November 24, 2023 • 36 mins
Four families come together for the holidays and drama ensues in the 2000s Thanksgiving movie What's Cooking?
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 Anny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your prediction of I heart radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And you know what, I feel like, this is starting
to be a tradition around the holidays. I think where
I need to do a throwback and this one went
to the two thousands. The odts literally zero zero looking
at the old days, and I guess what we used
to think about the holidays or this movie specifically, maybe
what the person from the UK you may think of
(00:40):
as a US Thanksgiving. I'm gonna put a big question
to Mark there, which is funny because I have a
good friend who moved from Georgia to the UK and
she hosts a Thanksgiving there every year and the people
they love it, Her friends UK friends love it and
look forward to it every year, even though that's not
(01:01):
a thing that they do, which I thought was quite funny.
But yeah, so we're talking about the movie What's Cooking,
which doesn't have a great rating. Annie. I noticed that
when I was like, oh, yeah, it has like fifty
eight percent rotten tomatoes. Maybe it's because it's so old
and ron tomatoes wasn't around at that point. Right now,
(01:23):
I actually don't know. I thought it was a newer thing.
Newer I say that loosely.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I will say that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You suggested four movies, right, because we were looking for
like Thanksgiving movies, and I watched the trailer for all
of them, and all of them I was actually like,
I kind of do want to watch this? And I
looked up all of their their percentages, and all of
them were pretty good. But I didn't look at Rotten Tomatoes,
so I don't know, but all of them were pretty good.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I like the question mark pretty good ish and yeah.
So this movie that I gave you a long lest
that I was like, this looks pretty, you know, on
point with what we would would look at in time
was directed by Grinder Chada, who also wrote and directed
of Course my all time one of my all time favorites,
which we've talked about before, which we featured bend It
(02:14):
like Beckham, as well as a bigger throwback for me,
Bride and Prejudice, which came I think after this one though,
because I didn't watch it until I was in college.
I was really into Bollywood for a while and brid
and Prejudice it hit. There's so many lines I can't
remember it like, I loved it. But Chata has helped
also helped to write this along with Paul Mayatta Burgess.
(02:39):
Sorry if I said that wrong. Who is the husband?
I didn't realize they were married. It also co wrote
bend It like Beckham, so he is American, so maybe
his perspective also helped. But I found that interesting that
this is who did this. The movie revolves around four
diverse as it has written in many reviews, diverse family
(03:00):
all coming to celebrate Thanksgiving and the many family interactions
that that involves. We have Joan Chin as the matriarch
of the Nunn family, who uh trin is her name
is a Vitnamese family who lives with her husband Douck,
grandma and grandpa, and children Jimmy who's the oldest, Jenny, Gary,
(03:21):
and Joey, which I think maybe most of them are
not Vietnamese. They range like Joan Chin is Chinese. Apparently, Jimmy,
who is played I forgot who played by is Korean.
I was like, huh, they couldn't find Okay, it's okay,
it's okay, it's okay. Moving on. And then we have
the Selig family, a Jewish family with Ruth played by
(03:44):
Laine Kazan who you may know her from My Fat,
My big Fat Greek Wedding. Which have we done that one?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
We have seen that movie.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're coming back to that. We haven't done this. Oh okay,
everybody put that in your calendar because it is coming
with her husband, herbie daughter Rachel played by Kia Sedgwick,
her girlfriend Carla played by Juliana Markaalisee, and her two
(04:14):
sons with the and uncle joining the dinner and as
per Momos things, Yeah, it's played by Sis Heterinordi of people.
And I don't know is Kia Sedgwick. It doesn't matter,
But I don't think they're like when we talk about
the layers of who plays what, you're like, they really
didn't care about accuracy in the sure. I don't think
(04:37):
I say this, but you know.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Then we have the a via the family Latino family
led by the mother Elizabeth played bar Mercedes role with
her children Tony and Gina and her mother and siblings
all added in the mix and then also added to
the chaos as the ex husband Javier and the new
boyfriend Daniel. And then we have the Williams family headed
by Alfred Widard who plays Audrey with her husband, Ronald
(05:02):
and her son Michael, with the mother in law, Grace
and her youngest child, and joining them is a white
couple who works with Ronald at the Governor's office.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Right, Okay, now that we somewhat introduce the families, let's
talk about the plot. So, as we said, the movie
follows four families who are coming together to eat and
continue with their holiday traditions. We get to see the
lives that are somewhat intertwined as they all live in
la and are all neighbors, which I didn't figure out
(05:34):
till much later. I was like, oh, what I had
that moment. They are all bustling about making them their
way through grocery stores, phone calls, and traveling to get
to the actual festivities. We're going to start with the
different families and what they're doing. So the Nwinn family,
who own a local video rental store. What a throwback, right,
(05:54):
all vhs and the clear plastic holders all remember those?
Okay that was the four Blockbuster covered them all up
or had the black black cases because sometimes you're like,
is it the actual movie? Anyway, They're coming together to
make their meal, a mix of Vietnamese cuisine with American cuisine,
a turkey with all the good Asian spices, basil roles
(06:18):
which looked really good by the way spring rolls, and
so much more on the table. Unfortunately, they find out
that the oldest Jimmy can't come due to school, but
it turns out it's a lie, as he wants to
go with his new girlfriend to her family celebration. More
on that in a minute. He is a stable part
of their family, someone they rely on not only as
the college student, but as the oldest brother. The parents
(06:40):
ask him to help and to talk with the younger
siblings as well. And by the way, the other son
has recently gotten into trouble at school and has been suspended.
All the while, the young daughter has been distracted by
boys and makeup. They accuse her for being trampy, I
guess is the best word, because they call her different
things throughout. Soon we have a big twist and find
(07:03):
out that the Sun has a gun under his bed,
which his sister finds and immediately panics, taking it with
her to the video store. After a whole mess where
the parents discovered that Jenny has a white boyfriend and
maybe having sex. Insert earlier discovery of condoms in her pockets.
She confronts the brother Gary, who says he's only holding
it for a friend who was recently jumped. And y'all,
(07:25):
the acting in this part was something.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It was and I have a funny story about it later.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So moving on to the Avilla family, A part of
the connectedness of the plot is Gina, daughter to Elizabeth,
is dating Jimmy, the oldest of the wind family, and
is bringing him home for dinner. Before the dinner, however,
we discover that she's got a new boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Mom's got a new boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, the mom has a new boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Tony and his wife run into his father at the
grocery store, where he awkwardly invites him to dinner. The
dad is like, well, I have nowhere to go, and
Tony's like, all right, come on. After talking with his mother,
he tries to uninvite him. He says he left a
message because the dad had had Javier had had an
(08:19):
affair with the mom the matrix cousin and left them,
but you know whatever, and Jimmy arrive and everyone seems
to warm up to Jimmy after some awkward racist moments
of talking about Bruce, Lee and Jackie chan. Elizabeth lets
Gina know that the new boyfriend, Daniel would be stopping
(08:42):
by Ford Dessert, which Gina has mixed feelings about. As
they all sit together, Javier the father shows up with
very little remorse and tries to win back Elizabeth. Then
Daniel shows up and the whole thing is even more awkward.
They said it opposite, isn't stable. After a bit of
back and forth, Javier leaves after Elizabeth lets him know
(09:05):
she doesn't want to take him back and also, yes,
the grandmother was amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
She was very like, why are you here? To get
out of here?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
She? I loved her defending the whole. It was definitely
a whole women versus men. In this scene where the
women were taking up for her, the mother be like hey,
while the men were like but but but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's when I because I texted you and I was like,
I feel like all these holiday movies are telling me
men are terrible.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It was that scene where I was like, this is.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There's several there's several things. Scenes were like, yeah, men
are the worst, so let's just put that out there.
Then we had the Williams family. Dear Audrey is scrambling
trying to make the perfect Thanksgiving Day dinner. Her husband
is currently at work where he works for the Governor
of California. Previously, we see the governor at an event
where he is questioned about his policies concerning the quote underprivileged.
(09:59):
As he's ab to leave, he is splashed with white paint,
with one of one of the attackers being Ronald and
Audrey's son Michael, and as Audrey is preparing dinner, she
is watched and quote assistance upon that end quotes by
her mother in law, who is portrayed as the typical
mother in law in this the nagging woman, which you
(10:23):
know you gotta have one, I guess. The work couple,
who are friends, arrives with their daughter's slash stepdaughter, who
has a lot of attitude and is similarly dressed to
the craft cast. I appreciated that that may amo dark
and during their dinner, the turkey ends up falling through
the table, causing Audrey quite a bit of stress, but
we have them rallying together to fix it and it
(10:44):
still looks quite delicious. They're eating green beans off the floor,
so there's him.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Fine.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
The son, Michael shows up to all of their surprise
and it turns out the relationship between the father and
son is strained, which has caused a lot of problems
for the entire family. He debates about school and politics
arise with an explosive remark from the son about the
father's affair with a woman in the office. Audrey runs
(11:10):
into the kitchen to eat dessert as Michael tries to apologize.
The mother in law chastises Ronald but insists they need
to stay together and fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Okay, I've seen this also, I really appreciated her aggressive
eating of the pie.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, she was so upset that all she was like,
just couldn't do it. I got a dessert. I understand
that feelings. I do too.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So then we move on to the Selog family. Rachel
arrives with her girlfriend Carla, and already they are being
mistaken us sisters. So they enter the house together in
battle mode like they've clearly kind of knew this was
probably gonna happen. The parents accept their relationship, they still
have a hard time with it. In a conversation between
(11:54):
the parents, we see the mother crime because she thinks
her daughter won't be able to have a happy family. Meanwhile,
we see Rachel and Carla in their twin beds that
they have pushed together, talking about the family and how
to deal with everything. The following day, as they help
the mother put together the dinner, Carla tries her best
to get to know them and even endures a whole
(12:15):
speech about the jacuzzi from Rachel's father about how much
he loves it and the temperature and very minor temperature differences.
Carla and her mother have a good relationship from what
we witness, and Rachel seems to like her a lot
as well, which seems to bring some feelings out in
her mom. Later we find out that the aunt and
(12:37):
uncle are joining and the parents have requested that Rachel
and Carla not mention that they are in a relationship together.
As a family gathers, talks of politics and how Elia
has changed come up, and it gets really tense as
the conversation gets more heated. But at the height of
the conversation, Rachel makes an announcement that she is pregnant,
(12:59):
and confusion and shock ensues, the mother and father trying
to figure out how this happened and advertedly outing them,
which soon leads to the outing of her brother, who
was the sperm donor right.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I did appreciate the other brother who his women and
his wife and the kids come. I did appreciate that
they're very supportive, but also the fact that they also
were getting some shit as the uncle were like, when's
the third baby coming? God, it was quite nice. I
was like, Oh, everybody gets it. Everybody gets it. As
(13:32):
all the dinners are coming to an end, we go
back to see the Wynn family, whose turkey was burned
so they had to order KFC, which I thought was delightful,
and apparently the youngest did too. It was very excited
about this chicken. During the mill, Gary's friends show up,
which worries Ginny, who announces that Gary was hiding a
gun and just lays it on the table because why not.
(13:52):
After a lot of arguing, the youngest and they leave
the table, the youngest comes out, who was very excited
about the chicken, sees the gun, rabs it and plays
with it and it goes off. After a very intense
moment of like this is a PG thirteen movie, kill
the youngest child off. I had that debate back and
forth of the like what the hell and realizing this
is quickly turning into an after school special that I've
(14:15):
seen before. I feel like. We soon find out that
the families all live caddy corner to each other. Literally,
each one of it lives on a corner that faces
one another, which is hilarious, being like, how would they
not known each other? How how would they There's so
many questions I had, but I just looked it. But
that the gun had gone off and everybody heard it. Jimmy,
(14:35):
realizing that it came from his house, runs to the
home again he had lied that he's not coming home.
A lot more confusion. We find out that everyone is
safe and the gun has shot out the window. At
this point, Jimmy introduces everyone to his his family, to
his girlfriend Gina, who again lives across the way, who
was accepted into the family. They're like, oh, she looks Vietnamese.
(14:57):
Welcome to the family. Uh. And then we have Ronald
who talks to Michael about the future and his own
experiences about how it's hard not having an education and
being a black person in the community and what that
looks like blah blah blah. And then we have the
Sea leagues, who are all a bit confused, but more
distracted by the recent gunshot and then the avelis continue
(15:18):
on with their dessert like it's just yay in the
story Happy Holiday.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So can I tell you?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I watched this last night and I had to watch
it with ads, so it was taking longer than I thought.
And one of my good friends came over for like
the final i'd say ten minutes because we were going
to go see the new Thanksgiving movie, which I did
see night, and I didn't know this gun thing was
gonna happen. And my poor friend shows up for the
(15:57):
last ten minutes of this movie and it was like, what.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Are you watching? Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Understand, but it was so funny because I couldn't have anticipated.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
This, and that's the only part she saw. Then we
went to go see this other movie in.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The Lads of Chakra.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I'm sure it was quite a day. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, the entire setup was odd. It is an hour
and forty five fifty minutes long. I think it is
your tip. It is on not not a sponsor Amazon
Prime with ads. I also, I've never seen this movie either.
I just picked. We were like we need to do
a Thanksgiving Day movie. Let's be silly watch this and
this has four matriarchs. I honestly thought they all came together.
(16:43):
That's what I had envisioned, and then it turned out
none of that was happening. Was like, okay, okay. I
feel like the most diverse of the two would have
been the Avila's and the Winds doing their things. So like,
oh at Lisa's cold. Okay, okay, cool, cool to have
an Asian family as part of the star as. In fact,
Joan Chen was kind of uh named as if she
(17:05):
was the star of the show, which is not true
because she's she's barely in it compared to the rest
of them. But I digress. So there's a lot again.
Finding out that it was bended, like Beckham creators really
threw me off because like they really wanted to tell
an American story that's interesting about Thanksgiving, that's interesting, And
(17:26):
of course we did have a couple of conversations about
like you know, the goth girl talking about how you know,
millions of Native Americans, first indigenous people were murdered and
killed my disease. I was like, okay, hey, lids say,
I guess they added that in there. UH did love
the fact that she during their like we're playing house.
She's like, I'm going to be the alcoholics that mother
(17:47):
cult worship based that mother and because we're like, uh
okay cool, and the grandma was too. So there's a
lot to that in that level. But but yeah, there
were several themes, and I think there was more like,
oh yeah, I get this, so obviously the very top
is the holidays and families togetherness and Jimmy lying about
(18:09):
going home and why he couldn't come home. I may
have done that like as of like three years ago,
to be honest, not for a mate, but like just because.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Oh yeah, I mean they definitely.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It was kind of shocking how accurately I felt they
captured the vibe of the drama of families during this time,
of like the politics of it, of the like ugh,
I don't want to deal with this person, of the
asking you like if you're single when you're gonna have kids,
(18:46):
like all of those.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Like things we dread and may lie about to get.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Out of and feel guilty about lying about to get
out of, and then like visiting another partner's family and yes,
be on.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
The outliers there, right.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I loved of course, like at least they had LGBTQ representation,
and it was sweet, very nice kind of representation where
they're supportive and not trying to be over the top.
Of course, the partner is the one that's like, don't
say anything, don't argue with your dad about the politics,
thing about the immigrations and all the all the things,
which I was like, oh, there comes, of course inevitably,
(19:26):
that's the conversation. You know. I've talked about the fact
that I get scared of going because that's gonna come up,
and typically it gets worse. It hasn't been as bad
when it's been at its worst, like the Trump administration.
My brother did the only thing, which was like, I'm
going to buy you a Maga hat, and I kind
of just stared at him. I was like, I don't care.
And we didn't say anything else. Of course, like we
(19:49):
said like, I've already had my arguments with my mom
and it was so bad that my mom was I
think like begged everyone not to say anything. But apparently
political conversations happened when I'm not around. Yeah, because my
niece have had to had to deal with that, I'm like, oh,
bless her heart, but yeah, that's one of the big
I hate. I hate it so much. I will say,
as much as like I love, I'd rather go to
(20:10):
my partner's family m any day all day because we're
all very similar. The father does play news constantly to
the fiend, and I'm like, I'm gonna lose it. I'm
gonna lose it. Yeah, I'm gonna lose it. But it's
not because necessarily that he's arguing with anybody, because everybody
pretty much agrees right on all the stances there. But
(20:33):
it's just like I still don't want to hear it.
Even if it is things that I more agree with,
I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, that's that's kind of me with my older brother,
because my brothers are both very very like all day
listening to the stuff like that, and I do agree
with most of it. I don't agree with some of it,
but but it it is like I will literally go
home because they're both like night owls. He'll be four
(21:00):
am and I'm just listening to something about Donald Trump,
and I'm like, I just want to sleep, Please please
off because I can now and now my heart is
beating really fast.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Oh no, yeah, politics bad, hearing news even worse. Right,
I think that's the one thing that they were missing.
They need to add that. Now, if they did a
remake of this, they add that the one uncle that
sleeps in the couch that he listens to the news time.
Another theme which we've talked about as a full episode,
women preparing the dinner. It was only the women the
(21:37):
entire time. Jimmy, Dear Jimmy, and I think this is
being the oldest child comes in to play, came in
and helped, and I was like, that's super cute like that,
and they were all like bragging about how he's so
great and doing this. But then like the brother Tony
was like, can you give me a beer hunt to
the wife, And I'm like, I'll punch you in the throat.
But we know that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I feel subsition that that stuck out to me
was like, as someone who does do this, it's so
frustrating sometimes it's just like.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
A lot of work.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I don't think, because I did love that they showed
the making of the like tamal Is and the making
of the spring rolls and like kind of it was
more communal than I'm used to, and so I don't
think there's necessarily anything wrong with that, because I do
think there is something like a sort of bonding that
happens over that.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
But I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I hate the like assumption you'll do it, and the
like not caring, like not being at least somewhat like
this took a lot of work.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I had to plan all of this. I had to
do all of this right now.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
The turkeys on the floor like yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And the person during that William's dinner was the friend
the white woman being the one that was like, this
is so looks amazing, you did so amazing. She was
the only one really complimenting the entire thing to the
level it should be complimented. But it does remind me
like my own home. We do come together because most
of the children are grown, uh, and they help with
(23:09):
the food.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm the one who brings, like the rolls and the
dessert and the the cokes and the drinks. Rather yes,
I'm very sullent the cookes. But recently my partner has
proved himself as a cook, so it has now become
a part of that too. And the last time we went,
he went and helped in the kitchen and whatever I
was helping too, like we were both in there, but
they were just like kind of like Jimmy, They're like, whoa, yeah,
(23:32):
what are you doing in here? Are you you want
to help? Like to that level, and all was like, yeah, yeah,
I guess I got a good and then moving on
the matriarchy obviously the overlaying the plot of the entire thing,
whether they're steering the conversation, they're steering the mood, they're
steering the dinner, and or disappointment, however you want to
(23:54):
look at it. They were the main focus of the
entire thing. We had men coming in trying to be men,
but the women pretty much, whether it was the grandma too,
so the wind family, it was the grandma, Like the
grandpa was sitting there watching Pamela in Orson, which I
didn't appreciate it. Yeah, yes, as a whole throwback, but
(24:15):
like you know, the grandma wasn't there comforting the kids,
helping with the dinner, making sure everybody was okay, Like
she was a big part of that too.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah, it definitely was kind of you had the
woman leading the family on this day and trying to
bring the family together. It was interesting to me because
I feel like my family dynamics are very different. Like
maybe actually, maybe it's just me. I can't imagine telling my.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Mom I wasn't coming home for the holidays. I did
it once. I did it once, and I made like
a meal for her to tell her.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
That I wasn't coming, like a fancy meal.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah, I have a different dynamic because you are a
smaller family. Yeah, so then that makes a little bit
of a difference. But yeah, that's still like a different
part for you too. Yeah, I was thinking too. With
like the Villa family, she makes everything. She might not
be the loud one that takes over the conversation, but
she quietly maintains. So she's still welcoming to Hobbyer even
though she was like, I don't want him here, right,
(25:22):
She didn't ask for permission for Daniel to be there,
but Daniel showed up and she made she be like
you're ready, like doing all those things. She was ridiculously
reserved for that situation.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
To me, Oh, I was outraged. I was outraged on
her behalf. I was like, these dudes suck in your life?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Are these men? Why? For the williams Audrey was completely
by herself, with the in law hosting the in law
as well, which has been a big conversation. There was
a reason video and TikTok where a dude was like,
I'm bringing to my mom. She's like, no, you're not
her grandma. He's like, no, you're not unless you're willing
to take care of her because if not, I'm going
to be the taking care of her. On top of
(26:02):
so we are not agreed, like there are so many
he's like, I'm men at this house. He's like, no,
I'm taking care of this house. So but this level
like who's taking care of whom and who responsibility and
who it always falls on no matter what. Maybe the
conversation not that like it's a taxing thing to have
to double women. And then if you are like opposition
and it feels like you're competing with each other, which
is that's what this felt like, it could become the problem, which,
(26:25):
of course.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, I've said this before.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
In my family and I feel like a lot of families.
My mom would cook the whole thing and then a man,
not always my dad, a man would come in and
he would cut the turkey, and it would be like,
look at what he's done. And one year, literally that
man cut his hand and bled all in the turkey.
So now does it? She does it fine, Like it's
(27:02):
just annoying. Like I'm not saying she should have to
do it, but I hate that, Like I shall come
in after you've cooked all this thing and I will present.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Them, right, I will to what I provided.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yes, she's just capable of doing it without bleeding.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That's funny, I'll say. I don't think we've ever had that.
It's always been slice ready to go, Like that's never
been a ceremony, like if the ceremonies us coming around,
which the whole prayer sequence was quite funny too, yes, yeah,
but like the having the whole prayer around the table,
like that's what happened, but everything's ready to go, like
there's no ceremony to cutting turkey. So I found that.
I also thought that was just a movie thing and
last people actually did that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
No, in a different podcast, but it dates back to
like the eighteen hundreds and man being like, look, I
can provide for my family.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I got things, which speaking of Yeah, part of the
theme again is men suck, especially barely during the holidays.
And I say this was again as my partner, he
is great, like he as in fact, I'm like, yeah,
my parents never expected me. My mother never expected me
to cook. She just expected me to ring like additional
things and help. Like now that like he's on board,
(28:11):
She's like, okay, yeah he can bring this food. I
was like, wait what you never asked me? What is this?
I mean, in the end, it's fine. I'm a little
low key offended, but not over the top offended, but like, yeah,
that men suck in general. The cheating that was just
thrown out there like it was just no big deal,
Like what the hell?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, like several instances now we're not talking about wood,
we're talking about molds.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
A couple a couple of instances, yes, but yes we
have that. And then we have Javier who thinks he
could just come back in. He's like, I made a mistake.
It was just a flip. It was not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, and then like him getting mad, and then the
son Tony getting mad, which like he's a kid, I
will give him a little leeway. I'm sure it wasn't easy,
but also like he was trying to guilt his mom,
like we're ruining this holiday.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I mean, you just come back to apologize, And I
wonder if they just didn't understand the theme of it,
and so it came in the end like is it
supposed to be? Like this is this how you're supposed
to act? Because like the men went after Hobby, I
had to bring him back. All the women were like nah.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Bye, all the women.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They literally have a scene where all the women are
on one side and.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Then but yeah, like it literally was that to the
point that even Tony, who we talk about, the kid
who invited the dad, uh was like getting from his
wife because his wife was mad at him for doing
all that. She's like, hmmm, do you do it?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
No, You're not even gonna ask her or tell her
he's coming.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Like the entire time, I was like, well, you know what.
I like that they banded together for the mother, because yeah,
the ladies they got it again.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
If they had ended up together, I was gonna be
so And there was a moment where You're like, oh wait,
oh no, but.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
She's so passive like that Jimmy seemingly even though she's not.
It was all but I think it was just also
that that sound like strength, the quiet strength that just
like hmm, I'm not even gonna play into this to
be dramatic about it. Let's just move on, like this
is how little it's may to me, and then we
have I guess the LGBTQ. I don't know if like
(30:23):
it was a sidemark or supposed to be diversity.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
It was interesting because it's weird when you watch something
from like the two thousands and you feel that we've
come so far since, and we have, but it's also
strange that I'm like, this could very well easily still happen.
It was like a very strange thing where I felt
(30:57):
like they were trying to be It's like they tried
they did a search on all of the problems you
could have at Thanksgiving and they were like, Okay, one
is this queer aspect, so let's put that in there,
which is true.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It just felt very It felt very dated and also relevant,
if that makes.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Sense, right right? Yeah, I mean it absolutely did. Between
like the having the child and then being like that's okay,
people do that nowadays, mom. Like that that being said,
that was hilarious to me to the discovery that it
was the brother who did them, the brother cousin. I
don't know what he was. I thought it was the brother,
but then maybe I mixed that one up. I was
(31:41):
a donor and then he was gay, like they him
as well. It was like, well, damn yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
They definitely outed them very.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Quickly, like the everyone's on the edge about whether or not.
And then the fact that she's having a maybe instead
of being happy, just being confused. I was like, that's okay,
but okay, the.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Baby was a surprise. I was not expecting the baby
to come up.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The gunpit was a surprise. It was quite a bit
of surprises. I have to wonder because it's not way
off again though it still does I'm like, yeah, she's
a UK based person doing this movie. I wonder, like
what I really want to sit down with it be
like why why Thanksgiving? Why for families? Why these things
(32:29):
in LA? Specifically? Like can we because it's like she's
not completely She's not wrong as in fact, I know
a lot of Asian games were pretty are pretty rampant
and were pretty ramp in LA. A lot of things
were happening, so it wasn't way off. And then as
well as the fact like they are culturally appropriating a
(32:53):
lot of things as well. I was like, okay, at
the beginning, saying with a kid having the conversation in
the mirror, trying to be quote unquote tough saying I'm
putting quote my own was around it, but like it
had memorials like so, I can't tell if this is
inflated in the ideas of what she thinks of la
(33:13):
or if it's too on points. But there's also two
thousands and I was like graduating high school, going to college,
so I had a completely different world in Georgia.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
The butterfly pins, Oh my gosh, there were butterfly clips
in this movie.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I also say, like it was interesting to see the
with the son Michael and his dad Ronald, when Michael
outs his dad for cheating. Yeah, I think, like, I
think that's an interesting thing that happens a lot in
these family gatherings too, where you're trying to as a
(33:51):
family hold it together and maybe keep these things secret,
and then they come out, and like who decides when
it comes out? And then when the mother in law
was like, oh, you have to stay together like those
I have seen all of this. I have seen all
of this, and it's just interesting. I feel like a
lot of times we all have those, you know. I
(34:13):
think I read a joke about this the other day,
like it's not Thanksgiving unless one person refuses to come,
Like we have these right, these dramas in our family,
and these just just unresolved, unresolved things. And then you
come together for a holiday and you're trying to make
(34:33):
it look like you're a good family, good family, a
perfect family, like nothing is wrong, but something is clearly wrong, right,
Like you're not talking about you're not being honest with
each other, right.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
And then there was just a whole bit with that
Li Williams family. I was like, why is that white
dude butting in about his son? He needs to shut up,
Like I was getting annoyed with that. You want to
pick a fight at someone else's house. That was like,
even if he was wrong, had been like, excuse me,
this is not this is family business. You need a shed, right,
(35:08):
I could think that's not a lie. Yeah, so there
you go. What a roller coaster A very succinct but
very displaced, Like both of those things happened these movies.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, in this movie Weather, it was not what I
was expecting. And hats off to my friend who's the
last ten minutes?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Are they okay?
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I did get a text for her this morning. That
was like, I had very weird dreams and I blame you,
and I was like, between the two things, will take that.
I think that's fair. I don't think I'm gonna watch
some of those others you suggested.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I'm curious. I don't have watched any of them. I
had aested to you. I feel like I'm gonna have
to go back to because, uh, that so interesting. There
was a Holly Hunter movie, there's a Katie Holmes movie,
and one more I can't remember it.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, yeah, Well, listeners, If you have any thoughts about this,
are those movies any other movies? You can write to
us our emails, Stephanie and mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You.
We have a tea public store, and we have a book.
You can get it wherever you get your books. Thanks
(36:23):
as always too, our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,
and your contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts on my Heart Radio, you can check
out the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Anny and Samantha and welcome to Stephane.
Never told your prediction of I heart radio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And you know what, I feel like, this is starting
to be a tradition around the holidays. I think where
I need to do a throwback and this one went
to the two thousands. The odts literally zero zero looking
at the old days, and I guess what we used
to think about the holidays or this movie specifically, maybe
what the person from the UK you may think of
(00:40):
as a US Thanksgiving. I'm gonna put a big question
to Mark there, which is funny because I have a
good friend who moved from Georgia to the UK and
she hosts a Thanksgiving there every year and the people
they love it, Her friends UK friends love it and
look forward to it every year, even though that's not
(01:01):
a thing that they do, which I thought was quite funny.
But yeah, so we're talking about the movie What's Cooking,
which doesn't have a great rating. Annie. I noticed that
when I was like, oh, yeah, it has like fifty
eight percent rotten tomatoes. Maybe it's because it's so old
and ron tomatoes wasn't around at that point. Right now,
(01:23):
I actually don't know. I thought it was a newer thing.
Newer I say that loosely.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
I will say that.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You suggested four movies, right, because we were looking for
like Thanksgiving movies, and I watched the trailer for all
of them, and all of them I was actually like,
I kind of do want to watch this? And I
looked up all of their their percentages, and all of
them were pretty good. But I didn't look at Rotten Tomatoes,
so I don't know, but all of them were pretty good.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
I like the question mark pretty good ish and yeah.
So this movie that I gave you a long lest
that I was like, this looks pretty, you know, on
point with what we would would look at in time
was directed by Grinder Chada, who also wrote and directed
of Course my all time one of my all time favorites,
which we've talked about before, which we featured bend It
(02:14):
like Beckham, as well as a bigger throwback for me,
Bride and Prejudice, which came I think after this one though,
because I didn't watch it until I was in college.
I was really into Bollywood for a while and brid
and Prejudice it hit. There's so many lines I can't
remember it like, I loved it. But Chata has helped
also helped to write this along with Paul Mayatta Burgess.
(02:39):
Sorry if I said that wrong. Who is the husband?
I didn't realize they were married. It also co wrote
bend It like Beckham, so he is American, so maybe
his perspective also helped. But I found that interesting that
this is who did this. The movie revolves around four
diverse as it has written in many reviews, diverse family
(03:00):
all coming to celebrate Thanksgiving and the many family interactions
that that involves. We have Joan Chin as the matriarch
of the Nunn family, who uh trin is her name
is a Vitnamese family who lives with her husband Douck,
grandma and grandpa, and children Jimmy who's the oldest, Jenny, Gary,
(03:21):
and Joey, which I think maybe most of them are
not Vietnamese. They range like Joan Chin is Chinese. Apparently, Jimmy,
who is played I forgot who played by is Korean.
I was like, huh, they couldn't find Okay, it's okay,
it's okay, it's okay. Moving on. And then we have
the Selig family, a Jewish family with Ruth played by
(03:44):
Laine Kazan who you may know her from My Fat,
My big Fat Greek Wedding. Which have we done that one?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
We have seen that movie.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
We're coming back to that. We haven't done this. Oh okay,
everybody put that in your calendar because it is coming
with her husband, herbie daughter Rachel played by Kia Sedgwick,
her girlfriend Carla played by Juliana Markaalisee, and her two
(04:14):
sons with the and uncle joining the dinner and as
per Momos things, Yeah, it's played by Sis Heterinordi of people.
And I don't know is Kia Sedgwick. It doesn't matter,
But I don't think they're like when we talk about
the layers of who plays what, you're like, they really
didn't care about accuracy in the sure. I don't think
(04:37):
I say this, but you know.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Then we have the a via the family Latino family
led by the mother Elizabeth played bar Mercedes role with
her children Tony and Gina and her mother and siblings
all added in the mix and then also added to
the chaos as the ex husband Javier and the new
boyfriend Daniel. And then we have the Williams family headed
by Alfred Widard who plays Audrey with her husband, Ronald
(05:02):
and her son Michael, with the mother in law, Grace
and her youngest child, and joining them is a white
couple who works with Ronald at the Governor's office.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Right, Okay, now that we somewhat introduce the families, let's
talk about the plot. So, as we said, the movie
follows four families who are coming together to eat and
continue with their holiday traditions. We get to see the
lives that are somewhat intertwined as they all live in
la and are all neighbors, which I didn't figure out
(05:34):
till much later. I was like, oh, what I had
that moment. They are all bustling about making them their
way through grocery stores, phone calls, and traveling to get
to the actual festivities. We're going to start with the
different families and what they're doing. So the Nwinn family,
who own a local video rental store. What a throwback, right,
(05:54):
all vhs and the clear plastic holders all remember those?
Okay that was the four Blockbuster covered them all up
or had the black black cases because sometimes you're like,
is it the actual movie? Anyway, They're coming together to
make their meal, a mix of Vietnamese cuisine with American cuisine,
a turkey with all the good Asian spices, basil roles
(06:18):
which looked really good by the way spring rolls, and
so much more on the table. Unfortunately, they find out
that the oldest Jimmy can't come due to school, but
it turns out it's a lie, as he wants to
go with his new girlfriend to her family celebration. More
on that in a minute. He is a stable part
of their family, someone they rely on not only as
the college student, but as the oldest brother. The parents
(06:40):
ask him to help and to talk with the younger
siblings as well. And by the way, the other son
has recently gotten into trouble at school and has been suspended.
All the while, the young daughter has been distracted by
boys and makeup. They accuse her for being trampy, I
guess is the best word, because they call her different
things throughout. Soon we have a big twist and find
(07:03):
out that the Sun has a gun under his bed,
which his sister finds and immediately panics, taking it with
her to the video store. After a whole mess where
the parents discovered that Jenny has a white boyfriend and
maybe having sex. Insert earlier discovery of condoms in her pockets.
She confronts the brother Gary, who says he's only holding
it for a friend who was recently jumped. And y'all,
(07:25):
the acting in this part was something.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
It was and I have a funny story about it later.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
So moving on to the Avilla family, A part of
the connectedness of the plot is Gina, daughter to Elizabeth,
is dating Jimmy, the oldest of the wind family, and
is bringing him home for dinner. Before the dinner, however,
we discover that she's got a new boyfriend.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
Mom's got a new boyfriend.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
Yeah, the mom has a new boyfriend.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Tony and his wife run into his father at the
grocery store, where he awkwardly invites him to dinner. The
dad is like, well, I have nowhere to go, and
Tony's like, all right, come on. After talking with his mother,
he tries to uninvite him. He says he left a
message because the dad had had Javier had had an
(08:19):
affair with the mom the matrix cousin and left them,
but you know whatever, and Jimmy arrive and everyone seems
to warm up to Jimmy after some awkward racist moments
of talking about Bruce, Lee and Jackie chan. Elizabeth lets
Gina know that the new boyfriend, Daniel would be stopping
(08:42):
by Ford Dessert, which Gina has mixed feelings about. As
they all sit together, Javier the father shows up with
very little remorse and tries to win back Elizabeth. Then
Daniel shows up and the whole thing is even more awkward.
They said it opposite, isn't stable. After a bit of
back and forth, Javier leaves after Elizabeth lets him know
(09:05):
she doesn't want to take him back and also, yes,
the grandmother was amazing.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
She was very like, why are you here? To get
out of here?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
She? I loved her defending the whole. It was definitely
a whole women versus men. In this scene where the
women were taking up for her, the mother be like hey,
while the men were like but but but yes.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
That's when I because I texted you and I was like,
I feel like all these holiday movies are telling me
men are terrible.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
It was that scene where I was like, this is.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
There's several there's several things. Scenes were like, yeah, men
are the worst, so let's just put that out there.
Then we had the Williams family. Dear Audrey is scrambling
trying to make the perfect Thanksgiving Day dinner. Her husband
is currently at work where he works for the Governor
of California. Previously, we see the governor at an event
where he is questioned about his policies concerning the quote underprivileged.
(09:59):
As he's ab to leave, he is splashed with white paint,
with one of one of the attackers being Ronald and
Audrey's son Michael, and as Audrey is preparing dinner, she
is watched and quote assistance upon that end quotes by
her mother in law, who is portrayed as the typical
mother in law in this the nagging woman, which you
(10:23):
know you gotta have one, I guess. The work couple,
who are friends, arrives with their daughter's slash stepdaughter, who
has a lot of attitude and is similarly dressed to
the craft cast. I appreciated that that may amo dark
and during their dinner, the turkey ends up falling through
the table, causing Audrey quite a bit of stress, but
we have them rallying together to fix it and it
(10:44):
still looks quite delicious. They're eating green beans off the floor,
so there's him.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
Fine.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
The son, Michael shows up to all of their surprise
and it turns out the relationship between the father and
son is strained, which has caused a lot of problems
for the entire family. He debates about school and politics
arise with an explosive remark from the son about the
father's affair with a woman in the office. Audrey runs
(11:10):
into the kitchen to eat dessert as Michael tries to apologize.
The mother in law chastises Ronald but insists they need
to stay together and fix it.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Okay, I've seen this also, I really appreciated her aggressive
eating of the pie.
Speaker 2 (11:23):
Yes, she was so upset that all she was like,
just couldn't do it. I got a dessert. I understand
that feelings. I do too.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
So then we move on to the Selog family. Rachel
arrives with her girlfriend Carla, and already they are being
mistaken us sisters. So they enter the house together in
battle mode like they've clearly kind of knew this was
probably gonna happen. The parents accept their relationship, they still
have a hard time with it. In a conversation between
(11:54):
the parents, we see the mother crime because she thinks
her daughter won't be able to have a happy family. Meanwhile,
we see Rachel and Carla in their twin beds that
they have pushed together, talking about the family and how
to deal with everything. The following day, as they help
the mother put together the dinner, Carla tries her best
to get to know them and even endures a whole
(12:15):
speech about the jacuzzi from Rachel's father about how much
he loves it and the temperature and very minor temperature differences.
Carla and her mother have a good relationship from what
we witness, and Rachel seems to like her a lot
as well, which seems to bring some feelings out in
her mom. Later we find out that the aunt and
(12:37):
uncle are joining and the parents have requested that Rachel
and Carla not mention that they are in a relationship together.
As a family gathers, talks of politics and how Elia
has changed come up, and it gets really tense as
the conversation gets more heated. But at the height of
the conversation, Rachel makes an announcement that she is pregnant,
(12:59):
and confusion and shock ensues, the mother and father trying
to figure out how this happened and advertedly outing them,
which soon leads to the outing of her brother, who
was the sperm donor right.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
I did appreciate the other brother who his women and
his wife and the kids come. I did appreciate that
they're very supportive, but also the fact that they also
were getting some shit as the uncle were like, when's
the third baby coming? God, it was quite nice. I
was like, Oh, everybody gets it. Everybody gets it. As
(13:32):
all the dinners are coming to an end, we go
back to see the Wynn family, whose turkey was burned
so they had to order KFC, which I thought was delightful,
and apparently the youngest did too. It was very excited
about this chicken. During the mill, Gary's friends show up,
which worries Ginny, who announces that Gary was hiding a
gun and just lays it on the table because why not.
(13:52):
After a lot of arguing, the youngest and they leave
the table, the youngest comes out, who was very excited
about the chicken, sees the gun, rabs it and plays
with it and it goes off. After a very intense
moment of like this is a PG thirteen movie, kill
the youngest child off. I had that debate back and
forth of the like what the hell and realizing this
is quickly turning into an after school special that I've
(14:15):
seen before. I feel like. We soon find out that
the families all live caddy corner to each other. Literally,
each one of it lives on a corner that faces
one another, which is hilarious, being like, how would they
not known each other? How how would they There's so
many questions I had, but I just looked it. But
that the gun had gone off and everybody heard it. Jimmy,
(14:35):
realizing that it came from his house, runs to the
home again he had lied that he's not coming home.
A lot more confusion. We find out that everyone is
safe and the gun has shot out the window. At
this point, Jimmy introduces everyone to his his family, to
his girlfriend Gina, who again lives across the way, who
was accepted into the family. They're like, oh, she looks Vietnamese.
(14:57):
Welcome to the family. Uh. And then we have Ronald
who talks to Michael about the future and his own
experiences about how it's hard not having an education and
being a black person in the community and what that
looks like blah blah blah. And then we have the
Sea leagues, who are all a bit confused, but more
distracted by the recent gunshot and then the avelis continue
(15:18):
on with their dessert like it's just yay in the
story Happy Holiday.
Speaker 3 (15:34):
So can I tell you?
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I watched this last night and I had to watch
it with ads, so it was taking longer than I thought.
And one of my good friends came over for like
the final i'd say ten minutes because we were going
to go see the new Thanksgiving movie, which I did
see night, and I didn't know this gun thing was
gonna happen. And my poor friend shows up for the
(15:57):
last ten minutes of this movie and it was like, what.
Speaker 3 (16:00):
Are you watching? Like I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:07):
Understand, but it was so funny because I couldn't have anticipated.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
This, and that's the only part she saw. Then we
went to go see this other movie in.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
The Lads of Chakra.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
I'm sure it was quite a day. That's funny.
Speaker 2 (16:21):
Yeah, the entire setup was odd. It is an hour
and forty five fifty minutes long. I think it is
your tip. It is on not not a sponsor Amazon
Prime with ads. I also, I've never seen this movie either.
I just picked. We were like we need to do
a Thanksgiving Day movie. Let's be silly watch this and
this has four matriarchs. I honestly thought they all came together.
(16:43):
That's what I had envisioned, and then it turned out
none of that was happening. Was like, okay, okay. I
feel like the most diverse of the two would have
been the Avila's and the Winds doing their things. So like,
oh at Lisa's cold. Okay, okay, cool, cool to have
an Asian family as part of the star as. In fact,
Joan Chen was kind of uh named as if she
(17:05):
was the star of the show, which is not true
because she's she's barely in it compared to the rest
of them. But I digress. So there's a lot again.
Finding out that it was bended, like Beckham creators really
threw me off because like they really wanted to tell
an American story that's interesting about Thanksgiving, that's interesting, And
(17:26):
of course we did have a couple of conversations about
like you know, the goth girl talking about how you know,
millions of Native Americans, first indigenous people were murdered and
killed my disease. I was like, okay, hey, lids say,
I guess they added that in there. UH did love
the fact that she during their like we're playing house.
She's like, I'm going to be the alcoholics that mother
(17:47):
cult worship based that mother and because we're like, uh
okay cool, and the grandma was too. So there's a
lot to that in that level. But but yeah, there
were several themes, and I think there was more like,
oh yeah, I get this, so obviously the very top
is the holidays and families togetherness and Jimmy lying about
(18:09):
going home and why he couldn't come home. I may
have done that like as of like three years ago,
to be honest, not for a mate, but like just because.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Oh yeah, I mean they definitely.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
It was kind of shocking how accurately I felt they
captured the vibe of the drama of families during this time,
of like the politics of it, of the like ugh,
I don't want to deal with this person, of the
asking you like if you're single when you're gonna have kids,
(18:46):
like all of those.
Speaker 3 (18:47):
Like things we dread and may lie about to get.
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Out of and feel guilty about lying about to get
out of, and then like visiting another partner's family and yes,
be on.
Speaker 3 (19:01):
The outliers there, right.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
I loved of course, like at least they had LGBTQ representation,
and it was sweet, very nice kind of representation where
they're supportive and not trying to be over the top.
Of course, the partner is the one that's like, don't
say anything, don't argue with your dad about the politics,
thing about the immigrations and all the all the things,
which I was like, oh, there comes, of course inevitably,
(19:26):
that's the conversation. You know. I've talked about the fact
that I get scared of going because that's gonna come up,
and typically it gets worse. It hasn't been as bad
when it's been at its worst, like the Trump administration.
My brother did the only thing, which was like, I'm
going to buy you a Maga hat, and I kind
of just stared at him. I was like, I don't care.
And we didn't say anything else. Of course, like we
(19:49):
said like, I've already had my arguments with my mom
and it was so bad that my mom was I
think like begged everyone not to say anything. But apparently
political conversations happened when I'm not around. Yeah, because my
niece have had to had to deal with that, I'm like, oh,
bless her heart, but yeah, that's one of the big
I hate. I hate it so much. I will say,
as much as like I love, I'd rather go to
(20:10):
my partner's family m any day all day because we're
all very similar. The father does play news constantly to
the fiend, and I'm like, I'm gonna lose it. I'm
gonna lose it. Yeah, I'm gonna lose it. But it's
not because necessarily that he's arguing with anybody, because everybody
pretty much agrees right on all the stances there. But
(20:33):
it's just like I still don't want to hear it.
Even if it is things that I more agree with,
I don't want to hear it.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Yeah, that's that's kind of me with my older brother,
because my brothers are both very very like all day
listening to the stuff like that, and I do agree
with most of it. I don't agree with some of it,
but but it it is like I will literally go
home because they're both like night owls. He'll be four
(21:00):
am and I'm just listening to something about Donald Trump,
and I'm like, I just want to sleep, Please please
off because I can now and now my heart is
beating really fast.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Oh no, yeah, politics bad, hearing news even worse. Right,
I think that's the one thing that they were missing.
They need to add that. Now, if they did a
remake of this, they add that the one uncle that
sleeps in the couch that he listens to the news time.
Another theme which we've talked about as a full episode,
women preparing the dinner. It was only the women the
(21:37):
entire time. Jimmy, Dear Jimmy, and I think this is
being the oldest child comes in to play, came in
and helped, and I was like, that's super cute like that,
and they were all like bragging about how he's so
great and doing this. But then like the brother Tony
was like, can you give me a beer hunt to
the wife, And I'm like, I'll punch you in the throat.
But we know that's the thing.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Yeah, I feel subsition that that stuck out to me
was like, as someone who does do this, it's so
frustrating sometimes it's just like.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
A lot of work.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I don't think, because I did love that they showed
the making of the like tamal Is and the making
of the spring rolls and like kind of it was
more communal than I'm used to, and so I don't
think there's necessarily anything wrong with that, because I do
think there is something like a sort of bonding that
happens over that.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
But I don't.
Speaker 1 (22:31):
I hate the like assumption you'll do it, and the
like not caring, like not being at least somewhat like
this took a lot of work.
Speaker 3 (22:41):
I had to plan all of this. I had to
do all of this right now.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
The turkeys on the floor like yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
And the person during that William's dinner was the friend
the white woman being the one that was like, this
is so looks amazing, you did so amazing. She was
the only one really complimenting the entire thing to the
level it should be complimented. But it does remind me
like my own home. We do come together because most
of the children are grown, uh, and they help with
(23:09):
the food.
Speaker 4 (23:09):
I do not.
Speaker 2 (23:10):
I'm the one who brings, like the rolls and the
dessert and the the cokes and the drinks. Rather yes,
I'm very sullent the cookes. But recently my partner has
proved himself as a cook, so it has now become
a part of that too. And the last time we went,
he went and helped in the kitchen and whatever I
was helping too, like we were both in there, but
they were just like kind of like Jimmy, They're like, whoa, yeah,
(23:32):
what are you doing in here? Are you you want
to help? Like to that level, and all was like, yeah, yeah,
I guess I got a good and then moving on
the matriarchy obviously the overlaying the plot of the entire thing,
whether they're steering the conversation, they're steering the mood, they're
steering the dinner, and or disappointment, however you want to
(23:54):
look at it. They were the main focus of the
entire thing. We had men coming in trying to be men,
but the women pretty much, whether it was the grandma too,
so the wind family, it was the grandma, Like the
grandpa was sitting there watching Pamela in Orson, which I
didn't appreciate it. Yeah, yes, as a whole throwback, but
(24:15):
like you know, the grandma wasn't there comforting the kids,
helping with the dinner, making sure everybody was okay, Like
she was a big part of that too.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (24:24):
Yeah, yeah, it definitely was kind of you had the
woman leading the family on this day and trying to
bring the family together. It was interesting to me because
I feel like my family dynamics are very different. Like
maybe actually, maybe it's just me. I can't imagine telling my.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Mom I wasn't coming home for the holidays. I did
it once. I did it once, and I made like
a meal for her to tell her.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
That I wasn't coming, like a fancy meal.
Speaker 2 (25:00):
Yeah, I have a different dynamic because you are a
smaller family. Yeah, so then that makes a little bit
of a difference. But yeah, that's still like a different
part for you too. Yeah, I was thinking too. With
like the Villa family, she makes everything. She might not
be the loud one that takes over the conversation, but
she quietly maintains. So she's still welcoming to Hobbyer even
though she was like, I don't want him here, right,
(25:22):
She didn't ask for permission for Daniel to be there,
but Daniel showed up and she made she be like
you're ready, like doing all those things. She was ridiculously
reserved for that situation.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
To me, Oh, I was outraged. I was outraged on
her behalf. I was like, these dudes suck in your life?
Speaker 2 (25:41):
Are these men? Why? For the williams Audrey was completely
by herself, with the in law hosting the in law
as well, which has been a big conversation. There was
a reason video and TikTok where a dude was like,
I'm bringing to my mom. She's like, no, you're not
her grandma. He's like, no, you're not unless you're willing
to take care of her because if not, I'm going
to be the taking care of her. On top of
(26:02):
so we are not agreed, like there are so many
he's like, I'm men at this house. He's like, no,
I'm taking care of this house. So but this level
like who's taking care of whom and who responsibility and
who it always falls on no matter what. Maybe the
conversation not that like it's a taxing thing to have
to double women. And then if you are like opposition
and it feels like you're competing with each other, which
is that's what this felt like, it could become the problem, which,
(26:25):
of course.
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yeah, I've said this before.
Speaker 1 (26:38):
In my family and I feel like a lot of families.
My mom would cook the whole thing and then a man,
not always my dad, a man would come in and
he would cut the turkey, and it would be like,
look at what he's done. And one year, literally that
man cut his hand and bled all in the turkey.
So now does it? She does it fine, Like it's
(27:02):
just annoying. Like I'm not saying she should have to
do it, but I hate that, Like I shall come
in after you've cooked all this thing and I will present.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
Them, right, I will to what I provided.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Yes, she's just capable of doing it without bleeding.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
That's funny, I'll say. I don't think we've ever had that.
It's always been slice ready to go, Like that's never
been a ceremony, like if the ceremonies us coming around,
which the whole prayer sequence was quite funny too, yes, yeah,
but like the having the whole prayer around the table,
like that's what happened, but everything's ready to go, like
there's no ceremony to cutting turkey. So I found that.
I also thought that was just a movie thing and
last people actually did that.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
No, in a different podcast, but it dates back to
like the eighteen hundreds and man being like, look, I
can provide for my family.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
I got things, which speaking of Yeah, part of the
theme again is men suck, especially barely during the holidays.
And I say this was again as my partner, he
is great, like he as in fact, I'm like, yeah,
my parents never expected me. My mother never expected me
to cook. She just expected me to ring like additional
things and help. Like now that like he's on board,
(28:11):
She's like, okay, yeah he can bring this food. I
was like, wait what you never asked me? What is this?
I mean, in the end, it's fine. I'm a little
low key offended, but not over the top offended, but like, yeah,
that men suck in general. The cheating that was just
thrown out there like it was just no big deal,
Like what the hell?
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yeah, like several instances now we're not talking about wood,
we're talking about molds.
Speaker 2 (28:37):
A couple a couple of instances, yes, but yes we
have that. And then we have Javier who thinks he
could just come back in. He's like, I made a mistake.
It was just a flip. It was not a big deal.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
Yeah, and then like him getting mad, and then the
son Tony getting mad, which like he's a kid, I
will give him a little leeway. I'm sure it wasn't easy,
but also like he was trying to guilt his mom,
like we're ruining this holiday.
Speaker 2 (29:02):
I mean, you just come back to apologize, And I
wonder if they just didn't understand the theme of it,
and so it came in the end like is it
supposed to be? Like this is this how you're supposed
to act? Because like the men went after Hobby, I
had to bring him back. All the women were like nah.
Speaker 3 (29:16):
Bye, all the women.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
They literally have a scene where all the women are
on one side and.
Speaker 2 (29:21):
Then but yeah, like it literally was that to the
point that even Tony, who we talk about, the kid
who invited the dad, uh was like getting from his
wife because his wife was mad at him for doing
all that. She's like, hmmm, do you do it?
Speaker 1 (29:39):
No, You're not even gonna ask her or tell her
he's coming.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Like the entire time, I was like, well, you know what.
I like that they banded together for the mother, because yeah,
the ladies they got it again.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
If they had ended up together, I was gonna be
so And there was a moment where You're like, oh wait,
oh no, but.
Speaker 2 (30:02):
She's so passive like that Jimmy seemingly even though she's not.
It was all but I think it was just also
that that sound like strength, the quiet strength that just
like hmm, I'm not even gonna play into this to
be dramatic about it. Let's just move on, like this
is how little it's may to me, and then we
have I guess the LGBTQ. I don't know if like
(30:23):
it was a sidemark or supposed to be diversity.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
It was interesting because it's weird when you watch something
from like the two thousands and you feel that we've
come so far since, and we have, but it's also
strange that I'm like, this could very well easily still happen.
It was like a very strange thing where I felt
(30:57):
like they were trying to be It's like they tried
they did a search on all of the problems you
could have at Thanksgiving and they were like, Okay, one
is this queer aspect, so let's put that in there,
which is true.
Speaker 2 (31:15):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
It just felt very It felt very dated and also relevant,
if that makes.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Sense, right right? Yeah, I mean it absolutely did. Between
like the having the child and then being like that's okay,
people do that nowadays, mom. Like that that being said,
that was hilarious to me to the discovery that it
was the brother who did them, the brother cousin. I
don't know what he was. I thought it was the brother,
but then maybe I mixed that one up. I was
(31:41):
a donor and then he was gay, like they him
as well. It was like, well, damn yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
They definitely outed them very.
Speaker 2 (31:48):
Quickly, like the everyone's on the edge about whether or not.
And then the fact that she's having a maybe instead
of being happy, just being confused. I was like, that's okay,
but okay, the.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Baby was a surprise. I was not expecting the baby
to come up.
Speaker 2 (32:04):
The gunpit was a surprise. It was quite a bit
of surprises. I have to wonder because it's not way
off again though it still does I'm like, yeah, she's
a UK based person doing this movie. I wonder, like
what I really want to sit down with it be
like why why Thanksgiving? Why for families? Why these things
(32:29):
in LA? Specifically? Like can we because it's like she's
not completely She's not wrong as in fact, I know
a lot of Asian games were pretty are pretty rampant
and were pretty ramp in LA. A lot of things
were happening, so it wasn't way off. And then as
well as the fact like they are culturally appropriating a
(32:53):
lot of things as well. I was like, okay, at
the beginning, saying with a kid having the conversation in
the mirror, trying to be quote unquote tough saying I'm
putting quote my own was around it, but like it
had memorials like so, I can't tell if this is
inflated in the ideas of what she thinks of la
(33:13):
or if it's too on points. But there's also two
thousands and I was like graduating high school, going to college,
so I had a completely different world in Georgia.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
The butterfly pins, Oh my gosh, there were butterfly clips
in this movie.
Speaker 1 (33:28):
I also say, like it was interesting to see the
with the son Michael and his dad Ronald, when Michael
outs his dad for cheating. Yeah, I think, like, I
think that's an interesting thing that happens a lot in
these family gatherings too, where you're trying to as a
(33:51):
family hold it together and maybe keep these things secret,
and then they come out, and like who decides when
it comes out? And then when the mother in law
was like, oh, you have to stay together like those
I have seen all of this. I have seen all
of this, and it's just interesting. I feel like a
lot of times we all have those, you know. I
(34:13):
think I read a joke about this the other day,
like it's not Thanksgiving unless one person refuses to come,
Like we have these right, these dramas in our family,
and these just just unresolved, unresolved things. And then you
come together for a holiday and you're trying to make
(34:33):
it look like you're a good family, good family, a
perfect family, like nothing is wrong, but something is clearly wrong, right,
Like you're not talking about you're not being honest with
each other, right.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
And then there was just a whole bit with that
Li Williams family. I was like, why is that white
dude butting in about his son? He needs to shut up,
Like I was getting annoyed with that. You want to
pick a fight at someone else's house. That was like,
even if he was wrong, had been like, excuse me,
this is not this is family business. You need a shed, right,
(35:08):
I could think that's not a lie. Yeah, so there
you go. What a roller coaster A very succinct but
very displaced, Like both of those things happened these movies.
Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yes, in this movie Weather, it was not what I
was expecting. And hats off to my friend who's the
last ten minutes?
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Are they okay?
Speaker 3 (35:33):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (35:35):
I did get a text for her this morning. That
was like, I had very weird dreams and I blame you,
and I was like, between the two things, will take that.
I think that's fair. I don't think I'm gonna watch
some of those others you suggested.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
I'm curious. I don't have watched any of them. I
had aested to you. I feel like I'm gonna have
to go back to because, uh, that so interesting. There
was a Holly Hunter movie, there's a Katie Holmes movie,
and one more I can't remember it.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, yeah, Well, listeners, If you have any thoughts about this,
are those movies any other movies? You can write to
us our emails, Stephanie and mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can find us on Twitter at mom Stuff podcast,
or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You.
We have a tea public store, and we have a book.
You can get it wherever you get your books. Thanks
(36:23):
as always too, our super producer Christina, our executive producer Maya,
and your contributor Joey.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
Stuff I Never Told You is production by Heart Radio.
For more podcasts on my Heart Radio, you can check
out the iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!