Speaker 1: On the Bell Cast, the questions asked if movies have women?
Speaker 1: And um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Speaker 1: Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing
Speaker 1: it with the beck Del Cast. Hey Jamie, Hey Caitlin,
Speaker 1: it's me Magical Caitlin, and I decided to give up
Speaker 1: podcasting and go back to my roots, which is dancing,
Speaker 1: and I want to join you on the little road
Speaker 1: trip you're taking to the Stripper Convention and we're going
Speaker 1: to do a show together. Okay, Well, Hey, well, I
Speaker 1: don't know. It's not that simple. I think that you
Speaker 1: have to let me punch you in the stomach before
Speaker 1: we can really we got to resolve this. We have,
Speaker 1: we have. We're in masculine crisis and I would just
Speaker 1: feel better if I could physically attack you. Okay, is
Speaker 1: that cool? Yeah, that's cool. That's just Florida rules. Baby
Speaker 1: is what is at Florida? That's a masculine Florida greeting. Um,
Speaker 1: we'll go to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Magical
Speaker 1: Jamie and I'm Magical Caitlin, and this is our magical
Speaker 1: show in which we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens,
Speaker 1: using the Bechtel test as a jumping off point to
Speaker 1: initiate a larger conversation. That's true, what's to tell you
Speaker 1: what it is? Okay? Yeah, well at Bechtel test. A
Speaker 1: Bechtel test, and the is I guess that that's true
Speaker 1: because there's a bunch of different kinds. It's a media
Speaker 1: matric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the
Speaker 1: Bechtel Wallace Test. A lot of versions of the test.
Speaker 1: It was originally created as a one off bit in
Speaker 1: Alice and Betel's amazing comic strip Dikes to Watch Out
Speaker 1: for having recommend And now it's sort of used as
Speaker 1: a way of telling if there's more than one woman
Speaker 1: in the movie. So here's the version of the test
Speaker 1: we use. Um our test requires that there be two
Speaker 1: characters with names of a marginalized gender talking to each
Speaker 1: other about something other than a man for two lines
Speaker 1: of dialogue or more. Should be a you know, meaningful dialogue.
Speaker 1: Make of that what you will. A lot of movies pass,
Speaker 1: a lot of movies don't. But today, you know, today's
Speaker 1: a magical episode. I feel I feel good about today.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I I kind of always because we've
Speaker 1: covered the original, we've covered Magical Michael as a live show,
Speaker 1: as a live show in which I danced on top
Speaker 1: of you. I was wondering if you would bring that up,
Speaker 1: because I've been thinking about it all day. It's been
Speaker 1: on my mind. And now we're covering Magical Michael Extra
Speaker 1: extra Large, and I just forgot what what a good
Speaker 1: mood I'm in when I'm watching these dou faces gyrate
Speaker 1: and learn a little less than about life. Tell me
Speaker 1: about it. I just love it. And we have an
Speaker 1: amazing guest to discuss Magical Michael Extra extra Large with
Speaker 1: us today. We certainly do. She's a super producer at
Speaker 1: my heart, works on The Daily Zigeist and Last Culture Stas.
Speaker 1: It's Beccaramos. Hello, Hello, Oh my god, you guys, I
Speaker 1: am so stoked to be here. First of all, because
Speaker 1: this is a little little dream. If I can indulge
Speaker 1: you in a little story of my history with the
Speaker 1: Bechdel Cast, the show. Oh my gosh, this is probably
Speaker 1: one of the podcasts I've listened to the longest, Like
Speaker 1: I've been a Bechdel head, probably since you guys started,
Speaker 1: and I actually went to you You're the only podcast
Speaker 1: I've paid to see live. I've paid to see y'all
Speaker 1: in Portland, and I went to the New York show,
Speaker 1: the last one y'all did before COVID. I had just
Speaker 1: moved to New York, and I was like, oh man,
Speaker 1: I don't know anybody here, and I don't have any
Speaker 1: plans tonight, and I'm feeling really lonely and really sad,
Speaker 1: and I just like I was looking at things to
Speaker 1: do in New York and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: the Bechtel Cast is doing a live show. So I
Speaker 1: just bought a ticket and I like went after work. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I've been a listener. I'm wearing a Becktel shirt
Speaker 1: because my sweet sweet partner was like, I want to
Speaker 1: take you to go see the Betel Cast live in
Speaker 1: l A for Christmas, but then, you know, we unfortunately
Speaker 1: couldn't make the trip. But yeah, so I just want
Speaker 1: to give you all a little fangirl moment of mine
Speaker 1: to be here. I am gushing, that's so nice. Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, we're so happy to have you. This is
Speaker 1: so exciting. Yes, I'm so excited. I don't even remember
Speaker 1: what the show was in Portland, but I do remember
Speaker 1: going by myself because I was like, no one listens
Speaker 1: to my podcast, so I'm gonna go by myself. And
Speaker 1: I took myself on a little date, took myself to
Speaker 1: dinner when because the Betel cast, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: this is too stressule. There's too many people here after
Speaker 1: the end of the show, you know, so I just
Speaker 1: left and I was like my little two hours. I'm
Speaker 1: excited to come back to New York so we can
Speaker 1: actually like see you at some point. Yes, I think
Speaker 1: that that Portland show wouldn't have been fun Club. Was
Speaker 1: that what we did? Yes, it was fight Club and
Speaker 1: I had never seen fight Club. I didn't even see
Speaker 1: it for the show. I was just like, I just
Speaker 1: want to go through the back podcast. I think that
Speaker 1: we were so like learning that was such a fun episode.
Speaker 1: And also I think after that when we were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we shouldn't choose like really complicated for live shows, but
Speaker 1: it was so much fun. And that theater is so
Speaker 1: cool anyways, that theater is really fun. Yeah, I love
Speaker 1: that theater in Portland. And at the time of this
Speaker 1: episode's release, we will have just done a few shows there.
Speaker 1: So with Sarah Marshall and now we can say Robert Evans, Um,
Speaker 1: she'll be a fun little treat. I can't wait to
Speaker 1: get that man in a hand in Montana Wig. It's
Speaker 1: just gonna feel good. Um, Oh my gosh. Well, we're
Speaker 1: so happy to have you here. We didn't know that.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. We're so happy to have you and exciting.
Speaker 1: We're talking about Magical Michael XXL. What's your what's your relationship?
Speaker 1: Your your history with the movie. So the first movie
Speaker 1: came out, like o G. Magic Mike when I was
Speaker 1: a senior in high school, so I was probably freshly seventeen,
Speaker 1: and I feel like I saw it with some girlfriends,
Speaker 1: like some high school friends. But as I was telling
Speaker 1: Caitlin off Pod, I revisited this movie after I had
Speaker 1: watched XXL for this, I was like, Okay, well, let
Speaker 1: me just like watch Magic Mike to see if there's
Speaker 1: any like true connection. I know it's technically a sequel,
Speaker 1: but I don't remember there being a lot of like
Speaker 1: through And so I watched Magic Mike after I watched
Speaker 1: Magic My xx L, and I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: know if I've ever seen this movie. I was like,
Speaker 1: I know a lot about it. I remember certain bits
Speaker 1: and pieces, but there was a lot of moments I
Speaker 1: was like, I don't remember this at all. But then
Speaker 1: to say my history, Magic my xx L. It came
Speaker 1: out summer, so I was a sophomore going to my
Speaker 1: junior of college, and I distinctly remember seeing it with
Speaker 1: some sorety sisters. Like that summer. It was like a
Speaker 1: raunchy you know, like my first real summer, like as
Speaker 1: a young adult on my own. Like I was living
Speaker 1: in way Go, which is where I went was cool
Speaker 1: yuck for the summer, you know, I was like interning.
Speaker 1: I was working like three jobs so I could pay
Speaker 1: my rent. I was like, I'm having a fun working
Speaker 1: girl summer um. And then I've probably watched it a
Speaker 1: few times since because it's it's a wrong it's fun
Speaker 1: on the rampo meter. That's that's so. It really is like,
Speaker 1: because we're going to release this episode like to line
Speaker 1: up with the third movies release, and it does seem
Speaker 1: like kind of like almost an anthology series movie exactly.
Speaker 1: They're all kind of a different genre. Like this next one,
Speaker 1: I kind of love it where it's like this next
Speaker 1: one takes place in London and it seems like magic
Speaker 1: Mike is the only continuous character, and I have no
Speaker 1: problem with I don't know. I was like, Okay, there's
Speaker 1: the Magical Michael movie. It's like glass Onion and like
Speaker 1: what was the one before Yeah knives out? You know,
Speaker 1: like very like you have one character and then you're
Speaker 1: just kind of forming new adventures with you know, a
Speaker 1: new cast each time, which I have no problem with that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like it. Yeah. I was like, it's it's cool
Speaker 1: and and this is the this is the Buddy road
Speaker 1: Trip version of that movie, and I loved it. Wait, so, Jamie,
Speaker 1: what's your history with the movie? I hadn't seen it. No,
Speaker 1: I was, um, I was not tapped into the Magical
Speaker 1: Michael cinematic universe before we covered it last year, and
Speaker 1: then I knew we would cover the second one, so
Speaker 1: I sort of I was very tempted to watch it,
Speaker 1: but I mean, fortunately slash Unfortunately, I would have had
Speaker 1: to rent it. And when I was introduced with a
Speaker 1: three dollar stumbling block, I was like, all right, I'll
Speaker 1: just wait. So I did just wait, and I wasn't disappointed.
Speaker 1: I had. I mean, it's like I enjoyed this movie
Speaker 1: a lot in a lot of the same ways that
Speaker 1: I enjoyed the first one, and then also in a
Speaker 1: lot of different ways. I thought it was like a
Speaker 1: cool kind of building out and like sort of course
Speaker 1: correcting some of the stuff about the first movie that
Speaker 1: we weren't so wild about out. You know, not a
Speaker 1: perfect but it's just like it's such a good ROMP movie.
Speaker 1: It made me feel so good. It's like two hours
Speaker 1: of like fun for play. Like it's just like it's
Speaker 1: all for play. Um. The Donald Glover character, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I was just like he was like four played the man. No, y'all.
Speaker 1: When I watched this, I was like, I forgot how
Speaker 1: many people were in this movie. I forgot that. I mean,
Speaker 1: I vaguely remember Jada Piggins in this movie, Elizabeth Banks
Speaker 1: of this movie, Donald Glovers in this movie. I forgot
Speaker 1: Eric Delco of c S I, Miami Face, tray Hand
Speaker 1: like Michael Strahand Twitch, Rest and Peace. But so many
Speaker 1: people are in this movie. Wild Yeah, I was really
Speaker 1: it seems like um, Steven Soderbergh called in every favor
Speaker 1: that he had for this for this one, and it
Speaker 1: was like, I mean it were I don't know. I
Speaker 1: thought it was so Funnyeah. They were like we must
Speaker 1: trade up from Matthew McConaughey, you know, and thank goodness,
Speaker 1: like they were like get rid of one, gain eight
Speaker 1: and it's like, you can't really do much better than
Speaker 1: Jada Pinkett Smith. Like I kind of I think that
Speaker 1: this movie did like an amazing thing, which is because
Speaker 1: it is like Dallas is like a very iconic character,
Speaker 1: but I totally forgot about him by like you didn't
Speaker 1: need him at all in this movie. And the kid
Speaker 1: who was like, I mean, God bless him, but like
Speaker 1: that kid Alex Petty for they were just trying to
Speaker 1: make him happen over and over and over and it
Speaker 1: just wasn't happening, and they're like, we gotta get him
Speaker 1: out of here, and so what's his face? Who did Elvis?
Speaker 1: I feel like they were like coming up at the
Speaker 1: same time, and he became awesome. Butler, you know, surpass
Speaker 1: Alex Pettifer. They are kind of the same man in
Speaker 1: a way. For the longest time, I only knew Austin
Speaker 1: Butler as m Vanessa Hudgens's boyfriend boyfriend. Yes, and that's
Speaker 1: as you should know him. I hope that if he
Speaker 1: will not win an Oscar I mean and I hope,
Speaker 1: you know, I guess maybe I'm saying I hope he doesn't.
Speaker 1: It doesn't feel earned. You know, he can do other
Speaker 1: stuff and and maybe win for that, but but not this.
Speaker 1: But it would be fun if they brought him to
Speaker 1: the stage as Vanessa Hudgens boyfriend, because that is still
Speaker 1: his most iconic role. Well, Caitlin, what's your history with
Speaker 1: Magic Mike XXL? I gotta now, Well, I will tell you.
Speaker 1: I saw it shortly after it came out, I think
Speaker 1: just once or twice. I very distinctly remember a few
Speaker 1: different scenes in it, such as the scene where Channing
Speaker 1: Tatum parkours all over his workshop and then has sex
Speaker 1: with his work bench. Really, I distinctly remember the scene
Speaker 1: where he goes to Jada Pinkett Smith's characters mansion place
Speaker 1: and Magical Michael dances all over the place there. I
Speaker 1: distinctly remember the scene where he goes to Andy McDowell's
Speaker 1: house and everyone just like talks about their sex lives.
Speaker 1: So there were a few scenes that I that were
Speaker 1: kind of just like seared into my memory. But I
Speaker 1: hadn't seen it in several years, and it was a
Speaker 1: joy to revisit it's really so. I mean, Matt Bomer
Speaker 1: really is Bomber or Bomber was like I could not say.
Speaker 1: He still that scene for me where he remembered the
Speaker 1: lesson that Donald Glover taught him and then he sang
Speaker 1: his beautiful song. And there's so many parts of this
Speaker 1: movie that we're I mean, I don't know, it's complicated,
Speaker 1: but also like every time I had a complicated thought,
Speaker 1: I was like, I kind of like was banishing it
Speaker 1: from my mind because I was just like, I just
Speaker 1: want to enjoy this. Yeah, it's kind of a challenging
Speaker 1: factal cast watch because I didn't want to think too
Speaker 1: hard about anything. Oh yeah, it's like after watching the
Speaker 1: first one, after I watched this one, you can see
Speaker 1: where they try to correct some of the issues they
Speaker 1: may have made in the first one, but they were
Speaker 1: still like of the time being fifteen not quite correct, right,
Speaker 1: And I guess we'll talk about them. Job to get
Speaker 1: into every every time we make a criticism, we're also
Speaker 1: allowed to be like, but that's that. I was very horny.
Speaker 1: It's complicated. Yeah, exactly. Okay, shall I do the recap
Speaker 1: of the movie. Yes, let's go, let's get Yes, feel
Speaker 1: free to sound and oh my gosh, wait, this is
Speaker 1: another problematic favorite oars James Cameron and Caitlin and I
Speaker 1: sent this story to you, I know I did. Where
Speaker 1: James Cameron said that he is so locked in when
Speaker 1: he's filming Avatar movies that someone needs to sound and
Speaker 1: a wuga sound if they want his attention on set.
Speaker 1: And I would just like to bring that energy to
Speaker 1: this episode for any part that made you specifically like horny.
Speaker 1: If you're willing to disclose, feel free to sound the
Speaker 1: wua and everyone will know James that your else. But
Speaker 1: that could be interesting. You know, he really responds to
Speaker 1: the Auga. He really does. Um. Okay, wait, let's take
Speaker 1: a break real quick and then we will come back
Speaker 1: for the recap. Okay, so here here we go Auga's
Speaker 1: and all we see Mike AK magic, Mike AK, magical Michael.
Speaker 1: That's Channing Tatum. Famously, it has been three years, I
Speaker 1: believe since he left stripping. He is now running his
Speaker 1: own furniture company where he designs and builds furniture and
Speaker 1: delivers it to his clients. He then gets a call
Speaker 1: from Tarzan, which wait, did we notice that the apartment
Speaker 1: is the same apartment from the first movie, like Brooks
Speaker 1: apartment from the first movie. Doesn't it look very similar? No,
Speaker 1: I didn't watch the first one. Okay, see I did
Speaker 1: watch the first one, So I do think they are
Speaker 1: using her apartment from the first movie. Well do you
Speaker 1: think that he got her apartment in the breakup? Well
Speaker 1: maybe she moved on to bigger and better things. What
Speaker 1: was sad though, because I felt like his apartment was
Speaker 1: really nice, except for, obviously in the first movie getting
Speaker 1: destroyed by those drug lords. But he had a very
Speaker 1: nice apartment. Yeah. I didn't even put that together. He
Speaker 1: had a great apartment to hold that ugly as furniture
Speaker 1: he made, I will say between the first and second movie,
Speaker 1: he appears to have gotten better at furniture making furniture
Speaker 1: he makes more wood base pieces. Now, yes, let's not
Speaker 1: trash that washed up on the beach not beach Trump
Speaker 1: bless his heart. He got better. He got better at
Speaker 1: it with three years of practice. That Malcolm Gladwell ten thing.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, feminist Malcolm Okay, so um, Tarzan calls because
Speaker 1: him and the other guys from the first movie are
Speaker 1: coming up through Tampa and he also has some bad news,
Speaker 1: which is that Dallas, the Matthew McConaughey character, died, so
Speaker 1: Mike goes to the wake, but it turns out to
Speaker 1: be a pool party because Dallas did not actually die,
Speaker 1: but he did bail on them. He took the kid
Speaker 1: a k a adam ak Magical Michael Jr. From the
Speaker 1: first movie, and they started a show overseas not Austin Butler. Right.
Speaker 1: It goes on so Um Tarzan played by Kevin nash Ken,
Speaker 1: Matt Boehmer, Big Dick, Ritchie Uh played by Joe Manganello,
Speaker 1: Tito played by Adam Rodriguez, and their MC Tobias Gabriel Iglesias.
Speaker 1: They are all on their way to Myrtle Beach for
Speaker 1: a stripping convention and Mike is like, that's cool, have fun.
Speaker 1: And then Mike goes home. He works on his furniture
Speaker 1: in his workshop. This is when we get the scene
Speaker 1: where Pony by Genuine comes on Spotify. Immediately Horny a
Speaker 1: wuga wuga wuga channing like he's a star. He's just
Speaker 1: simply a star. Yes, that is exactly how I felt, Jamie,
Speaker 1: when like that moment happened. I was like, this is
Speaker 1: why we come to the movies. You know like I
Speaker 1: was like, he is a star. The movie was feeling
Speaker 1: like a movie. It was a lot. We come to
Speaker 1: this place for magic. We come to this place for magic, Mike.
Speaker 1: We come to the place for magical Michael. The movie
Speaker 1: felt like a movie hardcore. I like, couldn't. I watched
Speaker 1: that scene probably three times. It took me a long
Speaker 1: time and to watch this movie because I got rewatching
Speaker 1: because you just see like he's resisting it. He's making
Speaker 1: choices and he's laughing. He's like I remember, He's like,
Speaker 1: I'm dancing like no one's watching. I love when we
Speaker 1: are watching and we're loving it. He Channing Tatum seems like,
Speaker 1: I mean, by all accounts, hopefully when you listen to
Speaker 1: this this is still true. He seems like a terrific person.
Speaker 1: He's not canceled by then, but so he Kravitce loves
Speaker 1: him so much. Come on, okay. Dancing around his workshop
Speaker 1: and fucking his workbench inspires him to join his friends
Speaker 1: and go to the convention. So they all load into
Speaker 1: Tito's fro Yo food truck and start their road trip.
Speaker 1: They make a stop in Jacksonville at a nightclub called
Speaker 1: Mad Mary's, where there is this drag show slash competition happening,
Speaker 1: and Mike and the other guys get on stage and
Speaker 1: compete in it, although no one is in drag for
Speaker 1: some reason except for like the host of the show,
Speaker 1: where I was like, there's one person in drag confusing, right.
Speaker 1: Then there's a nighttime beach hang seen where the guys
Speaker 1: are talking about their current work situations and their dream jobs.
Speaker 1: A few of them air some grievances with each other,
Speaker 1: and they're just like having a heart to heart. Then
Speaker 1: Mike meets a woman whose name we will eventually learn
Speaker 1: to be Zoe. Pretty far into the movie, to be honest,
Speaker 1: I think it's like literally the last twenty minutes. I
Speaker 1: do wonder how like deep into the writing process Zoe's
Speaker 1: character was added because I mean it's like I didn't
Speaker 1: hate that she was there, but it just felt like
Speaker 1: she felt kind of shoehorned into every scenario she appeared in.
Speaker 1: She definitely didn't need be there. I guess, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: again it's like I'm not mad about it, but it's
Speaker 1: like I felt like she like there there were more
Speaker 1: interesting women in the narrative that you could have like
Speaker 1: zoned in on, but whatever, is fine whatever. Um Zoe
Speaker 1: played by Amber Heard, is a photographer. She and Mike
Speaker 1: flirt a little bit. It seems like she wants to
Speaker 1: smooch on him, but he's like, I shouldn't and he
Speaker 1: wishes her a good night. The next morning, the guys
Speaker 1: are back on the road again. Mike suggests they shake
Speaker 1: up their routine at the convention, but the guys are like, no,
Speaker 1: we only have two days. We gotta do what we rehearsed,
Speaker 1: and also like, Mike, you've been gone for three years,
Speaker 1: like slow your role, which is fair. Even so, Mike
Speaker 1: is like, no, let's do my idea. And he's like,
Speaker 1: all the songs and the dances are things that Dallas
Speaker 1: decided for you. We have to do stuff that comes
Speaker 1: from us, that comes from the heart. And so he
Speaker 1: helps Big Dick Ritchie come up with a new route,
Speaker 1: a new routine, and part of that process is Richie
Speaker 1: going into a convenience store doing a horny dance for
Speaker 1: the like grumpy cashier lady to a Backstreet Boys song
Speaker 1: and he successfully gets hurt to smile and the guys
Speaker 1: are like, whoo, well that was the bet. Yeah, he
Speaker 1: had to make the cashier smile. To agree to change
Speaker 1: the routines. Yes. So there's a lot of scenes in
Speaker 1: this movie that you're like, yeah, the scene could have
Speaker 1: gone a lot of different ways. Good thing you went
Speaker 1: the way it went right. But I I know that
Speaker 1: the writer of this movie read Caroline. He's a white
Speaker 1: guy who went to Harvard. Like, he's not um much
Speaker 1: outside of like what you would kind of expect from
Speaker 1: someone who is successful in Hollywood. But he and Channing
Speaker 1: Tatum collaborate a lot, and I was, I'm cure I
Speaker 1: couldn't figure out where he's from originally, because there's so
Speaker 1: much like solid Florida man lore in this franchise where
Speaker 1: they were like debating about the Backstreet Boys and like
Speaker 1: which member left and which and and they were like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the greatest thing to come out of Orlando. And
Speaker 1: as a Backstreet Boys head, even though they are thoroughly
Speaker 1: canceled and with good reason, but these are facts that
Speaker 1: I have locked into my mind forever. I was like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: Kevin Richardson did leave and then come back, and that
Speaker 1: was historically significant, and why don't we talk about that.
Speaker 1: Kevin Richardson not canceled Brian and Nick canceled them rightfully.
Speaker 1: So the other three we can keep them as far
Speaker 1: as we know, as far as yeah, so far at
Speaker 1: the time of recording, we can keep them, okay. So yeah,
Speaker 1: we see the scene where big Dick Ritchie gets the
Speaker 1: woman to smile, and you know who else was smiling
Speaker 1: during that scene? Me keep that? Couldn't help it of us.
Speaker 1: How big Dick Richie got his groove back like, it
Speaker 1: was really beautiful and he brought a bag of cheetahs
Speaker 1: into the mix. And it's hard. It's hard to not
Speaker 1: love it, even when you're like, is this okay? It
Speaker 1: was okay to the guy slamming on the window. Why
Speaker 1: was the woman not frightened? Who knows? But it was
Speaker 1: very adorable. Luff is like fucking about to break the
Speaker 1: pain of glass with enthusiasm and love for his friend.
Speaker 1: It's it's complicated. And then I was like, Jamie stopped
Speaker 1: thinking and I was like, wait, no, that's your job.
Speaker 1: Stop thinking and start feeling. Okay, So back on the truck,
Speaker 1: they take Molly and they're like, oh, man, I love
Speaker 1: you so much. I've missed you. Magical Michael. We're in
Speaker 1: harmony right now. And they love each other so much
Speaker 1: that they crashed the truck and Tobias gets a concussion,
Speaker 1: So now they don't have transportation costumes because they threw
Speaker 1: them out the window or there m c because he
Speaker 1: is undered and the convention is in two days. What
Speaker 1: are they going to do? Big Dick Ritchie is like, oh,
Speaker 1: the trip is over, let's just give up. But then
Speaker 1: Mike reveals that he and Brooke had broken up because
Speaker 1: she said no when he proposed, and he's like, look,
Speaker 1: my life is in shambles and that's the real reason
Speaker 1: I'm on this trip. I'm trying to move on, so
Speaker 1: we can't give up now, and they're like, okay, let's
Speaker 1: do it. It never comes up again, which I kind
Speaker 1: of like. He's like remember that girl from the first
Speaker 1: movie and I was like, oh yeah, I didn't really
Speaker 1: like her very much. And he's like, well she broke
Speaker 1: my heart anyways, that we have to do this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then they bail on Fluffy ad percent. They're like,
Speaker 1: goodbye Fluffy? Did they leave him at the hospital? Like
Speaker 1: how did they get home? You take the greyround with
Speaker 1: a concussion? Like I think they circle back around because
Speaker 1: at this point there in outside of Jackson outside Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they're going to Charleston so or no, they're going
Speaker 1: to is Myrtle Beach near Charleston? Are they in the
Speaker 1: same place? I don't know. They have to go to
Speaker 1: Savannah first, so they do, got to go to Georgia first.
Speaker 1: So that's what happens. Florida Georgia line. Hello. So they
Speaker 1: go to Savannah where Mike knows another em C because
Speaker 1: they need an m C. And he knows someone named Rome,
Speaker 1: who turns out to be Jada Pickens Smith, and she
Speaker 1: has this house where women come and watch various male
Speaker 1: strip shows or just kind of like male entertainer acts
Speaker 1: in different rooms. We see a few of these different acts,
Speaker 1: including those of Augustus Ak, Michael Strahan, as well as
Speaker 1: Andre played by Donald Glover and Twitch and dance right. Yes,
Speaker 1: yes he is Jada Pinkett Smith's rooms like assistant guy.
Speaker 1: But then like when they bring when when Rome and
Speaker 1: Magic Michael come downstairs, Uh, they have like a dance
Speaker 1: battle almost right, like the main guy dancing against Magic
Speaker 1: Michael is Twitch. Right. He plays a character named Malik. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: so that's Malik Got It, which was so iconic and
Speaker 1: lovely and he passed last year. I man i grew
Speaker 1: up watching you thinking dance one time? Really really, Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, my senior year, I was a dancer for
Speaker 1: many years. Wait me too, Oh my gosh, should we
Speaker 1: start a dance troupe together? I can't dance, but I'll learn.
Speaker 1: My sophomore year of high school, I went to see
Speaker 1: So you Think He'd Dance Live? And Twitch was there,
Speaker 1: and my friends and I were like, like, it was
Speaker 1: just so thrilling and what a loss, what an icon.
Speaker 1: I didn't know he was in this movie, and I
Speaker 1: was was frantically googly. I was like, is that Twitch?
Speaker 1: What a legend? Beautiful? Okay, So we see these different
Speaker 1: acts throughout the night, and then Mike mentions the convention
Speaker 1: to Rome, and she's like, oh, you want a favor
Speaker 1: from me even though you walked out on me eight
Speaker 1: years ago, because apparently he used to dance for her.
Speaker 1: So she's kind of like upset with him, and he
Speaker 1: just like comes like waltzing back in, wanting this favor,
Speaker 1: and she's like, you have to redeem yourself, and he
Speaker 1: does so by doing a very horny dance. Uh woa,
Speaker 1: ho was so good. I had so many questions about, like,
Speaker 1: I mean, we can get to this in the discussion,
Speaker 1: I had so many questions about like, and I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm probably deeply naive, and I was looking for like
Speaker 1: answers to this question wasn't able to find them. I'm like,
Speaker 1: what are like the rules of consent that happened when
Speaker 1: you enter this place? Because probably sign a waiver, I
Speaker 1: would assume, And You're like, and I'm assuming because magical
Speaker 1: Michael worked there, he would know the rules, So like,
Speaker 1: I'm assuming he's not doing anything that is like out
Speaker 1: of pocket or bad. But but I was just like,
Speaker 1: what do you agree to? It really seems like you're
Speaker 1: getting flipped and dipped around. What if there's an injury?
Speaker 1: Because there like a medic it's just injury. Also, like
Speaker 1: your personal space is at risk of being invaded, which
Speaker 1: it seems as though if you go to an event
Speaker 1: show like this, you just basically agree to consent to whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know how ethical that actually is. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it happened. I mean, it's like I'm sure
Speaker 1: that Like, I mean, I'm not sure the places like
Speaker 1: that exists. It feels like if you sit in the
Speaker 1: splash zone at Sea World, you understand there's you know
Speaker 1: what was going to happen. Probably just have to go
Speaker 1: in with the same mindset. If you're going to a
Speaker 1: show like this, yes, and everyone is I mean canonically
Speaker 1: everyone is fucking thrilled about everything that happens all night long.
Speaker 1: There's no I saw not a twitch of an eye
Speaker 1: of someone who was like, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: okay with this. Everyone was very okay with it. But
Speaker 1: I was just like, I mean, honestly, I just had
Speaker 1: questions because I'm like, the places like this exists, and
Speaker 1: could can we go? Could I go? I would love
Speaker 1: Michael Straighthand and Channing Tatum to um ruined my life.
Speaker 1: So my favorite part was when he put his hand
Speaker 1: on both of their backs and he was doing the
Speaker 1: like side like swivels around and like humps them both
Speaker 1: from behind. Again a wouga. But I was worried about
Speaker 1: the like the two the two women who like yeah
Speaker 1: when he did that, but then he put another woman
Speaker 1: on top of one of the women. I'm like, we
Speaker 1: don't know about her back, what if she had scoliosis,
Speaker 1: Like we don't know how secure as as sculios his head.
Speaker 1: I was like, that would have that I would have collapsed,
Speaker 1: would have broke me, would have broken me. I would
Speaker 1: have you know, I would have died doing what I loved.
Speaker 1: But but but I would have died. Yeah, I simply
Speaker 1: don't know. It's a fantasy movie. Whatever, right, Okay, So
Speaker 1: at the end of the night, Mike any other guys
Speaker 1: say goodbye to Rome and then Andre Donald Glover takes
Speaker 1: them to Charleston, where they go to the house of
Speaker 1: this woman, Megan, who Tito had hooked up with maybe
Speaker 1: like the night before at that like beach hang But
Speaker 1: they first run into Megan's mom, Nancy, Okay, Andy McDowell
Speaker 1: and her friends. And I didn't realize this until my
Speaker 1: second watch of the movie to fully register what happened here,
Speaker 1: because I was like, wait, whose house are they going
Speaker 1: to and how do they know her? And who is
Speaker 1: Andy McDowell in relation to any of these people? And
Speaker 1: then I realized that, so Megan is this woman who
Speaker 1: they met maybe one or two days before, they barely
Speaker 1: know her. She was like, come through to my house
Speaker 1: in Charleston. They just show up and go inside of
Speaker 1: the house. They don't even they didn't not they just
Speaker 1: marched right in. Honestly, the fact that the door was unlocked.
Speaker 1: Was very Southern of them, Like, that does not shock
Speaker 1: me that it's very as someone from the South. I
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I guess that's that's accurate. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: then is this a Southern thing where the owner of
Speaker 1: the house sees like five strange men in her foyer
Speaker 1: and it is like, oh, hey, come on in and
Speaker 1: have a drink. Honestly, it is that is the Southern hospitality.
Speaker 1: I was like, Honestly, that whole scene was not that
Speaker 1: crazy because I'm like, rich, lonely old women from the South.
Speaker 1: Then what they see hot men? First, they didn't see like,
Speaker 1: you know, most of them are white, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. So it's like they were not threatened. They
Speaker 1: were like, oh, look at these charming young men. They
Speaker 1: look like strippers. And if they're still in Georgia, I'm
Speaker 1: sure they're like understand that there is a lot of
Speaker 1: because from my understanding, there are a lot of strip
Speaker 1: clubs in Georgia. So yeah, I think there's like it's
Speaker 1: like Atlanta and Portland's I think the highest strip clubs.
Speaker 1: Portland has so been quite a few of them. Kitlin
Speaker 1: and I went to one once. We went to an
Speaker 1: eggs and legs situation in Portland a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: We should go back, We should go back. A fan
Speaker 1: of the show hooked us up, So thank you for that.
Speaker 1: It's fast. We had eggs, we had legs. I was
Speaker 1: curious about that because it was like the way that
Speaker 1: Andy McDowell's character reacted made it seem like her daughter
Speaker 1: brought home really hot troops of men. Constantly, She's like,
Speaker 1: who is this? Oh my daughter? Okay, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, chill mom. She's a cool mom.
Speaker 1: She's like, cool mom. So they you start chatting with Nancy,
Speaker 1: and then Megan and her friends come into the room
Speaker 1: and one of them is Zoe. So all of the
Speaker 1: guys are talking to all the women. They're asking about
Speaker 1: their like fantasies and their sex lives and all this stuff.
Speaker 1: In another room, Mike and Zoe are chatting some more. Uh.
Speaker 1: Later that night, Big Dick Richie ends up having sex
Speaker 1: with Nancy off screen, which is a shame. It's a
Speaker 1: shame would have liked to see. But then the next
Speaker 1: morning they head out from Charleston and arrive in Myrtle
Speaker 1: Beach at the convention. Surprise, Rome and Andre meet them
Speaker 1: there because Rome has decided to m see the show
Speaker 1: after all. Then they go to check in with Elizabeth Banks,
Speaker 1: the director of Cocaine Bear herself. I hope that is.
Speaker 1: I hope that's how history remembers her ultimately. What a
Speaker 1: treat that would be amazing. Yes, um, so she's checking
Speaker 1: them in. But then we find out that these guys
Speaker 1: did not even register for the convention or book a
Speaker 1: show there. They just showed up thinking they were going
Speaker 1: to do a spot. To be fair, that is what
Speaker 1: they just did at Andy McDowell's house, and it worked
Speaker 1: out pretty spectacularly for them. I'm gonna say, as men,
Speaker 1: I feel like that's made sense to me because I'm
Speaker 1: sure Dallas did all that booking and stuff. I'm sure
Speaker 1: they had no idea like that was something they had
Speaker 1: to do. They were just like, well, we go to
Speaker 1: this thing every year, so like, why don't we just
Speaker 1: show up? We're going there. They truly are like baby
Speaker 1: men in a lot of ways, where they're like, what
Speaker 1: do you mean We're so beautiful? Why can't we Like,
Speaker 1: no one's ever said no to me before. But I
Speaker 1: don't understand Jada Pinkett s meant to the rescue. She
Speaker 1: and I also liked that those characters were named Paris
Speaker 1: and Rome and that they were friends. You're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's all consense. Wow, he got, he got. And then
Speaker 1: it's because of Realm's clout that Elizabeth Banks is like, okay,
Speaker 1: you get this, like prime Spot. Then there's a montage
Speaker 1: of them prepping for the show. We see them shopping,
Speaker 1: they're making costumes, their building sets, and then they put
Speaker 1: on a show that Rome m c s. We see
Speaker 1: solo acts from all the guys, each one relating to
Speaker 1: their passion. So Tarzan does like a painting thing, Tito
Speaker 1: does a candy thing since he's the fro yo guy.
Speaker 1: Ken sings because he is also like a musical performer
Speaker 1: and singer, Big Dick Ritchie. It does this whole like
Speaker 1: wedding slash kinky wedding night act. And then finally it's magical.
Speaker 1: Michael and Malik do this like mirror act. They said
Speaker 1: step up here we go then and we are like
Speaker 1: a wuga. Zoe is there with Megan and she gets
Speaker 1: brought up on stage and Mike dances all horny all
Speaker 1: over her. Then like we see a little montage of
Speaker 1: them like getting ice cream after the show, and that's
Speaker 1: basically the movie. If you're wondering if there is a
Speaker 1: conflict in this movie, they're kind of is not. There
Speaker 1: is not. Often there's some like interpersonal tension between the characters,
Speaker 1: but it's usually pretty quickly resolved and then there's not
Speaker 1: much in the way of conflict aside from that, which
Speaker 1: is usually not how you write a screenplay. But this
Speaker 1: movie is great and I have no complaints. So that
Speaker 1: is the story. Let's take a quick break and we
Speaker 1: will come right back to discuss and back. Oh my goodness, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: I I agree. I mean, I guess that there isn't
Speaker 1: really much there. I didn't. I honestly didn't notice until
Speaker 1: I was, like I really thought about it, because it
Speaker 1: did feel like the main tension of this movie kind
Speaker 1: of like came from both like this group of men
Speaker 1: who we knew resolving their differences with each other and
Speaker 1: then like growing as people whilst on a road trip.
Speaker 1: And I love I loved that. I don't know, that's
Speaker 1: all I really have to say that. I feel like
Speaker 1: the biggest conflict was with Rome, right because it was
Speaker 1: like obviously like this like new plot point being brought
Speaker 1: up of like we have to make Chang Tatum this
Speaker 1: central character, not that we didn't already make in the
Speaker 1: central character by coming back, but it felt like in
Speaker 1: the first movie, you don't get anything of the other guys, right,
Speaker 1: Like it's all about you know, Magic Michael and Little
Speaker 1: Michael and Brooke, and so I feel like this was
Speaker 1: the moment to bring it back to like what is
Speaker 1: Michael's history? He is a titular dancer, Like who is
Speaker 1: this strife with his older host or manager? I don't
Speaker 1: know what to call her, madam, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know her job title. But yeah, I feel like
Speaker 1: that's where the biggest conflict was. But obviously it gets
Speaker 1: resolved by the end of the movie. And yeah, back
Speaker 1: to your point, Jamie, as far as like the movie
Speaker 1: being about men like connecting and growing together and like
Speaker 1: figuring themselves out, there aren't a lot of movies like that,
Speaker 1: And there aren't a lot of movies that center male
Speaker 1: friendship and male friendship in which the characters are like
Speaker 1: vulnerable with each other and they like open up to
Speaker 1: each other. So there's like all these like wonderful things
Speaker 1: that you don't normally see on screen. Happening in this movie,
Speaker 1: especially that these men are like such like expressions of
Speaker 1: like heteronormative you know, like like these big, buff, hot
Speaker 1: like himbo men, men that you wouldn't consider vulnerable or
Speaker 1: people that would you know, express themselves that way, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing so traditionally. Yeah, yeah, I felt like
Speaker 1: that was like some of the most strong stuff in
Speaker 1: the movie was like focused on their relationships with each other,
Speaker 1: because it also didn't make it so easy for them
Speaker 1: of like, oh, well, these are just like this is
Speaker 1: a band of emotionally intelligent, like I think, mostly heterosexual
Speaker 1: men as far as we know, which would be you know,
Speaker 1: I mean that it would truly be a fantasy movie
Speaker 1: because you're like, that's just like not how heterosexual men
Speaker 1: are socialized. And so you do see towards the beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie, like them trying to resolve interpersonal issues
Speaker 1: with like traditional masculinities such as magical Michael starting by
Speaker 1: being like all right, we're gonna do some therapy and
Speaker 1: then he's like punch me and they throw up, and
Speaker 1: you're just like all right, these guys like you know,
Speaker 1: you're runk on a beach in Florida. Of course, that's
Speaker 1: how you're going to try to resolve the problem. But
Speaker 1: they continue to grow and I like that like every character,
Speaker 1: although like I mean, I do feel like some characters
Speaker 1: more than others, which we should talk about, but they
Speaker 1: all enjoy being male entertainers. They get a lot of
Speaker 1: personal satisfaction out of that. It just seems like it's
Speaker 1: it's so funny because I feel like that's part of
Speaker 1: what's so appealing about this franchise to me. Of like
Speaker 1: you're watching men have impostor syndrome all the time, which
Speaker 1: you don't really see very much of, Like they feel
Speaker 1: judged by the world by being strippers, but also they
Speaker 1: have other dreams and they want to have both of
Speaker 1: those things at the same They want to have it all,
Speaker 1: which is every movie about every woman ever, and you
Speaker 1: never really see that about men because you don't really
Speaker 1: see men and professions where they are treated like meat,
Speaker 1: which these men are. So it's interesting seeing like these
Speaker 1: different characters have different you know, and it like it
Speaker 1: relates to their age in some ways, where Tarzan is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, I've I don't know, maybe like I don't
Speaker 1: regret my life choices, but it would have been really
Speaker 1: cool to have like a domestic life and you know
Speaker 1: you have people that I mean, Matt Bohmer's character is
Speaker 1: like I wish I had, you know, been a singer
Speaker 1: and like you have everyone had the thing, like they
Speaker 1: both love what they do and also I wonder what
Speaker 1: life would have been like if they had done something else.
Speaker 1: And that's really I don't know. You just don't see
Speaker 1: it a lot with with male characters, specifically because men
Speaker 1: usually get what they want well and them all showing
Speaker 1: envy too of of magic Michael because he did quit
Speaker 1: and he did pursue what he wanted to do, and
Speaker 1: that was part of why they were upset with him,
Speaker 1: because they were like, you know, as much as like
Speaker 1: we're mad at you for abandoning us, we're also jealous
Speaker 1: that you like found your thing and you like stuck
Speaker 1: to your guns and you made it happen. But I
Speaker 1: also so and I was worried that there was going
Speaker 1: to be because this is an issue that we had
Speaker 1: with the first movie, where because so often the way
Speaker 1: sex work is presented in media, it's something that no
Speaker 1: one chooses to do and that people are trying to escape.
Speaker 1: And that might be true for some sex workers. But
Speaker 1: there are a large number of sex workers who this
Speaker 1: is their chosen profession and they're very proud to do it,
Speaker 1: and they're very excited to do it. And there was
Speaker 1: discussion around the first movie where Mike quitting stripping partially
Speaker 1: it seems because that's what his girlfriend wanted him to do.
Speaker 1: There was criticism around that, and so I was worried that, like,
Speaker 1: there might be some degree of that in this movie.
Speaker 1: But it seems as though all of the men who
Speaker 1: are doing this work in this movie, at least a
Speaker 1: few of them say if I had my dreams like
Speaker 1: Donald Glover's, like, oh, if my LP dropped tomorrow and
Speaker 1: I like made it big, I would still do this.
Speaker 1: On the side, if I was, for example, childish Gambino,
Speaker 1: I would still do this. You're like, all right, Donald
Speaker 1: Glover as himself, he's not Donald Glover in this movie.
Speaker 1: He's childish Gambino. Like specifically, I'm like, yeah, you are
Speaker 1: in your child like everything about you, like the Fedora,
Speaker 1: like everything about this era of childish Gambio. It is
Speaker 1: not Donald Glover as he is today, because like today,
Speaker 1: I'm like, he's not childish green to know he is
Speaker 1: Donald Glover now, but then that is childish Gambio that movie.
Speaker 1: That's not he is. And it's like, because the internet
Speaker 1: childish Gambiano too, it's like really childish Gampio. Like absolutely,
Speaker 1: I did not know he was in this movie, and
Speaker 1: I was like, I forgot. I totally agree with You're like, wow,
Speaker 1: this is a very specific Donald Glover we're getting in
Speaker 1: this movie. Two years later, this Donald Glover was no
Speaker 1: longer available, and arguably two years later, the body of
Speaker 1: that Donald Glover would have made more sense in this movie.
Speaker 1: But you know, man, it was wild seeing him in
Speaker 1: this role and but was I was like, he's such
Speaker 1: a baby. He's a baby. He was still doing like
Speaker 1: Troy like he It was very it was a different
Speaker 1: era of Donald Globber. It feels like the tail end
Speaker 1: of that era. But yeah, I I totally agree with you, Caitlin,
Speaker 1: because that was something we talked about in our first episode,
Speaker 1: was that like it's made to seem like, Okay, well,
Speaker 1: he got a lot out of working as a sex worker,
Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, that's not the
Speaker 1: quote unquote the sensible choice. But I like that this
Speaker 1: franchise course corrects in this way. Where it's like, well,
Speaker 1: this is like a huge part of who he is,
Speaker 1: and like why can't more than one like it? Just
Speaker 1: it sort of wants to explore like you don't need
Speaker 1: to choose one thing and like the less of a person,
Speaker 1: And that seems like what most of the guys are
Speaker 1: kind of coming to terms with and struggling with in
Speaker 1: in this movie in a way that I thought was
Speaker 1: like pretty effective and cool because you also have Tito,
Speaker 1: who's dream is to get this like artisanal fro yo
Speaker 1: food truck slash dance party DJ. I love that all
Speaker 1: their dreams are like best of luck guys. But so
Speaker 1: his dream is to get that going. But he says
Speaker 1: like nothing makes me feel better than that, aside from
Speaker 1: being on stage, like he still loves performing. So I
Speaker 1: appreciate that you have at least a few of the
Speaker 1: characters expressing like this is not something I'm trying to escape. Uh,
Speaker 1: this is something that like I will always do. So
Speaker 1: I appreciated that, and and that they come to accept
Speaker 1: each other like and it totally makes sense that they
Speaker 1: have like the tension they do. Like I really liked
Speaker 1: the conversation between Magical Michael and sorry I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: keep calling him Matt Bomer. What is that? Damn Ken,
Speaker 1: He's literally the Kendall. I was a little like not
Speaker 1: sure what to make of him. I mean, I I
Speaker 1: really like Matt Bomer, so I feel like maybe I
Speaker 1: was like bringing I like Matt Boomer energy into the
Speaker 1: chat on this one. But I did like how they
Speaker 1: had to have converence, like a couple conversations before they
Speaker 1: had really made peace, because it was like, oh that,
Speaker 1: you know, like, I think it's interesting with people of
Speaker 1: all genders when people get into, for lack of a
Speaker 1: better term, because I am pro this, I've made whole
Speaker 1: shows about it, woo woo stuff, and then sort of
Speaker 1: are able to say, like, well, because I am now
Speaker 1: a spiritual person, all of my past problems and trauma
Speaker 1: have been resolved via this. And that is not always
Speaker 1: not for everyone, is always necessarily true, because it's like
Speaker 1: sometimes it's like you can use a spiritual practice to
Speaker 1: avoid actually dealing with your ship, and it seems like
Speaker 1: that's kind of what Kenn is doing and I did,
Speaker 1: And there were moments where I felt like the movie
Speaker 1: was kind of making fun of him for like the
Speaker 1: reigy stuff over Gabriel Glacia Is like there were moments
Speaker 1: where he's clearly being made fun of. Well, do you
Speaker 1: feel like he was queer coded in this movie, because
Speaker 1: to me, you watched the first one and none of
Speaker 1: them really have speaking rules, right, like you kind of
Speaker 1: like going back into it. I was watching the first
Speaker 1: one and I was like, oh, yeah, they really aren't
Speaker 1: actualized characters there, like a part of a group, but
Speaker 1: you don't really learn much about them. You just know
Speaker 1: like Ken's wife has big tits, and like they like
Speaker 1: the funk and they do drunks. Like that's about it.
Speaker 1: He doesn't really say more than three lines the whole movie.
Speaker 1: But this movie, as they developed his character, it felt
Speaker 1: really queer coded. And at this time, Matthew Bomber has
Speaker 1: already come out, like he in the first movie had
Speaker 1: not come out yet. He came out in which is
Speaker 1: when the movie was released, So during the production of
Speaker 1: that movie he had not come out. So by this
Speaker 1: movie he had come out. So I was like, it
Speaker 1: felt like to me, by the end of the movie,
Speaker 1: they were trying to get to him having an arc
Speaker 1: of you know, coming out, and then they just like
Speaker 1: cut it, and it felt very like like not actualized
Speaker 1: or like I couldn't tell what they were trying to do.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. I hadn't I honestly hadn't thought about
Speaker 1: it that thoroughly, but I did. I didn't know that
Speaker 1: Matt Boehmer came out the same year Magic Mike one
Speaker 1: was released and has been out ever since, and I
Speaker 1: don't know. We felt like I had a conversation on
Speaker 1: this show many times where it's like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: because you're a queer actor, doesn't mean you need to
Speaker 1: play queer characters. But it did seem like at moments
Speaker 1: where it was like, what are we trying to say
Speaker 1: about this character? And I feel like it speaks to
Speaker 1: kind of like a larger point that I have with
Speaker 1: a lot of the non Magical Michael characters, which I
Speaker 1: think some were better developed than others. I totally agree
Speaker 1: with you that like Ken's story is like they're like, well,
Speaker 1: he wanted to be a singer, and that's kind of
Speaker 1: where they leave it, which is bizarre given the like
Speaker 1: stuff you know about him from the first movie, which
Speaker 1: never really comes back, and you're like, they broke uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: never mentioned again. Yeah. And in fact, so there's a
Speaker 1: scene on the beach where where Mike says to Ken like, oh,
Speaker 1: are you still with Mercedes? And he says no because
Speaker 1: he cites the reason being like they tried to do
Speaker 1: monogamy and that didn't work out for them, so they
Speaker 1: split up. And then that's what leads to magical Michael
Speaker 1: being like punched me in the stomach. I was like,
Speaker 1: where did this come from? Um? Because suddenly like one
Speaker 1: of them is being passive aggressive. I didn't even notice it.
Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure. But if you consider that Mike
Speaker 1: has a love interest who is a woman, you have
Speaker 1: Big Dick, Ritchie has sex with Andy McDowell, Tito has
Speaker 1: sex with her daughter Megan, you have um Tarzan saying like, oh,
Speaker 1: I would love to go home to like a wife
Speaker 1: and kids. But there's never any men mention of Ken
Speaker 1: having a romantic interest who is a woman. So I
Speaker 1: think maybe based on that there is possible queer coding,
Speaker 1: but it's not overt to me. It wasn't clear enough
Speaker 1: that I felt like you could like. I just wonder.
Speaker 1: I was like, is there something that was like cut?
Speaker 1: I don't know, because it is also like there is
Speaker 1: kind of a vibe of a one to one, and
Speaker 1: I don't even mean that as an insult to this movie.
Speaker 1: But as far as I know, the only and maybe
Speaker 1: I'm incorrect about this, I'm not totally sure. As far
Speaker 1: as I know, the only people I knew to be
Speaker 1: openly queer who are in this movie are Matt Bomer
Speaker 1: and Amber Heard, And it is a one to one
Speaker 1: situation if we are interpreting Ken is a queer coded character,
Speaker 1: where Matt Bomer is an openly gay actor and Amber
Speaker 1: Heard is openly bisexual and has been for a long time,
Speaker 1: and they make that can and into her character as
Speaker 1: well in a way that I didn't take any issue with.
Speaker 1: It was presented very matter of factly, and she wasn't,
Speaker 1: you know, like bisexual characters are treated like shit or
Speaker 1: like as jokes so much, and she wasn't. But I
Speaker 1: did feel like, oh, yeah, the only actors in this
Speaker 1: movie that I know are openly queer. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's I don't know, yeah, it's not
Speaker 1: even a positive or negative. I'm just like, what was
Speaker 1: going on? Interesting to ponder. I do like, like you mentioned, Becca,
Speaker 1: that each character is given more characterization in this movie,
Speaker 1: which helps too. Again, another issue we had when we
Speaker 1: discussed the first Magic Mike movie is that it's a
Speaker 1: movie that seems like it has the agenda to humanize
Speaker 1: sex workers or you know, male entertainers, but it kind
Speaker 1: of doesn't do that that much because it really only
Speaker 1: focuses on two of those characters and puts the other
Speaker 1: ones kind of in the background. This sequel doesn't do that.
Speaker 1: It gives each of the five main Magical Michaels a
Speaker 1: distinct either like arc or goal or just kind of
Speaker 1: more characterization in general, although two varying degrees I supposed
Speaker 1: to say, because I feel like Adam Rodriguez's character was
Speaker 1: characterized by a large margin the least like I was
Speaker 1: going to say that, Yeah, like the guys we learned
Speaker 1: more about, because we do get characterization of everybody to
Speaker 1: some extent. But like for my reading, it was like Ken,
Speaker 1: even though that was ambiguous as you were just talking about,
Speaker 1: but like Ken's was more of a I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't really have an issue with it
Speaker 1: because some people were like a relationship thing with Ken.
Speaker 1: It was more of a career thing whatever. But Ken,
Speaker 1: Big Dick, Ritchie and tar Zanne I think got the
Speaker 1: most attention. They are like three white passing men, and
Speaker 1: then Adam Rodriguez I thought, was given the least attention
Speaker 1: of the bunch. And then Gabriel Iglesias is like ejected
Speaker 1: out of the movie rocket in the middle and and you,
Speaker 1: I mean, it's it's not like there is I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean I'm curious to discuss that, because there was
Speaker 1: some sort of I don't know, it's the discourse around
Speaker 1: this movie when I was revisiting it for research was
Speaker 1: so that I was like, I don't know, because it
Speaker 1: is like a pretty diverse movie. It's not like you know,
Speaker 1: who knows. Maybe Gabriel Iglesias was like I have to
Speaker 1: go on a world tour. I can only be on
Speaker 1: set for like three days or whatever. Like he's really
Speaker 1: successful in it, and like it is a very diverse movie,
Speaker 1: but it's still like there's still kind of these things
Speaker 1: that feel very rooted and like, okay, like it's still
Speaker 1: centers whiteness, light skinnedness. Yes, right. They even call out
Speaker 1: Adam Rodriguez as like their token man of color in
Speaker 1: their like group. They're like, yeah, we got the the Latino,
Speaker 1: you know, and then Adam trying to throw it back
Speaker 1: at Big dig Ritchie. It was like, well, you are
Speaker 1: also technically a person of color, and he's like, I'm
Speaker 1: Armenium whatever, I'm white. Like he literally was like, I
Speaker 1: have internalized racism and I'm white. And you know, justice
Speaker 1: for Adam Rodriguez because I have had a crush on
Speaker 1: him for very many years and he's a beautiful Latino
Speaker 1: man and he deserved. He was also the second best
Speaker 1: dancer in my opinion. I think he's a better dancer
Speaker 1: than Big Dick Ritchie. And I feel like he did
Speaker 1: not get enough dancing time. Yeah, I agree, I agree.
Speaker 1: He's wondering and it's like also, I was just like, wow,
Speaker 1: Mr Criminal, minds the disrespect, Like it's just Adam Rodriguez
Speaker 1: is an icon and they didn't give him enough to do. No,
Speaker 1: he's an amazing dancer, but I just like, I feel
Speaker 1: like it really actually kind of aim all the way around,
Speaker 1: like who was characterized versus who wasn't at the end,
Speaker 1: because they were all given big set pieces about like,
Speaker 1: hey remember their arc here it is in a sexy dance,
Speaker 1: and Adam Rodriguez is I think was like, even though
Speaker 1: he is one of the stronger dancers, was one of
Speaker 1: the and who like what he does in that routine
Speaker 1: with the chocolate in the licking y're just like a
Speaker 1: wuga Like I was going pretty hard. I was really
Speaker 1: present in the auga zone for that one, but narratively
Speaker 1: you're he's just in front of like the fro Yo truck. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's like I again, And as far as I'm
Speaker 1: at Bomber character, I honestly don't know where to fall
Speaker 1: in terms of like how we were supposed to feel
Speaker 1: about Ken. It did feel like the cannon from the
Speaker 1: previous movie was abandoned in a way that felt a
Speaker 1: little bizarre. It was done to everybody to some extent,
Speaker 1: but like Ken's felt especially dismissed. But it is like
Speaker 1: Ken and Tito have career based things going. But even so,
Speaker 1: like Ken gets the bigger spotlight on his moment in
Speaker 1: like the Antie McDowell sequence where you get to see
Speaker 1: like Donald Glover in his childish Gambino era plants the
Speaker 1: seeds of like you know you can and a plot
Speaker 1: point I thought was like really cool of like well
Speaker 1: you can like combine your passions in a way that
Speaker 1: is really like beautiful and like you can use your
Speaker 1: you know singing in musicality to like make women happy,
Speaker 1: which is why we've been put on this earth, which
Speaker 1: is kind of the theme of the movie for whatever reason.
Speaker 1: And it's great, But like Ken gets that big moment
Speaker 1: where he uses his dream to do what he's currently
Speaker 1: doing in a way that makes him and a woman happy.
Speaker 1: Tito doesn't really get that moment, and so like when
Speaker 1: you see him dancing in front of his fro Yo truck,
Speaker 1: it just like doesn't have the same amount of impact
Speaker 1: because he wasn't given like the same moment in focus. True, um,
Speaker 1: I was prepared to argue that Tarzan was given the
Speaker 1: least amount of kind of characterization. Maybe it's just because
Speaker 1: he's on screen the least amount of time. I felt
Speaker 1: I kind of agree with you, Kaitlin, in a different way,
Speaker 1: Like I agree that I think characterized he is the
Speaker 1: least focused on, but I feel like Adams was more
Speaker 1: poignant because he is the only brown one. Definitely, But
Speaker 1: I was noticing that there were scenes that like Tarzan
Speaker 1: wasn't even in, Like it seems like the four younger
Speaker 1: guys would like go do something fun, and so I
Speaker 1: was like, is this an ageist choice that's happening because
Speaker 1: Tarzan is the oldest of them, can I tell you,
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe this is like rude because I know
Speaker 1: that Kevin Nash has been in a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: I sort of interpreted that choice of like, yeah, professional
Speaker 1: wrestlers aren't always great actors. Uh, that was sort of
Speaker 1: my thing. I was like, and I don't know, absolutely
Speaker 1: could be agism. I think I defaulted to like, not
Speaker 1: everyone's the rock and not everyone like but maybe that
Speaker 1: was unfair of me because the scenes that Tarzan is
Speaker 1: in I really loved him. He's a lovable character. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but if you think, like he does say in
Speaker 1: that one scene that he would like trade his dick
Speaker 1: swinging lifestyle for a wife and kids and people who
Speaker 1: love him. But that's the only moment that we get
Speaker 1: any indication of that, especially because we didn't even know
Speaker 1: his name. Like there's that moment where Magic Michael's like
Speaker 1: and and he's like Ernie and he's like, I don't
Speaker 1: know anything about him. And then there's another scene where
Speaker 1: later kind of booze him when he and when he
Speaker 1: says like that was I thought that that was I mean,
Speaker 1: it was like both very like it felt Soderbergie where
Speaker 1: it felt very like I don't know, like I love
Speaker 1: I love in soderberg movies, like the way that conversations
Speaker 1: play out feel like pretty realistic and funny, even when
Speaker 1: they're like not very sensitive towards everybody. But it didn't
Speaker 1: really come all the way back around in a way
Speaker 1: that felt sensitive to him because because he was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is what I want, and everyone's like bummer, You're like,
Speaker 1: oh he he pours his heart out and everyone's like
Speaker 1: buzz kill alert and then they move on if there
Speaker 1: was like tomato tomato, and then they move on and
Speaker 1: talk to a woman who we hadn't met before, won't
Speaker 1: we won't see again, So it's like Tarzan's right there, like,
Speaker 1: but if she doesn't go on a journey in that scene,
Speaker 1: Let's be honest. I thought that then, was I was like, honestly,
Speaker 1: I mean, like, I think it is interesting how this movie,
Speaker 1: you know, I think, with varying degrees of success, but
Speaker 1: this movie does attempt and seems to have an agenda
Speaker 1: to navigate through a lot of different class systems and
Speaker 1: races and gender and like I feel like it try
Speaker 1: to use the road Trip movie in a in an
Speaker 1: unusual way, which is like not to make I feel
Speaker 1: like the road trip movies that were used to are
Speaker 1: more often used to like make a mockery of the
Speaker 1: communities they're passing through to characterize the protagonists, whereas like
Speaker 1: this movie is trying to again with like varying degrees
Speaker 1: of success, to like not do that, to like pass
Speaker 1: through a lot of different classes and and but do
Speaker 1: it in a way that like you have a moment
Speaker 1: to appreciate someone in the scene that's like specific, and
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of like movies like that. I
Speaker 1: don't know, like the Antimidald thing. I was kind of
Speaker 1: all over the place on that sequence. I didn't know
Speaker 1: because it's like you don't really like I want to
Speaker 1: like linger on like upper crossed white Ladies of the South. However,
Speaker 1: the way that they're written and characterized, I thought in
Speaker 1: that moment, especially with like a woman, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it just got me thinking about like the boomer women
Speaker 1: in my life who like Andy McDowell's character, I thought,
Speaker 1: you know, she's very like cool, moming it, which who
Speaker 1: knows how her daughter feels about that. That can suck,
Speaker 1: but you know she's just like, oh, I've only ever
Speaker 1: had sex with one person because that's what I was
Speaker 1: told to do. And now I'm fucking miserable. I don't
Speaker 1: really know what where her husband's like, I think that
Speaker 1: they're divorced. Maybe I don't know. It seems like she
Speaker 1: kicked him out, but maybe the papers aren't finalized. Vibes
Speaker 1: like he obviously I felt like he cheated on her.
Speaker 1: And then she was like wow, like I've only had
Speaker 1: one dick in my life and you out here swinging it.
Speaker 1: Get out of my house. Like, I'm not signing the
Speaker 1: papers yet because I want the money right now, so
Speaker 1: the house. She also says like we broke up because
Speaker 1: he's gay, and then her daughter is like, you don't
Speaker 1: know that for sure, and then she like like that yeah.
Speaker 1: She's like, well he loved it when I stuck my
Speaker 1: finger up his and then she means, no, I don't
Speaker 1: want to hear it, and Tito was like, it's really
Speaker 1: kind of fun. Tito did come in and say like, hey,
Speaker 1: a finger up the bum, what's wrong with it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: But with that, I mean specifically with the I I
Speaker 1: know that she was given a name. I don't remember
Speaker 1: what it is because I hate women but the character
Speaker 1: who I just thought it was like a very vulnerable
Speaker 1: writing point for like a middle aged woman to say, like,
Speaker 1: my husband has never had sex with me with the
Speaker 1: lights on. And I don't know if that's a him thing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's like, but it's clear that
Speaker 1: like she's internalized it and it's very insecure and it's like,
Speaker 1: is something wrong with me? And then I don't know,
Speaker 1: I mean it's I guess you can like come at
Speaker 1: this movie in so many different ways because in a way,
Speaker 1: the married troop of male strippers is characterizes like these
Speaker 1: men are coming to save you and make you feel
Speaker 1: good about yourself again. And I think there is a
Speaker 1: way to look at that a little critically of like,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of movies that I think really effectively
Speaker 1: show fellow women and people of marginalized genders like helping
Speaker 1: each other through stuff like that versus like this guy
Speaker 1: you just met making you feel good about yourself. But
Speaker 1: I also think that there is like some beauty in
Speaker 1: that and some like that character seems to feel so
Speaker 1: like vindicated and comforted by the fact that it's like, no,
Speaker 1: you're hot, your husband is who knows what's going on
Speaker 1: with him and you're beautiful and you're great, and like,
Speaker 1: I do think there is some value in hearing that
Speaker 1: from someone that you're attracted to in a way that
Speaker 1: can be like really impact. I don't know, I liked
Speaker 1: that scene, is what I'm saying, Especially because men are
Speaker 1: not conditioned to be equipped to help really anyone with
Speaker 1: their emotional issues that they're going through. I would like
Speaker 1: sex workers of any gender are especially equipped to make
Speaker 1: people feel valued and attractive and loved. That's like the
Speaker 1: service that sex workers often provide. So even though like
Speaker 1: at large, men are conditioned in such a way to
Speaker 1: like not have those skills, these particular men that's their job,
Speaker 1: that's what they're good at. So like Donald Glover gives
Speaker 1: that great sort of like mini monologue about about that
Speaker 1: of like how he and again, I do think that
Speaker 1: there's multiple ways to look at this where there is
Speaker 1: a patronizing vibe to a man saying like we're healers,
Speaker 1: we heal women, and you're like, yeah, sure, but like
Speaker 1: you know, but I think in the context of the
Speaker 1: movie it is like an attempted, very wholesome message because
Speaker 1: when the conversation is before that is like Donald Glover's
Speaker 1: character talking about how through sex work he's like realized
Speaker 1: how infrequently the women that he worked with are like
Speaker 1: listened to and cared for. Yeah, and he's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: so this is something that I can provide that like
Speaker 1: unfairly the women that I meet are not given in
Speaker 1: their day to day life, and it is I do
Speaker 1: think it is a little overly simplistic, and I do
Speaker 1: think it is, like, if you think about it too hard,
Speaker 1: a little patronizing, but because it kind of makes the
Speaker 1: women seem sad, like all of them are sad, and
Speaker 1: some of us are just horny. Some of us are
Speaker 1: like like, okay, i'm here, I'm single, you know, assumingly right,
Speaker 1: Like it's like i'm single, I'm having fun or you know,
Speaker 1: like if you're like a couple of my friends that
Speaker 1: love going to strip club and they're not single, she's like,
Speaker 1: I'm bringing my man, Like we're having a great time.
Speaker 1: Like we're just like we're enjoying, we're tipping the ladies.
Speaker 1: Like there's a whole spectrum available of reasons why you
Speaker 1: would like seek out entertainment like that. Yeah, that's I
Speaker 1: guess that that's like one of them more because this
Speaker 1: movie is written and directed by straight white guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like man, and I think you know the fact that
Speaker 1: like mostly straight men are involved at the highest level.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I don't really know how they pulled it off,
Speaker 1: but I do think that there is, like there is
Speaker 1: this tendency in this franchise that is true for some
Speaker 1: women but not all, And I feel like maybe that
Speaker 1: is where like the a little bit of dissonance comes
Speaker 1: in that like there is always ad a necessary emotional
Speaker 1: aspect to seeking out sex, work or seeking out pleasure, Like,
Speaker 1: like there there's because of how the men in this
Speaker 1: story approach their work, which again I'm like worked for me, um,
Speaker 1: but it does seem like it's like a prerequisite that
Speaker 1: most of the women they come into contact with are
Speaker 1: not just seeking a physical experience but seeking an emotional experience, right,
Speaker 1: Which is a bit trophy to assume that women need
Speaker 1: an emotional component to sex and pleasure because women are
Speaker 1: so emotional, even though, of course many women and films
Speaker 1: are very capable of non emotional sexual gratification. Although to
Speaker 1: go back to the kind of monologue that Andre gives
Speaker 1: in the car, where he's saying, like, yeah, like men
Speaker 1: don't listen to women. Men never ask women what they
Speaker 1: actually want, and all we have to do is just
Speaker 1: listen to them and ask them what they want. And
Speaker 1: when they tell us, that's a beautiful thing. And my
Speaker 1: initial reaction was like, it is beautiful, and oh my gosh, yes,
Speaker 1: it would be so nice to have someone listen to
Speaker 1: me and ask me what I want. But then I
Speaker 1: was like, damn, women have to pay men to listen
Speaker 1: to them, and that does pretend to care about them.
Speaker 1: It is. I'm just like, but that has so many
Speaker 1: implications too, because I'm like, well, first of all, it's
Speaker 1: indicative of the way it's like the individual he's fault, right.
Speaker 1: It's also it's just like indicative of the way men
Speaker 1: are again like socialized in conditioned, especially in like hetero
Speaker 1: romantic relationships, where like men aren't often really taught how
Speaker 1: to like like be romantic or just like have the
Speaker 1: emotional intelligence to like care for their partners emotional needs,
Speaker 1: like just all this stuff. And I don't want to
Speaker 1: sound like I'm I'm suggesting that it's pathetic or anything
Speaker 1: like that in any way to like pay someone up.
Speaker 1: And I don't think that the movie is trying to
Speaker 1: code it that way. No, definitely not, And so I
Speaker 1: just want to make that clear, like there's there's no
Speaker 1: judgment from us or from the movie that like anyone
Speaker 1: would pay for that type of like I don't know,
Speaker 1: just like emotional care that these men are often giving
Speaker 1: to women. But I guess I was just reminded of
Speaker 1: the the bar is so low for male behavior where
Speaker 1: it's just like all you have to do is just
Speaker 1: like listen and then like check in with me, and
Speaker 1: then it's just like, oh my god, I'm coming. Literally,
Speaker 1: all those women, all those older women in uh, South Carolina,
Speaker 1: were just like gushing. They were just so happy to
Speaker 1: have these young men in their home. And also, like
Speaker 1: I think Caroline in Savannah like is also sort of
Speaker 1: utilized to a similar extent. And it's like it sucks
Speaker 1: because in both of those sequences, I was like so
Speaker 1: thrilled for them that they were like getting something that
Speaker 1: they clearly like wanted. But with Andre and Caroline in
Speaker 1: the Savannah sequence, like he brings her up, and I
Speaker 1: think that it seems like she's expecting, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't know, because I don't know if she's been
Speaker 1: there before, but like you know, it seems like she's
Speaker 1: expecting kind of a traditional, very very physical stripper experience
Speaker 1: and then he lap dance fine, but then he shocks
Speaker 1: and amazes her by asking her a question about her grandma.
Speaker 1: And it's like, again, that scene really works for me.
Speaker 1: I love how it plays out, and it's like the
Speaker 1: character Caroline is clearly like wow, this is great. But
Speaker 1: I did feel like she's a doing hard hard. Becca
Speaker 1: was so hard. That was like my challenge Cambio obsession
Speaker 1: era right like the first time, and I was like, uh,
Speaker 1: you know, this time, I was like, I mean, I
Speaker 1: was still kind of loved it, but I like back then,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, I needed that. And
Speaker 1: so it's like it's in a way it's like I
Speaker 1: don't know, like there's a way to come at it
Speaker 1: where you're like, wow, that is something that most women
Speaker 1: don't even feel entitled to in their day to day life,
Speaker 1: to the point where it's like this would be a
Speaker 1: really unusual thing to happen. And then the other way,
Speaker 1: it's like, well, you know that, like guys are writing
Speaker 1: and directing this, and it's like it is to some extent,
Speaker 1: men writing what they think women want and then controlling
Speaker 1: the behavior of the women in the story to be like, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is what I want, and so it's like, you know,
Speaker 1: it's a little yeah. I think some of those interactions
Speaker 1: would feel more authentic had there been more women behind
Speaker 1: the camera in creative positions, making creative choices. I had
Speaker 1: way more Like I watched the movie all the way
Speaker 1: through and I was like, well, I love this, I'm horny.
Speaker 1: This is the best ever. And then I think I
Speaker 1: forgot this between our episode of Magic Mike a year
Speaker 1: ago and now. But I was like, oh, yeah, this
Speaker 1: was all written by a white guy who went to Harvard.
Speaker 1: Now I feel dubious, like I was tricked. I enjoy
Speaker 1: his work, I'm a fan, but you're also just like
Speaker 1: I don't want a white guy from Harvard to tell
Speaker 1: me like what women of all generations and races and
Speaker 1: classes want, like how how? But you know what, knowing
Speaker 1: that it was written by a white man from Harvard
Speaker 1: does explain why there wasn't more nudity. I mean also
Speaker 1: like the ratings some but to me, I'm like men
Speaker 1: are so I feel like prude for themselves, which is
Speaker 1: why the rating systems the way that it is, where
Speaker 1: it's like we must exploit women's bodies, but like if
Speaker 1: a dick is on screen, it's rated X. You know.
Speaker 1: I feel like this movie was a lot of fun
Speaker 1: and it was horny in terms of the dancing, and
Speaker 1: like the storyline was I think a little bit more
Speaker 1: horny than the last one, because the first one is
Speaker 1: like more gritty. You're only focusing on magic Michael. You know,
Speaker 1: obviously magic Michael does his thing. But but I feel
Speaker 1: like the first one was way more nudity in like
Speaker 1: sexiness than in the second one. Like the second one
Speaker 1: is like way more about the sensuality and the people
Speaker 1: and like less bodies, Like we only see full ass
Speaker 1: at the very end. Why wasn't there more acts? Was
Speaker 1: not a problem with the first one, It was the
Speaker 1: last as we even saw a little bit of Joe
Speaker 1: whatever his last name, I can't pronounce it. It's dick. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: we did, we did, and we didn't get any dick
Speaker 1: in this movie. Dick. I wonder why that was, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it was like this movie was more focused on
Speaker 1: emotions and less focused on bodies. But I'm like, you
Speaker 1: can have everybody, come on, let's figure it out. I'm
Speaker 1: glad there wasn't like women knew this time, like there
Speaker 1: wasn't the first one. I feel like there was like
Speaker 1: unnecessary female nudity in the first one, where you're just like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess like we're just living in round Florida, and
Speaker 1: I guess that's part of it. But in the second one,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, glad that we like course corrected that,
Speaker 1: but also you don't have to take all the udy out.
Speaker 1: I was like, the still men stripping, I want more stripping.
Speaker 1: I had the same complaint, Well, well we're at it,
Speaker 1: let's let's talk about the women that are in this movie,
Speaker 1: because we've we've got to talk about them very much.
Speaker 1: I think that to start with, I mean, uh, the
Speaker 1: women that we see in the kind of peripheral of
Speaker 1: this movie. And again, this feels like a very generally
Speaker 1: positive but also like hinged with some baggage where there
Speaker 1: is a lot of racial, class, and body diversity in
Speaker 1: this movie on the surface, but in terms of who
Speaker 1: gets characterized, it's still skews very straight and white. That said,
Speaker 1: I was I think, even for a movie that came
Speaker 1: out like right now, I was kind of struck by
Speaker 1: And again, maybe this just says how low the bar is. Um,
Speaker 1: it probably does, but like there is a focus on
Speaker 1: women feeling pleasure in this movie. This was a big
Speaker 1: talking point when this movie came out. There are many, many,
Speaker 1: many like essays about how it's like, wow, women enjoying
Speaker 1: themselves and like, oh god, we're just like so disservice.
Speaker 1: It's depressing. Like, but you do see like women across
Speaker 1: all these different lines enjoying themselves and being treated like people,
Speaker 1: not being like monked or made a meal of by
Speaker 1: the camera in any way that we're used to seeing.
Speaker 1: And there is like you just see a wide variety
Speaker 1: of like people of marginalized gender like having a good
Speaker 1: fucking time and that's great, Like I really loved that.
Speaker 1: But then in terms of like actual women who we
Speaker 1: get to know and that's right, I feel like that's
Speaker 1: perhaps a bit of a different story. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: especially when it comes to body diversity and body size,
Speaker 1: where there's not much body diversity you see on screen
Speaker 1: for the men, they all pretty much have a like
Speaker 1: quote unquote standard male stripper body, which maybe you would expect.
Speaker 1: But also maybe there's a conversation to be had just
Speaker 1: on a societal level about like rigid beauty standards when
Speaker 1: it comes to strippers and dancers and models and entertainers
Speaker 1: in general. And I don't think that that's even completely
Speaker 1: like an accurate portrayal of like people who do sex work.
Speaker 1: There are men of all body types work, It's just
Speaker 1: this movie focuses on guys with like pecks and six packs.
Speaker 1: Very Hollywood, very very very shredded read. Yeah, um, there
Speaker 1: is more body diversity seen in women on screen. While yes,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of thin women, but there are
Speaker 1: people with bodies of all shapes and sizes on screen,
Speaker 1: including a number of fat women. However, are only ever
Speaker 1: like featured extras. They're always in the audience of the shows.
Speaker 1: We never hear from them or learn their names or
Speaker 1: hear them speak. They are always like spectators paying for
Speaker 1: this like kind of idealized image of masculinity, whereas like
Speaker 1: the love interest characters for the various men are all
Speaker 1: thin and attractive by Western standards of beauty. Yeah. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it's like the three I think main women
Speaker 1: we get to focus on this movie are Amber Heard,
Speaker 1: Jada Pinkett Smith, and Andy McDowell, who all have very
Speaker 1: traditionally Western beauty standards bodies. I think in particular with
Speaker 1: the Zoe character, that was like all over the place
Speaker 1: for me because she felt very studio notes to me
Speaker 1: of like why does the magic Mike have a girlfriend
Speaker 1: in this one? Because she is on the peripheral of
Speaker 1: every scene you have to keep cutting to her to
Speaker 1: remember that she's there, And it's like the script tries
Speaker 1: to give you and you do get like I almost
Speaker 1: understood why they liked each other, but they don't even
Speaker 1: like it just felt very weird, like where you do
Speaker 1: get a little bit of background into who Zoe is,
Speaker 1: where she says, like what was it? Like I I
Speaker 1: am a photographer, but like the first person who gave
Speaker 1: me a career opportunity was trying to fund me and
Speaker 1: like it ended poorly, and like it feels like kind
Speaker 1: of a story that like I think unfortunately a lot
Speaker 1: of people are familiar with of like imposter syndrome of
Speaker 1: like am I even good at this if the person
Speaker 1: who gave me the opportunity was trying to sexually exploit me,
Speaker 1: which you know isn't exactly magical Michael's journey, but I understand,
Speaker 1: like why would sort of connect on feeling exploited and like,
Speaker 1: also he like seems to want like he notices her,
Speaker 1: he wants to make her happy. But the character just
Speaker 1: like was pretty underwritten. And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: like I don't know, the things I appreciated about her
Speaker 1: was that the movie went out of its way to
Speaker 1: make her canonically by in a way that wasn't mocking
Speaker 1: or like challenged by the fact that she seemed interested
Speaker 1: in Magical Michael. He didn't have an issue with it,
Speaker 1: Like it wasn't even talked about really other than her
Speaker 1: just stating it, which is rare, felt normalized. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: I just felt like the character was just like why
Speaker 1: is she here, Like in a way that as a
Speaker 1: bummer in a movie with so few women. I just
Speaker 1: didn't like. She didn't seem to have much narrative impact,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like she was added in in
Speaker 1: a not the original draft. I also was confused by
Speaker 1: an aspect of her character where at one point, I
Speaker 1: think when they first meet her and Mike, she says
Speaker 1: that she's trying to avoid ending up on the poll,
Speaker 1: and I didn't know if that meant that she had
Speaker 1: been a stripper and she's trying to avoid returning to it,
Speaker 1: because that's how I initially interpreted it. But then I
Speaker 1: was like, I think maybe, yeah, I think maybe she
Speaker 1: means that she wants to avoid becoming a stripper, as
Speaker 1: if that was something that like, if her photography doesn't
Speaker 1: work out, it would be something that she would have
Speaker 1: to quote unquote resort to. Yeah. I was like, that's
Speaker 1: like a weird thing to stripper. And in this movie specifically,
Speaker 1: it felt like one of those comments that people who
Speaker 1: have unconscious biases it just bubbles out of them, kind
Speaker 1: of like when I don't like gay people, but you know,
Speaker 1: they say something homophobic. Like it felt kind of like
Speaker 1: the same byword, Like it's like that's cool that you
Speaker 1: do it, but like I don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: but just like keep it behind clothes, don't every something
Speaker 1: like that? Yeah right, yeah, Like I just I but
Speaker 1: again it's like that I didn't even pick up on
Speaker 1: that line, to be honest, but it just everything she
Speaker 1: says and does feel so was this supposed to be here?
Speaker 1: That's how I felt. In the very first scene they chalked,
Speaker 1: I like literally even putting my notes. I was like
Speaker 1: I felt like that improv Like it felt like they
Speaker 1: didn't know what to do. Like I was like, was
Speaker 1: this scripted? Like I felt like like she came up
Speaker 1: to him and the notes were like talk about his
Speaker 1: dick and he's peeing, and then they didn't know what
Speaker 1: to do after that and they just like had weird
Speaker 1: banter and then it didn't come up in the next
Speaker 1: scene everything that had been Like That's why I was like,
Speaker 1: was this character added after shooting? Like I couldn't find
Speaker 1: any information about it, and it probably wasn't, but like
Speaker 1: it just felt like, you know, like magic. Mike in
Speaker 1: the next scene talks with Ken about other stuff that
Speaker 1: they've established in the previous scene, but she doesn't come up.
Speaker 1: And I feel like normally in a scene like that,
Speaker 1: a character like Ken would be like so what was
Speaker 1: up with that girl? Less like she just doesn't come up.
Speaker 1: It's like she wasn't there. Because they have this weird
Speaker 1: way like asking each other if they've had sex the
Speaker 1: night before and it's so corny, but they're like what
Speaker 1: did they say? It made me? They're like did you bangy?
Speaker 1: Did you bang me? Not? Did you bang? Did you
Speaker 1: bang me? And I'm like, what are you babies? Like
Speaker 1: what are you saying? They're All twelve. Not that I
Speaker 1: would put it past heaters axual men to like say
Speaker 1: ship like that, but not in my presence. This movie
Speaker 1: is for me, Like I don't want to watch this.
Speaker 1: I will say that I was so And I'm curious
Speaker 1: how this kind of bears out with Magic Mike three,
Speaker 1: because I hope that between and now there has been
Speaker 1: I think, you know, not a satisfactory, but significant cultural shift.
Speaker 1: And when this movie came out, the audience for Weekend
Speaker 1: one was nine percent identifying as women. And I'm wondering
Speaker 1: how that kind of bears out for Magic By three.
Speaker 1: I feel like have like men caught on to the
Speaker 1: fact that they're just fucking awesome movies. Yeah that they're fun,
Speaker 1: they're fun looking fun. What do you hate fun? Okay? Anyways,
Speaker 1: but yeah, I I just and then also on top
Speaker 1: of that, and this is like no reflection on the actor,
Speaker 1: because it's like it's not her fault, but like the
Speaker 1: fact that for both movies, it just seemed like a
Speaker 1: very sequel e thing of like, oh, yeah, he dated
Speaker 1: a hot, thin white woman in the first movie, so
Speaker 1: we just need to find a different, hot, thin white
Speaker 1: lady for him to date in the second. Movie and
Speaker 1: you're like, well, no, you don't. And also I wouldn't
Speaker 1: have been bothered if I don't know. It's it's always
Speaker 1: bizarre when we come up on movies like this where
Speaker 1: I'm like, I just I wouldn't have mind did if
Speaker 1: that woman wasn't in the story, because it's just like
Speaker 1: she wasn't effectively fit in. She would show up at
Speaker 1: random points. I don't think she really factors into Mike's
Speaker 1: development as a character very much, And all it really
Speaker 1: seems like for her development is like she was kind
Speaker 1: of and this was like a note we had about
Speaker 1: Magical Michael's original girlfriend Brooke was that she's so uptight
Speaker 1: she can't feel pleasure and like in an even lazier
Speaker 1: way because she's barely in the movie. That's how Zoe's
Speaker 1: character is made to seem like all the other women
Speaker 1: in the scene are really engaged and they want to
Speaker 1: like not only get horny, but like talk about their
Speaker 1: feelings and as do the men, and like it's a
Speaker 1: very kind of like wow, this is cool, but Zoe's
Speaker 1: like I'm eating cake into kitchen. I'm not like the
Speaker 1: other girls. I'm not horny, And it's just like what
Speaker 1: are you trying to tell me with this character? Why
Speaker 1: is she always in the other room? Like can she
Speaker 1: ever be in the room. It's really bizarre to me
Speaker 1: the way she's written. Yeah, um, but we have we
Speaker 1: have other women to talk about that have way more
Speaker 1: narrative Rome. Can we talk about Rome? Yes? I love
Speaker 1: that she's a successful business owner. Most of her customers,
Speaker 1: it seems, are black women. It seems as though Rome's
Speaker 1: like mission statement for her business is she wants to
Speaker 1: create a space where black women can enjoy themselves, where
Speaker 1: they can feel valued and appreciated and beautiful. She like
Speaker 1: makes a point to like go around to different women
Speaker 1: at this like horny mansion and be like and like
Speaker 1: you're all queens. I have so many questions about the
Speaker 1: Horny Mansion, like and and that said, like listeners, if
Speaker 1: you know that these horny mansions exist and if they're safe,
Speaker 1: like drop the links. I want to go seriously to
Speaker 1: the Horny Mansion. Um. But yeah, she just like she
Speaker 1: wants to again just like create this safe space. And
Speaker 1: it seems like a safe space for both the performers
Speaker 1: and the clientele. And she seems just like be curating
Speaker 1: this like great space again specifically for black women, because
Speaker 1: black women are so historically undervalued and underappreciated that she's
Speaker 1: and this never gets explicitly stated in the movie, but
Speaker 1: that was my read on that, but also romantically discriminated,
Speaker 1: you know, like this is a safe space for black
Speaker 1: women to express their desires and to be desired in
Speaker 1: a way that like in the other club circles, I
Speaker 1: feel like it is more about like with the white
Speaker 1: dancers and the white male entertainers, you know, it's about
Speaker 1: them being like, look at me and all my sexiness,
Speaker 1: and I know you want this, whereas like in um
Speaker 1: Rome's club, you know, it's focus more from an honest
Speaker 1: place of her pleasure, Like it's like, this is about
Speaker 1: her desire and what does she want? How can we
Speaker 1: make her feel special? Like this is about you and
Speaker 1: not about how sexy I am. It's about how do
Speaker 1: I turn you on? And there's so many rooms. There's
Speaker 1: so many rooms that I got turned on um And
Speaker 1: I think, especially like I listens, I make a lot
Speaker 1: of comments right now about black and row woman I am,
Speaker 1: and after Latina, I am a black and brown woman.
Speaker 1: But all that to say, I feel like it was
Speaker 1: very beautiful to see like especially dark skinned black men
Speaker 1: be interested in desiring these you know, or making these
Speaker 1: black women feel desired, because so many times oftentimes like
Speaker 1: that is so not the case. So I thought that
Speaker 1: was really lovely. That was like, you know, a space
Speaker 1: where these women can find what they're looking for because
Speaker 1: their communities refuse to acknowledge them. So for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it felt like those themes and like that was
Speaker 1: introduced in a very in a way that was very
Speaker 1: organic to the story too, in a way that I
Speaker 1: feel like sometimes killing I forget what movie we were
Speaker 1: talking about this recently, where it feels like a lot
Speaker 1: of times between movies and franchises, there's like a very
Speaker 1: needed demand for like why was there no diversity in
Speaker 1: this movie? Why was there no like diversity of race
Speaker 1: or class or body type or anything. And then the
Speaker 1: way that the sequels try to address it are very fine.
Speaker 1: Here you go, like in a way that's very careless
Speaker 1: and like worse than if they had done nothing. So again,
Speaker 1: it's like the bar is absolutely on the floor. I'm
Speaker 1: not even congratulating the Magic Mike team for having done this,
Speaker 1: but it's like there was a glaring lack of diversity
Speaker 1: in the first movie. It was something that we talked
Speaker 1: about We're being in Florida, like it's like right, right,
Speaker 1: and and so it's like the movie, you know, like
Speaker 1: it felt like the higher up creatives like did hear
Speaker 1: that criticism and tried to make the movie more equitable
Speaker 1: and diverse in a way that also felt very like
Speaker 1: in step with what the story was and not in
Speaker 1: a way that was like fine, there you go, like
Speaker 1: because I feel like viewers can you can feel when
Speaker 1: that's happening. For sure, I agree, especially with the club
Speaker 1: being in Georgia, Like I felt like that was like
Speaker 1: very organic to what it could have been. And I
Speaker 1: think the only way they could have done it right
Speaker 1: was having um rome b Jada Pagin Smith you know,
Speaker 1: or like a black actress like it definitely could not
Speaker 1: have been a man. And I'm glad that they made it.
Speaker 1: I'm a damn owning this horny mansion. Right. She's so
Speaker 1: fucking I mean and truly like Jada Pinkett Smith is
Speaker 1: just like such a potent person. She's so great. Like
Speaker 1: you forget about Matthew McConney, like you just do, and
Speaker 1: no you did not. I hated Matthew mcconnughey in the
Speaker 1: first one, I feel like a better edition, Like because
Speaker 1: Matthew coconney was so gross. His whole character was like
Speaker 1: I'm on cocaine. Was the vibe Like it was just
Speaker 1: like and it wasn't like Matthew McConaughey, like his character
Speaker 1: like did not respect or understand what women wanted outside
Speaker 1: of a way that made him money. It just seemed
Speaker 1: like Rome. It wasn't that she didn't want their money.
Speaker 1: She absolutely did, and judgment isn't passed on her for that,
Speaker 1: and I think rightfully so. But also it's like she
Speaker 1: knew what to do better Dallas did. She was creating
Speaker 1: a real experience set at the core was what these
Speaker 1: women wanted versus Dallas is like, I'm a creepy, money
Speaker 1: hungry man who owns a club, you know, which, Like statistically,
Speaker 1: women that own clubs like stripper clubs and things like
Speaker 1: that have better, you know, employees because the women feel
Speaker 1: cared for and protected in a way that men simply
Speaker 1: don't do that to their workers. So well, a big
Speaker 1: thing that the characters were dealing with in the first
Speaker 1: movie is that Dallas was like exploiting their labor and
Speaker 1: like not paying anyone well enough, whereas it seems like
Speaker 1: in Rome's horny mansion, she's and again the movie doesn't
Speaker 1: get into this with any specificity, but it seems at
Speaker 1: least that the like male performers and entertainers in her
Speaker 1: house are given like artistic freedom because some of them
Speaker 1: are doing like very horny dances. And then you have
Speaker 1: Andre who like only just like takes his shirt off
Speaker 1: and and he's just like freestyle wrapping the rest of
Speaker 1: the time, like he's not doing like traditional stripping, he's
Speaker 1: like doing his music and also like showing his abs too.
Speaker 1: But like it does it reminded me of like it's
Speaker 1: like when you I don't know, I mean, I'm a
Speaker 1: fan of Jumbo's clown Room in l A. And it's
Speaker 1: like that is a club where it is predominantly women,
Speaker 1: but not exclusively, but like it's a club where as
Speaker 1: far as I know, generally people who work their love
Speaker 1: working there because they're given a lot of creative freedom.
Speaker 1: And that's like part of the point. And I think
Speaker 1: that this is like a um criticism. I saw this
Speaker 1: franchise that I don't know, I mean, I I have
Speaker 1: never done sex working. I don't feel like my opinion
Speaker 1: here carries a lot of weight, but I just wanted
Speaker 1: to bring it up of like, because this movie I
Speaker 1: do feel like there are elements of Magic Mike that
Speaker 1: are like, it's kind of a fantasy movie in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, because in order for it to be
Speaker 1: as cathartic and amazing as it is, you have to
Speaker 1: ignore things that happen in the world. Things that happen
Speaker 1: in the world don't happen in the Magic Mike cinematic universe.
Speaker 1: And that's not a criticism. I'm glad that horrible things
Speaker 1: don't really happen in this world. I love that about
Speaker 1: this movie. Yeah, I was like, this movie was pleasant
Speaker 1: from start to finish, Like there's no real traumas, Like
Speaker 1: it was just guys getting to know each other and
Speaker 1: solving their problem at the end of the day. That right.
Speaker 1: So I came across this article that that came out
Speaker 1: at the time that this movie came out in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: It's by Chloe Cooper Jones in Vice articles called Magic
Speaker 1: Mike Excel was the most important feminist movie, of which,
Speaker 1: my god, if that's true, U was goal for us.
Speaker 1: There's no women in the movie. But okay, right, um
Speaker 1: not no women few okay um, But but she interviewed
Speaker 1: the former president of the American Philosophical Association, a person
Speaker 1: named Linda Martin Alcof, who had some criticisms with this
Speaker 1: movie that I thought were interesting, even if I didn't
Speaker 1: totally agree with them, and I just wanted to kind
Speaker 1: of bring them up. She's sad. Dr Alcof quote. There's
Speaker 1: a danger when popular culture uses feminist ideas in ways
Speaker 1: that not only misrepresent, but mislead. This is the case
Speaker 1: with Magic Mike XXL, which appears to be about the
Speaker 1: gender equality of men and women in sex work. So
Speaker 1: the movie makes use of this representation and then goes
Speaker 1: on to portray sex work as a choice individuals can make.
Speaker 1: It does not show the real costs, the constant violence,
Speaker 1: regular dehumanization by clients, wage theft, and sexual violence that
Speaker 1: is part of so much sex work. So there is
Speaker 1: a falseness to that representation. Unquote. I see what she's saying,
Speaker 1: but I also don't think that that has a place
Speaker 1: in this franchise. That's not why this exists exactly, but
Speaker 1: it does feel worth acknowledging. We're obvious like this is
Speaker 1: a fantasy, like magic Mike XXL Special. I feel like
Speaker 1: the first one they like kinda like that it was
Speaker 1: all over the place, honestly the first one, but the
Speaker 1: second one like it was like the goal is fun.
Speaker 1: This is a fantasy. We know that this is not
Speaker 1: how the world works, but that is the point of fiction,
Speaker 1: that this is fiction so exactly. And then the other
Speaker 1: criticism I myself of this movie popping up is for
Speaker 1: all the diversity of like women feeling pleasure in this movie,
Speaker 1: outside of the fact that it's still um, straight thin
Speaker 1: women that seem to be getting precedents, that there's no
Speaker 1: representation of disability, which I think it's fair, especially in
Speaker 1: a movie that seems to be prioritizing such a wide
Speaker 1: spectrum of pleasure that we didn't see any disabled women
Speaker 1: did feel a bit glaring. But okay, what can we
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about Andy McDowell's character. Yes,
Speaker 1: let's do it. I wanted to point out a few
Speaker 1: positive a few things I enjoyed. You see sexual desire
Speaker 1: in older women and like horny mom energy and like
Speaker 1: they are expressing their frustrations of like some of them
Speaker 1: are like feeling sexually repressed and you know, we we
Speaker 1: talked to a little bit about this already, but I
Speaker 1: was just I appreciated there being a representation of like
Speaker 1: older women's sexuality being a thing on screen, and that
Speaker 1: big dick Ritchie gets with an older woman or a
Speaker 1: woman older than him, and they called her absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1: I think, like they were like that beautiful, amazing woman
Speaker 1: or whatever. And they didn't call her old, and they
Speaker 1: didn't say mills. And I appreciate that they were just
Speaker 1: like she's hot as hell, good job, just accurate, I mean, right.
Speaker 1: And I also appreciated that you have a mom telling
Speaker 1: her daughter to like play the field and like don't
Speaker 1: stop until you find like the best dick of your life,
Speaker 1: where you would normally see on screen a mother like
Speaker 1: slut shaming her daughter or like warning her of like
Speaker 1: the quote unquote dangers of having multiple partners. I was
Speaker 1: gonna say, because I tend to associate like a Southern
Speaker 1: woman in her forties or fifties as being this kind
Speaker 1: of like pearl clutching, like well, I never kind of like,
Speaker 1: oh my goodness, and I know that that's a stereotype,
Speaker 1: but I've seen it in a bunch of movies, and
Speaker 1: when the only representation you see of something is a stereotype,
Speaker 1: you think that that must be the truth, which is
Speaker 1: what our whole show is about anyway. Yeah, so for
Speaker 1: Nancy to be like, yeah, my daughter should fuck a
Speaker 1: bunch of men, including male strippers, that was pretty serversive.
Speaker 1: That was pretty cool, I liked, And again, it like
Speaker 1: fit into the story in a very cool and logical way.
Speaker 1: I read a few um accounts of like younger women
Speaker 1: bringing their moms to this movie and mom's feeling really
Speaker 1: like liberated by that scene because I did. I think
Speaker 1: it was in that same Vice article where um, the
Speaker 1: writer whose name is Chloe Cooper Jones was describing seeing
Speaker 1: this movie with her mom and her mom like kind
Speaker 1: of tensing up when the Andy mcdowalls scene started because
Speaker 1: women are so conditioned to seeing like any woman over
Speaker 1: a certain age treated as a joke if they're experiencing
Speaker 1: any sexual desire. And then like really loving that scene
Speaker 1: because I don't know, they're just like treated like people
Speaker 1: that are horny, which makes sense, And I loved that
Speaker 1: scene with like it just felt very like true to
Speaker 1: that character where she was really horny, but also like,
Speaker 1: what's going on where um Andy mcdowall's character like asked
Speaker 1: big Dick Ritchie, like if she could unzip him, and
Speaker 1: then he was or what did he say? Like she said,
Speaker 1: can I pop the hood? Pop up something objectifying men?
Speaker 1: That's not nice? But it's like that scene fucking ruled.
Speaker 1: I just like it was really it was really nice.
Speaker 1: I like that the movie wanted to take all of
Speaker 1: these like I don't know, because it's like road trip
Speaker 1: movies are so episodic like this, but this felt like
Speaker 1: really intentionally episodic of like, here's a woman you don't
Speaker 1: normally see in a movie like this, experiencing pleasure and
Speaker 1: having a nice time. Isn't that great? All right, they're gone,
Speaker 1: and that's kind of like, yeah, that was great. Yeah cool.
Speaker 1: Another kind of episodic thing that happens a little stop
Speaker 1: they make on the trip is the drag Show, which
Speaker 1: I was the first stop. Yeah, yeah, I had some questions.
Speaker 1: So you have this scene taking place at a nightclub
Speaker 1: called Mad Mary's. The drag queen character Tori Snatch played
Speaker 1: by Vicky Vox, is like hosting this show and then
Speaker 1: says something like all right, now, all of you amateur
Speaker 1: queens get up here and strut your stuff, and I'll
Speaker 1: give you four hundred dollars to the winner. No one
Speaker 1: who gets on stage is in drag, including because like
Speaker 1: you understand why, like Magic Mike and his friends are
Speaker 1: not in drag. But the first few people who get
Speaker 1: on stage were clearly people who were there to participate
Speaker 1: in this drag competition, and for some reason, they're not
Speaker 1: in drag. And then you have these seems as though
Speaker 1: mostly straight guys going on stage kind of inserting themselves
Speaker 1: into this like queer space, into this queer competition, I
Speaker 1: would say, not doing a very good job, and then
Speaker 1: somehow still winning, and he was half passing it big time,
Speaker 1: and nevertheless he persisted there. So I found that confusing,
Speaker 1: and it just felt like a scene that was written
Speaker 1: by straight men. Oh for sure, it's like men, like
Speaker 1: they had no idea. They were like, oh, well, Fluffy
Speaker 1: like is wearing the what's a face costume from the Yeah,
Speaker 1: so he's wearing the costume, but that's not a drag costume.
Speaker 1: That is like a normal costume. And it's also vaguely
Speaker 1: racialized because like that is a like Argentinian banana. I
Speaker 1: think they're from Argentina. Those bananas, um, so you know
Speaker 1: it's just like okay, it was like the closest they
Speaker 1: could think. They're like, well, we can't actually put them
Speaker 1: in drag because like that's too gay and these are
Speaker 1: straight men. We have to remember that they dress up,
Speaker 1: but they're not gay. They're performing masculinity for women. It
Speaker 1: has to be hetero, which is something that I'm curious about,
Speaker 1: Like will the third movie Dare to not have a
Speaker 1: single moment that feels a little no homo in a
Speaker 1: way that I think that, Like, again, this movie improves
Speaker 1: upon the first in that regard, but there are still
Speaker 1: little moments where were just like why although there's one
Speaker 1: crumb that I maybe would give the movie, give me
Speaker 1: give me that crowb it's when I think they've checked
Speaker 1: into the convention. So they're like staying in the hotel
Speaker 1: in Myrtle Beach and Magic Mike and Tito get into
Speaker 1: the one bed that's in the room, get into the
Speaker 1: bed together, and there's no like gay panic moment, there's
Speaker 1: no like what we hope to share a bed. They
Speaker 1: just get into the bed together and start talking about
Speaker 1: frozen yogurt, and I was like, wow, it's it's a crumb.
Speaker 1: But I was like, huh, but honestly, like most movies
Speaker 1: would be like, now let's go like let's go wild
Speaker 1: on this moment. And I guess the crumb is that
Speaker 1: they like don't make fun of the drag queens or
Speaker 1: like you know, going to a gay bar like they
Speaker 1: were like they apparently go every year. Yeah, they like
Speaker 1: say that they go every time that they go to
Speaker 1: this competition. So another smidgen crumb, another tiny little crome,
Speaker 1: which like, yeah, it's like and it makes sense, like
Speaker 1: it's like they have a lot in common. They work
Speaker 1: in similar settings, like cool, it makes sense that everyone
Speaker 1: would get along here and the movie doesn't like try
Speaker 1: to do anything weird about it, right, and which just
Speaker 1: goes to show how low the bar is, right because
Speaker 1: you you're always like if something funked up about to happen,
Speaker 1: because I don't trust these men, but this, I mean,
Speaker 1: this franchise will will generally go with not even just
Speaker 1: like a more realistic choice, but like the Path of
Speaker 1: Least Resistance narratively, like it makes more sense that this
Speaker 1: group of men would be friends than not. So yeah, true, Um,
Speaker 1: is there anything else we want to talk about? No,
Speaker 1: but I do want to mention that the Twilight Stripper
Speaker 1: moment killed me and I always felt like that was
Speaker 1: very of the era as someone who used to be
Speaker 1: a twy heart. I Team I. Okay, I bounced back
Speaker 1: and forth, but I think ultimately I was Team Edward.
Speaker 1: Oh that's the wrong answer. Unfortunately it's all about Team Jacob. No,
Speaker 1: but also like they're but the right answer is neither
Speaker 1: team Nobody. Yeah, team not even Team Bella, like team
Speaker 1: Why am I reading this? Like all three of them
Speaker 1: are kind of diabolical, and I was, Yeah, I was
Speaker 1: Team Jacob back in the day, and which you would
Speaker 1: catch a lot of ship for that. It was brutal um.
Speaker 1: But also all three teams everyone's wrong. Everyone was wrong.
Speaker 1: Magic Mike EXXEL seems to understand that. It does seem
Speaker 1: to understand that because they made fun of them, they
Speaker 1: were like the fucking vampire acts warning. Yeah, And the
Speaker 1: last thing I wanted to say, because I didn't realize
Speaker 1: like the two I think the two most successful erotic
Speaker 1: movies were Magic Mike XXL and the Final fifty Shades
Speaker 1: of Gray movie. And so if we're putting ourselves in
Speaker 1: that headspace, it made me appreciate Magic Mike exic fell
Speaker 1: a lot more because you think of how you know,
Speaker 1: they are both technically folks on women's pleasure. But if
Speaker 1: you watch a Fifty Shades of Gray movie, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: this domineering guy who doesn't respect boundaries and it's like
Speaker 1: ruining your life, like hates her, like you're just like, well,
Speaker 1: I guess honestly, Magic Mike x Excel was in that
Speaker 1: media landscape a miracle, which is so depressing. But yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that was my That was my final thought
Speaker 1: on it. But does it pass the Bechtel test? Folks? Oh,
Speaker 1: you know what, I don't think it does or I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's two lines of dialogue. But in
Speaker 1: theory you got Paris and Rome chatting about their love
Speaker 1: for one another. But it is narrowly like in the
Speaker 1: vein of male entertainment. So I feel like that would
Speaker 1: have been the only time that it would have passed,
Speaker 1: right because all the horny moms are they aren't really
Speaker 1: talking amongst themselves, They're mostly talking to the And I
Speaker 1: do think it passed, but it wasn't like as thorough
Speaker 1: passes you would like. I think there were like individual
Speaker 1: because the movie does seem to go out of its
Speaker 1: way to give every woman a name in a way
Speaker 1: that almost felt glaring to me at some point, it's
Speaker 1: sort of like these are my friends, blah blah blah
Speaker 1: bla blah, and I'm like this pass eventual asked like what,
Speaker 1: because it was a popular discussion of like what lass
Speaker 1: versus what wasn't. And I do think that there were
Speaker 1: a few off hand exchanges in the Andy McDowell sequence
Speaker 1: that would have passed. I think that the Rome and
Speaker 1: Paris like again contextually. Ultimately, I guess Rome's goal is
Speaker 1: to get magical Michael into the room, but also she's
Speaker 1: trying to get herself into the room. I think there's
Speaker 1: a little bit of wiggle room there. It's not a
Speaker 1: hard pass. You never see Megan and uh I can't
Speaker 1: even remember her name in the movie, Zoe. You never
Speaker 1: see them in a room together. They were like supposed
Speaker 1: to be friends talk yeah. Yeah, Well, it's like because
Speaker 1: Zoe just seemed so out of play, is out of time,
Speaker 1: out of movie in this movie, where it's like we
Speaker 1: keep being told she and megat her friends, but it
Speaker 1: seems like she disagrees with Megan on everything. And like
Speaker 1: they never speak. So I do think like in a
Speaker 1: movie like this, while it is very valuable to have
Speaker 1: a movie that is focused on I think coded heterosexual
Speaker 1: men coming to terms with themselves and each other in
Speaker 1: an emotionally intelligent way, is a is a good mission.
Speaker 1: There's not a lot of movies that do that well.
Speaker 1: This movie does it pretty well. But it's like there
Speaker 1: was room for more women. It seems like, based on
Speaker 1: the trailer that I've watched five thousand times for the
Speaker 1: new magical Michael, that women are there. There are at
Speaker 1: least two. There's like a mother daughter dynamic. In the
Speaker 1: third movie, is Rossaiah is supposed to be Samahayaks daughter.
Speaker 1: I think that they say that in the trailer. I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure I'll watch it after this, but I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I maybe, but I'm pretty sure that, yeah, they're
Speaker 1: supposed to be playing mother daughter and like that's an
Speaker 1: impression I got. Also, Channing Tatum knows her daughter and
Speaker 1: then meets her mother, and it's like and that's like big,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, who is he dating? And then I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe he's not dating anyone in this one, and maybe
Speaker 1: that maybe he's been liberated from the need to be
Speaker 1: in love with a boring character. But I like that
Speaker 1: they didn't end up like truly at the end together,
Speaker 1: Like it's like, yes, he danced on her, but I
Speaker 1: think obviously he's like, this is also my job, like
Speaker 1: and I want to have fun and I think this
Speaker 1: is funny. But I like that they didn't like kiss,
Speaker 1: like they didn't like it wasn't clear that they're like
Speaker 1: ending up together. It was more like, like he had
Speaker 1: mentioned throughout the whole movie, was like come have fun,
Speaker 1: like like you're young, like you're young ones your friends
Speaker 1: want to go, like just have fun with a bunch
Speaker 1: of strip your we're friends now. They mentioned like we're
Speaker 1: friends now. So I do like that. Even though obviously
Speaker 1: it's like gear that he she is like the romantic
Speaker 1: interest of his I like that it wasn't actually very
Speaker 1: romantic and that they didn't kiss. It just seems like
Speaker 1: their lives intersect for a few days and then that's
Speaker 1: kind of it. Yeah, It's like I love stories like that,
Speaker 1: and I agree with you Becca that it didn't seem
Speaker 1: like the movie was like you'll be seeing this character again,
Speaker 1: like yeah, and that's fine, Like whatever you know. I. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I magical Michael. You know he's still hurting. He's still
Speaker 1: hurting from Yeah, he'll from his engagement. You know, he
Speaker 1: wasn't ready to take that off. He said he lit
Speaker 1: a candle and everything. He was really tight. He was like,
Speaker 1: I lit a candle and everything. She said, nod bacon.
Speaker 1: I don't understand, bacon. I had epic random bacon. She
Speaker 1: still said, freaking no, I will never understand. If you're like, well, whatever, magic,
Speaker 1: you still got to grow up. Like there must have
Speaker 1: been some other problems. She also sucked, so it's like
Speaker 1: she did stop. She wanted him to quit stripping. Not cool,
Speaker 1: Yeah she was. She was a bit of a like
Speaker 1: a traditionalist in a way that I don't think suited
Speaker 1: the beauty that is magical Michael his lifestyle. But maybe
Speaker 1: he's going to fall in love with Samahiak. I think
Speaker 1: that to me is sexy. Yeah, they can do that
Speaker 1: for two hours and I will watch it. I'll be happy.
Speaker 1: The same same writer. So the third one, Steven Soderberg
Speaker 1: is back directing. I thought it was interesting. So and
Speaker 1: I like like Steven Soderberg. I think he's a really
Speaker 1: cool artist, where like he seems like kind of unpretentious
Speaker 1: in the way he does stuff where he directed the
Speaker 1: first movie and then for the second movie his cinematographer
Speaker 1: from the first movie and him switched places. So in
Speaker 1: this movie, the cinematographer is directing, Steven Soderberg is doing
Speaker 1: the cinematography and editing, and they just kind of like
Speaker 1: switched things up in a way that I thought was
Speaker 1: like visually cool. And then in the final one or finding,
Speaker 1: I guess we're to believe perhaps could be the final one,
Speaker 1: but like you know, would I'd be mad? No, But
Speaker 1: in the final with Steven Soderberg is directing again, which
Speaker 1: I do think fits with the tone of the trailer
Speaker 1: now that you've mentioned that, because the railer to me
Speaker 1: is giving like step up one, yes, but like sexy,
Speaker 1: like it's like it's giving the same type of draws,
Speaker 1: like it's going to be more drama this time than
Speaker 1: it is comedy. It does feel very like I haven't
Speaker 1: seen any of the Tom Holland Spider Man's will be honest,
Speaker 1: but I do like, you know, this character, you know
Speaker 1: and love is in London, question more, and that's like
Speaker 1: what is happening in the third Magic Like I can't
Speaker 1: wait to see it. I will see it opening weekends.
Speaker 1: I will laugh, cry, pee myself, like get very morny.
Speaker 1: That's why I'm there, That's why we're there, That's why
Speaker 1: we go to the movies. The movie. We come to
Speaker 1: this place, we come from magic. We come to this
Speaker 1: place to laugh, to cry, to care. Um. How about
Speaker 1: that nipple scale of ours where we rate the movie
Speaker 1: from zero to five nipples based on looking at the
Speaker 1: movie through an intersectional feminist lens. I'm going to give
Speaker 1: this movie. This might be wild, but I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: it three point five because the two kind of like
Speaker 1: main thrusts of the movie. That's my new favorite way
Speaker 1: to discree. I've been saying that ship we need to stop,
Speaker 1: we have to knock it out. It's triggering my fight
Speaker 1: or flight response when we say that out loud. Okay, fine.
Speaker 1: The two main themes of the movie are male friendship
Speaker 1: that is like healthy and productive or at least trying
Speaker 1: to be. And they're doing it in a very like
Speaker 1: the way hetero men are conditioned to behave when it
Speaker 1: comes to like emotional vulnerability. But they are like talking
Speaker 1: through their problems. They're expressing vulnerabilities. They are saying that
Speaker 1: they love each other, and yes they're doing it while
Speaker 1: they're rolling on Molly and I'm expressing their love does
Speaker 1: lead to a car crash um, But generally it seems
Speaker 1: like the movie is very much in favor of this
Speaker 1: male friendship and I really appreciate that. And I also
Speaker 1: appreciate the focus on and this is mostly through the
Speaker 1: Rome character, but her mission being like cult to vading
Speaker 1: a space where women can like experience joy and pleasure
Speaker 1: and to feel valued and to feel attractive and you know,
Speaker 1: all these things that are good. So I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: the movie three and a half nipples. I will give
Speaker 1: one to Jada, I will give one to Elizabeth Banks,
Speaker 1: the director of Cocaine Bear. I will give one to
Speaker 1: the scene where Magic My dances to Pony by Genuine
Speaker 1: and has sex with his work bench. And I'll give
Speaker 1: my half nipples. And I'll give my half nipple to
Speaker 1: Tito because he deserved more characterization. I'm gonna go three
Speaker 1: and a half as well. I think that the Zoe
Speaker 1: character was kind of the biggest miss for me in
Speaker 1: terms of a woman, where it felt like she was
Speaker 1: a character who has added as a girlfriend kind of halfheartedly.
Speaker 1: We didn't get to know very much about her. Um,
Speaker 1: I do appreciate like we were just saying Becca that,
Speaker 1: like it wasn't forced on us as like and now
Speaker 1: she's the great love of his life, because it just
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't have worked at all. But it just
Speaker 1: I you know, for someone who was pretty high build
Speaker 1: in the movie, she could be removed from the movie
Speaker 1: and nothing would change. She didn't really factor into Magical
Speaker 1: Michael's growth at all. However, Rome is a great character.
Speaker 1: I really liked her. I liked that they reset everything
Speaker 1: at the beginning of every Magic Mic movie. But I'm
Speaker 1: like kind of bummed that we won't get to see
Speaker 1: more of her because it feels like that character like
Speaker 1: she just like I would see h spinoff movie only
Speaker 1: about her same and her horny mansion and her horny mansion,
Speaker 1: like how do you the prequill Like her life was
Speaker 1: magical Michael before went to Dallas, because those two have chemistry.
Speaker 1: It was like wow, when he kissed her hand, I
Speaker 1: was like begging for her forgiveness. I was like, wow, Wow,
Speaker 1: this is great. Why isn't it me? I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: right like it was Yeah, like I thought she was
Speaker 1: a great character. I feel like she you know, I
Speaker 1: would love to see her again down the line, but
Speaker 1: in this movie she is wonderful. But I think for me,
Speaker 1: she and the animate Dowel characters were the best written,
Speaker 1: most narratively impactful women in the story, which is kind
Speaker 1: of cool because you know they are like women over
Speaker 1: forty and you don't usually see in kind of a
Speaker 1: sexy movie older women taking narrative precedence over younger women.
Speaker 1: I think there was room for everybody, though, But I
Speaker 1: love this movie. I love it's like focus on um,
Speaker 1: straight men getting their ship together. I love how it
Speaker 1: celebrates sex work and doesn't shame it in the way
Speaker 1: that I think the first movie, Tacit Lee did towards
Speaker 1: the end. I think this movie kind of course corrects
Speaker 1: that issue from the first movie. Um, there is more diversity.
Speaker 1: I know that some of it is sort of like
Speaker 1: or much of it is very surface level and flawed,
Speaker 1: and we it is still a white character centric movie
Speaker 1: in a way that I really hope the third movie
Speaker 1: course corrects on Justice for Adam. But it's a hell
Speaker 1: of a rob it's a hell of a horny movie.
Speaker 1: I really enjoy it and I also do like it
Speaker 1: is kind of nice to come at a franchise like
Speaker 1: this with general optimism, where I feel like with future
Speaker 1: movies and most franchises, I'm like, there's no way they're
Speaker 1: going to do any better and I just need to
Speaker 1: manage my expectations. But for a two movie franchise, I
Speaker 1: feel like they made significant strides between one and two.
Speaker 1: I am excited to see three. I hope it is
Speaker 1: really awesome and at least I hope I get fucking
Speaker 1: horny and a room full of my peers. That's what
Speaker 1: I want. Um, so I will give it three and
Speaker 1: a half. I'm going to give all of my nipples
Speaker 1: to Twitch because I love Twitch and I was very sad,
Speaker 1: I honestly like I learned when Twitch passed because it
Speaker 1: was like last month, and I was really sad, and
Speaker 1: then I didn't I wasn't expecting to see him in
Speaker 1: this movie, and then I was crying. Uh just um,
Speaker 1: you know, if you haven't seen Twitch dancing, and I
Speaker 1: mean at any point, but like in his so you
Speaker 1: think you can dance. Prime just a beautiful, wonderful spirit
Speaker 1: in person, and I'm very sad he's gone. So all
Speaker 1: my nipples are going to twitch. Nice Becca, how about you?
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, my time to give away nipples. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm also gonna go with three and a half. I
Speaker 1: was leaning more for three, but then after our discussion,
Speaker 1: I landed on three and a half. But I will
Speaker 1: say I really love the arc of this movie from
Speaker 1: the first to the second. After watching them back to back,
Speaker 1: I think there was so much more joy in this
Speaker 1: movie and it was just such a fun, lighthearted watch.
Speaker 1: Obviously we dug into it. There's a lot to be said,
Speaker 1: but I think generally for the context of the movie
Speaker 1: and the content and for the timing it came out,
Speaker 1: I think it is such a joy that, you know,
Speaker 1: for the most part, withheld with time, which is you know,
Speaker 1: rare for I think movies within even the past five years. Um.
Speaker 1: I will say I do wish was horn Ear in
Speaker 1: the sense that I did not see enough nakedness for
Speaker 1: being a rated art movie. It really felt like a
Speaker 1: PG thirteen movie. I was shocked when I googled that
Speaker 1: it was rated are still and I felt like the
Speaker 1: most sex we got was in the last ten minutes
Speaker 1: and that just wasn't enough for me. But otherwise, yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree with both, with everything you said. I don't
Speaker 1: have much besides those two notes to add onto that
Speaker 1: um and yeah, I'm gonna get my nipples to one
Speaker 1: to Childe Cambino for my heart could not stand love,
Speaker 1: one A Chang Tatum because I've been horny for him,
Speaker 1: some step up, and then one Adam Rodriguez because I
Speaker 1: love that man Delco forever. And then I have to
Speaker 1: pulled a twitch ress in peace. Oh my goodness, Well, Becca,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us, truly long time coming.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad we did it. Me too. This was
Speaker 1: so much fun. It's like truly a dream come true.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I listen every week and now I'm on it.
Speaker 1: I gotta feel honored, So thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Becca is literally wearing a Bectel Cast shirt right now.
Speaker 1: It looks so come back, say less. I will be here. Yes, okay, amazing.
Speaker 1: And speaking of those shirts, you can get them at
Speaker 1: t public dot com. Slash the Bechtel Cast. All of
Speaker 1: our merches designed by Jamie and we've got some some
Speaker 1: recent designs such as shrek Ian and feminist icon Paddington
Speaker 1: and the Flower Mambo by Danny Elfman Hard to say
Speaker 1: how that design is doing. That may have been just
Speaker 1: for me, but I am enjoying it. I bet a
Speaker 1: few people bought it. If you have, please let us
Speaker 1: know because I've been seeing a lot of the other
Speaker 1: two designs and really kind of radio silence on the
Speaker 1: Flower Mambo by Da mcdanny Elfmand. Just let's work on that, folks.
Speaker 1: Let's get the let's get the good word out there. Um.
Speaker 1: You can also follow us on social media. We're at
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Speaker 1: to There's there is actually like pretty thorough a Woga
Speaker 1: energy over on the Matreon and you'll get access to
Speaker 1: over a hundred I think close to a hundred fifty
Speaker 1: back catalog episodes there as well over five years Alright,
Speaker 1: goodness and Crusty over here. Yeah and um, with that,
Speaker 1: shall we all get on the froyo truck and head
Speaker 1: to Myrtle Beach Absolutely as long as it has a bathroom,
Speaker 1: it does. Okay, Bye bye