Speaker 1: On the Bedel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
Speaker 1: women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
Speaker 1: or do they have individualism? The patriarchy ze invest start
Speaker 1: changing it with the Betel Cast. Welcome to the Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 1: My name is Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Darante,
Speaker 1: and you know the deal. This is our podcast about
Speaker 1: the portrayal of women in movies. We use the Bechtel
Speaker 1: test as a jumping off point to initiate a larger conversation,
Speaker 1: treatment and representation. Yes, Jamie, have a question. Yes, please?
Speaker 1: What is the Bechtel Test? Oh? I'm so glad? Do
Speaker 1: you asked her? It was like three years later. I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand it. What have you said it? And
Speaker 1: then I was like, that's not fair, sames, unrestupid. Well
Speaker 1: okay for Jamie fruit just you from my reference. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is a media metric created by cartoonist Alison Bechtel,
Speaker 1: sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test, in which two female
Speaker 1: identifying characters with names must speak to each other about
Speaker 1: something other than a man, and by our metric, it
Speaker 1: has to be at least a two line exchange of dialogue, right,
Speaker 1: I think it'd be easy. Usually it's not. I mean,
Speaker 1: look at the Oscar nominees. Well what if so I
Speaker 1: hope someone like slides into our d M s and
Speaker 1: it's like Ford v. Ferrari pass the Bechdel test. You eve,
Speaker 1: but I didn't see it. What if it did? What if?
Speaker 1: What if the cars identifies, you know, and they rammed
Speaker 1: each other? Boats do canonically canonically, But I don't know.
Speaker 1: We'll see. Yeah, if anyone knows if Ford v. Ferrari
Speaker 1: passed the Beckdel test? What a wild ride? That movie?
Speaker 1: What ride? Yeah? Because cars? Because cars, you know what
Speaker 1: cars are. I'm really excited for both their guests and
Speaker 1: the movie we're covering today. We've been getting this request
Speaker 1: since we started the show, and we were just kind
Speaker 1: of just waiting for the for the for the right
Speaker 1: guests to come along. So I'm very excited. We're doing
Speaker 1: Sister Act. We're doing Sister Act. We're gonna deviate a
Speaker 1: little bit from the format because our guests. We're gonna
Speaker 1: ask some questions, an interview a little bit. We gotta
Speaker 1: get to know where you go. Because she is an
Speaker 1: urban planner, a community advocate. She served as executive director
Speaker 1: of Time's Up Entertainment, and currently she is running for
Speaker 1: Los Angeles City Council District four are election where it's
Speaker 1: literally sitting. It's in District four at this very moment,
Speaker 1: the election for which is on March three. It's Nythia Rahman. Hi, welcome, Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to be here. Okay, we're also just
Speaker 1: for our listeners. Were recording literally at Caitlin's house in
Speaker 1: District four right now. I mostly came because I think
Speaker 1: both of the our constituents, So yeah, one podcast. It's
Speaker 1: a real grassroots movement. So if you're an l A
Speaker 1: listener and you live in that district, perc your ears
Speaker 1: up extra. But everyone just okay, yeah I did. They
Speaker 1: were so excited you're here. We're so happy. We're big
Speaker 1: fans likewise, so um yeah, I want to just start
Speaker 1: about by talking about what motivated you to run for
Speaker 1: city council. What what you know made the decision to
Speaker 1: leave your day job and uh start campaigning. Well, it
Speaker 1: was not It's definitely not something I've been thinking about
Speaker 1: my whole life, so it was a big decision for me. Um.
Speaker 1: I also have two little kids. I have four year
Speaker 1: old twins. They're very cute right now after initial hard,
Speaker 1: hard period when they were infants, but now they're they're people.
Speaker 1: They're adorable, they're so fun and the campaign takes me
Speaker 1: away from them a lot um. And I left a
Speaker 1: very good job at a very exciting job at times
Speaker 1: up to come do this. But I'm running for two reasons.
Speaker 1: One is I was pretty angry about how the city
Speaker 1: was responding to the issue of homelessness, uh and the
Speaker 1: broader housing crisis that homeless this is just you know,
Speaker 1: one part of and I I started a homeless coalition
Speaker 1: in my neighborhood. I worked at city Hall a few
Speaker 1: years ago and wrote a report about the city's response
Speaker 1: on homelessness. And my report at that time found that
Speaker 1: the city was already spending more than a hundred million
Speaker 1: dollars on homelessness, but that the majority of the money
Speaker 1: was actually going to putting homeless individuals in jail and
Speaker 1: then releasing them, a policy which is both incredibly cruel
Speaker 1: and ineffective. So you can see by the growth of
Speaker 1: homelessness in Los Angeles five years later. At that time
Speaker 1: there were twenty three thousand people experiencing homelessness. Now there's
Speaker 1: almost thirty seven thousand in the city of Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: so it's grown by fourteen thousand and five years, which
Speaker 1: is a staggering increase. And to me, you know, I
Speaker 1: left city hall. I had twins, I left the workforce
Speaker 1: for a little while. But while I was at home,
Speaker 1: I helped start this homeless coalition in my neighborhood which
Speaker 1: actually serves Los Filas as well, uh and it's called CELA.
Speaker 1: We started as a group of neighbors who were get
Speaker 1: together doing volunteer outreach and getting to know people who
Speaker 1: lived on the streets and in our neighborhoods. So Los
Speaker 1: Fila's Silver Lake Echo Park, a bunch of neighborhoods that
Speaker 1: were right near the river. There's a lot of encampments
Speaker 1: near the river, and these were all our areas where
Speaker 1: there were no people experiencing homelessness living out outdoors before
Speaker 1: at all. This was new, and so I think a
Speaker 1: group of people who were like, what do we do?
Speaker 1: You know, this is happening, and we don't know what
Speaker 1: to do. We got together and started doing outreach and
Speaker 1: we would go out and talk to people who were
Speaker 1: living in encampments get to know them by name, we'd
Speaker 1: bring food and water, and we would try and learn
Speaker 1: from them, you know, more about them and their stories
Speaker 1: and how they ended up there, but also what was
Speaker 1: preventing them from getting back into stable housing. And as
Speaker 1: we learned about the situation that they experienced on the ground,
Speaker 1: what we realized was that the city had made it
Speaker 1: incredibly difficult once they were experiencing homelessness for them to
Speaker 1: actually get back into housing. So in that whole region,
Speaker 1: so we served an area stretching from Los Filas all
Speaker 1: the way to Cyprus Park, So if you know l A,
Speaker 1: that's a huge area of the city. There was no
Speaker 1: walk in shelter beds, There was not a single shower
Speaker 1: that they could go use. There was not a really
Speaker 1: a bathroom where they were welcomed. There was not a
Speaker 1: drop in case manager. Like if you wanted help and
Speaker 1: you wanted to talk to somebody to get the help
Speaker 1: that you needed, whether it be case management work, whether
Speaker 1: it be mental health support, whether it be addiction counseling,
Speaker 1: whatever it is that you needed help with, it was
Speaker 1: not available for you anywhere in this entire area. So
Speaker 1: I started looking at the system that we had created
Speaker 1: around homelessness and I knew this from my work at
Speaker 1: city Hall, but it was made so much more real
Speaker 1: to me once I was looking at it from the
Speaker 1: perspective of someone who was actually experiencing homelessness. Was that
Speaker 1: the system we set up in l A was not
Speaker 1: really designed to help people. It was designed basically by
Speaker 1: people who don't care about this issue. And I just thought, here,
Speaker 1: I am, I have a full time job, I have
Speaker 1: two little kids, and all these other volunteers who are
Speaker 1: weren't running the SELA program also do. And we kept
Speaker 1: asking the city for a drop in center with a
Speaker 1: shower and uh you know, a hot meal and access
Speaker 1: to case management for the area. They ignored us. They
Speaker 1: wouldn't even meet with us, Our council members wouldn't even
Speaker 1: really meet with us. Finally, we did it ourselves. We
Speaker 1: raised money, we we applied for grants, we held a fundraiser,
Speaker 1: and we started operating a one day a week drop
Speaker 1: in center, which has now grown to four sites, yeah
Speaker 1: in in Silver Lake. And I just started thinking, if
Speaker 1: the people who were in power felt any amount of
Speaker 1: the sense of urgency that I do, and that you know,
Speaker 1: all of these other volunteers did around this issue, I
Speaker 1: think we would just be facing a very different situation
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles. So that's when I started thinking about
Speaker 1: running UM. And I'm you know, I'm trained as an
Speaker 1: urban planner. I've thought about cities, and I've worked on
Speaker 1: cities for pretty much my entire career except for my
Speaker 1: time at times up so and the more I thought
Speaker 1: about it, the more it made sense. And then the
Speaker 1: second reason is actually that I wanted to run, was
Speaker 1: because this election is actually an incredible opportunity, Like we
Speaker 1: have a chance right now to invite a lot more
Speaker 1: people into the municipal election, which is historically had very
Speaker 1: very low participation rates in Los Angeles. Now it's going
Speaker 1: to coincide with the federal election for the first time,
Speaker 1: so it's on Super Tuesday. Yeah, and I'm sure everyone's
Speaker 1: planning to vote on Super Tuesday, So we have an
Speaker 1: opportunity to invite a lot more people into the municipal
Speaker 1: political process to say, like, when you're going out there
Speaker 1: and voting for whoever you want to vote for, you
Speaker 1: should care about this and you can transform what you
Speaker 1: see around you, like what you look, what you see
Speaker 1: on the streets, and of l a, what you see
Speaker 1: here right now. If this is not acceptable to you,
Speaker 1: and I know it's not to most people. Our message
Speaker 1: to them is you have a moment right now to
Speaker 1: completely transform. It's so exciting. We're very, very very grateful
Speaker 1: you're running because truly like every like um, I mean
Speaker 1: you can you can check out Nathia's website and Nadia
Speaker 1: for the city dot com for all of your policies
Speaker 1: in detail. But it just it seems like it's just
Speaker 1: stands to improve literally, I mean, everyone's life in district force.
Speaker 1: So we're excited about it. Um. I think something that
Speaker 1: our listeners are always trying to figure out, um, how
Speaker 1: to do, is is do you have any I guess
Speaker 1: advice for like the average citizen who's just trying to
Speaker 1: be more involved and be more engaged in local issues especially.
Speaker 1: I think that yeah, like you were saying that, I
Speaker 1: mean super Tuesday, Um, is such a huge opportunity for awareness. Um,
Speaker 1: what can the average person do to be engaged specifically
Speaker 1: in l A or anywhere. I mean, let's let's go
Speaker 1: for l A. Well, I think, yeah, I would just
Speaker 1: dig into a little bit more this idea that part
Speaker 1: of the reason why we have an l A that
Speaker 1: feels right now incredibly hostile to lower income residents, whether
Speaker 1: it be looking through how we serve our homeless residents,
Speaker 1: or whether it be looking at how we're dealing with
Speaker 1: a massive increase in rental prices that has far outpaced incomes,
Speaker 1: Like our city can do a lot to help tenants,
Speaker 1: our city can do a lot to help people who
Speaker 1: are on the verge of becoming homeless. And over and
Speaker 1: over again, they have looked away from those powers and responsibilities.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, I think if you're somebody who's
Speaker 1: living in l A particularly, I think it's really important
Speaker 1: to understand what powers are local officials have, whether it
Speaker 1: be at the council or whether it be at the supervisors,
Speaker 1: and get involved in those races and make sure that
Speaker 1: we're voting in candidates whose values you believe in and trust,
Speaker 1: because right now, we have a political system in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles that's really ossified, you know it is. It's like
Speaker 1: like I've been interacting with it now and it feels
Speaker 1: like you're up against some It's like whenever I deal
Speaker 1: with any aspect of the traditional system, it feels like
Speaker 1: I have gone back in time to three decades. Terrifying.
Speaker 1: It's like all men like, there's only two elected representatives
Speaker 1: out of eighteen total electives at City Hall, so fifteen
Speaker 1: council members and city attorney, mayor and a city controller,
Speaker 1: so only two out of those out of that teen
Speaker 1: our women. It's just like very clubby culture where everybody
Speaker 1: knows each other, but just a little bit of engagement
Speaker 1: from residents could completely transform that and it has so
Speaker 1: in recent weeks and months we've seen both of the
Speaker 1: city and the county that advocacy by either homelessness advocates
Speaker 1: who want to see a reduction in punitive responses to
Speaker 1: homelessness and push for a more compassionate response have shown
Speaker 1: up at city Hall and protested and changed policy, which yeah,
Speaker 1: which is incredible. And then at the county level, we've
Speaker 1: seen this huge criminal justice reform movement that has actually
Speaker 1: stopped the construction of a three point five billion dollar
Speaker 1: meant it was called a mental health jail. I mean
Speaker 1: it was a mental health facility, but it was really
Speaker 1: another big jail. And now there have another measure on
Speaker 1: the ballot called Measure Are, which everyone should get informed about.
Speaker 1: But in both of those situations, we've seen that involvement
Speaker 1: engagement by residents can change things and it doesn't take uch,
Speaker 1: you know. So if you can show up to like one,
Speaker 1: get on a mailing list, show up to one protest,
Speaker 1: you know, and just having those numbers, invite a couple
Speaker 1: of friends to it, and then go to brunch afterwards,
Speaker 1: it yeah, exactly, you know. So so even little things
Speaker 1: like I I love doing service, like I love the
Speaker 1: idea of and we invite lots of volunteers in the
Speaker 1: coalition that I started here in silver Lake and Los
Speaker 1: VELAs to come in and make food or too, you know,
Speaker 1: set up that whole shower program that we do weekly,
Speaker 1: and that's a great opportunity. But if you want to
Speaker 1: change the systems that result in us having to do
Speaker 1: that kind of volunteer work week after week, then you
Speaker 1: have to go to city Hall or you have to
Speaker 1: go to the Board of Supervisors and like show up
Speaker 1: in protest and make the change that's going to change
Speaker 1: the system. So that's what I would say to people
Speaker 1: who are getting involved, is like, get informed and get
Speaker 1: involved in advocacy because that can transform the city. Absolutely. Okay, cool,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. It was I feel like I'm
Speaker 1: talking We're way too long this We are asking you questions.
Speaker 1: But that's how that works. You shouldn't have a sign
Speaker 1: or something where you're like, you know, just like scrite
Speaker 1: your nose and you're like, we're also, I mean, just
Speaker 1: because of what our show is about, We're we're curious
Speaker 1: about your time with time's up. And um, what what
Speaker 1: was that experience like in what coming from city hall
Speaker 1: to being a stay at home mom to going two
Speaker 1: times of what sort of brought you there? Um? What
Speaker 1: brought me there was not particularly exciting. I just somebody
Speaker 1: sent me the job listing, and but I think they
Speaker 1: wanted me because I'm guessing I don't have a lot
Speaker 1: of insight, but I think they were excited about the
Speaker 1: fact that I had taken advocacy and transformed it into
Speaker 1: either concrete programs or concrete policy changes in the past,
Speaker 1: and I think they were hoping that I could do
Speaker 1: something similar there, which, UM, I'm very proud to say
Speaker 1: that we did so. In the in the year a
Speaker 1: little more than a year that I was the e D,
Speaker 1: we put together this incredible mentorship program for the executive
Speaker 1: and producer pipeline. Um. Yeah, and we actually took the
Speaker 1: money for that came out of Less Moon Vesta's settlement
Speaker 1: love that knife. So we had an opportunity to apply
Speaker 1: for that money. So I was like, we have this
Speaker 1: amazing program already in place. I applied for that funding
Speaker 1: and we were able to set it up and it
Speaker 1: was incredible. We have an incredible group of people who
Speaker 1: are associated with it, but essentially supports people who don't
Speaker 1: necessarily have the industry connections as who are assistants or
Speaker 1: junior executives in that pipeline and gives them this incredible
Speaker 1: network and an intensive mentorship relationship to help them move ahead.
Speaker 1: And it was a really cool program. And it's also
Speaker 1: it has a very unique thing which I think is
Speaker 1: relevant in the context of this pay up Hollywood, you know,
Speaker 1: this movement to talk about how a little. So we
Speaker 1: had a ten tho dollar stipend in program that would
Speaker 1: be given to anyone who was selected for it, because
Speaker 1: we knew that if you came in and we're getting
Speaker 1: paid minimum wage or whatever these you know, agencies or
Speaker 1: production companies pay you, you wouldn't necessarily have the money
Speaker 1: to go out and have drinks, which is where you
Speaker 1: like make the relationships that get you, you know. So
Speaker 1: I think it was a program that was designed really
Speaker 1: well but also really acknowledge the realities of Hollywood and
Speaker 1: what it takes to get ahead in the industry. Um.
Speaker 1: And we had a couple of other week just released
Speaker 1: these resources for performers on sets telling you exactly what
Speaker 1: your rights are when you go out and do an audition. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we that we compiled all these resources from different
Speaker 1: places and I kicked started that project and it was
Speaker 1: released after I left. But it was very very important
Speaker 1: to me that people who were new to the industry
Speaker 1: knew not just what their rights were, but where they
Speaker 1: could turn if they needed help. So we did that. UM.
Speaker 1: But I would say my broader experience of being at
Speaker 1: times up was really fascinating because as an relative outsider
Speaker 1: to the entertainment industry and someone who had come from
Speaker 1: an advocacy nonprofit background, I was and I don't know
Speaker 1: whether your experience you're both like in then you consider
Speaker 1: yourselves in the industry, right, yes, yeah, well I maybe,
Speaker 1: I mean I would be curious about your experience, But
Speaker 1: I felt like the industry is really conservative. I mean
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, it feels like a vested interest in
Speaker 1: like making it not look that way. But then once
Speaker 1: you actually start to talk to people, You're like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is actually very fucked up interesting, Okay, cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think like the Times Up moment and movement
Speaker 1: and the me too activism and a lot of organizing
Speaker 1: that's now happened not related to Times Up necessarily, although
Speaker 1: some of it did happen under the Times Up umbrella
Speaker 1: around like women of color coming together or different groups
Speaker 1: that have kind of been ignored or left out in
Speaker 1: some ways. I feel like that is pushing for some changes.
Speaker 1: But I was kind of surprised at how conservative the
Speaker 1: industry was and how a lot of it I think
Speaker 1: is related to the way in which you get a job,
Speaker 1: so you tolerate abuse because if you speak out, not
Speaker 1: just sexual misconduct, but any like just like somebody yelling
Speaker 1: at you or throwing stuff from whatever, aggressively long working
Speaker 1: hours or whatever it is, because your next job depends
Speaker 1: on this person's referral, right, And that's that's basically like
Speaker 1: you're a freelancer, but you're in a union if you're lucky, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you're lucky, but it and in a fairly small
Speaker 1: industry where everybody knows each other. And that's just a
Speaker 1: recipe for I think really bad can be a recipe
Speaker 1: for really bad working conditions. So I was really excited
Speaker 1: to be in a position where we were bringing workers
Speaker 1: together and talking about workers rights, you know. And I
Speaker 1: think it sometimes entertainment industry people didn't think about themselves
Speaker 1: as workers and didn't think about themselves as having workers
Speaker 1: rights because that's like a different you know. And so
Speaker 1: it's like exciting to be like, hey, you're a writer,
Speaker 1: but that's work. Yeah, that's where you deserve to be
Speaker 1: treated in a particular way. So it was it was cool.
Speaker 1: It was a really exciting moment in Yeah, history, I
Speaker 1: guess exciting to be a part of it and play
Speaker 1: some small role in in it. That's so amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: is there is there anything else you would like for
Speaker 1: us to touch on before we start talking sister act?
Speaker 1: And I guess I would just say to the residents
Speaker 1: of Los Angeles, Yes, you look around. You see a
Speaker 1: city that I think is really struggling. We have a
Speaker 1: massive homelessness crisis. We have rising rents, we have bad air,
Speaker 1: we have unsafe streets, and I could go on and
Speaker 1: on and on, but all of these things are solvable,
Speaker 1: and all of these things are completely surmountable if we
Speaker 1: have the right people in office. And I'm here to
Speaker 1: tell you that you deserve better, and I feel like
Speaker 1: that probably applies to most cities in the US, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not this is not an l A specific thing. There.
Speaker 1: If you don't live in l A, get informed, damn
Speaker 1: deserve better too. Yes, I can't wait to vote for you.
Speaker 1: So thank you for happy that you're here. Um. Oh,
Speaker 1: and I had one I had one fun question, okay,
Speaker 1: which is, okay, so you have two young kids at um,
Speaker 1: what is something that you like because we're always trying
Speaker 1: to like our whole show is just basically like the
Speaker 1: media that messed with our brains as children and talking
Speaker 1: about it now, is there something that you can watch
Speaker 1: for your kids that you're like, I feel good about this.
Speaker 1: So my kids actually only have watched with any desire.
Speaker 1: Two things. One is Daniel Tiger, which is the cartoon
Speaker 1: does derived from Mr Rogers Neighborhood. It is so simplistic
Speaker 1: and it's so sweet and lovely and it's so boring.
Speaker 1: But I can't I can't have you see it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like babysat kids watching Daniel Tiger and like, well, nothing,
Speaker 1: you know, it's nothing bad is happening, but what is happening? Right? Um?
Speaker 1: And the only other thing that they watch and I
Speaker 1: have a boy and a girl, boy and girl twins,
Speaker 1: and the only other thing that they watch is Frozen. Alright,
Speaker 1: I mean that's we've covered that. You know it does
Speaker 1: pretty well, sister ed you love to see it. Uh so,
Speaker 1: I mean we're always just looking to because we're like,
Speaker 1: we don't know what to recommend to parents who listened
Speaker 1: to the show. Um so if you if you haven't
Speaker 1: heard of Daniel Tiger or Frozen, now are the two
Speaker 1: humans in America who haven't heard of froz? Yes, you
Speaker 1: gotta check it out. People can't can't stop talking about it.
Speaker 1: I haven't did you see this? I didn't see the
Speaker 1: second one. I did see the second one from Molina
Speaker 1: voices of character, There's there's an interesting conversation to be
Speaker 1: had about that movie as well. Maybe we'll get to
Speaker 1: it someday. All right, great, in the meantime, listen to
Speaker 1: our Frozen one episode. Everybody. Actually, I'll down I didn't
Speaker 1: know you had done for I'll download that and listen
Speaker 1: to it. But but now let's let's let's pivot into
Speaker 1: the rest of the show. We're talking about Sister app
Speaker 1: that's right before we do. Let's take a quick break first,
Speaker 1: and then we'll be right back. We're back. Okay, So
Speaker 1: we're talking Sister Act. It's a movie. It can what
Speaker 1: what's a movie? Now? Hold on, now, hold on, bear
Speaker 1: with me. We're today, we're talking about we're talking about
Speaker 1: a feature length film. Uh. It came out in It
Speaker 1: stars Whoopie Goldberg. It's called Sister Act. Uh. Nittia, what
Speaker 1: is your experience with this movie? When did you first
Speaker 1: see it your relationship? Shoot, I don't even I've seen
Speaker 1: it so many times. I was rewatched it before coming
Speaker 1: here today, and I realized I knew lines, I knew
Speaker 1: you know, like I have watched you know, I've just
Speaker 1: it's been so much a part of like rerun go
Speaker 1: Home on the couch, Oh, Sister Acts on. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: watch it again from I'm like, if if anyone has
Speaker 1: ever just like had TBS, you've seen this movie, Like
Speaker 1: there there were certain moments where I had, like I
Speaker 1: have a similar experience with it where I really liked
Speaker 1: it when I was a kid, and then just like
Speaker 1: as I got older, I just would like see it
Speaker 1: every once in a while until like some point in
Speaker 1: the movies I'm like, oh, that's a commercial break, you know,
Speaker 1: like like that kind of movie that's on TV all
Speaker 1: the time. Yeah, I don't know. I never watched it
Speaker 1: with like any critical lens before. I just was like,
Speaker 1: I like it, and I was so pleasantly surprised watching
Speaker 1: it with a critical lens. There's so much to love
Speaker 1: about this movie. So it's just romp and had a
Speaker 1: ten on the Caitlin Rompo Meter What's your History. I
Speaker 1: had seen it, I believe once when it came out
Speaker 1: at a drive in movie theater. I would have been
Speaker 1: about six. That sounds like such a fun but because
Speaker 1: I was, well, here's the thing, I was young and rambunctious,
Speaker 1: and because we were in the confines of a car
Speaker 1: and not like in a theater where we had to
Speaker 1: respect other people's you know, time and attention, I don't
Speaker 1: think I paid any attention to the movie. Um whoopsies.
Speaker 1: So I felt like I hadn't really seen this movie
Speaker 1: for the first time until about a year ago, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I haven't seen I've seen doubt that
Speaker 1: others not the Yeah, the Sister movie. It's a Sister
Speaker 1: Act is there was I have a whole thing because
Speaker 1: I was like, maybe, unfortunately Doubt is for some reason
Speaker 1: one of my favorite movies. It's so depressing, but there's
Speaker 1: the right reaction that yeah, that is I really I
Speaker 1: don't like. I came out when I was fifteen, and
Speaker 1: I saw it in theaters twice. Why. I couldn't tell you, um,
Speaker 1: but there were a lot of them like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is just like Doubt without all the problems. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: really is. You've got your maryl character, You've got your
Speaker 1: Amy Adams character, thankfully you don't have your Philippine war
Speaker 1: Hoffman character. And that's the makings of a fun movie. True.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I had only seen this movie really for
Speaker 1: the first time until like about a year ago, um,
Speaker 1: because I was like, I can't have I never seen
Speaker 1: do I what is Sister Act? So I watched it
Speaker 1: and I was like, what a fun movie? Like I
Speaker 1: didn't realize that was the story. I thought that like
Speaker 1: Whoopi Goldberg was already a nun. I didn't realize that
Speaker 1: she was like in hiding as a nun. So I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, what fun I do? I do always
Speaker 1: forget that there is a murder Writers and then like
Speaker 1: two seconds later the music gets very silly. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: it's like they're like, oh, she's got to get out
Speaker 1: of there. It's like do do do? Do Do? Do? Right?
Speaker 1: The nineties were wild? Okay, so should do the recap
Speaker 1: and we'll go from there. Okay, So we first see
Speaker 1: Dolores van Cartier. That's, of course Whoopi Goldberg as a
Speaker 1: kid in Catholic school. She's not taking it seriously. We
Speaker 1: cut to her as an adult. Then she's a lounge
Speaker 1: singer in Reno, Nevada. Ever heard of it? Sort of?
Speaker 1: I hadn't really seen. I'm like, this movie made me
Speaker 1: want to go to Reno. I've never been. Um, I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of seasons of Reno one and that
Speaker 1: makes me not want to go to Reno. I would agree, Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: isn't that where you go to get like an old
Speaker 1: timey divorce or something that used to be like the
Speaker 1: hot spot for like I think you can have to
Speaker 1: go anywhere in Nevada, right, I think so? I think
Speaker 1: that like that was I feel like I've I don't know,
Speaker 1: I think that's the movie. The women they go to Reno,
Speaker 1: I think, yes, they do that movie is so weird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have to do it someday. Anyway, if you want
Speaker 1: to get married very quickly or divorced very quickly, go
Speaker 1: to Nevada anyway. So that's where she's based and she
Speaker 1: is together with Vince Laracca. That's Harvey Kitel's character, playing
Speaker 1: the type fame. But everywhere, um, he has his wife,
Speaker 1: he's he's married to someone else, uh, and doesn't want
Speaker 1: to leave her for Dolores. So she's like, screw it,
Speaker 1: I'm leaving you and I'm getting out of here. But
Speaker 1: right when she goes to tell him that she's leaving,
Speaker 1: she witnesses him and his goons murdering another goon of his. So,
Speaker 1: not wanting any witnesses to his crime, Vince sends his
Speaker 1: goons after Dolores to kill her, and then the fun
Speaker 1: music starts playing. She's like, yeah, she gets out, she
Speaker 1: gets away. She goes to the police and they're like, wait,
Speaker 1: you're with Vince Laracca. He's this big organized crime guy
Speaker 1: and we're trying to put him away. So if you're
Speaker 1: willing to testify, we can do that. In the meantime,
Speaker 1: we have to put you in witness protection until this
Speaker 1: court date you got the movie, there's got to be
Speaker 1: a movie. So Lieutenant Souther puts her in a convent
Speaker 1: in San Francisco and she has to pretend to be
Speaker 1: a nun and the high jinks in Sue Baby, Um
Speaker 1: Reverend Mother, they's so good. Reverend Mother played by Maggie Smith.
Speaker 1: She's the only one who knows who Dolores really is,
Speaker 1: and everyone else in the convent thinks that she is
Speaker 1: a nun named Sister Mary Clarence. She's basically Mary all
Speaker 1: in doubt for all my Doubta Smiths, she's your Oh yes,
Speaker 1: that's I see. I couldn't have remembered that. And it's
Speaker 1: allegedly my favorite movie. Um. So she meets the other nuns,
Speaker 1: including Mary Patrick who is Cathy and Jimie. She's very cheerful,
Speaker 1: and then there's a young nun who is dressed differently
Speaker 1: and I don't know enough about Catholicism to know why.
Speaker 1: I don't know either. She is a Sister Mary Robert Jr. Nun. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like when you're like a brownie and then like
Speaker 1: a junie, and like a daisy, and then a brownie
Speaker 1: and then a Catholic or like shot just like the
Speaker 1: Girl Scouts. Basically the Catholic church. It operates, uh, just
Speaker 1: like Horrible the Girl Scouts. And then we see them
Speaker 1: in like the church service. The nuns are singing and acchoir.
Speaker 1: They're really bad. No one's attending the services. Reverend Mother
Speaker 1: doesn't want any of the nun is going outside because
Speaker 1: it's a dangerous neighborhood I guess, or she she thinks
Speaker 1: it is um And then Dolores is trying to adjust
Speaker 1: to all of this, but she's not good at being
Speaker 1: a nun. Believe she was born to stand out. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Vince realizes that Lieutenant South there must have Dolores, so
Speaker 1: he puts out like a hit on her for a
Speaker 1: lot of money. So now a bunch of like sleazy
Speaker 1: bad guys are out looking for her. And then there's
Speaker 1: a rat in the police department. Someone is leaking info
Speaker 1: to the bad guys. Like plot, they're just like I
Speaker 1: guess I just mostly want to see the nuns. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess there's got to be a climax to the movie. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then back at the convent, Reverend Mother is like, hey, Dolores,
Speaker 1: since you have a background of music, you're going to
Speaker 1: join the choir and she does it sound like a
Speaker 1: punishment and like that sounds like the best part of
Speaker 1: being a nun. And she helps the nuns become better singers.
Speaker 1: She kind helps update the music choices, she's mixing genres,
Speaker 1: she's giving I love that like long scene where she's
Speaker 1: like coaching them and they're listening and she's, Oh, it's
Speaker 1: so good. And then because their music is so exciting
Speaker 1: now it's bringing people into the church and people are
Speaker 1: actually fill the butts, are filling the seats. There's very
Speaker 1: like moments where you know, like in a movie where
Speaker 1: they're like young people enter and they're dressed in a
Speaker 1: very like young person way. There's a lot of young
Speaker 1: people enter moments, and the and the reverence like, oh,
Speaker 1: young people are entering, Welcome young I was like, oh, man,
Speaker 1: it's like I don't know what the costume design situation was,
Speaker 1: but I'm like, oh, definitely a young person palette going
Speaker 1: on here. What was also weird was that I feel
Speaker 1: like style has come back around so that when the
Speaker 1: young people entered, I was like, I want that right.
Speaker 1: And this also, this movie takes place in San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time being like, where are they.
Speaker 1: I don't like, we were just my boyfriend and I
Speaker 1: were just like they could be. Um, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I didn't guess San Francisco. And then at some point, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think there was a shot at the Golden Gate Bridge. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and so that was the only yeah, right. And it's
Speaker 1: also at this time that they're going out into San Francisco,
Speaker 1: into the neighborhood and their help trying to turn it around.
Speaker 1: There's a porn store and they're like, don't go in here.
Speaker 1: And then then the pope hears about how good the
Speaker 1: choir is, and he's like, I'm gonna come see a
Speaker 1: concert because popes are are good. They're good, and they
Speaker 1: they're fine, they're fine, great judges of music. Yeah, for sure,
Speaker 1: I was like, this is a this is a happening, Pope, right.
Speaker 1: But it's also at this time when Lieutenant Southor is like, hey,
Speaker 1: we got you your court date, Dolores. You don't have
Speaker 1: to really be in the convent anymore. But then it's
Speaker 1: also at this point where Vince finds out where Dolores
Speaker 1: is because because of the mall right, and then you're like, right,
Speaker 1: the it pays off, so shocked. I forgot. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: Vince sends his goons to kidnap Dolores and bring her
Speaker 1: back to Reno, and then the nuns find out that
Speaker 1: Dolores isn't actually a nun, so then they chartered a
Speaker 1: helicopter to fly to Reno to help save her. And
Speaker 1: then there's this whole big chase scene Dolores punches the
Speaker 1: d goons and the nuts j hijinks more silly music,
Speaker 1: and then finally the cops stop the bad guys and
Speaker 1: arrest them, and then the nuns go back to San
Speaker 1: Francisco to their concert for the poem and he loves
Speaker 1: it standing ovations so good. And then at the end
Speaker 1: I forgot the end, there's like that freeze frame and
Speaker 1: then it switches to a People magazine and it's like,
Speaker 1: guess what like Witness Protection None or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: It's like, what a silly, fun way to end a movie.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's the story. That's the story. Where should
Speaker 1: we start? I just wanted to start with a fun
Speaker 1: fact that I learned, yes, which is the actor who
Speaker 1: plays Pope John Paul the Second in this movie. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, who is this? I've never heard of
Speaker 1: this person. Apparently his entire career was playing Pope John
Speaker 1: Paul the Second in various things. He's credited on like
Speaker 1: twenty things, and it's all Pope John Paul the Second.
Speaker 1: He was Pope John Paul the Second on Alf he was,
Speaker 1: he was on Ali McBeal as the Pope. He was
Speaker 1: on Murphy Brown as the Pope. He was on Golden
Speaker 1: Girls as the Pope. He was on everything, and is
Speaker 1: he in the Two Popes? He was, No, he's dead.
Speaker 1: So they had to get Anthony Hopkins. I have no idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they called maybe he was like a pope impersonator. That
Speaker 1: was his job. And then someone just saw him and
Speaker 1: was like, oh, you should just play the pope where
Speaker 1: we just have you standing saying anything. And by all accounts,
Speaker 1: the Pope thought he did a great job. They're like,
Speaker 1: he was like, that's a good representation of me, the Pope. UM.
Speaker 1: So that's well, that's I guess that's all I have
Speaker 1: to say. Thank you so much. UM for me, I
Speaker 1: thought this movie held up quite well, and I think
Speaker 1: it has a lot to do with it only being
Speaker 1: being rated PG, so there's not a lot of like
Speaker 1: because a lot of the movies that end up being
Speaker 1: especially comedies that end up being wildly problematic and toxic
Speaker 1: because they have freer reigin to make, you know, just
Speaker 1: racist jokes and homophobic jokes because there are rated and
Speaker 1: stuff like that. I don't know if that's the only
Speaker 1: reason why it holds up very well, but I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a movie for like kids and families,
Speaker 1: and I've watched it more than once with my mom. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's such a pure whatever it's on TV. They're really
Speaker 1: is something for everyone for everybody. Uh. It directed by oh,
Speaker 1: I want to get his name right, Emil Ardelino, who
Speaker 1: also directed Dirty Dancing, his other big So he's this
Speaker 1: guy's just churning out classics. It was also I was
Speaker 1: watching it, I was almost I waited to do the
Speaker 1: research until I just want to have fun watching it,
Speaker 1: And I was like, this movie is so good that
Speaker 1: I think it may have even been written by a woman.
Speaker 1: But it wasn't. It was written by a man who
Speaker 1: did a good job imagine it. But then I also
Speaker 1: read that it went through a few different rewrites. Some
Speaker 1: of the screenwriters who were brought on Carry Fisher was
Speaker 1: Carry Fisher and Nancy Myers, So which is carry Fisher
Speaker 1: has punched up some of the some of the best
Speaker 1: movies that you never think she was involved in. It's true,
Speaker 1: she's the coolest, but yeah, I mean this movie largely
Speaker 1: is just about it's very female driven. The men are
Speaker 1: either the pope, the priest who's in a couple of scenes,
Speaker 1: and then the of guys. But aside from that, it's
Speaker 1: like just a very female driven story. You know, Whoopie
Speaker 1: Goldberg is the lead is peek here. Yes, she's a
Speaker 1: peak of her Whoopie Goldberg like powers. And I loved that.
Speaker 1: I remember I look, you know, I was watching it,
Speaker 1: and I remember seeing her in the movie and she's
Speaker 1: this you know, sexual being, you know, who's the love
Speaker 1: interest for Harvey Keitel. And I remember being really excited
Speaker 1: that there was a I don't know that just I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, excited that, you know, I'm dark skinned,
Speaker 1: and just to see her as this like very attractive
Speaker 1: you know, and I don't know, it was great. It
Speaker 1: was like really exciting to see that when I was
Speaker 1: young and totally and it was an audience. It was
Speaker 1: not directed just towards black audiences. I mean, it was
Speaker 1: for everybody. And you know, and that and that was
Speaker 1: exciting for me. I remember that. That's great. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I also read that this was originally written for Bette Midler,
Speaker 1: who you know that it's been a fine It would
Speaker 1: have been a good movie, I'm sure. Still, but like,
Speaker 1: Whoopie kills it. She kills it. She absolutely kills it.
Speaker 1: It's so good. And and what you said, Mathea goes
Speaker 1: to show like why casting diverse casts is important for representation. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: this is like, you know, when did Friends start airing? Fo? Yeah?
Speaker 1: So later, but still, you know, like I think it
Speaker 1: took Friends how many seasons to have a oh yeah
Speaker 1: with like a black love interest? So long? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's I mean it's like, yeah, Whoopy, the impact of
Speaker 1: Whoopie could I mean, we could go on for days.
Speaker 1: She's amazing. She's done like such good advocacy over the
Speaker 1: years too. And but just like, yeah, just by like
Speaker 1: being herself and owning this role and like being sexual,
Speaker 1: being capable of being like just like strong willed, and
Speaker 1: especially in this movie that's built around sisterhood, is like
Speaker 1: so cool and impactful. And I was really excited that
Speaker 1: they didn't have a romantic moment between the police officer,
Speaker 1: and yeah, it seems like there were a few moments
Speaker 1: where I'm like, are they going to do it? I
Speaker 1: was relieved that we're just mutually respectful. Yeah right, it
Speaker 1: would have been like pretty inappropriate had they gotten together.
Speaker 1: It would have blown the case. First of all, yes, exactly,
Speaker 1: that's a great point problem for prosecuting Harvey Channel to
Speaker 1: offer a bit of criticism about not necessarily the movie,
Speaker 1: but his character. He sort of does blow it when
Speaker 1: he's like there's a scene where like Harvey Kitel and
Speaker 1: his goons are like walking around and then Lieutenant South
Speaker 1: there's like, hey, you're going down. I got you. You
Speaker 1: know something's going something happened and I'm going to get you.
Speaker 1: And why would he be so confident if he didn't
Speaker 1: have of Dolores and his protections. And that's what gets
Speaker 1: Harvey Keitel to be like, oh he must have Dolores,
Speaker 1: we have to go kill her. So it's just like
Speaker 1: his like male ego was just it's part of why
Speaker 1: what he was in even more danger. South should get
Speaker 1: his ego under control. But did you? I mean, I
Speaker 1: thought his character was really cool and in so yeah,
Speaker 1: we're it's like I feel like they were almost And
Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe this is just like speaking to how
Speaker 1: a lot of movies like how we've been like like
Speaker 1: unconsciously trained to interpret movies. But I thought that he
Speaker 1: was going to be positioned as a love interest strictly
Speaker 1: because he was nice to her, like that doesn't bode
Speaker 1: well for m but youth written because he was just
Speaker 1: like nice to her, like he was sympathetic to her situation,
Speaker 1: Like there were some moments where he's like, well, deal
Speaker 1: with it, but in general, like he came to her
Speaker 1: show when he was like, hey, probably don't do this.
Speaker 1: Here's was like okay, but are you gonna come? He's
Speaker 1: like yeah, looks pretty cool. Like you just seemed like
Speaker 1: a supportive, kind person, and so yeah, when I kept
Speaker 1: thinking him like, oh, I think he's good to be
Speaker 1: the loved interest, I'm like, I think I just think
Speaker 1: that because when men are kind to women, especially in
Speaker 1: movies of this time, you're kind of trained to think
Speaker 1: that they're going to want something out of it, I guess.
Speaker 1: And it's just that such a common like studio note
Speaker 1: to be like, wait, there's not a hetero romance in
Speaker 1: this movie, Well, then what are we even doing? Put
Speaker 1: it in there, I hope. And and that also, I mean,
Speaker 1: we can't say this for sure, but I just know
Speaker 1: that like historically, Whoopie Goberg has always had a lot
Speaker 1: of say on like what goes into her star vehicles
Speaker 1: and what doesn't. So she also has a lot of
Speaker 1: you know power where you have to imagine that suggestion
Speaker 1: was made and then I mean it didn't fit into
Speaker 1: the story, you didn't need it. And and also she's
Speaker 1: got to stay a nun, right right, so Southey doesn't
Speaker 1: stand a chance against God. Maybe that's the love storright there. Right,
Speaker 1: she does get married to Jesus, So there's still a
Speaker 1: heatero romance in this movie. Great points. We gotta take
Speaker 1: another quick break, but then we'll come right back and
Speaker 1: we're back. Um. Something I wanted to touch on is
Speaker 1: so we do often see in a lot of movies
Speaker 1: women being kidnapped. Danzel fridged things like that. Um, there
Speaker 1: is a kidnapping in this movie, but normally the movies
Speaker 1: we tend to see, and especially you know, action and
Speaker 1: superhero movies. Um, when a woman is kidnapped, it's to
Speaker 1: raise the stakes for the male hero and then he
Speaker 1: has to go and rescue her and to like be
Speaker 1: more heroic. In this movie, two women are kidnapped, Um,
Speaker 1: and whoop, he saves them both. Yeah, for she saves
Speaker 1: she helps Mary Robert escape and get away, and then
Speaker 1: Dolores gets away on her own. Um. I'm impressed that
Speaker 1: you can keep all the names of the nuns because
Speaker 1: I just I mean, I just watched it, watched it already,
Speaker 1: like who the bangs? Exactly? Where is the spinoff Bangs Nune?
Speaker 1: We already have? What is it? What is the Cool Pope?
Speaker 1: What's that show? There was the Young Pope and now
Speaker 1: it's called Now there's a spinoff called I think it's
Speaker 1: like the New Pope. Give the people Bangs Nuns? We
Speaker 1: need banks nuns. Yes, none, none. Representation has been down
Speaker 1: since the nineties, It's true, except for doubt. Let's not
Speaker 1: that's doubt erasure. That was embarrassing. But yeah, that that
Speaker 1: whole sequence is again you're sort of like knowing the
Speaker 1: time that came out, You're like, oh, no, is that
Speaker 1: you know? Is it like you half expected South to
Speaker 1: you know, burst in or just based on what you've
Speaker 1: seen before. But and I feel like because it is
Speaker 1: still a testament to like Whoopi Goldberg, where you just
Speaker 1: always get the feeling whenever you see her on screen
Speaker 1: that she is going to be able to save herself
Speaker 1: like she and and that scene where she is able
Speaker 1: to get Mary Robert to tumble out of the car
Speaker 1: and not die, not die, that could have ended very badly.
Speaker 1: Well that she did it when they slowed and she's Okay,
Speaker 1: go save yourself, I'll take care of her. This is
Speaker 1: not your problem, right, I'm like, oh, she's maybe she's
Speaker 1: done this before. Reno seems wild, but she's able to
Speaker 1: save her friend and then yeah, and then save herself
Speaker 1: like it. That's that's how you know. There is the
Speaker 1: moment at the very end when Harvey Citel is about
Speaker 1: to shoot her and then um South comes in and
Speaker 1: shoots him instead. So technically that's a bit of a rescue.
Speaker 1: But because we've already seen what be getaway on her
Speaker 1: own twice now, already at the very beginning and then
Speaker 1: again at the end, it didn't feel like, oh, she's
Speaker 1: like constantly being damned. What are saved by a man?
Speaker 1: And also like that's his job as a police officer
Speaker 1: to like yeahs like the first time we've seen like
Speaker 1: it was like we gotta see South or succeed. At
Speaker 1: some point he's just been accidentally selling her out movie
Speaker 1: by being a good friend. Um. Another thing I think
Speaker 1: is worth talking about is a big component of this
Speaker 1: movie is like female relationships and female friendships that develop. Um,
Speaker 1: there are some relationships between women where there is some
Speaker 1: tension which we're always like careful to analyze and say, Okay,
Speaker 1: well is it warranted or is there any context for
Speaker 1: because yeah, it's like sometimes we'll see I think like
Speaker 1: a kind of modern trend that will sometimes see is
Speaker 1: like like movies full of female relationships where there's never
Speaker 1: been a problem and you're like, well, this doesn't feel
Speaker 1: really either. What I really liked about this movie is
Speaker 1: that with these female relationships, you are generally getting enough
Speaker 1: context on the character to understand where because it's like
Speaker 1: that the relationship between Maggie Smith and Whoopi Goldberg could
Speaker 1: have been so like reductive and basic and this none
Speaker 1: is mean, This Nune is fun. But with even with
Speaker 1: Maggie Smith's character, you get a like that scene towards
Speaker 1: the end where she explains where she's coming from and
Speaker 1: like she has these insecurities about being obsolete and not belonging,
Speaker 1: and you're just like, oh, you know, you get the
Speaker 1: end to her character, and I feel like you kind
Speaker 1: of get the same for Dolorous for the most part.
Speaker 1: Two for sure, so nice and all the other nuns
Speaker 1: are so nice to her, just immediately love her. They
Speaker 1: love her, they welcome her, They follow her out to
Speaker 1: the bar crosser there as like God, these nuns are
Speaker 1: so desperate to do something, because the second they were like, wait,
Speaker 1: where's she going? We should go probably go to this
Speaker 1: biker bar. I did have one question. Is Maggie Smith
Speaker 1: the British actress? Yes, yes, okay, but it's it's funny
Speaker 1: because in a lot of movies, I feel like with
Speaker 1: nuns not I haven't seen as probably as many as you,
Speaker 1: but too well, I haven't seen doubts, you know. That's fine. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like nuns often have British accents for some reason.
Speaker 1: But maybe it was just because Maggie. Because it was
Speaker 1: both Maggie Smith and the priest who was he was Irish?
Speaker 1: Yeah he was, yeah, he was not. Yeah. The two
Speaker 1: heads of the church were not American, but they were
Speaker 1: in San Francisco, and no effort was really made to
Speaker 1: feel like here. I do think that there is sometimes
Speaker 1: this like dufus brain thing in American culture where they're like, Okay,
Speaker 1: how do we make this character sound authoritative? Let's just
Speaker 1: hire someone British like probably like they're they should have
Speaker 1: hired out for Molina. We should that's true there, I
Speaker 1: mean that we're okay. In addition to Banks and non
Speaker 1: we needed a choke. This sounds like a show that
Speaker 1: would exist American one. You put American before anything, it
Speaker 1: probably exists already or good how many shows the good Doctor,
Speaker 1: the Good Wife, you need, the good nuns, the bad nun?
Speaker 1: Um that also bad teacher? Yeah, I guess bad also bad?
Speaker 1: There's other bads? Right or is it just or like
Speaker 1: the Something Girl, Bad Boys? But then there's also a
Speaker 1: movie called good Boys. Yeah? Yeah, what is going on people?
Speaker 1: There's there's also the Blank Girl. There's so many The
Speaker 1: Blank Girl, the New Girl, the Danish Girl, others, amongst
Speaker 1: other titles. See that great point that just happened? Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, Nydia, like you're saying, the relationship among the
Speaker 1: nuns is so like there is sometimes conflict, but for
Speaker 1: the most part they're all rooting for each other, and
Speaker 1: you get that relationship with Bangs None and and Dolores
Speaker 1: where she brings that cute little daisy clock. You're like, Oh,
Speaker 1: she's so weird, so weird, she's so weird. She looks
Speaker 1: like she's in her twenties, but maybe she's actually fourteen.
Speaker 1: She gave you fourteen or forty. And you're like, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't be surprised when she brought the clock. Was when
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I thought that Dolorous was very
Speaker 1: patient with her. An adult woman brings you a daisy?
Speaker 1: How do you react? I read this whole article and I, oh,
Speaker 1: I should I should pull it up because I don't
Speaker 1: remember what it was called or the source, so you know. Um,
Speaker 1: but it's shipping Dolores and Mary Robert and how they
Speaker 1: have a lesbian relationship and if it's like a coded
Speaker 1: lesbian relationship throughout the movie. Um, some convincing points were made. Listen,
Speaker 1: I'm down, I'm down, and she and she saves Mary
Speaker 1: Robert and the Mary Robert runs back to the common
Speaker 1: and she's like, Dolores is my best friend. We have
Speaker 1: to go to Reno and everyone is like yes, there's
Speaker 1: no discussion I love that scene where they Catholic guilt
Speaker 1: the helicopter pilot. It's also funny to me. I felt
Speaker 1: like the level of religiosity and the fact that people
Speaker 1: wouldn't shoot a nun, the fact that like a helicopter
Speaker 1: pilot would be unable to resist the advances of nuns
Speaker 1: guilting him, like it was so taken for granted. Do
Speaker 1: you think if that was a plot twist now that
Speaker 1: everyone would be like, yes, that works. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I feel like if I was faced with
Speaker 1: an aggressive none, I would probably do what she said,
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't. I mean, yeah, I agree like this movie.
Speaker 1: I mean, first of all, is a great propaganda film
Speaker 1: for the Catholic Church. Makes it look like a blast.
Speaker 1: I mean it is a blast. There are no problems.
Speaker 1: I mean I've never seen one there. I mean just
Speaker 1: like bury your Spotlight DVD or whatever. Um. But but yeah,
Speaker 1: it comes out with yeah, like the assumption that the
Speaker 1: entire city of San Francisco is Catholic and suffering from
Speaker 1: deep Catholic guilt and they will they will die for
Speaker 1: Anne at the drop of that which is I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, there there are some and none of them particularly, Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they're really like quote unquote problematic. I
Speaker 1: just think that they do feel very of their time,
Speaker 1: like assuming that everyone is religious and easily manipulated by
Speaker 1: religious figures. The kind of world with no race that
Speaker 1: this movie has written in that I feel like it's
Speaker 1: kind of a hallmark of the nineties where it's just
Speaker 1: basically any character in this movie could be played by
Speaker 1: anyone of any race, and that topic is just kind
Speaker 1: of just not addressed in this particular movie. Um, although
Speaker 1: I would say that one of the things about Maggie
Speaker 1: Smith's character, she's like, the nuns aren't allowed to go outside,
Speaker 1: it's too dangerous. And when you finally get shot to
Speaker 1: the neighborhood this quote dangerous neighborhood, it's predominantly black. So
Speaker 1: it's like, okay, well you're that's Maggie Smith is racist.
Speaker 1: It's what we're saying. God damn it, Maggie Smith is racist. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so yeah, that could have been avoided. Yes. Um, the
Speaker 1: other thing that I I my little you know, ding
Speaker 1: went off. The word hooker gets repeated a couple of
Speaker 1: times very nineties nineties language. Yeah, there there was an
Speaker 1: any like don't don't consume point and you know, porns
Speaker 1: have its pregeous movie that like goes with the like
Speaker 1: very catholic because I feel like this was a movie
Speaker 1: that church groups could go to. Yeah and so, but
Speaker 1: also like I grew up completely secular, and I movies
Speaker 1: with religious components often don't appeal to me or you know,
Speaker 1: I'm not drawn to them necessarily. Um, but I felt
Speaker 1: like this movie was all weirdly secular enough that I
Speaker 1: was like, I can get on board with this. This
Speaker 1: is fun. I'm having a great time. Plus the great music.
Speaker 1: Music is so good. I will have to I have
Speaker 1: to say that when they were singing the first reproduced
Speaker 1: song reproduced under Whoopy Goldbergs production, fun, what a fun Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then they're doing the hymn and then they break
Speaker 1: into the more the clapping and the rhythmic portions, and
Speaker 1: then people just start walking in off the streets. The
Speaker 1: young came in. But I will say at that moment,
Speaker 1: I don't know whether I'm particularly emotional right now or what,
Speaker 1: but I was like, music does your night? It was
Speaker 1: it was man, I was so ready to cry for
Speaker 1: that moment because it's, yeah, you see the youth outside
Speaker 1: and they're like, what's that beautiful music? Oh, what's that?
Speaker 1: That's the church. I'm like, I'm getting propagated. I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it so much. There was I mean, I
Speaker 1: was like, maybe I'll go back to church, and then
Speaker 1: I was like, no, wait, hold on um, but it works. Man.
Speaker 1: At the church where we do the shower program in Silver,
Speaker 1: like Silvery Community Church, they have beautiful music. It's like
Speaker 1: folk music, and it's just gorgeous. I've taken my kids
Speaker 1: there a couple of times. I mean, we're not I
Speaker 1: wasn't raised Christian, we're not deeply you know, I don't
Speaker 1: practice any particular religion deeply right now. But yeah, it's
Speaker 1: just so beautiful and lovely to be in the presence
Speaker 1: of music with all these other people. I mean, I
Speaker 1: guess that's going to a concert, but yeah, but like
Speaker 1: it's I don't know, but it's also spiritually, you know,
Speaker 1: it's connected to a higher Yeah, and their music is
Speaker 1: what brings the pope and he's like, I've heard about
Speaker 1: your great choir command. I really like that scene where
Speaker 1: where Dolores, you know, where Maggie Smith is about to say,
Speaker 1: you know, we can't sing again. Just like the nuns
Speaker 1: are so game for whatever. When there's like that vote
Speaker 1: where Maggie Smith's like should we do boring music or
Speaker 1: fun music? All the nuns are like fun music, and
Speaker 1: Maggie's like okay. Then she like almost resigns because again
Speaker 1: she's like feeling kind of inadequate and a rule. But
Speaker 1: then it's like, no, I do I have to stay.
Speaker 1: Everyone has like a nice little arc. You also have
Speaker 1: that relationship that I really like between Dolores and Sister
Speaker 1: Mary Lazarus, who had been the head of the choire.
Speaker 1: She's the choir and and right at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of their interactions, she's like, I see what's happening. You
Speaker 1: got brought in as a ringer. You're trying to replace me.
Speaker 1: But then when she sees that Whoopee is like knows
Speaker 1: what she's doing. She knows music, she knows where to
Speaker 1: position the people, she knows what notes or what notes,
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, I'm gonna step down. You're clearly
Speaker 1: better at this um. And there's I feel like that
Speaker 1: could have been in a lesser movie. They would have
Speaker 1: tried to like pit those women against each other and
Speaker 1: just like had her be like no, no, this is
Speaker 1: my thing. But she she like, she's like, no, you
Speaker 1: have the skills, this is your background. And then they
Speaker 1: become friends and they together when they eat ice cream.
Speaker 1: That it was a very nice scene. There was some
Speaker 1: confusion around time for me in the movie. Interesting because
Speaker 1: you know, they when we first see the church, it's
Speaker 1: under construction. They have all the scaffolding there and right,
Speaker 1: you know. And then the implication is that by increasing
Speaker 1: people who are coming into the church, people are passing
Speaker 1: the hat and putting in more money, we're able to
Speaker 1: finish the repairs at the church. But that would take
Speaker 1: a long It would take a long time. How I
Speaker 1: guess it comes down to those montages of like how
Speaker 1: much ground are we cover? Because there was like a
Speaker 1: few long montages of like nuns doing various but the
Speaker 1: whole time they were supposed to wait for the court
Speaker 1: date was two months and then yeah, and then and
Speaker 1: then the lieutenant calls her and says, I got it
Speaker 1: speeded up so it a month. In a month, they
Speaker 1: were able to increase attendance at the church enough to
Speaker 1: raise ten dollars or more. I are a contractor, finished
Speaker 1: the repairs enough how that the Pope could come in
Speaker 1: and be totally impressed and went over the youth of
Speaker 1: all of San Francisco. They've saved them. I mean Delor.
Speaker 1: She's a she's a quick operator. She really solved Catholicism.
Speaker 1: And in the beginning it was also interesting because she
Speaker 1: was like a failed lounge singer but incredibly successful. Sometimes
Speaker 1: you just have to find a caller, you know, it's
Speaker 1: that's beautiful. Oh no, I think I have more varied
Speaker 1: religious issues than I realized. Um yeah, I'm trying to
Speaker 1: think of other I mean, oh, something I did want
Speaker 1: to bring up. So I bring this up a lot
Speaker 1: on the show. But usually, UM, I wouldn't even say
Speaker 1: that this movie is marketed specifically at women. I think
Speaker 1: that it's kind of a general movie. Will be Goldberg
Speaker 1: is such a huge star at this time. This movie
Speaker 1: was hugely successful. Um I had a thirty one million
Speaker 1: dollar budget and it made two wounder thirty one million
Speaker 1: dollars at the box office. So like the movie was,
Speaker 1: it seems like everyone was seeing it. But we do find,
Speaker 1: especially when um the film critic pool was less diverse
Speaker 1: that movies that are directed at general audiences and then
Speaker 1: usually specifically women or people who are not whatever the
Speaker 1: white male critic don't get as good a review. Somehow,
Speaker 1: this movie only has round to me, which hurts my feelings, like,
Speaker 1: how does it not have? And we have I have?
Speaker 1: I found a quote from our noted enemy, Roger Ebert,
Speaker 1: who always has the dumbest takes in spite of being
Speaker 1: the most famous film critic of all time. Here's what
Speaker 1: do you have to say about his direct I found
Speaker 1: to be very fusing. He said, this movie is a
Speaker 1: little bit low key and contemplative and a little too thoughtful,
Speaker 1: which I didn't like. I was like, what he didn't
Speaker 1: like that the movie was thinking about things. It's like, now,
Speaker 1: hold on, there's a point to all this, so that
Speaker 1: you know, so don't with the point bank don't always
Speaker 1: trust Rotten Tomatoes some of the old guy has weighing
Speaker 1: in or but I would even take issue with the
Speaker 1: characterization of the movie. It's too thoughtful, right if it
Speaker 1: it's a wrong, it's just immediate music. It's a it's
Speaker 1: a musical right with with multiple musical montages, right all rule.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't I don't know what was
Speaker 1: going on with him, but he was not he didn't
Speaker 1: seem to be he didn't like fun. He seemed to
Speaker 1: not fun. You get the vibe from all of his
Speaker 1: reviews of like, why wasn't this Taxi Driver? I'm like,
Speaker 1: if it's not taxi driver two stars like um now,
Speaker 1: and then wasn't exactly like stand by Me because costead
Speaker 1: stand by Me for girls stars? Um So anyways, just
Speaker 1: another reflection on the state of film criticism this time.
Speaker 1: Did you have any other that's kind of it? I have. Surprisingly,
Speaker 1: I really don't have too much of a bad word
Speaker 1: to say about this mo. Now. I have to say
Speaker 1: that I'm so grateful that as part of my campaign duties,
Speaker 1: I had to rewatch Sister Act, and it should be
Speaker 1: a job qualification. It was such a pleasure because there's
Speaker 1: so much to do right now. But I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 1: I will set a side time for Sister I need
Speaker 1: to watch this. Don't disturb me. I'm rewatching Sister Act.
Speaker 1: Sometimes my mom will call me and I'm like, sorry,
Speaker 1: I've got too much work to do right now. I
Speaker 1: have to go watch the Social Network. I understand why
Speaker 1: my parents don't think this is a job. I get it.
Speaker 1: I get it, I get it. But I'm a worker
Speaker 1: and you have rights. Yes, we need to a podcast union.
Speaker 1: We need a unionize. Honestly we should. Does this movie
Speaker 1: pass the Vectel test tons, I think almost more than
Speaker 1: any movie we've ever covered. There's whole scenes that passed
Speaker 1: the Bechtel test. Um. I believe that the scene where
Speaker 1: Sister Mary Robert brings in the weird daisy besides mentioning
Speaker 1: her brother one time, that entire scene passes the Bectel test,
Speaker 1: which is like virtually unheard of. Yeah, no, I mean
Speaker 1: I was like, so the pope, do the nuns even
Speaker 1: talk about another man? I mean Help or God or Jesus.
Speaker 1: But yeah, most of the male characters are unseen because
Speaker 1: they're Jesus and God. So I do like, how okay,
Speaker 1: So there's one scene. There's a few scenes where the
Speaker 1: priest is present. I do like how kind of generally
Speaker 1: sidelined he is. But there is that one scene where like,
Speaker 1: and I don't necessarily know entirely how to feel about this,
Speaker 1: but there's a scene between um, the reverend mother or
Speaker 1: mother reverend I don't know, Maggie Smith and Dolores, and Um,
Speaker 1: she's yelling at Dolores for this is pop music. This
Speaker 1: is secular music. Uh. And then the priest comes in.
Speaker 1: He's like, no, I'm going to undermine your authority here
Speaker 1: and be like hey, like he was on Dolores, I
Speaker 1: thought that he just like for me, kind of was
Speaker 1: on board with the nun hive mind of like we
Speaker 1: love what we called burg will do whatever she says,
Speaker 1: so and that, I mean, I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1: But I was like, they should be singing fun music
Speaker 1: or why am I watching um? But yes, yeah, big, big,
Speaker 1: many passes, many passes between many combinations of characters. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Usually if there's two women on screen talking to each other,
Speaker 1: it'll pass the metal test at some point in the car.
Speaker 1: And that's most of the scenes of the movie. So
Speaker 1: this movie is truly it's the one feminist text we've
Speaker 1: We've found it distract as our feminist text. I of it.
Speaker 1: I was so happy. I mean, it's a sister in
Speaker 1: the title. What do you expect? I'm so excited that
Speaker 1: we covered this movie today. Really may be so happy.
Speaker 1: Let's write it. Yes, rate it on our nipple scale.
Speaker 1: We have a scale of zero to five nipples in
Speaker 1: which we rate it based on its representation and treatment
Speaker 1: of women. I'm gonna go with a solid like four
Speaker 1: and a half, And there's just a few of those
Speaker 1: little like nineties jokes and like, you know, uses of
Speaker 1: certain words and you know, like black neighborhood equals dangerous neighborhood.
Speaker 1: But it was far less problematic than I would have
Speaker 1: expected if a movie from the early nineties. It's about
Speaker 1: it's a movie about a woman being accepted into this sisterhood.
Speaker 1: And and even though she's like at the beginning, she's like,
Speaker 1: I don't like this, all the nuns are still like,
Speaker 1: but you're so great, and you're so good at being
Speaker 1: a nun, and we like you so much. Everyone this
Speaker 1: movie is so accepting of each other, so very supportive. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the one female relationship where there is tension is
Speaker 1: contextualize and like everyone comes around by the end. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's a beautiful story about sisterhood and we
Speaker 1: need more of them. So I would give this four
Speaker 1: and half nipples and give one to Whoopee, one to
Speaker 1: Maggie Smith, one to her bangs the bangs of the Bangs, none, none,
Speaker 1: and I'll give one to Kathy Najimie, and I'll give
Speaker 1: one to Lieutenant South there love it. Yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: do four and a half to two. I think that
Speaker 1: this this movie just made me so happy. And no
Speaker 1: movies hold up. In this movie, like holds up never happens.
Speaker 1: It's so I just love how there were so many
Speaker 1: opportunities for their writing to kind of turn women against
Speaker 1: each other, but it really never takes that option. And
Speaker 1: like the sisters are on board the whole time. They're
Speaker 1: there to support each other. And when there's a reveal
Speaker 1: of like Dolores isn't who she says she is, they're like,
Speaker 1: who cares she was kidnapped? We're going to arena? Like
Speaker 1: it's just it's so I just like I'm getting emotional
Speaker 1: um there. I mean, there's very low um representation of
Speaker 1: women behind the camera here, which is like something to
Speaker 1: just be aware of. There's one credited female producer, but
Speaker 1: it's you know, directed, written by editor, cinematography. The whole
Speaker 1: bit is kind of men across the board. Just something
Speaker 1: that we try to be aware of. But the story
Speaker 1: itself and the actors that are there, it's just it's
Speaker 1: just the best. So four and a half two will
Speaker 1: be one of Maggie, one of Cathy and half to banks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I probably not because I haven't done
Speaker 1: this as much as you guys, but I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: it five nipples. Uh, and just look at the disgusting clue.
Speaker 1: We were like just because yeah, like I expected this
Speaker 1: to be yeah, expected it not to hold up as well,
Speaker 1: and I was Yeah, I was so happy to be
Speaker 1: able to watch a movie like this. It was just
Speaker 1: so happy and it gave me an adult rated joy.
Speaker 1: Do I have to assign the nipples to people? If
Speaker 1: you want to? I would, I would, I would follow
Speaker 1: you and we're assigning in your nipple assignments, spreading the
Speaker 1: nipples across the board. Plenty of sisters, plenty of nipples.
Speaker 1: I'll give the pope and one of my nipples. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good for you, didn't get any well, Nathia, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here, Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you want to plug. Where can people
Speaker 1: find you on social media? Oh yeah, yeah, so I
Speaker 1: meant Nitia for the City dot com. But if you
Speaker 1: use social media, follow us on Twitter. Nittia v Raman.
Speaker 1: That's an I T h y A and my last
Speaker 1: name is r A m A and not not quite
Speaker 1: like the noodle. Um. But if you know, if you
Speaker 1: just google Nitia City Council, I'm the only Nitia running
Speaker 1: for city council. Imagine that. Um. And we're on Instagram
Speaker 1: and Natia for the city as well. And um, definitely
Speaker 1: if you're in l A, please look me up, come
Speaker 1: out to canvas. Um. We have a huge volunteer army
Speaker 1: that's knocking on every door in the district to try
Speaker 1: and get people excited about this election and how they
Speaker 1: can expect change in the city. Um. Yeah, so look
Speaker 1: look me up, come out, come meet us. And when
Speaker 1: when's the election again? March three? And vote? Ever come
Speaker 1: out and vote, yes exactly. I'm sure everyone's going to
Speaker 1: be voting for the primaries. You should be well not
Speaker 1: stop bothering our listeners about it. Um. Yeah, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for making the time and and and carving
Speaker 1: Sister Act into your schedule. Yes, thank you for giving
Speaker 1: me the opportunity to carve Sister Act into my schedule anytime.
Speaker 1: Very grateful. Thank you. Guys. Where's Sisterhood right now? Yes? Yes,
Speaker 1: this is the Sisterhood of the Traveling Act. Where's that movie? Okay,
Speaker 1: you can follow us all the normal places Twitter, Instagram,
Speaker 1: et cetera. At Bechtel Cast. You can go to our
Speaker 1: website bechtel cast dot com for our show dates and episodes.
Speaker 1: Our patren aka Matreon is five dollars a month to
Speaker 1: bonus episodes every month, plus the entire back atalogue. And
Speaker 1: I think that's about it. Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Thank you. Byfi