Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Bechdel Cast. My name is
Speaker 1: Jamie Loftus, my name is Caitlin Darante, and welcome to
Speaker 1: a very special episode of the beck Doel Cast. We
Speaker 1: have a little treat for you today, So if if
Speaker 1: you're new to the show, we'll catch you up in
Speaker 1: a second. But for for our loyal listeners, um, we
Speaker 1: are unlocking a much demanded episode of the Bechtel Cast
Speaker 1: today from our patreon ak Matreon page. So what you're
Speaker 1: going to here today is an episode that people who
Speaker 1: do not subscribe to our Patreon have been asking for
Speaker 1: us for years and all of our matrons have been
Speaker 1: sneakily enjoying for a long time. But it's the Legally
Speaker 1: Blond episode. Yes, we recorded and released this quite some
Speaker 1: time ago. I think it's around two yeah, two years
Speaker 1: ago at least, So it's one of our older episodes
Speaker 1: and it's been it's been behind the paywall, but we decided, hey,
Speaker 1: we could use a break now more than ever, and yeah,
Speaker 1: what a what a delightful movie and episode to share
Speaker 1: with people, So we we decided to share. It's unlocked. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's it's unlocked, And if you like this episode,
Speaker 1: and you're not already a matron, it will hopefully give
Speaker 1: you an idea of what our Matreon episodes are like.
Speaker 1: They're a little looser, they're fun. We don't have to
Speaker 1: go into all the detail about explaining what the Bechtel
Speaker 1: test is. You already know. If you're a matron, we're
Speaker 1: just like you got it. But but if you if
Speaker 1: this is your first episode, interesting choice of first episode,
Speaker 1: but we will get you caught up, so we since
Speaker 1: we don't introduce it this way in in the episode,
Speaker 1: we're unlocking. The Bechtel test is a media metric invented
Speaker 1: by cartoonist Alice and Bechtel, sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace test,
Speaker 1: that requires uh piece of media have the following qualifications
Speaker 1: that it has an exchange in which too female identified
Speaker 1: named characters talk to each other about something other than
Speaker 1: a man for two lines of dialogue. Does it usually happen?
Speaker 1: Not so much, But today's movie might fare a little
Speaker 1: bit better than normal. Jamie, can we demonstrate the Bectal
Speaker 1: test and how how one might love? Okay, Hey Jamie,
Speaker 1: Hey Caitlin, would you join me in a little bend
Speaker 1: and snap choreographed move with me? Today. This is a
Speaker 1: polite way to refer to would you care to engage
Speaker 1: in a bit of a bend and then immediately followed
Speaker 1: by a snap, uh, well yes, Caitlin, I would love that. Oh,
Speaker 1: thank you so much. We're gonna have to do it
Speaker 1: separately in separate rooms because we were still social disting,
Speaker 1: of course, but I think that would be a nice
Speaker 1: little activity for us to make us feel closer together.
Speaker 1: A man baby a woman A wow, look at her
Speaker 1: challenging the status quo, changing the world as we know it,
Speaker 1: eld boss Um. Uh yeah, so so we're we're excited
Speaker 1: to be unlocking this episode for your enjoyment. If you
Speaker 1: enjoy it, Like Caitlin was saying, check out our Matreon
Speaker 1: It's patreon dot com slash Bechtel Cast. It's five bucks
Speaker 1: a month and you get two extra full blown bonus
Speaker 1: episodes of the Bechtel Cast a month, and it's it's
Speaker 1: a little casual, and it's also we tend to do
Speaker 1: less popular movies there maybe stuff that's a little more
Speaker 1: niche uh little it's in the episodes are just they're
Speaker 1: just silly, fun stuff. And also there's an episode on
Speaker 1: doubt in there. What's your weight? What's your favorite Matreon
Speaker 1: episode outside of this one? Because this is this is
Speaker 1: a quite good one if if you don't mind my
Speaker 1: saying so, I agree. Um, oh my goodness. I love
Speaker 1: our Christmas Prints episodes. Yes, there's never a bad time
Speaker 1: for it. We also have extra Titanic episodes over there
Speaker 1: if you if you could have possibly needed one, they're there. Uh.
Speaker 1: We just have a lot of fun stuff. The frame
Speaker 1: Roger rabbits over there, into the Spider verses over there. Um,
Speaker 1: we've got oh and we One of my favorite things
Speaker 1: about the Matreon is we do absurd themes such as
Speaker 1: Zach Martron. We've got Pegentuary, We've got um Portman July,
Speaker 1: Portman July, which we did not observe in July, but
Speaker 1: we did do America July. We did Share Share March, yes,
Speaker 1: Share March recently. And and it's a nice place. It's
Speaker 1: the Also, the community on the Matreon is really lovely,
Speaker 1: and I mean we have the greatest fans on every feed,
Speaker 1: but it's a very wholesome, lovely place to be and
Speaker 1: you get I think over fifty additional full blown episodes
Speaker 1: of the Bechtel Cast. When you sign up. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think we're close to, if not exceeded, sixty. So you
Speaker 1: you you get access to the entire catalog when you
Speaker 1: join the Matreon now, so now's the time if you're able.
Speaker 1: Highly encourage, highly recommend. Freaky Friday. That was a fun one.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah. We did Ghost Months, which in which we
Speaker 1: did not cover the movie ghost because we already did
Speaker 1: that on the main feed with Nicole Buyer, of course.
Speaker 1: But we did the original Ghostbusters movie from eight four
Speaker 1: or whatever, and then we did the all female reboot,
Speaker 1: did Pregnancy June. All of our themes are the worst,
Speaker 1: but in the best way, and you have to you know,
Speaker 1: we highly recommend you join the community because it's really
Speaker 1: really fun. Yes, without further ado, please enjoy this very
Speaker 1: special unlocked episode legally Blonde. On the Doe Cast, the
Speaker 1: questions asked if movies have women in them? Are all
Speaker 1: their discussions just boyfriends and husbands? Do they have individualism?
Speaker 1: The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing it with the beck
Speaker 1: Del Cast. It's a bonus episode of the Bedel Cast.
Speaker 1: Is a bonus episode of cast. I think we should
Speaker 1: address what's happening here first, so we released two. This
Speaker 1: is a Matreon Patreon only episode of the Betel Cast.
Speaker 1: We were locked and loaded a month in advance with
Speaker 1: two bonus episodes for this month, and then realized that
Speaker 1: our doubling down on Titanic, that was the original plan.
Speaker 1: Maybe someday we'll release some of the moments they hit
Speaker 1: the cutting room floor, but all together we came to
Speaker 1: the conclusion that both covering the same movie, particularly covering
Speaker 1: the same movie well pretty aggressively drunk, was not the
Speaker 1: premium content that you subscribed to the podcast, right. I
Speaker 1: went back and listen to that title, the second title,
Speaker 1: it is a disaster, and that not good. It's okay. Well,
Speaker 1: just just to give ourselves a pat on the back,
Speaker 1: we reconvene. We replanned, we both had a bad feeling
Speaker 1: that we were both two drunk and to saying the
Speaker 1: exact same things, which is that we Likeditanic over and over,
Speaker 1: and we've come back with a clear mind and a
Speaker 1: full heart. I'm sober, although I'm sick. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you can hear it in my voice, but I
Speaker 1: do not feel well. I've had two beers. I'm I'm,
Speaker 1: I'm it's vacation. Jamie has been activated. She hasn't been
Speaker 1: around for literally a full calendar year. Everyone's going to
Speaker 1: have to deal with it. But we are. We are
Speaker 1: fully prepared for today's episode, which is on Legally Blood.
Speaker 1: We just watched it together. We are in Caitlin's bed.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the bonus episode way kind of. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like the audio is always a little worse and
Speaker 1: we are sitting in my bed recording on my iPhone.
Speaker 1: It's we shouldn't tell them that. I mean, we have
Speaker 1: really good equipment. Everywhere we go. We're swamped with the
Speaker 1: finest of microphone as though. I like the reason that
Speaker 1: we're in the bed. And then it's like maybe people
Speaker 1: were like maybe Aristotle is also in the bed. It
Speaker 1: chased in to the bed. Anyways, all I had to
Speaker 1: say we are recording and releasing us on a rather
Speaker 1: tight turned around because we were so prepared that we
Speaker 1: got drunk and did a bad job. But I feel
Speaker 1: good about this episode. We both have a wealth of notes.
Speaker 1: So what is your history with Legally Blonde? Legally Blonde?
Speaker 1: I believe so this movie came out in No One.
Speaker 1: I was too young to see this movie when it
Speaker 1: came out. For sure, I think I saw it at
Speaker 1: some point. My friend in middle school I think, had
Speaker 1: a copy of it and we watched it as sleep over,
Speaker 1: and then I think I saw it again in high
Speaker 1: school and possibly again. I feel like I've seen this
Speaker 1: movie maybe three times. Like I'm pretty I know the
Speaker 1: general beats of it, but there was a lot of
Speaker 1: details that I forgot. I liked this movie. I remember
Speaker 1: liking it, and I think like this was one of
Speaker 1: those viewing experiences that I was like kind of lunching
Speaker 1: my butt a little bit because I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I hope that this movie was as fun as I
Speaker 1: remember it being, which generally I think it was generally. Yeah. Yes,
Speaker 1: I went for many, many years without seeing this movie.
Speaker 1: I didn't see it until I was a grad student
Speaker 1: at Boston University where I was getting my masters in screenwriting.
Speaker 1: I don't like to bring it up, but I'll be
Speaker 1: goddamn classmate of mind did a project on Legally Blonde.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I guess I got to see it,
Speaker 1: and I think I didn't necessarily avoid it for so long,
Speaker 1: but I didn't actively seek it out because it's the
Speaker 1: type of movie that doesn't really appeal to my sensibilities. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've given your his I mean, I'm surprised that I
Speaker 1: wasn't more into Llegally Blond. I think it was just
Speaker 1: like I wasn't the right age when it came out. Sure, yeah,
Speaker 1: because I would. I would have been very intellgally Blond
Speaker 1: if I had been old enough to see it when
Speaker 1: it was released. That makes sense. Yeah, Yeah, generally it's
Speaker 1: a fun movie. I'm trying to think of movies that
Speaker 1: we have covered. I think Mean Girls as the main
Speaker 1: one that jumps to mind of Like, I'm very leary
Speaker 1: of covering movies that, you know, it's like I try
Speaker 1: try to read sort of what's been written about the movie,
Speaker 1: especially in regards to gender based topics. But this is
Speaker 1: one of those movies where there's five million clickbit articles
Speaker 1: about why Legally Blonde it's a feminist masterpiece. And I'm
Speaker 1: always extremely leary of movies that have a million listicles
Speaker 1: written about what a feminist masterpiece it is, because usually
Speaker 1: that means that there is a fundamental issue, because a
Speaker 1: lot of quote unquote feminist masterpieces have to do with
Speaker 1: like this is feminism that's palatable for a wide audience,
Speaker 1: as opposed to that said, I still think the movie
Speaker 1: does pretty well. That's I have not read any of those.
Speaker 1: I've read a lot of them. I mean, mean girls,
Speaker 1: there's a billion of them. And then there's some about
Speaker 1: specific characters like Lydia Diets in feministic Beetlejuice, there's a
Speaker 1: million listicles every fucking Halloween about how she's a feminist
Speaker 1: icon when she's right and she's not because beetle Juices.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they pick the only because feminist icon. I know.
Speaker 1: I was like, dude, why are you not reacting to
Speaker 1: be amazing shows vacation, Jamie's cards are lowered, her friends
Speaker 1: operating lower, and you've also you've played it so straight. Yeah,
Speaker 1: obviously beetle Juices. Beetle Juice is the only feminist icon
Speaker 1: in the movie. But but all I have to say,
Speaker 1: listical feminism is stupid. And I'll say for the five
Speaker 1: trillionth time, even though they'll still write up some of
Speaker 1: my ship every once in a while, Bustle can kiss
Speaker 1: my ass. In terms of like corporate palatable feminism funded
Speaker 1: pie a male's hedge fund, so like, it's a tricky
Speaker 1: but again, legally blonde most does well. Okay, I'm done, Okay,
Speaker 1: got it? Shall I do the recap? Let's okay. L
Speaker 1: Woods is a sorority sister. In her senior year of college,
Speaker 1: she caught what is it, Delta New or I don't
Speaker 1: even know what the night I don't know. She she
Speaker 1: goes to a I think it's like c U l A,
Speaker 1: which is basically U l Ala. She basically is the
Speaker 1: U c l A. Yeah, a good school. So she
Speaker 1: is about to graduate. She has a boyfriend named Warner,
Speaker 1: who she thinks it's about to propose to her, and
Speaker 1: she's very excited about it, and all of her sorority
Speaker 1: sisters are very excited that she's about to be proposed to,
Speaker 1: but turns out he takes her to dinner to instead
Speaker 1: break up with her because he's like, I'm going to
Speaker 1: Harvard Law School. He says something the ef fact that like,
Speaker 1: I needed Jackie and you're Maryland basically yeah, it's like
Speaker 1: you're like he views her. He views her, even though
Speaker 1: we know very early on in the movie she has
Speaker 1: a four point of g p A at Coula. We
Speaker 1: don't on how hard that is, but she has one.
Speaker 1: She has the highest g p A in her sorority.
Speaker 1: We hear a lot of this, but yeah, he's looking
Speaker 1: for a convince. He's looking for an East Coast elite, right.
Speaker 1: He doesn't take her seriously. She's like, you know, I
Speaker 1: need someone serious, and I just this has been fun,
Speaker 1: but I cannot take you seriously. So she's devastated, and
Speaker 1: she decides that in order to earn his love back
Speaker 1: and prove that she is worthy of his love, she's
Speaker 1: also going to go to Harvard Law School. We will
Speaker 1: get into this because Warner, while the worst across the board,
Speaker 1: has the right to break up with someone, even if
Speaker 1: it's for a shitty reason. Everyone has the right to
Speaker 1: break up with anyone else. That is just something that
Speaker 1: they do not tell you for some reason. That sometimes
Speaker 1: if someone says I don't want to be in a
Speaker 1: relationship with you anymore, you have to be like, well,
Speaker 1: I don't feel great about that, but okay, like anyways, Yes,
Speaker 1: that is a fun to my till issue with this movie,
Speaker 1: and so is her behavior after that, where she basically
Speaker 1: shapes her entire future around essentially stalking him to try
Speaker 1: to win him back. It's not essentially following him, you know,
Speaker 1: but we'll get there. So she does. She does put
Speaker 1: in the work to study Ford and take the l
Speaker 1: sads and you know, do this video and the video
Speaker 1: essay is iconic. Directed by a Coppola week later in
Speaker 1: the movie possibly Sophia, we don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 1: She would later go on to direct the worst movie
Speaker 1: I've ever seen, The Big Guy Old, you're being dramatic.
Speaker 1: But she puts in all the work and she manages
Speaker 1: to get accepted to Harvard Law School. And so she
Speaker 1: shows up and on the first day she's like, hi,
Speaker 1: Warner and he's like, oh, what are you doing here? Again?
Speaker 1: Totally fair reaction. This movie would have you believe the
Speaker 1: opposite of like, yeah, of course she's here, Like whatever. Anyways, Well,
Speaker 1: I mean so many movies depict like a romantic pursuit
Speaker 1: in the worst possible ways. So just hang around long enough,
Speaker 1: like yeah, just wear them down until they agree to
Speaker 1: be in love with you. To wear them down. Narrative
Speaker 1: is honestly terrible. But sometimes I'm like, maybe there's something
Speaker 1: to this, but there I guess what, there's not, you know, Okay, Sorry,
Speaker 1: So she's like, yeah, I'm here, and you know, I'm
Speaker 1: showing you that I can be taken seriously. But she
Speaker 1: immediately learned that he over the summer has gotten engaged
Speaker 1: to Vivian the Jackie that he was looking for Vivian
Speaker 1: van Hula or whatever. Yeah, Kensington or something like that. Kensington,
Speaker 1: And she's played by Samma Blair and hot. She's a
Speaker 1: little be at first, but so a huge be at first,
Speaker 1: to a comical degree that I would argue does not
Speaker 1: make narrative sense. Anyways, continued agreed. So then she's like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: I will steal him back. Now that's my new plan.
Speaker 1: But that's not her idea. That's Jennifer Coolidge's idea. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jennifer Coolidge is she not French? Right, So there's this
Speaker 1: whole sequence. So she's like, oh, this is the worst
Speaker 1: day of my life. My one true love is gotten
Speaker 1: engaged to someone else. I have to get a manicure.
Speaker 1: And then Jennifer Coolies like, I did I have a loon?
Speaker 1: Hi Hiish she's you know, listen, she's a fellow Emerson
Speaker 1: Lione and I respect, she's one of our she's our
Speaker 1: God fuck, I fucked that school. I stopped paying their bills.
Speaker 1: But like, also she is one of the esteemed graduates.
Speaker 1: Jenifer Coolish, well, she yeah, she gives l the idea
Speaker 1: that she needs to steal Warner back, so she's like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'll just do that. So then she starts to like
Speaker 1: really take her studies seriously and proved to her classmates
Speaker 1: and her professors that she is smart, because the thing
Speaker 1: about her is that she's like still this you know
Speaker 1: bel Air raised, wealthy, blonde white girl who is very
Speaker 1: privileged and you know, a sorority gal in a very
Speaker 1: stereotypical way where she's like, oh my god, like getting
Speaker 1: into Harvard, what's hard? And no one takes her seriously, right,
Speaker 1: So she's like, I need to do she starts to
Speaker 1: like really buckle down and prove to everyone that she
Speaker 1: is intelligent and she is capable, and in so doing,
Speaker 1: she manages to land an internship with one of her professors,
Speaker 1: Calahan played by Victor Garber, and then that leads hot
Speaker 1: to a storyline where she helps with this murder case
Speaker 1: where one of her former sorority sisters, who like graduated
Speaker 1: a few year ahead of her, is accused of murdering
Speaker 1: her husband, Van Taylor. Sorry, yes, every wealthy woman's name
Speaker 1: is Van Hulu. So because they have this sisterhood L
Speaker 1: and Brooke bond and she's like, yeah, I'm gonna look
Speaker 1: out for you. Meanwhile, Callahan, who ends up being a
Speaker 1: predatory scumbag, is like, I think my client's guilty. I'm
Speaker 1: barely going to help her. And then, to be fair,
Speaker 1: she looks pretty fucking guilty for a while. What does
Speaker 1: guilty look like, Jamie, like standing over her husband's dead
Speaker 1: body covered in his blood. Sure, but anyways, so the
Speaker 1: movie ends with like her helping with this case to
Speaker 1: the point where Brooke fires Callahan after he has like
Speaker 1: groped L and it's been made clear to her several
Speaker 1: times that he does not believe her. Brooke is a
Speaker 1: good character. I like her a lot. Yeah, so she
Speaker 1: fires Callahan. She hires L, who is still only in
Speaker 1: her first year of law school, to defend her in
Speaker 1: this murder case objectively on paper, terrible idea and and
Speaker 1: and as capable and as pro l woods as I am.
Speaker 1: Really a lucky break that she wins the case and
Speaker 1: immediately gets a confession from a Brunette promptly goes to jail.
Speaker 1: I'm not pro sending Brunette's to jail, but sure, I mean,
Speaker 1: maybe it's intentional that she's a brunette. Maybe it's just
Speaker 1: first No, it is for sure, I mean every because
Speaker 1: there are barely any women of color in this movie.
Speaker 1: The way that the movie indicates don't root for this
Speaker 1: one is with brunette hair. That's literally what happened anyways, Sorry,
Speaker 1: that's true, Jennifer. The characters we are conditioned to root
Speaker 1: for our obviously l Jennifer, Coolidge, Brooke, those are the
Speaker 1: three big ones, and they're all blonde, white and Vivian's
Speaker 1: Arcter who later comes around for Danning. She she has
Speaker 1: front hair. The killer ends up being Burnett, the poorly
Speaker 1: handled gay character in it is also well, I guess
Speaker 1: she's she's got some weird highlights. It's it's unclear what
Speaker 1: her natural hair colors, but I think she's Burnett. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's got darker hair. Basically, she gets a lucky break
Speaker 1: pretty much, although it's through her like sort of skill
Speaker 1: and deductive reasoning. But she manages to crack the case.
Speaker 1: They win, and everything's great, and she has a dumbline
Speaker 1: where she's like, hair care is essential. Any cosmo girl
Speaker 1: would know that or something like that, and then yeah,
Speaker 1: she wins, and then there's like the graduation. At the end,
Speaker 1: she's like at the top of her class and meanwhile
Speaker 1: Warner sucks. And now she and Vivian are bfs friends,
Speaker 1: which this story does go out of its way to
Speaker 1: be like by the way, they're best friends, and Warner
Speaker 1: ended up alone, which is exciting. I also didn't mention
Speaker 1: at all the sort of romantic subplot, although it doesn't
Speaker 1: really end up being that. Taken to the very end
Speaker 1: with Luke Wilson's character, it's flourte from the beginning and
Speaker 1: a star turn by Luke Wilson's middle part. Lots of
Speaker 1: crazy two one was a big moment for the middle part. Yes, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got to take a quick break. We've got some
Speaker 1: bending and snapping to do, but then we'll come right back.
Speaker 1: So that's the story, and there is an awful lot
Speaker 1: to unpack. I have pages and pages of notes. Shall
Speaker 1: we go by character or topic? God? Well, this is
Speaker 1: the fun part about the bonus episode. You get to
Speaker 1: hear part of the process, right, So I kind of
Speaker 1: want to start just by saying that I think the
Speaker 1: reason that I'm kind of lukewarm Luke Wilson lukewarm allout
Speaker 1: to a little middle part. I fall in the middle part.
Speaker 1: So the first like to act it's really only like
Speaker 1: an act three of the movie where all of her
Speaker 1: sort of empowerment happens and she turns around and it
Speaker 1: goes from her doing everything that she's doing because she's
Speaker 1: trying to win back her boyfriend and she's entirely motivated
Speaker 1: by proving herself worthy to a man. Well, let's let's
Speaker 1: start with that then, because that is and there's two
Speaker 1: prominent examples that come to mind. I'm sure there's other
Speaker 1: examples that I'm not thinking of, but in regards to
Speaker 1: I mean and there's other there's also examples of the
Speaker 1: opposite of a man chasing a woman in order to
Speaker 1: prove himself and wear her down. But this weird plot,
Speaker 1: which at the beginning of the series Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Speaker 1: duplicates exactly, is like a woman who has been scorned
Speaker 1: or rejected or is feeling very insecure because of a man,
Speaker 1: decides to uproot her entire life in order to relocate
Speaker 1: improve herself to a man, and then in doing so,
Speaker 1: discovers herself in the process. I do not like this
Speaker 1: setup at all, and it really frustrates me because I
Speaker 1: like this movie. But the inciting incident to this movie
Speaker 1: is just like all I it's I don't know, Like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of moments in this movie in particular
Speaker 1: where it's like there are so many seeds for very
Speaker 1: wrong thinking that is being implanted into young girls heads
Speaker 1: that I really don't like of just like, you know,
Speaker 1: the only way to realize your own potential is to
Speaker 1: first be rejected by a man and then change everything
Speaker 1: about you, Like it's almost little Little mermaid e like
Speaker 1: that would be another example of this of like my
Speaker 1: current forum isn't working, so what have I change? And
Speaker 1: let's make all the necessary adjustments. And it does like
Speaker 1: you're saying, like the third act does have l realizing
Speaker 1: oh I actually am, But logistically she never would have
Speaker 1: recognized her own potential if Warner hadn't broken up with her,
Speaker 1: And I don't like that. I think it's so frustrating
Speaker 1: the same, Yes, I was trying to think of movies
Speaker 1: where there is a female protagonist who pursues something she
Speaker 1: something like going to law school and becoming a lawyer,
Speaker 1: just because she's interested in that already, and not because
Speaker 1: she's motivated by a man. And I had trouble thinking
Speaker 1: of examples, well, one, because there are just so few
Speaker 1: movies with a female protagonist, and the ones that do
Speaker 1: have a female protagonist, it's often a rom com or
Speaker 1: something where she is just straight up pursuing a man
Speaker 1: and that's the main storyline. And to be fair, that's
Speaker 1: not to say there aren't any examples. I just no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I know my like six sore throat head, Well, I
Speaker 1: have any trouble thinking of any Well, I also don't
Speaker 1: think that like unless there's some sort of like and
Speaker 1: it's this, The narrative of a woman going to law
Speaker 1: school because she is interested in law is not a
Speaker 1: picularly compelling log wine For like, a woman goes to
Speaker 1: law school because she's interested in the law and is
Speaker 1: smart is a great thing, but maybe not the most
Speaker 1: exciting story, so I get. But but again, that does
Speaker 1: not justify the ends to to this true, But it
Speaker 1: doesn't even have to. I mean, you know, law going
Speaker 1: to law school and becoming a lawyer is just an
Speaker 1: example something some sort of either professional or creative pursuit
Speaker 1: that a woman just does because that's what she wants
Speaker 1: to do, and not because she's motivated by proving her
Speaker 1: worth to a man and even if she meets a
Speaker 1: romantic partner when she is pursuing that thing, that is
Speaker 1: a far better president to say. It's like she followed
Speaker 1: whatever her ambition was and worked hard and happened to
Speaker 1: me this great person. Like that's the right idea. Chasing
Speaker 1: a man in order to discover your own potential is
Speaker 1: just not a good message to be sending, particularly if
Speaker 1: you're aiming at a younger slash teen audience, which this
Speaker 1: movie is. Well. It is nice to see a female
Speaker 1: character like l who has a lot of drive and determination,
Speaker 1: Like she's extremely driven to the point where she within
Speaker 1: a matter of maybe a couple of weeks, studies for
Speaker 1: and does well enough on the lstats to get into Harvard.
Speaker 1: Although murders eales like Elwoods Is with a lot of flaws,
Speaker 1: I think a really good character. I think she's great,
Speaker 1: and part of that is like nostalgia attachment, but I
Speaker 1: really do like her. I agree. I like that she
Speaker 1: is extremely driven and active. Her motivation at the beginning
Speaker 1: and throughout most of the movie is misguided, and it does.
Speaker 1: It does turn around because by the end that storyline
Speaker 1: with Warner resolves itself. By he comes around, He's like actually,
Speaker 1: I just saw you in that case, and you are
Speaker 1: the woman I've wanted this whole time. I can't take
Speaker 1: you seriously now. And she's like, She's like, I've been
Speaker 1: waiting so long for you to hear this. But if
Speaker 1: I want to be a partner in a law firm
Speaker 1: by the time I'm thirty, I'm going to need a
Speaker 1: boyfriend who wasn't such a bone head. And to be honest,
Speaker 1: Caitlin clapped and I was crying. So however it worked.
Speaker 1: To me. That's kind of one of those moments where
Speaker 1: it's like, cool line, cool feminist line. So I think
Speaker 1: that this more responsibly than a lot of movies of
Speaker 1: its type, but does play into the like you go
Speaker 1: girl style of feminism. That and here's what I'm interested
Speaker 1: in hearing your thoughts on this, because I my notes
Speaker 1: kind of looped in on themselves on this topic. But
Speaker 1: so l Wood, there's this whole overarching narrative in this
Speaker 1: movie of weird, very black and white West Coast East
Speaker 1: Coast stereotypes of like everyone from the East Coast is
Speaker 1: mean and not horny at all. Everyone from the West
Speaker 1: Coast is really hot and rich and like more fun
Speaker 1: and it's clear like the East Coast is like demonized
Speaker 1: for the bulk of this movie and all the characters
Speaker 1: who we meet there, with the exception of the East
Speaker 1: Coast white trash community, which I appreciate regardless, it's like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of this movie to me feels like
Speaker 1: l Wood's reclaiming the pink, reclaiming you know, this feminine
Speaker 1: appearance in this very visually motivated Oh god, I sound
Speaker 1: a million years old, but like this like you know,
Speaker 1: like reclaiming conventional hotness in an intellectual sense, but it
Speaker 1: feels like kind of a safe, very marketable choice to
Speaker 1: be like we're going to reclaim hot women, you know,
Speaker 1: like it's to an extent, is like the good thing
Speaker 1: about it. And this is where my nose caved in themselves,
Speaker 1: because like, oh, is she just like reclaiming conventional hotness
Speaker 1: that's not particularly interesting, Like oh, hot women can be
Speaker 1: lawyers too, It's like okay, like okay, great, But with
Speaker 1: the way Ellen her friends on both coasts, who were
Speaker 1: more traditionally feminine, they do seem to be doing it
Speaker 1: for themselves. And it's not that I noticed very like that.
Speaker 1: You don't get those lines of like, well, if I
Speaker 1: don't do this, A man won't like me if I
Speaker 1: don't do that. Like it does seem like they do
Speaker 1: it because they just like they place value on it.
Speaker 1: But the whole like she's wearing pink in a courtroom
Speaker 1: and her boobs are big, does not totally track with me.
Speaker 1: Of like we're going to reclaim Victoria's secret hotness but
Speaker 1: in that current room, Like it just I don't know
Speaker 1: it was that supposed to be empowering, you know, like
Speaker 1: Victoria's secret models who have higher ambitions. It's just a
Speaker 1: very small group, you know, right. I also had trouble
Speaker 1: processing this idea of she's a very cartoonish character. Not
Speaker 1: to say that there aren't some people like that out there.
Speaker 1: I mean she is, and she's a great great cartoon
Speaker 1: but so she's, you know, this very stereotypical like loves pink,
Speaker 1: loves shopping, knows fashion, loves to get her nails done,
Speaker 1: like feminine, she's smart, right, there is a there is
Speaker 1: a like, but the twisted Yeah, so she's just like
Speaker 1: sort of you know, hyper feminine woman. And I think
Speaker 1: the movie seeks to sort of dismantle this stereotype that
Speaker 1: pretty blonde sorority girls can also be intelligent and good lawyers,
Speaker 1: which is true and fair, but who the message that
Speaker 1: it just seems like a very narrow It's like, who
Speaker 1: is this for exactly? Not to say that, like stereotypes
Speaker 1: shouldn't be dismantled, it just seems like a very bizarrely specific,
Speaker 1: deeply marketable. There were barbies of Elwoods, you know, like there,
Speaker 1: it's a very marketable stereotype to be dismantling, and it's
Speaker 1: not even it's not dismantling it in a visual way
Speaker 1: at all. So the visual aspect is kept intact, therefore
Speaker 1: keeping all the marketable parts of it kept intact. There
Speaker 1: is a part where, like her costume choices, they change
Speaker 1: a bit in the middle of the movie where she
Speaker 1: doesn't dress quite so pink. She has a blue outfit
Speaker 1: on at one point, but then it's a beanie You're
Speaker 1: just like she's lost herself. But then towards the end again,
Speaker 1: when she makes her grand appearance as the new person
Speaker 1: that Brooke Taylor hired to defend her, she's got this
Speaker 1: like it is a great I mean, her entrance in
Speaker 1: that scene. To be fair, they do a full body
Speaker 1: shot of her, which I usually take issue with, but
Speaker 1: the outfit is more than the outfit in that scene.
Speaker 1: To me, that outfit also represents like she's going to
Speaker 1: be herself and do this as well, which I think
Speaker 1: is a good message, like represent yourself the way you
Speaker 1: want to, but your I will. You mentioned like there
Speaker 1: was a r B of l Woods, and that's why
Speaker 1: I know, throughout Western cultural history, the beautiful blonde female
Speaker 1: form has been the most sort of easily digestible feminine
Speaker 1: form for like Western culture to consume, and like that's
Speaker 1: sort of been the ideal and we all have to
Speaker 1: strive for that and da da da, Right, So maybe
Speaker 1: that's why that choice was made to like represent that
Speaker 1: type of archetypal stereotypical character in this movie. I mean, okay, now,
Speaker 1: no not. My mind is kind of changing a little bit,
Speaker 1: where for sure there are more pervasive, culturally relevant, immediately
Speaker 1: relevant to people's everyday lives stereotypes to be dismantled in
Speaker 1: major releases. I think it is sort of a sneaky
Speaker 1: win on behalf of the of the filmmakers that they're
Speaker 1: able to make that commentary pretty effectively while keeping all
Speaker 1: the visual marketing intact. But then I mean now that
Speaker 1: you when you said, like, you know, the whatever, the
Speaker 1: sort of playboy ideal of shout out to my former employer,
Speaker 1: playboy who can truly kiss masks um, but the the
Speaker 1: you know, like that conventional ideal of the blonde women.
Speaker 1: I guess it is sort of like where that that
Speaker 1: trope is very much like. As much as the boobs
Speaker 1: and the hair are critical to that image, what is
Speaker 1: equally critical to that image is complacency doing whatever they're told.
Speaker 1: And the way that women who look like that are
Speaker 1: are viewed from like just a camera aspect is always
Speaker 1: in a way that's supposed to be pleasing, and thought
Speaker 1: is never implied. So now that you said that, I'm like,
Speaker 1: maybe it is like it it is interesting. I don't
Speaker 1: think it's the most relevant commentary, but it is interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't think it doesn't one like there's right now
Speaker 1: we should have been thinking about a lot of things
Speaker 1: in two thousand one, and maybe blonde wealthy women were
Speaker 1: not women the list. But but it is comment They
Speaker 1: do comment a lot on it. I think by the
Speaker 1: end it takes a while, but by the end it's effective.
Speaker 1: I mean there are moments where she does say like
Speaker 1: you know, no one takes me like I get sort
Speaker 1: of discriminated against because of my hair color because I'm
Speaker 1: a blonde. Imagine being in an actually marginalized person saying
Speaker 1: that I'm like, oh, I'm so fucking sorry that you're
Speaker 1: so hot and red and you got it. You still
Speaker 1: got it into Harvard like, well, can we talk ye,
Speaker 1: let's talk about good segment. Well, I wantn't to just
Speaker 1: really say quickly that I think that we should, right now,
Speaker 1: right here, claim the new stereotype for a female character,
Speaker 1: which is the but the twist is where it's like
Speaker 1: she's either she's very hot or she's very ugly, but
Speaker 1: the twist is she's smart or she could be hot.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe take off her glasses it right, Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: like she's hot, but the twist is she's smart or
Speaker 1: she's smart, and the twist is she's also beautiful. There's
Speaker 1: a really I have not seen the show, but my
Speaker 1: my good pal Catherine Cohen in New York does a
Speaker 1: great one woman show called but the twist is she's
Speaker 1: gorgeous one of my favorites. Great turn of phrase, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it's a trope that's used a lot. Yeah, Okay,
Speaker 1: So the scene with the admissions board at Harvard who
Speaker 1: are reviewing her video essay and trying to determine whether
Speaker 1: or not to accept her I think the only all
Speaker 1: males scene in the movie that I can think of
Speaker 1: same with more than it's no no. There's a few
Speaker 1: times where middle Park Wilson and Victor Garber, or as
Speaker 1: I like to call him, Thomas Andrews Mr Andrews like
Speaker 1: I'll try, I didn't build stronger, she's oh, and then
Speaker 1: earlier the mo she's strong and true just like you,
Speaker 1: dumb fuck Oh, but it's sad when he does and
Speaker 1: stops the clock. Anyways, But there there are a few
Speaker 1: I feel like one on one scenes with Luke Wilson
Speaker 1: and Victor Carbert. But in terms of like this is
Speaker 1: a scene full of men versus the number of scenes
Speaker 1: in this movie that are full of women in a
Speaker 1: way that it's just like, whoa great, this is the
Speaker 1: only one. Yeah. So in this scene we see around
Speaker 1: eight six or eight eight old white guys old mostly yeah,
Speaker 1: mostly older for sure, all white men, basically deliberating on
Speaker 1: whether or not to except l to Harvard, and they're
Speaker 1: looking at her essay, which most of the time. She
Speaker 1: isn't a swimsuit. She's a weird choice. But also I
Speaker 1: feel like that is like an unabashedly Elwood's choice. That is,
Speaker 1: for all the implications of it, I do appreciate that
Speaker 1: she is true to herself in the video. I mean
Speaker 1: she's playing to her strengths, which is that she was
Speaker 1: the president of her sorority. Yes, like, that's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite parts of the movie. It is an iconic
Speaker 1: the days of our lives, like the evil Stephano and
Speaker 1: like it's it's great. It's I used to watch the
Speaker 1: soap operas amas, so basically the whole scene is them.
Speaker 1: I think there's one guy who's like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: and then all of the other ones are trying to
Speaker 1: They have decided they want to accept her, basically because
Speaker 1: they find her attractive, and they're trying to rationalize why
Speaker 1: it's an okay decision to let her in, right, because
Speaker 1: they're like, well, she cares about animals, and she's creative
Speaker 1: and she likes music because she was in a Ricky
Speaker 1: Martin video. And it's like, this is a challenging scene
Speaker 1: because written on paper, nothing that is being vocalized is
Speaker 1: inaccurate or wrong. Does l Woods necessarily deserve to be
Speaker 1: at Harvard at the beginning of the movie, and don't
Speaker 1: really think so. I mean, she has the correct scores
Speaker 1: and she has good grades, but it just I don't know,
Speaker 1: Like I I struggle with the fact that she has
Speaker 1: lit Like, it seems unlikely to me that someone who
Speaker 1: has a bachelor's degree in fashion management and has no
Speaker 1: background or previously indicated interest in law would get into
Speaker 1: Harvard Law School realistically, no matter who you are, that
Speaker 1: just seems unlikely, especially because Harvard. It's Harvard, probably the
Speaker 1: hardest school in the US. Ticket you could get into
Speaker 1: a law school with those qualifications, good els at scores
Speaker 1: four point oh and whatever you happen to major in
Speaker 1: Harvard Law School. I don't think so. But we also
Speaker 1: find out later that Warner also doesn't totally deserve to
Speaker 1: be there, so because Harvard's a fucking like you know,
Speaker 1: Harvard is like sort of known for that sort of
Speaker 1: weird nempotis, Oh, his father gave a call to somebody
Speaker 1: then he I mean, regardless on paper, that scene would
Speaker 1: look in theory like they are naming her qualifications, and
Speaker 1: it ends by saying el Woods Welcome to Harvard. But
Speaker 1: the tone of that scene is very she's hot, we
Speaker 1: got a letter, you know. However, it just I feel
Speaker 1: like it just credits they're protecting this a little bit
Speaker 1: in a way that's like, well, so there's a whole
Speaker 1: lot I want to say about that one. I think
Speaker 1: that is sort of almost a foreshadowing of what happens
Speaker 1: later on, where she learns that she basically only got
Speaker 1: that internship because her professor found her attractive, because he
Speaker 1: makes a pass at her, and then she has this
Speaker 1: whole thing where she's like, garber crap. Law school was
Speaker 1: a mistake. I don't even deserve anything I got because
Speaker 1: we wanted me for my looks and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: which is a whole thing I want to get into later.
Speaker 1: So it's I think foreshadowing that. However, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people would come to Elwood's defense, and I
Speaker 1: think it theirs, because the thing is that she is
Speaker 1: extremely determined, and yes, she does have the resources to
Speaker 1: pay for a nicely produced video essay that a lot
Speaker 1: of people would not have the resources to do because
Speaker 1: like her get We'll get to the class thing too,
Speaker 1: because her class thing is a major thing in this
Speaker 1: but like her sort of advocating for herself as a
Speaker 1: reason that she should be accepted to Harvard in the
Speaker 1: video essay, are not that compelling of reasons because she's
Speaker 1: saying I already use lawyer jargon in everyday use because
Speaker 1: like you see someone cat calling her and then she
Speaker 1: turns out and she's like, I object another iconic from it.
Speaker 1: It's great, But I think that her main qualities in
Speaker 1: the movie that I like her for because I'm not
Speaker 1: necessarily as on board with Ellwoods as maybe you or
Speaker 1: bigger fans of the movie. However, I do appreciate her
Speaker 1: for her determination because she and I think that quality alone,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe not alone, but that because later on
Speaker 1: she she does show a lot of improvement when she
Speaker 1: first gets to law school. By the end, she one thousand.
Speaker 1: Like I mean, even at the midpoint in the movie,
Speaker 1: you're like, Okay, this woman does deserve to be here.
Speaker 1: She's working really hard. And to clarify, I mean at
Speaker 1: the time of this scene, sure, I don't think that.
Speaker 1: It's like by the end, it's like, man, she really coasted,
Speaker 1: Like she works so fucking hard and does a lot
Speaker 1: of amazing stuff. I just mean, in regards to this scene,
Speaker 1: the movie is implying that she is perhaps not being
Speaker 1: admitted for all the right reasons, regardless of who she
Speaker 1: is as a person and the fact that she clearly
Speaker 1: you know, deserves to be there. But this scene kind
Speaker 1: of nags her in a weird way. Right. There's a
Speaker 1: part where these group of men who are deliberating about
Speaker 1: this says something like, oh, well, she's a fashion major,
Speaker 1: is if like that's the reason why she shouldn't be here?
Speaker 1: But then another one says, well, we've never had one
Speaker 1: be for and aren't we always looking for? Diversity is
Speaker 1: clearly not the type of diversity that like admissions board
Speaker 1: people should be considering. But I think that's played as
Speaker 1: a joke. I think so too. Yeah, but I think
Speaker 1: this scene is a comment on how it's so often
Speaker 1: a group of rich, old, straight white men making decisions
Speaker 1: that affect the fate of a whole bunch of different
Speaker 1: types of people. They end up making the right call
Speaker 1: for l because she does prove herself eventually, but it's
Speaker 1: kind of a fluid. But yeah, basically, like I said,
Speaker 1: they accept her because most of the men in this
Speaker 1: room have seen this video of her in her bathing
Speaker 1: suit and been like, yeah, I definitely see her here
Speaker 1: at Harvard. And the implication is it because I want
Speaker 1: to see her here at Harvard, Yeah, and not because
Speaker 1: she necessarily has the qualifications. Because there's one character who
Speaker 1: keeps me like, well, I don't know what about this thing,
Speaker 1: and they're like, no, it's she's a friend of the animal.
Speaker 1: The thing is like that he Okay, not to harbor
Speaker 1: in the scene too much because this is a small
Speaker 1: scene in but yeah, I don't mean to demonize el
Speaker 1: in any way. In that scene. She has no control
Speaker 1: over how these men are viewing her. I do think
Speaker 1: that the movie is implying perhaps at the very beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie, and you could view that as possibly
Speaker 1: like maybe she's not a character of any gender who's
Speaker 1: randomly like, you know, my ex boyfriend's gonna do this,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna go on their exact career path, like
Speaker 1: they probably wouldn't get into a graduate school of the
Speaker 1: career path that's the opposite of what they've been doing,
Speaker 1: just because they decided three weeks before the hell sets
Speaker 1: that they wanted to whatever. El Woods is still a
Speaker 1: great character to be. That scene is weird. It's not
Speaker 1: I don't even think it's bad because I don't I
Speaker 1: don't want to like be like, oh, they're making you know,
Speaker 1: they're not saying exactly what I want to be said,
Speaker 1: and therefore it cannot be a scene in a movie.
Speaker 1: I think it's a lot of commentary, but I don't
Speaker 1: like that it negs the main character, even though she
Speaker 1: overcomes it. Anyways, Yeah, I'm sorry. This is a very
Speaker 1: complex movie. You know. I just realized how many things
Speaker 1: we have to talk about. I'm like, I'm ted, And
Speaker 1: this is Jamie saying that we need to take a
Speaker 1: quick ad break. But we'll be right back to the
Speaker 1: year eighteen in just a second, and we're back to Okay.
Speaker 1: The next thing I want to talk about is while
Speaker 1: she does have a number of female friends in the
Speaker 1: beginning of the movie with her two sorority sisters, one
Speaker 1: we know his name is Margot. I think they both
Speaker 1: have names. We if the second character of the to
Speaker 1: her two main friends in California is named Blinking, you
Speaker 1: would have missed it because we missed it. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I was like trying to pay close attention and I
Speaker 1: never figured it out. So there's the there's a a
Speaker 1: blonde woman whose name is Marco. And I hate that
Speaker 1: I'm reducing women to their hair colors, but because we
Speaker 1: don't know their names, I don't know how those are
Speaker 1: the only time. For the most part, there's are the
Speaker 1: only two types of women we see in this movie
Speaker 1: are blonde. White blonde and white brunette. Were with a
Speaker 1: few but mostly yes. Right, so there the woman with
Speaker 1: like shorter, kind of auburn burnette hair. I don't think
Speaker 1: we ever actually learned her name on screen. I hope
Speaker 1: we do. She does have those friendships, and those are
Speaker 1: two women who support her, except that they're basically supporting
Speaker 1: l in her pursuit of being proposed to buy Warner
Speaker 1: and not necessarily her pursuit of going because whenever L'
Speaker 1: is like, oh, I'm studying for the els ads, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna go to Harvard Law School, and they're like, why
Speaker 1: would you do that? And then there's a phone call
Speaker 1: later on when they again, to be fair, she's never
Speaker 1: displayed an interest in law. Never Yeah, And then but
Speaker 1: there's a scene whenever, like she gives them a call
Speaker 1: and she's like, has he proposed yet? We want you
Speaker 1: to come back so that you can leave law school.
Speaker 1: That scenes sucks. At first. I appreciate how her friends
Speaker 1: in California are supportive of what she's trying. I don't
Speaker 1: think that they should, like, you know, a real friend
Speaker 1: would be like, you don't do that, Like you know,
Speaker 1: like if you were like, hey, I've fallen in love
Speaker 1: with a carpenter, I need to start working in construction
Speaker 1: in Indiana tomorrow, I would say, hold the fund. Actually,
Speaker 1: do not do that. That's a bad idea. However, their
Speaker 1: support of can't discredit them for that. But then when
Speaker 1: even when she does go to Harvard and starts to
Speaker 1: have a vested interest in her own education, that whole
Speaker 1: scene they don't ask about school at all, and it's like,
Speaker 1: the whole scene is about the blonde woman's wedding and
Speaker 1: we miss you, and also we didn't tell you that
Speaker 1: one of us is getting married before we went wedding
Speaker 1: dress shopping, but we're friends. Weird. Anyways, that storyline does
Speaker 1: resolve itself by the two of them showing up in
Speaker 1: her big case of the end a lot of third magic,
Speaker 1: But until then, it's just a whole lot of like
Speaker 1: why are you in law school? Law schools for losers?
Speaker 1: But she to have her displayed in interesting like, which
Speaker 1: is as that does make sense, which is part of
Speaker 1: the problem about a movie where the main character the
Speaker 1: thing that they're not interested in. Also, it seems like
Speaker 1: she was very like I mean, even if we go
Speaker 1: back to that admission scene where she did have all
Speaker 1: these fashion industry based accomplishments, seems like you were passionate
Speaker 1: about that and then she and I mean, it's a
Speaker 1: testament to her intelligence and her character that she's able
Speaker 1: to make a total switch and still excel at it.
Speaker 1: But it's like you seemed like you're doing pretty well,
Speaker 1: like you had a four point oh in this industry
Speaker 1: that you were already working in. But sure old wait
Speaker 1: list showed Warrener, you know, throw all that away. Maybe
Speaker 1: though she gets her law degree and then she ends
Speaker 1: up working in fashion law. You know that branch of
Speaker 1: law off I'm sure exists. I mean, like well, I mean,
Speaker 1: and in terms of like Elwoods character staying always tur
Speaker 1: which I think is why regardless of all the issues
Speaker 1: of like she's a rich white lady with limitless means,
Speaker 1: I think that the reason people connect with this character
Speaker 1: so strongly is she never abandons her interests and her
Speaker 1: like the essence of who she is. At the beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie, we see her grow as a person
Speaker 1: and grow into herself a little bit, but like she doesn't.
Speaker 1: There's not that total Princess Diaries style one eighty from
Speaker 1: I was like this and now I'm the opposite, and
Speaker 1: it's better where Elwood's remains herself and grows as a person.
Speaker 1: I think that. I mean, that's why I like her
Speaker 1: a lot. And even though it's very like God in
Speaker 1: the Machinery at the in the in the scene where
Speaker 1: she's able to extract a murder confession from a brunette
Speaker 1: because of her knowledge of how perms work, which is
Speaker 1: I think a really well written scene and goofy, you
Speaker 1: know see, I think I have some problems with that scene,
Speaker 1: but I mean I think that it's one of those
Speaker 1: things where for me it's like comes down to like
Speaker 1: from an entertainment aspect, I feel like the right choice
Speaker 1: was made of like that is fun to watch, of
Speaker 1: like she's using her knowledge she's had the whole time
Speaker 1: in order to accomplish a new goal. I think that
Speaker 1: that at its core is interesting. I think that on
Speaker 1: the other hand, having her be like really heteronormative girl
Speaker 1: knowledge put a brunette in jail. You know, like that
Speaker 1: not as good because like it would be great to
Speaker 1: see her definitely use the law to put her as
Speaker 1: opposed to using perm knowledge. Character Wise, it makes sense
Speaker 1: to me, right exactly because the movie sets it up
Speaker 1: that like L is the only one who could have
Speaker 1: figured this out because of her knowledge of hair care
Speaker 1: and fashionality, because she's a similar thing happened where a
Speaker 1: character that she's trying to sort of incriminate the pool
Speaker 1: boy whose characters they mightn't remember into but salvataere yeah,
Speaker 1: because he has made the statement that Brook Taylor, the
Speaker 1: person that they're defending in this case, he and her
Speaker 1: were lovers. And she's like, hang on a minute, that
Speaker 1: doesn't check out. And then he says something like yeah,
Speaker 1: he makes a comment on her like product shoes. She's like,
Speaker 1: wait a minute, he can't have had an affair with her.
Speaker 1: He's gay because he knows about product. This movie's queer
Speaker 1: characters are not treated well before we get there. I
Speaker 1: think that the movie does make that commentary of L
Speaker 1: being uniquely qualified to law is made time and time
Speaker 1: again because and again it's set up plot wise, it
Speaker 1: very easily. If the plot had gone literally in any
Speaker 1: other less convenient direction, would not be true and we'd
Speaker 1: see her struggle more. But when the main legal of
Speaker 1: the movie is a sorority sister who the East Coast
Speaker 1: elite have trouble communicating with, L again is the one
Speaker 1: who's uniquely qualified to communicate with her. So to me,
Speaker 1: because we had already seen LB positioned as like she
Speaker 1: is learning and doing very well in law school, and
Speaker 1: it's like accomplishing and doing all the things she should
Speaker 1: be doing. But the twist is she is also able
Speaker 1: to communicate with wealthy blonde women. To me, that tracked
Speaker 1: through the end of like where her wealthy blonde woman
Speaker 1: knowledge was able to put a wealthy brunette woman in jail.
Speaker 1: I don't know. But but even if it is a
Speaker 1: problematic through line, it is a through line sure. I mean,
Speaker 1: like I said, the movie does make a point to demonstrate, Yeah,
Speaker 1: L is the only one that could have won this
Speaker 1: case because of her knowledge about you know, hair and
Speaker 1: fashion that no one else had. And she makes all
Speaker 1: these breakthroughs in this case because her like sisterhood with
Speaker 1: the client and all that stuff. So it's being like, hey,
Speaker 1: this type of woman can be an asset in the world. However, Okay,
Speaker 1: so she does figure out the case by using deductive
Speaker 1: reasoning and using her intelligence just figuring it out law,
Speaker 1: but like maybe not the core of it, but her
Speaker 1: prime skill that makes her figure all this out is
Speaker 1: like a very stereotypical, hyper feminine thing where it's like, yes,
Speaker 1: hair and beauty and vanity kind of thing bugged me
Speaker 1: a little bit, not so much that I still wasn't
Speaker 1: on board with that whole, but it's just it was
Speaker 1: just a little frustrating that, like, and the thing that
Speaker 1: gets her to win the cases marketable, Yeah, like marketable
Speaker 1: traditionally feminine qualities. Like, yeah, she is a tricky character
Speaker 1: because it's like it's very easy to see almost everything
Speaker 1: she does in two very different rice. Again going back
Speaker 1: to the movie, really doubling down on like l is
Speaker 1: herself and this is what is the cause of her succeeding,
Speaker 1: is like sticking to her guns and this sort of
Speaker 1: I guess that weighs into the East Coast Women and
Speaker 1: Vivian in particular, is that where she has this very
Speaker 1: contentious relationship with Vivian for the at least the first
Speaker 1: half of the movie, it's her being herself by honoring
Speaker 1: the sisterhood Delta new vows between she and Brooke that
Speaker 1: wins Vivian's respect. So again, it's like l doing a
Speaker 1: very l thing that ends up winning the respect of
Speaker 1: someone you wouldn't expect And I really like that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: more on that, especially her friendship arc with Vivian and
Speaker 1: then one of the other notable female characters, Enid. So,
Speaker 1: as I said many many moons ago, she has a
Speaker 1: couple of female friendships that are strong and supportive and
Speaker 1: that's great, and then she has another one in Paulette,
Speaker 1: which can talk about in a second. But then she
Speaker 1: has these The movie sort of poises her against these
Speaker 1: couple other female characters who are classmates of her. So
Speaker 1: it's basically saying like, oh, well, these, you know, Vivian
Speaker 1: and l and Enid our classmates, and therefore they're sort
Speaker 1: of in competition because everyone's going to be vying for
Speaker 1: the best grades and these coveted internships and and stuff
Speaker 1: like that. I mean that makes sense, and also that
Speaker 1: it does. However, Vivian is introduced and immediately their enemies
Speaker 1: because the first scene you see Vivian is her being like, yes,
Speaker 1: I agree, professor, she's unprepared kick her out of class,
Speaker 1: and then the scene right after that is yeah. The
Speaker 1: scene right after that is L learning that Vivian and
Speaker 1: Warner are engaged, and then there's a bunch of scenes
Speaker 1: after that where Vivian like makes a point to flaunt
Speaker 1: her engagement to Warner in front of L. So basically,
Speaker 1: even though she's in law school and pursuing alat and like,
Speaker 1: this is a passion of hers that we are meant
Speaker 1: to believe throughout her whole life, unlike L, who just
Speaker 1: decided two months ago, I'm going to go to law school,
Speaker 1: which is that's another Still, it's a fun Victor Garver's
Speaker 1: character sucks, but that's a fun line in the movie Wait,
Speaker 1: which one slightly misogynsts, but it is fun. It's like,
Speaker 1: I do you think she woke up one day and
Speaker 1: was like, oh, go to law school? Because that is
Speaker 1: literally what happened. That is what happened. But so with Vivian,
Speaker 1: we're meant to believe is this passionate about law person.
Speaker 1: Yet the movie spends so much time showing her being
Speaker 1: very petty toward L and basically only caring about her
Speaker 1: engagement to Warner. I think Vivian is a totally dissonant,
Speaker 1: underwritten character as a whole. Again, switching to the other
Speaker 1: side of this, the movie has everyone wanting to be
Speaker 1: firmly in Elwood's corner the entire movie. The way Vivian
Speaker 1: reacts to l in the first third to half of
Speaker 1: the movie is always too much, Like it's always too much,
Speaker 1: hey's my boyfriend now, and like I want you to
Speaker 1: leave class because I don't like you, Like it's too much,
Speaker 1: and they're they're laying it on too thick. Fundamentally, I
Speaker 1: don't think it's fair to demonize Vivian to have it
Speaker 1: seem like how ridiculous that she feels like it's weird
Speaker 1: that her fiance's ex girlfriend uprooted her life to go
Speaker 1: to the same school as him, Right, that's uncomfortable and
Speaker 1: they're forced together over and over. The scene where this
Speaker 1: was clearest to me because there are Vivian, by and
Speaker 1: large overreacts is too mean, goes too out of her
Speaker 1: way to make l unhappy, like, and there's the big
Speaker 1: plot points of like, oh, it's a costing party but
Speaker 1: it's not actually a cost part and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: But there is one scene in which it's another just
Speaker 1: weird bizarrow like okay two thousand one kind of scene
Speaker 1: where L shows up because she wants to join Warner's
Speaker 1: study group, and Vivian is clearly uncomfortable, and I don't
Speaker 1: think the movie wants us on her side, but it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: of course, she's like, you don't want this person who
Speaker 1: objectively would seem perhaps a little unhinged forcing themselves to
Speaker 1: be ready, like I'm fully on Vivian. Vivian's corner in
Speaker 1: that scene, and she is not nice about it, but
Speaker 1: in that particular scene, she's not overly rude about it,
Speaker 1: and L, to her credit, takes the hint and says, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go, And then this very strange thing happens
Speaker 1: that she leaves the scene where Enid the only queer
Speaker 1: female character we see in the movie. I wasn't sure
Speaker 1: if it's like she had heard a rumor that Ellen
Speaker 1: said something, or like was just making an assumption about
Speaker 1: L based on her appearance or what it was, But
Speaker 1: she was basically saying like whatever, like she saidn't like
Speaker 1: like maybe there's like a sorority you can join, like
Speaker 1: making fun of her, like you said, based on her,
Speaker 1: like the way she presents herself in talks and looks,
Speaker 1: and then there's a weird like, oh, wouldn't you call
Speaker 1: me a dyke? And then l makes a very weird choice,
Speaker 1: after just gracefully exciting a tense situation that she caused,
Speaker 1: says I don't use that word, but Vivian probably does,
Speaker 1: and so she's just like, um, I know I can't
Speaker 1: be in the study group. Vivian hates gay people goodbye,
Speaker 1: and you're just like that seems of it Like that's
Speaker 1: because L, again, to that character's credit, does not go
Speaker 1: after Vivian in as rude and antagonistic away that Vivian
Speaker 1: goes after her for part of the movie. Granted, it
Speaker 1: is a major motivation of her to take quote unquote
Speaker 1: Warner from again, it's it's a lot like Warner's should
Speaker 1: have been just allowed to break up with L and
Speaker 1: be an asshole for the rest of his life, but
Speaker 1: then we wouldn't have the movie. So right, A quick
Speaker 1: point I want to make about the way that Enid
Speaker 1: and Vivian, at least in the beginning of the movie,
Speaker 1: and then Vivian has a like a girlfriend character whose
Speaker 1: name I don't think we ever learned, but the three
Speaker 1: of them are all very mean to bitches, right. They
Speaker 1: mock her the way that she looks, in the way
Speaker 1: that she talks, which is suggesting that all of these
Speaker 1: women who are adults and in law school are so
Speaker 1: petty that they are judging L solely on the way
Speaker 1: she presents herself, and you know, they're meant to be vilified.
Speaker 1: And most of these characters come around at the end
Speaker 1: and say I was wrong to judge you like that,
Speaker 1: but it's basically saying, like, look how petty these women
Speaker 1: are for no reason, which was weird to me. And
Speaker 1: then yeah, definitely that scene where Enid's like, you probably
Speaker 1: call me a and say something like weird. If you
Speaker 1: had come to a party, I would have been nice
Speaker 1: to you, which I believe because that is what we like.
Speaker 1: A nice character. L reminds me a lot of share
Speaker 1: from Clueless and even share like chair you know um
Speaker 1: that share no share from Clueless. Who we see share
Speaker 1: who is like I think we talked about on the
Speaker 1: Clueless episode is an example of you know, a rich,
Speaker 1: blonde white girl who we often see sort of vilified
Speaker 1: in movies, but as a nice person who's really who
Speaker 1: sweet and oh that's that's nectually. I didn't even thought
Speaker 1: of the share parallels in this movie, but there are,
Speaker 1: especially with the share lels, the sharp share parallels, and
Speaker 1: the share lels. I accept it um because at the
Speaker 1: top of the movie, when especially when they're on the
Speaker 1: West Coast, people can't start talking about how much money
Speaker 1: they have, where Warner's literally driving beside El in a
Speaker 1: convertible and she's like, I grew up in bel Air.
Speaker 1: I'm not white trash, which is like, um triggered, but
Speaker 1: we are sort of like, oh, you know, L is
Speaker 1: kind of a rich bitch, which she she's rich, but
Speaker 1: she's not a bit and that while again it is
Speaker 1: not the most pressing commentary to be making in a movie,
Speaker 1: I think is generally positive of like L seems. I mean,
Speaker 1: she vocalizes several times she is aware of her own privilege,
Speaker 1: but still works hard and is by and large decent
Speaker 1: to everyone she comes into contact with. And the main
Speaker 1: I mean, granted, this is a very white movie, but
Speaker 1: we do see her come into contact with people who
Speaker 1: are a different class than she is via Jennifer Coolidge's
Speaker 1: character Paulette who is sort of like plays into this
Speaker 1: like white trash New England trope and l never. I mean,
Speaker 1: there's not even an exchange where any judgment is passed
Speaker 1: about her class, So you know, again it's like this
Speaker 1: isn't like we need to be seeing that rich white
Speaker 1: women can be good people. But if that is the
Speaker 1: protagonist of the movie, I appreciate that choice. That brings
Speaker 1: me to a very bizarre scene that happens in the movie,
Speaker 1: which is the Bendon Snap. I love the Bendon Snap
Speaker 1: scene and if you've seen I haven't seen it on
Speaker 1: Broadway because I'm not a millionaire, but I have seen
Speaker 1: videos of it. The Legally Blond musical is banging. It's
Speaker 1: really good. The Bendon Snap song rules. The Bendon Snap
Speaker 1: scene is so weird because it's sort of like, look
Speaker 1: at l Woods teaching these poor women how to do
Speaker 1: this weird thing. I love that thing. Well, the context
Speaker 1: of the scene is like that her teaching these women
Speaker 1: how to appeal to a man better with something that
Speaker 1: looks crazy, because it's like the bend over because you
Speaker 1: drop something and then snap back up and show your
Speaker 1: perky body and it's like really bizarre. It feels so
Speaker 1: out of place in the movie. But it is one
Speaker 1: of the few scenes where you see any women of color,
Speaker 1: but it's they're all Bendon and snap. It's really bizarre.
Speaker 1: And then this gay man comes out at the end,
Speaker 1: or someone who were supposed to perceive as being gay,
Speaker 1: and he says something like, oh the abndon snap and done.
Speaker 1: That cuts to the last ten seconds of these scenes.
Speaker 1: The whole scenes crazy, but the last ten seconds of
Speaker 1: the scene particularly baffling. It's like a woman like breakdancing
Speaker 1: after Benson and snapping, and then cutting to game in
Speaker 1: and like a waiters uniform and Elson bringing something out
Speaker 1: and being like, oh yeah, it's like, oh, Bendon snap,
Speaker 1: cut to two dogs panting and the scene its bonkers bananas.
Speaker 1: I encourage rewatch of that scene. You know, if there
Speaker 1: is something problematic in that scene, I was too sensory
Speaker 1: overloaded to recognize it. It was just it's just a
Speaker 1: weird fucking scene, and to me, one of the best
Speaker 1: parts of the whole movie because the only time that
Speaker 1: Bendon is also to the point of like the scene
Speaker 1: probably should have been cut. The only time the Bendon
Speaker 1: snap scene is brought back is when Jennifer Coolidge's character
Speaker 1: tries it and it doesn't work. It fails because she
Speaker 1: brings we never see a successful bendon sny accomplixed a
Speaker 1: very long scene of it being introduced to forty people
Speaker 1: for some reason, and then the one time it's brought back,
Speaker 1: it breaks someone's nose. But she still manages to quote
Speaker 1: unquote snag that guy, that the ups guy who she
Speaker 1: was interested in, which is perhaps a comment on you
Speaker 1: don't need to do this elaborate movement to attract a mate.
Speaker 1: You can just, I don't know, talk to someone and
Speaker 1: see if they might be interested in you too. Well,
Speaker 1: can we can we tackle the Jennifer Coolish Yeah, because
Speaker 1: she's there's so many females. I mean, this is a
Speaker 1: good problem to have, but there's a lot here. Um yeah, wait,
Speaker 1: let me. We've been recording for about an hour and
Speaker 1: I still have a lot to say that because there's
Speaker 1: a whole callahan, I'm exhausted. Um, this is gonna be
Speaker 1: a two hour episode. It can't be. I literally will
Speaker 1: pass out, Okay, Jennifer Coolidge, Yes, Jennifer Coolidge is our
Speaker 1: resident poor person in this movie. Her name is pault.
Speaker 1: In this movie, L meets her when she has a
Speaker 1: full body panic because she has you know, she's she
Speaker 1: needs and I do. I think character wise, she's seeking
Speaker 1: out something familiar in an unfamiliar place. I do this
Speaker 1: with eyehop everywhere I go Duncan Donuts exactly, like yeah,
Speaker 1: like I understand that. She's like, oh, this is somewhere
Speaker 1: that makes sense to me. It's a character based decision
Speaker 1: that makes a lot of sense. So she meets Jennifer Cold,
Speaker 1: who's a nail technician at this place. Paula introduces herself
Speaker 1: as She's like, I'm a middle aged woman who did
Speaker 1: not graduate from high school. I dated the same man
Speaker 1: for eight years and he randomly left me. This is
Speaker 1: the worst blah blah blah. Like she she clearly finds
Speaker 1: herself to be a very tragic, irredeemable character. Didn't even
Speaker 1: get to celebrate my dog's birthday. Yeah right, she and
Speaker 1: she misses her dog and l at this point in
Speaker 1: the movie is like, yeah, that's pretty freaking sad. I'm
Speaker 1: so sorry that this happens. And then Jennifer cools. I mean,
Speaker 1: her character, I would argue, top to bottom, with the
Speaker 1: exception of one scene, really does not send the right
Speaker 1: message at any point where right after being like, you know,
Speaker 1: she's like one of the only women over forty we've
Speaker 1: see in this movie. I'm assuming I don't know if
Speaker 1: she had, but like her character says, she's middle aged.
Speaker 1: You know, she clearly feels she is a spinster and
Speaker 1: without a man, even though clearly a crummy man because
Speaker 1: he randomly left her without a man. She has no
Speaker 1: prospects or value. L seems to agree with this at first,
Speaker 1: and then before we even find out the next thing
Speaker 1: about that character, Jennifer Coolidge says, you know, she finds
Speaker 1: out about El's predicament and it's like, well, if someone
Speaker 1: is haw does you can't get a man, there's no
Speaker 1: hope for the rest of us, which is like that
Speaker 1: one fucking sucks. And then and then she suggests you've
Speaker 1: got to steal him from Vivian, and it's just like, well,
Speaker 1: this character is really derailing anything positive. But she's the
Speaker 1: only poor person and the only not super young person
Speaker 1: that we and we have the professor, you know, we
Speaker 1: have other stuff, but the most main character that is older.
Speaker 1: The one scene that I would say is really good
Speaker 1: that she's in is there's one scene focus on her
Speaker 1: character where she and L go to the trailer of
Speaker 1: her loser ex boyfriend, who looks and sounds like a loser,
Speaker 1: clearly irredeemable. And I remember that scene clearly, And I
Speaker 1: forgot a lot about this movie, but I remember that
Speaker 1: scene because of how Paula's character behaves in that scene. Really,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like hurt my heart a little bit
Speaker 1: because it felt real in a movie that does not
Speaker 1: very often feel real. She's like psyching herself up to
Speaker 1: go and talk to her ex boyfriend. She's like, this time,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna you know, I'm gonna get what I want
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah, and he opens the door immediately
Speaker 1: is obviously dismissive, an asshole, calls her ugly, basically saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: let's see what I'm not missing out on, and it
Speaker 1: crushes her and she's like clearly very affected by it
Speaker 1: and starts to back down, and you know, like she's
Speaker 1: clearly planned this big confrontation and it sort of like
Speaker 1: devolves into these mumbles, and that was, like, I think
Speaker 1: it was like a beautiful character moment that was very sad,
Speaker 1: and unfortunately L's there and spews out a bunch of
Speaker 1: granted made up, but like we're you know, scares him
Speaker 1: enough that you know their friendship is solidified, and that
Speaker 1: L is able to get Paulette her dog back. I
Speaker 1: like that sounds a great scene to me too, because
Speaker 1: one you see L empowering Paulett and sort of uppresting
Speaker 1: another female character, and it's the first time you see
Speaker 1: L being super lawyery, where there are a few scenes
Speaker 1: before that where she like says the right answer in class.
Speaker 1: That's beginning to see her kind of like, oh, she
Speaker 1: does have a knack for this laughing. And then this
Speaker 1: is a scene where you're like, oh, I do see
Speaker 1: her potential and she's kizing herself because even though she
Speaker 1: wings it, she manages to convince this guy and what
Speaker 1: she's saying is not total nonsense, almost makes total sec right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's clitches. She seemed very lawyery in the moment, and
Speaker 1: we're like it still looked like at once while doing it,
Speaker 1: which is great. I loved I loved that scene. I
Speaker 1: think that that's the peak of Paulett's character, and I
Speaker 1: feel like they sell her out later by you know,
Speaker 1: she has a crush on this UPS guy, which do
Speaker 1: they say Ups like, is that product placement? I think
Speaker 1: they do yea so weird. But anyways, she you know,
Speaker 1: ends up. She has a crush on this ups guy.
Speaker 1: She breaks his nose with the bend and snap, but
Speaker 1: they still end up together. That I think, you know,
Speaker 1: like that is not a negative thing. I just don't
Speaker 1: like that. It's like, Paul, it's clearly in a lot
Speaker 1: of pain from this really bad relationship. She confronts him,
Speaker 1: she gets what she wants, and now she can use
Speaker 1: all this new empowerment to be in a relationship with
Speaker 1: another man. And I just I felt like her character
Speaker 1: was sold out a little bit because that one scene
Speaker 1: with her and Hell was so great for both of
Speaker 1: them that I would have preferred her to. I would
Speaker 1: have preferred to see her finish her high school degree,
Speaker 1: you know, like something like that. That wasn't just like
Speaker 1: now she does right, which maybe she did, but like,
Speaker 1: that's not your attention is called to Oh gosh, she
Speaker 1: broke her nose, but it is her boyfriend now, which
Speaker 1: is funny. But I just like she's a b character,
Speaker 1: but I think she deserved better. I agree, And that's
Speaker 1: a rap on Jennifer Bold. The next character I want
Speaker 1: to talk about is Professor Callahan a k a. Victor Garber,
Speaker 1: and how he is a total scumbag. We start to
Speaker 1: get a clue of this because at first he seems
Speaker 1: like he believes in L and that he you know,
Speaker 1: he sees potential in her because she she speaks up
Speaker 1: in his class and he's like, oh, yeah, she's got
Speaker 1: some good opinions. You and I value her and she's intelligent.
Speaker 1: But then you get some hints that he's maybe not
Speaker 1: so great because he takes on this case of with
Speaker 1: this this Brook Taylor murdering her husband, possibly case that
Speaker 1: he is the defense attorney for, and the whole time
Speaker 1: he's no, I'm pretty sure she killed him. I think
Speaker 1: she's guilty, and like, basically, I think we can take
Speaker 1: away that he does not respect or trust his client
Speaker 1: because she's a young and attractive woman, one who married
Speaker 1: an older man, but not for his money, basically because
Speaker 1: she says flat out, because he's got a good d right,
Speaker 1: but he's just like, well, she's a woman and she's
Speaker 1: young and beautiful. Therefore cannot be taken seriously. Because later
Speaker 1: there's the scene where he makes a pass at L
Speaker 1: but under the pretense of like here, let let's discuss
Speaker 1: your future in your career. What a what a relevant scene?
Speaker 1: What a weirdly relevant scene and in otherwise not super relevant. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's telling her these things, and at first he's like, Oh,
Speaker 1: he's going to hire her to be a part of
Speaker 1: his law firm or something, or you know, he sees
Speaker 1: potential in her as a as a lawyer. But then
Speaker 1: he puts his hand on her knee, which I would
Speaker 1: argue is the equivalent of a surprise kiss. It's not
Speaker 1: a kiss, it's it's a group but it it's unsolicited,
Speaker 1: it is non consensual. And this movie does a great
Speaker 1: job of treating how this type of act should be treated,
Speaker 1: which is, don't touch me. I did not invite you
Speaker 1: to touch me. And in the moment that what she says,
Speaker 1: she says funk off and is clearly like and even vocalizes, oh,
Speaker 1: so you didn't mean anything you just said to me
Speaker 1: about my What I forgot about this sequence that also
Speaker 1: feels just as relevant is that we see the immediate
Speaker 1: that prompts a crisis of faith in herself. That makes
Speaker 1: a lot of sense of like, she is capable. We
Speaker 1: know that we've been watching her develop and do very well,
Speaker 1: but hearing, you know, just for the sake of this
Speaker 1: guy's fucking disgusting inability to respect a woman like she
Speaker 1: doubts everything positive she knows about herself, and it prompts
Speaker 1: her to, I mean, I think, for the sake of
Speaker 1: the plot, immediately abandon any hope of being Alwert. And
Speaker 1: and at that point we're like, well, this is a
Speaker 1: loss for everybody. Like it's just like that was who
Speaker 1: that was like kind of a devastating sequence to Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's sort of very closely parallels a lot of things
Speaker 1: that are happening, you know, in different industries today, where
Speaker 1: it's not unsimilar to all the women who quit comedy
Speaker 1: because Louis c. K jerked off in front of them
Speaker 1: in a hotel room, right, and all the women that
Speaker 1: like left journalism because of people like Matt Lowery and
Speaker 1: Mark Halbert, like all the women who did not go
Speaker 1: into directing and producing because of Halvedy fucking wines, you know,
Speaker 1: every industry. And in this case, it's law, and I
Speaker 1: feel pretty certain that it probably does happen in the
Speaker 1: law community, which any of those industry that men are
Speaker 1: a part of. It happened, which is all industries and
Speaker 1: therefore and they're usually in charge of them too, and
Speaker 1: and seeing that play out is like really hard. And
Speaker 1: then the other thing I forgot that happens is and
Speaker 1: Luke Wilson's character. You know, he's a good character. He's
Speaker 1: a good like Emmett, middle part Emmett, feminist icon loves
Speaker 1: L is good at his job, pretty across the board,
Speaker 1: both a effective, hot and uninteresting character. The thing I
Speaker 1: thought was really cool, if from a plot sense, did
Speaker 1: not make a lot of sense, was that L goes
Speaker 1: to the nail salon to say goodbye, to pull it
Speaker 1: and say like I love you whatever, but this is
Speaker 1: too much. I have to go home because I don't
Speaker 1: believe I can be a lawyer anymore. And somehow we
Speaker 1: haven't talked about this character yet because she's really only
Speaker 1: in two scenes doing very different things. But there is
Speaker 1: an older female law professor who at first is very
Speaker 1: hard on L in a way that is like what
Speaker 1: But she picks her out of her class because she
Speaker 1: didn't read an assignment that L didn't know she had,
Speaker 1: which which I can see happening. What I can't see
Speaker 1: happening is her being like Vivian other character we need
Speaker 1: to meet at some point, should L be forced to leave?
Speaker 1: And Vivian says, yes, I think she should. I was like, well,
Speaker 1: that would never happen in a class. Why would you
Speaker 1: ask another student for consent to dismiss your own stiff?
Speaker 1: I can see L getting kicked out like whatever. That
Speaker 1: was bizarre. So so we're taught to think, oh, she's
Speaker 1: very stern, and that didn't seem like even a gendered
Speaker 1: comment because all the law professors we see are very stern.
Speaker 1: But the second time we see her, she somehow goes
Speaker 1: to the white trash nail salon. That seems a little
Speaker 1: bit out of the way as well. She's in the background.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, sure, but at least they make
Speaker 1: the most of that sort of baffling reveal of remember
Speaker 1: that weird scene from earlier. She's back and she has
Speaker 1: that great line of like if you're letting this, what
Speaker 1: if you're gonna let one stupid prick rue in your life?
Speaker 1: You're not the woman I thought you were, which that
Speaker 1: powers L to be like, you're right, I'm going to
Speaker 1: go back, and that's that's the sort of catalyst that
Speaker 1: makes her return to Brooke and finish the Yeah, Brooke
Speaker 1: hires her to be her defense attorney, and then the
Speaker 1: whole sequence plays out where she solved the case and wins.
Speaker 1: And I think that that was like a really cool
Speaker 1: choice because at that point we've already seen Luke Wilson
Speaker 1: say no, you're great, you should you should stay, and
Speaker 1: he's right. But I think that that is like kind
Speaker 1: of in the interest cassos of how a situation like
Speaker 1: this plays out. Hearing another man say you're great, you
Speaker 1: should stay, It makes sense to me that L would
Speaker 1: be like, thank you, I appreciate that, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: carry the same weight of a successful female lawyer saying no,
Speaker 1: you should be here, And so that I got a
Speaker 1: choked up. I thought was such a cool moment. If
Speaker 1: even if the fact that Professor strongwill high powered lawyer
Speaker 1: goes to the same white trash nails ang L what
Speaker 1: stumbles into I'm assuming in malden By accident makes no
Speaker 1: fucking sense. That was like one of my favorite moments
Speaker 1: in the whole movie. Yes, I do like that. Also,
Speaker 1: not to give any male characters any credit for anything,
Speaker 1: but the sequence plays out where Callahan surprise touches l.
Speaker 1: She has the reaction that we're always hoping to see,
Speaker 1: which is like, oh, are you hitting on me bad?
Speaker 1: Immediately yeah, because he said something like what, I'm just
Speaker 1: a man who knows what he wants. And she responds
Speaker 1: with and I'm a law student who just realized her
Speaker 1: professor is a pathetic asshole. And she gets up, she runs,
Speaker 1: and then she runs into Luke Wilson and tells her like,
Speaker 1: this whole thing was a mistake. Me coming to law
Speaker 1: school was a mistake. And he's like, what are you
Speaker 1: talking about? What? And then she tells him Callahan just
Speaker 1: hit on me. And he believes her immediately, and it's
Speaker 1: like clearly upset by the news, but does not doubt her.
Speaker 1: And then in turn, and this was like a good
Speaker 1: character moment for again, I think the not super well
Speaker 1: written Vivian character where Vivian another lots of fun convenient
Speaker 1: moments taking place in the late second into the third
Speaker 1: act of this movie. But just as Elwoods is surprised
Speaker 1: touched by Victor Garber, Vivian sees that touch happened, does
Speaker 1: not see what happens immediately after, which is l making
Speaker 1: it clear that that is unwelcome. So Vivian there's this
Speaker 1: moment where she's like, she confronts l and an elevator
Speaker 1: and it's like, oh, so you almost had me fooled.
Speaker 1: I almost thought you were, you know, a good, capable lawyer,
Speaker 1: but it turns out, you know, it looks like you're
Speaker 1: fucking the professor. And that's another sort of wrench thrown
Speaker 1: into their friendship that was developing at that point. So
Speaker 1: like that's, you know whatever, that's a plot point to
Speaker 1: Vivian's character's credit. Later in the movie, when Brooke finds
Speaker 1: out l quit, Luke wilson middle part just his part
Speaker 1: is just oiled and shining, just a beam of light
Speaker 1: is coming out of Luke Wilson's middle part in every
Speaker 1: scene he appears in. But he says, you know, she
Speaker 1: quit and the main reason she quit, which again is
Speaker 1: like credit to that character, The main reason she quit
Speaker 1: is because Victor Garber hit on her and she wanted
Speaker 1: no part of it. And immediately Vivian says, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that I've made literally arrested developments out.
Speaker 1: I've made a huge mistake, which is good and again
Speaker 1: tracks with the character of L who even when the
Speaker 1: logline of this movie is not good. She is an
Speaker 1: honest character through, like she doesn't lie to anybody ever,
Speaker 1: and that's like sort of the part of like, that's
Speaker 1: part of her core. So it makes sense that, like,
Speaker 1: of course she would believe her because Victor Garber's character
Speaker 1: is notoriously fucking sus as hell, you know, like yeah,
Speaker 1: Earlier in the movie, Vivian even makes a condiment at
Speaker 1: one point where she's like, do you ever notice how
Speaker 1: Calahan will make you get him coffee but he never
Speaker 1: makes any of the male interns get And then I
Speaker 1: have a conversation about how men are useless, and this
Speaker 1: is sort of the spark of the beginning of their
Speaker 1: friendship because they kind over like Warner being an idiot,
Speaker 1: men being useless and her being a little weightless bit yeah,
Speaker 1: I love. Then the catalyst that gets Vivian to turn
Speaker 1: around from like hating L is that she sees L
Speaker 1: sort of protecting the client because you know, there's the
Speaker 1: whole thing with her alibi and like, I can't reveal
Speaker 1: what my albi is because it would ruin my career.
Speaker 1: And I was like, sure, I will. I will keep
Speaker 1: your secret as safe as I can, and Vivian's like
Speaker 1: that was actually pretty classy, so that makes her respect
Speaker 1: l and opens the channel for that like made me
Speaker 1: feel great. I've had not to be like this is
Speaker 1: like my fucking life right now, but I've had experiences
Speaker 1: like that tour. It's like you just get off on
Speaker 1: the wrong foot with someone, usually because of a man,
Speaker 1: and then later like realized that perhaps the man is
Speaker 1: the big fucking idiot, and it is good and we
Speaker 1: can be friends even though we're different. That scene really
Speaker 1: did it for me. Loved that scene and was a
Speaker 1: good moment for Vivian. I just Vivian at the beginning
Speaker 1: of this movie, just like she. I feel like her
Speaker 1: character is exploited to set up fun scenes. I don't
Speaker 1: think that it is something that tracks with her character
Speaker 1: to be like it's a costume party, see you there.
Speaker 1: I mean that from a studio notes standpoint, is because
Speaker 1: people want to see Reese Weather's been dressed up like
Speaker 1: a bunny. That is why they managed to fit it
Speaker 1: into the plot. But sort of at the expensive Vivian's
Speaker 1: character in that moment. I think there's a few other
Speaker 1: clues that so this is I think it's worth noting
Speaker 1: that this movie was written by two women, Karen McCullough
Speaker 1: and Astin Smith, and it's based on a novel written
Speaker 1: by another woman, Amanda Brown. However, it was directed by
Speaker 1: a man, Robert Luke Headick or something, and I think
Speaker 1: there are clues sprinkled throughout the movie that it was
Speaker 1: in fact directed by a man. Basically, the opening montage
Speaker 1: of the movie is this whole thing where people are
Speaker 1: signing a card for L, which is basically just like
Speaker 1: congrats on probably getting engaged tonight, which doesn't end up happening.
Speaker 1: And um, there's all these shots of her sorority sisters
Speaker 1: and sometimes they're wearing next to nothing and they're in
Speaker 1: a steamy bathroom getting showers or they're like exercise. They're
Speaker 1: just like sexualized and their shots and the like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: the whole visual medium, like the way women, the way
Speaker 1: the sorority girls are framed is very exactly how you
Speaker 1: think the sorority girls will be framed. Nothing is subverted,
Speaker 1: which is weird because I think the whole point of
Speaker 1: the movie is to sort of try to subvert the
Speaker 1: stereotype of you know, a on sorority. Yeah that that
Speaker 1: L's character is, Yeah, but they're like, but actually all
Speaker 1: these other sorority girls, they're still all white head her
Speaker 1: own ormies who are hot and blonde, and we're going
Speaker 1: to frame them like they're basically pieces of meat wearing bikinis.
Speaker 1: Speaking of bikinis, there's another scene where l is like
Speaker 1: outside sunbathing in what's probably like September October in Boston,
Speaker 1: which is not appropriate weather to be sunbathing in, but
Speaker 1: she's got this k babe, but can be. I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just but like I advocate, the point is she's outside,
Speaker 1: she's wearing like a sequin bikini or something. It's basically
Speaker 1: to like show Warner what he's missing out on because
Speaker 1: he's playing football with like all these other dude bros
Speaker 1: outside and they all just like basically stopped playing football
Speaker 1: and just leer at her for a good twenty seconds,
Speaker 1: and she just gives this smile like, Yeah, I'm glad
Speaker 1: that you're all leering at me. And it's like a
Speaker 1: weird choice. I just did the most cursory amount of
Speaker 1: research on this director possible and found out some truly
Speaker 1: insane information. If you don't like so. Director Robert Luketic
Speaker 1: was first of all, was when this movie came out
Speaker 1: the first major director, young director. He was given this
Speaker 1: opportunity because of a short film he had that went
Speaker 1: to Sundance. Which what an exciting male experience to do
Speaker 1: one fucking thing and then be given a massive opportunity. Wow,
Speaker 1: what an amazing thing. That will never happen to us.
Speaker 1: But the movie that he debuted at Sundance and other
Speaker 1: places was called titsian A Booberini. Just again here what
Speaker 1: I said the first time. At age three, Robert Lukendick
Speaker 1: made an eleven minute movie cop Titsiana Booberini. And people
Speaker 1: saw Titsiana Booberini and he said, this guy's going place
Speaker 1: give him off features losing my money, Titsiana Booberini. And
Speaker 1: so I was like, well, what could Titsiana Booberini be about?
Speaker 1: And it's not what you think it's about, but it's
Speaker 1: still bad. It's about shaming women for a different part
Speaker 1: of their body than the title Titsiana Booberini. Would wouldn't
Speaker 1: fly this. This sounds fucking crazy. It won Best Film
Speaker 1: at Aspen Shorts Fest. It won all these awards, and
Speaker 1: without Titsiana Booberini, we don't have legally blonde crazy, which
Speaker 1: you know, maybe was an original working title Bouberini to Okay.
Speaker 1: It's a musical comedy with the story focusing on Titsiana,
Speaker 1: an Italian checkout girl at a suburban supermarket who is
Speaker 1: ridiculed by her fellow employees for her stute upper lip,
Speaker 1: meaning she has a dark she has like a light mustache,
Speaker 1: as do I let us vote right. So so it's
Speaker 1: about a girl with a dark upper lip. The resolution
Speaker 1: to this eleven minute film, Titsiana, is that it's a
Speaker 1: weird Italian joke Titsiana Booberini. There, Titsiana gains new confidence
Speaker 1: and acceptance when she discovers a hair removal treatment, and
Speaker 1: so she it's sorry, that was the most insane Google
Speaker 1: experience life, Titsiana Booberini. What else is there to say?
Speaker 1: We wouldn't have this, so we cannot possibly consider legally
Speaker 1: Blonde a feminist masterpieces Bustle dot com would lead us
Speaker 1: to believe, because it wouldn't exist without Titsie on a Booberini,
Speaker 1: I can't. He also directed Monster in Law, which is
Speaker 1: a j Lo romcom, which is my ship. Also, Jane
Speaker 1: Fonda shines in that movie. It's not a good movie.
Speaker 1: I haven't seen it. But it wouldn't happen with that, TITSI. No,
Speaker 1: I cannot believe that. Okay, okay, we're good. Hey yeah,
Speaker 1: its officially on the movie officially longer than definitely because
Speaker 1: the movie is only an hour and thirty six minutes,
Speaker 1: which I appreciate. Keep it tight, I love a short movie.
Speaker 1: Keep those TITSI on a booberies nice and tight and hairless.
Speaker 1: But what the fun? That's crazy, Titsian. Just a few
Speaker 1: final thoughts. Yeah, blond, I know it's so late and
Speaker 1: we're dying. I wanted to say that Aristotle gets mentioned. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was exciting, but we were like Aristotle, shout out
Speaker 1: to our producer Aristotle. Also, I we touched on this before.
Speaker 1: But there's only really three main male characters, Warner Emmett,
Speaker 1: which is Luke Wilson's character, and Callahan Victor Garber. The
Speaker 1: rest of the characters with speaking roles, of which there
Speaker 1: are many many many are women, which is great. But
Speaker 1: I would say before we call this a women's movie,
Speaker 1: we have to call it a white woman's movie. Yes. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: The only really notable woman of color in the movie
Speaker 1: is the judge, which is great. Yes, that is great.
Speaker 1: There were However, many opportunities for other characters to be
Speaker 1: women of color, other students in law school, women in
Speaker 1: her sorority women anywhere else in the movie. There. Fortunately,
Speaker 1: there's no lack of women in this movie, no excuse
Speaker 1: for them to not be women of all shape sides,
Speaker 1: of colors and in that van. And we've already touched
Speaker 1: on this too, but there are two notable queer characters
Speaker 1: in the movie, and neither of them really get fair treatment.
Speaker 1: The movie is really subscribing to, like some pretty problematic
Speaker 1: stereotypes in the way that they portray the lesbian character Enid,
Speaker 1: and the gay guy's name is Salvator, right, um, because like,
Speaker 1: the gay guy knows about fashion and that's what incriminates him,
Speaker 1: and the lesbian is like this shrewy woman studies male
Speaker 1: hating feminists perfectly right where especially Enid character falls into
Speaker 1: I mean, both of these characters are literally handicapped by
Speaker 1: their own queerness by the plot where Salvator is not
Speaker 1: able to pull off his little scheme because of his queerness.
Speaker 1: In a scene that I do think it's very funny,
Speaker 1: where Luke Wilson's like bla blah blah blah blah, blah,
Speaker 1: what was your boyfriend's name? And then he's like, whatever
Speaker 1: is the Chuck? Chuck? And then Chuck is there there,
Speaker 1: He's like what the hell. It's like, Chuck, why are
Speaker 1: you because why are you playing party to this? Chuck?
Speaker 1: You deserve better than this Chuck. Salvatore is a little sneak,
Speaker 1: but because he says something like I misunderstood. He's just
Speaker 1: a friend of mine. And then and then Chuck stands up.
Speaker 1: He's like, you bitch. It's like, wow, Chuck is drawn
Speaker 1: aline in the which Chuck deserves better obviously, we also Chuck,
Speaker 1: why are you there, buddy? Like is it a money thing?
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that you're thinking? But his Salvatore
Speaker 1: is literally handicapped by his own queerness. Bad Enid. She
Speaker 1: does not fail in the movie. Isn't quite in the
Speaker 1: spectacular fun way that Salvator fails, but you really don't
Speaker 1: see her speak in a scene where she just she
Speaker 1: can't stop talking about the fact that she's a lesbian,
Speaker 1: like she's just like it's a cartoon character. Although I
Speaker 1: did I enjoy the moment where she's talking to Luke Wilson,
Speaker 1: who is I guess at this I think the movie
Speaker 1: tricks you into thinking that he's a law student, and
Speaker 1: then later there's this reveal it's like, no, he's actually
Speaker 1: an associate at this No, he's just hanging out with
Speaker 1: a bunch of law kids. A whole anyway, So he's
Speaker 1: in with a bunch of students and you know, it
Speaker 1: is talking to him and she's like, oh, the whole
Speaker 1: semester is a male term. I'm gonna petition for them
Speaker 1: to be called oh Vester's from now on. And I
Speaker 1: was like, that's the type of thing that I would
Speaker 1: probably say, so I get it, or I would at
Speaker 1: least tweet as a joke. But anyway, Um, the very
Speaker 1: few people of color in this movie, the very few
Speaker 1: queer characters you see, are not done justice at all
Speaker 1: by the movie. I will say that I enjoy that
Speaker 1: there are several female characters and most of them are white,
Speaker 1: who are law professors at the most prestigious school in America.
Speaker 1: The prosecuting attorney in the courtroom scenes is a woman.
Speaker 1: The courtroom as with most interesting But it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily like a statement to have a male
Speaker 1: salon with a lot of female characters that are certainly
Speaker 1: not a statement to have a sort already full of
Speaker 1: a lot of female characters. The courtroom thing felt like,
Speaker 1: oh cool, yeah, she's a woman, and the prosecuting attorney
Speaker 1: who does most and granted she's clearly poisoned. This character
Speaker 1: who does not, like many of the characters in the movie,
Speaker 1: take l seriously and whenever she's like, yeah, let this
Speaker 1: first year law student, but trying to defend her to
Speaker 1: find that kind of point L's outfit, you know, it's like,
Speaker 1: it makes sense, it makes it's not an illogical Okay,
Speaker 1: do we have anything else to say before it passes
Speaker 1: the Bechtel test? Obviously? In fact, I stopped. There are
Speaker 1: many scenes where women are talking where they are talking
Speaker 1: about any number of male characters, oftentimes Warner and some
Speaker 1: other people. But I stopped. I stop being able to
Speaker 1: even keep track of the scenes where women are interacting
Speaker 1: and saying things that passed the Bechtel tests, which is
Speaker 1: because there are so many. My only criticism is that
Speaker 1: this movie has trouble. I can't I don't even know
Speaker 1: if it's like the issues, They're just not enough male
Speaker 1: characters to have this be an issue for them as well.
Speaker 1: But the movie is like not great at naming their characters,
Speaker 1: but there are so many, so it takes a while
Speaker 1: for it to pass our version of the test because
Speaker 1: there story sisters don't have names, But it passes handily,
Speaker 1: although there are several times where two women are talking
Speaker 1: to each other but they're being really mean to each other,
Speaker 1: which like, I don't like that. But there's like one
Speaker 1: see in particular where like Vivian says to L, nice
Speaker 1: outfit when she shows up in the bunny costume, and
Speaker 1: then L says, thanks, you too, accept that when I
Speaker 1: dress up as a frigid bitch, I try to not
Speaker 1: to look so constipated, and it's like, wow, feminism. And
Speaker 1: then and then the last line is you have the ring.
Speaker 1: You're just like, oh, how does this scene? The other
Speaker 1: thing I did want to say about that is that
Speaker 1: I really I feel like we were robbed of a
Speaker 1: scene where L and Vivian kind of reconciled because it
Speaker 1: leaves off where Vivian realizes she's made a huge mistake
Speaker 1: because she misinterprets what she saw happening between Callahan and L.
Speaker 1: But then we don't really get to see any sort
Speaker 1: of apology or reconciliation there kind a minute out of
Speaker 1: the forty five bended snap sequence and give us that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I also would have speaking to let's write Vivian a
Speaker 1: little bit better. I would have liked to see Vivian
Speaker 1: confront Warner as well, because because clearly there's a lot
Speaker 1: to unpacked there, and we found out midway through the
Speaker 1: movie that Vivian doesn't take Warner seriously either. Shall we
Speaker 1: write the movie, Bob, Yeah, I'm gonna give it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say this is like a three nipple or like
Speaker 1: a lost blood. I've also lot of blood this week.
Speaker 1: My larynx is literally torn to shreds. Anyway, Okay, so
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give this movie three nipples. Um, it might
Speaker 1: deserve higher and might deserve lower. I'm not really sure.
Speaker 1: To me, it's still like it's a movie in which
Speaker 1: the character in the third act is very empowered and
Speaker 1: she ends up realizing the thing that she was pursuing
Speaker 1: for the wrong reasons is her calling and that she
Speaker 1: is good at it and that she is passionate about it,
Speaker 1: and that's great. However, the whole first very long chunk
Speaker 1: of the movie is her pursuing something for the very
Speaker 1: wrong reasons. So that's a little frustrating to watch. Also,
Speaker 1: we had the whole discussion about a movie that's kind
Speaker 1: of trying to like dismantle and subvert the tropes and
Speaker 1: the stereotypes of a blonde, hot sorority girl, which she's
Speaker 1: also but because the movie is just so fucking pink
Speaker 1: to me, it almost reads is like those like big
Speaker 1: brand pens that were like these are for women because
Speaker 1: they're pink, and it's like, there's a movie for women
Speaker 1: because look how pink it. There is a level ref
Speaker 1: feinism to this movie that isn't as egregious as it
Speaker 1: could be, but it's present. It's there, The product placement
Speaker 1: is there. I'm with you, you're both having a stroke. Um, so, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's certainly some problems. I do like the third act
Speaker 1: of the movie, when basically there's the whole turn of
Speaker 1: her coming into her own but not necessarily abandoning who
Speaker 1: she is as a person. But she's empowered and she's
Speaker 1: found her calling accidentally slashed by stalking her ex boyfriend.
Speaker 1: But it works out, so that's good, I guess. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So three nipples, one of them belongs to Bruiser, the
Speaker 1: dog love Bruiser. I usually hate movie dogs, as you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think Bruiser should have been a cat,
Speaker 1: in which case I would have given the movie eight nipples,
Speaker 1: and all of them would have been to the bruiser
Speaker 1: of the cat in cat facts or whatever whatever I
Speaker 1: usually say. But one of them goes to Bruiser and
Speaker 1: the other two one to pull it, And I'm going
Speaker 1: to give one to Professor Stromwell, the strong independent woman
Speaker 1: who empowers l at the end to not quit law
Speaker 1: school and to be the lawyer she was meant to be. Yes, Queen, Queen, Yes,
Speaker 1: we love it. I'm so tired. Okay, So what do
Speaker 1: I have left? What do I have left? We're so
Speaker 1: close to the end. Do I have left in my
Speaker 1: body that it's stolen from me? At this point I
Speaker 1: think I decid my having crises. Okay, I have to
Speaker 1: give this movie two and a half nipples. As much
Speaker 1: as I do genuinely like it and think it's generally
Speaker 1: it is coming from the right place, I would be
Speaker 1: lying if I said that, Oh God, what is the
Speaker 1: name of the movie again? Legally blond No, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: the movie You just forgot what we've been talking about.
Speaker 1: I've been bullshit. No, the iconic film that came before it,
Speaker 1: uh Titsiana boober I would be lying if I said
Speaker 1: that the reveal that Titsiana Booberrelli led to this movie
Speaker 1: The Man didn't impact my general view of it. I
Speaker 1: hope in affectors do. That's a pretty horrifying rug to
Speaker 1: have pulled out from underneath you. It's like finding out
Speaker 1: that like Moanna wouldn't have been made if there wasn't
Speaker 1: like Dick Rangers. For like the director of Dick Rangers
Speaker 1: four hadn't made a snapchat video that had won an
Speaker 1: award It's Sundance. I just it's upsetting. My main issue
Speaker 1: with this movie for all the little stuff we picked
Speaker 1: apart which is valid, not to make our job sound useless.
Speaker 1: That Sagan bitching we just did moment one. I don't
Speaker 1: like the message this communicates to its very young audience
Speaker 1: that an appropriate way to deal with a breakup as
Speaker 1: a young person is to not accept a breakup. That
Speaker 1: is such a horrible idea. And I embarrassingly did this
Speaker 1: exact thing in high school because I'd seen movies like
Speaker 1: this where it works out for me. I took a
Speaker 1: bus to Connecticut. It did not work out. It was
Speaker 1: deeply embarrassing. I think about it easily once a day there.
Speaker 1: But I mean, like speaking to that larger thing, I
Speaker 1: am not alone in having done something like that because
Speaker 1: of movies like this that convey the message just basically
Speaker 1: empowering unhealthy behaviors. And even though it is positive, obviously
Speaker 1: the el's plan to win warnerback does not work out,
Speaker 1: and does not work out for the right reasons. The
Speaker 1: fact that she still does have this new, fulfilling life
Speaker 1: because of this deeply flawed, problematic plan is just not
Speaker 1: a good message to be sending to children who don't
Speaker 1: know anything. Just remember, they will believe what hot people
Speaker 1: tell them. Like that's just how children very easily influenced.
Speaker 1: And the reason we do this podcast is because movies
Speaker 1: do have a significant impact on our the way that
Speaker 1: we yeah. So the fact that so many movies portray
Speaker 1: romantic relationships is like or breakups is like, well, the know,
Speaker 1: the way I'm going to win him or her back
Speaker 1: is to stock them for a long time. And sometimes
Speaker 1: in movies that works and it's like it happened, And
Speaker 1: I can't think of an example top of dumb, but
Speaker 1: there are a lot of examples of men doing this
Speaker 1: to women in movies as well, probably more. It's just
Speaker 1: not good. It's like right up there with my least
Speaker 1: favorite movie setups, right up there with the let me
Speaker 1: kidnap and re educate a woman and then we'll be
Speaker 1: in love. They're just I just don't like the foundation
Speaker 1: of this movie. To me, along with Tensiana, Boobarella is
Speaker 1: deeply flawed. I can't deal with it. L Woods, I
Speaker 1: think it's an awesome character. Most of the female characters
Speaker 1: have elements of great characters but are not fully fleshed out,
Speaker 1: possibly because the narrative is a little saturated with a
Speaker 1: lot of characters. Anyways, I like the movie. I'm so
Speaker 1: tired two and a half nipples. I've given one to Elwoods.
Speaker 1: She fucking earned it. I'll give a nippy to pull
Speaker 1: it as well, because she deserved better. And I'll give
Speaker 1: my last half nip to Vivian. No no inspired awards here,
Speaker 1: just giving it to people who are in them. Well. Also,
Speaker 1: I wanted to known I literally had a physical response
Speaker 1: to you, says, so that's our way, way, way, way
Speaker 1: too long, and I'm sorrnest I not sorry. You, just
Speaker 1: so you know, this is a far better product than
Speaker 1: we were originally delivering, which is us drunkenly slowly about
Speaker 1: how we like Titanic. Yeah, so for maybe a half hour,
Speaker 1: and you're welcome that you're not listening to that garbage,
Speaker 1: physically winded, just like, yeah, we got to go to
Speaker 1: bed time. I hope you enjoyed this. I think you should.
Speaker 1: You you fucking should. That was a lot of nuances
Speaker 1: we did. We didn't. In fact, I feel like if
Speaker 1: we had cut it any shorter, we would have left
Speaker 1: out some valuable discourse. So here we are giving it
Speaker 1: to you straight, to all you, marian. We'll try not
Speaker 1: to make all their episodes this long, but hey, they
Speaker 1: don't care. Who knows what will happen? Do you love
Speaker 1: it to it? They're sick? All right? Well, yes, I
Speaker 1: hope you're not too tired. Happy, happy New Years and
Speaker 1: good time tidings to you, good job wah and a
Speaker 1: happy bality. So that was our unlocked Matron episode, available
Speaker 1: now on the main feed on the film legally Blonde,
Speaker 1: And we don't get used to it. Don't get used
Speaker 1: to it. All the other ones are. They're staying there,
Speaker 1: they're they're locked in the Disney vault, except the Bechtel
Speaker 1: the Bechtel Vault. But yes, thank you for listening. We
Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed it. It was fun for us to
Speaker 1: revisit as well. Um and just like there's no better
Speaker 1: like legally it's a good time to watch legally Blonde,
Speaker 1: and now in history's darkest hour, it's a fun time
Speaker 1: to watch legally Blonde. Indeed, so thank you for listening. Uh.
Speaker 1: You can find us online in all the normal places.
Speaker 1: You can find us on Instagram and Twitter at Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 1: You can of course join the damn Matreon Patreon dot
Speaker 1: com slash Becktel Cast. There's other stuff. I just remembered
Speaker 1: another theme we did, Revenge bur Oh yeah, every every title.
Speaker 1: The titles are horrific. I love them so much. There's
Speaker 1: but we've done a lot and then and then we'll
Speaker 1: also do like annual Oscar roundups and stuff like that,
Speaker 1: so a little a little more niche fun stuff going
Speaker 1: on over there. Um, So I hope you enjoyed this,
Speaker 1: And you can also get our merchant t public dot
Speaker 1: com slash the Bechdel Cast, and we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Gang ye