January 30, 2026 • 45 mins
The 1997 cult classic film Romy and Michele's High School Reunion followed two best friends from childhood friends to adult besties, though their friendship is tested by their upcoming ten year high school reunion. We talk friendships, cliques, the meaning of success, complete with 90s fashion, technology and fashion in all its glory.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steffan
ever told your production iHeart Radio. And today, for our
first feminist movie, Friday of twenty twenty six, we're doing
a We're bringing out some bangers. We are bringing out
(00:28):
some bangers. This has been requested by multiple people. It's
been on our list for a while. Today we are
talking about Romey and Michelle's high school reunion. I feel
like I'm continuing my education of movies. I somehow missed
that this was before your time. I would have been
(00:51):
nineteen ninety seven, I was around No.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, I mean like you wouldn't have watched this type
of movie. Yeah at the age you were at when
it was released, is what I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah. But I mean a lot of the ones we've
talked about like this, I think are that kind of
thing where I feel like I missed. I missed the boat.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We will be coming to Center Stage. Back to Center Stage.
We've talked about that one, which, by the way, the
actress just popped back up recently because she was in
a show.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Oh and everybody's like, wait, that's girl from Center Stage.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Anyway, coming back to.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yes, So I this was my first time watching this movie,
but you had seen it before, Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And all of the feelings of cringe. This is when
I talk about movies that embarrassed me that I can't watch.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This is the epitome of like, oh my god, because
not because necessarily like it is. It is a lot
of like what's up, Oh no, but like embarrassing moments
that I know is gonna happen, and I feel bad
for them, even though you know they are triumphant in
the end, it's still embarrassing and I cringe and I
can't stand it and I have to walk away.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yes, it's one of those movies I see. It's
funny to me because it was not at all what
I was expecting. Like I got the general plot. I
was pretty like, I'm sure they're going back to their reunion.
They're going to lie about it about what they've gotten
up to since then. But there was a lot of
stuff in there I was not expecting. Is very It's
(02:23):
kind of a strange movie.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It is the classic nineties when we had all those
high school movies that went awry, Like there were so
many of these movies that existed. We've talked about a few,
including like twelve Things I Hate about You, which was
a little later, but like in this kind of realm
of things.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, twelve things I Hate about you, you're adding two more,
I think, but I'd just added some things.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So things I Hate about you is one, and then
I think about Empire was a huge one.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Empire Records.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was one of those as well, Like I think
that's after high school though in college.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Anyway, moving on, Well, we're gonna get into it. But
I was like, so we've got kind of a fever
dream that happens. We've got a strange dance sequence.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I want to say Mina Servino wasn't actually a ballet dancer.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I wouldn't be surprised. Well, we've passed the window for spoilers,
but I suppose we have. If you have not seen this,
we have really teased some things that are going to
happen in our plot summary. Okay, So Romy and Michelle's
High School Reunion is a nineteen ninety seven comedy directed
(03:47):
by David Murkin and written by Robin Schiff with inspiration
from her play Ladies Room. It starred yes Mira Sorvino
as Romy and Lisa Kudro as Michelle and also stars
Janina Garuffalo and Alan Cumming. And when it came out
it was pretty successful, like monetarily and it was reviewed well,
(04:07):
but it has become a cult classic. I think it
played at the kind of local art theater near me recently. Yeah,
so it's got a fan base, a following, and I
can see why. I can see why. Also, Samantha and
I were discussing before the soundcheck is this very good? Really?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I mean it opens up with I'm just a girl.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Come on? Yeah, oh so good? So good? All right,
So I'm just gonna run through the plot here. The
film is presented in a non linear fashion, meaning we
have a lot of flashbacks. We are first introduced to
Romy and Michelle, the best friends from Tucson, Arizona. They
were best friends in high school and they are now
living together in La Romy runs into a classmate named
(04:54):
Heather played by Janine Garruffalo, who reminds her that their
ten year reunion has come up, and from there we
see flashbacks of their time at school where they were
close but bullied. They were not the A group, as
they call it, but instead we're picked on by the
A group. Romy had a crush on Billy, who was
(05:17):
the boyfriend of top mean girl Christy, while a nerd
named Sandy was played by Alan Cumming had a crush
on Michelle, and Heather had a crush on Sandy, so
yes got it mm hm. Anyway, at a dance, Romy
asked Billy to dance with her and he agreed as
a prank and then never showed up, so Romy and
(05:40):
Michelle danced together. They then come up with a plan
flashback over present day to show up at their reunion
with invented personas to make themselves look better. They kind
of have this realization that their lives aren't super impressive
when they're filling out a questionnaire, which, by the way,
(06:00):
I didn't go to my high school reunion, but there
definitely was no questionnaire involved me either.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I've been through several installations of reunions I was supposed
to go to and I was like, no, never, no.
But I definitely didn't get anything but an email.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I think if I went to high school, I would
never go, even if I was successful, because the being
successful part is that you don't go. Yeah. But anyway,
I did not get a questionnaire. I think ours was
on Facebook. Facebook invite this. So this plan of theirs
to look quote successful involves finding boyfriends, losing weight, and
(06:42):
that Michelle needs to find a job because she doesn't
have one currently. However, they realized that this is an
impossible task in two weeks to accomplish, so they decide
to pretend to be successful business women. Romy pretends to
have sex with an employee of the auto shop that
she works at to get access to a nice car,
and Michelle makes them some nice clothes. As you might imagine,
(07:07):
things do not go smoothly. They have to figure out
what business they are in, so they come up with
an idea that they invented post its, believing that no
one will be able to see through that lie. Like
everybody'll be like, oh, I know what that is, but
I don't know who invented it, So you can get
away with that lie. Through their creation of their fake lives,
(07:28):
they confront some of their issues with each other and
they get into a very big argument and decide to
split up in Tucson to not be with each other there.
Once they get there, Michelle has a dream where both
her and Romy claim to have invented post its. It's
not clear that it's a dream. At first, though, I
have to say I was very confused. Yeah, okay, yes,
(07:51):
it's just okay. A Romy in this dream got with
Billy and she in the dream, Michelle was interested in Sandy.
She got hit by a car randomly, and Sandy is
now successful in the dream. The dream continues with Romy
and Michelle cut off from each other for decades. Michelle
(08:15):
is trying to estavage their relationship, and then Romy dies,
giving her the finger of note. They are both very
successful in this dream. They get the guy, they win
the award, like you know, I don't know do they
give out awards at the high school reunions, but like
you're the best, they win those awards.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
According to all the movies, they give at least one
award most successful or most changed so thus far. I mean,
if you did you watch the reunion for the Liz
LEMAGEU thirty Rock. They gave her awards so they could
carry her.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't remember that. I know I watched it, That's
what I remember. Listeners right in Is this a thing? Yeah,
we've never been to an Orange? So are you telling
us never been? Tell us all about it? Sounds like
there's some interesting dynamics that happen there. But anyway, they
win the award. They drive away in nice cars, but
they don't have each other. So even though it's painted
(09:17):
as this very successful thing and the dream, it's still
sad because they don't have their friendship. And then we
cut to the real, non dream reunion. The A Group
are pregnant, Billy and Christy already have kids, two kids,
third one on the way. Michelle heads inside because Romy
(09:39):
left her sleeping in the car. Romy tells her posted
story to the A Group, but their classmate Heather corrects
her with the real name of the inventor and says,
you definitely did not invent the post it, so if
she is caught in the lie. Embarrassed, Romy flees and
she and Michelle make up, agreeing to be themselves. They
(10:00):
switch out of their business outfits that they were wearing
into their usual very colorful clothing. One of the A Group,
who has fallen out the rest of the group and
now works with Vogue, likes their outfits and basically it's
telling everybody like, nah, these outfits are cool. And then
Sandy shoves up in a helicopter, which is such a trope,
(10:22):
you know, you show up at the high school union
in a helicopter. That's a statement you're making, and asks
Michelle to dance with him, and she agrees if Romy
can dance with them too, and this is where the
dance scene comes in. Oh, Time after Time is playing.
It's quite something to see. Yeah, classic. Then Billy shows
(10:48):
up and comes on to Romy, but she stands him up. Basically,
she's like, oh, yeah, why don't you go wait in
the room and I'll be there in five minutes and
then never goes, so heading back at him for what
he did to her all those years ago. By the way,
he is with Christy and like has kids yet. Anyway,
(11:09):
years later, Romy and Michelle have opened up a fashion
boutique in La supported by Sandy h and they seem
to be doing really well. They seem to be doing
really well. Heather shows up. Heather's there and it's trying
on a very bright, brightly colored dress when she had
kind of a golf look going previously. But yeah, all
(11:31):
as well, friendship healed. Heck, yeah, yes, it was quite
an interesting film, which I guess before we get into
the themes we are going to be talking about, like
weight and weight loss, and because it was pretty consistent
(11:55):
that nineties weight loss. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty bad. So
I did enjoy it. I thought it was funny. It
(12:16):
was not. It was bizarre. It was a lot of it.
I was like, what is this?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It's kind of like what a high schooler who isn't
from LA would think.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
LA was yeah, and I couldn't. I was like, are
we making fun of these accents? What are we doing
with these accents?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So there's been a thing recently, and it's not just
Miras or Vino, which I think he's always had an
interesting way of talking. I can't remember because I just remember.
She wasn't my favorite actress. I love and respect who
she's become in the fight that she's had to have
in the industry, So I'm going to put that there.
(12:59):
But her acting was never my company, so it was
never something on like I must watch her Jenny Garoffalo
every day. I loved everything she did, including the truth
about cast and dogs with her and Uma Thurman. If
you've never seen it, you probably never have. And I
loved it because I loved dark haired certainly not beautiful
girls being main characters, and weirdly, Jenny Garoffalo ended up
(13:24):
being what like kind of the poster girl in that era,
one of the mini But I love loved Janninya Garofflo
that she was wonderful, so I would watch her and anything.
But with these access there's a thing that happens in Appalaysia.
There's a lot of things that happen in the South,
especially again Appalachian areas, where when they want to sound proper,
(13:48):
the O becomes oh, like there's this like tightening of
the lips to sound proper, and it becomes oh, And
that's kind of what mir Sorvino does. And I don't know,
and it may I think it may be a sexist
reason from way back when, and like women are not
supposed to have big mouths or wide mouths, so therefore
you made everything small and saying oh makes you look
(14:12):
goofy I guess because your mouth is too large or
I think fish mouth was one of the you know
what I mean, like the fishlans, so they would do
with them like pursing their lips instead of actually saying it.
And I wonder if that's what she was doing, does
sound proper?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
That's interesting because I thought they were just trying to
do the kind of like Valley Girl, the peral is
that's that is not I thought they were trying to
do something. Whatever California Act.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Did make like they were putting on it looked like
they were being.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Caricaturist for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, but I don't know because like Lisa koudrou to
me played her character from Friends, mm hmmm, perfectly except
stylish according to but like it was an interesting look.
(15:12):
But the first thing I thought when I heard Mareservino's
accent was because I've been seeing as I'm watching like
things and i see people from the South doing this
that I'm like, why is this? I think because my parents,
my mother does this that oh thing that I'm very like.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Confused.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But anyway, that's a whole side note that I've been
dealing with, like.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Why are you talking like that? It is interesting? It
is interesting. Well, we do have a lot of side
notes like that, because there was some stuff that just
really stuck out to me. But I think one of
the big themes, obviously the biggest one is friendship, but
(15:57):
we're gonna save that one for the end. But one
of the big ones I thought was high school dynamics. Again,
as someone who's never been to a high school reunion.
I still even younger had that kind of idea of
you have to show up really successful, you gotta have
your story straight of like what you've been up to,
(16:19):
all of that stuff, and then you know, am I
gonna reconnect with friends.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Or not the love of your life from high school?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
No? Yeah? But yeah yeah yeah yeah, or at least
make him jealous, right right, make him regret or her Yeah.
But yeah. Because we did get to see a lot
of that, I feel like we saw it more in
the flashbacks. It was apparent in the when they do
(16:50):
go to the reunion. I thought it was interesting kind
of the scene with Janine Garuffalo and Toby, another character
named Toby and Janine Gruffalo's character Heather was like, here
all this time, I didn't realize that a group was
hating on you. No one was like no one. Essentially,
(17:14):
I was hating on no one and they were like, no,
you were, you were there is some And Toby comes
up and she's like, you don't tell me to golf.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, which, by the way, there's so many actors in
this movie that later become like either big or iconic
in some way, including Toby, who has become kind of
like a queer icon and later on in different shows
and really kind of gotten bigger and who she is.
And then also justin the Row isn't there, And you
(17:46):
know he become a whole thing, which also made me connect.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I was like, oh, Lisa.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Coudrow and he then the later Days dinner for inistan
in okay, what else? Yeah, And then you have them
in there. You have the woman who plays So who
ended up being the Vogue editor. She has has become
iconic as the parent trap mom. Oh that's her, that's her.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah. And then the actress Kristen Bauer's in there, who
plays Pam and trewe Blood like she became kind of
a she became a cheer icon later on in shows
like that. Like you have some people in there that
were like, wait, that's so and so Ellan Cumming of course,
like he is an iconic in himself and playing this role.
(18:31):
And yeah, all the other stars. But you have some
bigger names than you would have assumed in this small
in this in this not small but in this nineties movies,
and I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, there are a lot of people that I mean,
you've taken me on a whole journey. But there were
a lot of people that I was looking at. I
was like, I recognize you, but I'm not sure from where.
I don't know, But there are a lot of people
that I've felt that way about. So back to our
high school dynamics conversation, Clearly there are clicks. You've got
(19:06):
the the a group. Who is this group of four girls,
like mean girls that kind of control the social hierarchy,
I guess, and then this whole idea of trying to
fit in when you're happy. So one of my favorite
parts of this movie is at the end when after
(19:32):
Romey has been kind of embarrassed and humiliated and Michelle
is like, you know, until you told me, I didn't
know that we were having a bad time. I was
having a blast like that because I was with you,
I was having a great time. And so I really
liked that they when you see them together in these flashbacks,
(19:56):
like they were, you know, thick as thieves. They were
like best friends. And it was only until they got
that idea in their head of like seeking approval from
the wrong people of what success means that it kind
of diminished their relationship at least in Romy's mind. But
(20:17):
I really liked that line of like, you know, I
was having a blast. I didn't know, right, that was
the problem. Yeah, we were having great fun and they
like stuck up for each other. And it was interesting
to hear like Heather talk about them from her perspective
of like, you know, that's not what I saw at all.
(20:40):
So seeing those different dynamics and those different cliques and
stuff like that. There was also a big like focus
on women having kids' success, at least with the A group,
because they're all pregnant and Romi asked Christy like, what
do you do and she's like, I'm having my third kid,
(21:02):
Like that's that's the end all be all of what
success is. Which, again, if that's what you want's totally cool,
But I think it was framed in a way that
was the reason she did it, is because for women,
that's how she viewed the only path towards success, right
(21:23):
whereas Michelle and Romi don't have kids, don't have boyfriends.
I really didn't enjoy the scenes of Romy trying to
get them boyfriends and doing a terrible job at it,
just terrible mm hmm. So there's all of that all
(21:44):
of that going and then having the kind of like
the crushes. I'm very intrigued in what Sandy's relationship is
with Michelle and or romy after this, right, I never says.
I was like, no, aren't they together? What happened here?
(22:05):
And I can't stress enough. When they start this dance,
Michelle and Romey are holding hands and he takes both
of their hands and they do like a whole kind
of mating dance. So I'm not sure, but having that
crush and coming back and still having that crush, and
(22:26):
then yes for unions, Romy and Michelle have been together
this whole time, so to them, there's not like that
huge jump of I haven't seen this person in ten
years or whatever, but they do have that kind of
realization of we want to change in two weeks, which
I think a lot of people can relate to. I
(22:46):
think like any dance, like.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
A web diet is huge for a reason.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yes, exactly exactly, So I feel like that's really relatable
of the Oh, I have this event coming up, and
I've gotta put on some real clothes and I've gotta yeah,
lose weight. But I also kind of like this could
be just for me but a lot of people wrote
in about requesting this movie, so probably not. But I
(23:13):
like how they were so happy with like they weren't
really dating and they weren't really like they were just
kind of happy with the life that they had. It
was nice. Yeah, you can just have a happy life
with your friends and your life. I'm sure though some
people think Romey Michelle are more than friends, but you
(23:36):
know you, I'm sure some people do for some of
my random asides. The clothes. The clothes are very nineties,
They're very bright.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Look some of us coming back have come back and
keeps coming back.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, that I'm very confused. I know it makes me sad,
like I shouldn't have gotten rid of my I have
this one shirt that would be very popular right now.
I think it was just a mess. It was an
absolute mess, but I loved it. I loved it. Yeah,
and they often did like complimentary colors like red and
(24:20):
yellow or pink and blue. I noticed that Michelle was
in the first scene. I think she was wearing like cherries,
very which we all know sexualized symbol. But yeah, the
very color, very colorful clothing is what I'll say carries
(24:43):
are sexual. Yeah, you pop your cherry. Oh lord, I don't.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Know if I carries to me are very childhood in
the like carrying in a basket and like just being
like cute, Okay, this is wilfar.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'd pay attention. Moving on maybe future episode.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Maybe like I I am so bad, like after you
would like say it. Then I can imagine it be like, oh, okay,
that makes sense, but I don't initially put it together
to be like I don't know, you got dirty mind Andie, no.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
There's no way that is what people say I get anyway.
It is one of the things they got in a
fight about was that Michelle, who was first seen wearing
the cherry earrings cherry colors, is the one that she
(25:42):
says she's cuter than Romy, She's much cuter, and then
Romy says, essentially she's much smarter. I think, like, you
could never invent the post it, but I could. People
will believe that I could. So that's sort of where
their argument comes from. And then when they make up,
it's very sweet where they're like, oh, you totally could
have been minted the posted Oh you're totally cute, and
(26:03):
I shouldn't have said that. Yeah. Another thing, you know,
I've got to mention it. You know, I love it
old tech knowledge. Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
The minute that a phone flip phone came out, I
was like, Andy's gonna have a field day.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yes, And I feel like wasn't the line. The line
was very funny. It was like, oh my god, it's
a flip phone. And then later when Romy is talking
to the a group and trying to repress them, she says,
out of nowhere, if anyone needs to make a call,
I've got a phone. It's the old flip phone. So
(26:39):
here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
In ninety seven ninety five, we had the car phones,
and people who had those phones legitimately were like the
cool kids. And I would say, or the spoiled kids.
Actually I saw them as the spoiled kids. It's the
same kids that got cars on their sixteenth birthday. And
I was like that definitely wasn't me. But like I
(27:02):
had a good friend of mine she had a car
phone and we would use it to call people every
now and again, and then we'd get yelled at because.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Here's a fee. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
There, Yes, it's like a collector, like minutes you have
minutes that it like adds up, like he needs long
distance call.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Think about that, Annie, I will, I'm kind of shook.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I mean, I don't think I had no, I didn't
have a cell phone until my sophomore year of college. Wow,
I am old, thank you very much. Moving on. But
like in this movie Zach from Saved by the Bell
having his giant portable phone, Yeah, it was a thing
(27:48):
we knew he was rich, California.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Kid, California kid. That did make me laugh though, that
that really cracked me up. This whole flip phone the story.
I was like, oh, she's love this part. I think
I immediately opened up the outline and wrote it down.
Had to, had to, Okay. So another theme, I would
(28:22):
say self perception, which is what we've kind of been
talking about. But like they were happy with the life
that they were leading until it became they were putting
on how other people perceived them of like oh, you
don't have a job, or you don't have boyfriends, or
you don't have a kid, whatever it is. And so
(28:45):
the resolution at the end is they decide to be
themselves and they change out of their business clothes and
they change into their colorful clothes and they're like together,
hand in hand, almost walking back in and kind of
dressing down Christie, the leader of the a group of like,
(29:07):
you know, you're mean, back off, right, that's a problem. Yeah, yeah,
And so having that moment of you know, I was happy.
I didn't need all of this external stuff to make
me doubt what I was doing or my friendship or
(29:29):
anything like that. One of the other things that stood
out to me is I think this was played comedically
in a way that didn't offend me, but I could
see how it could. But they're very ditzy characters. They're
both very they're blonde, ditsy characters where they're kind of
(29:53):
they miss a lot of cues. Like I said, I'm
pretty sure it was just kind of like a commie thing.
I wasn't really mad about it, but I could see
how some people might be. And you know, in the end,
they did get a successful business and they did figure
out what makes them happy. So but especially like kind
(30:15):
of that California aspect, I was wondering going back to
the accent and everything. But this brings us to the
weight loss. So this was the nineties. I do think
not infrequently about the when friends was really popular in
(30:36):
the nineties. There was an advertisement that had the three
women characters, including Lisa Kutro that said three anarexic chicks,
and that was the ad. So it was very at
the time, pretty normalized to have this kind of conversation
(30:59):
about women wings bodies because they keep in the movie
they must bring it up like ten to fifteen times,
need to lose weight. They're at the chubby chubby, chubby. Yeah, y,
you're so thin, They're so thin, this is yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I remember watching this thinking if they have ordered the
losers In high school, like I remember specifically watching movies
like this where I would cringe because I was overweight.
I was I've always been a thick girl. I will
never be skinny. The only time I've ever been kind
of skinny was on well beatrin and it started doing
(31:39):
things to my heart, and I was using it as
a depressive medication, not anything else. And so like, I
just know when you see again. We've talked about this conversation,
and we've talked about the nineties specifically with like magazines
and that era, the skinny.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Girl era, that ideal that people like Lisa.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Kudro and Mira Sarvino were not cool, even though they
were stick figures with like bigger boobs and like all
these things and then having and then they're talking about
needing to lose weight, which whether or not, that's just
an image thing. So it just immediately was that conversation
can't eat a chip, can't do any of these things,
(32:20):
and then trying to normalize the Tendae diet where you
again when she starts like, I haven't eat anything, but
the joke was that she was eating that free things
but they were all full of sugar. Type of conversation
that I remember that it left vivid things for my
own thing. I was like, oh god, they that's what
they feel like, and they think they're ugly. I have
(32:41):
to do these things to fit into that that moment,
because it was also at a time where they wouldn't
admit what they had to do to get that stick
any They would be like, no, I'm just naturally like this,
or I just work out. I'm just very disciplined, and
you're like, you mean, you starve yourself, you have a chef,
you're miserable, and you're probably taking medications to try to
(33:03):
take this and even possibly surgery, which is all in well,
and that.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You're doing that.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I hate that for you because I know you've got
to be miserable and it's unhealthy for you, and you
just need to be honest because these uh, these types
of conversations are really like it was. It was such
a harmful time. The amount of like eating disorders that
popped up and normalize was one of the worst.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I feel like it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
And then it's we've come back full circle, which makes
me really really sad with these new medications. But like
that was that time where you saw this and the
most skinny, beautiful people were being called ugly or not
the best type or whatever, and you're like, what even
the women who are pregnant, they were still thin as hell.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah yeah, and like I'm pretty sure they like bring
it up to run Romy's like, no, I have lost
five pounds, Like you shouldn't. This shouldn't be like such
a big.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Where ma'am, should you cut your hair like it?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah? Didn't she? Somebody brought up Mono. I was like,
I'm gonna get Mono to lose weight.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That was a big joke. The two thousands. I don't
know why, early early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, yeah, no, this whole thing it was very damaging.
I know I've told this story before. But one time
I used to watch when I was in middle school,
I would watch Access Hollywood and they had a model
on there once who I didn't even know, but she
she was saying like, I can eat whatever I want,
It's fine. And so I took that advice as, Oh,
(34:46):
I can eat whatever I want and it's fine. Obviously
that's not the case, and it was not. It was
damaging for me. But in this movie they do that thing,
the similar thing where they're eating like junk food, a
lot of junk food, at least Michelle is, and you
(35:06):
know she's still super skinny, but it's painted as if like, oh,
she needs to stop eating the jump food and lose weight,
Whereas if I feel like most people, if you were
eating that jump you would have gained the weight. It's
just like misleading, right, especially when you're young, when you
don't understand like right genetics or celebrities or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I mean, don't get me wrong, some people could just
can everything, but most of those people were all athletes
that were constantly.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Going yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
There's some who also were trying to gain weight and couldn't,
and that was a whole different problem.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, that whole.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Eating thing on the nineties era is really really alarming.
I will say I did appreciate that they didn't do
makeup on Mira Servena. They packed her, don't get me wrong,
to look chubby in the high school flashback, but at
least they didn't do the face makeup, because that always like,
that's just so insulting.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah. Yeah, and she wasn't.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So overweight, which was both a bad and a good
thing that they weren't trying to like again, caricaturist make
her look like fat Albert cartoonish level. But at the
same time, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That's not that's not that fat.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Why don't Yeah, I don't understand what was epping.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Let her eat a hamburger, Yeah, let her eat her
damn hamburger. And they looked exactly like the hamburgers from school.
By the way. I looked at that, like you pretty
much weird.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Looking patty with little bubbles on it that I didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Don't question me, don't question it. I'm gonna eat it. Yeah,
I mean that. I feel like a lot of times
when we do movies from around this era, this always
comes up. It was a really huge thing.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
The ninety's eighties really up buddy in it. I guess
all of let's just be all of society in general.
But the less clothes that was being worn, the more
judgment it seemed, which is like, let us be for hot,
we don't want to wear sleeves.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, let us be in general. I also have to
mention just because, as I said earlier, I do think
some people would put Romey and Michelle together. There was
a line where Michelle was like, you want to have sex?
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I loved that it wasn't really like homophobic, Oh my god,
like she does say I don't like, I don't think whatever.
But then she's like, you know what that's making at
thirty just like such like a h okay, maybe who knows,
may change.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Let's see. Yeah. I liked that. It was just kind
of a hey, all right. But that does bring us
to the biggest theme, the final theme friendship. Yes, so
that is pretty much the heart of the movie is
their friendship. You get to see their memories together, you
(38:08):
get to see some of their the grudges that they
might have, and then the making up, and they make
up really quick. I mean, obviously it's an hour and
thirty minutes. But I liked how. I liked how Michelle,
Like Michelle was like, I don't want to waste time.
I had this dream that you died. Actually, let's just
(38:29):
let's just make up. I don't want to I don't
want to be without you anymore. But it also reminded
me of one of my best friends in high school,
middle school, elementary school, still one of my best friends.
We were kind of like this wherein uh, people used
(38:52):
to joke we were Annie and Katie, like the names are
together because we were always together, and so we were
always doing things together. And like, I love how they were.
So they were just like when Romy got stood up,
Michelle's like, I will dance with you. And then at
(39:13):
the end, Michelle gets asked to dance and she's like
only if Romy can come. Like they were that type
of friendship where and people were asking Michelle when they
weren't together, like where's Romy. Like they had that association
of this is your person? Where's your person? Even ten
years later, And so I really liked that. I really
(39:34):
liked that, and I did enjoy their strange dance sequence
that I couldn't figure out, but I did like it.
I had a lot of questions. It's like interpretation okay,
(39:55):
interpretive dance, Okay, I got it. Okay, Well yeah, I
mean I did. I'm surprised, you know, I like a
good surprise. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
The one thing I was disappointed in in that era
is it like they had so many like trending exercising things,
but no typo that kickboxing, but no typo that made
me sad.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I like, how that's what made you sad? And then
itself was like, but where's the tibo?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
We need one good typo scene.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
That's true. Listeners, if you know a movie that has
a good typo scene, please let us know. It's probably
coming back.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Who knows, No, I think that again. This is one
of those movies that made me go, oh no, no,
they're gonna do this silly thing and so embarrassed already.
But we love a good friendship and the fact that
they love each other no matter what, like and the
that they would try to rather be with each other
than a man.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
It was rare for those times. Yeah, it was, and
it was very overt. It was kind of comically overt
how much they were like, no, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Join us, but it's going to be all of us.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, it's us, and you're lucky to be in our orbit,
correct and give us your money and a ride on
your helicopter. It was the epitome of it. Why would
men be here? Right? Yeah, I will say.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
The other thing that they're me off was Alan cummings accent.
I was like, oh, yeah, he has to be American
for this.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah. Yeah. And then in the dream, in Michelle's dream,
he looks different. It's different plastic surgery. No, it's in
with makeup, with prosthetics. I was like, who is that?
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Do you know? He says that he bought himself a
new face.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I wasn't sure if it was like still the
actor or a different actor. Oh wow, okay, yeah those makeup.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
I thought Job ninety seven's us like a costume people.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, No, I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
He is in another movie, but he's the bad guy
where he plays uh that.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I also want you to watch a Circle of Friends
because it also has a chubby brunette, not as beautiful
girl Minnie Driver, who's like beautiful, don't get me wrong,
but in this movie. But he's in that one too,
so I think because I knew him from that movie
where he has a very strong Irish accent that I
was like, wait, what's happening, where's he from?
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Who I love Alan coming? By the way. Yeah, I
think the first time I was introduced to him, oh
with Spike Kids. But then X two X Men.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Oh Oh he's a creepy guy and So of Friends
real creepy.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
I feel like I've touched this bullet a lot of times,
I guess if you'd call it that, But a lot
of people are like, my first association with this actor
is a creepy role they played, and I'm like, oh,
I've only seen them in like when they're playing a
good guy.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Again, love him in general, but yeah, he plays the
perfect slimmy dude.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
So I just called them first.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Actually he was in the Circle Friends as well.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Oh interesting, anyway, add it to the.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
List, Oh you have, because Circle of Friends used to
be my favorite movie. However, this movie coming back to
because I know I jump around, I'm not gonna say
it's gonna be it's in my top ten. It never
really was, but it definitely has a cult classic.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Love like people adore these movies. It was fun. I
really enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting a lot of it,
and I had some good laugh out loud moments. So
oh when I'll take I.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Think you need to learn the dance you and Katie
bet and people do that. Oh no, I think I've
seen it, but I think you and Katie need to
learn this dance.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Oh I get the blue that's what you know? That's
a friendship fight is so who gets what? But she
loves pick? Okay, anyway, listeners, if any of you have
done the dance, oh yeah, if you learned it, let
us know videos send it to videos that would be amazing. Yes,
and thank you to all the listeners who did request
(44:30):
this and yeah, go let us know your thoughts about
it and if you have any suggestions for upcoming movie picks,
just let us know. You can email us at hello
at stuff Iannever Told You dot com. You can find
us on Blue Scott Malta podcast or on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff I Never Told You for us on YouTube.
We have some merchandise at Common Bureau and we have
(44:50):
a book you can get wherever you get your books.
Thanks as ays too, our superduced Christina, our executive produce
My and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to
you for listening. Stuff never told me. Protection of iHeartRadio.
More podcasts from my heart Radio. You can check out
the heart radio app, Apple podcast wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to Steffan
ever told your production iHeart Radio. And today, for our
first feminist movie, Friday of twenty twenty six, we're doing
a We're bringing out some bangers. We are bringing out
(00:28):
some bangers. This has been requested by multiple people. It's
been on our list for a while. Today we are
talking about Romey and Michelle's high school reunion. I feel
like I'm continuing my education of movies. I somehow missed
that this was before your time. I would have been
(00:51):
nineteen ninety seven, I was around No.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
No, I mean like you wouldn't have watched this type
of movie. Yeah at the age you were at when
it was released, is what I mean.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Yeah. But I mean a lot of the ones we've
talked about like this, I think are that kind of
thing where I feel like I missed. I missed the boat.
Speaker 2 (01:09):
We will be coming to Center Stage. Back to Center Stage.
We've talked about that one, which, by the way, the
actress just popped back up recently because she was in
a show.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Oh and everybody's like, wait, that's girl from Center Stage.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Anyway, coming back to.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yes, So I this was my first time watching this movie,
but you had seen it before, Yes.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
And all of the feelings of cringe. This is when
I talk about movies that embarrassed me that I can't watch.
Speaker 1 (01:39):
This is it.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
This is the epitome of like, oh my god, because
not because necessarily like it is. It is a lot
of like what's up, Oh no, but like embarrassing moments
that I know is gonna happen, and I feel bad
for them, even though you know they are triumphant in
the end, it's still embarrassing and I cringe and I
can't stand it and I have to walk away.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
But yes, it's one of those movies I see. It's
funny to me because it was not at all what
I was expecting. Like I got the general plot. I
was pretty like, I'm sure they're going back to their reunion.
They're going to lie about it about what they've gotten
up to since then. But there was a lot of
stuff in there I was not expecting. Is very It's
(02:23):
kind of a strange movie.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
It is the classic nineties when we had all those
high school movies that went awry, Like there were so
many of these movies that existed. We've talked about a few,
including like twelve Things I Hate about You, which was
a little later, but like in this kind of realm
of things.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
Well, twelve things I Hate about you, you're adding two more,
I think, but I'd just added some things.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
So things I Hate about you is one, and then
I think about Empire was a huge one.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Empire Records.
Speaker 2 (02:58):
It was one of those as well, Like I think
that's after high school though in college.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Anyway, moving on, Well, we're gonna get into it. But
I was like, so we've got kind of a fever
dream that happens. We've got a strange dance sequence.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I want to say Mina Servino wasn't actually a ballet dancer.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
I wouldn't be surprised. Well, we've passed the window for spoilers,
but I suppose we have. If you have not seen this,
we have really teased some things that are going to
happen in our plot summary. Okay, So Romy and Michelle's
High School Reunion is a nineteen ninety seven comedy directed
(03:47):
by David Murkin and written by Robin Schiff with inspiration
from her play Ladies Room. It starred yes Mira Sorvino
as Romy and Lisa Kudro as Michelle and also stars
Janina Garuffalo and Alan Cumming. And when it came out
it was pretty successful, like monetarily and it was reviewed well,
(04:07):
but it has become a cult classic. I think it
played at the kind of local art theater near me recently. Yeah,
so it's got a fan base, a following, and I
can see why. I can see why. Also, Samantha and
I were discussing before the soundcheck is this very good? Really?
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I mean it opens up with I'm just a girl.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
Come on? Yeah, oh so good? So good? All right,
So I'm just gonna run through the plot here. The
film is presented in a non linear fashion, meaning we
have a lot of flashbacks. We are first introduced to
Romy and Michelle, the best friends from Tucson, Arizona. They
were best friends in high school and they are now
living together in La Romy runs into a classmate named
(04:54):
Heather played by Janine Garruffalo, who reminds her that their
ten year reunion has come up, and from there we
see flashbacks of their time at school where they were
close but bullied. They were not the A group, as
they call it, but instead we're picked on by the
A group. Romy had a crush on Billy, who was
(05:17):
the boyfriend of top mean girl Christy, while a nerd
named Sandy was played by Alan Cumming had a crush
on Michelle, and Heather had a crush on Sandy, so
yes got it mm hm. Anyway, at a dance, Romy
asked Billy to dance with her and he agreed as
a prank and then never showed up, so Romy and
(05:40):
Michelle danced together. They then come up with a plan
flashback over present day to show up at their reunion
with invented personas to make themselves look better. They kind
of have this realization that their lives aren't super impressive
when they're filling out a questionnaire, which, by the way,
(06:00):
I didn't go to my high school reunion, but there
definitely was no questionnaire involved me either.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
I've been through several installations of reunions I was supposed
to go to and I was like, no, never, no.
But I definitely didn't get anything but an email.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
I think if I went to high school, I would
never go, even if I was successful, because the being
successful part is that you don't go. Yeah. But anyway,
I did not get a questionnaire. I think ours was
on Facebook. Facebook invite this. So this plan of theirs
to look quote successful involves finding boyfriends, losing weight, and
(06:42):
that Michelle needs to find a job because she doesn't
have one currently. However, they realized that this is an
impossible task in two weeks to accomplish, so they decide
to pretend to be successful business women. Romy pretends to
have sex with an employee of the auto shop that
she works at to get access to a nice car,
and Michelle makes them some nice clothes. As you might imagine,
(07:07):
things do not go smoothly. They have to figure out
what business they are in, so they come up with
an idea that they invented post its, believing that no
one will be able to see through that lie. Like
everybody'll be like, oh, I know what that is, but
I don't know who invented it, So you can get
away with that lie. Through their creation of their fake lives,
(07:28):
they confront some of their issues with each other and
they get into a very big argument and decide to
split up in Tucson to not be with each other there.
Once they get there, Michelle has a dream where both
her and Romy claim to have invented post its. It's
not clear that it's a dream. At first, though, I
have to say I was very confused. Yeah, okay, yes,
(07:51):
it's just okay. A Romy in this dream got with
Billy and she in the dream, Michelle was interested in Sandy.
She got hit by a car randomly, and Sandy is
now successful in the dream. The dream continues with Romy
and Michelle cut off from each other for decades. Michelle
(08:15):
is trying to estavage their relationship, and then Romy dies,
giving her the finger of note. They are both very
successful in this dream. They get the guy, they win
the award, like you know, I don't know do they
give out awards at the high school reunions, but like
you're the best, they win those awards.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
According to all the movies, they give at least one
award most successful or most changed so thus far. I mean,
if you did you watch the reunion for the Liz
LEMAGEU thirty Rock. They gave her awards so they could
carry her.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
I don't remember that. I know I watched it, That's
what I remember. Listeners right in Is this a thing? Yeah,
we've never been to an Orange? So are you telling
us never been? Tell us all about it? Sounds like
there's some interesting dynamics that happen there. But anyway, they
win the award. They drive away in nice cars, but
they don't have each other. So even though it's painted
(09:17):
as this very successful thing and the dream, it's still
sad because they don't have their friendship. And then we
cut to the real, non dream reunion. The A Group
are pregnant, Billy and Christy already have kids, two kids,
third one on the way. Michelle heads inside because Romy
(09:39):
left her sleeping in the car. Romy tells her posted
story to the A Group, but their classmate Heather corrects
her with the real name of the inventor and says,
you definitely did not invent the post it, so if
she is caught in the lie. Embarrassed, Romy flees and
she and Michelle make up, agreeing to be themselves. They
(10:00):
switch out of their business outfits that they were wearing
into their usual very colorful clothing. One of the A Group,
who has fallen out the rest of the group and
now works with Vogue, likes their outfits and basically it's
telling everybody like, nah, these outfits are cool. And then
Sandy shoves up in a helicopter, which is such a trope,
(10:22):
you know, you show up at the high school union
in a helicopter. That's a statement you're making, and asks
Michelle to dance with him, and she agrees if Romy
can dance with them too, and this is where the
dance scene comes in. Oh, Time after Time is playing.
It's quite something to see. Yeah, classic. Then Billy shows
(10:48):
up and comes on to Romy, but she stands him up. Basically,
she's like, oh, yeah, why don't you go wait in
the room and I'll be there in five minutes and
then never goes, so heading back at him for what
he did to her all those years ago. By the way,
he is with Christy and like has kids yet. Anyway,
(11:09):
years later, Romy and Michelle have opened up a fashion
boutique in La supported by Sandy h and they seem
to be doing really well. They seem to be doing
really well. Heather shows up. Heather's there and it's trying
on a very bright, brightly colored dress when she had
kind of a golf look going previously. But yeah, all
(11:31):
as well, friendship healed. Heck, yeah, yes, it was quite
an interesting film, which I guess before we get into
the themes we are going to be talking about, like
weight and weight loss, and because it was pretty consistent
(11:55):
that nineties weight loss. Yeah, yeah, it's pretty bad. So
I did enjoy it. I thought it was funny. It
(12:16):
was not. It was bizarre. It was a lot of it.
I was like, what is this?
Speaker 2 (12:23):
It's kind of like what a high schooler who isn't
from LA would think.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
LA was yeah, and I couldn't. I was like, are
we making fun of these accents? What are we doing
with these accents?
Speaker 2 (12:38):
So there's been a thing recently, and it's not just
Miras or Vino, which I think he's always had an
interesting way of talking. I can't remember because I just remember.
She wasn't my favorite actress. I love and respect who
she's become in the fight that she's had to have
in the industry, So I'm going to put that there.
(12:59):
But her acting was never my company, so it was
never something on like I must watch her Jenny Garoffalo
every day. I loved everything she did, including the truth
about cast and dogs with her and Uma Thurman. If
you've never seen it, you probably never have. And I
loved it because I loved dark haired certainly not beautiful
girls being main characters, and weirdly, Jenny Garoffalo ended up
(13:24):
being what like kind of the poster girl in that era,
one of the mini But I love loved Janninya Garofflo
that she was wonderful, so I would watch her and anything.
But with these access there's a thing that happens in Appalaysia.
There's a lot of things that happen in the South,
especially again Appalachian areas, where when they want to sound proper,
(13:48):
the O becomes oh, like there's this like tightening of
the lips to sound proper, and it becomes oh, And
that's kind of what mir Sorvino does. And I don't know,
and it may I think it may be a sexist
reason from way back when, and like women are not
supposed to have big mouths or wide mouths, so therefore
you made everything small and saying oh makes you look
(14:12):
goofy I guess because your mouth is too large or
I think fish mouth was one of the you know
what I mean, like the fishlans, so they would do
with them like pursing their lips instead of actually saying it.
And I wonder if that's what she was doing, does
sound proper?
Speaker 1 (14:31):
That's interesting because I thought they were just trying to
do the kind of like Valley Girl, the peral is
that's that is not I thought they were trying to
do something. Whatever California Act.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
Did make like they were putting on it looked like
they were being.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Caricaturist for sure.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
Yeah, but I don't know because like Lisa koudrou to
me played her character from Friends, mm hmmm, perfectly except
stylish according to but like it was an interesting look.
(15:12):
But the first thing I thought when I heard Mareservino's
accent was because I've been seeing as I'm watching like
things and i see people from the South doing this
that I'm like, why is this? I think because my parents,
my mother does this that oh thing that I'm very like.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
Confused.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
But anyway, that's a whole side note that I've been
dealing with, like.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Why are you talking like that? It is interesting? It
is interesting. Well, we do have a lot of side
notes like that, because there was some stuff that just
really stuck out to me. But I think one of
the big themes, obviously the biggest one is friendship, but
(15:57):
we're gonna save that one for the end. But one
of the big ones I thought was high school dynamics. Again,
as someone who's never been to a high school reunion.
I still even younger had that kind of idea of
you have to show up really successful, you gotta have
your story straight of like what you've been up to,
(16:19):
all of that stuff, and then you know, am I
gonna reconnect with friends.
Speaker 2 (16:24):
Or not the love of your life from high school?
Speaker 1 (16:27):
No? Yeah? But yeah yeah yeah yeah, or at least
make him jealous, right right, make him regret or her Yeah.
But yeah. Because we did get to see a lot
of that, I feel like we saw it more in
the flashbacks. It was apparent in the when they do
(16:50):
go to the reunion. I thought it was interesting kind
of the scene with Janine Garuffalo and Toby, another character
named Toby and Janine Gruffalo's character Heather was like, here
all this time, I didn't realize that a group was
hating on you. No one was like no one. Essentially,
(17:14):
I was hating on no one and they were like, no,
you were, you were there is some And Toby comes
up and she's like, you don't tell me to golf.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, which, by the way, there's so many actors in
this movie that later become like either big or iconic
in some way, including Toby, who has become kind of
like a queer icon and later on in different shows
and really kind of gotten bigger and who she is.
And then also justin the Row isn't there, And you
(17:46):
know he become a whole thing, which also made me connect.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
I was like, oh, Lisa.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Coudrow and he then the later Days dinner for inistan
in okay, what else? Yeah, And then you have them
in there. You have the woman who plays So who
ended up being the Vogue editor. She has has become
iconic as the parent trap mom. Oh that's her, that's her.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Oh wow.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
Yeah. And then the actress Kristen Bauer's in there, who
plays Pam and trewe Blood like she became kind of
a she became a cheer icon later on in shows
like that. Like you have some people in there that
were like, wait, that's so and so Ellan Cumming of course,
like he is an iconic in himself and playing this role.
(18:31):
And yeah, all the other stars. But you have some
bigger names than you would have assumed in this small
in this in this not small but in this nineties movies,
and I really do appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
Yeah, there are a lot of people that I mean,
you've taken me on a whole journey. But there were
a lot of people that I was looking at. I
was like, I recognize you, but I'm not sure from where.
I don't know, But there are a lot of people
that I've felt that way about. So back to our
high school dynamics conversation, Clearly there are clicks. You've got
(19:06):
the the a group. Who is this group of four girls,
like mean girls that kind of control the social hierarchy,
I guess, and then this whole idea of trying to
fit in when you're happy. So one of my favorite
parts of this movie is at the end when after
(19:32):
Romey has been kind of embarrassed and humiliated and Michelle
is like, you know, until you told me, I didn't
know that we were having a bad time. I was
having a blast like that because I was with you,
I was having a great time. And so I really
liked that they when you see them together in these flashbacks,
(19:56):
like they were, you know, thick as thieves. They were
like best friends. And it was only until they got
that idea in their head of like seeking approval from
the wrong people of what success means that it kind
of diminished their relationship at least in Romy's mind. But
(20:17):
I really liked that line of like, you know, I
was having a blast. I didn't know, right, that was
the problem. Yeah, we were having great fun and they
like stuck up for each other. And it was interesting
to hear like Heather talk about them from her perspective
of like, you know, that's not what I saw at all.
(20:40):
So seeing those different dynamics and those different cliques and
stuff like that. There was also a big like focus
on women having kids' success, at least with the A group,
because they're all pregnant and Romi asked Christy like, what
do you do and she's like, I'm having my third kid,
(21:02):
Like that's that's the end all be all of what
success is. Which, again, if that's what you want's totally cool,
But I think it was framed in a way that
was the reason she did it, is because for women,
that's how she viewed the only path towards success, right
(21:23):
whereas Michelle and Romi don't have kids, don't have boyfriends.
I really didn't enjoy the scenes of Romy trying to
get them boyfriends and doing a terrible job at it,
just terrible mm hmm. So there's all of that all
(21:44):
of that going and then having the kind of like
the crushes. I'm very intrigued in what Sandy's relationship is
with Michelle and or romy after this, right, I never says.
I was like, no, aren't they together? What happened here?
(22:05):
And I can't stress enough. When they start this dance,
Michelle and Romey are holding hands and he takes both
of their hands and they do like a whole kind
of mating dance. So I'm not sure, but having that
crush and coming back and still having that crush, and
(22:26):
then yes for unions, Romy and Michelle have been together
this whole time, so to them, there's not like that
huge jump of I haven't seen this person in ten
years or whatever, but they do have that kind of
realization of we want to change in two weeks, which
I think a lot of people can relate to. I
(22:46):
think like any dance, like.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
A web diet is huge for a reason.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
Yes, exactly exactly, So I feel like that's really relatable
of the Oh, I have this event coming up, and
I've gotta put on some real clothes and I've gotta yeah,
lose weight. But I also kind of like this could
be just for me but a lot of people wrote
in about requesting this movie, so probably not. But I
(23:13):
like how they were so happy with like they weren't
really dating and they weren't really like they were just
kind of happy with the life that they had. It
was nice. Yeah, you can just have a happy life
with your friends and your life. I'm sure though some
people think Romey Michelle are more than friends, but you
(23:36):
know you, I'm sure some people do for some of
my random asides. The clothes. The clothes are very nineties,
They're very bright.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
Look some of us coming back have come back and
keeps coming back.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
Yeah, that I'm very confused. I know it makes me sad,
like I shouldn't have gotten rid of my I have
this one shirt that would be very popular right now.
I think it was just a mess. It was an
absolute mess, but I loved it. I loved it. Yeah,
and they often did like complimentary colors like red and
(24:20):
yellow or pink and blue. I noticed that Michelle was
in the first scene. I think she was wearing like cherries,
very which we all know sexualized symbol. But yeah, the
very color, very colorful clothing is what I'll say carries
(24:43):
are sexual. Yeah, you pop your cherry. Oh lord, I don't.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
Know if I carries to me are very childhood in
the like carrying in a basket and like just being
like cute, Okay, this is wilfar.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
I'd pay attention. Moving on maybe future episode.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
Maybe like I I am so bad, like after you
would like say it. Then I can imagine it be like, oh, okay,
that makes sense, but I don't initially put it together
to be like I don't know, you got dirty mind Andie, no.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
There's no way that is what people say I get anyway.
It is one of the things they got in a
fight about was that Michelle, who was first seen wearing
the cherry earrings cherry colors, is the one that she
(25:42):
says she's cuter than Romy, She's much cuter, and then
Romy says, essentially she's much smarter. I think, like, you
could never invent the post it, but I could. People
will believe that I could. So that's sort of where
their argument comes from. And then when they make up,
it's very sweet where they're like, oh, you totally could
have been minted the posted Oh you're totally cute, and
(26:03):
I shouldn't have said that. Yeah. Another thing, you know,
I've got to mention it. You know, I love it
old tech knowledge. Yes.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
The minute that a phone flip phone came out, I
was like, Andy's gonna have a field day.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Yes, And I feel like wasn't the line. The line
was very funny. It was like, oh my god, it's
a flip phone. And then later when Romy is talking
to the a group and trying to repress them, she says,
out of nowhere, if anyone needs to make a call,
I've got a phone. It's the old flip phone. So
(26:39):
here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (26:41):
In ninety seven ninety five, we had the car phones,
and people who had those phones legitimately were like the
cool kids. And I would say, or the spoiled kids.
Actually I saw them as the spoiled kids. It's the
same kids that got cars on their sixteenth birthday. And
I was like that definitely wasn't me. But like I
(27:02):
had a good friend of mine she had a car
phone and we would use it to call people every
now and again, and then we'd get yelled at because.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Here's a fee. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
There, Yes, it's like a collector, like minutes you have
minutes that it like adds up, like he needs long
distance call.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Think about that, Annie, I will, I'm kind of shook.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
I mean, I don't think I had no, I didn't
have a cell phone until my sophomore year of college. Wow,
I am old, thank you very much. Moving on. But
like in this movie Zach from Saved by the Bell
having his giant portable phone, Yeah, it was a thing
(27:48):
we knew he was rich, California.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
Kid, California kid. That did make me laugh though, that
that really cracked me up. This whole flip phone the story.
I was like, oh, she's love this part. I think
I immediately opened up the outline and wrote it down.
Had to, had to, Okay. So another theme, I would
(28:22):
say self perception, which is what we've kind of been
talking about. But like they were happy with the life
that they were leading until it became they were putting
on how other people perceived them of like oh, you
don't have a job, or you don't have boyfriends, or
you don't have a kid, whatever it is. And so
(28:45):
the resolution at the end is they decide to be
themselves and they change out of their business clothes and
they change into their colorful clothes and they're like together,
hand in hand, almost walking back in and kind of
dressing down Christie, the leader of the a group of like,
(29:07):
you know, you're mean, back off, right, that's a problem. Yeah, yeah,
And so having that moment of you know, I was happy.
I didn't need all of this external stuff to make
me doubt what I was doing or my friendship or
(29:29):
anything like that. One of the other things that stood
out to me is I think this was played comedically
in a way that didn't offend me, but I could
see how it could. But they're very ditzy characters. They're
both very they're blonde, ditsy characters where they're kind of
(29:53):
they miss a lot of cues. Like I said, I'm
pretty sure it was just kind of like a commie thing.
I wasn't really mad about it, but I could see
how some people might be. And you know, in the end,
they did get a successful business and they did figure
out what makes them happy. So but especially like kind
(30:15):
of that California aspect, I was wondering going back to
the accent and everything. But this brings us to the
weight loss. So this was the nineties. I do think
not infrequently about the when friends was really popular in
(30:36):
the nineties. There was an advertisement that had the three
women characters, including Lisa Kutro that said three anarexic chicks,
and that was the ad. So it was very at
the time, pretty normalized to have this kind of conversation
(30:59):
about women wings bodies because they keep in the movie
they must bring it up like ten to fifteen times,
need to lose weight. They're at the chubby chubby, chubby. Yeah, y,
you're so thin, They're so thin, this is yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
I remember watching this thinking if they have ordered the
losers In high school, like I remember specifically watching movies
like this where I would cringe because I was overweight.
I was I've always been a thick girl. I will
never be skinny. The only time I've ever been kind
of skinny was on well beatrin and it started doing
(31:39):
things to my heart, and I was using it as
a depressive medication, not anything else. And so like, I
just know when you see again. We've talked about this conversation,
and we've talked about the nineties specifically with like magazines
and that era, the skinny.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Girl era, that ideal that people like Lisa.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
Kudro and Mira Sarvino were not cool, even though they
were stick figures with like bigger boobs and like all
these things and then having and then they're talking about
needing to lose weight, which whether or not, that's just
an image thing. So it just immediately was that conversation
can't eat a chip, can't do any of these things,
(32:20):
and then trying to normalize the Tendae diet where you
again when she starts like, I haven't eat anything, but
the joke was that she was eating that free things
but they were all full of sugar. Type of conversation
that I remember that it left vivid things for my
own thing. I was like, oh god, they that's what
they feel like, and they think they're ugly. I have
(32:41):
to do these things to fit into that that moment,
because it was also at a time where they wouldn't
admit what they had to do to get that stick
any They would be like, no, I'm just naturally like this,
or I just work out. I'm just very disciplined, and
you're like, you mean, you starve yourself, you have a chef,
you're miserable, and you're probably taking medications to try to
(33:03):
take this and even possibly surgery, which is all in well,
and that.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
You're doing that.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
I hate that for you because I know you've got
to be miserable and it's unhealthy for you, and you
just need to be honest because these uh, these types
of conversations are really like it was. It was such
a harmful time. The amount of like eating disorders that
popped up and normalize was one of the worst.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I feel like it.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
And then it's we've come back full circle, which makes
me really really sad with these new medications. But like
that was that time where you saw this and the
most skinny, beautiful people were being called ugly or not
the best type or whatever, and you're like, what even
the women who are pregnant, they were still thin as hell.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah yeah, and like I'm pretty sure they like bring
it up to run Romy's like, no, I have lost
five pounds, Like you shouldn't. This shouldn't be like such
a big.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Where ma'am, should you cut your hair like it?
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Yeah? Didn't she? Somebody brought up Mono. I was like,
I'm gonna get Mono to lose weight.
Speaker 2 (34:16):
That was a big joke. The two thousands. I don't
know why, early early two thousands.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Well, yeah, no, this whole thing it was very damaging.
I know I've told this story before. But one time
I used to watch when I was in middle school,
I would watch Access Hollywood and they had a model
on there once who I didn't even know, but she
she was saying like, I can eat whatever I want,
It's fine. And so I took that advice as, Oh,
(34:46):
I can eat whatever I want and it's fine. Obviously
that's not the case, and it was not. It was
damaging for me. But in this movie they do that thing,
the similar thing where they're eating like junk food, a
lot of junk food, at least Michelle is, and you
(35:06):
know she's still super skinny, but it's painted as if like, oh,
she needs to stop eating the jump food and lose weight,
Whereas if I feel like most people, if you were
eating that jump you would have gained the weight. It's
just like misleading, right, especially when you're young, when you
don't understand like right genetics or celebrities or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
I mean, don't get me wrong, some people could just
can everything, but most of those people were all athletes
that were constantly.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
Going yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
There's some who also were trying to gain weight and couldn't,
and that was a whole different problem.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah, that whole.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
Eating thing on the nineties era is really really alarming.
I will say I did appreciate that they didn't do
makeup on Mira Servena. They packed her, don't get me wrong,
to look chubby in the high school flashback, but at
least they didn't do the face makeup, because that always like,
that's just so insulting.
Speaker 1 (36:05):
Yeah. Yeah, and she wasn't.
Speaker 2 (36:08):
So overweight, which was both a bad and a good
thing that they weren't trying to like again, caricaturist make
her look like fat Albert cartoonish level. But at the
same time, I'm like.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
That's not that's not that fat.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Why don't Yeah, I don't understand what was epping.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Let her eat a hamburger, Yeah, let her eat her
damn hamburger. And they looked exactly like the hamburgers from school.
By the way. I looked at that, like you pretty
much weird.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Looking patty with little bubbles on it that I didn't understand.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
Don't question me, don't question it. I'm gonna eat it. Yeah,
I mean that. I feel like a lot of times
when we do movies from around this era, this always
comes up. It was a really huge thing.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
The ninety's eighties really up buddy in it. I guess
all of let's just be all of society in general.
But the less clothes that was being worn, the more
judgment it seemed, which is like, let us be for hot,
we don't want to wear sleeves.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah, let us be in general. I also have to
mention just because, as I said earlier, I do think
some people would put Romey and Michelle together. There was
a line where Michelle was like, you want to have sex?
You know.
Speaker 2 (37:32):
I loved that it wasn't really like homophobic, Oh my god,
like she does say I don't like, I don't think whatever.
But then she's like, you know what that's making at
thirty just like such like a h okay, maybe who knows,
may change.
Speaker 1 (37:48):
Let's see. Yeah. I liked that. It was just kind
of a hey, all right. But that does bring us
to the biggest theme, the final theme friendship. Yes, so
that is pretty much the heart of the movie is
their friendship. You get to see their memories together, you
(38:08):
get to see some of their the grudges that they
might have, and then the making up, and they make
up really quick. I mean, obviously it's an hour and
thirty minutes. But I liked how. I liked how Michelle,
Like Michelle was like, I don't want to waste time.
I had this dream that you died. Actually, let's just
(38:29):
let's just make up. I don't want to I don't
want to be without you anymore. But it also reminded
me of one of my best friends in high school,
middle school, elementary school, still one of my best friends.
We were kind of like this wherein uh, people used
(38:52):
to joke we were Annie and Katie, like the names are
together because we were always together, and so we were
always doing things together. And like, I love how they were.
So they were just like when Romy got stood up,
Michelle's like, I will dance with you. And then at
(39:13):
the end, Michelle gets asked to dance and she's like
only if Romy can come. Like they were that type
of friendship where and people were asking Michelle when they
weren't together, like where's Romy. Like they had that association
of this is your person? Where's your person? Even ten
years later, And so I really liked that. I really
(39:34):
liked that, and I did enjoy their strange dance sequence
that I couldn't figure out, but I did like it.
I had a lot of questions. It's like interpretation okay,
(39:55):
interpretive dance, Okay, I got it. Okay, Well yeah, I
mean I did. I'm surprised, you know, I like a
good surprise. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (40:08):
The one thing I was disappointed in in that era
is it like they had so many like trending exercising things,
but no typo that kickboxing, but no typo that made
me sad.
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I like, how that's what made you sad? And then
itself was like, but where's the tibo?
Speaker 2 (40:32):
We need one good typo scene.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
That's true. Listeners, if you know a movie that has
a good typo scene, please let us know. It's probably
coming back.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Who knows, No, I think that again. This is one
of those movies that made me go, oh no, no,
they're gonna do this silly thing and so embarrassed already.
But we love a good friendship and the fact that
they love each other no matter what, like and the
that they would try to rather be with each other
than a man.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
It was rare for those times. Yeah, it was, and
it was very overt. It was kind of comically overt
how much they were like, no, I'm going to.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
Join us, but it's going to be all of us.
Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, it's us, and you're lucky to be in our orbit,
correct and give us your money and a ride on
your helicopter. It was the epitome of it. Why would
men be here? Right? Yeah, I will say.
Speaker 2 (41:32):
The other thing that they're me off was Alan cummings accent.
I was like, oh, yeah, he has to be American
for this.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
Yeah. Yeah. And then in the dream, in Michelle's dream,
he looks different. It's different plastic surgery. No, it's in
with makeup, with prosthetics. I was like, who is that?
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Do you know? He says that he bought himself a
new face.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
But I wasn't sure if it was like still the
actor or a different actor. Oh wow, okay, yeah those makeup.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
I thought Job ninety seven's us like a costume people.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Yeah, No, I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
He is in another movie, but he's the bad guy
where he plays uh that.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
I also want you to watch a Circle of Friends
because it also has a chubby brunette, not as beautiful
girl Minnie Driver, who's like beautiful, don't get me wrong,
but in this movie. But he's in that one too,
so I think because I knew him from that movie
where he has a very strong Irish accent that I
was like, wait, what's happening, where's he from?
Speaker 1 (42:47):
Who I love Alan coming? By the way. Yeah, I
think the first time I was introduced to him, oh
with Spike Kids. But then X two X Men.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Oh Oh he's a creepy guy and So of Friends
real creepy.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
I feel like I've touched this bullet a lot of times,
I guess if you'd call it that, But a lot
of people are like, my first association with this actor
is a creepy role they played, and I'm like, oh,
I've only seen them in like when they're playing a
good guy.
Speaker 2 (43:14):
Again, love him in general, but yeah, he plays the
perfect slimmy dude.
Speaker 1 (43:21):
So I just called them first.
Speaker 2 (43:22):
Actually he was in the Circle Friends as well.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
Oh interesting, anyway, add it to the.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
List, Oh you have, because Circle of Friends used to
be my favorite movie. However, this movie coming back to
because I know I jump around, I'm not gonna say
it's gonna be it's in my top ten. It never
really was, but it definitely has a cult classic.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Love like people adore these movies. It was fun. I
really enjoyed it. I wasn't expecting a lot of it,
and I had some good laugh out loud moments. So
oh when I'll take I.
Speaker 2 (43:58):
Think you need to learn the dance you and Katie
bet and people do that. Oh no, I think I've
seen it, but I think you and Katie need to
learn this dance.
Speaker 1 (44:08):
Oh I get the blue that's what you know? That's
a friendship fight is so who gets what? But she
loves pick? Okay, anyway, listeners, if any of you have
done the dance, oh yeah, if you learned it, let
us know videos send it to videos that would be amazing. Yes,
and thank you to all the listeners who did request
(44:30):
this and yeah, go let us know your thoughts about
it and if you have any suggestions for upcoming movie picks,
just let us know. You can email us at hello
at stuff Iannever Told You dot com. You can find
us on Blue Scott Malta podcast or on Instagram and
TikTok at stuff I Never Told You for us on YouTube.
We have some merchandise at Common Bureau and we have
(44:50):
a book you can get wherever you get your books.
Thanks as ays too, our superduced Christina, our executive produce
My and your contributor Joey. Thank you and thanks to
you for listening. Stuff never told me. Protection of iHeartRadio.
More podcasts from my heart Radio. You can check out
the heart radio app, Apple podcast wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Milan Cortina Winter Olympics
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.