Speaker 1: Hello Bechdel Cast listeners. It's May, which means the Shrek
Speaker 1: Tannectur kicks off this month, starting on May twenty second.
Speaker 1: We've got two shows in London, then we are scooting
Speaker 1: over to Oxford for the Saint Audio Podcast Festival on
Speaker 1: May twenty fourth. Then we're doing shows in Edinburgh on
Speaker 1: May twenty sixth, Manchester on May twenty eighth, and finally
Speaker 1: on May twenty ninth, we will be in Dublin. And
Speaker 1: speaking of I me Caitlin, am doing a stand up
Speaker 1: show in Dublin on my birthday on May seventeenth, So
Speaker 1: you're gonna want to come to that as well, and
Speaker 1: you kind of have to because it's my birthday and
Speaker 1: it would be rude not to. So all of the
Speaker 1: ticket links for all of these shows can be found
Speaker 1: at link tree slash Bechdel Cast and we will see
Speaker 1: you there.
Speaker 2: On the bechdodcast, the questions asked if movies have women
Speaker 2: and them all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or
Speaker 2: do they have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zephim vast start
Speaker 2: changing it with the Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 1: The gods whispered to the podcaster. You will not withstand
Speaker 1: the fury. The podcaster whispers back, I am the Fury.
Speaker 3: And then and then we eat shit live on YouTube. Yeah, yes, perfect, perfect,
Speaker 3: Welcome to the Bechdel Cast. I think you know personally,
Speaker 3: I know it's an audio medium, but Caitlin did just
Speaker 3: do the full stunt.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I don't know. I'm not yunis.
Speaker 3: I don't know what stunt words. They did the whole stunt.
Speaker 1: It was a flying reverse spin kick and I executed
Speaker 1: it perfectly.
Speaker 3: Uh huh uh huh absolutely.
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to the Bechdel Cast. By the way, Yes,
Speaker 1: my name is Caitlin Dorante.
Speaker 3: My name is Jamie Laughtus, and this is our podcast
Speaker 3: where we talk about your favorite movies using an intersection
Speaker 3: of feminist lens.
Speaker 1: It's so true, and we use the Bechdel Test as
Speaker 1: a jumping off point. It's a media metric created by
Speaker 1: a queer cartoonist, Alison Bechdel, often called the Bechdel Wallace Test.
Speaker 1: And one passes this test when two characters on a
Speaker 1: test is no, I don't know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Sorry. It's eight am for us listeners today.
Speaker 3: It will soon become clear why this is necessary, but
Speaker 3: it is eight in the morning, and so sometimes the
Speaker 3: sentences are gonna come out a little crooked.
Speaker 1: It's very true. Anyway, the Bechdel test is passed, at
Speaker 1: least our version of it. When two characters of a
Speaker 1: marginalized gender have names, they have to speak to each other,
Speaker 1: and their conversation has to be about something other and
Speaker 1: a man. Ideally, it's a plot relevant, juicy, little piece
Speaker 1: of conversation.
Speaker 3: So give us, give us them, little Chris. Okay, I
Speaker 3: think honestly, we got to just get our guest in
Speaker 3: here because our guest has actually been awake for a
Speaker 3: whole day, and I think we need their support.
Speaker 4: This week, we are covering a.
Speaker 3: Movie that I feel like did not get enough at
Speaker 3: least wasn't on enough screens.
Speaker 4: In the US.
Speaker 3: But when I was really excited to watch and we've
Speaker 3: gotten some requests for Polite Society, I loved it and
Speaker 3: I'm so excited to bring in our guest in chat.
Speaker 1: Yes, she is a writer, journalist, musician. She wrote a
Speaker 1: piece about this very movie entitled Unhinged and Unafraid. Polite
Speaker 1: Society is a story told by and for Brown women.
Speaker 4: It's Piere Mussa.
Speaker 5: Hello, Hi, It's so great to be here.
Speaker 4: Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 5: No, thank you, I'm so sorry.
Speaker 4: Live from eight pm. Yes, how is your day?
Speaker 5: My day was full, fuller than yours at least our.
Speaker 1: It's just well, now that we're doing this podcast with you,
Speaker 1: I feel full.
Speaker 4: I do.
Speaker 6: I do.
Speaker 4: Wow, that was really beautiful.
Speaker 5: Did we did? We just fast the beck of guest?
Speaker 4: We did? I guess, So we'd like to start.
Speaker 3: We really loved your piece, and we usually start the
Speaker 3: conversation by asking our guests what I mean, it's a
Speaker 3: very recent movie. But what's your history with this movie?
Speaker 3: And also how did the piece come to be? Because
Speaker 3: we're going to link it in the description as well.
Speaker 5: Awesome Okay, So I came across this movie because I
Speaker 5: was already such a massive fan of the director, Nada Mansour.
Speaker 5: I had seen her show We Are Lady Bart's couple
Speaker 5: of years ago for a course called Female Friendships in
Speaker 5: World Literature, and it blew my mind, and it like,
Speaker 5: I have so much to say, I feel like that's
Speaker 5: another podcast episode entirely, but that show changed my life.
Speaker 5: It showed me so much about South Asian diasporic representation
Speaker 5: that I had never ever seen before, Like it showed
Speaker 5: me how South Asian diesport women, South Asian disport Muslim
Speaker 5: women can be represented in a way that isn't sanitized.
Speaker 5: Is kind of ugly, very honest, hilarious, fun and so cathartic.
Speaker 5: And I had never seen anything that felt more like me.
Speaker 5: So I was like, I need to do a deep
Speaker 5: dive into everything this woman has ever done. And I
Speaker 5: found the trailer for Polite Society and I was super
Speaker 5: super excited. And when the I mean, you might have
Speaker 5: to edit this point out, but.
Speaker 7: Like the way I watched it was not the most
Speaker 7: legal of ways. That's fine, but yeah, because that's the
Speaker 7: only way that we got access to the movie.
Speaker 5: Like, it wasn't officially released in cinemas, but I needed
Speaker 5: to get my hands on it. So when I watched
Speaker 5: the movie, I think like it came out in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: I watched it in twenty twenty three at least, and
Speaker 5: I think it also released in cinemasn And yeah, so
Speaker 5: like there's been like a lot of talk around action
Speaker 5: films revolving around women, like The Black Widow one came
Speaker 5: out a few years ago. Then there's before that Captain Marvel,
Speaker 5: and then there's also been most recently Madam Webb. And
Speaker 5: it's like there was this constant trend of people not
Speaker 5: giving a crap about women action films. Like it was
Speaker 5: like there has to be, like, you know, either we
Speaker 5: have to sell it with some kind of a narrative,
Speaker 5: like she has to be sexy, she has to appeal
Speaker 5: to a certain trope, she has to be like the
Speaker 5: one single badass bitch that like men can and enjoy,
Speaker 5: or like she has to like there has to be
Speaker 5: some kind of marketable selling point or we're not gonna
Speaker 5: care about writing it and no one's gonna care about
Speaker 5: watching it. And it was it was really frustrating to
Speaker 5: see because it was like I was so tired of
Speaker 5: men coming to me and being like, oh, did you
Speaker 5: see Captain America catch thorsh Hammer in the fifty seventh
Speaker 5: mor like I don't, I don't care. I want to
Speaker 5: see something about women fighting that feels real, that feels honest,
Speaker 5: and that feels like I can place myself in that scenario.
Speaker 5: And when this film came, that was finally it. So
Speaker 5: it was not just like, you know, they didn't just
Speaker 5: put like this one woman in a spotlight to be
Speaker 5: like a sexy temptress kind of figure, like yeah, Priya
Speaker 5: PRA's the actress right now. Riya Hahn the main character
Speaker 5: in this movie. She she feels so authentic. She feels
Speaker 5: like she's hilarious. She's she falls over a bunch, We
Speaker 5: laugh at her. She's embarrassing sometimes and we see we
Speaker 5: see like she isn't the most conventionally gorgeous person in
Speaker 5: the world, and that's so refreshing to see, especially like
Speaker 5: especially for someone that looks like me, because we never
Speaker 5: like there's there's barely a mold that I can talk
Speaker 5: about when it comes to representation for people that look
Speaker 5: like me in global media, and when there is, it's
Speaker 5: mostly like like when I'm looking for representation for people
Speaker 5: that look like me, it's like what I've seen is
Speaker 5: so horrendous. It's like, you know, either we have to
Speaker 5: paint like a super sanitized picture of like what we are,
Speaker 5: like what South Asian culture is like even in Uh,
Speaker 5: What's Love Got to do with It? Like it's like
Speaker 5: like there's something so weird about like a white girl
Speaker 5: coming with a camera to Pakistan to explore Lahore and
Speaker 5: it's like, I like, I want to see something that
Speaker 5: doesn't need to be explaining my culture to white people,
Speaker 5: Like I'm done with trying to explain myself, right. So
Speaker 5: there's that, and then there's also like, I don't know
Speaker 5: if you guys have seen this movie, Like it came
Speaker 5: out a while ago. It's called What Will People Say?
Speaker 5: It's like a Norwegian Pakistani film, and it was like
Speaker 5: one of the very very few Pakistani dice wort films
Speaker 5: that came out a while ago. In that movie, it's
Speaker 5: just like Norwegian Pakistani girl is oppressed in Norway, then
Speaker 5: she gets sent back to Pakistan. She's more oppressed in
Speaker 5: Pakistan than she had sent And it's like, I'm so
Speaker 5: tired of seeing people get beaten up and oppressed so
Speaker 5: that like white people can go to a cinema cry
Speaker 5: about what they did to us and leave, Like I
Speaker 5: want to see something fun, Like I want to see
Speaker 5: some action. I want to see something that celebrates my
Speaker 5: existence or the existence of South Asian women, but also
Speaker 5: something that tackles very very real themes and things that
Speaker 5: we go through on a day day basis. And I
Speaker 5: think that this film was really it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, what a breath of fresh air this movie is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jamie what about you? What's your relationship with it?
Speaker 3: This was my first time actually seeing this movie. I
Speaker 3: missed it in theaters when when it was out here,
Speaker 3: But we were talking about this before we started recording.
Speaker 3: I loved We Are Lady Parts when it came out
Speaker 3: on Peacock a couple of years ago.
Speaker 4: Fuck it rocked.
Speaker 3: Nita manzur Is she's like close to our age, Like
Speaker 3: it's so, I don't know.
Speaker 4: I find her so personally inspiring because she's like making
Speaker 4: her shit.
Speaker 3: I also I remember being so blown away that she
Speaker 3: like directs and wrote every single episode of We Are
Speaker 3: Lady Parts.
Speaker 4: It's so distinct, it's.
Speaker 3: So funny, and it's just so her. And I love
Speaker 3: woman oh tours and especially in comedy because I feel like, oh,
Speaker 3: it's just really exciting. So I was really looking forward
Speaker 3: to seeing this movie and I loved it. I was
Speaker 3: raving about it to my boyfriend at like six thirty
Speaker 3: this morning. I was like, no, because I knew that
Speaker 3: martial arts was a big part of the movie.
Speaker 4: That was like half of why.
Speaker 3: I was like, wow, like it's so because like you're saying,
Speaker 3: like it's there's not a lot of action movies led
Speaker 3: by women, and when there are, they're often like, I
Speaker 3: don't know, like kind of like even when they exist,
Speaker 3: they're kind of samey or there's still a lot of
Speaker 3: like male gaze applied, and it's I don't know that said.
Speaker 3: I thought Madam Webb was fun at the movies.
Speaker 1: Anyways, Uh web connects them all. It's as simple as that.
Speaker 3: Look it delivered on the tagline her web did actually
Speaker 3: eventually connect them all, and that was all I needed
Speaker 3: to be happy, and so I left knowing that her web. So,
Speaker 3: I mean, I guess my one note for play Society
Speaker 3: is like where was her web and why.
Speaker 4: Didn't it connect them all?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 3: But outside of that, I just I truly was like
Speaker 3: there were gonna spoil the movie because it's a movie podcast,
Speaker 3: but like the midpoint in this movie where I just
Speaker 3: like did not see it coming, like I feel like
Speaker 3: she subverts what you because I was like, Oh, this
Speaker 3: is gonna be like a really fun martial arts like
Speaker 3: coming of age comedy, and then in the middle it
Speaker 3: gets fucking.
Speaker 4: Weird and like wild, and.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited to talk about it because I was
Speaker 3: just like, whoa, this is so fucking cool.
Speaker 4: It's such a like.
Speaker 3: Strong, weird, wild choice. I'd never I don't know, I'd
Speaker 3: just never seen anything like it, and I loved it
Speaker 3: and I'm excited to talk about it. Caitlin Winter History
Speaker 3: with Polite Society.
Speaker 1: I saw trailers for it when it did get its
Speaker 1: theatrical release in the US. Also, I think it premiered
Speaker 1: its Sun Dance, so it like it. It's screening origins,
Speaker 1: at least were happening in the US. I think it
Speaker 1: didn't come out until sometime in the spring, but I was.
Speaker 1: I had been seeing trailers for it, and I was like, Ooh,
Speaker 1: this movie looks so up my alley. Because I love
Speaker 1: action movies. I love obviously, I love a ROMP. I
Speaker 1: love a romp. I love action comedies specifically obviously. I
Speaker 1: love movies where women are the driving force. So this
Speaker 1: had everything I was looking for. And I also am
Speaker 1: a big fan of We Are Lady Parts. I had
Speaker 1: seen it a few months prior, so I was like,
Speaker 1: really ready for this, And I went to the AMC
Speaker 1: Theater because we come to this place for magic, and
Speaker 1: I saw the movie and I loved it, and I
Speaker 1: bought it as soon as it was available to purchase,
Speaker 1: like digitally, I rarely do that because most movies, I'm like,
Speaker 1: it'll end up streaming somewhere something like that. But I
Speaker 1: own it now, thank you so much, and hell yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a huge fan of the movie. Also very excited
Speaker 1: to talk about it. So, uh, let's take make a
Speaker 1: quick break and then we'll come back for the recap.
Speaker 1: And we're back. Okay, We are in London. Ever heard
Speaker 1: of it? And we meet two sisters. One is Rhya
Speaker 1: Khan played by Priya Kansara. She is a teenager and
Speaker 1: her dream is to become a stunt performer in movies.
Speaker 1: There's a famous stunt woman named Eunice Huttart, who she
Speaker 1: admires is real. He's a real person.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize.
Speaker 3: I love that this movie is like No, she's like
Speaker 3: she was the stunt double for Angelina, Joe Lee, Mila
Speaker 3: Jovovich and Uma Thurman.
Speaker 4: She's a legend. Yep, she's in Titanic.
Speaker 3: Caitlin Sorry, wait what Yeah, she's a Oh now you care.
Speaker 4: I've cared this whole time. She worked on Titanic.
Speaker 5: Oh I did not know about the Titanic thing.
Speaker 4: Wow? Yeah, wild, This feels great.
Speaker 3: This feels great to know I feel so safe knowing
Speaker 3: that Unie was working on Titanic.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's very exciting. In any case, she is Ria's idol,
Speaker 1: and there's a move of hers, Unice's signature move, the
Speaker 1: flying reverse spin kick, that Ria is trying to master,
Speaker 1: but she can't quite get it. The other sister is
Speaker 1: Lena Khan played by Rito Ariya. She is a painter.
Speaker 1: She was in art school, but she recently dropped out.
Speaker 1: She seems to be in a bit of a depressive funk.
Speaker 1: Despite that, though, the sisters have a close supportive relationship
Speaker 1: where Lena helps Ria train and make stunt videos for
Speaker 1: her channel.
Speaker 3: Did you and question, did you recognize Rito Ariya from Barbie?
Speaker 4: Yes, yes I did.
Speaker 3: It took me till halfway through the movie, as like
Speaker 3: journalist Barbie got it, got it, got it, because I
Speaker 3: don't watch The Umbrella Academy anyways.
Speaker 1: That is I think what she's best known for, I
Speaker 1: think these days. But yes, So Lena helps Ria train
Speaker 1: a mixed videos. Ria encourages Lena to keep doing her art.
Speaker 1: She's very supportive of her sister's artistic pursuits. Then we
Speaker 1: see Ria at school and we meet her two best friends, Clara,
Speaker 1: and Alba played by Sarapina Bay and Ella Brooklary, respectively.
Speaker 3: These characters are the most friend friend characters of all time.
Speaker 3: Like there, I like that. I mean it's like clearly intentional,
Speaker 3: and I feel like she keeps doubling down on it.
Speaker 3: She's like they've got a secret handshake. They know about
Speaker 3: screenwriting structure. They like they're finishing each other's sentences. They're
Speaker 3: like the friendliest friend characters in all of friendship.
Speaker 1: And I'm not mad about it.
Speaker 4: No, I love it worked.
Speaker 5: Yeah, their friendship also felt like an actual, like real friendship,
Speaker 5: because like Rio was as weird as they were, and
Speaker 5: it wasn't like there's like one you know, indie main
Speaker 5: character that somehow has like two entirely wild, strange best
Speaker 5: friends that are just like token characters. Like it felt
Speaker 5: like an actual, real friendship and that they would actually
Speaker 5: get along totally.
Speaker 4: They're great.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I like the Clara and Alba are like constantly
Speaker 1: ragging on each other and like doing like playful name calling.
Speaker 1: Other people might not like that, but I was having
Speaker 1: a fun time with it.
Speaker 3: Just felt very like I don't know, teenageen friendship where
Speaker 3: team friends. And also there's like an element of kiss already, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, just teen friends.
Speaker 1: It's complicated, right, Okay, So we meet them, and we
Speaker 1: meet this bully girl named Edith Kovaks. And Ria and
Speaker 1: Kovaks get into a fight in the middle of the
Speaker 1: school day, and Riya tries the flying reverse spin kick
Speaker 1: again during the fight, but she fails and she loses
Speaker 1: the fight. Ria goes home. She and Lena live with
Speaker 1: their mom and dad, who don't really get what their
Speaker 1: daughters want to do with their lives, but they try
Speaker 1: their best to be supportive their mom, Fatima played by
Speaker 1: Shelbu Kapor. She goes to tea with her friends, one
Speaker 1: of whom is Rakhila Shah played by Nimrabucha. She is
Speaker 1: an intimidating woman. Will say that she is trying to
Speaker 1: set up her son with a nice young woman to marry.
Speaker 5: I also, I also want to add I've met Nimra
Speaker 5: in real life. She was the sweetest person. Yeah, I have,
Speaker 5: And it was it was so wild because I was like,
Speaker 5: I've just seen you be like a wicked, like scary person.
Speaker 5: This isn't this is computing for me. But yeah, no,
Speaker 5: she was so sweet and I have a picture with
Speaker 5: her somewhere.
Speaker 1: If you can find it, send it to us and
Speaker 1: we'll put it on our Instagram. If you're cool with that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, that's fine. I'll send it if I find
Speaker 5: it nice.
Speaker 3: That part must have been so fun to play. I
Speaker 3: just like, I understand why not everyone is gonna love
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: The choice to go the way they did with her character.
Speaker 3: But I was like, it's so she when the turn
Speaker 3: takes place, it was like reminding me of like Glenn
Speaker 3: Close Kruella Deville, Like she was ohing for it.
Speaker 4: It was awesome.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's great. And Rahuila invites the con family to
Speaker 1: her id soiree at her mansion, and Ria reluctantly goes
Speaker 1: with her family to the Soare. There they meet Rahila's son,
Speaker 1: Selim Shaw, played by Aksha Khana. He is rich, and
Speaker 1: he's a doctor slash geneticist, and he's handsome. And I
Speaker 1: have the biggest crush on the actor, not the character.
Speaker 1: Obviously the character is not a good person, but I'm
Speaker 1: in love with akshay Kana, just so everybody knows. Anyway,
Speaker 1: And many of the women at the soare are swooning
Speaker 1: over Selim, except for Ria. She thinks he's a prick.
Speaker 1: She thinks he's suspicious. She notices a creepy dynamic between
Speaker 1: Selim and his mom, so she goes snooping around the
Speaker 1: house and then she finds all these photos of young
Speaker 1: women which seem to be like possible candidates for a
Speaker 1: future his wife, and one of the photos is her sister, Lena,
Speaker 1: so she's like, what the folk's going on here? This
Speaker 1: is gross? And then Ria sees Lena flirting with Salim
Speaker 1: and then they make plans for a date. And Ria
Speaker 1: is super worried because she thinks that Lena getting married
Speaker 1: will mean that it will derail her future and her
Speaker 1: like prospects as an artist and things like that. But
Speaker 1: Lena and Selim go out on a date and they
Speaker 1: have a nice time, and then they keep going out
Speaker 1: over the next few weeks, much to Ria's dismay, especially
Speaker 1: because Lena is no longer doing her art or helping
Speaker 1: Ria make her stunt VIDs for her channel. And then
Speaker 1: Lena reveals that she and Salim are engaged, and this
Speaker 1: obviously makes Ria very upset, so she forms a plan
Speaker 1: to take down Salim, and she enlists the help of
Speaker 1: her friends Clara and Alba Phase one of the plan
Speaker 1: to take down Sealim is diplomacy good for her, where
Speaker 1: Ria tries to talk sense into her parents and into Lena,
Speaker 1: who reveals that once she gets married to Salim, they're
Speaker 1: moving to Singapore, so the stakes are even higher and
Speaker 1: the diplomacy thing doesn't work, so they move on to
Speaker 1: phase two, which is trying to get dirt on Salim.
Speaker 3: This whole sequence and I like, looked to the whole
Speaker 3: sequence is great. I was really interested in what Nita
Speaker 3: Mansur's inspirations were because I felt I was like, ooh,
Speaker 3: this is like a mean girl's reference and I checked
Speaker 3: and it was with the chalkboard and the turning to
Speaker 3: your friends and being like work on a fuck is
Speaker 3: life up? I was like, this is me and girls
Speaker 3: and she confirmed there's like I don't know. Her list
Speaker 3: of inspiration was really fun. She cited a lot of
Speaker 3: like she's like Jane Austen Tarantino. It is every single
Speaker 3: which I do. I feel like you could feel a
Speaker 3: lot of like kill Bill in this. She had a
Speaker 3: lot of Bollywood inspiration, like she just like I love
Speaker 3: reading interviews with her because it just seems like she's
Speaker 3: seen everything and she's not a snob, and I just oh,
Speaker 3: I was like, it's mean girls, and it was Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've also read that she draws inspiration from Jackie Chan
Speaker 1: movies as well as Cohen brother movies, Edgar Wright movies,
Speaker 1: and old Hollywood, so she's seen it all. Wow. Okay.
Speaker 1: So they're trying to get dirt on Salim, so they
Speaker 1: stage a heist where they go to the gym where
Speaker 1: he works out they steal his laptop.
Speaker 4: Ria is in.
Speaker 1: Drag so that she can sneak into the men's locker room.
Speaker 1: They get the laptop and Clara downloads everything off of
Speaker 1: his hard drive. There's a point where Ria takes off
Speaker 1: her disguise and kind of like interrogates Salem about his
Speaker 1: intentions with her sister. And then Lena finds out about
Speaker 1: this interaction at the gym and she's pissed. She thinks
Speaker 1: that her sister is meddling in her life. So they
Speaker 1: have this big, like action movie fight in the bedroom.
Speaker 1: Ria is like, I don't know who you are anymore.
Speaker 1: The Lena I know would never give up on her art.
Speaker 1: And then Lena's like, well really because I already did,
Speaker 1: because I'm not good enough and it implied that, ugh,
Speaker 1: I know, it's like, I know.
Speaker 4: You feel there was okay there.
Speaker 3: I had two instincts there where I was like, you
Speaker 3: are good enough, Lena, and then I was like I
Speaker 3: had an evil thought.
Speaker 4: I'm like, well, we haven't seen her art. What if
Speaker 4: it sucks? Not really? What if she's right there but
Speaker 4: no feminism.
Speaker 3: She's the world's best artist, She's so good. But I
Speaker 3: was just like, m suspicious that we haven't seen any
Speaker 3: of this amazing art.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 1: We see her painting something, but we like don't get
Speaker 1: a good view of it at the beginning.
Speaker 5: And she also stabs it, so, you.
Speaker 1: Know, kind of compromising the integrity of the.
Speaker 3: Piece or maybe defining it. Maybe maybe she's deconstructing what
Speaker 3: this is meon five cups of coffee at eight thirty am.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's exactly that. Meanwhile, Clara is not able
Speaker 1: to find any dirt on Salim from his laptop, so
Speaker 1: Ria moves on to phase three, a smear campaign where
Speaker 1: Ria plans to plant dirt on Salim by way of
Speaker 1: breaking into the Shaw residence and putting quote unquote used
Speaker 1: condoms all over Salim's bedroom, which is really just condoms
Speaker 1: filled with so much lotion.
Speaker 4: It's a bold move.
Speaker 3: It's give her credit where credit is due.
Speaker 4: It's a bold move.
Speaker 1: It's just funny that she doesn't seem to know how
Speaker 1: much come gets ejaculated.
Speaker 5: No, I was like, what what ceatures we're on?
Speaker 4: Wait, guys, is that that's not normal?
Speaker 1: Jimmy, you might want to have your sexual partners get
Speaker 1: looked at by a doctor.
Speaker 4: That's not a regular amount of.
Speaker 1: Com Yeah, that's like a blue whale amount of comic.
Speaker 5: And this is this is the point where I ask
Speaker 5: my mom to not watch this. Yeah, but it's.
Speaker 3: Like such a good detail. I just God, I feel
Speaker 3: like I'm just gonna it's like the Nita Manzor fan hour.
Speaker 3: But like, she just has such a good eye for details.
Speaker 4: She's so awesome.
Speaker 1: It's so funny. Yeah, Okay. So and then Ria does
Speaker 1: all of this alone because she is being an ungrateful
Speaker 1: jerk to her friends Clara and Alba, so they bail.
Speaker 1: While planting this incriminating evidence, Ria discovers a wedding photo
Speaker 1: of Salim and another woman, so she thinks he's already married.
Speaker 1: And Ria gets caught by Rahila. She's like, what are
Speaker 1: you doing in my house?
Speaker 4: Because of course she gets caught. I was like, I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 3: I think I was just movie pilled where I was like,
Speaker 3: she's gonna get away.
Speaker 4: You're like, no way to get to get away.
Speaker 3: She's like sixteen and walking around with fake come like it.
Speaker 4: She's gonna get caught.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and she does, and then her whole family comes
Speaker 1: over and they're like what the fuck Ria, And then
Speaker 1: Salim explains that that photo of the other one is
Speaker 1: his first wife, who died of a heart attack during childbirth,
Speaker 1: and that's why he does the work that he does now.
Speaker 1: He's focusing on women's symptoms so that something like that
Speaker 1: won't happen again.
Speaker 3: Really awesome acting choices by actually Khana here, I thought
Speaker 3: were like this was the first time where when he's like.
Speaker 4: No, I just cared too much about it.
Speaker 3: I promised I would never let a woman feel pain again.
Speaker 3: And you're like, m he's lying, he's lying, he's lying.
Speaker 3: It's all a bit dramatic.
Speaker 1: I was too distracted by how hot he was.
Speaker 5: Of course, I feel like I've seen too many of
Speaker 5: the same face here doing the same things that he does,
Speaker 5: so I'm immune. No, there's nothing.
Speaker 1: That makes sense either way. Everyone is furious with Rhea,
Speaker 1: and she is devastated that she's going to be losing
Speaker 1: her sister. She feels like, also, Lena isn't talking to
Speaker 1: her right now, so things are messy. We then see
Speaker 1: this weird dreamlike scene where Lena is sort of half
Speaker 1: conscious and Selim is kind of hovering over her, and
Speaker 1: we're like, hmm, what's that about. And then we see
Speaker 1: Ria going over to Rahila's house to apologize for breaking
Speaker 1: in and being messy, and Rahila is like, it's okay,
Speaker 1: come in, I'm having a spa day. But then it
Speaker 1: immediately gets weird and Rahila is like, this wedding is
Speaker 1: going to happen. Stop trying to interfere. And there's this
Speaker 1: part where a body hair waxing scene is mapped onto
Speaker 1: a like evil mastermind in an action movie torture scene,
Speaker 1: and it's very very funny.
Speaker 3: So this twist though, is like this is like where
Speaker 3: the movie starts to You're like.
Speaker 4: What thinking's going on?
Speaker 3: So fucking awesome here where I feel like there's I
Speaker 3: was expected at this point. I'm like, okay, I feel
Speaker 3: like the younger sibling, Like all these tropes are a
Speaker 3: younger siblings they're little stinkers.
Speaker 4: They're projecting.
Speaker 3: You know, this movie's gonna end with Ria accepting that
Speaker 3: Lena has to move on with her life and blah
Speaker 3: blah blah blah blah, but they'll always.
Speaker 4: Love each other.
Speaker 3: But then it's like, no, all of her worst fears
Speaker 3: are true and the only way to get out is
Speaker 3: through martial arts that she learned on YouTube.
Speaker 4: And you're like, whoa, Okay, it's so awesome. I love
Speaker 4: the twist. It's great.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so good.
Speaker 1: Yes, so what we're about to find out? Because Ria
Speaker 1: is freaked out and she runs off and there's another
Speaker 1: kind of like action movie fight scene where she's fighting
Speaker 1: off the SPA people, and then she runs into this
Speaker 1: room to hide, where she discovers a medical lab with
Speaker 1: all of this like freaky equipment, and there are fetuses,
Speaker 1: and then there's data on her and on Lena about
Speaker 1: like fertility levels and uterus strength, and Lena's numbers are
Speaker 1: really high, making her a quote unquote ideal host. And
Speaker 1: Ria realizes that the Shaws plan to use Lena as
Speaker 1: some kind of like uterine vessel.
Speaker 4: Freaky vessel.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So Ria runs home and explains all of this
Speaker 1: to her mom who doesn't believe Ria and tells her
Speaker 1: to drop it. So then Ria goes back to her
Speaker 1: friends Clara and Alba to apologize and enlist their help
Speaker 1: again to rescue Lena at her wedding and get her
Speaker 1: away from Salem and Rahila before they can abduct her
Speaker 1: and take her to Singapore. So they hatch a plan,
Speaker 1: but they need a way to escape, so they ask
Speaker 1: the bully girl Kovas for help because she has a car.
Speaker 1: She refuses at first, but then agrees to help, so
Speaker 1: then we cut to the wedding. Ria has been asked
Speaker 1: to perform a dance and she does it before she's
Speaker 1: supposed to, but that's part of the plan to distract Rahuila,
Speaker 1: while Alba and Clara, who are disguised as waiters, sneak
Speaker 1: into Lena's room to chloroform her and kidnap her. And
Speaker 1: then Rahela realizes that Lena is gone, and so she
Speaker 1: and Ria have this big showdown, during which Ria finds
Speaker 1: out the full story of what's going on. Raheila was
Speaker 1: married off at a young age and had to sacrifice
Speaker 1: everything she wanted, so Selim is going to clone her
Speaker 1: and use Lena's womb to host the clone baby so
Speaker 1: that Rahela can start over fresh and reach her full potential.
Speaker 1: And we're like mm hm, yes, yes, exactly, what wouldn't
Speaker 1: you exactly? I mean I would like to start over sometimes.
Speaker 4: Yes, I think that.
Speaker 3: Like again, just like really cool reveal of her motive.
Speaker 3: Like she's like, no, I'm I don't want your sister
Speaker 3: as a baby machine, but that doesn't mean I respect
Speaker 3: her bodily autonomy.
Speaker 4: And you're like mmmmmmmm yes.
Speaker 1: So they have this fight and Ria effectively loses, and
Speaker 1: Rahela gets her hands on Lena again and locks Ria, Clara,
Speaker 1: and Alba away, but then Kolvax comes to rescue them
Speaker 1: and freeze them. Then the wedding star ceremony starts and
Speaker 1: Lena is in this daze, probably from the Chlora form,
Speaker 1: and she doesn't really know what's going on. She's about
Speaker 1: to marry Selim, but Ria and her friends come storming in.
Speaker 1: Ria now has a gun that she stole from a
Speaker 1: security guard.
Speaker 3: Also, this is a minor character, but Ria's established as
Speaker 3: having a bully who has I don't like the phrase
Speaker 3: daddy issues, so I'm choosing from here here onward to
Speaker 3: call it father problems.
Speaker 1: Okay, sure, papa problems.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she she's got She's exactly. It's just so infantilizing
Speaker 3: to say daddy issues and but I have them, but
Speaker 3: their father problems. So she has father problems and then
Speaker 3: she returns they I like that. It all comes around,
Speaker 3: and now now the bully is friend love when that happens,
Speaker 3: but her, like father problems are resolved in the space
Speaker 3: of two line of dialogue, like where Ria's like, hey,
Speaker 3: thanks and sorry about all that stuff we said about
Speaker 3: your dad not loving you, and She's.
Speaker 4: Like, it's all good. I don't my dad's a fucked
Speaker 4: up person.
Speaker 3: You're like, well, okay, cool, and like that resolves in
Speaker 3: the middle of this huge set piece. You're like, oh,
Speaker 3: good for that bully.
Speaker 4: She fixed it.
Speaker 1: She realized that her papa does have problems. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: it's not her fault.
Speaker 4: Boost Yeah exactly.
Speaker 3: And she goes through all of that in the middle
Speaker 3: of an active kidnapping. Yes, and I celebrate.
Speaker 5: That martial arts is always the solution.
Speaker 4: Violence is the answer fixes things.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: Okay. So she takes everyone at the wedding hostage with
Speaker 1: this gun she has, and she explains to Lena that
Speaker 1: Selim is going to put a clone of Huila into
Speaker 1: her uterus, which trugs some memories for Lena of like
Speaker 1: these weird and invasive experiments that Selim was doing on her,
Speaker 1: and so she's like, whoa, my sister's right. And then
Speaker 1: Ria and Lina and their family and friends fight back
Speaker 1: against everyone else at the wedding. So there's like this
Speaker 1: big fight, and then there's the final showdown between Ria
Speaker 1: and Lina and Rahela and Selim basically the cons versus
Speaker 1: the Shaws, and Ria finally does the flying reverse spinkick
Speaker 1: to defeat Rahila. Meanwhile, Lena is kicking the shit out
Speaker 1: of Selim, and then the sisters drive off and they
Speaker 1: make amends, and then they go get burgers at a
Speaker 1: diner and then Ria gets an email from Unice Hooteart
Speaker 1: inviting her to brunch and they all live happily ever after.
Speaker 1: So that's the movie. Let's take another quick break and
Speaker 1: we'll come back to discuss and we are back, right,
Speaker 1: So where shall we begin? There's lots to talk about
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Peter, where would you like to start?
Speaker 5: Let's talk about the sisters. I mean, like, yeah, there's
Speaker 5: barely like any content out there own sisters, and it's
Speaker 5: so like like for a movie that passes the Bechdel Test,
Speaker 5: like this is like such a gold mine to start with,
Speaker 5: Like sister relationships are so like I love that this
Speaker 5: was like a like a Shaddy, which means wedding, like
Speaker 5: wedding based movie, but like based around women's relationships and
Speaker 5: sister relationships, because there's so much conversation around weddings that
Speaker 5: revolves around women's relationships and how they're affected and how
Speaker 5: they're traumatized by it, and there's such little representation of
Speaker 5: that that corner spec typically like the sister corner of
Speaker 5: like what weddings and Shadi's result in. And it's like
Speaker 5: like I I love that the sister dynamic was so
Speaker 5: turbulent and so chaotic and it wasn't like sanitized, and
Speaker 5: like the fight scene was so like like I was
Speaker 5: like washed is going on.
Speaker 1: It's intense. Yeah, they're like bashing each other's heads against
Speaker 1: broken glass.
Speaker 3: They just destroy their parents' house like it's it's great, It's.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's it's messed up, and like I love that
Speaker 5: it's so messed up. And Nitha Manzuo does this thing
Speaker 5: where like she doesn't shy away from anything ugly or
Speaker 5: messed up, and like the choices that she makes are
Speaker 5: so interesting, like to have the like this gigantic action
Speaker 5: scene with like shattering glass and screaming and blood be
Speaker 5: about like the relationship between two sisters. Says like so
Speaker 5: much about their relationship and it isn't like, oh, you know,
Speaker 5: we love each other, we support each other, Like that
Speaker 5: relationship has so much the governor, and I'm glad that,
Speaker 5: like she she took the initiative to show all the
Speaker 5: kind of complex shades and that relationship and like, like
Speaker 5: I love so much that in that specific fight as well,
Speaker 5: like she was just like, oh he thinks he knows
Speaker 5: you or something, and he says you're kind, but like
Speaker 5: you're arrogant, you're an egoistical, and you're an artist, and
Speaker 5: like it's it's so true that like like there's this
Speaker 5: thing with sisters where they just like know each other
Speaker 5: so well, and I don't know, I don't know that
Speaker 5: anybody else will be able to, especially not like men.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I love that they're so unwaveringly supportive of
Speaker 1: each other's interests, like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, even when they're being assholes to each other.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and it's really cool to see because, like,
Speaker 1: you know, they're they're in the same generation, and so
Speaker 1: they're like, all right, I get it, you want to
Speaker 1: be a stunt woman. This is not something that our
Speaker 1: parents really understand or are that supportive of. And then
Speaker 1: the other sister wants to be an artist. Similarly, their
Speaker 1: parents are like, going to art school isn't serious and
Speaker 1: you were brave for dropping out. So there's this, you know,
Speaker 1: generational gap where their parents don't really understand their interests.
Speaker 1: But the two sisters are supportive of each other because
Speaker 1: they kind of have to be because their parents are
Speaker 1: not really on board. So that was really cool to see.
Speaker 1: I feel like that's a very relatable thing. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: just I love that we see the supportive side of it,
Speaker 1: the loving side of it, but also the very messy
Speaker 1: them bashing each other against walls and stuff. But also
Speaker 1: it's revealed that like it probably didn't happen as violently
Speaker 1: as it seems to be on screen, because then cut
Speaker 1: to the next scene and Rhea doesn't have any of
Speaker 1: the blood on her anymore, or any of like the
Speaker 1: cuts so very exaggerated, like it's magic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I really, I mean I thought that it just,
Speaker 3: I mean, just I agree with everything you both said.
Speaker 3: I wanted to also add I don't know, I really
Speaker 3: like the older younger sister dynamic going on because even
Speaker 3: though I don't I don't have I mean I have.
Speaker 3: I grew up with all my cousins, and I feel
Speaker 3: like I had a couple of different older sister you
Speaker 3: know figures that I was constantly like admiring but arguing with,
Speaker 3: and you know, projecting onto and all this stuff. And
Speaker 3: I think it's like really well built out where it's
Speaker 3: like and Ria eventually understands this and vocalizes this, but
Speaker 3: like she is first of all afraid for her sister
Speaker 3: because she views her sister entering this relationship, which I
Speaker 3: think is convincingly like this relationship might not suck at
Speaker 3: the beginning. Those early scenes are very convincing. But like
Speaker 3: I think that, like it makes total sense that Ria
Speaker 3: is like, well, if this could happen to you, this
Speaker 3: could happen to me, and I don't want and so
Speaker 3: I will fight against it with with everything I've got.
Speaker 3: And it just felt like such a specific little sister
Speaker 3: like mentality and clearly comes from love and to some
Speaker 3: extent being naive, but then also she ends up being
Speaker 3: totally correct.
Speaker 4: So I don't know, like.
Speaker 3: It's it's a little like you can you can see
Speaker 3: it in a lot of ways, but I just like, yeah, there,
Speaker 3: their relationship was cool and I liked that, you know,
Speaker 3: even though it turns out he was doing evil experiments
Speaker 3: on her in the night time. Uh that Lena is
Speaker 3: very you know, like stands her ground and you know,
Speaker 3: I don't know, they're both smart and which is why
Speaker 3: they're always arguing. And I just yeah, I thought like
Speaker 3: the very particular older younger sister dynamic was like very
Speaker 3: clear and very specific and and I just love where
Speaker 3: I feel like it's uh difficult, especially in a comedy,
Speaker 3: for like the characters to be developed through action scenes,
Speaker 3: but that is happening in almost every scene.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 1: I know, I love it. I mean just to like
Speaker 1: zoom out a little bit. Like this movie, like you said,
Speaker 1: it focuses so much on women and their relationships with
Speaker 1: each other. Because not only do we have this sister dynamic,
Speaker 1: we've got a focus on friendships among women with Rhea
Speaker 1: and her friends and then the bully girl becomes their friend.
Speaker 1: We also have a mother daughter dynamic where like their
Speaker 1: father is present in the story, but he gets way
Speaker 1: less screen time than their mom Fatima. So I like
Speaker 1: that that is like given focus and I mean just
Speaker 1: in general, like this is representation we rarely see in
Speaker 1: Western movies of you know, brown Muslim women. The movie
Speaker 1: was written and directed by brown Muslim women. Again, it
Speaker 1: focuses on women. It focuses on women in action where
Speaker 1: women are like doing the action and that's moving the
Speaker 1: story forward, which is usually not what we see in
Speaker 1: action movies. It's women being funny and generating the humor. Again,
Speaker 1: it shouldn't be a rare thing, but like comedy movies
Speaker 1: often don't let women be the funny ones or have jokes.
Speaker 1: And all of the humor in this movie derives from
Speaker 1: from the women and their antics. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's just so much to love. Sorry, I just had
Speaker 1: to like give a list.
Speaker 5: No, that's so like, that's so true. I was thinking
Speaker 5: about the Bechdel test again while you were saying this, Like,
Speaker 5: I think this one like actually wins because it's like
Speaker 5: there's it's it's not like there's like a conversation with
Speaker 5: doing women, Like there's no men like that there's no
Speaker 5: men doing any like women did all the fighting. I
Speaker 5: think there was maybe, Like so I wrote this in
Speaker 5: the article the first time around, Then the second time
Speaker 5: round when I watched it, like I realized, there's maybe
Speaker 5: like one tiny shot of like a dude kicking someone
Speaker 5: from the distance, and that's it, Like that's that's the
Speaker 5: representation that men fighting get and like it's so cool
Speaker 5: to like see that, like, Okay, the protagonist and like
Speaker 5: the leader the driver is a woman, and then the
Speaker 5: her rival, like the evil, wicked nemesis that she has,
Speaker 5: is also a woman, and that power just like revolves
Speaker 5: around women characters and all of the side characters that
Speaker 5: have like narratives and storylines alongside all of this also women,
Speaker 5: And it's it's so refreshing to see that we didn't
Speaker 5: need to see like any men's arcs. Like Slim, they
Speaker 5: didn't like I mean, yes, like he sucks, he's terrible,
Speaker 5: and like, well, I feel like we need a section
Speaker 5: on Mama's voice, but like he didn't do much, Like
Speaker 5: there wasn't even an arc Like with Rahila. I think
Speaker 5: there's still like an arc like where you've got to
Speaker 5: know her a little bit, like with Salim. It's like
Speaker 5: in the first instance where like Ria catches him at
Speaker 5: the eight party and you see like kind of his
Speaker 5: dynamic with the mom, like you're like, okay, Mama's boy,
Speaker 5: and that's just essentially I mean, it grows more horrendous,
Speaker 5: but that's that's what it is. And with Rahila, we
Speaker 5: still get like a little bit of an arc. We
Speaker 5: learn her backstory, and I'm glad that, like for once,
Speaker 5: it isn't like women that get like a really cheap
Speaker 5: side narrative that ends up eyeing the whole story together
Speaker 5: and the end just for convenience. And it's like the
Speaker 5: convenience storylines were the men, and the drivers were the women.
Speaker 5: And that's I think that's really cool.
Speaker 1: Salim is just a puppet of Rare heelas she's like,
Speaker 1: do my bidding, son, right.
Speaker 3: I wanted to I wanted to flow this because it's
Speaker 3: I don't know if it's if it's a stereotype or
Speaker 3: a stock character that we've talked about at the show,
Speaker 3: but just because I saw I mean, for the most part,
Speaker 3: the reviews of this movie were glowing incredible, and like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I am hard pressed to be to
Speaker 3: criticize it because I feel like it's it's just like
Speaker 3: so much shit that I'm like, I don't want there
Speaker 3: to be any But I did see a little bit
Speaker 3: of criticism around the slim character as falling into stereotypes
Speaker 3: around South Asian men as being Mama's boys, and a
Speaker 3: few other characters being cited. I don't feel like I'm
Speaker 3: sort of able to intelligently comment on it, but I
Speaker 3: just wanted to, I guess float that i'd seen that,
Speaker 3: And yeah.
Speaker 5: So I like, I mean, I don't think we have
Speaker 5: like enough representation of like South Asian people on a
Speaker 5: global platform for us to for me to even like
Speaker 5: make a decision about whether this is stereotyp because we
Speaker 5: don't even get this kind of representation. So like this
Speaker 5: is a celebration for me. And I think that it
Speaker 5: did like so many things right, and like there is
Speaker 5: an existing stereotype of Mama's boys in South Asia that's
Speaker 5: like in Pakistan, It's very very prevalent amongst like, like
Speaker 5: it is an existing stereotype that I have ranted about
Speaker 5: to my friends like godless times, and there have been
Speaker 5: there's there's been so many examples. So I wouldn't like
Speaker 5: I have some qualms with the film, but I don't
Speaker 5: think this would be it because I was like, yes,
Speaker 5: this is I've seen like seventy of Salima like yesterday
Speaker 5: at all.
Speaker 4: That's the thing.
Speaker 1: Some tropes are born from reality.
Speaker 4: I felt the same way.
Speaker 1: To some extent about Rahuila as yeah, the villain and
Speaker 1: some of the tropes that are employed there because I
Speaker 1: but I have mixed feelings about it because on one hand,
Speaker 1: kind of on the surface, you could read it as, oh,
Speaker 1: it's an older woman who is resentful of younger women
Speaker 1: and she wants to relive her youth and all of
Speaker 1: this stuff. It is contextualized because we learn that she
Speaker 1: was married off kind of against her will as a
Speaker 1: young woman. She presumably got pregnant soon after with Selim,
Speaker 1: and basically just didn't have the opportunity to live the
Speaker 1: life she wanted to live and to realize her full potential.
Speaker 1: And totally fair to resent that, but she does it
Speaker 1: at the expense of another woman's body and autonomy. But
Speaker 1: that's why she's the villain, and like framed as the villain,
Speaker 1: the movie is obviously recognizing that that's bad, but I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's tricky maybe I just wish we knew
Speaker 1: more a little more about her backstory and a little
Speaker 1: more about what she did want to do, like what
Speaker 1: potential she wanted to try to achieve.
Speaker 3: That could have been easy place to even connect, like
Speaker 3: did she want to be an artist? Like there they
Speaker 3: were like sort of connect her story to Lena's a
Speaker 3: little bit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I had the same thought.
Speaker 3: I I get, like, I I it sucks because I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: but she's so I love how evil she is.
Speaker 4: I like and and I love like the big action.
Speaker 3: The big boss is very rarely a woman much less
Speaker 3: like a woman who's like over forty or fifty or
Speaker 3: what I had a who knows how it but like,
Speaker 3: you know, like a grown woman villain is awesome. And
Speaker 3: also I feel like it comes, yeah, like with all
Speaker 3: of this baggage that you sort of have to untangle.
Speaker 3: I think it like probably could have been handled a
Speaker 3: little better. I liked that there was at least an
Speaker 3: attempt to contextualize it, and like it played on the
Speaker 3: idea that you know, she and Salim are really invested in,
Speaker 3: you know, almost forcing Lena to reproduce, but then reveal
Speaker 3: that it's like the evil thing about her is that
Speaker 3: she is so like, she is so hurt that she
Speaker 3: didn't get an opportunity to live out her potential, that
Speaker 3: she has no issue with taking that from someone else.
Speaker 3: So I feel like that like got around some of
Speaker 3: the tropiness, but it definitely is.
Speaker 4: Like you can't avoid it. It's for sure there.
Speaker 3: I just like, I just do love it so much.
Speaker 1: So it almost feels like the modern update of the
Speaker 1: evil queen in snow white kind of thing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like it's step like an evil mother in law
Speaker 3: stepmother kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it's definitely more contextualized than it is in those,
Speaker 1: you know, like evil stepmommy fairy tale movies, but I can't.
Speaker 1: Every time I watch it does rub me the wrong
Speaker 1: way a little bit. But then I listen to an
Speaker 1: interview with the writer, director Nida Monsur in NPR where,
Speaker 1: when asked what she wanted to explore by writing a
Speaker 1: villain who's a woman, Nita says, it's been the women
Speaker 1: who've uplifted me the most in my life, but who've
Speaker 1: also cut me down the hardest. There's something about the
Speaker 1: pain of a woman critiquing another woman that hurts more
Speaker 1: than when a man does it. Like you should be
Speaker 1: on my team. It just cuts deep on a whole
Speaker 1: other level. And so for me, I'm most interested in
Speaker 1: seeing the matriarch who upholds the patriarchy. The dark feminine
Speaker 1: is so beautiful because it's something that we have to quash,
Speaker 1: we've had to deny. Getting to show the light in
Speaker 1: the dark sitting together was really so exciting for me unquote.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that whole interview is like, is so insightful
Speaker 3: and thoughtful, and like, I don't know, I think with that,
Speaker 3: I'm like, you know, let her cook.
Speaker 1: I don't know, like right, especially because yes, Rahila is
Speaker 1: framed as this you know, like overbearing mother who has
Speaker 1: created this like mama's boy son and all of that.
Speaker 1: But we don't see those same tropes applied to Riha
Speaker 1: and Lina's parents. And that's also something that Nitemunsor spoke
Speaker 1: about in this interview. She said how she deliberately wanted
Speaker 1: to subvert the trope of the like super strict immigrant
Speaker 1: parents for Ria and Lena's parents. She says, quote, it
Speaker 1: was so important for me to see the parents kind
Speaker 1: of occupy this very nuanced space of loving and supporting
Speaker 1: their children but also being worried for them and nudging
Speaker 1: them in a certain direction. The film is joyful because
Speaker 1: our stories can be more than just sad and traumatic.
Speaker 1: They're full of joy and nuance unquote. So again, yeah,
Speaker 1: like the trauma that a lot of us feel based
Speaker 1: on what our parents are trying to kind of foist
Speaker 1: us into, or the direction parents want their kids' lives
Speaker 1: to take, is traumatic in many cases, and so the
Speaker 1: director wanted to avoid that for at least with Rhea
Speaker 1: and Lina's parents, where again, they like they're trying to
Speaker 1: be supportive. They don't really get what their daughters want
Speaker 1: to do, but they're just like, well, let it happen
Speaker 1: and we can't do much about it.
Speaker 3: So yeah, it's like a very common like parent experience
Speaker 3: where they're like, all right, get it out of your
Speaker 3: system and then grow up.
Speaker 1: Where yeah, yeah, my mom was like, wait, you want
Speaker 1: to get another degree in film? You already have one,
Speaker 1: And I was like, trust me, mom, this is going
Speaker 1: to work. And look at me now I host the
Speaker 1: Bechdel Cast.
Speaker 4: It's true anyway, amazing.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 1: What else?
Speaker 3: I guess I started to talk a little bit more
Speaker 3: about Ria. I've got no I mean I've got nothing
Speaker 3: bad to say about Ria. I love her so much.
Speaker 3: I like that she has the out of everyone, she
Speaker 3: has like the you know, most fully built out world.
Speaker 3: I like that we get to know her friends. We
Speaker 3: don't get to know her friends super well because they
Speaker 3: are I feel like that's almost the joke of them.
Speaker 3: It's like they know all about movie, they know how
Speaker 3: movies work. Because their characters in a movie, you kind
Speaker 3: of don't find out more about them.
Speaker 4: You actually get more context with her bully. But I
Speaker 4: really like how Ria.
Speaker 3: It's like like subtly sort of placing her between two
Speaker 3: worlds where she is being like teased at school and
Speaker 3: like teased for wanting to be a stunt woman, but
Speaker 3: there is like prejudice and there's like racism cooked into
Speaker 3: that because they're like, well, you should be a doctor actually,
Speaker 3: and she's like, no, I'm going to be a step
Speaker 3: from it. And then like she's also not getting support
Speaker 3: for that dream at home, but for a totally different reason,
Speaker 3: and like she's having it's I mean, obviously I cannot
Speaker 3: speak from experience, but it seems like a fairly common
Speaker 3: like diaspora kid experience where you're kind of taking criticism
Speaker 3: and shit from all sides and have to be processing
Speaker 3: it in real time while also just like trying to
Speaker 3: be yourself and do your thing and.
Speaker 4: Real like she's just the coolest. I feel like she's
Speaker 4: just the blueprint.
Speaker 3: And I like that she's a fucking weirdo and not
Speaker 3: in a like not like other girls kind of weirdo,
Speaker 3: Like she's a weirdo who hangs out with weirdos and
Speaker 3: people treat her like she's weird because she is, and
Speaker 3: you're like, this is the but we love her and like,
Speaker 3: I don't know, I just I.
Speaker 4: Really really love that character.
Speaker 3: Same and just like big Sister obsession, it's like it's
Speaker 3: such a such a thing. And then on Lena's end,
Speaker 3: I like, I mean that she's like clearly dealing with
Speaker 3: some depression, maybe because she's a bad artist, we don't know,
Speaker 3: but also that like the fact that she she's not
Speaker 3: like well, I guess she kind of is quote unquote punished,
Speaker 3: but like the movie doesn't look down on her for
Speaker 3: wanting love or relationship and even though obviously Selim is
Speaker 3: not the one the guy for her and perhaps should
Speaker 3: be locked away from people. I like that I don't
Speaker 3: know you're left in like an optimistic place with her,
Speaker 3: and that it that weirdly like Lena's ending after this
Speaker 3: like completely wild sequence that had all these reveals about
Speaker 3: bodily autonomy and like viewing women's bodies as property and
Speaker 3: things to be controlled and blah blah blah, and and
Speaker 3: then at the end she's like, I don't know, I'm
Speaker 3: just gonna like take some time off and figure it out.
Speaker 3: And you're like, wow, very pragmatic after everything we just saw.
Speaker 3: It's really nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that too. And I also think that
Speaker 1: it's cool that there's no real like love story or
Speaker 1: romantic subplot, excluding like the Salem of it all, which.
Speaker 4: He had me going. He had me going, I have
Speaker 4: to say.
Speaker 1: I mean, because this is a tricky little thing that
Speaker 1: happens sometimes where a man will seem like an ally
Speaker 1: because for example, Salim is like I care about symptoms
Speaker 1: that affect women, and he isn't bothered by period blood and.
Speaker 4: I hate that.
Speaker 3: I fell through It was like, wow, he doesn't think
Speaker 3: her period is gross, And you're like, what is this? Bar?
Speaker 4: Jab come on?
Speaker 1: The bar is so.
Speaker 5: Low actually so sad, it's so.
Speaker 4: I know, sad.
Speaker 1: It's depressing, but it makes him seem like an ally,
Speaker 1: which I think is a smart writing choice because it
Speaker 1: throws the audience off the scent of all this freaky
Speaker 1: stuff that's happening behind the scenes.
Speaker 5: Like as soon as the like with the period thing
Speaker 5: that happened, and like you know, at some point, like
Speaker 5: when they're on a dinner day and he goes like, oh,
Speaker 5: you know, you don't have to you don't have to
Speaker 5: do what your parents want, like you can take your
Speaker 5: time to figure it out. And then like Namands who
Speaker 5: are like Plantsy's kind of like, oh, you can maybe
Speaker 5: trust this guy. But then it's just like like it
Speaker 5: was an entire like get out esque flip. And like
Speaker 5: what I remembered from these from these little scenes was
Speaker 5: like can go like in Barbie learning about how like
Speaker 5: the patriarchy has gone really smart and like they know
Speaker 5: how to cover it up now, And I was like,
Speaker 5: they really do. This is wild.
Speaker 1: A lot of men are now weaponizing the facade of
Speaker 1: being an ally or like feminist language to manipulate people.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, like this I cannot like the number
Speaker 5: of men that are resharing like anti harassment laws and
Speaker 5: like the same men that are sending unsolicited images. Yeah,
Speaker 5: this is a.
Speaker 4: Whole world, dude.
Speaker 3: I've been feeling the same way, where like I don't know,
Speaker 3: and I feel like this exists across a lot of
Speaker 3: different issues where people are learning the like I think
Speaker 3: mental health is something that clicks for me a lot
Speaker 3: of time, Like people are learning the like therapy language
Speaker 3: and then weaponizing it to do something fucked up. I
Speaker 3: was I like, wow, I was like, maybe it's just early,
Speaker 3: but I was in a relationship like that where I
Speaker 3: was like a guy knew therapy words but then was
Speaker 3: using it to guess like me, you know, or it's
Speaker 3: You're just like wait, what is this? Yeah, and I
Speaker 3: feel like, yeah, the language of feminism. I think the
Speaker 3: issue exists around race as well, where it's just like
Speaker 3: people know what to say, but their actions.
Speaker 4: It's not squaring.
Speaker 3: And I feel like we're conditioned to expect so little
Speaker 3: of people that it's easy to get away.
Speaker 1: With and sad but true.
Speaker 4: I fell for Salim's trick.
Speaker 3: I was so disappointed in myself that is like I
Speaker 3: would have fallen for this in real life if you
Speaker 3: was like, no, your period is normal, I'd be like really,
Speaker 3: I think so.
Speaker 4: Oh, bleak. Yeah it is.
Speaker 1: It's very bleaching you. But aside from that, like faux
Speaker 1: romance that doesn't end up actually being a romance between
Speaker 1: Selim and Lena, there's no other romantic subplot like Rhea
Speaker 1: or her friends. Aren't given any kind of little like
Speaker 1: love story or anything, which is also rare for I
Speaker 1: mean most genres but action movies. The protagonist usually has
Speaker 1: some kind of love interest, but that's not the case
Speaker 1: for this movie.
Speaker 3: Especially if they're like a young like teenage, like a
Speaker 3: high school college.
Speaker 4: I feel like it's almost a given right.
Speaker 1: And we're not saying that, you know, romantic subplots are
Speaker 1: inherently bad or anything like that, but so many of
Speaker 1: them just feel wedged in or they feel patronizing because
Speaker 1: it's like, well, this is a movie starring a bunch
Speaker 1: of really tough men. How would a woman ever like
Speaker 1: a movie like this? Well, let's put in a romantic
Speaker 1: storyline so that women can come and watch it and
Speaker 1: enjoy it, because women love love and men love punching
Speaker 1: or whatever. We're watching it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like a very focused test, like we just
Speaker 3: covered Herbie fully Loaded the other day, where there's a
Speaker 3: very like shoehorned, like, well, of course, young woman a
Speaker 3: young man need to kiss. And it's like, clearly the
Speaker 3: Landsay Lohan character wants to have sex with Herbie the car,
Speaker 3: like you know, like you're getting in the way of
Speaker 3: the story by forcing this random relationship. This is a
Speaker 3: love story about a beautiful woman and her elderly car.
Speaker 1: It's so true.
Speaker 3: Yes, anyways, anyways, the sixth cup of coffee is really
Speaker 3: kicking in.
Speaker 1: I have had no coffee, so my brain is still
Speaker 1: soup for doing great.
Speaker 3: I like, just again, I really appreciated Nitemanzur's commentary on
Speaker 3: the Parents.
Speaker 4: I liked it.
Speaker 3: I feel like the parents were like it was such
Speaker 3: a good balance of parents and like teen comedy trope
Speaker 3: I feel like is to like turn the parents up
Speaker 3: to a fifteen and make them super kooky and super
Speaker 3: over the top, and like, I don't know, I always
Speaker 3: think of I don't know why I'm always like the
Speaker 3: parents and that's so raven, but like parents that are
Speaker 3: so or just Disney Channel parents in general, where they're
Speaker 3: so kooky that you're like, how does this person function?
Speaker 4: Like what do they do at work? They're always falling and.
Speaker 3: While there are like slapsticky really like physical comedy here.
Speaker 3: I like that the parents are fairly grounded. You don't
Speaker 3: get a lot of dad, and I'm not complaining about it,
Speaker 3: but I liked that, like during you know, like Rhea's
Speaker 3: diplomacy attempt, that you get a really clear idea of
Speaker 3: who her dad is and how he's squaring like generation differences,
Speaker 3: how he's squaring cultural differences and basically talking about weddings
Speaker 3: like their math, and you're like, yeah, that feels very
Speaker 3: dad coded. He's like, actually the love portfolio, oh is
Speaker 3: even when you you're like all right. And then mom
Speaker 3: gets precedents, not only in the like I like that
Speaker 3: Fatima gets that big action moment where she wax you know,
Speaker 3: Cruella on the head with a big heavy chair and
Speaker 3: that rocks, but also she gets like little moments. I
Speaker 3: really liked the moment where you know, Rho's getting in
Speaker 3: trouble right and left because she's planting mayonnaise come in
Speaker 3: other people's houses. But you get like a sweet moment
Speaker 3: with her and her mom where her mom is like
Speaker 3: I understand why this is happening, and like I love you,
Speaker 3: but you've got to make it right, Which does inadvertently
Speaker 3: put her daughter into the scary Dexter's lab thing.
Speaker 4: But I don't know.
Speaker 3: I just like this movie's so well balanced, where like
Speaker 3: things could get so off the rails, but there are
Speaker 3: enough like grounded moments and like really sweet relationships that
Speaker 3: all of it feels earned.
Speaker 5: It's nice, yeah you Like you said something earlier about
Speaker 5: like attention to detail as like a directorial trait that
Speaker 5: Nitha Manzoo has and like she's she like this film
Speaker 5: does feel really well balanced. Like there were these like
Speaker 5: small moments with the mom, Like I really like one
Speaker 5: that somehow has stuck with me is like when she
Speaker 5: comes into the kitchen and she's like, oh, is a
Speaker 5: scarf too much? And like that just felt like such
Speaker 5: a such a regular person anxiety, especially for moms, and
Speaker 5: like just like what you were saying about how parents
Speaker 5: are so coogy and strange and a lot of these
Speaker 5: comedy films, and like this parent actually felt like a
Speaker 5: real person and I'm so glad that she did. Because
Speaker 5: it's also like there are already enough tropes about brown
Speaker 5: parents and like how they are with their kids, and
Speaker 5: this really like this felt like there was love there,
Speaker 5: like and we barely get to see that, so it's nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Also, Fatima's dealing with something where she's clearly like
Speaker 1: trying to fit in with the other moms in her community,
Speaker 1: and like she wants to be seen as like cool
Speaker 1: and hot and fun, and you know, she's like, I
Speaker 1: want to be friends with the popular moms, and she's
Speaker 1: like trying to get into that group. And it's like
Speaker 1: the same stuff we were doing teenagers, and I feel
Speaker 1: like it does kind of keep happening throughout our lives.
Speaker 5: So wait, do you guys know about like getty party
Speaker 5: culture in South Asia? Like I don't know if you
Speaker 5: know about what kitty parties are?
Speaker 4: No, not really.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so there's like so they really got this like
Speaker 5: kind of accurate where like I mean, it happens here
Speaker 5: as well, but in the diaspora there's like this I mean,
Speaker 5: like now it's it's prevalent everywhere, but like there's this
Speaker 5: super South Asian thing called kiddy parties, and it's where
Speaker 5: like moms kind of gather and they do their little
Speaker 5: like peas and brunches and whatever, and they come and
Speaker 5: get together and they they're when I go out to
Speaker 5: lunch and there's a katie party going on. It'll be
Speaker 5: like super loud, and everybody will be complaining about their
Speaker 5: husbands or talking about their kids or doing something, and
Speaker 5: it's like sometimes it's like it's really fun and wholesome
Speaker 5: to see, but a lot of the time it's also
Speaker 5: like there's a lot of judgment and there's a lot
Speaker 5: of like like interesting polite society esque dynamics that happen
Speaker 5: in these katy parties. So I'm glad that like she
Speaker 5: took that concept and put it in a movie, because
Speaker 5: it's a real thing where like moms are also trying
Speaker 5: to fit in in these specific situations and are recreating
Speaker 5: those teenage childhood dynamics because there's like an incompleteness that
Speaker 5: they're also trying to fulfill with like everything that's going
Speaker 5: on with their husbands at home with their children, and
Speaker 5: it's just, yeah, a space to air it out, but
Speaker 5: also a space where they need to police themselves and
Speaker 5: kind of exhibit who can be the most polite or
Speaker 5: the most like put together the best trophy y for
Speaker 5: you know, those kinds of things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's that's really fat. Yeah, I I didn't know
Speaker 4: about that.
Speaker 3: It's it sounds like in the way that that like
Speaker 3: manifests in the in the story. It is very it
Speaker 3: feels like just so many upper class stories like across
Speaker 3: the board of just like.
Speaker 6: Very nicely criticizing your daughter's body, like really like they're like, no,
Speaker 6: this is actually normal, and this is what people in our.
Speaker 4: Like class and stature do.
Speaker 3: Of course, we're policing women's bodies, which I mean, you know,
Speaker 3: Selim's mom is doing at the highest possible level, but
Speaker 3: like a little bit of like internalized misoggy, which I
Speaker 3: guess you know. Nida Menzur was like, uh, sorry, I
Speaker 3: keep saying her name. Nida Manzor was saying in the
Speaker 3: interview as well.
Speaker 4: About like how it really.
Speaker 3: Hurts when it comes from a maternal figure who theoretically
Speaker 3: has very likely experienced that same thing. I like that
Speaker 3: their mom doesn't fit in because like why wohilch like
Speaker 3: she's like how weird her daughters are. Of course she's
Speaker 3: like a little weird, Like I like, I like it.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And on that note of gently judging someone's body,
Speaker 1: there's a moment in the movie where Fatima is body
Speaker 1: shaming a friend's daughter, and I like that you see
Speaker 1: her daughters challenge that and say, whoa mom? Not cool? Like,
Speaker 1: don't body shame? I feel like that is undercut by
Speaker 1: an earlier moment where Rhea makes a fat shamy comment
Speaker 1: about someone. I can't remember exactly who she's talking about,
Speaker 1: but there's some body shaming comment. But at the very least,
Speaker 1: I like that you see representation on screen of body
Speaker 1: shaming and fat shaming being challenged, and I appreciated that.
Speaker 1: Does anyone have anything else they'd like to talk about?
Speaker 5: How do you guys feel about the dance scene that
Speaker 5: Rio did like at the wedding.
Speaker 1: I loved it. I thought it was beautiful and fun
Speaker 1: and exciting and oh, something that you mentioned in your
Speaker 1: piece and I also appreciated a lot was the fact
Speaker 1: that a lot of the action is happening while they're
Speaker 1: wearing these like beautiful ornate dresses. That's something you never
Speaker 1: see because even when in the rare example where a
Speaker 1: woman is allowed to do action in an action movie,
Speaker 1: she's often characterized as having kind of like masculine features
Speaker 1: or wearing masculine codd clothing or something that kind of
Speaker 1: like makes her one of the guys.
Speaker 3: Yes, or worse, like one of the guys from a
Speaker 3: very male gazy perspective of like I mean, we've talked
Speaker 3: about this and a lot of our episodes where it's
Speaker 3: like combat clothes that are like wildly unsafe in like
Speaker 3: favoring the male gaze, where you're like, oh, she would
Speaker 3: be gone, She's a goner if this is the real world.
Speaker 1: And to be clear, I'm of course not criticizing women
Speaker 1: who dress in a masculine way or anything like that. Obviously,
Speaker 1: people of all genders can present any way they want.
Speaker 1: I'm just commenting on the tropes of how women tend
Speaker 1: to be portrayed in action movies and the usually rigid
Speaker 1: and gendered implications those tropes have. That's just what I
Speaker 1: meant by that. And then again, as far as action
Speaker 1: movies go, you rarely see any example of like femininity
Speaker 1: being attached to an action moment. And so when she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: flipping around and the dress is flowing and it's so beautiful,
Speaker 1: I just loved it.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's so, that's so true, Like I'm seeing that
Speaker 5: connection so clearly now. And there's also like bride tropes
Speaker 5: around this and in our culture where it's like, you know,
Speaker 5: a lot of the time brides are told to kind
Speaker 5: of like walk very slowly, look down, not smile, and
Speaker 5: then they're they're covered in these really really heavy dresses
Speaker 5: where they're barely even able to move, and it's like,
Speaker 5: I mean that can be a bit dramatic, that doesn't
Speaker 5: happen all the time, but this is like a real
Speaker 5: trope that happens like significantly, and it's like, so it
Speaker 5: was so it was so nice to see like women
Speaker 5: dressed in these shaddy outfits be so mobile and so
Speaker 5: free and so like you know, like not restricted in
Speaker 5: their movement and making their own choices and looking fierce
Speaker 5: and even like drawing blood and like it was it
Speaker 5: was so cool to see all of that backed into
Speaker 5: this like one image of them bride, which is supposed
Speaker 5: to be just like pretty and quiet and immobile. The
Speaker 5: like it was just it was so nice to see
Speaker 5: that like completely shatter totally.
Speaker 3: And also gives us another iconic the bride combat sequence.
Speaker 1: It's all like in Kill Bill.
Speaker 3: Kill Bill three, Baby, I love a fighting bride and
Speaker 3: that like I liked that because I was wondering because
Speaker 3: it is like thoroughly established, like Lena also is a
Speaker 3: great fighter, and we see it in like you're saying kayl,
Speaker 3: like where like you said earlier, like kind of this
Speaker 3: heightened sequence where were like did it actually happen? But
Speaker 3: then at the wedding, it's like she'd better get to
Speaker 3: fucking fight, and she does and it's great.
Speaker 1: Because she helps Ria train. So yeah, she's like picked
Speaker 1: up some fighting skills along the way.
Speaker 4: She's got the juice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's like just the whole like Act three climax
Speaker 3: battle sequence was just wah.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, and then they have burgers at the end, they're
Speaker 1: chowing down again something as little as like seeing women
Speaker 1: eat on screen shouldn't be this like monumental thing, but
Speaker 1: they're like again chowing down on some hefty burgers.
Speaker 3: I that like, I mean, I love obviously seeing women eat.
Speaker 3: I have no problem with I feel like I've like
Speaker 3: made fun of it. I don't think the thing I've
Speaker 3: made fun of applies to this, because it was like
Speaker 3: that is just also a funny joke of like, oh yeah,
Speaker 3: they were supposed to be at a wedding, like of
Speaker 3: course they're fucking starved, and also they just like kicked
Speaker 3: a million people's asses. I was thinking more of do
Speaker 3: you like how the menu ends and how Anya Taylor
Speaker 3: Joy is pensively eating a cheeseburger. She's like this hot
Speaker 3: girl eating cheeseburger thinking about all she's learned. I'm like
Speaker 3: rolling my eyes. But those are usually written by men,
Speaker 3: almost without fail. Yeah, this was great, And I just
Speaker 3: loved that the movie ends with them together. It's really nice.
Speaker 5: Yeah, like after after you mentioned the hamburger thing, I
Speaker 5: so the movie ends with them eating, but it also
Speaker 5: kind of starts like I mean, it starts with with
Speaker 5: Rha and the the yes, Oh my god, I love that,
Speaker 5: Like like we see Lena stab her art and then
Speaker 5: just going to wrote this ree chicken on the floor.
Speaker 4: Like it's really beautiful, bending over.
Speaker 5: And it's like really like she's hit rock bottom and
Speaker 5: like I'm glad that it's on screen because I've been there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then a couple moms see her and recognize her,
Speaker 1: and she like powers away in a little corner, but
Speaker 1: that she keeps eating. It's so funny. This movie is
Speaker 1: so funny.
Speaker 5: It is it, Like I I love how like there's
Speaker 5: so many like wild hilarious moments where like like her
Speaker 5: her quick cuts are so funny, like where where the
Speaker 5: mom's at a party and then someone asks like, oh,
Speaker 5: how are your daughters, and it just cuts to them
Speaker 5: like jamming out to some song.
Speaker 6: Like the Chemical Brothers.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, or like when Ria's like, there is no
Speaker 1: chance in hell I'm gonna go to some hoity toity
Speaker 1: ad sware and then smash cut to them at the
Speaker 1: ad SWA. It's good. It's good filmmaking. I love it.
Speaker 3: It is and it most definitely. I mean, I feel
Speaker 3: like it's you've listened to the episode at this point. Listeners,
Speaker 3: you know it passes the Bechdel test. It passes the
Speaker 3: Bechdel test. Basically every exchange that isn't about Salim and
Speaker 3: Rhea's suspicions around Salim.
Speaker 4: Passes the Bechdel test.
Speaker 3: I like, I don't even think it's necessary to like
Speaker 3: rattle off which matches. It's basically between every.
Speaker 4: Pair of women in.
Speaker 3: The movie, it passes the Bechdel test at some point.
Speaker 1: And even when they are talking about men, it's like,
Speaker 1: stay away from that man, he's scary, yeah, which I
Speaker 1: feel like it doesn't pass the Bechdel test, but I
Speaker 1: feel like there's some exceptions that you can make where
Speaker 1: it's like it's okay to talk about men if you're
Speaker 1: criticizing their bad behavior and or advising that you stay
Speaker 1: away from them.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's like it's the whole movie like
Speaker 3: spiritually and actually definitely passes the Bechtel test with flying colors. Yes,
Speaker 3: but the most important media metric of all time the
Speaker 3: Bechtel cast nipple scale.
Speaker 1: Our scale, where we rate the movie zero to five
Speaker 1: nipples based on examining it through an intersectional feminist lens.
Speaker 1: This is a high one. This gets high marks. I
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna go four and a half. I'm going
Speaker 1: to take off a little bit of nippleage for that,
Speaker 1: leaning into the trope of like the evil older woman
Speaker 1: who resents the younger generation. Yes, it is contextualized, but
Speaker 1: because it's rooted in so much I don't know, just
Speaker 1: kind of nasty tropy lore. Again, it always kind of
Speaker 1: rubs me the wrong way. But as Nitemunsor points out, like,
Speaker 1: there are women who uphold patriarchal standards and there are
Speaker 1: women who cut other women down. And just because we're
Speaker 1: living in a slightly more enlightened time in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: four doesn't mean that there aren't women who are very
Speaker 1: much upholders of the patriarchy and Rhela is a woman
Speaker 1: who will gladly sacrifice another woman's freedom and autonomy so
Speaker 1: that she can try to have her own. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe I'll bump it up to four point
Speaker 1: seventy five. There's so much else that this movie is
Speaker 1: doing as far as representation and inclusion. And again, it's
Speaker 1: an example of a movie about Brown Muslim women written
Speaker 1: and directed by a Brown Muslim woman, drawing from her
Speaker 1: own perspective and experience and representing these characters on her terms,
Speaker 1: which is why the representation is so thoughtful and authentic.
Speaker 1: And again, it's a story about women and their relationships
Speaker 1: and women looking out for each other minus Rahila. And
Speaker 1: it's so funny, and it lets women be funny, it
Speaker 1: lets women do action, and I think it's awesome. Four
Speaker 1: point seventy five nipples and I will split them between Rito, Ariya, Priya, Cansara,
Speaker 1: ooh who else? Oh? I love her friends too. Oh
Speaker 1: and I have to give a little tiny nipple to
Speaker 1: my crush Akshay Khanna. So I know that didn't make
Speaker 1: any sense math wise, but the.
Speaker 4: Live I'm gonna I'm gonna go four point five for this.
Speaker 3: I'll dock it for for the same reason it's sort
Speaker 3: of unget aroundable. But also I'm just like, I simply
Speaker 3: don't have the energy to be that mad about it
Speaker 3: because this movie is doing so much else. I really
Speaker 3: appreciated the context that gave for making that choice, and
Speaker 3: it's just like such an amazing performance that I don't know,
Speaker 3: it's it's hard to be mad at it. I feel
Speaker 3: like this is like entering, definitely entering like one of
Speaker 3: my favorite comedies I've ever seen. I think like I
Speaker 3: can't wait to This just feels like such a like
Speaker 3: future comfort.
Speaker 1: Movie for me. Totally.
Speaker 4: It's great.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I feel like we've sort of covered it,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I think just like, developing a very funny,
Speaker 3: very genuine sister relationship via kicking each other's asses and
Speaker 3: the asses of others is a beautiful thing and I'm
Speaker 3: never mad to see it. I am just like such
Speaker 3: a big Nita Manzora fan, and I can't.
Speaker 4: Wait to see what she does next.
Speaker 6: I know, four and a half nipples.
Speaker 4: I'm giving them all to Nita.
Speaker 3: I think that she deserves it, and I hope we
Speaker 3: get a season two of Lady Parts or just she
Speaker 3: gets to make whatever she wants like I get whatever,
Speaker 3: she's great.
Speaker 1: She's so great, pere how about you?
Speaker 5: So I'm torn between like a four point five and
Speaker 5: a four point seven five. I'm gonna like list my
Speaker 5: reasons and then ultimately qick one. But like, yeah, this
Speaker 5: is such a like a fun movie. It made me
Speaker 5: like get up and go to the gym after three
Speaker 5: weeks of skipping the gym, and I was like, I'm
Speaker 5: intellectually above all the men in this room who are
Speaker 5: probably all Mama's boys, and and it was it felt
Speaker 5: so so powerful to have seen this movie and then
Speaker 5: to be moving around my room and doing things like
Speaker 5: I felt like I had like a force with me,
Speaker 5: and I think she, like Nina Manzur, it does like
Speaker 5: an excellent job of giving women that power because it's
Speaker 5: it's just so refreshing. There's so much to collect that
Speaker 5: power from, like from all the relationships that we see
Speaker 5: grow throughout the movie, from all the relationship like from
Speaker 5: all the characters that we see driving the narrative and
Speaker 5: fighting and kicking each other, and like even from all
Speaker 5: the the ugly representations of women that we see that
Speaker 5: we that we don't get to see usually, Like there
Speaker 5: was nothing on that screen that was satisfying an old
Speaker 5: dude alone in his room like this was this was
Speaker 5: for us, and it felt so cathartic and amazing, and
Speaker 5: like there were also so many like little interesting subversions
Speaker 5: that she did, Like when the girls were fighting, they
Speaker 5: were insulting each other's dads, and I was thinking about
Speaker 5: how when men fight they tried to insult each other's moms,
Speaker 5: And like, there's so much she did to like pick
Speaker 5: out the ridiculousness of like gender tropes that we have,
Speaker 5: and she does such a good job with it. And
Speaker 5: also the comedy was so amazing, like the when Ria's
Speaker 5: in drag and she has the mustache on and she's
Speaker 5: doing a walk. It's and how like both friends have
Speaker 5: to do the walk to be a man, Like it's
Speaker 5: so funny and and just like the zooms and the
Speaker 5: and the pants and the like bird sound effects, like
Speaker 5: it felt like I was reading a comic and it was.
Speaker 5: It was so much fun And I barely ever get
Speaker 5: to see things like this, And I will say I
Speaker 5: wanted like, although like Rahila may something like you know,
Speaker 5: we didn't get enough of her character for it to
Speaker 5: feel completely like complex and non trophy but like I
Speaker 5: I will say that I like that there was this
Speaker 5: completely evil witch figure that could also embody like kind
Speaker 5: of like how evil the patriarchy can be when like,
Speaker 5: you know, women get control of it, and it's like,
Speaker 5: like we don't often get to see like the control
Speaker 5: that women haven't often. It's like patriarchy is an oppressive
Speaker 5: tool towards all genders. But it's like I like that
Speaker 5: there was a side of women that we got to see,
Speaker 5: where like she was smart enough to kind of manipulate
Speaker 5: that system to get what she wanted out of it,
Speaker 5: and there was an entire evil character built around that.
Speaker 5: And it's like the men were just lazy and dumb
Speaker 5: and privileged, and the women were the people that really
Speaker 5: knew this system well enough because it screwed them over.
Speaker 5: But it also like there was enough room for them
Speaker 5: to resist, and we don't get to see that often.
Speaker 5: So I like that she took up an entirely evil
Speaker 5: role because like, in keeping with the comic book type
Speaker 5: feel of the movie, like it felt like we really
Speaker 5: needed a full villain and like a full protagonist, and
Speaker 5: like we got like a her versus story that felt
Speaker 5: really like like something I've never seen before, so I
Speaker 5: like I liked it for that reason. I think I'm
Speaker 5: like I'm lowering half a nipple for maybe like like
Speaker 5: I wanted to see a little bit more authenticity with
Speaker 5: like maybe the parents and children dynamic. I felt like
Speaker 5: so something that like I'm such a huge fan of
Speaker 5: Nidam and Zoo's content, but I feel like sometimes like
Speaker 5: these relationships feel a little bit like like I love
Speaker 5: that there's love there. We barely get to see that,
Speaker 5: but there's also like like, you know, how are these
Speaker 5: kids swearing in front of their parents as like brown teenagers?
Speaker 5: I want to know where are these cheat codes? I
Speaker 5: want them like there's this never happens. This is not
Speaker 5: a thing, and it's like especially like with the kinds
Speaker 5: of parents that like, you know, they had where they're
Speaker 5: kind of like, you know, they are a little bit traditional,
Speaker 5: even if they're they have love and they want good
Speaker 5: things for their children. Wanted a little bit of that
Speaker 5: authenticity there because like I think that was like the
Speaker 5: one thing that was kind of missing, but it was
Speaker 5: also so much fun that I don't I'm fine with it.
Speaker 5: And then I wanted to like kind of forgive that
Speaker 5: again and give it a four point seventy five because
Speaker 5: so I don't know if you guys know or have
Speaker 5: if you've heard the song or if you had heard
Speaker 5: the song in the dance scene before this movie. But
Speaker 5: it's like a really really iconic Bollywood song. It's called
Speaker 5: Mardala and it's about like so originally it was in
Speaker 5: this iconic Bollywood movie that like everyone has seen in
Speaker 5: their childhood went probably when there when they weren't supposed
Speaker 5: to have seen it, but like it's called Devdas and
Speaker 5: the song Mardalla. Like in Devas, there's a woman who
Speaker 5: does this dance to Mardalla and she's like she's supposed
Speaker 5: to be the other woman and she's actually like a
Speaker 5: sex worker and she does this iconic dance. The actress
Speaker 5: Madari Dixit is this like incredible icon in Bollywood, especially
Speaker 5: for dance, and she plays this this sex worker in
Speaker 5: the scene where she dances to Mardala, and it's like
Speaker 5: like there's I mean, that film is iconic in its
Speaker 5: own right, but it also has like a lot of
Speaker 5: like that's an entirely different discussion, but what was so
Speaker 5: compelling was that everybody remembered this one song and this
Speaker 5: one dance that this sex worker was doing. And it's like,
Speaker 5: I find it so amazing that Niddha Manzour was like,
Speaker 5: this is the song that I'm going to honor from
Speaker 5: all of Bollywood and I'm gonna get Ria to dance,
Speaker 5: because it's like Riha is a little bit like the
Speaker 5: other woman figure in this movie, Like not in the
Speaker 5: sense that she's competing for Salem, but in the sense
Speaker 5: that she's the rival to the to the main relationship.
Speaker 1: She's trying to interfere with the romance.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, I like, I find it so
Speaker 5: cool that she found a way to honor like that
Speaker 5: iconic performance that's been so timeless and that like we
Speaker 5: still downset the weddings and yeah.
Speaker 3: I didn't even I didn't know that there were that
Speaker 3: many layers to that choice.
Speaker 4: That's so cool. Thank you for telling us.
Speaker 1: Her web does connect them all.
Speaker 3: It's true, Nitamanzor's web, it connects us all.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Sorry, are you landing on four point seventy five nipples?
Speaker 5: I think so. I think so. I'm gonna end with four.
Speaker 1: Amazing.
Speaker 4: Oh.
Speaker 1: I love it when a movie scores very highly on
Speaker 1: the nipple scale, because it almost never happened.
Speaker 3: Yeah, a new classic in the Bechdel Cast pantheon.
Speaker 1: So true, and thank you for joining us on this discussion.
Speaker 1: Where can people follow you and check out your work
Speaker 1: you're writing anything like that.
Speaker 5: I'm notoriously horrible at advertising everything I do. But I
Speaker 5: have one Instagram page where so it's called it has
Speaker 5: my name in it, like it's a fun for Conspiracies,
Speaker 5: and that's where I put out most of my music.
Speaker 5: And in my bio there's a link tree. I barely
Speaker 5: use social media, but like, please go go follow that
Speaker 5: for occasional yearly posting.
Speaker 1: Nice, amazing, and we'll link your piece that you wrote
Speaker 1: about this movie in the description of this episode. And yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you again.
Speaker 4: For joining us.
Speaker 1: Come back anytime so much.
Speaker 5: I had so much fun. Yy.
Speaker 4: I just love this.
Speaker 3: I love this movie. So you can find us in
Speaker 3: all the regular places. You can find us on Instagram
Speaker 3: and Twitter at Bechdel Cast. You can follow our Patreon
Speaker 3: aka Matreon, where for five dollars a month you can
Speaker 3: get access to too bonus episodes, as well as our
Speaker 3: back catalog of over one hundred and fifty episodes over there.
Speaker 1: Indeed, you can also grab our merger at teapublic dot
Speaker 1: com slash v Bechdel Cast and grab all your merchandising
Speaker 1: needs from there, and they're all designed by a one
Speaker 1: Jamie Loftis.
Speaker 4: Wow, good for her au.
Speaker 3: And with that, uh, let's get cheeseburgers and get an
Speaker 3: email from our hero.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'd love too.
Speaker 4: All right, brunch brunch with Unis.
Speaker 3: Let's go yes amazing, Bye bye.
Speaker 1: The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by
Speaker 1: Caitlin Derante and Jamie Loftis, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited
Speaker 1: by Mola Board. Our theme song was composed by Mike
Speaker 1: Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Vosskrosenski. Our logo in merch
Speaker 1: is designed by Jamie Loftis and a special thanks to
Speaker 1: Aristotle Acevedo. For more information about the podcast, please visit
Speaker 1: link tree slash Bechdel Cast