker 1: like quote unquote strong female characters because they're like, oh,
- 1:19:29Speaker 1: like they have to be sexy but also shoot a gun.
- 1:19:33Speaker 1: And it's like, no, like that's not what constitutes like
- 1:19:36Speaker 1: strength for any character, or like you don't have to
- 1:19:39Speaker 1: present in one way or anything or the other to
- 1:19:41Speaker 1: be considered strong. But anyway, right, because her sexualization is
- 1:19:47Speaker 1: something I was grappling with because she when she transforms
- 1:19:51Speaker 1: into Catwoman, she becomes like I would say, one of
- 1:19:55Speaker 1: the hottest movie characters of all times, absolutely a sexual
- 1:19:59Speaker 1: awakening for were I think most people who feel sexual feelings.
- 1:20:03Speaker 1: One of the IMDb trivia things for this is that
- 1:20:06Speaker 1: people kept stealing like the one sheet of her like
- 1:20:10Speaker 1: because and like to the point that they had to
- 1:20:12Speaker 1: like start putting like cops out to watch like busses
- 1:20:16Speaker 1: and like signage post and ship to make sure they
- 1:20:18Speaker 1: would stop stealing them our tax dollars at work, people
- 1:20:22Speaker 1: guarding sexual images of Michelle Peifer like. A friend of
- 1:20:28Speaker 1: the show, Sammy Junio had this to say, Michelle Peifer
- 1:20:32Speaker 1: as Catwoman is a gay awakening for a lot of
- 1:20:36Speaker 1: queer folks. And gay awakening is also what I announced
- 1:20:40Speaker 1: into my empty apartment when I get out of bed
- 1:20:42Speaker 1: for the day. So Sammy making a Google but I did,
- 1:20:49Speaker 1: I mean my my feeling on it was like I
- 1:20:52Speaker 1: understand why, Like it almost feels like the sort of
- 1:20:55Speaker 1: thing where for me it really works in the context
- 1:20:59Speaker 1: of this movie, and I understand how like people could
- 1:21:02Speaker 1: take the most base interpretation of it and lift it
- 1:21:05Speaker 1: for other movies in a way that is like net negative.
- 1:21:09Speaker 1: But I don't think that that's Michelle Feiffer Catwoman's fault.
- 1:21:12Speaker 1: I feel like, no, no, it's a very like Mr
- 1:21:14Speaker 1: Hollywood takeaway to be like, Okay, so you know she
- 1:21:18Speaker 1: people really liked this character and it's probably because she
- 1:21:21Speaker 1: was wearing a skin tight suit and had a gun
- 1:21:23Speaker 1: and it's like, well, that was a part of it,
- 1:21:25Speaker 1: but also I like, but also the other stuff. It's
- 1:21:29Speaker 1: not nothing. It was definitely a good chunk. But also
- 1:21:32Speaker 1: it's like the character was well written. She was really
- 1:21:35Speaker 1: strongly motivated and like, yeah, I sort of viewed like
- 1:21:38Speaker 1: her being sexualized. I don't think it's ever like endorsed
- 1:21:42Speaker 1: by the movie explicitly, like especially when it's um Shrek
- 1:21:47Speaker 1: or the Penguin and and I don't know, I felt
- 1:21:50Speaker 1: like her sexualization at least with like the outfit and
- 1:21:54Speaker 1: her behavior was more like she's like all of a
- 1:21:57Speaker 1: sudden confident, like sexual confident and like into herself in
- 1:22:02Speaker 1: a more about her Yeah, And I liked that, like
- 1:22:06Speaker 1: the visual representation of that. And obviously it's a very
- 1:22:10Speaker 1: like you know, Western beauty standards visual interpretation of that,
- 1:22:15Speaker 1: but I thought it worked that it's like, oh, this
- 1:22:17Speaker 1: is like a woman who has felt so pushed down
- 1:22:20Speaker 1: by all these different forces and now she's finally like,
- 1:22:23Speaker 1: oh I'm fucking hot and cool. And I can like
- 1:22:26Speaker 1: do whatever I want and that's cool, that's fun is
- 1:22:30Speaker 1: and that's like, that's what I was grappling with. Where Like,
- 1:22:32Speaker 1: on one hand, you could easily argue that her sexualization
- 1:22:36Speaker 1: is very much on her own terms. This is how
- 1:22:39Speaker 1: she chooses to present this is a manifestation of her
- 1:22:43Speaker 1: newfound confidence. But on the other hand, you could argue
- 1:22:47Speaker 1: that it was the male screenwriters and directors who chose
- 1:22:52Speaker 1: to present a female character in this way. But but
- 1:22:56Speaker 1: because like her being sexualized in this story isn't predatory
- 1:23:01Speaker 1: in terms of like the way the camera views her.
- 1:23:04Speaker 1: It's not like male gazzy linger e cinematography. It's more
- 1:23:09Speaker 1: just like and this is how the character is now
- 1:23:11Speaker 1: presenting it pretty objectively in my opinion, So yeah, I
- 1:23:16Speaker 1: was like pretty fine with it. Yeah, I totally agree
- 1:23:19Speaker 1: with that as also objectively into it because it's like
- 1:23:23Speaker 1: Michelle Phiffer and also her performance there is a really
- 1:23:28Speaker 1: good It was from like I think five or so
- 1:23:29Speaker 1: years ago for the anniversary of this movie. It was
- 1:23:34Speaker 1: a really nice piece by uh right. We've cited many
- 1:23:37Speaker 1: times on this show. Angelica, Jade Bastian and Vulture wrote
- 1:23:41Speaker 1: this nice ode to Michelle Pheiffer as Catwoman, and just
- 1:23:45Speaker 1: like how her like will link it in the description
- 1:23:48Speaker 1: of this episode, she she directs you to several ways
- 1:23:52Speaker 1: that Michelle Peiffer was talked about in the press where
- 1:23:55Speaker 1: I think that also, and this gets me into like
- 1:23:58Speaker 1: Lolita podcast brain kind of like how I think a
- 1:24:02Speaker 1: lot of like the takeaway of how Catwoman was presented
- 1:24:05Speaker 1: was shaped by how the media talked about it versus
- 1:24:07Speaker 1: what actually happens in the movie, because all, yeah, right,
- 1:24:13Speaker 1: where you know, in context, she's taking control of her
- 1:24:17Speaker 1: own sexuality and presenting the way she wants to present.
- 1:24:20Speaker 1: But the way that, like she was profiled at the time,
- 1:24:22Speaker 1: the way she was talked about in the media, was
- 1:24:24Speaker 1: very it like had nothing to do with Michelle Pfeifer's performance,
- 1:24:29Speaker 1: which I think is like really awesome. Her performance is great, Yeah,
- 1:24:33Speaker 1: And I mean that's just very indicative of the way
- 1:24:37Speaker 1: women tend to be perceived, because people tend to value
- 1:24:41Speaker 1: women for very specific things like their physical appearance and
- 1:24:46Speaker 1: not their skills or artistic talents or brains. Yeah, what
- 1:24:54Speaker 1: do we think about the bat cat relation? I love it,
- 1:25:01Speaker 1: I don't hate it. Um it feels a little like
- 1:25:04Speaker 1: half baked kind of. But it seemed to me that
- 1:25:08Speaker 1: Bruce likes Selena after like he meets her in Tricks
- 1:25:13Speaker 1: because I think he thinks she's fierce and powerful and
- 1:25:17Speaker 1: cool and that's what he's drawn to her confidence. Yeah. Yeah,
- 1:25:20Speaker 1: he literally wants her to like step on him, like
- 1:25:24Speaker 1: it does kind of like that's the kind of he's
- 1:25:26Speaker 1: like this like shy weirdo. That's like he came to
- 1:25:30Speaker 1: this super freak party hoping you'd be here. Like she
- 1:25:33Speaker 1: wants him to step on him, and she would, but
- 1:25:36Speaker 1: she's busy. Yeah, she's booked it busy. She's busy killing
- 1:25:39Speaker 1: Max Strick. She's literally like, there's a bedroom in the
- 1:25:41Speaker 1: other room if you want to like get this done. Yeah.
- 1:25:46Speaker 1: I love how horny she is. And he's like, whoa, whoa,
- 1:25:49Speaker 1: what we had superhero movies could be He was so horny.
- 1:25:53Speaker 1: It's so they're so like so funny. The scene where
- 1:25:56Speaker 1: they like first fight and she's like, you can't hit me,
- 1:25:58Speaker 1: I'm a woman. He's like, okay, so you're right. I'm
- 1:26:00Speaker 1: so sorry, and then she kicks him in the faces.
- 1:26:03Speaker 1: I wrote all of this down because I love this good.
- 1:26:06Speaker 1: It's great. That's the first fight between them. They're fighting,
- 1:26:10Speaker 1: she's holding her own but he knocks her down and
- 1:26:13Speaker 1: then she says, how could you I'm a woman, and
- 1:26:15Speaker 1: then he's like, oh, I'm sorry, and then he like
- 1:26:18Speaker 1: goes to help her up, but it was a trick.
- 1:26:20Speaker 1: She kicks him. She gets the upper hand and knocks
- 1:26:23Speaker 1: him over a ledge, so he's like dangling there, holding
- 1:26:26Speaker 1: on by her whip. And then she was like, as
- 1:26:28Speaker 1: I was saying, I'm a woman and can't be taken
- 1:26:31Speaker 1: for granted, and that's when she says, life's a bit now,
- 1:26:34Speaker 1: so am I, And we're like, She's got a lot
- 1:26:38Speaker 1: of great lines. It's really really fun. I really do
- 1:26:43Speaker 1: like how like cartoony the script is even at the
- 1:26:47Speaker 1: beginning where it's all of her like single lady lines
- 1:26:52Speaker 1: are so weird but funny, where she's like it just
- 1:26:57Speaker 1: it's literally sounds like a comic strip where you walk
- 1:27:00Speaker 1: in you're like, honey, I'm home. Oh wait, I don't
- 1:27:03Speaker 1: have a husband. I'm like, that's a cavy strap, and
- 1:27:06Speaker 1: then like the single cam like laugh track. Yeah, it's
- 1:27:10Speaker 1: it's so especially because they like go so hard against
- 1:27:13Speaker 1: it and that in the rest of the movie that
- 1:27:15Speaker 1: it like totally works. I loved that she uses the
- 1:27:19Speaker 1: clown taser at the end. She kept the clowns taser
- 1:27:24Speaker 1: um planning payoff baby um the only thing that kind
- 1:27:29Speaker 1: of like pinged for me. And we just talked about
- 1:27:31Speaker 1: something similar on the Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
- 1:27:34Speaker 1: episode where a female character's wait gets just kind of mentioned.
- 1:27:40Speaker 1: There's a moment where Selena is like, she and Bruce
- 1:27:44Speaker 1: are talking and they're kind of commenting on the news coverage,
- 1:27:48Speaker 1: like the media coverage of Batman and Catwoman, and Selena
- 1:27:52Speaker 1: says something like, oh, you know, there's like this rumor
- 1:27:55Speaker 1: going around that Catwoman is thought to weigh a hundred
- 1:27:58Speaker 1: and forty pounds, as if she thinks that's too much
- 1:28:02Speaker 1: and she doesn't weigh that much, and she resents that
- 1:28:04Speaker 1: people think she's she weighs more than she actually is.
- 1:28:09Speaker 1: Really jumped out in that moment because you're I honestly
- 1:28:13Speaker 1: was like confused by that line at first, because I
- 1:28:16Speaker 1: was like, what is even being said, because that's just
- 1:28:19Speaker 1: like it's whatever I mean that I do. We've talked
- 1:28:22Speaker 1: about that before too, was like that that's like the
- 1:28:24Speaker 1: kind of ship that gives young people eating disorders, as
- 1:28:28Speaker 1: someone who famously had my my e D cranked up
- 1:28:32Speaker 1: to an eleven by an offhand line in a Family
- 1:28:35Speaker 1: Guy episode, Uh, you really can't be it's like the
- 1:28:40Speaker 1: numbers specifically that really bugs me where it's like, yeah,
- 1:28:44Speaker 1: I don't know, Yeah, that that was like a very
- 1:28:47Speaker 1: bizarre one. It's just a lazy choice to make like
- 1:28:50Speaker 1: the one female character in the movie mention her weight
- 1:28:54Speaker 1: or be concerned about her weight. And as these movies
- 1:28:57Speaker 1: always do act in such a way that women being
- 1:29:01Speaker 1: concerned about their image and their weight just happens in
- 1:29:05Speaker 1: a void has nothing to do with the societal pressure
- 1:29:10Speaker 1: we place on women for how they look. So yeah,
- 1:29:15Speaker 1: that line, that line bumped me out. There's a really
- 1:29:18Speaker 1: funny um I stand it to you, Caitlin, there's a
- 1:29:21Speaker 1: really Dani Schwartz like three years ago, Live tweeted this
- 1:29:25Speaker 1: entire movie and also called out that line of like
- 1:29:28Speaker 1: what are they saying here? Like truly was oh no,
- 1:29:33Speaker 1: And then if you think about it for a second,
- 1:29:34Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I guess brain where it was like
- 1:29:37Speaker 1: that messaging was kind of like approaching and all time
- 1:29:40Speaker 1: high because we're in like the what is that Kate
- 1:29:44Speaker 1: moss quote whatever that era food doesn't taste as good
- 1:29:49Speaker 1: as skinny field or whatever. The fuck? Yeah? Remember we
- 1:29:53Speaker 1: were ever you know the words that shaped and haunted us? Um? Yeah,
- 1:30:00Speaker 1: so yeah, I I also clocked that. Unfortunately it's one
- 1:30:03Speaker 1: line and doesn't really come up again. Yeah. The last
- 1:30:07Speaker 1: I think one of the last things I have is
- 1:30:10Speaker 1: um the scene where she goes on the date with Bruce.
- 1:30:15Speaker 1: She makes the first move and it's intense. Okay, it
- 1:30:20Speaker 1: is possibly a surprise kiss because she lunges at him.
- 1:30:23Speaker 1: She does lunge at him. However, he has just said
- 1:30:27Speaker 1: that he wants to kill, wants to kiss. So I
- 1:30:29Speaker 1: felt like, maybe I'm giving Catwoman a pass on that one.
- 1:30:32Speaker 1: She came in hot. Yeah, but I'm gonna give her.
- 1:30:35Speaker 1: She came in hot. She was like, I cannot wait
- 1:30:38Speaker 1: to kiss you. Will you let me? And she's like
- 1:30:41Speaker 1: I see that, and I raise you. I'm going to
- 1:30:43Speaker 1: kiss you by pouncing on you like a cat. She's like,
- 1:30:46Speaker 1: I might actually eat you. Um, but yeah, I don't know.
- 1:30:51Speaker 1: I think that like their relationship, Like it doesn't. I
- 1:30:55Speaker 1: just it's like so nice to see horny super horny
- 1:31:00Speaker 1: woman visibility. I love it incredibly horny. It's good. Yeah,
- 1:31:06Speaker 1: I do like because we talked about the trope of
- 1:31:10Speaker 1: a woman using a frying pan as a weapon. She
- 1:31:13Speaker 1: uses a frying pan, but it's to smash up her
- 1:31:16Speaker 1: own apartment. I liked it, followed by the line where
- 1:31:20Speaker 1: she says, I don't know about you, miss Kitty, but
- 1:31:23Speaker 1: I feel so much yummier, iconic, iconic, so good. I'm
- 1:31:27Speaker 1: gonna start saying that to Flee Um and he's going
- 1:31:33Speaker 1: to love every damn second of it, or I'm disowning.
- 1:31:36Speaker 1: Oh the stakes are high. Yeah, the stakes are high
- 1:31:38Speaker 1: from Mr Flee I will say every time I watched
- 1:31:41Speaker 1: this movie. So right after she transforms into Catwoman and
- 1:31:44Speaker 1: then she's on the prowl, as you might say, on
- 1:31:48Speaker 1: the streets of Gotham, the first thing she does as
- 1:31:51Speaker 1: Catwoman is to save a woman from being sexually assaulted
- 1:31:56Speaker 1: by Oops, one of the few people of color in
- 1:31:59Speaker 1: the movie, which unfortunately is very in line with like
- 1:32:03Speaker 1: Tim because his movies are so aggressively white that he's
- 1:32:07Speaker 1: even defended it um, which was like, why would I
- 1:32:10Speaker 1: play non white people in my movie? And we're like Tim,
- 1:32:14Speaker 1: what did he say? Wait? Was was I'd have to
- 1:32:17Speaker 1: look up the exact quote. We've discussed it on the
- 1:32:18Speaker 1: show before. I think that this was around because he
- 1:32:21Speaker 1: it was like to the point where he had to
- 1:32:23Speaker 1: like walk this back. This was Did it have something
- 1:32:27Speaker 1: to do with the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children House Peregrine
- 1:32:34Speaker 1: Home for Peculiar Children? Yeah, okay. He said this to
- 1:32:38Speaker 1: writer Rachel Simon in and it was on the Miss
- 1:32:42Speaker 1: Peregrine um Press Stork, he said. Quote. Nowadays people are
- 1:32:46Speaker 1: talking about it more, he says, regarding on screen diversity.
- 1:32:50Speaker 1: But quote, things either call for things or they don't.
- 1:32:53Speaker 1: I remember back when I was a child watching The
- 1:32:55Speaker 1: Brady Bunch and they started to get all politically correct,
- 1:32:57Speaker 1: like okay, let's have an Asian child and a black child.
- 1:33:01Speaker 1: I used to get more offended by that than just
- 1:33:04Speaker 1: I grew up watching black sploitation movies, right, and I
- 1:33:07Speaker 1: said that's great. I didn't go like, Okay, there should
- 1:33:10Speaker 1: be more white people in these movies. Unquote it it's
- 1:33:13Speaker 1: just like the most white. This is the same as
- 1:33:20Speaker 1: like every time anyone complains about their people clear casting
- 1:33:23Speaker 1: anything like Star Wars or something, and the logic of like, oh,
- 1:33:28Speaker 1: they can have their own movies and it's like no,
- 1:33:31Speaker 1: like this is not you can't talk like this. You
- 1:33:33Speaker 1: can't don't stop stop talking, like shut your mouth, Tim Burton.
- 1:33:40Speaker 1: So that's like, especially remembering him making those comments, like
- 1:33:45Speaker 1: seeing that you're just like this is like a very
- 1:33:47Speaker 1: intentional joy. This is intentional absolutely. So Catwoman is saving
- 1:33:52Speaker 1: another woman from being sexually assaulted and then the woman's like,
- 1:33:56Speaker 1: oh my gosh, thank you. But then Catwoman kind of
- 1:34:00Speaker 1: victim blames the woman and it's like, well, you make
- 1:34:02Speaker 1: it so easy. You're always just waiting around for some
- 1:34:05Speaker 1: batman to save you. And so it's always at this
- 1:34:07Speaker 1: point in the movie when you see her save when
- 1:34:09Speaker 1: you see Catwoman save this other person, and I'm always like, oh,
- 1:34:13Speaker 1: she's about to go on this like vigilante almost like
- 1:34:16Speaker 1: the movie Teeth, where she's like like, I'm just gonna
- 1:34:20Speaker 1: protect women and save women from these predatory men. And
- 1:34:24Speaker 1: I always think that that's the direction the Catwoman character
- 1:34:27Speaker 1: is going to go in, but she quickly abandons any
- 1:34:30Speaker 1: sort of like ally ship to other women and then
- 1:34:33Speaker 1: just like goes after Shrek, which I don't know, I mean,
- 1:34:38Speaker 1: it's just I guess it's just like me having certain
- 1:34:42Speaker 1: once and wishes for the Catwoman character, but I certainly
- 1:34:46Speaker 1: would have liked for that to be the direction that
- 1:34:49Speaker 1: she went in. But like, it's sort of the same
- 1:34:51Speaker 1: point as like when I mentioned this scene earlier where
- 1:34:53Speaker 1: it's like you can understand why that is her reaction
- 1:34:58Speaker 1: to saving that woman, Like it's not right obviously, but
- 1:35:02Speaker 1: the way that she, like, the social conditioning around her
- 1:35:06Speaker 1: basically is telling her this, and it's also why she
- 1:35:09Speaker 1: rejects that kind of more feminine aesthetic as Cat Woman. Yeah.
- 1:35:13Speaker 1: I honestly wasn't like super bugged by that, Like I
- 1:35:17Speaker 1: think it makes a point. Yeah, yeah, I see what
- 1:35:20Speaker 1: you mean. Yeah, I think the only the only thing
- 1:35:22Speaker 1: that I felt like in this movie was like characterizing
- 1:35:25Speaker 1: the was it like ice princess, or like characterizing her
- 1:35:28Speaker 1: as such a bimbo, very dizzy, as a as a
- 1:35:33Speaker 1: proud bimbo and a bimbo apologist. I just feel like, yeah,
- 1:35:36Speaker 1: making her just kind of a classic bimbo. Yeah, it's
- 1:35:39Speaker 1: a little cruel. Yeah, I mean it's such a small
- 1:35:42Speaker 1: part of the movie, but unless she gets murdered, Yeah,
- 1:35:44Speaker 1: it's always like a while like a movie where it's like, oh,
- 1:35:47Speaker 1: we can only have one woman we're really thinking about
- 1:35:50Speaker 1: in the movie, like we can't characterize more than one
- 1:35:52Speaker 1: that would be whatever. I feel like the only other
- 1:36:00Speaker 1: woman besides Catwoman and the Ice Princess who has any
- 1:36:03Speaker 1: significant screen time. And it's not as though this woman
- 1:36:06Speaker 1: has a lot. But there's a million of penguins. She
- 1:36:10Speaker 1: has a little dog love her. She seems to be
- 1:36:13Speaker 1: one of penguins, like right hand minions. She's she's high
- 1:36:20Speaker 1: up in the ranks. What's going on with her? But
- 1:36:22Speaker 1: she doesn't speak until the very end, And it's her
- 1:36:25Speaker 1: who's like giving the countdown. Is like of like, oh,
- 1:36:28Speaker 1: the penguins are going to reach their destination and team
- 1:36:32Speaker 1: minus fifteen seconds. She's really just there for fun. Yeah.
- 1:36:36Speaker 1: I loved her. She's there for love of the game.
- 1:36:38Speaker 1: She is like droning through narrating the height of the
- 1:36:42Speaker 1: action of the movie. She's like, the penguins are going
- 1:36:45Speaker 1: in a different direction, looks like there's coming towards us.
- 1:36:51Speaker 1: I just that's the kind of like Tim Burton character
- 1:36:54Speaker 1: I really like. Of just like a woman who is
- 1:36:57Speaker 1: bored by something very exciting that's always so fun. I uh, yeah,
- 1:37:04Speaker 1: I liked her. The dog is so cute. Yeah, it's
- 1:37:08Speaker 1: like a little busted. It's very cute. It's a good dog.
- 1:37:11Speaker 1: It's a good boy. Um, feminist icon. The duck Boat, penguin,
- 1:37:18Speaker 1: My god, the boat. We haven't even talked about the
- 1:37:20Speaker 1: duck Boat. It's so good. It's so it's so I
- 1:37:25Speaker 1: love like, it's perfect when a movie is just like
- 1:37:28Speaker 1: and we just talked about the many ways in which
- 1:37:31Speaker 1: Tim Burton is a relic at this point, but I
- 1:37:36Speaker 1: do love to watch a director absolutely abuse a big budget.
- 1:37:41Speaker 1: It's so fun like, it's so like the It's cannon
- 1:37:45Speaker 1: that he was just like, no performance artists, Let's go bigger,
- 1:37:48Speaker 1: let's go full circus at the zoo. For no reason.
- 1:37:52Speaker 1: We need animatronic penguins. We need people penguins, and we
- 1:37:55Speaker 1: need penguin penguins. There's nowhere around it. Um. The animal
- 1:37:59Speaker 1: rights stuff in this movie, we can't go there because
- 1:38:03Speaker 1: Michelle Fiber put a real bird in her mouth. So
- 1:38:07Speaker 1: we wish that we're the best and hope it went
- 1:38:09Speaker 1: on to thrive. Um. But it's just like, this movie
- 1:38:13Speaker 1: is so The duck Boat. The duck Boat is wonderful.
- 1:38:18Speaker 1: I love it. I'm obsessed with the duck Boat. The train,
- 1:38:22Speaker 1: Why is there a train. I do want to shout
- 1:38:25Speaker 1: out the penguins. They're so cute. They are so cute.
- 1:38:29Speaker 1: They're very good. They frowned when the penguin dies. So cute.
- 1:38:33Speaker 1: It's so sad. They're sad for their friends. They're literally
- 1:38:38Speaker 1: it's it's literally like if Grew died, what would happen.
- 1:38:42Speaker 1: It's exactly like if Crew died, they would be beside themselves.
- 1:38:47Speaker 1: They would not the Canada that they are like especially
- 1:38:50Speaker 1: devoted to Grew because they've had like other masters, right, yeah,
- 1:38:54Speaker 1: don't Yeah, they've had a lot of They've worked for
- 1:38:57Speaker 1: a lot of people, but grew as special to that.
- 1:38:59Speaker 1: But they love Grew okay, because Grew takes all their
- 1:39:02Speaker 1: boxes where It's like usually their bosses are really evil
- 1:39:06Speaker 1: and also abusive towards them, but grew as evil and
- 1:39:10Speaker 1: nice to them, so they love Grew. He takes care
- 1:39:12Speaker 1: of them. Okay. They kind of grew up together. They
- 1:39:16Speaker 1: grew up together. They grew they grew up and they
- 1:39:21Speaker 1: grew up together. There was I was sitting, Okay, this
- 1:39:25Speaker 1: is my last tangent of the episode. I promised I
- 1:39:28Speaker 1: was taking a mega bus from Rhode Island to New weekend,
- 1:39:32Speaker 1: because yeah, I'm kind of a fucking sleb. But I
- 1:39:36Speaker 1: was sitting next to this college student who was talking
- 1:39:39Speaker 1: on the phone with one of his boys for the
- 1:39:41Speaker 1: duration of the bus. It was it was really long
- 1:39:44Speaker 1: and obnoxious, but it was just like he was such
- 1:39:48Speaker 1: a bro with like three brain cells that he was
- 1:39:51Speaker 1: really like getting some good quips and every once and
- 1:39:53Speaker 1: again like he was just he was objectifying his classmates
- 1:39:57Speaker 1: the whole call boy. But at one point he was like, yeah,
- 1:40:00Speaker 1: you know, Christina, she kind of really glue. How do
- 1:40:04Speaker 1: I she glew up over the summer? Did I say that? Right?
- 1:40:07Speaker 1: She blew up? And then you could hear the guy
- 1:40:10Speaker 1: on the other line and be like, yeah, no, I
- 1:40:11Speaker 1: get it. And then he just like I was like,
- 1:40:15Speaker 1: oh god, that's incredible. She blew up. He couldn't think
- 1:40:19Speaker 1: of the word glowed amazing. He was literally coming from
- 1:40:23Speaker 1: Brown University. It was just how we get Max Trex
- 1:40:28Speaker 1: out there blew up over the summer. It was nasty.
- 1:40:33Speaker 1: Al Right, Well, Batman Returns? Does anyone have anything else
- 1:40:37Speaker 1: to say about Batman Returns? Um There was supposed to
- 1:40:41Speaker 1: be a sequel where Catwoman Michelle Fifefer. Catwoman had her
- 1:40:46Speaker 1: own own story. It was supposed to also be done
- 1:40:48Speaker 1: with Daniel Waters and Tim Burton Um and it follows
- 1:40:52Speaker 1: her to a like more Las Vegas e location. It
- 1:40:58Speaker 1: sounds like it would have been great, but it never happened.
- 1:41:01Speaker 1: Damn it. Here's my last thing to say. Well, I
- 1:41:03Speaker 1: guess I have like two less things. One of them
- 1:41:05Speaker 1: is I do think it's funny that people complain about
- 1:41:08Speaker 1: like Batman not being in this movie enough, because ultimately
- 1:41:10Speaker 1: it is a Catwoman movie, Like Batman is fairly incidental
- 1:41:15Speaker 1: to what goes on in the film. This is a
- 1:41:18Speaker 1: movie about Catwoman and the penguin, like it's their movie.
- 1:41:22Speaker 1: They are the two far more strongly motivated characters, and
- 1:41:26Speaker 1: Batman is just like, well, I'm Batman, so I have
- 1:41:28Speaker 1: to stop these people. But yeah, exactly, like he is
- 1:41:32Speaker 1: called to the scene, like he did not create the scene.
- 1:41:35Speaker 1: I kind of like that this movie is like comfortable
- 1:41:38Speaker 1: with Batman being a little bit boring, Like yeah, because
- 1:41:43Speaker 1: I don't even think Batman is like obviously he's like
- 1:41:45Speaker 1: not a boring character, but I like that this movie
- 1:41:48Speaker 1: is sort of like, well, he's not the most interesting
- 1:41:50Speaker 1: character in the movie, and we're comfortable with that he returns,
- 1:41:54Speaker 1: but you know, kind of to a more incidental degree
- 1:41:58Speaker 1: than you would imagine, Right, I totally agree with that.
- 1:42:01Speaker 1: I love My second point is that dating bed is hot.
- 1:42:04Speaker 1: We should recognize that more. I think as a society. Absolutely,
- 1:42:08Speaker 1: his energy, Oh my god, he's hot. He's a socialist,
- 1:42:12Speaker 1: his politics are kind of immaculate. What is hotter than that? Yeah? An,
- 1:42:16Speaker 1: he's single, I think, so not divorced, but I guess
- 1:42:21Speaker 1: I don't know, Like I know that he and Perlin
- 1:42:23Speaker 1: are like separated, but they're not divorced. I don't find
- 1:42:28Speaker 1: that disqualifying. Yeah, if he comes up, but I was like,
- 1:42:31Speaker 1: if he if he comes up on Bumble, yeah obviously, no,
- 1:42:36Speaker 1: no question. Yeah, I'll keep an eye out for him
- 1:42:38Speaker 1: on Riya. Yeah I'm on Riya. Have I had any luck?
- 1:42:45Speaker 1: They're not one iota. I've still not used a dating app.
- 1:42:51Speaker 1: So I was just throwing Bumble out there because I
- 1:42:53Speaker 1: know it's exists. Yeah, I was on one of them.
- 1:42:57Speaker 1: I want on dating apps for like a month and
- 1:42:58Speaker 1: then I was like, I don't think I enjoy this,
- 1:43:01Speaker 1: and so I stopped. They're not great anyway. We saund
- 1:43:06Speaker 1: like Selena Kyle at the beginning of the movie of
- 1:43:08Speaker 1: her like it's a good it's a good note to
- 1:43:11Speaker 1: wrap up on because this movie is so horny. So
- 1:43:14Speaker 1: now a little bit exactly does the movie pass the
- 1:43:19Speaker 1: Bechdel test? I agree with you, Jamie, I would argue.
- 1:43:22Speaker 1: When Selena talks to her female cat whose name we
- 1:43:25Speaker 1: know because it's miss Kitty, that passes because here's the conversation.
- 1:43:31Speaker 1: Selena comes home, cat goes me ow. Selena says, Miss
- 1:43:34Speaker 1: Kitty back more sexual escapades. You refuse to share. So
- 1:43:38Speaker 1: they've talked before establishing a relationship. They have a close bond,
- 1:43:43Speaker 1: although miss Kitty is withholding. Miss Kitty says miaw. Selena says,
- 1:43:49Speaker 1: drink your dinner. Kat says me ow. Selena says, what
- 1:43:53Speaker 1: how can anyone be so pathetic? Yes, to you, I
- 1:43:57Speaker 1: seem pathetic, but I'm a working girl. I gotta pay. Then, yes, Selena,
- 1:44:01Speaker 1: I mean, and that passes the Becktel tests. That passes.
- 1:44:06Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you. It passes flying.
- 1:44:10Speaker 1: I feel comfortable with that. I feel ecstatic about that.
- 1:44:14Speaker 1: Is there much else outside of that? There is a
- 1:44:18Speaker 1: brief interaction between Catwoman and the Ice Princess, but they
- 1:44:21Speaker 1: don't actually speak to each other on screen. Yeah, at
- 1:44:24Speaker 1: least not really. It would have been fun if she
- 1:44:26Speaker 1: could have had a little tete a tete with Penguins
- 1:44:30Speaker 1: board associate. But I don't even know if we if
- 1:44:34Speaker 1: that character get the name. I just really liked her,
- 1:44:36Speaker 1: So Wikipedia just lists her as the poodle lady. Okay,
- 1:44:41Speaker 1: love that. Yeah, that's great. I support that Ice Princess
- 1:44:45Speaker 1: is nice. She seemed really nice. I would have loved
- 1:44:48Speaker 1: to get lunch with her, sweetie pie. Yeah, she was great. Absolutely,
- 1:44:53Speaker 1: R I P T I P. But who among us
- 1:44:57Speaker 1: has not wanted to vault into the giant tree at
- 1:45:00Speaker 1: Cavilla Center. It's true, It's true. And you know, like
- 1:45:04Speaker 1: if I've got to go at the hands of Danny
- 1:45:06Speaker 1: de Vito, you know it's going to be memorable for sure,
- 1:45:09Speaker 1: exactly exactly. People will talk about it after the fact. Okay,
- 1:45:15Speaker 1: So how about our nipple scale, though, which is a
- 1:45:18Speaker 1: scale of zero to five nipples, and which we rate
- 1:45:21Speaker 1: the movie based on looking at it through an intersectional
- 1:45:25Speaker 1: feminist lens. I'm gonna go like three and a half
- 1:45:30Speaker 1: of this. I might be bringing some of my bias
- 1:45:34Speaker 1: into that score, because I do love this movie so much.
- 1:45:38Speaker 1: As we've discussed, there are there's some things about the
- 1:45:46Speaker 1: coding of the penguin character. It's able is m and
- 1:45:52Speaker 1: anti Semitism that is so present in the coding of
- 1:45:56Speaker 1: so many villains. This movie is kind of no exception,
- 1:45:59Speaker 1: but there it's intended or not. It's like it's worth acknowledging. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Um,
- 1:46:05Speaker 1: a few other like little missteps here and there. But
- 1:46:09Speaker 1: so the screenwriter Daniel Waters was brought in after another
- 1:46:17Speaker 1: writer who I think wrote the screenplay for the first
- 1:46:19Speaker 1: Batman movie, Sam Ham. Sam Ham, his name is Sam Ham.
- 1:46:24Speaker 1: That's going to bring some baggage with it if you
- 1:46:26Speaker 1: grow up at that name. He was exactly. He was
- 1:46:29Speaker 1: originally involved in the development of the sequel of Batman
- 1:46:32Speaker 1: Returns and had written I don't know if he wrote
- 1:46:35Speaker 1: a full draft or if he was just sort of
- 1:46:37Speaker 1: like outlining the story, but basically he was replaced by
- 1:46:42Speaker 1: Daniel Waters or he just like his involvement didn't happen
- 1:46:46Speaker 1: the whole way through the development process. But he had
- 1:46:48Speaker 1: written a version of Catwoman that Daniel Waters changed because
- 1:46:53Speaker 1: Sam Ham's version of Catwoman was just like a quote
- 1:46:57Speaker 1: fetishy sexual fantasy fem faetale. Daniel Waters changed her to
- 1:47:04Speaker 1: a and again this is pulling from wiki Pete here
- 1:47:08Speaker 1: scholarly journal um changed to a working class, disenchanted secretary,
- 1:47:13Speaker 1: writing her as an allegory of contemporary feminism, right, And
- 1:47:18Speaker 1: I feel like the movie kind of nails. It works,
- 1:47:21Speaker 1: and we're speaking of white feminism from the early nineties, yes,
- 1:47:26Speaker 1: but spice Girls feminism. But it works. But it works
- 1:47:30Speaker 1: at least for this movie, certainly doing more than a
- 1:47:33Speaker 1: lot of superhero movies are doing now still to this day.
- 1:47:37Speaker 1: If there's a woman in it, it's feminist, right, right,
- 1:47:41Speaker 1: And they're like, yeah, sure, it's like, let's just have
- 1:47:43Speaker 1: her say some sort of T shirt equips at some
- 1:47:46Speaker 1: point and then Thor is Natalie Portman now until she doesn't,
- 1:47:51Speaker 1: And that's awesome. No, not really, Yeah, don't worry, not really.
- 1:47:56Speaker 1: I didn't see that. We would never let a woman
- 1:47:58Speaker 1: be thre. So I just appreciate the movie takes a
- 1:48:03Speaker 1: lot of time to characterize the Selena Kyle slash Catwoman character.
- 1:48:08Speaker 1: It gives her an internal life. We see her at work,
- 1:48:12Speaker 1: we see her at home, we understand all of the
- 1:48:14Speaker 1: context for why she becomes Catwoman, and just all of
- 1:48:19Speaker 1: the societal pressures that she's fighting against. Could she have
- 1:48:23Speaker 1: been more of an ally to other women? Yes, but
- 1:48:27Speaker 1: I think you know, look, this is also how long
- 1:48:30Speaker 1: does this movie take over? This this takes place three days? Yeah,
- 1:48:34Speaker 1: I think you know she would have gotten there. You know,
- 1:48:37Speaker 1: she just needed a little more time. She just needed
- 1:48:39Speaker 1: more time. That's what she's doing now, exactly. Yeah, she's
- 1:48:42Speaker 1: still but shell Fiber Catwoman is still canonically out there, right, absolutely,
- 1:48:46Speaker 1: so I'm sure she does all sorts of incredible The
- 1:48:50Speaker 1: character she plays, an antman, is actually Catwoman. Everything about
- 1:48:55Speaker 1: that interesting, right, She's an antman? What a crossover? Right?
- 1:49:00Speaker 1: I only saw the second one, so I was confused. Well,
- 1:49:03Speaker 1: she's not in the first one, Okay that I was
- 1:49:07Speaker 1: just confused by the movie anyway, So all of the
- 1:49:11Speaker 1: characterizations she gets, she's given an internal conflict which a
- 1:49:15Speaker 1: lot of female characters are simply not given in movies.
- 1:49:20Speaker 1: And she she's just like a more interesting and fun
- 1:49:24Speaker 1: character than Batman in this movie. I think she and
- 1:49:27Speaker 1: Penguin are kind of tied for like most like well characterized,
- 1:49:32Speaker 1: compelling characters for sure. Yes, So with all of that
- 1:49:37Speaker 1: in mind, I'm going to give the movie a three
- 1:49:40Speaker 1: point five nipple rating. I'll give one to Michelle Pfeiffer,
- 1:49:45Speaker 1: I'll give one to Miss Kitty, I'll give one to
- 1:49:49Speaker 1: feminist icon the duck Boat, and I'll give my half
- 1:49:53Speaker 1: nipple to the line Life's a bitch now, so am I? Yeah,
- 1:50:00Speaker 1: I'll go. I'll go three and a half as well.
- 1:50:02Speaker 1: This movie fucking rules. It's the outside of a bedel
- 1:50:07Speaker 1: cast lens. If I was just watching this movie, I'd
- 1:50:09Speaker 1: be like, Yeah, greatest thing I've ever seen. Cool, great,
- 1:50:13Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I think that like we've we've
- 1:50:15Speaker 1: kind of singled out this stuff where it's you know,
- 1:50:18Speaker 1: maybe a little dated in some areas, and there are
- 1:50:20Speaker 1: certainly tropes that we've discussed in the past that are
- 1:50:23Speaker 1: present here, um, and you know deserve acknowledgement and calling out.
- 1:50:27Speaker 1: But in terms of like a superhero movie in ninety two,
- 1:50:30Speaker 1: this like movie is doing a hell of a lot
- 1:50:33Speaker 1: of cool stuff. And I love Michelle Pfeiffer. I love
- 1:50:36Speaker 1: her cat Woman and disputed top tiercat Woman. No one's
- 1:50:40Speaker 1: doing it like she was doing it. So I'm gonna
- 1:50:43Speaker 1: give it three and a half nipples on a give
- 1:50:46Speaker 1: to to Michelle and the remainder to Miss Kitty. Yeah,
- 1:50:51Speaker 1: I'll get a neat for I like from not this
- 1:50:54Speaker 1: specific angle. I would just give it a straight five
- 1:50:55Speaker 1: out of five. I think it's a great I think
- 1:50:57Speaker 1: it's a perfect movie. Um. I mean we've talked about
- 1:51:01Speaker 1: its flaws, but it is a perfect movie for if
- 1:51:05Speaker 1: I had to distribute them, one for pre Catwoman Michelle,
- 1:51:09Speaker 1: five for one for post Catwoman Michelle, five for one
- 1:51:12Speaker 1: for the duck Boat, and one for a Day Debuto. Perfect.
- 1:51:15Speaker 1: Perfect of course. Also it's time for cat Woman Facts
- 1:51:21Speaker 1: with Caitlin. Finally, cat Woman, as far as I know,
- 1:51:26Speaker 1: has two nipples. And that's Catwoman Facts with Caitlin. Nice.
- 1:51:31Speaker 1: You're welcome, thank you, Good for her, Good for her,
- 1:51:36Speaker 1: Karen m hmm. First of all, thank you so much
- 1:51:38Speaker 1: for joining us. Thank you for having me. This was delightful,
- 1:51:42Speaker 1: an absolutely iconic movie to discuss it. We've had such
- 1:51:46Speaker 1: a nice time. Please come back anytime, any time. Literally
- 1:51:50Speaker 1: just asks me anytime please, I mean truly, like tomorrow
- 1:51:53Speaker 1: would be great. What are you doing. Let's let's let's
- 1:51:56Speaker 1: do bat nipples next time. I have not seen bat nipple,
- 1:52:00Speaker 1: so that would be fascinating for me. It's like it's
- 1:52:02Speaker 1: a pretty wild ride. It's not this movie. It's not
- 1:52:05Speaker 1: I wouldn't compare it to this movie. But it's got
- 1:52:08Speaker 1: a lot coming for that's Clooney Batman. Is that right? Yes? Yes,
- 1:52:14Speaker 1: I think so, okay, because then there's it's Valve Batman
- 1:52:17Speaker 1: after that, right, yeah, I always messed up the order.
- 1:52:20Speaker 1: Oh I forgot there's a Valve Batman. Too many Batman's anyways,
- 1:52:25Speaker 1: Karen uh, where can we find your online? And what
- 1:52:27Speaker 1: would you like to plug? Um? You can find me
- 1:52:30Speaker 1: on Twitter at Karen Wayhan as long as the platform
- 1:52:34Speaker 1: is still active, and you can find me on Instagram
- 1:52:36Speaker 1: at the Karen Hahn and I would love to plug
- 1:52:38Speaker 1: my book as of recording. It is coming out in
- 1:52:40Speaker 1: a little less than a week. It is called Bong
- 1:52:42Speaker 1: June Hoe Distant Cinema. It is coming out from Abraham's
- 1:52:45Speaker 1: slash Little White Lies. It's just all about Bong June
- 1:52:48Speaker 1: host work. Please buy my book, Thank you please, I
- 1:52:52Speaker 1: can't wait, truly, congratulations, thank you so much. It's wild
- 1:52:56Speaker 1: because like some of the preorders have started arriving already,
- 1:52:59Speaker 1: so which is terrifying to see that it is out
- 1:53:02Speaker 1: in the world. Like some people haven't it's loose, but
- 1:53:06Speaker 1: Jesus Luz. Yeah, one of my favorite, right up there
- 1:53:14Speaker 1: with Life's of Beach. And so thank you so much
- 1:53:18Speaker 1: for coming on truly, yeah cock, so come back anytime.
- 1:53:23Speaker 1: Thank you so much for having me, and truly it
- 1:53:24Speaker 1: would be an honor and a joy to come back
- 1:53:27Speaker 1: on the show. I can't wait. We'll email you tomorrow, amazing.
- 1:53:31Speaker 1: You can also follow us on Twitter as long as
- 1:53:34Speaker 1: that platform exists, and yeah, or Instagram. At buck cast
- 1:53:41Speaker 1: you can follow our Patreon a k a. Matreon. Five
- 1:53:46Speaker 1: bucks a month gets you to bonus episodes. It's usually
- 1:53:49Speaker 1: just me and Caitlin kind of choosing movies around a theme.
- 1:53:53Speaker 1: So of course it's December, we're doing our holiday round up,
- 1:53:57Speaker 1: so we're doing Linday Lohan Netlix movie. You know, we're
- 1:54:01Speaker 1: bringing the hits. We also just did mob March, which
- 1:54:05Speaker 1: we observed in November. So if we had to put
- 1:54:08Speaker 1: our thoughts on just because I feel like people have
- 1:54:11Speaker 1: been harassing us about The Godfather for so long, and
- 1:54:15Speaker 1: by that I mean people who have never listened to
- 1:54:17Speaker 1: our show and don't think what we have to say
- 1:54:19Speaker 1: it should be taken seriously. So we put that behind
- 1:54:22Speaker 1: a paywall. I think we take a pretty good job.
- 1:54:24Speaker 1: We both liked the movie, so funk you Young Robert DeNiro,
- 1:54:28Speaker 1: My god, hot, young Albaccino, Oh my god, hot, get
- 1:54:34Speaker 1: inside me. All right, let's that's all. At Patreon dot
- 1:54:38Speaker 1: com slash backtel cast for five dollars a month. Uh,
- 1:54:42Speaker 1: and then you've also got our merch. Hey, you're not
- 1:54:45Speaker 1: sure what to get your loved ones for the holidays,
- 1:54:49Speaker 1: consider going to Tea Parts get them a copy of
- 1:54:51Speaker 1: Karen's book and then go then go to tea Public
- 1:54:56Speaker 1: dot com slash the Bectel cast for some merchand day.
- 1:55:00Speaker 1: I am actually someone who has received Bechtel Cast merge
- 1:55:03Speaker 1: for a holiday and it was a great gift, so
- 1:55:05Speaker 1: I would recommend it. Yeah, and we didn't even plan that.
- 1:55:10Speaker 1: We didn't even plan that. It's the gift that keeps
- 1:55:12Speaker 1: on giving. Anyway. Life's a bitch, and so are we.
- 1:55:18Speaker 1: By