Latest / The Bechdel Cast / Priscilla Queen of the Desert

Transcript

Priscilla Queen of the Desert · The Bechdel Cast

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: On the Bechdel Cast. The questions asked if movies have
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: husbands or do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zeph
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: and best start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Hey, Jamie, Hey Caitlin, I bought a bus. Do you
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: want to drive through the Australian out Back with me?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 0:25
  Speaker 4: But I don't have a driver's license, so you will
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: be doing all of the driving. I'll just be drinking
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: slowly in the back.
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: If that's okay with.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: You, Well, I will also be drinking question Mark, because
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Hugo Weaving's character is like, I'll have a Long Island
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: iced tea even though he was driving. It's desert rules.
• 0:43
  Speaker 4: I feel like it's almost Vegas rules for DUIs.
• 0:48
  Speaker 5: And I'm kidding. It seems like they could really have
• 0:50
  Speaker 5: fallen in a hole and died.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: It seems like it. But I think when we inevitably
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: tour in Australia someday, hopefully we should do it the
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: way they do it in the movie.
• 1:05
  Speaker 5: We should do it bus style.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: Absolutely, I'm going in hard pro Abba.
• 1:10
  Speaker 5: Well, same same, Bernadette.
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: You would have hated Mama Mia hated it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: Yes, I think it's funny that they're like duking it that.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: I don't know if Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: still on Broadway, but it was on Broadway for some time,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: and just having Priscilla and Mama Mia duking it out
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: on Broadway just feels appropriate, feels beautiful.
• 1:30
  Speaker 5: Yeah, No, I love that. Anyways.
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Welcome to the podcast. Welcome to the Bechdel Cast. My
• 1:35
  Speaker 4: name's Jamie Loftus.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: My name is Caitlin Durante. This is our show where
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using the
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Bechdel Test simply as a jumping off point. We're just
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: trying to get the conversation going. But Jamie, what's the
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Bechdel Test?
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: Wow? I can tell you.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: It is a media metric creative by queer cartoonist Alison
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: Bechdel off and called the Bechdel Wallace Test due to
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: it was co created with Alison Bechdell's friend Liz Wallace.
• 2:05
  Speaker 4: Was originally made as a sort of one off joke
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: in Alison Bechdell's great comic series Dikes To Watch Out For.
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: It was originally written not just to talk about how
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: infrequently characters of marginalized genders speak to each other in movies,
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: but also in a queer context that has sort of
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: been stripped back in the mainstream interpretation of this test.
• 2:28
  Speaker 5: Lots of versions of it.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: The one we use require us that two characters of
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: a marginalized gender with names speak to each other for
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: more than two lines of dialogue, and it cannot be
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: about a man.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: And yeah, that's the test. It sure is.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I was just really enjoying right before we start
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: recording an article written about the search for the bus,
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: which of all the micro discussions to have about this movie.
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: I appreciate that there is a long essay in The
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: Guardian about finding the bus.
• 2:59
  Speaker 5: It took thirty year, but they found the bus. I
• 3:01
  Speaker 5: love that.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: Well.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Priscilla is a character I think when they drive Priscilla
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: that passes the Bechdel test. I can't explain how or why,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: but it does. Yeah, Priscilla's an important member of the cast.
• 3:15
  Speaker 5: I'm so excited for this episode.
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: It has been a long time request and we just
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: have sort of been waiting for the right guest, the
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: right moment, and it's happened and we're.
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: Here, so let's get our guests in here.
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: Let's do it. He's a writer, YouTuber and podcaster.
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: It's Matt Baum.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: Hello, welcome, Hi, Hello, thank you so much for having me.
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, we're big fans. We cite you. I
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: feel like every other week.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: Oh yay, I'm big fans of the show too, so
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: I'm delighted we could be. I don't know, we can
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: have this mutual admiration going on.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Do you want to come with us on our bus
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: tour around Australia.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: On our scary buzz Oh for sure, yes, yeah, you know,
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: I'm very much when I travel. I'm very into like
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: preparation and lists and making sure everybody has what they need.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Like I'm the one with the sunscreen, the electrolytes and
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: everything so and I don't drink, so like you could
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: be handling the stolely and I'll just be back there
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: making sure everybody's got gatorade and they've got cold compresses.
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, oh you gotta come, you gotta come.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: I would have like folding bikes in the back of
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: the bus for when the bus breaks down. We're like,
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: all right now we're just biking to Alice Springs.
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: Right, perfect, we have like thermal suits to prevent the
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: heat exhaustion.
• 4:24
  Speaker 5: Like it's all good.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly, love it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: So Matt, tell us about your relationship with this movie.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, yeah, we've both seen your video about it
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: from Gosh a couple of years ago now, but yeah,
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: what's your history.
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I did a video on YouTube, because
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: that's where I spent so much of my time. I
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: did a video on YouTube about Priscilla, but I didn't
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: really talk in that video about it's like meaning to me,
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: which is when I was a teenager in the nineties
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: in suburban Connecticut. This was like my most intense I
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: don't know, like locusts of queer energy. Because it was
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: on VH one late at night. They had segments between
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: at the commercial breaks that were hosted by RuPaul. So
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: RuPaul would come on and like she'd have some comment
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: about the movie. She'd mentioned something about like the costume
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: designer wearing a dress made of like mex gold cards,
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: and you know, she'd like throw out all this like
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: fun trivia stuff, and this was so much more gay
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: anything that I was getting anywhere else. So Priscilla really was,
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: you know, an entry point for me into queer culture.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Like I'd read a little bit about like the Stonewall
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: Riots and history and serious stuff, but seeing that like,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: oh and this is fun too. Not just fun, but
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: there's others out there and you can have a party
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: and you can find like a neighborhood where you belong.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: There was so much packed into this film.
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, Jamie, what's your relationship?
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: My relationship is? I saw it starting pretty young. My
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: aunt had a copy of it, I think on maybe
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: on VHS something like that, and it sort of was
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: like a fun comfort movie.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: This movie and The Bird Cage.
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: Were both I think the Bird Cage did ultimately get
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: the heavier play, but I yeah, I watched this movie
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: once every couple of years for.
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: A long time, and it's always interesting to revisit.
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: I feel like every time I revisit it, you know,
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: you get something new out of it. It's certainly a
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: product of it's time and with the old discuss.
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: But I really love it.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: I also just love a road movie, like it's just
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: I don't know, it's This movie is a blast, and
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: I think the performances are wonderful. And to prepare for
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: this because I had just watched Priscilla a couple of
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: months ago and found a documentary that was produced about
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: the history of it that is narrated by Terrence Stamp.
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, I just watched that on like, yeah one
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: point seven five Speed on YouTube.
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: I've done that, Yeah, because I've also talked about this
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: movie on a different podcast, So I like had just
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: watched it and rewatched it, and it's a really sweet
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: documentary and I think it's very funny that, you know,
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: it's like Terrence Stamp is kind of like the number
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: one fan Priscilla.
• 6:59
  Speaker 5: He's like, I'm going to narrate it. But yeah, I
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: mean learning about the production of this movie sort of
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: made me appreciate.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: It in ways I didn't know because not only I mean,
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: was there certainly major spots I wasn't aware of with
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: queer culture when I first watched this movie as a kid,
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: but also there's a lot about Australian culture that I
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: did not know or understand, and I think if you're
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: not Australian and you would just completely miss it. So
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: I learned a lot, and so yeah, I'm really excited
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: to talk about it on this show.
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: There's so much to talk about. Caitlyn what's your history
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: with Priscilla.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: I had only seen this once before when I was
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: watching the hundreds of movies when I first started film
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: school in the mid two thousands, so I had heard
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: about it and I was like, oh, I know that
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: this is like an iconic entry into queer cinema, and
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: I really liked it. I thought it was such a
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: fun romp of the other queer movies I had seen.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: It was tonally lighter than so many of them. That
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: and the bird Cage were too that I saw around
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the same time as well, and I was like, Oh,
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: it's it's so refreshing to see these movies that like
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: celebrate queer joy. But I didn't watch it again for
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: some reason, and I didn't remember a lot about it
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: going into this rewatch, except for I remembered the abba
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: piece of poo in the vial.
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: I mean, unforgettable, unforgettable.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: I remembered some of the iconic imagery as far as
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: like the I think it's the Felicia character on the
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: roof of the bus with like the flowing thing behind,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: The costumes are unbelievable, and the one that all sticks
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: me is the flip flop dress, the flip flap dress
• 8:49
  Speaker 4: is my favor.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: Flip flop dress is so good.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: I remembered the ping pong ball scene.
• 8:55
  Speaker 5: We'll get to that. Oh my god, the ping pong
• 8:58
  Speaker 5: ball scene. This was the first viewing where I really
• 9:01
  Speaker 5: truly recognized the weird sound effect they added in post.
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: You know, when you're shooting a ping pong ball and
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: if you're pussy and it goes booo like, it's like
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: a little fish blowing up bubble disgusting, disgusting.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: We'll talk about it.
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: But anyways, if no one has ever recognized the weird
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: like ping pong ball ejection dot MP three they put
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: in there, it's there multiple times, and you're.
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: Like, oh, why, it's wild. Anyway, So I remembered a
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: few of those iconic moments, but I forgot a lot
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: else about it. So it was really fun to revisit
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: and be reminded of some of the things that are
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: really fun and great about this movie and some of
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: the things that don't hold up so well and sert
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: ping pong ball dot MP three.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Should we get into the recap and we'll go
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: from there.
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: Let's do it.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: Okay, So we are in Sydney, Australia, I ever heard
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: of heard of it?
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: Wow, wow, huh it Actually it looks really appealing, you know,
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: And I didn't get the first time I watched the
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: movie when I was a teenager, I was like, why
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: are they so down on this place? There's a game
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: more and they're like it. There's people who are like
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: waving goodbye when they leave, like it seems nice, and
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: I just I didn't get like why they were why
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: they had Sydney fatigue.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I don't know.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: I think that's one of the things that you need
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: like Australian context to really appreciate.
• 10:35
  Speaker 5: It kind of reminded me.
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: I mean, just like my relationship with like I guess
• 10:39
  Speaker 4: I've only really lived in like two big cities, but
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: like both times, you know, you have days where you're
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: like this place is a shithole, this place is cooked, and.
• 10:48
  Speaker 5: Then someone visits and they're like, wow, this is the
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: most beautiful.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: You know, You're like, oh, yeah, I guess, I guess
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: I sort of forget that there is beautiful things around
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: me because I'm so annoyed with everyone all the time.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: I could relate with that exactly. Yeah, that grass is
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: greener of the grass is Always Greener. Yeah, Yeah, what's
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: that movie that. It's about like a bunch of people
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: who get trapped in an explosion in the Lincoln Tunnel
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: or something like that. It's from like the early nineties.
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: Going on Daylight. Sylvester salone, right, that sounds right.
• 11:17
  Speaker 3: It starts like all these people like it just random
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: people entering the Link tunnel in or which whichever, I
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: don't know, whichever one it was. And one of them
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: is this woman who's moving out of New York and
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: she like her whole like little car, it's like a gremlin,
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: is like loaded up with every possession and she's like
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: screamingly furious at New York and she's driving to the town.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: She's like, I've had it up to hair with all
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: your shit, New York. Like it's her introduction to that character.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: That's kind of how these these drag queens feel to me.
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: At the start of the movie.
• 11:44
  Speaker 5: They're done, they're done.
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: Oh gosh. Anyway, so we're in We're in Sydney, and
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: we open on a drag show where drag queens Mitzi
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: played by Hugo Weaving and Felicia played by Guy Peers
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: are performing. But the crowd is lackluster, if not hostile
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: toward them.
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: They're throwing cans.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and they're like, we're sick of this shit. And
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: then Mitzi, who also goes by the name Tick, receives
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a call from a woman who we don't yet know
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: who this is, who pitches something to Mitzi off screen.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Mitzi seems down for it, then calls her friend, Bernadette
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: played by Terence Stamp, whose husband had just died.
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: Her husband her what's her husband's name? Her husband has
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: kind of a weird name.
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: It's like tuba, trombone, trombone, trumpet, trump some brass instrument,
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: and you're like, is this.
• 12:45
  Speaker 5: An Australia thing? Can you just be named Trumpet?
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: So we learned that Bernadette's her husband Trumpet, has just
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: passed away. So Mitzi and Felicia attend the funeral. Also,
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: it's worth noting here that Bernadette is a trans woman.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Mitzi and Felicia are, as far as we know, CIS
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: men who are drag performers. I will probably just refer
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: to them as Mitzi and Felicia, although they are also
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: known as Tick and Adam anyway. So they attend the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: funeral where Mitzi invites Bernadette to come along on an
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: upcoming tour I guess, a road trip to Alice Springs,
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: which is in the outback, for a string of shows
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: that will begin in a few weeks. And Mitzi also
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: invites Felicia to Bernadette's dismay, because she thinks Felicia is
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: a bit.
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: Much not entirely wrong.
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: She's correct, So Felicia provides the transportation for this trip.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Because Felicia buys a bus with her like homophobic mombs
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: money yeah, and names it Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: They pack up, they load into Priscilla the bus, and
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: they head out on the road. They're driving, they're singing,
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: they're chatting. Bernadette and Felicia are not getting along. This
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: is the start of Felicia dead naming Bernadette, a trend
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: which happens throughout the movie. We'll talk about that. Then
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: Mitzi reveals the reason she got this gig in Alice Springs,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: which is that her wife, her wife, her his wife
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: offered up the gig at this hotel that I think
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: hotel Casino.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: Ye things, yeah, she runs this like I think Casino
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: is probably a resort it's yeah, yeah, I like that.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: I get the impression that, like Alice Springs, I don't
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: know that this is exactly right, but it's sort of
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: like Bronson, Missouri, Like it's a lower tier, middle of
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: the country sort of destination. That's right, not too expensive it,
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: but it's also like there's more culture than you'll find
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: if you go like twenty miles outside of it, so
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: it's sort of like a little a little oasis.
• 15:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that feels right.
• 15:08
  Speaker 4: I mean, and Australian listeners feel free to correct us,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: but that did feel right. I don't know, especially based
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: on the reaction towards the end spoiler alert, when Bernadette
• 15:18
  Speaker 4: decides to stay there, moving from Sydney and everyone's like, what.
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: The fuck are you talking?
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, So Mitsi reveals this about having a wife,
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: and the other two are shocked. They didn't know about
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: this wife, who Mitsi is estranged from. Felicia keeps ragging
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: on Mitzi about it. Then they stop in a small town.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: Mitzi and Felicia are both in just wild drag costumes.
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: This is where we see the flip flop dress. Felicia
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: is in this like blue plastic wig and they go
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: out to a bar, and many of the townspeople are
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: very you know, queer phobic toward them, but then the
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: group mostly warms up to the trio, although the following
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: morning they wake up to see that Priscilla the bus
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: has been vandalized with a homophobic slur painted across the
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: side of the bus. Felicia also dead names Bernadette again,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: and she understandably lashes out at Felicia. They set off again,
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: taking a shortcut on a dirt road, but oh no,
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: oh no, Priscilla the bus breaks down, so Bernadette sets
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: off on foot into the desert to try to find
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: some help. Meanwhile, Felicia paints over the vandalism on the bus,
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: turning Priscilla into a like pinkish color.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: That is not what lavender is, that's.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: True, Actually, lavender I think would be a little more blue.
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: The yeah, but whatever, but at this point I don't
• 17:02
  Speaker 4: want to encourage anymore infighting on this bus, Like, fine.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: Fine, what you want. And then Bernadette eventually comes back
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: with help, although the man sees Mitzi in drag and
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: immediately speeds off, so they're stranded still and they use
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: the time to start rehearsing for the upcoming shows. Then
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: a man named Alan played by Alan Dargan. Dargan finds
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: the trio and brings them to a party that he
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: and his friends and family are having in the desert. Mitzy, Bernadette,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: and Felicia put on a little show for the group.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Alan gets into drag and joins them. The next day,
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: Alan helps them get a tow truck and then disappears
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: from the movie.
• 17:52
  Speaker 5: I wish Alan went with that. I know, it felt
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: like the movie setting it up for Alan to come
• 17:58
  Speaker 5: with and it.
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know, I really want the Alan story, Like
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: they they've opened his eyes and he's open theirs and
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: now I don't know, they part ways and the camera
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: goes with our heroes. But I just I want another
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: movie where it goes with him.
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been off. He was a natural.
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: Mm.
• 18:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: So then they get a toe from a guy named
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: Bob played by Bill Hunter to this small town. The
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: trio has dinner with Bob and his wife Cynthia played
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: by Julia Cortez who Bob is very cruel too, and
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: we will talk about that as well. But Bob suggests
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the trio perform their show at a local pub and
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: They're like, I don't know if this town is gonna
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: go for the type of show that we do, and
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: Bob is like, no, it'll be fine. I for one
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: love drag shows. He was a fan of the Lay
• 18:57
  Speaker 2: Girls from back in the day when he used to
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: live Sydney, and he's like, no, it'll be great. So
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: the trio does their show and sure enough, the audience
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: hates it, but they're interrupted when Cynthia comes into the
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: bar proceeds to get on stage, put ping pong balls
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: into her vagina and then pop them back out again,
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: and everyone is.
• 19:20
  Speaker 4: Like woohoo, Encore. I mean, an impressive feat. But we'll circle.
• 19:28
  Speaker 3: Back to it. Yes, I gotta say this scene was
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: absolutely befuddling to me when I saw it as a teenager.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: Because VH one trimmed it. There was a little bit
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: of a made for cable edit here that made the
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: scene absolutely more mystifying. It was mortifying and mystifying, and
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: I could tell that something like embarrassing had happened, but
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: enough of the scene had been chopped out that it
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: was totally totally befuddling. So I gotta say, like, once
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: I finally saw that the proper movie like I actually
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: got it on VHS. Actually the movie I was like,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: oh okay, But otherwise it just seems like she shows up,
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: everybody cheers, and then everyone gets met, and I'm like,
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: why is Felicia cackling and why are they so stunned?
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: Like what is happening?
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: She's just dancing?
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, that's I mean, having pulled things out of
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: my vagina on stage many times before the raw launch
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: that Cynthia is able to do.
• 20:26
  Speaker 5: I you know, the keegel drop, the hints drop that,
• 20:30
  Speaker 5: I know the keegel I like, I was fascined.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: I mean, obviously you could tell from the cinematography did
• 20:36
  Speaker 4: not happen because of ping pong ejection dot MP three,
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: But it was like, is it possible?
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Could it be done?
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: What's the movie where there's a character on stage you
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: see them like spread eagle, and it seems like ping
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: pong balls are shooting out of this character's vagina, But
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: then it cuts to the like reverse angle, and it
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: you just see that character like hitting.
• 21:02
  Speaker 5: A ping pong ball.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Movies with hitting the ping pong balls with a ping
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: pong paddle, and so the joke is like, oh, you
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: think the balls are coming out of the vagina, but
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: they're just hitting them with a paddle.
• 21:14
  Speaker 5: What movie is this? Does anyone know? No idea?
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: I would like to watch it? Yeah? Was this more
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: of a thing? Was this a reference people to be like, oh, yeah,
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: that thing?
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: I hope that this is the kind of thing where
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: our listeners are like, you didn't know about that.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I feel like I've seen this referred to in other
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: And I don't know if Priscilla quin in the Desert
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: is like the genesis of this, like patient zero.
• 21:39
  Speaker 5: Yeah, but like I definitely have seen it referred to
• 21:42
  Speaker 5: in other things.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: Wow. I will say I went to a show this
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: many years ago at Acbar in La It was an
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: AS themed art show and there was a performance by
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: somebody who comes out. There's a stage, we're all sitting
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: in the audience. There's I don't know, like twenty five
• 22:00
  Speaker 3: people in the audience, and so this person comes out
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: and lays down a drop cloth and we're like, what's
• 22:05
  Speaker 3: coming next? And then they come out and very very
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: deliberately put down these little paint squeezy paint bottles with
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: like it looks kind of like in a kitchen when
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: you have like the squeeze bottles with like the plastic lid,
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: you know, the nozzle on top, very deliberately lays them
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: down their full of pain around the edge of the stage.
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: We're like, what is happening here? They remove their clothes
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: and then they very deliberately insert the paint into themselves
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: and then silently, by the way, there's no sound happening,
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: they move from corner to corner to corner of the
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: drop cloth and create a work of art by ejecting
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: the paint onto the drop cloth. And amazing, I will
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: tell you the you could have heard a pin drop
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: from the audience. We were transfixed by this artwork. And
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: then as I recall, it was hanging on the wall
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: by the end of the night.
• 22:53
  Speaker 5: So anyway, that is amazing.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: God. Yeah, I think it was. The event, as I recall,
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: was called the whole story, and I was just like
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: one butt themed piece of art after another.
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: Amazing.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 23:10
  Speaker 5: I love a pun I love a whole story.
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: Well, listeners, I mean, if there is a time honor
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: tradition of ping pong ball whole ejection.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Do let us know.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: No need to send links, but like you know, sounds
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: to me I want to, Yeah, send Caitlin the whole links.
• 23:25
  Speaker 4: I uh, yeah, maybe you've just lived too sheltered a life.
• 23:29
  Speaker 5: Well, time to break free, Jamie. I wonder what movie
• 23:32
  Speaker 5: you're thinking. I don't know.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: It's a movie I've seen a couple of times, but
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: clearly not enough to even remember what the movie is.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: It's some comedy, I'm guessing because like, and that's a
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: pretty funny joke, like, oh you think and then the reveal, Oh,
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: they're just hitting it with a paddle.
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Anyway, it's like.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: A zucker, like a police squad type or like I
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: feel like Leslie Nielsen would be adjacent to that joke
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: in some way.
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah, a Hangover movie.
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: Sorry, I'm looking m I don't think so that those
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: movies aren't smart enough for a joke like that.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: Bradley Cooper talks about catching Vagina launched ping punk ball.
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: What a headline, And that's not even from a movie,
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: it's just from his journey.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: We'll figure it out maybe by the end of the episode.
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: But anyway, so we see this scene where Cynthia is
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: launching ping pong balls out of her pussy and everyone
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: loves it except for Bob, who is humiliated. And this
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: seems to dissolve his marriage with Cynthia because she packs
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: up her car and leaves, and Bob joins Bernadette, Mitzi,
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: and Felicia on their road trip.
• 24:42
  Speaker 5: Then this is the part of the movie where I
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: start screaming, Bernadette, you can do better.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Oh my gosh. They are obsessed with Bob and it's like,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: did you not see him being horribly abusive to his wife?
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: Like what the fuck?
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: Anyway, so they stop in another small town. Mitzi and
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: Bernadette enjoy a quiet dinner where they discuss Mitzi wanting
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: to have children, they discuss Bernadette's transition. Meanwhile, Felicia gets
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: all dulled up in drag, and I don't know exactly
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: how to phrase this, but it's not the like campy,
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: exaggerated show drag that we've seen her in up until
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: this point. It's more like attempting to pass as a
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: CIS woman.
• 25:27
  Speaker 5: And Felicia goes to this.
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: Gathering of men drinking beer in a parking lot. Bob
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: is there too, and Felicia flirts with one of the
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: men and he's into it at first, but then sees
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: Felicia's arm hair. I think that's like the giveaway that
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: this is not a CIS woman, so he assaults and
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: starts chasing Felicia, and.
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: Only then does Bob reveal that he knows Felicia right.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: Because Bob intervenes. Mitzi and Bernadette see this happening, and
• 26:01
  Speaker 2: they step in and stop this, you know, mob of homophobes,
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: and they get Felicia to safety. We see Bernadette first
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: be rating, then consoling Felicia, and then the group sets
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: off again toward their destination. Bob at some point tells
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: the others that Cynthia basically.
• 26:24
  Speaker 5: Tricked him into marrying her or something happened like that.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Again, we'll discuss that further later. Then Bernadette and Bob
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: are kind of vibing, and then they finally arrive at
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: their destination, Alice Springs ever heard of it, and Mitzi
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: reunites with her his wife Marian played by Sarah Chadwick,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: and then we get a reveal that they have a
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: child together, a little boy named benj which Mitzi knows about,
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: but Bernadette and Felicia obviously don't, so they're shocked.
• 27:01
  Speaker 5: Once again. Mitzy loves to have a little secret. Yes, yes,
• 27:08
  Speaker 5: and so.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: They prep for and put on the first show their
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: lip sinking to finally it's happened to me, my veaz
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: and I just cannot hide it. And there are lots
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: of elaborate costumes and costume changes which just through the
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: magic of film editing, just happened. At the end of
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: the show, Mitzy sees that Benje was watching the whole time,
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: and Mitzy faints embarrassed to know that Benge knows about
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Mitzy being a drag performer, but Benje is fine with it.
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: He seems proud of his father, doesn't care that he's gay.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: And then Marion and Bene join the group on the
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: road in Priscilla the Bus so the MITSI can spend
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: more time with and get to know Bene. Though Mitzi
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: is putting on more of the like tick persona, like
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: pretending to be straight, dressing more masculine, I guess, like
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: wanting to be a quote unquote good example for Bene.
• 28:18
  Speaker 2: But he doesn't give a fuck, and he's like, I
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: want to see the abba show that you do. Do
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: you have a boyfriend?
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: What's going on?
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: It reminded me of like this is incredibly different genre,
• 28:28
  Speaker 4: but how in every Mary Kate Nashley movie, the kids
• 28:31
  Speaker 4: are obsessed with like do you have a boyfriend?
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: When are you getting married?
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: Like if Bench is a character like that where anytime
• 28:39
  Speaker 4: he's talking to his dad, he's like, do you have
• 28:43
  Speaker 4: a boyfriend?
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: Tell me?
• 28:44
  Speaker 5: It's like, wow, I can't imagine asking my parents.
• 28:48
  Speaker 4: So, I mean, I understand the narrative function, but it
• 28:50
  Speaker 4: just always makes me laugh when a child does that
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: in a movie, because I feel most children really do
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: not want to know what theirs are up to.
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: Correct I Also I love that Benji is like unfazed
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: by Felicia, like that character, the guy Piers character, like
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: the whole movie. His deal has been I like to
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: get a rise out of people. I like to piss
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: people off, shock people, and this kid like actually is
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: surprising to him. And they had this very brief scene
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: together and by the end of it, I think Benji
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: says something like do you want to play Lego? Or
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: something like that, and like they're actually sort of like
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: well matched because Felicia is so childish and they actually
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: are a good pair, the two of them.
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because Felicia's like, you know your dad's gay, right,
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: and Benj's like, I don't give a fuck, Let's go
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: play Lego.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just very sweet, and.
• 29:40
  Speaker 4: I like that it seems like, I mean, I know
• 29:42
  Speaker 4: that Felicia is going back to city to be a
• 29:45
  Speaker 4: performer again, but it also seems like there's gonna be
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: like a very.
• 29:48
  Speaker 5: Found family kind of nature.
• 29:50
  Speaker 4: And because we'll talk about it, but that's like so
• 29:52
  Speaker 4: much of what makes this movie so special, because we
• 29:55
  Speaker 4: know at the very beginning of the movie that Felicia
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Adams family are wealthy homophobes and that there isn't much
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: support to be had there.
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: So by the end, you know, they are.
• 30:07
  Speaker 4: All co parenting the most nineteen nineties looking child I've
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: ever seen in my life.
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: That's true. That's true. That like just a little bit later.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: If this movie had been made later or earlier, I
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: can't do math, it would be Ryan Philippe Like that
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: is kind of yea. The vibe that this kid has
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: Mark Holmes, I think is the actor's name.
• 30:28
  Speaker 5: The hair, the clothes, like the.
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: Stripe shirt, the chunky sneakers, like I think he's got
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: cargo shorts. Like it's very yeah, Like, and you know what,
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: if it's been made a few years later, you would
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: have had like the Zelda trifle. It has been the
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: green Zelda Triforce T shirt, the cargo shorts, black sneakers.
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: That's that's the kid. We would have had their.
• 30:48
  Speaker 5: Child uniform of the day.
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Then we see Mitzi, Bernadette and Felicia in Drag
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: climbing a mountain a reference to I think Fleicia saying like,
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: I want to climb this mountain kings something as a
• 31:04
  Speaker 2: queen and then Bernadette was like, oh, a cock and
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: a frock on a rock. So I think that they're
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: fulfilling that dream.
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: The prophecy has been realized.
• 31:15
  Speaker 3: Yes, there's something so interestingly patriotic about this movie, like
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: Australian patriotic, where so many components of it are celebrating
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: Australian history and culture and not always I think nailing
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: it exactly. They you know the I think the treatment
• 31:30
  Speaker 3: of Aboriginal characters is a little dismissive and stuff like that.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: But you know that final Drag number where there's so
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: many like iconic Australian elements. Yeah, I will survive with
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: a DIGGERI do. Is so lovely. It's my favorite number
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: in the in the film is like hearing that sort
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: of mashup and like then that like that. I think
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: it's King's Canyon at the end. That was actually going
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: to be Ularu. They want to do it on I
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: forget what the there's an English language name for it,
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: the something rock anyway, but they weren't able to shoot
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: there because of like cultural concerns around the filming there,
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: and so they went to this other location. But yeah,
• 32:09
  Speaker 3: there's just there's so much. There's so much Australia, and like,
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: isn't it great to be Australian about this film?
• 32:14
  Speaker 4: Yeah, which is why I didn't realize, I mean until
• 32:17
  Speaker 4: I was like looking into the background and watch this
• 32:19
  Speaker 4: documentary how widely embraced it was, to the point where
• 32:22
  Speaker 4: it was like, uh, there were references to Priscilla the
• 32:25
  Speaker 4: bus in the Olympics when they came to Austria. You're like, oh,
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: it's like it's loved like that. Like that's fascinating. Anyway, Sorry,
• 32:34
  Speaker 4: I know, I know the recap's almost over, but it
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: is interesting. Yeah, that like sort of underlying patriotism that on.
• 32:40
  Speaker 4: You know, the first ten years I was watching this movie,
• 32:42
  Speaker 4: I just didn't know enough about Australia to even recognize.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: Yeah for sure.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Okay, so the movie basically ends where they're back at
• 32:51
  Speaker 2: the hotel. Bernadette reveals that she has decided to stay
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: in Alice Springs for a while with Bob, and again
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: we're like, you can do better, Bernadette.
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: She's vulnerable, she'll dump him, I hope. So Trombone just
• 33:05
  Speaker 5: died or whatever.
• 33:07
  Speaker 2: But yeah, but they say goodbye, and then Mitsy and
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Felicia go back to Sydney. They do the Abbess show,
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: lip syncing to Mama Mia.
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: Here we go again, the second movie this year that
• 33:22
  Speaker 5: ends with that song.
• 33:24
  Speaker 2: So there you go, yes, indeed, and then benj is
• 33:28
  Speaker 2: in the audience watching gleefully the end. So let's take
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: a quick break and we'll come back to discuss.
• 33:46
  Speaker 5: And we're back. Where do we want to start the
• 33:51
  Speaker 5: discussion today? I mean, I guess maybe a little bit
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: of background, mm hmm, it would be appropriate.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: So this movie was directed by Stephan Elliott, who was
• 34:02
  Speaker 4: not out at the time this.
• 34:04
  Speaker 5: Movie came out, but is a gay director.
• 34:07
  Speaker 4: And I didn't know, yeah until watching this documentary how
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: rooted this movie was in the drag scene that he
• 34:15
  Speaker 4: was very much a like, huge fan of in Sydney
• 34:19
  Speaker 4: in the eighties. We'll link to this documentary in the
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: description because it is really a fun celebration of this movie,
• 34:27
  Speaker 4: and that the character of Tick or Mitzi was based
• 34:32
  Speaker 4: on this famous Australian drag performer, Cindy Pastel. And so
• 34:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, there's just like all of these fascinating just
• 34:40
  Speaker 4: how this came to be, where you know, he was
• 34:42
  Speaker 4: working in film by day and going to drag clubs
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: by night and then eventually married it in this beautiful way.
• 34:47
  Speaker 4: And he was also only thirty when he directed this,
• 34:49
  Speaker 4: which always makes me mad.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I read that after this script at least
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: the first d came together pretty quickly, after Stefan had
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: the idea and wrote the screenplay and was trying to
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: get this movie off the ground. He and some producers
• 35:11
  Speaker 2: were trying to get it financed, pitching it around, having
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: a hard time getting the financing, which comes as no
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: surprise because again the landscape, the media landscape, the global
• 35:21
  Speaker 2: cultural landscape, the attitude toward queer people in this era,
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: because this was the early nineties, which also I.
• 35:30
  Speaker 4: Mean, it was interesting listening to him talk about the
• 35:33
  Speaker 4: reasons that he was being turned down for funding, because
• 35:36
  Speaker 4: it sounded like, I mean, it was certainly in part
• 35:39
  Speaker 4: because it was a queer story, but also he mentions
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: that part of the criticism was that it was too funny,
• 35:46
  Speaker 4: and so it was like, oh, sure, you can tell
• 35:49
  Speaker 4: a queer story.
• 35:50
  Speaker 5: Maybe, but only if it's completely tragic.
• 35:54
  Speaker 4: Yeah, depressing, and there's not a moment of joy expressed throughout.
• 35:58
  Speaker 4: And I don't know he is, you know, using some
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: choice language to describe that process, but yeah, it was
• 36:05
  Speaker 4: just like it. You know, it's like incredibly frustrating to
• 36:07
  Speaker 4: be like, well, you know, maybe you we'll consider funding
• 36:10
  Speaker 4: this if the characters don't have a happy ending or
• 36:13
  Speaker 4: like don't experience joy, and.
• 36:16
  Speaker 5: You know, it's like fuck you.
• 36:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, you look at the landscape of what's
• 36:19
  Speaker 3: happening around this time. I mean, mainstream is expecting a
• 36:22
  Speaker 3: gay movie to be like Longtime Companion or Philadelphia, which
• 36:25
  Speaker 3: I think was I think came out the same year
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: or around the same time. There's so much there's just
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: so much tragedy. It's hard to think of frothy gay
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: comedies from the early nineties, you know, kind of understandably,
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: like there's a lot of like really tragic stuff going
• 36:40
  Speaker 3: on at this point in history. However, boy, oh boy,
• 36:43
  Speaker 3: you need to laugh you know, queer people were not
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: all like doom and gloom all the time, but you
• 36:48
  Speaker 3: wouldn't know it from the culture that was getting funded totally.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: And then casting this movie was another a pill battle
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: where they went out to several people. Any actors they
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: approached were either not available or simply not interested. They
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: didn't want to play a drag queen or a trans
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: woman or anything along those lines. And Terence Stamp, who
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: ultimately got cast as Bernadette, talks about how terrified he
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: was of playing this role and even you know, days
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: into shooting, was still like, oh my god, I don't
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: know if I can do this, and then describing like
• 37:30
  Speaker 2: during one scene everything just kind of like clicked and
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: he like stepped over the barrier and described just like
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: feeling fearless and eventually like you know, embraced the role
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: and you know, loves the movie now. But and you know,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: part of the problem is that this is a movie
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: about queer people and the cast is all sis had
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: people question.
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: Mark, Yeah, as far as I know, you know, who
• 38:02
  Speaker 3: knows what's truly in their hearts, in their private lives.
• 38:05
  Speaker 3: But of course, you know, I love that this is
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: a film with a trans character, but I don't love
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: that it's played by as his man that is not
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: actually played by a trans woman. On the other hand,
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: you know, there was no Janet Monk type. You know,
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: the industry was not, let us say, nurturing trans talent
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: in the early nineteen nineties, so you know, obviously those
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: actors existed, but finding them and also getting funding for
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: something requires having some amount of star power in there.
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: And so Terreen Staff is, you know, this is somebody
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: who had been in movies for a long time, Billy
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Budden then all the way up to Superman three four,
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: one of the Superman's is so you know, this is
• 38:43
  Speaker 3: somebody who has a bit of a name. So I
• 38:44
  Speaker 3: understand the need to get either Stamp or they went
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: to Tony Curtis before him, and like what trans star
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: could they have gone to at this point, because the
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: industry and even the independent film scene was really keeping
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: transactors down, was suppressing them, you know at that time.
• 39:00
  Speaker 4: And there's such a like, I mean, this sort of
• 39:02
  Speaker 4: run of queer movies in the mid nineties that you
• 39:05
  Speaker 4: sort of see that trend again and again. I know that,
• 39:07
  Speaker 4: like it's impossible to encounter any article about Priscilla. That
• 39:12
  Speaker 4: doesn't mention the parallels between Tu Wong Fu, which is,
• 39:16
  Speaker 4: you know, for what it's worth, for all the annoying
• 39:19
  Speaker 4: Reddit posts I saw, they were developed independently of each other.
• 39:23
  Speaker 4: It is a you know, coincidence, but much the same.
• 39:26
  Speaker 4: You know where the movie was going with big names
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: that were all as far as we know it sis
• 39:32
  Speaker 4: head men. Yeah, it's like very much a product of
• 39:35
  Speaker 4: its time. And and I mean my instinct is like,
• 39:38
  Speaker 4: here is an opportunity to give a transactor a big
• 39:43
  Speaker 4: opportunity and make a career. But it seems like the
• 39:47
  Speaker 4: choice was, well, do we stand a better chance of
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: getting funding if we put a star in it, which
• 39:53
  Speaker 4: is really unfortunate kind of what is the word I'm
• 39:57
  Speaker 4: looking for, like business d decision to make.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: I would have loved to have seen. I think Calpernia
• 40:04
  Speaker 3: Adams was working around this time, and you know, again
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: not like a very famous, well known name, but I mean,
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: there you go, there's a trans woman who I think
• 40:13
  Speaker 3: would have been pretty astonishing in this role. Now I
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: don't think she's the right age for that, but like
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I you know, I'm racking my brains to even think
• 40:19
  Speaker 3: of somebody obscure who could have played this character. And
• 40:23
  Speaker 3: I cannot think of anybody who's being given opportunities, any
• 40:27
  Speaker 3: transactress who is being given opportunities in ninety three ninety
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: four are kidding me, like.
• 40:32
  Speaker 4: Which is really too bad because we know that Stephan Elliott,
• 40:34
  Speaker 4: you know, certainly knew plenty of transperformers and plenty of
• 40:38
  Speaker 4: drag performers because that.
• 40:39
  Speaker 5: Was what the story was inspired by. I don't know,
• 40:42
  Speaker 5: it's difficult.
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: I don't want to come down on Stephan Elliott too
• 40:45
  Speaker 4: hard because it is like a miracle that this movie
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: was made.
• 40:48
  Speaker 5: At the time and in the climate it was made in.
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: But nonetheless, yeah, missed opportunity. But that's just you know.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I think something that you see a bunch in this
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: film is cultural rules that we kind of maybe take
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: for granted, or at least have the privilege of having
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: now just didn't exist. Like the taboo around dead naming,
• 41:08
  Speaker 3: I don't think was as widely known. I mean, obviously
• 41:11
  Speaker 3: trans people understood why that was unacceptable then, but I
• 41:14
  Speaker 3: think it was not looked at. I think it was
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: still you know, by other queer people. It was just
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: kind of a joke to know somebody's dead name. Then
• 41:21
  Speaker 3: it wasn't understood to be the taboo that it should
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: have been.
• 41:23
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: So that's the thing about this movie where in some
• 41:27
  Speaker 2: ways it's ahead of its time and kind of helped
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: push the needle forward as far as queer representation in
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: mainstream media.
• 41:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a brave film in a lot of ways,
• 41:38
  Speaker 3: but at the.
• 41:39
  Speaker 2: Same time, it's still very of the time where it's
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: you know, casting assists actor to play a trans character,
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: and it's the thing where it's like, Okay, if they
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: need a star, I get that, but like, then why
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: not cast the role of Mitzi because Hugo Weaving at
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: the time was basically unknown. So like, cast as star
• 42:00
  Speaker 2: for Mitzi and then cast an unknown you know, if
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: you're gonna have an unknown actor anyway, cast an unknown
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: transactor for the role of Bernadette.
• 42:10
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: But at least this movie to bring up Tu wang
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Fu again, because that's a movie, as we discussed on
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: that episode, doesn't seem to understand the distinction between drag
• 42:21
  Speaker 2: performers and trans women, whereas this movie does understand that distinction.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: But again, it has the trans character played by a
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: sis actor. We also see several examples of you know,
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: Sis had people being horribly queer phobic toward these characters
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: and that being framed as a bad thing. But then
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: there are many other examples in the movie of bigotry
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: that is not condemned by the movie, such as Felicia
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: constantly dead naming and being transphobic toward Bernadette, or white
• 42:54
  Speaker 2: characters being cruel to Cynthia.
• 42:58
  Speaker 5: For example.
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: So it's a step in the right direction, but it's
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: also doing some very outdated, problematic things.
• 43:06
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Boy, that's Cynthia character is so complex. At least my
• 43:10
  Speaker 3: feelings about her are very complex, because personally, I do
• 43:14
  Speaker 3: regard the character as being pretty racist and misogynists. However,
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: I've spoken to a lot of other Filipino people who say, no,
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: we actually I think she's funny and I like her. Yeah,
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: I get why she's she's tropy, and I get why
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: it's you know, a negative depiction, but also it's a
• 43:28
  Speaker 3: lot of fun to see her. And somebody compared it
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: to how a lot of queer people just really love
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: Cruella de Ville for example, or you know, there's like
• 43:37
  Speaker 3: there's corell Is probably not a great example because she's
• 43:40
  Speaker 3: not queer herself. I don't explicitly at least a.
• 43:44
  Speaker 2: Queer quoted villain like all those Disney movies are.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Hollywood Montrose is another one that I look at like,
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: this is a problomatic character being played by a as
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: far as I know, heterosexual actor Mishaque Taylor. But I
• 43:59
  Speaker 3: just I love of Hollywood Montrose and the Mannequin movies.
• 44:02
  Speaker 3: He's just so much fun. It's trophy and problematic, but
• 44:04
  Speaker 3: he's just soonat fun to watch.
• 44:06
  Speaker 4: I saw Mannequin for the first time this year and
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: was blown away. My god, what incredible characters.
• 44:13
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, just like, here's the thing that Hollywood and
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: that Cynthia and Priscilla have is there scene stealers. They're
• 44:20
  Speaker 3: chewing the scenery, they're having such a good time, that
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: are running circles right or made characters, they're just stealing
• 44:24
  Speaker 3: the scene. And you know, if I was seeing myself
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: in that role as I am with, you know, in
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: a role like Hollywood, Like there's a lot of that
• 44:32
  Speaker 3: I see about him that is aspirational, I'd be like, yeah, cool,
• 44:35
  Speaker 3: good for you and the fact that you are playing
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: into some really negative tropes but also seems like you're
• 44:41
  Speaker 3: having a good time with it, and it's not like,
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: you know, this is where I think they differ. Hollywood
• 44:46
  Speaker 3: feels affectionate and Cynthia actually feels like this feels like
• 44:49
  Speaker 3: a malicious depiction. And I've heard Stephen Ellie olertefin Elliott
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: talk about like they were trying to send up they
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: were trying to make fun of racism. But I think
• 44:57
  Speaker 3: that it perhaps lacks some clarity for sure.
• 45:00
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I.
• 45:02
  Speaker 4: Was fascinated to hear that in your video, and I
• 45:04
  Speaker 4: like the I mean, I'm never gonna argue a reclaiming
• 45:07
  Speaker 4: like it's not my place at all, but I did
• 45:10
  Speaker 4: see that there was there also has been like pretty
• 45:12
  Speaker 4: significant criticism of it, Like at the time the movie
• 45:15
  Speaker 4: was released, pulling from I believe scholarly journal Wikipedia here,
• 45:21
  Speaker 4: but there was a representative from the Center for Filipino
• 45:26
  Speaker 4: Concerns named Marginson, who you know, said more of what
• 45:31
  Speaker 4: I sort of thought might be the criticism around this character,
• 45:34
  Speaker 4: saying that she was portrayed as quote a gold digger,
• 45:37
  Speaker 4: a prostitute, an entertainer whose expertise is popping out ping
• 45:40
  Speaker 4: pong balls from her sex organ what a phrase, a manic, depressive,
• 45:43
  Speaker 4: loud and vulgar, the worst stereotype of the Filipina. She
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: argued that by portraying Cynthia in this manner, the filmmakers
• 45:50
  Speaker 4: were quote violently killing the dignity of Filipino women, something
• 45:53
  Speaker 4: she feared that would lead to quote more violence against us.
• 45:57
  Speaker 4: So there was also I mean, there has been plenty
• 45:59
  Speaker 4: of around the character as well. I understand the argument
• 46:04
  Speaker 4: for reclaiming not gonna you know, obviously be like you
• 46:07
  Speaker 4: can't do that, but I feel for this character. And
• 46:11
  Speaker 4: it also it's so weird because we just recorded an
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: episode about my best friend's wedding. Bear with me here,
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: But how like I think that Cynthia, for all of
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: her campiness, like her presence, also serves to make Bob look,
• 46:25
  Speaker 4: I think worse in a way that the movie doesn't
• 46:28
  Speaker 4: really seem to recognize or have an interest in examining,
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: because we see him basically like he locks up her stuff,
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: He's like kind of holding her hostage in the house.
• 46:36
  Speaker 4: He's dismissive to her at every turn. It's made to
• 46:39
  Speaker 4: be a joke. And then you know, when she escapes
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: question Mark to do the Pingpung dot MP three routine,
• 46:47
  Speaker 4: he like yanks her off stage and it's like very
• 46:50
  Speaker 4: physically violent, way fully abusive, and then when she leaves
• 46:54
  Speaker 4: that's also made to be like a joke, like she's
• 46:57
  Speaker 4: being unreasonable.
• 46:59
  Speaker 5: We're like I would.
• 47:00
  Speaker 3: Leave, you know, And yeah, what I want from here's
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: my rewrite of Cynthia that I would have pitched where
• 47:07
  Speaker 3: I involved in this movie, which I want a scene
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: instead of her like storming out and leaving, I would
• 47:12
  Speaker 3: want like a little more intimate scene between her and
• 47:14
  Speaker 3: Bernadette where like it's the day after. They're like Bernadette's
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: just drinking coffee by herself and Cynthia comes over and
• 47:20
  Speaker 3: she like drops the act and she's like, look, I
• 47:24
  Speaker 3: just married this guy because I needed the immigration status
• 47:27
  Speaker 3: and I can't do this anymore. I'm exhausted. I'm getting
• 47:29
  Speaker 3: out of here. You can have them. Good luck to you,
• 47:32
  Speaker 3: and like so that Cynthia is not like this cartoon character,
• 47:35
  Speaker 3: because all the other characters are so well like realized,
• 47:38
  Speaker 3: just some moment where it's like Cynthia knows what's going on.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: She's not like this hyper sexual freak and she's just like, yeah,
• 47:44
  Speaker 3: all right, this is my act. I'm going back to
• 47:46
  Speaker 3: Sydney and I'm going to seek my fortune out there,
• 47:50
  Speaker 3: and you know, like I want to see Cynthia and
• 47:53
  Speaker 3: Bernadette realize that they are equals or peers in some way,
• 47:56
  Speaker 3: and then they're just like these ships that are crossing
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: in the night. And Cynthia wants Bernadet. That's life, Bernette,
• 48:00
  Speaker 3: Cynthia's life, Okay, cool, Now she's a person. We don't
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: get that, No, we don't.
• 48:06
  Speaker 4: You know, that's a way to bring, you know, potentially
• 48:09
  Speaker 4: bring Bob and Bernadette together in a way that feels
• 48:13
  Speaker 4: a little less icky. If Bernadette is like standing up
• 48:16
  Speaker 4: for Cynthia, like, look, if you don't want to be
• 48:18
  Speaker 4: married to her, that's fine, but you can't treat her
• 48:20
  Speaker 4: like that, and Bob having to recognize and at least
• 48:23
  Speaker 4: acknowledge how he's acting. It doesn't absolve him anything. I
• 48:27
  Speaker 4: think that, you know, Bernadette Anthea should ditch him personally,
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: but like, I don't know, I was a little like
• 48:35
  Speaker 4: it feels very of its time that Bob's behavior specifically
• 48:39
  Speaker 4: goes so unexamined because after this sort of like run
• 48:43
  Speaker 4: of him being only abusive to his wife, which we're
• 48:46
  Speaker 4: not supposed to care about because of all these heavy
• 48:50
  Speaker 4: racial and gender stereotyping that Cynthia has. He just turns
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: to you know, he turns to the gals and makes
• 48:59
  Speaker 4: a little joke. He's like, well, you know, some days
• 49:02
  Speaker 4: you just shouldn't wake up. And then he's like the
• 49:05
  Speaker 4: primary romantic interest of the movie.
• 49:07
  Speaker 5: And you're like, it's it's naturally annoying.
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: Right because they join in on like the racism and
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: misogyny that both Bob is hurling at Cynthia and that
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: the movie is because they you know, they talk about
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: her like she's property that Bob should have quote unquote
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: sold her off. And to me, it's a reminder that
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: not everyone who belongs to a marginalized community will automatically
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: show solidarity or allyship to other marginalized communities.
• 49:41
  Speaker 5: Unfortunately.
• 49:43
  Speaker 2: For example, there is a history of white queer people
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: being racist. There's a history of cis gay people being transphobic.
• 49:52
  Speaker 2: You know, we see examples of both in this movie.
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: And it's not as though we're seeing something unrealistic, unfortun
• 50:00
  Speaker 2: Really the problem is the movie presents that but doesn't
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: challenge it or frame it as a bad thing.
• 50:07
  Speaker 3: I think the best you can say, and this is
• 50:09
  Speaker 3: not absolving it is hey, it's the nineties, Like this
• 50:12
  Speaker 3: is just reflecting some very common attitudes that would I
• 50:16
  Speaker 3: think evolve into like the edgy racism of South Park.
• 50:19
  Speaker 3: But you know, the thing of like the man having
• 50:22
  Speaker 3: some possession of the wife, and especially in like a
• 50:25
  Speaker 3: more rough and tumble sort of context like the Australian outback,
• 50:28
  Speaker 3: and you know, the casual homophobia, the casual raises, the
• 50:31
  Speaker 3: casual mibsogy, and that's just you know, hey, it's the nineties.
• 50:34
  Speaker 3: Not good. It's not a good thing. But like the
• 50:38
  Speaker 3: conversation about hey, maybe let's not do this, like would
• 50:41
  Speaker 3: have been greeted with like such an eye roll of like,
• 50:44
  Speaker 3: oh boy, here come the politically correct police. Right.
• 50:49
  Speaker 4: But it's like if they wouldn't even have had to
• 50:51
  Speaker 4: do that, if they had just written this character better,
• 50:54
  Speaker 4: like if they'd written Cynthia Bettery, they wouldn't have needed
• 50:57
  Speaker 4: to have to address all the horrible Like I don't know,
• 51:00
  Speaker 4: I mean whatever, it's nineteen ninety four, and I know
• 51:01
  Speaker 4: that it's like putting twenty twenty four morals on a
• 51:04
  Speaker 4: nineteen ninety four movie as a non starter, but it's
• 51:06
  Speaker 4: even for nineteen ninety four. I feel like you know
• 51:08
  Speaker 4: there was room for improvement because it was criticized at
• 51:11
  Speaker 4: the time as well.
• 51:12
  Speaker 3: Exactly. Yeah, No, you know who knew that it was
• 51:14
  Speaker 3: racist was people who were the object of that kind
• 51:16
  Speaker 3: of racism there right, They could have told you it
• 51:18
  Speaker 3: wasn't like a discovery waiting to be made.
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: The positive things that I will say, you know, for
• 51:25
  Speaker 4: the Bernadette Bob relationship, although I don't care for Bomb,
• 51:30
  Speaker 4: is that I was, you know, I guess, like on
• 51:33
  Speaker 4: the analysis pleasantly surprised that, first of all, that our
• 51:36
  Speaker 4: only trans character has a love story, which I feel
• 51:39
  Speaker 4: like is you know, certainly a rarity at this time,
• 51:43
  Speaker 4: and also that the oldest character has a love story,
• 51:45
  Speaker 4: because that also feels very unusual, and people over a
• 51:48
  Speaker 4: certain age don't have access to romance stories in successful
• 51:52
  Speaker 4: iconic movies. So I appreciated those aspects, but the actual
• 51:57
  Speaker 4: the guy himself wasn't a fo Yeah.
• 52:01
  Speaker 3: I would have loved you know, Bob could maybe have
• 52:03
  Speaker 3: been redeemed somewhat for me if he had some quick
• 52:06
  Speaker 3: scene with Bernadette where he's talking about Cynthia and he's like,
• 52:10
  Speaker 3: I fucked up, you know, just something where he's you know,
• 52:13
  Speaker 3: instead Bernadt just calls him a gentleman, but you know,
• 52:16
  Speaker 3: some like awareness from him of like, you know, I
• 52:18
  Speaker 3: got into a shitty situation there, and I could have
• 52:20
  Speaker 3: done it. I wish I could redo. I wish I
• 52:22
  Speaker 3: could make up for what I did wrong there and
• 52:25
  Speaker 3: without realizing, and he starts doing nice things for Bernadette
• 52:28
  Speaker 3: and then the two of them eventually. I don't know,
• 52:29
  Speaker 3: I'm writing this whole. It's a completely different movie at
• 52:31
  Speaker 3: this point.
• 52:32
  Speaker 5: But you just have to write another movie, I think, Matt,
• 52:35
  Speaker 5: it's you know.
• 52:35
  Speaker 3: What, it's the Alan story, and we see what Alan's
• 52:38
  Speaker 3: been up to for the last thirty years. Yeah, and
• 52:41
  Speaker 3: he encounters Bernadette and Bob out in the desert or something.
• 52:44
  Speaker 4: And you know, I forgot to revisit this. I know
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: that when I watched this movie and talked about it
• 52:51
  Speaker 4: a couple of months ago, I had just refreshed myself
• 52:53
  Speaker 4: on it. A lot of what we're talking about is
• 52:55
  Speaker 4: course corrected in the.
• 52:57
  Speaker 5: Big musical adaptation.
• 52:59
  Speaker 4: It's not a into one, and I'm trying to remember
• 53:02
  Speaker 4: what the specific changes were. But for those that have
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: seen the musical, please let us know, because there were
• 53:08
  Speaker 4: deliberate changes to sort of nineteen ninety four elements of
• 53:13
  Speaker 4: this movie to adapt it for the stage. Transactors are
• 53:18
  Speaker 4: in the main cast. I mean there's that I definitely remember.
• 53:22
  Speaker 4: I think that there were plot elements adjusted as well
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: to give Cynthia a fuller character, and I believe flushing
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: out the character of Marion a little more as well.
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: So anyways, if you've seen the show, I would love
• 53:37
  Speaker 4: to see this on stage. I want to see a
• 53:41
  Speaker 4: bus inside of a building.
• 53:43
  Speaker 3: It reminds me of there's this point in the nineteen
• 53:45
  Speaker 3: seventies where Broadway got very like kind of high on
• 53:49
  Speaker 3: its own supply of like scenery and set pieces and
• 53:51
  Speaker 3: revolving stage, isn't it, you know, even into the nineties
• 53:53
  Speaker 3: with the helicopter and the chandelier. But there's this musical
• 53:56
  Speaker 3: in the seventies called on the twentieth Century Limited or
• 53:59
  Speaker 3: the two Century Limited that had like a giant train
• 54:02
  Speaker 3: set piece, Like that's kind of what the giant, glittery,
• 54:06
  Speaker 3: gleaming bus in the Priscilla Stage musical must feel like
• 54:10
  Speaker 3: when it was coming through Los Angeles. The Priscilla the Musical.
• 54:14
  Speaker 3: This would have been like twenty eleven or twelve. Maybe
• 54:17
  Speaker 3: I was working as an event photographer at the time,
• 54:19
  Speaker 3: and I was hired to shoot the red carpet, the
• 54:21
  Speaker 3: step and repeat outside I think it was the Pantagius
• 54:24
  Speaker 3: wherever it was playing in LA, And I remember, like
• 54:26
  Speaker 3: I shot the Red Carpet, and you know, it's that
• 54:28
  Speaker 3: whole like nightmare scenario of like all the photographers like
• 54:31
  Speaker 3: shouting everybody's name, look at me, look at me, all
• 54:33
  Speaker 3: right over here. And at one point Willim walks through.
• 54:36
  Speaker 3: Will and the drag We knew a lot of people
• 54:38
  Speaker 3: know from Drag Race and a lot of other appearances
• 54:39
  Speaker 3: in LA and other shows, and as far as I know,
• 54:42
  Speaker 3: Willim had no connection to this show and not done
• 54:46
  Speaker 3: anything with it. And the story that I was kind
• 54:48
  Speaker 3: of getting from like William just talking to other people
• 54:51
  Speaker 3: on the Red Carpet was he just saw that there
• 54:53
  Speaker 3: was this red carpet happening, and like as a drag personality,
• 54:57
  Speaker 3: just like kind of walked his way onto it and
• 54:59
  Speaker 3: then just home afterwards, just saw like, oh, the drag thing.
• 55:03
  Speaker 3: I'll just walk my way on the air and then
• 55:05
  Speaker 3: walk off. I don't know if that's one hundred percent
• 55:08
  Speaker 3: the situation, but that's like what I was understanding from
• 55:10
  Speaker 3: like the gossip that he was giving to the other
• 55:11
  Speaker 3: photographers who were there.
• 55:13
  Speaker 5: That's incredible.
• 55:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it does look like a great Like these songs
• 55:17
  Speaker 3: are so good, you know, same thing with Mama Mia.
• 55:19
  Speaker 3: It's just like an excuse to like hear songs that
• 55:22
  Speaker 3: you love to hear and see some really fantastic costumes.
• 55:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and this won the Academy Award for Costumes and
• 55:29
  Speaker 4: rightfully so, I think, like for all these movies' faults,
• 55:34
  Speaker 4: it is pretty amazing how well and how successful and
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: beloved this movie was instantly it wasn't. I mean, it's
• 55:41
  Speaker 4: considered a cult classic, but I kind of hesitate to
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: even call it a cult classic because it was a
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: huge mainstream success when it came out. It was like
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: one of the highest grossing movies that had ever come
• 55:51
  Speaker 4: out of Australia ever.
• 55:53
  Speaker 5: And it centered around queer characters, and you know, the
• 55:57
  Speaker 5: flaws are the flaws.
• 55:58
  Speaker 4: But I think that that is really cool and you know, lad,
• 56:01
  Speaker 4: I would imagine to other movies and just like you know,
• 56:05
  Speaker 4: a point of success of like here is a queer
• 56:07
  Speaker 4: movie by a queer director. Let's put money behind more
• 56:10
  Speaker 4: projects like this, which is stop and go over the years,
• 56:13
  Speaker 4: but that in itself is really cool because this movie
• 56:16
  Speaker 4: was made for less than two million dollars and made
• 56:19
  Speaker 4: back its budget like fifteen times.
• 56:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, you know, for better for worse. Something
• 56:24
  Speaker 3: nice about Australia is that it doesn't have the same
• 56:27
  Speaker 3: moral panic as the US around drag. I mean, especially
• 56:31
  Speaker 3: in recent years. But I think just like with panto
• 56:35
  Speaker 3: shows and drag and camp in the UK, in Australia
• 56:39
  Speaker 3: it's much more of a fun and sometimes this is
• 56:41
  Speaker 3: you know, a negative thing, like you know, people who
• 56:44
  Speaker 3: are gender non conforming are minimized or seen as pure
• 56:47
  Speaker 3: entertainment rather than as full human beings. But you don't
• 56:50
  Speaker 3: have like the panic off like oh no, a man
• 56:52
  Speaker 3: in a dress, save the children, shield their eyes, you know.
• 56:56
  Speaker 3: I think that's how you can have drag in the
• 56:59
  Speaker 3: ceremonies of the Olympics and Kylie Minogue singing this ab
• 57:02
  Speaker 3: a song and paying tribute to this, like it becomes
• 57:04
  Speaker 3: this national icon like for US it's like Bruce Springsteen
• 57:07
  Speaker 3: or something in the US. And I love that in
• 57:09
  Speaker 3: Australia they have like this national pride in drag culture
• 57:13
  Speaker 3: and that's you know, I look at that as a
• 57:14
  Speaker 3: queer person I'm like, that's, you know, part of my
• 57:17
  Speaker 3: culture that everybody's like celebrating. And imagine, imagine the US
• 57:21
  Speaker 3: Olympics even today. Imagine you know, we're gonna get the Olympics.
• 57:25
  Speaker 3: I think in two years in la or maybe four
• 57:27
  Speaker 3: whatever it is, four or four years. Yeah, I the
• 57:31
  Speaker 3: uh from both of you when I mentioned that you're
• 57:33
  Speaker 3: dretting it already.
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: But I saw that a few months ago. In April
• 57:38
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, the director Stephan Elliott announced that work
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: on a sequel was underway, with the original cast reprising
• 57:47
  Speaker 2: their roles, which is no offense.
• 57:48
  Speaker 4: How I found out how Terence Stamp was still alive.
• 57:51
  Speaker 4: He's like eighty six.
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: He's alive, He's kicking. And I don't know if the
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: movie will happen or not, but I'd be interested to
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: see updates that they hopefully make as far as you know,
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: eliminating the racism and the casualness with which Felicia is dead,
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: naming Bernadette, all that kind of stuff. And we've kind
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: of touched on this a little bit, but the way
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: Alan and the other Aboriginal characters are not at all characterized.
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: They're mostly just there's set dressing for these three main
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: white characters. Yeah, this is happening after a scene in
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: which Felicia starts to tell what seems like it's going
• 58:38
  Speaker 2: to be a very anti native joke. So like these
• 58:42
  Speaker 2: characters attitudes toward anyone who is not white is abhorrent
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: and on full display.
• 58:50
  Speaker 4: Which fikes like the Australian nationalism a little yes, a
• 58:54
  Speaker 4: side eyed, because Australia has certainly colonized quite a bit
• 58:59
  Speaker 4: in its death and so to you know, be dismissive.
• 59:02
  Speaker 5: Towards indigenous people and just really anyone who isn't white
• 59:05
  Speaker 5: and then be like in Australia is the greatest country ever.
• 59:08
  Speaker 4: You're like, okay, I tried to like map that onto
• 59:12
  Speaker 4: like an American story, and you're like, yeah, not awesome.
• 59:16
  Speaker 4: But then also, you know, there is the argument for like,
• 59:20
  Speaker 4: you know, having a drag show about Australia being this like.
• 59:24
  Speaker 5: Inclusiveness that you don't normally see.
• 59:27
  Speaker 4: Very complicated, but yeah, in general, I mean, I guess
• 59:31
  Speaker 4: I just really wish that Alan got on the bus.
• 59:35
  Speaker 4: I know, he was such an interest and I feel
• 59:37
  Speaker 4: like we got to know him a little bit better
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: than we got to know other characters in these like
• 59:43
  Speaker 4: stopovers on this road journey. And I wonder if there
• 59:47
  Speaker 4: was a draft of this script where he joined the crew,
• 59:51
  Speaker 4: it would have been you know, wouldn't have you know,
• 59:53
  Speaker 4: resolved the way that this movie treats non white people
• 59:57
  Speaker 4: in general, but it would it would have helped, would
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 4: have helped to actually include him.
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 3: I would love for a sequel to really lean into
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 3: the Aboriginal culture and to blend. Because we get just
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 3: a little hint of it. We get the digerido, we
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 3: get some Aboriginal language, some singing in this sort of
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 3: remix of I will survive. But if we get like fully,
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 3: you know, an Aboriginal approach to gender, like and performance,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 3: and are like merging with more you know, European Western
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 3: kind of traditions, and we see those two things. I mean,
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 3: I what a great opportunity for some conflict intention too,
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 3: for Native people to say, we've been doing you know,
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 3: we've had our own attitudes about gender and sexual oritation
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 3: identity for thousands of years, folks, and so this is
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 3: our approach. And we're going on a road trip now,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 3: you know, like a road trip to the big city.
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 3: Like it's going in the other direction. I don't know,
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 3: whatever it could be, but boy, oh boy, I would
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 3: love to see it. I don't know that's Stefan Elliott's
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 3: story to tell. Maybe he's an ep on that's kind
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: of a project. But I would love to just hand
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 3: the reins over to some great Aboriginal writers and directors
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 3: and see where they take it.
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I just I am curious to see We're a
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 4: sequel with Go and I hope that. I mean, at
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 4: very least it does seem because there were changes made
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 4: to the musical that Stephan Elliott is.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 5: Not like closed off to, you know, acknowledging.
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 4: Where their shortcomings in the original text. Have more nice
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 4: things to say about the movie say them I really love,
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 4: I mean, for all of their faults, I really appreciate,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 4: like how wildly different that Bernadette and Tick and Adam
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 4: or Mitzi and Felicia are, and that all of the
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 4: conflict between them, you know, it just is very organic.
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's like a generational conflict that is going on.
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 4: Sometimes it's a personality clash, like I don't know, it
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 4: is just so fun to watch them together, and especially
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 4: with the relationship with Bernadette and Felicia, I think that
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 4: that's like a really interesting and thoughtfully written friendship.
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 5: Outside of the fact that Felicia like just repeatedly.
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 4: Dead naming Bernadette, you do get a glimpse of like
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 4: Bernadette retaliates, but it's not clear that Felicia's actually learned
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 4: a lesson because it continues to happen to the very end.
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 5: Of the movie. It's the last line, come on, it's ridiculous.
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 3: That is the one area where I wish Felicia had
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 3: done a little bit more growing up, Like if right,
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 3: if he was driving off and said Bernadette, and like
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 3: it was the first time he called it by a
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 3: proper name, and that would have been such a better ending.
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 4: Come on. But there were moments with those characters that
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 4: I appreciated, I mean, you do, I think, like the
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 4: really lowest point of the movie is when Felicia is
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 4: attacked by the angry mob, which obviously was reflective of
• 1:02:44
  Speaker 4: how queer people were brutalized in Sydney, and there were
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 4: a lot of examples sort of given throughout the documentary
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 4: we'll be linking to of how that reflected, you know,
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 4: real life at that time, and that Bernadette steps up
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 4: and puts the fact that she doesn't really like Felicia aside,
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 4: and they have a moment and they I don't know.
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 4: I appreciated some moments worked, and that unfortunately was undercut
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 4: by Adam Felicia's complete.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 5: Lack of growth when it came to dead naming.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 4: And then with Mitty I really liked, I mean just
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 4: the when I was like returning to watch this movie
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 4: earlier this year, like you always sort of expect.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 5: Marian to be not who she is, Like you don't.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 4: I never am expecting for her to be like loving
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 4: and accepting, just because of how you know, how the
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 4: world is and how we've seen characters act in this
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 4: movie towards the girls leading up to this point. I
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 4: think it's really cool to see, you know, that happy
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 4: ending for Mitty and that you know this whole that
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 4: all these anxieties that are expressed throughout the movie of
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 4: like will I be accepted? Will I be able to
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 4: be a parent and do this job? And the answer
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 4: is of course you can, and that Benji is such
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 4: a sweetheart, and also a little Mary Kate and Ashley.
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 5: Of like do you have my boyfriend? Do you have
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 5: my boyfriend? I think it is sweet, you know, and
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 5: something that you weren't seeing in movies very often.
• 1:04:11
  Speaker 4: And you get the flip side of that as well,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 4: with the understanding that you know, Bernadette was rejected by
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 4: her family and that Adam has a deeply complicated relationship
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 4: with his mom where he's like, I'll take the bus money,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 4: but we're never going to be close, you know. Like
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 4: you see the sort of wide array of how these
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 4: characters interact with their own families and all of the
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 4: struggles they have, and I thought it was you know,
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 4: I mean, not perfect, but pretty well done. Yeah.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 2: We also see that flashback of Felicia slash Adam telling
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: the story of how when Adam was a little boy,
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 2: his uncle tried to sexually abuse him, and Adam recalls
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 2: this memory with laughter because like he pulled the plug
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: of the bathtub and whatever.
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 3: We turned the tables on his abuse are yeah.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but it's like interesting way to frame a story
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 2: about an attempt at sexual abuse, like child sexual abuse.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: I don't know if there were certain examples where this
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 2: movie felt like it was taking a very serious situation
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: and like making light of it in a way that
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: felt tonally dissonant and weird, and like I understand, like
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 2: adding comedy in an attempt to like make a serious
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 2: topic more palatable or like finding humor, and I mean,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: you know, tragedy plus time equals comedy. But like the
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: way this movie handled some of those examples, I was like, Okay,
• 1:05:43
  Speaker 2: I guess.
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 4: I don't feel comfortable being like that works or it doesn't,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 4: because I do sure appreciate that it's coming from, you know,
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 4: a situation where I think, you know, Stephan Elliott is
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 4: setting you up for a very tragic reveal and then
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 4: Adam gets the upper hand, and yeah, I don't know.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: I mean, I definitely would understand if that doesn't play
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 4: for everyone, but I also understand why it does.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 5: Plays like a cathartic win which I feel like.
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 4: The characters in this movie at different points, you know,
• 1:06:16
  Speaker 4: because there are the real life queer phobia and homophobia
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 4: and transphobia of the world is constantly you know, basically
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 4: following them around and is sometimes inside of the bus itself.
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 4: But you do have like a series of moments in
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 4: this movie where I think, as an audience member and
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 4: just understanding the time this movie came out, you expect
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 4: something horrible to happen, and then the character's triumph and
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 4: that's cathartic, and yeah, moment to moment, I don't know,
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 4: you know, I get that it doesn't always work, but
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think the triumph at the end, you know,
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 3: it's certainly not saying like, isn't child abuse hilarious? I
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 3: think that we're coming from a dark place with a
• 1:06:57
  Speaker 3: lot of the humorous situations, and you're right that there
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 3: is a catharsis of we came out on top to
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 3: you know, the extent that we could have in this situation.
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 3: You know, whether it's that flashback or I don't know,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 3: find getting the chosen family at the end, there's the
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 3: gay bashing where the basher gets beaten up by Bernadette.
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 3: There's the woman in It's not in kouber Peedia, it's
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 3: in Broken Hill, where the woman in the bar is like, no,
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 3: you can't. Your kind isn't welcome here, and Bernadette has
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 3: this incredibly off colored joke that everybody laughs at. And
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 3: I guess, to me, the question is is the movie
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 3: punching down? And I don't think it is. I think
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 3: it's actually punching up and successfully most of the time.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 2: I tend to agree. There is the portrayal of working class,
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 2: small town people kind of painted with a very broad
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 2: brush of being like, they're not smart, they're closed minded, bigots,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 2: things like that, And I mean that is a stereotype
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 2: that is to some degree rooted in reality, but to
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 2: paint all people like that with that broad stroke, which
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 2: I guess is kind of subverted with Bob a little bit.
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 4: But like and the fact that we know that Adam
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 4: is from a fabulously wealthy family who are also openly homophobic.
• 1:08:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, we don't get but we don't get it
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 5: as much time. That's sort of like a flash yeah scene.
• 1:08:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Ultimately, you know, I get the sense that Adam,
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 3: his good looks and his money have insulated him from
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 3: a lot of suffering that the other characters may be
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 3: very familiar with. And so you know, it's not awesome
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 3: that he gets knocked around a little bit at one point,
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 3: but he experiences a gay bashing. It is terrifying. And
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 3: then I really do love the you know, I think
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 3: that has to happen so that we get the scene
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 3: where Bernadette has that wonderful line, don't let it drag
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 3: you down, let it toughen you up, and it sucks
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 3: that as a minority, you do have to make that
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 3: choice to either be dragged down or to toughen up.
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 3: And it's not always easy to do. Yeah, exactly, but
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 3: you know, look, sometimes that is the choice. Either you
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 3: can wallow forever or you can grate your teeth and
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 3: power through it, sometimes with the help of other people.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 3: I love that scene, Like let it toughen you Up
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 3: is something that it sucks that you have to do it,
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 3: but you do.
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I do appreciate that. I wish this happened
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: to a greater degree, especially between Felicia and Bernadette. But
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: this trip, you know, strengthens their bond. They realize that
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 2: they need each other for just support and love and safety,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: and that this trip brings these friends closer together in
• 1:09:38
  Speaker 2: a beautiful way.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 3: It really is the like it's the perfect road trip movie.
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 3: It's just like it's so Joseph Campbell, and it's like,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 3: you know, the hero's journey of these characters. And I
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 3: know the comparison is often made Too Wang Fou. I
• 1:09:50
  Speaker 3: really do think, you know, there's a lot to recommend
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: about Tou Wong Fu. There are some things to recommend
• 1:09:55
  Speaker 3: about Too Wong fou and I think that this movie
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: really out does most other road Like I'm trying I
• 1:10:00
  Speaker 3: think of a road trip film that I like as
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 3: much as this one. I can't think of anything.
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 2: My tops are little Sun Sunshine, and I would classify
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: Mad Max Fury Road as a road trip. Okay, Similarly
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 2: through the Australian Outback, I think is where the.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 4: Yeah it's I rewatched Yeah, because I saw Furiosa the
• 1:10:21
  Speaker 4: same week that I rewatched this, I was like, Oh,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 4: Australian outback road trip movies, you know, they come in
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 4: all genres.
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, talk about like Joseph Kandler, like the
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 3: Dan Harmon story circle, like the journey back to our
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: point of origin having changed. Like it is so clear
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 3: the parallels between Priscilla and Fury Road are so interesting
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: now that you mention it. It really does match up
• 1:10:46
  Speaker 3: to a lot of those plot beats that we expect
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 3: from a road trip movie from a really well tightly plotted,
• 1:10:52
  Speaker 3: eight part structured kind of story. It really hits them
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 3: at kind of the same points, doesn't it.
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think so, yeah, Yeah, there's I mean, there's
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 4: no doubt there's I totally understand why this movie is
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 4: a classic.
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 5: There's so much to love about it.
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 4: The last the just like a moment where just speaking
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 4: to your point, Matt about the resilience of these characters.
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 5: After the bus is uh, you know, graffitied with slurs.
• 1:11:21
  Speaker 4: There's just like that one moment with Mitsy tick something
• 1:11:26
  Speaker 4: akin to like, you know, you always think it's going
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 4: to get easier, but it still hurts every time, and
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 4: it's just a passing moment and within five minutes, you
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 4: know they've moved on. They're painting the bus allegedly lavender
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 4: like they're you know, a singing exactly.
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 5: But you have those sort of like moments of.
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 4: Reflection that I feel like really speaks to that this
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 4: is a queer movie from a queer director, because there
• 1:11:53
  Speaker 4: are plenty of movies centered around queer people that come
• 1:11:57
  Speaker 4: out in the nineties that.
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 5: Are written and directed by straight people. And there's like
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 5: a dissonant element to it.
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 4: And I think like when Stephan Elliott hits, he hits
• 1:12:09
  Speaker 4: and when he missed his evisus, but that's you know,
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 4: the natrue.
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 3: Can you imagine if they had done this movie just
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: a little bit differently, Like I can one hundred percent
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 3: see some like Grant Awarding body being like you need
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: you need a straight character to get the audience in,
• 1:12:22
  Speaker 3: like if they had like a fourth character on the
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 3: bus who is like they're straight. I don't know. It's
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 3: like now I'm thinking of like meat Loaf from Spice World,
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: but like there's some straight character in the mix there
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: who's yeah, you girls crazy? Oh yeah yeah. Metaf is
• 1:12:41
  Speaker 3: their must driver in space. I know this because it
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 3: came out on VHS when I was working at a
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 3: video store and we had like a list of like
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 3: five movies that we could play, is like Armageddon and
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: like all these like action films, and the only two
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 3: I could stomach were The Pro Shot of Cats and
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 3: uh and Spice World so many a top. I put
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 3: Spice World on because I couldn't stomach any other any
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 3: other thing in the on the on the approved list
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 3: for what was it, Strawberries?
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, god, I need to rewatch Spice World. It's
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 5: been too damn long. I'm saying, what a what a treasure.
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 3: I would say, give yourself permission to have the finger
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: on fast forward because there's some bits that's like all right,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: just get me to the next music, get me hearing
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 3: the next song. But I would say the opening. The
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 3: opening of Spice World is I think one of the
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't put in the top ten, but it's it's
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 3: an upper tier opening of a movie with the music
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 3: in that and the finale is a lot of fun.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 3: There's a moment where, oh my god, I love it
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 3: so much. There's a moment where a woman gives birth
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 3: and the Spice girls are all crowded around this woman
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 3: who's literally just given birth, and one of them says,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: that's real girl power, and it is such an incredible moment.
• 1:13:46
  Speaker 3: I love it so much. Every time I see a
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 3: woman do something Amazican movie, I think that's real girl power.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 4: Nice feminism is such a trip, like what happened to
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 4: You're like, what are you saying?
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 5: What are you on about? It's great?
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, don't anyway, So that's what's going down is if
• 1:14:03
  Speaker 3: you like, if you like the soil, liquid to the desert,
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 3: check out Spice World. Wonderful takeaway Yeah, two bus movies. Yes.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 2: My other takeaway is ultimately, and to not a huge degree,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 2: but this is a story about fathers and sons, but
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: a really like endearing one where it's kind of flipped
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 2: as far as like what you would normally see as
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 2: far as like a queer child not sure if they're
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 2: going to get the acceptance and approval of their parent,
• 1:14:36
  Speaker 2: and then we get this flip, and you know, it
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 2: also happens in the way that we see it represented
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: in this movie as far as the parent wondering if
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: you know, his child will accept him as a drag
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 2: performer and a gay man and things like that, and
• 1:14:51
  Speaker 2: the kid is absolutely fine with it. And it speaks
• 1:14:56
  Speaker 2: to how ridiculous it is that there's all this like
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 2: anti drag and anti trans legislation in the US and
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 2: elsewhere that it's they're justifying it as far as like,
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 2: but the kids protect the kids, and it's just like,
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 2: if you just don't teach kids hate, and he'll be
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 2: fucking fine with it.
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's wild because there's an episode of Alice,
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 3: the sitcom from like the mid seventies, where she's really
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 3: worried that her son is going to find out that
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 3: her friend is gay, and at the end of the
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 3: episode she finally she like sits them down. She's like,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 3: all right, I need to let you know there's something
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 3: that you need to know about this guy, and the
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 3: kids like yeah, and like I thought, yeah, that's that's it.
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 3: That's always the situation.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 4: The kids are like so yeah, yeah, exactly, And at
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 4: the end it's like, yeah, extremely clear that Benji is
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 4: like better off now because like his family has like
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 4: tripled in size overnight, so.
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 5: Many people to play legos with, Like, what more do
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 5: you want as a kid?
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 4: Is fun?
• 1:15:57
  Speaker 5: People to play legos with? Who love you? Come on?
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 3: I do wonder like tick is tick slash mitzi. As
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 3: far as I can tell, this is like her main
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 3: bread and butter is doing drag and now she's got
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 3: to raise a kid on this on this income. Now,
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 3: I know the nineties are different and the economics are different,
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 3: and we're not all spending like ninety percent of our
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 3: income on rent and in those days, right, But you know,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 3: becoming a parent isn't just you know, assuming the role
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 3: of parenting full time. There's a lot of work that
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 3: this character's about to take on, and you know that's
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 3: not what this movie is. But yeah, I do, like
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 3: it's kind of like there's some movies where I'm like,
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 3: what happened the next day? Like Ghost is very much
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 3: like I think about that all the time. With the
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 3: movie ghosts, Like what right the day the next day
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 3: after ghosts? Like they call the police at the end
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 3: of that film, and you know there's all this stuff
• 1:16:45
  Speaker 3: that happens, like somebody gets killed. Anyway, what's the next
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 3: day after? You know, they all get back to Sydney,
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 3: and you know, I would love to see like that
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 3: kid's first day at school at his new school in
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 3: Sydney or whatever, maybe his homeschool, who knows whatever?
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 2: Another spinoff we need and addition to the Alan spinoff?
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yes, does that?
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 4: You would have anything else to say about Priscilla Queen
• 1:17:07
  Speaker 4: of the Desert, Not really, just that I love this cast.
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 2: I mean, Hugo Weaving is in several of my favorite
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 2: movies a La the Matrix and Lord of the Rings.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 2: I love that he went on to have a career
• 1:17:22
  Speaker 2: where he was like in these like huge blockbuster, high
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 2: grossing franchises. I also love him in Fifa Vendetta. I
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 2: love Guy Pearce. He is one of my crushes. Uh
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 2: he's so handsome. Terence Stamp. He plays a hilarious character
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 2: in one of my favorite movies, bow Finger.
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 3: Oh my God, I welcome to Mine Think. Oh my god,
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 3: I love that film.
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 5: It's so good. It's so good, we've got to cover it.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 5: I know, does anyone want a Bowfinger episode? Let us know?
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 3: Directed by Frank Oz the uh yeah, the Piggy Like,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 3: what do you have to do here? Yuh yeah?
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 2: Anyway, so great cast and yeah, I really like this
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 2: movie despite its flaws.
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 3: I will say this is what I you know, always
• 1:18:12
  Speaker 3: tell people about Priscilla is it is a great movie
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 3: to watch with friends, like watching a group, because the
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 3: music's so great and the dance is so great, that
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 3: mood is great. It is a fantastic movie to see
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 3: in like a huge group, like if there's like a
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 3: movie's in the park or just on midnight film or
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 3: and I just want to throw it out there if
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 3: anybody wants to organize a big screening at a venue
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 3: for Priscilla Queen of the Desert, fly me out to
• 1:18:33
  Speaker 3: introduce to apprecio whatever. I love this film. It is
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 3: so great to see as a mass group experience. It's
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 3: just one of those films that really like just begs
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 3: to be seen with three hundred people. Yeah.
• 1:18:45
  Speaker 4: I would absolutely love to see this movie with a crowd.
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 4: Oh my god, it's a classic. It's a damn classic.
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 4: It's I can't believe it's thirty years old. This year's wild,
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 4: and I mean would I also would.
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 5: Love to see the musical Holy shit.
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 4: Yeah, if you're a fan of this movie, definitely check
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 4: out the documentary as well. It's a very it's a fun,
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 4: complimentary companion piece.
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 5: Indeed, does this movie pass the Bechdel test?
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 2: I already made a case for when they drive Priscilla,
• 1:19:17
  Speaker 2: it passes. Yeah, I mean, I guess it depends on
• 1:19:22
  Speaker 2: if you count Mitzi and Felicia when they're like in
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 2: their drag personas speaking to each other. If you consider
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 2: that a pass I'm fine with it. Obviously, drag is
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 2: a subversion of gender, so I'm like, yeah, I'm fine
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 2: with that. I would consider their conversations a past.
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 4: It passes regardless, because Bernadette has conversations with Marian, brief
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 4: conversation with Marion, and also sherl who she beats in
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 4: that drinking contest.
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's not the warmest interaction, but yeah, no, no, And.
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 4: I think her interaction with Mary it's pretty passing, you know,
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 4: like what is the stage like big.
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 5: Or something like that.
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 4: But yeah, I mean it certainly does pass. And I yeah,
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 4: I think regardless of where you land on that it passes.
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 3: I think his passage happens in sort of a blurry
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 3: area of the gender spectrum, like it's somewhere I wouldn't
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 3: say like I would say, maybe it passes, like the
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 3: schmech Deel test, Like it's so it's so close.
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 5: Spiritually the clear pass. Yeah, yeah, the Schmechdel test. Fishould
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 5: start introducing this, right, But.
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 2: What about our nipple scale, where we rate the movie
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 2: on a scale of zero to five nipples based on
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 2: examining it through an intersectional feminist lens. I think I'll
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 2: go like a three or three point five on this one.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 2: I appreciate its place in history and how it helped
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 2: move the needle on queer representation in mainstream although, as
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 2: we've discussed, there's some very of the time elements of
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 2: it and also not of the time. Yeah, I mean
• 1:21:09
  Speaker 2: the racist and sexist portrayal of the Cynthia character. Justice
• 1:21:14
  Speaker 2: for Cynthia, having the Aboriginal characters mostly just as scenery
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 2: and backdrop while the focus is always on the white characters.
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 2: I think I'll land on a three point five nipples.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 2: I'll give one to Julia Cortez, who played Cynthia. I
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 2: will give one to Alan Dargin Dargan who was an
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 2: Australian musician and seems to be playing himself question mark
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 2: in this movie because if you look on IMDb, his
• 1:21:50
  Speaker 2: character is credited as Aboriginal man, but they call him Allan,
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 2: which is that person's real first name. So I'm like,
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 2: is he just amos himself? We're not sure, but one
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 2: nipple to him. I'll give one nipple to my crush,
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 2: guy Peers. I hope he is not problematic. You always
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 2: run the risk of saying you like a man and
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 2: then you find out later that he's horrible, So hopefully
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 2: that's not true. And I'll give my half nipple to
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 2: Hugo Weaving.
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 5: I'll go three and a half in this as well.
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 5: I mean on the movies, I like, it's higher than that.
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 4: But I think for all the reasons we've discussed today,
• 1:22:33
  Speaker 4: it's a classic. It's a stepping stone movie that led
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 4: to more thoughtfully inclusive movies. But there's so much to
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 4: love about this movie, and I guess I will I
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 4: will just leave it at that because we've been talking
• 1:22:45
  Speaker 4: for an hour and a half, so I would give
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 4: it three and a half. I'm gonna give one to
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 4: Priscilla the Bus, who is recently discovered and is now
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 4: going into a museum as is her right.
• 1:22:57
  Speaker 5: Wow, I'm going to give.
• 1:22:59
  Speaker 4: One to Julia car because I will give one to
• 1:23:03
  Speaker 4: Stephan Elliott. And finally, I would like to give my
• 1:23:07
  Speaker 4: last half nipple to a city pastel, who is the
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 4: inspiration for Tick Slash MIDSI and is a cool testament
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 4: to how this movie sort of captured a lot of
• 1:23:19
  Speaker 4: the drag scene and characters and people that Stephan Elliott
• 1:23:23
  Speaker 4: loved from his formative years and put them in a
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 4: classic movie, which is always cool.
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 5: Yeah, Matt, what do you think?
• 1:23:30
  Speaker 3: You know, I think I'd be inclined to assign it
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 3: to nipples. And one of them goes to the three
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 3: heroes on the bus and they can distribute it like
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 3: a like an evenly broken up pie chart amongst themselves,
• 1:23:45
  Speaker 3: and the other to the Australian outback itself and you know,
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 3: rising rising like ayers rock above the desert is the
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 3: center of that nipple going out to Australia, just the
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 3: country for you know, embracing this film.
• 1:24:00
  Speaker 5: Mm hmmm, hell yeah, amazing. Well, Matt, Thank you so
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 5: much for being with us.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 3: This was so much fun, my pleasure. Thanks for having
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 3: me on and giving me a reason to talk about
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 3: this movie. It's been a big part of my life
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 3: ever since I discovered it. Thanks thanks to RuPaul on
• 1:24:13
  Speaker 3: vh one.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 5: Wow, I love that.
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 2: Where can people follow you online? Check out your work?
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 2: Tell us everything.
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so I've got a video from a couple of
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 3: years ago that i did on YouTube about this film.
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 3: I make videos on YouTube about the making of movies
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 3: and television from a queer perspective, so you can find me.
• 1:24:35
  Speaker 3: Just search for my name Matt Baum on YouTube. Just
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 3: had one about Howard Ashman and the making of Little
• 1:24:39
  Speaker 3: Shop of Horrors and The Little Mermaid.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 5: Incredible work.
• 1:24:42
  Speaker 3: Thank you. And I'm working on one now about my
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 3: so called life the TV show, so that'll be coming soon.
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 3: And you can also get my book I wrote about
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 3: the history of queer characters on sitcoms. That's the books
• 1:24:55
  Speaker 3: called High Honey. I'm Homo and I just turned a
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 3: year old, So yeah, I talk about gays on sitcoms.
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 3: And I've also got a podcast called The Suws of Paris,
• 1:25:06
  Speaker 3: where I chat with queer folks about entertainment that's important
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 3: to them, So you can find the Seers of Paris
• 1:25:10
  Speaker 3: wherever you listen to your podcasts. Nice, amazing, Yay, thank
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 3: you so much, a pleasure, Come back anytime, happy to.
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 2: You can follow us on Instagram mostly these days. At
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 2: Bechdel Cast. You can go to our Patreon aka Matreon,
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 2: where we do two bonus episodes every month on a
• 1:25:30
  Speaker 2: brilliant amazing theme and that's five dollars a month. Plus
• 1:25:36
  Speaker 2: you get access to our back catalog of bonus episodes
• 1:25:39
  Speaker 2: there's over one hundred and fifty at this point, all
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 2: for five dollars a month at patreon dot com slash
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 2: Bechtel Cast, and.
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 4: You can get our merch at teapublic dot com slash
• 1:25:49
  Speaker 4: v Bechtel Cast.
• 1:25:52
  Speaker 5: Never too early to holiday shop.
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 4: And with that, let's let's hop on the bus. Let's
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 4: go well, let's go back to Sydney and raise our
• 1:26:02
  Speaker 4: young son, shall.
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 2: We yes while singing Abba Bye bye. The Bechdel Cast
• 1:26:10
  Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by Caitlin Derante and
• 1:26:14
  Speaker 2: Jamie loftis produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Mola Boord.
• 1:26:18
  Speaker 2: Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 2: by Katherine Voskressensky. Our logo and merch is designed by
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 2: Jamie Loftis and a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo. For
• 1:26:30
  Speaker 2: more information about the podcast, please visit Linktree Slash Bechdel
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 2: Cast