Speaker 1: On the Bell cast, the questions asked if movies have
Speaker 1: women in them? Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Speaker 1: Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing
Speaker 1: it with the beck Del cast, Jamie, Hi, Caitlin, let go,
Speaker 1: let flow. Let you know. Honestly, I felt attacked by
Speaker 1: that because I was like, yeah, I've probably read whatever
Speaker 1: the book is that that's referencing. I love a little
Speaker 1: phrase that doesn't change my life. I love it, except
Speaker 1: it does in this movie. It does. They let go,
Speaker 1: they let flow, They do it, and then a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff happens and you can feel whatever way about
Speaker 1: it you want. My other intro option was going to
Speaker 1: be me asking you if you would like to landscape
Speaker 1: my backyard? Yes, which is a sexual euphemism, yes for
Speaker 1: playing with my butt. Yes, I would love to quote
Speaker 1: unquote landscape your backyard. Cool, But I'm going to have
Speaker 1: my gigantic, stinky dog around and I'm gonna keep being like,
Speaker 1: you have to come to a garden with me? Is
Speaker 1: that cool? Is that right? I love that. I can't wait. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well then we'll do that. Awesome anyway, Hi, welcome to
Speaker 1: the Bechdel Cast. My name is Caitlin Darante. My name
Speaker 1: is Jamie Loftus, and this is our podcast where we
Speaker 1: take an intersectional feminist look at your favorite movies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we used the Bechdel Test as a jumping off point
Speaker 1: for discussion on this damn podcast. But Caitlin, what what
Speaker 1: is that? What is whiz? I'll tell you it is
Speaker 1: a media metric sometimes known as the Becktel Wallace test,
Speaker 1: created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel in her comic Likes
Speaker 1: to Watch Out For just as a kind of one
Speaker 1: off joke. Is It originally appeared in her comic but
Speaker 1: has since been kind of co opted into this media
Speaker 1: metric that is pretty widely used, including us on this show. Um,
Speaker 1: and there are many variations of the test. The one
Speaker 1: we use is this, two characters of a marginalized gender
Speaker 1: have to have names, they have to speak to each other,
Speaker 1: and the conversation has to be about something other than
Speaker 1: a man. And ideally it's a narratively substantial conversation. Yes,
Speaker 1: which spoiler alert for this movie. There's plenty of it,
Speaker 1: but some of them are kind of funny. We have
Speaker 1: some funny passes in this one, and I'm excited to
Speaker 1: talk about them with are amazing returning guest, the All Timer.
Speaker 1: Let's get her in here. I think your sixth appearance
Speaker 1: on the show. Yes, this is my sixth appearance, Beteans.
Speaker 1: I've been following, and I know that Lacy Mosley has
Speaker 1: five and she doesn't know me, so this is completely
Speaker 1: in my head in one sided. But I was like
Speaker 1: Mosley the Mobli, I'm gonna win in your first place.
Speaker 1: I'm there, and I'm there for the pay per view
Speaker 1: like that would be great. Um, But let's introduce you properly.
Speaker 1: She's a comedian. You've seen her on the Tonight Show.
Speaker 1: Her album follow up question just came out. It's Kennis Mobile. Hi. Hello,
Speaker 1: it's so nice to see you guys. Welcome back. Great
Speaker 1: to see you too. I can't believe we I mean,
Speaker 1: just a little peek inside Kennis's life for the listeners.
Speaker 1: We're catching Kenise fresh off a trip to Margaritaville. So yes,
Speaker 1: truly the best. I'm sure you're in high spirits, never
Speaker 1: felt better in your life. There were so many because
Speaker 1: it's in Times Square, it's like up several levels and
Speaker 1: at every escalator there was a person who just shouted
Speaker 1: at us, welcome to Margarita then, so it was very
Speaker 1: clear where we were that here was a light show
Speaker 1: on the hour where they play this on Margarita Ville.
Speaker 1: There's a statue of liberty. She's holding something and it
Speaker 1: turns out it can be a glass of what margaritas.
Speaker 1: And so there's a whole projection thing. There's whales and dolphins.
Speaker 1: It's it's a lot. It's a lot of restaurant, is
Speaker 1: what I will say. It's so much restaurant, because I mean,
Speaker 1: I guess that there's a lot of reasons. But one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I know you haven't had your food
Speaker 1: yet is to distract you from how disgusting the food is.
Speaker 1: Fired Honestly, that's fair because when you look at the menu,
Speaker 1: they have a little warning triangle with a salt shaker
Speaker 1: in it if the amount of sodium in the meal
Speaker 1: is more than your daily allowance of sodium. And most
Speaker 1: of the meals have this warning of sodium next to
Speaker 1: it because most of them, if you eat this, it
Speaker 1: will exceed your daily amount of sodium that you should
Speaker 1: be having. I really love garbage so much. I just
Speaker 1: love trash in the mouth that is wonderful. Thank you
Speaker 1: for that information. I've seen as triangles and I've just
Speaker 1: blazed past them, never looked at what they were for
Speaker 1: your What a treat there? For your death? Yes? For there?
Speaker 1: Why I'm losing years of my life happily too ready
Speaker 1: to go? Yeah, willingly. Um. I don't think I've ever
Speaker 1: been to a Margaritaville. Time, there's one, there's one a
Speaker 1: city walk. We could go any time. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: I know I've seen it. I've seen it every damn
Speaker 1: time I've gone to Universal Studios Hollywood, which has been
Speaker 1: twenty times. And where are you where are you going?
Speaker 1: Are you going to Oh you're a millionaire going to
Speaker 1: Bubba Gum? No. I usually eat Cletus's Chicken Shack at
Speaker 1: Simpson's World in the Park. Yeah, I see. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not great to hear. It doesn't feel
Speaker 1: good to hear. I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. I think
Speaker 1: I got a burger with you in the Simpsons restaurant.
Speaker 1: You probably went to Krusty Burger. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: never gotten food in Simpson's Land. That's fascinating. I was
Speaker 1: trying to think of what the Universal hot dog is
Speaker 1: They don't really have a signature one, but in Orlando,
Speaker 1: because I went to both city walks last year because
Speaker 1: I really do love garbage in the mouth. And in
Speaker 1: Orlando they have a huge outdoor restaurant called the hot
Speaker 1: Dog Hall of Fame where you can get a foot
Speaker 1: long hot dog. You get hot dog with shrimp on it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you get a lot of nasty little things. Why would
Speaker 1: you do that? You really shouldn't do that. When I
Speaker 1: ordered the shrimp pot dog, they were like, we don't
Speaker 1: serve a lot of these, and it's like, all right,
Speaker 1: bring it and perfect transition. I was like, there's no
Speaker 1: hot dogs in this movie. So that wasn't a transition
Speaker 1: of any sort. However, we have a movie to discuss.
Speaker 1: It's two thousand six. Is something new? Yes? Indeed, what
Speaker 1: is your history with this movie? So? I think I
Speaker 1: saw this movie in theaters. I've owned this movie on
Speaker 1: DVD since two thousands six, I would to say two
Speaker 1: thousand seven when it came out on DVD. Based on
Speaker 1: this movie and other properties, I assumed that being a
Speaker 1: woman in your thirties meant that you automatically had a
Speaker 1: group of for female friends. That was just part of
Speaker 1: it because it's this, it's sex in the city, it's girlfriends,
Speaker 1: it's living single, all of these things. It's like, there
Speaker 1: are four women, obviously one of them is a little
Speaker 1: hornier than the others, and they all hang out. Why
Speaker 1: why are they friends? Were never sure, that's not clear
Speaker 1: how they became friends. What they have in common? I
Speaker 1: don't know. They all have rich people jobs. They all
Speaker 1: have fantastic jobs in this movie, accountant, doctor, judge, some
Speaker 1: probably a foe. Yeah, a fourth thing, yeah, a fourth
Speaker 1: fancy thing. I love. I do love like all the
Speaker 1: shows you're describing. I and I went on a full
Speaker 1: girlfriend's binge during the lockdown. But I love like the
Speaker 1: the like sex and the city. Girlfriends like around the
Speaker 1: table just saying kind of like confusing things to each
Speaker 1: other about their like are we dying? Is life we're living?
Speaker 1: Or not? And you're like, yeah, yeah, totally. They have
Speaker 1: those conversations. But like, I could not answer in girlfriends,
Speaker 1: what are their shared interests, what do they like to do?
Speaker 1: What is the joy in their lives? I don't I
Speaker 1: don't know. I'm trying to remember which pair of characters
Speaker 1: and girlfriends. There's like at some point in the series,
Speaker 1: there's like a contradiction of like how they met, Like
Speaker 1: they say they met in one way in season one,
Speaker 1: and then in season three for plot reasons, it's totally different.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Oh, I guess I don't know. We live
Speaker 1: in a void. They didn't know that I would have
Speaker 1: access to knowing the mistake in the future. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: feel like the friendship in in this movie too, the
Speaker 1: Four Friends is similarly I don't know, underdeveloped. So, Kenneth,
Speaker 1: you saw this in theaters, you bought the DVD. You
Speaker 1: have a long history with the movie. Yes, I liked it,
Speaker 1: and I still like parts of it, but parts of
Speaker 1: it are like I think we're past this right, like
Speaker 1: hopefully as a society we're not like, oh what map Also,
Speaker 1: and we'll get into the synopsis of the film, Caitlin,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for your wrap up. But in the
Speaker 1: first what is it fourteen minutes, when we've established through
Speaker 1: the characters and everything, when they meet for a blind
Speaker 1: date at a Starbucks Starbuck God, I was like, strike
Speaker 1: fucking one and it's busy. It's a busy Starbucks, and
Speaker 1: they're like, this is where we go on our first
Speaker 1: date in side the way. That made me like angry,
Speaker 1: like vier really because they're in Los Angeles where there
Speaker 1: are tons of restaurants and cafes, but they choose Starbucks.
Speaker 1: It was painful. I have to imagine it was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we will get money from Starbucks to help fund the
Speaker 1: budget of this movie if we have. I don't know
Speaker 1: that for sure, but I have to imagine. I feel
Speaker 1: like it would have had to offend because they showed
Speaker 1: the legs, they kept cutting back to the yes, they
Speaker 1: kept reminding you, and then like that the logo is
Speaker 1: always facing the front. I'm like, okay, this is product placement,
Speaker 1: but why would you make it such a busy I
Speaker 1: mean they're like, oh, in Starbucks is so popular right now,
Speaker 1: so of course there's gonna be a lot of people there.
Speaker 1: But you're like, this seems like a really stressful. It
Speaker 1: didn't make me want to go on a date at Starbucks.
Speaker 1: I feel you would if you were Sunlight Kaitlin. It
Speaker 1: kind of looked like the Starbucks near your house to
Speaker 1: me a little bit, thank you, and I didn't like
Speaker 1: it was really, do you mean the Starbucks in Los Filas,
Speaker 1: which is called out by name in this movie that
Speaker 1: neighborhood because he's like, oh, I just finished up a
Speaker 1: landscaping job in Los Filas. Not to docs myself, but
Speaker 1: that is the neighborhood I live in, so brag. I've
Speaker 1: been to that Starbucks. It was fun. It was like
Speaker 1: all the other ones too busy anyway, busy. There's it's
Speaker 1: so funny, like the reasons that the movie is telling
Speaker 1: you that this couple may not be compatible when there's
Speaker 1: so many reasons available, We're just like, why not these people?
Speaker 1: But you're a long time you're a long time viewer
Speaker 1: of something new, a long time viewer of this film. Yes, yes, okay, Jamie,
Speaker 1: what about you. I've known about this movie for a
Speaker 1: long time, but I had never seen it before we
Speaker 1: were prepping for this episode, and I'm excited to talk
Speaker 1: about it. I feel like it's like there's I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of there's a lot of interesting stuff here.
Speaker 1: And I also agree with you Kenez for your like,
Speaker 1: you know, you can feel the oh six on this
Speaker 1: movie pretty heavily. I appreciate what it's trying to do,
Speaker 1: and it's doing a lot of it in a in
Speaker 1: a pretty dated way. But I'm excited to talk about it. Caitlin,
Speaker 1: what how? What was your history with something New sam
Speaker 1: as yours? I hadn't seen it before prepping, and I
Speaker 1: don't even know if it was really on my radar
Speaker 1: until we started getting requests for it at some point
Speaker 1: during the show. But uh, yeah, there's a lot to
Speaker 1: talk about, and I'm excited to get into it. I was.
Speaker 1: I knew about this director because she's a very iconic
Speaker 1: music video director Sanahamry. Yeah, I knew her from music
Speaker 1: videos but also Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants to an
Speaker 1: extremely traveling pants movie. Yeah, extremely traveling movie. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: she I mean, if you look at her music video resume,
Speaker 1: holy sh it, it's like she's started in her like
Speaker 1: early twenties directing Mariah Carey videos. Made a bunch of those.
Speaker 1: Then did Destiny's Child, Kelly Rowland, Jay Z, The A Teens,
Speaker 1: that's a deep cut, Solange, Prince Seal, Jada Kiss like
Speaker 1: Mondy Kravitz. I saw Joss Stone, remember her, she did
Speaker 1: the super Base music video. Like Okay, she makes a
Speaker 1: lot more sense. I did not know her history as
Speaker 1: a music video director. But the things I think I
Speaker 1: like the most about this movie and its direction are
Speaker 1: very like music video type of style. So this makes
Speaker 1: me very very happy. I thought that the sex scenes
Speaker 1: in this movie were very music video in a way
Speaker 1: that I thought was fun. Like. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: we're doing foot stuff, yeah, yeah, yeah. And she's done
Speaker 1: a ton of T I think she does mostly TV.
Speaker 1: Now she did a ton of Empire and shameless like
Speaker 1: she's working. Indeed, shall I do the recap? Let's do it? Okay, Actually,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break first and then we will
Speaker 1: come right back and we are back. Also Christina Aguilera
Speaker 1: and staying sorry. It just like she's directed so many
Speaker 1: music failures. Um, okay, here is the recap of something new.
Speaker 1: We open on a wedding where the groom and guests
Speaker 1: abruptly leave. Ken you McQueen. That's Sona Lathan at the altar.
Speaker 1: But it was just a dream. Ha ha. Ken Youa
Speaker 1: wakes up. We are in Los Angeles ever heard of?
Speaker 1: It is Valentine's Day. She has a busy work day
Speaker 1: but no romantic evening plans. At work. Her friend or
Speaker 1: her colleague, Leah, tries to set her up on a
Speaker 1: blind date with this guy named Brian, but Kenya is
Speaker 1: like pass Yeah. She then goes out. She never yells
Speaker 1: at Leah for setting it up at a Starbucks. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I really feel like we should have gotten a follow
Speaker 1: up with Leah. Was like, Okay, what are you? What
Speaker 1: were you thinking? Man? The first eight thing kisses me off.
Speaker 1: But I do like And I took Caitlin's screenwriting class
Speaker 1: because Caitlin is a wonderful teacher, and we talked about
Speaker 1: developing character in the first section of the script, and
Speaker 1: I do like how they do very quickly established that
Speaker 1: obviously she wants to be married, that her life is
Speaker 1: a certain way. She wakes up and it's just disappointment
Speaker 1: on her face. Um, which begs a very important question
Speaker 1: that I will get into later. Lot. This woman likes nothing,
Speaker 1: This woman has no interest in this woman. There's nothing
Speaker 1: about this woman except she is an accountant. That's all
Speaker 1: you need to know about her. She's an accountant. We
Speaker 1: do hear a lot about what she doesn't like and
Speaker 1: not a lot about what That was something that I
Speaker 1: was like, I kept way to be like, Okay, what
Speaker 1: is her secret passion or like why does she it
Speaker 1: seems like she really enjoys her job. What about it? Like,
Speaker 1: what got her into it and no, but we don't
Speaker 1: learn a lot about what she likes. She's she I
Speaker 1: don't know. But then it's weird because it's like she's
Speaker 1: introduced like a more optimistic character where she's like, I
Speaker 1: believe that I am going to get love. But then
Speaker 1: it's like, but I don't know. It's bizarre. But then
Speaker 1: she rejects love all the time. I mean, I love that,
Speaker 1: I love Oh, we're rejecting the call. Yeah, of course
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to reject the call in what ways?
Speaker 1: Is like? That's the thing like the options where it's
Speaker 1: like her before they meet at the Starbucks, she runs
Speaker 1: into these black guys who are standing outside, and it's
Speaker 1: like all the options are bad? Like what love is
Speaker 1: she turning down? That was like reasonable, and we were
Speaker 1: led to leave believe that she's unreasonable. It's just like, no,
Speaker 1: she doesn't want to date the guy with the super
Speaker 1: long pinky nailed that probably does a lot of cocaine.
Speaker 1: It's it's literally, I mean, if that was if we
Speaker 1: were supposed to believe she was unreasonable for not wanting
Speaker 1: to date any of the men at that extremely busy Starbucks,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell the world like it's
Speaker 1: that is a very common experience, and yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: it was. It's funny. Movie is weird? Oh the first
Speaker 1: I was going to say that the first very funny
Speaker 1: two thousand and six Bechtel test pass Um is her
Speaker 1: talking to Leah about wedding dresses and Kenya telling Leah
Speaker 1: that she should choose a dress that she likes better.
Speaker 1: That means that she'll be very uncomfortable in it. And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, it does pass, but but at
Speaker 1: what cost? Okay? So then Kenya goes out with her
Speaker 1: three friends because all adult women have exactly three friends
Speaker 1: and they all hang out together all the time, and
Speaker 1: who knows how they met, yeah, or what they have
Speaker 1: in common as far as interest in um. But her
Speaker 1: friends are Susanette played by Golden Brooks, Cheryl played by
Speaker 1: Wendy Rickel Robinson, and Nedra played by Taraji p Henson.
Speaker 1: They talk about how they are among the black women
Speaker 1: who are educated professionals who are also unmarried. Kenya's friends
Speaker 1: criticize her for having standards that are too high because
Speaker 1: she has this list of criteria for her ideal black man.
Speaker 1: I went to a historically black college and I remember,
Speaker 1: like the first week of college, in some sort of
Speaker 1: big presentation someone did tell us and historically black college
Speaker 1: the ratio is often more women than men. At my
Speaker 1: college specifically it was eight to one. And yes, they
Speaker 1: were like, you, black women are getting degrees, which means
Speaker 1: that if you are unmarried by the time that you
Speaker 1: are thirty five, you are more likely to die in
Speaker 1: a plane crash than to ever get married. That and
Speaker 1: just underlining that starting when I was eighteen, just making
Speaker 1: sure I was aware, Hey, you're choosing education and therefore
Speaker 1: ten years old, just so you know. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: that is so aggressive and despicable. I thought it was
Speaker 1: interesting that like that because it reminded me of I'm
Speaker 1: trying to remember is it Sleepless in Seattle where Carrie
Speaker 1: Fisher is Megryan's friend, where they brought up another statistics
Speaker 1: And the thing is most of those statistics are made
Speaker 1: up to scare women and make them feel bad like that.
Speaker 1: I remember, like famously, there's like a something like you're
Speaker 1: more likely to be killed in a terrorist attack than
Speaker 1: get married after thirty something was like a famous but
Speaker 1: that was like on the cover of like Life magazine
Speaker 1: in like the seventies or eighties, Like it's just like,
Speaker 1: we just need to make women feel as bad as possible,
Speaker 1: so they'll date these garbage men that the lower the standards. Yes,
Speaker 1: it sucks. Let us be garbage. That's what men are
Speaker 1: saying to me. And then I'm like, yes, let's go
Speaker 1: to Margaritaville. Oh my god, he paid for my dinner
Speaker 1: at Margaritaville. He's a keeper. Yeah, I love him. But
Speaker 1: I thought it was interesting that this scene gets more
Speaker 1: specific and like talks about black women in their thirties specifically,
Speaker 1: but they never I was waiting for them to bust
Speaker 1: the numbers, but then the number just kept getting more
Speaker 1: specific in a way that was more aggressive towards them,
Speaker 1: and then the scene ended. I was like, oh no, right,
Speaker 1: um So, because Kenya's standards are so high, her friends
Speaker 1: encourage her to be more open minded. They say, let
Speaker 1: go let flow. That's like the new motto of all
Speaker 1: the gals in the group. Sounds like a tampon commercial,
Speaker 1: but I was like, I'll let's roll with this or
Speaker 1: let go stop flow would be tampas stop flow, maybe
Speaker 1: a bad tam um So, because Kenya decides to take
Speaker 1: her friend's advice, she decides to go on this blind
Speaker 1: date after all, and it ends up being with this
Speaker 1: guy named Brian played by Simon Baker. But she's immediately uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: perhaps because she's at the most crowded Starbucks of all time,
Speaker 1: but she's uncomfortable and she leaves almost immediately, and you
Speaker 1: get the sense that the reason is that she is
Speaker 1: not interested in dating a white man. Then she goes
Speaker 1: to Leah's engagement party and she's like, Wow, this landscaping
Speaker 1: is amazing. I want landscaping like this from my backyard. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess who's there. It's Brian and he's like, I
Speaker 1: heard you like my landscaping. I love her. They have
Speaker 1: like five different meat cutes and they're all boring, like
Speaker 1: it's like we met at Starbucks. She liked by landscaping, Like, guys,
Speaker 1: we gotta find a better meeting story. And she's having
Speaker 1: like a panic attack at each one because he's like,
Speaker 1: I heard you like my landscaping and she's like, um,
Speaker 1: never mind, I have to go. But she decides to
Speaker 1: hire him for his services, so he shows up. He
Speaker 1: starts brainstorming ideas, but she continues to be you know
Speaker 1: quote unquote high strung. At one point, a spider gets
Speaker 1: in her hair or she thinks a spider is in
Speaker 1: her hair, and she like has a meltdown. Basically she's
Speaker 1: just not really being her best self around Brian. Well,
Speaker 1: to be fair, before that spider thing happens. This is
Speaker 1: something Brian does a lot where it's like I think
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is very like oh six
Speaker 1: slightly coercive romance where he's like, you're coming to this
Speaker 1: garden with me and she's like, no, I'm not as
Speaker 1: two pm. I am at work. I'm working right now.
Speaker 1: And he's like you're coming to this garden with me,
Speaker 1: and she's like, I guess I'm going to this garden
Speaker 1: with you, and then that's kind of how they go
Speaker 1: on all of their day. The way later he's like,
Speaker 1: and now you're going hiking with me, and she explicitly
Speaker 1: was like, like on a date because if it's a date,
Speaker 1: I'm not interested. And he's like, it's it's just you're
Speaker 1: hiking with me, and she's like, well, I fucking hate hiking,
Speaker 1: so I don't want to go. And also the clothes
Speaker 1: they both wear while they're hiking are not appropriate hiking wear.
Speaker 1: He's really like Brian. I feel like, really is like
Speaker 1: living up to the vibe that his name gives. He's
Speaker 1: really Brian ing out because he's just like a weird
Speaker 1: guy truly. Okay, So meanwhile, at work, Kenya is being
Speaker 1: considered for partner. I it took me a while to
Speaker 1: figure out what her actual job was. She's an accountant, right,
Speaker 1: but I didn't know. I didn't know accountants could be partners, right,
Speaker 1: And she works in the place firm and partners. I
Speaker 1: think I don't know anything of that. I was like,
Speaker 1: is that true? Because I was like, I I just
Speaker 1: wrote down like might be a question mark, don't know
Speaker 1: firm equals partners, Like does everything that's business work exactly
Speaker 1: like a law firm? I thought she was a lawyer
Speaker 1: for a while, but then they sam saying accounting, well,
Speaker 1: because the firm that she works at sounds like the
Speaker 1: name of a law firm, because it's just a bunch
Speaker 1: of people's last names. I don't remember what they are,
Speaker 1: but her mom makes it's something like her mom is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you work at Pippity Poppity and Boop or something. It's
Speaker 1: Alfrey Wooter too, and you're just like it's I was
Speaker 1: I I love her so much, and I was also like, wow,
Speaker 1: they really gave her a pretty thankless mom role here,
Speaker 1: where she's like, my daughter has to get married and
Speaker 1: like that's all of the lines. And then she's like, brb,
Speaker 1: I gotta go shopping because I love shopping. Yes, and
Speaker 1: then there I'm sorry, everything's kind out now. But it's always,
Speaker 1: like in rom comms, or like any coming of age
Speaker 1: ish story for women, the dad always gets the cathartic speech.
Speaker 1: He always gets to be like the reasonable one. And
Speaker 1: I love the dad character in this movie, but I
Speaker 1: was also like, it's always the dad that's like, my
Speaker 1: baby deserves the world. And she's like, uh, you're right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go find Brian and put him in a
Speaker 1: Mariachi suit. We'll get to it. But why over a
Speaker 1: T shirt? Over? Yeah? Is this necessary? Um? Okay, So
Speaker 1: she's an accountant, we think, and she's considered doesn't matter
Speaker 1: at all what she does, not quite. I mean, in
Speaker 1: the grand tradition of women in rom coms having jobs
Speaker 1: that you're like, is that a job this movie very
Speaker 1: much follows. At least she's not a curator at a
Speaker 1: museum or works at a fashion magazine, or an undercover
Speaker 1: journalist at a fashion magazine must sleep with the scoop y,
Speaker 1: so her being made partner is contingent on this account
Speaker 1: she's working on for this guy named Pino, but he
Speaker 1: doesn't seem to trust that Kenya can do a good
Speaker 1: job because he's racist and also probably sexist. Probably back
Speaker 1: at home, Brian has started doing the landscaping job. Kenya
Speaker 1: is looking at his muscles. Then her brother Nelson played
Speaker 1: by Donald Fazon, shows up and he's like, you need
Speaker 1: a boyfriend. He jumped scares into the movie. It's the
Speaker 1: most Donald's entrance ever because he's just like a pane
Speaker 1: of glass. They're like, oh, it's turk, yeah, right, And
Speaker 1: then he shows up with his girlfriend and the run
Speaker 1: joke there is that every scene he's in he has
Speaker 1: a different girlfriend, but he shows up with the first girlfriend.
Speaker 1: But he's like, hey, sister, you need a boyfriend. And
Speaker 1: also you went on a blind date with a white guy.
Speaker 1: That's disgusting. How did you know that? Right? It was
Speaker 1: a spy at the Starbucks. I didn't even think of that.
Speaker 1: How did you know that? How do you know? Bizarre character? Um? Anyway,
Speaker 1: so Kenya and her brother Nelson meet up with their
Speaker 1: parents to celebrate their mom's birthday. They go to this
Speaker 1: dance performance that's very sensual and it's and it seems
Speaker 1: which kind of an awkward thing to see you with
Speaker 1: your parents, especially because it seems to awaken something in Kenya.
Speaker 1: This dance makes her horny. I mean, it's a really
Speaker 1: beautiful I was trying to look. I couldn't find I looked.
Speaker 1: I was like, who are those dancers? What dance company
Speaker 1: is that? Can I watch more? Couldn't figure it out.
Speaker 1: But and then that was I mean, that's also a
Speaker 1: very mu You're like, oh, of course she directed music
Speaker 1: videos that was like a sexy music video in the
Speaker 1: middle of the movie, Yeah, that's great like that, And
Speaker 1: when it's showing the showcase, like the close up of
Speaker 1: Brian's muscles as he's working, all those like little touches
Speaker 1: that have like artistry in what is otherwise a very
Speaker 1: traditional rom com. I liked those a lot. I really
Speaker 1: I love a music video to direct or pivot. It
Speaker 1: just works, except when it's mcg You didn't like Charlie's
Speaker 1: Angels one into you didn't like those? I mean I do.
Speaker 1: I do have a huge soft spot for Charlie's Angels
Speaker 1: one I will, I have to admit, but I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't. I can't vouch for mcg. I don't have
Speaker 1: enough vouch Um. Was there not a kind of random
Speaker 1: dance scene in the episode that we covered with you
Speaker 1: can before this one and she's got to have it?
Speaker 1: Isn't there a scene where like they watch a dance?
Speaker 1: It sounds familiar? Yes, it's because the whole most of
Speaker 1: the movies in black and mike, except for this dance
Speaker 1: in color. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah, I have a very
Speaker 1: different like filmed dancing. But yeah, wow, Okay, I'm sensing patterns.
Speaker 1: Listeners think nice mobile dance break, think it make that
Speaker 1: a thing started, the new merch coming out. So I
Speaker 1: look at them. Let's get the ball rolling on, Let's
Speaker 1: make it happen. Okay. So she's hoarding now because she
Speaker 1: watched this dance. Then one night Brian is working late
Speaker 1: on her backyard. She orders them take out. They have
Speaker 1: some wine together. They talk about romance and dating and
Speaker 1: she's like, I prefer dating black men, and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I like all women, and she's I like that. She
Speaker 1: kind of in a way that I felt I agreed with.
Speaker 1: She was like, oh you you know, she's like or
Speaker 1: She's like, oh, so you're like a player, he's a ship.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. And he's like, no, no, that my mom.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just Brian. Don't worry about your right.
Speaker 1: And then there's the scene where he makes her go
Speaker 1: hiking despite her many protests, and it gets romantic because
Speaker 1: it starts pouring rain, so they need to like go
Speaker 1: to a tree and and kiss. Yeah, that's necessary in
Speaker 1: the rain. So got it, got it. But as he's
Speaker 1: dropping her off back home, she's like, this is not
Speaker 1: going to go any further by. But then he comes
Speaker 1: into her house and they kiss passionately and they have sex.
Speaker 1: He paints or tow nails. Yes, I was like he does,
Speaker 1: he does? He like? I was like, wow, wiki feet
Speaker 1: was just not around then it because I just don't
Speaker 1: think you would see that in a movie today. Jamie,
Speaker 1: are you on wiki fee? I am on? I have
Speaker 1: five stars? Thank you for asking five stars. Yeah, Caitlin,
Speaker 1: are you on wiky feet? I've never looked, but I
Speaker 1: don't imagine I am. But I don't know. I'm on
Speaker 1: wiky feet and I'm so mad that I'm only three
Speaker 1: and like a quarter stars my feet are apparently that's
Speaker 1: what the Internet has voted that I have bad feet.
Speaker 1: Yes see, I would like to just pose it. My
Speaker 1: feet are pretty gross and they seem to like that.
Speaker 1: So it may just be a compliment to your feet
Speaker 1: because I have like little like I call them hobbit feet.
Speaker 1: They're just like they don't have a real shape. They're flat,
Speaker 1: They're just like a weird triangle that's at the base
Speaker 1: of their giant toughs of fur on them like hobbits. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't want to get into it. That's that's that's
Speaker 1: besides the point. But yeah, I've got habit feed in
Speaker 1: there for three point to five or something that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, I've got I got hair on my toes,
Speaker 1: but they just don't give a ship. There's a there's
Speaker 1: a new uh, there's a new foot website someone told
Speaker 1: me about called girl foot dot com, which just feels
Speaker 1: two on the nose. Yeah. I checked and it's real
Speaker 1: and got a page there to you're gonna look at
Speaker 1: it after this. See if I'm on there, see if
Speaker 1: I'm similarly lowly ranked. Come on, I hope you're pulling
Speaker 1: a five over on girlfoot. Who knows what they're doing
Speaker 1: over there. I'm gonna have to like hire a photographer
Speaker 1: to take photos of me with my feet in it
Speaker 1: just so that I can get a higher foot rating
Speaker 1: on Wiki feet. Maybe that's and then you're playing right
Speaker 1: into their damn it feet. You're playing right into the
Speaker 1: soles of their feet. Wow, that's exactly what they want. Okay.
Speaker 1: So meanwhile in the movie, Kenya and Brian have had sex.
Speaker 1: The next morning, they're doing pillow talk and he asks
Speaker 1: about her hair. He's not sure how weaves work, and
Speaker 1: this prompts her to realize that this relationship with this
Speaker 1: white guy and their cultural differences will never work. So
Speaker 1: she tells him to leave, and she also fires him
Speaker 1: as her landscaper. That don't do that, employers. It does
Speaker 1: seem like he's almost done. He does, yes, yeah, And
Speaker 1: then her friends are like, Kenya, if he can dick
Speaker 1: you down, well, who cares if he's white, Go for it,
Speaker 1: Let go, let flow. I love that the white is
Speaker 1: the problem, not the doesn't listen when I say I
Speaker 1: don't want to do things, or the fact that he
Speaker 1: like lets his he brings his dog to work. I
Speaker 1: don't know, there's lots of issues. He's also the white thing,
Speaker 1: the white thing. He's extremely condescending to her on many occasions. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's like coercive and the activities that he wants her
Speaker 1: to do, just like all this stuff. They don't even
Speaker 1: know each other well. And he's like, yeah, you're too uptight,
Speaker 1: and she says, does it show? And I don't know
Speaker 1: why that made me so mad, like saying, bitch, you
Speaker 1: don't know me what you're talking about. Also, are you
Speaker 1: doing your job, Like, get out of my house some
Speaker 1: of your business? Maybe alone, it's nighttime? Why are you here?
Speaker 1: I really hated how he talked to her about her hair.
Speaker 1: And then but and then, like every time he does
Speaker 1: something like that, he'll then be like what you're like why?
Speaker 1: And I have a whole list what do you mean?
Speaker 1: So her friends are like, but he's got a good dick,
Speaker 1: so who cares? And so she decides to keep seeing him.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, if the dick was bad, could she still
Speaker 1: be racist? It's like, if the dick is bad, you're right, Kenya,
Speaker 1: just right off white boys entirely that one. The whole
Speaker 1: thing is bad. Get rid of it. Who knows um.
Speaker 1: She decides to keep seeing him. She also has her
Speaker 1: we've taken out. Then there's a montage of them being
Speaker 1: cute and romantic together. This is when he paints her toenails.
Speaker 1: They go to a comedy show where some Moore is
Speaker 1: doing stand up. She does a whole set. She does
Speaker 1: a whole set, very funny. Sett as laughing, but some
Speaker 1: of her friends are skeptical about Kenya being with a
Speaker 1: white guy, especially Walter played by Mike Epps. And also
Speaker 1: there's a scene where Kenya has to explain the Black
Speaker 1: tax to Brian, where because of systemic racism, black people
Speaker 1: have to work twice as hard just to prove they
Speaker 1: are equal. And he's like, what, I had no idea,
Speaker 1: And then he did, oh he did the Brian thing
Speaker 1: where he where he's like are you sure, are you
Speaker 1: sure you're not being dramatic or like are you sure
Speaker 1: you're not like paranoid paranoid? Oh my god. He literally like,
Speaker 1: are you sure you're not being hysterical? And she's like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not, and he's like, okay, You're like sure. Look
Speaker 1: and Brian, there's just so many reasons to not to
Speaker 1: not be reading for Brian really both of them, to
Speaker 1: be honest, like she has a nothing personality, he's kind
Speaker 1: of a person. Do they deserve each other? Maybe I
Speaker 1: did write that. I was like, these people are too
Speaker 1: different flavors of boring and like they want to like
Speaker 1: something that does I don't know. Sometimes I'm like, this
Speaker 1: is probably something I've done where you're like, wow, a
Speaker 1: different kind of boring than me. It must mean that's interesting.
Speaker 1: And then you're like, no, it's just not my boring.
Speaker 1: It's that person's too, and that can work. Two borings
Speaker 1: cancel out and make an interesting. Um. He's like, have
Speaker 1: you ever heard of like aquamarine paint. I'm like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, these two. And she's like, no, I'm too boring.
Speaker 1: I only like beige, and we're like, beige is my favorite.
Speaker 1: It's silly, okay. So then Kenya throws a housewarming party.
Speaker 1: Her brother Nelson is trying to set her up with
Speaker 1: this guy Mark played by Blair Underwood, who Nelson had
Speaker 1: invited to the party. So they meet and Mark asks
Speaker 1: her out, but she's like, I don't know. Meanwhile, Kenya
Speaker 1: is starting to question her relationship with Brian, especially when
Speaker 1: he brushes her off to talk about race and the
Speaker 1: microaggressions she's experiencing at work. There's this scene in a
Speaker 1: grocery store where she gives a few monologues that I
Speaker 1: want to examine more closely. But basically, they break up.
Speaker 1: So Kenya goes out with Mark and they hit it
Speaker 1: off and they have a lot in common. But a
Speaker 1: couple of weeks later, Brian shows up and apologizes to Kenya.
Speaker 1: He wants to make things work, but she's like, nah,
Speaker 1: I met someone. He says, I love you. He does say,
Speaker 1: he really goes for it. How long were they dating?
Speaker 1: I'm sorry? How long did this landscaping job take for
Speaker 1: him to say that, I'm sorry? Breckyard is not that big.
Speaker 1: I don't understand. Maybe a few weeks, I'm not sure. Maybe,
Speaker 1: And then he puts the most two thousand six looking
Speaker 1: fountain I've ever seen in my life, Like the kind
Speaker 1: of fountains he was installing. They're looking pretty rough these days,
Speaker 1: they're they're looking kind of old. Yeah. Yeah. So she
Speaker 1: keeps seeing Mark, but something doesn't feel quite right. He's
Speaker 1: perfect on paper, but she doesn't feel any spark, so
Speaker 1: she breaks up with him. How long because they meet
Speaker 1: him like her parents meet him. How long are they dated?
Speaker 1: The timeline for everything is very oh what, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: and Kenya's friends are like, well, if you felt that
Speaker 1: spark with Brian, then maybe reconsider. But Brian has gotten
Speaker 1: back together with his ex girlfriend Penelope. Then at work,
Speaker 1: Kenya has made partner after she stands up for herself.
Speaker 1: She like, does I think that there's like a micro
Speaker 1: second of tension where she stands up for herself during
Speaker 1: a meeting where she's once again being treated in a
Speaker 1: very racist, misogynist way, and then she goes back and
Speaker 1: you're like, oh, I like I honestly I was. I
Speaker 1: kind of I liked that she did get the promotion
Speaker 1: and it went the correct roum com way, because I
Speaker 1: was like, if she leaves her, I would be so
Speaker 1: pissed for her. But then she does. She a you know,
Speaker 1: the the guy never apologizes for being racist the whole movie,
Speaker 1: but he's like, hey, your partner, so I guess I'm
Speaker 1: redeemed and whatever my name is, and you're like, all right, right.
Speaker 1: Then Kenya goes with her family to a cotillion, which
Speaker 1: is something I only know about because Rose talks about
Speaker 1: it in Titanic She's like it was gonna be an
Speaker 1: endless parade of parties and cortillions, and I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: that must mean fancy party. Yeah. Yeah, I think my
Speaker 1: sister did that. Really, Yes, my older sister, not my
Speaker 1: twin sister, because that would be messed up before. It's
Speaker 1: like she got to do it and they were like, now,
Speaker 1: we don't think you need to be introduced to society
Speaker 1: in such a way. So yeah, but my older sister
Speaker 1: did it. She had a white cotillion dress, long gloves,
Speaker 1: there was a guy, there was lots of conversations around it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: It just means that there's pictures in my mom's house
Speaker 1: of my older sister in a cool dress and a
Speaker 1: lot of other black teenager is just trying to be fancy.
Speaker 1: It is like a teenager thing, right, because you're like
Speaker 1: a debut, you're being debuted. All these people in this
Speaker 1: movie seem to be adults, so it's like they're attending
Speaker 1: it because I think it's like in a community event. Um,
Speaker 1: but I don't think she's not supposed to be in
Speaker 1: this like wave of people who are being introduced to society.
Speaker 1: I don't think. Okay, I get it, no, because she
Speaker 1: because she shows Brian a picture of herself when she
Speaker 1: was debuted, when she was a teenager, so I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: she's it's like she's attending as a community member. Because
Speaker 1: then they also show like just a random music video
Speaker 1: e montage of teenagers walking down the being like I'm
Speaker 1: a woman, now you can marry me or whatever it's
Speaker 1: supposed to me. And I don't is that is how
Speaker 1: what it's for. I don't quite understand. I think it's
Speaker 1: the same thing as that. Yeah, it's like, Okay, these
Speaker 1: are the seasons eligible ladies who are fresh and new.
Speaker 1: Um look at these umber of women who are fresh
Speaker 1: and new. Pick one marrier. I don't know. These are
Speaker 1: the people who was acceptable to have kids with. Don't
Speaker 1: have kids with other people. They're gross. Poor people are gross.
Speaker 1: Get him out of here. Um. So. And then at
Speaker 1: this cortillion, Kenya is getting drunk and she's like loudly
Speaker 1: roasting it. She's like, good luck finding love, and she's
Speaker 1: kind of like calling out the classism of it all.
Speaker 1: And then she goes to the bathroom and starts crying
Speaker 1: because she misses Brian or something. How long ago did
Speaker 1: they break up? I don't know what timeline unclear. And
Speaker 1: then her dad comes into the restroom and he's like yeah.
Speaker 1: But then he's like, I'm a doctor because another woman
Speaker 1: comes into the like ladies restroom, and he's just like,
Speaker 1: I've seen it all, I've done it all. I'm a doctor.
Speaker 1: I can be here, um, And so her dad is like, look,
Speaker 1: love is an adventure. I can tell that you love Brian,
Speaker 1: so go do something at out it. So Kenya gets
Speaker 1: in her brother's Jaguar or something and she races off.
Speaker 1: She finds Brian and she's like, you're the one that
Speaker 1: I want. I can be myself around you, and you
Speaker 1: love me the way I am. Isn't he dating someone
Speaker 1: at this time? Yes, he's still with Penelope, I think.
Speaker 1: But she's like I love you and he's like, well,
Speaker 1: I love you too, and I never stopped loving you.
Speaker 1: And then they kisskis kiss, why are you? Penelope's like
Speaker 1: she's like, I was minding my own business and you
Speaker 1: came back into my life. What. Yeah, it is bizarre
Speaker 1: that he gets back with his long term ex like
Speaker 1: that's yes, that's a hard left. That's a hard don't
Speaker 1: do that, Brian. Grow up, Brian. So they kiss and
Speaker 1: then she brings him back to the cotillion and they
Speaker 1: dance and then they cut to their wedding the end.
Speaker 1: So let's take a break and we will come back
Speaker 1: to discuss, and we're back where to start? I mean,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to start by like shouting out like
Speaker 1: the key creatives in this movie. So we do have
Speaker 1: we have. We've already given the full list of works
Speaker 1: from Sanahamri, who is really cool. She also has I
Speaker 1: didn't know anything about her background, but she's um, she's
Speaker 1: Moroccan by birth, she's half Jewish. She's like, she's got
Speaker 1: a really multicultural background, and she's a music video director.
Speaker 1: But this is like, it's a you know, it's a
Speaker 1: movie about black women in their thirties made by women
Speaker 1: of color around that age, even though the director wasn't
Speaker 1: even thirty, which made me feel great about myself. We
Speaker 1: also have a kind of like legendary TV writer who
Speaker 1: is also a black woman. Her name is Chris Turner.
Speaker 1: I didn't know her by name, but she wrote on
Speaker 1: kind of every show for a while. She wrote on
Speaker 1: Everybody Hates Chris, she wrote on Sister Sister, she wrote
Speaker 1: on The Cosby Show, she wrote on Living Single, so
Speaker 1: she had the four Friends uh system down already. I'm
Speaker 1: also seeing Bernie Max Shew Bernie Mac show, Whoopee Home Economics.
Speaker 1: She's working right now, so she's like a legendary. She's
Speaker 1: mostly in TV. But I just thought it was cool
Speaker 1: that it was like, oh, this is what we talked
Speaker 1: about all the time of like random white guys or
Speaker 1: white women taking the reins on stories that don't that
Speaker 1: aren't theirs. Um so and how you can tell and
Speaker 1: for this movie, I mean, it is trying to do
Speaker 1: some stuff and I think it probably would have been
Speaker 1: kind of groundbreaking for two thousand six. Um. Luckily we
Speaker 1: have moved past we had this, and that's encouraging. Um
Speaker 1: because like mainstream rom coms skew so white and so
Speaker 1: there's kind of it wouldn't occur to anyone, like any
Speaker 1: of the characters to address anything like racism, because like
Speaker 1: rom coms operate on a premise of there needs to
Speaker 1: be something keeping these characters from being fully together until
Speaker 1: the very end, something needs to be getting in the way,
Speaker 1: and oftentimes, especially with like hyper white rom coms, it
Speaker 1: will be like a lie or a misunderstanding or a bet.
Speaker 1: Think of like how to lose a guy in ten
Speaker 1: days while you were sleeping, those like teen rom coms
Speaker 1: of the nineties, like ten Things I Hate About You,
Speaker 1: or She's all that. There's all these like kind of
Speaker 1: very contrived, like very like movie things that never happened
Speaker 1: in real life, or like a person that's like most
Speaker 1: of the j Lo ones, except it made in Manhattan.
Speaker 1: It's class Where is it a lie? Is she lying
Speaker 1: and made in Manhattin? Is she pretends? Yeah, she's pretending
Speaker 1: to be rich. Yeah, she's pretending to be a lady
Speaker 1: who's staying at the hotel versus lady who works there.
Speaker 1: She wasn't visible before, but now because she's that's the person,
Speaker 1: but wearing a nice coat, she is fancy and therefore
Speaker 1: deserving of love. Yes, right, the class based lie. Yes,
Speaker 1: So it's always things like that, whereas in this movie,
Speaker 1: the thing that's getting in the way is far more
Speaker 1: grounded and realistic, and it happens in real life, which
Speaker 1: is like tension from being in an interracial relationship. Does
Speaker 1: the movie handle this amazingly well? I would say probably not.
Speaker 1: It could go but yes, right, I think we've had
Speaker 1: as a society much better conversations about race, We're not done,
Speaker 1: but had better conversations around it, and so the expectations
Speaker 1: are also different, because surely if today a man was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe you're being sensitive, I'd be like,
Speaker 1: fuck you off. Like it's it is. There is still
Speaker 1: like the classic round com implication that like he quote
Speaker 1: unquote fixes her with his mediocre coercion tactics. I was like,
Speaker 1: with his magic penis, he had colored to her life, right.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it was very rare for a rom com
Speaker 1: from the mid two thousand's to address things like microaggressions
Speaker 1: and white privilege and things like that, so I was
Speaker 1: surprised that it was having those conversations. For me, this
Speaker 1: movie felt like, I don't know, it felt like two
Speaker 1: things being true at one time. A lot of the
Speaker 1: times we're like in Oh six, I can't think of
Speaker 1: another movie that was even attempting this discussion. I like
Speaker 1: that it's being at one what is it Guess Who?
Speaker 1: With Asidon Coultcher and Bernie Mac. Oh my god, I
Speaker 1: where they are similarly dealing with a white guy, black
Speaker 1: girl Bernie Mac as the father. But it is not good.
Speaker 1: I was going to say something more educated than that,
Speaker 1: but genuinely. That movie is not good, nor did it
Speaker 1: say anything particularly meaningful about the black experience. It's just
Speaker 1: they've swapped it because it's supposed to be like a
Speaker 1: new version of Guests Who's Coming to Dinners? And while
Speaker 1: that one was supposed to like push boundaries and be
Speaker 1: a conversation starter, this one was not that. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone really remembers guests who and they shouldn't.
Speaker 1: I do remember Ashton Coultcher really was working back then.
Speaker 1: I feel like he didn't deserve to meet Bernie mac
Speaker 1: but that's my opinion. And then Zoe Zoey saw Donna is,
Speaker 1: Yeah the woman that marry Ashton, could your be serious
Speaker 1: and his dreams in two thousand and six? Maybe that
Speaker 1: was maybe he was punked and she was just center
Speaker 1: stage what and she was Wow, she was crossroads? How
Speaker 1: times have changed? Well in comparison? If that, then something
Speaker 1: new is groundberg breaking, revolutionary, never been done before. Um,
Speaker 1: but I do like it was. I wanted to go
Speaker 1: back to like how this movie was reviewed or like
Speaker 1: received at the time, because it seemed to be received
Speaker 1: pretty well and again, like another gigantic issue of the
Speaker 1: two thousand's and still today, but less so than before.
Speaker 1: It's like you still have just vastly majority white movie critics,
Speaker 1: and so all of us needs to be taken with
Speaker 1: a gigantic grain of salt because you're like, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know how we should feel about how you know,
Speaker 1: Roger Ebert feels about this topic, although he gave this
Speaker 1: movie a terrific review three and a half out of
Speaker 1: four stars, because to me, this is the same level
Speaker 1: as Silver Linings Playbook. In Silver Linings Playbook a lot
Speaker 1: of awards, and to me, I put those on these
Speaker 1: on the same footings where there's uh, salsa dancing competition,
Speaker 1: we have seventies episode of The Brady Bunch. What are
Speaker 1: you talking about? UM? I think that, Like, the movie
Speaker 1: was received pretty positively. I mean, it was received as
Speaker 1: a rom com of like, this is a really like
Speaker 1: I've never seen a rom com explore these themes. But
Speaker 1: but the tone of a lot of the reviews, I
Speaker 1: just like, I don't feel good or bad about it.
Speaker 1: But I was like, that's interesting, Like they all mentioned
Speaker 1: like I've never seen this topic even attempted in this
Speaker 1: genre before, and I was like, oh, I guess that, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that that is a big thing. But also we can
Speaker 1: hold the truth of Brian socks. Okay, Brian sucks, but
Speaker 1: m Kenya also kind of subs dude, Like, think of
Speaker 1: your friend groups, none of you would hang out with
Speaker 1: her because she doesn't have any interest or a perspective
Speaker 1: or a visual style or and she's nothing outside of that.
Speaker 1: She works really hard, which is great, But what did
Speaker 1: she what do he like? Is she funny? She loves
Speaker 1: beige and she hates the color red and dogs when
Speaker 1: she's self identified as beige. I was like, that is
Speaker 1: a bold move because most people, like, even if you
Speaker 1: are personality beige, don't usually admit it, Like you think
Speaker 1: you're interesting, right right? Everyone thinks they're interesting. But but
Speaker 1: I don't think that. I don't think that Kenya really
Speaker 1: thinks that about herself. But it also doesn't seem like
Speaker 1: a concern, Like she's just like I am who I am,
Speaker 1: which is beautiful. But also like Brian wants to change her. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know does he like her or does he
Speaker 1: like the changed version of her that he hopes to create?
Speaker 1: Good question, But I also like personality beige as a
Speaker 1: description of a type of person, and I will be
Speaker 1: using it moving forward, just like him personality page. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: but yeah, can we go through the ways that he
Speaker 1: is a shitty person, because he's often talking to her
Speaker 1: in a way that's very judgmental, condescending. He's doing the
Speaker 1: kind of like, you know, the the gas lighty thing
Speaker 1: of like, are you sure you're not just being paranoid?
Speaker 1: People are being racist to you? Yeah? Oh you need
Speaker 1: to relax. Yeah, let me see. Okay. So, so this
Speaker 1: is the scene where I think they're like having take
Speaker 1: out together in her house. He comments on all of
Speaker 1: her like walls and furniture and everything being so beige,
Speaker 1: and I ask you, yeah, I hate yeah, And and
Speaker 1: he's like, when are you gonna paint? When are you
Speaker 1: gonna bring some color in here? Colors are exciting and bold,
Speaker 1: And she's like, well, I'm not bold, I'm boring. He's like,
Speaker 1: I don't even think you know who you are. You
Speaker 1: haven't taken the time to get to know yourself because
Speaker 1: always working. You don't excuse you frostrating, right, sir. He's
Speaker 1: very like, I don't know. Yeah, he's very like thinks
Speaker 1: he knows her way better than he does immediately, which
Speaker 1: she pushes back on. She's like, yeah, you don't know me,
Speaker 1: but I guess I was having trouble getting into my
Speaker 1: two thousand six brain in certain moments where I'm like,
Speaker 1: how am I supposed to feel about her in this moment?
Speaker 1: Because it's obvious that, like the script and the movie
Speaker 1: are very on her side. We're seeing things generally through
Speaker 1: her perspective, So I don't think at any point you're
Speaker 1: supposed to be like, I don't like her, But there's
Speaker 1: moments where I'm like, are we supposed to think she's
Speaker 1: being unreasonable right now by like telling Brian who's telling
Speaker 1: her who she is and like what she should do?
Speaker 1: Like I feel like we were supposed to think she's
Speaker 1: been she needs to loosen up because look at this.
Speaker 1: Look at this, Brian, And you're like, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They do that from the very beginning. When she does
Speaker 1: look at her calendar and it's just thing after thing
Speaker 1: after things, they're like, wow, look how uptight the bitches
Speaker 1: instead of like she's important and busy, just like a
Speaker 1: genre wide trope of like it reminded me of a
Speaker 1: movie I barely remember, but it's like the strongest I've
Speaker 1: ever felt this trope. The Sandra Bullock two weeks notice
Speaker 1: where she's like, I'm I need to be forced to
Speaker 1: be married because I'm I'm so at work, and you're
Speaker 1: just like, yeah, the trope of a woman can't have
Speaker 1: a romantic life because she already has a job. You
Speaker 1: can't have both, and you gotta be a little worse
Speaker 1: at your job so that men will like you because
Speaker 1: they're not going to like you as this confident, successful woman. No,
Speaker 1: stop that, that's gross. Stop it. You got to be
Speaker 1: less less. Dial it back. So a few moments later,
Speaker 1: in this same conversation, in the same scene, he says
Speaker 1: something like, I take it you don't date white guys,
Speaker 1: and she says, I happen to prefer black men. It's
Speaker 1: not a prejudice, it's a preference. And then he responds with, sure,
Speaker 1: it's your preference to be prejudice. First of all, you
Speaker 1: can't be prejudice or racist against the fucking oppressive class,
Speaker 1: Like you can't that, it's not how it works. And
Speaker 1: then he's like, oh, your prejudice because you don't like
Speaker 1: white people who have been actively oppressing you for your
Speaker 1: entire life and all of existence. And then he does
Speaker 1: make this little face he makes this. I just I
Speaker 1: went back and watched it again. He makes this, he
Speaker 1: makes his little face with that. To me was like
Speaker 1: he's like, I just blew her fucking mind. And it's like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. There's two things going on there. There
Speaker 1: is like I don't think it's great for you without
Speaker 1: any sort of background in it or knowledge to say like, oh,
Speaker 1: there's an entire race of people and I don't date them.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's great. But if most of your
Speaker 1: interactions do involve like, oh, yeah, I explain what my
Speaker 1: life is as a woman of color, and they're like,
Speaker 1: maybe you're just being paranoid. I think that's like if
Speaker 1: you are doing some thing besides that, then yes, maybe
Speaker 1: she should consider you. But why should she consider you
Speaker 1: If you don't think her experience is valid? Why should
Speaker 1: she consider you? She does all the time constantly. His
Speaker 1: whole thing is here's how you are, but here's how
Speaker 1: you should be. And when you say anything, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna listen. I'm not gonna believe you. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to validate anything. And it's like, why would she want that?
Speaker 1: But but she does, apparently because they get married at
Speaker 1: the end, they do she says, I can be diminished
Speaker 1: for the rest of my life, but you know what,
Speaker 1: it's worth it because I had a day. I had
Speaker 1: a day where I wore a fancy dress and it
Speaker 1: means that I'm valid. Baby. We're doing this for all,
Speaker 1: for the for the roast of Brian, and partially Kenya's
Speaker 1: personality that we're about to unleash. I will say the
Speaker 1: freeze frame shot this movie ends on what a beautiful picture.
Speaker 1: They really are both so hot and you're just like, Wow,
Speaker 1: they're attractive people. That's a picture that I would scroll
Speaker 1: pass on Instagram and be like, I want what they
Speaker 1: I get it. But also is that the piece that
Speaker 1: I'm missing because the only thing I think they have
Speaker 1: in common is that they are hot. They're both hot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well that's I mean, that's a classic rom that all
Speaker 1: the sexies equals one. Two sexies who are geographically near
Speaker 1: each other equals love, according to rom coms. The outside
Speaker 1: of that, what do they have in common? Yeah they don't.
Speaker 1: What do they like? He likes hiking, he likes gardening,
Speaker 1: he likes his dog. She doesn't like any of those things.
Speaker 1: She likes the dog. By the end, that is the
Speaker 1: change that's the one change which I think it's a mistake.
Speaker 1: You're letting a dog in your house like this. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: I know you both feel differently, but no, that's gross.
Speaker 1: It's already felt. The animal that like walks right by
Speaker 1: its own ship, Are you kidding me? And it's gonna
Speaker 1: walk with its bear paws? But look at Max, he's cute.
Speaker 1: I like, she bought a house in Los Angeles, like you,
Speaker 1: you can't let anyone. First of all, I was, I
Speaker 1: was really, I was like, wow, she must be making
Speaker 1: good money as accountant partner, and and it's cool that
Speaker 1: they like And I don't know, there are parts of
Speaker 1: this movie I liked where it's like you see the
Speaker 1: most of the movie happens in like Baldwin Hills, and
Speaker 1: you see like historically black areas of l a that
Speaker 1: aren't shown in movies a lot, and like that part,
Speaker 1: and then and then her house is so cute, And
Speaker 1: then I was like, yeah, I don't let especially like
Speaker 1: a new boyfriend's big stinky dog. I like dogs, but
Speaker 1: only if it's mine, Like, if it's yours, it shouldn't
Speaker 1: be at the house. If it's mine, it's got to
Speaker 1: be at the house. Wow, a brave stance to take,
Speaker 1: But to your point, I did. That's one thing that
Speaker 1: I the reason why I bought this movie. The reason
Speaker 1: why I've seen this movie several times is because it
Speaker 1: did have a lot of things in it that I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen before. So, like I lived in Los Angeles
Speaker 1: for a period of time, I hadn't seen Baldwin Hills
Speaker 1: represented in this way. I hadn't seen a movie where
Speaker 1: it was like for black professional women like doing stuff.
Speaker 1: I hadn't seen a lot of that before. So in
Speaker 1: that way, for me, it was sorry, something new. But
Speaker 1: now I do think that stuff is dated. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: for sure. But yeah, you do see representation of characters
Speaker 1: and situations you don't normally see, especially for this era.
Speaker 1: Like a main character who is a black woman with
Speaker 1: like a white collar job. She's rich, she's successful. All
Speaker 1: of her black friends and her family members have white
Speaker 1: collar jobs, their doctors, their lawyers, their judges. She knows
Speaker 1: her worth as a professional, even though other people around
Speaker 1: her are constantly questioning it, like that client guy. But
Speaker 1: like she knows her value. She never like questions that
Speaker 1: she knows her skills as relates to her as an
Speaker 1: accountant at Pippity Poppity Boop, the account that I did
Speaker 1: feel like at the end of what what did what
Speaker 1: did you all think? Over this? We're at the and
Speaker 1: she stands up for herself at work, and it's like
Speaker 1: a good scene, and you're like, Okay, she got what
Speaker 1: she wanted out of that, Like she is gonna have
Speaker 1: this job on her own terms, and she's gonna have
Speaker 1: two days off a month, and that was a huge
Speaker 1: win for look at her advocating for herself. She gets
Speaker 1: four day hours with which to be a human being.
Speaker 1: The rest you guys own, she really girl boss way
Speaker 1: out of that one. But but I felt like, again
Speaker 1: like I was trying to figure out. I was like,
Speaker 1: how does the movie want me to feel in this moment?
Speaker 1: I felt like it was like, Wow, because of Brian's love,
Speaker 1: I'm able to stand up for myself now, which doesn't
Speaker 1: even track with their relationship, Like it just was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess that this is what happens in two thousand
Speaker 1: six rom coms at this point. But it's like I
Speaker 1: liked the read of that scene where she's like spent
Speaker 1: a lot of the movie figuring out what she wants
Speaker 1: and what she doesn't want and like what she will
Speaker 1: accept his treatment and what she won't, even though accepting
Speaker 1: Brian makes no sense. Um, if your standards are are
Speaker 1: raising throughout the movie. But I don't know. I felt
Speaker 1: like it was like, oh, and because Brian's Dick taught
Speaker 1: me so much, I can now stand up for myself
Speaker 1: at accountants And I don't know, but I couldn't tell. No,
Speaker 1: I don't that. I feel like that that makes me
Speaker 1: not question that you don't believe my experience. That's a
Speaker 1: magical that's I don't think I've had dick that does that. No,
Speaker 1: I've yet dick that makes you feel confident. Interesting. But
Speaker 1: I agree with you, Jamie as far as that the way. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I'm looking something up on girl foot. Um No, but
Speaker 1: I know what you mean. I think that that is
Speaker 1: the intention of the movie. Like he broke her out
Speaker 1: of her shell, like he he does the whole Jack
Speaker 1: Dawson thing to Rose where it's like I'm a free
Speaker 1: spirit and I am helping you to open up blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, even though she has her friends to do that. Whatever.
Speaker 1: But going back to the part that feels dated to
Speaker 1: me about like this representation of these like rich and
Speaker 1: successful black people. Is that that is accompanied by a
Speaker 1: lot of classism, where like Donald Fazons like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: not going to shake hands with him, he's the help.
Speaker 1: Cheryl her Kenya's friend starts dating Mike Epps, who is
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure his job. I don't know if
Speaker 1: he's like a fancy chef or if he's like a
Speaker 1: line cook. I don't feel is unclear in this movie,
Speaker 1: but she perceives him to be lower class because she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: how come the only guys who like me are the
Speaker 1: ones like wearing an apron and a named They end
Speaker 1: up getting together and I think getting married. But I
Speaker 1: guess what I'm saying is I think there could have
Speaker 1: been a more interesting intersectional approach to this, just kind
Speaker 1: of like romance and just like interpersonal relationships in general.
Speaker 1: But they are classist in a way that I tend
Speaker 1: to associate more with rich white people. I mean, anyone
Speaker 1: can be classist. The point is, I think that those
Speaker 1: characters attitudes would be handled differently if this movie came
Speaker 1: out today. Yes, agree, because I think we do have
Speaker 1: more class consciousness and it is very frustrating. Um. I
Speaker 1: was raised of course not only in a black home,
Speaker 1: but a religious black home, and like a lot of
Speaker 1: my family is still Republican, but there is this very
Speaker 1: deep tie to know we are going to prove racist
Speaker 1: wrong by out capitalist ng them, and so we're gonna
Speaker 1: We're like, if we have more money, we show that
Speaker 1: we are valuable and that we are not the thing
Speaker 1: that racists think we are. If we do this elaborate sharade,
Speaker 1: which is what Casilians are, where it's like we're like
Speaker 1: society too, if we can do this just as well,
Speaker 1: like we're and I'm like, let's step away from that.
Speaker 1: Maybe we have value because they're human beings. We don't
Speaker 1: have that value because we're wealthy. It's a frustrating thing
Speaker 1: that they do, and I think specifically in the early
Speaker 1: two thousands where it's like, Okay, we want to show
Speaker 1: black people, but we don't want to fall into stereotypes.
Speaker 1: So all of them have to be kind of perfect,
Speaker 1: all of them have to be professional, all of them
Speaker 1: have to have money, all of them have to be
Speaker 1: in this way because that shows we've advanced versus that
Speaker 1: shows some really flat characters like Kenya, Like that's how
Speaker 1: you get I love beige interesting, and I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: like blame the characters for having that kind of mindset
Speaker 1: of being like, we have to be like the richest
Speaker 1: people in the community to prove our worth because we've
Speaker 1: all been brainwashed by capitalism, and certainly in two thousands six,
Speaker 1: like there was not that much challenging of class, at
Speaker 1: least in the main strand exactly, I'm thinking of Paris
Speaker 1: Hilton wearing a shirt that has stop being poor, and
Speaker 1: that was like, God, what probably that's about. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I get that happened because we were all poisoned by
Speaker 1: the sickness that is capitalism. But but yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that we are stepping away from that to some degree.
Speaker 1: And when you when you like put the sort of
Speaker 1: like the racing class intersection of this movie the way
Speaker 1: you just did conu it's weird because it's like, I
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm like, maybe it just is the time
Speaker 1: that this was written and released in, because it's not
Speaker 1: like this movie isn't set up to have that discussion.
Speaker 1: It's just like, because this movie is trying to have
Speaker 1: a lot of discussions, you know, to varying degrees of success.
Speaker 1: As we're talking about but like I think it's like
Speaker 1: cool and like ambitious and different of like a lot
Speaker 1: of the conversations this movie is at least attempting, but
Speaker 1: like Class isn't really one of them. And I feel
Speaker 1: like in certain moments it's like I don't know. I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know in a way that felt like I
Speaker 1: think I understand what the writer is going for it,
Speaker 1: but it just kind of came off a little flat
Speaker 1: because you know, it's like Brian does have less money
Speaker 1: than Kenya, it doesn't seem to generally bother him. But
Speaker 1: there is one scene where they're arguing about race, and
Speaker 1: it's also like this is unrelated, but that stage is
Speaker 1: very blue. Um. I was like, why is this seeing
Speaker 1: so blue? Grocery store lighting is famously so blue, so
Speaker 1: it's very music video lighting because you're like it's blue. Um.
Speaker 1: But they're arguing at the at the pharmacy in the
Speaker 1: scene where I hate Brian maybe the most, where he
Speaker 1: is saying like can we not talk about race today?
Speaker 1: I just need the night off, and like you're just like, wow,
Speaker 1: strike five for Brian. Um. But he sort of brings
Speaker 1: up he brings up class briefly in that discussion of like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't bring up class all the time and sort
Speaker 1: of equating these issues, and it's like it just feels
Speaker 1: like class is almost brought up as like, well, Brian's
Speaker 1: really oppressed too, and it's like, well, no, being a
Speaker 1: middle class white guy, like he's he's not like but
Speaker 1: it felt like the movie would sometimes try to approach
Speaker 1: a discussion like that, but then it never quite like
Speaker 1: even started the conversation, so I don't even know how
Speaker 1: it really felt. I honestly felt the same way about
Speaker 1: gender not being woven into the conversation that to me,
Speaker 1: I feel like the women feel oppressed only because it's
Speaker 1: like no one loves me, I don't have a boyfriends,
Speaker 1: is that they aren't getting dates? Um. I mean, I
Speaker 1: think it's open to interpretation. But for example, like when
Speaker 1: she's talking to that client in the recap, I was like,
Speaker 1: he's racist and also probably sexist, but like it seems
Speaker 1: like she was only ever speaking about him undervaluing her
Speaker 1: because she's black and not because she's a black woman,
Speaker 1: even though this guy is probably sexist also because he
Speaker 1: is trusting of only white men, right, It's like not
Speaker 1: like I was, I was kind of confused of where
Speaker 1: they not that I wanted more of her, but I
Speaker 1: was kind of confused why we would introduce the character
Speaker 1: Leah if because I thought I was like, oh, maybe
Speaker 1: this is going to be a character of like how
Speaker 1: is a white woman treated in this work setting versus
Speaker 1: a black woman? But you never kind of see You
Speaker 1: only see Leah worrying about her wedding dress at work,
Speaker 1: and I think you see her work. I don't know
Speaker 1: is she accountant to I don't know she just probably
Speaker 1: because the women in this story, aside from Kenya, we
Speaker 1: don't see them in the context of what they're actually
Speaker 1: doing for work. Nope, we only know of them as
Speaker 1: they relate to their relationships with men. So I do
Speaker 1: think this is not an excuse for the movie. But
Speaker 1: I do this is not a nude tests that exist.
Speaker 1: There are so many tests for movies out there, but
Speaker 1: I do I run a what would my mom say? Test? Okay,
Speaker 1: if the movie has too many ideas going on, I
Speaker 1: think people like within our age range and younger or like, yes,
Speaker 1: we get all these, but my mom would be like,
Speaker 1: what was that thing about that other? Like I thought
Speaker 1: the story was about this one thing, So that I
Speaker 1: know this one thing, but then you added some other
Speaker 1: stuff in there. I don't know what are we talking
Speaker 1: about now, So I will say that just having one
Speaker 1: thing that it's talking about does lean it towards the
Speaker 1: passing the will my mom like this test? My mom
Speaker 1: test yes? Well? And I also want to be like
Speaker 1: aware of like the fact that when movies are made
Speaker 1: by people marginalize in any way, there's always additional pressures
Speaker 1: of like you need to be saying this, this and this,
Speaker 1: and like I don't want to be a part of
Speaker 1: that problem of like why didn't this movie attack every
Speaker 1: single her sexual issue with black women's face. Why it's like, well,
Speaker 1: shut up, you don't ask that of most movies. Um,
Speaker 1: I think that like the reason and also like listeners,
Speaker 1: if you disagree with the approach, like let us know,
Speaker 1: I think that the reason that it feels very relevant
Speaker 1: to this movie is because it seems to be this
Speaker 1: movie's agenda. But I agree with you and your mom's
Speaker 1: theoretical opinion of of like it seems like possibly like
Speaker 1: Chris Turner was like, I need to choose, you know,
Speaker 1: what am I going to focus on? And she chooses,
Speaker 1: you know, race specifically to focus on. But I do,
Speaker 1: but it's like there was definitely room and and kind
Speaker 1: of like the characters were there to talk a little
Speaker 1: more about gender. I would love for one of them
Speaker 1: to have a passion, just sing passion. And there are
Speaker 1: a few things set up at the beginning of this
Speaker 1: movie that I feel like kind of fell to quote
Speaker 1: my favorite song from a Star is Born by the
Speaker 1: Wayside because of Brian, and I know that he's romantically
Speaker 1: in the round call whatever. But it's like at the beginning,
Speaker 1: you set up that Kenya is an inherently optimistic character,
Speaker 1: which kind of seems to go away, and then you
Speaker 1: also set up this like friendship, this very two thousand's
Speaker 1: friendship dynamic, and as weird as that friendship dynamic is,
Speaker 1: and it's like the four women, you know, that could
Speaker 1: be a really fun dynamic to watch, but the movie
Speaker 1: kind of bails on that also, and then they kind
Speaker 1: of only come back to be like, come on, give
Speaker 1: Brian a chance, or depending on the needs of the scene,
Speaker 1: come on, give Blair under what a chance? Like what,
Speaker 1: So they kind of bail on the girlfriend slash sacks
Speaker 1: in the city slash living single setup that we get
Speaker 1: at the beginning, and I kind of. I was bummed
Speaker 1: about that. I wanted more of it, and I wanted more.
Speaker 1: It's like you hired Alfrey Woodard and then you and
Speaker 1: then you did nothing with her. Come on, gave the
Speaker 1: big speech to the dad. Yeah, yeah, okay, sorry. Just
Speaker 1: when you said that, I was like, okay, new reality show, guys,
Speaker 1: and this idea. Don't steal anyone who's listening. But it's
Speaker 1: a competition for four person friend group, okay. And we've
Speaker 1: got people, different contestants vying for the different roles. We've
Speaker 1: got to have one horny one, we've got to have
Speaker 1: one up tight one. We've got to have like all
Speaker 1: these different like one pragmatic, it's the it's the Ninja
Speaker 1: Turtles groups. Like four types of people are all representatives
Speaker 1: ninja turtles, and they're often represented in these friend groups
Speaker 1: as well. So yeah, competition, show love it. I'm like
Speaker 1: to do the four friends exist for men? As my guess,
Speaker 1: Ninja Ninja Turtles falls into it. I don't think they
Speaker 1: value friendship, but they don't. I don't think they do that.
Speaker 1: Do men have friend groups that aren't just like this
Speaker 1: is cheese, This is cheese too. We went to college together.
Speaker 1: That's as much as we've talked about it, that's it.
Speaker 1: And then I feel like the permutation of that that
Speaker 1: was in like kids media that I was really into
Speaker 1: in the Chee thousands, where like the three friends, the
Speaker 1: two girls and the one guy, and you had and
Speaker 1: then you had to end up with or the two
Speaker 1: guys in the one girl. I mean, because you have
Speaker 1: Harry Potter set ups versus Lissi McGuire setups. Okay, it's
Speaker 1: all making sense in my head. There's ven diagrams coming together.
Speaker 1: I'll release my charge. I was thinking Dawson, Pacy, Joey.
Speaker 1: But yeah, yes, yes, the three the three friends, but
Speaker 1: that's the teenage setup. Once you're an adult, all the
Speaker 1: friends need to identify as the same gender, and they
Speaker 1: you can't remember how they met. That make one more.
Speaker 1: What we do? What do we do together? We drink together?
Speaker 1: That's it? What are you talking about? I did love
Speaker 1: it was there. There's I just love the amount of
Speaker 1: gigantic wineglasses in this genre. But it was reminding me
Speaker 1: of like my days of watching Too Much Scandal where
Speaker 1: she was drinking Olivia Pope sized why, Like I just
Speaker 1: you're like, generally you don't fill the wine glass to
Speaker 1: the top. But in in rom coms, you do you do,
Speaker 1: and then you talk to your dad on the phone.
Speaker 1: Did you guys ever see the girl at the woman
Speaker 1: in the window across the street from the girl in
Speaker 1: the house or something like that. I don't remember the
Speaker 1: full title. It was a long title. But Kristen Bell
Speaker 1: has like a glass of wine and empty is an
Speaker 1: entire bottle of wine into the glass and just walks
Speaker 1: around like delicately holdingness absolutely massive, completely full glass of wine.
Speaker 1: That's what all of these movies need. I support it.
Speaker 1: I really appreciate the rom com Poor, Heavy Poor. If
Speaker 1: I opened a restaurant, I'm not saying I will, but
Speaker 1: I would have that on the media would be you
Speaker 1: can have a size like a regular or a rom
Speaker 1: com pour which is just like a huge glass of wine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you have so many good ideas, this reality show, this
Speaker 1: wine bar slash restaurant, yep hire me um. I can
Speaker 1: try to make these things or I can just generate
Speaker 1: dumb ideas for you until the day you die. I
Speaker 1: want to go back to that grocery store scene because
Speaker 1: I feel like Kenny is giving a couple. It's like
Speaker 1: a back and forth, but there are a few chunks
Speaker 1: where she's like kind of monologueing, and I felt it
Speaker 1: was she was like providing effective commentary, and it felt
Speaker 1: like this was like kind of the scene that like
Speaker 1: the movie was like this is what we want to say.
Speaker 1: But then also not because she gets married with him
Speaker 1: after like barely apologizing, so I don't know, it's confusing,
Speaker 1: but she says things like after Brian is like, I
Speaker 1: don't want to talk about this tonight. It makes me
Speaker 1: feel uncomfortable, And she says, first of all, you don't
Speaker 1: have to talk about being white, because no one reminds
Speaker 1: you every day that you're white. The only time you
Speaker 1: guys know you're white is when you're in a room
Speaker 1: full of black people. I'm in a world full of
Speaker 1: white people, and every day they remind me that I'm black.
Speaker 1: And if I can't talk to you about my frustrations,
Speaker 1: if I'm supposed to just keep that to myself. And
Speaker 1: then he interrupts her and it's like, well, you're a
Speaker 1: senior manager at of the whitest firms in the country.
Speaker 1: You graduated these like Ivy League schools, you own a home,
Speaker 1: you earn more money thancent of the country. He's like, no,
Speaker 1: I'm oppressed, and you're like yeah, and then he's like,
Speaker 1: you make more money than me, so yeah, tell me
Speaker 1: about your frustrations. He's like, being very sarcastic, and then
Speaker 1: she says, you don't want to hear it. You don't
Speaker 1: want to hear about when I show up at an
Speaker 1: account meeting, they always have to regroup when they find
Speaker 1: out that I'm the one who is responsible for their
Speaker 1: multimillion dollar acquisition. They'd rather trust it to a file
Speaker 1: clerk who gets me my goddamn coffee. Again some more
Speaker 1: classism um because he's white, and do you know how
Speaker 1: insulting that is? And then she goes on to say,
Speaker 1: you know, I need to be able to talk to
Speaker 1: you about this stuff. I'm not going to keep it
Speaker 1: to myself or deny who I am. He says all
Speaker 1: I wanted was a night off, and she says, well,
Speaker 1: that's what being black is, Brian, you don't get a
Speaker 1: night off. And he's like well, and then he and
Speaker 1: then he says, I'm never going to be on the
Speaker 1: right side of the war going on in your head
Speaker 1: to me, implying like this is all in her head.
Speaker 1: Brian is constantly calling her hysterical for experiencing systemic racism,
Speaker 1: and I can't say, Brian. And then so he's like,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm never going to be on the
Speaker 1: right side of this because I'm not black and I'm
Speaker 1: never going to be black. Also, after what a couple
Speaker 1: of conversations, you've decided there's no more I could learn.
Speaker 1: I'm done, and therefore I'll never get to the point
Speaker 1: where I understand other people or what they're going through.
Speaker 1: I can't. It's not possible, and it's unreasonable for you
Speaker 1: to expect me to do these things. And the fact this,
Speaker 1: and then he later says he's like I'm sorry, Like
Speaker 1: he does apologize, but he's like, I'm sorry. Someone left
Speaker 1: work and I was like, so you did that? That
Speaker 1: was your response. I was having a bad day. So hey,
Speaker 1: if anyone walks off the job again, you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to deal with it. Just so you know what I'm
Speaker 1: marriage is gonna be like, it's gonna be under you.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say some racist but it's because I had
Speaker 1: a hard days. When I have a hard day, I
Speaker 1: get the night off from discussing racism with my girlfriend
Speaker 1: who's experiencing racism on a constant basis seems reasonable. And
Speaker 1: then at the end of that scene, the scene where
Speaker 1: he comes to her house and apologizes, he says, like
Speaker 1: to be fair, he says like, I may not always relate,
Speaker 1: but I can promise I will empathize, right, But then
Speaker 1: he says it would be a shame to let something
Speaker 1: so superficial get in our way, as if racism is superficial.
Speaker 1: That felt to me, I'm curious, okay, if I was,
Speaker 1: let me know if we were reading this the same way.
Speaker 1: I felt like there was a very like of the
Speaker 1: era color metaphor being made with Brian's arc and story
Speaker 1: specifically where he's like saying very surface level, but it's
Speaker 1: like he's using like kind of Sesame Street logic that
Speaker 1: is true, but ignores the complicated issues that I thought
Speaker 1: this movie was supposed to be about. Where he's like,
Speaker 1: it's just the color of your skin, and you're like, yes,
Speaker 1: that is the Sesame Street lesson, but Kenya is talking
Speaker 1: about society, living in a society, and this isn't sesame Street.
Speaker 1: But then there are like Sesame Street like where he's like,
Speaker 1: you need more color in your life, like there's all
Speaker 1: these like color metaphors, and Ryan's constantly bringing them up,
Speaker 1: and I never really know what he's talking about. And
Speaker 1: and then he's like telling her she's kind of being hysterical,
Speaker 1: and so it doesn't quite it never really scans that,
Speaker 1: like whatever, it didn't quite work for me. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: nail they have the nail nail polished scene. He okay,
Speaker 1: we don't know what he's talking about at first, and
Speaker 1: he says, I know you're sensitive about color, but we
Speaker 1: can just keep this a little secret. And you think
Speaker 1: maybe he's talking about their relationship and her being quote
Speaker 1: unquote sensitive about color, referring to race. But then he's like,
Speaker 1: ha ha ha, I'm painting your toenails red and fake out,
Speaker 1: and like that's obviously the job. So was he good
Speaker 1: at this? I'm sorry that was like, like, is he
Speaker 1: painted a lot of toes before, because otherwise he's gonna
Speaker 1: be bad at it and you're gonna have to get
Speaker 1: rid of it. Right, he's a he's on wikifie. He's
Speaker 1: a COMPLICATID Okay, Okay, he's been practicing, okay, and that
Speaker 1: like I mean that, like it just feels like muddled metaphors.
Speaker 1: Because that like works as a bad rom com metaphor
Speaker 1: of like you need like because that's like a lot
Speaker 1: of how I feel like we convince ourselves that, like
Speaker 1: a professional woman should be with a crummy guy, of
Speaker 1: like I opened your mind to like fun, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm like, that's so. I don't know why Knocked Up
Speaker 1: is the first movie that jumped to my mind of like, yeah,
Speaker 1: sure I fucking suck, but like, aren't it a good time?
Speaker 1: You're too uptight? So love me more color, more fun.
Speaker 1: But because their story is so based in race as well,
Speaker 1: and like the mess, like the lessons they're learning are
Speaker 1: supposed to be grounded there, it just gets really like
Speaker 1: muddled and I don't know, it wasn't scanning for me
Speaker 1: quite right. I appreciate that there is a rom com
Speaker 1: that tries to tackle this subject matter. Again, there had
Speaker 1: been very few before this, and honestly not that many
Speaker 1: since um that directly address the tension that comes with
Speaker 1: being in an interracial relationship. Again, the way this movie
Speaker 1: addresses it does feel very of the time, but I
Speaker 1: imagine that it lets a lot of people feel seen
Speaker 1: and represented, or like let their relationship feel seen on screen,
Speaker 1: and like we talk about stepping stone movies all the time,
Speaker 1: where it's like if this movie hadn't come out, who
Speaker 1: knows what wouldn't have been made? Or like because this
Speaker 1: movie was well received and it seems to be a
Speaker 1: pretty well loved movie, Like what did it make possible
Speaker 1: for it to be made? You know? Outside of that?
Speaker 1: So I feel like, you know, it's like it's it's
Speaker 1: it's net good and it also I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was just even with like the precise setting of this
Speaker 1: movie and also with some of the themes of interracial relationships,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, a lot of this is actually
Speaker 1: like similar themes are touched on in a better modern
Speaker 1: way in like the later seasons of Insecure. I mean,
Speaker 1: but again, it's like if you can think of that
Speaker 1: few examples, like maybe there's I'm sure there's plenty that
Speaker 1: I just don't I didn't personally obsessively consume. But you know,
Speaker 1: it's like it's an under explored topic, but at least
Speaker 1: it's nice to know it's been explored better since. Yes,
Speaker 1: trying to think of a more delicate word than better,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it exists. I think I think that is great. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to talk briefly about Mark, the Blair Underwood character,
Speaker 1: mostly to say that Mark such a dad. Every a
Speaker 1: lot of rom comes have this guy, the other guy
Speaker 1: who's not as cool, the flop. There was like a
Speaker 1: movie where Michael Showalter is directed it where it's like
Speaker 1: the Steve or the Something, but it's like I was
Speaker 1: left at the altar gets left. Yeah, I know about
Speaker 1: this movie. It's called Oh my gosh, what is it called.
Speaker 1: The only joke I remember from it, if we're thinking
Speaker 1: about the same movie is a guy is talking to
Speaker 1: a woman and he's like, oh, I'll have my interns
Speaker 1: assistance interns assistant call you to schedule a date. And
Speaker 1: I was like, that's such a funny joke. But that's
Speaker 1: the remember the back the Baxter. Yeah, a Baxter is
Speaker 1: the nice doll guy in a romantic comedy who is
Speaker 1: dumped at the end of the story for the protagonist.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of this. This is a fun concept.
Speaker 1: I wonder I kind of want to watch it. Maybe
Speaker 1: I'm thinking, what's the movie with Amy Poehler and Paul
Speaker 1: Rod they came together? Yes, maybe I'm thinking of that movie. Also,
Speaker 1: one of those guys is that show Walter or is
Speaker 1: it somebody who was in that group? Oh that one
Speaker 1: of those maybe a David Wayne perhaps, Yeah, the State people.
Speaker 1: I don't know. All of those movies are like all
Speaker 1: muddled in my brain. No, wait, that was show Walter. Okay,
Speaker 1: it might even be him that says the joke I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of. But that might not be the movie I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of. I don't know. Michael Showalter is like, loves
Speaker 1: to comment on rom com trips. I wonder why why
Speaker 1: is that we should have him on the show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Michael show Walter, explain yourself. Seems unusual for a man.
Speaker 1: But I'm I'm you know, I'm here for it. Chat Yeah,
Speaker 1: um mark. Though Blair Underwood, he tells a story to
Speaker 1: Kenya's parents about how he lied to her in order
Speaker 1: to trick her into hanging out with him, as if
Speaker 1: it's a super cute story that does happen. Then her
Speaker 1: mom is also like, that is so cute. Thankfully Kenya
Speaker 1: breaks up with him right after that scene. But I
Speaker 1: was like, I mean, like, I've been in relationships where like,
Speaker 1: especially you know, if you go far back enough, I
Speaker 1: was like, I was in relationships in college where like
Speaker 1: the way that we started dating was like presented as
Speaker 1: this big joke and then you repeat it back to yourself.
Speaker 1: Now you're like, that was fucking horrible. But where people
Speaker 1: not like, oh, we're like every story about how grandparents
Speaker 1: meet is like the most horrifying thing I've ever heard
Speaker 1: in my life. It's an attack. There's a wonderful I
Speaker 1: think it's like ClickHole or the Onion article about that.
Speaker 1: But yes, we were like, that's a crime. Now, Grandma
Speaker 1: don't don't like that, right, Like, he followed me for
Speaker 1: forty seven blocks until I agreed to go out with him.
Speaker 1: He slowly wore me down until I had no will
Speaker 1: to live. And then that's why your grand your mother exists.
Speaker 1: My grandparents met via cat calling. I think I've told
Speaker 1: that story on the show before, though. Yeah. Uh my
Speaker 1: grandfother leaned out the window of his car and was
Speaker 1: like because my grandma was walking her baby sister in
Speaker 1: like a carriage, and then he was like, hey, is
Speaker 1: that your baby? And she was like no. Then he's like,
Speaker 1: let's go out because I want to put one in yet,
Speaker 1: and then like three months later he did or something.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I haven't checked their fun math. They're dead.
Speaker 1: I can't ask um. But I did appreciate, Okay, getting
Speaker 1: back to the movie, I did appreciate that that was
Speaker 1: framed as a negative thing to have done in two
Speaker 1: thousand six, because I wouldn't expect I wouldn't necessarily expect
Speaker 1: that in a movie of this era. I liked when
Speaker 1: she was like, he is a black man, he knows
Speaker 1: something about black hair, hopefully, so for him to say
Speaker 1: I like your hair better this way in the weave
Speaker 1: is like, huh, okay, I get the measure of this man. No,
Speaker 1: thank you, um, and I did. I felt connected to that.
Speaker 1: I liked that. Meanwhile, Brian in that scene where he's like,
Speaker 1: how does your hair work? I don't know, and she
Speaker 1: gets out set and then he says, sorry if I
Speaker 1: offended you, I just want to know what you look
Speaker 1: like completely naked. Shut up? Are you joking my ass? Brian?
Speaker 1: Shut up? It's like comical, I don't know, like they
Speaker 1: framed it like it's a good thing that he said that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but no, And then in the next scene she goes
Speaker 1: and gets her we've taken out, as if she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he was right, I shouldn't have Do you guys know
Speaker 1: how much we'ves are that's an expensive proposition. Just on one.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yeah, we'll talk as like the next cycle,
Speaker 1: because like this is like a time period commitment, and
Speaker 1: at the end of this time period commitment, I might
Speaker 1: consider that. But to go and get it cut out?
Speaker 1: Did you just get it done? That's so much that's
Speaker 1: like wasting so much money. That's a process. Shut up.
Speaker 1: I really don't like. I mean, and this seems specifically
Speaker 1: aggressive because it's he does not fucking know what he's
Speaker 1: talking about and he doesn't have interest in really knowing
Speaker 1: what he's talking about. But I really don't like when
Speaker 1: in any partnership, but it's like usually a man to
Speaker 1: a woman when they're it's like a racialized extension of
Speaker 1: like the like you look so much better without makeup,
Speaker 1: or like how I like to look at you, and
Speaker 1: how I tell you you're beautiful, as how you're most beautiful,
Speaker 1: the way you should do it if you feel beautiful,
Speaker 1: and it happens to involve something that I don't like,
Speaker 1: then that's not how you're beautiful, and it's like, well,
Speaker 1: then you don't respect me. Stop. I think that he
Speaker 1: thought he was like, oh, I want to see you
Speaker 1: as you are. But it's like, no see her however
Speaker 1: she wants. She's comfortable being seen. You fucking loser, Brian.
Speaker 1: I swear to God, maybe Brian gets better. I've overtime,
Speaker 1: like in the way that, like so many people we
Speaker 1: know have gotten better on issues. Hopefully, maybe Brian gets better.
Speaker 1: But as Brian stands in two thousand six, he's not.
Speaker 1: He needs to step it up, not enough, really a lot.
Speaker 1: But then and then it's like it's presented as and
Speaker 1: this often does happen, but like the burden is on
Speaker 1: her to educate him. Yeah, and it makes the changes.
Speaker 1: He's not changing his house layout, he's not getting his
Speaker 1: hair redund keeps bringing his dog inside. Yeah, she doesn't
Speaker 1: like sucking dogs. Stop bringing your dog around. You live somewhere,
Speaker 1: put it where you live. Yeah. So it's it's her
Speaker 1: burden to to educate him and to make him aware
Speaker 1: of all of this stuff that he's like willfully or
Speaker 1: generally ignorant of. So that's a burden. She has the
Speaker 1: burden to like accommodate his standards. And oh, I I fine,
Speaker 1: I'll paint my walls because you think I should be
Speaker 1: not liking beige. Fine, I'll take out my weave because
Speaker 1: you want to see me with my natural hair. All
Speaker 1: this stuff, it's frustrating. She should not accommodate any of that.
Speaker 1: The burden should not have to be on her to
Speaker 1: educate him about all this stuff. Also, okay, I did
Speaker 1: laugh at the scene where she so she tells him
Speaker 1: about the black tax and he's like, oh, I never
Speaker 1: thought about that. The next scene is the housewarming party
Speaker 1: she has that she has because he's like, yeah, you
Speaker 1: look like you need to relax. Shut up, Brian. But
Speaker 1: he's going around it's it's mostly black people at the party.
Speaker 1: You can tell that he feels out of place, and
Speaker 1: he's like trying to, I don't know, make friends. Mike
Speaker 1: Epps yells at him because he's like, you're stealing my
Speaker 1: barbecue secrets. And so he goes over to another group
Speaker 1: of guys who are saying something like, oh, that wouldn't
Speaker 1: have happened if it was a white guy. That white
Speaker 1: guy would have gotten promoted. And then he tries to
Speaker 1: Brian tries to chime in and be like, oh, were
Speaker 1: you guys talking about the black tacks? And they're just like, what,
Speaker 1: leave us alone. Also, I love the idea to add
Speaker 1: a black party. The only thing we talked about is blessed.
Speaker 1: It's a black party, so we talked about black stuff.
Speaker 1: You know, I did think it was very funny, how like,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone starts teasing him and making fun of
Speaker 1: him for because that was really fucking weird. And but
Speaker 1: then it's like this scene kind of leaves you being like, man,
Speaker 1: Brian's not fitting in, Like well maybe if he was
Speaker 1: being less fucking weird, there's a loss of a loser.
Speaker 1: Also in a situation like that, just shut up and listen, Brian.
Speaker 1: You need to learn things clearly, So shut up and learn,
Speaker 1: Yeah and listen. I did appreciate. I mean, it's like
Speaker 1: that there was with the people in Kenya's life. There
Speaker 1: was kind of like a spectrum of how people felt
Speaker 1: about Brian, where some people are like Brian, you know,
Speaker 1: is it my Cups is like the cook character, right, yeah, yeah, Walter.
Speaker 1: So I feel like he was generally on Brian's side
Speaker 1: because it was like more of like a class solidarity
Speaker 1: thing of like he's a working guy. I like him,
Speaker 1: and then but he did first he had to come
Speaker 1: around on right. So it's like, you like the people
Speaker 1: in her life, are like thinking Brian is a prospect
Speaker 1: to different degrees, and so there is she is like
Speaker 1: surrounded by different opinions about it. But I guess just
Speaker 1: none of the opinions quite made sense to me because
Speaker 1: Brian sects. The one that did track the most for
Speaker 1: me was when her friends are like, you're not going
Speaker 1: to marry him, except she does. But before that happens,
Speaker 1: they're like, if he can dick you down, who cares
Speaker 1: if he's white, You're not going to marry him. Just
Speaker 1: get it while it's there. I appreciate that, but but
Speaker 1: that was one of the only things we knew about
Speaker 1: Kenya really is that she didn't want a casual relationship.
Speaker 1: She wanted a serious relationship. Any other thoughts the movie.
Speaker 1: I would like to see another movie by this director,
Speaker 1: because again I do like those music video like very
Speaker 1: visual touches, uh, and I would like to see what
Speaker 1: she does with them in another environment, hopefully that is
Speaker 1: a little bit more up to date. Yeah, I would
Speaker 1: like to see if she hasn't she's directed three movies,
Speaker 1: and then I think just kind of like really leaned
Speaker 1: into TV TV. I'm sure I've seen she she didn't
Speaker 1: episodely she did that. She did like a Sherlock adaptation.
Speaker 1: I would love to see another movie from her, because
Speaker 1: she hasn't directed a movie since. Did anyone see the
Speaker 1: movie just right? It's another rom com with Queen Latifa
Speaker 1: and Common. I missed that one. I did a long
Speaker 1: time ago, but I haven't seen it, probably since he
Speaker 1: came out. I've never seen it. Well, the time has
Speaker 1: come for another movie. I'm ready and prepared. Good. I'll
Speaker 1: tell her she's my friend now. Please let her know um,
Speaker 1: and also please to let her know that I really
Speaker 1: the super based music video was really important to me.
Speaker 1: Well does the movie pass the Bechtel test? It does?
Speaker 1: It does a bunch of different times. Not thoroughly, but
Speaker 1: a bunch of different times. The women do talk about
Speaker 1: men a lot, they do, but yeah, there's a few
Speaker 1: exchanges here and there. But it would pass more if
Speaker 1: we had a better understanding of their friendship. For example,
Speaker 1: the four friends, what do they like to do together
Speaker 1: besides have like Galantine's Day drinks? Because I think the
Speaker 1: night that they meet up it's Valentine's Day. But then
Speaker 1: in the whole time they're just like, oh, we're unmarried.
Speaker 1: Were mid men and not with you losers, right, but again,
Speaker 1: if we yeah, if we had I was hoping for
Speaker 1: more scenes with them and just like getting a sense
Speaker 1: of their friendship. But when they are together pretty much
Speaker 1: they only talk about men. But yeah, there are little
Speaker 1: exchanges here and there that passed. Yeah, I wish that again.
Speaker 1: And it's like, I guess we've said this a few times,
Speaker 1: but for the for the final time, I really wish that, um,
Speaker 1: the mother daughter relationship could have been used more effectively
Speaker 1: and in a less boring way. But what can you do?
Speaker 1: I guess you could do something, but he didn't. You
Speaker 1: could do something different movie exactly. Yeah, it's a lot
Speaker 1: of her mom kind of criticizing her or being like
Speaker 1: when are you getting married? Or oh, you might be
Speaker 1: getting married to Blair Underwood. Oh my gosh, pop the champagne.
Speaker 1: She was crying, and it's like, are you going to
Speaker 1: congratulate her from making partner at her firm? Oh? And
Speaker 1: then the way Donald's facon said the doctor and the misses.
Speaker 1: I was like, Mmm, does she do what does she do?
Speaker 1: Does she have does she have jobs? We don't know,
Speaker 1: we don't know. Im doctor in the message, yes, um
Speaker 1: our nipple scale a scale of zero to five nipples.
Speaker 1: Based on examining the movie through an intersectional feminist lens,
Speaker 1: I would give this. I'll give it a two point
Speaker 1: five because I think that for the time, it's attempting
Speaker 1: to have a conversation that a lot of movies and
Speaker 1: rom comms especially, we're not attempting to make. It was
Speaker 1: representation on screen of things that you don't often see
Speaker 1: in mainstream movies, such as an interracial relationship. Where where
Speaker 1: in the tension that comes, Yeah, I have a master's
Speaker 1: depart Let you know that I appreciate it. Yeah, why
Speaker 1: I at it? Um? But the tension that often derives
Speaker 1: from an interracial relationship, especially one where one of the
Speaker 1: people is a white person with a lot of white privilege.
Speaker 1: I think it explores that relationship dynamic in interesting ways
Speaker 1: that feel authentic. But I don't think that Brian redeems
Speaker 1: himself after the shitty things he says, or that he
Speaker 1: demonstrates enough growth for her to take him back at all,
Speaker 1: and making it seem like the choice was between Brian
Speaker 1: and Blair Underwood, which she simply could have continued looking
Speaker 1: for someone that she liked. Yeah, why does she love Brian?
Speaker 1: Also her speech at the end where she's just like,
Speaker 1: I think they tried to tell us why she left Brian. Well,
Speaker 1: she's like that you haven't showed us. Yeah that and
Speaker 1: she's like, yeah, you probably think I'm neurotic and and
Speaker 1: ridiculous and blah blah blah all this stuff, but you
Speaker 1: let me be that way. I feel myself around you.
Speaker 1: And it's like, he doesn't let you be that way.
Speaker 1: He's been trying to change you the whole movie. What
Speaker 1: are you even talking about? He made you change your
Speaker 1: house and your hair, and you're like life attitude. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure, but I think it's doing enough
Speaker 1: stuff that was like again, feels groundbreaking for the time
Speaker 1: that I'll do like a split down the middle two
Speaker 1: point five nipples. I will give one to Sona Lathan
Speaker 1: because I not her character in this movie because she's
Speaker 1: really so bland and beige, but as a performer as
Speaker 1: an actor, I love her a lot. Um. I'll split
Speaker 1: between Sana Hamri, the director and Chris Turner, the screenwriter
Speaker 1: of the movie. And I will give my point five
Speaker 1: nipple to Max the dog because he's a cute Golden Retriever.
Speaker 1: He's nice. Um. I'm tending. Yeah, I guess I'll go
Speaker 1: down in the middle. I'm like tempted to give it
Speaker 1: like half a nipple higher only because it's like for
Speaker 1: its time again, like not just an under explored topic
Speaker 1: in movies, but like in this genre specifically. I guess
Speaker 1: outside of guess who for some reason to that. But
Speaker 1: that's like where of a comedy than a rom com.
Speaker 1: Either way, either way, it feels I I'm glad it exists.
Speaker 1: I'm glad it exists. I don't know that I'll be
Speaker 1: like returning to it super often because I just really
Speaker 1: don't like Brian. Um, I don't. I weirdly don't even
Speaker 1: super duper mind that Kenya is kind of boring. I
Speaker 1: don't know. For some reason, I can deal with a
Speaker 1: boring character, but I can't. I can't deal with Brian.
Speaker 1: Brian really bugs me. And I feel like because of
Speaker 1: for like modern audiences, at least the rom com tropes
Speaker 1: associated with Brian, which is like I accept you as
Speaker 1: you are, except change everything about yourself and like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm not listening, but I'm totally listening, babe. Like that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff undercuts what this movie's potential was, which
Speaker 1: was like, if if it was like illustrating like an
Speaker 1: emotionally healthy and equitable integracial relationship, that would have been
Speaker 1: so cool. I just don't think that that's the relationship
Speaker 1: that we got here, and so that is ultimately a bummer.
Speaker 1: But I really, um like all the creatives involved, Like
Speaker 1: I like that this collaboration happened. I would be cool
Speaker 1: to see them work together again, this writer and director
Speaker 1: and puts an On Lathen in it again. Let's do it,
Speaker 1: let's let's take to it and yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I guess I'll go two and a half. I'm tempted
Speaker 1: to give it three. And I guess whoever is editing
Speaker 1: the Wikipedia these days? You could just kind of choose
Speaker 1: whatever feels right for you. Um, Ultimately, if someone, if
Speaker 1: someone wants to take you on a first date at
Speaker 1: a busy Starbucks, it's probably not the person for you.
Speaker 1: And also fire the friend that orchestrated that, which she
Speaker 1: did say, like she did say, Like, what the funk?
Speaker 1: Was she thinking? Yeah, yeah, I'll split my nipples. However,
Speaker 1: the math shakes out between in um the beisuaal and
Speaker 1: the aqua marine wall. There's two kinds of walls. In
Speaker 1: this world famously, Yes, can he saw about you. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give it three because I think it's important to
Speaker 1: remember that this came out the same year as Crash
Speaker 1: Oh wow, And when it comes to a conversation about race,
Speaker 1: this is way better than that. Yes, this doesn't make
Speaker 1: me literally pull my hair out. So I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: it three. And I'm going to give one to the
Speaker 1: musical sequence where they are watching a dance in Kenya
Speaker 1: is getting horny. I'm gonna give one nipple to the
Speaker 1: scene where Simon peg is digging up earth and we're
Speaker 1: getting lots of close ups of rippling muscles. Simon Baker
Speaker 1: would yea, that's a different movie, different different vibe. Entirely.
Speaker 1: It was a start. I don't want to get into it.
Speaker 1: And then I want to give one full nipple to
Speaker 1: the little Mariachi costume that he has on in the end,
Speaker 1: because I know that that's gonna be funny. But I
Speaker 1: was like, would snatch? So he wears it well except
Speaker 1: for the untucked in T shirt that he has the shirt,
Speaker 1: but his but looked good in those pants, and I
Speaker 1: think we've got to acknowledge that that's I'm fine, fine,
Speaker 1: I dropped the ball, I dropped the I liked, I
Speaker 1: liked seeing the I did. I wasn't sure what they
Speaker 1: were talking about. When she's like, do you know that guy?
Speaker 1: I was like, why is he going to come as well?
Speaker 1: But it was like, no, just steal his clothes? Cool
Speaker 1: technically come on? Yeah, well, Cannie, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming back for a sixth appearance. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. Let's make it seven leven. What do you
Speaker 1: want to do it next week? Mar Um? Where can
Speaker 1: people follow you online? What would you like to plug?
Speaker 1: Tell us about your album? Okay, so you can follow
Speaker 1: me at Kennice Mobili on all the socials. I even
Speaker 1: signed up for Hive. I don't even know what people
Speaker 1: are using anymore. I'm on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook
Speaker 1: and I guess Hive now soon girl foot dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah kind of do they care about my numbers across
Speaker 1: all platforms? So please follow me so that they're not like,
Speaker 1: actually you suck in and we decided based on your
Speaker 1: low follower accounts. Okay? So, and then also, if you
Speaker 1: like buying albums, which my record company says that you
Speaker 1: should push people to do, please buy my album. Follow
Speaker 1: up question put out by Blonde Medicine. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a fun album. It's been written up in a few places.
Speaker 1: It just got showcased on Ebony magazine, which we had
Speaker 1: Ebony come to the house every month and it was
Speaker 1: always on our coffee table, so that's a big deal
Speaker 1: for me. But it was on some other list to
Speaker 1: Paste magazine, et cetera. Um, so if you don't hate
Speaker 1: me here, you might like me there soralla endorsement. Everyone
Speaker 1: loves you. That is not true, but I appreciate you
Speaker 1: saying that we love you here on this zoom call
Speaker 1: your universally love yeah. Uh. And you can follow us
Speaker 1: uh Bactel cast on Twitter and Instagram. You can follow
Speaker 1: our Patreon It's Girlfood Girl Girl Food. Sorry. You can
Speaker 1: follow our patreonic Matreon. Five dollars a month will get
Speaker 1: you two additional episodes from Caitlin and myself every month,
Speaker 1: as well as access to over a hundred episodes of
Speaker 1: back catalog over there. I think maybe even closer to
Speaker 1: two hundred at the this point. Uh. This past month
Speaker 1: we did the Pinocchio Wars, in which we covered all
Speaker 1: three and maybe even a fourth adaptations of Pinocchio that
Speaker 1: have come out in the past calendar year. Who knows why.
Speaker 1: You know Italian icon Pinocchio. He's back and I still
Speaker 1: find him so boring. Ecap he's played by Polly Shore
Speaker 1: and then and then he's awesome but father, So you
Speaker 1: can go over there for that, or it's really funny
Speaker 1: um okay, or you could go to public dot com
Speaker 1: slash the Bechtel Cast for all of our amazing merchandise,
Speaker 1: including new designs. We just released feminist icon Paddington, Shrek
Speaker 1: I In and The Flobber Mombo by Danny Alfman, and
Speaker 1: all of that can be found on our link tree.
Speaker 1: So we got to plug the link tree more because
Speaker 1: there's so many other goodies. There's something you plug I
Speaker 1: guess it is. Now I'm plugging it. Awesome, all right,
Speaker 1: we're plugging it, and hey, don't forget Let go let flow.
Speaker 1: I'm about to go do that right into my toilet.
Speaker 1: I have to be so bad. I have to be
Speaker 1: so bad to you. I've been waiting. I was like,
Speaker 1: I wanted people like, but I have to be so bad. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's go let it flow. Bye bye, I'm letting it flow.