Speaker 1: On the be Dol Cast, the questions asked if movies
Speaker 1: have women and um are all their discussions just boyfriends
Speaker 1: and husbands, or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zef
Speaker 1: and best start changing it with the Bedel Cast. Hello,
Speaker 1: and welcome to the Bechdel Cast. Oh wait, I meant
Speaker 1: to do it a different way. Let me start over. Okay,
Speaker 1: well hey, well hey there, and welcome to the beck
Speaker 1: Doel Cast. Hey, I'm your host, Caitlin Durante. I'm Jamie Loftus. Well, hey,
Speaker 1: hey there. That was a little bit in New York. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's really hard. I thought I would do better at
Speaker 1: this accent. Figure it out. It's foreshadowing of the movie
Speaker 1: we're gonna be talking about. This is so clever of us,
Speaker 1: I know, I know, yeah, oh yeah. But before we
Speaker 1: get into that, we're gonna just tell you a little
Speaker 1: bit about what the Bechdel Cast is. What is it.
Speaker 1: It's a podcast where we talk about movies, but specifically
Speaker 1: they're female characters. Each we pick a different movie every
Speaker 1: week and we just talk and chat and then we
Speaker 1: also at the at the end when we remember, we
Speaker 1: decide if it passed the Backdal test. That's which is
Speaker 1: which has everything to do with whether there are two
Speaker 1: female characters who speak to each other about something other
Speaker 1: than a man. There's a variation of it where the
Speaker 1: female characters have to have names depending on the movie.
Speaker 1: We we take it easy on some and uh really
Speaker 1: going on the others. Yeah, we're we can be ruthless. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And if you're wondering, hey, who are these two people? Yeah,
Speaker 1: why do why do they get to talk about? Well? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wonder if anyone ever is like, which one's talking? Oh,
Speaker 1: these there's two ladies and they're both their voices are
Speaker 1: too shrill, like Kippernette White ladies were the same lady.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm the one. It's me, Caitlin. It's me. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I have a lot of credentials. One. I have
Speaker 1: made several students elms, at least three of them. Also,
Speaker 1: I do. I do have two degrees in film. I
Speaker 1: don't like to bring it up. I don't like the time. Well,
Speaker 1: you know, the people want to know the people are as.
Speaker 1: I used my degree this week, which is pretty amazing.
Speaker 1: My radio degree. I know I never get to use
Speaker 1: it because it's in irrelevant medium, but I used it
Speaker 1: this week. I wrote some promos for a radio station. Hey,
Speaker 1: there you go. It took three years, but I did it.
Speaker 1: Did they pay you for it? Uh, we'll see. We'll
Speaker 1: see if they come there. In theory, they should. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you do work, you should get paid for it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have one degree. I bet I use it this week,
Speaker 1: So it counts thet much for their head than I am. Switch.
Speaker 1: But without further ado, let's introduce our guests. Yeah, she's
Speaker 1: a very funny person. She's a writer, she's a comedian,
Speaker 1: and her name is True Prescott. Thanks for having me on,
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us, for coming. Yeah, so you've brought
Speaker 1: us a movie that we're going to be talking about,
Speaker 1: and tell us. Tell us what it is. Well, first
Speaker 1: and foremost, I must say my degree um, I degree
Speaker 1: in in Film Studies UM from Chapman University. Interesting bit
Speaker 1: of trivia about my degree. I got into film school
Speaker 1: with an essay on the Cohen Brothers, got out with
Speaker 1: a thesis on them. Baby, yeah sandwiched my education. Oh
Speaker 1: this is perfect. Yeah, I I'm so excited to talk
Speaker 1: about this movie. I did rewatch it, but I did
Speaker 1: feel before I rewatched, I was like, do I need
Speaker 1: to because I feel like I know it so well.
Speaker 1: It's just one of those movies. And then I also
Speaker 1: watched the TV series that it was based on. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen that yet. I've heard it's very good. I've
Speaker 1: heard some good things, such a treat. The movie is
Speaker 1: Fargo FO which they probably knew because it's I'm guessing
Speaker 1: on the episode listing. Yeah, well, no, we should keep
Speaker 1: everyone in suspense. They have to listen to know what
Speaker 1: movie we're talking about. Can I just say something while
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about it. I didn't say my name yet.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you should see your name. Oh boy, now
Speaker 1: I feel very I feel full of hubrious. But my
Speaker 1: name is Jamie. Okay, let's keep talking. That accent is
Speaker 1: super fun. Oh yeah, I feel like I'm a real
Speaker 1: sponge for accents. Like I'll be in Canada for like
Speaker 1: half a day and everything will be like, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I stop doing it this afternoon, Like I watched
Speaker 1: it this afternoon and then I came right here. I
Speaker 1: was feeling real, Marge. It's just it's a kind musicality,
Speaker 1: like there's there's like a real fun cadence to it
Speaker 1: that just it opens the world up to you. That's
Speaker 1: how I feel. But yeah, yeah, Yeah. To answer your
Speaker 1: question from before, well, the reason why I brought this
Speaker 1: movie is because this movie had always stuck out to me.
Speaker 1: I think that for Cohen Brothers fans, they love Raising Arizona,
Speaker 1: they love The Big Labowski, you know, they love other ones.
Speaker 1: But I feel like this is a lot of Cohen
Speaker 1: Brothers fans like, first, this is the big drama movie
Speaker 1: that they really latch onto. And at least that was
Speaker 1: the way it was for me. And I was always
Speaker 1: a really big fan of film noir. I actually originally
Speaker 1: wanted to major as a cinematographer because I was like,
Speaker 1: really in a black and white cinematography. I was really
Speaker 1: obnoxious eighteen to nineteen year old. But I got really
Speaker 1: into film noirs and then um, you know, got into
Speaker 1: Cohen Brothers movies, which is neon noir. And the way
Speaker 1: that they do it in this film, I think is
Speaker 1: just what. It's a spicy meat a ball. It's perfect.
Speaker 1: We were talking earlier about how it's virtually flawless everything
Speaker 1: about it. There's not a dull moment. Yeah, it's so good,
Speaker 1: and it's full of olymptic to men, yeah and like
Speaker 1: women who are doing their best. Yeah, yeah, yeah, a
Speaker 1: bunch of incompetent dudes and a bunch of very competent well,
Speaker 1: not a bunch one, especially very competent woman. I feel
Speaker 1: like that's a trend in a lot of Cohen Brothers
Speaker 1: films in general, though, I mean, you see that with
Speaker 1: Raising Arizona and the Character of High, you see that
Speaker 1: with you know, a lot of their other films that
Speaker 1: it it's sort of like the action of the story
Speaker 1: begins with an incompetent man spinning a lie that just
Speaker 1: gets them deeper and deeper and deeper. And of course
Speaker 1: we see that in this movie with Jerry Lindagard played
Speaker 1: by William H. Macy just being a total bumbling idiot.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like you could, I mean, with the
Speaker 1: exception of No Country for Old Men and some of
Speaker 1: their later works aside, Like you can count on any
Speaker 1: Cohen Brothers movie where in like the first five or
Speaker 1: ten minutes, if a plot is enacted of deceit or
Speaker 1: you know, some sort of like get rich quick scheme,
Speaker 1: you know that it's not going to work out at
Speaker 1: all because of this character's own misgivings, like they're inept
Speaker 1: to two is going to get in the way and
Speaker 1: you know, and it's going to be very entertaining because
Speaker 1: they're gonna have like sort of a folksy approach to
Speaker 1: it that is like very every man, which I find
Speaker 1: really interesting. Yea. And with Jerry from moment one, like
Speaker 1: he's late to the first scene and then he was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: this guy does not have it. He doesn't have it together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And the way that he's interacting with these two mom
Speaker 1: guys is so I mean, it's it's indicative of where
Speaker 1: he comes from culturally, with like you know, far going
Speaker 1: north North Dakota and just being very like, you know,
Speaker 1: oh hey, how are you going? Oh hey, you know,
Speaker 1: like just being overly accommodating. But it also speaks to
Speaker 1: like his own ineptness of being a man, which is
Speaker 1: really what drives his plot and is like a central
Speaker 1: theme in this film. And they do it in the
Speaker 1: first five fucking minute. So good. Yeah, it's so well written,
Speaker 1: it's so well directed and act just like and the
Speaker 1: way that they cast it too. I mean, they do
Speaker 1: this for every one of their movies. They're so great
Speaker 1: at finding these aasing character actors. But I was just
Speaker 1: thinking about this, like even in the scene with Um,
Speaker 1: like the two escorts that Marge interviews to find out
Speaker 1: more about, you know, Steve Amy's character and Peter Stormyer's character.
Speaker 1: Like they are such a specific kind of like North
Speaker 1: Dakota trashy girl, and like, these aren't actresses that I've
Speaker 1: seen in any other movie. And I don't think, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't check their IMDb, but I'm willing to bet
Speaker 1: they weren't in a lot of things. But they just
Speaker 1: they acted so well and they were so real and
Speaker 1: it just like enhanced everything. Well, we just found out
Speaker 1: before you got here that Jean the first thing she
Speaker 1: was ever in was Fargo because she's from there. Wow,
Speaker 1: really yeah, because I was like, I don't recognize her
Speaker 1: from anything else, and from what I can tell, she's
Speaker 1: the only like main cast member who is like absolutely
Speaker 1: from there, which makes you know, her accent checks out.
Speaker 1: It's what she what has she done? After this? She
Speaker 1: was in Drop Dead Gorgeous and yes, those are two
Speaker 1: of my favorite one of my favorite movies. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: but her first thing ever was Fargo, so they must
Speaker 1: have plus set out of there. I remember she was
Speaker 1: the Pork Products girl and Drop Dead Gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I just love it I work here now. God, that
Speaker 1: fucking movie is one of the best movies of all times.
Speaker 1: It Oh my god, it's so good. Yeah. It was
Speaker 1: directed by one of the members of the State and
Speaker 1: it was written by this woman who I don't know
Speaker 1: if she did a ton of movies after that. It
Speaker 1: was her first feature film. And there's actually a whole
Speaker 1: like BuzzFeed article written by Lewis Pisman that goes into
Speaker 1: like the behind the scenes, you know, rise of the
Speaker 1: cult of Drop Dead Gorgeous and talks about like drama
Speaker 1: on set and like how it just kept changing due
Speaker 1: to studio notes, etcetera, etcetera. But it's actually out of
Speaker 1: print on DVD, so if you can find it on
Speaker 1: e Bay, I highly recommend snatching that up and shout
Speaker 1: out to Pietsman, I know what he kills it. Well, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's the podcast. I think that's all we have
Speaker 1: to say. I usually um to everyone's dismay, spend a
Speaker 1: few minutes describing the story of the movie that we're
Speaker 1: talking about, just for anyone at home who doesn't need
Speaker 1: a refresher, who hasn't seen it before, or just likes
Speaker 1: my hilarious take on what the movie is about, So
Speaker 1: this is a story where we first initially, the central
Speaker 1: character is Jerry Lindegard played by William H. Macy, and
Speaker 1: he goes to these two criminal professional criminals and he's like, YO,
Speaker 1: kidnap my wife because I'm in financial trouble and we're
Speaker 1: going to do this whole fake ransom thing. But we
Speaker 1: both get paid out because my wife's husband or I'm
Speaker 1: my wife's husband, that's what he said. My wife's father
Speaker 1: is wealthy, so like, yeah, cool, good idea. And then
Speaker 1: we meet his family and his wife and his father
Speaker 1: in law. And the second you meet his wife, you're
Speaker 1: just like precious. Yeah, like at first it sounds fun
Speaker 1: to kidnap a and you're just like, oh, maybe you know,
Speaker 1: because I feel like we're conditioned took like, oh maybe
Speaker 1: she's mean, maybe she's like, maybe we're not going to
Speaker 1: love her. The first time she opens her mouth, she's
Speaker 1: the most precious, She's wonderful. You're like, don't wonderful? Who
Speaker 1: could want to lay a hand on this woman? And
Speaker 1: it felt so sad for her in just seeing her
Speaker 1: in like her homemaker life of like sitting on the
Speaker 1: couch and watching like daytime TV. And knitting. I was
Speaker 1: just like, and she's so clearly settled for what I'm like,
Speaker 1: how did they meet? Like, I I just maybe that's
Speaker 1: another season a far, because I I just I don't know.
Speaker 1: Whenever I see her, I'm like, I know for sure
Speaker 1: you could have done better yeah than Jerry. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So then we we learned that Jerry's a very dishonest
Speaker 1: car salesman, and it's yeah, that's a great way to
Speaker 1: describe them. Yeah, wanness um. His wife gets kidnapped. They
Speaker 1: go off to take her to the lake, but before that,
Speaker 1: a cop pulls them over and some murders happen, and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh crap, this didn't go Things are not
Speaker 1: going as planned. Jerry, we need more money, and he's like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I don't know anymore. He couldn't even handle
Speaker 1: the first of it, so things start to go awry.
Speaker 1: Then after these murders happened, we meet Marge Gunderson. She's
Speaker 1: a detective and she starts investigating these murders and she
Speaker 1: connects a few things back to the dealership where Jerry works,
Speaker 1: and she starts to question him, and he is very
Speaker 1: bad at being questioned by police officers and things keep
Speaker 1: heightening and some violence happens. More people get murdered, including
Speaker 1: Jerry's father in law. They take her to the lake
Speaker 1: and then it ends with Marge finding the foot in
Speaker 1: the wood shipper and she finds the Tan Sierra. Well
Speaker 1: that's the car. That be careful, Marge, B care I
Speaker 1: was gonna send some car. And then she shoots the
Speaker 1: bad guy leg and she's like, yo, all this for
Speaker 1: a little bit of money, you stupid idiot. She's so great,
Speaker 1: she really is. And then she goes home to her husband, Norm, Norm,
Speaker 1: who is flacid in all the right ways. Well, before
Speaker 1: you said that, I was going to say that it
Speaker 1: reminds me so much of me and my fiance. Oh no,
Speaker 1: not like that though, No though, I think he's an artist,
Speaker 1: and so I was teasing him like you're just you're
Speaker 1: painting your duck paintings, you know, run you know, we're
Speaker 1: just sweet to each other in a similar way. Conversation
Speaker 1: at the end with the with the sweet three cent
Speaker 1: stamp and she's like, well that's good though, because people
Speaker 1: need those sometimes, and he's like, okay, yeah, I do.
Speaker 1: I do find myself like in situations where you know,
Speaker 1: he's sort of down in the dumps about something creatively.
Speaker 1: I do find myself like finding the cadence of Marge
Speaker 1: going yeah, but you're better than them, Han, Yeah, but
Speaker 1: you're better than them and yeah yeah, so only the
Speaker 1: good parts to shout out to Mike if you're listening,
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, I love that moment at the end
Speaker 1: with Marge. I mean, she's just so wise and she's
Speaker 1: so like confident in her like sort of matriarchal ways.
Speaker 1: And and it's not like she's just kind but also smart.
Speaker 1: It's it's weird. It's like she can sort of succinctly
Speaker 1: boil everything down and get the answers, like earlier when
Speaker 1: she's questioning Sheep at his shop and being like, you know,
Speaker 1: like I I look into your background and you've got
Speaker 1: some infractions and you're on parole, and I'm just thinking, like,
Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't want to be involved with like this
Speaker 1: being accessory to crime, now, would you? Like, you know,
Speaker 1: she she's obviously playing a detective game, but there is
Speaker 1: still this like genuine like warmth to her and she
Speaker 1: actually cares about like she doesn't want people to go
Speaker 1: back on Pearl. She doesn't want people to go you know,
Speaker 1: commit crimes and go back into jail. She wants the
Speaker 1: world to be good. She's a very nurturing yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And one of the reasons this movie is so great
Speaker 1: is that she is such like a strong, multidimensional character.
Speaker 1: She's like you said, smart, she's good at her job.
Speaker 1: She's really good at her job. She's very competent. She's
Speaker 1: like nice to a fault, but also like firm and
Speaker 1: assertive when she needs to be. Like we see the
Speaker 1: scene with mike Yanagita and he's like very clearly trying
Speaker 1: to come onto her, and she's like, no, I preferred
Speaker 1: if you sit over there. I want to talk about
Speaker 1: that scene because that scene. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: guys have found the controversy surrounding that whole subplot, because
Speaker 1: I was about to say I think that with any
Speaker 1: other character that wasn't as well developed as her, that
Speaker 1: would be very distracting from the main action. But I
Speaker 1: loved that scene because you just want to be like,
Speaker 1: how would someone deal with this? I don't know? Right well, uh,
Speaker 1: the internet said a lot of people were saying, like,
Speaker 1: why you know, this film is so tidy in every
Speaker 1: other way, but this one subplot of mike Yanagita like
Speaker 1: feels like it comes out of left field a little bit,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't really give as much to to the
Speaker 1: motor of the plot as like some of the other
Speaker 1: aspects of it, and you know, like why is it
Speaker 1: even in there? You know, what does it do? And
Speaker 1: I disagree. I think that, I mean, I trust Papa
Speaker 1: and Papaco and um trust that they're going to carry
Speaker 1: us on that that sweet good night. They're just such
Speaker 1: competent directors, so I know that they know what they're doing.
Speaker 1: But I also, you know, feel like the mike Yanagita character,
Speaker 1: everything has a domino effect of her investigations. So she
Speaker 1: gets the phone call from him and then knows that
Speaker 1: he's in the Twin Cities. Then here's that you know,
Speaker 1: the people that she's after went to the Twin Cities. Okay, great,
Speaker 1: so that gives me a little bit more incentive to go.
Speaker 1: Even though on paper you could say that like, oh,
Speaker 1: is she you know, thinking about like philandering on norm
Speaker 1: you know, But I don't think it's as complex as that.
Speaker 1: I think that she's curious to find out, like, you know,
Speaker 1: what this guy's life has been like. Um, But I
Speaker 1: think that also that scene of them at the dinner
Speaker 1: of the Raticon or whatever it is. You know, she
Speaker 1: believes his story of his wife right, and then immediately
Speaker 1: he confesses and says that that was a lie. So
Speaker 1: that simple oh oh sorry, confess. She finds out later
Speaker 1: you're right, friend, but it's not long after. Yeah. But
Speaker 1: that whole process of her believing him and then realizing
Speaker 1: that she was wrong forces her to start to question
Speaker 1: some of her instincts previously, and it actually leads her
Speaker 1: back to William H. Macy's character to question him for
Speaker 1: the second it does connect and what do you have
Speaker 1: as the brothers? I was a major in film study.
Speaker 1: I thought that was interesting because it was interesting to
Speaker 1: watch this movie in the context of this podcast and
Speaker 1: really pay attention to the motivations of the female characters,
Speaker 1: because there is sort of like a through line of
Speaker 1: like the idea of women settling for men that don't
Speaker 1: deserve them, Because I feel like Mike implies that when
Speaker 1: they're chilling at the Ratison, He's like, oh, you ended
Speaker 1: up marrying Normson, yeah, And and that makes it sound
Speaker 1: like he thought she could do better. And I mean,
Speaker 1: for anyone that's enough to plant to you know, it's
Speaker 1: it's a downer to hear the person married and or
Speaker 1: brainant with someone your respect thinks is like a loser
Speaker 1: or whatever. But she and Norm have such a great
Speaker 1: relationship and it's nice to see her go through that
Speaker 1: whole process of like, no, this is the right thing
Speaker 1: for me and this is what I want. Well, I
Speaker 1: think you're tapping into something actually that I kind of
Speaker 1: picked up in this rewatch of you know, there is
Speaker 1: a moment when you know, she is at the buffet
Speaker 1: with Norm and like one of her colleagues comes over
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, you're going to the Twin Cities
Speaker 1: A and she's like, yeah, I'm going, and the Norm
Speaker 1: is kind of surprised. Really oh yeah, yeah. So there
Speaker 1: is just a flash of a moment of her sort
Speaker 1: of exploring has she settled? Just a flash of it.
Speaker 1: And I think that that's all so a symptom of
Speaker 1: small towns in general, Like if you work in a
Speaker 1: small town, if you live in a small town, have
Speaker 1: I settled? Have I really seen my full potential? I
Speaker 1: think that there is a flicker of that that leads
Speaker 1: us to that frank meet up. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wish it's so hard not to do it. I
Speaker 1: wish that we had that moment with Jean, because I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know Jeans the other female character of any
Speaker 1: substance in this movie, and we I mean, we don't
Speaker 1: really get to see much of her thoughts other than
Speaker 1: the fact that she's very clearly duped. Uh. Yeah, I wish,
Speaker 1: like the one thing that I would have liked to
Speaker 1: have from this movie is at some point after her
Speaker 1: kidnapping that she would get to say something. And I was,
Speaker 1: I was bummed. I mean, it was fun to watch
Speaker 1: her like run around like a chicken with her head cup.
Speaker 1: That's an amazing scene and like tragic, but also likes character.
Speaker 1: Good lord, he's so I love how people keep calling
Speaker 1: him ugly funny, you know, just but I can't describe
Speaker 1: how yeah exactly has it that in The Big Lebowski,
Speaker 1: the reason that everyone's always telling Steve Bushmi's character in
Speaker 1: that film, Donnie to shut the funk up is that
Speaker 1: he doesn't ever shut the funk up in Fargo. So
Speaker 1: that's funny. I think I heard that a while ago. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's hilarious. I thought you were going to be like,
Speaker 1: because he's dead and shouldn't be talking. I'm like, oh god.
Speaker 1: Another thing about The Big Lebowski is a similar thing
Speaker 1: happens in The Big Lebowski, doesn't with like the Mike
Speaker 1: Yanagitas subplot and Fargo with the there's just like a
Speaker 1: character that feels tacked on, but you're like, I'm okay
Speaker 1: with this, but like the Jesus character that oh my god,
Speaker 1: look oh yeah yeah yeah, John, Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's
Speaker 1: actually been I've heard theories about, like what's that all about.
Speaker 1: There's a bar and I think I want to say
Speaker 1: Germany that is like themed. It's called Labowski Bar and
Speaker 1: the I believe drink they served there as white Russian.
Speaker 1: I believe it. Yeah. In Los Angeles, have you guys
Speaker 1: heard of Cafe Jack the Titanic one? Yes, And they
Speaker 1: serve like what do they serve? It's like you fried
Speaker 1: chicken and weird, like deeply weird American food that is
Speaker 1: not that good but worth it, worth it for the experience,
Speaker 1: and then you go to karaoke afterward. It's a good time.
Speaker 1: I very, very unapologetically love the movie Titanic. I hope,
Speaker 1: well you do it on this podcast sometime because I
Speaker 1: love it so much. There was my mom the first
Speaker 1: time I saw that movie because I was I wasn't
Speaker 1: all enough to see it when I came out, But
Speaker 1: eventually my mom had the two VHS for Titanic, and
Speaker 1: she tried to convince me the movie it was over
Speaker 1: at the end of the first VHS because the first
Speaker 1: half is so fun. At the end, it's saying like,
Speaker 1: we hit an iceberg, and she's like, and that's the movie.
Speaker 1: Sounds like you're lying to like, yeah, and then that's
Speaker 1: the inciting incident pretty much, but it just happens to
Speaker 1: happen two hours. Um. I love the second half of
Speaker 1: the movie. I love the whole movie, but I really,
Speaker 1: to me, the second half of the film is just
Speaker 1: like as soon as the iceberg they hits the iceberg,
Speaker 1: I'm like, now it's getting good. I'm gonna I'm gonna
Speaker 1: blow both your minds for a little bit. Last year,
Speaker 1: I think on tour, I went to the Titanic Museum
Speaker 1: where in Florida, in Pigeonforge, Tennessee. There are so many
Speaker 1: I know this one shares a location. Their sister location
Speaker 1: is in Branson, Missouri, And I lied and said that
Speaker 1: I was covering it for a Vice article and they
Speaker 1: were like that seems weird, but come on board. And
Speaker 1: it was so bizarre and so fantastic, the kind of
Speaker 1: like roadside weird attraction that I just like salivate over.
Speaker 1: And when you go there, it's like if you've ever
Speaker 1: been to Pigeonforge. People in this room and also people listening. Um,
Speaker 1: it is like hill billy Vegas. So Dollywood is there obviously, yeah,
Speaker 1: but then everything like leading up to Dollywood is like
Speaker 1: wax museums and like go carts and like, you know,
Speaker 1: here's a weird boat ride. I don't know. And then
Speaker 1: here's like the Titanic Museum and then a Walmart and uh,
Speaker 1: you show up and they give you a card and
Speaker 1: they assign you to somebody that was actually on the
Speaker 1: Titanic and then you like walk through and have to
Speaker 1: figure out if you which is like they do with
Speaker 1: the Museum of Tolerance to Yeah, that that's how the one,
Speaker 1: and I've been to the one in Orlando several times.
Speaker 1: There did you get to touch ice? I did get
Speaker 1: to touch ice. Okay, this must be the same, must
Speaker 1: be the same. It's awesome. I never have a kid
Speaker 1: area that feels weird. It feels inappropriate. Yeah, like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is like a playground. Yeah, And they were so
Speaker 1: strict about taking photos and I respected that. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: had like a digital camera when I was fifteen, and
Speaker 1: I went and I tried to like sneak it, but
Speaker 1: they were all blurry because it was a bad camera.
Speaker 1: But when you get into the room with a grand staircase,
Speaker 1: you're just like this, it's a big moment. And I
Speaker 1: got my photo taken and I feel great. Me too.
Speaker 1: I wish that I was a weird looking that I
Speaker 1: am probably similar to jealousy that you guys have done
Speaker 1: all this. There's one in Massachusetts too. It's so crazy.
Speaker 1: And also the gift shop is rude. Can we agree
Speaker 1: with the gift shops super rude? But that said, I purchased.
Speaker 1: I know I was contemplating getting a really rude T
Speaker 1: shirt that said Titanic. I was the term property of,
Speaker 1: like it's a gym shirt, Titanic property. I was determined
Speaker 1: when I was a teenager to be on I think
Speaker 1: that they I'm pretty sure they did have like a
Speaker 1: centennial voyage because I used to I used to be
Speaker 1: really into Titanic from like a like a historical perspective.
Speaker 1: It's not because I liked the movie, but it was.
Speaker 1: And I would go out onto my roof every April
Speaker 1: to fifteen in that morning, and I would sit there
Speaker 1: and just like think real hard about the losses that
Speaker 1: it transport. I thought, you're gonna say, like you spread
Speaker 1: out your arms and said, I'm the king of the word.
Speaker 1: But back to Fargo. Oh yeah, we've We've gone on
Speaker 1: a tangent. We should do Titanics and soon. One of
Speaker 1: my thoughts is that it very interesting happens in this
Speaker 1: movie that usually does not happen in any movie where
Speaker 1: the protagonists shifts from one character to another. Ye take
Speaker 1: any screenwriting one on one class. I'll tell you not
Speaker 1: supposed to happen at the beginning of the second The
Speaker 1: Coen brothers are very good at what they do. They
Speaker 1: pull it off very well because we start identifying and
Speaker 1: relating to and like even feeling a bit empathetic towards
Speaker 1: Jerry Lendergard because he says me, the second I see
Speaker 1: his wife, that's the thing. It was like, I like
Speaker 1: him in the first scene, and then the second you
Speaker 1: see Jean, You're just like that sucks. Yeah, absolutely, yeah,
Speaker 1: because like again, like what you were saying earlier, if
Speaker 1: his wife not to say that this excuses any kind
Speaker 1: of abuse, but you know, as far as like what
Speaker 1: we understand and in in movies, if the wife is
Speaker 1: like very shrewish and like, you know, quote unquote deserving,
Speaker 1: No one's deserving, Well you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: it adds a little bit more validation to what she's
Speaker 1: struggling with. Yeah, like we're conditioned to think, or it
Speaker 1: just helps us understand why he would put the steps
Speaker 1: to do what he's about to do, right, and it's
Speaker 1: just like, well he must have a reason for but
Speaker 1: he but she's just minderful and he's wonderful. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: like little monologue, the speech that Marge gives it the
Speaker 1: end to Peter Stormare's character should really be directed to
Speaker 1: But yeah, you do lose empathy for him pretty early on,
Speaker 1: but he's still the central character for a good half
Speaker 1: hour until the murders happen, the three murders in Brainerd,
Speaker 1: and then we meet Marge. Then she you're like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: she's the main character now, and then oh what a
Speaker 1: delight she is. I know, she's so fantastic, which we've
Speaker 1: already talked about. But it's like the slimier Jerry get
Speaker 1: Like he just keeps every scene you see him and
Speaker 1: he's lying to someone, he's manipulating someone, he's trying to
Speaker 1: get his way, and he's intent. He does multiple and
Speaker 1: every single time you're just like, this is your fault. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And also like I was frustrated from him from a
Speaker 1: from a criminal perspective of like, you look so fucking
Speaker 1: guilty right now during a tantrum in your translucent office.
Speaker 1: What are you doing? Yeah, well, I mean like we understand,
Speaker 1: you know, the steps that he took to get to
Speaker 1: like this low place because he's such a terrible car salesman.
Speaker 1: He can't like sell you know, one feature on whole car,
Speaker 1: just like you're gonna want. It's like, but you you
Speaker 1: didn't say it. You know. It's like and I understand
Speaker 1: who that outraged customer is. I've seen them in life,
Speaker 1: I've been them, you know, I understand Jerry. And yeah,
Speaker 1: and just like showing that oh he's lying, like oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go talk to my boss and he just
Speaker 1: asked him about the game and then comes back it
Speaker 1: just yeah, everything makes sense. You're like, man, you shouldn't
Speaker 1: be doing this. And that's also I'm not going to
Speaker 1: spoil anything with the TV series. You should definitely check
Speaker 1: it out. Both of them are works of art, they
Speaker 1: really are. Um. The first one has Billy Bob Thornton
Speaker 1: in it as like the bad dude, terrifying, one of
Speaker 1: the more terror I mean just imagine he's the best.
Speaker 1: I'd wear a vial of his blood. Yeah, um, can
Speaker 1: we get that on et scene now? Um, I feel
Speaker 1: like we can with the divorce, maybe she's taking up hobbies,
Speaker 1: but um so the main character in the Fargo series,
Speaker 1: it's sort of a similar situation of William H. Macy's character,
Speaker 1: where instead of being a used car salesman who's innapt,
Speaker 1: he's like an insurance salesman. So you kind of see
Speaker 1: like a similar pattern of like these kind of like
Speaker 1: you know, emasculated men, like trying to live up a
Speaker 1: life that you know they feel entitled to but you know,
Speaker 1: have no talent to achieve. I like one of the
Speaker 1: interesting male characters that I didn't think about a lot
Speaker 1: before this, like you watching, was Wade Wade is the
Speaker 1: Dead Wade Because I don't know, like I remember the
Speaker 1: first time I saw this movie. I was surprised at
Speaker 1: how sad I was when he's killed um, and that
Speaker 1: sort of took me off guard because the whole time
Speaker 1: I was like, well, kind of every guy in this
Speaker 1: movie is an asshole, but he was a well intentioned
Speaker 1: enough really cared about his daughter and getting his daughter
Speaker 1: back right. But that said he also what did not
Speaker 1: sell me on him was that scene in the diner
Speaker 1: where he's talking Jerry and he's like, well, I don't
Speaker 1: want to give a million dollars, Like maybe I can
Speaker 1: give a half a million dollars, and then like Jerry
Speaker 1: is the real ship. He'll of that scene because he's
Speaker 1: like no, no, no, you gotta give all the money
Speaker 1: and he's lying. But even like Wade saying I don't know,
Speaker 1: I just like tried to think. I was like, if
Speaker 1: my dad had a million dollars, amazing first of all,
Speaker 1: but like I would not want him to be haggling
Speaker 1: for my life like that. That bugged me. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean that's what you want, but also I guess I
Speaker 1: don't know, you don't know the things. I kind of
Speaker 1: samathized with him in that moment of little bit too,
Speaker 1: because you don't know, like the back and forth of
Speaker 1: that kind of mental gymnastics of like are we even
Speaker 1: going to get what we pay for technically getting her back?
Speaker 1: Is she going to be Okay, we don't have any
Speaker 1: evidence that she's still alive. We're definitely being duped in
Speaker 1: some way. It's fucking tough. It's yeah. I mean he's
Speaker 1: in an impossible situation, and you hate Jerry even more
Speaker 1: when you see Scotty crying and that's like, what's going
Speaker 1: to happen if he didn't can't even think about his son?
Speaker 1: And in the parking lot, it's like, oh, a son,
Speaker 1: and you literally see it occurred to him that he
Speaker 1: that his son would of course be terrified, which is
Speaker 1: like the most believable like face that he gives to
Speaker 1: being grieved in the entire you know movie. So I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, well, good on you. You at least
Speaker 1: got that scene, Jerry, Right, That's the one. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: scene that always like raises my blood pressure is the
Speaker 1: scene right after he sees that Jean has been kidnapped
Speaker 1: and he practicing how to tell away, just like yeah,
Speaker 1: the button on that scene is amazing because he's like
Speaker 1: working out this fake emotion to be like wait it's
Speaker 1: what happened, makes the phone call, and then he's like
Speaker 1: you can see him like gearing up to be emotional,
Speaker 1: and then he has to be like, oh, Wade or
Speaker 1: whatever because he got the receptionist or whatever. Yeah, which
Speaker 1: I mean can incriminate him too, because they can go
Speaker 1: back and get the recordings from the phone calls that
Speaker 1: he made to sort of see I don't know whatever.
Speaker 1: I'm super that it's like if I wanted to commit
Speaker 1: a murder, I've seen enough dateline that I think I
Speaker 1: could get away. Well, you're just like he's making a
Speaker 1: lot of rookie as mistakes. Yeah. Well, with Wade's character
Speaker 1: negotiating or haggling with the ransom, I think that actually
Speaker 1: kind of speaks to the duplicitus of his character, of
Speaker 1: like him being this sort of like very shrewd, very
Speaker 1: tough kind of character who we see this tender side
Speaker 1: when it comes to his daughter being in danger, but
Speaker 1: then that toughness and that kind of like unfair shrewdness
Speaker 1: comes back with him trying to haggle. I think that
Speaker 1: that kind of shows the back and forth of his
Speaker 1: character maybe a little bit, and we do see both
Speaker 1: sides of him of like there are scenes where he's
Speaker 1: structly a businessman and strictly a father and grandfather, like
Speaker 1: that scene where he is like Geane and Scotty, you'll
Speaker 1: never have to worry. That was when I really liked him,
Speaker 1: because I was like, yeah, fuck Jerry. Yeah yeah. And
Speaker 1: for how inept and slimy and terrible Jerry is, Marge
Speaker 1: is the up like she's just like the first clue
Speaker 1: you get that she's good at her job is she
Speaker 1: and her colleague I think his name is lu Detective
Speaker 1: Cyber or whatever. They're at the crime scene where the
Speaker 1: trooper and the two other people who witnessed the murder
Speaker 1: are all killed, and they're all they're dead in the snow,
Speaker 1: and he's like, yeah, he must have started writing it
Speaker 1: down and then didn't get the whole license plate. And
Speaker 1: she's like no, She's like, I'm not so sure about
Speaker 1: your detective work there. Yeah. She's like he's it was
Speaker 1: clearly a dealer plate and he's like oh yeah. And
Speaker 1: even when she's correcting him, it's not condescending, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: She's so kind, and I like in a lot of movies,
Speaker 1: I've like powerful females is often like conflated with and
Speaker 1: she's also really me like she doesn't have friends, and
Speaker 1: she's like very yeah yeah. And it's like even in
Speaker 1: her relationship with norm it seems like a very equal partnership,
Speaker 1: even when in my head I was like, oh, March,
Speaker 1: you're like you're in charge, right, But but she doesn't
Speaker 1: treat it that way. And she's like genuinely very kind.
Speaker 1: She cares about people, and she's great at stuff, and
Speaker 1: I feel like you don't see that very often. It's
Speaker 1: very easy to just say like, oh, if you're good
Speaker 1: at your job, you're also bad at your personal life.
Speaker 1: I think also with that particular kind of job, there
Speaker 1: tends to be I think, like a misconception that you
Speaker 1: have to be detached from human emotions in that way
Speaker 1: because you're seeing a lot of blood and guts and
Speaker 1: you have to sort of come to terms with that
Speaker 1: and reconcile that in yourself, that you're not constantly throwing
Speaker 1: up over where you're not bringing your work home in
Speaker 1: your brain, you know, to kind of have a live
Speaker 1: with you and and haunt you. But she seems very adaptive, yeah,
Speaker 1: where she throws up like she's about to throw up,
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, is it because she's looking
Speaker 1: at a dead child and she's like, no, it's just
Speaker 1: more than Yeah. I think a lot of cops and
Speaker 1: movies are portrayed as like I'm a tough guy and
Speaker 1: everyone's guilty and and she just she just like helps
Speaker 1: for the best in people. Yeah, exactly when they're bad.
Speaker 1: She's so disappointed. That increases the impact of how disappointed
Speaker 1: she is. At the end of the movie, you're just like,
Speaker 1: I what can we tell you March. Yeah. I also
Speaker 1: want to talk about how like her relationship with norm
Speaker 1: and how like the gender roles of their marriage are
Speaker 1: very reversed, and that like he is an artist slash
Speaker 1: house husband. I'm guessing like from what little we know
Speaker 1: about him because she needs nightcrawlers. Yeah, but he loves
Speaker 1: her breakfast. He brings her lunch, like he's taking care
Speaker 1: for in away that in like meal providing, which is
Speaker 1: like very stereotypically it's hard, but you're like she's like
Speaker 1: out there working and you're like making her breakfast and
Speaker 1: it's just one of those Yeah, Mike has never brought
Speaker 1: me lunch and RBS in the middle of the day,
Speaker 1: never cook me breakfast. I wanted to eat Rby so
Speaker 1: bad when when he says I'll cook you eggs and
Speaker 1: then hawks up a lugy just like and she's I know,
Speaker 1: she's smile, she loves so much. But it's great. Yeah, um,
Speaker 1: something I wanted to I was thinking about the whole
Speaker 1: movie in regards to William H. Macy's character is I
Speaker 1: kept like drawing comparison in my head. I don't know
Speaker 1: why to American Beauty and how many things Fargo does
Speaker 1: write that American Beauty I think I don't like that
Speaker 1: movie at all, but it came out a couple of
Speaker 1: years after Fargo. I think, like, and uh, it's all
Speaker 1: I mean, they have a similar character of like the
Speaker 1: frustrated husband trying to blow off steam. But the I
Speaker 1: don't know, like I hate how American Beauty you know,
Speaker 1: paints Kevin Spacey is this very tragic figure and you're
Speaker 1: just like, no, this guy's a fucking jerk hervert, like
Speaker 1: there's no excuse for this person, and the whole idea
Speaker 1: of like, well, life in the suburb is a suffocating
Speaker 1: and I don't know, I'm just like, shut the funk up,
Speaker 1: you're fine, Whereas like William H. Macy's character as portrayed
Speaker 1: as what I view those types of people to be,
Speaker 1: which is like pathetic and kind of sad. Like I
Speaker 1: feel like William H. Macy's character is like the the
Speaker 1: frustrated husband who's trying to get his life together and
Speaker 1: is like punished fairly and portrayed fairly as like this
Speaker 1: guy does not know what he's doing. He's certainly not
Speaker 1: the hero of the story. I don't know, Like I
Speaker 1: couldn't stop thinking about American beauty and no, uh and
Speaker 1: how I don't know like it, but it's always bothered.
Speaker 1: Just Kevin Species portrayed as sort of like a tragic martyr, right,
Speaker 1: and then when he's just a piece of I have
Speaker 1: a theory about that. I think that. So there's also
Speaker 1: an article that came out a while ago. I think
Speaker 1: it's from a V club that talked about like the
Speaker 1: craziest year for movies in the twenty one century was
Speaker 1: or something, because it just was a huge year of
Speaker 1: Titanic and like the Phantom Menace, and it was just
Speaker 1: like there was a lot of spotlight happening on on
Speaker 1: feature films at the time. But American beauty, I feel,
Speaker 1: is like at the epicenter of this trend of this
Speaker 1: sort of like I wouldn't say faux art sinis, but
Speaker 1: definitely art senis in the forefront. And I think that
Speaker 1: it's attributed to the rise of the mid budget movie
Speaker 1: through Mirrimax and through Quentin Tarantino, and like that becoming
Speaker 1: more a part of like what the mainstream could be,
Speaker 1: and that people were kind of opening their doors at
Speaker 1: least the Academy was to like films that maybe they
Speaker 1: quote unquote didn't quite understand, but like acknowledged as art.
Speaker 1: And I feel like American Beauty like perfectly epitomizes that.
Speaker 1: I mean with just that drifting plastic bag plot of
Speaker 1: the most beautiful thing in the whole world, I mean,
Speaker 1: which we now roll our eyes because it's like first
Speaker 1: year art school bullshit. Um. But at the time I
Speaker 1: think was captivating a lot of people, um because they
Speaker 1: didn't understand it. And so I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of people attribute like good art to something that they
Speaker 1: just don't understand, right, And that's something that I feel
Speaker 1: like it is almost universally agreed does not hold up
Speaker 1: very Yeah, And also with I don't remember the characters
Speaker 1: in but Kevin Spacey's wife in that being yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: like she's portrayed. I mean, she's portrayed. She's a developed character,
Speaker 1: but she's still ultimately portrayed as like a shrewish person.
Speaker 1: And I'm just I don't know, I'm like grateful that
Speaker 1: Gene is not portrayed that way. Jane is doing her best,
Speaker 1: so isn't that bending's character? But I feel like the
Speaker 1: story just paints her as you're getting C grades, like
Speaker 1: she's just she also just wants the best. It caused
Speaker 1: her pain to tell her son he couldn't go out
Speaker 1: for hockey. I know you mentioned like whenever Marge is
Speaker 1: correcting her colleague and his like his police work, she
Speaker 1: doesn't do it in a condescending way. There is a
Speaker 1: scene though, where she is very condescending, but it's to
Speaker 1: someone who very much deserves it. And I don't know
Speaker 1: if you like perceive this this way or not, but um,
Speaker 1: whenever she first meets Jerry in his office, she's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you're the owner here, and he's like, no, I'm just
Speaker 1: the executive sales whatever. She's like okay, and then he's
Speaker 1: like my father in law. He's like clearly trying to
Speaker 1: like push blame off onto someone else and she's like, oh, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: well I'm a police officer. And it's the second meeting,
Speaker 1: right or noticed the first meeting. Yeah, no, I remember that.
Speaker 1: She's just like, you're an idiot, so I'm going to
Speaker 1: talk to you like you are one. I think it's
Speaker 1: the second meeting where she says something like, oh, this
Speaker 1: this crime I'm investigating. The purps were driving a car
Speaker 1: with dealer plates and they called someone who works here
Speaker 1: at this dealership, so it would be quite a coincidence
Speaker 1: if they weren't, you know, connected, And it's she's just like,
Speaker 1: it's so great how much she condescends to such a
Speaker 1: piece of ship that Jerry Lindergart is. And I love
Speaker 1: watching that scene because he is trying so hard to
Speaker 1: like be like I'm cooperating and like to be like
Speaker 1: cool and chill, and he's just barely holding it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that entire scene, for those periods of silence, I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you're done, Je, you are so guilty, like you have
Speaker 1: no I want to watch this guy play poker because
Speaker 1: you feel like, can I say what My favorite part
Speaker 1: about that scene is speaks directly to what I was
Speaker 1: saying earlier about being a cinematography nerd Uh. Similar to
Speaker 1: in Psycho, we see Janet. What's her face is? Um
Speaker 1: character's name, the main lady in Psycho. Um, we see
Speaker 1: her in her like Neglija at first, and it's white
Speaker 1: and pure when she's like cooking up with her dude.
Speaker 1: And then later when she decides that she's going to
Speaker 1: you know, steal the money from her boss and like
Speaker 1: run out her Neglija is black to you know, represent
Speaker 1: that she's now evil and she's corropted, she's turned. So
Speaker 1: in a similar way, Um, these two scenes, if you
Speaker 1: face them together, um, the scene of Marge first visiting
Speaker 1: Jerry and the scene of the second one. So I
Speaker 1: feel like this was calculated and strategic from the makers
Speaker 1: that there are vertical blinds in his office because in
Speaker 1: the first scene they're open, it's bright. He's you know,
Speaker 1: seemingly passing off this slide to her. It's totally fine.
Speaker 1: Second scene, the light is casting over the vertical blinds
Speaker 1: representing prison bars on Jerry Lendergard's face and he's done
Speaker 1: for And shortly after that he sprints off, takes one
Speaker 1: of the cars and she realizes, oh he's Oh, he's
Speaker 1: gone he's playing the interview in the Yeah, so that
Speaker 1: was a little bit of things that was like a
Speaker 1: little bit of Trump. Yeah baby, I was like, m yeah,
Speaker 1: that's good, Like it just was so fun. I love
Speaker 1: stuff like that, and that's part of the reason why
Speaker 1: I wanted to go into that line of work and
Speaker 1: why I never will. I don't know. Maybe there's time.
Speaker 1: There's time. Yeah, you can do anything. We're women and
Speaker 1: we can do whatever we want to. Guess what I
Speaker 1: want to keep writing if they'll let me still allow.
Speaker 1: The final thing that I want to talk about unless
Speaker 1: I think of something else is Marge does everything that
Speaker 1: she does while she's like seven months So that's highly
Speaker 1: symbolic as well. Tell me of what I shall Um,
Speaker 1: so you know here they are there basically. I mean,
Speaker 1: we'll get into if this passes Sebactel test eventually. I'm
Speaker 1: assuming you know, I've never heard Okay, are you talking about? So?
Speaker 1: This world is littered with dudes, It's lousy with dudes,
Speaker 1: and so um, Marge is really like this big female
Speaker 1: figure in that Um, not just because there's not too
Speaker 1: many other people besides Gene that she can kind of
Speaker 1: wrap with in like the other escorts, but they wanted
Speaker 1: to make her this like matriarch that sort of carried
Speaker 1: and saved this plot. And having her also be pregnant
Speaker 1: really enhanced that kind of maternal instinct that was a
Speaker 1: requirement for her instinct as a detective to get down
Speaker 1: to the case. Like it not only signified that she
Speaker 1: was like a protector of the town, a protector of justice,
Speaker 1: but she's you know, literally protecting life and preserving life,
Speaker 1: and those are like her motivations. You know, she wants
Speaker 1: people to be good, so she's protecting life for like
Speaker 1: their livelihood. She wants people to not die, so literally
Speaker 1: protecting life in that way. And as she's seven months
Speaker 1: pregnant and like fucking doing it like a badass, it
Speaker 1: just further proves that she's going to be the one
Speaker 1: that carries this. Yeah, and and like the scene, it's
Speaker 1: so like interesting the scene where she looks at the
Speaker 1: dead child, I know, and she's seven months pregnant and
Speaker 1: then she's about to throw up and you're like when
Speaker 1: does that happen? But Okay, I remember, and it's like
Speaker 1: but that to be is like a testament of like, no,
Speaker 1: she is really good at her job and she's able
Speaker 1: to compartmentalize accordingly, which is a superpower. It's a superpower there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But and and the fact that she's also like, even
Speaker 1: though she is very pregnant and that's important to her,
Speaker 1: she's not compromising the job. She's doing this kind of
Speaker 1: dangerous well, it is dangerous, and she's not compromised, Like,
Speaker 1: she doesn't compromise in any regard, which is amazing. And
Speaker 1: she's incredible. When we when pregnant women are portrayed in
Speaker 1: like movies and TV, it's almost always like they are
Speaker 1: cranky and hormonal and they're like, oh, what a delicate flower.
Speaker 1: I am. Oh, I have to pee all the time
Speaker 1: and I pant and I not have been yet, so
Speaker 1: I have no idea what it's like. And I'm sure
Speaker 1: it is very uncomfortable, but like you can still carry
Speaker 1: on with your life in your job pregnant. But like
Speaker 1: it's almost always when you see a very pregnant woman
Speaker 1: on screen, it's like, oh, look, how pregnant I am?
Speaker 1: I think talking about they're they're like sort of damselfied
Speaker 1: and it's yeah, and I mean it's like, barring medical conditions,
Speaker 1: most pregnant women work up until till they give birth
Speaker 1: in their off this often I've heard, oh, there's a
Speaker 1: Harmon Town show happening. Chills, yeah, chills, Like why is
Speaker 1: the man yelling during our podcast? So I just love
Speaker 1: that she mentions it, but she's like, could you mind
Speaker 1: if I sit down? I'm paying quite a load. And
Speaker 1: that's pretty much the only the most like she gets
Speaker 1: in a way, Yeah, and the only time really that
Speaker 1: her pregnancy affects her performance. Yeah, apart from the time
Speaker 1: that she kiels over it almost barf. But then I
Speaker 1: love how she's like, oh, it passed, and now I'm
Speaker 1: hungry again, all right, right, and then she goes back
Speaker 1: to work. Yeah, she goes back to work. And then
Speaker 1: I love how many times you see her eating and
Speaker 1: the movie she's eating Arby, she had eat. She's going
Speaker 1: to town on that buffet, buffet, and then it's so
Speaker 1: like representative of that region of like these comfort foods,
Speaker 1: these heavy, heavy sausages. And can we talk about like
Speaker 1: the choice to make this like murder plot in this
Speaker 1: folksy setting a little bit because I love I love
Speaker 1: that the Cohen Brothers did this, and I do think
Speaker 1: that it allows for that comedy to just sort of
Speaker 1: naturally happen. I mean, obviously it's like mismatched to what
Speaker 1: the actions are you wouldn't suspect. And I think that
Speaker 1: even in like the tagline on the poster, it was
Speaker 1: like a murder mystery, like a homespun murder mystery or
Speaker 1: something that's sort of like, you know, let you know
Speaker 1: that this is going to be this offbeat, cookie kind
Speaker 1: of like we don't know what we're in for. We're
Speaker 1: in way over a heads kind of town, and one
Speaker 1: would suspect that, like a small town wouldn't have the
Speaker 1: resources to deal with solving a murder, but they don't
Speaker 1: have March. But I also I found so there's this
Speaker 1: book that I really like called The Philosophy of the
Speaker 1: Cohne Brothers, and it is edited by Mark T. Kennard,
Speaker 1: who is this like really superboss film critic. But each
Speaker 1: chapter it's like an assemblage of essays from different film critics.
Speaker 1: And so I forget the name of of the gentleman
Speaker 1: who wrote a chapter about mondanity and noir in Fargo,
Speaker 1: but I found it really interest ding because of course,
Speaker 1: you know, any film genre is representative of social anxiety.
Speaker 1: You know, we see that a lot with science fiction,
Speaker 1: you know, science fiction represents social anxiety about like progress,
Speaker 1: and then you can kind of actually divide the genre
Speaker 1: into like two different chapters, pre Cold War and post
Speaker 1: Cold War, and that post Cold War deals a lot
Speaker 1: with like nuclear attacks and like the fear of that,
Speaker 1: and that's like sort of what the menaces with it.
Speaker 1: And I feel like with noir they kind of tap
Speaker 1: into that kind of social anxiety through modernity because with
Speaker 1: that comes like you're making progress, but with progress, you
Speaker 1: are breaking off from the past. So with that becomes
Speaker 1: this loneliness in isolation and alienation, and that a lot
Speaker 1: of noirs, especially ones that define the genre in the forties,
Speaker 1: took place in like these urban city scapes, which could
Speaker 1: be comforting but also isolating as well, because if you're
Speaker 1: like this one person walking around the city scape, you've
Speaker 1: got these skyscrapers looming over you, making you feel like
Speaker 1: you can either be protected by them or trampled by them.
Speaker 1: And so what the Cohen Brothers do and what you know,
Speaker 1: they actually what this author suggests, they kind of took
Speaker 1: a page from um Orson Wells in Touch of Evil,
Speaker 1: bringing the noir to the desert into Mexico. Um is
Speaker 1: that they are jarring the audience from what is known
Speaker 1: to be noir in the city and by taking it
Speaker 1: to this like desolate landscape that's snow covered. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's different than what we expect. But I also
Speaker 1: really love it because you know, we know that there's
Speaker 1: a danger. The danger is lurking. However, everywhere we look,
Speaker 1: we think we see everything that there is to see.
Speaker 1: It's this blank canvas, you know, It's these large expanses
Speaker 1: of land. Where could the danger be hiding? And I
Speaker 1: think that that was a very smart choice that they
Speaker 1: made to raise the tension of where is it going
Speaker 1: to pop out? What are we doing? And also the
Speaker 1: fact that it is snow covered, I feel like speaks
Speaker 1: to like how flimsy the foundation of what all the
Speaker 1: things that we are to believe are resting on, um,
Speaker 1: the flimsy foundation of all the character and their intentions,
Speaker 1: and how it can change it any minute. That to
Speaker 1: me was interesting. It's like a real maybe this is
Speaker 1: like a political climate thing that's influencing this, but it
Speaker 1: seems like a real American yeavy and it's like a
Speaker 1: side of the country you don't see in movies a
Speaker 1: lot at all, and it it almost feels like a
Speaker 1: non judgmental depiction of like a very American place where
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, they're good people and they're bad people,
Speaker 1: but it is what it is. It's not necessarily making
Speaker 1: a very overt commentary on it. It's just like presenting
Speaker 1: it and what feels like a pretty like cool and
Speaker 1: honest way that you don't see a lot. And I
Speaker 1: think that it being like this sort of more realistic
Speaker 1: environment like raises fears and people watching it, that it
Speaker 1: feels closer to home than watching like two people buzz
Speaker 1: around a city. It's not sexy. Crime Feders in this
Speaker 1: movie was particularly no one gets me for in this
Speaker 1: entire movie exactly exactly. And the sex is also like
Speaker 1: the sex scenes that we see are not fetishized in
Speaker 1: any way. They're not romantic anyways, they're almost tishemmy, but
Speaker 1: also like the people that are having the sex don't
Speaker 1: seem to particularly enjoy it. Oh my god, I love
Speaker 1: the prostitutes. Dig and this where at some point she's
Speaker 1: like basically mocking bushemy while she's like all right, loving
Speaker 1: this or no, she's like, I'm he and dinner earlier,
Speaker 1: and he's nice he's taken her to dinner, like he's
Speaker 1: he's paid her for the evening and they don't technically
Speaker 1: have to go out. They can just do what he
Speaker 1: paid her for. Being very delicate in my choices, but
Speaker 1: you know, he tries to relate to her and tries
Speaker 1: to have a conversation, and she like judges him and like,
Speaker 1: what are you talking like this kind of work, like
Speaker 1: being a prostitute. She's like, what dumb question? Yeah? Um,
Speaker 1: But that kind of leads us to the question of
Speaker 1: whether or not this movie passes the Bechdel test. There
Speaker 1: is allegedly some some controversy apparently which I do not
Speaker 1: know about. I, using my my own my doub old brain,
Speaker 1: have decided that thanks so much of the fear that
Speaker 1: as far as I'm concerned, it does pass the Bechdel test,
Speaker 1: because there is a scene or mare just questioning the
Speaker 1: two young women who are women and ladies of the
Speaker 1: night about the two guys that they spent the night with.
Speaker 1: Before they move on to that subject, though, they're talking
Speaker 1: about where the two women went to college, where they
Speaker 1: went to high school, and she's like, cool bears, and like,
Speaker 1: so it's a sliver of a conversation. But to me,
Speaker 1: I would say that, like most of the movies we have,
Speaker 1: let pass, it passes on a techniccount. Yeah, even though
Speaker 1: the whole reason why they're talking is because of these
Speaker 1: two guys, right, I can see it both ways. I
Speaker 1: feel like, and I'm purely speculating here, but I feel
Speaker 1: like the Vechteal test was designed to question whether or
Speaker 1: not the women. The assumption is that if they are
Speaker 1: talking about a man, it's because he's the romantic interest
Speaker 1: of something. So this is their purpose derives from that man.
Speaker 1: It is a work conversation, right, yeah, it's yeah, so
Speaker 1: they happen to be talking about men, but it's in
Speaker 1: the context of like a criminal investigation rather than like, yes,
Speaker 1: we love these men, oh right, oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree. I'm inclined to give it past just because
Speaker 1: I mean, like the Vectel test is certainly flawed and
Speaker 1: that I feel like this movie is pretty unepistically like
Speaker 1: it has amazing female characters. Right, Maybe there aren't enough
Speaker 1: of them per se, but I almost feel like that's
Speaker 1: intentionally done in the case of this because March just
Speaker 1: is this force of good and badassus in a sea
Speaker 1: of she's strong that I think she alone makes up
Speaker 1: for it, like exactly she's not her purpose is derived
Speaker 1: from a man, and her self worth isn't defined by
Speaker 1: how men perceiver at all. In fact, she doesn't seem
Speaker 1: to register it. She doesn't care. I mean, we see
Speaker 1: it for a flash when she gets all you know,
Speaker 1: done up to see her old pal. But I think
Speaker 1: that that's just her wanting to have a break for
Speaker 1: a moment to like, you know, that's like human. I
Speaker 1: feel like that, Yeah, it's such a human moment of
Speaker 1: Like I mean, any marriage, there comes a moment where
Speaker 1: there's like that thought of like oh what if, and
Speaker 1: then she seems to pretty immediately snap back into like,
Speaker 1: oh no, I made the decision. Yeah, that's awesome to see. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I just think in general of just like having
Speaker 1: an excuse to, like I don't know, not play act necessarily,
Speaker 1: but just like to get gussied up into to just
Speaker 1: explore a path for a night, even if it's just
Speaker 1: a thought for a second, especially like with the she's
Speaker 1: about to become a mon there and they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be this big change. It's almost like a last last
Speaker 1: kind Yeah, yeah, I agree, But then he was like, Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sit over here and put my arm around you,
Speaker 1: and then she's like away from me. Yeah, what's a
Speaker 1: creepy Yeah. I don't know if you've been in similar
Speaker 1: situations where it's like super awkward on the same sif like, oh,
Speaker 1: I just don't want to have to turn my neck.
Speaker 1: But it's like clearly the front for how she like
Speaker 1: registered that is, Oh, that was weird. Go back tu. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he sounded so manic on the phone when we first
Speaker 1: hear him, and yeah, it's just it's just bad. Well,
Speaker 1: I think now is the time where we on a
Speaker 1: scale of zero to five nipples the movie based on
Speaker 1: its treatment and portrayal of its female characters. This is
Speaker 1: our alternative to the Metal Test five nip rating. Yeah,
Speaker 1: who would like to go first? I first, sure, I
Speaker 1: would give it without knowing any precedent of how you've
Speaker 1: rated previous films and where you personally reside and like
Speaker 1: the parameters of that. I would give it a four
Speaker 1: point five because I would give it a five just
Speaker 1: on Marge alone, because she's so iconic as a strong
Speaker 1: female character, and I think that a lot of people
Speaker 1: have referenced her through other characters written after this um
Speaker 1: as like sort of the goal of what you can
Speaker 1: achieve with like a woman who is in control and
Speaker 1: is dynamic and interesting and all and all of that stuff. However,
Speaker 1: you know, take away a point five because a lot
Speaker 1: of the other female characters are escorts that we don't
Speaker 1: know too much about, and Gene isn't really given a perspective. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: one more I wanted. We know that she knits, you know,
Speaker 1: but there's more to her. There's more to her. So yeah, unfortunately,
Speaker 1: four boys because you because you describe those nipples. Sorry,
Speaker 1: we should have We should you five nipples they're like,
Speaker 1: you know, not like a deep flesh color, but like
Speaker 1: like a mom about to give birth. They're like so
Speaker 1: like so actually no, they are deep in color, bursting
Speaker 1: with milk and probably bursting with milk. Leaky nips, nips
Speaker 1: that you don't want to see, and you actually see
Speaker 1: it when you stimone into your mom's room a little
Speaker 1: too soon and you're asking what's for dinner. That's that's
Speaker 1: the nip. I would have also given it a four
Speaker 1: point five nip rating for the I'm just gonna pick
Speaker 1: you back and steal your um and this just might
Speaker 1: be true of that area of the country. I doubt
Speaker 1: there's much diversity. I don't see any women of color. Um,
Speaker 1: it's nice that we see like all the women aren't
Speaker 1: these like hot Hollywood look how hot I am? And
Speaker 1: everyone's just like nice and normal looking. And it seems
Speaker 1: like a lot of tertiary characters were from Farga probably
Speaker 1: guess including Gene. So yeah, it's just probably that there's
Speaker 1: no diversity in this town, that we don't see any
Speaker 1: women of color. Um. I like that Marge is like
Speaker 1: probably forty late thirties, because women of color, women over
Speaker 1: the age of like forty and fifty are even more
Speaker 1: poorly represented than white women. Yeah, so four point five
Speaker 1: beautiful nipples. I can't. I'm gonna give it four print
Speaker 1: five as well because I love a good bandwagon and
Speaker 1: also I agree mine are going to be Marche nipples
Speaker 1: as well. But these ones are radiating beams of light.
Speaker 1: I like, that's blind. That's a future pop culture themed
Speaker 1: art show. Yes, there March just marges. Yeah, just a
Speaker 1: statue of Marge, but there are very strong lights where
Speaker 1: her nips should be. That is something I would really
Speaker 1: make into a Facebook profile picture. I think highest compliments. Well,
Speaker 1: there you have it, Argo across the board four point five.
Speaker 1: I think that's the best one. So fun. So thanks
Speaker 1: for bringing us this great So is there anything that
Speaker 1: you'd like to plug or like? Where can people find
Speaker 1: you online? How do people follow you? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: You can find me at Twitter dot com finn slash
Speaker 1: Julia Prescott. There I post my musings in my show dates,
Speaker 1: and then I have a podcast about the Simpsons called
Speaker 1: Everything's Coming Up Podcast. You can find us at Simpson's
Speaker 1: Pod and on iTunes. Wonderful. Thank you so much. If
Speaker 1: you want to follow us, the Bechtel Cast, you can
Speaker 1: do so are cheering. You can follow us at Bechtel
Speaker 1: Cast on Twitter. You can email us if you want,
Speaker 1: The Bechtel Cast at gmail dot com. And we love you.
Speaker 1: We love you. Bye bye