Grease 2 with Solomon Georgio

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Speaker 1: On the Beck dol Cast. The questions asked if movies have women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands? If do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in best start changing it with the Beck del Cast. Hi, welcome to the back tail Cast. You're listening to the back tail Cast. This is our podcast about movies and women in them. My name's Jamie, my name is Caitlin. This is our podcast called the back tel Cast, which is our podcast. What is this the groundhog Day episode? What's it about women in the movies that they're in, specifically how those movies portray the female characters, and how it's often not very good, almost always bad. Yeah, breaking news quick at the at the top of the episode. We have heard from Alfred Molina today, I you can attest called you crime weeping in my garage, which is where I fled to. I just read into my garage and called you and Alfred Milena must and and not to call him out, but he must search his own name regularly on Twitter dot com. Because you did not mention him, You did not at him. He was not tagged, He was not tagged in any way, and he certainly does not follow me on Twitter dot com, so he must have found it. I believe what I said was that I got so distracted by thinking about how Kris Nooth is the poor man's Alfred Molina that I walked into traffic, which is true. I did that this morning because I've been watching The Good Wife and I hate it, but I keep watching it. But Alvia Millana found that quoted it was extremely humble. Wanted to give chrisnos his due, which like, why bother? But whatever? Uh? And and now he alleges that he will come on this podcast. So after what a full year, this is the closest we've gotten, and I'm not going to let it go right. We will stop at nothing to get alphad Milina on this podcast. We know he's nearby, We'll do it. We basically recording this on August seventeen. The episode won't come up for a couple of weeks after this. By the time it comes out, he might have probably would have divorced his wife, will be fully. I realized recently it's my dream to have step children who are older than me and hate me. And I think that marrying alph Molina is going to be an amazing shortcut to achieving net for sure. Yeah. So anyways, asked the breaking news will keep you posted. As of August seventeenth, I'm still flying high and crying about it, indeed bringing it back to the cast. Hey, we should mention what the what this? Even? What is Bechtel? Well, it's a test. It requires it to women have to talk to each other in a movie. They have to have names and their conversation has to be about something that's not a man. So we will in with this movie that we're talking about later on to see if it passes the backdel test. But before we do that, we should introduce our terrific guests. He is a hilarious comedian. He has a half hour coming out on Comedy Central and his first album coming out in October. Somon, Georgia, thanks for being here. Thanks for being okay with me being late. That's fine. One of us is late almost every Oh okay, I've been so late that I've missed the episode. It's all good. So we're here to talk about Greece too. So why did you pick this movie? What's your relationship to it? When did you first see it? It is one of those movies that I think is in the original. I think I watched it in on like TBS or t n T because it came out in what eight two? Yeah, yeah, so I was like a young kid, and I think I watched Greece before it, and then I just like, I get it. But then I saw the second I was like this, this is what good movies are. I probably watched it plus times. It's one of those ones that's always always always on TV, just like the really bad TNT edit of Kill Bill that's always on TV that I love, or I'm trying to think of other movies they're always on Basic Cable for some weeks. Back to the Future is always on not as much as you think. The Fugitive. Yeah, I love that movie. It's one of the few movies where wherever it starts, I will sit down and watch it, like Cheap to License, because there's like five movies that are always on television no matter what. And Heat is another one which is very weird because this is a very long movie. Yeah, it's it's forever long. That's crazy, Jamie want to do for Seagrease to today same. In fact, I thought I had seen the first one all the way through apparently I have not, because I watched it yesterday and I do not remember the second half of it at all. So I had not seen that entire first one until yesterday, and I gotta be honest, I don't really like it. I think, yeah, I like it up until a certain point, right up to Stoker Channing's abortion song, and then after that, I'm like, it's hard to stay on board after that, the first crease, I'm like to like, I've seen it a bunch of times, and I was like, did it for like Summer Stock theater and like all this, Like it's man, it's an exhausting show with a with a deeply questionable message. I do think that the message is the same in Greece too, but it's like flipped in a way that I like way better. But it also wasn't like like when Sandy churn at the end, there was that was like out of nowhere right right, There was no no need for that to happen at all. He was already on board, yeah, and she's like, oh, I wear leather jackets of smoke cigarettes and he's like, now even better. The transformation takes place for most I mean, like a good hour there's a lot of motorcycle learning and Greece to Yeah, it was a really I really liked it. I was riveted. I had a fun time watching it. Yeah, for sure, Like it's a great deal more than the original and the first one. Well, it made the Pink Ladies the star, which I think is the better. And also, if you're talking about leading men, Max Caufield versus John Travolta, I'm fucking going Caufield. Yeah, this felt like Greece too. Felt just felt like a like a really good rewriter the first Yeah, like it's just a better version. It felt like a later draft that was like what if we just make this whole thing better? And yeah, but I do love though that. Basically, this movie is about a woman not liking a very handsome British man because he doesn't wear leather jacket's un nerd. He's such a nerd because he's British. But he's also like she's also doesn't like the toughest boy in school. She's also done with him. Yeah. Yeah, I guess she just needed a combination. She needed a sensitive guy who wears leather jackets. That's all she wanted, and she was not lying because the second one came around, she got into his motorcycle. I was like, I don't care what your face is. I was really hoping from more. I was really hoping for a more dramatic Fantom of the Opera style room. And this is the weird scene at the end with the Grecian pool. I was like, oh, yeah, like high school is a big, big float where he comes in. I was like, oh my god. I wanted her to That's maybe my only grip of this movie. I wanted her to take off his helmet or his not even his helmet. It's his Fantom of the Opera mass but he's wearing. But also, how great would it be to just have sex with somebody wearing a helmet and never seen I've been married to the same man who has been wearing a scuba helmet for twelve years, and we're very happy. I know. I've been married to v from V for Vendella as I said a single word to me, and I'm having a great time. All of these people we just described are better at hiding her face. In the Phantom of the app you let it out very quickly, yes, and it's like, oh, it's Gerard Butler with some sort of allergic reaction happening on one alp of his face. Well, I think that's a great transition to the recap of Greece too. So the story is about Stephanie. She's sort of the lead of the Pink Ladies. This kind of click. At Lidel High School, Stephanie had been dating the leader of the tea Birds. Is that what they called the tea birds? His name is Johnny, And she's like, you know what, I'm over. We're over. I'm single. Now I'm done. Yeah. Then who shows up but Michael Carrington, a British man whose cousins with Sandy Olivia Newton. John's character for throw a details. I also like that he spends a whole movie speaking in a British accent. But Sandy was Australian. I mean, I guess there can be interconf Australia. I'm pretty sure. Yeah. In any case, it's confusing their relationship. But he shows up and he's handsome to boot and he takes an interest in Stephanie. But she's like, you don't wear enough leather jackets, you don't have enough motorcycles, so hard pass. So he's like, well, I'm going to have to win her over somehow. So he starts saving up money. He's writing essays for the other t bird guys, buys a motorcycle, gets a leather jacket, gets some goggles, turns into this mystery man. Then Stephanie was like, oh my other jacket goggles, sign me up. So she just like hops on the back of his motorcycle. They have a kiss, a little smooch, and then at one point in the movie there's he's like other leather jacket wearing guys from I think another school, and they show up. Yeah they're not the Teabers, are just another group that seems similar to the Teabirds. They look and behave identity. They did the same thing in the first movie, right right right, Yeah, guys called crater Face a lot. So they show up, and then the tea Birds start getting wise to Michael, whose identity still remains unknown, and they're like, who's this other who's this mystery guy? None of us like him, so they all chase him and he jumps over this ravine, I guess, and everyone thinks he dies. So then Stephanie's sad and she's like, well no, And then there's a everyone's gearing up for this talent show and then he shows up and he's like, I'm not dead, and then they are in love. The end the talent show is okay, help me out here, because there are the three spiffy young men who are good at singing. Several times, then at the end, the Tea Birds are like, we're going to take their jackets, which is where they hid their talent, because then the Tea Birds go on stage and suddenly they can sing and they're really good. I don't know why they kidnapped the sweet little spiffy boys. It's like, um, Jesus and then Technicolor dream Coat? Is that what's very good? Yes, it's all the same to clean together. No, I'm gonna stand by Jesus and Detecticolor dream Coat. Jesus was not stylish from what I've seen. Judas, however, if we were to judge from his first number in j C Superstar, extremely stylish. I've been trying to figure out how to get that outfit for myself for years. It's like a two piece orange tied eye. It's great, You're going to have to make it. Yeah, I think, yes, that's what it's so good. Anyways, what are we talking about? The spiffy boys. But I think the most important part of this movie that we gloss over was the return of a D. D. Con as Frenchie, which I think is so does she reroll back in school to learn chemistry so she can like develop skincare products? Not how high school works. You don't go back for one class the best, Like, I never friend's life is my favorite life because it doesn't make any sense. The fact that her character just leaves school and becomes a beauty school dropout has nothing to do with the first movie. Yeah, it's I like the fact that freend she just shows up and you're like, here's her side story and you need to know it, and it will not make any sense to anyone. How much time has passed between the two movies. I know it's like four years between the movies were released, but like narratively two okay only two years. She was a senior, so she she didn't graduate, So I think she just came back for her senior year to graduate, and I think she's just going to go on to another school. I have no idea exactly what how the world of cosmetics work, but I'm pretty sure you don't need to. There's yeah, every scene d D cons and is so because everyone in this movie is thirty, but she looks thirty and so. And then there's that scene where she's like working at her side job and it's like, I it's so unclear, and then she says several she's like, Stephanie is one of my best friends, but they've never seen him hang out, like are you lying? It's just like a Pink Ladies thing. But she she sort of almost plays like an oracle kind of like faith but like not giving any like solid advice, just like this is what's happening. She's like, well, he you're not a tea birds. You can't even look at Stephanie. She really just gives exposition from the previous movie, right, like she doesn't push the platford really like does she. I mean, she's just like, well, this is how the Pink Ladies and the Tea Birds work, and if you don't know that then and then she just like you know, but she also looks like she's not also that's not how it works. When she went to school there like she saw that like a shift in that power dynamic. And then she's all of a a sudden, She's like, I'm just going to reinforce it for this young boy. It used to be this way. I changed a little bit, but it's going to stay this way again. I'm going to go to shining time station. You know, she's living in the past. What else do you expect she is, She's back in high school. She's the person coming back to the frat house. It's just like, I want to see her like thirty years later all strangers with Candy going back to high school as like a forty seven year old. I want to see that sequel Grease three. Baby. She's some sort of very strange feedback, like me to get my ap English course because I'm going to become a poet. She's going to high school, she's only taking a cover class. It just doesn't And then she's in That's like the one scene she is in with with Stephanie is when all the pink ladies that are always together coming and they see Frenchie, but they still kind of make fun of her a little bit, like it's confusing. They're kind of mean to each other, all the pink ladies. Yeah, one gets slut shamed by another one and didn't care much for that. She's like, you'd full around with anyone. And they're also mean to those twin cheerleader, I don't know, they're mean girls. Let's keep reinforcing the stereotype. Yeah, so who do we have female character wise? We've got Stephanie. That's Michelle Fifer and then her other pink ladies, I think our poulette. There's Rhonda, I think when more more whose name I didn't ever care. Oh right, Sharon's the one who's backed into the bunker. Right, Oh, gets like manipulated into sex. Yeah, I'm glad that she doesn't or like nothing happens and they don't go through with it, because otherwise that would have been horrific. Yeah, that seemed in age very well. Didn't And also, like a lot of scenes in this movie have no like if you take that scene out the movies unchanged, it's a it's a musical number. That's what both both Greeces are like that you can take an entire thing out and you're like, this has nothing. Oh, this is the same because, especially in the first Greece, you could go from the first moment to the last moment and it's pretty much the whole story is like, she's not like the other girls, just kidding she is. The movie is sober. Yeah, okay, so the other there's Dolores, which is I think Paul. It's younger sister. She's the one who's like, I read a skateboard, I'm not old enough to drive. Wait wait, wait, and then we've got French you. We've got a few teachers and school administrators like miss Mason. Everyone makes fun of her hair slash compliment it. Mr Spears. Mr Spears, what's wrong with him? At the end, he walks into a pool. I do love the like both movies at the same situation, just this airhead school administrator that doesn't know Yeah, I think, yeah, it's Ms ms McGee and Blanche Like they're this little duo of like clueless. However, I do love um. It is an eighties trope that that I wish would return. Is Paul. That's younger sister, the tough little girl that's there for no other reason but to just show up and be like I'm fucking tough, and it just disappears. Well there's pops up again. At the end You're like, oh, yeah, right, you were a person And it's like we have to break up. Well, the first time you meet her, she's talking to Michael and he's like, can I walk you home? She's like, I don't need a babysitter, and he's like, well, what if it's a date? And meanwhile, she's thirteen And that is gross, but I do it's a weird thing. But that Trope, I think it comes back every once in a while, and I love it so much. I think it should always come back because the last time he saw it was kick Ass and like the only time that Trope ever got their own movie, I believe was Curly Sue. Oh, I've never seen that. Just had the whole, the whole tough little girl who has to deal with a shitty world and she's had enough. Yeah, she's our little Punky. I like the Loris And if you don't like her, she's in it for five minutes. She's there to just ask some spice and then get up exactly. So the first point I wanted to make, and we already kind of touched on this. One of the reasons I didn't like the first Grease very much and why I liked this one a lot better is that the first one, the female lead, Sandy was very passive, like things were just sort of happening to her. She didn't really have any agent. She's spent most of the movie just like pining over Danny Zugo and then being like he doesn't want to be with me or he's with another girl, and I'm stand and I'm not going to do anything about it. And then in the end she basically changes everything about herself for no reason and it worked, and it worked. She got him even though she would have had him anyway, and besides, I love a man. Now she's doing what she had and I can control her. And then they fly away, so that is stupid. But then that m has shift with Greece to where Stephanie becomes the protagonist. She's got agency, we know what she wants, she very explicitly says it. And the dance number the best song of all the Grease movies. Cool Writer is so good. It is so good. It's funny how that song sort of ends. There's a lot of songs in this movie the end with like it's usually one person singing in and they'll just walk away and the song won't fade out as they're walking away by themselves. Talking about what they want, and you're just like this is this is like Michelle Fiber just like walks out of it. I'm talking to myself where I believe she keeps singing. So there's that moment where we're like, okay, we know at least what she wants, you know, as the audience, we have an understanding of what she's all about. And then there's another moment in the bowling Alley, I think where the bowling song the bowling song, and then Johnny's all like, I want my trophy, calling women literal trophies daughters having none of that. Eventually, oh wait does that who that is? The left? Yeah? Oh yeah wait she plays um is that? Yeah? I didn't know that? And it went and if you if you rewatch it with that her inflection, she's or less super talented. Yeah, she gets called a trophy, but she's like the second place or she like you're the runner up or the whatever, the best average and he's like what about first place? Best score and stuff. Is all like I'm not a trophy, but she never she's she's sort of as exact. She's like, yeah, I'm the hottest. I just don't want to date you. Yeah, She's like, I ain't no one's trophy. I kiss who I want when I want, I'll kiss the next guy comes into, who happens to be hot British Michael. But the problem that so she has more agency than the female lead in the first movie Great. However, the problem for me is that everything is still like that song in that conversation. The whole story is still framed around like which guy she's going to end up with, so it's like, you know, still not the feminist masterpiece that we're hoping. However, it is based on her decision because she's still got Johnny being like I want you, I want you, and she's just like, no, I already told you we're through, and he keeps trying, and she's like, no, I'm gonna I'm gonna be with who I want, and it's going to be this mystery fanom of the Opera motorcycle guy. I love the Fan of the Opera. It never gets home except when he takes off his mask. He's extremely hot underneath and hotter than everyone else in the movie. I'm gonna start wearing a Fan of the Opera masks on dates and stuff, because then when you take it off. Guys are like, wow, no matter what's there, they'll be like cool, better than better than the mask. Yeah, you're hotter than that mask you're just wearing. Johnny is weird because I watched the first one as well, and Johnny is like a less slightly less desirable Danny Zuka character, So I feel like they're almost commenting on that character and what a piece of shitty is. He's like basically the same character, but this time Stephanie's like, no, you're dumb, You're and like points out everything that is wrong with basically Danny z Yeah, and that is exactly what should be done Danny z piece of ship. With both of those characters, Danny Zuko and Johnny, they're just like dripping with toxic masculinity. And I feel like this movie does a little bit better job than the first one of being like, hey, maybe this isn't the best quality to have is a man? This movie like yeah, like frames it and kind of all the tea birds is like, that's not attractive and it's not something that will get you a girl friend. Except does Johnny end up with paul It? Does she end up accepting I think so. I watched it one and a half times, so I forget what happened, but I do think they end up together. And then I think a couple of the other pink ladies end up with the other. But they're you know, like secondary characters who are not very invested in. And there's a and there is a weird plot contrivance code that keeps coming up of like pink ladies can only date tea birds, and that's I feel like that's only brought up when there's virtually no other reason for Stephanie do not at least give Michael a chance. She's like, no, I can't or I'll be assassinated or like whatever the weird how did that ever come about? Like, all right, you the pink ladies with the tea but will make a rule, were going date each other? What about a future people don't want to date each other? Well, they hear it out like they can sing a song about it, because I don't give a ship. Well, it's like the pirates code empired to the Caribbean, and towards the end they realize it's more like actual guidelines anyway, whatever you want. It's like they almost call out the fact that that's so fucking like because there's one scene where the pink ladies are like, you can only date a tabern till graduation anyways, and it's like two months before graduation. It's like, why would you what? I keep enforcing this. Also, the way that time passes in this movie is confusing, because it's the first day of school and they're like, time to start getting ready for the talent show in June September one, right, it's an important talent show. I've said that before those times I've walked into high school. It's like it's time to get ready for the talent show. We'll imagine how long it took to make those amazing costumes all the seasons, like some Adrian ship. It was beautiful. Like my favorite one is like the one who's wearing a baseball glove on her head like that I didn't even catch that detail. You need to watch that whole scene. And it's yeah, it's a ridiculous one. Like it's the same scene as the dance number in the first one where it's like no one, no one does this do they? Like is this a real school? I want to go to the school now because I want to see everything that every costume and girl of all seasons is the most incredible costume I've ever seen, including that. There's another one where Michelle Peiffer comes out, she has the most boring costume and then do what are derails the talent shop? But she's like wearing a white dress because of course, and then the girl behind her is wearing a dress that shaped like a cake and has fake legs popping. It's missed this whole thing, so I'll send you screenshot that. Yeah. Yeah, speaking of costumes though, did you catch the part towards the beginning where Stephanie is wearing like short pants and then I think it's like ms McGee is like pants and then she's like, oh crap, and then she puts on a skirt. Is that because I guess pants were against the dress code or like women weren't allowed to wear pants? Yeah? Yeah, okay, I just wanted to confirmants. I think the rule probably if it's back then the rules wear skirt and your skirt can't be shorter than than yeah, or even longer. I would probably longer than yeah. Yeah, because this is still this is the way they remind you what error this movie takes place and is very clumsy in a way I thought was fine where they would just be like as John F. Kennedy would say, he was still alive. Like its like before the lu out, the principal spews out this JFK quote and it's like and now for the lu out. But no, that was wearing pants at school was a big no no, right, so she why did she wear them? Just go in the first place them. She should wear pants whatever she wants to. But yeah, she's you don't change the rules by not breaking them. It's not permission. The rule of Stephanie. The Stephanie code data masked British guy who I think also does a fake American accent when he's doing his thing. I feel like, oh yeah, so that no, because otherwise, like that would be a dead giveaway for who he is. So he's doing like a fake American. She full on makes out with him for like hours without being like, by the way, who are you know that? I got like on board, there's a version of my Like if I had the opportunity to make out with a goggled man when I was sixteen, of course I wouldn't. I hadn't do it, like I'll go outside if they get on the first motorcycle that pulls up, like if I start looking cool writer and a great human being, and how much shows up? And I'm just like, you know what this was meant to be? Oh? God? And then can we talk about the dream sequence? Sure? The dream sequence, it's I don't remember the dream Oh it's when Stephanie still thinks that Michael's dead or Cool Riders dead. And then she has that whole scene when she ruins the Talent Show, which like she ruins the Talent Show by being in the chorus and not knowing the words, but anyways, she starts singing her own song and then it cuts to this dream sequence of her running towards Cool Rider. She's wearing a Grecian dress, and then he he's not a good singer, but he's like, theme, what if I alve? She's like, I wish you were, and then they have a very intense, weird exchange. She's like, just when I thought I found you, I lost you and he's like, I know, but it doesn't matter now because we can always be together. She's like, okay, and then she wins the Talent Show. It's great. I think I must have like drifted off during the talent show because I don't remember. It's logistically one of the most h It's a fever dream of so many things happened, but none of it matters. I do remember Johnny like going out onto the stage or like being pushed on stage and like ruining someone else's song. I don't know. That's when they steal the Spiffy Boys jacket and all the talents. It's very weird. There's no there's no allowance of resetting a song. Yeah, they're not like you want to start with no, No, We're gonna just go ahead and say this is ruined. You can't do it again. The show must go on. But Johnny also wins. It's it's almost like the Talent Show didn't happen because they the two people who win, respectively, ruined the numbers that they were in. But they're like, no, we're putting you out on the lu out float in the pool. It's really weird how the school just functions with two gangs that they're very aware of, right, and it's like if you don't there are people there who don't belong to either of this, but really only to be shoved. I'm pretty sure the other kids at school, like they're a cult and they're just totally The rest of the people are thriving behind. They're riding their own homework assignments and they're doing great. Yeah, both of the gangs that run the school are dumb as rocks, like all of them without reservation or full on more. And like I would include Stephanie in that assessment because we hear snippets of her essay, right, it is ridiculous that scene where they're at the diner and he's like helping her with her Shakespeare essay and everything that she's saying, just like making up words and saying very stupid things, and like it's and it makes you wonder why does Michael like her? Obviously he wants to fuck her, but like what about her personality? There's something great about Michelle Pfeiffer that I that very few people acknowledge, and that is she is She looks like a very dainty, blonde lady, but she is the most Jersey Italian persona. Yeah, like everything I've ever seen her, and she's like I've murdered some people now I'm here, but I looked good. Yeah, That's why I love. I don't know why easily love those kind of characters are like feel I feel like she can just beat us all up, and I'm quite content with that. She's a catwoman, She's yeah. Catwoman. Married to the Mob is a phenomenal movie where she is, Oh, I have seen that. It's it's a good one. She's running away from the mob. It's really I would love to see Michelle Fife for a run from the mob. Scarface is another one. Oh yeah, I always forget that's her. She's in scarface. Yeah, so that was That was right after Greece Too. She's exactly weird. It's a solid follow up. Well, I was reading a little bit about Maxwell Caulfield who is very bitter about Greece Too and like blames it for ruining his career mom, which I guess name is something he did after her. I personally get. But well, there's like a quote for him saying like, oh, they were saying that was the next Richard gear But then Greece Too sucked and I was back. He was like in The Elephant Man on Broadway, like he was a serious actor. And then I guess took a gamble on like a little blockbuster and thought that it kind of like ruined his crew. It's like, you're not sure. Everybody else, most of the people from the movie kept working right, like everyone's in you know, it seems par for the course. But he's bitter about it. Baby, Well, I don't care. He still did he how did he age? I mean, I guess realistically, he aged realistically. Here's a picture of him. Now, that's fine. Yeah, he's doing fine. He's okay. It's not the way I prefer, perhaps not for me, but he looks slippery. That's what he discovered, jam covering and Greece. I did really enjoy his solo number, where again he's just wandering around singing to himself. What's the name of the song? It's oh Charades. A lot of the thing this movie sounds mumbled, it is. I think the only song I can recall is cool, right, and the other songs definitely fall to the wayside. Well, there's the song about I like that. There's a whole song about like women's reproduction when they're like the substitute teacher just comes in all right, So that I like most of the song, and like all the imagery on the board in the classroom is like plants, but he's drawing a woman's uterus and like Philippian two and she break but anyway, and then he's asking different members of the class when is it the best time for a woman to conceive? So I guess they're in sect said classes. You know, it seems like they're in biology. But then they sing the whole song, which is obviously like subtext and also that watching right she comes in, so she's a music appreciate Asian teacher, right, but then she's horny, but they're in her class. Stephanie submits her like Shakespeare essay to her class, so she's also an English teacher. There's there's very confusing what's happening at right? Which one in Greece? Two are all about It's all about teen sex, but no one is directly talking about it in a manner that makes any sense. Right, every st like characters have sex in the first one because there's a pregnancy scare. I feel like no one actually has sex in this one. Well, there's that one offline that ends with the principal breaking in the fourth wall where she's like, I haven't had my period in two months and then she says makes some sort of she's like, you can stay after school to make those up joke, right, And then she goes and like turns to camera like Okay, I guess that was worthwhile. Know that I like the reproduction song strictly for the kid with the bass voice who goes like where does the pollen go? Four hundred times? Oh, I found it interesting. So many times on this podcast we have come across a movie where a man surprise kisses a woman just I don't know where without that happens in this movie, except the roles are reversed right where the woman surprise kisses a man. What do we think? Well, I think it's just about as okay as it is when a man does it to a woman, which is not okay, but he was like smitten by it, which is how they decided to portray that reaction in this movie. Might that happen in real life to certain men, sure, but also other men might be like, I don't want to be surprise kissed without my permission by anyone? Is the troupe? And it isn't because the one I always returned to, just because it's the most egregious example of that is the Brendan Fraser is a mummy where he's in a cage and he lunges Farrell Fraser. Farrell Fraser. He's shirtless, he's dirty. He lunges at a woman and kisses her and then he's like, you deserved it. Like it. It's like the most insane mummy and we're still supposed to be Like he's how romant, he can't be controlled. That's what I love about him. He won't listen. But yeah, I mean because they played it. I don't know he was into it. I mean, and maybe maybe I'm am I victim blaming Naxal coffeel. Oh no, I don't know. It's it's that registered with me too. But I was like, but it made him so happy. I mean, if people are going to kiss each other, let there be some lead in. Let the person know you were about to kiss him and make sure they're okay with it. Let him go on a date first. Yeah, she she will not accept his invitation for a date, no matter how many times he has it with his hands tomorrow the next day, and just like you don't understand, I'm oh yeah, and then she mumbles, unless you're this guy from my dreams and he'll show up and he does. He does that look that is very much the movie is about the secret. Yeah, Michelle, to the point where he shows up at like the gas station she works at, She's overwhelmed. Everyone's like, are you going to clean my windshield? Can I pay for this? Where are your maps? She's like, I'm just gonna get on the back of his motorcycle and run away. Other other trope we've come up against a number of times. Woman who we know isn't like the other girls cause she knows about a car. A car Julia robertson My best friend's wedding and transformers and transfer right. It's like I and we never see her do work on a car, but she says the word windshield. We see her something overall like and you're like, oh, she was definitely wearing the list amount of clothes to work on a car. Yeah. Yeah, she's working at like a gas station like auto body shop. People need maps, Like, oh my god, there was a time where that was true. Yeah. I didn't even pick up on that. Good noticing the trope Jamie Dan dang Ding. I also love that this this movie I think appeals to me so strongly because it is a movie with a lot of needless musical numbers, which I love, and it's about woman taking a man and fixing him, which is my objective. Although she's not very active in fixing him. He's sort of he's the one who's like, I'm going to change everything about myself even easier, but manifest destiny. Like she just like gives him the cliff notes via cool Rider of like this is what I need you to do. Come back when you've exactly like Reddy Pins Jr. Had to. She's all that whole way through, and she's like, you know, I'm not going to lift a finger for you. If you want to be this person, you have to figure it out. You're gonna need to like put a motorcycle together with scrap metal. You're gonna need to be practicing every day after school with Frenchy, the weird feral adults who wanders this street and making creams. And he had to become the best guy in the motorcycle, not even just go it at a motorcycle, like he had to become the best up. He jumps over a hundred few Like she was not going to accept anything beneath a cool writer, How did he get so good so fast? Look if you have the need and you have the energy, and like, look it's her vision board. He's manifesting too, he too. Vision boards working at the same time can do a lot of things. I keep screaming this at my lef and no, you're right though, I mean, he changes everything. So wait, are we to believe what happens to the end exactly? So he comes back at like the Luo in his garb and his goggles and his leather, basically return the opera. But then so he reveals who he is, and Stephanie's all like, cool, I like you still, and he's like, I wouldn't think you would have liked me if you knew who I actually was. She's like, you're crazy. You did this because she said in the beginning, Oh, I wouldn't like you when you're you. Um, she's gas lighting him, and I'm completely okay with that. It's nice to see everything in a while. Yeah, I always liked you. Yeah, you're not crazy at all. Let her do it. Yeah, please, let's see more women gaslighting men. You're right, hell yeah, Well there's like that small I feel like the only reason that was supposed to work. Besides the fact that nothing in this movie has to make sense per se. It's like there was a little bit of a connection in that scene in the diner where she's like, you probably think I'm dumb, and he's like, no, I think you're really hot. Like he still doesn't say I don't think you're dumb. Well, he's like, I'm dumb too. I just have a British accent, so no one notices, and I can say some big words like don't be insecure. You're writing ever, you're writing everyone at this high school's essays. He's gaslighting himself. That's things. If you're so good at gaslighting, you eventually make something gaslight themselves, and that is it's just a way of manifest and cutting out the middle man. So in that way, she's like an evil mastermind, and I respect her. She got what she wanted by literally putting the least amount of effort and by just simply a manipulative suggestion you're right via a very catchy song. Maybe that's probably the catchiest. Yeah, yeah, I mean cool Rider is better than any song in Greece. One. Yeah, it doesn't mention if he raped a woman in it at all, which is all right, did she bread up that fight? Yeah, that's still right there. But I mean and then this one, the bomb shelter scene, is like there is I mean, at first, she's like, I want to leave, and he's like, you can't, can't. There's a war outside, there's a nuclear bombs dropping. Okay, but they're both sucking dumb as rocks. It's well, yeah, she he convinceits her. The Russians are dropping nuclear warheads on them right just right then, and she's like, you're right, we have to we have to stay in here for our country and for our country. And then I think they're about to start like making out, and then she's like, wait a minute, and then opens the door. I forget what happens, but she opens the door, and then the two other tea birds like fall out into the bunker and she does. She's like, oh so I like that. There's a bunch of times in this movie where the tea birds, who are very toxic in their masculinity, being very toxic towards the women, and they don't stand for it. They're like, uh no, you're being gross. No, thank you a little bit, but then they eventually right they used to come because they all end up together at the end, which is not ideal. But I feel like in the first movie a lot of that toxic masculinity went unchallenged or like so, like remember in one of the very opening scenes in the first Greece, there's just a guy lying on the bleachers looking up a woman's skirt and then she like noticed someone points it out to her and she says like and she runs away, and then all the other dudes were like, oh cool. Well that's why it's like the Tea Birds characters are like kind of unchanged from the first movie. But it's just like they're not made to seem very cool. They're framed differently. They're not in charge of the school. Yeah, it was weird that they were in charge in the school to begin with, Like ther dumbest Danny Zuku had to take a fu pe class and he was so frail that he couldn't do anything. Why are these guys in charge? They know how to fix up a car, and honestly, in my book, that's the hottest thing you can do cars cars. Just kidding. It's like they're the bad gang and there's an even like meaner gang that's cruel in them in a nearby school, right within motorcycle distance. But so those guys in the first one, they were all about cars, like convertible whatever, and then in this movie it's all about the motorcycle. Times are change, times are changing, And be honestly, the motorcycle is my thing too. I get it. I enjoy it bad boys. It seems like there's at least some element of skill involved. Danny Zuka jumps no ravine, Yeah, no, n and it does drive through like you almost, like almost, But also like Danny Zua, there's no like like like there's zero. I don't think there's the explanation of the ravine survival. I think we just assumed he made the jump and then hid for a few days, Like the fuck are you doing there? I didn't even think of that yet. Where was he when he's hiding? He's had one of two things happened. You survived and you should have been a school the next day, or you managed to get an injury that required only two days of recovery. He's mysterious with parents. He lived with his aunt and uncle. Oh so okay, so Sandy Sandy's parents I guess also this exchange program at this school, just only taking in one student at a time, and they're always white. And then and and announced them on the intercom the day they get there. We have another white kid. This is a very white movie, by the way, even whiter I think than the first movie. I cannot confirm that because they're both very white. Is there a non white character in this movie? I cannot. On either film, and the first one, at least you see a couple of extras who are people of color. I don't even know if you see that in Greece too, If you would say, just a tiny glimpse of someone looking at this wide shot of the bawling scene is literally like the picture of Paul Ryan's interns, like a sea of white teenagers, very unappealing. Any other scenes that anyone wants to talk, or any other points people would like to make. Man, this is a great movie. It's so fun. I was prepared for like a This was like a position to me as like a bad movie. Yeah, because it's people mocked it for so long. I think it's it's one of those things where it's earned its own cult following. And I prefer it more than the original because it's just it's just a little more effervescent and a little and there's there's more dynamics between human beings and just also sucking. I can't reiterate how great of a song cool Writer is. It is hands down the movie like it should. You should just listen to it in general as a song to listen to, because it actually holds up as a pop song on its own. It's really yeah, and it's uh oh we well, we didn't say a female director, uh choreographer from the first movie, like Salomon said, I love a choreographer directed movie. I e. All of the high school musical movies are directed by the choreographer. And you can you can tell because story is not super and the dancings are unbeat and the dancings in this one are superior. Far. Yeah. Director what's her name? Her name Isa? So she choreographed the first one and then directed and choreographed the second one. I didn't even realize that I didn't do my research. It's okay, yeah, I mean I really liked it. I well, okay, let me read I liked it. I'm not a big fan of musicals. I liked We'll never comprehend that a part of people will get it. I liked this one a whole lot more than Greece one, and part of that is because I think it treats its female characters a little better, you know, not a huge amount this could have been. If I was to rewrite this movie, it would be about Stephanie. She's smart for unch so fucking dumb idiot but everyone and like I was, I was like, well, all the female characters are down. It's like, oh, but all the male characters. Everyone's done. Everyone's on Michael Carrington, but he's also the dumbest of all. He's like, he's like, I just want to put my dick in this blond lady. So I have to pretend to be dumb and change everything. Is anyone in high school smart? Yes? I was extremely smart and good and I made no mistakes and I was perfect. I mean, even if you're like a dumb, immature teenager, you can still be like academically smart. You don't have to be a fucking idiot who like can't string a sentence together and when you're writing a paper about Shakespeare. So I would have just made her a little smarter and made her not so beholden to this weird code that they've all decided as a thing and been like, actually, I'm going to go and make out with whoever I want, which is something that she says. She's like, I can kiss whoever I want, whenever I want, And then suddenly she's like, actually, nope, forgotten, only forgot the rules. Whoops. So I would have had her be more proactive about like breaking these established rules, you know, breaking the status quo, actually doing whatever she wants, and not, you know, waiting till a man changes for her, although I do like that that happens, so I don't know. I just would have made her a little bit more. Yeah, I can, in good conscience condemn a man changing has to be in behavior that I would encourage in acts. But he's already like mostly perfect. If you have to, you have to test that pliability. How willing are you? You're supposed to just assume he might change, Your taste might change over the years, exactly. So I just want to know, will you drive into a ravine for me? Yeah? And he will also have that on my tender bio. Must be willing to drive over a ravine because I guess what else he'll do for you wash the dishes. Yeah, I guess what else will do for you? Hide in the woods for two days faking his own dead because of the fourth head. And if he's willing to do that, help you not assume that you will. Won't that he will do with laundry. That's that, And he'll probably take as long as it takes to try to make you come, Oh my god, for two days pretending to be dead. He's gonna go down on Michael like he one. You're like this guy. Probably what he's spent learning to do those two days, just sucking on peach pits, just making sure the two birds think eating pussy is totally They're like, or they'll do the thing. They're like the ten second thing, like are you good? Okay, my turn? You know they're selfish lovers and they have childs. Oh no, they probably go in dick hard ready to come in seconds. All right, Hey, let's talk about whether or not this movie passes the Bectel test. It does. It for sure does. Like in the first scene whenever Ms McGee and Blanche come out and they're hanging up the flag and it's like, our students are going to accomplish great things. It's going to be a great school year, blah blah blah, and then it happens again, like in the opening dance number, pink ladies are talking about stuff. We're talking about being late. The twin cheerleaders are like, hey, miss Mason's hair, I love it, all three hundred pounds of it. They're talking about their friend who gets the nose job. And then just several times throughout the movie. Because there's a ton of female characters, like probably more than men, even at least ones with like significant screen Yeah, because there's a lot of throwaway motorcycle guys who are not part of like the guys, but they don't they don't really have lines or anything like that is basically create or face whatever. They're mostly guns right there. Yeah, And most of the men we see are those either like random substitute teachers or those motorcycle dudes. So at least you get to see like a bit more. There's different types of women roles in this movie, but it happens a bunch. There are a lot of scenes where women are talking and they are talking about men, but there are probably just as many scene where they're not. And there's a bunch of them. Yeah, and and most of the scenes with all men are they're lamenting or condemning women in some so it's it goes there. They're failing the reverse spectacle test is what they're doing. Right. It's like this movie everyone's dumb in the same way, so there is like a strange equality to it. Yeah. True. Oh. I wanted to point out that one of the t Birds is Selma's husband from Thelma and Louise. He just yeah, he's just that just happens. He got tidecasted as a shitty douche bag at least in those two movies. I don't know what else he's in. That's probably a good chance that he's been character actors. You gotta love him. I love a good character actor. Speaking of which, Alfred Molina, Alfred Molina, conceivably, given the age range, was eligible to play a high school or in this movie. What a missed off we have had him. They're like, oh, there's a lot of motorcycles, and then there's this the beefcake, and he's a little different, he's smart, and then he and then hell, he was just he had just done his first role in Raiders at the Lost Arc. I think in eight one, so he was already in the circuit. You know, he probably turned it down. He probably got an he probably tried to assume that everything has been off. Okay, let's write the movie we rate on our nipple scale of zero to five nipples based on it specifically it's portrayal of women. I'm gonna give it to two and a half. Go with it two, because while we do see Stephanie the lead, having more agency than Sandy in the first movie, it's still you know, everything is framed around like the guy, she's gonna who's she going to end up? With? Her relationships to men, and there are you do see a lot of like female friendships and this movie, although a lot of those aren't like poised as these like great things that we should strive for because they're most just mean to each other. Every friendship in this movie is deeply toxic. Yeah, the whole narrative just revolves around Stephanie's pursuit of a man or his pursuit of her. So you know, it's not and like I said, she's a fucking idiot. Again, everyone is pretty much I don't know, they just could have been a better representation of women. In this movie, so it gets some some nipples off for that thing said I did. Yeah, I did enjoy watching this. Like I said, I don't really like a lot of musicals, but I did have a great and you're right cool writer is a terrific song. Uh, and two nipples they belong to I'm gonna say ms Mason, who is like we didn't talk much about her, but I love how she's mostly just like I'm hot and I spent a lot of time with my hair, and I kind of want these high school boys to think I'm fuckable. And that's kinds of literally was He's like, I want to see all of you, and she's like wealthy. She could easily also be a student to give the strange age range. So I wasn't super bothered by it. Yes, so mine two nipples belong to Miss Mason. The music appreciation slash literature teacher at Rydell Catchall. Let me give it three because because I automatically and biased towards it cut in as a fun movie musical, I agree that it. You know, all the problems you pointed out are very legitimate pitting it against Greece. One, It's just it's like a fan fiction better version of the first one that works in favor of the female characters, and like, while it would be cool for Steph, I need to be like I'm actually going to do me right now. That's not how this movie would end in any world. And so I don't know. I I liked it. I give a lot of stuff that passed because everyone in this movie is a fucking moron. If the men were portrayed as more able to manipulate, because even like the one big male manipulation we see in the bomb Shelter falls apart because everyone involved is a fucking idiot and the girls have the better songs across the board. The teacher is weird, but also the male her male counterpart is weird. And then there's the guy from the first movie who passes out in the pool. Everyone is he's suffering from mental exhaustion or something like that. He's very sick, because the last time we see him he is just fallen over. He's just slouched over at a mouthful of pills that he's trying to swallow, and then like still screams because there's a rat on her desk, and then he just like passes out. He has muscular district. He doesn't have control over his body. Like but anyways, uh, that's another movie. I want to give it three. I'm going to give one of them to Mr Spears because I just want to know more, and then I'm going to give the other two to paull It because I feel like she ended the movie still thinking she was second best, and I wish I do. She thought, I wish he hadn't settled for Johnny, but I'm sure she like figures that out. She should have gone with that nerd guy at the beginning who's like, like the lockers, and he's like, oh, you can't go to those lockers. Are like you have to lock your locker because these guys will steal everything. He's his lockers like times, and actually that's a really funny joke because he's speaking to him as though he does not understand English very well because he's from a different country, but his country invented the damn language. He's like, lockers, lockers, You've got to look out the tough boys, lockers, lockers, and then just turns around and leaves, and then a tough boy comes up and he's like, hey, lockers, Oh, I also wanted to point out, while Stephanie has more agency than Sandy in the first movie, she still is not very active. She's just sort of like gliding through the story. That pretty much the only active character is Michael, who's just like changing everything about So I if the movie went my way the way I wanted it to, she would have had a greater desire and then done something to actually pursue that and like been more active in that. But you know, whatever I will do, I'll actually go with the three nipples as well. And I definitely do agree. Uh, the movie should have been at the end of the movie should have been the tea birds being completely dismantled and burned to the ground. They represent the patriarchy, let's dismantle it. It should have just been, Okay, I got my dream guy a pink ladies, we're gonna go punch these te birds in the face. That would have been a great ending to the movie, kind of like in the end of Mean Girls, when they're like, let's not be mean girls anymore, and then when they're seniors, you see they're just like all friendly and cool and hanging out with whoever, and then you see the junior plastics and they're like, what a mistake they're making. Anyway, if it didn't with that, yeah, that would have been the better ending. Um. And if I'm going to give my nipples anything and be to the ravine and whatever happened there, maybe maybe he fell into the ravine, was knocking on death's door. There's a wizard down there, and he's like, I'll grant you three wishes, but you have to sell right. I'm like combining Genie the Devil. Okay, there's there's some ravine. There's some billy goat down there who's like, also this half as wishmaking that he's basically he encounters a mythological creature down there who's willing to revive him and grant him at a huge price. So now Michael's walking around without a soul or without a dick or something, but he's alive. We gotta watch Grease three. If we never see, we never see what's going on there. Yeah, we'll find out, all right it alright Greege three. Okay, because you can bring his cousin back in him and they have to. Oh God, oh Solomon, thank you so much for being here. Ben a delight. Where can people find you online. I'm at the Solomon Georgio dot com. That is my website with all my dates. I'm also at Solomon Georgio on Twitter and Solomon Georgio everywhere else. I'm the only one. If there is another one, murder them. Yeah, follow Solomon. You can also follow us the becktel Cast on backtel Cast, on Twitter and Instagram and on Facebook. And you can go to our website, our brand spank and new shiny ass website scores space dot com. We're not sponsored. It's just way easier. Yeah, go to www dot becktel Cast dot com. You can find information about our upcoming shows because we have a few coming up for different comedy festivals. Check that out. You can donate money to us to help us with our production costs. You can check out just more information about who we are and what we do. Hey, you know what. You can also follow me Caitlin at Caitlin Darante on Twitter. You can follow me too. I'm on Twitter at Hamburger Phone. Yeah. I can't change it. It's been ten years. Don't change yourself. Don't be Sandy, don't be Michael Carrington, be you and myself and don't change No Reference thanks for listening,