Four Year Anniversary Q&A with Jamie and Caitlin

But if you can't make it to the live show, it's okay because the whole things online. It will stay online. You can watch it whenever if you buy a ticket. Here's how you buy a ticket. We have a link that will give you instructions on exactly what to do. But basically, we are doing this show to raise funds for Reclaim and Rebuild our community. There's currently a go fund me for it, so we are are asking that you make a donation to Reclaim and Rebuild our community.

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our Twitter. We'll put it on our Instagram. I will put it on my website, Caitlin Durante dot com, slash shows. It'll be around. Just check our social media and we're really excited. It's gonna be blast, it's gonna be a romp. We're doing it for a terrific cause. So check out the show. We hope to see you there in the comments, because that's how online shows work, all right. Enjoy the

episode on the be dol cast. The questions asked if movies have women and um are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism, the patriarchy, zef invest start changing it with the beck Del Cast. Hi, everybody, welcome to the beck Del Cast. My name's Jamie Loftez. My name's Caitlin Darante, and we're celebrating four years of the MF Bechtel Cast. Wow, the MF TBC or no

t MF B c oh yes the mud. I was like, wait a second, math letters, math letters, da Vinci could let's over it, which brings us to our episode today. Uh no, I promise we'll never cover the da Vinci cud. Isn't it? I know, but it's like I feel like he. I mean, I feel like he would be like that's okay, you don't have to cover though that that's kind of fun. If I wonder what movies Alfred Billina was like, I don't watch that one. Maybe don't. Welcome to the back Doelcast.

This is a celebration episodes. If it's your first episode, uh you know, probably shouldn't be, but or unless you want to just get to know us really well before verifying if we have any skills or not. Well, some of these well, okay, so we're doing a Q and A episode. Some of these questions I think will elicit a really interesting discussion. So that's our plan. We're we're just doing a celebratory four year anniversary Q and A episode.

We've done a few of these in the past. We've done been at least one or two on a main feed, and then I think too on the Matreon as well. Yes, which is where these questions are coming from. They are coming from our patreon ak matrion where you can I guess, I'm like, I just started plugging it instinctually, but essentially that's that's our Matreon community and that's where we sourced the amazing questions that you're going to be hearing us

uh stumble our way through today. That's right, So thank you to everyone on the Matreon who did submit a question. We're unfortunately not going to be able to get to all of them. We won't have the time. We've we got dozens of questions, um, and some of them are questions that we have answered on previous Q and A episodes, So we'd recommend going back and listening to those. If you're like, why didn't they answer, how how did Jamie and Caitlin meet? And why did you start the podcast?

We've already answered that on other episodes in the past season of Our French These questions, the reveals have happened mid season. But but there were a lot of amazing questions in this um in dispatch our listeners. Well, they're very perceptive, smart, brilliant geniuses, a million percent all feminist icons. Yeah, five you all get five five nips, five nips all around.

So yeah, it's been four years. I still I mean, we did not start the podcast because the Trump administration was starting, but it was it just timed out that way. And baby, we're gonna be in office longer, four more years for the factodcast exactly, we're gonna outlive the Biden administration. Who was it? Was it FDR who had like four four year terms? Was that that president? And I think it was This is a this is a history podcast. Wait, I think it was FDR, right, And I think so

we're gonna we're gonna do FDR. Like, see, we're gonna sixteen years. Is that too long? Twelve twelve years, that's too locome, that's too long, that's three terms. Hey, he shouldn't have done that. Well, all right, now they put in term limits because of him, right, I think. So, Yeah, we're like, we're getting close to like dictator territory here, Let's let's give it a limit. Yeah, you're like, okay,

knock it off, sir. Um. Anyways, I don't know anything about that, but what we do know is the answers to the questions that you're about to here. Um okay, so here, here we go. Our first question comes from Jacqueline. The question is what has been the most surprisingly positive find during the show for each of you, especially movies pre two thousand and five? Oh, does anything jump to

mind for you immediately? Well? As far as um, the positive find implies to me as though it's a movie that we hadn't already like known about or been on our radar. I guess, which is a lot of them for me and none of them for me because I just kidding. But but um, because there are plenty of pre two thousand five movies that I think are worth watching and checking out. But um, like, for example, Thelma and Louise comes to mind, But I had already seen that many times, so it wasn't as though like we

discovered it via this podcast. But I feel like that does count though, of like, uh, you know, your love of a movie increased, or like the context of it and shift. I thought about that for Josie and the Pussycats because I'd seen it before. But I feel like that was a movie that when we analyze it and it did so well and like there were so many more layers that I was like, yeah, like yeah, it just like deepened. I feel like I have more cases of that than not if either my love for a

movie I already loved deepening or it becoming tarnished. Sure, well, A few that stood out to me. A recent one was How Stella Got Her Groove back. Um oh, First Wives Club. Again, not a perfect movie, but um it's one that I really wasn't I hadn't seen it prior to starting this podcast. I would say nine to five. Uh, Sister Act. My love of Sister Act was deepened when we covered that movie. I'm just going through our list here.

I mean National Treasure, of course. I mean, well, if we're going to bring up National Treasure, we have to Actually the top answer for this question is obviously Flubber Flabber. I mean, were there. I think I hopefully we've given a second life to Flubber, and I Frankenstein. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean there's there are a lot of movies who who who movies are people? Um, that my love has deepened. I think that that's where common Josie and the Pussycats

comes to mind. How Stella got her groove back is a great example. And yeah, I think that's I think that's my answer to that question. Yeah. Same. I I feel good about the movies I've already thrown out, So thanks Jacqueline. Um our next question comes from Ella asks what movies were you expecting not to like and have surprised you? Um? I that's not true. I was like, I can't get a flubber answer here because I was

expecting till love it and then I still did. Um. I mean I think for me it's there's the occasional action movie will cover that I didn't think I was going to be like captivated by but ended up being. I think that actually the Terminator movies, UM surprised me because I just view that as like, it's not my genre. Really, I know that it's like feminist and cool, but it's but but I was really captivated by them. I liked

them a lot. I'm so glad to hear that because I love the first two in the second one especially, are is like one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. I think. My biggest answer for this, oh, I have to I didn't have super high hopes for Birds of Prey based on how bad of a movie Suicide Squad was, but I really really enjoyed Birds of Prey. And I also I think because of the way the movie Blockers was marketed. I thought it was and we covered Blockers on the Matreon, so get on it, folks.

But I thought Blockers was going to be a mess just like another like gross Ou and it is, you know, kind of a gross out comedy, but in in the vein of like American pie problematic and not sex positive feminist kind of messaging that it had. So I also I would also add in, uh, Frozen two. That was a movie I did not expect to I guess I just I mean, that movie is very you should just

listen to the episode. But I think that was a movie that I thought I knew what the direction of the conversation was going to be when we when I started like the process of researching, and it just totally went another way. And I learned a lot and our guest Ali is so incredible and like, I don't know. That was like one of the recent episodes where I was like, whoa, I learned ship and it really like I didn't go in expecting to like find a lot in in in Frozen two, but guess what, there's there's

some stuff in there. It's got substance. It's got substance, it turns out. So that was That was another one that kind of pleasantly surprised me. Thank you Ella for that question. Indeed, let's see going next to Adam, who is a student of yours. Yeah, he sister of mine. So shout out to Adam. Thanks for taking my class, Thanks for asking this question. Adam has a good question, and I'm trying to figure out if I know what

the answer is or not. Are there any films one of you wants to cover in an episode that the other person refuses to cover. That's like, definitely, but I guess I just said I will never cover the Da Vinci Could But I'm like kind of joking and I'm over here like we have to cover Da Vinci. Let

the da Vinci Could stand. And it's been a big problem for in our friends, So it's toward our podcast apart almost what is I feel like we talked about like, well, there was something that you said no to for a long time and then eventually you said yes recently, but I'm trying to remember what it was. I mean I was very reluctant to do like D coms and like high school musical and stuff like that for a long Maybe that is it, right, but then but but then

now you've seen d coms. I haven't seen teen Beach movie. Hello, best movie ever made? Um? What else are There's not many that we are like, no unless I remember saying that we should cover Dumb and Dumber and you know that, but only not because I like that movie, just because I think there's a lot to talk about because of how fucked up it is. Yeah, there are. I mean I think occasionally, honestly, there are episodes that you're just like, do we have to thinking about it? But I mean

I would, I would do Dumb and Dumber. I think it's also just sometimes you're just like, is that the top of our list? But then it's also like we just did Flubber, so that list just very it's a very it's a very fluid list. Yes, if we're nothing if not eclectic in our movie choices. I will say one episode that I was I mean, and there's just like certain movies that you just know are so deeply entrenched in like problematic stuff that you're just like, where

are we even going to begin? I felt that way about that. There's something about Mary episode of like we're gonna be here for six hours but thankfully Katy's stall is an angel and that episode was really fun. But it was like stuff like that, I get like overwhelmed in advance thinking about like or like episodes where you're like, I have forty five pages of notes, like it's not well. There was a period of time where I was kind

of begging you to redo the Matrix episode. And this actually leads to kind of a plug because here's something that happened a few months ago. We removed four episodes, really early episodes that for different reasons, we just kind of didn't want them in the feed, mostly because we wanted to redo them. Yeah, and we never thought anyone

would notice, and turns out everyone noticed were so wrong. Um, And the reason we did it it was honestly, I mean, if you've ever had a podcast for four years, you'll find that some of your like, especially they're they're all episodes from like early on in the show when we were disorganized, and like they're all in like the first

ten we did, they are all among that cluster. So they're all, yeah, and we've done how many episodes now, I've done hundred, uh not including the matren And also it's like, I I everyone roast me for not watching the Matrix, but it early in the show, we were truly doing the show pretty much strictly for fun and to have a fun conversation, and I was like working two jobs, Like I didn't always have time to do the deep dive that were fortunate enough to have the

time for now. So we so we took down four episodes that we just were like, honestly, we're just like, we don't think that is going to be very helpful for anyone. And since people tend to like scroll down to the beginning of a feed to start the show, we got rid of four episodes that were like, we don't think this is a good introduction to what the show is. Yeah, but but we are going to redo

those episodes. We're redoing them. The plan is for January. Uh. Those that's kind of just kind of be our our January episodes. The episodes we are redoing our Kill Bills Volume one and two, which was our first episode of all time, and you might imagine it's not our strongest. Uh it's almost like we're flailing around in a big pool. I'm not sure what to do. Uh. One of them is the animated Beauty and the Beast from one, our second episode ever, again, as you might imagine, not our strongest,

our best. Um. And then there's also The Matrix, Yes, which I am going to watch. I know it's been like a joke for for years, but um, I'm sick of hearing about it. And I hear that the movie is pretty good, So I think, I mean, I don't know if you'll like become a fan, but I think you'll not hate it. I think you'll like enjoy it

for what it is. I honestly think i'll I'll. I'm there is so much that we didn't discuss in that first Matrix episode anyways that I'm like, I feel like there's so many more, so many levels of appreciation for the Matrix that I'm excited to discuss and I'm a way bigger Kian you stand than I was four years ago, So I think that this is just it's it's a good vibe. And then we're also redoing Mad Max Fury Road, Yes, which since recording that one, that has become one of

my like top five favorite movies of all time. So I I've seen it like dozens and dozens and dozens of times since then, I've done a bunch of reading and research about it. I have a greater appreciation for it, but also some like other like different opinions that I

had originally, So yeah, worth redoing all around. Still I still resent the steampunk aesthetic for the record, but I have rewatched the movie since, and uh yeah, I think I feel like we just there that movie deserved a better episode than we were equipped to give, which I think also like ties into like our own ongoing education and growth as hosts to or we're always learning, we're trying, and so yeah, I look forward to We've we got to think of a better name than redo month? Right?

What is what do we call it? Well? Where we will accept pitches from listeners on what that month should be called, although we usually don't. We have like very goofy names for themes for Matreon months, but not usually for the main feat, so maybe we don't need like a fancy name for it. I don't know. I was like, Redo, you wary thoughts sound off in the comment, No, don't because that was perfect. All right, Well we figured it out. Redo,

you are okay. So that all was the answer to the question from Adam, So thank you again for submitting that question. Next question comes from Darcy asks how do you feel nostalgia plays into how we view movies. It's easy to defend your favorite movie when it's your favorite, but what about when that movie has actively harmful things being said. I know y'all have had some discussion about this on your Favorite Movie episodes, but I'd love to

hear any other takes you have on it. So thanks Darcy. Yeah, I feel like we've had versions of this conversation in the past. I think that nostalgia weirdly, especially for our generation for everyone, but I feel like we are a very nostalgia driven generation in particular. Yeah. One of the main examples that comes to mind for me is the Indiana Jones trilogy. And it is a trilogy because let's not I don't. I don't observe the fourth one is

being part of it anyway. Um, those movies are so harmful and so bad and so sexist and so racist, and I can't stop loving them. So like nostalgia is a huge component of that because these are movies I grew up with and I watched constantly as a kid. And um, same thing with like the Back to the Future trilogy pretty actively harmful in terms of its depictions of various characters and just situations. But they're like my favorite movies. So, as we always see on the podcast,

you're allowed to love whatever you love. We just always encourage critical analysis of the things you love and be able to recognize that something you love might be actively harmful. And if you share your favorite, like your nostalgia favorite movie with someone, like have a discussion with that person after were it's about like why it's fucked up and why it doesn't necessarily hold up anymore. But do you

still love it? Yeah? I also feel like there is like it's such a personal thing as well, where I feel like part of I mean this is this this question ties into why we do the show in the first place, is to like approach popular movies. I mean, in some episodes, it's like approaching popular movies that have a lot of problematic elements that it's like, we just want to talk about the context of it so that

you can watch it with more awareness. I don't. I feel like it's almost creating a shield for yourself in a way of like, first, we want to encourage people to demand better of the popular art that's being created, but also it's like you're creating a shield against old art to be like I can consume this and I can like take in its entertainment value if I'm comfortable doing so, and everyone, I mean, that's a whole it's

very personal. Like I can also see how someone would be like I just don't funk with the Indiana Jones movies anymore after I realized what it and but it's going to be different for everyone, and I feel like it's just a matter of like crafting your Oh god, I sound like a Marvel movie, crafting your little your little shield so that certain stuff you know, just so you're aware and that you can watch and enjoy things

mind fully. Does that make sense? Yeah, of course, yeah, Because nostalgia is such a tricky and sometimes pesky little emotions. It does. I mean, it's like I I was totally torpedoed by like Disney movies and like, I mean I think more of us than not honestly, and you're just like, I know this is wrong, but the songs are so catchy.

What do I do. It's something that if, like we all deal with to an extent, if you have literally no problematic faiths, congratulations for you born in like like but and also like even so kind of but it I feel like it is just a matter of just creating a level of awareness and and like you were saying, having discussions that feel productive with with people who share the same nostalgia you do. Nostalgic. I feel like it can be if if you're if it's uncritical nostalgia, that's

that's a red straight to hell. Baby. Yeah, that is like what I would take issue with. It's again, it's I mean, we have our our list of red flag movies that it's like like, if you listen, this is your favorite movie, maybe reevaluate your love of like fucking scarface or whatever right there. Yeah, the way you said that sounded like Jeff Foxworthy, You're like you might be a toxic person um. But but if you love scarface and have like written essays about how fucked up and

problematic it is, then that's another thing. But bottom line, be critical of the media you consume and we are here to help with that. Yeah, and that's why we do the show to continue to learn from our listeners, which is which is great. And so it's like it's kind of a different It's kind of hard to have this conversation too broadly because it's like there are some it's a very movie to movie, person to person thing, but I think that's our general answer. Indeed, so thank you, Darcy.

Our next question comes from PSI area and they ask. For years, intersectionalist critique of popular media has seemingly been relegated to indie publications, academic papers, and blog posts. Many times, I've seen such criticism disregarded as having no bearing on the objective quality quote unquote of a film. For example, even modern reviews for Birth of a Nation often call it quote a masterpiece despite all the racism unquote, not even considering that the racism might have any bearing on

the quality of the film itself. Blatant use of sexist tropes by male auteurs are acknowledged as an afterthought. If ever, it seems unthinkable to reviewers that analysis of racism, sexism, or ass heteronormativity could somehow be integrated into mainstream critique. Why do you think that film critics have been so slow to adopt new, more self reflective ways of thinking and talking about movies? Uh? Wow, what it's awful question. Thank you so much. Indeed, my first of all, I

totally see what yours. I mean, it's like that. I feel like we often kind of try to go to how is this movie reviewed when it was released? And you see a lot of that. To me, I mean, my gut instinct answer is that pop culture is reflective

of the larger culture that you're living inside of. And so I think that the reason that film critics have been slow slow to adopt more self reflective ways of thinking is because our culture has not been welcoming or encouraging of new ways of thinking for since time immemorial. I feel like it it definitely not completely but has a lot to do with, you know, Western culture in general.

Like and I also really don't like when people dump on independent film critics and creators because it's like I feel like that's who's really doing the work and moving stuff forward, like it's it's not Roger Ebert, Honey is sorry,

Like yeah, yeah. Often when we cite writing film criticism film reviews on our show, it's almost always from you know, indep complications and like feminist blogs and stuff like that that are you know, not the most mainstream because reviews from the New York Times or from like Roger Eberts like Legacy you know, l A Times and all those

you know, huge newspapers and publications and things like that. Yeah, they're still they're doing what they've been doing for decades and decades, which is analyzing a film only on the merit of its like story and cinematography and like important aspects of film, but not at all on like representation and inclusion and and it's like really acknowledging saying I mean, I think that the way that si Areal describes this is really insightful of like calling Birth of a Nation

a masterpiece despite all the racism, Like you, like, do you hear what you're saying when you say that, Like whoever the funk said that? Like what the look? Yeah, it's it's I feel like for especially for like legacy film critics who like it almost seems like they think that that is enough. They're like, well, I acknowledge that it's racist. I said all the racism, so you know, check I mentioned it's racist, and the racism doesn't make

it bad. It's still a great work of art. And first of all, is it it's a fucking three hour long piece of shit movie that fucking sent kicked up the KKK and the US, so like, we don't yeah, I mean, and I think it also has to do with the extreme whiteness and you know, siss maleness of most of film criticism up until pretty recently. And that's

not to say that people weren't writing. I mean, that's like so much of what we've pulled from over the years is from black writers, from indigenous writers, from women in from queer people, from people who have been doing

the writing and the work for a long time. It's just I feel like, in terms of being put on by like an institution and being like you're our film critic now, that is like, first of all, still needs a lot more, but um is something that's relatively new, and I wanted to just off the top of my head shut up. We've had two incredible black film critics

on the show recently, Ashley Ray and Jordan's Searles. So they're doing it, but they like, you know, they they did a lot of indie writing before, and so it's

so frustrating. I mean, I think that that's just something that even as fans of movies, that's like something that we all as a community need to keep pushing for, is like more representation in film criticism, because otherwise I feel like it's never going to stop this like despite all the racism, despite all the sexism, and and then being like all right, I'm done, good review five stars,

like fuck you for sure. I think that also extends to what is taught in like film schools, because a lot of I imagine a lot of like film critics did something to study like you know, film theory or film criticism or you know, film studies in you know, some form of higher education. And so much as someone who's taken many classes like that in my various degrees

that I that I would never talk about. Of course, there's been very very little discussion about representation or if it was it was like a specific class if you wanted to like learn about like feminism and movies. You'd have to like take a specific class, and it was always like a an elective that wasn't a required part of the curriculum. And and so it's just not prioritized in in schools, or at least it wasn't when I was,

it was taking classes at university. And I hope, yeah, and even when I feel like, even sometimes when you do get to address stuff, it's still in a very I didn't know, just a very academic, whitewashed way where even like I remember in like one of my film classes there it was like and this is like it's woman Day in film history class, and here's all the women who have done stuff, and it was like a list of like five white women. And then we never

talked about any women ever again. And then we talked about Woody Allen for five years. Like it's like why, why, why, why why? We really need to get them out of the classroom. Mom sick of it. So yes, Si Aio, thank you so much for that really thoughtful question, and that's a discussion we hope to continue. Yes, indeed, let's take a quick break and then we'll come back with

more questions. Uh. Next question comes from Jerome asks. I just wanted to ask specifically about the changes you've made since June and the two incredibly self reflective episodes you posted. I'm wondering if you went back to those challenging questions you were asking yourselves in June and how you feel you are going on the journey of addressing them. Thank you for your question. That that's a great that's a

great question. I think. First of all, I mean that's it's not really a question for us to answer, per se. I mean, we can't really say how we're doing. That's really up to our Black, Brown and Indigenous listeners, So that's not really our call to make. But in terms of what we have been trying to do and the track that we've been trying to get onto and the priority switch, I think we've made some progress. I think we definitely we could always be doing more, but I

think we've I think we've made progress. I'm I'm like we're on the right track. I feel yeah, I I I'm of the mind that like we could always be doing better. There's always more to learn, There's there's always something new to address, there's something that we've overlooked in the past that we should like be careful to address

moving forward. There's mistakes we've made in the best, So yeahs as far as like our progress goes, since like those few episodes that are being referenced that we released in June, which which was released um around the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, and we I mean basically, I mean, if if you didn't listen to those episodes,

that's totally fine. But what what it boiled down to it as far as our show goes at least, was that I feel like, I mean, for for I don't want to speak for you, Caitlin, but I I feel like I had a reckoning with how few black movies and by extension, how a few non white movies we had covered on the show, and how that was kind of that had to do with a fundamental flaw in the premise of our show, which was that we were going on this very vague, you know, qualifier of quote

unquote influential movie without taking into account movies that are not given the priority, the budget, the marketing, that are amazing movies that people should be watching, and also the fact that we're filtering it through our white experience, and the result of that was that we were watching mainly movies directed by white people, like by a huge margin, and seeing that laid out was really like a fuck moment for me, of like, well, if this is what

we're doing, then the premises flawed and we need to like you know, grow the show to not just be

covering you know, white movie like. So that that was what as far as our show goes, that really stuck with me, of like, we need to not just be covering and this is kind of like referencing our episode with Kidneys, but not just movies by black directors, round directors, indigenous directors, but like movies about black joy and yeah, I mean, I mean just covering a wide variety of movies, not just rehashing the same two thousands shitty white rom

call movie premise that we've talked about a million times, which can be fun, and like we're not saying that like that, you know, that's a part of our whatever what fucked us in the head, So it's worth discussing. But but but it can't just be that that's a fruitless exercise. After a while, we need to be you know, introducing our audience to movies and just like learning more

ourselves for sure. Someone tweeted at us just say a day, asking like can you cover more Latin X movies and have more Latin X guests on and I was like, shit, yeah, we've covered only a few and we should and will do more for sure. Yes. So um, like I said,

there's there's always more to learn. There's always room for improvement, and that is a large a large part of why we encourage engagement from our listeners to like, let us know, suggestions for movies to cover, for guests to have on the show, articles, we should read, books, we should read um even though we are famously and the book just d but uh, yeah, it's always open feedback with us. It's always been like that, it always will be like that.

And then when this episode comes up, we're all will also um repost our request for him and um we would love more requests, UM for movies that are not made by white people that you would like to see spotlighted on the show. That would be that would be amazing.

We always want to you know, give you know, on on top of um talking about amazing movies, we want to talk about movies that you want to talk about with us, and so you know, we'll always be in conversation with you, and we're we're committed to continuing to to learn and and do better. Yeah, we're we're always looking to enlighten ourselves and learn more and be as inclusive as possible. So so thank you for that question.

Thank you, Jerome. Our next question comes from Alana. Who would you cast as yourself in the movies about your life? And who would you cast for the other person if it's different. Uh, well, the question answers itself. I want Alfred Billina to play me from the moment I'm born, because in parentheses at the end of this question is is it all Alfred Maline? And of course the answer

to that is yes, I think that. Yeah, I want movie of my life would start with my mom's C section and and and then it's Alfred Billina currently so she's so holding him in her arms, but it's like a sixty year old man. Wait, pitch, okay, it's it's Alfred Molina as the surgeon performing the c section. It's

Alfred Molina as your mother, Alfred Molina as you the baby. Yeah, is my princess switch, this is my norbit this is my any of the one person plays everybody, that's what I want off for Malina to play Caitlin as well. Thank you so much. What what would what would be your picks? I'm curious. Um. For some for some reason, my mind went directly to Winona Ryder. That's yeah, that would rock for my For me, yeah, I don't know.

And then obviously I agree that from Lena should play you and everyone you know in the movie about your life. So yeah, I don't even have a different answer for that. Okay, So thank you Alana for that question. Next question comes from Donna asks what are some ways that one can be involved in film discourse? I love these types of conversations and find myself wanting to talk with you both on so many topics, but lessa you cannot hear me

through the headphones frownie face emoji. I don't have any friends who are very interested in this, and also do not want to code to art school again. I would love a community where I can talk about these topics more. I find it very important in stimulating listening to your podcast help me realize just how deeply these tropes impacted me, the magnitude of their effect is wild and then they say thank you and thank you Donna for this question and for your kind words. This is a tricky Okay,

so this is a tricky question. I feel like because the answer to your question is the Internet, but that is very fraught because there are so many toxic I mean, there are places I would say, you know, unless you know of a Reddit board that is safe, uh, to avoid their I mean, I feel like that there are conversations about film discourse going on everywhere. It's just a matter I think of finding a space that is going to discuss film in a way that is open to intersectionality.

It doesn't even need to be strictly about intersectionality, but has to be like involved in the conversation. I think. I think the closest I could come to with a recommendation here. And I would also be curious for listeners to pass along communities that you you like to participate in.

But I feel like letterboxed is potentially a good a good place to go to find a I've found the letter boxing community to be generally very like cool and open to discussion, and yeah, it seems like kind of a beautiful corner of the Internet at the time of this recording, right, it could all go tit's up when we least expect it. But um, yeah, that's a that's a great suggestion. Um well, obviously this isn't a viable

option right now. But we've had listeners reach out to us and say that they have like kind of put out feelers just like in whatever city they lived. I think there was one in London. I think there's ones in other cities where people have just been like, hey, I'm a fan of this podcast. Anyone else out there want to like get together and have kind of like we almost like a book club. But for spectel Cast listeners, obviously with this pandemic, that is is not an option.

But if there's some kind of like I don't know, our chat room, that's still a thing. I'm kidding, But I do think, I h I think that fully we can. I mean that's the thing that like I love I love when uh, like fans of a show, our show or any show like organized and like meet each other. And that seems like the most organic, cool way to do it. But unfortunately, uh, you can't right now. I would say, yeah, letterbox for now, and then I'm trying to think of a way we can help streamline this process.

I guess we have until there's a vaccine to figure it out, but to help our listeners kind of coordinate, and a place to find other bectel heads, because I like truly the energy at live shows of like fans of the show meeting each other, like we have had so many I miss live shows so much, like so many cases of like people who are like in line together or like sat next to each other, or came to the show by themselves and then mets like made

made friends, and like vactel cast shows are great networking tools. Can't wait to go back to I can't wait to go to places we've never been before for shows I have such I'm like, God, damn it, we're gonna go

to Austin. I swear on my We've still never been to Chicago to do a live show, which is I was like, well, we've been at but yeah, we're still going to do Chicago in Chicago, right, But since that's not an option at the moment um, Yeah, you know, I feel like Letterbox and then also, uh, and I don't have enough insight, but I know that there are discords that are focused on film, and it's a matter of finding kind of the right one for you. I was gonna ask, I was like, what is discord? Is

that a we're old? I just I just started a discord for Lolita podcast Subtle Plug, and it has been so lovely so far. It's been. Yeah, it's like a site where you can like, oh my god, everyone who uses discords are rolling their eyes. They're like, who are these old women? Um? But you start little different channels where you're like, oh, here's the area where we talk about the adaptations, here's the area where we talk about the book. Here's an area where we can just talk

about anything and hang out and chat. And if that sounds so useful, that yeah. And it's like the community can kind of self regulate. You have, like you get a couple of mods in the mix. And it's been a very lovely conversation so far. So as of this recording, I'm like, discord rocks cool. Yeah, let's um. I wonder if there's already some kind of like pectel cast or like just feminist film discourse discord out there. Oh, that'd be fun. I would prefer discord to Reddit a million percent.

So yeah, Reddit, I can't look at the interface of Reddit. It gives me a panic attack. I'm just scared. I'm just scared. I just I have PTSD with read it and I'm like, I don't want to be on this side. Get me out of here. But the betel cast read it is lovely. Oh, I can't look at it. I'm afraid,

just like I can't look at the reviews. But m yeah, for any listeners who maybe already like facilitate or moderate some kind of or if you're interested in starting up one of your own, if there's any sort of group out there that is living on the Internet that you'd like to share, let us know. Yeah, we'd have We'd be happy to spread the word for listeners like Donna who are looking for a place to chat. So hell yeah,

let us know. Wow that I think that that started as as being like letterbox seemed cool and ends up being like we're going to start a discord. Uh So stay tuned. Yes, um. Our next question comes from Courtney. The question is when watching non bectel Cast movies, do you have a hard time turning off the podcast lens? Oh?

For me, I honestly, and this might sound weird, but I still oftentimes kind of have to actively deliberately switch the Bechtel Cast lens on to watch a movie that I know that we're not covering for the podcast, so I don't even and and and it just might be like years of programming of never watching anything through like a feminist critical lens before, I still kind of have to and definitely like I default to a feminist lens more now than I did prior to start starting the podcast.

But sometimes I'm just like, I just want to watch and enjoy a movie without without having to tear it to pieces in my brains. So so I like, yeah, part of it is watching a movie through the Bechtel Cast lens feels kind of like work, since doing this podcast is a job of ours, and believe it or not, sometimes I don't want to work, So I would say I don't have that heart of a time switching it. What about you, Jamie, how do you um? I feel like I it kind of depends for me, it does.

I mean, there are certain movies that I sort of can when I can foresee that I'm not going to really like the movie anyways. I think that I can be borderline impossible to watch a movie with because I'm like, what the fund is? That? What the fund is? That? That's that? That's like I think that when I when I go in, I don't know, it's hard for my partner to watch movies with me because he's just like, hey, I wanted to watch this, and I'm like, well, why

is that like? So it depends if it's unfortunately, I think it if I'm rooting for the movie going in and like this movie is going to be good, but I don't know it. It has been harder for me to shut it off, even with movies that I'm like wanting to enjoy. Uh, you know it's blessing and a curse. And then I think it's sometimes where it's like it's harder for me to turn it on for movies that I have nostalgia for than movies that I'm watching for

the first time. So even when it's like a movie that I like, um or I'm like hoping that I like, I feel like I kind of go in with a default back to cast lens. But it's I I struggle more in like the reverse sense of like watching an all D com and being like, no, that has to be feminist. How can I reverse engineer my brain to make it, make it sether like no, JB. It just doesn't. Um. So yeah, I guess I have like a different new movies. I feel like I kind of go in with the

lens almost almost automatically with some exceptions. But yeah, revisiting old movies it's challenge. Thank you Courtney for that question. Let's take another break and then we will come back and answer some more questions and we're back. Our next question comes from Lucy, who asks how do you choose with films to cover and has this process changed over the years as you've covered a lot. This is a

great question. I think it has changed a little bit over the years we started, but I mean it's still a combination of a lot of things. There's a real there's a real four D game of chess we're playing when we choose movies. At times and then other times we're like flubber um, But what do you mean? We very carefully and meticulously put a lot of work. That was a very long math equation. It was a flubber like equation that we the formula to flubber led us

to realizing we needed to cover flubber. We should have done this years ago. Um, But I feel like there's the factors we consider when choosing a movie is, first of all, what's most important is that it's a movie that our guest wants to talk about. Second of all, um, it's something that there's and we break this real pretty consistently. But but is it a movie that there's some listener interested?

Because we we have Google doc we have for years where listeners can make requests for movies, so we, uh, we have a list of like, here are most popular requests of movies we haven't covered yet, and we'll go back to that pretty frequently when we're giving our guests

like suggestions for potential movies. But the third factor that we has has always been true but has not been true enough, which kind of goes back to our conversation about um our discussion on how white our movie list has been in June, is do we really like is it absolutely if it's a white movie like or a white directed movie, is it really necessary? Like? So now it's also like, are we covering enough movies that are

not directed by white guys? Yeah? And that's kind of where the change has coming because a lot of the movies we've covered historically have been since had white male dominated movies either who's making them or who are like the character the leading characters. And that is because we were kind of focusing on movies that have had a huge cultural impact on people, individuals, culture at large, and that have like just influenced a lot of just kind

of like film discourse for for a long time. And I think there is value in covering those movies, and I'm glad we did cover a lot of them, just because like there are so many of those movies that like did really affect people in negative ways and like and that I've had to unlearn stuff that they've learned from that media that they've consumed. So while I don't regret covering some of those movies, I do regret not

placing enough focus on other types of movies. And that's where we've we're switching gears a bit, where we we are prioritizing more directors of color, more queer director's, more director short women to broaden our scope and like pay tribute to a lot of those movies because a lot of them are really cool and really good and and they're lesser known, very underrated. Exactly, they're underrated they're lesser known,

so we're hoping to buy covering them encourage people. A great example is when we literally just covered rhymes for young Girls. I would hazard a guess that most people have never even heard of that movie, let alone seen it. But it's a really, really good movie. It's a really important, a really powerful movie that I implore everyone to watch and to listen to that episode because it's just a very important movie that uh needs to be seen. So yeah,

so that I mean that. Yeah. That also speaks to kind of how our show has evolved, where originally we were like, oh, we're covering popular movies of the past, but that inherently aligned itself with covering mostly sis at white male movies because is who has been making movies on a large scale. And it does kind of get a little mired sometimes because if you look at our request list, a lot of the movies that are right

at the top are movies directed by sis at white guys. Um. Yeah, the process is definitely changed, and we're just I mean, our and our priorities as a show have changed. Um, so we want to always be servicing our listeners, but we're no longer just the show that dunks on movies you've seen before. We also want to direct you too, movies and two guests into you know, work that you haven't seen but should and deserve a bigger platform, bigger budgets,

all that stuff. So thanks for your question, Lucy. Next question comes from Madeline says, some of my favorite queer storylines have been called queer baiting, Black Swan and Jennifer's Body. I would argue aren't, but for sure, cruel intentions is the thing is these movies are how I realized I'm queer. Don't you think queer bathing can be good? So I guess I'm of many minds about this completely, I mean, I think completely valid and also not even uncommon that

queer baiting scenes are kind of formative experiences. I mean, I've I think we've heard about the cruel intentions seen specifically excited a lot. I mean, and I also like have personal experience too of like, yeah, I don't know, queer baiting is harmful in a lot of ways in that and we've talked about this in many episodes where it perpetuates that you know, queerness is a phase or

it's a shock tactic. You know, all this stuff we've kind of talked about that said, you know it for a very very very long time and still now, sometimes that was the only way that you would see, you know, two women on screen kissing was like it was that. So I don't know, you know, it's like I don't know how. I mean, whatever, we we we'd all figure

it out one way or another. But I think that there are like certain queerbating scenes that come to mind of like, oh that was something that you were like, oh, what's what's what's going on over there? And those experiences are obviously super valid and like a lot of us have had them, but I think it speaks more to like the fact that most of these scenes are directed by straight white guys who are framing it in a

disingenuous way. So it's like, I don't know, yeah, it's it's definitely not bad that we've all you know, responded to it and that it but I just think that there's, um, there are demonstrably better ways. Yeah, for a very long time, the only presentation you would see of queerness or like by curiosity or something like that would be in queer baiting scenes. And like the person who posts this question says, scenes like this are how a lot of people discovered

they are queer, So definitely validity to that. But yeah, like like you said, Jamie, it would it would be nice if there had been other options for young queer people to see that we're like less baity and more just straightforward or more like like like baby more great, more grady, And yeah, it couldn't have said it better

myself less baby more grady. Uh. And I think that that is again slow progress that's um starting to be made now, although where I think a lot of it is lacking looking at you, Disney also pay your fucking tag, is is in media that is like directed at kids like kids. It's I think that some areas are, but like Disney is still suppressing queer characters in a way

that you're like, this is just a youth thing. At this point, it no longer even makes fucking financial sense to do this, like get over yourself and you know it's it's the year. We shouldn't need to have to go to queer baiting scenes. Um at this point, I don't think there's really in much of an excuse for them to still be happening. But that doesn't get rid of you know, the experience, the very valid experiences people

had with queer baiting scenes of the past. I almost like, is there I've I know that there's a number of video essays on YouTube about the history of queer baiting. Um, but I think that, yeah, just like having more queer characters who it's like, it just is what it is, and having that presented from an early age, it just you know, the normalizing effect that pop culture has. It's good ship if you use it for good. But yeah, I mean, I don't know. I I felt, you know,

the Black Swan scene. You know, it's just you know, a lot I do. I do love a good kiss. Uh. I wonder too if if queer baiting will kind of be a thing of the past now that we have seen more normalization and acceptance and more out queer characters in a lot of media, especially media for young people. I mean, we were talking about Blockers earlier, which is an example off the top of my head of a pretty mainstream book Smart that featured a queer teen book Smart.

Lots of TV TV directed towards teens that features queer characters. So yeah, I'm wondering if that's kind of a thing of the past, and again it's it is like a part of rectifying that issue is, you know, have having more queer directors and people behind the scenes and writers in the mix as well. So yeah, hopefully, hopefully we sort of answered that question. Thank you for sending it metal, Yes,

thank you. Next question is from Emily, who asks I'm curious about what value, if any, you see in analyzing films for not passing the reverse spectral test a k A films where no two named men speak to each other about anything other than a woman. I'm always delighted to realize the film doesn't pass this non existent test a k. Bridesmaids, and it seems like such films are few and far between. Interesting question. Thank you for sending it. Yes,

I feel like it's definitely interesting to discuss it. Just like almost happens so infrequently that it's like, yeah, let's talk about this where they at Yeah, I mean, it mostly happens in movies with predominantly female casts, so like Bridesmaids, like was mentioned, and you know, while those movies aren't always perfect, they're often like they're usually ripe for the

types of discussions that we have. And because so many movies I mean, he could rattle off hundreds of movies that are like a cast of nine percent men and one woman is in the entire cast, or maybe if you're lucky, there are two women on chances are they never are in the same scene together. So tons of movies are just all like, are predominantly male casts. But it's yeah, far rarer that you would see a movie

that is mostly women. So yeah, I think there is value in shouting out a movie when it does, when it doesn't, when it doesn't pass the reverse bactal tests, And there's a lot of negatives in there, so I'm trying to make sure my brain understands this. But yeah, if if no men talk to each other in the movie, or if men do talk to each other but it's only about women, that means it does not pass the reverse Spectel test, was a good thing, or you know in theory, my head hurts. Uh yeah, no, I totally

agree with you. And I also think that speaking to like even Emily's question that it's uh like you almost manifest it, you will it into existence. If we talk more about, well, what isn't this past the reverse Factil test. Maybe that's so you know, we we say it enough and I feel like this isn't entirely true, and it's not. It's probably being mean to us, But I'm like, we've spoken a few things into reality, but most of it was goofy. We're like, oh, we've spoken. Um. I mean,

there's a few things that were that set true. But I'm like, maybe if we and the grand we as well make more of a show of kind of pointing out like, Wow, isn't this amazing? This movie is so good and men didn't ever have a conversation. Uh, that might encourage you know, more of that. Who knows, I'm overestimating and underestimating our power all at once. Well, if we manifest it enough, we can will it into reality. And that's the secret. That's the secret. That's the secret. Alright,

a few more questions. Yes, next one comes from Alicia asks, I love how you both have expanded the lens of the show to include more intersectionality with your more inclusive focus of today. Are there any films covered in earlier episodes that you would rate differently now, or perhaps aspects that you wish you'd brought up. Um, definitely, for sure. That's part of why we're redoing, like those four episodes

that we mentioned earlier. UM. Almost every episode we do, people have been like, oh, I love this to discussion. Great episode of brag for us, I was like, where is this going, Colma, But you didn't bring up this or you forgot to mention this or something, you know, And it's sometimes it's just because we ran out of time and we couldn't cover everything. Sometimes it's because you know, we we didn't consider that, um, and we needed you the listeners, to educate us or to bring something up.

A few examples off the top of my head, our Mulan episode, people were like, yeah, but you didn't talk about how the male love interest is a bicn you know, because he was attracted to Mulan while she was presenting as a man. Uh. You didn't talk about the queer coding of the villains and birds of prey. You didn't talk about you know, There's so many different things that

we examples of, like things we missed or something. So definitely there are a lot of things I would go back and write differently, or things I wish we had uh mentioned or had thought of at the time. UM. But that again is why we we so much appreciate everyone's calm and contributions. Uh, and we encourage you to continue to send us those comments with those etcetera. Yeah,

I feel uh, I feel similar. I I think that we also, like earlier in the show, especially with early episodes, we kind of we both knew a lot less than we do now, and I think we kind of fell into like the thing bad trap a lot where we would be like, this sucks from the lens of twenty seventeen, and we did not do enough to contextualize like things that we are more mindful of now, like there is a way to contextualize why a movie presented as it did in a very problematic way and be critical of it.

But I feel like we we didn't. I would say, even in our first year or so, we were not like heavy enough on the context and they're just uh not my favorite episodes for the reason. But I think, you know, there's so much I would do different, especially getting back into like but and and so even though I'm like cringing past us, I also am glad because that means, you know, it would be very weird if we were like no, our tags were perfect and I

haven't learned a single thing since and I was correct. Um, so you know, if you don't look under your past, self, your past, trying self with without without a little cringe, you know, what's what's going on? What are you even doing? The past is cringe, the future is cringe. The present also cringe. The present is extremely cringe. Uh so, thank you for that question, Alicia. Next up, we have a

question from Tessa. The question is are there any movies you really want to cover but just haven't done yet, either because they're not a priority or because the time hasn't felt right. Uh, yes, I've got some you got wait you have you have like some specifics? Yeah, hit it, hit it, hit it, hit it. Some of them are just because they're like childhood or like adolescent favorites of mine.

They wouldn't even necessarily make that much sense to cover some of these because I don't know how interesting of a of a discussion they would generate. But um well, actually one of my favorite movies for a while was Since City, and I think it would be an interesting conversation, that would be an interesting there's there's some some ship. Yeah, there's there's a conversation to be had. So maybe I'll do that on one of my um as one of

my Matreon birthday picks next May. I also I kind of really want to do a Ninja Turtles movie because again, they were pretty big movies of my childhood. There's something I really want to do just because I've been requested a million times, and I do with him as a movie that we just haven't gotten around too yet. For example, Pitch Perfect is one of our top requests. Um, okay, I don't like, oh really, I enjoyed um. Pride and Prejudice is one of our top requests. The Cure Knightly

I think two thous five one. Oh yeah, I was there. I was talking with my dad about that movie the other day because there was like my dad, I think my dad maybe noticed a trope in movies that's very specific, but he not to call him up. But he was like, yeah, because my dad. I made my dad because the Pride and Prejudice this story is too long already, but it was like not shown at major theaters, but I really

wanted to see it. So my dad like drove forty five minutes to go to this like indie theater and then watched it and was like, oh, this is really long, and he's right, but but he was we were talking. Oh, it's because we were talking about The Crown, and my dad was like, why are there often these like young British women in movies who were always like hiding behind something flirtatiously, which I actually think he's onto something there.

There's a scene in Pride and Prejudice that he made fun of a lot when we went and I was like, stop, but like it's like Kia Knightley as Elizabeth Bennett, like hiding behind some ribbons and being like ha ha, like you know. And there's a very similar scene in the in the Crown where Princess Diana shows up for the first time and she's like t T I'm like, wow, these young British actresses do be hiding behind things flirtatiously.

What's that all about? What was the question? Again? I don't know, but Mike shout out to Michael Loftus for his uh poignant observations. That's my favorite useless movie trope since Leonardo DiCaprio fully closed wet. You're just like, I don't know if that says anything about our sure, but

it definitely seems to be a thing. Well you know what. Okay, sorry, this is another another quick tangent, but you know how we were talking about the breakfast Rube Goldberg Machine trope in um a bunch of movies that we brought up on the Flubber episode. I thought of another one. There's so many. It's in the first Paddington movie. There is a marmalade making machine, the Goldberg Machine, and because Paddington eats marmalade for breakfast, it counts as a breakfast machine.

It's true. It's true something that some things that I've wanted to There's like other childhood favorites that I would like to cover down the line, but it's like they're just not the highest priority things I would generally like to do more or like to like I don't know, we don't really do themes on the main feed. But I love musical movies, so I would love to do and we haven't really done that many that aren't like

Disney Movie. Sure, So I love musicals. And I also think doing more international movies, which we've been which we've been doing more recently. And then I would also love to do like a little just a block of old Hollywood movies. We've really only done that once or twice with movies that are older than like forty years old. Yeah. Yeah, I just like getting into like very influential old Hollywood movies.

I think would be fun. Yeah. Also, we desperately need to do two separate episodes on Magic Mike and Oh Magic Mike double Hustlers. Hustlers, that's like one of my top picks that like it. Just it's truly like the timing just has it. It's been a timing issue. Um, but Hustlers, it's going to happen. Magic Mike, It's going to happen. It's just really the question is when, Yes, yeah, and then and then of course anything that Alpha Billina wants to cover when he comes back. Yeah, absolutely, and

the Holidate No, I'm kidding, let's for time. We didn't see that, but although I so so to round out our question segment, thank you to everyone on the Matreon who sent questions, and if you'd like to join the Matreon, it's a great month to do so, because we are doing our annual Terrible Holiday Movies block, including the three Vanessa Hudgens, Princess Switch, Princess Switch Switched Again, I think is what it's called but really it's called three Vanessa

hudgens Is. It's pretty much called three Vanessa hudgens Is. And then we're also doing Christmas Prints too, because we've already covered one and three, and we are releasing Christmas Prints one as a main feed episode to give ourselves a little holiday break and just sharing the Christmas cheer that is Christmas Prince. Yes, um, there you're welcome once again. I mean, Christmas Prince genuinely is is requested? Oh yeah, often, we did that, you know, because the masses insisted it's true.

So that's what's going on over in the Matreon. Mm hmm. So that was. We have a few more questions, but they're kind of more like fun silly questions, and we thought we'd close out on Before we do that, we had a few very just like very nice comments that we wanted to share. We just wanted to share a bunch of compliments. Are our listeners being nice to us and and telling us that we we rock rule and rule? Yeah? Yeah, I mean we're we're spreading joy, is what we're doing.

And or we're it's spreading joy fending off dread, you know, like it's really all the same act ativity these days. But yeah, we wented to laser in and a couple of comments we received to celebrate because we cannot physically see each other. So this first comment comes from Patty. They say, I saw Boss Houmas Girl on an incredibly rainy evening in Edinburgh last year and it was by far the funniest and most interesting performance of the festival

for me. Oh Jamie Ye, one of the allies. Jamie got on stage, which is a bit you do in the show, was so bumbling that he almost made her break character several times. It was absolutely glorious and I hope she remembers it as fondly as I do. Uh that sounds like that so nice that I think I do remember the experienced Patty is discussing because there were like sub so it's the context for this is I did.

I did a show last year at Edinburgh Fringe Festival where I played uh earld Boss Elizabeth Holmes character who just was like bad faith feminism. Uh. The show was basically what it was, and I would bring people up on stage and I would make I would make them name women and then they could never do it. I would always bring like men on stage. It's it's one of my favorite bits from your show. Yes, it's always

so funny. I think I do remember this night specifically because it was like nights that were rainy were really hard because it would be harder to get people to come to the show, and that I was performing in a shipping container, so it would smell really bad when wet people came inside. So I my I have a very sensory memory of this night and that I don't know. That's that's so lovely. I miss being able to meet people and do things and be in stinky shipping containers. Friends.

Thank you for that, Patty. That was very um that made my day. We also have a really kind comment from Alicia, who says the two of you inspired me to start writing about film again, which I'm so grateful for. Somebody actually now pays me hell yeah to to write reviews focusing on diversity, and I wouldn't have known that that was something you could do, let alone, something I could do if not for the podcast. Thank you for that shout out, Alicia. Holy sh it, that's that's for us.

That's like the most gratified feedback we could get. That's like, that's the idea and yeah, that's amazing. Congrats, listeners are so cool. That's amazing. It also send us your work. We want to we want to plug it. Yeah, and to to I guess to all of our listeners, we say versions of this pretty frequently. But if you are seeing like there's a perspective you have that is not being discussed, like, go for it, like and let us know what we can do to help kind of get

the word out, because it does. I mean, it makes a sucking difference. And so shout out Alicia. That's so cool. Indeed, and this last comment that we wanted to share comes from Maddie says, I just want to say thank you so much for this podcast. I was a socially anxious kid with big feelings whose only hobby was watching movies. I've realized how dangerous stereotypes and movies are and how I have romanticized toxic behaviors in my relationships because of it.

Grand gestures that somehow equate to forgiveness slash stalker behavior slash boys will be boys mentality, slash intense fights then always making up, slash unnecessary sacrifices slash surprise kisses, etcetera. I've been uh, I've been able to re analyze what I really want and what is healthy for me and others. A big part of that is because of this podcast. Thank you, yay, thank you, thank you for sharing that.

And yeah, I mean just so glad that you've been able to unlearn the toxic crap that movies teach us that many of us are trying to unlearn and we still are like, it's just uh, yeah, this comment was really cool. Like what we keep trying to talk about is like, what is really helpful and unlearning stuff is like like, once you recognize, oh, this is a toxic thing I need to unlearn, just start the work, don't wallow. And you're like I can't believe. How could it be.

You're like, well it is, so let's do something about it. And that sounds like the approach Maddie is taking. And ah nice, so cool, so much. Yeah, and then just a few fun questions to close us out. So the first one comes from someone who wanted to be identified as Freddie Molina fan number one. So, Jamie, I'm not sure if you'll have a response to that. I love this. Okay, what's something non movie related that you're passionate about. Oh,

something that I've I've become very passionate about. Um In the past year and a halfish has been a local politics via a friend of the show, Nitia Rahman. Yeah. Yeah, that's like when I'm not when when I'm not poding and goofing around. Yeah, I've gotten really like excited by communities that are like in in l A. It's especially big,

I think. But yeah, learning about kind of my community, what direct action stuff is possible to do, and just like I guess most specifically like local journalism and how important it is and how much there is to do, and like what a cool community it is. I like local journalism. Hell yeah, borring answer, No, I love it. Something that I've always been passionate about, the I think is a little known fact about me, is that I

love anthropology. I almost minored in it. In fact, I almost majored in it in college before I really knew what I wanted to do. So I had just kind of contemplated making that my career for a while, but ultimately was like, oh, I don't want to get a PhD, so never mind. But um, I only wanted to get a master's in screenwriting. Obviously, and honey, you did and I did it. But I love anthropology. I love reading

books about anthropology. I love um just kind of like human evolution in general, and the way human psychology has evolved, human sexuality has evolved or has kind of dictated our human evolution, and just like all that kind of stuff. I've always been fascinated about that. So, if anyone has any recommendations for anthropology books, I've probably I've read a fair number, but I'm always on the lookout for more, So hit me up with your Rex. But yeah, I

love anthropology. So and if anyone, if anyone knows about corruption in the v A in West Los Angeles, hit me up Jamie. Our next fun question comes from Becky. It goes a little something like this. Hey, Caitlin and Jamie, you've been my running buddies for years. I love the show. You're both from the East Coast, but now in l A. How is that transition for you? Do you miss certain aspects of the East? Come visit Pittsburgh when it's safe please? Uh? Okay, we will, yes, fine, And yeah I miss I miss

the East Coast a lot all the time. H Yeah, I mean I do like living in l A. But I do miss I do miss the East Coast. I miss Massachusetts so much all the time. I missed public transportation as being a more accessible and easy thing to do than it is in l A. I miss living in a walkable city. I miss bike riding around. I used to ride my bike to get everywhere when I lived in Boston, and now I'm just scared to ride my bike anywhere in l As. Oh god, yeah, I

miss the Fall. I miss my family. I miss yeah, just like yeah, there's there's a lot that I miss. I also just I don't know Massachusetts could be so fucked up. But then sometimes just I don't not to go back to local journalism, but sometimes the hyper specific stories you can find in New England truly could happen nowhere else and shouldn't happen anywhere else. And by that I mean something everyone should go watch is uh YouTube video. It's called Down the Rabbit Hole the per Cat Cafe.

I thought you were going to talk about love Boocardi Boston. Oh my god, I'm also talking about love boocarti Boston, because is where else can you make that film? Don't even try the worst student film of all time. You gotta watch it. But I also wanted to reference Yeah, YouTube user Frederick Knudson. He doesn't really need are plugging.

He's a very popular YouTuber, but he makes this um series called Down the rabbit Hole where he just will like rehash a scandal that is very specific and very online. And there's one that took place in Boston called the per Cat Cafe, where it was a New England mom trying to start a cat cafe and she does a really bad job and she gets so mad because she's from New England. Uh, she just starts cyber bullying people.

It's the wildest story and it just maybe so homesick because you're like that, what it could only happen with that kind of angry mom that they make in those in that region. I miss it, okay. Next question. Next question comes from Carly asks what would you call an all female remake of the movie Flubber flub Her, Fember, Fember.

I don't think, maybe not fember. So just to be clear, those were the two pitches that Carly shout it out, and also I let yeah, I do love flub her serious answer, it should just be flubber like they it should just be called flubber and then woman is the lead this time. But in terms of what I think they might name it, flub her is great. What about this is a non gendered way to do it. I

flubber right from the perspective of the flubberer. So so that would would that mean that um like maybe a spooky Halloween version of flubber would be I Flubber flubber Stein, like I I Flubberstein would definitely neally, I think work we should get the I Frankenstein team. We also got a message from a listener the other day that was like, I'm so high, I'm under my Christmas tree and I'm watching I Frankistan and I've never felt so at peace. And I was like, now this is the impact we've

been going for. I. You know what, I don't care what they call it. I just I And I'm sick of I'm sick to death of rebooting old properties. Just I mean whatever we talk about all the time. Just let marginalize people make the movie they want to make. Don't make them remake a movie that was made bad the first time. What the fun? However, with flabber I take an exception. We do need a reboot of Flabber? We need we need it, we need it. Yes. Next

question comes from Maria. Do you believe in astrology? Because y'all, being a Taurus and a Leo is t Sorry for the lack of intellectualism, but it really must be addressed. Yeah, I believe in astrology? How dare you? Yeah? Of course, what kind of question is that? Of course they do? I uh don't. I don't. I don't really even know what astrology is. I don't know how it works. I'm sure if this is where everyone's sitting at home being like taurists. Okay, yeah, I'm too stubborn to believe in

something like astrology. Um I I well, I okay, I did buy some crystals. You did that astrology? That's not astrology, but that's definitely you know, in the astrology extended universe, it's yeah, astrology adjacent. Um yeah, I don't participate, but I like when other people tell me, they're like, oh, you're such a Taurists. Therefore x y Z nice to feel seen. Yeah, I'm going to be a Leo and

just like read out my chart. Okay, so Leo's son, which you know I was port August eighteenth, and I'm like, I feel cuspy. But whatever airy is moon Pisces rising? Okay, astrology heads tell me something I don't know because I know I know a medium amount. I know, like not a ton. Say, I don't know what any of that means, but I have to pull up my costar app to give that information. There you go, Maria, please advise what

does happen? Two more things, starting with question from Lindsay asks, if you were to focus on the films of Alfred Molina four a month, would you call it Molina March or Alfred May Lena Funny? Okay, first of all funny. Second of all, we would call it Molina March, but it would fall in September. That's the only way to do it. That's my favorite, maybe one of my favorite running jokes we have is how we just everything in the matrion has just insert something March, but it's never

in March. It's in our port in the year. It's complicated, but but if you really if you put all the strings together on the on the corkboard, it does make sense. And then finally, Caitlin, this one, this one's for you. It comes from Chris Caitlin, have you heard of these anagrams of your name? I trend nautical. I have not heard that one Kurt italian end, not that one specifically, but I have one similar that has Italian in it, and instead of Kurt, it's a much more unpleasant word

if you change out one. Oh yeah, it's rude Italian bleep. Okay, here's the next one, A tinder lunatic. That one, Yes, that one was one of the very first ones that Zack Sherwin um made from me. So that one does, and that you might have even did an illustration for it. Yeah, I think I illustrated that. Yeah, because Zack and I went sack and I famously collapsed on your birthday present.

And then finally, this one is gross tinier anal duct I have not I wish I hadn't heard yet one, but that one's my favorite one of these and of maybe all time. That made me feel um unwell, I feel great, I feel honestly, I'm like, wow, I haven't eaten yet today, and it's honestly it's good. It's tinier. I'm like tiny because it implies it was already tiny and that there's maybe there's a tiny one, and then there's the tiniest one. But this is the ace and

you're just like, it has to get smaller. I don't. It's so nasty. Okay, thank you for that, Chris. On that note, Happy for your anniversary, Caitlin. Happy four years, Jamie, I are more years. I loved doing this show with you. I can't wait to do much more. I love you and you're the best. I love you, and yeah, this, Uh what a joy, What a joy it's it is.

Ed continues to be truly, I swear, it's like so nice to like I don't know, you know, sometimes this is like I'm not talking about anybody we know, but you know, sometimes when you listen to a podcast, you're like, I don't want to think these two people like each other very much. I just I'm so grateful for your friendship and this show brought us together. Look at us, look at us go and look at us grows here

in heaven. Uh well that was our four year anniversary celebration Heaven where Rose doesn't go At the end of Titanic, what if at the very end I tried to That's what if I try to pick a fight at the very end. But yeah, they were like, actually the show's canceled. So everyone, Uh, this is how we're kicking off December. We're gonna be doing a lot of fun holiday movies. We're gonna be doing another Grace Thomas Santa Claus episode. We're gonna be doing an episode on this Christmas. We're

gonna be doing what else? Are we doing an episode on New Year's Eve? You know? There's just there's and then over in the Matreon. However many Vanessa Hudgens as we can bear, so thanks for listening. You can find us in all the regular places Twitter, Instagram, We've we've you know, you know what the Matreon is at this point, and there's ongoing sales if you want to get back tel Cast merch for you or your loved ones this

holiday season. Feeling to do so over at te public dot com slash the beactel Cast, right, that's the one. You think I would know that by now U And there's face masks, which is cool. I I just actually I need to order Bactel Cast face masks because because why, I feel like a poser on our own show. I'm literally I'm look what I'm like fidgeting with right now? I'm literally fidgeting with my Alfred Bollina action figure. I keep him at my work desk. He calms me down. Good, oh,

good wit. And I was just gonna ask you, Okay, have you told this story or do the listeners know about this? Okay, because we need to Okay, we said the episode was over, but it actually there's more where I think maybe we talked about the Matreon but not. This needs to be as public as possible and everyone to have access to this. Um Okay, so it was.

I've been trying to figure out which listener originally sent this to us, but essentially, we did a Matrian episode a couple of years ago at this point where we watched all of the Grinches. We just like drank all day and a potatoes and watched every Grinch and you know, just talked a lot of ship and I love Baby Grinch. We've had Baby Grinch merch for years. You can get it.

This is a plug, right, But a listener sent us a link to something just simply called Green baby Boy, and it was a kind of like the shop looked like like I can't it a little mean online shop. Something's not quite right because what it said it was selling. I'm pretty sure it was a production still of the animatronic for Baby Grinch. It looked very top quality. The product that the site said they were selling looked as

though it came straight off the movie set. It looks like it would have couldn't be right because it was only thirty dollars and it looked like it should have cost like three hundred dollars if it was what it said. So but so so Calin and I were back and forth of like, where's the line, Where's the line? And then I was like, I had to I have I spoke to God about it and and she said she She said to me, Jamie, I think this is a business. You can list us as a business investment on your taxes.

And I said, oh, yeah, okay, I guess I'll do it. And I ordered it and there was no tracking number. There was impossible to know if Green baby Boy was ever going to come, and if he came, what what what would it be like? And then the night Joe Biden won the presidency a fraud weird night. Literally moments before the speech, I received a package and inside of it it was not what was in the pictures. I will post a pick sure of it to the feed,

but it's like impossible to describe. It is technically a green baby boy, but it's it's like, it's so scary to look at it as like soulless eyes. It is hollow. It's made like a dog toy that doesn't squeak. But you can just it has a little hole in its button. You can just make it totally flat. You can squish his head. Uh, it's made out of rubber. It is technically a dog toy. It's it's definitely not worth thirty dollars. And I don't know who made this. Who's doing that?

I'm not sure. Yeah, you face timed me yes with the second you received it to show it to me, and I've I like nearly pee my pants laughing so hard because I'd never I wasn't expecting necessarily, you don't know what to expect, but I wasn't expecting that. And it's yeah, so we'll we'll do like side by side comparisons of like a screenshot of what the site was advertising and what actually showed up. Because it is the

funniest thing in the world. And I'm so sorry you spent thirty plus shipping and handling the greatest return on investment either. I was just like it, maybe miss shows because I'm like, ah, if I could bring this to a show, really set up Green Baby Boy and then and then pass them around. Oh that's your next one person show. Submit, Submit Green Baby Boy the show to Edinburgh in Please. You think they're gonna say now please?

That's just good storytelling. Uh so? So my my two guardian angels on yeah and my desk are Green Baby Boy and Dot Cock. Amazing. Well, okay, now that's the episode. Um, just a reminder about the live reading of Disney's The Santa Clause that we were doing on Sunday, December at six and Pacific nine pm Eastern. Again, the link that will allow you to donate and thereby purchase a ticket to the show will be on all of our social media and again on my website, Caitlin Darante dot com.

And we really hope to see you there again for a terrific cause reclaim and rebuild our community. The show is going to be a blast and we hope to see you there. Thanks for listening. Have a safe holiday season everybody, and we'll talk to you soon. We'll see you soon Bye bye bye