WEBVTT - Appropriate Behavior with Melody Kamali 0:00:00.960 --> 0:00:04.000 On the Bechdel Cast, the questions ask if movies have. 0:00:04.080 --> 0:00:07.960 Women and them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:09.680 or do they have individualism? 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:15.960 It's the patriarchy, Zephyn. Best start changing with the Bechdel Cast. 0:00:16.360 --> 0:00:20.880 Jamie, I'm breaking up with you and giving you back 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:22.799 the dildo you gave me. 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:28.320 Okay, I don't care, or do I? Or do I? 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.120 I think you do? Well, wait till you see me 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:38.440 hanging out with Chekhov's co worker, battle show the hair model. Yes, 0:00:38.600 --> 0:00:44.120 Chekhov's hair model famously Welcome, Welcome to the Bechdel Cast, 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:45.120 perfect intro, no. 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:47.080 Notes, Yes, thank you so much. 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:49.280 My name is Jamie Loftus. 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:52.840 My name is Caitlin Derante. This is the Bechdel Cast, 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.760 our show where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, 0:00:57.160 --> 0:01:01.040 using the Bechdel Test as a jump off point. And 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:07.160 it's actually the origins of which are particularly relevant to 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:13.199 today's movie. Today's movie is Appropriate Behavior twenty fourteen, written 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.080 and directed by Desiree Acavon. But Jamie tell us what 0:01:17.120 --> 0:01:18.520 the Bechdel test is. 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:20.880 Yeah, I guess we should do a full definition today 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:23.520 because it is very relevant. The Bechel test is a 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:27.440 media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, friend of 0:01:27.480 --> 0:01:33.520 the show Our Best Friend, I Wonder if she remembers us. 0:01:34.040 --> 0:01:38.040 The test is originally not intended to be a famous 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:40.280 media metric. It was written as a one off joke 0:01:40.520 --> 0:01:44.360 in Alison Bechdel's iconic comics collection dis To Watch Out 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:48.080 For in the nineteen eighties. The specific context of the 0:01:48.120 --> 0:01:51.400 original joke was that two women never spoke to each 0:01:51.440 --> 0:01:55.000 other in a movie, and the context of it was 0:01:55.240 --> 0:01:58.680 because Alison Bechdel and her friends wanted to see queer 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:02.360 romance between women and non binary people in movies and 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.800 there wasn't any that's very relevant to what we're talking 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:08.920 about today. Eventually, on a longer timeline, it was sort 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:12.440 of transformed into a more generic media metric. The version 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:17.320 of the test we use requires that two characters of 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.200 marginalized gender with names speak to each other about something 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:25.239 other than a man for more than two meaningful lines 0:02:25.240 --> 0:02:28.440 of dialogue. And we're not going to have an issue 0:02:28.440 --> 0:02:30.600 with that today, don't you worry. I think that the 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.240 backtales actually will not be coming up very much from 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:36.640 here on out, but it is interacting with the origin 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:39.359 in a kind of fun way, right, because the idea. 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:43.280 Was that the characters indus to watch out for would 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.840 if they saw two women speaking to each other in 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:50.360 a movie about something other than a man. The characters 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:55.079 could sort of like ship those two women together a 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.600 tigh in their imaginations. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.320 The time where it's like women spoke to each other, 0:02:59.760 --> 0:03:02.600 they have to be in love, like if. We also 0:03:02.680 --> 0:03:05.320 shout out to the co creator because it often called 0:03:05.320 --> 0:03:09.399 the Bechdel Wallace Test. Liz Wallace co created the test 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.639 with Alison Bechdel, and we learned on during our interview 0:03:12.680 --> 0:03:16.480 with Alison Bechdel that they met at a karate claus 0:03:16.520 --> 0:03:20.799 and didn't keep in touch. So I'm curious if Liz 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.800 Wallace is even aware of this legacy. 0:03:23.720 --> 0:03:25.000 We should try to reach out to her. 0:03:25.280 --> 0:03:28.160 Yeah, we had to start going to karate classes. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:28.360 I hear. 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:32.799 That's a great way to meet her. Indeed, so we're 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.000 talking about appropriate behavior and we have a wonderful returning 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:40.800 guest with us today. She is a podcast producer, comedian 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:44.920 and you remember her from our episode on Blue Crush. Yeah, 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:46.280 it's Melody Kmalie. 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:49.880 What's up, Salem? Aloha? 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:50.640 D rude. 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:54.720 Thanks for having me back. That's Farsie too. 0:03:55.760 --> 0:03:58.240 Yeah, I think I last time I was here, you 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:01.640 had just come off your recording with Alison Bechdel. Yeah, 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:04.280 that's right, and you guys were riding high from that. 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.880 I think she remembers you, and if anything, maybe just 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.040 for like the Google alerts, the crossover in. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:15.440 Yeah, she has Google alerts on. She probably hates to 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.760 see us coming. Well, welcome back. 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:23.039 Thank you for having me really pick the most relevant 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:27.560 film possible as a bisexual Iranian American. 0:04:27.680 --> 0:04:30.080 I'm really excited to dive in. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.880 Yeah, tell us about your relationship with this. 0:04:33.200 --> 0:04:36.559 This too much of a relationship with this movie I did. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:38.960 I used to host a co host a podcast called 0:04:39.040 --> 0:04:44.120 Diking Out. We had desiree achumon on the podcast and 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:48.800 it was like the peak of Quarantine and it was 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:51.240 like just as like a lot of protests were breaking out. 0:04:51.279 --> 0:04:55.479 It was just like a very tense, weird time with 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:58.479 the pandemic. And we asked her because we were fans 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:01.000 of her, and she kind of was like, why do 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:04.720 you like, I'm not promoting anything right now this Like 0:05:05.000 --> 0:05:07.480 I'm not in the middle of any project. I'm kind 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:10.559 of sitting in my apartment just like everyone else. I'm like, perf, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.920 let's get intimate, and we tried to make it comfortable 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:16.680 with her, and we all just ended up drinking in 0:05:16.720 --> 0:05:21.440 our little quarantines together. On the podcast, I am horrified 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.760 thinking about it. I haven't listened back to it ever. 0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:29.120 It's out there, but we do bond over just all 0:05:29.160 --> 0:05:32.600 the parallels we had, because not only are we bisexually 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:37.320 running Americans with immigrant parents, but we also, like in 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:41.160 her show The Bisexual, I think thought we were lesbian 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:45.920 first and then got like hetero curious and explored that. 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:48.760 So just so many and more parallels come up in 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:53.280 that conversation. It's like a weird version of myself, like 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:55.320 a successful version of myself. 0:05:55.360 --> 0:05:58.680 I've been watching from a foreign admiring. I love her work. 0:05:58.760 --> 0:06:03.120 She directs a lot of like awesome film and TV episodes, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:04.279 a lot of Hacks episodes. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:06.479 You'll see her name Papa. But I just thinks she's 0:06:06.560 --> 0:06:11.520 so cool. Yeah, and yeah, that's the relationship. 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.040 Nice. So did you see this movie when it first 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:15.680 came out? Oh? 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:20.800 Sorry, yeah, I remember at the time everyone was talking 0:06:20.800 --> 0:06:23.919 about this, like Persian Lena Dunham was what I was 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:25.680 seeing online. 0:06:25.320 --> 0:06:26.880 Oh Ver twenty fourteen. 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:28.640 Yes, exactly, like. 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:30.880 This had just come out like some film festival. It 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:35.799 won Best Screenplay Word at some festival. Is very interested 0:06:35.800 --> 0:06:39.479 in it because there's representation now and it's so easy 0:06:39.520 --> 0:06:41.680 to connect and I was able to just interview her 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:43.240 as a big fan of it. But back then it 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:45.839 was like there was so much still like shrouded in mystery, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:49.359 like are there other voices like mine out there? And 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.839 I was just so excited to find out she existed 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.960 and bought it on iTunes or something and watched. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:01.320 It on my little MacBook. I loved it. 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.680 I loved Lena Dunham at the time, and I think 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.480 I was just obsessively like searching for stuff on her 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:09.400 around Postgirls era. 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.160 And then I think that this movie also got desiree 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:18.080 akavan apart on Girls, because I guess, yeah, yeah, she 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:19.520 had like a small arc. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.320 Yeah, she was one of the writers that it was 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:26.440 like her corporate job or something I remember in Girls. 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:26.920 Yeah. 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.160 I had to go back and like rewatch a few 0:07:29.160 --> 0:07:31.400 scenes on YouTube, but I was like, yes, that is her. 0:07:31.560 --> 0:07:33.880 And I think it's because Lena Dunham saw this movie 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.160 and was like, oh, we have the same vibe. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:41.000 Definitely, Yeah, how do we what do we call that vibe? 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:42.280 I don't know. 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.520 It feels very I'm excited to dig into it because 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:48.880 it feels very like specifically, this was a I don't know, 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:52.600 I feel like the simplest is like difficult protagonist or 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:57.040 like women actually not being perfect on screen and acting 0:07:57.920 --> 0:08:00.400 messy in a way that like, I don't know, if 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:03.040 I put my twenty fourteen brain in, people like could 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:07.080 not tolerate it, Like it was interesting looking back at 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.239 like some of the reviews of this movie, and also 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:13.480 because it felt so in conversation with girls and Lena 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:15.800 Dunnam's new book came out, so everyone is sort of 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:18.200 talking about it. It's just like the way that these 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.920 these characters are very prevalent and also received in a 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.040 weird way. I don't know, it was interesting to like 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:26.160 go back there. 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.480 Yeah, I kept trying to put myself in the mindset 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.520 because at the time it was like whoa pioneer alert, Like, yeah, 0:08:33.600 --> 0:08:38.080 they are unlikable, They're fucking up big time. 0:08:39.200 --> 0:08:42.000 Well, I think part of it is that there were 0:08:42.040 --> 0:08:46.280 like horny, sexually liberated women and people don't like that, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:52.320 and they like use humor to deflect, and people don't 0:08:52.400 --> 0:08:53.640 like it when women are funny. 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.000 I was also thinking because it's like, at the end 0:08:56.080 --> 0:09:00.439 of the day, even though like sharing is a mess, 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.000 like you do love her, but there I think that 0:09:03.000 --> 0:09:06.480 people also have like a real issue with watching a 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.839 character who is a woman act kind of selfishly. I 0:09:10.920 --> 0:09:13.840 think that people still, like to this day, really struggle 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:18.559 with a woman not acting in some like self sacrificing way. 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.000 And yeah, in a way that I mean, yeah, I 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:24.720 don't know. It's like, if we're going into the whole 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.959 like girls thing, why do people hate characters like Sharien 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:31.800 and Hand of Horror Bath but they love Don Draper. 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.360 That whole sort of line of discussion of like men 0:09:35.480 --> 0:09:39.640 acting selfishly is iconic and amazing and women acting selfishly 0:09:40.200 --> 0:09:45.400 like inspires at the time a million like cruel takedowns 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.880 in essay form, because that was what twenty fourteen was about. 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:52.920 I just remember self absorbed, self absorbed, like everywhere. 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.040 That term, and it was like or in an agency. 0:09:56.600 --> 0:09:59.199 I don't know, Yeah, that's so funny. I'm rewatching mad 0:09:59.240 --> 0:10:02.880 Men right now. Oh yeah, that is the perfect comparison. 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:05.520 I mean, this show absolutely rocks, but you're just like, 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:10.640 uh yeah, yeah, we didn't. To this day, some would 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.240 say we have not gotten the chance to be selfish assholes. 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.600 It's almost like there are double standards for men women. 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:19.720 Now explore that. 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:24.000 Wait, we should talk about that on the show. Wait okay, yeah, 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:28.880 for the first time. Finally, after all these years, Jamie, 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:32.520 what is your relationship slash history with this movie? 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.480 I had not seen this movie, but I do consider myself, 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.679 I'm just gonna try this. A Desiree aka Van Desiree 0:10:40.720 --> 0:10:41.640 aka fan. 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.559 Whoa, let's try. 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.720 To create a community name. But I mean, I think 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:53.040 she's so cool. Yeah, I've been wanting to see this 0:10:53.080 --> 0:10:55.960 for a long time. I saw her I think second movie, 0:10:56.000 --> 0:11:00.560 The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which is about Chloe Grace 0:11:00.600 --> 0:11:04.200 Morett's getting sent to a gay conversion camp that I 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.280 thought was really good. And I'd seen her show The Bisexual, 0:11:07.559 --> 0:11:09.640 But for some reason, I just hadn't seen this and 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:12.600 her I don't know. I admire her a lot. I 0:11:12.640 --> 0:11:14.800 want to, first of all, Melody, I want to find 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.920 that podcast episode. I want to hear more interviews with her, 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.680 because it's so cool that she has been able to 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:26.400 create such a cool career for herself, and I just 0:11:26.559 --> 0:11:30.720 think it's really cool and this movie in particular, I 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.959 was pleasantly surprised by so much about it and also 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.839 that it was like kind of challenging me to turn 0:11:37.880 --> 0:11:40.040 on this character, and I was like, I will not. 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.479 I will not turn on my good friend read even 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:47.040 if she well, we'll talk about when she gets up 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:51.360 to But I just loved this queer woman being messy. 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:54.840 It's great, It's perfect. So yeah, it was. It was 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:58.040 a really fun first watch. Yeah, Caitlyn, what about you? 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.640 I had not seen this movie before, nor did I 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:06.560 know about it. I didn't know about it until Melody. 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:09.840 You and I were talking about potential movies for you 0:12:09.880 --> 0:12:13.600 to come on and cover, and you sent me I 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:15.560 don't remember if you sent me a trailer for this 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:17.480 or if you just mentioned it. But then I watched 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.800 the trailer and I was like, oh my gosh, this 0:12:20.880 --> 0:12:23.680 seems like so much fun. I would love to I 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.160 was like, even if we don't cover this movie, I'll 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.320 just watch it anyway because it seems like such a 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:30.560 fun movie. 0:12:31.320 --> 0:12:35.120 It doesn't seem like people given like how I don't know, 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:37.040 people should be talking about this movie more. 0:12:37.480 --> 0:12:41.360 Yeah, right, I think it's not very well known, and I. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.120 Was surprised that you weren't aware of it when I 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:46.680 emailed you the title, like I assumed you were. 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.840 And then more people I talk about it too haven't 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:50.200 seen it. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:52.880 Yeah, the goodness. If you're a listener and have not 0:12:53.000 --> 0:12:56.000 yet seen the movie, it is very easy to stream. 0:12:56.080 --> 0:12:59.520 It is streaming for free in many places, so if 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:01.640 you haven't it, get your shit together. 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:06.959 It's accessible. So yeah, watched it for the first time 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.760 to prep for this. I really enjoyed it. I also 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.240 love that it's only an hour and twenty one minutes long. 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:20.040 Please more movies like this. But yeah, I thought it 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:25.080 was fun. I'm excited to talk about it. Yeah, soll 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.400 we take a quick break and then we'll get into 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:40.880 the recap. Let's do it, okay. Here is the story 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:47.040 of Appropriate Behavior. We meet Sharene, played by Desiree Akovan, 0:13:47.240 --> 0:13:50.280 who is also the writer and director of the film. 0:13:50.679 --> 0:13:52.640 We meet her as she's packing up some of her 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:57.360 things after a breakup from her now ex girlfriend Maxine 0:13:57.920 --> 0:14:03.640 played by Rebecca Henderson, including a strap on that Scharene 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.600 had gifted her when they were still together, but Maxine 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:11.880 makes Scharene take it back that makes it seem like 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:14.000 it's gonna be a huge plot point. It's not. 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.200 It's just sort of Dilda for the sake of dildo. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.120 Yeah yeah, yah, yeah yeah yeah, And that's beautiful. 0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.400 There is a scene later on where Scharene finally because 0:14:24.600 --> 0:14:27.040 right after this she throws it away, but then immediately 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.360 takes it back out of the trash, and then later 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:34.160 on she throws it away for good, perhaps signaling that 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:39.200 she's she's moving on from the breakup. But I'm getting 0:14:39.200 --> 0:14:42.680 ahead of myself. So then Scharene meets up with her 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:48.240 friend Crystal to start trying to process the breakup because 0:14:48.240 --> 0:14:52.200 Scharene really wants to get back together with Maxine, though 0:14:52.240 --> 0:14:57.880 there is mention of their sex life sputtering out pretty quickly, 0:14:58.440 --> 0:15:00.800 like soon after they got together. And then we flash 0:15:00.880 --> 0:15:05.520 back to Charene and Maxine trying to do some sexy 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:10.120 role playing, but Maxine isn't really into it. She says 0:15:10.120 --> 0:15:14.120 she's too vanilla. We'll get a bunch of flashbacks about 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.440 their relationship over the course of this movie. Yes, back 0:15:17.480 --> 0:15:21.040 to the present, Sharene visits her family. We meet her 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:26.520 mom and dad and urologist brother Ali played. 0:15:27.080 --> 0:15:28.680 Mister Hattie himself. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:32.680 Yes, yes, Oh my god, played by Arian Moyed, who 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:35.680 I recognize from Succession is the main thing I know 0:15:35.800 --> 0:15:36.200 him from. 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:37.200 Yes, love him. 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:40.800 Oh he's such a little bitch in Succession. I guess 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:43.800 he is also such a little bitch in this movie. Yeah, 0:15:44.040 --> 0:15:46.000 he's really good at that, I guess. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:50.200 Yeah. We also meet his girlfriend Ley, and Scharene and 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:53.480 her brother Ali have a pretty contentious relationship. They're always 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:56.120 making jabs at each other and judging each other for 0:15:56.240 --> 0:16:01.120 their life choices, and Scharene's also judging Lei Lee. Yeah, 0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:06.000 she makes a few jabs at their jobs. They're both doctors, 0:16:06.040 --> 0:16:11.920 but she's just like, you're losers, and then Allie retorts 0:16:11.960 --> 0:16:17.320 by saying that Sharene is wasting her master's degree in journalism. 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:22.640 I loved this sibling specific of like masking disdain for 0:16:22.720 --> 0:16:26.400 your sibling with concern and being like, I'm really worried 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.440 about her. She's such a fucking loser and it's great. 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:31.920 Yeah. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.200 Yeah. The subtext is she's making me look bad by 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:36.200 being related to. 0:16:36.120 --> 0:16:39.120 Me, and also at the same time, like it feels 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:41.760 like they're both kind of asking, like tacitly asking their 0:16:41.760 --> 0:16:42.840 parents to be like. 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:44.600 Please say I'm your favorite. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.320 I'm the good kid, right, I'm the. 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:52.320 Kid's very Persian, very sibling universal dynamic. But it's something 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:57.800 so Persian about the masked concern and being like, I 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:00.440 am the one that you trust, I am the golden child. 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.560 But crazy of her to do it when she's working 0:17:02.720 --> 0:17:06.720 against a doctor as a as an artist a type, 0:17:06.880 --> 0:17:11.320 because that is a very real dynamic in Persian families. 0:17:11.359 --> 0:17:17.160 I am the artist loser and constantly being compared to siblings, cousins, 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.320 et cetera, who went the doctor lawyer Persian route. 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:25.080 Sure, yeah, because Charene she was a journalist slash writer, 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:29.200 and then she's pivoting. She wants to pivot careers, and 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:32.440 we're about to get to what she kind of pivots 0:17:32.560 --> 0:17:36.640 to because she interviews for a job with this guy 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:37.720 named Ken. 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:42.679 Pete Horne Jump scare Yeah, yes it's played by Scott 0:17:42.720 --> 0:17:45.600 as did It of thirty Rock fame, for a job 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:50.480 that is teaching an after school filmmaking class to teens 0:17:50.840 --> 0:17:53.400 or what Scharene thinks will be teens. 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:59.200 He offers her the job, so that's her new job. Now. Meanwhile, 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:04.560 Charene is scheming ways to bump into Maxine including trying 0:18:04.560 --> 0:18:07.840 to work the same shift as Maxine at the local 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:08.880 food co op. 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:11.760 She tries, she tries to sleep her way to the 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:15.800 top of the co op, which is a very funny scene. 0:18:15.920 --> 0:18:17.920 I kind of wish that scene went on a little 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:21.000 longer because you don't really get the reaction of the 0:18:21.080 --> 0:18:25.040 co op lady. But she's like Sharene's like unbuttoning her 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:29.040 blouse being like, just let me work the shifts I want. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.960 I was assuming it was the Park Slope food co Op. 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:36.359 There's an episode of Broad City where Abby and Alana 0:18:36.960 --> 0:18:40.800 are switching roles because like Abby can't work her shift 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.520 at that co op and like she had they train 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.040 each other in each other's mannerisms and like switch rolls 0:18:47.040 --> 0:18:48.800 for the day so she can work the ship for 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:52.080 her I don't know, anyway, is the way they portray 0:18:52.680 --> 0:18:55.000 that same character in Broad City. It was like a 0:18:55.119 --> 0:18:58.520 very similar portrayal of this like no nonsense, like kind 0:18:58.560 --> 0:19:02.560 of butch like what do you want from me manager 0:19:02.800 --> 0:19:05.040 of the Park Slope co Op? And I'm like, what 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:09.080 is going on there? I want to a nice trope. 0:19:08.800 --> 0:19:13.760 I do like something seemingly innocuous being run like the 0:19:13.840 --> 0:19:17.840 Navy that will usually work for me as a trope. 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:24.560 Okay, So then Scharene's parents and brother help her move 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:29.240 into a new apartment in Brooklyn, and it's starting to 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:33.919 become clear that perhaps they do not know about Sharen's 0:19:33.920 --> 0:19:39.159 relationship with Maxine, or perhaps even that Charene likes women. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.520 And I was kind of taken off guard that her 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:44.800 brother also didn't seem to know, because every I mean, 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.359 it's like everyone, it's like, where's your boyfriend, where's your boyfriend? 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:49.840 Where's your boyfriend. It's like, oh, her brother also doesn't know, 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:51.359 so they're not close. 0:19:52.000 --> 0:19:53.159 It doesn't seem like it. 0:19:53.520 --> 0:19:53.600 Ye. 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.919 We cut to Scharene at her new teaching job, and 0:19:58.000 --> 0:20:00.240 again she thought she would be teaching teenagers, but it 0:20:00.280 --> 0:20:03.040 turns out to be like five year olds and they're 0:20:03.119 --> 0:20:07.520 all boys, and they're all very unruly and chaotic, and 0:20:07.560 --> 0:20:10.840 she's in way over her head and she's trying to 0:20:10.880 --> 0:20:15.120 teach them filmmaking and like frame rates and stuff like that, 0:20:15.200 --> 0:20:20.600 and they're just like causing havoc. They're just like poop, poop, yeah, poop. 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.359 Then we flash back to Sharin and Maxine meeting for 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:28.760 the first time at a New Year's Eve party. They 0:20:28.800 --> 0:20:33.160 bond over both being haters and just hating a lot 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.120 of things, and then they start making out within minutes 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:42.320 of meeting. Sometime later, Sharene invites Maxine to a Persian 0:20:42.320 --> 0:20:46.240 New Year party, and it is confirmed here that Sharen's 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:50.399 family does not know that she's bisexual. She mentions that 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.920 gay people are stoned to death in Iran, where her 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.240 entire family comes from, so she is reluctant to come 0:20:58.280 --> 0:20:59.199 out to her family. 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:04.520 I'm backtrack really quick too. I think that the scene 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:11.119 where Scharene first meets Maxine, their meet cute is so 0:21:11.280 --> 0:21:13.359 well written because you can tell you're like, oh, I 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:15.840 can see why this is appealing, and this relationship is 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:20.320 so clearly doomed from a moment, right. I've never seen 0:21:20.560 --> 0:21:24.480 that dynamic written quite so like real in a way 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.120 that you're like, oh, these two are bad for each other. 0:21:27.480 --> 0:21:31.119 They're like, wow, your toxic and negative too. You're like, no, 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:32.960 God's no, it's. 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:33.920 Never gonna work out. 0:21:34.440 --> 0:21:35.160 That was well done. 0:21:35.320 --> 0:21:41.480 Yeah. But they get together nonetheless, and Maxine goes with 0:21:41.560 --> 0:21:46.280 Scharene to this Persian New Your's party and meets her family, 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.159 but Maxine has to pretend to just be Scharene's platonic 0:21:50.240 --> 0:21:55.520 friend and not her girlfriend. Back in the present, Scharene 0:21:55.720 --> 0:22:00.760 is on okay Cupid looking for a post breakup distraction 0:22:01.040 --> 0:22:06.679 slash rebound. She meets a man, and this man cracked 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.920 me up because he's like, I'm a stand up comedian 0:22:10.000 --> 0:22:15.679 slash folk musician. He's like, comedy shouldn't be mean, it 0:22:15.680 --> 0:22:19.840 should be nice. She's like ray, which I agree with, 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:22.080 but he was so goofy I agree with. 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:25.080 Like now, but in twenty fourteen, it was like stand 0:22:25.119 --> 0:22:28.440 up was having a boom, Like it was just like, yeah, comedy, 0:22:28.480 --> 0:22:32.080 I don't know. It's like there was a jadedness that 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.000 he was like speaking to that I didn't think was 0:22:34.040 --> 0:22:36.440 there at the time in the comedy scene. 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:39.040 Well, I was wondering. I was like, when was the 0:22:39.080 --> 0:22:43.560 height of like roast shows because I wonder if it 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:45.240 was like round then they were. 0:22:45.160 --> 0:22:46.760 Encroaching on that time mid. 0:22:46.840 --> 0:22:50.359 Yeah, well, because it's like also twenty fourteen would have 0:22:50.440 --> 0:22:54.280 been like peek Louis c k oh, jeez as woll 0:22:54.560 --> 0:23:01.000 true not to sorry to invoke Yeah, normally safe space, 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:04.040 but that was who because I was also like, yeah, 0:23:04.040 --> 0:23:06.199 where was comedy at You're like, it's kind of a 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:09.800 weird weird place. Yeah, you sure was. Yeah. 0:23:09.960 --> 0:23:12.560 Yeah. Anyway, so she goes on this date with this guy. 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:18.040 They hook up, but it's nothing special, especially compared to 0:23:18.280 --> 0:23:23.480 the flashback where Charene and Maxine are being super intimate, 0:23:23.680 --> 0:23:25.480 they're getting stoned together. 0:23:25.400 --> 0:23:27.320 They're being transphobic together. 0:23:27.800 --> 0:23:30.000 Yeah, we'll talk about we'll get to that. 0:23:30.000 --> 0:23:32.600 That was the thing that kept taking me out of 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:34.880 it where because it keeps happening it. 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:38.120 Yeah, several times. It's also in this scene when they're 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:42.120 stone together, the Maxine tells a story that's ablest. 0:23:42.520 --> 0:23:47.000 So it's not perfect, but yeah, scene is not perfect, No. 0:23:47.119 --> 0:23:49.000 And it's it's tricky because it's one of those things 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:51.320 where it's like you have to again, like you have 0:23:51.359 --> 0:23:53.400 to try to put yourself in your brain ten years ago, 0:23:53.440 --> 0:23:56.119 which is a weird amount of time to regress to 0:23:56.600 --> 0:23:58.879 and be like, is this meant to be making a 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:01.240 point about how this character is unlikable or is this 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:03.520 just how people felt comfortable talking at the time. And 0:24:03.520 --> 0:24:05.000 I think it's the last one. 0:24:05.840 --> 0:24:06.800 I agree. 0:24:07.080 --> 0:24:09.720 Yeah, from today's brain, it's like, well, Maxine needs to 0:24:09.720 --> 0:24:14.560 go on a gender journey, like Vaccine has some things to. 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:16.520 Explore internalized issues. 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:20.720 Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, And then they also talk about 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:23.520 how Maxine hates sex and the city, and then they 0:24:23.520 --> 0:24:26.720 talk about Lord of the Rings. So speaking to the 0:24:26.800 --> 0:24:30.199 Bechdel Test, they're talking about lots of stuff they're living. 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:33.320 And then after all of this they share that they 0:24:33.440 --> 0:24:38.960 are falling in love with each other. We cut to 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:44.920 Charene showing up at a meeting for a queer advocacy 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:48.600 group that Maxine is at because Scharene's like again trying 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:53.000 to bump into Maxine and she is not pleased to 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:57.720 see Charene. So Scharene tries to make Maxine jealous by 0:24:57.960 --> 0:25:01.440 asking the leader of the group, this woman named Sasha, 0:25:01.760 --> 0:25:03.000 out for a drink. 0:25:03.440 --> 0:25:06.040 This scene, I'm excited to talk about it is there's 0:25:06.119 --> 0:25:07.679 so much going on in this scene. 0:25:07.840 --> 0:25:10.359 Oh the man in the background. 0:25:10.440 --> 0:25:15.480 There's a very serious issue being discussed, this rape, which 0:25:15.520 --> 0:25:18.800 is like but like that's that's a real thing, And like, 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:22.000 I just thought that scene was so fascinating because she's 0:25:22.040 --> 0:25:25.560 just being he's being an absolute menace. Meanwhile, there's like 0:25:25.600 --> 0:25:28.480 a very i would imagine at the time and still 0:25:28.720 --> 0:25:32.520 underdiscussed issue around how queer people are demonized by the law, 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:36.520 and you're just like there's so much happening here, right, 0:25:36.880 --> 0:25:40.560 It was wild, wild, and I feel like his story 0:25:41.320 --> 0:25:45.840 is there to play as a joke within the scene. 0:25:46.480 --> 0:25:48.400 I don't know, or at least that's how I kind 0:25:48.400 --> 0:25:49.400 of felt about it. 0:25:49.720 --> 0:25:50.320 But I don't know. 0:25:50.720 --> 0:25:53.280 I don't know, i'd be curious. I don't know. I 0:25:53.320 --> 0:25:55.280 think I ended up kind of giving this scene the 0:25:55.280 --> 0:25:58.359 benefit of the doubt, and it's just like an incredibly 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:01.159 it felt messy in a way that was intentional to me, 0:26:01.720 --> 0:26:04.240 but I guess, if pressed, I couldn't tell you exactly 0:26:04.280 --> 0:26:06.160 what the intent was, So I don't know. 0:26:06.560 --> 0:26:08.280 I thought it was to like bring out just how 0:26:08.359 --> 0:26:12.960 much of a menace and like selfish person she was being. 0:26:12.960 --> 0:26:17.000 To because she's like blowing past yes man, telling this 0:26:17.119 --> 0:26:18.440 story really traumatic. 0:26:18.640 --> 0:26:20.960 Yeah, that was This was the scene where I was like, 0:26:21.000 --> 0:26:26.120 oh that, Like I did appreciate how hard in some sequences, 0:26:26.640 --> 0:26:30.119 desra Acaman seems to want to challenge you to turn 0:26:30.200 --> 0:26:33.040 on Charene because this scene, I think is as close 0:26:33.080 --> 0:26:38.320 as I got to being like fucking egg grow up girl. 0:26:39.160 --> 0:26:43.240 Yeah yes, Because so she asks Sasha out for a drink. 0:26:43.600 --> 0:26:48.040 Sasha agrees because she's put on the spot, but their 0:26:48.040 --> 0:26:53.240 little date is quite awkward, and Sasha politely declines when 0:26:53.280 --> 0:26:59.680 Scharene invites her back to Sharene's place. Meanwhile, Scharene is 0:26:59.720 --> 0:27:03.560 strong ruggling at work trying to teach these rambunctious five 0:27:03.640 --> 0:27:07.119 year old boys how to make a movie, and she 0:27:07.160 --> 0:27:11.120 meets her colleague, this woman named Tibet, who is teaching 0:27:11.200 --> 0:27:16.360 the advanced filmmaking class. All the students there are girls, 0:27:16.560 --> 0:27:21.120 and they are way better behaved and more artistically inclined 0:27:21.640 --> 0:27:27.320 than all of Sharene's students. We flash back to Charene's 0:27:27.480 --> 0:27:33.600 parents visiting her and Maxine at their shared one bedroom 0:27:33.840 --> 0:27:37.720 apartment and her dad, Sharine's dad, is like, why is 0:27:37.760 --> 0:27:41.280 there only one bed if the two of you live here? 0:27:42.040 --> 0:27:47.440 And Sharen is like, it's European and trendy and also 0:27:47.480 --> 0:27:51.720 it saves us a lot of money and their parents 0:27:51.880 --> 0:27:55.520 maybe believe it. I'm not sure, but Maxine is not 0:27:55.880 --> 0:27:59.760 happy about this. Charene not being out to her parents 0:28:00.080 --> 0:28:03.199 and them not knowing about her relationship with Maxine is 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:06.320 really weighing on Maxine. 0:28:06.600 --> 0:28:07.040 Yeah. 0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:11.040 Back in the present, Sharene meets a couple at a 0:28:11.080 --> 0:28:16.200 bar who are looking for a third and so Sharene 0:28:16.240 --> 0:28:18.919 goes home with them. And they start having a threesome, 0:28:19.560 --> 0:28:24.840 but Sharene gets in her head and the mood kind 0:28:24.840 --> 0:28:27.840 of dies, and Sharene leaves well. 0:28:27.880 --> 0:28:32.560 And also the guy this motherfucker. Yeah, I hated him. 0:28:32.640 --> 0:28:37.280 The guy has an aura of menace and sinister, yes, 0:28:37.880 --> 0:28:41.720 very sinister. One of the many interesting little episodic moments, 0:28:41.720 --> 0:28:46.040 because these characters do not return, and you're just like, wonder, 0:28:46.520 --> 0:28:49.960 hope she's okay. Hope she's okay with her menacing husband 0:28:50.000 --> 0:28:50.680 wherever she is. 0:28:50.800 --> 0:28:53.320 Yeah, right, yeah, I hope she's able to. I forget 0:28:53.480 --> 0:28:56.480 their names. Marie I think is her name, Yeah, the 0:28:56.560 --> 0:29:00.560 woman in that couple. Yeah, hopefully Marie escapes. Yeah. But 0:29:00.600 --> 0:29:04.080 then we flash back to Charene and Maxine going to 0:29:04.840 --> 0:29:07.640 a party. I think it's like a Pride party. 0:29:07.480 --> 0:29:13.280 Wearing some of the most twenty twelve twenty thirteen yes fits. Anyways, 0:29:13.280 --> 0:29:18.280 I was like PTSD by the long tanks. You're like, 0:29:18.320 --> 0:29:21.200 oh my god, no, I won't go back. 0:29:23.360 --> 0:29:26.960 So at this party, there's like one straight guy who 0:29:27.160 --> 0:29:29.640 lost a bet to his sister or something like that, 0:29:29.840 --> 0:29:35.280 and there's another bout of anti transness here. But Maxine 0:29:35.280 --> 0:29:38.480 meets this guy and she's drunk and they start making 0:29:38.520 --> 0:29:41.880 out and Sharene walks in and sees them, so she 0:29:41.920 --> 0:29:47.840 gets very upset and Maxine begs for forgiveness, but it's 0:29:48.120 --> 0:29:49.480 it's all very messy. 0:29:49.400 --> 0:29:53.120 Yeah, using I think a very diabolical tactic, which is 0:29:53.160 --> 0:29:55.640 the phrase you have to forgive me. 0:29:55.720 --> 0:30:03.000 Oh yeah, now no, you don't have to forgive anyone. No. Yeah. 0:30:03.040 --> 0:30:05.640 Cut back to the present, Charene and her friend Crystal 0:30:05.720 --> 0:30:10.880 go shopping for underwear. Because Charene barely has any sense, 0:30:10.960 --> 0:30:14.200 Maxine cut up most of hers, and then we flash 0:30:14.240 --> 0:30:17.920 back to the scene where Charene and Maxine break up, 0:30:18.840 --> 0:30:23.520 followed by Maxine cutting up all of Charene's underwear. Then 0:30:23.760 --> 0:30:27.080 we it seems like we kind of flash forward in 0:30:27.200 --> 0:30:33.000 time because now Charene is dating a man named John Francis. 0:30:34.360 --> 0:30:37.760 Maxine is dating a new person as well, and it 0:30:37.760 --> 0:30:40.440 seems like they've kind of agreed to meet up with 0:30:40.480 --> 0:30:42.960 each other and meet each other's partners and try to 0:30:42.960 --> 0:30:45.400 be friends. So they meet up at a dance club. 0:30:46.360 --> 0:30:52.880 It turns out that Maxine's new girlfriend is Tibet, Sharene's 0:30:52.920 --> 0:30:58.320 teacher colleague who we've met before Nor and Charene and 0:30:58.360 --> 0:31:04.160 Maxine start arguing and insulting each other and each other's partners, 0:31:04.360 --> 0:31:07.880 and then Charene storms off, but then she and Maxine 0:31:08.000 --> 0:31:13.320 have a tender moment in the bathroom. Then there is 0:31:13.360 --> 0:31:17.040 a screening of the short films that Charene in Tibet's 0:31:17.200 --> 0:31:23.440 students have made. Charene is humiliated by the film that 0:31:23.560 --> 0:31:26.840 her students have made because it's all about farts. 0:31:27.200 --> 0:31:29.880 I thought, I thought it was beautiful. 0:31:29.920 --> 0:31:31.880 And it was the non advanced class. 0:31:32.040 --> 0:31:36.000 They screened the advance to the girls and then it's like, oh, 0:31:36.040 --> 0:31:40.080 come on, yeah, beginner, I loved it. 0:31:40.080 --> 0:31:41.240 It's so cute. 0:31:42.200 --> 0:31:45.000 Anyways, and then Charene I don't know if she's worried 0:31:45.000 --> 0:31:49.240 about getting fired or what, but her boss Ken is like, no, 0:31:49.560 --> 0:31:54.040 farts are funny, and Scharene is like, yeah, farts are funny. 0:31:55.080 --> 0:31:58.120 So that's kind of the moral of the movie. Just kidding. 0:31:58.200 --> 0:31:59.480 It's kind of a random thing. 0:32:00.920 --> 0:32:04.520 Yeah, that's the thematic undercurrent. Also, I was thinking, I 0:32:04.560 --> 0:32:10.600 was like, how is Charene able to afford New York 0:32:10.640 --> 0:32:14.520 City rent when her job is a part time after 0:32:14.640 --> 0:32:16.760 school film teacher. 0:32:17.200 --> 0:32:20.960 Right, yeah, movie Magic Baby, the Rich Parents. 0:32:21.160 --> 0:32:23.920 There is a line where I forget what she says 0:32:23.920 --> 0:32:26.280 to her mom about needing to move into a new 0:32:26.320 --> 0:32:30.680 apartment and not saying why it was lesbian breakup, but 0:32:31.600 --> 0:32:35.320 she was like, we could have helped you. I think, yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:32:35.360 --> 0:32:38.920 my god, I assumed it was a bankrolled Brooklyn. 0:32:38.560 --> 0:32:43.120 Life probably yes, Okay. So then we cut to a 0:32:43.360 --> 0:32:48.080 party with Sharene's family. I think it's maybe another Persian 0:32:48.120 --> 0:32:53.240 New Year's party, yes, and Charene comes out as by 0:32:53.640 --> 0:32:58.400 to her brother. His reaction, we'll talk about it, because 0:32:58.960 --> 0:33:03.560 he handles a very poorly and then discourages her from 0:33:03.600 --> 0:33:07.000 coming out to their parents. But she's like, no, I 0:33:07.080 --> 0:33:09.080 have to start being honest about who I am. 0:33:09.200 --> 0:33:11.760 He's like, could you delay until after my wedding? I'm 0:33:11.760 --> 0:33:14.080 like this, motherfucker. 0:33:15.640 --> 0:33:19.320 Yeah. So later that night, Sharene comes out to her 0:33:19.400 --> 0:33:22.600 mom and tells her that she was in love with 0:33:22.720 --> 0:33:26.320 Maxine and in a relationship with her, but her mom 0:33:26.520 --> 0:33:31.280 completely dismisses it. She's in full denial and she just says, no, 0:33:31.520 --> 0:33:34.680 you are not gay, and then she like gets up 0:33:34.680 --> 0:33:40.520 and leaves. Despite this, it seems like Scharene's spirits are 0:33:40.960 --> 0:33:44.200 higher than usual. She tells her friend Crystal that she 0:33:44.280 --> 0:33:48.160 plans to talk to her mom about it again soon. 0:33:49.200 --> 0:33:53.400 Then she sees Maxine on the subway platform and they 0:33:53.560 --> 0:33:55.920 wave at each other and we get the impression that 0:33:56.480 --> 0:34:00.880 no matter what happens, Charene is gonna be okay. 0:34:02.120 --> 0:34:06.880 The end, it was very girl who is going to 0:34:06.880 --> 0:34:09.440 be okay? Shot at the end it was do you 0:34:09.480 --> 0:34:10.080 know that meme? 0:34:10.800 --> 0:34:11.920 Oh no, I don't. 0:34:12.040 --> 0:34:14.600 Oh it is, I'll send it to you. But it's 0:34:15.560 --> 0:34:18.600 making fun of sort of these ending shots of girl 0:34:18.640 --> 0:34:21.600 in Brooklyn who's looking around nodding, being like, you know what, 0:34:21.840 --> 0:34:25.480 Everything's gonna be okay for me, Like, because that is 0:34:25.760 --> 0:34:28.440 iconically how a million movies end. I love it. 0:34:29.120 --> 0:34:33.280 I feel like it's similar vibes to the trope of 0:34:34.160 --> 0:34:39.319 a teen girl going underwater in a swimming pool and 0:34:39.400 --> 0:34:43.640 having a like coming of age moment where she's just like, Wow, 0:34:44.040 --> 0:34:44.960 everything's different. 0:34:45.040 --> 0:34:47.359 Now. This is the twenty something meter version of that 0:34:47.440 --> 0:34:49.640 girl who is going to be okay. Wait, I'm gonna 0:34:49.640 --> 0:34:52.799 center to you. 0:34:52.840 --> 0:34:54.520 But let's take a quick break and then we'll come 0:34:54.560 --> 0:35:09.520 back to discuss. And we're back Melody. Is there any 0:35:09.520 --> 0:35:12.680 place you would like to start Guest's choice? 0:35:13.080 --> 0:35:14.160 Oh? 0:35:14.320 --> 0:35:16.839 I mean, obviously a lot going on with a run 0:35:17.160 --> 0:35:22.040 right now and Persian identity, especially in the diaspora, and 0:35:22.360 --> 0:35:25.640 I've been thinking about it a lot, rewatching a lot 0:35:25.840 --> 0:35:30.719 of different movies, reading books, and I do really appreciate 0:35:30.920 --> 0:35:34.400 the use of the Persian New Year and like no 0:35:34.560 --> 0:35:38.080 Ruse and then that jumping over the fire that we 0:35:38.120 --> 0:35:40.960 see in the beginning when she's struggling and then at 0:35:40.960 --> 0:35:44.239 the end when she's feeling empowered to come out to 0:35:44.320 --> 0:35:44.920 her family. 0:35:45.320 --> 0:35:46.200 There's so much. 0:35:46.040 --> 0:35:51.440 Going on there in those scenes. For it's called Chaharshambasuri, 0:35:51.600 --> 0:35:54.520 she explains in the movie, it's the Wednesday before No 0:35:54.680 --> 0:35:59.240 Ruz where there's like a little fire festival. You jump 0:35:59.320 --> 0:36:03.640 over fire to like cleanse yourself of what is no 0:36:03.719 --> 0:36:07.800 longer serving you in the past year and jump towards 0:36:08.600 --> 0:36:11.319 what will like enrich you, strengthen you. 0:36:11.320 --> 0:36:13.759 Embolden you, empower you in the upcoming year. 0:36:14.360 --> 0:36:16.399 And they didn't do it in the movie, but when 0:36:16.400 --> 0:36:19.400 you jump over the fires, you say something that translates 0:36:19.440 --> 0:36:23.160 to like my yellowness to you, your redness to me, 0:36:23.760 --> 0:36:26.120 and the yellow and red is like from the fire. 0:36:26.239 --> 0:36:30.440 Yellowness represents like sickness and what's not serving like the 0:36:30.520 --> 0:36:34.960 bad and redness is the strength to go after the 0:36:35.760 --> 0:36:39.719 all the newness and betterness in the new year. 0:36:40.360 --> 0:36:44.000 So you're releasing the yellowness and embracing the redness. 0:36:44.239 --> 0:36:47.200 Yeah, so love that that was included. 0:36:47.239 --> 0:36:51.160 That's a very important like tenant of Persian culture. No 0:36:51.320 --> 0:36:56.239 rus specific that it's like a fourteen day holiday, And 0:36:56.920 --> 0:36:58.920 there was just so much going on in those scenes 0:36:58.960 --> 0:36:59.800 with the Persians. 0:37:00.160 --> 0:37:02.279 It wasn't like a movie about coming out to me. 0:37:02.400 --> 0:37:04.600 It was about like, it's not like I'm going to 0:37:04.680 --> 0:37:08.160 tell my Persian parents, it's my whole Persian family knows, 0:37:08.600 --> 0:37:12.080 and everyone's avoiding it and pretending it's not there, which 0:37:12.160 --> 0:37:15.640 is in Persian culture just such a thing. There's a 0:37:15.680 --> 0:37:19.719 lot of just not addressing certain topics out of like 0:37:19.800 --> 0:37:23.680 politeness or like she says in the movie, Persians communicate 0:37:23.719 --> 0:37:28.240 through gossip. Like things aren't like addressed head on ever 0:37:28.560 --> 0:37:31.919 and are just danced around. So I just like felt 0:37:31.920 --> 0:37:36.600 a lot of that coming out of those scenes. And yeah, 0:37:36.680 --> 0:37:39.360 it was like a movie about like code switching. 0:37:39.360 --> 0:37:42.240 Essentially to me. So you really see a lot. 0:37:42.080 --> 0:37:46.400 Of that in those scenes, specifically when she's there with Maxine, 0:37:46.440 --> 0:37:51.319 going from her like Brooklyn like western vibe to her 0:37:51.400 --> 0:37:55.160 cousins and that insecurity you feel because it's so much 0:37:55.200 --> 0:37:58.160 comparison in Persian families, Like it's a lot of competition 0:37:59.000 --> 0:38:01.200 at least with those are I didn't really grow up 0:38:01.239 --> 0:38:06.640 in that like that there's a more affluent Persian dynamic 0:38:07.239 --> 0:38:10.680 that I think Desiree was raised in a different tax bracket, 0:38:10.719 --> 0:38:11.560 but it's. 0:38:11.400 --> 0:38:13.920 Still there to varying degrees. 0:38:14.000 --> 0:38:16.879 So I'd love the cultural ritual brought in, like all 0:38:16.920 --> 0:38:19.320 the themes she was struggling with, like throughout the movie 0:38:19.920 --> 0:38:24.399 in the greater like Brooklyn bubble and just like yeah, 0:38:24.760 --> 0:38:28.080 never being never fitting in but being like am I 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:31.640 do they not want me? Or do they not want 0:38:32.160 --> 0:38:34.040 like do they need a different version of me? 0:38:34.520 --> 0:38:34.759 Right? 0:38:35.280 --> 0:38:38.400 So yeah, I mean obviously so relatable. It's hard to 0:38:38.440 --> 0:38:44.959 be like impartial about it. Yep, yep, yep, perfectly nailed it, yep. Yeah, 0:38:45.160 --> 0:38:47.640 obviously I'm like, yeah, I love the Persian parts because 0:38:47.719 --> 0:38:52.120 right now I'm just like desperate for any positive Persian 0:38:52.280 --> 0:38:53.400 representation right now. 0:38:53.880 --> 0:38:58.359 Mm hmm. Yeah, it does not exist very much in 0:38:58.840 --> 0:39:03.120 Western film. Yeah, it was. It was great. 0:39:03.800 --> 0:39:07.480 I was curious, I because I thought that the ending, Like, 0:39:07.560 --> 0:39:10.040 I mean, there are a lot of things about this 0:39:10.160 --> 0:39:13.279 movie that I was like, just like I didn't see 0:39:13.320 --> 0:39:16.200 coming because you know, you get used to the beats 0:39:16.280 --> 0:39:19.560 of a coming of age movie and this movie subverts 0:39:19.600 --> 0:39:23.279 a lot of those And at the end, I liked 0:39:23.600 --> 0:39:26.719 the kind of nuance presented by the end of the 0:39:26.760 --> 0:39:30.760 movie where it's so devastating to watch, you know, Sharene 0:39:31.440 --> 0:39:34.520 come out to her mom and have her mom just unable, 0:39:35.000 --> 0:39:40.560 like unwilling, well unwilling to receive that information, and I 0:39:40.600 --> 0:39:43.359 was like, how is she going to process this? And 0:39:43.840 --> 0:39:47.680 that seed at the end where she's like, I'm gonna 0:39:47.719 --> 0:39:51.239 try again in another month or so, or like presenting 0:39:51.280 --> 0:39:54.960 this as something that is like inherently unfair to her, 0:39:55.080 --> 0:39:58.040 but something that I know plenty of people who have 0:39:58.560 --> 0:40:01.799 had to go through that of like, this is going 0:40:01.840 --> 0:40:05.120 to be a process because I want a relationship with 0:40:05.160 --> 0:40:09.400 my family, and like that kind of exact shade of 0:40:09.440 --> 0:40:11.359 gray I don't think I'd ever seen in a movie 0:40:11.440 --> 0:40:14.280 before and not having it presented as like a failure 0:40:14.360 --> 0:40:18.239 but just like, you know, something unfair to Scharene because 0:40:18.280 --> 0:40:20.920 she has to deal with all of the internalized and 0:40:21.080 --> 0:40:25.200 externalized homophobia that her family and the world has. But 0:40:25.440 --> 0:40:28.359 also she's she loves her family and she wants them 0:40:28.400 --> 0:40:30.160 in her life and she wants to keep trying. 0:40:31.000 --> 0:40:35.840 Yeah, right, because we get the sense that Maxine perhaps 0:40:35.840 --> 0:40:38.240 even one of the reasons they break up is because 0:40:38.480 --> 0:40:41.520 Sharene has not yet come out to her family, And 0:40:41.560 --> 0:40:45.080 then we learn that Maxine seems like when she came 0:40:45.080 --> 0:40:48.960 out to her family, she was completely ostracized, and so 0:40:50.440 --> 0:40:53.719 you would think maybe that Maxine would be a little 0:40:53.719 --> 0:40:57.399 bit more understanding then of like not wanting to come 0:40:57.440 --> 0:41:00.680 out to your family for fear of being disowned. 0:41:00.800 --> 0:41:04.759 But I also felt like with Maxine, and this is 0:41:04.800 --> 0:41:07.279 like again just gets it a lot of how like 0:41:07.960 --> 0:41:11.720 realistically messy and frustrating these characters can be. It almost 0:41:11.719 --> 0:41:15.240 felt like Maxine was doing the old school thing of like, well, 0:41:15.440 --> 0:41:19.040 I suffered, so you have to suffer, Yeah, in the 0:41:19.080 --> 0:41:22.000 way that like, I don't know, I feel like generationally 0:41:22.400 --> 0:41:25.000 that happens a lot of like, well, I was in 0:41:25.000 --> 0:41:27.360 crippling debt, so therefore I want you to be in 0:41:27.400 --> 0:41:30.200 crippling debt. And you're like, well, that wouldn't you want 0:41:30.280 --> 0:41:33.600 better for someone that you love? But I do feel 0:41:33.600 --> 0:41:35.840 like Maxine has a lot of you know, like stuff 0:41:35.880 --> 0:41:39.480 that she has yet to work through, and I think 0:41:39.560 --> 0:41:44.000 like had a hard time dealing with Charene, I mean 0:41:44.280 --> 0:41:47.120 understandably having a difficult time with having to pretend she 0:41:47.239 --> 0:41:50.880 Sharine's roommate. I know how painful that was event, especially 0:41:50.920 --> 0:41:52.799 where she's like, I'm too old for this shit is 0:41:52.840 --> 0:41:55.759 sort of the vibe I was getting. But yeah, that 0:41:55.840 --> 0:41:59.320 like she wasn't able to show Scharene the like empathy 0:41:59.400 --> 0:42:01.840 she deserved because she was still so wounded from what 0:42:01.920 --> 0:42:02.680 it happened to her. 0:42:03.480 --> 0:42:07.120 Yeah, and also, I mean again that was perhaps part 0:42:07.120 --> 0:42:09.080 of why they broke up, but also part of why 0:42:09.080 --> 0:42:11.560 they broke up is just that they weren't very compatible. 0:42:12.160 --> 0:42:17.560 Not all, Oh, there's no fixing. 0:42:17.239 --> 0:42:18.880 That, Jamie. 0:42:19.000 --> 0:42:20.759 You said there was a scene that you're like, oh, 0:42:20.760 --> 0:42:22.279 I can't wait to get into that, and I was 0:42:22.320 --> 0:42:24.440 trying to remember, oh what it was. 0:42:24.920 --> 0:42:30.880 That was the scene where Charene is stalking Maxine at 0:42:30.920 --> 0:42:35.120 the queer women meetup group. Oh yes, yeah, So I mean, 0:42:35.160 --> 0:42:37.200 if we want to go to that scene, that scene, 0:42:37.640 --> 0:42:39.480 I feel like, really boils down a lot of what 0:42:39.600 --> 0:42:43.960 makes us movies so specific is that Charene is being 0:42:44.000 --> 0:42:48.759 an absolute menace to society in this. So she's, first 0:42:48.800 --> 0:42:52.319 of all, you know, it's it's stalking when women do 0:42:52.400 --> 0:42:57.000 it too, she is stalking Maxine and being a weird creep. 0:42:57.560 --> 0:43:00.480 Maxine is upset, is like, get the hell out of here. 0:43:01.200 --> 0:43:05.560 And then Charen ends up, you know, trying to whatever 0:43:05.680 --> 0:43:09.400 dominate the situation by asking out the leader of the 0:43:09.480 --> 0:43:15.719 group to humiliate Maxine, which ends up humiliating Scharen on 0:43:15.760 --> 0:43:18.759 a longer timeline, which is very this movie. But in 0:43:18.800 --> 0:43:23.160 the background of that scene, there is a character, a 0:43:23.239 --> 0:43:27.840 gay man, talking about how and it's very specific the 0:43:27.840 --> 0:43:31.480 way he's talking about it too, that he has been 0:43:31.960 --> 0:43:36.840 labeled by law as a sex offender for decades because 0:43:37.560 --> 0:43:41.600 of a relationship that he had with a boy who 0:43:41.640 --> 0:43:43.960 was two years younger than him when he was I 0:43:44.000 --> 0:43:47.759 think it was like eighteen sixteen was the dynamic presented, 0:43:48.040 --> 0:43:51.399 and that the result of that is that he's been 0:43:51.560 --> 0:43:54.680 labeled as a sex offender for his entire adult life, 0:43:54.920 --> 0:44:02.080 which is genuinely something that happened and happens and specifically 0:44:02.120 --> 0:44:05.319 targets queer communities in order to make it. I mean, 0:44:05.400 --> 0:44:08.399 think of all of the ways in which your life 0:44:08.440 --> 0:44:11.520 is affected if you have to identify as a sex offender. 0:44:11.600 --> 0:44:13.560 It's harder to get a job, it's harder to get 0:44:13.800 --> 0:44:17.560 how housing is hard like it's it makes life impossible 0:44:17.719 --> 0:44:21.080 in all of these ways that if you are a 0:44:21.239 --> 0:44:26.120 sex offender, you know that there that's a very complicated discussion, 0:44:27.000 --> 0:44:32.800 but clearly like this character was targeted for being queer 0:44:33.280 --> 0:44:35.720 by the law and it has like ruined his life, 0:44:36.360 --> 0:44:38.279 and for some reason he wants to talk about it 0:44:38.320 --> 0:44:41.640 in a women's group, which is like, oh yeah, also 0:44:41.800 --> 0:44:44.399 because that's part of why he's like there, because he's 0:44:44.440 --> 0:44:47.239 talking about something he's very upset with, and I think, 0:44:47.280 --> 0:44:49.360 what's happening in the background. I watched this scene like 0:44:49.400 --> 0:44:52.040 four times because I was like, what's happening? I think 0:44:52.080 --> 0:44:55.880 that the woman leading the group is like totally valid 0:44:56.000 --> 0:44:58.279 this is a women's group, and he's like, well wait 0:44:58.320 --> 0:45:00.279 a second, Like it seems like he just really wants 0:45:00.320 --> 0:45:00.560 to be. 0:45:00.560 --> 0:45:02.240 Heard, but he's pleading. 0:45:02.800 --> 0:45:06.440 Yeah. It's such a like really intense scene to be 0:45:06.520 --> 0:45:09.640 happening in the background of like kind of rom com 0:45:09.719 --> 0:45:12.640 hijinks in the foreground. It's rild. 0:45:13.080 --> 0:45:16.640 That's why I was like, what is the intention here? 0:45:16.719 --> 0:45:18.919 I could not get a handle on it. I thought 0:45:18.920 --> 0:45:22.239 it was just a like not gender specific, just a 0:45:22.480 --> 0:45:25.680 like a more general queer advocacy group, but that there's 0:45:25.760 --> 0:45:28.040 a different woman there who's like, I thought we were 0:45:28.080 --> 0:45:31.239 going to be talking about women's issues, so I also 0:45:31.320 --> 0:45:31.719 didn't know. 0:45:31.800 --> 0:45:36.719 Maybe I misunderstood I guess my interpre I thought that 0:45:36.719 --> 0:45:39.960 that line indicated that it was a women's group and 0:45:40.000 --> 0:45:42.799 that they're like, your issue is valid, but that's like 0:45:42.920 --> 0:45:46.400 not really what we're here to talk about. I don't know. 0:45:46.840 --> 0:45:49.879 I just thought that scene was like fascinating. I don't 0:45:49.920 --> 0:45:52.680 really understand why it's there, but I think it was 0:45:52.719 --> 0:45:54.440 really interesting that it was. 0:45:55.120 --> 0:45:56.759 Yeah, when it starts, I'm like, oh, is this going 0:45:56.840 --> 0:45:59.560 to be about like identity performance? 0:46:00.560 --> 0:46:01.480 And right? 0:46:01.840 --> 0:46:04.839 I assumed, Like I remember, like my first time seeing it, 0:46:04.960 --> 0:46:07.319 I think I went into it being like, oh, this 0:46:07.360 --> 0:46:09.239 is going to be about how she's not queer enough 0:46:09.280 --> 0:46:13.600 for the gay group and not like or too queer 0:46:13.600 --> 0:46:16.840 for her family and like those differences. But watching it 0:46:16.880 --> 0:46:20.279 around this time, I no longer know. 0:46:21.719 --> 0:46:23.439 I don't but I love it. 0:46:23.640 --> 0:46:25.880 I don't know what to make of it. Okay, and 0:46:26.120 --> 0:46:30.399 sorry to invoke another horrible thing, but there's this kind 0:46:30.400 --> 0:46:35.040 of a similar scene in the forty year Old Virgin Okay, where. 0:46:35.080 --> 0:46:37.279 I love that you apologize for bringing up the forty 0:46:37.400 --> 0:46:37.680 year old. 0:46:37.920 --> 0:46:41.960 It is it's it's traumatic. There's a scene where Steve 0:46:42.040 --> 0:46:48.759 Carrell's character takes Catherine Keener's daughter to a group for 0:46:49.200 --> 0:46:52.160 I think like teens and their parents who want to 0:46:52.239 --> 0:46:57.760 talk about like sex and birth control, and it's something 0:46:57.800 --> 0:47:01.560 like that, and the folk is the two of them, 0:47:01.760 --> 0:47:04.359 Steve Carell and the daughter, but then there's like other 0:47:04.400 --> 0:47:07.520 people in the background. And maybe I'm just kind of 0:47:07.520 --> 0:47:09.800 conditioned to think that the other people in a scene 0:47:09.840 --> 0:47:13.480 like this in a comedy movie, whatever they're saying is 0:47:13.880 --> 0:47:15.759 is gonna be comedy or it's gonna be played as 0:47:15.760 --> 0:47:18.920 a joke because the other characters in that scene are 0:47:19.000 --> 0:47:23.040 talking about whatever, whatever's happening. I don't remember the specifics, 0:47:23.080 --> 0:47:25.719 but it's like it's all it's pretty much played as 0:47:25.800 --> 0:47:29.400 a joke. So that's why I was like, well, is 0:47:29.480 --> 0:47:34.480 this scene inappropriate behavior also intended to be a joke 0:47:34.520 --> 0:47:38.760 because the juxtaposition between the two things that are happening, 0:47:39.840 --> 0:47:42.040 like the disparity and the tone. 0:47:42.000 --> 0:47:43.800 Is so severe. 0:47:44.560 --> 0:47:49.239 Yeah, I'm just like, what is going on? Yeah, I 0:47:49.280 --> 0:47:50.680 don't know, I don't know. 0:47:51.160 --> 0:47:55.000 It's like and it kind of like it feels very 0:47:55.239 --> 0:47:58.560 kind of in conversation with girls in that way to 0:47:58.640 --> 0:48:01.239 me where like I feel like it's just it is 0:48:01.280 --> 0:48:05.440 like such a weird dissonance. I don't know why it's there. 0:48:06.120 --> 0:48:08.160 It's kind of interesting that it is. I don't know. 0:48:08.239 --> 0:48:11.800 I guess like I didn't view that, and I maybe 0:48:11.880 --> 0:48:14.160 I'm I don't know why I feel this way. I 0:48:14.160 --> 0:48:18.840 didn't view that seemed to be antagonistic towards the man pleading, 0:48:19.760 --> 0:48:22.600 but I just felt like tonally it was weird. There 0:48:22.600 --> 0:48:25.400 were other moments where the movie did feel antagonistic in 0:48:25.480 --> 0:48:27.919 a way that cross lines for me, which mainly, as 0:48:27.960 --> 0:48:32.760 we have already alluded to, is the like casual transphobia 0:48:33.440 --> 0:48:36.919 that comes up a weird amount of times that I'm 0:48:37.760 --> 0:48:40.399 you know, I want to believe if you know, if 0:48:40.400 --> 0:48:43.359 she was making this movie now, would not be there. 0:48:44.160 --> 0:48:45.239 But I don't think so. 0:48:45.680 --> 0:48:49.640 Yeah, it was an Obama era, like this girl doesn't 0:48:49.680 --> 0:48:54.680 care about being politically correct. Yeah, I like that kind 0:48:54.719 --> 0:48:56.840 of vibe. 0:48:57.280 --> 0:48:58.880 I'm trying to figure out what to compare it to. 0:48:59.120 --> 0:49:02.040 I keep going to the ironic racism in thirty Rock, 0:49:02.080 --> 0:49:03.160 but I don't I. 0:49:03.120 --> 0:49:05.279 Mean, I think that that's a good comp And then 0:49:05.360 --> 0:49:07.960 I'm also thinking, like if this is like the Louis C. 0:49:08.160 --> 0:49:11.880 K peak era, like it kind of feels in step 0:49:11.960 --> 0:49:14.800 with that of like I'm not afraid to say it, 0:49:15.000 --> 0:49:18.600 like when it's like, well maybe you should be a 0:49:18.680 --> 0:49:21.640 fruit hate speech. 0:49:22.360 --> 0:49:25.960 Wrong. Yeah, I mean I feel like this was also 0:49:26.640 --> 0:49:31.080 a time in history, and thankfully it's not quite like 0:49:31.120 --> 0:49:35.479 this anymore, but where even within the queer community, CIS 0:49:35.640 --> 0:49:40.440 queer people, they just had antagonism toward trans people ka 0:49:40.760 --> 0:49:43.520 And so I don't know if it's if we're seeing 0:49:43.600 --> 0:49:47.840 kind of traces of that here, but yeah, yeah, I 0:49:47.840 --> 0:49:49.200 don't even know if we want to go into the 0:49:49.200 --> 0:49:53.160 specifics of what happens, because I clocked three different instances 0:49:53.280 --> 0:49:55.600 of anti trans sentiments. 0:49:55.760 --> 0:49:57.680 I'm like, I don't even really want to repeat it 0:49:57.719 --> 0:50:01.400 because it's like, it's not plot rele anything that's said. 0:50:01.560 --> 0:50:07.439 It's just like casual turfiness, usually from Maxine, which made 0:50:07.880 --> 0:50:11.400 melody that made me, Yeah, I was like, what is 0:50:11.440 --> 0:50:15.919 this hyperfixation, Maxine? What's going on? I don't know, but yeah, 0:50:16.000 --> 0:50:18.520 Maxine confirmed turf right. 0:50:19.600 --> 0:50:24.239 But also perhaps closeted non binary person question Mark. We 0:50:24.960 --> 0:50:26.640 we don't know we should ask her. 0:50:26.560 --> 0:50:31.799 Except yeah, wa DMA, we didn't touch on this when 0:50:31.800 --> 0:50:32.640 we talked to her. 0:50:34.320 --> 0:50:34.960 You're drunk. 0:50:37.040 --> 0:50:39.239 I mean, I feel like we're getting the things that 0:50:39.360 --> 0:50:42.560 are maybe not so great about the movie out of 0:50:42.600 --> 0:50:45.440 the way first, because there's a lot I do really 0:50:45.520 --> 0:50:48.120 like about this movie. I think there's a lot it's 0:50:48.239 --> 0:50:52.840 doing well and the interesting ways that it handles different things. 0:50:54.040 --> 0:50:58.600 I mean, I love a movie about a woman. It's 0:50:58.680 --> 0:51:04.640 not necessarily that she's exploring her queer sexuality or in 0:51:04.680 --> 0:51:07.040 the sense that she's not. She's like, am I queer? 0:51:07.920 --> 0:51:10.440 Like I have to figure this out? She's already figured 0:51:10.480 --> 0:51:12.920 it out for the most part, it seems, so now 0:51:12.960 --> 0:51:18.280 it's more about like figuring out what specifically she's into, 0:51:18.480 --> 0:51:20.799 because it seems like there's like kink things that she 0:51:21.080 --> 0:51:24.399 likes that she's trying to explore. You know, she has 0:51:24.440 --> 0:51:27.640 this threesome for the first time, she has sex with 0:51:27.680 --> 0:51:31.320 that stand up comedian slash folk artist, where she's like, 0:51:31.640 --> 0:51:32.239 that is. 0:51:32.320 --> 0:51:39.520 Kay, oh yeah, okay, that is okay okay, but humiliation no, 0:51:39.600 --> 0:51:43.479 but she tells him to be rough with her, so yeah. 0:51:43.480 --> 0:51:48.480 And then she's also grappling with how when if do 0:51:48.520 --> 0:51:50.920 I come out to my parents? And as we were 0:51:50.960 --> 0:51:53.839 talking about already a little bit, she describes it as 0:51:53.840 --> 0:51:58.480 a process and she's she says to like vaccine. She's 0:51:58.520 --> 0:52:00.520 just like, it's a process and I'm working on it. 0:52:01.120 --> 0:52:05.840 And Maxine doesn't like the timeline that Sharene is on 0:52:06.880 --> 0:52:10.439 and it culminates in the end of their relationship. But yeah, 0:52:10.480 --> 0:52:13.960 I just I like the different ways in which she's 0:52:14.200 --> 0:52:17.200 It also seems like she's trying to figure out because 0:52:17.320 --> 0:52:19.040 at least in the context of this and like the 0:52:19.080 --> 0:52:23.879 scope of this story, she seems to be gravitating more 0:52:23.920 --> 0:52:29.520 toward women than men, where like that threesome, for example, 0:52:29.800 --> 0:52:33.279 she's really into the woman and the guy. She's like, 0:52:33.640 --> 0:52:35.800 get away from the scenes where she's like trying to 0:52:35.880 --> 0:52:37.600 lightly kiss him, and you can just tell that she 0:52:37.760 --> 0:52:40.799 like she's like, oh, yeah, does this guy have to 0:52:40.840 --> 0:52:41.360 be here? 0:52:41.680 --> 0:52:45.000 And her flamer. His vibes are rancid. 0:52:44.840 --> 0:52:46.240 They really are scary. 0:52:46.800 --> 0:52:50.680 Yeah, but yeah, I just I love to see a 0:52:50.800 --> 0:52:55.040 sexually liberated, horny woman having a bunch of sex. 0:52:55.440 --> 0:52:59.879 Yeah, especially one from the Islamic Republic of e Run. 0:53:00.080 --> 0:53:04.680 I thought that was interesting, just her like hammering home 0:53:05.360 --> 0:53:07.640 the environment her parents are from. But then at the 0:53:07.640 --> 0:53:09.799 same time, I was curious because, like a lot of 0:53:10.000 --> 0:53:13.160 at least my parents are pretty progressive that's why they 0:53:13.320 --> 0:53:19.279 left Iran. And a lot of Iranians are Muslim for sure, 0:53:19.320 --> 0:53:24.000 but like reject Islamic law and this like kind of 0:53:24.040 --> 0:53:25.680 theocratic fascism. 0:53:26.360 --> 0:53:29.840 So yeah, yeah, I found that interesting. 0:53:30.719 --> 0:53:32.759 Yeah, I just felt like with her family and with 0:53:32.800 --> 0:53:35.520 the queer community with it was just like here I am, 0:53:35.760 --> 0:53:38.239 I'm too much and not enough at the same time, 0:53:38.360 --> 0:53:41.239 like I don't like, I'm trying to find where I 0:53:41.280 --> 0:53:44.560 am on this like spectrum of being in both communities. 0:53:45.000 --> 0:53:49.640 Yeah. Well, and also like with regards to like by representation, 0:53:49.800 --> 0:53:53.520 which is like such a huge theme in Desira Akovan's work. 0:53:54.440 --> 0:53:58.759 Watched The Bisexual. Yes, it's so good. I think it was. 0:53:59.160 --> 0:54:01.239 It was only bb see for some reason. I don't 0:54:01.239 --> 0:54:02.640 know she gets into that, I. 0:54:02.560 --> 0:54:05.000 Will say on the episode, but behind this is on 0:54:05.120 --> 0:54:06.160 that interesting. 0:54:06.320 --> 0:54:09.080 Okay, Yeah, well we gotta listen. Yeah, we'll let you 0:54:09.120 --> 0:54:09.840 know I've been. 0:54:10.680 --> 0:54:13.040 Yeah, we'll let you know how your podcast episode. 0:54:13.640 --> 0:54:14.720 Thank you so much. 0:54:15.040 --> 0:54:17.319 Oh my god, wouldn't that be amazing if someone would 0:54:17.320 --> 0:54:19.640 just listen to your podcast for you, so you never 0:54:19.719 --> 0:54:20.760 need to hear your own voice. 0:54:20.800 --> 0:54:22.400 That's my dream, the worst. 0:54:22.920 --> 0:54:25.600 But but just like I think nails down in a 0:54:25.640 --> 0:54:28.520 way that is still unusual now so certainly would have 0:54:28.520 --> 0:54:32.880 been unusual in twenty fourteen. Like I love that Sharene. 0:54:33.160 --> 0:54:35.960 She is not confident in all ways, but she is 0:54:36.160 --> 0:54:39.799 she knows what her sexuality is. Anne is continuing to 0:54:39.880 --> 0:54:42.440 explore it at the beginning of the movie, where I 0:54:42.440 --> 0:54:45.160 feel like there's so many by narratives that I mean, 0:54:45.239 --> 0:54:49.920 either the worst of them are like gely coded right, 0:54:49.960 --> 0:54:51.719 They're like she doesn't know what she wants, and what 0:54:51.760 --> 0:54:57.080 she wants is bun afflex cock, like like a world 0:54:57.080 --> 0:55:02.000 that like cannot conceive of a confident by sexual or 0:55:02.280 --> 0:55:04.759 like I'm trying to think of an example here, but 0:55:04.960 --> 0:55:08.759 or like the whole movie is about navigating realizing you're by, 0:55:08.920 --> 0:55:11.040 and I just feel like it's rare to have someone 0:55:11.120 --> 0:55:14.600 who knows that they're by and is like a mess 0:55:14.640 --> 0:55:17.000 in all these other very human ways at the beginning 0:55:17.080 --> 0:55:20.400 of the movie and remains that way throughout, and that 0:55:20.440 --> 0:55:24.120 there's so many shades of pushback on her identity, specifically 0:55:24.200 --> 0:55:28.000 as by inside and outside of the queer community, where 0:55:28.640 --> 0:55:31.960 like her brother, even though it's like a brief exchange, 0:55:32.160 --> 0:55:35.680 clearly does not understand or like kind of rejects the 0:55:35.760 --> 0:55:38.640 label that she's presenting like he doesn't understand what being bias. 0:55:38.680 --> 0:55:40.759 He's like, okay, so are you gay or not? Sort 0:55:40.760 --> 0:55:43.279 of seemed like the energy he said. 0:55:43.360 --> 0:55:46.319 She says I'm bisexual, and he's like, so that's a thing. 0:55:46.520 --> 0:55:46.880 Huh. 0:55:47.000 --> 0:55:50.239 Is this like he didn't even know or he thought 0:55:50.239 --> 0:55:52.360 he heard about it and thought it was fake because 0:55:52.400 --> 0:55:55.799 that was also that's a widespread sentiment for a very 0:55:55.840 --> 0:55:57.440 long time that people who were by. 0:55:57.600 --> 0:56:00.920 Still act that way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, well, and that 0:56:01.040 --> 0:56:04.800 it also comes from Maxine. I thought was interesting and 0:56:05.160 --> 0:56:07.680 telling too, where like when they're breaking up and you know, 0:56:07.800 --> 0:56:09.840 to some extent, I'm sure that Maxine is just saying 0:56:09.840 --> 0:56:12.200 it would say anything to hurt her in this moment, 0:56:12.800 --> 0:56:15.719 but says, oh, it was probably just a phase anyways, 0:56:15.760 --> 0:56:18.920 which is like one of the one of the classics. 0:56:18.480 --> 0:56:23.759 One of the classics. Her brother also calls her sexually confused. Yeah, 0:56:23.800 --> 0:56:28.440 like it's just it runs the gambit of is a 0:56:28.560 --> 0:56:29.520 gambit or gamut? 0:56:29.760 --> 0:56:31.920 I never think gamit. 0:56:32.000 --> 0:56:34.879 I don't know, Okay, we don't know. But anyway, he's 0:56:34.920 --> 0:56:38.520 saying a lot of shit that we've all heard yeah before, 0:56:38.560 --> 0:56:43.040 But I love that that doesn't discourage her from moving 0:56:43.080 --> 0:56:46.600 forward with attempting to come out to her parents or 0:56:46.600 --> 0:56:47.480 her mom at least. 0:56:47.840 --> 0:56:51.520 Yeah, none of it like makes her waiver in her identity, 0:56:51.640 --> 0:56:54.880 but it is like a source of constant frustration, which 0:56:55.560 --> 0:56:59.759 felt a very like real and I don't know, just 0:57:00.960 --> 0:57:03.680 in the way that you don't see a lot of 0:57:03.719 --> 0:57:08.279 marginalized people with marginalized identities just be like people. I 0:57:08.320 --> 0:57:13.080 appreciated that about Sharen in this where it's like, yes, 0:57:13.200 --> 0:57:15.640 she well, I mean she is. I guess she is 0:57:15.719 --> 0:57:19.600 kind of an iconic, messy bisexual, therefore playing into the 0:57:20.240 --> 0:57:24.240 troph for rev. But I didn't care. I didn't care. 0:57:24.440 --> 0:57:28.080 I'll say it me either. Another thing I wanted to 0:57:28.160 --> 0:57:34.160 talk about was Sharen's relationship with her body, and like 0:57:34.680 --> 0:57:39.320 Desiree akavon writing and performing nudity in the movie, I 0:57:39.360 --> 0:57:44.360 appreciate that that's happening on her terms as the writer, director, 0:57:44.400 --> 0:57:50.040 and actor in these scenes. I appreciate the representation of 0:57:50.080 --> 0:57:53.760 a slightly different body type than we typically see when 0:57:53.760 --> 0:57:56.960 we see a naked woman during a sex scene in 0:57:57.000 --> 0:58:02.080 a movie, because they usually look like victorious secret models. Obviously, 0:58:02.160 --> 0:58:06.480 Desiree Acovan is incredibly attractive, but you know she has 0:58:06.880 --> 0:58:11.160 small boobs. Her character is self conscious of them. There's 0:58:11.200 --> 0:58:15.480 that scene in the lingerie shop where she's like, I 0:58:16.080 --> 0:58:18.200 always thought I didn't really deserve to wear a bra 0:58:18.360 --> 0:58:22.440 because my boobs are smalls, like. So that was another 0:58:22.480 --> 0:58:24.360 thing where I was like, this scene is so weird 0:58:24.400 --> 0:58:27.919 and tonally dissonant, where I'm like, what is going on 0:58:28.000 --> 0:58:28.760 in this scene? 0:58:29.240 --> 0:58:31.440 I I was like, oh, so this is about capitalism. 0:58:32.000 --> 0:58:36.080 You just have up on her right manipulating her into 0:58:36.160 --> 0:58:36.760 buying a bra. 0:58:37.560 --> 0:58:39.280 I was like, I didn't feel it. I was like, 0:58:39.320 --> 0:58:42.880 because as a as a fellow small titty har that 0:58:42.960 --> 0:58:46.760 doesn't wear bras, I'm like, they're lying to you, chreamed, 0:58:47.160 --> 0:58:49.040 don't fall for you, don't need. 0:58:48.920 --> 0:58:52.240 A bra, do whatever you want. It does seem like 0:58:52.640 --> 0:58:56.560 it's the sales lady doing whatever she needs to do 0:58:56.640 --> 0:59:01.080 to make the sale. Yeah, yeah, Charene buying into it? 0:59:01.120 --> 0:59:05.920 Maybe because she's feeling especially vulnerable or something. And then 0:59:06.000 --> 0:59:09.320 her friend Crystal is in the background being like what 0:59:09.360 --> 0:59:12.360 the hell is going on? Like, Sharene, why are you 0:59:12.440 --> 0:59:13.160 falling for this? 0:59:13.520 --> 0:59:17.160 Sometimes you just need a beautiful woman to be nice 0:59:17.200 --> 0:59:20.000 to you when you're going through it, and you'll end 0:59:20.080 --> 0:59:24.680 up drop I've certainly dropped more money than I'm comfortable 0:59:24.720 --> 0:59:27.840 admitting for someone who was nice to me when I 0:59:27.880 --> 0:59:30.200 was having Yeah. 0:59:29.840 --> 0:59:32.840 It does the trick, it works. But yeah, all of 0:59:32.880 --> 0:59:37.280 this just felt very real and relatable as far as 0:59:37.440 --> 0:59:40.640 like existing with a female body in a world that's 0:59:40.760 --> 0:59:43.480 constantly trying to make you feel bad about your body, 0:59:44.440 --> 0:59:48.600 and her having to figure out how to feel sexy 0:59:48.720 --> 0:59:51.480 in her body and how to you know, own her 0:59:51.560 --> 0:59:54.400 sexiness and stuff like that. 0:59:54.880 --> 0:59:59.840 Yeah, I liked her owning her sexuality. There's a transition 1:00:00.200 --> 1:00:04.480 I love in the movie where she is hooking up 1:00:04.520 --> 1:00:10.920 with the soft like the folk stand up and she 1:00:10.960 --> 1:00:13.919 goes to like scratch his back and he grabbed her hand. 1:00:13.960 --> 1:00:17.880 He is not into like the roughness she's been trying 1:00:17.920 --> 1:00:21.240 to get going, and it just transitions straight to like 1:00:21.360 --> 1:00:25.280 a clasped hand over her heads and it's like Maxine 1:00:26.120 --> 1:00:26.920 on top. 1:00:26.880 --> 1:00:28.440 And great match cut. 1:00:28.960 --> 1:00:34.760 Yeah, so good. But that certainty she had in her 1:00:34.800 --> 1:00:36.600 sexual I don't know. 1:00:36.680 --> 1:00:38.480 I was trying to figure out. I was like, does 1:00:38.520 --> 1:00:40.960 this mean like this relationship was very toxic? Did it 1:00:41.080 --> 1:00:47.280 help her like explore and own her sexuality? Like were 1:00:47.280 --> 1:00:50.200 we trying to see? Like I don't know if that 1:00:50.320 --> 1:00:51.800 was trying to be displayed at all. 1:00:51.880 --> 1:00:56.000 Her relationship with Maxine or her hook up with that guy. 1:00:56.280 --> 1:00:59.280 It felt like her relationship with Maxine, for as toxic 1:00:59.320 --> 1:01:02.800 as it was, did give her like this owning. 1:01:02.840 --> 1:01:04.919 I don't know she always had owned her sexuality. 1:01:04.960 --> 1:01:07.760 I don't know there was something there I could never 1:01:07.800 --> 1:01:11.600 I'm still trying to process and figure out. But and 1:01:11.640 --> 1:01:16.200 it was literally that cut that made me obsess over it. 1:01:16.560 --> 1:01:20.600 But interesting, Yeah, I guess it's like I wasn't really 1:01:21.000 --> 1:01:25.760 because Maxine, like she both has like really nice memories 1:01:25.840 --> 1:01:28.200 of sex with Maxine. It seems like the sex. 1:01:28.080 --> 1:01:28.600 Was really good. 1:01:28.640 --> 1:01:32.200 But then Maxine is also sort of like Vanilla pride, 1:01:32.520 --> 1:01:38.400 vanilla representation matters, So it's like there's still I don't know. Yeah, 1:01:38.440 --> 1:01:41.400 I guess I kept where I landed on. It was 1:01:41.480 --> 1:01:43.760 just like it's like a little bit of column A, 1:01:43.760 --> 1:01:45.360 a little bit of column B, because I feel like 1:01:45.400 --> 1:01:49.920 if this movie was more prescriptive too, like Maxine turfy 1:01:49.960 --> 1:01:53.160 as she is, you know, is being stalked by her 1:01:53.200 --> 1:01:57.040 ex girlfriend and I think is like pretty pretty could 1:01:57.040 --> 1:01:59.360 have been less chill about it. Yeah, So it's like 1:01:59.400 --> 1:02:02.120 there's just so much I don't know's It seems like 1:02:02.200 --> 1:02:05.120 these two are like willing to show each other grace 1:02:06.160 --> 1:02:07.320 and maybe that's it. 1:02:07.480 --> 1:02:10.360 Like I don't know enjoyed the sex scene though, good 1:02:10.360 --> 1:02:11.440 sexye good sex scene. 1:02:11.880 --> 1:02:15.160 Yeah, I mean obviously those two scenes are juxtaposed right 1:02:15.160 --> 1:02:18.320 next to each other, the hook up with the folk 1:02:18.560 --> 1:02:22.360 stand up and the way more intimate, hotter sex scene 1:02:22.400 --> 1:02:28.080 between Sharene and Maxine. My interpretation of it was that, 1:02:28.760 --> 1:02:31.680 and this is kind of obvious, but Sharene hooking up 1:02:31.680 --> 1:02:33.640 with this guy she barely knows. I think she met 1:02:33.680 --> 1:02:35.000 him earlier that day. 1:02:35.360 --> 1:02:37.840 Yeah, he was Brooklyn Boy eighty two, which I wrote 1:02:37.840 --> 1:02:38.760 down for some reason. 1:02:38.800 --> 1:02:42.360 I was just like, oh okay, I kind of miss 1:02:42.400 --> 1:02:47.040 okay Cupid. I know it's still around, but haven't been left. 1:02:47.160 --> 1:02:47.720 Who's there? 1:02:49.000 --> 1:02:52.040 Yeah, I'm not sure, but she was doing this to 1:02:52.120 --> 1:02:55.000 fill a void. She longs for the intimacy she had 1:02:55.040 --> 1:02:58.840 with Maxine, who she loved, because like you see that 1:02:58.880 --> 1:03:01.800 scene after she had sex with that guy and they're 1:03:01.880 --> 1:03:04.760 lying in bed, She's like on her back, like wide awake, 1:03:04.960 --> 1:03:07.640 and then the man is just like passed out, kind 1:03:07.640 --> 1:03:10.240 of sprawled on top of her, and you can just 1:03:10.320 --> 1:03:13.880 kind of imagine what she's thinking, which is like get 1:03:13.880 --> 1:03:16.560 off me and please leave my apartment. That's what I 1:03:16.600 --> 1:03:19.800 would be thinking if it were me. Maybe I'm just projecting, but. 1:03:19.800 --> 1:03:22.200 No, that's definitely the vibe. Yeah, where she's like, please 1:03:22.240 --> 1:03:24.160 get out of here so I can fantasize about my 1:03:24.240 --> 1:03:26.040 ex right right. 1:03:25.960 --> 1:03:27.360 Right, first deepened the void. 1:03:29.920 --> 1:03:35.960 Yeah, to your point, Melody, I feel like, yeah, that 1:03:36.080 --> 1:03:39.000 she did. Probably she was able to kind of like 1:03:39.120 --> 1:03:43.000 open up sexually with Maxine, although you know, we don't 1:03:43.040 --> 1:03:46.120 know a lot of her history pre Maxine. 1:03:46.480 --> 1:03:51.160 Maybe it's like sex with intimacy and it's like, yeah's talking. Yeah, 1:03:51.680 --> 1:03:53.560 it's that he solved it for me. 1:03:55.320 --> 1:03:58.840 I'm just not smart. That was that. 1:03:59.000 --> 1:04:00.080 That was a three person. 1:04:01.760 --> 1:04:03.520 Yeah, took all three got there. 1:04:03.600 --> 1:04:07.640 But even that is like so nuanced too, right, where 1:04:07.720 --> 1:04:11.560 it's like you found like sex with intimacy, but it's 1:04:11.560 --> 1:04:14.800 still not quite what you need. It's like that kind 1:04:14.840 --> 1:04:16.600 of I feel like I've had relationships like that where 1:04:16.640 --> 1:04:20.360 it's like, Okay, that relationship was ultimately not good, but 1:04:20.720 --> 1:04:24.040 there was one element of it that I experienced that 1:04:24.080 --> 1:04:26.760 I'd never had before and I want that moving forward 1:04:26.920 --> 1:04:28.520 or like that kind of deal. 1:04:28.760 --> 1:04:30.760 Yeah, me too, And it was sexual. 1:04:31.280 --> 1:04:35.040 Yeah, Yeah, it's I mean sometimes like not great people 1:04:35.240 --> 1:04:37.640 learn a new way to make you come and you're like, well, 1:04:38.120 --> 1:04:38.920 we have to sit with this. 1:04:40.920 --> 1:04:42.520 People contain multitudes. 1:04:42.760 --> 1:04:45.960 Turns out, evil people are often really good at sad. 1:04:46.400 --> 1:04:47.800 Yeah it's true. 1:04:47.960 --> 1:04:50.560 Yeah, not always, but more often than you'd want. 1:04:50.840 --> 1:04:52.080 Or bad communicators. 1:04:52.880 --> 1:04:58.200 Verbal communicators tend to be good at sex communicate physically annoying. 1:05:00.000 --> 1:05:01.960 Well, what else does anyone have anything else they want 1:05:02.000 --> 1:05:02.640 to talk about? 1:05:03.080 --> 1:05:05.120 Love? The song at the end one of my favorites. 1:05:05.280 --> 1:05:06.160 There's a Persian song. 1:05:06.240 --> 1:05:09.480 Oh during the credits after she's gonna be okay moment 1:05:09.720 --> 1:05:12.040 I think she throws out is that she's gonna be 1:05:12.120 --> 1:05:15.400 okay moment before her throwing the dildo out. 1:05:16.160 --> 1:05:17.360 Oh, I thought it was after. 1:05:17.760 --> 1:05:20.280 I think it's the last shot, right, Maybe I'm misremembering. 1:05:20.400 --> 1:05:22.320 The last shot is her on the train being like 1:05:22.560 --> 1:05:24.240 I'm gonna be okay, Yeah. 1:05:24.120 --> 1:05:26.000 Okay, yeah regardless. 1:05:26.080 --> 1:05:29.560 There's a song at the end that is a popular 1:05:30.080 --> 1:05:34.080 Persian song this artist. It's called Golayach, which translates to 1:05:34.240 --> 1:05:37.960 like ice flower, like a frozen flower. It's got a 1:05:38.000 --> 1:05:41.440 lot of like poetic imagery. She chose the perfect song. 1:05:41.480 --> 1:05:46.320 It's just about like this, like melancholy nostalgia, and feeling 1:05:46.480 --> 1:05:51.520 like emotionally distant from something. And it's I highly recommend 1:05:51.560 --> 1:05:53.920 people I don't know listen to it and put the 1:05:54.040 --> 1:05:55.760 lyrics through a translator. 1:05:56.800 --> 1:05:59.080 It's like being stuck between worlds and it is. 1:05:59.240 --> 1:06:03.240 It's borne out of this like diasporic nostalgia. But it 1:06:03.400 --> 1:06:05.800 really it works really well. I don't know if it 1:06:05.880 --> 1:06:08.600 was intentional or not, but it works well. After all 1:06:08.640 --> 1:06:13.000 of this like emotionally guarded struggles between her two worlds, 1:06:13.240 --> 1:06:16.520 it does a good job of closing it out. Really 1:06:16.600 --> 1:06:22.160 good song. It's like a psych rock artist from the seventies. 1:06:23.640 --> 1:06:26.080 That kind of reminded me of this scene where she's 1:06:26.200 --> 1:06:31.000 talking with the scott As Dick character when they first 1:06:31.080 --> 1:06:34.800 meet and he's like, oh, Charene, where is that from? 1:06:34.920 --> 1:06:38.360 And he's like listing off different countries in. 1:06:39.080 --> 1:06:40.120 Seria, Argentasia. 1:06:42.400 --> 1:06:44.840 Well, I think, and then he also refers to like 1:06:44.960 --> 1:06:47.120 when she says she's Irani and he's like, so, how 1:06:47.160 --> 1:06:49.880 do you feel about I think? He's like all that, 1:06:50.320 --> 1:06:51.439 all that stuff. 1:06:51.600 --> 1:06:52.400 That's so real. 1:06:52.600 --> 1:06:54.720 Yeah, He's like, I just read this article about this 1:06:54.880 --> 1:06:57.880 hip hop the hip hop scene in Tehran. He's like, 1:06:58.200 --> 1:06:59.800 do you know about that? Are you into that, or 1:06:59.880 --> 1:07:02.480 like are you part of that scene? And she's like 1:07:03.000 --> 1:07:06.600 when I go to Iran, I'm just untangling jewelry, or 1:07:06.840 --> 1:07:10.640 like I'm watching Disney videos while my grandma untangles jewelry. 1:07:10.920 --> 1:07:15.800 I really loved the scott At scene with the yeah, wow, Iran, 1:07:16.680 --> 1:07:17.560 how do you feel about that? 1:07:17.720 --> 1:07:19.040 Because that is so real. 1:07:19.440 --> 1:07:23.840 In Iran post nineteen seventy nine revolution is so shrouded 1:07:24.320 --> 1:07:27.440 in mystery, like by design, like it is a heavily 1:07:27.600 --> 1:07:33.840 censored country. You have to out of the International Foreign 1:07:33.920 --> 1:07:36.720 Press Index, it's like rates, it's third to last out 1:07:36.760 --> 1:07:39.480 of all of the countries. The truth has to be 1:07:39.640 --> 1:07:43.360 smuggled out and there are real life and death repercussions 1:07:43.600 --> 1:07:46.040 just for like I have a cousin right now who 1:07:46.160 --> 1:07:48.160 every time he updates me on what's going on on 1:07:48.240 --> 1:07:50.200 the streets to Tehran and we know it's like a 1:07:50.360 --> 1:07:53.760 huge risk and we're like talking in code essentially on WhatsApp. 1:07:53.840 --> 1:07:57.400 There's checkpoints everywhere, they'll grab your phone and go through 1:07:57.480 --> 1:08:02.280 your deleted messages and photos. It is so just with 1:08:02.400 --> 1:08:05.680 what's happening now, especially like watching that scene back, like 1:08:05.880 --> 1:08:08.600 I it's very frustrating time to be an Irunnian and 1:08:08.800 --> 1:08:13.640 just like witnessing a lot of wrong just narratives and 1:08:13.720 --> 1:08:17.680 propaganda going around from the left and the right in 1:08:18.240 --> 1:08:18.679 the West. 1:08:18.840 --> 1:08:21.439 But that was like a good reminder that it was 1:08:21.560 --> 1:08:24.000 like what do you expect, Like that's what it is. 1:08:24.120 --> 1:08:29.439 It's such a mysterious place and there's so much like 1:08:29.520 --> 1:08:30.280 people get shocked. 1:08:30.320 --> 1:08:33.000 Oh my god, there's a rap scene they do wrap there. 1:08:33.000 --> 1:08:36.480 Like it's like, yeah, there are Western out like globalizations 1:08:36.840 --> 1:08:41.880 happened and reached them. Internet has you know, opened up 1:08:41.960 --> 1:08:45.040 little like peak holes into Iranian. 1:08:44.600 --> 1:08:48.920 Culture, and I don't know, I really appreciated that. I'm 1:08:48.960 --> 1:08:52.040 coming through a lot, and I really appreciated that. 1:08:53.520 --> 1:08:56.719 I mean, well, as of today, there's been an internet 1:08:56.840 --> 1:08:59.840 blackout for how many days now, Well it went. 1:08:59.720 --> 1:09:04.560 Up to the nineties, and every time there's conflict in 1:09:04.720 --> 1:09:08.280 that country, the government shuts down the internet so they 1:09:08.320 --> 1:09:12.800 can get away with the most horrific crimes against humanity. 1:09:13.560 --> 1:09:18.080 There was a massacre in early January January eighth and ninth, specifically, 1:09:18.280 --> 1:09:21.680 there were protests that just turned deadly. It went from 1:09:21.720 --> 1:09:25.720 pellet guns to like imported militias, proxy militias coming in 1:09:25.800 --> 1:09:29.439 to shoot and kill their own people or anyone dissent, 1:09:29.760 --> 1:09:32.400 and the internet went out for that and came back, 1:09:32.520 --> 1:09:34.600 but then once we went to war that night, they 1:09:34.680 --> 1:09:36.479 gave a warning. My cousin even told me it's like 1:09:36.600 --> 1:09:38.880 at midnight they said they're cutting it, and we thought 1:09:38.880 --> 1:09:41.400 it would just be another like week or a couple 1:09:41.479 --> 1:09:43.759 week period like they normally do. But yeah, it lasted 1:09:44.360 --> 1:09:45.040 months and. 1:09:46.760 --> 1:09:48.120 It's tough. 1:09:48.200 --> 1:09:51.920 It's back now, but like you still have to purchase 1:09:52.000 --> 1:09:55.400 a VPN to get on a messaging app, and there's 1:09:55.439 --> 1:09:59.840 an economic disagn like I I don't care find me 1:10:00.040 --> 1:10:03.960 Islamic Republic. I've been like sending crypto over so that 1:10:04.120 --> 1:10:07.360 it can be like to bypass sanctions just to send 1:10:07.439 --> 1:10:12.040 money so that they can convert it and buy VPNs, 1:10:12.160 --> 1:10:15.200 just to let us know that they're okay and safe 1:10:15.360 --> 1:10:16.080 from bombings. 1:10:16.760 --> 1:10:18.479 But yeah, it's still really bad. 1:10:18.720 --> 1:10:21.879 They're trying to introduce sort of like a North Korean 1:10:22.200 --> 1:10:25.400 model of internet right now, and I guess they were 1:10:26.320 --> 1:10:29.040 kind of far along on that process, but because of 1:10:29.040 --> 1:10:32.759 the war, like certain information centers or intelligence centers were bombed, 1:10:32.880 --> 1:10:37.280 but they're trying to make it North Korea levels of censorship, 1:10:37.600 --> 1:10:41.320 and hopefully that doesn't happen because it is such a 1:10:41.360 --> 1:10:42.240 beautiful culture. 1:10:42.560 --> 1:10:44.840 And the Iranian people, I don't know, they're the. 1:10:44.920 --> 1:10:49.519 Best, sweetest, most artistic, kind hospitable people in the world. 1:10:49.600 --> 1:10:53.600 And it's just crazy. People don't know that. And you 1:10:53.680 --> 1:10:56.280 get that from conversations like they got wrapped there. 1:10:56.360 --> 1:10:59.240 It's just like, yeah, people and they just want to 1:10:59.280 --> 1:11:03.679 live a normal life and listen to music, which is illegal. 1:11:04.200 --> 1:11:06.479 You can't listen to music in the street there. Women 1:11:06.560 --> 1:11:11.320 are not allowed to sit in public. It's like, yeah, 1:11:11.400 --> 1:11:11.720 they just. 1:11:11.760 --> 1:11:13.759 Want basic human rights. 1:11:14.000 --> 1:11:18.439 And I appreciate her for kind of like poking fun 1:11:18.560 --> 1:11:22.000 of that from a diaspora point of view, Like these 1:11:22.280 --> 1:11:27.439 conversations we have were just the most basic things about humanity. 1:11:27.479 --> 1:11:29.000 It's like, you, guys, they do that. 1:11:30.439 --> 1:11:32.640 They got that there, So that. 1:11:32.800 --> 1:11:33.360 Was well done. 1:11:35.560 --> 1:11:41.080 Yeah, is there anything else anyways? Is there anything else 1:11:41.120 --> 1:11:42.960 anyone wants to chat about? 1:11:43.840 --> 1:11:45.960 Just hope we get more from her me too. 1:11:46.160 --> 1:11:49.000 I was like that was something that I noted that. 1:11:49.120 --> 1:11:52.160 It's like she's still very much working. But every time, 1:11:53.280 --> 1:11:55.599 like we've talked about this so a lot this year. 1:11:56.439 --> 1:12:00.439 Almost every time we talk about women director and especially 1:12:00.680 --> 1:12:06.400 a woman of color, like getting that sustained career as 1:12:06.439 --> 1:12:10.439 a director is so elusive. We talked about that with 1:12:10.520 --> 1:12:14.120 Julie Dash when we did Daughters of the Dust earlier 1:12:14.200 --> 1:12:19.160 this year. Doesiret Acabun has directed one other movie, The 1:12:19.240 --> 1:12:21.800 Miseducation of Cameron Post, which we should cover at some point. 1:12:21.840 --> 1:12:24.599 It's really good, so good, And she also she wrote 1:12:24.640 --> 1:12:27.840 and directed that in twenty eighteen, and then she has 1:12:27.960 --> 1:12:30.360 I mean, she's been working consistently in TV, but I 1:12:30.520 --> 1:12:35.040 just would I just I would be completely shocked if 1:12:35.560 --> 1:12:38.760 there isn't a script that, like a project that has 1:12:38.800 --> 1:12:41.360 been in development for far too long, you know, because 1:12:41.360 --> 1:12:44.760 it's like, yeah, TV directing is great financially and it 1:12:44.800 --> 1:12:47.360 could be like really enriching. But it's like she is 1:12:47.720 --> 1:12:50.840 an oh tour director, Like that is we should be 1:12:50.880 --> 1:12:52.760 seeing more from her. We also just talked about it 1:12:52.840 --> 1:12:54.439 with oh my gosh, Kayla, what is the movie we 1:12:54.520 --> 1:12:55.559 covered two seconds ago? 1:12:56.240 --> 1:12:57.240 Slums of Beverly Hills. 1:12:57.320 --> 1:13:00.360 Slums of Beverly Hills. Yes, like show where that director 1:13:00.439 --> 1:13:05.200 has spoken extensively on like how impossible, like it took it. 1:13:05.680 --> 1:13:10.679 It's like a decade between projects because who can say, 1:13:11.000 --> 1:13:14.439 who can say? But if you look at really like 1:13:14.479 --> 1:13:15.760 I feel like a lot a lot of women have 1:13:15.880 --> 1:13:20.880 really promising debuts, and then they are sort of relegated 1:13:21.000 --> 1:13:23.840 to less prominent areas that you just know would not 1:13:24.000 --> 1:13:26.360 be happening to a man in their position. 1:13:26.600 --> 1:13:30.200 So right, there's development in hell and that standard. But 1:13:30.320 --> 1:13:32.880 then for women it's like double that. It feels like, 1:13:33.120 --> 1:13:34.439 or women of color, it's. 1:13:34.400 --> 1:13:37.639 Like the seventh circle of Hell. Development Hell. 1:13:37.840 --> 1:13:43.719 Yes, right, it's just all gaslighting and ridiculousness. But she's 1:13:44.000 --> 1:13:48.559 so amazing and in a world with even the tiniest 1:13:48.600 --> 1:13:50.360 bit of justice in it, we will be seeing a 1:13:50.400 --> 1:13:51.080 lot more from her. 1:13:51.400 --> 1:13:54.680 Yes, well, I saw an interview with her. It was 1:13:54.760 --> 1:13:57.479 like a screening of this film followed by a Q 1:13:57.600 --> 1:13:59.760 and A with her that they did I think is 1:13:59.800 --> 1:14:02.200 like ten year anniversary, So it was a couple of 1:14:02.280 --> 1:14:05.439 years ago that this happened. She was not able to 1:14:05.479 --> 1:14:07.120 be there in person, so it was like a Q 1:14:07.240 --> 1:14:11.479 and A with her over zoom. But she talks about 1:14:11.520 --> 1:14:16.559 how she has two feature scripts that she's been working 1:14:16.640 --> 1:14:21.200 on developing, trying to get into production, so hopefully any 1:14:21.479 --> 1:14:25.479 any second now, we'll get one or both of them. 1:14:26.880 --> 1:14:30.479 That's the decade, the mandatory decade waiting period for a 1:14:30.640 --> 1:14:35.519 woman of color, So that's a time it's just. 1:14:35.720 --> 1:14:39.519 So it's so diabolical. I'm okay, I'm just gonna hold 1:14:39.520 --> 1:14:42.200 my tongue. I'm gonna hold my tongue now, or we'll 1:14:42.200 --> 1:14:42.760 be here all day. 1:14:44.160 --> 1:14:47.200 Well, the movie does pass the Bechdel test, as we 1:14:47.560 --> 1:14:52.439 eluded earlier, between many different characters, between Scharene and Maxine 1:14:53.280 --> 1:14:58.320 of course, Scharene and Crystal, Scharene and her mother, Scharene 1:14:58.400 --> 1:15:05.719 and Tibet Rena, Tibet Green, and the BRA sales person lots. 1:15:06.280 --> 1:15:07.479 I don't know if we know her name. 1:15:07.400 --> 1:15:10.440 But there's really not a lot of men of importance 1:15:10.560 --> 1:15:13.960 in this plot. I would say her brother is maybe 1:15:14.080 --> 1:15:18.320 the most narratively impactful. Man, this is true, and he's 1:15:18.360 --> 1:15:19.240 not in it very much. 1:15:20.160 --> 1:15:23.040 And her boss just being like stone parts. 1:15:24.160 --> 1:15:30.200 So oh also that his defining characteristics. He's like, I 1:15:30.400 --> 1:15:33.040 never know where my son is. You're like, all right, man. 1:15:34.000 --> 1:15:36.360 That's his last line where he's like, where's my son? 1:15:36.840 --> 1:15:40.760 Have you seen him? Oh? Man? 1:15:41.840 --> 1:15:44.200 Yeah? So it passes the Pecto test. But what about 1:15:44.240 --> 1:15:47.280 our nipple scale, where we rate the movie on a 1:15:47.320 --> 1:15:51.479 scale of zero to five nipples based on examining it 1:15:51.560 --> 1:15:55.880 through an intersectional feminist lens. I think I'll go four 1:15:56.040 --> 1:15:58.160 with this one. I am going to take off a 1:15:58.320 --> 1:16:03.000 full nipple for the anti trans sentiments and jokes that 1:16:03.160 --> 1:16:08.200 occur throughout the movie. But again, I would hazardou guess 1:16:08.280 --> 1:16:12.760 that had this movie come out ten years later or 1:16:13.760 --> 1:16:19.160 more recent projects of desires, that she would avoid that. 1:16:20.080 --> 1:16:22.000 So it does feel of the time. But even so, 1:16:22.040 --> 1:16:24.000 I'm gonna take a nipple off for that. But yeah, 1:16:24.040 --> 1:16:27.879 four nipples and I'm gonna give them all to Desiree 1:16:28.320 --> 1:16:30.280 and again, hope we see more of her work soon. 1:16:30.920 --> 1:16:34.679 A constantly I'm gonna go yeah, I'm like, I guess, 1:16:34.720 --> 1:16:36.920 I'm like between three point seven and five and four. 1:16:37.400 --> 1:16:41.080 This is this movie is like so distinct, Like it 1:16:41.600 --> 1:16:43.479 this movie I feel like only could have been made 1:16:43.600 --> 1:16:47.960 by this person in this year. Like it is both 1:16:48.120 --> 1:16:51.960 so specific to who Desiree Achabon is and it's so 1:16:52.160 --> 1:16:57.840 twenty fourteen in ways that are both really cool and transphobic. 1:16:58.280 --> 1:17:01.120 The transphobia I really had a hard time with, I think, 1:17:01.240 --> 1:17:04.599 just especially because it just kept kept on coming back. 1:17:04.760 --> 1:17:07.479 But I do, I do totally agree that like this 1:17:07.920 --> 1:17:10.040 is like not something that would appear today. That is 1:17:10.160 --> 1:17:13.800 the twenty fourteen sque thing about this movie. Besides some 1:17:14.000 --> 1:17:18.560 of the clothes. But but I really, I mean, I 1:17:18.680 --> 1:17:21.800 really loved this movie. This is like the fact that 1:17:21.880 --> 1:17:25.280 this is her debut is kind of nuts, and that 1:17:25.400 --> 1:17:28.040 she gives a really good performance in it. I just 1:17:28.240 --> 1:17:31.760 she's wearing so many hats. Everything about it works for me, 1:17:31.920 --> 1:17:34.040 except for the things that we've discussed. I'm going to 1:17:34.080 --> 1:17:36.600 go for. I'm gonna go for and I'm going to 1:17:36.680 --> 1:17:40.360 give them all to our good friend Desiree. 1:17:40.920 --> 1:17:43.479 Nice melody, how about you? How about you? 1:17:44.200 --> 1:17:51.719 I was thinking for Neon twenty fourteen style mesh covered nipples. 1:17:53.320 --> 1:17:55.080 Some of the outfits were trigged. 1:17:56.000 --> 1:17:59.440 I honestly had physical reactions. 1:18:00.200 --> 1:18:03.760 It's like my butt cheeks were so clenched during the 1:18:04.360 --> 1:18:08.120 the shirts were so Why were our shirts so love? 1:18:08.479 --> 1:18:09.320 What was going on? 1:18:10.000 --> 1:18:13.000 It's because like our pants were so tight that our 1:18:13.080 --> 1:18:17.240 junk was on display or like something, or the pants 1:18:17.280 --> 1:18:17.880 were so low. 1:18:19.160 --> 1:18:25.160 Yeah, it was an evil time. Melody, Thank you so 1:18:25.280 --> 1:18:26.320 much for being here. 1:18:27.000 --> 1:18:29.080 Thanks for having me, guys, it's so much fun. 1:18:29.320 --> 1:18:33.839 Where can people follow you on social media? Plug anything 1:18:33.960 --> 1:18:34.799 you want to plug? 1:18:35.240 --> 1:18:38.799 Well, I'm on a therapist mandated break from Instagram because 1:18:38.840 --> 1:18:43.759 I've been crushing out in comments sections defending my people 1:18:44.120 --> 1:18:48.800 in the homeland. But I'm at Melody Kamali on all 1:18:48.920 --> 1:18:52.840 social media, and I'll be back in a sane way. 1:18:53.640 --> 1:18:56.680 But you know, really limiting that right now because of 1:18:56.880 --> 1:18:59.920 the propaganda. Yeah, really heavy right now. 1:19:00.360 --> 1:19:02.360 Yeah, but I'm around Hit me up. 1:19:04.000 --> 1:19:08.960 And you can follow us on Instagram at Bechdel Cast, 1:19:09.360 --> 1:19:15.639 where we are not very active because I also can't 1:19:15.640 --> 1:19:19.360 stand social media, but where you can really follow us 1:19:19.400 --> 1:19:23.600 and support us is our Patreon aka Matreon, where you 1:19:24.680 --> 1:19:27.960 get two bonus episodes every single month, plus access to 1:19:28.200 --> 1:19:32.320 the back catalog of over two hundred bonus episodes, all 1:19:32.680 --> 1:19:36.439 for five dollars a month. What a damn good special. 1:19:36.720 --> 1:19:37.920 What a deal? What a deal? 1:19:38.200 --> 1:19:38.560 And with that? 1:19:38.720 --> 1:19:44.760 Should we I was gonna say, throw away the dil 1:19:44.840 --> 1:19:46.720 does I want to be over? 1:19:47.200 --> 1:19:50.720 Let's say three let's meet three girls and days who 1:19:50.760 --> 1:19:53.719 are going to be okay. I'm like, I'm looking around, 1:19:53.760 --> 1:19:55.360 I'm sipping my coffee, I'm nodding. 1:19:55.680 --> 1:19:57.200 We're on the train going to be okay. 1:19:57.920 --> 1:20:03.200 That's literally my train really view. Yeah, next time I'm 1:20:03.240 --> 1:20:04.720 on it. Yeah, later today I'll be. 1:20:05.080 --> 1:20:08.560 I'll be a okay, you'll be okay, going to be okay, beautiful. 1:20:08.640 --> 1:20:12.120 I love that for you. Okay bye by Like. 1:20:15.360 --> 1:20:18.640 The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted and 1:20:18.800 --> 1:20:20.920 produced by Me, Jamie Loftus and. 1:20:21.040 --> 1:20:25.840 Me Caitlyn Dorante. The podcast is also produced by Sophie Lichtermann. 1:20:25.640 --> 1:20:29.040 And edited by Caitlyn Durrante. Ever heard of Them? That's 1:20:29.120 --> 1:20:32.920 me and our logo and merch and all of our artwork, 1:20:33.000 --> 1:20:36.479 in fact are designed by Jamie Loftis, Ever heard of her? 1:20:36.720 --> 1:20:39.720 Oh My God? And our theme song, by the way, 1:20:39.840 --> 1:20:40.799 was composed by Mike. 1:20:40.760 --> 1:20:44.560 Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Voskrasinski. 1:20:44.160 --> 1:20:46.960 Iconic and a special thanks to the one and only 1:20:47.320 --> 1:20:48.640 Aristotle Acevedo. 1:20:49.160 --> 1:20:52.920 For more information about the podcast, please visit linktree slash 1:20:53.040 --> 1:20:53.759 Bechdel Cast