Bend It Like Beckham with Subhah Agarwal

This *goal* for this week's episode was for Caitlin and Jamie to *team* up with special guest Subhah Agarwal and chat about Bend It Like Beckham! P.S. This movie does pass the Beckham Test: the baldest soccer player is in charge.

(This episode contains spoilers)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bedel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
women in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism the patriarchy? Zef in best
start changing it with the Bechdel Cast. Hello, Welcome to
the Bechtel Cast. My name is Jamie Loftus and my
name is Caitlin Rante. This is our podcast about the

(00:22):
representation of women in movies. You've seen before? You have it? Yeah, Jamie,
how do you feel the representation of women in mainstream
American cinema is? I'll tell you what, pretty bad? Yeah?
I would agree, don't care for it. Usually feel it's
like a bit of a slap in the face, for sure.
And that conversation just passed the Bechtel test, which is

(00:46):
the test that we use as just a jumping off
point to initiate a larger conversation about the representation of
women in movies. The Bechtel test for us requires that
the movie has two female I entifying characters in it.
They have to have names already, Why bothers those characters

(01:08):
have to speak to each other? That happens, I'm leaving
the theater. Who wants to watch women talk right, and
their conversation has to be about anything besides men, sorry,
talking about food. There's nothing has to talk about right,
So here here, let's let's play to test the test
really quick. I'd love to okay, Caitlin, Hey, Jamie, you

(01:30):
play sports? I do play soccer. Well, I played soccer
when I was four, but then I got kicked off
of a youth team, which isn't supposed to be allowed
to happen to four year old But I what did
you do to get kicked off the team? Quote refused
to participate? Unquote I see and quote picked flowers and
quote through them at the opposing team, which I would

(01:53):
argue was probably helpful to my team. And they shouldn't
let me stay, I think, but that may be some
poor sportsmanship. Well, we'll do matter next time. Sorry, we're
just done. Women. Shall we introduce please? She's a comedian
and she's a writer for the Jim Jefferies Show. Suba

(02:16):
our gar Wall. Hey, welcome, thanks for having me, Thanks
for being here. So we're talking about Bendett, like Beckham,
tell us about your history with this movie, your relationship
to it. When did you first see it? I? Oh,
I think I was young. I don't remember exactly one,
but um, it was very relatable. I loved it. It It

(02:39):
was like, I think it was the first because when
I was little, the only the brown girl I really saw.
I was like, well, of course there's Bollywood films, but
I had no idea what the hell was going on there.
And then there was Princess Jasmine. And when I was
super little, I thought I was a princess because I
saw Jasmine and my dad would call me princess, and
then all of our white school teachers called my house
and we're like, is your daughter really a princess? And
was like, no, soups embarrassing, that's adorable. Though, could have

(03:08):
just leaned into it, like he just doesn't want people
to know they're trying to murder me because I'm going
to inherit the throne. Now I think we were merchants.
Was our cast? I don't know, but so yeah, back on,
I absolutely adored it because it kind of became my
life story with the whole entire double life thing with

(03:30):
me and stand up where it's like, um, my parents
took me to my first ever open mic and then
they forbade me from doing comedy and then I would
sneak out and say I was going to parties and
like go out and do shows and stuff. So it
was very like Backham. They were cool with parties, but
not well, you have to understand who my friends were. Okay,
I was such a loser. This is completely true. I

(03:52):
got into comedy because I thought it would teach me
how to talk to people. Work even weirder on direction. Yeah,
I think I've gotten way socially worse since I started
to stand up. Hey, now I talked, but everything I
say it's an appropriate perfect I mean, it's more complicated
than that. But so my friends, this is true. I

(04:13):
was so awkward and so nerdy that the people who
took me into their friend circle was this Korean church
youth group at my school because they saw me and
it was like adopting strike. Yeah, they took me another
group and they like let me come to their like
youth group Friday. So it's like, yeah, we would go
real crazy. We would do karaoke and like go to
a hay patch. You were their project, their project. So

(04:37):
those were the parties that you told your parents you
were going to and instead you were going out and
doing stand up. Okay, it is really bend it like
that up, but I think I like that better. Jamie,
when did you first see the movie? I'm pretty sure
I first saw this movie. I definitely didn't see it
when it first came out. I would have been tune
to see it, But I saw it at some point
in high school. Um. I think that a bunch of

(04:59):
my friends and I watched it, and it would have
probably been because we knew by that point who Kira
Nightly was, and so we were like, oh, you're not
lisening this movie, we'll watch it, And yeah, I really
liked it. I've seen it a couple of times over
the years, and it's always been just like I don't
know I was. I was a little bit worried, as
I always am anytime we rewatch a movie with this

(05:19):
like Lens. I was a little bit weird going into
it because I didn't remember all the details white and
usually when that happens, it means that I'm about to
not love the movie anymore. It's gonna be very upset.
But this movie held up for me. I thought, I
I really it's it just warms my heart to feel
like movie still banks it's right. It's very rare that

(05:40):
we revisit a movie after having been doing this podcast
for a while and are able to still enjoy a
movie so without without like that weird feeling of like
but astros gast you know, right. So it came on
two thousand two. I think I saw it shortly after
it came out. I would have been in high school
at the time, and I was really at the top

(06:01):
of my soccer career in that moment. I was a
captain of my soccer team. I I know, I was
a left forward. I was scoring goals all the time.
What does left forward mean is that just I played
an offensive position, so like upstage, but but I didn't

(06:22):
drama closer to the traffic line. I would okay, okay,
So like I would enter the field stage left field, left,
and um hit the mark. I would hit my mark.
And yeah. So I'm a huge soccer fan, and so
I kind of just automatically liked this movie because it
was about women playing soccer. It was around the time
in my life where I was like really gung ho

(06:43):
about soccer, and you could argue that I still am
because right after this, I'm going to play soccer in Pasadena.
So yeah, yeah, yeah, so um. I really enjoyed this
movie at the time, and then I would watch it
here and there. I haven't seen it that many times.
I loved soccer too. I wanted to be I tried, really,

(07:05):
I wanted to be a professional soccer player, but my
health and my genetics gotten away. So sorry, did you
think you're gonna do soccer? You're going to do math.
I'm sorry, you're physically suited to math. Your bones are
shaped for this wheel, wheel in desk shape for I mean,

(07:27):
make no mistake, I'm not good at soccer. I've been
playing for over twenty five years, so I should be
much better than I am, and I'm literally still very bad.
And my problem was I was fat when I was little,
and then when you're fat and they don't know what
they're doing, they just make you the goalie. They're like, well,
she doesn't move, and I would get so mad that
they would put me in goalie because I know what
I'm like, this is because I'm fat. And then like

(07:49):
I stopped, I refused to play goalie and I started
playing these positions. But by the time, my school was
very competitive, so it was really hard to get on
the team, and I started working out and I draw
and I lost all this weight and like I ended
up like for a soccer for soccer, like wolfer soccer.
And I was also tired of, you know, not being
fuckable in the night, Like now it's better, but now

(08:11):
I'm sure there'd be a dude who's like, yeah, you
don't have to look like that. I'm totally into you.
But you know, but then no, but yeah, I mean
when you're ye ten in the nineties, it's yeah, no,
it's a so yeah, I lost this wight. I started jogging,
I started working out and training really hard, and I
could not catch up. I still couldn't make it, but
I was like, well, I guess at least I'm not
going to diet of a heart attack at thirty. I
guess I'll just be healthy. Into your mouth and I

(08:36):
was told I was once perfectly physically built to play
the oboe because I like, when I had a back braise,
I went to my oboe instructor and I thought he
was going to tell me to quit because I'm like,
I have to wear a back braid all the time,
how am I supposed to? And he was like, you
don't understand what a blessing. This is that the way
I was leading, like my crooked spine was leaning on

(08:57):
my lung in such a way that was very advantageous
to Obo play. So not to brag, that was a gift.
So we've got an athlete, a musician, and a mathematician.
We are basically three most fuckable people in the entire world. Um,

(09:18):
so I'll do the recap recap it u baby, Okay,
so bend it like Beckham. The movie focuses on a
character named Jess Bamra. She is a young woman living
in England with her family, and her parents are immigrants.
They're Indian and they're this very traditional family and they
do not like that Jess plays soccer and loves soccer

(09:39):
and loves David Beckham. And then we meet Jules that's
Kara Knightley's character. Her mother's all like, try on these
sexy bras and she's like, I'd rather it's fully like
calling the manager white lady. Mom. Yeah, right, And Jules
sees Jess playing soccer in the park and she's like, wow,

(10:04):
she's really good and she goes up to her and
Jules was like, hey, you should like try out for
this women's league that I'm on, and Jesse is like,
am I good enough for this? And she's like yeah,
so really far with the gig. So Jess goes and
tries out and she makes the team. Her coach is

(10:25):
named Joe and he's played by Jonathan Rees Smyers, and
he thinks that she's got a lot of potential, but
her parents don't want her to play anymore, and like
her sister's gearing up to get married and they're all
like stressed out because of that. So her sister is
played by Archie Punjabi, who is my favorite character. I'm
the Good Wife show that I have seen every episode

(10:49):
of and remember could tell you zero things that happened
the entire show. It was like, I have no idea,
I have no idea. I love Archie Enny of Alan Cuming,
and that's all I know about the show. Who was
even the lead in that show? Probably a wife that's
good Julianna Margolie's trick questions a good job anyways? Oh wait,

(11:13):
quite really quick, Alfred Molina mentioned please Chris know a
k Mr Big plays the husband in the Good Wife,
and Chris not as we all know, is the poor
man's Alfred Molina I said it. Yeah, okay, okay, I
can do. I'm glad we got that out there. So
Jess has to lie to her parents and like tell

(11:34):
them that she's got a job so that she can
start playing on this women's league women's side. I don't
know club club soccer. They're British and they use words
that I don't want to understand. And then Jules and
just develop a close friendship, and then they're both interested
in their coach Joe and tell each other for a

(11:55):
long time, right or they like they're only like kind
of hinting at it. But like there's a million times
where Kara and Knightley is like, I didn't know whatever,
and Jess is like, okay, you know, Jess plays it
way cooler than Kia Knightley. Kia Knightley is spazzing out anyways. Yeah,

(12:16):
I have never played it cool, not once. It's really
hard being chill for you. On a second, Oh, I
can't relate. So different things happen. Like there's a moment
where like Jess and Jewels are like kind of laughing
and hugging, and like a family friend drives by and
they think that Jesse is kissing someone, so like they
tell her family and then the wedding gets called off

(12:39):
because that's very frowned upon in the community. Jess has
to like sneak off to Germany to play a game,
and she has her sister cover for her. But like
all this stuff gets revealed that she has been playing
and her parents like forbid her from continuing to play.
But then she just keeps at it. She keeps lying.
She committed to lie. She and Joe almost kiss for

(13:04):
a moment, and then like Jess walks in on them,
and then that creates some tension between them. Finally, her parents,
I think they find out about the Germany trip and
they like forbid her from ever playing soccer again. It
gets kind of convolated because it happens a bunch of
different times where it's like I think that the big
plot points go, like, they think she's gay, they capture

(13:25):
playing soccer, they think she's gay playing soccer. They think
she's gay, they let her play soccer. The movie's over,
but it is kind of like the same two conflicts
that keep sort of manifesting in different ways, right, yeah, Yeah,
So by the end, there is this like big tournament
game that there's like an American scout going to be
at who has his eye on both Jess and Jewels.

(13:48):
But that's the same day of Jesse's sister's wedding, which
gets are fighting fighting over this man, and we'll get
there because I'm like, should he be dating any of
these girls? That doesn't seem like you should, right, But
the movie does not acknowledge that the characters do. They

(14:10):
keep saying yeah, like he's off limits, but then they
go for it anyway. But then he's like, j K,
I'm not like they're the reasons I thought he was
off limits and the reasons they thought he was off
limits were different reasons. I thought it was an age thing.
But he's just like, oh no, I'm your coach. Oh right,
because they're they're meant to be in their late teens,
like about to go to you. They're on like some yeah,

(14:32):
they're like it's like summer Bread looks young too. It's
not that I hope so he could also be like
twenty four though, and they're like eighteen. I don't know.
I guess. I mean, I I don't think laws are
being broken. It's just a little weird slightly Um yeah, well,
we'll get into that went off. It's like, I don't
know if you should be um. So the final kind

(14:56):
of big moment in the story is that she's at
her sister wedding and has decided, well, you know, I
can't play soccer anymore because my parents forbid it. But
then her dad finally gives her his blessing because he
had seen her play in a game and like recognizes
her talent. So he's like, go off, and if this
is going to make you happy, go do it. So
she leaves the wedding, goes and plays like the second

(15:18):
half of this soccer game, scores the winning goal. The
scouts sees her and he's like, wow, great, let's send
you off to America, you know, the country that loves
soccer and that there are so many opportunities for soccer
players at Oh I didn't even think of that. There's
so many times in this movie where these characters in

(15:39):
the UK are like, we can't play soccer here, we
have to go to America in order to like make
a living at soccer, and it's like, is that that
might have been true? But also like the US like
hates soccer and women athletes and seems like a real
blanket lose. Maybe that's the movie being like, we want

(16:02):
to get international distribution. Maybe if we just compliment America
a bunch of times, they'll be like, okay, well, and
that must have worked because we've seen it and this
movie was financially huge success. Six million dollar budget, seventy
seven million dollar box off box office, so they got him.

(16:23):
I'm so jealous of that one part of the movie
because our stories are pretty similar with the whole like
double life, lying blah blah blag ruining whatever. And then
like the port where her dad's like I saw her
and she's so talented, Like I never got that moment.
My mom has never been like your dick joke was
so well crested. I can't hold you back from the world.
There was more of I'm not going to stop doing this.

(16:47):
So they have kind to accept it, but they're not
necessarily they are not on board. She tries, bless her
heart in this day. Yeah, she even tries because she
won't see I won't let her it into a show.
I mean, if she does, maybe one day, but I
need a heads up, and it's gonna be a whole
different set and it's gonna be super annoying um, but
like she tries to watch stuff online or like she

(17:09):
tried to watch the Gym Jeffrey Show, which is gonna
be like news based, and she's like, I didn't like
current events and she was like, I tried to watch
it while I was fooling my laundries. So I tried.
I'm like, all right, thanks mom, thank you. Every time
she tries, it's just way worse. Like she tried to
watch me I got head like a small non speaking

(17:30):
role on the front show, and she's like, why did
you look fat and nervous? And I was like I
was I could not look nervous. I didn't have any
lines and what do you mean fat? She's like she
just was like, am I just skinnier in knee life?
And I'm like what I very? Your mom sounds like
a very chill. She just has no fill. I mean,

(17:52):
I adhore it. I think it's really funny because she
has no filter. It's like and it like taught me
to be like I'm still very. I mean I would
like to be less sensitive, but what little insensitivity I
have to be? Like escrew it. It's like because my
mom has just been talking the entire time, I'm like,
I was some weird egg on Twitter. Wants to call
me a horror I'm like, well, get in line after

(18:13):
my mom. My mom's the ultimate egg. Come at my mom.
Does your mom member make comments on like your job? No,
She's been surprisingly supportive from the get go. She did
question whether or not I'd be able to ever make
a living at it, and when I did decide to

(18:35):
go to grad school to get a master's degree in
screenwriting from Boston University, I hate to bring it up.
I don't know if if anyone knows this about me,
because I would never mention it. But my mom she
was like, yeah, I don't know if that's a good
idea of Caitlin. Um. You already don't use your first
film degree, so like what are you thinking? And I

(18:55):
was like, no, this is really going to work out.
And look at me now we've got a movie podcast
and I was like, wait, I'm trying to draw okay, yeah. Yeah.
My mom just sometimes will like look at something I did,
or like not even the full thing, like an image
of it, which she'll be like, I just it's just disgusting.

(19:15):
Oh okay, your issue with it is that it's disgusting
to you. And she's like it's good and I'm glad people,
but I find it disgusting. So cool, cool, I gotta
love our mom's I love I love an unfiltered mom. Um. Okay,
So the very end of the story is, so she
leaves the wedding to go play soccer. She gets recognized

(19:37):
as being a very talented player, goes off to the
US to play soccer in this you know, wonderful haven
that is this country that loves the sport of soccer
and loves female athlete, but not before a weird last
minute airport kiss. There's an airport kiss, and her parents
like finally she gives a speech, and then her dad

(19:57):
kind of was like, yeah, like we should let her
be being do it she wants. And then she's like, yeah,
I wanna this is like what's gonna make me happy,
so please let me make this choice. And her family
comes around, and then like she and Jules makeup and
they go off to play soccer together, but not before
there's a heatero kiss, and then that's pretty much the

(20:18):
end of the movie. Let's take a quick break and
then we will be right back and we're back. Sorry,
I had to go score some goals. Yeah, you can
only get one point in soccer right at a time.
At a time, yes, okay, mean total one goal, close

(20:44):
one point? Quit it right. There is a quaffle, there
is a snitch, there are some bloodguers, and yeah, I'm exhausted.
I don't want to like go right to the end.
But the logic of the airport kissing, it's so clearly
like to that I'm just like they got a note,
like they gotta note that. They're like, we gotta we
gotta see a kiss by the end of the movie.

(21:07):
But the logic of that scene is so weird because
I feel like, based on everything we know about Jesse's
family in this entire movie, they would not be like,
oh yeah, definitely make out with this guy at the airport.
But the guy enters behind the family, and we're to
believe the family just doesn't turn around, because this whole
scene takes place behind both families, Jesse's family and Jules's family,

(21:33):
and in front of Jules where you know she just
made up, but the reason they were fighting was this guy.
And like it's pretty like like Jess, that's a move
to just be like, remember this guy who didn't want
to fuck you feel like has like that and then
and then I don't know, I was just like the
logic of that scene was wild. It feels very tecked

(21:56):
on and like it wasn't given that much thought. Yeah,
where they're just like, oh, well, just everyone who isn't
indirectly evolved in the kiss avert your eyes as if
this is something that would happen. Very weird. So the
first thing I just want to mention about this movie
is that it is a movie about an Indian woman
directed by an Indian woman get Out. Yeah. I didn't

(22:21):
know that her name, and I am afraid I'm going
to mispronounce it, but it's um grinder Chattah. She also
co wrote it with another Indian woman and her husband.
I don't know if they were married at the time,
but yeah, so it's those people involved. It's also several
of the producers are Indian and um, like the cinematographer
is an Asian man. So it's like, yeah, we so

(22:44):
rare really come across this because oftentimes, if there's a
movie that does tell the story of a person who
is marginalized, Scarlett handsome place to lead and it was
directed and produced and written by exclusively straight CIS white men,

(23:04):
and the best friend is played by Emma Stone and
the person who just simply doesn't know exactly. I think
that has a lot The fact that this movie holds
up well. And that's not to say that this movie
is perfect, that it doesn't mishandle some things here and there,
which we'll get into, but I think the fact that
it holds up as well as it does and handles

(23:27):
the issues that this movie brings up because it was
made by someone who shares the experience of the character. So, um,
she directed a lot of films I like, I just said,
films like I'm sucking a genius. Okay, she's directed Bennett
like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice and Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging,

(23:49):
a book series and a movie I really liked. Yeah, well,
we talked about on the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants episode. Um,
so there you go. So just get that in mind,
because this is a movie that like explores a lot
of different things in terms of like a woman of
color coming from a family of immigrants, having to deal

(24:10):
with racism, having to deal with sexism because she's existing
mostly in like a straight male, white space. There's different
things where she's self conscious about her body and different
things where her family, you know, has a very specific
idea of what she should and should not be doing,
a very specific idea of who she should and should

(24:32):
not be romantically involved with. So she's dealing with all
of these things, and she you know, finds herself at
the intersection of being a woman, being a person of color,
being a female athlete, and just the idea of like
femininity and masculinity and like how people perceive that to
relate to sexual identity and like different things like that.

(24:56):
So this movie like tackles a lot of really interesting things,
but it's so fun and it's funny when you was like, whoa,
it really does tackle all that stuff, but it's so
fun to watch. It doesn't feel I don't know, for me,
it doesn't beat you over the head with it. Yeah,
it's not like kind of limited. Yeah, it's cool. And
and also just god watching Jess have to deal with

(25:17):
so many things when you're just like, she's a good kid,
a kid just trying to pursue an extracurricular to save
her a lot, right, So, yeah, her sort of history
is that she has played soccer in a park mostly
with men. I think all of them are Indian men.
If I'm not, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. They have like

(25:39):
a friendly rapport, but they also like will make sexist
comments to her a lot, where you know, they talk
about like her hitting the ball, like the soccer ball
with her chest and like how like how can you
do that when you've got and then like later, but
you do it anyway, right, yeah, because women have a

(26:01):
higher threshold for pay. Later in the story, is revealed
that she has like a burn scar on her leg,
which she is ashamed about, and we realized that probably
one of the reasons she's ashamed about this is because
her mother makes her feel shame about it, because she's like, like,
how can you be showing your legs in front of
all these men, Like you should cover that up, And

(26:22):
then like the guys who she plays soccer with their like,
oh my god, that's disgusting, Like, oh god. And every
time she's confronted with anything like that, like any sort
of sexism, she challenges it, which is a really nice
thing to see because usually in movies a character will
say a really horribly sexist thing and no one's even

(26:43):
aware that it was sexist. The character is just barrel
through and it goes unchallenged. Yeah, at the beginning, watching
Jess play soccer with the guys and like they were
giving her a lot of ship, But it felt like
so much in this movie feels so like realistic in
way is that team movies rarely do where they're being
sexist towards her. But you can all you can also

(27:06):
because I'm sure like we've all had this experience, you
can also understand why she stays because they're awful to her,
but they also know she's a good player. There's where
else is she going to go? Like, there's there's all
these like dynamics that play where I don't even think
that just like dislikes those guys. But it's like if
she wants to play at the beginning of the movie,

(27:27):
that's the only way she knows how, And so she
challenges it and then compartmentalizes it sort of on and
off in a way that felt, I don't know, like
reminded me of being a teenager in any male dominated
teen space. Yeah, you're just like, Okay, this is the
battle I'm going to push back on, and this is
the one where I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear anything, right,

(27:49):
because she doesn't have any other options to play until
she gets sort of recruited to be on this team, which,
like Karen Nitley's character says like, oh, they finally let
us like form women's side, and it sounds like you're
in Nightly. I think Jewels, I think says, or maybe
Joe says this, that it was like Jewels was the
one who's really really pushing for because he was playing

(28:12):
for the men's club and she was hanging around, right,
and so she just I like to imagine her like
lingering around and then waiting for one of the men
to get injured and be like, you're our coach now
because he couldn't play anymore, so he had to coach.
And I think she just like scooped him up and
was like, you were my coach now, thank you job.

(28:32):
She just purposely Tanya Harding is one of them. I'm
so sorry your knees are gone better coach me and
a bunch of other ladies. I love that fan theory.
Maybe that's why he doesn't want to date her. It's
like you hired someone to bash my knee in and

(28:54):
she's like, it was never proven, and it's never proven.
Cre knightly glue him straight up. There is a character
among the men that she plays with in the park
named Tony, who is a close friend of her feminist
icon queer icon because later in the movie he comes

(29:15):
out to her, I forgot about that, so did I. Yeah,
So basically anytime she's confronted with any sort of misogyny
or racism, Like there's a moment towards the end when
they're playing a game and one of the players on
the opposing team calls her like a slur for Pakistani people,
and then she like she sort of pushes and kind

(29:36):
of comes at the player who did this, and then
she gets a red card and then her coach, Joe
like yells at her for doing that, and she's like,
you don't understand, like this person like called me a
slur and she's like, well, you wouldn't get it, and
he's like, I'm Irish, so yeah, I get it. And
then that goes on challenge and I'm just like I'm sorry,

(29:58):
Like I'm sure I people in England do experience some
sort of prejudice, but it seemed kind of apples and oranges. Yeah, Ok,
that was like one of the few moments of the
movie where else like I didn't like how that there,
and just the way it played out felt weird and

(30:19):
not not quite lining up with like what it seems
like the characters would expect the joke character because like,
it makes sense that Jeff got angry then that happened,
and but it didn't make sense to me that if
he knew that that he would yell at her, because
that's not really didn't seem like the kind of person
he was. And then even after she explained it, he
was kind of just like, I'm irish, We've got to

(30:43):
like something a white dude would do to me ore,
Like I could see that happening. Absolutely. I think it
just came as a surprise to me that she didn't
say like no, like it's not the same, like you're
still a white man. Yeah, I guess it's like when
he said that, I think that it was like, and

(31:03):
now that issue is resolved, it doesn't seem like they
really talked about it. I don't know, but um, anyway,
So my point is I really enjoyed seeing any time
she experienced, you know, for the most part, racism sexism, etcetera.
She challenges it and it's just a really cool thing

(31:24):
to see in a movie. I also wanted to talk
about the idea of like femininity and how that's an
expectation of like especially for jewels. That was interesting for
me because that was the one part was not my
background at all. It was to an extent where it's
like because I think it was my dad wanted a boy,

(31:44):
and so my mom was like, I would just treat
her like a little dude. It's the same ship. So
like I grew up a tomboy for that reason, because
I would watch sports with my dad. I would watch wrestling.
I was super aggressive. My brother had my mom's personality
where he was very patient and calm, and I was
just a lunatic, like I just came out of the
womb in insane person smashing bottles. But like it was

(32:05):
so it was like me and my dad got along.
But as soon as I got close to puberty and
my parents tried. Obviously they failed, but they were like,
you can't talk to men outside the classroom. You can
only talk to them in like an educational setting in
about school. Obviously, I lied straight to their face right away,
it was just it was like this weird thing where
like I used to like wear baggy overalls like and

(32:27):
then on top of it, I would wear sports jersey
like that was my m O. And then it wasn't
until like I guess my hormones started kicking in and
I wanted attention for men that I was like, ah, ship,
I can't dress like you anymore. And then I started
like re eating like teen Vogue and like trying to
do the face makeup that they told you to do,
and it was just god awful. Oh yeah, it didn't

(32:53):
make sense. God, I used to I still have like
just like all these members of like a specific issue
of teen Vogue where it like would tell you what
shape your body was, and it was like three of
like the same shape. And then it was like garbage,
like a pile of garbage. And the end you're like, oh, okay,
well that's me there. I am feeling scene. Hey, you

(33:15):
play the Obo so well. I should I should have
asked my Obo and Stark Toorker for a body image advice.
It's like, no, you and your crushed lung or dope, great,
um a curvy spine. What you need is an a
line skirt and it's fine, but no. So like in

(33:36):
the first scene that we meet Jewels in like, her
mother is taking her bra shopping and she keeps saying like,
oh these bras, will you know, booster cleavage and like,
and then Jewels has no interest in presenting as feminine
or like, you know, wearing quote unquote girly things or
like lacey bras or anything like that, so she goes
over to the sports bra section and this sort of

(33:59):
sets up an ongoing struggle between her and her mother
throughout the movie where her mom, you know, wants her
to be more feminine, wants her to be girlier, doesn't
like that she plays soccer foot football. Um, but she
doesn't like forbid Jewels from playing it like Jesse's parents do. Um.
But she's just like, oh, you know, if you just

(34:20):
like dressed differently, you know, boys would like you. And
Jules meanwhile, is just like, I don't care about that,
Like I'm gonna wear what I want to wear. I
don't feel the need to present as super super feminine
in like the clothes I wear and like my hairstyle
and things like that. And it seems like part of
the reason Jules's mom puts up with it is because
Jules's dad feels so differently, where like Jules's dad is

(34:43):
very supportive of Jules playing soccer, I think partially because
he really likes soccer, so he's like, oh, yeah, this
works out is a common interest, and that's it seems
like part of the reason why Jules gets to continue
playing in a way that Jess doesn't, because Jess doesn't
really have a parental ally until the very end. I'm
wondering how you both felt about this, But I felt

(35:05):
like the way that Jules's mom forced femininity and and
I think kind of a very stereotypically hetero form of
femininity fed right into like the way that this movie
deals with like queer panic. Because Jules's mom, it comes
up with her, I feel like, almost more so than
any other character, and it comes up with a lot
of people. There's a moment at the climax of the

(35:28):
movie where Jules's mom gets so upset thinking that Jess
and Jules are queer and they're together that she crashes
a wedding, which is like, that's bananas. There's the moment
where she hears Jess and Jules arguing and the way
the scene is presented him like, is they're actually arguing

(35:49):
about a boy. So it's okay, and I don't love
how that's presented, but they're actually arguing over Joe. But
there's a lot of like mishearing mishaps in this movie,
and Jules's mom things they're arguing about their relationship. She
goes downstairs and bursts into tears. Uh, And it's like
freaking out with Jules's dad. That see, I thought was

(36:11):
a little bit better. The climactic wedding crash er queer
panics seemed seemed a little bit out of nowhere because
Jules's mom in kind of like two thirds through the
movie is like, actually, I like soccer and I want
to understand it and I respect your choices. But then
freaks out again. But so that was a little weird.
But but the first time she significantly panics thinking that

(36:35):
Jules is queer, um, she at least contextualizes it and
explains part of the reason why she's so nervous. And
she cites George Michael and how George Michael was treated
in the media for being gay and she worries that
and it's a silly example, but the way she explains
it does make sense in like panicked mom logic of

(36:57):
like I've seen someone who I like, George Michael, be
abused in the media for being gay, and what if
that happens to my kid? And that's sort of when
she said it that way, I was like, Okay, that
is like a really good move by this movie to
contextualize the panic a little bit. She's still wrong, but

(37:18):
at least we understand a little bit better why. I
also got the sense though, that that was only part
of her reasoning for being so upset by it, which
we learned later when she yells, get your lesbian feet
out of my shoes, like, there's still certainly some like
homophobia there and it might not be the worst case
we've ever seen, but like she regardless, she is a

(37:38):
very upset by her thinking that she might have a
daughter who is a lesbian. Yeah, she's and I think
she would be upset about that, you know today, like
even if you know, like, yeah, she still has her
own hang ups because get your lesbian feet out of
my shoes, like okay, Well, she's also she's problematic in
other ways because she does a few microaggressions towards Jess,

(38:02):
where like whenever she first meets Jess, when they're in
like Jules's room, she learns her name and she's like, oh, Jess,
is that Indian, basically saying like that doesn't sound like
an Indian name, Like what what I don't understand? And
then she says something like I hope you teach my
daughter a bit about your culture, you know, to respect
your elders. And then she says, Oh, you're a lucky girl,

(38:24):
because I expect that your parents are fixing you up
with a handsome young doctor soon, aren't they. So just
like taking stereotypes that she knows about Indian culture and
just assuming that they apply to Jess. And this is
an example of a time where like Jess doesn't challenge it,
but it makes perfect sense. Why, Like you don't want
to like your friend whose mom you've just met, you're

(38:45):
not going to like necessarily stand up and be like, um, actually,
here's all the things that are problematic about everything you
just said. So that like tracked for me, But it
just like, I mean, this is all to say that
I think all the characters in this movie are like
characterized very well. They feel like real people. Thought and
time was put into developing them. So even though like

(39:06):
Jules Mom is problematic in many ways, the movie handles
it in such a way where we the audience realize
what she's saying is problematic, wherein a lot of movies
that care and time isn't bothered with at all. So,
I mean, there are people like her, like like Jules Mom,
like we've met them. But yeah, it's just I find

(39:29):
it interesting that each of these characters, problematic though they
may be, are still developed in such a way by
like the writers that they're used to like demonstrate the
biases and the microaggressions and stuff like that a character
or a person like Jess would experience. So I thought
that was all handled very well. Let's take a quick break.

(39:50):
I have to go score some more goals and then
we'll be right back. I wanted to talk a little
bit about the I mean, I don't have that much
to say because I'm not super critical of it, but
just saying that the team dynamic um inside of the
team that Joe coaches that Chess and Jewels are a

(40:11):
part of is like a really positive community. They're all
generally very supportive of each other. They'll like dig get
each other sometimes, but it's in a very friendly way
most of the time. There's a scene that I really
liked where Mel, the captain of the team Jewels, and
a few other teammates ask Jess questions about her culture

(40:32):
because they just don't know, Like they don't understand why
is she not allowed to play soccer? What like like
what are the cultures rules around dating? Like they just
don't know. So they ask in a way that I thought,
and I mean, I'm not told, but it seems like
like a very respectful conversation. They asked respectfully she answered,
and they're like, okay, we know. And I was like,

(40:53):
that's good. That seems like how that should go, especially
when you contrast that with how Jewels is. Um approaches
those same sort of topics where she's like making assumptions
and then being like, well, this is how it must
be for you. So I already know everything and I
don't need to ask questions because I got this, and
it's just like, yeah, so I think I agree that.
I think those were handled better, and yeah, I enjoyed

(41:16):
that scene. I also like the scene where um she
has to get back to her wedding like her sister's
wedding at the end, so her teammates are helping her
put on Yeah that I still I don't know how
to wear one of those things, but everyone on the
team did so. But it's like even that to put

(41:37):
it on me. It's not sweet though that it feels
weird as an adult to have your mom come behind
you because she has to put it on, like she's
putting it on. That's how she knows, like you know
some people. So it's just a very like like but
pottery scene from Ghost where my mom was just wrapping
her arms around me and like folding a sorry, and

(41:57):
I was like, this is uncomfortable. So that's great. Oh
that's a beautiful just go staying with your own mom
with the same song playing in the background, the whole
fully unchained melody. Another thing I wanted to talk about

(42:17):
is this is a movie about women's sports, A woman
in sports Goals Kicking. This is to say that there
are not that many movies about female athletes women playing sports.
A few examples include, aside from Bennett, like Beckham, a

(42:39):
league of their own, stick it, bring it on, whip it.
A lot of them have it. And then because you
get say, well, I guess if you replace it with her,
that would be bad, never mind it being the sport
or the the ball. Gotta Kick it Up is another one.

(43:06):
An they've got like Blue Crush, Million Dollar Baby, Girl, Fight,
Love and Basketball, She's the Man I Tania, And then
a few lesser known ones that I found out via
a very thorough Google search, like Gracy Personal Best Ice, Princess,
The Cutting Edge, Princess Rules never lesser known. Well, if

(43:28):
these are like Disney Channel originals, which I feel like
some of these are, I don't know what they are. Um,
Double Team is another one. So this is like roughly
twenty movies throughout the course of history that are well
known enough that they show up in a Google search,
versus like eight thousand movies about men playing sports. So

(43:50):
I mean we see this all the time, where like
biopics of them are about men much fewer or about women. Um,
you know, movies about the mill Terry, almost all of
them feature male characters, know them about women in the military.
So it's like, and that's a media issue where I
feel like that The counter argument that I can hear

(44:11):
my cousin saying is like, well, people don't watch women's
sports as much. But that is like snake eating its
own tail. A game, it's a movie. I'm not bend
it like Beckham. Wasn't just like a filmed soccer match, right,
And it's like if young women don't see female athletes
depicted on screen in the like celebratory way that it

(44:34):
is and bend it like Beckham when they're younger, then
they're probably less likely to want to play that sport,
like that's a proven thing over and over. Why does
so many little girls want to be princesses? Because that's
what they see. And so it's like if they see
other stuff, then of course, you know, the cultural landscape
will gradually shift. And so maybe I wouldn't hate sports

(44:58):
balls so much if there were movies of women doing
it more. Well, you would have liked hoop goals more.
If I had been, I would have been slamming hoop goals.
We've been kicking the basketball. Gotta kick it up, Gotta
kick that basketball up into the air for crying out loud. Also,

(45:20):
a lot of the movies that I named are about
sports that I would say are at least perceived to
be more feminine because it's either dancing, figure skating, gymnastics.
A couple of them are like we dominated sports right,
A couple of them are like League of their Owners baseball,
A couple of them are about boxing, some of them
about basketball. But yeah, I feel like, if you're going

(45:41):
to have a mainstream movie about women doing a sport
that is commercially successful, chances are it's like cheerleading or
like figure skating or something that we as a society
already are okay with women doing. I think the ones
like Bennett, like Beckham, or a League of their own,
or more outliers like even though they were, you know,

(46:03):
they're popular movies. They hold up, but they're not the rule.
So I don't know. Yeah, I think I tend to
not like sports movies very much, especially like I nothing
will ever make me enjoy a boxing movie, except I
didn't really enjoy Girl Fight. I like sports movies, and
maybe it's because I grew up watching it. Honestly, I

(46:25):
was thinking about it. Have there been more movies about
dogs in sports? Because of all the Airbud sequels. I
bet there are more Airbud movies than there are movies
featuring female athletes. I've for sure seen a movie about
a monkey playing hockey called m v P most valuable
primate more than movies about women playing sports. That said

(46:50):
highly recommended that mates are going to grow up to
play hockey because they got exposed to it. I mean,
and that's why there's so many professional monkey hock players
right now, because media is influential. I keep saying it.
It is a two thousand feature film that sparked the
m v P franchise. The film's title character, it's Jack

(47:11):
is a chimpanze. What else does you play in future movies?
Oh my god? Okay, okay, m v P two is skateboarding,
most vertical private, but that the last one is X
game themed, most extreme print. That's that's m XP. It's

(47:31):
kind of a different but it's the third one. We
already know. It's a proven product. Okay, well now, oh
and it is up an extension of the Airbud franchise.
That makes sense. Well, thank goodness for you know, animals
and sports and all the representation that they get. Um.
I wanted to talk about the love Triangle. Yeah, I

(47:54):
would argue that it kind of has no place in
this movie. I don't like that it's there. I it
why it's there. It's it's a way to heighten the
tension of the story and to introduce more conflict, but
to me, it just kind of cheapens the whole narrative
because so it's Joe is their coach. They both develop
an interest in him, which to me makes sense. You know,

(48:17):
he's cute, he's respectful of them. He like, if you
watch Million Dollar Baby, Clint Eastwood is over here being like, oh,
I don't teach girls because I don't think they're people.
And I feel like this similar thing happens in Girl Fight,
where like male sporty mentors are like reluctant to teach
girls how to sport, but in this movie, he's just like, Yep,

(48:39):
this is my job and I'm fine with it, and
I'm respectful of all the women on this team. So
that was nice to see. So at least attracts why
they would be interested in him, because he's you know,
nice to them and he's respectful of them. But they
both have a crush on him, and it drives a
wedge between their friendship, which is like his just become

(49:00):
such a lazy writing move. Yeah, it's just and it's
not even like the joke character that I had a
particular issue with I thought it was like, in some
ways positive to see a man fully comfortable with and
acknowledging the skills of a woman is equal to his own.
Like I think that there was like that's a generally

(49:22):
good thing to see, especially in a sports movie. I'm guessing,
but I don't know, like that they're all the scenes
between Jess and Jewels, they just felt like a little
weird of like I don't I don't know if they're
like that whole Cure Nightley bursting onto a balcony and
going you bid. And also I'm like, would Jesse have

(49:44):
kissed her coach at a club? I mean maybe, I
don't know. It just felt it did feel like a
little cheap. And with the wide array of things like
issues this movie addresses, there's also more interesting from a
story point, more interesting things for them to have been
in conflict about. I don't know. I kind of liked

(50:04):
it just because I've seen that happen with my friends
a couple of times, like two good girlfriends in college,
like gotten to like almost an exact parallel situation, and
just like this is gonna sound however it's gonna sound,
but like when you're not what's represented as a standard
of beauty, I would say, and you don't know how
to Like I didn't know how to make my body attractive,

(50:26):
you know, especially like previously having been overweight. And then
like if you're Indian, you've got all this hair coming
in and you don't know how to get rid of
it because your mom's like, who's seeing you anyway? And
I'm like everyone, moms, every goddamn locker room, help me,
and like being super selfconscious bout my body. And then
like this weird thing at the end where it's like
the coach picks the brown girl like to me like

(50:46):
blew my mind, where it's like, yeah, get it. Bit
like I I didn't think of it that way. Yeah, well,
I did appreciate that. I liked that, you know, you see,
like an interracial romantic relationship represented and positive way. It
shouldn't be groundbreaking for film. It was. But I guess
what I didn't like is that the fact that these

(51:08):
two women are in conflict with each other over a man.
That's the part of it that kind of bugged me.
And but again, I mean it's those things do play
out in real life all the time, where so it's
not unheard of or it's not even that it's unrealistic.
But I think it was just an easy choice, where,
like Jamie with You said, with all the other things
that this movie explores in terms of like, you know,

(51:30):
just being one of the few women of color on
this team of mostly white girls. You know, the pressure
of her family. There's like sources of conflict a bunch
of times, and Jewels never really says any right, Like
how that triangle with shoehorned in though, is a bit odd. Yeah.
I don't know if it was like a studio note
to like we need more drama or something like that,

(51:52):
but um, yeah, I just feel that it was a
little unnecessary. I think that there was enough sources of
pension and conflict in the movie already that that didn't
need to be there. Um limitless. Yeah, So I don't know.
Um really good on the Pinky character because I like
the relationship that Dress has with her sister too. That

(52:14):
felt like for the I mean Pinky, I feel like,
is um that's just as older sister who's getting married.
I feel like she's like a little more cartoony than
most of the characters we came across in this movie
where like she's she's a very big personality, but like
at the same time and it she reminds me of
my cousin not where she's like this big personality and

(52:35):
like doesn't have a filter, but also is kind of
traditional in the way she's like choosing to go about
her life where she is getting married to someone her
parents approve of. She loves him, it's what she wants
to do, this is the life she wants. And then
she's also like super loud and very opinionated, and there's
a lot of different elements of her parents seem to

(52:56):
approve of Pinky's choices more than they do of Jesse's.
Oh sure, yeah, but but also Pinky is like by
far the more outgoing, and like Pinky and Jess are
in conflict a number of times in this movie, one
time when Pinky's fiance's family thinks that Jess is gay
and then cancel the wedding and then to be fair,

(53:19):
I mean, one of the good things I liked about
Jesse's family is they do like acknowledge that she is
a generally honest person and believe her when she's like, no,
that's they misunderstood, that's not what was happening, and they're like, okay,
well you're honest, and they funked up, and but but
Pinky is so mad. But later on that's resolved and

(53:42):
Pinky helps Jess sneak away and play soccer a couple
different times. She covers for her a lot. Yeah, and
and but it would have read me out and goddamn heartbeak,
really did he know you were doing comedy? So who
knew my best friend in high school? And then a
couple of you know, culture friends in high school. Okay,

(54:05):
but like no one inside the family absolutely not. Yeah,
so I guess Pinky is not as much of anarc
as your brother, what because think you? I mean? But
but she is kind of selectively. She She's like the
kind of character that as long as, like what Jesse
is doing is not in conflict with what she wants,
she'll go along with it. But if something like if

(54:27):
Jesse's soccer got in the way of her wedding, which
it does, Pinky's like, no, you're coming to my wedding,
Like what are you talking about? And the whole third
act of the movie is like or like the very end,
were just goes to the wedding, then the soccer game,
then the wedding again is done. I forgot exactly how
that like sequence plays out, but it's Jess basically decides, no,

(54:50):
I'm gonna I'm going with like the duty I feel
toed to my family, or I'm going to the wedding,
and her dad is pushing for that because there's like
that whole phone seene where Jess is like, that's the
day of my game, and he's like, yeah, you're going
to the wedding, And then Tony is the one who's like,
you have to go in Socca and blah blah blah,

(55:10):
and Jess is like, I can't. And then Jess's dad
comes in. He's like what's going on? And Tony's like
Socca and and then Jesse's dad is the one who's
like soccer, you know, and and so her dad is
the one who's hiding that Jess has gone from both
her sister and her mother until Jess gets back. There

(55:34):
is an element of and it did again. It's like
this movie does so well generally that it's like not
the biggest deal. But if we're getting like nitpicky, both
Jesse's dad and Jules's Dad end up for their respective
storylines being the good guy of the family, which is
kind of a trope I feel like, comes up. I

(55:56):
can't think of it, but like there is you know,
like the mothers of both of those families are the
stricter ones. They're they're harder on their daughters. They're more
critical of them. The dads are critical and we'll back
the mom's up, but are usually the ones who go
behind the scenes and are like, but it's okay, I'm
the nice one. And that happens with I mean Jules Dad.

(56:18):
I don't think at any point is made to seem
strict in any way. He's just like soccer rules. In fact,
he says something like, um, you know, if our daughter
is more interested in playing football than chasing boys, Um
over the moon about that, which you know is we
can unpack that where it's like, well, what if she
did want to chase boys and you know, explore her sexuality?

(56:40):
What's wrong with that? Dad? But um, but like his
character is like, I mean, he's barely a character at
least just as Dad, we get some context, feels he
feels right because he was was it, a cricket player,
So yeah, I like that the story gives him a
little bit more context for why he's sort of trying
to protect her um and things like that, because he

(57:02):
also had experienced a lot of racism when he tried
to play cricket they kicked him out. Because Yeah, I
I noticed that too about the parents, that both of
the mothers were way less chill, just like we're trying
to either like suppress their daughters in some way where
they like, you can't play soccer, or trying to like
force an idea of femininity onto them. I feel like

(57:24):
they were extra upset when because both families at one
point or another think that their daughter is queer with
the other character um. And yeah, the way like Juels
mom handles it, there's like she crashes the wedding, like
you said, like screams about shoes. And then there's a
scene after that in the car where she's like, you know,

(57:45):
you're a lesbian and she's like, uh, just because I
wear khakis and play sport doesn't make me a lesbian.
But like, also Jules's tone during that scene is a
little problem. Yeah, so seam plays out, yeah, because then
she says like there's like a pause and once joelss
mom realizes and this happens with both families once they

(58:07):
realized that their daughters aren't gay, and they're like, oh,
gay people are fine. It's yeah, yeah, I another storation
til I'm gonna make it real quick. I was in
high school and like, there was this girl bowling my
friend by like spreading rumors about her being a Lots fan.
So I thought it would be funny if I came
onto her because she was homophobic. So I did that,

(58:29):
and then it turns out it wasn't just her that
was homophobic. It was a whole bunch of people that
are homophobic. I accidentally got myself semi gay bash when
I was walking down the hallway and I was like,
I'm not actually, yeah, that isn't the high school things
to happen to, Like, I know what I'll do, and

(58:49):
then it's like, no, everyone's paid full, everyone and everybody
here to help it. I was like, oh no, god,
that's the words there the way scene with just and
her mom at the end, it is kind of like
played for laughs where um or no sorry Jules and
her mom not to me Ja names uh, but you know,
Jule says, besides being a lesbian. It's not that big

(59:12):
a deal. And then her mom is you know, goes
full hypocrite once she realizes her daughter is straight, Thank
god is She's like, oh yeah, there's nothing wrong with it. Uh,
and they're all like t he he he wear straight?
But then oh, so the last thing I wanted to
talk about was so the way they deal with female queerness.

(59:35):
This movie comes out in the weird place. It's not
totally bad, but it's weird. It's not fully accepted. But
we also have Tony, who is a queer male character
who I forgot about his storyline, but it is I
feel like it is fully realized within the movie. There's
just so much going on, but Tony is the one

(59:58):
boy on the soccer team that Jess plays on at
the beginning who is not horrible to her and it's
nice to her and they get along and everyone thinks
he has a crush on her, but it turns out
he just respects her. The twist is he's gay and
he respects her. So, I mean, I liked that scene
where he you know, and just Jess as being like,

(01:00:20):
you know where she's coming from, and she's like kind
of grasping at straws and just wants to stop disappointing
her family, and she's like, so do you like me?
We should we should just want we should just get married,
and in a way that if Tony were interested in her,
would probably have been very hurtful of, like, well, I've
decided to settle here. I am, I've done it. But
then Tony is like, no, I just respect you. Also,

(01:00:44):
I'm gay. That's I mean. Jess is like, oh, that's
you know, she's fine with it. Then there, But she's
the only character, as far as we know, who knows
about him being gay. He's the only person that he
comes out too. So I think that if more people
like in Jessice community knew about it, I feel like
the movie might have handled it similarly to how like

(01:01:07):
female queerness is perceived. So I think in general, yeah,
I mean it's this is like characters in two thousand
two responding to queerness in the way that a lot
of people in two thousand two would have responded to that.
But yeah, it's I think it's interesting and positive that
Jess is still very respectful of him, and you know,

(01:01:29):
he comes out to her and she's just like great,
it doesn't change their friendship at all or anything like that, Like, yeah,
I thought that all was handled very well. Yeah. And
then there's that the last minute scene with him where
he says because he is so supportive of Jess his
soccer career and doesn't think that her parents will ever
support it, and so he's like, I'll marry her, you know,

(01:01:52):
and the last things like I'll marry her. And I
was so nervous because two thousand two, I was so
nervous that she was going to outand same same I
was like, So I was like, oh my god, I
feel like in two thousand two people wouldn't have thought
of as much of that. But she doesn't. She just
says nice try Tony, like I need to beat tell

(01:02:13):
the truth, and then she tells the truth about herself.
I was just there was a moment where it's like,
oh my god, so sad. The same but she doesn't.
Another another win, another character doing a just basic decency. Yeah,
exactly his character. Also, like the big tournament at the end,

(01:02:37):
all of the guys that she had been playing with
in the park show up to that game to watch.
Most of them are like, you know, very toxic masculinity. Bros.
And they're like, oh, women playing soccer there boobs and
oh how do they even do it? And they're like
just like really over sexualizing and objectifying all the players
on the team, and uh, Tony says something like can't

(01:02:58):
you just see them as footballer? Like again, feminist icon,
queer icon um. But an earlier scene shows a bunch
of pinkies friends watching the men play soccer in the
park and then similarly objectifying them and like, oh, look
at his like sticks pack, and yeah, i'd I want
to wank him off, And then Jess calls them a

(01:03:19):
bunch of which sorry I did laugh that. Yeah, she
does slut shame her sister's friends, which you know, is
not the best thing that's ever happened. It's not. It
feels so bad when you think someone's like on your
level of creep. Like there was a hot bartender at
the bottom of the theater and I turned to another

(01:03:40):
girl and I was like, that dude is so smoking hot.
I would totally funk him. And then she was just
like oh, and I was like, oh no, that is
literally every time I'm like I have a crush on someone.
And then Caitlin's like, show me a picture and then
I do, and then she's like, Okay, it's like I
need to dine. Oh I didn't even want to run

(01:04:03):
into traffic and get hit by a car. I'm sorry,
I'm so many tepid. Okay, it's from you. When I
hit you with the visual, it's so it's so unchilled.
We'll post it on our Instagram. No, I don't. I'm
never going to show you anyone. I'm never ever well.
I it's you know, what we all taste is subjective

(01:04:26):
and you can like whoever you want. Mine's kind of bad,
I'll say it. Mine's weird. It's all over the place.
Does anyone have any other thoughts about the movie? But
it's like back, a's interesting that a movie about women
playing sports does have a title where a man's name

(01:04:47):
is in the title that, yeah, is that really him?
At the end like yeah, I think I feel like
they get like archived footage or something, and I don't
know it's a hologram. Um. I do want to say
that there is a clip of Mia Hamm playing soccer
in the movie, and the clip of soccer, Yeah, she

(01:05:10):
and I share the same birthday. Um, so we are
sisters twins or Twin Sisters Birthday Twin is Patrick Swayzey. Yeah,
I guess overall, like I like this movie a whole lot,
just on a base level of it being like a fun,
entertaining movie, and then also, you know, watching it through

(01:05:31):
the Bechtel cast lens, I really enjoy that it explores
a lot of different things that we tend to talk
about movies not paying any attention to. So the fact
that this movie addresses like the concept of femininity and
different things about sexuality, different things about racism, and all
kinds of things that most movies just completely gloss over

(01:05:53):
or don't pay any attention to or don't care about addressing.
I really like all of that, and I like that
it's effectively about a woman who is kind of she's
got a struggle where she wants to pay respect to
her family and honor them in their wishes, but also
has the agency to like do her own thing, and

(01:06:14):
too she wants to pursue her own goals and make
her own choices. But yeah, it's just I think it's
a great movie where you know, women are driving the narrative, Um,
women are challenging different things, women have agency, women are
kicking ass and kicking balls. So yeah, I don't know.

(01:06:43):
And then, um, really quick, does this movie past the
Bactel test one? Yeah, we don't even need to get
into citing specific scenes because it's basically if there are
two women talking in the movie. Almost every significant female
pairing in this movie v it passes at one point,
and usually especially between Jess and Jules, passes significantly because

(01:07:07):
they talking about they want to stop talking about soccer.
Jess and her sister, Pinky, Jess and her mom, Um,
Jules and her mom. Yeah, Jess and jules mom. Every
it's great. Yeah, it's great. I'm always on the lookout
for movies that pass all four of the following test
the Bechtel test, the DuVernay test, the Vito Rosso test,

(01:07:30):
and the Maco Morey test. This movie passes all for Yeah,
that's wonderful, because you've got um so Bechtel tests we've
already discussed um. The Duverney test requires that characters who
are people of color have fully realized lives rather than
service scenery for white stories, so this movie passes that

(01:07:53):
test with flying colors. The Maco more test requires that
there's at least one prominent female character who has her
own narrative arc which is not about supporting a man's story,
passes that test with flying colors. The Veto Russo test,
the movie passes if it contains a character that is
identifiably lgbt Q. So we've got that in Tony. Character

(01:08:16):
is not solely or predominantly defined by their sexual orientation
or gender identity, which I would say is true for
Tony too. And this is where it is a little tricky.
The character must be tied into the plot in such
a way that their removal would have a significant effect.
I think, so, yeahs Hers, Yeah, he's the one that
makes her at the end of the wedding. He's pivotal

(01:08:37):
to that. And then right, okay, yeah, so it passes off. Hurrah.
Well with that, let's rate it on our nipple scale. Well,
we we rate the movie based on its portrayal of
women zero to five nipples. I'm going to give this
like a a four and half. I think I think

(01:09:00):
certain characters and how they handle the topic of queerness,
specifically jewels and jewels is mom I think could be
handled a little bit better. And I think that's if
this movie was rewritten today. Those problems would be solved
because this is an extremely progressive movie, and there's also
a few I feel like I should have said earlier

(01:09:20):
there are a few um queer slurs that go unchallenged
in the movie. Where the racial slurs are challenged, the
queer slurs are not. Yes, and then also like a
half nipple off for the fact that the movie has
this love triangle that doesn't need to be there. Yeah,
I don't know. I feel like it just kind of

(01:09:41):
cheapens it a little bit. But overall, it's really cool
to see a movie about a woman of color. We
get all the context of her family. Great movie, great characters.
Female characters are very well written and well developed. We
so rarely see this. The fact that it's written and
directed by an Indian woman is amazing. I'm so glad

(01:10:03):
that this movie exists. And if you haven't seen it,
check it out. A sap so four and a half
nipples I'm going to give to to Jess, one to Jewels,
one to Pinky, and a half nipple to Tony Cool.
I'm I'll go with four and a half as well.
Let me let me see if I can do this
in sports terms. Okay, I'd say this soccer ball fumbles

(01:10:30):
female queerness, but really dunks in every other card uh huh,
time out. I like this. The only penalty would be
what I already said was a fumble in conclusion in okay,

(01:10:52):
and now I'm canceling. We're in overtime now and overtime
fifth quarter. I would say that in all series is
when I when I saw this movie when I was
a teenager, demonstrates the importance of portraying every culture possible
in film and in mainstream film, because I know, I

(01:11:13):
for sure didn't grow up around many Indian people at all,
and I learned stuff from this movie. And I learned.
I mean, it was like this was my first exposure
to a culture I wasn't familiar with, and it's done
so responsibly and respectfully that I think if more cultures
were portrayed in this way in film, the world would
just be a better place. I really like this movie,

(01:11:36):
and I'm happy that we we can keep watching it
and feeling happy about watching it without feeling guilty about
watching it. Yeah, So four and a half nipples. Giving
two to Jess, I'll give one to Jewels, give one
to Pinky, and then I give one. I'll give my
last half one to Jess's mom because I like her.

(01:11:57):
I would say, well, I'm going to be biased, so
I'm gonna give four point eight nipples. Yeah, I'm gonna
give it a handicap for the time period, just because
this is the first movie where I got to see
someone represent what it feels like my story on screen.
And it's like it was everything to me, you know,
like it was just the coolest movie and I loved

(01:12:18):
it like top to bottom. You know, yeah, I also
want to see your exact story on screen, like that
would be such a fun movie to watch. Who are
you giving your nips to? Um? Give two to Jess,
one to her mom, one to Karen Nightly how much

(01:12:39):
does that like me? So too? And then I have
point eight left. I'll give point eight to Tony, you know,
because it was like a great character who like feminist icon,
queer icon killing it? It? Give us a Tony spin off? Serious?
Where is it? Where is it? So? Thank you so

(01:12:59):
much for being here, so so much fun, yea. Where
can people find you online? Do you have anything you'd
like to plug? Are you sure they can find me
on Twitter? At at suba s U b h A
H and my Instagram. I'm sorry, is that supa? It's
cub was a choice that I rehoosed to take back

(01:13:27):
And um, Saturday at seven pm, there's a show at
the Hollywood Improv. It's the writers of The Jim Jeffrey Show.
So you should come to that. Awesome quite nice. Great.
You can follow the backtel Cast on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
where you can go to our website backtel cast dot com.
You can write and review us on iTunes. Give us
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(01:13:47):
goals on us or for us I don't know, or
dunk on us. Dunk please don't dunk on us. We're
drive so hard. Basically, give us five stars is what
we're saying. And um, you can subscribe to our Matreon.
It is five dollars a month and you get to
bonus episodes every single month. This month, we have incredible

(01:14:08):
stoo coming out soon. Yes, so enjoy it. Yes, please do,
and otherwise go penalty scoring in overtime. Bye bye