Speaker 1: Hello, listeners. Just a quick note about this episode. Some
Speaker 1: of the audio quality is a little distorted here and there.
Speaker 1: We are still recording remotely, so technical difficulties are a
Speaker 1: bit more prone to happen. We appreciate your understanding. Enjoy
Speaker 1: the episode. On the bed cast, the questions asked if
Speaker 1: movies have women in um, are all their discussions just
Speaker 1: boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy?
Speaker 1: Zef invest start changing it with the beck Del cast.
Speaker 1: Hey Jamie, Hey Caitlin, I think it's time we try.
Speaker 1: I think it's time we try a full court podcast.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I get it. I thought you were you
Speaker 1: know what. I thought you were gonna do what. I
Speaker 1: thought you were gonna go full Mommy and me. I
Speaker 1: thought you're gonna be like Jamie. You can't be a
Speaker 1: basketball player. I need you to be a podcaster like me.
Speaker 1: I got you an internship. You've got to fall fucking
Speaker 1: Joe Rogan around all day and if you don't, and
Speaker 1: I'll be so mad at you. What a curse that
Speaker 1: would be? We know, imagine following Joe Rogan around all day?
Speaker 1: What would happen to you? I don't even want to
Speaker 1: think about it all right, Well, really going in with
Speaker 1: some negative energy today, which I think is which is good,
Speaker 1: which is good. Maybe it sounds like we need a miracle.
Speaker 1: We need a miracle to turn things around. We need
Speaker 1: a miracle. We need a long winded metaphor, We need
Speaker 1: a feature length metaphor, is what we need. Welcome to
Speaker 1: the Bechtel Cast. Hello. I think that was our best
Speaker 1: intro yet. You know, it's fun is the longer we
Speaker 1: do the show, the less we know how to begin
Speaker 1: the show. Because for the longest time we would just
Speaker 1: be like, hi, welcome to the Bechtel Cast. Im And
Speaker 1: then we decided at some point that we really needed
Speaker 1: to do a clever every time. And I was like,
Speaker 1: wait a second, we're not even funny, Like what are
Speaker 1: we talking about? What are we doing? You know? But yeah,
Speaker 1: if you listen to like early episodes of the Bectel Cast,
Speaker 1: which you shouldn't but like, but if you do, it's like, Hi, um,
Speaker 1: welcome to the show. There's a lot of weakness. Look, look,
Speaker 1: we hit our stride at some point, and then that
Speaker 1: stride was also messy. No, don't say that does say
Speaker 1: you're like and then it just kind of stuffed. Um,
Speaker 1: we have an amazing episode today. Um, oh my god. Sorry,
Speaker 1: my cat has been using my I don't know why
Speaker 1: I bought a fabric bed frame like a loser, but
Speaker 1: he has been shredding it and it looks a hundred
Speaker 1: years old. My goodness. Fleet. Well, let's start the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: let's do it all right. So this is our podcast
Speaker 1: where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens using
Speaker 1: the Bechtel Tests. But J mean, I don't remember what
Speaker 1: that is. Oh well, I can help you out there.
Speaker 1: The Bechdel Test is a media metric created by Alison Bechdel,
Speaker 1: queer cartoonist. I don't. I usually said that in the
Speaker 1: opposite order, but today I didn't. Um. There's a lot
Speaker 1: of different versions of it. Here's the one that we use.
Speaker 1: It requires that any piece of media have two characters
Speaker 1: of a marginalized gender with names who speak to each
Speaker 1: other about something that is not a man for two
Speaker 1: lines of dialogue. That those lines of dialogue should be meaningful.
Speaker 1: If you listen to the show, you understand, you get it,
Speaker 1: and if you don't, I feel I could get the
Speaker 1: hang of it. It's all good. Yeah, it's pretty it's
Speaker 1: pretty easy. Honestly, this movie does not not to get
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves. And if you're this is your first
Speaker 1: time listening, we don't spend the whole show trying to
Speaker 1: figure out if it passes the Beckdel test that this
Speaker 1: movie passed. I don't think it did, right, I don't
Speaker 1: think so. Also, I would love it if someone's first
Speaker 1: episode of this show is Full Court Miracle. I love
Speaker 1: if they showed there like full Court Miracle stands. Finally,
Speaker 1: it's our fucking moment. There's always there's always one person
Speaker 1: that's like I've been waiting for this specific d com,
Speaker 1: which been a while since we've done a d com.
Speaker 1: It felt good. It feels good to be back in
Speaker 1: the in the in the movies that cost fourteen dollars
Speaker 1: to make Weeds. Yeah, you're in your comfort zone, Jamie.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm out of my element. The only
Speaker 1: d coms I've seen are the ones that we've watched
Speaker 1: for the show, plus teen Beach Movie one and two. Well,
Speaker 1: you have to, we have to support friend of the cast,
Speaker 1: Gracie Gillham. That's who is That's the Queen of the
Speaker 1: Beach canonically. Um So, if you're listening to this crazy Hello,
Speaker 1: we see you and we recognize you as the Queen
Speaker 1: of the Beach now forever. Yes, but today we're talking
Speaker 1: about Full Court Miracle, and there I feel like it's
Speaker 1: fun to maybe say how we planned this episode because
Speaker 1: it was at a wedding, but not just any wedding,
Speaker 1: the wedding of our guests, because always be booking your podcast,
Speaker 1: even when you're at maybe the most personal event of
Speaker 1: a person's life. Yeah, so let's introduce her and we
Speaker 1: can all tell the story together. So she's an artist
Speaker 1: owner of Junior High, a nonprofit community space in Los Angeles.
Speaker 1: You remember her from our episodes on Josie and the
Speaker 1: Pussycats and The Fast and the Furious. It's fay or
Speaker 1: love Shallow shallow back. I guess I should have added
Speaker 1: to my intro notes that I'm Jewish. Yeah, I'll go
Speaker 1: back and cut that in. You um start over from
Speaker 1: when you did the intro, So like, you're can we
Speaker 1: run that back full Court podcast? I know, because yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't want to lose that because it was so effortless,
Speaker 1: the way that we take it so good. Well, it
Speaker 1: was really cool being behind the scenes seeing how many
Speaker 1: times you'll practice that. It was just amazing, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I feel like it really paid off. We've been rehearsing
Speaker 1: for at least a month. Yeah, we've been really working
Speaker 1: hard on this um fay. We we planned this episode
Speaker 1: at I mean I would say maybe less than an
Speaker 1: hour after you got married. It was a pretty Jewish
Speaker 1: wedding as far as non rabbinical weddings go. Like we
Speaker 1: didn't have a rabbi, but there were a lot of
Speaker 1: Jewish moments. And I think what you just were like,
Speaker 1: we want to do a Jewish episode of Bechtel for Hanukkah.
Speaker 1: And I was like, immediately, we have to watch Full
Speaker 1: Court Miracle. Yeah. And then you called your husband of
Speaker 1: less than an hour over and was like, Ross, We're
Speaker 1: gonna do Full Court Miracle. And Ross was like yeah,
Speaker 1: Like it was very exciting. Well, it's his favorite movie
Speaker 1: and you're his favorite podcast. So I was like, this
Speaker 1: is the best gift I could give him besides my virginity,
Speaker 1: you know, which you did right, So he got both that. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1: It was a buggy guy. It was a busy yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean I remember you saying that this would be
Speaker 1: your wedding gift to him this you being on this episode, Ross,
Speaker 1: this is your wedding gift. It is, and I'm still
Speaker 1: waiting for what he's going to get me. So TB D,
Speaker 1: what the fuck? I guess just like a happy life
Speaker 1: together and like eternal support, but like I don't know,
Speaker 1: rather have something like hold well, Ross, if you're listening,
Speaker 1: you owe Faye an equally amazing wedding gift as Faye
Speaker 1: being on the bectelcast talking about your favorite movie, just
Speaker 1: saying say, honestly, you oh Faye a full court miracle. Honestly,
Speaker 1: Ross brought this movie into my life, which is shocking
Speaker 1: because he's really not Jewish. I had never seen this
Speaker 1: movie until he showed it to me as his favorite
Speaker 1: Disney Channel original movie that was really formative for him
Speaker 1: as this little white kid who wanted to be a
Speaker 1: basketball player. And I was like, I was pretty shocked
Speaker 1: when I saw the movie for the first time. All
Speaker 1: these little Jewish kids like you didn't see that on TV.
Speaker 1: I was, oh my god, this movie primed him for
Speaker 1: a lifetime of me. So were already like a full
Speaker 1: adult by the time you had seen that. It was
Speaker 1: probably three years ago the first time. Yeah, wow, I
Speaker 1: didn't know that you hadn't grown up with this movie?
Speaker 1: Did you grow up with D coms in general? Oh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I had shockingly never heard of this one. I don't
Speaker 1: even know how I skimmed it. This one is kind
Speaker 1: of a deep cut um. I don't really fully know
Speaker 1: why no one talks about it. Yeah, Caitlin, did you
Speaker 1: have any history with this movie? None whatsoever? When she did, like, never, Like,
Speaker 1: because I famously have not. I didn't grow up with
Speaker 1: the Disney channel, right, So I had never seen any
Speaker 1: D comms until we started this podcast. Very Toxic Way
Speaker 1: to Live. I truly I resent my parents every day
Speaker 1: for not having cable in the house. But this is
Speaker 1: another one I had. I had never heard of it either,
Speaker 1: because there are some that, like, obviously I had heard of,
Speaker 1: you know, your high school musicals, You're smart houses, You're
Speaker 1: I don't need whatever, the other ones are that are
Speaker 1: like pretty popular. This one, yeah, I didn't even so
Speaker 1: when we were talking about it at the wedding reception,
Speaker 1: we were like, yeah, full court miracle. I was like,
Speaker 1: what are you? What is this? And much to my amazement,
Speaker 1: you followed up. I was like, this is never gonna happen. Look,
Speaker 1: and to be fair, we have made some podcast guesting
Speaker 1: promises while drinking hard liquor which we were that we
Speaker 1: have not followed up on. But this time we did. Well,
Speaker 1: I would have canceled you, It would have called you,
Speaker 1: and it was out of fear that you would do that. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I'm almost curious, sort of. I don't know, like research
Speaker 1: you've done to just prepare yourself because there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of Jews listening there's Well, I did do
Speaker 1: some research just to like, I mean, I did learn
Speaker 1: things from Full Court Miracle. I didn't think I had
Speaker 1: seen this movie before, but then as I was watching
Speaker 1: and I realized I actually had seen it, because I
Speaker 1: was like, I sort of just assumed that I saw
Speaker 1: every d com that came up between like and like
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, pretty much like that was my era,
Speaker 1: and that's when I kind of topped out. So I
Speaker 1: did see this, but I think I just got confused
Speaker 1: because there's just other there's so many Disney movies about
Speaker 1: basketball that I just sort of didn't remember this one
Speaker 1: specifically because they're playing basketball in high school musical. They're
Speaker 1: playing basketball in a formative one for me, which was
Speaker 1: double teamed like they're also iconically playing basket of the
Speaker 1: Irish look of the Irish. That's another one. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but this one the right and I and that was
Speaker 1: and that's on me if we're not having a stronger
Speaker 1: imprint of this movie. But I had seen it before, um,
Speaker 1: and I remembered nothing. So so there you go. I'm
Speaker 1: glad you came into it fresh. Yeah, it's better that way.
Speaker 1: I learned. I learned, I lived, I laughed, I loved,
Speaker 1: and I also have some critical thoughts the same. WHOA,
Speaker 1: you didn't tell me we're going to be critical of
Speaker 1: this film. I'm so sorry for you to find out
Speaker 1: this way that this is what the show is about. Wow,
Speaker 1: let you guys take the lead, because I have absolutely
Speaker 1: nothing to contribute negative. Well, should I recap the story
Speaker 1: and then we'll get into this criticism. I have been
Speaker 1: waiting for the calender on the Full Court Miracle recaps.
Speaker 1: I the people demanded. We'll see how I do. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: So we meet Alex Schlotsky. He is a fourteen year
Speaker 1: old kid who goes to Okay, here's my first question.
Speaker 1: Is this a middle school? I know it's a Hebrew school.
Speaker 1: But they're like, because it would make sense if they're
Speaker 1: middle schoolers, because like they would be as like fourteen
Speaker 1: year old eighth graders or whatever, you know, they'd be
Speaker 1: like the top dogs at the school. But then I
Speaker 1: read Wikipedia that he's a freshman, and I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, why are all these like fourteen year olds
Speaker 1: the starting players of the high school basketball team? Did
Speaker 1: not occur to me, I started what he said he
Speaker 1: was fourteen. I'm like, well, that's the age where you
Speaker 1: just don't know. You just don't know if they're in
Speaker 1: middle school or high school. And I don't mind living
Speaker 1: in that mystery, but that, yeah, that doesn't make sense
Speaker 1: that it would be all unless it's like the Super
Speaker 1: JV team and they're just not telling right. I don't know, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I did consider that either way. He's fourteen and he
Speaker 1: attends a Hebrew school in Philadelphia. We meet his friend Julie,
Speaker 1: who is sorry, Okay, so that's that we were talking
Speaker 1: about this off Mike that for all my Degrassi heads
Speaker 1: is a I think maybe one of the most famous
Speaker 1: Degrassi characters of all time. Many Santa, my god, I
Speaker 1: didn't recognize how because you're not recognized many Santos and
Speaker 1: by Mandy Santos. I made Cassie Steel. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: she wasn't wearing much long I didn't recogn it. Is
Speaker 1: truly one of the greatest, like truly one of the
Speaker 1: greatest to grassy stars of all time. She played Manny
Speaker 1: Santos from age eleven to like age a hundred, like
Speaker 1: we don't even know she might still be doing it.
Speaker 1: Very formative character to my childhood. I love Classie Steele
Speaker 1: to this day. She's great. Also worth I just feel like, yeah,
Speaker 1: the child starts in this movie. They're really bringing it
Speaker 1: because the kid who plays Alex Schlatsky is the kid
Speaker 1: from Max Cuble's Big Move Alex Ylan's Ross's id all
Speaker 1: really love this kid. That is so I love that.
Speaker 1: I've never met an Alex Delon's stand before. He Well,
Speaker 1: come out for dinner sometime. What's he up to anyways? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Max Cuble's Big Move. I really loved that movie and
Speaker 1: I was like, Wow, Max Cuble, Now there's a man
Speaker 1: I want in my life. Is that another D com?
Speaker 1: I don't what is this? No, that's a that that
Speaker 1: was on the big silver screen. Oh, but it's like
Speaker 1: same budget I think that this was maybe I don't
Speaker 1: know if that this came up before or after Full
Speaker 1: Court Miracle, but it had to do with a kid
Speaker 1: named Max Kibel and he moved and that's basically the
Speaker 1: movie Shenanigans. Yeah sounds like a romp to me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: this kid moves from one location to another and a
Speaker 1: little weird. I think that there is a big food fight.
Speaker 1: But maybe I'm projecting that onto my memory, but I
Speaker 1: think that there is a big food fight. Got it? Anyways,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone's everyone's out and they're doing a great
Speaker 1: job in the movie Full Court Miracle. Yes, so Alex
Speaker 1: loves basketball, but his school's team is the worst team
Speaker 1: in the strict or whatever and they lose basically every game,
Speaker 1: partially because their coach doesn't know what he's doing, he
Speaker 1: doesn't know anything about the game of basketball, and also
Speaker 1: partially because the other kids don't like playing basketball, which
Speaker 1: I feel like this is acknowledged constantly, but like never
Speaker 1: treated as a real problem that like nine percent of
Speaker 1: the team doesn't want to do it right. And those
Speaker 1: people are named Joker Stick, t J and Big Ben
Speaker 1: are Alex's teammates. Awesome and one of my criticisms of
Speaker 1: this movie is that I don't know who is who.
Speaker 1: I don't know which character has which name, and I
Speaker 1: don't know Alex that many times gestures to them and
Speaker 1: says all of their names. But I guess you never
Speaker 1: really know which ones which. Yeah, yeah, yeah, who's Joker?
Speaker 1: Because you've got to stay away from that kid? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: What are we in a Todd Phillips movie? I hope
Speaker 1: so not? Okay? Uh So the team plays a rival team,
Speaker 1: the Warriors, with this kid Tyler, who mocks them and
Speaker 1: makes fun of them for being so bad at basketball.
Speaker 1: And then this Liberty Tournament is coming up because I
Speaker 1: guess Liberty because they're in Philadelphia. I'm not sure. They
Speaker 1: keep calling it Attorney and I was laughing. Um, but
Speaker 1: it's coming up in like a month, and for once,
Speaker 1: Alex doesn't want to lose. Um. Also, by the way,
Speaker 1: Alex has a problem where he never passes the ball
Speaker 1: to his teammates, So I guess we're setting up an
Speaker 1: arc here. And then anytime someone says that though, he's like, well,
Speaker 1: maybe if you guys didn't suck, I would pass the
Speaker 1: fucking ball. You're just like Jesus. Meanwhile, They're like literally
Speaker 1: there to support him, Like none of them want to
Speaker 1: even fly right right, They're just like, yeah, well we
Speaker 1: don't even like we're just doing this kind of for you.
Speaker 1: You're not even passing. And yeah, he's a piece of work,
Speaker 1: that that kid. So then we meet Alex's parents. His
Speaker 1: mom is a doctor. He tells them that playing basketball
Speaker 1: is his dream. He wants to be in the NBA,
Speaker 1: but his mother, who's like very kind of pragmatic, is like,
Speaker 1: the chances of you playing in the NBA are so slim.
Speaker 1: You should follow in my footsteps and be a doctor.
Speaker 1: I think it is funny that I feel like that's unusual.
Speaker 1: Well maybe it's not super unusual for kids movie, but
Speaker 1: for just a parent to blatantly tell you your dreams
Speaker 1: are never going to come true at the beginning of
Speaker 1: the movie and have like math to back it up.
Speaker 1: This child is like maybe five ft like Fay, you
Speaker 1: don't believe in his dream either. I want him to
Speaker 1: find happiness. Wow, okay, I think that he went on
Speaker 1: to play in the NBA. Let's hope. So um okay.
Speaker 1: So back at school, Alex goes to Rabbi Lewis, who
Speaker 1: I think is his history teacher and asks if Rabbi
Speaker 1: Lewis will hire a real basketball coach who will lead
Speaker 1: them to victory the way that Judah mccabee lad the
Speaker 1: Israeli's to victory against this evil king and Caracus. That
Speaker 1: story is, of course the basis for the holiday and
Speaker 1: celebration of Hanukah. Yes, but Rabbi Lewis refuses to hire
Speaker 1: a new coach. Part of it is because Alex's mom
Speaker 1: is like on the board of directors or something at
Speaker 1: the school and she won't like allocate the funds for that.
Speaker 1: But Rabbi Lewis is like, what if you find a
Speaker 1: Judah maccabee elsewhere? So then after school, when Alex Stick,
Speaker 1: question Mark, and Julie are shooting hoop uh he's Alex
Speaker 1: sees this guy across the world say hoops hoops and
Speaker 1: like you said it, like it hurt you to say that.
Speaker 1: They're throwing some basketballs and some baskets, and Alex sees
Speaker 1: this guy kind of across the way who is really
Speaker 1: good at basketball, and Alex approaches him, but this guy
Speaker 1: isn't really interested in talking to Alex. So then Alex
Speaker 1: and his friends cyberstock him based on his license plate.
Speaker 1: They're like able to figure out who he is. I
Speaker 1: love it. It's an early two thousand's like I'm in
Speaker 1: kind of it's amazing hacking. I love it. They find
Speaker 1: out that he is a former college basketball star who
Speaker 1: did go on to play in the NBA. I think
Speaker 1: his name is Lamont Car And then some of the
Speaker 1: friends think that, oh, maybe this guy is the ghost
Speaker 1: of Judah mccabee because they the same nickname and like
Speaker 1: some of the same details are the same. So at
Speaker 1: the very least Alex is like, hey, maybe this is
Speaker 1: like the guy who will be able to lead our
Speaker 1: basketball team to victory. So the next day Alex asks
Speaker 1: Lamont Car if he will coach them, and after a
Speaker 1: lot of convincing and an offer to pay him, Lamont
Speaker 1: reluctantly agrees to coach them the following day for an hour.
Speaker 1: So they have this practice. The boys are bad, they're
Speaker 1: out of shape. Then they have practice again the next day,
Speaker 1: but they're worried that they can't keep paying him, so
Speaker 1: they have to like figure that they start selling their
Speaker 1: like basketball trading cards. Meanwhile, Alex's mom is like, here,
Speaker 1: shadow this doctor so that you can become a doctor.
Speaker 1: In a like kind of storyline that ends up going
Speaker 1: nowhere because like Julie just ends up taking his place
Speaker 1: in the Shadow program. It's so unclear, Well whatever, I
Speaker 1: just I always felt like Julie was about to become
Speaker 1: relevant to the plot in a more meaningful way, and
Speaker 1: then she never did. They just kept like moving her
Speaker 1: to a different because they're like, she loves basketball. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's going to end up playing on the team. She doesn't.
Speaker 1: And then it's she's like, I want the internship and like, oh,
Speaker 1: she's going to end up becoming that, I don't know,
Speaker 1: doogie howser or whatever. She doesn't and then it's like
Speaker 1: and then she's like, I'm mad at you. And then
Speaker 1: she's like just kidding, I'm not right, And the movie's
Speaker 1: over correct, waste of Cassie Steele's time. Okay, So then
Speaker 1: Lamont continues to coach them. There's like a fundraiser that
Speaker 1: the boys do where they're selling hot coffee on the
Speaker 1: street using Alex's mom's espresso machine. It's very weird. Um.
Speaker 1: And then Rabbi Lewis invites Alex and his family and
Speaker 1: Lamont over for shop Is dinner and Alex's mom is
Speaker 1: not thrilled with the idea of this stranger coaching boys
Speaker 1: on the streets. So Rabbi Lewis suggests that they moved
Speaker 1: the practice to the school and like kind of officially
Speaker 1: hire Lamont as the coach UM. But Lamont is like,
Speaker 1: I don't know about this. I'm actually here in Philadelphia
Speaker 1: trying to get picked up by the Sixers to play
Speaker 1: in the NBA. But they decided to go through with
Speaker 1: the Rabbi's plan and start practicing at school, and they
Speaker 1: officially hire Lamont as the team's coach. But then one day,
Speaker 1: Alex follows Lamont home and learns that Lamont is unhoused
Speaker 1: and living in his fan and because of this, Lamont
Speaker 1: had lied about his address. When Mrs Klein, who I
Speaker 1: think is the principle of the school, has Lama what
Speaker 1: her job title is. But I don't like her her
Speaker 1: but I feel like she really didn't experience any consequences
Speaker 1: for what mean and judgmental person she was truly um,
Speaker 1: But she had had him fill out an application for
Speaker 1: this coaching job, and she's like very suspicious of the
Speaker 1: whole thing. So Alex his dad, who is a real
Speaker 1: estate agent. Alex is like, hey, Dad, can you set
Speaker 1: Lamont up in this condo that's on the market that
Speaker 1: you're having trouble selling, So it seems like Lamont is
Speaker 1: living in this condo. So that happens um and then
Speaker 1: meanwhile Alex and his family are celebrating Hanakah because it's
Speaker 1: Hanakah while all this is going on, fun way to
Speaker 1: like mark the passage of time because this whole movie
Speaker 1: takes Also, how how many does this movie just happen
Speaker 1: over hanaka plus a couple of days? Well, I can't
Speaker 1: because there's a month till the tournament when I think
Speaker 1: it's just Hanaku. Towards the end, when they like are
Speaker 1: playing the semifinals and then the finals, yeah, I think. Okay.
Speaker 1: So Lamont is continuing to coach the team, but Alex
Speaker 1: is not doing well in school, so he has to
Speaker 1: sit out until he gets his grades up and his
Speaker 1: team comes over and helps him study. The team is
Speaker 1: continuing to improve their basketball skills, but oh no, the
Speaker 1: Sixers call Lamont and have him sign a ten day
Speaker 1: contract to play for the team, which is might be
Speaker 1: a real thing. I don't know anything about freelance basketball players.
Speaker 1: Is that a thing. I wrote that down and then
Speaker 1: I forgot to follow up on it. I'm like, can
Speaker 1: you just freelancer ten days? But I thought was weirder
Speaker 1: was the alternative that the um then the school offers
Speaker 1: him a position coaching, but it's day by day like
Speaker 1: that to me was weirder than a contract. He had
Speaker 1: a day to day position with children out of school,
Speaker 1: and like basketball season seems like it's like kind of
Speaker 1: almost over. Well, I guess now it goes into like
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know why I'm pretending to
Speaker 1: know anything about basketball season. We don't know anything about basketball. However, Yeah,
Speaker 1: a day to day position as a teacher, You're like, okay,
Speaker 1: well that's a substitute teacher. Like that. Also, I don't
Speaker 1: know where my head is at right now, like benefits
Speaker 1: can we get, like come on, this man health care
Speaker 1: because me hurts, which also like I'm thrilled for him
Speaker 1: that he gets to play on this on the on
Speaker 1: the sixers, but also it's like he's injured. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: how do you get a freelance contract playing professional basketball,
Speaker 1: which I'm not convinced exists if you're the whole thing
Speaker 1: is like he's injured I don't. I don't get it.
Speaker 1: I cannot find the logic there. But yeah, Lamont leaves
Speaker 1: to go for this ten day contract, like right before
Speaker 1: the Liberty attorney. So he leaves, and Alex is like,
Speaker 1: oh no, we're gonna lose the tournament without our judah
Speaker 1: mac couldbee. But then Rabbi Lewis is like, hey, Alex,
Speaker 1: you should just look inward. Maybe you're the judah. So
Speaker 1: it's time for the Liberty Tournament, and Alex kind of
Speaker 1: assumes the role of the team's coach. Uh. They advance
Speaker 1: in the tournament and they make it all the way
Speaker 1: to the finals where they're going to be playing the Warriors.
Speaker 1: They're like rival team. Meanwhile, Alex has reconciled with his
Speaker 1: mom and she's like, yeah, I should I guess not
Speaker 1: try to push this whole doctor career thing on you,
Speaker 1: especially because you're only fourteen years old. And he's like,
Speaker 1: thanks mom. And then it's time for the big game
Speaker 1: against the Warriors. Uh, they're losing. The electricity goes out,
Speaker 1: and so they decided to start the emergency generator and play.
Speaker 1: He's exciting. They the rules that they established here is
Speaker 1: that they're going to play the game continue playing until
Speaker 1: the fuel runs out in the generator. Whoever has you know,
Speaker 1: more points When the fuel runs out, that's who's going
Speaker 1: to win the tournament. So they go back in they
Speaker 1: start playing. Meanwhile, Alex's mom has gone to see Lamont
Speaker 1: and a miracle seems to happen where his van, which
Speaker 1: had broken down, starts back up again. So miracles are happening.
Speaker 1: And then back at this school where the game is
Speaker 1: being played, Um, you forgot the part where there's the
Speaker 1: the rap, the rap about Draydals when they dance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there is a dance and there's also like non diagetic rap,
Speaker 1: there's a rap about Dradals playing underneath the dance. Hey
Speaker 1: you didn't. I'm so distracted by the dancing. I didn't
Speaker 1: even they're rapping about Tradeles underneath that really bad child
Speaker 1: dancing seas. Wait wait, let me see if I can
Speaker 1: find it on YouTube. I bet you can't. Like that
Speaker 1: was I forget? Who I told I was that we
Speaker 1: were covering this movie and they were like, oh, that's
Speaker 1: the movie with the Draydal wrap in it. So I
Speaker 1: it's like hyper like aware of it. Um, but yeah,
Speaker 1: once you know it's there, yeah, please please take an
Speaker 1: ad break. I gotta watch that. Yeah, we'll we'll, we'll
Speaker 1: get there in just a moment, and then we'll give
Speaker 1: you an opportunity to watch the dradle rep. I'm so
Speaker 1: excited for you. Um okay. So the generator barely has
Speaker 1: any fuel in it, and it seems like this team
Speaker 1: they're gonna need a miracle the fuel again, it's almost
Speaker 1: run out, but then Lamont shows up a k a.
Speaker 1: Judah Maccabee, And much like the Miracle of Hanegah, where
Speaker 1: the oil in the lamp was only supposed to last
Speaker 1: for one night but it lasts for eight nights, the
Speaker 1: fuel in the generator lasts long enough for Alex and
Speaker 1: his team to keep playing catch up and win the
Speaker 1: big game. And then they all celebrate, and then Alex's
Speaker 1: family becomes friends with Lamont's family and they share a
Speaker 1: nice moment, and then that's the end of the movie.
Speaker 1: So let's take a quick break, let's all watch the
Speaker 1: drade will wrap and then we will come right back.
Speaker 1: Bears Manifest and People Game on Record. You don't always
Speaker 1: bring in three young cover straight one on one three
Speaker 1: at Breties, you can bring on to Ready for the
Speaker 1: pain of the gag, give feet in the sound of
Speaker 1: the ground and earn the beat. Nobody. I definitely not
Speaker 1: even a gossage dad lead screaming, but the screaming for
Speaker 1: me because the one coming down with the full court
Speaker 1: near bons with the game said, let you don't hear me,
Speaker 1: don't remember want it that we all know it's true.
Speaker 1: Ns can't do't be to come and have it for you.
Speaker 1: Trading train trade. Oh my god, I've never thought about
Speaker 1: the song because they're dancing is so incredible. Okay, wo wow, okay,
Speaker 1: and we're back and we've we've seen the dradle rap
Speaker 1: and we are all better people for it. Well, I
Speaker 1: feel like I do. I always say there's no good
Speaker 1: Jewish songs, and now I just feel like an asshole.
Speaker 1: There's been one since two thousand three. Dare I say
Speaker 1: anything Mariah Carry has ever done for Christmas? So oh,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I won't argue with you. Let's go,
Speaker 1: let's go with that good song. So fay before we
Speaker 1: get into the main discussion, I'm curious how you feel
Speaker 1: about how Judaism and Jewish culture is portrayed in this
Speaker 1: movie well as the definitive just like Decider of all
Speaker 1: Things Jewish, Um, decider, Um, I say it's good. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm pretty happy with it. Um. Now it's I love
Speaker 1: it because it's sort of in the background. It's like
Speaker 1: how it should be. It's not like the forefront where
Speaker 1: everything's like I can't go out on Friday. It's a
Speaker 1: bat or so I don't know. It's like that's just this.
Speaker 1: It's like another It doesn't feel like intentional, like the
Speaker 1: the entire story could have happened without it being Jewish,
Speaker 1: but it has like a sweet Jewish. It's just cool
Speaker 1: seeing people very casually being Jewish. That makes sense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like you're not hit over the head with it. It's
Speaker 1: just like sweet. And you see these little family moments.
Speaker 1: You're like, oh, I do that with my family, and um,
Speaker 1: it's just cute to have Anica taking place in the background,
Speaker 1: like not even in the forefront of a movie. Like
Speaker 1: I don't know, because when we were talking about this
Speaker 1: at my wedding, the only other movie we could think
Speaker 1: of that was like overtly jewish was Eight Crazy Nights,
Speaker 1: and that just like hits you over the head with it.
Speaker 1: It's like we were eight Nights of Honaka each night
Speaker 1: is like a hole and that movie does not age
Speaker 1: well because it's just Adam Sandler making one horribly problematic
Speaker 1: joke after the next. So I have not seen that
Speaker 1: since it came out, and I don't really plan on
Speaker 1: rewatching it. There's yeah, I was looking up in general,
Speaker 1: like there's there's at least in like whatever Western media.
Speaker 1: There's just like not a lot of examples of movies
Speaker 1: that like, I mean, okay, so I'm on the Wikipedia page.
Speaker 1: First of all, you're welcome for Hanakkah films, and the
Speaker 1: only four movies that are cited are An American Tale,
Speaker 1: which we should cover at some point, eight Crazy Nights,
Speaker 1: which we just said we would rather not, The Hebrew Hammer,
Speaker 1: which does anyone know what that is? And Full Court Miracle,
Speaker 1: and that's it. Yeah, that's it. Only four, I think, honestly,
Speaker 1: because I didn't grow up jewish, um, I think that
Speaker 1: the piece of media that I most closely associate with
Speaker 1: learning about Hanukah was a Rugrats special that came out
Speaker 1: that was I think only yeah, yeah, which I haven't
Speaker 1: revisited it, but I'm I'm hoping that The Macababies is
Speaker 1: still still a classic. Well, The Rugrats are iconic. So
Speaker 1: my uncle was a director on The Rugrats and one
Speaker 1: of their like lead writers, and the entire like crew
Speaker 1: was very Jewish and it was like a very overtly show,
Speaker 1: like intentionally, and it was awesome growing up with that
Speaker 1: because I got to go like need all the voice
Speaker 1: characters and like, see that's so cool. What Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: really cool. I have all these original animation cells from
Speaker 1: Regrets and like, um, oh my god. Yeah, well he
Speaker 1: was at the wedding. I should have introduced gosh. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I love that The Road Grats was formative for you.
Speaker 1: It's just like, what a sweet show, and yeah, macababi
Speaker 1: has gotta do what a macababys gotta do. Like my
Speaker 1: little cousins and I when we were little, we would
Speaker 1: play Maca Babies as a game like that was our
Speaker 1: like Hirid or whatever other kids play. We were like, no,
Speaker 1: we're literally the Maca Babies. First likes. Um, that's the
Speaker 1: main Jewish representation I saw at any point in my
Speaker 1: life was Kyle Broflovski in South Park and his his family.
Speaker 1: I'm not even mad at that either. I loved that.
Speaker 1: It's true. I mean it is just like extremely scarce
Speaker 1: in uh, in Western especially in comparison to the like
Speaker 1: absurd amount of Christmas media available in the world. It
Speaker 1: just it keeps ongoing. So we really I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like they we've been talking about this for years
Speaker 1: of covering a honeck a movie, and it just it
Speaker 1: was just there. There's there's unfortunately, at least at the
Speaker 1: time of this recording, not a ton of options, and
Speaker 1: so I'm glad that we're covering full core miracle. And
Speaker 1: then also I think I think I like learned ship
Speaker 1: by watching. Yeah, like I feel like it's I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's very like so many of the elements of this
Speaker 1: movie are really you know, after school, specially in a
Speaker 1: way because it's a d com so that's in the nature.
Speaker 1: But um, I learned stuff in the scene, like the
Speaker 1: way that they integrate the like the Shabbast dinner scene.
Speaker 1: I was like, I learned things about Um I've never
Speaker 1: been to a shopbast dinner, so that was interesting to me.
Speaker 1: I've like they you know, the way that the plot
Speaker 1: you know, maybe heavy handedly you know, fits in the
Speaker 1: matt could be story. I was like, oh wait, yes,
Speaker 1: like Rugrats, I remember I remember that I like, I mean,
Speaker 1: I I liked how the movie like you were saying,
Speaker 1: just like, this is the world that we're living in,
Speaker 1: and it seems like there were a lot of Um.
Speaker 1: It was certainly written by a Jewish writer. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it was directed by Stuart Gillard. Let me
Speaker 1: just while you look that up. Joel Silverman, who was
Speaker 1: one of the co writers on the movie, knew real
Speaker 1: life Lamont Car, which is what this movie is based on.
Speaker 1: Because this is based on a true story and they
Speaker 1: knew each other at University of Virginia in the seventies,
Speaker 1: I want to say, and so he kind of adapted
Speaker 1: his real life story. Um, Joel Silverman did for Lamont
Speaker 1: Car's story. Um, because there was a time where Lamont
Speaker 1: Car was coaching, you know, like youth basketball teams, and
Speaker 1: he in in Boca Raton, Florida, No less, not in Philly,
Speaker 1: in folk Overton. Yeah, there's still life story is fascinating.
Speaker 1: I wish that they kind of stuck more to like
Speaker 1: Lamont Car's actual life story because there were so many
Speaker 1: like he just sounded like a really fascinating guy. He
Speaker 1: was also a wine connoisseur and a dart player a
Speaker 1: dart player. Yeah, I was just like where is that?
Speaker 1: And then lost over these facts, right, like that's really
Speaker 1: and I I don't know, Caitlin, did you have much luck?
Speaker 1: I was trying to like fact check the more specific
Speaker 1: elements of Lamont card that are included in the movie,
Speaker 1: and they're the most of the information he passed away
Speaker 1: I think four or five years ago, but most of
Speaker 1: the information around him seems to be pretty general. So
Speaker 1: it was like hard to I don't know, Like anytime
Speaker 1: you're you see a movie that you're like based on
Speaker 1: a true story, you're like, okay, but probably not though,
Speaker 1: but what is real and what isn't? And it was
Speaker 1: um in terms of like the broader elements of fake
Speaker 1: Lamont's story, Um, like you know he was unhoused at
Speaker 1: the time of coaching, and like the son and the wife.
Speaker 1: I was not able to confirm those details in anyway.
Speaker 1: I couldn't find information about it either, So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure about that, but um yeah, in any case,
Speaker 1: this movie had at least one Jewish writer and and
Speaker 1: stars a young Jewish actor. Yeah. I was also trying
Speaker 1: to figure out like who of the cast the actual actors, um,
Speaker 1: Alex Delons is Jewish, where I say children looked very Jewish.
Speaker 1: They played Jewish very well. A lot of the cast is. Um.
Speaker 1: I was like, was this a Canadian production because so
Speaker 1: many of the actors that they cast are from Canada.
Speaker 1: But that's neither here nor there. I mean, full on,
Speaker 1: there's a Degrassi cast member. Um anyways, um. I did
Speaker 1: find some criticism surrounding this movie about the movie leaning
Speaker 1: into a fair number of Jewish stereotypes, such as like
Speaker 1: the overbearing mother. That's every Disney movie. It's like the
Speaker 1: mom wants you to be something specific, and like you're like,
Speaker 1: but I like this arts thing, and no, that's still
Speaker 1: people just look for things to be upset by. And
Speaker 1: if you're upset by that, okay, that's a valid like
Speaker 1: when I obviously do not speak on behalf of all Jews,
Speaker 1: but like I didn't even know that was a stereotype.
Speaker 1: But my mom is so overbearing. I got your mom's
Speaker 1: a sweet that's kind of where I like how casual
Speaker 1: the movie. It wasn't like these like like I don't
Speaker 1: even want to say all the stereotypes I could have
Speaker 1: done that I've heard in my lifetime. So you didn't
Speaker 1: find there to be like egregious stereotyping with the Jewish
Speaker 1: characters in the movie. I didn't at all. I thought it,
Speaker 1: I love this movie. It's like the only thing I have,
Speaker 1: I have to cling to it. I mean I didn't either,
Speaker 1: But again, as a non Jewish person, I like, wasn't
Speaker 1: other criticisms that you've read. I mean, everything was kind
Speaker 1: of vague I found, I mean believed or not. Not
Speaker 1: a lot of like prestige journalism has been written about
Speaker 1: this movie. So what I did find were just a
Speaker 1: handful of blog posts. One was from something called Mainline
Speaker 1: and Christmas, where it's by Aaron Snyder. She seems to
Speaker 1: be watching holiday movies in general and trying to find
Speaker 1: ones that depict Hanukkah and maybe other Jewish holidays. Respectfully,
Speaker 1: she did not like the movie. She thought it was
Speaker 1: really bad for like mostly like plot whole reasons, but
Speaker 1: also yeah, well we cost twelve dollars to me. But um.
Speaker 1: Also she felt that this writer felt that Jewish stereotypes
Speaker 1: were leaned into, but she doesn't get very specific about it,
Speaker 1: so I don't know what exactly she was referring to.
Speaker 1: I will say that I mean and I can't. I
Speaker 1: can't really speak to the Jewish stereotyping. I did think
Speaker 1: that the main obstructive forces for for Alex were two women,
Speaker 1: and everyone who was like super supportive of him and
Speaker 1: his dreams were like Daddy and my RABBI think I'm
Speaker 1: so awesome and like I can do this, and then
Speaker 1: it's like Mrs Klein and his mother that are the
Speaker 1: obstructive forces. Which so I think at least there's like
Speaker 1: a little bit of like true stuff going on. That's
Speaker 1: not the Judaism speaking. It's more of like the two
Speaker 1: thousand three Disney era, where like women are telling you
Speaker 1: what to do with your life, like that sort of thing.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I think that's a separate conversation where yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just like the two main like adult women in
Speaker 1: the movie happened to be sticklers for the rules and
Speaker 1: they have to be, I mean in a movie written
Speaker 1: and directed by men. Yeah well yeah, yeah, I did
Speaker 1: not phrase that well. But there was one conversation that
Speaker 1: felt like maybe was about to pass the Beach Doel test,
Speaker 1: which was between Julie and the mom when they're just
Speaker 1: like at the internship and they're like, oh, we have
Speaker 1: to go to the game, and I'm like, okay, all right, yeah,
Speaker 1: we gotta go watch Alex play. Yeah, I was like,
Speaker 1: damn it, but yeah, there were only two female care
Speaker 1: that the principle, but she was well, yeah, So between
Speaker 1: like Alex's mom and dad, Dad is like the fun goofball.
Speaker 1: He jokes around a lot, and then Mom is like,
Speaker 1: I want you to be a doctor and you have
Speaker 1: your fourteen but you need to have your career path
Speaker 1: already figured out. And what I did appreciate that about
Speaker 1: that though, was it so few stories feature a mother's
Speaker 1: son story arc. It's usually a father's son things. For
Speaker 1: that to be like the main focus of I mean again,
Speaker 1: it does make it so that the mother kind of
Speaker 1: is an antagonistic force for our protagonist Alex throughout the movie.
Speaker 1: But for that to still focus on like a mother's
Speaker 1: son relationship is like a pretty rare thing to see.
Speaker 1: At the top of that for like two thousand three,
Speaker 1: it's like that the mom is very clearly the breadwinner
Speaker 1: of the family. We see the dad doing more like
Speaker 1: traditionally maternal tasks like he he's cooking well, and when
Speaker 1: his mom cooks, she she doesn't have time to really
Speaker 1: cook as well, which is kind of throws some waffles
Speaker 1: in a microwave and and that's that's representation for the
Speaker 1: moment when they're the principle is like Dr Schlotsky wants
Speaker 1: to talk to you. And it's the mom and sort
Speaker 1: of a powerful moment where you would inherently birded thinking
Speaker 1: it would be the dad, but no, he's a real
Speaker 1: estate agent, but not a yeah, he's struggling to sell
Speaker 1: this one condo that he yeah, you just simply can't sell.
Speaker 1: I would say no offense to Alex's dad, but I
Speaker 1: would say it doesn't seem like he's trying very hard.
Speaker 1: There's at one point where Alex comes home during the day.
Speaker 1: It's like a plot point where it's like, oh, we're
Speaker 1: going to move Lamont into this condo. But it's like
Speaker 1: two PM and Alex's dad has like a cup of
Speaker 1: whiskey in front of him. He's like he's like drinking
Speaker 1: during the day. I was like, how hard are you
Speaker 1: really trying to sell this one condo? And every time
Speaker 1: someone's like, hey has sold that condo yet, and he's
Speaker 1: like no, no, Like he's he's making cakes and drinking
Speaker 1: whiskey on like a fucking Tuesday. He's chilling. You're married
Speaker 1: to a doctor. That's the life. Baby, That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1: Like why why try? I guess like he so anyways,
Speaker 1: Alex's that Alex's dad character. He was so chill that
Speaker 1: I was like, what's going on with this guy? Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's just making dad jokes. But uh, I did appreciate
Speaker 1: that Alex's mom has an arc where you know, they
Speaker 1: have a meaningful conversation about like her expectations for Alex,
Speaker 1: and he's like, you just need to let me follow
Speaker 1: my dreams, even though I know it's very unlikely that
Speaker 1: I'll make it to the n b A. Just like,
Speaker 1: let me have this for a while. And she's like,
Speaker 1: you're right, I should like back off and just support
Speaker 1: you and not try to make you be a doctor.
Speaker 1: And then she said something like maybe the only doctor
Speaker 1: in your future is Dr J And I don't know
Speaker 1: what she was talking about. And I'm like, am I
Speaker 1: old or out of touch or both or everything? Like
Speaker 1: the main basketball card that he it's a famous basketball
Speaker 1: player doctor? He got it? Is that the one he
Speaker 1: kept selling? And okay, yeah, so that's her being like
Speaker 1: I accept your basketball dreams, which apparently Caitlin and Fay
Speaker 1: don't think he's going to accomplish. I do. I think
Speaker 1: he's going to do it, and I believe in alex Um.
Speaker 1: I did like that journey. Yeah if I feel I
Speaker 1: feel like a lesser movie would attribute that whole journey
Speaker 1: to the dad. But the dad is kind of they're
Speaker 1: more for comic relief. He's there to tell us facts
Speaker 1: about the history of Jewish basketball players. He's there to
Speaker 1: set off a car alarm, he's there to drink during
Speaker 1: the day, like he's just he's more sidelined than the mom.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I do, I do. I see where
Speaker 1: I don't remember the name of the writer, Like I
Speaker 1: understand where she's coming from with stereotyping, and if that
Speaker 1: is something that any of our listeners feel, it's completely valid.
Speaker 1: And I also do see what you're saying, Fay, of like,
Speaker 1: there were certainly like a lot of moms and children's
Speaker 1: media who were depicted this way regardless of their religious
Speaker 1: back ground in two thousand and three, So definitely anything
Speaker 1: it kind of felt more like integrated than anything else.
Speaker 1: It was like, oh, this is how they depict every family,
Speaker 1: every like white family, in a d com movie is
Speaker 1: this way with like a quirky dad but a strict mom,
Speaker 1: and like a kid who wants to follow his dreams.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, we are no different. It's also
Speaker 1: Lizzie McGuire yea, literally it's McGuire's parents. I feel like,
Speaker 1: didn't we have that discussion about xenon the space Space Girl? Right? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: so there there is like a precedent for it. But yes,
Speaker 1: I also see I feel like that also speaks to
Speaker 1: like how few Jewish kids movies there are that It's
Speaker 1: like that would stand out. There's nothing to really compare
Speaker 1: it to in a mainstream way. Let's take a quick
Speaker 1: break and then come back for more discussion and where
Speaker 1: we're back. Before we jump back into the discussion, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to quickly shout out I think that there's
Speaker 1: a scene where they're letting the kid improvise and it
Speaker 1: made me laugh. Wait, which one I think that unless
Speaker 1: it was some very weird dialogue, it's the scene. It's
Speaker 1: like an important scene, so I'm like, what is it going? Um,
Speaker 1: it's the scene where Alex is talking to his mom
Speaker 1: and she asks him, why do you care about basketball
Speaker 1: so much? Alex. That was not that was written. He
Speaker 1: describes basketball so weird. He's just like, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: and you have the ball and you throw it and
Speaker 1: go in the hoop and then it's like, wow, oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's in the hoop, you know. And they're
Speaker 1: like playing the score like really loud, so it's kind
Speaker 1: of hard to hear him do. I was like, is
Speaker 1: he just like, is he having an off day? I
Speaker 1: couldn't tell if he was. It sounded like he was
Speaker 1: making it up. It sounded like her like, you know
Speaker 1: how if you're like, like how you love podcasting so much, Jamie,
Speaker 1: when you podcast, the rest of the world just disappears.
Speaker 1: You have no problem, responsibilities, no struggle, you know. That's
Speaker 1: what he's when he is playing basketball. It's just him
Speaker 1: and the ball and the hoop, you know. Um. And
Speaker 1: it was beautifully written, and it was very poignant conversation
Speaker 1: between a boy and his mother as he faced a window.
Speaker 1: It sounded like he was being played off stage. The
Speaker 1: scorer was playing so loud, and he's like, you know,
Speaker 1: when the hoop and the ball and then they keep
Speaker 1: cutting back to his mom and she's like, uh huh.
Speaker 1: I liked it. I liked when he said right at
Speaker 1: the beginning, he's like, Mom, I'm proud of you for
Speaker 1: being a doctor, but that's just not for me. Like, okay,
Speaker 1: I mean, but I always said to my dad, Alex
Speaker 1: appreciates a powerful woman. He does. That's why his best
Speaker 1: friend is Julie, who has two lines. Okay, can we
Speaker 1: talk about Julie, because let's talk about Julie. Really poor Julie. Okay.
Speaker 1: So the movie opens in such a way that it
Speaker 1: makes it seem like the friendship between Alex and Julie
Speaker 1: is going to be an important part of the movie,
Speaker 1: that she's going to be a way more important. Like
Speaker 1: the first scene, Yeah, that sets a precedent narratively that
Speaker 1: like she's going to be an important character. They never
Speaker 1: address why she's not on the basketball team or like
Speaker 1: or like, yeah, does she does she go to the
Speaker 1: same school? Does she go to a difference? You know what?
Speaker 1: It's probably a boys school now that I think about it, right,
Speaker 1: I I was like not paying close enough attention. But
Speaker 1: then like part of my head canon was like, so
Speaker 1: at the end of the first scene, they say goodbye
Speaker 1: to each other and she speaks in Spanish, So I'm
Speaker 1: like maybe she doesn't even go to a Hebrew school,
Speaker 1: but she could be from a like I don't think
Speaker 1: it's she very well could be a Jewish character like
Speaker 1: true it, but we don't see like it's. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think that that's just like some clunky ass writing because
Speaker 1: you're just like, well, how do they know each other?
Speaker 1: And like does she? I was never quite sure if
Speaker 1: she knew like Joker and Big Ben and like does
Speaker 1: she know those? I guess she does because she appears
Speaker 1: in scenes with them, But it's like, how do you
Speaker 1: guys all know each other? Do you? You don't? I
Speaker 1: don't think you really. You see her at games, but
Speaker 1: you don't see her at the school. She yeah, she goes.
Speaker 1: Think she goes to the school. I don't think so either.
Speaker 1: She does cheer him on at the games, and I
Speaker 1: think maybe they're just friends because they like play pick
Speaker 1: up basketball together because she's a basketball player, but we
Speaker 1: don't learn anything about her interior life at all those
Speaker 1: she wants to be a doctor, which comes up very
Speaker 1: suddenly right and then also gets dropped just as quickly.
Speaker 1: I'm like, honestly, I was, so, I mean the bar
Speaker 1: so on the floor for movies like this so I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm glad that they didn't make her like a love interest,
Speaker 1: you know, like it could have been worse, but it
Speaker 1: just yeah, it was so messy and bizarre. And then
Speaker 1: there's like that scene where she was like, I'm mad
Speaker 1: at you, and then twenty minutes later she's like, I'm
Speaker 1: not mad at you. And then she makes that really
Speaker 1: funny sign that says like miracles can happen, and then
Speaker 1: she must have had a sharply on hand because she
Speaker 1: crossed it out it happened, And then we were laughing
Speaker 1: and crying because that's a that's a beautiful story. Yeah, Julie, Man,
Speaker 1: what a disservice. She should have been on the team.
Speaker 1: What do you lose by having Julie on the team.
Speaker 1: It sounds like she's a committed basketball player. Well that
Speaker 1: would have been interesting because most schools don't have co
Speaker 1: ed teams at least at that age. So I mean,
Speaker 1: and at this I mean at this school, it's like,
Speaker 1: you might as well the team sucks let her play, right,
Speaker 1: She seems like she would be an asset to the team.
Speaker 1: She's a better player than the team, and she likes
Speaker 1: playing basketball, which of the team doesn't see, so why
Speaker 1: can't she play on the team. I assume she was
Speaker 1: Jush and went to that school. And I always loved
Speaker 1: that they showed like a Latina Jewish person because there
Speaker 1: are right right. Yeah, But now that I think about it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm thinking back to that scene where the
Speaker 1: rabbi is like teaching the first class about like the Maccabee's,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, were there any women in that classroom?
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if it was just a boys school and
Speaker 1: she I don't know. Now I got to rewatch again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: first to appreciate the dradal rap, I don't think she
Speaker 1: goes to the school, but I don't think that that
Speaker 1: doesn't mean that she's not a Jewish character. Well, I
Speaker 1: just use a lot of negatives. I don't know if
Speaker 1: that sentence came out the way I was planning, right.
Speaker 1: We we can't make any assumptions, but we never We
Speaker 1: don't know enough about her character to know whether or
Speaker 1: not she's Jewish. What we do know is that she
Speaker 1: plays basketball and she's like better than most of the people. Honestly,
Speaker 1: they did they even need Lamont car. They could have
Speaker 1: just asked Julie to like teach them basketball, have an internship, right,
Speaker 1: Julie has gotten into it also, like fourteen year olds
Speaker 1: with the internships. This is just outside of my frame
Speaker 1: of reference, right, but whatever, I'm glad she got to
Speaker 1: do that, although I didn't know that she wanted to
Speaker 1: until she just said I want to, and then she
Speaker 1: was doing it in the next scene, and it had
Speaker 1: no narrative impact. Basically, you can write her out of
Speaker 1: the movie and the story changes not even a single percent. Like,
Speaker 1: but but also don't like she should be in the
Speaker 1: movie and she should have just been written to be
Speaker 1: more important of a character who like contributes to the story.
Speaker 1: The choices they make with her were so bizarre to me.
Speaker 1: And then the final character who is a woman is
Speaker 1: Mrs Klein, who again between similar to like the mom
Speaker 1: and Dad character, where like the woman is the you know,
Speaker 1: the stickler, like I kind of hesitate to use shrew,
Speaker 1: but she's kind of shrew. Yeah, And between Mrs Klein
Speaker 1: and the are like main educator character in the story,
Speaker 1: Rabbi Lewis. You know, she is the disciplinary and she's
Speaker 1: the one who's always like trying to squash their fun
Speaker 1: and you know she doesn't know how to be silly
Speaker 1: or goofy, and she's always like, you know, stickler for
Speaker 1: the rules, whereas Rabbi Lewis is like very laid back
Speaker 1: and he's he even says like silliness is good for
Speaker 1: the soul. I mean, Raby Lewis is a really fun
Speaker 1: I like, I like him. He's fun too, but he yeah,
Speaker 1: he like exists in contrast to her. Yeah, oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I hated them that principal character, Like it just felt
Speaker 1: very um. It was hard to like observe the scene
Speaker 1: where she follows Lamont home and not think it was rape,
Speaker 1: Like how weird did that be? What? Well, that's the
Speaker 1: thing is, like I think like it's heavily implied. Whether
Speaker 1: the movie is even like acutely aware of this or
Speaker 1: not that Like she's racist and classes and like her,
Speaker 1: I mean she and it's through her that all of
Speaker 1: this ship comes through of like god, I mean, there's
Speaker 1: so many and I guess that this starts the discussion
Speaker 1: about Lamont's character as well. But the way that she
Speaker 1: acts when she is like pressuring him to give her
Speaker 1: a permanent address is really hard to watch and really frustrating,
Speaker 1: and like especially because we as an audience know by
Speaker 1: then that he's unhoused and that whatever. It's like, if
Speaker 1: you know anything about those sorts of issues, it's like, well,
Speaker 1: why would not having a permanent address preclude you from
Speaker 1: being employed? And how are you going to have a
Speaker 1: permanent address if you're not given sustainable employment? You fucking anyways,
Speaker 1: and then she like stalks him and like just I
Speaker 1: don't I don't know. Everything's such a weird invasion of privacy.
Speaker 1: She sucks, and then yeah, I'm curious to everyone's thoughts
Speaker 1: on like how the movie treats just sort of like
Speaker 1: the idea of being unhoused. Because we learned that Lamont
Speaker 1: is unhoused. He has family back in virgin Virginia. So
Speaker 1: I'm like, is he just like living out of his
Speaker 1: van while he's staying in Philadelphia trying to get a job,
Speaker 1: Like this is his family housed back in Virginia's from it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then they like set him up in this condo
Speaker 1: that Alex's dad is having trouble selling, and that's not
Speaker 1: trying to sell at all, just like drinking whiskey and right,
Speaker 1: So it's like, I don't know it. So I don't know.
Speaker 1: I didn't I mean, we've definitely seen movies that handle
Speaker 1: the state of being unhoused worse and that are like
Speaker 1: cruel to characters who are unhoused, But this, this one
Speaker 1: felt a little dissonant to me. But it definitely hasn't
Speaker 1: wasn't like the worst example we've seen depictions of a
Speaker 1: unhoused person of color speaking as someone who was neither
Speaker 1: a person of color nor unhoused. Um, I was like,
Speaker 1: this feels empathetic. This feels like he's very human, He
Speaker 1: has a whole you know, it's not just like this
Speaker 1: person who the trope of, like someone who's drinking or
Speaker 1: drugs or whatever. This was just someone who is down
Speaker 1: on his luck and got injured, which is a very
Speaker 1: typical reason do people do end up at housed. And
Speaker 1: I love this scene where they're eating dinner together, him
Speaker 1: and Alex And yeah, I loved that he was a
Speaker 1: human character as opposed to just like this depiction of
Speaker 1: the worst of it. Um. But yeah, the movie doesn't
Speaker 1: seem to make a judgment call on him being unhoused.
Speaker 1: And in fact, the movie once I Think Wants You Too,
Speaker 1: condemned the behavior of the principle, who is like judging
Speaker 1: him and trying to discriminate against him for being unhoused.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I thought, I mean, I thought, it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like everything in this movie, it's very
Speaker 1: after school special. It's very like of this dcom genre
Speaker 1: where it's like it's all going to be a little
Speaker 1: heavy handed, it's not gonna like Agecent well, but I
Speaker 1: felt like at least where the movie was coming from,
Speaker 1: felt like it was coming from an empathetic place. Like
Speaker 1: the protagonist of the movie immediately empathizes doesn't judge Lamont
Speaker 1: for being unhoused. They like you're saying, fay like they
Speaker 1: and I like kind of that like duality of like
Speaker 1: Lamont goes to Alex's house for dinner and then Alex
Speaker 1: goes to la Month's place for dinner and they have
Speaker 1: a discussion about it. It's like there aren't I don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, I like the classic negative stereotypes, especially two
Speaker 1: thousand and three, where I feel like that stereotype was
Speaker 1: just like flying around then of either portraying and house
Speaker 1: people as the butt of jokes or kind of trauma porn,
Speaker 1: and in an lot of the arts, this is like, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I mean, there's there's more to be
Speaker 1: said about the Lamont character, but I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of more empathetically done than most of those stories and
Speaker 1: not something that's like negative for kids necessarily. If you
Speaker 1: think about the audience how it is most kids, this
Speaker 1: is it could very well be some like a child's
Speaker 1: first introduction of someone who is on house, and like
Speaker 1: it's kind of a sweet I guess, like I don't know,
Speaker 1: I don't know the word. I guess empathetic introduction to
Speaker 1: someone who does live on house, because like they're definitely
Speaker 1: a protagonists and they're seen as like this Judah mccabee character,
Speaker 1: this big hero and like a legend and an incredible
Speaker 1: talent and a sweet guy, and we learn a lot
Speaker 1: about his life and his his backstory, his interior life.
Speaker 1: We learn way more about him than we do about Julie,
Speaker 1: certainly for Julie. Yeah, I think I ultimately felt like
Speaker 1: it was like an imperfect but like well meaning attempt
Speaker 1: for two thousand and three. But let's keep it. I mean,
Speaker 1: let's keep talking about Lamont because I also like was
Speaker 1: happy and and that was when I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: I want to learn about the real Lamont. And it
Speaker 1: sounds like there's a lot of like it sounds like
Speaker 1: the lamentt of this movie is honestly heavily fictionalized, and
Speaker 1: the main takeaway is like this basketball player who got
Speaker 1: injured briefly was the coach of a young Jewish team.
Speaker 1: Like I think that that's maybe the extent to which
Speaker 1: it is quote unquote based on his life. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: what it seems like, because there's not a single mention
Speaker 1: of darts in the movie Full Court Miracle. He should
Speaker 1: be drinking wine with Alex's dad, you know, like they
Speaker 1: should be Somalia get up together. But as far as
Speaker 1: Lamont's character goes, I I, I don't know. I'm like again,
Speaker 1: I think that there are trophy elements to the way
Speaker 1: that he's presented in the movie that are like, I
Speaker 1: I don't know what. How did everyone feel? I felt
Speaker 1: like there were magical elements about Lmont that were presented
Speaker 1: like it it felt like, very firmly in that trope
Speaker 1: of like the magical black character who shows up and
Speaker 1: you know, helps the white protagonist reach his goal. How
Speaker 1: I described the movie to people who haven't seen it,
Speaker 1: I'm like, like, magical black character who helps a bunch
Speaker 1: of white people be successful and then sort of has
Speaker 1: their story not really finished or develop Yeah, oh absolutely,
Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean I was if that's the story
Speaker 1: they're trying to tell, like how could they kind of
Speaker 1: avoid that? But yeah, definitely, Well it's that's so that's
Speaker 1: the problem is, like I feel like they didn't need
Speaker 1: to tell the story that way. Like all of the
Speaker 1: magical elements of this story, I feel like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it's tricky because I under down that the magical
Speaker 1: elements are part of what makes the Hannakah metaphor so
Speaker 1: central to the story, But I feel like that happens
Speaker 1: at the expense of Lamont's character and kind of leaning
Speaker 1: into a trope that is marginalizing Lamont's character, if that
Speaker 1: makes sense. Where there are moments where and again it's
Speaker 1: like I think that what is Maybe it's still very
Speaker 1: firmly this trip. But we know a lot about Lamont,
Speaker 1: we know about his background, we know what his goals are.
Speaker 1: Independently of coaching this team of fourteen year old kids.
Speaker 1: He does achieve that dream briefly, and he does have
Speaker 1: a fully realized arc where he's realized or reunited with
Speaker 1: his family, and then they're just like, we're going to
Speaker 1: move to Philadelphia. It's kind of clunkry, but but we
Speaker 1: do know a lot about his character. But it's still like,
Speaker 1: ultimately he is there to like usher these kids to victory.
Speaker 1: And then there's a few moments where he's straight up
Speaker 1: presented as magical. I mean, in the last scene where
Speaker 1: he shows up and the power is back on in
Speaker 1: the gym, there's no explanation for what it is. That
Speaker 1: was bizarre. Yeah, and for him to be the only
Speaker 1: black character who has any lines or any characterization whatsoever,
Speaker 1: it's like it is especially glaring. Yeah, I also find
Speaker 1: it funny. This is maybe a little off topic, but
Speaker 1: I find it. I don't even know what to make
Speaker 1: of this, But like the miracle that happens is like
Speaker 1: these kids got to finish their basketball game, the steaks
Speaker 1: that look at these steaks be higher, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: is this really the miracle we need right now for
Speaker 1: these like fourteen year old boys to win their I
Speaker 1: feel like it even less nuanced than that. It was
Speaker 1: literally like there's only enough oil in this generator or
Speaker 1: whatever energy to for the hell it was to last
Speaker 1: for one minute, and then it lasts for eight minutes.
Speaker 1: Like it's even less like right now than you're described.
Speaker 1: It was straight up like the miracle is very specific
Speaker 1: in one regard. I love that they kept using the
Speaker 1: word like miracle and that that was so heavy handed
Speaker 1: a bit, because that is like really the point of Hanukkah,
Speaker 1: and the point of Hanakah is like not that it's
Speaker 1: near Christmas at all or like that you get gifts
Speaker 1: or that I don't know, just like any of the
Speaker 1: things that you might associate from just like regular culture
Speaker 1: or whatever. It really is like about this, like I
Speaker 1: don't know ownership of like that moment and the legitimate
Speaker 1: miracle when a small band of Jews were able to
Speaker 1: like fight oppression and have oil that lasted long enough
Speaker 1: for them to resurrect their temple. And like even though
Speaker 1: like it was so corny and the miracle for these
Speaker 1: young fourteen year old boys was a basketball game, I
Speaker 1: think it just like made it made it seem accessible,
Speaker 1: Like what what miracle are? You reached to a d
Speaker 1: calm audience that's going to feel that is fair. Usually
Speaker 1: a contest or a sport, it's always like you're going
Speaker 1: to have to win something. Um, but yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: it's just like framing the context of like a miracle
Speaker 1: around something that a Disney Channel audience is going to think, Wow,
Speaker 1: that really is a miracle. We won our Tarney. That
Speaker 1: is fair. I didn't think of it like that. That
Speaker 1: it makes it very accessible to a young audience. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think ultimately, I just wish that, like, because there
Speaker 1: is that an amount of attention paid to the Jewish characters,
Speaker 1: that that same amount of consideration had been extended to like, well,
Speaker 1: how are we portraying the only black character in the movie,
Speaker 1: and are we um effectively avoiding stereotypes, which I don't
Speaker 1: think that they we're also I just like I also
Speaker 1: wish this is and I'm sure that this is a
Speaker 1: budgetary thing because like how would you do this? But
Speaker 1: it felt like it kind of reminded me de com
Speaker 1: wise of the end of High School Musical, where you
Speaker 1: see all of Zach Afron's basketball game and then you
Speaker 1: see none of Vanessa Hudgens's science contest and you see
Speaker 1: like five hours of Alex's bast foot football game, and like,
Speaker 1: what about Lamont. We don't even get to see Lamont
Speaker 1: in the stadium. I'm assuming because they couldn't afford to
Speaker 1: shoot in a stadium. But I felt like his story
Speaker 1: was kind of like dropped, especially after this scene was
Speaker 1: like intense. The scene between Alex and Lamont where Lamont
Speaker 1: has just achieved his life's goal, like he's going to
Speaker 1: play for the seventies six and these kids are furious
Speaker 1: at him. They're so mad, They're like, what the fucking
Speaker 1: dare You could not have been more communicative from the beginning.
Speaker 1: He was straight up like I am in town for
Speaker 1: a reason. It is to play this game with this
Speaker 1: That's all he's here for. He gets that opportunity and
Speaker 1: suddenly everyone's like, wait, you never told us you'd leave.
Speaker 1: Alex was so out of line. He's like, oh, you
Speaker 1: think that's what your family would want, and Lamont is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I actually do, Like that's why I came here, right
Speaker 1: And yeah he even sites like I have a family
Speaker 1: to support. They're relying on me, And the only reason
Speaker 1: the catalyst that gets Lamont to agree to coach these
Speaker 1: boys is that they offered to pay him, which I'm
Speaker 1: glad they did. Like I was like, imagine the movie
Speaker 1: if it's like these like you know, son of a
Speaker 1: doctor and real estate agent or like, hey, random guy
Speaker 1: who I'm bothering, who's just on the court shooting hoops,
Speaker 1: cheach my team, but for free. So I'm glad that
Speaker 1: these like these kids had the wherewithal to like understand that,
Speaker 1: you know, someone's labor should be compensated with money, because
Speaker 1: we live in a capitalist society where that's how things work,
Speaker 1: and that is like rooted in like Lamont's motivation to
Speaker 1: where it's like he we we know that he needs
Speaker 1: money to continue pursuing this dream of freelancing with the Sixers,
Speaker 1: which I still whatever, maybe it is, maybe it is
Speaker 1: I don't know how sports work, Hey bectel heads that
Speaker 1: are also basketball heads, let us know. So yeah, And
Speaker 1: then also just to the end of I don't know,
Speaker 1: like there were some points where I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: still I'm still mad about the mystical troping of Lamont,
Speaker 1: But there's there's some moments where his story is very
Speaker 1: front and center, and then other times where it's kind
Speaker 1: of like you're just like, wait, does I know what
Speaker 1: happened there? Where you do learn so much about him,
Speaker 1: You learn about when they're trying to figure out if
Speaker 1: he's the reincarnation of Judah mccabee. You know, they asked
Speaker 1: him about his background to verify that how many brothers
Speaker 1: did you have? Who is your father? And he answers
Speaker 1: very honestly. We find out that he had a brother
Speaker 1: who was a cop who died, and you're like, well,
Speaker 1: that's a lot of information. That information does not come
Speaker 1: back by the way, it's just something that you learn um.
Speaker 1: But then but then it's like at the end, I
Speaker 1: think the end, it just becomes so about the basketball
Speaker 1: game because it's a d com and the kids want
Speaker 1: to know how the basketball game is gonna go. But
Speaker 1: at the end they kind of like Lamont's story. It's
Speaker 1: so like it's literally like when Vanessa Hudgens comes to
Speaker 1: the gym at the end of High School Musical and
Speaker 1: it's like we want to like it's that um, which
Speaker 1: is an iconic moment in cinema where they drop her
Speaker 1: storyline completely, and then she shows up and she's like
Speaker 1: we went to and we're like, okay, who cares? But
Speaker 1: it's like, did you forget to shoot some scenes of
Speaker 1: the movie, because that's what it felt like for this movie,
Speaker 1: where like right Alex's mom goes to like give Lamont
Speaker 1: a ride or something like that, or they like then
Speaker 1: she like they pick up his family at the airport.
Speaker 1: But like those scenes feel like we need those scenes.
Speaker 1: I wish it was unclear that that happened. Ye, and
Speaker 1: then Lamont just is like, oh, yeah, by the way,
Speaker 1: and the scene that we didn't we forgot to shoot
Speaker 1: my family families now and they're actually moving here, which
Speaker 1: also I was like, oh, they're moving here, but he
Speaker 1: just was freelancing. Wouldn't he just go home? But now
Speaker 1: he has a full time job, which he didn't know
Speaker 1: until they already agreed to move there, So it was
Speaker 1: just kind of confusing. But and also but I guess
Speaker 1: that there is like that's a moment where it's not
Speaker 1: attributed the magical qualities, like not attributed to Lamont, but
Speaker 1: that scene where the mom shows up at assuming outside
Speaker 1: of the Sixers Stadium whatever, and then she's like trying
Speaker 1: to start your car and he's like, it won't start,
Speaker 1: and then she looks at like lightning and then she's like,
Speaker 1: try to start your car, and then it does start,
Speaker 1: And I was like, I guess that that was the
Speaker 1: magic of Hanic. I don't know. Trying to cut the
Speaker 1: movie a little slack and saying that a lot of
Speaker 1: the magical elements are more about the anka metaphor I
Speaker 1: don't even know have metaphor is the right word because
Speaker 1: it smacks you over the head so obsessively, but less
Speaker 1: about like the magical black character. But I mean, you
Speaker 1: just obviously have to be aware in particular about those things.
Speaker 1: But I'm like trying to not just ruin this movie
Speaker 1: for myself, and I feel like a lot of that,
Speaker 1: like the ghost and the magic and the generator, it's
Speaker 1: more about the Hanukah aspect than this, like right, I
Speaker 1: think it just it becomes complicated when you only have
Speaker 1: one black character in the entire movie and that's the
Speaker 1: expected to be the ghost of an Israeli hero. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's complicated. When I first saw the movie, I
Speaker 1: thought they were going to make like a really cool
Speaker 1: observation when alex Or Schlots is like, I think this
Speaker 1: guy is the ghost of Judah mccabee, and then all
Speaker 1: his little Jewish friends are like, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: And it's obvious that they think he's crazy because A
Speaker 1: like our ghost real and be it's like this tall
Speaker 1: black guy. And he says like, well, we don't know
Speaker 1: what Judah Maccabee looked like it could have been. And
Speaker 1: at first you kind of think they're going to reference
Speaker 1: the fact that like Jews from Israel were like Middle
Speaker 1: Eastern and maybe like that is what someone looked like,
Speaker 1: and then it doesn't really come back or like, I
Speaker 1: don't know. When I first saw this, he I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, are they about to reference the fact
Speaker 1: that like Jews historically have been people of color and
Speaker 1: like are actually Middle Eastern and people's depictions of Jesus
Speaker 1: are really whitewashed and like all these ideas. And then
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no, they're just making
Speaker 1: a because it's they don't touch on all right, I was.
Speaker 1: I was, yeah, I was really um hoping that that
Speaker 1: would happen, but this is not the movie where it happens. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Was there is there anything else that people wanted to
Speaker 1: touch on? I didn't really have anything else. I just
Speaker 1: wanted to say. I truly like, you know, I enjoyed
Speaker 1: the performances in this movie, even that weird scene where
Speaker 1: I truly think the kid was improvising how basketball makes
Speaker 1: him feel um because he was like, you know, when
Speaker 1: you put the thing in the hoop and it feels
Speaker 1: so good. But anyways, line of the movie is when
Speaker 1: Lamont it's just like, I don't know, like you know,
Speaker 1: when someone starts real acting in the movie in the
Speaker 1: middle of like a movie that it's not like that.
Speaker 1: But when Lamont is like, don't ever do that, don't
Speaker 1: put yourselves in a box, I was like, WHOA, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I felt it. I felt it. That was sweet, mom,
Speaker 1: it was really sweet. You really think a bunch of
Speaker 1: which kids can win. He's like, don't ever do that?
Speaker 1: That was sweet. I thought that was great. It was great.
Speaker 1: Shout out to the actor who plays Lamont, Richard T. Jones.
Speaker 1: He's been in a bajillion things. I recognized him from
Speaker 1: I know, I like Santa Clarita Diet. The career. Good
Speaker 1: for him. So that's my way of saying that I've
Speaker 1: seen Santa Clarita Diet, and you know what, I thought
Speaker 1: it was just fine. I keep thinking, you're gonna say,
Speaker 1: Santa Clause Santa University, which is coming out this season,
Speaker 1: bring him up our Jewish episode. I know. I'm so sorry.
Speaker 1: You really got a way to loop in. Santa. Hey,
Speaker 1: do you want to do you want to be in
Speaker 1: Santa University this year. I would be absolutely honored. Can
Speaker 1: I play a Jewish character? Yeah? Of course you can. Wow,
Speaker 1: this is like really for my career as a freelances.
Speaker 1: I think this year is going to be called the
Speaker 1: Santa Vaccine, but I won't know until I write it
Speaker 1: two minutes before we record. Amazing. Yeah, I'm obsessed. We
Speaker 1: should really have a star studded cast this year. If
Speaker 1: you're an extremely famous person, um, and you're listening to
Speaker 1: this right now, let me know if you want to
Speaker 1: be in Santa Let's let's try to get Alfred Molina. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's probably gonna be busy doing press for Spider Man,
Speaker 1: but Santi University counts as press. I would say, I agree,
Speaker 1: it gets uh it was you know, it gets pressed
Speaker 1: Santi University. I'm sure millions of people listen. It was
Speaker 1: on a list. I know about it. I don't even know.
Speaker 1: I don't remember if that's a lie or not. Um, Well, anyways,
Speaker 1: let's talk about whether Full Court Miracle passes the Bechtel
Speaker 1: test or not. I think the answer is no. I
Speaker 1: did forget about that scene where Julie and Alex's mom,
Speaker 1: Who do we learn her first name? At any point,
Speaker 1: or is she We've learned that her eponymous and his
Speaker 1: dad's name is Marshall. She's credited as Cynthia. If we
Speaker 1: learn her name in the movie, I like missed it,
Speaker 1: so I don't know Alex's mom. Mom Cynthia and Julie
Speaker 1: do talk about this like shadowing a doctor program, which
Speaker 1: I did forget about that scene, but yeah, I feel
Speaker 1: like they're they're talking about a male doctor that Julius shadowing,
Speaker 1: and they're talking about having to get to Alex's basketball game.
Speaker 1: So it doesn't I was like very like tuned to
Speaker 1: that scene because I was like, maybe, no, nope, it
Speaker 1: doesn't shoot well as far as our nipple scale goes
Speaker 1: zero to five nipples. Based on examining the movie through
Speaker 1: an intersectional feminist lens um, I mean for this to
Speaker 1: be one of four movies that prominently feature Hanukkah. I
Speaker 1: don't know if that was like a list of like
Speaker 1: American films or what exactly, but either way, there are
Speaker 1: very few out there, and while Hanukkah is not the
Speaker 1: most important holiday in the Jewish religion, it would still
Speaker 1: be nice to have movies about it and movies about
Speaker 1: other holidays. From any religion, because there are eight trillion
Speaker 1: Christmas movies and so much representation in media of Christmas,
Speaker 1: and there are very few movies about any other holiday
Speaker 1: or religious celebrations or traditions. Where's the Winter Solstice movie?
Speaker 1: That's what I want to know. But look, I yeah,
Speaker 1: I agree, and I also am like, let's get Santi
Speaker 1: University off the ground as well, So it's complicated for me.
Speaker 1: Two things can be true. Yes, So I think it's
Speaker 1: really positive for this movie to exist and for young
Speaker 1: Jewish kids who saw this movie on the Disney Channel
Speaker 1: to have felt represented by it. For adults seeing it
Speaker 1: for the first time three years ago, such as yourself
Speaker 1: Fae feeling represented, I think that is a really positive,
Speaker 1: wonderful thing. I don't like the way the female characters
Speaker 1: are represented, although again, the two adult women do have
Speaker 1: an arc. They maybe even have a redemption, which is
Speaker 1: something that we talk about in holiday movies a lot,
Speaker 1: where it's always like a dad needs to redeem himself
Speaker 1: because he was a bad daddy, but then he becomes Santa,
Speaker 1: now he's a good daddy or whatever those stories are about.
Speaker 1: I think that that's what it's about. So, you know,
Speaker 1: we get these, you know, kind of like sticklers, shrewish
Speaker 1: type of women. But then they come around and they
Speaker 1: have an arc. So I don't know, I feel a
Speaker 1: few different ways about it. And then Julie just is
Speaker 1: like set up to seeing like she's going to be
Speaker 1: an important character and then is completely sidelined. We learned
Speaker 1: nothing about her the you know, the magical black character
Speaker 1: trope that is present. I don't know. For me this,
Speaker 1: I feel like it's just going to have to be
Speaker 1: like a split down the middle, where like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of good things, there's some not so good things.
Speaker 1: Two and a half nipples. I'll give them to the
Speaker 1: menorah that is lit in a couple different A fun
Speaker 1: Jewish fact about them that is actually just like a
Speaker 1: candle opera on the specific one you've used for Hanukahs
Speaker 1: called a hanukia because it has to have eight little hands,
Speaker 1: and then one the main candle lighters called the shamash. Wow,
Speaker 1: I did not know. So thank you for giving yours
Speaker 1: your nipples. Yes, oh wait, I'm going to take half
Speaker 1: nipple away from that and then give my half nipple
Speaker 1: to the drado wrap. I was gonna say, I'm giving
Speaker 1: all my nipples to the dradle wrap. I'll go two
Speaker 1: and a half as well. Yeah, I I agree with
Speaker 1: that you're saying kill the knife. Like sometimes the Hanukkah
Speaker 1: metaphor chafed with other prominent tropes in a way that
Speaker 1: went a little under examined. I wish that Julie had
Speaker 1: more to do because I'm just like, you had Manny
Speaker 1: Santos and you did what with her Nothing? That's an
Speaker 1: interesting decision. Oh and I also just want to say
Speaker 1: I think that, like, yeah, this is a great movie
Speaker 1: for the representation of Jewish kids, but it's also great
Speaker 1: for kids who aren't Jewish to like know more about
Speaker 1: Hanukkah because there's not a lot of media that is
Speaker 1: gonna I mean it's like Rugrats. I don't know. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: this movie gave me a clear understanding of what Hanukah
Speaker 1: celebrates than I had before. So that brings me so
Speaker 1: much joy, truly and truly like the stuff like I
Speaker 1: I yeah, the Shabbat dinner scene, Like I learned a lot.
Speaker 1: And it's like kind of embarrassing for the world that
Speaker 1: there's not more media that teaches uh non Jews about Judaism. Actually,
Speaker 1: the one the media you know, like there you think
Speaker 1: you'd have more phase perjuring herself at the end of
Speaker 1: the episode, which is interesting. I'm giving my two and
Speaker 1: a half nipples to the dradle wrap. Done, done, beautiful. Hey,
Speaker 1: what what do you what do you say? I'm honestly
Speaker 1: giving it three nipples. I'm a notoriously lenient about my
Speaker 1: nipple giving. Uh And we love that about you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, it's still meaning. And I always throw on
Speaker 1: a half nipple for intention um. And I just want
Speaker 1: to see Jews on TV, Jews played by Jews doing
Speaker 1: Jew things. That is my goal. And I love seeing
Speaker 1: Honk Kong on TV. And I love seeing a gear
Speaker 1: at kids and it just being very chill and casual
Speaker 1: and saying that these kids are just like me. They
Speaker 1: play basketball, and yeah, there's no good female characters and
Speaker 1: the black character has to be magic. Yeah these things
Speaker 1: are true. Well, we have key paws, and we have
Speaker 1: Hanu Kiya's and we have a dread rap And for that,
Speaker 1: I'm going three nipples. And I will give my nipples
Speaker 1: to my non Jew husband for introducing this movie to
Speaker 1: me and for being so excited to learn about Judaism
Speaker 1: all the time and that is special to me. Ross.
Speaker 1: We hope we didn't let you doubt. This episode is
Speaker 1: dedicated to you, whether you liked it or not. This
Speaker 1: is your wedding presents, so you're welcome you wanting to
Speaker 1: do a Hanakah episode and hogsamak to everyone out there.
Speaker 1: I hope you have such a good hankn like some
Speaker 1: pretty candles and just see your family. You're chosen or otherwise,
Speaker 1: and you don't have to lean into all the trying
Speaker 1: to be Christmas slash capitalism indoctrination moments. There don't have
Speaker 1: to be presents or buying things. It's just supposed to
Speaker 1: be about family and joy and miracles and it's a
Speaker 1: pretty holiday shout out to the moment where Alex gets
Speaker 1: a an encyclopedia he gets like Wikipedia on c d
Speaker 1: s and he's like, thank you, you didn't want that
Speaker 1: love that. I do like the way his mom is
Speaker 1: characterized as far as like she's just like very self aware,
Speaker 1: and she's just like very I don't know, she's just
Speaker 1: like has a wonderful awareness about the world and her son.
Speaker 1: And she's like, I know you think my cookies suck,
Speaker 1: but I gave him to you. Anyway, I know you
Speaker 1: don't want Wikipedia on c ds, but guess what it's happening. Um,
Speaker 1: I would love Wikipedia on c ds. Well, I guess
Speaker 1: that's the episode. Yeah, Faith, thank you so much, everybody,
Speaker 1: truly happy Hanuka. That's thank you very much in Hebrew
Speaker 1: Toda and fay. Where can we find you on the
Speaker 1: world wide web? Oh my gosh, you can find me
Speaker 1: at fail or love on everything. No, why don't just Instagram?
Speaker 1: I don't do tweets, um and then Junior highs at
Speaker 1: Junior High, l a on Instagram and Twitter. I do
Speaker 1: not run the twe so if you tweet at me,
Speaker 1: I will not see it, um and come to Junior High.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm very into doing things. I r L these
Speaker 1: days now that everyone's vaccinated, get vaccinated. Also, shout out
Speaker 1: to your art depicting a scene in Titanic, which making
Speaker 1: merch for you. Don't worry. Thank you so much. I
Speaker 1: really appreciate it. Oh sorry, no, I meant for Caitlin,
Speaker 1: not Jamie. Oh ship. Yeah yeah I requested it. So
Speaker 1: it's that's really now. That's awesome for you guys. That's
Speaker 1: so fun. But Jamie, if you play your cards right,
Speaker 1: maybe I'll give you a certain Winter Solstice gift. Maybe
Speaker 1: you guys can like share this mug I'm working on
Speaker 1: or something. No, I can't wait to see it. That's
Speaker 1: going to be really cool. I'm just getting March for everyone.
Speaker 1: Um No, I love you, but thank you so much
Speaker 1: for doing a little Hottka episode. I'm sorry there wasn't
Speaker 1: a better you a lot. Well, hopefully there'll be more
Speaker 1: soon and I hope you should write a Hanuka movie.
Speaker 1: Maybe I will use my knowledge of not writing movies
Speaker 1: to take my screenwriting class. This was actually a long ad. Yeah, Caitlyns,
Speaker 1: just trying to get your money. Literally count me and
Speaker 1: I'm not sicko. You can find that. You can find
Speaker 1: The Bechtel Cast on the Internet as well. We're on
Speaker 1: Instagram and Twitter at Bechtel Cast. You can get merch
Speaker 1: for whatever holiday you celebrate. Because capitalism rocks, rolls and
Speaker 1: rules baby, no matter what religion, we by by Capitalism
Speaker 1: Babies as a t public dot com slash the Bechtel Cast.
Speaker 1: You can also join our patreon ak Matreon where we
Speaker 1: cover two additional movies just Me and Caitlin every month.
Speaker 1: And what are we? What are we doing where? Does
Speaker 1: ever do it. We're doing another Princess Switch because we're pilled.
Speaker 1: He's not quite Princess Switch three not enough. Vanessa Hudgens is, yes,
Speaker 1: that's our advances should be at least five. And then
Speaker 1: I think we're still deciding on a second December Matreon movie,
Speaker 1: so stay tuned. But yeah, Fai, thank you again for
Speaker 1: being here. Come back anytime. Thank you, and Happy Hanukkah
Speaker 1: to you all. Bye bye training trade trade on trail trade,
Speaker 1: trade on train, trail, trail trade