Best Movies with a Strong Female Lead + Badass Female Directors + Movie Reviews: Moxie! (Netflix) and Minari (On Demand)

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Speaker 1: Welcome back to movie Mike's Movie Podcast, where all I'm trying to do on this podcast is be your movie guy. That's what we do every single week, just talking about movies. And today is International Women's Day, so we are celebrating badass women in film. And I'm joined by my co host and fiance Kelsey. How are you? I'm great? You ready to get into this topic today? I am, so let's just get into it. Here we go in a world where everyone and their mother has a podcast. One man stands to infiltrate the ears of listeners like never before in a movie podcast, a man with so much movie knowledge piece basically like a walking Audien TV, which classes from the Nashville podcast Networking movie mis movie Podcast. So what do I want to talk about? First? Is the question I put out all over Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. If you don't follow me there, it's just at Mike Distro simply enough, what is your favorite movie with a strong female lead? Kelsey? I want to go to you first for your pick Aaron Brockovich, and I think across the board this was like a number one response I got. So what is it about this movie that makes it one of your favorites. Well, like we said, she's a badass, Um, she's great. I think I relate to as well, like that she's a single mom. My mom was a single mom for a while and went back to finish school while she had me. And I think just watching um in this movie, Aaron like just raise her kids and also end up winning this huge environmental lawsuit. Um, she just is really powerful. So was it that you saw kind of your story play out in a movie for the very first time? I think so that's I mean, I can only imagine that, and I think about it now, that does kind of echo a lot of your childhood and how you grew up. Did you kind of identify with the kids in this movie? I did, Um, And I just think she was doing her best, Like she showed she could be a single mom and provide for her kids but also have a career and make a name for herself. And I think I also just loved the story too. And I think maybe like being a public health watching this movie again the last night and seeing you kind of like, oh, that's my stuff right there, Like that was kind of cool to see that. I was like, is this what started my love of that it's responsible for my career path. Maybe Is this also one of your mom's favorite movies for that same reason? Yeah, I mean, I think that's the great thing about this movie is it kind of shows how she just was like owning it, Like she's going to go out and do what she wants to do and provide for her family, and she really has no like filter on her and she just like her from the way that she dresses, from the way that she approaches situations. She's gonna do it. She's gonna get it done. And I think that's amazing, and it's like Julia Roberts top of her game. I think it also tackles to the idea that, like, women are kind of expected to balance motherhood and a career, and I don't think balance is ever possible. Like I think there are times when one is pulling you in that direction more so than the other. But like her kids knew that she loved them, but there were times when her job required her to go, yeah, be away from them. I think the part that was kind of like gripping to me was how little she had in her bank account at one point, and how she was still trying to go out and just find a way to earn money and just seeing like simple things at the house, Like that's that's a tough thing to go through. What was that like for you growing up with a single mom? I mean we I look back and I'm like, I probably never knew, like how hard my mom had to work to finished school and be a mom and do her job. Like I looking back and realized, I'm so lucky that my mom she just provided always, and she was always there to pick me up from school. She always read to me at night. And then now like even as I'm in grad school and we don't have kids, like I can barely function some days to be an adult. It's that's crazy to think about. I know, you bring it up from time to time of like at this point in your mom's life, she had already had you and been going your school and all that stuff, like and we have trouble remembering too. I don't know, set an appointment on our calendars to get something done, but to have another human being you have to take care of, like it's a big thing. And it's crazy to see you go back and your mom going to school and taking care of you. Yeah, my mom's about us. So Mom, if you're listening to So, I think that's why it was everybody's number one that they sent, and it's just seeing somebody like that accomplished something so great. And again, this movie has been out for over twenty years, so it's fine to spoil. It's also based on our true story, but at the very end gets that two million dollar paycheck and it's like just that feeling that you had in the movie, like, holy grab, that's amazing. It's also just a crazy true story. I won't go down that rabbit hole, but it's wild. Yeah, I couldn't believe this is a true story. Yeah, that's a really good one. I think if there's one movie you're gonna watch right now to go see somebody as a strong female, you gotta go watch this one. So I think that's why it was everybody's favorite. For me. Now, I kind of realized later in life how important and important it is to see yourself represented in a movie. And I am Mexican Americans, so that's kind of where I come from, like wanting to see somebody look like me. But I also get that I was a young boy and I could always see some kind of cool male figure in a movie that was always just normal to me, from superheroes to action movies, like I was always represented in that way. But the first time I really kind of was older and kind of started to realize, like, man, like, young girls don't have a whole lot of people in movies that they can just look up to and see somebody badass. And it was when the Hunger Games camp came out that I kind of got it a little bit. And I love the Hunger Games. I read all the books and watched all the movies, and it was seeing Jennifer Lawrence as Catanists Everdeen that was like, holy crap, Like this is somebody inspiring who's a strong kind of presence and also just somebody that like a young girl could look at it be like, oh, that's somebody cool in an action movie being the biggest role in this movie, like not just a Sidecaracter's not somebody who needs to be rescued, not somebody playing by the roles of somebody else in the movie. It was her being awesome, And I think that was always cool for me to see and finally kind of get it, like, oh, like, I know, I haven't seen myself in certain roles, but like, I mean, that's a whole like like girls not being able to see somebody like them. So I really like The Hunger Games and I think that's an important whole franchise to go and dive into. And I think that's probably why I was one of my favorites. Do you like the Hunger Games? Love the Hunger Games? Now? Are you a enjoy the book more than the movie type person? I feel like that's usually the norm, Like you get more out of the books. Yes, I am. Typically, I would say in big franchises like Harry Potter, Hungering Iams, just you get more detail, you get more backstory. You I feel like you don't just get the like highlights, like you get kind of all of the in between. Yeah. I think that was the first time I felt like I didn't get enough in the movies, Like the first one felt so quick, and I felt there's so much detail in this book. Like the thing they actually don't kind of pick apart and showcase in the movies is the actual hunger in the Hunger Games, of how like frail she actually was in the books, and how hard she had to fight just to get something to eat. I think that was kind of not really the theme in the movie at all when it's called The Hunger Games. That was the only thing I kind of wanted to see more, But everything else later down in the franchise I think was done pretty well, So I really like those movies. Also on the list, I wanted to include Harley Quinn. Now I always get torn up for liking any DC movie, but I find they're pretty enjoyable. I know they're not the best movies and people like to rag on them because they're not Marvel, and they're not. I guess they're a little bit more cheesy, and overall the storylines aren't the best. But I really annoy the Harley Quinn movie, and I think gets so cool that how kind of different a character Harley Quinn is, how great Margot Robbie is at portraying her, and how just badash she is. Like that's what I like about that movie, Like she is so kind of twisted and different, and she plays that part so well that I think she kind of is better than any other those DC like movies, Like on her own, I think she could carry an entire franchise on that. And I'm upset that that movie didn't do as well as I was hoping, and it kind of I don't know if it kind of takes away from what they're also they're doing in the DC universe. But I just think it's a great movie and I would defend it for as long as I need to because I think it's great. That's the last movie I saw in theaters. It was the last movie over a year ago. Yep, I saw an Alamo Drafthouse. Alamo Drafthouse, don't get me started on them. I'm pretty sad about that. If you don't know Alamo Drafthouse, it's a place where you can go watch a movie, eat dinner. One of those type of place is based in Austin, Texas. They have locations but there that's where they're Yes, yeah, that's where they're based in. And it just filed for bankruptcy. Yes, but they're not closing all of their locations. They're not they closed like the main one. Well, we're I lived in Austin, Texas for seven years year from there, so we have a deep connection Austin. We actually have a lot of listeners in Austin, Texas, and I think that's why it was so hard to see they're filing for bankruptcy. They did close one downtown on six Streets, so that's it, and I love that location. It only has two screens, it's very small. But they do a lot of their like interactive movies there. So I've been to like an Elf quote along probably seven times there, and then in college, my best friend and I would go to what they call like sing alongs. We paid like twenty dollars a ticket to go watch like Rihanna music videos and sing along with a bunch of other people. That is very fun. That is a great thing about Alamo is they have experiences, which I think is really what's going to make movie theaters later down the line still be a thing to make them more interactive. Him an event, it's not just going to watch a movie. It's going to watch a movie in a different way, and it's so fun, like you just get to go, like I guess now, like I missed being around other people. Yeah, they had a Bridesmaid's quote along one time. I got shushed at that one. Why would you get shushed at a quote along? Because I knew every word? Oh you do know every single one of that movie? That's for and I knew every word, and I think people got a little annoyed, but it's at a long I was just quoting along. That's what you're supposed to do. It's like going to karaoke and getting mad at somebody for singing all the time. Shushed, that's rude. Also on the list, I put Molana solid choice and I loved it. Took me a minute to like that movie. I think I find myself taking a minute to get into musicals, and it's hard to get into because when everybody just kind of burst into song, it takes a little bit away from the experience to me. But after I watched it like a second time, I was like, oh, way, this movie is great and I get it now. And I think it took Disney a minute to kind of come around to having strong female leads that aren't just princesses. That to say we finally got away from the damsel in distress. Yeah, I think Frozen kind of broke the barrier on that a lot. But I just think we wanted to get kind of a step further and just made it a totally different movie. It really almost doesn't even feel like a Disney movie at times, So I think that's a great one. To Another one I put on my list was Kill Bill Quentin Tarantino with Uma Thurman, a really full on action movie with a lot of violence with a female lead just kicking ass. Another one I put on there was Wonder Woman again defending the DC universe. To get some pushback for that one, I feel like the first one who was universally loved it was when I actually liked Wonder Woman eighty four that everybody was like, this is a terrible movie, and there was nothing bad. I didn't really find about that movie. Even looking back and thinking of that movie, I stand by my review. We'll go over now to some of the ones that you listening sent in. I think I from Aaron Brockovich. Number two was Captain Marvel, a great one. Also l on the original one. I would recommend that one over the remake. And then when I found interesting that a lot of people sit in was from Star Wars. They sit in Princess Leia and Ray. While they're not the full on lead in those movies, I think they're really important presence in those movies. Well, Ray is the lead in the new Star Wars movies, and I loved her in those movies, and I think she made those Star Wars movies really have a breath of fresh air and be something completely different and made me interested in watching those movies. And then Princess Leiah like an iconic character, and without her, I think those movies wouldn't have been the same. So I would agree with those along those same lines. A bunch of people sitting in her money from Harry Potter. How do you feel about that? Would you say she's your favorite in those movies? She's so smart, I love her, She's just great. Did you also feel like you were her money in class? Maybe a little bit? Wow? Are we started get some parallels here? This is my therapy? So what because you like her? What? Studied a lot? Yeah? Knew all the answers to all the questions. I think we're starting to find some of the reasons you're behind some of your favorite characters. Alright, So we'll take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about some badass female directors. All right, all right, I have five female directors and their best movie that you should go check out. Starting first with number five, I went with Sophia Coppola, who she is also an actress, you may have seen her in The Godfather Part three, but she's also a really great director, and she did a movie last year called On the Rocks with Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, a movie I just really loved. It's a kind of a slow paced comedy but stylistically checked all the boxes to what I like in a comedy. So I think you should go check that movie out. It's on Apple Plus. And then also before that, she did Lost in Translation, another Bill Murray movie, so that's kind of her thing, so go check her out. Maybe he's just not interested in anymore impossible a woman? Is that her most beautiful between the ages? During nine great so I haven't many months left. At number four, I put Olivia Wilde and you should go watch Books Mart great movie. I mean, it's funny, and it's also telling the story of young women in a way I really haven't seen done before, and I think that's why I liked it so much. It's kind of like a female super Bad placed in the last five years, so I think that's why it did so well. And Olivia Wilde is also doing some really great things. She's doing another movie now called Don't Worry Darling. Which is how she's kind of with Harry Styles now he's in that movie, and then she's also working on a secret Marvel project movie in the works. They haven't said anything else other than she's attached to it. But I think Olivia Wilde probably in the next five years will just be like a really established badass director. So go check out Book Smart and then go make plans to see her new movies. We haven't done anything. We haven't broken any rules. Okay, we've broken a lot of rules. One with Big I d s they College I D. So we can get into their twenty for our library. Name one person whose life was so much better because they broke a couple of rules that he broke art rules. The name a person who broke a real rus Anthony damn it. At number three, I have Alma Horrell, which she did honey Boy, a really great movie, and I think she's a really great director. I really like the way that movie was done stylistically, had some really a heart wrenching moments that she did a great job. Recommend that one think it through. Play the taketof what's your movie? Got a job for huh? In case you fail? In case you don't work out. Yes, man, she's filling your hat full of fear. I don't never do that, do I. I'm your cheerleader, honey boy, you trust me? Okay. At number two I have Chloe Jowl, who just did No Man Land, which I review on the podcast last week. She also has an upcoming movie with the Marvel University Eternals, which will be out soon hopefully. And she also just made history. She was the first ever Asian woman and the only second woman in history to win a Golden Globees for Best Director for No Manland. I think this movie is gonna win a lot more awards, So if you haven't seen it yet, I would go watch it now. Definitely a best picture contenders. My dad used to say, what's remembered lives? I maybe spent too much of my life just remembering. And then at number one I put Greta Gerwig. Her best movie, I would say, is Ladybird. She also did Little Women, and she's only thirty seven years old. Like that's crazy to me to feel like there's somebody like only eight years or so older than me, like already making these badass movies. And I'm gonna say badass, so much in this episode. But that's just how I feel. My name is lady Bird. Actually it's not, and it's ridiculing me. Just you should just go to city college, you know, with your work ethic. Just go to city college and then to jail and then back to city college, and then maybe you'd learn to pull yourself up and not expect everybody take everyone all right, And speaking of female directors, we're going to get into a movie review of a movie directed by Amy Poehler, So we're gonna be talking about the movie Moxie just came out on Netflix. Before we get into our spoiler free review, here's just a little bit of Moxie. Whoever wrote Moxie is a badass, and that's messed up. I got some hope for wearing a tanktop. Meanwhile, Jason is constantly shirtless. People refuse to call me by my new names. I don't like being voted best. Ask so's to draw hearts and stars on your hands to show support. That's uh. I would love to know who started Moxie and who will they go after next. This seems like a women's issue and I'm going to stay out of it. If you're doing nothing, then you're part of the problem, noticing someone filming right now and we have to go to the bathrooms so bad. So what this movie is about. It's basically a fed up, shy sixteen year old who was kind of tired of the toxic environment of her high school, right the way the girls get treated differently over the boys. And she goes and kind of dives into her mom's past and kind of finds this old kind of rebellious thing that she went through and takes that and creates like her own kind of fan zine of just kind of what her mom did back in the day, played by Amy Poehler, And now she kind of does that and does it anonymously. So what did you think about this movie? I thought it was good. I'm not gonna say. I thought it was great. It kept my attention, it was entertaining. I thought the plotline was good. I think they just tried to cram too much into an hour and fifty minutes. I did feel I felt like the movie didn't have time to breathe. And I think her character development goes really kind of quick, from being this shy sixteen year old to out of all of a sudden kind of being the anonymous head of this kind of feminist movement, like really quick. And I get that as being just for me being a shy person in high school, Like it would take a lot for me to kind of go from that level to that level she did in the movie, But I get it, and they got to move at a fast pace. I just thought that was kind of quick, and when you're trying to get to know her as the shy teenager, it kind of has a quick turn. But how did you feel about the subject matter of this movie, because I think that's what I saw a lot of people online just kind of relating to. Yeah, I thought it was really relatable. Like I think one of the things they touched on was like dress codes for girls in high school, which I feel like every girl we'll remember, like any high school was like your shorts have to be longer than your fingertips when your arms are down by your side, or your tank tops need to be three finger with wide Yeah. I think. I mean in the movie, I won't ruin anything about it, but there is one scene in particular where a girl gets called out for what she's wearing, and it's because it's showing her shoulders. And there's another girl in the exact same classroom wearing pretty much the exact same thing as her, but she's not getting called out for it. I think that was a great example of like the double standard of not just of how it's different for guys in high school and the things you as women have to face, you know, just by the way you dress. So you felt kind of relatable to that. Yeah, I thought every every girl will watch it and just be like, oh, yeah, I remember like making sure everything was like appropriate for the dress code. Yeah. I think that's why this is a movie that younger girls are gonna watch and kind of feel like, hey, this is something that's going on in my high school right now. I think for me, it's, um, it's weird for me to start to like watch high school movies now to know how different high school is in one than it was when I was in high school, and how at the same time things are the same but they're also so much different. And watching this movie had made me realize like how big in an impact that social media has now, because when I was in high school, it was still fairly like I was still on my Space. Facebook was later when I was in college so to see the effects ass on them, like when there's a list that gets sent out, and just to know how like how much social media now affects my brain seeing that every day, seeing negative comments as an adult, I can only imagine how that is as a teenager now. So I think that's the whole other side of this movie. But I did feel it was a little rushed. Um. I felt like it could have been Maybe I don't want to ever say that a movie could have been longer, but I just felt they could have spent more time in certain parts of the movie, and other parts just kind of like quickly, all right, there we go, and even we won't give away the ending, but there's something else that kind of gets tacked. One that was weird. I will say to that. I did like then, like Marcia gay Harden's character as the principle. I just thought that like in the age of like the me Too movement and like the women's movements of the past few years, like just her character, it didn't she stuck. Yeah, there's just certain aspects of this movie that don't line up with everything. And I get there trying to create that friction between the kids in the school and authority. So I get why they did that, but there's certain parts just it's frustrating to watch. It's hard to watch the way her character behaved like you would have expected them more from like a male character. Honestly, Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I think the only thing I kind of wanted a little bit more was it wasn't as funny as I thought it was going to be. Direct being directed by Amy Poehler, who is in a lot of funny movies, I just thought it was gonna have a little bit more humor to it to kind of balance out the seriousness that it does take on. I felt if it would have had a little bit more of that, it would have kind of balanced out the movie a little more and maybe kind of gave some I don't know, lightness and so in parts. So I think that's all I wanted more out of it. What about you? I would agree, Yeah, it wasn't like L O L funny. Yeah, funny, there were some funny parts. It's not a comedy, yeah, not a comedy. So what would you rate it? Three and a half out of five tank tops? Yeah, I would give it three out of five zones. I think just a little more of like the funny I think I would have liked to see, and then maybe just a little bit more character development what is what I was looking for? But I think the movie has a great message. It makes me want to go draw hearts and stars on my hand today. So that is what we think about Moxie. I think we have another movie review to do. We actually just watch Manari and it's a movie I've been waiting to watch for a while now and it finally came out on demand. You will have to pay twenty bucks right now to watch it. But it's from which is from one of my favorite movie studios, and I really liked this movie. It's about a Korean family moving to pretty much nowhere in Arkansas, like slightly outside a little rock and they're living in a trailer on this land and the dad is just trying to build a farm and provide for his family. And it's a really simple story of just kind of a family trying to live the American dream. And I think I kind of saw a lot of my life a little bit in this movie. First of all, when they first pull up to the trailer, I was like, that's kind of what I lived in as a kid, like to see a house on wheels just reminded me of my trailer park days. And I would say in this movie, the trailer is even a little bit nicer than the one we lived in, and I just kind of like seeing that represented of somebody kind of going out, coming from nothing and really just trying to make it in this world, which I think is why I kind of like this movie a lot. And to see their dad kind of just struggle with the idea of wanting to do the right thing and just being kind of consumed with his work, with the idea of just having enough to provide for his family kind of reminded me and my dad, and seeing them go from there, you know, Korean culture to assimilate to American culture. It was a lot of the struggles that we had. My parents came here from Mexico. They didn't speak English when they came here, so it was very tough for them to kind of break in and it was kind of those early trailer park days where we learned a lot of this. And from seeing the kids in this movie, you know, it's based in the eighties, which is when you know, my older brothers were my brother and sister were young, so a lot of this kind of felt like a little bit of my story and my family story in there. And overall, I just thought it was a really good movie. There's nothing really over the top or spectacular about it. I think it's just such a simple story about a family trying to make it would make this movie kind of great. What do you think about it? I thought it was really good. There's no yeah, there's no like profound moments. I don't feel like, but it's it's the way the story is told. It's really well done. Yeah, it's co p of you don't really feel bored. It's just a very simple story, but well done. Yeah. And I think sometimes that's a hard movie to recommend because I like to you know, when I recommend a movie to somebody, sometimes they think like, oh, it's gonna be it's gonna blow me away if somebody's telling me to watch this. But I think it's just the simple movie and you're gonna take something away later that it's worth to watch. You're not going to go into this and thing like, oh, this is the best movie I've ever seen. But I think it's an important movie to watch, and it has so much kind of oscar buzz around. It's getting a lot of nominations for other things, so I think it's worth to watch. And the kid in it is adorable. The kid is so cute, Like that was my favorite part of the movie. The kid David, which you learned about in the movie, his medical problems, and he's just so cute in it. It was so adorable. And he's funny too. Yeah. I think that's the other thing is that while it is kind of a family drama, there's also some it's like subtle comedy. It's not like full on like somebody's slipping on a banana appeal, but it just has like some funny moments that kind of remind me of like my family too. So I would give it a solid four out of five bottles of mountain dew. I would give it four out of five chickens. Oh, four to five chicken Oh that's a whole other part of the movie. Yeah, yeah, that's the whole thing in that. So yeah, a wild career I never knew existing. Yeah, it's a it's a good movie. So I would suggest going to watch that one. Let's get into some movie news now. I wanted to talk about Paramount Plus, and I subscribed for it mainly so I could watch a new SpongeBob movie, which I did and which was about what I was expecting. I have just loved SpongeBob since I was a kid, and I remember seeing the trailer for this. It was supposed to come out in theaters last year, been delayed, came out in Canada, and now I just kind of rolled out on Paramount Plus. So after about having this service for less than five days, I would say it's not there for movies yet. It's really great if you like CBS, MTV, Comedy Central TV shows. I don't think it's quite there for movies yet because later, like movies like A Quiet Place Too, will be on this streaming service, So I think I kind of got in early, so I already have when those movies come out, and I'm not trying to side up later. The only bad part about Paramount Plus the way they're doing movies is it's not at the same time in theaters that they're on the same time on the streaming service. It's like forty five days later. So it will be nice to have them on there, but I really don't see them having a lot of original movie content yet, but I'm there. I'll be there when they are. And speaking of movies coming out in theaters, Fast and Furious nine has been delayed again by a month. It was supposed to come out on Memorial Day and now it's coming out on June, which is my birthday, my thirtieth birthday. And I was supposed to get the new Batman movie on my birthday, but now that's delayed. Now I get is nine. Here's a great consolation prize. Also a fact check on that. On last week's episode, on the ending song to Fasten the Furious, I said it was on six, and it's actually on seven. So those movies kind of start to blend together to me, so I apologize for that, and basically the same movie. I don't know what happens in like any of them. I've seen a few, but I couldn't tell you the different plot lines. I really couldn't. I know there's Too Fast, Too Furious, and there's one in Tokyo Tokyo Drift. There we go. That's all I got. I kind of blurred the lines from four to six. Those all kind of get confusing, and now that they're on nine, I couldn't tell you what happened in the last two. They're basically the same movie every time. It's just fast cars and Vin Diesel. Yeah, there you go. That's every movie. So apologize for getting the number wrong, but that is the correction here. Also got to do the listeners shout out of the week. You can get this simply by sending me a d M on Instagram, a tweet at Mike Destro or over on my Facebook page just Facebook dot com slast Mike Destro and then I always have the email open movie Mike d at gmail dot com. And this one comes to us from at Music, not Matt. He said. Interview with Lou Diamond Phillips was excellent. Great job, towed the line between fanboy questions and true journalistic stuff. Enjoyed every second of it. I appreciate that all the love on the Lou Diamond Phillips interview, which was amazing to get. Like when he came on the phone, I instantly got a little bit nervous just because hearing his voice, I know the old crap. So I'm glad that everybody enjoyed that interview. If you missed that, just go back one episode. We got into La Bamba. We talked about Standing Deliver, so if you want to go learn about him, go check out that episode. All Right, that's gonna do it for us for this week. Anything else you want to say, Kelsey, I don't think so. All right, well, we'll talk to you next Monday here on Movie Mix Movie Podcast, and until then later