Speaker 1: On the Bechdel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
Speaker 1: women and them all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
Speaker 1: or do they have individualism the patriarchy zeph and Beast
Speaker 1: start changing it with the Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 2: Jamie is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world.
Speaker 1: Kidly, it is the most beautiful person I've ever shared.
Speaker 3: A wing your life, Like, I, okay, can I be honest?
Speaker 2: Those earrings are so creepy.
Speaker 3: I would rip my fucking ear off. I would be
Speaker 3: like get like those things are killers, because you know,
Speaker 3: the second you fall asleep they start saying bad shit.
Speaker 3: Yeah that was I couldn't stop thinking about the second
Speaker 3: the second they were like what's the It's like that
Speaker 3: old god, why did my brain go here? But like
Speaker 3: that old Lemon joke where she's like you should kill yourself,
Speaker 3: it's like that's what the starfish earrings do the second
Speaker 3: you start to drift off to sleep. And also, for
Speaker 3: a reason, on the Wikipedia page for this movie, they're
Speaker 3: all credited as the voices of their own starfish earings
Speaker 3: and you're like, okay, say less, like I don't.
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, this is not information we needed.
Speaker 3: I reject that information. I yeah, the starfish earings, they've
Speaker 3: gotta go, or at least like they needed a different voice.
Speaker 4: Nothing is more obvious to me that my love language
Speaker 4: is words of affirmation than in this moment. Because I
Speaker 4: was into it, we.
Speaker 2: Got into the ocean and scavenge these tiny little starfish earings.
Speaker 4: I was honestly a little scared to say something. I
Speaker 4: was like, oh, they weren't into it.
Speaker 2: No, speak your truth.
Speaker 3: Yes, all opinions are welcome, but you're right and objectively
Speaker 3: terrifying starfish hearings.
Speaker 4: In retrospect, it is a creepy voice.
Speaker 5: The fact that they like do themselves is very interesting
Speaker 5: and adds a new flavor.
Speaker 2: I mean, I guess it's self love and that's nice,
Speaker 2: and it's still creepy.
Speaker 6: The mommy is amazing.
Speaker 3: I don't have enough faith in my own like my
Speaker 3: version of self love sustains for like a minute at
Speaker 3: a time. Like I would not go to sleep with
Speaker 3: those things on, because it gets dark. It gets that's
Speaker 3: when the dark thoughts come at night.
Speaker 2: Anyway, Hello, and welcome to the Bechdel Cast. My name
Speaker 2: is Caitlyn Tourante, and Caitlin is the prettiest girl in
Speaker 2: the word.
Speaker 3: My name's Jamie Loftus and she sucks and she deserves
Speaker 3: to die. And this is the Bechtel Cast, our podcast
Speaker 3: where we take a look at your favorite movies using
Speaker 3: an intersectional feminist lens, also using the Bechdel Test as
Speaker 3: a jumping off point for discussion. But Caitlin, what the
Speaker 3: hell is that?
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, it's a media metric created by queer cartoonist
Speaker 2: Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the Bechdel Wallace Test. There are
Speaker 2: many versions of it. Ours is do two characters of
Speaker 2: a marginalized gender have names? Do they speak to each other?
Speaker 2: And is the conversation about something other than a man?
Speaker 2: And we also like it when it's a narratively substantial
Speaker 2: conversation and not just throw away dialogue.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And today we are talking about a movie that
Speaker 3: I believe has been a consistent request for the entirety
Speaker 3: of this show, of this program, and we have finally
Speaker 3: found the right guests to discuss this beautiful.
Speaker 2: Incredible work. Yes, because they're both mermaids. Yes, it took
Speaker 2: us this long, but we finally.
Speaker 3: Have expert opinions. Look, if you keep your podcast on
Speaker 3: long enough, you will have mermaids as guests. Alfred Molina
Speaker 3: then mermaids. How that's how.
Speaker 2: It works, a natural trajectory.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we're covering the two thousand and six classic
Speaker 3: Dare I Say Aqua Marine, based on the book by
Speaker 3: Alice Hoffman.
Speaker 2: Wow. And our guests joining us are the hosts of Players,
Speaker 2: a film industry podcast. It's Dumma Strasbaugh and Immani Davis.
Speaker 6: Hello.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you guys so much.
Speaker 5: Yeah, thanks for having us, thanks for being here.
Speaker 6: Excited to dive in.
Speaker 3: Wow, cooking already cooking already, Amani?
Speaker 4: Who told? Who told that we were murmaid?
Speaker 5: I know?
Speaker 6: I swear?
Speaker 2: Yeah, sorry to docs you.
Speaker 3: I love I'm so excited to talk about this movie
Speaker 3: because the Mermaid rules to.
Speaker 2: Me are so chaotic.
Speaker 3: I love them. They're just like whatever they're Also she
Speaker 3: is she's a mermaid, but also she's a genie, but
Speaker 3: she doesn't follow the genie rules. She's like, there's no rules,
Speaker 3: it's whatever you want.
Speaker 2: It's only one wish, not three.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and one wish with no rules?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: Does she say you can't kill someone or does she not?
Speaker 2: Even the only stipulation she gives is that it has
Speaker 2: to follow it can't like violate the laws of nature, which, oh,
Speaker 2: she said that it's very open to interpretation. I think
Speaker 2: so that, Yeah, that's the only thing with the genie wish,
Speaker 2: the one genie wish she grants. Her Mermaid rules are
Speaker 2: basically like gremlins rules, because it's like she can't get
Speaker 2: wet and during the daytime it's okay, but like, what
Speaker 2: is it for gremlins after midnight? You can't feed them
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 3: You certainly can't get them wet, and.
Speaker 2: You certainly can't get them on.
Speaker 3: So well, I Aquamarine actually does need to be wet.
Speaker 3: It's a bit of a reverse gremlin because she has
Speaker 3: to be wet at midnight because she's a.
Speaker 2: Fish, right, But I guess the rules for her to
Speaker 2: be a human or to be in human form are
Speaker 2: the like you can't get her and it's only during
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 3: It's a very complex text, very complex text. So Rich,
Speaker 3: let's talk about our experiences with this, Amani, what's your
Speaker 3: history with Aquamarine, the book, the movie, the idea.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I did't gets to read.
Speaker 5: The book when I was younger, but I remember the
Speaker 5: movie coming out and being like super hyped and revisiting it.
Speaker 5: It's like such a Y two K time capsule, and
Speaker 5: I feel like I definitely found myself being like I
Speaker 5: want to be a mermaid for Halloween, Like I want
Speaker 5: blue hair streaks, I want some of these starfish earrings.
Speaker 5: And so there's like there was this longing to like
Speaker 5: be in this world of helping out my mermaid friend
Speaker 5: get the guy.
Speaker 2: Ho title is old as Time, a tale whil it's okay, okay, Dema,
Speaker 2: what's your relationship with it?
Speaker 4: Slumber parties come to mind. It was a lot of
Speaker 4: parallel giggling with the characters on screen. It's very much
Speaker 4: for me a like Friendship Watch, where we were absolutely
Speaker 4: gagged at the jokes and just falling for it and
Speaker 4: very into it. And my child I obviously have very
Speaker 4: different opinions about it now, which we'll get into, but
Speaker 4: when I was younger was totally into.
Speaker 7: All of it.
Speaker 4: And also I was like, oh, this movie taught me
Speaker 4: about true love, which I was very into when I
Speaker 4: was young as well.
Speaker 3: So I do love the true love between friends is
Speaker 3: so beautiful. My history with aquamarinas I more clearly remember
Speaker 3: reading the book than seeing the movie. I think I
Speaker 3: saw the movie at like a sleepover. But I very
Speaker 3: clearly remember reading the book in sometime in elementary school
Speaker 3: and really loving it. Obviously love a mermaid. For a
Speaker 3: long time, it was the only thing I could draw,
Speaker 3: so people thought I was really into mermaids, which is
Speaker 3: probably why I was given that book, But it was
Speaker 3: just the only thing I could draw was a mermaid
Speaker 3: that looked kind of fucked up. But yeah, I remember
Speaker 3: being really affected by the book because the friends, and
Speaker 3: it was also because I had a good friend when
Speaker 3: I was a kid who moved away. But the fact
Speaker 3: that I kept like expecting and when I was watching
Speaker 3: the movie, I like felt that little pang again of
Speaker 3: like oh my god. And then they don't enough together
Speaker 3: at the end. It makes me so sad. I just remember,
Speaker 3: like more clearly than any of the weird mermaid rules.
Speaker 3: I don't really remember the differences between the book and
Speaker 3: the movie, but yeah, like this like amazing friendship between
Speaker 3: these two girls and then at the end they're separated.
Speaker 3: And I think it affected me at the time because
Speaker 3: I was like, it's like me and Amanda, and I
Speaker 3: was surprised they kept it that same ending for movie.
Speaker 3: It feels like it's kind of a gutsy way to
Speaker 3: end a movie, because I feel like it's so tempting
Speaker 3: to Hollywood defy it and be like, actually, my mom
Speaker 3: is going to work at you know, but they I
Speaker 3: don't know. Yeah, I really enjoyed the book. I like
Speaker 3: the movie. It is a wild time capsule. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: there is a Weezer Island in the Sun plot point,
Speaker 3: like that is I always associate that song with the
Speaker 3: Mary kayn Ashley movie Island in the Sun, which is
Speaker 3: literally named after that Weezer song, and I think would
Speaker 3: have come out around the same time. Anyways, tweens loved
Speaker 3: Weezer in the mid two thousands, and what an interesting
Speaker 3: moment that must have been for Weezer. I liked this movie. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I found myself pleasantly surprised by it, and like, we
Speaker 3: just covered angus thongs and Perfect Snogging, which is a
Speaker 3: movie from the same era that I don't think hold
Speaker 3: up quite as well. And so even though there's a
Speaker 3: lot of the same you know, it's the same playbook.
Speaker 3: But I really appreciate this movie. And also just I mean,
Speaker 3: Emma Roberts, Jojo and Sarah Paxton, come on, come on.
Speaker 3: Two thousand and six we were there, Kitlyn, what's your
Speaker 3: history with Aquamarine?
Speaker 2: I had no exposure to it whatsoever. Never read the book,
Speaker 2: never watched the movie. I had like aged out of
Speaker 2: it by the time the movie came out. And I
Speaker 2: don't know when the book was published. I meant to
Speaker 2: look that up, but it was two thousand and one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I would have been to old for it then as well,
Speaker 2: so I was not interested. Yeah, so this was my
Speaker 2: first time watching it, and watching this movie as a
Speaker 2: full adult in the year twenty twenty four for the
Speaker 2: first time. It's interesting. I agree that I was like
Speaker 2: surprised by the takeaway from the end and the kind
Speaker 2: of twist, like no hetero romances be damned. This is
Speaker 2: a movie about female friendship. I was like, what it
Speaker 2: took me by surprise. So I'm excited to talk about
Speaker 2: it further. But I have no attachment to this movie whatsoever.
Speaker 3: So Kitlyn's the neutral party, It's true. I also just
Speaker 3: another I know, there's so many, very two thousands things
Speaker 3: about this. It took me so long to figure out
Speaker 3: who the villain was, and it's because she was on
Speaker 3: Gilmore Girls. Any Gilmore Girl's watchers in the chat except
Speaker 3: for Jamie. She was for all my Gilmore Girls heads.
Speaker 3: She was Dean's wife who and she also was like
Speaker 3: had to play this kind of like shrill stock character
Speaker 3: where she's like Dean, get to work, Dean, buy my food,
Speaker 3: and like they just this poor actor has to play
Speaker 3: all these crummy parts. But that was where I recognized
Speaker 3: her from.
Speaker 4: I clocked her immediately because she was in Cinderella's Story
Speaker 4: and I feel like she's like the two thousands, like
Speaker 4: evil villain, lady.
Speaker 2: Mean girl.
Speaker 3: It's like her and Megan Fox kind of who is
Speaker 3: I believe the villain in Holiday and the Sun.
Speaker 4: Whoa and Confessions of a Teenage Dunk.
Speaker 5: John Tucker Must Die?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so uh Cecilia is played by Ariel Kebble,
Speaker 2: who I recognize from John Tucker Must Die. Right, she's
Speaker 2: one of the people who are trying to kill John
Speaker 2: Tucker question mark.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I forgot she was in that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: And she was in Fifty Shades of Gray too, in
Speaker 4: the same Rolehh. Yeah, she was in like I think
Speaker 4: it's actually the second one.
Speaker 3: Oh she plays she's Gia Matteo.
Speaker 4: Yes, and she's the person again the same cast words
Speaker 4: like she's trying to steal Christian and like Christian is
Speaker 4: just married, and there's like this standoff moment where Missus
Speaker 4: Gray is like, you can refer to me as missus
Speaker 4: Gray and then she kind of backs off.
Speaker 3: I'll ever do to anybody. They're just like this lady's mean.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: Okay, well shout out to her. I guess we all
Speaker 3: know her for something different, totally.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So let's take a quick break and then we'll
Speaker 2: come back for the recap of Aquamarine. All right, let's
Speaker 2: dive in to the ocean and do the recap. Okay,
Speaker 2: we meet best friends Claire and Hayley, played by Emma
Speaker 2: Roberts and Jojo, respectively, not to be confused with Jojo Siwah,
Speaker 2: which when she started to become popular, I was like,
Speaker 2: don't you mean Jojo, and I had to learn that
Speaker 2: they were different pop girlies.
Speaker 3: I was happy to see that Jojo, like our our Jojo,
Speaker 3: is doing very well. She was on Broadway last year
Speaker 3: playing Setine and Mulan Rouge the musical Like, yeah, like
Speaker 3: she's she's thriving.
Speaker 6: Love this for her.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mostly know her from that song Get Up,
Speaker 2: Run Out.
Speaker 3: Oh my god. I feel like I can close my
Speaker 3: eyes and watch that entire music video front to back,
Speaker 3: just from memory.
Speaker 4: Yeah, frame for frame. She was also in a Sneaker's commercial.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I still.
Speaker 4: Remember because at the end she's like talking about all
Speaker 4: the things she has to do and then they show
Speaker 4: her sneakers and she's like and a math test and
Speaker 4: then it's like or no Sketchers, Sketchers. She was in
Speaker 4: Sketchers commercials. I was like, Sneakers commercial, Sketchers.
Speaker 3: That feels very Jojo coded, can't explain exactly how totally.
Speaker 3: And that movie r V she was also in.
Speaker 2: Wow, I bravely saw r V in theaters. I think
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 6: With my mom.
Speaker 3: And this was and this was also the era of
Speaker 3: Emma Roberts where she was on Unfabulous Too, and I
Speaker 3: loved that show so much.
Speaker 5: Much talk about a time capsule just watch okay truly.
Speaker 2: So the gals are in the movie playing Claire and Haley.
Speaker 2: They're at the beach somewhere in Florida. Some we're called
Speaker 2: bay Bridge. I think. I don't know if that's a
Speaker 2: real town or not. I didn't look it up. It's
Speaker 2: the last few days of summer vacation before they start.
Speaker 2: I think eighth grade. Though, Hailey is about to move
Speaker 2: to Australia because her marine biologist mom got a really
Speaker 2: good job there, but Haley deeply resents having to move
Speaker 2: and leave her best friend Claire behind. Claire's backstory is
Speaker 2: that her mom and dad drowned at sea, and so
Speaker 2: Claire lives with her her grandparents, who own I think
Speaker 2: the local beach club. You hate something.
Speaker 3: To hear your parents drowned at sea?
Speaker 2: You hate?
Speaker 6: That is heavy?
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 3: I also it's like, this was a completely irrational thought.
Speaker 3: But I was like, you could do that. In two
Speaker 3: thousand and six, people were still drowning at sea, Like,
Speaker 3: I what were they even up to?
Speaker 5: I don't know, it gives like eighteen hundreds Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, I was like, wait, what were they looking for? Anyways?
Speaker 3: I don't know, they know Aquamarine. Maybe they taught her
Speaker 3: the meaning of love or something.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Aquamarine sees her parents and that's what inspires her
Speaker 2: to come ashore to find love.
Speaker 3: Here's here's my horror pitch. Aquamarine whoopsie Daisies capsized the
Speaker 3: boat he held her parents and.
Speaker 5: Was like, oh, not of jealousy.
Speaker 3: Yes, So she's like and then I'll strike when Emma
Speaker 3: Robertson's vulnerable.
Speaker 2: I love that. Yeah, okay. So also on the beach
Speaker 2: is a lifeguard named Raymond who the friends have a
Speaker 2: big crush on. Then a mean popular girl, Cecilia, who
Speaker 2: we were just talking about and her gaggle of mean
Speaker 2: girl friends show up and flirt with Raymond the lifeguard,
Speaker 2: to Claire and Haley's dismay. That night, Haley like jokingly
Speaker 2: casts a spell to try to make the ocean stop
Speaker 2: her mom from moving to Australia.
Speaker 3: What a sentence.
Speaker 8: Yeah, she does it in jest, but like it like
Speaker 8: is sad at the end when Jojo goes to Australia,
Speaker 8: But you're also like good for her because they lived
Speaker 8: in Tampa, Like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you should absolutely go to Australia.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but she doesn't want to go there. She thinks
Speaker 2: Tampa's amazing, and so she jokingly casts this spell and
Speaker 2: there's like this storm and lightning strikes, and it seems
Speaker 2: like the spell works, question mark, because the next morning,
Speaker 2: Claire and Haley go outside to this swimming pool that's
Speaker 2: right by the beach. Is that a thing? I don't know,
Speaker 2: But Claire falls in the swimming pool, and she sees
Speaker 2: something in the water, but before she can get a
Speaker 2: good look, Raymond jumps in and saves her, and she
Speaker 2: tells Haley she saw something. So that night they sneak
Speaker 2: back to the pool and discover a mermaid and she's like, Hi,
Speaker 2: it's me a mermaid, and we will eventually learn that
Speaker 2: her name is Aqua Marine, although it takes forever for
Speaker 2: her to introduce herself.
Speaker 3: Is a full half hour I had to check out.
Speaker 3: He's like, how is this the first time?
Speaker 2: Yeah. They hang out for like a full day and
Speaker 2: then she's like, by the way, I'm a marine. And she,
Speaker 2: of course is played by Sarah Paxton. No relation to
Speaker 2: Bill Paxton from what I can tell.
Speaker 5: No, Okay, I tried to look into that too, Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I was like, this is important research that yielded
Speaker 2: no results. But yeh, I don't think they're related anyway.
Speaker 2: She seems nice and friendly, but then this guy, Leonard,
Speaker 2: who works at the beach club and who Claire and
Speaker 2: Haley are scared of, he starts to approach, so they
Speaker 2: have to run off, but they tell Aquamarine that they'll
Speaker 2: come back tomorrow. But when they do, they discover that
Speaker 2: the pool has been drained, so they think she's like
Speaker 2: gone forever or dead or something. But just kidding. Aquamarine
Speaker 2: turned herself into a human with legs. Although this is
Speaker 2: when we learn the Gremlins rules, where she can't get
Speaker 2: wet or else her tail will come back, and her
Speaker 2: tail will definitely come back no matter what when the
Speaker 2: sun sets. But during the day she can be in
Speaker 2: like human form.
Speaker 3: Oh and if you help her, you get one genie wish.
Speaker 5: Yes, but that has not really any more rules.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she also makes fun of them. She's like, you
Speaker 4: guys think genies are real.
Speaker 6: That's so true.
Speaker 5: There's a little mix of Cinderella in there too, like
Speaker 5: Gremlin's rules and like a little Cinderella.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And then she also has the aerial thing going on
Speaker 3: because she only has three days to fall in love.
Speaker 5: Yes, it's just an amalgamation a lot of stuff.
Speaker 4: Three days to fall in love, because this is very important.
Speaker 4: The reason she doesn't want to go back into the
Speaker 4: ocean is because she doesn't want to be a child bride.
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah, that her father has arranged. Yep, correct picture this.
Speaker 3: Your dad says, unless you can prove to me that
Speaker 3: love exists, I will make you a child bride in
Speaker 3: seventy two hours.
Speaker 5: Really, I'm wondering, like what what fisher in the sea,
Speaker 5: Like what of the murments? The men like that where
Speaker 5: she's like this is awful, I can't.
Speaker 3: It felt like they didn't have the budget to show
Speaker 3: us a second Mermaid.
Speaker 6: They had one nail.
Speaker 2: It seems like mermaid culture is a patriarchy for sure,
Speaker 2: and they don't believe in love. That's part of their culture,
Speaker 2: a loveless patriarchy, just like ours.
Speaker 4: Her is her dad, Poseidon.
Speaker 2: It feels I thought like that is implied, but it
Speaker 2: felt like she was avoiding saying his name.
Speaker 3: But like the mermaid names, took a long time.
Speaker 4: They couldn't afford the rights, the rights to say pay
Speaker 4: big Poseidon barely a form.
Speaker 2: So they they bring her to Claire's house, where Aquamarine's dad,
Speaker 2: who may or may not be Poseidon, calls her on
Speaker 2: a shell phone hilarious basically on just like a conch shell,
Speaker 2: and reprimands her for leaving because she ran away to
Speaker 2: escape being a child bride, and as Sweeve said, she
Speaker 2: has three days to find true love and to prove
Speaker 2: to her dad that love is real. So then Aqua
Speaker 2: Marine sees Raymond and decides he's the guy that she
Speaker 2: wants to fall in love with, and she tells Claire
Speaker 2: and Hailey that if they help make that happen, she'll
Speaker 2: grant them a Genie wish.
Speaker 3: There is a nice I did appreciate, I mean of all,
Speaker 3: because I feel this movie is like, really, I don't know.
Speaker 3: Maybe it's because we just watched the movie that I
Speaker 3: felt like was not as good on friendship between girls.
Speaker 3: I did appreciate that. It's like Haley and Claire both
Speaker 3: had this huge crush on Raymond, but when Aqua Marine
Speaker 3: is like, I have a crush on him too. I
Speaker 3: feel like a lesser movie would have been like, well,
Speaker 3: you can't have a crush on him. But it's like
Speaker 3: they're all very support and like, I don't know, they
Speaker 3: never turn on each other for some goofy reason like boys.
Speaker 4: There was some initial pushback to the Raymond crush, but
Speaker 4: they got over it very quickly.
Speaker 6: Totally. It was like everyone wants him, right, even guys.
Speaker 5: I loved that And guys.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so like all the girls want him and even
Speaker 2: some boys, and we're like, yay. Queer representation, queer representation.
Speaker 2: Prettei's implied. I was like, wait, I love that they
Speaker 2: do push back, but they changed their mind and agree
Speaker 2: to help Aquamarine as soon as they learn about this wish,
Speaker 2: because they realize they can use the wish to keep
Speaker 2: Haley from moving away. So they prioritize their friendship with
Speaker 2: each other over a boy. And so they're like, yeah,
Speaker 2: we will help Raymond fall in love with you in
Speaker 2: he calendar days. And so, in an effort to get
Speaker 2: Raymond to notice Aquamarine, they ride their bikes past his house,
Speaker 2: so you know, they're doing some light stocking, and Aquamarine
Speaker 2: goes flying off the handlebars and scrapes her knee. So
Speaker 2: Raymond comes out and like tends to her wound.
Speaker 3: Okay, really quick, really quick. I'm sorry. They're first of
Speaker 3: all incredible, like two thousands era Hot Girl Pratfall by
Speaker 3: Sarah Paxton. But there I I for some reason, you
Speaker 3: have like Raymond's just doing sit ups at his house,
Speaker 3: you know, like hot guys do or something. I do
Speaker 3: feel like that really embodied like what a young person's
Speaker 3: idea of what a hot guy's doing at home. He's like,
Speaker 3: he's probably at home doing crunches and talking to himself.
Speaker 3: But he is talking to himself, and what he says
Speaker 3: as he's talking to himself, he's doing, Okay, sit up,
Speaker 3: ooh that hers it's second set up, but this will
Speaker 3: make it all worth it. What the fuck are you talking?
Speaker 3: It's really quiet, but I rewound it like three times
Speaker 3: just to make sure that that weird and it's cleary
Speaker 3: that the kid isn't saying it, but so they added
Speaker 3: it in.
Speaker 2: It's just like eighty R Why did say that?
Speaker 3: Oh that hurts, but this will make it all worth it?
Speaker 4: Like what is this?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: When when you say this, I just loved.
Speaker 5: That someone made a choice to put that in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm just like, if I'm the director of this,
Speaker 3: they're like, something's not something's not working with this scene.
Speaker 3: We should make him give positive. He's basically being his
Speaker 3: own starfish hearings and that, oh that hurts, but this
Speaker 3: will make it all worth it.
Speaker 2: You're the most mascular boy.
Speaker 3: You know, you're us Raymond.
Speaker 2: Everybody loves rating his own little voice telling him you're
Speaker 2: also anyway. So he runs out to help aqua marine,
Speaker 2: but she doesn't really understand human social cues, so she's
Speaker 2: like awkward and over zealous, and then the mean popular
Speaker 2: girl Cecilia shows up to get a driving lesson from Raymond,
Speaker 2: and then you realize, okay, she must be sixteen at least.
Speaker 2: Raymond also seems to be like sixteen seventeen, so he's
Speaker 2: like a few years older than Haley and Claire. I
Speaker 2: think that it's also implied that Aqua Marine is a
Speaker 2: bit older. She's also, yeah, sixteen kind of thing.
Speaker 3: I always got very like cool older sister vibes from her, right.
Speaker 2: But then it makes you wonder why Cecilia and her
Speaker 2: friends spend so much time making fun of like girls
Speaker 2: way younger than that. Is that a thing that happens?
Speaker 4: It's all about making yourself feel bigger.
Speaker 2: I think she doesn't have her own starfish earrings, so
Speaker 2: she has to get validation by putting other people down.
Speaker 2: It's true.
Speaker 4: She's even mean to her other friends, and that's why
Speaker 4: they did her later.
Speaker 3: Yeah, true, she had that coming. Her dad was a
Speaker 3: little out of pocket towards Ci. But we'll get you.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, surely this is partially
Speaker 3: your fault.
Speaker 2: You did not bet this, Okay. So Celia shows up
Speaker 2: to get a driving lesson, so Claire, Haley, and Aquamarine
Speaker 2: head back home so that the friends can teach Aquamarine
Speaker 2: more about how to get a boy to like you
Speaker 2: via a bunch of teen magazines. And there's a whole
Speaker 2: montage to this effect. What a throwback.
Speaker 3: It's literally I think they cut they do like a
Speaker 3: close hit on, like keep smiling.
Speaker 5: Definitely a time capsule. I was like, I had those magazines.
Speaker 3: It was like Cosmo Girl, ye seventeen th I did.
Speaker 3: I loved those magazines because they were, for some reason,
Speaker 3: a little bit smaller than my mom's magazines, Like I
Speaker 3: do you remember, like teen Vogue.
Speaker 2: Was just it was little, it was littler.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I liked it.
Speaker 4: Anyways, I didn't have I'm missing out on this. I
Speaker 4: wasn't allowed to have those, but I had, like the
Speaker 4: Care of Keeping You.
Speaker 3: Book classic, A classic.
Speaker 4: Didn't teach me how to how to flirt with boys, though,
Speaker 4: that's probably why I was so bad at it.
Speaker 3: I like, any I kind of I feel like the
Speaker 3: American Girl books were pretty wholesome. I have it's it's
Speaker 3: in here somewhere. They did make an American girl book
Speaker 3: about how to flirt?
Speaker 6: Really, Oh yeah, I need that now. I still need that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember, and my mom was a freak, so
Speaker 3: she got it for me. She's like, best of luck,
Speaker 3: good luck out there.
Speaker 2: Hilarious. Uh okay. So then the three of them head
Speaker 2: to a street fair where Raymond is and he an
Speaker 2: Aquamarine connect and they go on a paddle boat together
Speaker 2: and he's like, wow, you're not like the other girls,
Speaker 2: and she's like, tii really. But then she realizes the
Speaker 2: sun is setting, which means her tail will come back
Speaker 2: very soon, so she has to hurry away, and Claire
Speaker 2: and Haley take her to a water tower for Aquamarine
Speaker 2: to spend the night in pretty brilliant.
Speaker 4: How she did not get a drop of water on
Speaker 4: her during the paddle sequence.
Speaker 6: I know.
Speaker 4: I was like, you're worried about the sun setting? What
Speaker 4: about the water?
Speaker 6: About the water?
Speaker 2: She forgot the other rule?
Speaker 3: Well, there are a lot of rules.
Speaker 5: Also, currieus just about the water tower choice, because there's
Speaker 5: also the scene, the iconic scene with the bathtob Chili
Speaker 5: in the bathtub with the tail. I'm like, well, why
Speaker 5: didn't she just chill?
Speaker 2: There were so many other sources of water, water tower.
Speaker 2: I don't know why they go to the lengths of
Speaker 2: taking her up a water tower. We don't know. It's
Speaker 2: so that she can get quote unquote trapped there by
Speaker 2: Cecilia later. But it's it's it feels very contrived. Wow.
Speaker 3: Meanwhile, I wrote water tower smart idea.
Speaker 8: Okay, got it, got it, got it again.
Speaker 2: Every every this is a safe space. Every opinion is
Speaker 2: valid here.
Speaker 3: I thought that was pretty inventive of them.
Speaker 4: I feel I feel like it's like the bathtub is
Speaker 4: like a fish bowl, and then the water tower it's
Speaker 4: like staying at a aquarium, and then there's the ocean.
Speaker 4: There's different Yeah, there's different levels.
Speaker 3: They get sure the water tower is like an apartment.
Speaker 3: You can just sing wheezer there by yourself, which she
Speaker 3: does later, which she does.
Speaker 2: And she couldn't go back in the swimming pool because
Speaker 2: it's established that they drained it. Yeah, so actually, maybe
Speaker 2: it is brilliant. I was.
Speaker 3: It was really late and I watched this genius.
Speaker 2: So the next day is this big beach party called
Speaker 2: the Last Splash, and it seems like Raymond was going
Speaker 2: to ask Aqua Marine to go with him. So the
Speaker 2: girls go on a shopping bontage for an outfit for
Speaker 2: Aqua Marine.
Speaker 7: As you do in the two thousands, where establishes further
Speaker 7: that she's not like other girls because they're like, these
Speaker 7: are secondhand clothes, and she's like, guys, give them a chance.
Speaker 3: Wow, sustainability, queen, I did. I mean, it's like it
Speaker 3: is so contrived to have a like close trying on sequence,
Speaker 3: but it's I love two thousands ones because they're always
Speaker 3: trying on the most but ugly shit like in the
Speaker 3: world where you're like, you guys look horrible, you look
Speaker 3: so bad.
Speaker 2: And then she tried on a dress that it looks
Speaker 2: I mean whatever, but the sleeves are especially ugly, so
Speaker 2: she just rips them off. But I don't think buys
Speaker 2: the dress then, because we don't see her wearing it again.
Speaker 2: So she just like defaces the property of the store
Speaker 2: and then leaves, which is iconic.
Speaker 4: But she's not like other girls.
Speaker 2: It's true. Yeah, past It's okay, right, So after the
Speaker 2: shopping bontage, Aquamarine makes Hailey ride on a dolphin to
Speaker 2: go out into the ocean and collect the starfish earrings
Speaker 2: that give them compliments. But then Aquamarine finds out that
Speaker 2: Raymond is going to the Last Splash party with Cecilia
Speaker 2: because Cecilia had lied and told Raymond that Aquamarine has
Speaker 2: a boyfriend. So Aquamarine is devastated and she runs off,
Speaker 2: but Claire and Hailey managed to find her and Raymond
Speaker 2: and help clear things up and arrange for them to
Speaker 2: go on a date to the Last Splash, although Raymond
Speaker 2: almost sees Aquamarine as a mermaid when she's taking a bath,
Speaker 2: and so there's a close call there iconic where Jojo
Speaker 2: has to like jump in the bathtub with her, pretending
Speaker 2: to be her legs. But you really have to do
Speaker 2: so unnecessary.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when you're in the bath, you don't need to
Speaker 3: prove your legs. I love that she committed.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. So then the date happens and Aquamarine and
Speaker 2: Raymond have a nice time. They dance, but then they
Speaker 2: dance to Wheezer's Island in the Sun. Of course, they.
Speaker 4: Bribe the musicians with a piece of cake. They walk
Speaker 4: on stage and they're like please, they like hand it off,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, is he gonna eat that now or what?
Speaker 4: What do you mean a piece of cake?
Speaker 2: It's a weird bribe. So then the date is happening,
Speaker 2: but sunset rolls around again and Aquamarine has to abruptly
Speaker 2: leave once again, but she tells Raymond to meet her
Speaker 2: on the pier the following morning at nine am, and
Speaker 2: then she gives him a kiss on the lips and
Speaker 2: he's like a woo god. And then Cecilia follows Aquamarine
Speaker 2: to the water tower and discovers that she's a mermaid.
Speaker 2: So Cecilia breaks the ladder so that no one will
Speaker 2: be able to go up or down, and then she
Speaker 2: goes back to the party and tells her friends that
Speaker 2: Aquamarine is a mermaid, but they don't believe her. But
Speaker 2: Leonard overhears this and he starts researching mermaids in a book.
Speaker 2: And he has this piece of jewelry that he had
Speaker 2: found in the drained swimming pool and it matches up
Speaker 2: with mermaid jewelry. So he's like, wait a minute.
Speaker 3: I want to check because I was like, this character
Speaker 3: feels added, So I checked the synopsis of the book,
Speaker 3: and indeed, there is no not a Leonard in sight.
Speaker 6: There's no Leonard.
Speaker 3: No, he is very random. Because they're like because it
Speaker 3: wasn't even like I mean, I guess that the girls
Speaker 3: learned not to judge loan adult men in Florida, which
Speaker 3: I don't even know if that's a good lesson to learn.
Speaker 6: Like you should be suspicious of this man.
Speaker 3: But yeah, Leonard, who knows you know, bless his heart,
Speaker 3: seems like a nice guy.
Speaker 2: I think they're being classist and agist by being afraid
Speaker 2: of him.
Speaker 3: I think I'm a thirteen year old girl. I'm not
Speaker 3: talking to a huge stranger.
Speaker 2: Fair, that was me. He's also like not trying to
Speaker 2: like befriend them or anything.
Speaker 3: They're just like, that's true.
Speaker 2: I guess they do know him, right, Yeah, because he
Speaker 2: works at the club that her grandparents own't.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, they're being class then, Okay, I kept forget.
Speaker 3: I was thinking of him as like the neighbor from
Speaker 3: home alone, and I understood why they were scared of him.
Speaker 4: That's yeah, he does get a wish as well, and
Speaker 4: I need to understand did he force that woman to
Speaker 4: fall in love with him?
Speaker 2: Or what great.
Speaker 3: Question I think he did? I think Lon did. I
Speaker 3: was like wink wink, I'm like, wait, like we need
Speaker 3: more rules with the genie wish you could have just
Speaker 3: asked her out. That couldn't have happened with Aladdin's Genie.
Speaker 3: That was one of his rules because he says, I
Speaker 3: can't make anybody fall in love with anybody else and
Speaker 3: he won't kill anyone. We need better rules.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like her wish to get if you
Speaker 4: help me with this man falling in love with me,
Speaker 4: then you get a wish. But then Leonard would just
Speaker 4: like happen to like help her down a tower. And
Speaker 4: she was like, would you care for a wish? She's
Speaker 4: just like passing him out now right.
Speaker 2: The amount of effort and labor you have to put
Speaker 2: in varies, but you'll still get the same like caliber
Speaker 2: of wish.
Speaker 3: You could still just like arguably ruin a woman's life
Speaker 3: just for no reason at all.
Speaker 4: Great, Okay, right, I think I'm catching on.
Speaker 2: So the next morning, Haley is having second thoughts about
Speaker 2: the wish that she and Claire are planning to have
Speaker 2: because Hailey realizes that her mom has worked really hard
Speaker 2: for the job that she got in Australia and she
Speaker 2: doesn't want to ruin that for her mom. And this
Speaker 2: makes Claire really upset the thought that Haley is going
Speaker 2: to abandon their wish, and they get in a huge
Speaker 2: fight and say some really mean things to each other. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: Cecilia tells her news report or father that she heard
Speaker 2: cries coming from the water tower, so a rescue mission
Speaker 2: is underway, but really Cecilia just wants to expose Aquamarine
Speaker 2: as being a mermaid on TV. But this planned backfires
Speaker 2: because they don't find her, and Cecilia is like, there
Speaker 2: is a mermaid up there, I swear, and everyone's like
Speaker 2: uh huh. And it turns out that Aquamarine wasn't in
Speaker 2: the water tower because Leonard had climbed up and rescued
Speaker 2: her because he has his own ladder, so he gets
Speaker 2: a wish now and turns out he's actually nice and
Speaker 2: not creepy. I guess ya, yay Leonard. Then Aquamarine goes
Speaker 2: to meet up with Raymond on the pier because it's
Speaker 2: I guess nine am the next morning, and she asks
Speaker 2: if he loves her, because if he says he loves her,
Speaker 2: that's the proof she needs to show her father that
Speaker 2: love is real, and he's like, well, I like you,
Speaker 2: but we've only had one date, so as far as
Speaker 2: love goes, I would say.
Speaker 3: No, which is like sweet about it. Yeah, yeah, I
Speaker 3: really appreciate it. I mean like it's you know, he's
Speaker 3: a very stock character, but like Raymond's like a sweet person.
Speaker 5: Yeah nice, and it's like, yeah, totally very fair. I
Speaker 5: remember being like, I think devastated, as how could he is.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, right, because every other movie would be like, yes,
Speaker 2: I love you so much.
Speaker 3: But he's so nice about it. He's like, but I'm
Speaker 3: not saying I won't ever, It's just we should go
Speaker 3: on some more dates. You're like, oh, Raymond, sweety.
Speaker 2: He's like, we've known each other for two days, so
Speaker 2: fair enough. So just then Cecilia shows up and pushes
Speaker 2: Aquamarine into the ocean, which of course turns her back
Speaker 2: into a mermaid. And then her merman father, who we
Speaker 2: don't see on screen but he can' we.
Speaker 3: Just see via a lot of bad CGI.
Speaker 2: But just for sure he's like trying to pull her
Speaker 2: back home via like waves and whirlpools and stuff. So
Speaker 2: Claire and Haley jump in to try to save Aquamarine.
Speaker 2: And also there's this whole subplot where because Claire's parents
Speaker 2: drowned at ce she's afraid of the water and she
Speaker 2: refuses to go in the water. So it's like a
Speaker 2: big deal that Claire jumps in and they're like, well,
Speaker 2: Aquamarine will set you free with our wish, much like
Speaker 2: how Aladdin uses his last wish to set the Genie free.
Speaker 2: But Aquamarine is like, there's no use. Raymond doesn't love me,
Speaker 2: so I can't even grant your wish. But then she
Speaker 2: realizes that Haley and Claire jumped in to save her,
Speaker 2: and they're willing to give up their wish for her
Speaker 2: because they love Aquamarine. So love does exist. It doesn't
Speaker 2: have to be romantic, hetero love. So her father like
Speaker 2: releases her from this marital obligation aka from being a
Speaker 2: child bride, and Claire and Haley want to wish that
Speaker 2: Aqua Marine stay with them, but she's like, nah, I'm
Speaker 2: a mermaid, so I gotta be getting back to the ocean. Now.
Speaker 3: I feel my family who wants me to marry someone
Speaker 3: like there. I felt so bad for Claire at the
Speaker 3: end of the movie, I'm like, damn, she got none
Speaker 3: of what she wants.
Speaker 5: She got.
Speaker 4: She got a kiss on the cheek from Raymond.
Speaker 6: That's to for something she gets.
Speaker 9: They were very happy about that, as does Haley, and
Speaker 9: then Raymond also gives Aqua Marine a little kiss on
Speaker 9: the lips again and he's like, see you later, she's like,
Speaker 9: bye bye, and the friends have made up. So Claire
Speaker 9: and Hailey are best friends again, and they both accept
Speaker 9: that Haley is moving away, but they are like, we
Speaker 9: had the best summer ever and we'll cherish that forever.
Speaker 2: The end. So that's the movie. Let's take another quick
Speaker 2: break and we'll come back to discuss.
Speaker 3: My favorite thing about Aquamarine, the character that I must
Speaker 3: have gone wild over when I was a kid, was
Speaker 3: her mood ring nails. I was like, that's the coolest,
Speaker 3: like two thousands cool girl detail ever. I loved it,
Speaker 3: And this is did anyone else think? She kept doing
Speaker 3: this like joke where I guess mermaids don't cry or
Speaker 3: whatever or something. I'm like, what is it like like there?
Speaker 3: But she she keeps saying I'm leaking, and I was
Speaker 3: thinking about Jim Carrey Grinch because that's what Jim Carrey
Speaker 3: Grinch says, and I was like, Wow, she's literally taking
Speaker 3: lions cribbing lines from Jim Carrey Grinch. And that's all
Speaker 3: I have to say about the movie.
Speaker 2: No, No, the end of the episode. I liked when
Speaker 2: she wouldn't swear, but she'd use like c puns instead.
Speaker 2: She'd be like, oh, what a barnacle she says like
Speaker 2: salt instead of shit or something. I don't know, but
Speaker 2: it's really good writing.
Speaker 6: Bull shark.
Speaker 5: That.
Speaker 3: It's kind of funny. So before we get into the discussion,
Speaker 3: I just wanted to shout out the production team, which
Speaker 3: there's a lot of women in the production team. Granted,
Speaker 3: like this entire production is a very white group of women,
Speaker 3: but we have a first time director. Elizabeth Allen directed
Speaker 3: the movie. There is a woman who co wrote the
Speaker 3: movie who has a wild resume, Jessica Bendinger, who she
Speaker 3: wrote Bring it On. She was a writer on Sex
Speaker 3: and the City. She was a writer of First Daughter,
Speaker 3: and she wrote stickt the same year as Aquamarines. So
Speaker 3: oh wow, amazing what a goddamn resume. Right, also edited
Speaker 3: and produced by women, So I really appreciate that, and
Speaker 3: I feel like you can really feel it in the way.
Speaker 3: And it's also obviously adapted from a book by Alice Hoffman,
Speaker 3: whose most famous work is Practical Magic.
Speaker 2: But she has also a very long resume of having
Speaker 2: written her so many books.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like she's a she's an all timer. But but yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I really like that team, Like that's
Speaker 3: I feel like this movie is and this story in
Speaker 3: general is like I think, generally better than a lot
Speaker 3: of comparable stuff at the time. I like the emphasis
Speaker 3: on friendship. I know that there's a lot of like
Speaker 3: queer readings of this movie that I'm excited to talk about.
Speaker 3: I just like, Yeah, it's a fun movie totally, and
Speaker 3: I like that women made it.
Speaker 6: Yeah, And I.
Speaker 5: Feel like a lot of these because I already visit
Speaker 5: them sometimes. A lot of these, like early two thousands,
Speaker 5: just like young Girl coming of age stories, have been
Speaker 5: directed by men. So it's just refreshing to see a
Speaker 5: production full of women.
Speaker 2: Truly, and you can usually tell when they're directed by
Speaker 2: men versus when they're directed and written by women. Because yeah,
Speaker 2: as we've said, this movie and not that, like hetero
Speaker 2: romance can't exist in a story, but it's often so
Speaker 2: much emphasis is placed on that. And like we talked
Speaker 2: about recently on the Angus Songs and Perfect Snogging episode,
Speaker 2: it's a group of friends who are characterized entirely by
Speaker 2: the crushes on boys and don't seem to have anything
Speaker 2: else going on outside of that, And you know, it's like,
Speaker 2: what are their common interests? What brings them together? As friends.
Speaker 2: What you know, it's the movie just ignores all of
Speaker 2: that and focuses entirely on the hetero romances, Whereas this movie,
Speaker 2: sure there is emphasis on these girls helping this mermaid
Speaker 2: to find low hetero love with a boy, but the
Speaker 2: way it culminates is way different than we're used to seeing,
Speaker 2: in the sense that they do prove that love exists,
Speaker 2: but it's platonic love among friends love girls unless unless
Speaker 2: it is romantic love between girls.
Speaker 3: Right, because there is gay parentheses implied in the performances.
Speaker 3: I think, like by all three of them are really
Speaker 3: good and really thoughtful, and you know, unlike I just
Speaker 3: like I know we keep bringing angus, but we just
Speaker 3: watched it and like Emma Roberts and Jojo have this
Speaker 3: like really deep, complicated codependent friendship that we actually do
Speaker 3: kind of learn a lot about. And they're like, we're
Speaker 3: all each other like has and we both feel like,
Speaker 3: you know, lonely and kind of disconnected and we don't
Speaker 3: want to be separated.
Speaker 2: And we love each other.
Speaker 3: But like it was just I don't know, even though
Speaker 3: it's like I think there's always more room for like
Speaker 3: what are their interests, Like, what do they like what
Speaker 3: do they want to do? I felt like, I mean,
Speaker 3: their friendship is so intense and authentic, and I it
Speaker 3: really worked for me. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think that's my favorite part about this is the
Speaker 4: capturing of young like junior high friendships, which I agree
Speaker 4: there are other layers to what little teenage girls talk about,
Speaker 4: but I do love that they they're very like giggly
Speaker 4: and fun and they just show them having fun together.
Speaker 4: And and I agree, I think that Emma Roberts and
Speaker 4: Jojo have such a good little chemistry about them too.
Speaker 4: I think that really worked back together. Yeah, and I
Speaker 4: think that Aquamarine was just a fun It was like
Speaker 4: Manic Pixie dream Girl before Manic Pixy dream Girl, but
Speaker 4: also in like I mean, he does say you're not
Speaker 4: like other girls, but I feel like from like a
Speaker 4: female like it was like, I don't know, instead of
Speaker 4: the man and girl like Manny and we see there
Speaker 4: like it was like all three of them as a
Speaker 4: unit that we're seeing and yes on the Code of
Speaker 4: Bendzen scene which they rope in Aquamarine on, they're like.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, and now we are yeah yeah, and they
Speaker 3: don't go and it's like you gotta let her go.
Speaker 4: They're never not together, like they're always following each other.
Speaker 4: Even on the pier. They were like under the pier
Speaker 4: and then they were like, let's just go up, and
Speaker 4: I was surprised. Raymond was never like are you ever.
Speaker 3: Not around them?
Speaker 4: Or do they need to like always be chaperoning or what.
Speaker 3: I guess Raymond is used to being followed around by them,
Speaker 3: so maybe they're just part of this. Yeah, It's like
Speaker 3: there's this part of the scenery to him because they're
Speaker 3: also I think before they were following Marine around, they
Speaker 3: were just following Raymond around. They're like spying on him at.
Speaker 4: Work the ub and quizzing doing quizzes about him.
Speaker 2: They're doing Raymond trivia.
Speaker 4: Right in front of him, right.
Speaker 2: I mean. Not only is there like a component of
Speaker 2: manic pixie dream girl kind of thing, I was also
Speaker 2: detecting hints of the like born sexy Yesterday trope because
Speaker 2: Aquamarine does seem to fall in love with the first
Speaker 2: man that she sees, and there are a lot of
Speaker 2: like human customs and social cues that she doesn't stand.
Speaker 2: But what differentiates it from other examples of this trope
Speaker 2: is that it's not the man who teaches her about
Speaker 2: social cues and teaches her about romance. It's the two girls,
Speaker 2: it's Haley and Claire, and their advice comes from what
Speaker 2: they read in magazines, which is often offering like very
Speaker 2: like tropy, misguided advice.
Speaker 3: But I like that, Like Aquamarine pushes back on that too,
Speaker 3: where like after they read that whole pile of magazines,
Speaker 3: she's like, so we're supposed to be flirty but demure,
Speaker 3: devoted but not desperate, available but elusive, and like does
Speaker 3: meaningfully kind of like comment on it. And I don't
Speaker 3: think that, I mean what I I Another thing I
Speaker 3: like about Aquamarine is I don't think she really I mean,
Speaker 3: she absolutely does fall in love with literally the first
Speaker 3: man she sees, I think, but it's like him, it's him, yeah,
Speaker 3: And they're like, no, that's the one that we don't
Speaker 3: want you to and she's like, sorry, I that's this is
Speaker 3: another Mermaid rules exactly. But I do I feel like Aquamarine,
Speaker 3: you know, doesn't really get the guy by following the
Speaker 3: rules of the magazine, which feels good, Like she gets
Speaker 3: the guy by being herself.
Speaker 2: Which he did. He interprets as you're not like the
Speaker 2: other girls.
Speaker 6: Right, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Does that just mean being not like other girls? Does
Speaker 4: that just mean being like innocent and gullible.
Speaker 2: I don't know if it's that. I don't know if
Speaker 2: it's that she's nice and not mean the way that
Speaker 2: Celia and her friends are mean and judgy.
Speaker 4: But that's not how, that's not how the other two girls. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I don't I don't get it either. It's just like something.
Speaker 4: Oh he does say though, because.
Speaker 3: She yes, she first walks up unlike other girls, you
Speaker 3: are hot?
Speaker 4: Yeah, do you love me? And he's like no, but
Speaker 4: I think you're hot, Like.
Speaker 3: All right, all right, Raymond?
Speaker 4: And then I think he does like a finger gun.
Speaker 4: I think he's like, you see you later.
Speaker 2: What would have worked better is that if we understood
Speaker 2: anything that they connected about that Raymond and Aquamarine like
Speaker 2: had in common. And sure, many teenage romances are hot,
Speaker 2: aren't Yeah, they they're not connecting over anything very meaningful,
Speaker 2: but like, truly, what do these people have in common
Speaker 2: other than they both know how to swim?
Speaker 5: Like?
Speaker 2: I wish they had just established like one thing, like
Speaker 2: one reason that Raymond likes her and wants to keep
Speaker 2: hanging out with Aquamarine, one reason why Aquamarine chose him
Speaker 2: out of anyone else she could have chosen. The movie
Speaker 2: just skips over all that I could.
Speaker 3: Have even been just aligned. Yeah, it could have just
Speaker 3: been in exchange.
Speaker 5: They like the same music like something.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. She also loves Wheezer's Island in the Sun
Speaker 2: and he loves oranges or something. But I do really
Speaker 2: like how the romance culminates as far as she's on
Speaker 2: the pier at the end, repeats the question do you
Speaker 2: love me? And he's like, well, I feel like he
Speaker 2: should have been like, I'm having deja vu? Haven't you
Speaker 2: said this before two days ago? But he says, like,
Speaker 2: we've been on one date. I like you, and I'd
Speaker 2: like to see where this goes. But like, love is
Speaker 2: a strong word, which is a very realistic and pragmatic
Speaker 2: way to approach the end of a movie like this,
Speaker 2: because again, so many other movies would have been like
Speaker 2: and yes, they are in love, even though they've known
Speaker 2: each other for two days and they don't really know
Speaker 2: anything about each other. But they've fallen abruptly in love,
Speaker 2: And isn't that so believable.
Speaker 4: I'm very curious your guys' thoughts on because I do
Speaker 4: think that's very healthy, and his response was a healthy
Speaker 4: do we think as a group, And I have my
Speaker 4: own opinion on this, but I'll wait. It's healthy for
Speaker 4: them then to be the two girls, like is it
Speaker 4: healthy that they're like, we love you like as a friend?
Speaker 2: Great question? After you know, they have certainly spent more
Speaker 2: time with Aquamarine, and they do seem to have bonded
Speaker 2: over more things such as magazines and dress shopping.
Speaker 3: Well, and also, to be fair, I mean like the
Speaker 3: all three of them feel like misfits to some extent,
Speaker 3: or like estranged from their family, or like Jojo does
Speaker 3: like it clearly does not have a good relationship with
Speaker 3: her mom. The one thing we see her mom and
Speaker 3: she's pretty mean. She's like, what are you thinking? And
Speaker 3: then Jojo says it and then she's like, shut up.
Speaker 3: I'm see.
Speaker 2: I was on the mom's side there. I was like,
Speaker 2: JoJo's being a brat, and I was on.
Speaker 3: JoJo's side, like Mama, stop. But they're all I get
Speaker 3: why the girl's like hyper bond to Aquamarine. It's probably
Speaker 3: not the healthiest thing, but it makes sense to me
Speaker 3: where it's like Aquamarine is another like you know girl
Speaker 3: that doesn't feel like she fits in where she's.
Speaker 5: From totally, and I I too, was on JoJo's side,
Speaker 5: and then I felt like this pang of empathy when
Speaker 5: the mom's friend kind of came in and was like, yeah,
Speaker 5: oh my gosh, like this is so competitive. I was like,
Speaker 5: oh my god, like they showing the mom and like
Speaker 5: this pursuit of this ten year grand I was like, well, okay,
Speaker 5: maybe shows us.
Speaker 4: What single jobs.
Speaker 5: Yeah, dreams.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she was like left by her ex husband. Yeah,
Speaker 6: they just throw that in there.
Speaker 3: She's like rebuilding as a single parent.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's she was a little short with Jojo,
Speaker 3: but it's also like, yeah, Jojo, unfortunately you do have
Speaker 3: to go to Australia, Like your life will be.
Speaker 5: Better there, yes, outside of Tampa.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I'm gonna be so honest. I was like,
Speaker 4: oh for sure, I would I've been there. I would
Speaker 4: be like I love you.
Speaker 3: Yeah when you're like.
Speaker 6: Thirteen, totally like, oh my gosh, best for forever.
Speaker 2: Best friend forever.
Speaker 3: They sell it, I like I felt it.
Speaker 4: No, I was definitely on their side totally with that.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh yeah, that's real. But like the love
Speaker 4: for with Raymond would not be real. I'd be like,
Speaker 4: don't trust him if he said it. But like with
Speaker 4: the girls, I was always like, yeah, they love her
Speaker 4: because I would too.
Speaker 5: Exactly because you know where we got another side of
Speaker 5: the falling in love like two days and it goes back,
Speaker 5: uh frozen.
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was thinking that too. Yeah, like this is like
Speaker 3: almost a pre frozen thing where it's like just pushing
Speaker 3: back on those tropes in a way that like, at
Speaker 3: least at the time, I was like, Oh, that's fun
Speaker 3: I never see that.
Speaker 4: That's so funny. Because I was thinking of ex Machina.
Speaker 4: I was like, this woman just came, this one just
Speaker 4: came out of the ocean and is meeting humanity for
Speaker 4: the first.
Speaker 2: Time, and she tricks Domald Gleeson like immediately where he's
Speaker 2: just like, I will do anything for you. I will
Speaker 2: escape Raymond.
Speaker 4: Raymond.
Speaker 3: That's wild that Raymond is smarter than Tom and he
Speaker 3: was like a science genius just goes to show lifeguards
Speaker 3: are smarter than scientists. Wow, yes, and you can quote me.
Speaker 2: I The movie I kept thinking of was Shape of Water.
Speaker 2: Oh my god.
Speaker 3: I was thinking of the thirteenth Year, not only because
Speaker 3: it is the suggestion that comes up. That's like a
Speaker 3: Disney Channel original movie that was like I think I
Speaker 3: was like too young for when it came out, but
Speaker 3: I saw it on reruns and it was about a
Speaker 3: younger man and that was well. I think we should
Speaker 3: cover it someday because I just remember being horny, horny, horny,
Speaker 3: and when I was ten watching that rerun being like
Speaker 3: what what?
Speaker 2: Like Okay, So just some thoughts.
Speaker 3: I have something I wanted to share about, like the
Speaker 3: queer readings of this movie. I thought it was really fun.
Speaker 3: We have actually from friends of the pod, the Le's
Speaker 3: Hangout Pod. Yes, oh, I believe we had them on
Speaker 3: our DEBS episode years ago, but they released a full
Speaker 3: like article on their site, Ellie and Lee about how
Speaker 3: much they love Aquamarine and how queer coded they felt
Speaker 3: it was when they first saw it. So I just
Speaker 3: wanted to share. And it's also just a funny post.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to share just a paragraph from that
Speaker 3: they write somehow things get even gayer as the movie progresses.
Speaker 3: Aqua's whole mission is to get someone to fall in
Speaker 3: love with her and prove to her dad that love exists.
Speaker 3: Who is known to fall in love that quickly? Lesbians
Speaker 3: of course, the man she chooses is the first man
Speaker 3: she laid eyes on, and he does not love her
Speaker 3: yet it's been a day. But you know who does
Speaker 3: already love her, the little baby lesbians. In the end,
Speaker 3: the girls risk their lives to save Aqua and realize
Speaker 3: they love her the same way that they love each other.
Speaker 3: When they tell her, she realizes she loves them too,
Speaker 3: and one of her happy tears falls into the ocean,
Speaker 3: causing her dad to cease his rage storm. Her dad
Speaker 3: now knows that love really does exist, but canonically, he
Speaker 3: only knows gay love exists. He has zero proof. He
Speaker 3: has zero proof that heterosexual love is a thing. Aquamarine
Speaker 3: goes back to her pod to spread the gay agenda
Speaker 3: like an aquatic lesbian Jesus, and we can only assume
Speaker 3: that all of the previously loveless murd are now happily
Speaker 3: pairing off into queer partnerships threpples and polycules. So very
Speaker 3: good the queer read of Aquamarine. We can look to
Speaker 3: that whole post. It's very funny.
Speaker 2: Please, yes, that's hilarious. Also wanted to point out that
Speaker 2: chapel Rone cited this movie as inspiration for the music
Speaker 2: video for her song casual Oh that to sense, she
Speaker 2: described it as being aquamarine but like gay but.
Speaker 3: So there is a demand for aquamarine but gay but
Speaker 3: gay clearly right overly gay.
Speaker 2: Yes. So Hayley throughout the movie wears clothes that seem
Speaker 2: to be kind of more you could read it as
Speaker 2: gender neutral, maybe read it as like more masculine clothes,
Speaker 2: and the Bully girls keep making fun of her for it,
Speaker 2: and of course they are stylized as being very.
Speaker 3: Like literally driving around in Margot Robbie Barbie's car, like
Speaker 3: pink convertible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, hyper feminine kind of thing, and they're always like
Speaker 2: pointing out like ooh, like, why are you wearing those
Speaker 2: hidious boyish clothes? And on one hand, sure there is
Speaker 2: a precedent for hyper feminine women to judge women who
Speaker 2: present more masculine or to you know, bully anyone who
Speaker 2: like doesn't fit the mold of like a very binary
Speaker 2: gender spectrum and gender presentation kind of thing. I found
Speaker 2: it an interesting component of the movie because it never
Speaker 2: really goes anywhere except to maybe subtly suggests that Haley
Speaker 2: is for sure lesbian based on the way she dresses.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I don't know exactly why else that's there
Speaker 2: except to maybe just show that Cecilia and her friends
Speaker 2: are mean, but to choose that to be like the
Speaker 2: thing right that she bullies them for. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I was just curious on other thoughts about that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I feel like in this time period and things
Speaker 5: have kind of like shifted, but there is that like
Speaker 5: the tomboy like kind of uh trope that pops out
Speaker 5: I came up and like marking Nashley movies too, It's
Speaker 5: just like a common character type. And I feel like
Speaker 5: we can look at that now and be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 5: like this is kind of like queer codd or it's
Speaker 5: like this is a non biname person with the way
Speaker 5: that that showed up of like it was a girl
Speaker 5: wearing like guys clothes and it's just a little more nuanced.
Speaker 6: It's more nuanced now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right for sure?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, And I think on the flip side
Speaker 3: of that is another example of I think that the
Speaker 3: Cecilia character was kind of like my least favorite portion.
Speaker 3: I don't even think she really needs to be there,
Speaker 3: if I'm being honest, Like, this is not a movie
Speaker 3: or a story that really needs a villain. I feel
Speaker 3: like it's a story of like friendship and self discovery
Speaker 3: and the fact that it's it's And also, Cecilia is
Speaker 3: not a character in the book. She is a villain
Speaker 3: added for the movie, which is further proof that, like,
Speaker 3: this is a story that is about friendship. You know,
Speaker 3: Raymond is definitely in the book, but I was like,
Speaker 3: you know, Raymond, we could get rid of him too.
Speaker 3: I just like it should be focused on these core
Speaker 3: three you know, two girls in a mermaid and yeah,
Speaker 3: just the Cecilia stuff stuck out like a sore thumb
Speaker 3: because that felt like the tropiest part and an otherwise
Speaker 3: like movie that seemed to be subverting a lot of
Speaker 3: tropes were used to seeing. But the mean girl trope
Speaker 3: and the like demonization of hyperfemininity, like all of that
Speaker 3: two thousand stuff was still very you know present, and
Speaker 3: in a way that was just like why why?
Speaker 4: And I think that they and we were talking about
Speaker 4: how we wanted more of these characters and what they
Speaker 4: want in their personalities, because it's interesting I found throughout
Speaker 4: the entire movie, everyone was dealing with the consequences of
Speaker 4: men's choices, like Aquamarine's dad forcing her to be a
Speaker 4: child bride, and then JoJo's mom she has to you know,
Speaker 4: she doesn't have support from like her husband and has
Speaker 4: to like move around and not that she needs a
Speaker 4: support she could you know, be a single mom AND's life.
Speaker 4: But that seemed to be I don't know, they hinted
Speaker 4: at that being like at least something like a core
Speaker 4: element of JoJo's life. And then like they're at the
Speaker 4: Mercy of Raymond it seems falling in love with Aquamarine,
Speaker 4: when it really could have just been these three girls
Speaker 4: like exploring them as characters and like growing their friendship.
Speaker 4: And like even Raymond he couldn't have played as big
Speaker 4: of a part because it could have just been like,
Speaker 4: I don't know, maybe he just goes off with Cecilia
Speaker 4: and they do their thing and then they kind of
Speaker 4: had this Maybe they all three like have a fight
Speaker 4: and then they come back together and they discover, you know,
Speaker 4: they just love each other or something. I don't know.
Speaker 4: I just thought that was something that I would have
Speaker 4: liked to see a little more about them than their
Speaker 4: yeah personalities.
Speaker 3: I agree. I agree.
Speaker 2: A couple other interesting departures from the book. I just
Speaker 2: wanted to point out.
Speaker 3: This book it's a really good book.
Speaker 2: I've not read it, but I did read the Wikipedia
Speaker 2: plot summary, So let's go. So in the book, Aquamarine
Speaker 2: is still randomly drawn to Raymond. Yeah, but in the book,
Speaker 2: she does not have the goal of proving to her
Speaker 2: father that love exists. She just wants to like hang
Speaker 2: around because she's attracted to Raymond. So the whole like
Speaker 2: interesting you know storyline of like trying to escape a
Speaker 2: marriage and prove that love exists to her father seems
Speaker 2: to be added for the movie as far as what
Speaker 2: I can tell, at least. Also in the book, aquam
Speaker 2: never turns to human form. Claire and Haley like put
Speaker 2: her in a long dress and a wheelchair to hide
Speaker 2: her mermaid take and the fact that she cannot walk. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so she stays a mermaid the whole time, and then
Speaker 2: they just disguise it. And Aquamarine does go on the
Speaker 2: date with Raymond and he doesn't notice and it's a
Speaker 2: nice time. But then he does discover she's a mermaid
Speaker 2: pretty soon after that because he sees her save a
Speaker 2: boy who has fallen in a swimming pool and he's like, oh, wow,
Speaker 2: you're a mermaid. That's okay. I still like you. And
Speaker 2: then the book ends with Claire and Haley bringing Aquamarine
Speaker 2: back to the ocean because like, being on land is
Speaker 2: bad for her health, and so they're like, okay, return
Speaker 2: to the sea, our new friend. So the component of like, well,
Speaker 2: we're proving that love exists because of our female friendship
Speaker 2: is also an add on for the movie, but the
Speaker 2: book is also just like yeah, and they're friends and
Speaker 2: isn't that nice? And then it's Claire who moves away
Speaker 2: to Florida. So I don't know where the book takes place.
Speaker 2: I guess they're not already in Florida anyway.
Speaker 3: I don't know that's I did not remember that. She
Speaker 3: never gets like I am I am okay with that,
Speaker 3: I am okay with I'm okay with that change. I think, yeah,
Speaker 3: what a that would have been a very complex that's
Speaker 3: a lot of tail, that's a lot of tales.
Speaker 2: That's really funny.
Speaker 3: I have a sorry I did. At the beginning. I
Speaker 3: was on Sarah Paxson's Wikipedia page going this journey with me, oh,
Speaker 3: and I was like, what are other things I've seen her?
Speaker 3: And I've seen her in a lot of things. She's
Speaker 3: been around forever, but I remember that she replaced the
Speaker 3: girl who plays Marnie in Halloween Town in the third
Speaker 3: Halloween Town movie. So I originally hated her because I
Speaker 3: was like, you're not Kimberly J. Brown. What did you
Speaker 3: do with her? And also it just sucks when I'm
Speaker 3: just like, just write a new character that's clearly not
Speaker 3: her anyways, So I was thinking about that and then
Speaker 3: I was like, what's let me check Kimberoly J. Brown's
Speaker 3: Wikipedia page, which led me to the realization, has anyone
Speaker 3: here seen Halloween Town two Calibar's Revenge?
Speaker 6: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Okay, So, and how in that movie, Marnie kind of
Speaker 3: like starts a thing with Calibar's son Cal. Oh, they
Speaker 3: got married this year. They like didn't see each other
Speaker 3: for like twenty years and then met up at like
Speaker 3: a Halloween Town reunion event and fell in love and
Speaker 3: they got married this year.
Speaker 2: Isn't that really fell in love in two days? Isn't
Speaker 2: it amazing?
Speaker 3: I just that was. Yeah, that was I was like,
Speaker 3: oh God, it's so embarrassing being so susceptible to nostalgic culture,
Speaker 3: but that really hit. I was like, whoa, Marnie and
Speaker 3: Cal got married. Those are my friends from Halloween Town.
Speaker 4: Wow, that is really cute.
Speaker 3: Anyways, that's my story about Sarah Paxton.
Speaker 2: No, that's great. Does anyone have anything else they'd like
Speaker 2: to discuss about the movie Aquamarine.
Speaker 4: I just have to say that the when she's heartbroken
Speaker 4: in the bathtub eating Ben and Jerry's the amount of
Speaker 4: times that I quoted I have two new men now.
Speaker 4: Their names are Ben and Jerry. And the amount of
Speaker 4: Ben and Jerry's ice cream I bought after that movie
Speaker 4: or I didn't buy it. I was young. I requested it.
Speaker 4: They really I don't know if that was intentional, like
Speaker 4: a product placement deal or whatever, but they really had
Speaker 4: me in a choke hold and it really just hit
Speaker 4: so hard. And I still love Ben and Jerry's Yes
Speaker 4: me too.
Speaker 6: I was like, they must have paid for that because
Speaker 6: she's like fish food.
Speaker 2: Oh it's fish food. That's comedy, which is.
Speaker 5: My favorite Ben and Jerry's favorite is. It's just like
Speaker 5: a lot of like possible product things like I was
Speaker 5: like thinking back to her, I was like, did they
Speaker 5: have the.
Speaker 6: Mood ring nail polish? Like was that a thing? Where
Speaker 6: was there like starfish air?
Speaker 3: I feel like mood ring nail Polish must have existed,
Speaker 3: it sounds like it did. I want to get a
Speaker 3: mood ring again.
Speaker 2: I definitely had mood ring rings, and do you remember
Speaker 2: those little It was a watch but it was the
Speaker 2: size of a ring and you wore it on your finger. Oh,
Speaker 2: but it was like a watch with an alasta what. Yes,
Speaker 2: I have to get one in mine. The watch ring
Speaker 2: was also a mood ring, and it had a little
Speaker 2: alien face on, like the face of the watch, and
Speaker 2: it would change colors based on absolutely nothing and it
Speaker 2: had nothing to do with my mood. There I said it.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I loved my watch ring and I have
Speaker 2: to get another one. Yes, now that their bag.
Speaker 4: Also, I love the test they do to see if
Speaker 4: he likes her.
Speaker 2: What is it he like?
Speaker 4: Plays with his hair, stretches and then.
Speaker 2: Flexes and flexes. Okay. I kept having such a hard
Speaker 2: time with this because I it was not clear to
Speaker 2: me when he was flexing. Yeah, but the movie telegraphs
Speaker 2: to like because when he was flex he wasn't actually
Speaker 2: flexing or I don't know, it just didn't seem obvious
Speaker 2: that he was flexing.
Speaker 3: I wrote that it's bent and snap for teen boys. Wow,
Speaker 3: in a way in a way.
Speaker 2: The movie does pass the Bechdel test a lot. Yeah.
Speaker 5: I figured, yeah, watching it, I was like, I think
Speaker 5: this checks all the boxes.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: So, you know, it's mostly Claire and Haley when they're alone.
Speaker 2: If they're with Aquamarine, the conversation usually turns to Raymond,
Speaker 2: but if it's just Haley and Claire, they talk about
Speaker 2: their friendship. They talk about Haley moving away, They talk
Speaker 2: about the ocean and the water.
Speaker 3: They talk about a marine and how to hide her
Speaker 3: in various locations.
Speaker 2: They talk about how ugly some of these consignment storage
Speaker 2: dresses are, et cetera.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it passes a lot, and I feel like
Speaker 3: it does speak to like, you know, this movie had
Speaker 3: women at the top of it, and so I would
Speaker 3: imagine that it was like it's possible that there was
Speaker 3: just way less pushback for actually centering the girls at
Speaker 3: the center of the story, and even that still meant
Speaker 3: that you had to add like a quote unquote bitchy character,
Speaker 3: which feels very of the time, and I wonder, I'm
Speaker 3: like that to me, I'm like, I'm going to assume
Speaker 3: that was a male studio note of like where's the villain?
Speaker 4: Some shit like that, get Cecilia Banks on the phone.
Speaker 2: Right Worth reiterating that this is an incredibly white cast.
Speaker 2: It has basically no diversity. I think Cecilia has one
Speaker 2: friend who is a person of color, but aside from that,
Speaker 2: but she doesn't speak. She has like one line of
Speaker 2: dialogue and she's barely ever on screen. So yeah, if
Speaker 2: you blink, you'd miss her because it's such a predominantly
Speaker 2: white cast otherwise, So that brings us to our nipple
Speaker 2: scale as far as rating the movie on a scale
Speaker 2: of zero to five nipples, examining the movie through an
Speaker 2: intersectional feminist lens. As per our discussion, I appreciate a
Speaker 2: lot of what this movie does as far as defying
Speaker 2: tropes about coming of age movies about girlhood and romance.
Speaker 2: And the movie does place so much focus on the
Speaker 2: friendship between Claire and Haley and Aquamarine, and the boy
Speaker 2: is just sort of like a vehicle to get them
Speaker 2: to realize how deeply they care about each other. And
Speaker 2: that's interesting. The movie being so white is very glaring,
Speaker 2: so I'll dock some nippleage off for that. And it's like,
Speaker 2: you know, obviously there are queer reads of the movie,
Speaker 2: but the like text. The intention I think of the
Speaker 2: filmmakers is like, yeah, these are all straight people, duh.
Speaker 2: So I think I'll go like three and a half
Speaker 2: nipples With all of that in mind, I'll give one
Speaker 2: nipple to each of the three friends, and my half
Speaker 2: nipple will go to the movie Gremlins because they have
Speaker 2: the same rules.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do three and a half as well. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it is. It is a very white movie
Speaker 3: that is telegraphic straightness. But I don't know. I think
Speaker 3: that the baby bisexual in me was was feeling the
Speaker 3: vibe of this movie. I understand why it is a
Speaker 3: formative text for many millennials in that sense, but also
Speaker 3: speaks to how like, you know, when there wasn't any representation,
Speaker 3: you just had to see it and discover it. In
Speaker 3: any case, Yeah, I love that this movie is committed
Speaker 3: for the most part to really centering on this friendship.
Speaker 3: And I like that it's like a complex friendship too,
Speaker 3: and that both of these kids don't appear to be
Speaker 3: especially wealthy. I mean, I don't think I think that
Speaker 3: they're like maybe lower middle class. It seems like which
Speaker 3: is just you know, class wise. I don't think something
Speaker 3: we see very often. I feel like it's usually upper
Speaker 3: middle class with friend dynamics that are far less complicated
Speaker 3: and thoughtful. And so yeah, I love Clara and Haley's friendship.
Speaker 3: It really does break my heart every time when they
Speaker 3: don't end up together. But yeah, I think it's a
Speaker 3: lovely movie and it holds up pretty well. And I'll
Speaker 3: give it three and a half nipples. I will give
Speaker 3: one to Jojo shout out to her for being on Broadway.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 3: I will give one nipple to Elizabeth Allen. This is
Speaker 3: her first feature and it's like really a really good
Speaker 3: first feature that and she's gone on to have a
Speaker 3: really successful career, mostly in TV, but she's like directed
Speaker 3: an episode of fucking Everything. I will give one to
Speaker 3: the editor Jane Moran because I love seeing women in
Speaker 3: the editing booth. And I'll give the last half to
Speaker 3: Alice Hoffman for having a really cool Mermaid idea.
Speaker 2: She's like, I saw Disney's Little Mermaid and I have
Speaker 2: never do it better.
Speaker 3: Yeah, what about y'all?
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, I agree with three and a half. I'm like, okay,
Speaker 5: I'm also gonna be saying three and a half nipple
Speaker 5: because of Yeah, this is the way it like, it
Speaker 5: does go against the grain. I feel like of the
Speaker 5: time too, when so many things were just like this
Speaker 5: is how it is that nothing was passing the back
Speaker 5: of the test.
Speaker 6: Really not a lot of stuff, and.
Speaker 5: I would appreciate, you know, even just like the trophy
Speaker 5: black sidekick friend.
Speaker 3: I love to see nothing nothing.
Speaker 5: There. So I'm going to give one of those just
Speaker 5: to split amongst the three, and then one to split
Speaker 5: amongst the woman production team. Why do you want to
Speaker 5: Leonard because I was also.
Speaker 6: Doubting him at the beginning. Yeah, and then the half
Speaker 6: to the non existent black sidekick friend.
Speaker 2: Maybe.
Speaker 3: Okay, here's that's your witch wish for Aquamarine.
Speaker 2: I was gonna think Aquamarine's best friend back in the
Speaker 2: ocean is a black mermaid.
Speaker 6: What is that real?
Speaker 2: No, I'm just saying.
Speaker 6: That the book can a book.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but no, the this is my hypothesis. And so
Speaker 2: there is a black character. We just don't see her
Speaker 2: on Scream because the budget. The budget is a budget thing.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I love it all right.
Speaker 4: Well, I I'm not gonna lie. I was leaning three
Speaker 4: and a half, but since everyone did three and a half,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna be controversial. I'm gonna go just for three
Speaker 4: because there were some issues I had yet zero people
Speaker 4: of color. I didn't love the child bride elements. You know,
Speaker 4: there were parts where it felt very like male gayzy
Speaker 4: when it did need to be. And then I have
Speaker 4: to say it really bothers me when there is like
Speaker 4: the caddye mean girl for no reason, like Cecilia Minks.
Speaker 4: I'm rooting for you to get another.
Speaker 3: Role that is not the villain.
Speaker 4: So I will give it three nipples, and one of
Speaker 4: them will go to the power of female for friendship
Speaker 4: and to slumber parties and having fun like giggling with
Speaker 4: your friends at that age. One is going to go
Speaker 4: to the mom forgetting her flowers and her ten year
Speaker 4: grant journey single mom works.
Speaker 6: I think it's one.
Speaker 4: Job, but we'll say it's too to fit the joke.
Speaker 4: And then the last nipple I'm going to give to
Speaker 4: I'm going to say to mermaids everywhere.
Speaker 3: We exist, to all our mermaid listeners, Yeah.
Speaker 4: Beautiful, to our fellow mermaids.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh my god. Wow. Well, thank you so much
Speaker 2: for joining us for this lovely discussion.
Speaker 3: This is such a flash, so fun.
Speaker 4: Thank you guys so much.
Speaker 2: Tell us where people can listen to your podcast, follow
Speaker 2: you on social media, plug anything you want to plug.
Speaker 5: Yeah, definitely follow Players a film industry podcast on Spotify.
Speaker 5: You can get updates on there and such. We post
Speaker 5: updates on social media to on my social media so
Speaker 5: at Amani M. Davis on Instagram and then also through
Speaker 5: the actually company that dem and I work with, Room
Speaker 5: nineteen Productions, so you can get updates about the pot
Speaker 5: on there on that Instagram page as well. But yeah,
Speaker 5: we we have all kinds of topics about the film industry,
Speaker 5: breaking in different industry trends, things that we want to
Speaker 5: like gab about, so check that out.
Speaker 3: Amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then for all my Chicago film girlies, non
Speaker 4: binary folks and film and mermaids, we do Film Girls
Speaker 4: Brunch here as well. I know Amani does it in
Speaker 4: La too, so you can follow us.
Speaker 2: I want to go to that.
Speaker 6: Yes, come to Film Girls Brunch in La.
Speaker 4: We have it in Chicago. You can if you follow
Speaker 4: like Room nineteen you'll get updates on that as well.
Speaker 4: But yeah, come to one of our Film Girls Brunch
Speaker 4: meetups too. I'm a filmmaker in Chicago and love connecting
Speaker 4: with other women in film wonderful.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us again. Come back anytime.
Speaker 3: So I'm having more Mermaids. We love to see them.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well we still have to cover Mermaids with share
Speaker 2: and one on a writer and the movie I've never
Speaker 2: seen it.
Speaker 3: And there's Splash, and there's the thirteen Year, there's there's
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 6: So much mermaid This is the thing now.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we're doing We'll come back for all of these.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Uh. You can follow us on Instagram mostly
Speaker 2: these days. At Bechdel Cast. You can subscribe to our
Speaker 2: Patreon aka Matreon, where you get two bonus episodes every
Speaker 2: single month, always centering on a fun little theme, plus
Speaker 2: access to the entire back catalog of bonus episodes. And
Speaker 2: that's all for five dollars a month at patreon dot
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Speaker 3: And you can also get our merch at teapublic dot
Speaker 3: com slash b Bechtel Cast. And with that, let's go
Speaker 3: up into the water tower and have a Weezer karaoke night.
Speaker 3: Shall yes yep, Bye bye bye.
Speaker 2: The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by
Speaker 2: Caitlin Derante and Jamie loftis produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited
Speaker 2: by Mola Board. Our theme song was composed by Mike
Speaker 2: Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Voskresenski. Our logo in Merch
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