December 6, 2025 • 41 mins
Nyla Innuksuk's 2022 film Slash/Back follows a group of Indigenous girls figuring out friendships, family and...how to fend off an alien invasion. Anney and Samantha delve into themes of culture, colonization, friendship and family.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told you a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome. We are coming through with a spoiler Saturday,
because yes, this movie is anywhere, and it's kind of
bleeding over from November, because did we do want in
November any I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We did it. Our booth and movie both got moved
to December.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We have a lot of content for y'all, which is great.
So that means we're going to bleed into December and
you know what, as it should be, as it should
be all of the year long. We should do more
and more Indigenous and Native content because we don't have enough,
which also holds us back because we can't find them,
which makes me sad.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, it's every year where we're trying to do content
for this time. It's depressing how difficult it can be.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Because we have very like specific standards, including you would
like to be We have to be obviously led by
Indigenous people, but people that are in our intersectional circle,
and so typically we do use women creators because there's
not enough women in this industry to begin with, if
not non binary, as well as people who are not
(01:27):
bad people.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
We should genuinely, we should.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Be that, we should be an obvious but sometimes you
have to do some deep, deep research to hope that
they're okay people. But in this case, they are okay
people's And yes, we are excited to do a horror movie,
science fiction movie which is also a love letter to
a whole community that has not given its proper due
(01:55):
and spotlight and apparently a love letter to the thing
which my partner immediately called out when we started this movie.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
By the way, yes, well yes, and they mentioned it.
I feel like a lot of horror movies these days
have has that one character that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Knows horror movies.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yes, and she was talking about the thing. She was
talking about all of it, and I.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Was like, yeah, I never seen it. I really like
the thing it is. It's creepy in the ending because
it's an ambiguous ending and it takes place in Antarctica,
so it's like isolated and the you know, kind of
that whole scary.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I don't know who's lying and who's not who No, like,
because it takes over people so you don't know, and
then uh it does. Yeah, it's just got. It does
have a lot of things that one of the scenes
that Jesse was describing at this movie about it. It
has a lot of special effects that at the time
I'm sure were amazing but now are kind of like
(02:54):
eighties te A lot of them are really good. But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You gotta remember the context of timing.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But the movie we're talking about, because I haven't said
it yet, is Slashback, which was released in twenty twenty
two at the South By Southwest Film Festival, Directed and
produced and written by Nila Enuxuk also Ryan Kavan. I
believe he also helped write this movie. But you know,
this is her baby, this is her thing, and she
(03:23):
was born in Iguluk and grew up in the Ikaluit area.
Go ahead, but this year indigenous languages are coming back,
thank goodness, but it is not as common, so getting
pronunciations can be difficult. Thank goodness. This stuff has more
pronunciations for me because the struggle is real. But apologies
(03:44):
if I do misspeak, and come back and let me know,
because I'm working on it, y'all. I'm working on it.
We are always working on it here. But yeah, So
though this is her first full length movie, she has
many other short films and documentaries under her name, including
some virtual reality work, which I feel like we need
to do an episode on because we haven't really talked
(04:05):
done or talked much about stuff like that. Have we.
We did that one, right.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
We did. I can't remember the title. Oh no, but
we did one from another Indigenous creator that had just yes,
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
But we need to do We need to come back
to some more of these things. Excited to do so,
by the way, but back to this film. A Slashback
is a science fiction horror thriller movie that is centered
around the Canadian Indigenous community, or you know, as we
would say, they would not say it was Canadian because
in my mind I was like, oh, this is also
in Alaska, which they also don't recognize they being the
(04:41):
indigenous community because they are one group of people. And
I was like, yeah, that makes more sense. But for
this sake of just trying to understand geography, this is
the area that it is focused on, and it is
the community of pung Nantan Nanavut. And again I'm trying
to get this pronunciation right. In the movie, they say
paying a lot, so that's what we're going to refer
(05:02):
the area as. And it is an actual area apparently
made up of like seven to eight thousand people, and
we get to see a group of young girls who
come together to fight against some really gross creatures. Yeah,
like that's the best way, some really good visual effects.
Kind of a native Indigenous like take on the eighties,
(05:25):
not the eighties like of nineties girl Best Friend movies.
But they go do some venturing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
It's like the Thing meets the Goonies, but with indigenous.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Girls and which we love, which we love to see.
But yeah, so let's go ahead and get started with
the plot. I'm going to go quickly through and then
we'll talk to some themes and some ideas in some
of the interviews that they gave on this movie. So
the first scene is with Micah, one of the main
teen girls that we get to follow, and her father
(05:58):
teaching her lessons of her culture and her people, including
how to hunt and fish. Very cool scene. And I
should note I haven't seen any articles, and I'm sure
we should be able to find some soon because it
kind of just talked about their experience in filmmaking. But
the art, the writer, the director, Enuksuk made sure to
not only use mainly indigenous casts. Specifically from that area.
(06:20):
But also they used music, indigenous music, which was really fun,
as well as all of the writings for indigenous for
their culture as well as they made sure to speak it,
which I love that they used that language in there
in order to communicate with each other, to show that
it still existed and that it was still going strong.
So very heavily focused in the culture, and we love
(06:42):
to see that. And that's kind of how you begin,
is the story of her father and her doing something
that is traditional and something that has been passed down
and he is known as one of the best hunters
in the area, so we find out. But then we
jump into a scene with an im media attack of
a white scientist that being dry somewhere in the snow
by something in the snow, like you just see tentacles
(07:04):
pop out, yeah and blood splatter immediate.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah. He was an interesting character in the one minute
he had on the ones talking to his gloves glove,
but he like face first and very unceremonious stuff, very
alien esque. Definitely definitely alien esque.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I did laugh at the talking to the glove scene
because I feel like that's something I would also do
being alone entirely in the snow isolated. You can't run
away from me. In fact, they can all right. Moving on,
and then we get to see out of that. We
are introduced to the main characters of the movie, Micah, Jesse, Lena,
and Oki and Micah's younger sister Are you and there
(07:53):
are going about their day, causing some trouble, wishing they
they didn't live there, you know, the teenage thing growing
up in a small area like, ugh, this place is off,
I can't wait to leave, have a feeling, That's what
they expressed. But you can tell they're the cool girls
running about doing their thing, chasing people down with bikes. Yes,
the girls wanting to do something that day, decided to
(08:16):
take their parents' boat, Mike's parents boat, and go out
to the mainland with a gun. Always good time, I guess, which,
by the way, my family just kind of did at
the own house shooting things.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, anyway, moving while they're there, they come across a
polar bear kind of except the bear looks different, and
after a very scary interaction and an attack on the
younger sister because I decided to come even though she
wasn't invited, and then she gets attacked by the bear,
which apparently she drove on the bike. She got there
really quickly. I feel like that's some dedication.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, she was determined not to be left out of
this name.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't blame her, but that's when she gets attacked.
After finally some like good shooting and screaming and leaving
in all of these things, they get back to their
home where they tell this ghost story and the girl,
by the way, I was covered in black blood. They're
all kind of creeped out and trying to figure out
what exactly was that because they know there wasn't something
There was something wrong here. There's something wrong with that bear.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, and they shot it twice. Uki shot it the
first time, then Micah shot it the second time, and
it just didn't seem that's right. Something was off about
it exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Something was off. So Okiu talks of enough legends and
lords at this time about what they've seen, what they know,
Oh my god, what this is, and Micah dismisses it
as being silly and nonsense. And after a bit of
back and forth, because you know, Darre's Oki to go
back to prove that she is not scared, because they're like, nah,
you couldn't do it again, I dare you all these
(09:49):
things and of course challenge. Of course, this would lead
to the bigger moments of Okay killing a smaller creature
while they are covered a while there and then getting
covered by the blood as well, and making something angry
which seems to be something that they're attracted to they
can sense and find. And so when he comes back
(10:10):
to the community trying to tell them what's going on.
By the way, this happens at a party, and the
girls all went to trying to go and press one
boy Lena's got a crush trying to get to and
at the same time Micah is like, no, I don't care,
but putting on that perfume, doing her thing, you know
how we know? And then they all come back together
and Oki comes tell them I killed it. They're coming
(10:33):
they're aliens. Because she also sees this giant glob.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
With tentacles like spaceship blob thing. Uh, that's so interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And after the back and forth of like her lit
saying that she's lying, do you think gets attacked by
one of the cops who had just gotten killed by
this creature bare thing and now is wearing his skin loosely.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it looks like a very bad Michael Myers.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah yeah. And he's chasing after Oki and there's halting
ensues and everybody's running away and screaming. And this is
when Micah decides she has to help Oki and we
need to stop these creatures. This is our fall. We
got to do this thing. They try to call the cop.
The cop gets killed too. The chief we should never
(11:20):
see her again. I thought maybe we would see her skin.
It doesn't happen, no, no, yeah, yeah. And then the villager.
There was another villager who gets killed and is now
part of the skin army, which is what Lena calls them.
She's like, I'm just calling him skins. And then that's fair.
So Lena, Uki and Micah come together, like we're going
(11:43):
to go after these things. Let's go as they do.
My bad, it's actually Jesse, not Lena. I got them
confused because I had the other one. So Jesse is
the one that goes on the hunt with them, because
she is also the same one who has been like
no one's with the paying girls. Yeah, I love that.
And she's also the one that has to crush on
(12:04):
the dude who has the Honda, which I thought was
like maybe an product placement.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Because I did too, because later so Thomsy has this
kind of like for like r V Honda thing that's
the talk of the town. But then at the end,
some somebody else I think it's Micah's dad is wearing
a Honda, and I was like, is.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
This I mean, you get your product? That's very specific
because I thought first one was a car. But yeah.
So we have Jesse going with uh Ouki and Micah
hunting after these things now and realizing they have to
(12:46):
get rid of it, and that the adults weren't going
to help because the adults were at their party and
they were dancing and having a good time and not
answering phones, and because this was the longest day of
the year, they were gonna be out for a while,
so they were going to have to handle this or
everybody was going to die. So we have Micah coming
and putting in her hunting skills to use and setting
(13:07):
a trap, which Uki was like, I will be the bait,
you know, because she has the show. She's bad, she
is bad, she's great, And they try to do a
whole trap, which I oh, puts Uki in danger. And
almost kills her, but thinking this, she's okay, and then
they realize, oh, they're at Micah's house. And as they
arrive with to Micah's house, they realize her father is there,
(13:28):
and out of nowhere here comes the Good, throwing her
across the room Micah and knocking her unconscious. When she
comes to, she sees that her dad's being attacked by
this monster, and we have a great back and forth
with her memories of everything he taught her and all
the things that she wanted about him, even though she
was ashamed of him previously because he was so country,
(13:50):
I think is the way she kind of put it.
And then they finally come together and killed this creature
as they do of course with a large machete like
sword thing that was passed down from generations from her
great grandfather, and they use it to kill this monster Rua.
And in the end we see they all come together
(14:11):
and she is more proud of her culture. Micah is,
and they open up a whole almost like a food
truck with her father and is very successful because everybody
loves country food. That's Thomas, he would say. And then
also reporters coming in to ask about these aliens.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yes, and Oki being like I am, they answer my
questions for a fee, which I love.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, let's get your money baby.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah. So this is a really great movie, easy watch,
very short. It is interesting because if you read about
what they did, like I sai that they brought in
indigenous actors. They actually use the village people as a
part of the ensemble. And so they talked about how
it was kind of doing the acting workshops. They kind
(15:11):
of worked through this, so it gave opportunities to people
who wouldn't be in movies to be in movies. I
did see interviews with some of the young stars and
they're talking about this so exciting. I can't believe I
get to say I was in a movie. So I
would go in with It's not an Oscar nominated film,
but it is an enjoyable watch.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
It is. It's a really it's a really fun watch.
I like the because you know, we love horror here
and it's not scary, like it has unsettling moments, but
I kind of like the fun. Yeah, the thing. It
was definitely an adventure, yes, and and you know we
love friendships amongst girls and women here. That was fun.
(15:56):
I have to say I was not. I you don't
have to lose any romantic tension for me, but I
was surprised that no, nothing came of that kind of
triangle that was happening.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I also really loved the fact that he was so useless,
Like he tried to help in the end, but the
actuality was that he was very useless and he knew it,
and yeah, like it really was kind of cute on
that level. I think one of the things that we
will get into about this is that they made sure
(16:32):
not to make it heavy handed in that they didn't
want too political of messages, even though it could be
seen as that, which makes me sad because I feel
like the lot of the it could be both ways.
Where we see films that have such opportunities to educate,
I feel like they have to hold back because they
(16:52):
have to they want to be a little more mainstream,
or being told by studios that they can't do too much,
or the fact that they don't. It's like I wish
it didn't have to be that they people would just
naturally want to research it after the fact instead of
you know what I mean, like and let them have
the fun times like this's this double edged sort of like, man,
this is an interesting place to be because we don't
have enough of this type of content to begin with
(17:15):
to get that education, and so it's kind of like
you either have to try to stick it all in
and hope that people will stay around or that or
make it as fun as possible in order to let
you know, like to also stick around. So there's just
layers of so many things, especially as a filmmaker who
you know, talks about her love for et as well
as the thing and loving horror and these types of films,
(17:35):
and really want to do that with these group of
girls also having a responsibility and just that conversation alone
about accepting yourself and your identity as teenagers in an
indigenous community and try not to be too heavy handed
on them to carry out these emotional tolls for themselves.
But that's a lot to it. So let's go ahead
(17:57):
and jump into themes or at least things that I
saw about the film that we should talk about, because
they feel like I just throw around the word themes
like this is not theme, but I'm gonna talk about it. Yeah,
let's do it. So obviously we want to talk about
the Inuit culture and some of the folklore. Of course,
like they they mentioned at least two or three different
lures that they have in there. Have we talked about
(18:18):
some of these? I don't know if we've actually talked
about Inuit folklore.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't believe.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I think we've talked about things that were adjacent, Yeah,
kind of similar stories, but not specifically this.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, there was a lot of conversation about like taking
over bodies and using people's bodies. Again, I guess that's
the thing about the thing. Yeah, right, so that was
really interesting in their conversation and then also just being
exasperated because they didn't want to think it's real, but
at the same time it kind of was real in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, Because one of the big the big points of
tension in the movie is between Uki and Micah. Micah
is like embarrassed by in that culture. She thinks it's silly,
whereas Uki's very proud. She's the one that's like, I
like living here, and so they're kind of opposites in
(19:15):
that way. And when Uki comes back after seeing the
spaceship is like, congratulations, you won. It wasn't what I
said it was in our folkal orates aliens.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
The character was quite funny. I think their friendship was
interesting because it's also talked about how they grow, yeah,
from each other and then with each other, but we'll
talk more about that. But also the lifestyle. I think
that was something that was important for in Asook to
talk about and to show off. Even though this wasn't
her village that she grew up in, she knew the
(19:52):
community in itself and wanted to highlight the community itself.
The beautiful shots of them been on the boat and
going by the like glaciers and such. I was like,
oh my god, yeah that I never in my mind
has that gone in my head as a possibility, even
though obviously people live that. In my mind, it's not
a real everyday thing, and it was for them in
(20:13):
this moment, and they're so bored of it. I'm like,
I guess we all feel that way from wherever we're from, because, like, again,
my hometown now that I grew up in is a
big tourist site and it's crowded all the time because
people want to go up there to see the leaves
the country. Yeah, the apples and the apples and the
foothills of the mountains. But I do find that interesting also,
(20:35):
like the conversation about like hunting and how important that
is and how much of a legend that people see
it as, where Mike I took that for granted because
she was supposed to be with her father but so
embarrassed because he was selling off the things that he
had hunted, which is of pride for so many, including Thomas,
who was like, Oh, that's your Your dad's super cool.
You think you guys could teach me? And she's like.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, and then she made fun of his mom's art.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
He liked HER's like, why are you liking her? Dude?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, she really had a lot to work for.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
She did, She really did. But I found that interesting
also because we've talked about how I love that they
were doing that with a young girl, that he was
teaching her that. And maybe it's because they didn't have
a son. I don't think they had a son. I
think they had two young other younger sisters, right, she
had two younger sisters and she was the eldest, and
(21:32):
he was teaching all these things and she was supposed
to help, but like she was taught to shoot a gun,
she was taught to like go and fish and hunt
and bait and all these things, and so it really
brought into that lifestyle for her, even though she didn't
love it. It was interesting also look back and forth
about the technology because I didn't and this is twenty
(21:52):
one when they were talking about about data and all
these things, and we have talked about the accessibility that
doesn't happen in a lot of these areas, not because
they can't have it because the US or whatever colonial
like colonized imperial system has taken over won't grant them that.
And just recently I watched the TikTok And not to
say that all they're all like not given modern technologies,
(22:16):
but the fact is they're not given federal funding to
get a lot of these technologies, including just electricity and
all of those things not electricity but like but you
know what I mean, setups to be a part of
the grid. They're the first people to be cut off,
it's likely to be able to afford it, and they
are not given any kind of breaks because the government
won't recognize them in so many ways. So like it
(22:39):
it's all of these levels of like, oh oh yeah,
I kind of forget this as well, and they are
further out, like they do talk about how they're in
the Arctic. They keep going At one point of the
line is if we keep going up, we go to
a different place. And and then Mike, Mike I says,
you go, if you keep going north, you're going to
eventually go south, Like that's that what's her comment? Yes,
(23:01):
not wrong, but there was an interesting conversation in that lifestyle. Also, again,
I think it's really important that they actually shot in
paying with the people of the village and again a
mainly Inuit cast. She really thought that was important. I
was telling Annie that they flew in fifty beds because
there was not enough housing for the crew, so they
(23:24):
had to fly in beds and have them in the
schools to stay in there. Because it's not a large
area I think they said again seven to eight thousand
people in population, and so they were like, oh, okay,
we got to make do. And they would come together
and have acting workshops together with the crew. They would
come together and have they said, kind of like counseling sessions.
(23:44):
But then also they would go out on the boats
and teach them different areas and show them places to
go and where they should and shouldn't go like it
was a whole lesson for her as well as the
crew from the village. So I love every bed of
that and I wanted to put this line in. So
there was interview that this person did, scriptmag dot Com
(24:04):
did and they asked, you know, what is something that
you hope the audience takes and the young girl who
plays Micah Tasiana, she says, I really hope that the
audience will get a sense of what it's like to
live in the Arctic and the lifestyle that we live
as Inuit in nanea of it. And I really thought
it was interesting that this young girl wanted people to
see what it was like for them and how why
(24:25):
that was important for her, which I was really I
love that. I love that aspect of wanting to share
culture and be made known, as well as like again,
them actually doing the script, them actually writing in their language,
them actually speaking in their language. I think is so
important because this is part of like when we talked
about preservation and because there weren't access to this, this
(24:46):
is a small bit of preservation that they get to
have and we get to have of a culture that
is so easily unlikely to be forgotten, if not completely
destroyed because of supremacy whites. But yeah, those lines are
really cute. Again, they do have a few interviews and
(25:06):
a few highlights with the three of them, the director
and the young girl who plays Okay and the young
girl who plays Micah. So those are some really cute
interviews and interesting to see in their conversations. Y'all should
go check that out to learn more about that. In
that same point, we kind of already talked about it,
but wanting to be normal and not a native team
(25:27):
like not being native in that level of like filling
at the point they keep saying paying is so ghetto.
I guess so yet just because they felt like they
didn't have everything that everyone they saw everyone else they
thought everyone else had again talking about how Lena gets
to go to pretty much white city, like white predominantly
(25:50):
white city, and she gets to go there every summer.
She gets unlimited data, all of these different things. She
also gets to punish the most.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, she's her parents very careful watch her and ground
her very easily.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
She's like, I'm getting so much trouble really so to
be fun, I mean like they almost.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Died, I mean she did get in so much trouble.
Even before the dying, she got grounded for a month.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It was like, that's dang. I thought this was interesting
comment from the director, and it suck. She talks about
how teenager dynamics were for her and why it was
interesting in trying to relay this without having too much
emotional work from the actors. She says, and certainly talking
in the inspiration for that really did come from teenagers,
(26:36):
and the dynamics of the teenagers. So she would sit
and talk with them about what they wanted to do
that day in acting or how they wanted to write
the script, but then also my experience as an end
up teenager processing how that worked, how that fit in
with my identity and what shame I had carried and
how do I process that? And I could see in
the language of some of the cast members that they
carried some shame as well, And so we'd have conversations
(26:58):
about it and what does it mean when we say, oh,
that's so INOK, and we mean it in a negative way,
and how do we shift that to being we're using
prideful language when we were talking about where we come from.
So I could absolutely see that She actually had that scene.
She had that scene with the teenagers coming together again,
pang is so ghetto. That's some you know, stuff like
dismissing legends or thoughts or ideas and trying to fit
(27:23):
in in what they think is the standard, which is
white standards, and then understanding later that it's not badge
when again Micah comes in ready to go, just like
hating on everything from Thomas's home, whether it was the painting,
whether it was about the cooking, whether it was about
any of these things that had anything of ink or
(27:44):
Inuit cultural relevance, that she really pushed back on because
she hated it so much in her mind, like it
just was so much lesser than what she wanted to be.
And I found that interesting again also doing that in
a way to emotionally guard them. Well, I think, you know,
it's really about how that was important to her and
(28:05):
how important it is that they didn't do too much
to weigh that on these young kids. And then she
also talked about the younger, younger kids even you know,
and how they would hear that and I'll that would
relate to them and whether like they would take that
on as a part of their identity too, just hearing
that even though they're trying to push back against it.
So a lot of understanding in that one a theme
(28:27):
or an idea from the movie. Of course it's very blip.
Is the colonialization of it all of course, aliens coming
down to try to take over. I mean, this feels
pretty obvious in itself. But she actually actually talked about
she did not want to do too much on it.
She didn't want to add too much on this. She says,
she didn't really want to have it be heavy handed. Again,
(28:48):
she felt like that was too much responsibility for the
young teenagers to carry in this conversation as well, but
a small understanding of what it felt like and having
to defend the land by using their knowledge and their
own teaching. So she did it without doing it and
not being heavy handed in anything. Again, we have this
heavy layer of like wanting to talk about all of
(29:10):
these amazing things that have happened in the indigenous culture,
but oftentimes it is overshadowed by like the pity porn
level of white saburism, level of people wanting to be like, oh,
tell me the SOB story so I can feel sorry
for you, or all these things, and that kind of
takes away from the celebration of it all or the
adventure of like this type of storytelling. So there's all
(29:30):
these levels that you have to figure out and accept
and appreciate as the native story person tells you. So
I feel like that's that level. But there, it's still there.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's still there. So when when Micah is finally like,
let's go kill these monsters, she puts on a coat
that says no no Justice on stolen Land or something
like that. And then at the end when it has
the title card show up in the credits, it says
slash back and then eclipse and it says land back.
(30:10):
I also thought it was interesting that because so often
horror movies it is the people of color the first
to go, and they're never like mentioned or thought of again. Uh,
but you know, you got your your white scientist, a
person of authority, who dies very again unceremoniously, and then
(30:31):
you have the white cop who is clearly like the
race is just looking to mess with these kids. Yeah,
and then you have the indigenous cop who they respect
much more, and she's the one that unfortunately dies and
you ever see again. But when the white cop dies
also a figure of authority. It's sort of a right
a throwaway.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Absolutely. I did love the coat and I'm like, okay,
and then they put on the the makeup, those ceremonial
markings to show that they're there to fight, that they're warriors.
It was beautiful. I loved everything about it. Again, coming
back with it, you don't with the girls from paying,
I'm like, yeah, go ahead, ladies love these So definitely
had a lot of shoutow. I mean, the entire movie
is definitely a love letter again to the Inuit culture,
(31:12):
specifically in this part, and I loved everything about that.
So it is it's like it's there, but it's definitely
not petty worn. It's definitely not for you to be like, ah,
this makes me feel better about my life type of
such a way. So I do love and appreciate that,
and that's hard to do. And then of course we
have the friendships we have, you know, I love. I
don't know what it is about this, like four to
(31:34):
five group girls who just hold on strong. That really
is a magic number if you can have it, and
they're all like there for each other even though they're
all very different. You know, I gotta love it.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah, Yeah, I kind of like how it opens when
you meet Uki. She's sort of bullying the younger she's
tricky Mike's younger sister into like helping her her by
a phone with her saved up money, and so it's
sort of setting her up to be like a villain
or something. And then you like come to find out
(32:08):
they're good and Mica just like caught up with her
on the bike and said give her back the money.
But I kind of liked how it was a little
It was a little messy, right, their friend their friend
group was a little messy, but they did stick with
each other when an apology was needed and apology was given. Yeah, yeah,
(32:28):
but that did make me laugh because I was not
expecting that at all.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
But then she took the money back again to be like,
you can hang with us.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It was a very d and d character where they
have that one trait that they're always going to try
to steal money from you or something.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Deals andins like the ending with her and the reporter
as well. Yeah, I also love that I figures out
that she can be friends with the other girls and
it takes a little I thought that was a really
cute scene because I didn't exactly know. Like at the beginning,
she's like, why don't you go hang out with the
people you're all She's like, I don't they wish like
the type of thing, and then you realize it's because
they don't. They didn't know each other, and so they
(33:06):
were just weirded out by each other. And then they
can be like, why didn't you want to hang out
with me? Why didn't? Now they're friends. I was like, oh,
and so she gets to start her own little group
of girlfriends and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's what we've
been waiting for.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
That was cute because they both were kind of intimidated
by each other.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
They just stared at each other side eye was perfect. Honestly,
they sided each other perfectly. They're like yeah, but then
they went through this thing and then they decided they
would be friends. I thought that was very cute. But
you know, I love these little lines like they say
they talk about they can be annoying. They're like, I'm
sorry I was mean because she was michael was mean,
Like she was real mean, like unnecessarily mean to Uki
(33:45):
to a certain degree. But then when Micah finally comes
back and apologizes because honestly they are the opposites because
Uki has come already and settled into her who she
was and proud of who she was and loving who
she is and her culture and the place that lived,
and Michaeh was all the opposite of everything to that
and not wanting to learn about legends. It's kind of
like when people grow up, when when friendships grow up
(34:08):
and your maturity changes, so the things that you loved
as a kid you no longer love, and so when
that separation happens, it feels like the friendship kind of fades.
That kind of was that kind of setting, except Michael
was much meaner about it, I think, But then I
did love that they she comes back to apologize, but like,
but you know you're annoying. Yeah, both things can be true.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Both can be true. I love you, but you really get.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You also used to tell lies and big story too.
You just happened to be telling the truth this time.
You also like to.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Like embellish your story, So both of those things can
be a true.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yes, both can't exist, but.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I love that. And then we have Jesse being the
in between for all everybody until the boy came in
The Thomas I was like, Okay, they really squashed that
pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
They did. And again, like I said at the top,
I wasn't I thought, I don't, you don't owe me
any resolution on that. But I was surprised that because
they were like, no, we're not going to argue about
this friends first over this guy. I guess maybe it's
because I'm queer. I don't know what. I was like,
(35:26):
what if she's actually what if Mike is actually into
a girl? Because she's always denying, like who the perfume
is for? I was like maybe because they never confirmed anything.
Jesse definitely liked.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yes, Jesse was all about Thomas y, but that thing
in the end, when they realized he was really useless,
they kind of let him go. My assumption is like, okay,
we don't need you. You went away. You wouldn't let
us use the Honda, right, come on, man, come on?
(36:08):
Which was the whole I put this as a bros
before host thing. I was like, yeah, m hmm, yeah,
we love it, we love that. And then again like
the friendship that they're very strong coming out together being
warriors no one with the girls from paying. I loved
that they kept saying that towards the end because they
are ready to defend each other as well as as
(36:32):
well as their home from these invaders.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They're all very cute. Do we see Jesse at the end,
at the very end, Yeah, you know when they do.
One month later, I.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Don't think in the one month later she was the
one that was there. She went with my get to
the house when her dad is being protected and helped
the bookcase officer.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I couldn't remember, Like, we don't get an update on
where she is or Lena.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, I think it's just Uki and Mike and her dad.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Interesting, which comes to one of the other themes family
and like family and community and a whole culture her
really like trying to figure out her place with her
dad and the fact that though he's quiet now, there
was an interesting like she does kind of like briefly
(37:29):
mentions the kids talking about their families, like alcoholism or
not being there or hating certain points to their family
life again like when they drink too much. He's mean,
he does these things. And I thought that was an
interesting moment because I think she couldn't. She didn't want
to walk away from that reality that does happen so often,
(37:52):
but at the same time she didn't want to focus
on it either, and then also having her dad who
is not a part of that at all, and coming
back and not showing any of those things, which I
found interesting as well. We also love Grandma. We just
wanted to dance. She just loves to dance.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, but she doesn't have a babysitter, so.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Didn't have a bit. All she wanted to do was dance.
I wanted Grandma to go dancing. She was ready, she was,
and she might have been a little tipsy from the
way they described her.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yes, yes, already, mm hmm, longest day of the ear.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Look, Grandma, Grandma needed a dance. But it was interesting
that she did kind of point that out in the
script and then they kind of bypassed and then just
talking about just adults, what it seems like to kids
when adults get together.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I did find that interesting too.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah. Well, and it's always funny to me when you're
watching something that's clearly meant for kind of a younger audience,
and if the reality, if we applied reality to it,
you'd be like, what are their parents? Where are their parents?
But I love how often it's because hocus Pocus has
(39:10):
this too. They're out partying at our community event.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
There's nowhere to be seen. I also know where all
the other kids are. But we have to remember there's
only two of these creatures. Weirdly, these are really bad aliens.
They don't know how to do this right apparently.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Yeah, two, they were not gonna two and they can
only attract their like they can only get Well, they
did kill things that didn't have blood on them, but
they only go after things after the fact with.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
A confusion will be a confusion.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Well, we don't, you know, we may never know where.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
They the blob win away.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Are they going to come back or we don't know.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
We don't know, but it is interesting to see, like
we get to see that respect the father daughter relationship
growing and loving her, loving what to do what she
does now, or helping her dad be successful now in
a way and not feeling ashamed, and then coming together
as a community and embracing the community as well as
(40:16):
they thrive. So yeah, I think this is a really
cute film. I want more like it. So I hope
you know, continues with these types of films. I would
love the fact again that she centered it on a
specific village in a community, and I hope that happens
again because it's really interesting to see. I feel like
(40:37):
we got to see a perspective that we would never
in any other moments, Like this is not your typical TV.
This is like you know, where we are used to
seeing setups of like New York City or like maybe
you're the Appalachians, Like we've seen that, it's time. It's
time to see this different perspective.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yes, absolutely, this was a really fun and I enjoyed it.
So listeners, please let us know if you have any
thoughts on this movie. Please go check it out if
you haven't seen it, and then let us know or
let us know if you have any suggestions, always happy
to hear those. You can email us at Hello at
(41:16):
stuff Whenever Told You dot com. You can find us
on blue Sky at one Stuff Podcasts, or on Instagram
and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You. We're also
on YouTube. We have some new merchandise at coom Bureau
and we have book you can get wherever you get
your bucks. Thanks as always too, our super produced Christine,
our executive dus to My and a contributor Joey THI
you and thanks to you for listening stuff never told you.
Protection of my Heart Radio form a podcast or my
(41:37):
heart Radio. You can check out the heart Radio appple podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. I'm welcome to stuff
I've never told you a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
And welcome. We are coming through with a spoiler Saturday,
because yes, this movie is anywhere, and it's kind of
bleeding over from November, because did we do want in
November any I can't remember.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
We did it. Our booth and movie both got moved
to December.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
We have a lot of content for y'all, which is great.
So that means we're going to bleed into December and
you know what, as it should be, as it should
be all of the year long. We should do more
and more Indigenous and Native content because we don't have enough,
which also holds us back because we can't find them,
which makes me sad.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Yeah, it's every year where we're trying to do content
for this time. It's depressing how difficult it can be.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Because we have very like specific standards, including you would
like to be We have to be obviously led by
Indigenous people, but people that are in our intersectional circle,
and so typically we do use women creators because there's
not enough women in this industry to begin with, if
not non binary, as well as people who are not
(01:27):
bad people.
Speaker 1 (01:30):
We should genuinely, we should.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Be that, we should be an obvious but sometimes you
have to do some deep, deep research to hope that
they're okay people. But in this case, they are okay
people's And yes, we are excited to do a horror movie,
science fiction movie which is also a love letter to
a whole community that has not given its proper due
(01:55):
and spotlight and apparently a love letter to the thing
which my partner immediately called out when we started this movie.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
By the way, yes, well yes, and they mentioned it.
I feel like a lot of horror movies these days
have has that one character that.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Knows horror movies.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Yes, and she was talking about the thing. She was
talking about all of it, and I.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Was like, yeah, I never seen it. I really like
the thing it is. It's creepy in the ending because
it's an ambiguous ending and it takes place in Antarctica,
so it's like isolated and the you know, kind of
that whole scary.
Speaker 1 (02:33):
I don't know who's lying and who's not who No, like,
because it takes over people so you don't know, and
then uh it does. Yeah, it's just got. It does
have a lot of things that one of the scenes
that Jesse was describing at this movie about it. It
has a lot of special effects that at the time
I'm sure were amazing but now are kind of like
(02:54):
eighties te A lot of them are really good. But yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
You gotta remember the context of timing.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
But the movie we're talking about, because I haven't said
it yet, is Slashback, which was released in twenty twenty
two at the South By Southwest Film Festival, Directed and
produced and written by Nila Enuxuk also Ryan Kavan. I
believe he also helped write this movie. But you know,
this is her baby, this is her thing, and she
(03:23):
was born in Iguluk and grew up in the Ikaluit area.
Go ahead, but this year indigenous languages are coming back,
thank goodness, but it is not as common, so getting
pronunciations can be difficult. Thank goodness. This stuff has more
pronunciations for me because the struggle is real. But apologies
(03:44):
if I do misspeak, and come back and let me know,
because I'm working on it, y'all. I'm working on it.
We are always working on it here. But yeah, So
though this is her first full length movie, she has
many other short films and documentaries under her name, including
some virtual reality work, which I feel like we need
to do an episode on because we haven't really talked
(04:05):
done or talked much about stuff like that. Have we.
We did that one, right.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
We did. I can't remember the title. Oh no, but
we did one from another Indigenous creator that had just yes,
I remember that.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
But we need to do We need to come back
to some more of these things. Excited to do so,
by the way, but back to this film. A Slashback
is a science fiction horror thriller movie that is centered
around the Canadian Indigenous community, or you know, as we
would say, they would not say it was Canadian because
in my mind I was like, oh, this is also
in Alaska, which they also don't recognize they being the
(04:41):
indigenous community because they are one group of people. And
I was like, yeah, that makes more sense. But for
this sake of just trying to understand geography, this is
the area that it is focused on, and it is
the community of pung Nantan Nanavut. And again I'm trying
to get this pronunciation right. In the movie, they say
paying a lot, so that's what we're going to refer
(05:02):
the area as. And it is an actual area apparently
made up of like seven to eight thousand people, and
we get to see a group of young girls who
come together to fight against some really gross creatures. Yeah,
like that's the best way, some really good visual effects.
Kind of a native Indigenous like take on the eighties,
(05:25):
not the eighties like of nineties girl Best Friend movies.
But they go do some venturing.
Speaker 1 (05:31):
It's like the Thing meets the Goonies, but with indigenous.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Girls and which we love, which we love to see.
But yeah, so let's go ahead and get started with
the plot. I'm going to go quickly through and then
we'll talk to some themes and some ideas in some
of the interviews that they gave on this movie. So
the first scene is with Micah, one of the main
teen girls that we get to follow, and her father
(05:58):
teaching her lessons of her culture and her people, including
how to hunt and fish. Very cool scene. And I
should note I haven't seen any articles, and I'm sure
we should be able to find some soon because it
kind of just talked about their experience in filmmaking. But
the art, the writer, the director, Enuksuk made sure to
not only use mainly indigenous casts. Specifically from that area.
(06:20):
But also they used music, indigenous music, which was really fun,
as well as all of the writings for indigenous for
their culture as well as they made sure to speak it,
which I love that they used that language in there
in order to communicate with each other, to show that
it still existed and that it was still going strong.
So very heavily focused in the culture, and we love
(06:42):
to see that. And that's kind of how you begin,
is the story of her father and her doing something
that is traditional and something that has been passed down
and he is known as one of the best hunters
in the area, so we find out. But then we
jump into a scene with an im media attack of
a white scientist that being dry somewhere in the snow
by something in the snow, like you just see tentacles
(07:04):
pop out, yeah and blood splatter immediate.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Yeah. He was an interesting character in the one minute
he had on the ones talking to his gloves glove,
but he like face first and very unceremonious stuff, very
alien esque. Definitely definitely alien esque.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
I did laugh at the talking to the glove scene
because I feel like that's something I would also do
being alone entirely in the snow isolated. You can't run
away from me. In fact, they can all right. Moving on,
and then we get to see out of that. We
are introduced to the main characters of the movie, Micah, Jesse, Lena,
and Oki and Micah's younger sister Are you and there
(07:53):
are going about their day, causing some trouble, wishing they
they didn't live there, you know, the teenage thing growing
up in a small area like, ugh, this place is off,
I can't wait to leave, have a feeling, That's what
they expressed. But you can tell they're the cool girls
running about doing their thing, chasing people down with bikes. Yes,
the girls wanting to do something that day, decided to
(08:16):
take their parents' boat, Mike's parents boat, and go out
to the mainland with a gun. Always good time, I guess, which,
by the way, my family just kind of did at
the own house shooting things.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Yeah, anyway, moving while they're there, they come across a
polar bear kind of except the bear looks different, and
after a very scary interaction and an attack on the
younger sister because I decided to come even though she
wasn't invited, and then she gets attacked by the bear,
which apparently she drove on the bike. She got there
really quickly. I feel like that's some dedication.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, she was determined not to be left out of
this name.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
I don't blame her, but that's when she gets attacked.
After finally some like good shooting and screaming and leaving
in all of these things, they get back to their
home where they tell this ghost story and the girl,
by the way, I was covered in black blood. They're
all kind of creeped out and trying to figure out
what exactly was that because they know there wasn't something
There was something wrong here. There's something wrong with that bear.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Yeah, and they shot it twice. Uki shot it the
first time, then Micah shot it the second time, and
it just didn't seem that's right. Something was off about
it exactly.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Something was off. So Okiu talks of enough legends and
lords at this time about what they've seen, what they know,
Oh my god, what this is, and Micah dismisses it
as being silly and nonsense. And after a bit of
back and forth, because you know, Darre's Oki to go
back to prove that she is not scared, because they're like, nah,
you couldn't do it again, I dare you all these
(09:49):
things and of course challenge. Of course, this would lead
to the bigger moments of Okay killing a smaller creature
while they are covered a while there and then getting
covered by the blood as well, and making something angry
which seems to be something that they're attracted to they
can sense and find. And so when he comes back
(10:10):
to the community trying to tell them what's going on.
By the way, this happens at a party, and the
girls all went to trying to go and press one
boy Lena's got a crush trying to get to and
at the same time Micah is like, no, I don't care,
but putting on that perfume, doing her thing, you know
how we know? And then they all come back together
and Oki comes tell them I killed it. They're coming
(10:33):
they're aliens. Because she also sees this giant glob.
Speaker 1 (10:37):
With tentacles like spaceship blob thing. Uh, that's so interesting.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And after the back and forth of like her lit
saying that she's lying, do you think gets attacked by
one of the cops who had just gotten killed by
this creature bare thing and now is wearing his skin loosely.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
Yeah, it looks like a very bad Michael Myers.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Yeah yeah. And he's chasing after Oki and there's halting
ensues and everybody's running away and screaming. And this is
when Micah decides she has to help Oki and we
need to stop these creatures. This is our fall. We
got to do this thing. They try to call the cop.
The cop gets killed too. The chief we should never
(11:20):
see her again. I thought maybe we would see her skin.
It doesn't happen, no, no, yeah, yeah. And then the villager.
There was another villager who gets killed and is now
part of the skin army, which is what Lena calls them.
She's like, I'm just calling him skins. And then that's fair.
So Lena, Uki and Micah come together, like we're going
(11:43):
to go after these things. Let's go as they do.
My bad, it's actually Jesse, not Lena. I got them
confused because I had the other one. So Jesse is
the one that goes on the hunt with them, because
she is also the same one who has been like
no one's with the paying girls. Yeah, I love that.
And she's also the one that has to crush on
(12:04):
the dude who has the Honda, which I thought was
like maybe an product placement.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Because I did too, because later so Thomsy has this
kind of like for like r V Honda thing that's
the talk of the town. But then at the end,
some somebody else I think it's Micah's dad is wearing
a Honda, and I was like, is.
Speaker 2 (12:24):
This I mean, you get your product? That's very specific
because I thought first one was a car. But yeah.
So we have Jesse going with uh Ouki and Micah
hunting after these things now and realizing they have to
(12:46):
get rid of it, and that the adults weren't going
to help because the adults were at their party and
they were dancing and having a good time and not
answering phones, and because this was the longest day of
the year, they were gonna be out for a while,
so they were going to have to handle this or
everybody was going to die. So we have Micah coming
and putting in her hunting skills to use and setting
(13:07):
a trap, which Uki was like, I will be the bait,
you know, because she has the show. She's bad, she
is bad, she's great, And they try to do a
whole trap, which I oh, puts Uki in danger. And
almost kills her, but thinking this, she's okay, and then
they realize, oh, they're at Micah's house. And as they
arrive with to Micah's house, they realize her father is there,
(13:28):
and out of nowhere here comes the Good, throwing her
across the room Micah and knocking her unconscious. When she
comes to, she sees that her dad's being attacked by
this monster, and we have a great back and forth
with her memories of everything he taught her and all
the things that she wanted about him, even though she
was ashamed of him previously because he was so country,
(13:50):
I think is the way she kind of put it.
And then they finally come together and killed this creature
as they do of course with a large machete like
sword thing that was passed down from generations from her
great grandfather, and they use it to kill this monster Rua.
And in the end we see they all come together
(14:11):
and she is more proud of her culture. Micah is,
and they open up a whole almost like a food
truck with her father and is very successful because everybody
loves country food. That's Thomas, he would say. And then
also reporters coming in to ask about these aliens.
Speaker 1 (14:31):
Yes, and Oki being like I am, they answer my
questions for a fee, which I love.
Speaker 3 (14:38):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
Yeah, let's get your money baby.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
Yeah. So this is a really great movie, easy watch,
very short. It is interesting because if you read about
what they did, like I sai that they brought in
indigenous actors. They actually use the village people as a
part of the ensemble. And so they talked about how
it was kind of doing the acting workshops. They kind
(15:11):
of worked through this, so it gave opportunities to people
who wouldn't be in movies to be in movies. I
did see interviews with some of the young stars and
they're talking about this so exciting. I can't believe I
get to say I was in a movie. So I
would go in with It's not an Oscar nominated film,
but it is an enjoyable watch.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
It is. It's a really it's a really fun watch.
I like the because you know, we love horror here
and it's not scary, like it has unsettling moments, but
I kind of like the fun. Yeah, the thing. It
was definitely an adventure, yes, and and you know we
love friendships amongst girls and women here. That was fun.
(15:56):
I have to say I was not. I you don't
have to lose any romantic tension for me, but I
was surprised that no, nothing came of that kind of
triangle that was happening.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
I also really loved the fact that he was so useless,
Like he tried to help in the end, but the
actuality was that he was very useless and he knew it,
and yeah, like it really was kind of cute on
that level. I think one of the things that we
will get into about this is that they made sure
(16:32):
not to make it heavy handed in that they didn't
want too political of messages, even though it could be
seen as that, which makes me sad because I feel
like the lot of the it could be both ways.
Where we see films that have such opportunities to educate,
I feel like they have to hold back because they
(16:52):
have to they want to be a little more mainstream,
or being told by studios that they can't do too much,
or the fact that they don't. It's like I wish
it didn't have to be that they people would just
naturally want to research it after the fact instead of
you know what I mean, like and let them have
the fun times like this's this double edged sort of like, man,
this is an interesting place to be because we don't
have enough of this type of content to begin with
(17:15):
to get that education, and so it's kind of like
you either have to try to stick it all in
and hope that people will stay around or that or
make it as fun as possible in order to let
you know, like to also stick around. So there's just
layers of so many things, especially as a filmmaker who
you know, talks about her love for et as well
as the thing and loving horror and these types of films,
(17:35):
and really want to do that with these group of
girls also having a responsibility and just that conversation alone
about accepting yourself and your identity as teenagers in an
indigenous community and try not to be too heavy handed
on them to carry out these emotional tolls for themselves.
But that's a lot to it. So let's go ahead
(17:57):
and jump into themes or at least things that I
saw about the film that we should talk about, because
they feel like I just throw around the word themes
like this is not theme, but I'm gonna talk about it. Yeah,
let's do it. So obviously we want to talk about
the Inuit culture and some of the folklore. Of course,
like they they mentioned at least two or three different
lures that they have in there. Have we talked about
(18:18):
some of these? I don't know if we've actually talked
about Inuit folklore.
Speaker 1 (18:24):
I don't believe.
Speaker 4 (18:26):
So.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
I think we've talked about things that were adjacent, Yeah,
kind of similar stories, but not specifically this.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Yeah, there was a lot of conversation about like taking
over bodies and using people's bodies. Again, I guess that's
the thing about the thing. Yeah, right, so that was
really interesting in their conversation and then also just being
exasperated because they didn't want to think it's real, but
at the same time it kind of was real in
a different way.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Yeah, Because one of the big the big points of
tension in the movie is between Uki and Micah. Micah
is like embarrassed by in that culture. She thinks it's silly,
whereas Uki's very proud. She's the one that's like, I
like living here, and so they're kind of opposites in
(19:15):
that way. And when Uki comes back after seeing the
spaceship is like, congratulations, you won. It wasn't what I
said it was in our folkal orates aliens.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
The character was quite funny. I think their friendship was
interesting because it's also talked about how they grow, yeah,
from each other and then with each other, but we'll
talk more about that. But also the lifestyle. I think
that was something that was important for in Asook to
talk about and to show off. Even though this wasn't
her village that she grew up in, she knew the
(19:52):
community in itself and wanted to highlight the community itself.
The beautiful shots of them been on the boat and
going by the like glaciers and such. I was like,
oh my god, yeah that I never in my mind
has that gone in my head as a possibility, even
though obviously people live that. In my mind, it's not
a real everyday thing, and it was for them in
(20:13):
this moment, and they're so bored of it. I'm like,
I guess we all feel that way from wherever we're from, because, like, again,
my hometown now that I grew up in is a
big tourist site and it's crowded all the time because
people want to go up there to see the leaves
the country. Yeah, the apples and the apples and the
foothills of the mountains. But I do find that interesting also,
(20:35):
like the conversation about like hunting and how important that
is and how much of a legend that people see
it as, where Mike I took that for granted because
she was supposed to be with her father but so
embarrassed because he was selling off the things that he
had hunted, which is of pride for so many, including Thomas,
who was like, Oh, that's your Your dad's super cool.
You think you guys could teach me? And she's like.
Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, and then she made fun of his mom's art.
Speaker 2 (21:04):
He liked HER's like, why are you liking her? Dude?
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, she really had a lot to work for.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
She did, She really did. But I found that interesting
also because we've talked about how I love that they
were doing that with a young girl, that he was
teaching her that. And maybe it's because they didn't have
a son. I don't think they had a son. I
think they had two young other younger sisters, right, she
had two younger sisters and she was the eldest, and
(21:32):
he was teaching all these things and she was supposed
to help, but like she was taught to shoot a gun,
she was taught to like go and fish and hunt
and bait and all these things, and so it really
brought into that lifestyle for her, even though she didn't
love it. It was interesting also look back and forth
about the technology because I didn't and this is twenty
(21:52):
one when they were talking about about data and all
these things, and we have talked about the accessibility that
doesn't happen in a lot of these areas, not because
they can't have it because the US or whatever colonial
like colonized imperial system has taken over won't grant them that.
And just recently I watched the TikTok And not to
say that all they're all like not given modern technologies,
(22:16):
but the fact is they're not given federal funding to
get a lot of these technologies, including just electricity and
all of those things not electricity but like but you
know what I mean, setups to be a part of
the grid. They're the first people to be cut off,
it's likely to be able to afford it, and they
are not given any kind of breaks because the government
won't recognize them in so many ways. So like it
(22:39):
it's all of these levels of like, oh oh yeah,
I kind of forget this as well, and they are
further out, like they do talk about how they're in
the Arctic. They keep going At one point of the
line is if we keep going up, we go to
a different place. And and then Mike, Mike I says,
you go, if you keep going north, you're going to
eventually go south, Like that's that what's her comment? Yes,
(23:01):
not wrong, but there was an interesting conversation in that lifestyle. Also, again,
I think it's really important that they actually shot in
paying with the people of the village and again a
mainly Inuit cast. She really thought that was important. I
was telling Annie that they flew in fifty beds because
there was not enough housing for the crew, so they
(23:24):
had to fly in beds and have them in the
schools to stay in there. Because it's not a large
area I think they said again seven to eight thousand
people in population, and so they were like, oh, okay,
we got to make do. And they would come together
and have acting workshops together with the crew. They would
come together and have they said, kind of like counseling sessions.
(23:44):
But then also they would go out on the boats
and teach them different areas and show them places to
go and where they should and shouldn't go like it
was a whole lesson for her as well as the
crew from the village. So I love every bed of
that and I wanted to put this line in. So
there was interview that this person did, scriptmag dot Com
(24:04):
did and they asked, you know, what is something that
you hope the audience takes and the young girl who
plays Micah Tasiana, she says, I really hope that the
audience will get a sense of what it's like to
live in the Arctic and the lifestyle that we live
as Inuit in nanea of it. And I really thought
it was interesting that this young girl wanted people to
see what it was like for them and how why
(24:25):
that was important for her, which I was really I
love that. I love that aspect of wanting to share
culture and be made known, as well as like again,
them actually doing the script, them actually writing in their language,
them actually speaking in their language. I think is so
important because this is part of like when we talked
about preservation and because there weren't access to this, this
(24:46):
is a small bit of preservation that they get to
have and we get to have of a culture that
is so easily unlikely to be forgotten, if not completely
destroyed because of supremacy whites. But yeah, those lines are
really cute. Again, they do have a few interviews and
(25:06):
a few highlights with the three of them, the director
and the young girl who plays Okay and the young
girl who plays Micah. So those are some really cute
interviews and interesting to see in their conversations. Y'all should
go check that out to learn more about that. In
that same point, we kind of already talked about it,
but wanting to be normal and not a native team
(25:27):
like not being native in that level of like filling
at the point they keep saying paying is so ghetto.
I guess so yet just because they felt like they
didn't have everything that everyone they saw everyone else they
thought everyone else had again talking about how Lena gets
to go to pretty much white city, like white predominantly
(25:50):
white city, and she gets to go there every summer.
She gets unlimited data, all of these different things. She
also gets to punish the most.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Yeah, she's her parents very careful watch her and ground
her very easily.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
She's like, I'm getting so much trouble really so to
be fun, I mean like they almost.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Died, I mean she did get in so much trouble.
Even before the dying, she got grounded for a month.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
It was like, that's dang. I thought this was interesting
comment from the director, and it suck. She talks about
how teenager dynamics were for her and why it was
interesting in trying to relay this without having too much
emotional work from the actors. She says, and certainly talking
in the inspiration for that really did come from teenagers,
(26:36):
and the dynamics of the teenagers. So she would sit
and talk with them about what they wanted to do
that day in acting or how they wanted to write
the script, but then also my experience as an end
up teenager processing how that worked, how that fit in
with my identity and what shame I had carried and
how do I process that? And I could see in
the language of some of the cast members that they
carried some shame as well, And so we'd have conversations
(26:58):
about it and what does it mean when we say, oh,
that's so INOK, and we mean it in a negative way,
and how do we shift that to being we're using
prideful language when we were talking about where we come from.
So I could absolutely see that She actually had that scene.
She had that scene with the teenagers coming together again,
pang is so ghetto. That's some you know, stuff like
dismissing legends or thoughts or ideas and trying to fit
(27:23):
in in what they think is the standard, which is
white standards, and then understanding later that it's not badge
when again Micah comes in ready to go, just like
hating on everything from Thomas's home, whether it was the painting,
whether it was about the cooking, whether it was about
any of these things that had anything of ink or
(27:44):
Inuit cultural relevance, that she really pushed back on because
she hated it so much in her mind, like it
just was so much lesser than what she wanted to be.
And I found that interesting again also doing that in
a way to emotionally guard them. Well, I think, you know,
it's really about how that was important to her and
(28:05):
how important it is that they didn't do too much
to weigh that on these young kids. And then she
also talked about the younger, younger kids even you know,
and how they would hear that and I'll that would
relate to them and whether like they would take that
on as a part of their identity too, just hearing
that even though they're trying to push back against it.
So a lot of understanding in that one a theme
(28:27):
or an idea from the movie. Of course it's very blip.
Is the colonialization of it all of course, aliens coming
down to try to take over. I mean, this feels
pretty obvious in itself. But she actually actually talked about
she did not want to do too much on it.
She didn't want to add too much on this. She says,
she didn't really want to have it be heavy handed. Again,
(28:48):
she felt like that was too much responsibility for the
young teenagers to carry in this conversation as well, but
a small understanding of what it felt like and having
to defend the land by using their knowledge and their
own teaching. So she did it without doing it and
not being heavy handed in anything. Again, we have this
heavy layer of like wanting to talk about all of
(29:10):
these amazing things that have happened in the indigenous culture,
but oftentimes it is overshadowed by like the pity porn
level of white saburism, level of people wanting to be like, oh,
tell me the SOB story so I can feel sorry
for you, or all these things, and that kind of
takes away from the celebration of it all or the
adventure of like this type of storytelling. So there's all
(29:30):
these levels that you have to figure out and accept
and appreciate as the native story person tells you. So
I feel like that's that level. But there, it's still there.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
It's still there. So when when Micah is finally like,
let's go kill these monsters, she puts on a coat
that says no no Justice on stolen Land or something
like that. And then at the end when it has
the title card show up in the credits, it says
slash back and then eclipse and it says land back.
(30:10):
I also thought it was interesting that because so often
horror movies it is the people of color the first
to go, and they're never like mentioned or thought of again. Uh,
but you know, you got your your white scientist, a
person of authority, who dies very again unceremoniously, and then
(30:31):
you have the white cop who is clearly like the
race is just looking to mess with these kids. Yeah,
and then you have the indigenous cop who they respect
much more, and she's the one that unfortunately dies and
you ever see again. But when the white cop dies
also a figure of authority. It's sort of a right
a throwaway.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Absolutely. I did love the coat and I'm like, okay,
and then they put on the the makeup, those ceremonial
markings to show that they're there to fight, that they're warriors.
It was beautiful. I loved everything about it. Again, coming
back with it, you don't with the girls from paying,
I'm like, yeah, go ahead, ladies love these So definitely
had a lot of shoutow. I mean, the entire movie
is definitely a love letter again to the Inuit culture,
(31:12):
specifically in this part, and I loved everything about that.
So it is it's like it's there, but it's definitely
not petty worn. It's definitely not for you to be like, ah,
this makes me feel better about my life type of
such a way. So I do love and appreciate that,
and that's hard to do. And then of course we
have the friendships we have, you know, I love. I
don't know what it is about this, like four to
(31:34):
five group girls who just hold on strong. That really
is a magic number if you can have it, and
they're all like there for each other even though they're
all very different. You know, I gotta love it.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Yeah, Yeah, I kind of like how it opens when
you meet Uki. She's sort of bullying the younger she's
tricky Mike's younger sister into like helping her her by
a phone with her saved up money, and so it's
sort of setting her up to be like a villain
or something. And then you like come to find out
(32:08):
they're good and Mica just like caught up with her
on the bike and said give her back the money.
But I kind of liked how it was a little
It was a little messy, right, their friend their friend
group was a little messy, but they did stick with
each other when an apology was needed and apology was given. Yeah, yeah,
(32:28):
but that did make me laugh because I was not
expecting that at all.
Speaker 2 (32:32):
But then she took the money back again to be like,
you can hang with us.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
It was a very d and d character where they
have that one trait that they're always going to try
to steal money from you or something.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Deals andins like the ending with her and the reporter
as well. Yeah, I also love that I figures out
that she can be friends with the other girls and
it takes a little I thought that was a really
cute scene because I didn't exactly know. Like at the beginning,
she's like, why don't you go hang out with the
people you're all She's like, I don't they wish like
the type of thing, and then you realize it's because
they don't. They didn't know each other, and so they
(33:06):
were just weirded out by each other. And then they
can be like, why didn't you want to hang out
with me? Why didn't? Now they're friends. I was like, oh,
and so she gets to start her own little group
of girlfriends and I'm like, oh, yeah, that's what we've
been waiting for.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
That was cute because they both were kind of intimidated
by each other.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
They just stared at each other side eye was perfect. Honestly,
they sided each other perfectly. They're like yeah, but then
they went through this thing and then they decided they
would be friends. I thought that was very cute. But
you know, I love these little lines like they say
they talk about they can be annoying. They're like, I'm
sorry I was mean because she was michael was mean,
Like she was real mean, like unnecessarily mean to Uki
(33:45):
to a certain degree. But then when Micah finally comes
back and apologizes because honestly they are the opposites because
Uki has come already and settled into her who she
was and proud of who she was and loving who
she is and her culture and the place that lived,
and Michaeh was all the opposite of everything to that
and not wanting to learn about legends. It's kind of
like when people grow up, when when friendships grow up
(34:08):
and your maturity changes, so the things that you loved
as a kid you no longer love, and so when
that separation happens, it feels like the friendship kind of fades.
That kind of was that kind of setting, except Michael
was much meaner about it, I think, But then I
did love that they she comes back to apologize, but like,
but you know you're annoying. Yeah, both things can be true.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Both can be true. I love you, but you really get.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
You also used to tell lies and big story too.
You just happened to be telling the truth this time.
You also like to.
Speaker 4 (34:43):
Like embellish your story, So both of those things can
be a true.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Yes, both can't exist, but.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
I love that. And then we have Jesse being the
in between for all everybody until the boy came in
The Thomas I was like, Okay, they really squashed that
pretty quickly.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
They did. And again, like I said at the top,
I wasn't I thought, I don't, you don't owe me
any resolution on that. But I was surprised that because
they were like, no, we're not going to argue about
this friends first over this guy. I guess maybe it's
because I'm queer. I don't know what. I was like,
(35:26):
what if she's actually what if Mike is actually into
a girl? Because she's always denying, like who the perfume
is for? I was like maybe because they never confirmed anything.
Jesse definitely liked.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Yes, Jesse was all about Thomas y, but that thing
in the end, when they realized he was really useless,
they kind of let him go. My assumption is like, okay,
we don't need you. You went away. You wouldn't let
us use the Honda, right, come on, man, come on?
(36:08):
Which was the whole I put this as a bros
before host thing. I was like, yeah, m hmm, yeah,
we love it, we love that. And then again like
the friendship that they're very strong coming out together being
warriors no one with the girls from paying. I loved
that they kept saying that towards the end because they
are ready to defend each other as well as as
(36:32):
well as their home from these invaders.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
They're all very cute. Do we see Jesse at the end,
at the very end, Yeah, you know when they do.
One month later, I.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Don't think in the one month later she was the
one that was there. She went with my get to
the house when her dad is being protected and helped
the bookcase officer.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
I couldn't remember, Like, we don't get an update on
where she is or Lena.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Yeah, I think it's just Uki and Mike and her dad.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Interesting, which comes to one of the other themes family
and like family and community and a whole culture her
really like trying to figure out her place with her
dad and the fact that though he's quiet now, there
was an interesting like she does kind of like briefly
(37:29):
mentions the kids talking about their families, like alcoholism or
not being there or hating certain points to their family
life again like when they drink too much. He's mean,
he does these things. And I thought that was an
interesting moment because I think she couldn't. She didn't want
to walk away from that reality that does happen so often,
(37:52):
but at the same time she didn't want to focus
on it either, and then also having her dad who
is not a part of that at all, and coming
back and not showing any of those things, which I
found interesting as well. We also love Grandma. We just
wanted to dance. She just loves to dance.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Yeah, but she doesn't have a babysitter, so.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
Didn't have a bit. All she wanted to do was dance.
I wanted Grandma to go dancing. She was ready, she was,
and she might have been a little tipsy from the
way they described her.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
Yes, yes, already, mm hmm, longest day of the ear.
Speaker 2 (38:31):
Look, Grandma, Grandma needed a dance. But it was interesting
that she did kind of point that out in the
script and then they kind of bypassed and then just
talking about just adults, what it seems like to kids
when adults get together.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
I did find that interesting too.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Yeah. Well, and it's always funny to me when you're
watching something that's clearly meant for kind of a younger audience,
and if the reality, if we applied reality to it,
you'd be like, what are their parents? Where are their parents?
But I love how often it's because hocus Pocus has
(39:10):
this too. They're out partying at our community event.
Speaker 2 (39:16):
There's nowhere to be seen. I also know where all
the other kids are. But we have to remember there's
only two of these creatures. Weirdly, these are really bad aliens.
They don't know how to do this right apparently.
Speaker 4 (39:29):
Yeah, two, they were not gonna two and they can
only attract their like they can only get Well, they
did kill things that didn't have blood on them, but
they only go after things after the fact with.
Speaker 2 (39:43):
A confusion will be a confusion.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Well, we don't, you know, we may never know where.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
They the blob win away.
Speaker 1 (39:53):
Are they going to come back or we don't know.
Speaker 2 (39:55):
We don't know, but it is interesting to see, like
we get to see that respect the father daughter relationship
growing and loving her, loving what to do what she
does now, or helping her dad be successful now in
a way and not feeling ashamed, and then coming together
as a community and embracing the community as well as
(40:16):
they thrive. So yeah, I think this is a really
cute film. I want more like it. So I hope
you know, continues with these types of films. I would
love the fact again that she centered it on a
specific village in a community, and I hope that happens
again because it's really interesting to see. I feel like
(40:37):
we got to see a perspective that we would never
in any other moments, Like this is not your typical TV.
This is like you know, where we are used to
seeing setups of like New York City or like maybe
you're the Appalachians, Like we've seen that, it's time. It's
time to see this different perspective.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
Yes, absolutely, this was a really fun and I enjoyed it.
So listeners, please let us know if you have any
thoughts on this movie. Please go check it out if
you haven't seen it, and then let us know or
let us know if you have any suggestions, always happy
to hear those. You can email us at Hello at
(41:16):
stuff Whenever Told You dot com. You can find us
on blue Sky at one Stuff Podcasts, or on Instagram
and TikTok at stuff I Never Told You. We're also
on YouTube. We have some new merchandise at coom Bureau
and we have book you can get wherever you get
your bucks. Thanks as always too, our super produced Christine,
our executive dus to My and a contributor Joey THI
you and thanks to you for listening stuff never told you.
Protection of my Heart Radio form a podcast or my
(41:37):
heart Radio. You can check out the heart Radio appple podcast,
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Are You A Charlotte?
In 1997, actress Kristin Davis’ life was forever changed when she took on the role of Charlotte York in Sex and the City. As we watched Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and Charlotte navigate relationships in NYC, the show helped push once unacceptable conversation topics out of the shadows and altered the narrative around women and sex. We all saw ourselves in them as they searched for fulfillment in life, sex and friendships. Now, Kristin Davis wants to connect with you, the fans, and share untold stories and all the behind the scenes. Together, with Kristin and special guests, what will begin with Sex and the City will evolve into talks about themes that are still so relevant today. "Are you a Charlotte?" is much more than just rewatching this beloved show, it brings the past and the present together as we talk with heart, humor and of course some optimism.
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.