Always Be My Maybe with Keah Brown

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bechdelcast.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
The questions asked if movies have women and them, are
all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they
have individualism? It's the patriarchy, zeph and best start changing
with the Bechdel Cast.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
Hello Bechdel Cast listeners, Hello Jamie and Caitlin.

Speaker 4 (00:20):
Here a little plug at the top.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's all coming together, it's all happening. I am going
to be going on a book tour for the paperback
release of my book Raw Dog, The Naked Truth about
hot Dogs. Ever heard of it? It is coming out
in soft cover. If you are the kind of person
that doesn't want to spend twenty eight dollars out of book,

(00:42):
fair enough, we have a more affordable option. And if
you haven't purchased the book and you know, maybe you're
able to now you know, it's also a great gift.
I sound so desperate. The thing is, it's a soft
cover book and people love us.

Speaker 4 (00:56):
And I love a flaccid book.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah, it's a little book. And if you do have
the hardcover and you're a completionist, there is also a
brand new ForWord that I wrote, and also the acknowledgments
have been adjusted to acknowledge that my agents were resionists,
so I don't really thank them anymore. So there's a
thrilling edition there as well. But there is new stuff

(01:21):
in the book and it costs less and we love that.
I will be going on tour throughout the country to
promote the new book, and if you're a Bechdel head
and you're in the area, this is a really great
chance to come and hang out. It's all I'm at bookstores.
I did kind of bigger shows the first time around,

(01:41):
but this time we're just chilling. So for you kitling
with your permission, I'm just going to rattle off some dates.
What if I was like, no, no, click z, I'm
going to go pee.

Speaker 4 (01:54):
No please, by all means tell us Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
May thirteenth, twenty twenty five, almost my birthday, So I
know I'm missing your birthday. It's an act of violence.
I will be at North Fig Bookshop in Los Angeles,
hosted by friend of the cast Julia Clair. May fourteenth.
I will be at Carmichael's Bookstore in Louisville, Kentucky. On
May fifteenth, I will be at the Cambridge Public Library

(02:21):
in Massachusetts with the Harvard Bookstore and I will be
in conversation with one of my dear friends, PBS's own
Tory Bedford. On the nineteenth of May, I will be
in Portland, Maine at Longfellow Books, hosted by friend of
the cast, Mayo Williams.

Speaker 5 (02:39):
I am very, very excited.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
On the twentieth, I will be going down to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania,
my home state. I know they're going to be begging,
They're like, where are they? I will be at the
Midtown Scholar Bookstore and Cafe in conversation with Joe Piazza.
Then on May twenty first, I will be at the
Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, Virginia. And on May twenty second,

(03:06):
I will be at Coppersfield Books in Pedaluma, California. And finally,
on May thirty first, I will be at Marin Country Mart,
which is also with Coppersfield's book in Larkspur, California. So
if you live in those areas, please come out. I
would love to see you. I'd love to chat. Please
recommend your favorite hot dog, Let's talk, beck tol Cast,

(03:30):
let's do whatever. And there will be dates announced later
in the summer. So if you would like a show
or a signing to happen in your town. Please reach
out and I will send it to my publisher and
be like, see, I should go there. Anyways, that's a great.

(03:51):
It's begging works sometimes, and we'll link this full thing
in the description. But see you soon. I'm making a
little outfit and that's the Jamie Loftus promise.

Speaker 4 (04:04):
I can't wait to see.

Speaker 3 (04:06):
So if you click the link in the description, it
will take you to the full page where you can
register to go to these events. They are all free events,
so come and hang out and provided that I get
my shit together in time, there will also be speakers
from local unions at all of these signings, So come out,
make some friends, come hang out and h let's eat

(04:27):
some hot dogs.

Speaker 4 (04:28):
Beautiful. We'll throw the link to be able to access
registration for the events on our link tree as well
link tree slash Bechtel Cast, so there's no excuse not
to come.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
It's free, it's fun. I'll be wearing a little outfit.
Come buy the book.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Woo.

Speaker 4 (04:46):
One last quick note about this episode. We were kind
of strapped for time during this recording and we ended
up having to record some pickups a few days later
with just Jamie and myself. So there's a chunk toward
the end of the episode where you might know notice
that our guest is not saying anything because she is
not there. So just giving everyone a quick heads up

(05:08):
about that. Enjoy the episode the cast.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Do Do Do Do Wow?

Speaker 4 (05:20):
Jamie, will you always be my Maybe?

Speaker 3 (05:23):
No, I'll always be your baby. I'll be your baby girl,
Always be your baby, Always be my baby girl, Nicole
Kipman twenty four.

Speaker 4 (05:34):
So true.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
I you know, it is funny thinking about after now
having seen the movie there that even the title is
indicating are these two right for each other? Welcome to
the Bechel Cast. My name is Jamie Loftus.

Speaker 4 (05:49):
My name is Caitlin Deonte. This is our show where
we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens, using the
Bechdel Test as a jumping off point, and that, of course,
is a medium created by Alison Bechtel. There are many
versions of the test, and the one that we use
is this, do two characters of a marginalized gender have names?

(06:12):
Do they speak to each other? And is there conversation
about something other than a man?

Speaker 3 (06:18):
And in this economy is it too much to ask?

Speaker 4 (06:24):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (06:24):
Today? We'll find out. Yeah, we're really excited to We're
just gonna jump in this week. This is a long
time request. I think we have been getting consistent requests
for this movie since it came out almost six years ago. So,
you know, thank you for your patience. The time is now,

(06:44):
the guest is perfect. We are covering Always Be My Maybe,
twenty nineteen, directed by Nanachica, con starring and written by
Ali Wong and Randall Park.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
Ever heard of them?

Speaker 5 (07:00):
Hopefully they're right.

Speaker 4 (07:02):
They're so funny. And speaking of so funny, our guest
today is an author, screenwriter, journalist, actress, also best friend
to the Pod period and you know her from past
episodes such as Ever After, Hairspray, Cadet Kelly nineteen ninety seven, Cinderella,

(07:25):
It's Kia Brown, Yay, I'm I'm.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
So happy to be here, and they totally organically came
up with calling me bestie of the Pod. Yeah, it
was totally organic. I didn't treasure them at all.

Speaker 5 (07:37):
It just felt right. It felt right, it did.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
I just love them, and I was like, I need
to be here. I miss you, we miss you.

Speaker 4 (07:44):
Thanks for coming back, come back always always always, So,
what is your history your relationship with always be my maybe.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Okay, So here's the thing. I love Ali Wong, and
when it first premiered, I was like, Okay, I'm gonna
watch it play like period. And then I watched it,
I fell in love with Randall Park, and I've been,
you know, rewatching it kind of regularly since because I
mean I knew who Randall Park was because he was

(08:14):
on Fresh off the Boat. But really my relationship is
just like, Wow, a man who I like.

Speaker 4 (08:21):
Wild They really make it hard to like them, Yeah,
they do.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
But Randall Park is I think, like s Tier, just
naturally charming, very much like it, just irresistible, very likable.

Speaker 4 (08:37):
So yeah, you watch it when it first came out,
and then have just been watching it steadily since.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yes, pretty much. It had been a while since I
did rewatch before the pod, but I rewatched it this
morning just to you know, refresh myself. But I tend
to watch it a lot when I'm like I need
a rom com day. I need something that feels like,
you know, life is good.

Speaker 4 (09:00):
Nice. I'm not a big rom com person, never have been,
but this is one that I like a lot more
than a lot of other rom cos I saw that
when it I think right when it first came out.
Also my concept of time. I mean, I'm not saying
anything new here, but the pandemic really warped all of
our understanding.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
This movie came out like yet the year before. I
feel like I have a real hard time with movies
from twenty nineteen now where you're like, you have no idea,
you don't know what it's like here. Well, I was like, yeah,
not the movie's fault, but I'm just like buckle in assholes.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
Well, I was like, yeah, this movie probably came out
in like twenty twenty three. No, it came out so
many years before that, but.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Which felt like the weirdest time capsule. Watching it back,
You're like, yeah, why does this feel like an old
time film?

Speaker 5 (09:58):
It is?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
That was another thing I had in my notes where
I feel like this movie for me right now exists
in this kind of like Uncanny Valley where it feels
kind of dated because it was six years ago and
it's very like of the moment it came out, but
it's not old enough to feel nostalgic for it. And
so I feel like comedy movies that are like between

(10:19):
like six and you know, ten ish years old. You're like,
it's just it's I don't know, it's it's it doesn't
feel like, oh yeah, I miss this time. I'm like,
I don't miss twenty ninety. I guess in some ways
I do. But it was already pretty bad.

Speaker 5 (10:34):
It was.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
Yeah, but yeah, I mean I saw it pretty early
on into it being released on Netflix. I think I
got like a tiny theatrical release, but it was like
mostly a Netflix movie. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
And you can tell because they mentioned Fix broadly mentioned Netflix.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (10:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:54):
But the thing is, you know, it's the grossest part.
I find that so charming.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I mean, it's like the Christmas Expanded. Yeah, when Lindsay
Lohan is watching the Christmas Prints, I'm like, yeah, yeah,
I like that. But is there anything more twenty nineteen
than Ali Wong being like, is it the Crown? I'm like,
oh my god, it was a moment. It was a moment.

Speaker 6 (11:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
Anyway, So I generally like this movie. I have some thoughts,
I have some notes, but this is more my speed
when it comes to rom coms, and I'd seen it
I think twice before prepping for this episode. But yeah,
I'm excited to talk about it. Jamie what about You.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
Okay, I this is my first time seeing this movie.
I was going in like kind of not even thinking
that I would not enjoy it because I love Ali
Wong Randall Park, one of the most charismatic comic actors
that exists. I read a little bit about the movie before.

(11:56):
I love that they co wrote it together. I love
that there was so much energy, like their fans to
get this movie made. I love that they have like
randomly known each other for a long time and wanted
to do this for I found the background story so charming.
I'm like, let's go. I can't wait. And I did
not like the movie.

Speaker 5 (12:17):
I didn't like it.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
I found it and part of this is like me
projecting a little bit. But but but hear me out.
I think this couple is not gonna make it.

Speaker 5 (12:27):
I think this.

Speaker 3 (12:27):
I found it very stressful. I found this couple to
be very, very, very stressful. I think she should not
have this man's child. He learned how to do laundry
three days ago. And she's like, I think I'm gonna
I want to be with you for the rest of
my life. I like, I don't know, I don't And
I also find it like this is very rom comy,
but I feel like a lot of rom coms, the

(12:50):
reason that they don't quite click is because they don't
bother to write one of the characters. But both of
these characters are We know a lot about them. They're
fully realized. We know about their backgrounds, and that is
why I feel confident when I say these people are
fundamentally incompatible for each other. They're not going to make it.
I think they should marry other people and then like

(13:11):
hook up over the holidays like grown ups. To you,
they should not get married. I think truly. Like I
the the watching the last fifteen minutes, I was like,
I'm so worried for her because this guy and I
am projecting here, but like these things happen. A guy
comes up, you know, he's like.

Speaker 5 (13:30):
Guess what, guess what.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Two weeks ago, everything about me changed. I am a
fundamentally new person, and it's for you. I no longer
resent your success. I am willing to uproot my entire
life to be with you. I've fully processed the death
of my mother, and actually I think it would be
amazing if you made a ton of money making her recipes.
I also think that's creepy.

Speaker 4 (13:51):
But anyways, his mom like plagiarizing his mom's recipes.

Speaker 5 (13:55):
I think she should.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
I mean, I feel like she should have like checked
in with him more before being like, just's what my
business is your dead mom's recipes?

Speaker 5 (14:02):
What? I like?

Speaker 3 (14:04):
I am not rooting for them. I think that ten
days after the events of the last scene in this movie,
he wakes up and is like, oh my god, I
have left everything I ever know. I don't have a job.
I have stated in public that it is my dream
to like, I feel like the feminism of this movie
is very weird, where it's like feminism is a man

(14:27):
definitely changing and giving up on any of his ambition.
You're like, no, it's not, but his band isn't gonna
be successful, like we all saw it that.

Speaker 5 (14:36):
It's just I found.

Speaker 3 (14:38):
It so stressful, like she has taken on and I
think she's asking too much of him by having him
move across the country, like she is not compromised with
him at all. I just am like, I don't know.
I've been in couples counseling before, and these two are
they are not gonna go the distance I feel I
feel for them. They deserve happiness, but not with each other.

Speaker 4 (15:01):
I don't disagree. I also don't think they're compatible nor
will they make it. But I've never seen a rom call.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
Blood pressure was off the charts. I was so scared
for them.

Speaker 4 (15:13):
For me, I'm just like, I watch any rom com
and I'm like, yeah, none of these people are gonna
make it. I don't even like consider that.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
See I get I think, I mean, I see what
you're saying, but I think that I just found it busy.
I mean, and there's we'll talk about. There's so much
to love about this movie. There's a lot to love
about this movie, but I just was so I found
the central relationship to be so distracting, where every beat
of the movie of them growing closer, I'm like, this

(15:43):
is toxic.

Speaker 5 (15:44):
This is toxic.

Speaker 3 (15:45):
And you don't need to marry the person you lost
your virginity too, Like you can just be close with
them and be like I always find that to be
like a weirdly conservative thing to be like, oh, you know,
it's your first love. Also this, oh my god, sorry,
I was like, my face is hot the scene where
and this is definitely be projecting because I recently lost

(16:08):
a parent. But like the way that that is the
dead mom trope I thought was so cheap and like
he also, I mean, it is funny that Randall Park
is visibly like forty five and he's like, I'm just
a seventeen year I'm just a little guy.

Speaker 5 (16:25):
I loved that.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
I loved it because I felt the same way about
Elie Wong. I was like, yeah, they try it.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
It was literally watching Penn fifteen for ten minutes of
the movie.

Speaker 1 (16:36):
Literally, you're like, I loved them fifteen, So yeah, celebratory.

Speaker 3 (16:41):
I wish I almost wish they'd played into that a
little more. But I mean I didn't have an issue
with that, but just that that, like the way that
that played out where his mom had just died. Ali
Wong is like, well, she's my mom too, and and
Randall Park correctly is like, well, no she's not. And
then she's like, I'm never gonna speak to you again.
I was like, that's awful. You're being a bad friend.

(17:04):
And she never apologizes, She never apologizes for doing that.
I oh, ooh, these characters. I just think they need
to go to therapy and don't move in together, don't
have a kid, focus on yourselves.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
What I'm about to say it's so controversial, I can't wait.
First of all, I disagree entirely. Okay, So here's the thing. Okay,
I think it wasn't that he I'm speaking solely of
the end of the movie. I don't think he flew
there and was like I changed all of these things
about myself just for you. I think it was just like,

(17:43):
I would rather fuck up on all lives things win
you than I would without you. And so for me.
And here's the kicker. We deeply agree that she never apologized,
and I hate it. That's so weird. I don't understand
why movie he's well meaning or not cut out necessary
apologies because I think that she desperately needed to give

(18:07):
him one when she's like, you're an asshole and didn't
talk to him for like fifteen years because she said, hey,
my mom just died. Like my mom just died, and
I know you loved her. Cool, we love that, but
she was my mom, Like he's grieving hello, But I
don't know. There was just something about it that I
was just like, And this is really in part because

(18:29):
I'm so used to couples not having chemistry anymore.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah, Like that's a very their chemistry is amazing.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Their chemistry is amazing, So I think that that's what's
doing the heavy lifting for me. But I literally was like, oh,
I hope they make it.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
I hope they're make it, even though.

Speaker 1 (18:45):
They've got a ton of stuff to work through. Like,
like you said, she doesn't really compromise at all throughout
the movie, Like I forgot until you said it that
they literally flew across the world and the dad it's like,
thanks for letting us visit to see the new rest
And then I was like, oh.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
Right, yeah, she's like I made this right. She doesn't
mean even though she has a restaurant in San Francisco.

Speaker 1 (19:07):
That she can easily run, she could have changed the
restaurant in San Francisco to be closer to what she
always wanted it to be, not open a new one.

Speaker 3 (19:15):
And the end of the plot moved so quickly that
it was very whiplashy, where yeah, no, she doesn't compromise
at all, which is I guess, okay to the extent
that they broke up, Like she didn't, she didn't owe
him anything. But like there is this montage of like
Randall Park randomly gets his shit together and he's like,

(19:37):
I'm just he just moved into his own apartment and
now he's leaving, Like what do you mean?

Speaker 1 (19:43):
And you know how expensive it is to break a lease.

Speaker 3 (19:45):
He's like, San Francisco, I'll like get real. He's like,
I'm out of here all right before we sorry, sorry,
Let's take a quick break and then we'll come back
to the recap and then we will dive back in.

Speaker 4 (20:08):
And we're bad.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
This is thrilling, this, this is hot.

Speaker 4 (20:14):
This is this is heat from a stove that.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Sasha Randall Park's dead Mom's recipe.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Like also, like, no, it got to be rude, but like,
why couldn't they kill off the dam Like.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
I like, I thought his I thought the dad character
was so charming.

Speaker 1 (20:32):
I love the dad. But if you're gonna kill off
a character, why is it always the mom?

Speaker 6 (20:37):
It's always so often always And I was literally, okay again,
I just like, don't think this movie is very well written,
because I was literally in the middle of writing down
I love the mom character, and then it cut to
they're just chilling on a bridge and the dad walks.

Speaker 3 (20:53):
It reminded me of the first scene in a series
of unfortunate events, just like he comes out of the
shadows and he's like, bad news, your mom's dead, and
then cut to their fucking You're like, what the pasic.

Speaker 5 (21:05):
Is so bizarre?

Speaker 2 (21:07):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (21:08):
I hated. I hated her parents because I hate when
it's like parents are absentee and then they're like, well
I showed up now, and like again this has been projecting,
But I hate an absentee parent that's like, oh, well,
you know, I went in and bought the food at
the restaurant, and I didn't tell them that we were related,

(21:29):
so like I paid full price, but that's gonna be
the fix to our relationship. It's like either way, yeah,
I know that Randall's mom wasn't her mom, but her
parents still like she didn't have anybody else. When she
said I had me, she's like you had parents, and
she's like, yeah, they were alive, but they weren't.

Speaker 3 (21:50):
I wish that they had like gotten into that a
little bit more, because too, we didn't. We weren't really
told unless I missed it and it was said in passing.
We weren't really told why they weren't around. There wasn't
really which I mean, I just would have appreciated I
guess more context there. And then on Randall Park's side,
I feel like you could get I mean, it's still

(22:11):
I agree the dead mom troupe is such a trope,
but like if more reference was made to her throughout
the movie, it would feel less tropy. But she really
only comes up at very plot convenient moments.

Speaker 5 (22:24):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:24):
I was curious about her parents too, because you're totally right.
He like, I think like the bond that she has
with Randall Park's mom Marcus, sorry, Marcus's mom. I believe
her name is Judy, but I thought that was like
really cool and like a surrogate parent and like someone
who can give you emotional support but they just don't

(22:45):
really get into it ever. And I don't know, Yeah,
I just it' And then the way that, yeah, she
the way she forgives her parents at the end, it
feels like she just does that because the movie needs her. Yes,
And like you're saying, like, oh, how convenient that now
that I am wildly successful, You're like, I don't know,

(23:06):
I guess I'll show up and like get a bunch
of fancy food and like you're even.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
The little birthday party they had where she was they
were like oh, they go all out for the sun
god son whatever he is. And she's like, oh, when
I was eight, they gave me like a I don't know.

Speaker 4 (23:23):
A pair of foot flop.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
Thank you, I said, a trapper Jesus, I'm aging myself
a pair of foot flaps.

Speaker 5 (23:29):
And I'm just like and like, what changed?

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, like explore that. Why are they not saying, like,
I just think not enough round coms show apologies in
the way that I need them to.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
For sure. Yeah, we've talked about that quite a bit
on many but.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
On a few levels here like yeah, like we we
needed a better I mean, there was technically an apology
from the parents, but it was like half asked.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah. I was like, hey, we're here now, Yeah, we
flew to you, so like lead on a plane, let's let's.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Just let everything else go like step one. Because also
like some bouscemis hast stuff in here. That Again, towards
the end, it's so rushed where they break up. It
seems like the understanding is they're not going to speak anymore.
But then he starts calling her I do her every
single day, being like, hey, I don't know if you

(24:23):
want to hear from me, and you aren't replying, but
guess what, I learned how to do laundry on this
my forty fifth birthday, or like whatever the fuck he's doing,
and he keeps contacting her, and the plot validates that
he was right to do that because she was buying
all of his merch or something and she wasn't upset,
And you're like.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
It's like, if that's the case, the merch buying was
what both because I was like, if you're buying his
merch and you're not upset anymore, then reach out and
say something. Especially because they had the earlier scene where
they both wanted to text each other and neither of
them did. It would have been a real nice callback
for her to be like, even if she wasn't like
everything's good, just like you know, good luck or whatever

(25:06):
some sort of like dramatic ass sign off, but you
know that even when they get back to being in touch,
that would have made it even sweeter. But I will
say my favorite part of the entire movie, surprisingly is
when they like hook up for the first time after
he punches Keanu Reeves, because I remember watching it for

(25:27):
the first time and being like, oh, so, like Randall
Park is hot, you know, like I was just like,
oh yeah, plot aside, I was like, oh okay, because
I forget that men can be hot. I forget that
they can be so often, so often. And then I'm
just like, oh wow, okay, I see what she was
doing all right, Like everybody she kisses in the movie

(25:50):
is attractive. She's so right, she's so real for that.
But then it's just like, yeah, I think about certain
things of like I love the movie. I love their chemistry.
Chemistry is so rare from movies these days. I think
that they can just put hot people together and it's
gonna be great, like any anyone.

Speaker 4 (26:09):
But you you know, oh, is that the Glenn Powell?
What's her face?

Speaker 3 (26:13):
Seeing it?

Speaker 1 (26:14):
I hate it?

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Not a shred of chemistry so badly written of a
movie as well.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
She literally acts like she just took a Bena drill
before each of her lines, like she took a benadrill.
They said action and she did a line. I can't
no chemistry. It was like watching paint dry, but worse,
so bad.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
That was a movie that I was like, I've watched
it on a plane in five years.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
You know, don't skip it, don't even bother.

Speaker 3 (26:46):
Yeah, there's better playing movies to watch.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
Yes, anyway, So the recap of.

Speaker 5 (26:53):
We've told you a lot of what happens.

Speaker 4 (26:55):
Yeah, so I'm gonna speak for this.

Speaker 5 (26:57):
Okay, here we go.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
We meet two best friends kids in San Francisco in
nineteen ninety six.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
They mysteriously sound like an Ali Sorry I'm complaining again.
Every character in this movie mysteriously sounds like they're reading
Ali Wong's stand up. It doesn't matter. These children speak
in lines from Baby Cobras.

Speaker 4 (27:17):
So this is Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim. They're best friends.
Sasha is a latch key kid. Her parents are often
out running their store, so she goes over to Marcus's
house quite a bit and hangs out with him and
his mom and his dad. His mom teaches Sasha a
few things about cooking. She also already has kind of

(27:38):
like a proclivity for it, and she has to like
prepare her own meals quite a bit. This will obviously
pay off later because she becomes a chef. Anyway, they
hang out. There's a quick montage of them growing up together.
They're goofing, they're hanging. Marcus is in a band as
a teenager that'll also be a thing. Later in the movie,

(27:58):
we cut to two thousand and three. They are now
seniors in high school. Sasha is played by Ali Wong,
Marcus is played by Randall Park. Now they're still best friends,
and then Marcus gets word that his mom has died
in an accident, and after the funeral, Sasha gets Marcus
out of the house to try to get his mind

(28:21):
off of it. They start kissing via her surprise, kissing
him initially.

Speaker 3 (28:27):
But again, I'm just like her bedside manner with his
mother's tragic passing is so unbelievably bad, which she's like,
will this help?

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Like no, But they start making out and they have
sex in the back of his Toyota Corolla, but it's
very awkward afterward and they get into an argument and
Sasha storms off. Cut to twenty nineteen in Los Angeles.
Ever heard of it? Sasha and Marcus haven't for many years.

Speaker 3 (29:01):
They were at Stories. Did you notice when they were
at Stories?

Speaker 1 (29:04):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (29:05):
No, I didn't.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
There was definitely one scene. It was supposed to be
San Francisco, but La heads well, no, the bookstore Stories
is uh one of the greatest places in the city,
and there's definitely they definitely shot teenage Randall Park being
in his band was like at one of our bookstores
down the street.

Speaker 4 (29:24):
Over, I did not realize that.

Speaker 3 (29:26):
Wow, I would recognized that weird mural. It's just like
when Lady Gaga was at the Verge.

Speaker 5 (29:34):
Wow.

Speaker 4 (29:35):
Yeah, Wow, a star is born.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Hollywood, Hollywood. I was like, wow, I've bombed on both
of those stages.

Speaker 5 (29:42):
That's so cool.

Speaker 4 (29:43):
Same yeah, okay. Anyway, So it's twenty nineteen. Now, Sasha
is now a successful celebrity chef. She's about to open
a restaurant in San Francisco in a couple of weeks.
She's got a hot fiance, a fiance Brandon, played by
Daniel day Kim.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
I'm for cheering Daniel day Kim in a beige track suit.
I was like a bu, like a b really horny
for the beige tracksuit for some reason, and I was
like wow.

Speaker 1 (30:12):
I was like, yes, Diva, I didn't I didn't know
your game, but I know it now.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
You know when someone can look hot in a tracksuit,
it's like, okay, this is a this is another level.

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, good for you, good for you. Truly. Anyway, So
they're engaged, but it doesn't seem like they have a
very warm or loving relationship. Meanwhile, Marcus lives in San Francisco.
He's still in his band called Hello Peril. They play,
you know, like crummy gigs or what we're supposed to
think or crummy gigs. He smokes a lot of weed.

(30:47):
He still lives with his dad, who's played by James Sato,
and Marcus is not motivated by capitalism, so we are
supposed to think that he's kind of a loser. And
I have a lot of stuff to talk about regarding class.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Okay, that's another big thing about, Like, yeah, I don't
I do like that their business, which again they're like,
oh you're not. I'm like, these are really good union jobs,
like right, like shut up.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Let's call a spaderes bad do. I think that the
band is trash absolutely, But his day dadad, his day
job is kind of like a big one, Like that's
a good job. That's a good man, Savannah, and it
is wild.

Speaker 3 (31:32):
I truly, I was like, I cannot like especially because
these characters are in their thirties, Like I would not
be like, oh, you know this man that I'm in
love with who has a like great union job, I'm
not going to be like quit, leave everything you know
and be in.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
Your horrible band, Like I don't.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Support men's dreams like that.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Like, well, I think it's because he works a blue
collar job that we're supposed to be, Like he needs
to get out of that.

Speaker 5 (32:05):
He needs to do more.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
Yeah, that's sort of part of the girl bossiness of
this of like it is coded that someone could not
possibly be satisfied or content working at blue collar job,
or that they couldn't be content living where they grew
up either, like you have to move to New York
City and be an artist or you're a failure.

Speaker 4 (32:26):
Totally okay. So back in La Sasha's fiance Brandon says
that he wants to postpone their wedding and see other
people for a while, and Sasha's friend and colleague, Veronica
played by Michelle Buteau, is like what the fuck, like
fuck that guy, and Sasha's like, yeah, probably. Then she

(32:51):
and Veronica head to San Francisco together to open the
new restaurant. They rent a house there and Veronica hires
Marcus and his dad to install or repair an air
conditioning unit. And Veronica did this to try to get
Sasha and Marcus to reconnect, but things are still awkward

(33:11):
between them. This is the first time they're seeing each
other in like sixteen years or something. Mister Kim suggests
that Sasha goes to Marcus's gig the following night, and
he also says like, hmm, I'm surprised you lost touch.
I always thought you'd maybe get together, and they're.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
Like, he's really plot vibes at different moments. Yeah, he
walks into the city. He's like, your mother is dead.
He walks into the cities, like you two should be
to get together. At the end of the.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
Movie, I acause, first of all, I love the actor
who plays his dad, but I also laughed at the
point in the film when he was like, I can
do my shot in the ass by myself, and it's
like we saw him to give you a shot on
the shoulder, so I was right when did it twitch right? There?

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Again, it's just like the lack of detail that appears
a different because it's like they're like, I'm his caretaker,
but we don't know, we don't know have any context
for what that means. He implies that he doesn't need
a caretaker, but then it kind of comes back later
as if he does like it was just really confused

(34:26):
and and and then again, I think Ali Wank's character
was super insensitive by being like, what.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
Do you mean you're just saying you need to be.

Speaker 3 (34:32):
Your dad's caretaker because you won't follow your dream or
such like how projecting you're projecting?

Speaker 1 (34:39):
And then the thing with him getting with the Diana
Ross impersonator. I was like, Okay, I guess, like I
get it. Yeah, like I'm happy for you, you know,
but it just it just seems so rare and don

(35:00):
and and also too, I did not like the character
of his girlfriend. I know you're not supposed to like
the girlfriend Jenny, but I particularly found the like Keanu
Reeves bit with her annoying, like not him, we love Keanu,
and like she's a great actress, but it was also

(35:21):
just like flat wise, she's like I'm just gonna stay
and like, you know, talk to him about saving yet sorry.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
Oh we're about to be We're getting close.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Yeah, this is this is a chaos episode. I love you.

Speaker 4 (35:38):
Oh Okay. So Sasha decides to go to Marcus's band's
gig that night or the next night or whatever, and
it's a nice time and it seems like maybe things
are starting to be less awkward between Marcus and Sasha.
But then Marcus's girlfriend, Jenny played by Vivian Bang shows up.
She's a big fan of Sasha's and wants to cook

(36:00):
for her, So Jenny invites her back to like her
and Marcus's place and basically makes a hot dog based
dish for Sasha.

Speaker 3 (36:08):
Yeah, and uh, Sasha has a real snob about it.
I'm like, listen, there's a b I have a book
for you.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
I got to be fair. Who likes who likes? Though, and.

Speaker 3 (36:20):
I think, well, okay, I'm uniquely going to defend them.
But when properly cooked, it didn't seem like she cooked
it very well though.

Speaker 4 (36:29):
Yeah, it seemed like a pretty gross dish. Yeah, But
the whole idea here is that Jenny is very cooky
and clearly not the right match for Marcus.

Speaker 3 (36:41):
Even though it's like they're making it out like and
and there, I thought we were a couple of cheap
jokes that they have this character say where it's like
the idea again where it's just like, this movie has
moments that feel bizarrely conservative, like Jenny's character brings up
that she was she used to be poly amorous, and
that's very much like.

Speaker 5 (37:04):
She's weird.

Speaker 1 (37:05):
Weird. Yeah, I didn't have the spiritually married thing right.
That was also played for laughs.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
Yeah, it was just yeah, it was just kind of
cheap because it's like, Okay, if polyamory is not your thing,
that's fine, But we're looking at two characters who lost
their virginity to each other and barely get along. Like
I'm supposed to take your feelings on polyamory seriously, get
a grip.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
Yes.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Anyway, So they're all hanging out and then Marcus gives
Sasha a ride home in the car that they had
sex in all those years ago.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Which I like, sorry, but I just hate to eat
get that car like it took me off. I don't
know why I had such a visible reaction, and I
was like, get a new.

Speaker 3 (37:52):
You've got a good job, Like, I don't know that
it's not a it's not a money Why he's still
driving the carl.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Get a vehicle shrug.

Speaker 3 (38:01):
They're both such anyway.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
They they're reminiscing about the past, and then she invites
him to a birthday party the following day at her parents' house.
They're celebrating a little cousin or something. During the party,
Sasha gets a call from her fiance Brandon, who she
had seen on social media canoodling with pad Malakshmi, and

(38:26):
so Sasha yells.

Speaker 3 (38:28):
At him, Daniel Da Kevin pad Mlakhvi, like, honestly make
it happen, watch someone arrange that day.

Speaker 4 (38:38):
Anyway, they break up is basically what happens. Meanwhile, Sasha
and Marcus seem to be connecting more and more, although
it's still a little awkward between them, but they go
out for some food and they talk about Marcus's band.
Sasha thinks that they're good and they can be really big,

(38:59):
but Mark doesn't have huge aspirations, and she keeps judging him.

Speaker 3 (39:04):
For that, which again is like this is where it starts.
It really started to kick in for me of like,
then you guys just aren't compatible. It's okay, Like it's
it's not a character I mean, I think the way
that she's judgmental of him is a character flaw and
is a dark quality. But it's like, if she wants
someone who is really ambitious and working in a creative field,

(39:28):
this is not the person for you. Accept it.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Also, I think the bigger thing is and again as
the defender of this relationship aside.

Speaker 4 (39:40):
I'm neutral, is like, the band's not good, Like I look.

Speaker 3 (39:44):
That because Randall Park, I guess was He's like, it's
based on my band from the nineties. I was like, well, yeah,
claud you're an act right.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
The thing is is like I know he likes to
wrap and do that stuff. Like I'm like talk shows
and stuff, and that's great. We love a hobby, but
the the band is so that sounded Sony Randall Park,
I love you, You're perfect, but it's just like, I
just don't feel like the band itself was as good
as she was trying to make us believe it was. Therefore,

(40:14):
I was like, oh, she wants to really like him
because she just keeps telling people, Oh my god, they're
good and they could be big. No, they won't be.
They can't be.

Speaker 5 (40:23):
When she's like, why don't you.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Go on a world tour, I'm like, what do you talk?

Speaker 5 (40:26):
Did you hear?

Speaker 1 (40:27):
What? Talent and money and time? What do you guys
do it? And I think maybe that's very AI wound
with me. I'm an earth sign, but I just feel
like I'm a virgirl, so like we love a plan
I just feel like your job with your daughter is
great if you want to just take over that. Butiness
that made more sense to me than like holding on

(40:50):
to I'm gonna be in this bak like do it
for fun. But I just felt like plot wise, it
didn't work to me, Like her opening the restaurant after
his mom worked for her character.

Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 4 (41:06):
I didn't mind some of the band's lyrics. I'll say that.
Oh I thought they were kind of funny.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
Yes, absolutely, Like I punched on I've seen that all
the time, Like I was, I was singing it, I
was the credits, and I'm like, why don't I remember
all these words?

Speaker 3 (41:22):
I thought the tennis ball song was cute, but they're
they're like forty. I was like, I can't be just
like saying songs about tennis ball different and be like
and I'm a viable partner. That's again.

Speaker 5 (41:37):
But like, yeah, I agree that they were.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
They were really pushing the band is like, but and
and like you're saying, Kia that his character. It didn't
seem like that was his Like I want to be
a famous musician like that, right, I don't know. Yeah,
it's like it's if he is content and I don't know.
It just felt like so like, uh, black and white

(42:00):
in terms of what needed to happen with his character,
because it does seem like, yes, it would probably make
sense for him to like have his own place if
he's able to and like mature a little bit and it,
but because the movie doesn't seem interested in like examining
his grief for like why he's making those choices and

(42:22):
doesn't want to leave the home or whatever, it is,
like I just wish that there was some sort of
gray area to explore of like, yes, he has a
ways to go and like he's still growing as a person,
but that doesn't mean like I don't know, yeah, just
that the only version of success is being a famous
musician in New York City is like wild kind.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
It's it's also just I think really weird that, like
I think you can absolutely be career focused, like Eli
Lung's character. Why do I not know their names? What
is going on with me?

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Sasha and Marcus Sasha?

Speaker 1 (42:57):
Okay, the thing with like Alis, the thing with Sasha, Like, Okay,
I know I want to do I want to I
want to have restaurants. I want to do like like
this is important to me and his sort of thing
is like I'm grieving and that's important to me. But
I don't know. I just felt like it would have
been so much richer if he had a thing that

(43:19):
he was like good at, you know, right again that's
that's me speaking from a capitalistic society. But like what
if he could draw girl folded like a launcher.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I would have felt like like one of his French girls.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Yeah, Like, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (43:36):
I just felt like I maybe I'm just a defender
of the band Hello Peril, But I was like that
was his thing, that that is what he's doing.

Speaker 5 (43:45):
It needs your support.

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Is it amazing?

Speaker 2 (43:47):
No?

Speaker 4 (43:48):
But I would have gone to see them for fun
one night.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I don't know, for fun for sure.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
Yeah for fun, Yeah, for fun one night.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
Imagine her trying to follow him around in a world tour.
I mean it's just the songs.

Speaker 3 (44:03):
I was like, this band has been together for twenty
years or something and they I only have three songs.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
Which is why it because everybody looks younger than I.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Mean they are, because I did it, Charlie ye Is
they were born. I mean they're like fifteen years younger
than well.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
They addressed that in the movie, they're like, oh, it's
just me and I forget the other guy's name, but
it's like those were the original members and then they're
like and then we added new people later.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
So also, like, again, I've seen this movie a handful
of times at this point, never knew that the parents
had a store.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Never only because it's in one quick, almost throwaway line
where they leave a message on the answering machine for
young Sasha and they're like, sorry, we won't be home.
We're stuck at the store. Make yourself dinner. So like
that's the only time we have any indication of what
they do, right, But yeah, that also could have been
like why don't we see them at the store or
something something? Anyway, so where were we? This is shortly

(45:05):
after Sasha and Brandon have broken off their engagement and
oh yeah, and then like Sasha is like, Marcus, you
should try to be a famous new musician and he's like, no,
no thanks, that's not really why I'm doing this. And
then that night, while Sasha is catering a wrap party

(45:27):
for a Netflix show, she meets someone and we don't
know who it is at first, and we're like, oh,
who could it be? And we'll find out soon that
it's Keanu Reeves.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
I remember this was like, this was like a very
like break the Internet kind of moment when it happened.
That's the only thing I knew about this movie was
that there is an extended Keanu Reeves cameo and it.

Speaker 4 (45:52):
Yes where he plays himself, which I don't mind. I
had a good time.

Speaker 1 (45:56):
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
I'm a hater.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
I mean, I love Kia know, I just I'm burned
out on like a celebrity being like celebrities are weird.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
It's like, well, I think I liked it because he
just seems so excited because he was like and I
never get to play, you know, and I'm like half
agent or something. There was like some interview you did
where he like made it deeply philosophia, when I was like,
I love that for you can like if you're happy,
I'm happy and I'm the only thing that I really

(46:27):
like about it is the extended bit when he like
goes to visit Ellie Wong and like a stand up
show or whatever. She'll be like, oh, my ex husband
or my my ex boyfriend came to see me and
like that's the bit that I like. It's like this extended,
years long thing that they're like, Oh, it's beautiful we
used to do.

Speaker 3 (46:45):
I mean, Ali Wong is the close I also love.
I feel like she and Bill Hayter what a powerful couple.

Speaker 5 (46:52):
I know too.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
I was like that, it just makes sense. I love
it. It does.

Speaker 4 (46:58):
They seem so happy they do had no idea they
were together.

Speaker 5 (47:01):
Isn't that a.

Speaker 3 (47:02):
Good match though?

Speaker 1 (47:03):
You're just like such a good match.

Speaker 4 (47:05):
Oh okay. So then Sasha has just met some mystery guy. Meanwhile,
Marcus's dad is like, I don't know about your girlfriend, Jenny.
You should be with Sasha and tell her how you feel.
And Marcus is like, hmm, sounds like a good idea.

(47:26):
So he goes to her and he's about to tell her,
but before he can, Sasha is like, I met someone.
Let's all go on a double date. And then it
turns out to be Keanu Reeves is her new lover,
playing himself, and Jenny is starstruck. Marcus is like, oh
my fucking god, Like, how am I supposed to compete

(47:47):
with Keanu Reeves. Marcus also thinks that he's like a
pretentious douchebag because he's playing a very goofy version of himself.
And then everyone goes to Keanu's hotel for a nightcap
and they play a game where they ask each other
questions and Sasha reveals that she has always had a
crush on Marcus, or at least like during their childhood,

(48:10):
and he's like, what really, I had no idea, and.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Then she's like, but not anymore, not for nothing. I
found that line confusing that he was like, you liked me.
I was like, you guys did have sex likes. It's
not that, I mean, I guess, the whole life thing,
but I was like, you fucked. You can't be completely
shocked that she was attracted to you.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Right, Yeah? And then things escalate from there, and this
game culminates in Marcus and Keanu getting into a fistfight,
and so Marcus and Sasha leave together. Jenny stays with
Keanu because they're like kind of vibing, I guess, and
then in the car ride home, Sasha and Marcus get

(48:52):
into another fight where Marcus accuses Sasha of, you know,
like filling her life with meaningless awards and related ships,
and Sasha accuses him of wasting his talent and potential,
and then he, surprised kisses her this time, but she's like, oh,
let's keep smooching, and then they go to her place

(49:16):
and have sex.

Speaker 5 (49:16):
The sex scene is great.

Speaker 3 (49:19):
Yeah, no, no, no complaints, no complaints.

Speaker 1 (49:22):
No good scene.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Let's keep it. Let's keep that scene in.

Speaker 1 (49:25):
There, keep that scene in there.

Speaker 4 (49:27):
And then after this, Sasha and Marcus start dating and
it's nice for a little while, but then Sasha has
to go to New York to open her restaurant there.
Marcus is apprehensive about going with her, and then after
this like red carpet event, they get in another fight
where he's like, I think the food you make is

(49:49):
pretentious and it caters to rich white people, and she's like, oh, yeah,
well I need you to be more supportive of my
capitalistic ambitions.

Speaker 3 (49:59):
Well, I mean it's it's fair to ask for support
of her ambition. I would think that that is unreasonable.
I think what is unreasonable is at the end of
the movie, she is still making food basically for rich
white people, but now she's making his dead mom's recipes
for rich white people, and I'm like, it's it's worst
question mark.

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Like, meanwhile, I'm like, girl, get your bill.

Speaker 3 (50:22):
I'm not upset that she's like successful, I don't know.
That's fine.

Speaker 4 (50:27):
I have a whole piece that I'll be quoting from
later that's all about how Sasha's character is complicit in
gentrification and all this stuff. All yeah, we'll get to that.
But anyway, So now it's the night of the opening
of Sasha's San Francisco restaurant. Marcus doesn't go with her,

(50:48):
and he says he doesn't want to go to New
York with her either, So they basically break up and
they're both very sad, and Sasha goes to New York
alone and he starts to harass her. Yeah, but he
then he tries to start to get his life together. First,
there's like an audition with his band that he absolutely
blows because he gets drunk and like pisses on the stage.

(51:11):
But then they redo the audition and this time they
nail it. And then he moves into his own apartment
and he takes over the merch sales for his band
and they start selling a bunch of.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
Merch except no, they don't. And this is never like again,
I'm like that never to me should be a source
of conflict of like, oh, you think so little of
my potential as an artist that you were buying all
of the merch, Like, how would that not be a
hit to his confidence?

Speaker 7 (51:39):
See that's not even see yeah, I would be like,
oh you bought all my thank you, I love you
bad because if somebody was like, oh I want to
see if he succeed.

Speaker 1 (51:51):
And they bought all my books. Baby, I'm not gonna
be upset. I'm gonna be like, thank you, I love you.
Let's like you know, fair enough, Yeah, you know, go
do it, or like.

Speaker 4 (52:01):
Yeah, anyway, the movie's almost over. So now he goes
to Sasha's San Francisco restaurant because he's like, maybe she's
there and maybe I can talk to her. But she's
not in New York famously like she said, right. But
he goes into her office and this is when he
sees that she had bought all of his merch and

(52:24):
so he's like, wait a minute, does she love me?
So then he buys a suit and he goes to
New York to surprise Sasha at an awards ceremony, and
he makes a big speech about how he wants to
be with her no matter what, and they kiss and
make up, and then she takes him to her New
York City restaurant and then twist, it's the restaurant where

(52:48):
she has plagiarized his mom's recipes and you guys, she.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Got her blessing from beyond. I don't know how this.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
At this point, I'm like, if I'm Randall Park, I'm
ever speaking to this woman again, and I'm suing her.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
And he said, he's like, wow, that's awesome.

Speaker 8 (53:05):
She's like, I stole your mom's recipes and I'm going
to do it in my little gentrification pistro and then
goes to her like the widower.

Speaker 3 (53:16):
And is like, she'd love this right after the business
is open, Like, yeah, that.

Speaker 1 (53:22):
Would be nice. If it was just like not open
and that's what she was planning to do, right, that
would have that would have worked a little bit better,
I think. But I also saw in the beginning how
her mom was like very supportive of her cooking and
she's like, oh, here's how you do it. So in
a way, it felt like she was sharing in this
moment with I'm just excuse, but she was sharing this

(53:45):
moment with his mom, and it was like.

Speaker 3 (53:48):
You know, I mean, I knew what they were going for.
I just like it just felt so I mean, I
think that this was one of the many elements of
like the last fifteen to twenty minutes of the movie.
They just felt really really really rush.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Well, anyways, that's the end of the movie. Basically, like
Marcus Loves the Restaurant, the opening goes, well, everyone has
a nice time the end. So let's take another quick
break and we'll come back to discuss further.

Speaker 3 (54:27):
And we're back. I know that we have a lot
to get to. One of the things I just wanted
to sort of go back to the original round of
press around this movie when it came out, because something
that I also, you know, knew about this movie that
is absolutely worth talking about is that it is one
of the few, like mainstream rom coms that has Asian

(54:51):
American characters at its center and is also written by
literally the stars of the movie but Asian American, right.
I believe the director in Nanachaka Khan, who also has
is like a PROLIFICXIT comm director, is Iranian American, and
there is a lot of diversity in front of and

(55:13):
behind the camera, which in rom comms is still extremely
extremely rare. I mean, we were just talking about anyone
but you, which is my understanding. Is a blindingly white movie,
and there was a lot written at the time this
movie came out celebrating that, I think gratefully so there

(55:36):
was a vox essay that I bravely read by writer
Jason Sheen that sort of breaks down a lot of
what he felt the Asian American stereotypes being challenged very
subtly in this movie. The piece is called why Always
Be My Maybe's Asian American Underachiever is groundbreaking and specifically

(56:00):
into Randall Park's character and talking about how, you know,
the representation of an Asian American character who is not
fighting against but not meeting the like very model minority
stereotypes that we often see Asian American characters written into.

(56:20):
We can link it in the description, but I just
wanted to share sort of hys thesis here. He writes.
It might sound strange, but an Asian American lead character
playing a low achiever might be just what our community
needs right now. The story of Asians in America is
a happy one at first glance. As the nation's fastest
growing racial group, we're seen as an educated quote unquote

(56:41):
model minority citizens who have earned society's respect, but Asian
American achievement often faces backlash. And we've discussed these trips
on the show before. But I think that it definitely
is a positive thing to just have again simple thing
that we never see, these characters that exist that we

(57:02):
never see. So I think that that is great. I
don't totally agree that Randall Park's character having a blue
collar job is passively accepted by the movie. I think
that's sort of where I chafe it that a little bit.
But I do think, you know, from a representation standpoint,
it's wonderful.

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Yeah, for sure. A lot of movies treat Asian characters
and Asian American characters as a monolith and adhere to
so many reductive tropes, and I agree that this movie
subverts a lot of them. I wanted to share a
quote from Ali Wong from an interview that she and
Randall Park did in Glamour, where she says, quote to me,

(57:46):
Marcus's character is very much a type of guy that
I grew up with, a very Asian American dude who
grew up in the Bay and lives at home well
into his thirties. Because of gentrification and rent is so
expensive in San Francisco. They have this artistic passion and
they're not that ambitious because they're third generation. Their parents
don't have that crazy immigrant mentality. That's something I have

(58:09):
never seen on camera before. But that's something I very
much grew up with. These guys were so sexy and confident,
but they're good, you know, and his dad is his friend,
and you haven't seen that kind of Asian dad before.
My dad was born in the United States. He didn't
have any accent. He was very progressive and he journaled.

(58:31):
He's really into self reflection. I know a lot of
dads like that, and I have always felt like it's
a shame that they weren't on camera. This is not
the Asian American rom com. This is an Asian American
rom com. That's an Asian American dad. That's an Asian
American guy I haven't seen before parentheses on screen, and

(58:54):
that's very exciting to me. Unquote. So that's from Ali Wong.
Randall Ark had similar comments about seeing a lack of
Asian American characters in certain roles in media. I'm going
to paraphrase from an interview with him in Associated press,
where he says that he always wanted to play the

(59:14):
romantic lead in a movie, but those parts weren't available
to him in Hollywood, so he was like, well, in
that case, I have to write my own story where
I can be the romantic lead since the industry isn't
affording me those opportunities. And then Ali Wong also says
that it was very important to her that all of

(59:36):
her characters love interests be Asian American and that in
all of her work, it's important that she shows her
attraction and desire toward Asian American men, which all of
that speaks to Hollywood's tendency to desexualize Asian men and
the refusal to present Asian men as romantically viable p

(01:00:00):
and so all of this to say, obviously, Ali Wang
and Randall Park were very mindful of the stereotypical representation
of Asian American characters that existed on screen previously, and
with this movie, they wanted to show more nuance and
diversity in the type of Asian American characters who appear

(01:00:21):
on screen.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Yeah, I think what's really nice as like the person
of color, like the black person right now on the
pot is like I went into it being like I
forgot how nice it was not to have something centered
around whiteness, Like, yeah, there was a conversation around like,
you know, you're catering your restaurant to like rich white people,
but it was like not to be inundated with whiteness

(01:00:46):
as a default was really really nice because it's been
such a long time, which again, what is time with
the pandemic, but it's been such a long time since
I've seen that happen.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
Since, right, for sure. That's why I feel we've I
feel like we will probably unfortunately keep talking about this
on the show of like feeling like around this time
in the late twenty tens, where there was starting to
be more representation in genres where we didn't normally see it,

(01:01:21):
we were getting better written characters who weren't meant like
sis men weren't the default. And then in the last
couple of years, it feels like, I mean, amongst many
other things, that that progress is sliding backwards and experiencing
significant backlash. And yeah, I mean, for all the gripes
I have about this movie, it's I can't think of many,

(01:01:45):
you know, movies that have made at this budget with
this amount of marketing as well that center Asian American characters.

Speaker 4 (01:01:53):
Well that's the thing, because I just saw two movies
that are at the time of this recording, I think,
still in theaters but hard to find because they don't
have huge releases. But I saw The Wedding Banquet.

Speaker 3 (01:02:07):
And Oh Yes, It's a Nice.

Speaker 4 (01:02:09):
Indian Boy, which are two queer romantic comedies slash dramaedis
that feature predominantly Asian American characters, and but they're not
They don't have the same marketing around them, so I
feel like a lot of people don't know about them
or as much about them.

Speaker 1 (01:02:27):
Yeah, they're on my list. I'm trying to figure out
how I can see them both because I've heard good thing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
They're both really good right there, but they're hard to like.
I I also saw The Wedding Banquet and it's already
like halved in terms of the numbers of screenings that
it's getting, and I haven't seen any marketing for it.
Like I just knew I'll see anything Bowen yangs in,
so the ads found me.

Speaker 4 (01:02:53):
But yeah, I mean overall, like I saw a lot
of writing about this movie to the effect of how
refreshing it was for so many viewers, particularly Asian American audiences,
where they were able to see a pretty standard rom
com story because the idea for this movie was Ali

(01:03:13):
Wang and Rendall Park being like, hey, we should make
our own version of When Harry Met Sally, right, And
the movie follows a lot of the same beats as
that movie, So it's a pretty you know, standard rom
com narrative, but it features characters who look like them
and who had similar upbringings and who had similar cultural experiences,

(01:03:35):
and who were also living regular lives. Because this movie,
because it came out a year after Crazy Rich Asians,
a lot of people who wrote about this movie were like,
Crazy Rich Asians was fun and everything, but I couldn't
really relate to those characters because they're literal billionaires. But

(01:03:55):
Always be My Maybe had like familiar people in it.
And also a lot of people had written about how
there was in Always Be My Maybe no real focus
on their like quote unquote otherness, and that there was
like no real clash of Eastern versus Western values. Not

(01:04:15):
that those things aren't worth exploring in media, but this
movie is more like, hey, look at these regular American
people who are living laughing, loving, and they just happen
to be Asian. So that was like very refreshing for
a lot of people. I'll share a quote from a

(01:04:37):
New Yorker piece written by Jiayang Fan entitled what Always
Be My Maybe understands about making an Asian American rom
com quote. I watched Always Be My Maybe alone in
a theater in Manhattan, acutely aware that this was a
mainstream movie of America's favorite variety, the rom com, and

(01:04:58):
of the fact that a multi ethnic audience had sat
down to watch two Asian leads fall in love. More
than anything else, it was the film's depiction of growing
up in the US in an Asian home that made
my heart yelp. The and oh oh no, a word
that I don't know how to say, involuble yeah now that, oh,

(01:05:19):
thank you so much, ritual of removing shoes before entering
a house, the plastic covered furniture in Sasha's parents' home,
which so resembled my own childhood living room. To watch
these mundane, culturally specific details exposed on the big screen,
the very things that I and many Asian American kids
once wanted to hide, felt quietly radical. And then the

(01:05:44):
piece goes on to talk about various other culturally specific
things that the movie includes that felt very familiar and
authentic to the writer, such as like having to consume
media about white people like Clarissa's plans at all and
Wayne's world because that's all there was when they were
growing up, or parents trying to avoid any service that

(01:06:07):
requires tipping because they were poor and had to be
very careful with their money.

Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
So I also think it's funny too, like as the
disabled person, the joke. I remember when I first watched
the movie, the joke about the parking placards really pissed
me off. But then I watched it today and I
was like, oh, that's really funny. Like I think part
of it is just like one I chilled out because
like for a while there, I was just like yeah,

(01:06:36):
and then you know, I like relaxed a little bit.
But it was actually funny this go around.

Speaker 4 (01:06:41):
You mean the scene where they noticed how when they're
in Chinatown and.

Speaker 1 (01:06:45):
Yeah, how every every part has the parking platters. Yeah,
that scene, I was like, Oh, this is actually funny.
And I don't know, I think I think two, it
really shows the passing of time for me. I mean
this said nothing to do technically with a movie. But
when I first sat like, I think I wrote an
article about it about how like or a tweet or

(01:07:07):
something when Twitter was good about how that singular section
upset me. And then I noticed today that I was
like fully laughing at it, and I said, oh, what
was you look at that? Just so sometimes it just
takes a second, but I think that there's something. I
think jokes like that are a good way of punching up,
and not enough people do it. And I'm just saying

(01:07:28):
that it's like a person who has never fully seen
herself represented in rob concert otherwise, and like jokes like
that that's a good one because it's not like cracking
on disabled people to do what it's just like with
all these placards.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
Like yeah, and then and then Sasha is like, yeah,
they have these placards, but look at him getting out
of his truck all able bodied, which could mean that
he just has an invisible disability, right you know.

Speaker 3 (01:07:55):
Yeah, So I think it.

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
Does a good job and either both like poking at
her and the idea that she has no idea how
like disability actually works, and also the idea that like
people are just so convinced that disable people have all
kinds are gaming the system. I remember once this lady
like knocked on the car door and I put my
hand out, like my right hand out so she could see.

(01:08:18):
I'm like, hello, what what are you gonna do? Like
I'm supposed to have this? Why are you tryed? God,
I just wanted to let you know that the police
are out here. Okay, thanks? Cool fun.

Speaker 4 (01:08:32):
I mean, for me, my big criticism around this movie,
and I've already alluded to this is the way that
the movie handles class and.

Speaker 3 (01:08:44):
Which in some ways I've also noticed that, And I
was like, in some ways, I feel like that is
it is truly just like they made a rom com
that centers Asian American characters in a way that I
think was very impactful, but they still made an American
rom com where it is like insensitive to class and
like very bootstrap aspirational in all the ways that American

(01:09:08):
rom coms tend to be.

Speaker 4 (01:09:10):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:10):
Yeah, Like I almost I mean not to invalidate what
you're saying, obviously, Caitlin, but I almost feel like that's
the beauty in it, because when you approach any genre
as a person of color, people do expect you to have,
like the set decisions and set thoughts on all of
the things that other rom coms tend to ignore.

Speaker 9 (01:09:33):
So there's some power in the fact that they didn't
address it in that way, because it was like, Okay,
we don't have to in the same way that they don't,
you know, when Harry met.

Speaker 3 (01:09:43):
Staley totally right, like setting the bar high, like higher
for marginalized creators kind of thing.

Speaker 4 (01:09:52):
Yeah, I mean, I see what you're saying, because I mean,
so much of art, the creators of color make is
held to a very rigid standard, and if there's too
much subversion then people will be all up in arms
and oh, this isn't a rom com because X y

(01:10:14):
Z I just I mean. And also this came out
in twenty nineteen, when culturally we were less critical of capitalism.
I think in the past five years there's been a
pretty significant shift.

Speaker 3 (01:10:28):
I mean, yeah, the pandemic got a lot of people radicalized.

Speaker 4 (01:10:32):
For sure, So I'm not surprised that this movie isn't
very critical of capitalism, but I still think it's worth
pointing out where it manifests in a couple different ways.
One of them is part of the dynamic of their
relationship is that by capitalists society's standards, Sasha is more

(01:10:55):
quote unquote successful because she's a business owner and she
has more money and more ambition. And then by those
same standards, Marcus is quote unquote not successful because he
lives with his dad and he has a blue collar
job and he doesn't have these huge career ambitions, and
he still drives the same car from when he was

(01:11:17):
a teenager, and he's you know, content to play in
this band at this small club and never make any
money from the band and all this kind of stuff,
and they constantly argue about these differences, which to your point, Jamie,
is that they are, like they're not catal. But the
movie it frames Marcus's situation as something that needs to

(01:11:42):
be fixed more or less, where he has the arc
where he you know, he moves out of the dad's
place and he you know, gets the audition at the
bigger club and he starts making money, which is actually
just Sasha buying his march. But like it's not until
then that they end up together and happy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:04):
But he's like quote unquote viable. Yeah, which again I
feel like for me the fix here because I hear
what you're both saying, and I feel like the fix
here is the writing gets caught up in this like
capitalistic idea of what happiness looks like when this conversation
I feel like would be more effective and would make

(01:12:26):
me feel less kind of icky about the relationship if
it was about passion versus success. And I think Kia
you mentioned earlier, like if we saw that Randall Park
loves being in this band, it is his passion. It
is like his source of joy. And Ali Wong's character
loves being a chef and like building these restaurants. But

(01:12:50):
the conflict is she is making a lot of money
doing it. He isn't. But they have passion, but it
feels like it gets instead sort of involved like a
very capitalistic, rigid definition of success.

Speaker 1 (01:13:04):
And also too, it just seems like the thing with
Sastress like does she love it or is it just
the career she's good at? Right?

Speaker 5 (01:13:13):
Not clear?

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
That's the question that I have too, because I was
just like, do you love your job because you don't
seem that happy doing right.

Speaker 3 (01:13:22):
She's like, I'm doing it because I have to. And
it's also but it's like why do you have to
let's keep Yeah, you just want to like push the
script a little further. And I mean, and Kaitlyn, you're
totally right the gentrification aspect, Like in some ways it's like, yeah,
this is what Meg Ryan would do it in a

(01:13:44):
I mean, at least, at very least, this is not
the most egregious gentrification realm complot point that will always
go to you've got mail.

Speaker 10 (01:13:54):
But but but yeah, it just especially if a movie
made in twenty nineteen, it felt again, I'm wondering if
there were drafts of the script that dealt with this
a little or that developed this.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
Or a little more thoughtfully, because it just felt so
fast at the end.

Speaker 1 (01:14:13):
Even I think too then it's is gonna be I
don't know, but like remember the white girl that she
was like the assistant of and she she was gonna
get Yes, she was scared, she was gonna get fired
the whole time, even if she was like, you know what,
I'm gonna relinquish dealing with this one here. I'll give
Michelle Puto's other one and I'm gonna put my focus

(01:14:36):
on this one restaurant. Even that I feel like would
have helped with the like less feeling work monopoly pieces,
you know, because after a while it was like, oh, yeah,
I got one.

Speaker 3 (01:14:47):
In New York, I got a she's franchising, Like, yeah,
she's franchising.

Speaker 1 (01:14:52):
It was like, girl, I get it. But at the
same time, you can't the mean Marcus for not having
direction when your direction is just you and constant movement
without being able to rest. There's something to have to
your therapist, a bounty, but like, why do you need
to be in constant movement? Sit down somewhere, take on that, take.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Us correct, as the kids said, touch some grass, Ali Wong. Yeah,
And I mean it's the criticism of the gentrification aspects
of the restaurant come up really fast and only at
the end, and the only resolution given for it is, oh,
I'll just steal your dead mom's recipe. Does that work?

(01:15:37):
And it weirdly and he's like, oh, yeah, that solves
gentrification as long as you.

Speaker 1 (01:15:42):
Like, as long as we can stop the whole fusion,
just make them as they are, and that's that. And
it's just like, I don't I don't think we knew
enough of their material thoughts in a lot of places
that we needed them.

Speaker 3 (01:15:54):
For sure, sure, because we don't know I mean like
is again, yeah, where it's just like it seems like
there's a sort of void of passion between these two
characters in their pursuits, where I'm like, is Ali Wong
really passionate about the food her restaurants serve? We don't
really know, we don't really ever see her cooking. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:18):
I have alluded to this piece a couple times already,
but I just want to share a few quotes from
a piece in plan A magazine by writer Promise Lee
entitled Always Be My Maybe Gentrification and the Asian American
rom com. The piece starts by commenting on the criticisms

(01:16:41):
of crazy rich Asians when that movie came out, how
it only portrayed very affluent Asian characters really just.

Speaker 3 (01:16:50):
The richest people humanly possible. Yeah, reruly.

Speaker 4 (01:16:54):
It goes on to make a similar point that we
were making earlier regarding the Sasha characters, kind of like
constantly berating Marcus for his lifestyle.

Speaker 3 (01:17:07):
And the movie, like the events and logic of the movie.
Siding with her on that is, I feel like it's
never like she has a because it's one thing if
she has a realization of like I've been so judgmental
based on class, or like, I think there's such a
thing as like projecting at the class you grew up in,
or whatever it may be, But there is no such realization.

(01:17:27):
It's just like it seems like those are the values
of the movie, right, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
And then the piece goes on to examine her work
as a like restauranteur and the types of restaurants that
she's opening, and so the piece says, quote of course,
the film's concluding scene demonstrates that its ideal of innovation
does not equate to a rejection of all tradition. Tradition

(01:17:52):
for Sasha must be done well. It needs to sell.
Sasha's final invention in the film is a Korean restaurant,
more quote unquote authentic then her previous eateries, as it
is based on Marcus's late mother, Judy's old recipes. But
despite the film's occasionally positive portrayal of local, authentic restaurants,

(01:18:12):
its end goal is clear. The ideal isn't the local
Cantonese dim sum joint with rude service that Marcus and
Sasha grew up frequenting. It is Judy's way, the gentrifying
hip Korean eatery that reworks old family recipes for a
different demographic. For all the talk of Sashu's turned to authenticity,
the film shows no ambiguity as to who the target

(01:18:35):
audience is for Judy's Way. In its final shot of
the restaurant's long line of white professionals and high heels
in pinstriped blazers, the piece goes on to say gentrification
has been widely portrayed in rigidly racialized terms, with working
class residents of color being forced out of their neighborhoods
by affluent or middle class white developers and residents. But

(01:18:58):
always be my maybe show as a crucial element frequently
understated or overlooked in the relentless calculus of gentrification, the
act of complicity of more affluent people of color in
displacing their less privileged counterparts. Entrepreneurs like Sashia churn out
restaurant after restaurant that no one needs in the community,

(01:19:20):
but that threatens the livelihood of workers of color that
depend on the sustenance of local businesses unquote. So yeah,
I just wanted to share that. I thought that was
a really great piece.

Speaker 3 (01:19:32):
And the thing that is frustrating about this is I
think that you can maintain the tone of this movie
and still address it. And it's sort of hint because
the elements of gentrification are hinted at in passing with jokes.
You can tackle a topic as serious and insidious as
gentrification in a rom com, and I think that these

(01:19:55):
writers are well qualified to do it, which kind of
makes it a little more bizarre that it goes in
so hard on the capitalism.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
Angle, right, so disappointing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:08):
But again, I mean, as as Kio is saying too,
it's you know, it is one of the ways in
which this movie kind of for worse adheres to the
values of the American rom com because American rom coms
are nothing if very pro capitalist.

Speaker 4 (01:20:27):
Absolutely. One of the things that is subverted switching gears here.
But that I wanted to comment on is glasses representation.

Speaker 5 (01:20:40):
Oh, I thought that too.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
I mean, that's Ali Wong in general. She's been on
that beat for for many years. And some of the
best glasses in the game.

Speaker 4 (01:20:50):
Such good glasses. Yeah. Friend of the Show Canise Mobley
often cites this movie when talking about representation of characters
wearing glasses. And then I would go on to realize
that there's like, there are whole Reddit threads about her
glasses in this movie. But basically the idea is, this
is one of the only movies where a woman or

(01:21:14):
I guess, person of any gender, but specifically a woman
in this case in a romantic lead who wears glasses
in general and keeps them on the whole movie and
like doesn't take them off as some like she's all
that style makeover.

Speaker 1 (01:21:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
No, I I appreciate that. I think about that a
lot because I I guess it is like sort of
drilled into you culturally because I wear glass. My vision's horrible.
I wear glasses, but usually not two occasions, and that
is a very culturally bashed in thing. I do wonder
to some extent if that movie because there is the

(01:21:55):
she's all that element of I feel like just the lazy,
you know, twentieth century person wearing glasses, dork thing.

Speaker 5 (01:22:05):
Nerd alert.

Speaker 3 (01:22:07):
Yeah, but also having worked in production, I do sort
of wonder if it's just a glare issue sometimes, like
it is hard to film people in glasses, but the
glasses are such a huge part of who Ali Wong is,
and you know, certainly no one could accuse Ali Wang
of being anything but very hot and like treated as such. Yeah,

(01:22:31):
that is a good I hadn't even thought of that.
I just was admiring her frames. She has great taste
in frames, she really does.

Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
Yeah, the movie does pass the Bechdel test. Yeah, but
between Sasha and Veronica and her mom and Marcus's mom,
so yeah, there's many interactions.

Speaker 3 (01:22:55):
I will say, we didn't have a lot of time
to talk about Michelle Buttoe's character, not that there's a
ton to talk but I did think again where this
is like, this is firmly an American rom com where
Michelle Buteau is best friending the hell out of this role.
Like we don't know anything. We do find out that
she has a partner, but her whole thing is she's

(01:23:17):
pregnant and she really cares about Ali Wong's character's interior life.
It's very rom com.

Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Also, I noticed this time for the first time that
she knew them when they were kids. Yes, I never
noticed that she was supposed to be the other little
girl at the table.

Speaker 9 (01:23:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:23:35):
I also noticed that on my most recent watch.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
Yeah, I was like, oh, I never popped them.

Speaker 4 (01:23:40):
Because they don't talk to her or address her by
name or anything like that.

Speaker 1 (01:23:43):
So yeah, and I was just like, it really reiterated
my desire. I know that she has survival as the thickest,
but it really reiterated my desire to see her in
like a firmly rom com movie that's full of all
of the tropes.

Speaker 3 (01:23:59):
I haven't seen it, but she was in Babes last year, right, Yeah, Babes.

Speaker 5 (01:24:04):
Was it bad?

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
I haven't seen it.

Speaker 4 (01:24:05):
Oh no, I didn't love it, and she plays the
same best friend character. It's not it doesn't center her
quite as much, and.

Speaker 1 (01:24:13):
So like, I just want to see her like in
that way, even though I know she has figures. I'm like,
give give the girl, and I rang it on Netflix movie.
She's so funny. She carries a lot of these as
the best friend, a lot of these roles.

Speaker 4 (01:24:29):
Yeah, I feel like she has replaced like the Judy
Greer best friend rom cos she has.

Speaker 3 (01:24:34):
Kind of millennial Judy Greer, and much like Judy Greer,
we must free her. She has so much talent.

Speaker 1 (01:24:41):
She does.

Speaker 4 (01:24:43):
As far as our nipple scale goes, where we raped
the movie zero to five nipples based on examining it
through an intersectional feminist lens, there's a lot to love
and appreciate about this movie as far as represent goes
of centering Asian American characters written by Asian American writers

(01:25:06):
who are pulling from their own experiences, pulling from people
they know, broadening the scope of the type of Asian
American person you tend to see represented on screen. Letting
these characters be the romantic leads in a rom com
who are falling in love and arguing all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
But you still get like all the rom com you know,
itches scratched, where there's I thought that Ali Wong's wardrobe
in this movie is fucking spectacular. Yeah, it has the
visuals of a rom com. It has the fashion, it
has the random big parties, it has.

Speaker 5 (01:25:47):
You know, it is like.

Speaker 3 (01:25:49):
An actual, real, real representation in a needed way, and
also has a very familiar rom coom plot.

Speaker 4 (01:25:56):
For sure, And it's one of the few rom coms
it actually attempts jokes. I don't necessarily think all of
them land that well, but like I was laughing many times,
there's calm.

Speaker 5 (01:26:06):
There's calm.

Speaker 4 (01:26:07):
There's calm in the rom com and so many wrong
coms don't actually have calm, which has always bugged me.
But yeah, there's there's jokes in this and I appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:16):
And also it has the thing that I love the
most in all calms of the wrong is the big
embarrassing moment. So like when she gets caught letting do
in Your Day, Cam's character have it in the windows
open and they can all hear. That's one of the
cornerstones of all good rom comes.

Speaker 3 (01:26:32):
You do, yes, you do need, uh that moment where
everyone's like, pretty lady doing what scaring.

Speaker 4 (01:26:40):
In front of children and you're scaring the goats.

Speaker 1 (01:26:46):
I did laugh.

Speaker 3 (01:26:47):
That was great.

Speaker 1 (01:26:48):
That was funny.

Speaker 4 (01:26:49):
But yeah, and again the thing about it not interrogating
capitalism at all and kind of just being like, yeah,
the only way that they that it makes sense for
them to end up together is if the Marcus character
sort of embraces capitalism.

Speaker 1 (01:27:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:27:06):
So, I mean, yeah, when you put it that way.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
I think I'll give the movie like three point seventy
five for somewhere around their nipples, and I will give
them to the goats at the party.

Speaker 3 (01:27:23):
I'm gonna go I guess I'm gonna go thre I
think I'm gonna go three. I mean, for all the
reasons you just described, Caitlin, I was so nervous to
come into that. Thank you for being perceptive to be
really not rooting for this couple. But I do, I
do agree. I mean, I obviously, I mean I'm I'm

(01:27:45):
not Asian American. I have I see myself in rom
comms all the time. There's nothing, if not many white
women with brown hair and rom coms, and so I
can't speak to the experience of feeling represented in this genre.
And it was really cool reading through a lot of
the specifics of and also just how Ali Wong and

(01:28:08):
Randall Park really intentionally collaborated on that. I don't think
it's a coincidence that Nanatchka Khan had worked extensively with
both of them on Fresh Off the Boat, which is
a show that has a very similar goal. And so
I think, like representationally, this movie is wonderful and takes
a lot of great steps forward. I do feel like
it's guilty of girl Boss feminism, which was so many

(01:28:30):
things in twenty nineteen. So it's not a like this
movie is I think every so many attempts at feminism
in twenty nineteen had this Sheryl Sandbergie vibe to it.
But ultimately I'm dogging it for this couple does not
belong together. I found the relationship very stressful, which is

(01:28:51):
me fully projecting as a woman that once moved to
Maine to try to make it work. So yeah, these
fictional people should learn form my mistakes and break up.

Speaker 4 (01:29:02):
I think more people should break up. I love breaking up,
normalize breaking up. People break up, please, Kia, how about you?

Speaker 1 (01:29:13):
I'm going to also go three points eight five?

Speaker 4 (01:29:18):
Oh, I know, groundbreaking, groundbreaking, Kia, Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:29:24):
I think so because I just like it and I
know that they have all their issues, but I really
hope they make it. And also one of the nipples
I'm gonna give to the dad because I just think
I did appreciate that little friendship that they were like
genuinely close, and he didn't do the thing where he
pulled away after the mom died, because I hate that

(01:29:45):
trop even more than I hate the dead mom Troke.

Speaker 5 (01:29:48):
I love his dance too, right, And so.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
I'm going to give another nipple to Michelle Bhutto because duh.
And then my last nipple is going to be to
the very quick scene where Ali Wong Sasha flashes herself.
So then so then so that you can see her
bro I just think it's so funny and I like
cackled out loud. I just love it and I would

(01:30:12):
love for them to work together again. And like again
Randall Park, it just like that's sexy. Just shifted so
much for me in terms of how I view him,
and so I see him now, I'm like, heyvid hair O, well.

Speaker 4 (01:30:27):
Nice, well, Kia, thank you so much for joining us
once again. Come back anytime. You're always welcome back.

Speaker 1 (01:30:33):
Please. I love it here.

Speaker 4 (01:30:34):
What would you like to plug? Tell us where people
can follow you and find your work?

Speaker 1 (01:30:39):
Okay, you can follow me on Instagram at Kia k
E A H Underscore, Maria m A R I A.
I'm also on Blue Sky at Kia Brown at Blue
Skot I don't shit. And if you're like on Facebook,
I don't know who is anymore, but I do still
have a Facebook page and it's the Kia Brown. I'm

(01:31:01):
currently writing what I hope will read, my fourth book,
Another Esthet. But you can always and please do purchase
any of the three books that I have out right now.
And if you want to be the al woe to
my to my Marcus, please buy all of the books

(01:31:22):
and just keep buying them.

Speaker 4 (01:31:24):
Buy so many copies of Kiya's books to show her
that you love her exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
My mom has a copy of Sam's Super Seeds in
her classrooms.

Speaker 1 (01:31:35):
Oh my gosh, that makes me so happy.

Speaker 3 (01:31:37):
Yes, so also, I mean it's predicalar I'm a fan
of all of your work, But if you have a
teacher in your life, get a copy of sam Super
Seeds for their classroom.

Speaker 1 (01:31:45):
Yes, it's a great book. I'm biased, but it's right.

Speaker 5 (01:31:48):
It's true, it's true, you're not wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:31:51):
You can follow us at the place called Instagram if
you must, please do.

Speaker 3 (01:31:57):
It's the only place we are so if not there,
you're gonna have a hard time keep it up, so
head over there. You can also join us on our
Patreon aka Matreon, and please do that too, where for
five dollars a month, you can get access to two
new episodes with Caitlin and myself doing a theam of

(01:32:19):
sometimes You're Choosing Sometimes ours. It's a very sort of
like goofy looser version of our format. And you don't
only get access to those two new episodes a month,
you can access to a back catalog of nearly two
hundred episodes. So if you're running out of episodes on
the main feed. Guess what, there is an affordable way

(01:32:40):
to have that not be true anymore. And there's a
really fun community over there, and.

Speaker 4 (01:32:45):
We love you. Yes, so thanks for listening, and you
listeners will always be our maybe babies.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
Babies, I love you, babies, Bye bye bye.

Speaker 4 (01:33:04):
The Bechdel Cast is a production of iHeartMedia, hosted by
Caitlin Drante and Jamie Loftis, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited
by mo La Boord. Our theme song was composed by
Mike Kaplan with vocals by Katherine Voskressensky. Our logo and
merch is designed by Jamie Loftis and a special thanks
to Aristotle Assevedo. For more information about the podcast, please

(01:33:27):
visit linktree slash Bechdel Cast

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