Bring It On with Maggie Maye

Brrr...it's cold in here! There must be Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus and special guest Maggie Maye discussing Bring It On in the atmosphere! 

(This episode contains spoilers)

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the bed cast, the questions asked if movies have
women in them, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands,
or do they have individualism? The patriarchy zef invest start
changing with the cast. Hi, welcome, welcome, I feel so comfortable.
I'm feeling really alive. Hey, thanks for here. My name

(00:23):
is Caitlin, my name's Jamie, and uh this is the
Bechtel Cast. Thank you so much for being here. For
those of you who have never heard the show before,
why don't we tell you a little bit about it.
We talk about the representation and portrayal of women in movies,
using the Bechtel test as a jumping off point to
initiate that larger conversation. Hey, Jamie, what's the What the

(00:45):
hell is the Bechtel Test? Okay, calm down, I'll tell
you furious. It's It's a media test invented by a
cartoonist named Alison Bechdel. It is a test that requires,
in a piece of media that there'll be two female
identifying characters who have names, who speak to each other

(01:05):
about something other than a man for two lines of dialogue.
Or that's the way we define the test. You think
it would be easy, but allws of Lord of the
Rings do not pass, so it is and that said,
it is still very easy. We're psyched to be back
at the Ruby. We love the Ruby. Give it up

(01:27):
for the Ruby and Los Angeles. Um, and we've got
we've got a real treat tonight in terms of movie
and guests. So let's bring her out. We're turning to
the Capectel cast. She's a very funny comedian. You've seen
her on Conan and you know her from our Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone episode. It's Maggie may Hey.

(01:57):
What's up, guys, how are you pretty good? Welcome back,
Thank you, thank you for having me back. We can't wait.
So we're talking about Bring it On? Yeah, clap If
you have not seen Bring it On? Wow, Wow did
their homework? Wow? Okay. We love good pupils. You are

(02:17):
rewarded with whatever trash is in our pockets the show.
So thank you so much for coming. Um, bring on?
What a film? Two thousand? Uh? You know and if
you've listened to episodes about movies that come out between
nine two two, it's a precarious time for passing the

(02:39):
Bechtel test and acting ethically, it's a it's a very
precarious time. So we'll figure out what side of that
late nineties early odd spectrum we fall on tonight. Yes,
so Maggie, we'll start with you. What's your history, your
relationship with the movie Bring It On? Okay, so I
love the movie you Bring It On. I was a cheerleader,

(03:03):
Like we didn't even know that when we asked you
to be a Yeah. I was a cheerleader, like all
the way through. Um. I went to a magnet high
school that did not have sports, but I insisted on
doing independent cheerleading for like a year. Wait, were you
like alone operative? Yes, it was not beneficial. I was

(03:24):
like to all the rest of the nurses. This school
was like number seventy seven in the nation. It was
number seven in the nation, and it's heyday, and I
was like, hey, everybody trying to get into Harvard, who
wants to cheer? They were like, if you don't get
the fun out of this computer lab right now? So
you had nothing to cheer for, but you pursued it,
cheered for like you know, masterminds and math squad and

(03:47):
we went to competition like mathlete competition. They did not
let me go, and I cheered from home. I cheered
from home, so amazing. So you're a fan of the movie.
You're a former cheerleader, and it came out the year
that I was a senior, so I was like watching
me like I would have been going through all this
bullshit if I would have gone to a regular high school.

(04:10):
It's like, what if, Jamie, what's your history? I remember
the first time I saw this movie was at uh
sleepover that I was not cool enough to be invited
to in middle school, which is a real treat. It
was because Ryan Cheatham, who was one of the coolest
girls in school, liked me when I was seven, and

(04:32):
she just decided to look like she was one of
those merciful cool girls who was like, no, I know,
Jamie sucks, but we're gonna let her hang out with us.
Like she she would be nagging me constantly, but would
also let me come. And I was honestly so grateful
to her that she would let me be there. So
I was thrilled to be there. And they're like, we're

(04:53):
watching a movie about cheerleaders, and I'm like, awesome, yes, cool,
let me steady. So I don't remember much about watching
it the first time because I was so nervous to
be at that sleepover. I was just like very aware
of my posture um and like whatever was going on
with my body. I just was like, maybe this is

(05:14):
my big chance. It wasn't. But uh so, I truly
like I had seen it. I vividly remember watching it,
and I didn't remember anything that happened. Okay, okay, so yeah,
i'd seen it a few times and had a weird
traumatic memory attached to it. Okay, what about you. I

(05:36):
saw it only one time before prepping for the episode.
I was in high school. I think right around when
it came out. I don't think I saw in the theater,
but I do have a vivid memory of the scene
where Eliza douche Coup wipes her fake tattoo off and
then does a bunch of gymnastics for some reason. That
is like emblazoned into my memory. And then I remembered

(05:58):
nothing else about the movie. So a good moment. That
was the main point in the movie. I mean, it's
it's iconic. So I you know this, this movie is fun.
It's super fun. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to
love here. There's a lot of stuff to love. There's
a lot of stuff to be like, there is more

(06:21):
to love than I thought there would be, going in
which is which is always nice. And also watching this movie,
I understood parts of the Thank You Next music video
I hadn't previously understood. I was like, why is already
on the ground a brushing her teeth for five minutes?
It was a reference to this you love seeing like
a reverse reference or like like understanding what a reference? Yeah,

(06:47):
and then being like TV, I get it, and then
five months later being like, I see that was a
lot of the Simpsons. Yeah. Growing up I was like, oh,
that was even funnier now. I used to sneak watch
Fraser at my house when I was in elementary school.

(07:07):
That's my little personal rebellion that I do. Crazy. I
wasn't invited to sleep roppers, but I would always be like,
ha ha, I understand, I'm den I know these baroque
musicians they're they're joking about. I probably still wouldn't understand,
but I love like I It's weird how like young

(07:28):
you can be when you condition yourself to pretend to
understand what's going on to defend mechanisms. It is Yeah,
you're laughing. Everybody else's laughing, or like they kind of
have pauses where you're like, I bet you that was
a joke. Yeah, you're like that. I didn't understand. I'll
do the recap. You'll do the recap, Okay, I will,

(07:48):
I certainly will. That's how it goes. So we meet
Torrents Shipman. Yeah, tour Tory is Why is her name
like torrent And then also the team is called the Toros.
That had to have been on purpose by the screenwriter,
I'm guessing, but it was. It was a weird choice anyway,
So kirston Dunes is Torrans Shipman? Isn't Torrens a place

(08:12):
in California? Do? Is it? Is it? Yeah? I was
just like there's a lot of weird, Like where are
the going with this? Yeah? California? What do we know?
Her boyfriend's name is San sam Diego that I want

(08:34):
to use that, Okay. So she is a cheerleader in
high school. Like I said, her team as the Rancho
Carnate Toros. Frachocarnate. Can I just say Rancho carnate? What
the fuck? Okay, go ahead, go ahead, we opened She's

(08:55):
cheering in front of the whole school about how awesome
cheerleaders are, and then sudden she's naked and it's like,
oh my god, it was a dream. And then you
know it's a dream because we're learning all of the
women by name, which would never happen in real life.
That was I was like, of course this is a
dream sequence. We know what their names are. True. And
then we meet her boyfriend, Aaron, he's about to move

(09:16):
away for college. And then it's the start of Torrance's
senior year of high school and the cheerleading squad is
voting for the new team captain because big Red, I
guess has graduated even though she's still there. That is
very true that I mean, but like that's true of cheerleaders.
Oh and like Dan, I was on a dance team

(09:37):
in high school, brag, thank you so much. Like I
feel like there are like people who are like two
into high school sports and activities that go to nearby
colleges and they're like, I'm just gonna come by and
we're like, don't like it's weird. It always makes you
look weird. But I don't know that track for me.
Like Red, she just she was clearly not you know,

(10:00):
adapting very well freshman year because she was always lurking around.
He was around high school. Choose around. Did she show
up still in her cheerleading uniform a couple of times? Yeah?
I was like, man, she needs to move on. Yeah,
you were not going to make it read go to
class in between anatomy and physiology. I'm gonna scare the

(10:21):
hell out of my high school. So then Torrence gets
voted new squad captain. Yes, Kirson Dunst, who is in
every movie between and two thousand and four. Yes, okay.
So then this new boy moves to school, Cliff. She
is vibing with him. He loves Cliff Pantone. All the

(10:45):
names are so weird because Pantone is like the name
of a color company. Yeah, and I was like, and
then then Cliff, Okay, So she's vibing with him. And
then there's a spot on the squad because someone gets injured,
and now they have to hold tryouts for a great
opportunity for an audition Monta and Pippot. It's a great audition,

(11:12):
wouldn't you believe it? Everyone who tries out isn't weird
until we get too Missy. That's Eliza douche gu and
she is rough, she is tough, and she's like, I
think cheerleading stupid. But your school doesn't have a gymnastics team,
so this is my last resort. And we know all

(11:34):
the hard, tough people around the gymnastics team. That's the
logic this movie subscribes to, Like, you know what, the
gymnastics team is terrifying, alright, they're all like kid Domini
just shot somebody, ok with us. She vaulted up the

(11:55):
beam and shot someone in the knee cap on like
the matrix, and then stuck the landing. I would love
to see that movie. Incidentally, this screenwriter also wrote stick It,
that gymnastics movie that came out in two thousand and six. Yeah,
this writer had two interests and they're very related. They're

(12:19):
flips and more flips with pomp pomps. So Torren sees
Missy's potential, but the other cheerleaders are like, oh gross,
she's a goth. But tor she's a go with like
hair that like vaguely resembles dreadlocks but like not quite. Yeah,

(12:43):
there's a that that hairstyle toes a line. The toes
a line. So Torrence goes and tries to convince her
to join the team and she's like, fine, I'll do it.
And then we learned the twist that Cliff and Missy
are brother and sister. And then uh so Missy goes
to practice and she sees the burr it's cold here

(13:08):
in the atmosphere. Burre. There must be so TaurOs in
that atmosphere. Shoot for the listeners back and got solo
work coming up, the independent study work. When you do
it by yourself, you don't have to be on rhythm

(13:30):
because yes for the listeners to find your own beat.
Now you just got up and started dancing, and it
was glory choreography. It was incredible. Y'all missed it. You
should have been here. So she sees that and she's like, hey,
you guys stole those cheers. Let me prove it to you.
And she drives her from San Diego to Los Angeles

(13:52):
that's a three hour drive by the way on a
school night, and shows her the Clovers from East Compton
doing the exact same cheer, and we learn that Big
Red had been traveling to the school. Take yeah, putting

(14:12):
in a lot of effort, and it's like, if you're
if you have all that time, you might still what
are you doing? Yeah? Yeah, she was going away even
know about them. Yeah, I'm like in two thousand, where
would you found out they don't have a web page?
I can tell you that much right now, but it's yeah,
that was. I was like, Okay, I guess we're just
we're just here for the ride. So they go and

(14:36):
watch it and the Clovers the team captain is Isis.
That's Gabrielle Union's character. So in every movie from and
I says was like, hey, white ladies, you stole from us.
That is the line that she sayes. But it it
ends now and this year we're winning Nationals and Torrence

(14:58):
is upset. She didn't realize that the cheers have been stolen.
So now she's like, hey, squad, we've got to come
up with something else, a new a new thing for regionals.
That's right around the corner, Isn't it always always? That's
how I hope in every conversation, like Regionals is right
around the corner. Well, then she says like, we have

(15:20):
to get a new routine, and the squad is kind
of like, no, right, we know burr whatever it's still
called in here. I'm in a jacket. Okay, we're doing
at Burr works for us. But then then the Clovers
show up to one of their football games and like
the cheer that you're doing, we also invented that one.

(15:40):
That's a great scene. I like that was a good scene.
Just watch that scene. You have the whole movie. You
need to see also in that scene. This has nothing
to do with anything, but I think that they're the
movie keeps making a play to be like Cliff is
a little different. He's an intellectual. So he's at that
football game reading The Human Ape. I didn't looked up

(16:04):
the book. It's like a famous sociology book about evolution.
So they're like, no, Cliff, no, no, no, he's he's
not a sports boy. Rather, he's a Darwin boy. Like
that's just like, what is the point of he's gonna
voluntarily show up to a football game no one asked
him to be at. I've invited him and do homework

(16:28):
that no one asked him to do. Everything with Cliff
is a reach for me, but that was one of
the chest reaches of just like no, no, no, he's
smart to check this ship out that he loves the Ramans.
He's not like the other boys. He's not. He's not.

(16:49):
It's so weird. He reads books. He's a Yeah, he's
a book ramon man, you know the type. Okay. So
then tore his boyfriend, Aaron, who is like actively cheating
on her, recommends that the squad hires Sparky Polastery, another

(17:09):
winner of the name of Spirit Fingers. Just that name
sounds suspicious. Yeah, sounds suspicious as Hale sounds like he's
going to try to sell them knives and ship. Well,
it also sounds like Sparky Palastry sounds like you've already
had to change your name more than once, because that
would that would that wouldn't even be like someone's first

(17:30):
choice for an alien maybe like well, Sam Diego, Mark
Sparky Plaster. Okay, So then they hire him, but he's expensive.
He cost two thousand dollars. So they do a car
wash fundraiser, which is an excuse to show a bunch

(17:52):
of teen girls in bikini. I didn't find that grow
two of this at all. Meanwhile, Cliff and Torrance, they're
vibing the father pretty hard. I swear it. You can
cut Cliff entirely out of the movie. Is no difference,
said He does not help the movie in any way,
shape or for him. He helps the movie nothing. He

(18:13):
just Yeah, cut Cliff, he's trimmed the fat him and
his damn books. Get him out. I bet you they
forced that into it, like in Hunger Games when they
forced Gail in there, like we need a lot of entrant.
They probably were like, let's put in a complex bad
boy with you. Totally does seem like he's like a studio,

(18:33):
like a sentient studio note because he's like put in
a convenient place where like, oh, if Missy had a
brother who didn't play by the rules, Pantoones are a
family badass pantos. Pantos are also a parentless family like
her in this huge as house and then she at
one point, Missy's like, oh, they're in a benefit. They'll

(18:55):
be fucked up for days. It's just like, what is
it going on with your parents? It's there. He seems
like very wealthy alcoholics. Good for her. Cut cut the
Cliff storyline and make the advanced chemistry class that she
has to take. Make that a storyline where she learns
about chemistry and finds out that she loves it. Women

(19:16):
in stem careers, Yeah, that's right, we need women in
stem who also are cheerleaders. Yes, that's my Yeah, he
wasn't even bad. He just brought a book to a
football game. It's not bad. It's pretty good, a good student.

(19:44):
He's like, yeah, this is kind of bonus work. So
then Sparky shows up. He criticizes everyone on the team
and then very creative bodies. It's I felt he's like
one develop and eating a disorder or stop eating altogether.
And that whole scene and the super helpful yeah, oh

(20:06):
it totally helped the demon. That was helpful for me
to see. It was a good reminder to stop eating right.
And then he whips Missy with a towel and he
hasn't fired. He has not fired. He is very bad
at his job. He's obsessed with spirit hands fingers and
everyone's yes and night. There were a few people who

(20:30):
were like in the ground and spirit fingies. I'll go
ahead and cancel myself. Um, I like this day in
the front room and you said spirit hands. He went
twinkled his fingers like you're right, You're right, Okay, so
spirit fingers. And then and they do end up with

(20:52):
a routine that like no one's really excited about, and
then we cut to reach routine. As a cheerleader, it's
not a good routine's funk you would know simply a hack.
The Toros are a regionals, the Clovers are Regionals, and
then the team that goes right before the Toros does
the exact same fucking Sparky plant Screen whatever his name is.

(21:14):
They're double dipp in. He's double dipp in. He got
four thousand dollars. Imagine the damage he could do. Well,
the judge says, you did it to six different squads,
so that's twelve thousand dollars. And the judges are like,
we don't know what to do about this. You're not disqualified,
but like make sure you come back with a new

(21:35):
routine at nationals. Also, the Clovers do a great routine
at Regionals. And then there's a few different like short
confrontations between Gabrielle Union and Kirsten Dunce and this is
like one of the good ones where they're like all
laughing at the Toros and they're right, it's funny, yes,

(21:57):
And then Aaron, who for some reason is Torrance's boyfriend,
tells her you're not captain material and like just give
it up, and then Cliff finds out that she has
a boyfriend and he gets mad right because she was
leading him on, dude him and all his books. Courtney

(22:22):
and Whitney try to mutiny her and withdraw from Nationals altogether,
but Torrance is like, no, this is our chance to
show that we are the original people that we thought
we were, but it actually we're not. But we can
do it. And then they practiced really hard, they come
up with a new routine. Torrance breaks up with Aaron,
and then they're all ready to go to Nationals until

(22:44):
they learned the the East Compton Clovers aren't going because
they couldn't raise money for the trip. Right Torrance, it's
hell bent on them going because she's like, they're the
stiffest competition and if we want to show that we're
the best, we have to beat the best. And then
she gets her dad to sponsor the Clover's big Daddy moment.
Yeah but isis tears up the check they refused. Yes, yeah, yeah,

(23:10):
I love that part too, Yes, take that safe Yeah,
right night school. I didn't even go there. Then the
Clovers end up getting sponsored by a talk show host
that's from their neighborhood. And then they are able to
go to Nationals. So both teams are there Isis says

(23:33):
bring it, doesn't say bring it, and then we're like,
what she says most two thirds of it, and so
we're like, oh, yeah, and we appreciate her restraint. Yeah,
And both teams make it to the very final round
and they both put on a great show. They have
great sets, solid type fives, you know. And then the

(23:56):
Toros get second place. The Clovers when first place Nationals.
Congratulations to the Clovers, and then a kiss because we
can't close out the movie without a Cliff kiss. Wait, well,
and I'm just realizing he did Cliff go to Daytona Beach. Yes,
he got on a flight last minute from San Diego

(24:18):
to San Diego Diego. He should be in school right
like this is his parents really were fu Where are children?
Why did they have to move? Like we don't know
what the story has? All right, So that's the story.

(24:38):
Give it up for the Clover's Okay. I like the
live shops where we were like clap for the plot.
Now it works as a steamless transition whenever I need
to insert the ad break because when is what that's
all above it? Where to begin, Well, let's start with Torrance.

(25:08):
So Torrence is the main character. She's played by Kirsten Dunst.
I didn't realize until more recently. Kind of like this
stock character that Kirsten duns plays where she is very
popular but she's also nice. I feel like she she
takes up a similar role and dropped Dead gorgeous in
Spider Man, where it's like she always is like this

(25:30):
like white blonde girl who's very well liked by everybody,
and she has a code of ethics that she abides
by and we're like, all right, sure, you know, but
then surrounding her are like popular girls who are bitchy
and me and out to get her, like like Denise
Richards and dropped Dead Gordon's and in this movie Courtney
and Whitney. But she like she plays this very like sweetheart,

(25:55):
virginal snaggle toothy little thing and yeah it's her thing.
Am I like crazy? That's her, Like she brags about it.
She Oh, she needs to be here's the thing. Someone
told us. She's called as a small tooth. She needs

(26:18):
to be cast in a Bruckheimer joint to get those veneers,
Bruckheimer veneers that I love. But yeah, so she's surrounded
She's like the nice, popular cheerleading captain surrounded by wretched
people for the most part. Yeah, but she always plays
sort of like this person with a moral center, and
that like sort of translates throughout a lot of her roles,

(26:39):
and this is like a really good example of one
of them. I mean, it's it's weird, she's kind of
all over. I feel like, in general, this movie shows
more sympathy towards Tour than is necessary a lot of
the time, where there's a lot of like empathy that
should be placed with Isis and with East Compton that

(27:03):
is instead given to Tour in wait, like during the
scenes every time she realizes she's accidentally plagiarized, again, we're
supposed to feel terrible for her, and it's like someone
just has to be fact checking this. Like when Tour
and Missy go to East Compton High and Missy's like, look,
this was a stolen routine to I was like, no,

(27:25):
oh my god, this is such a I'm so embarrassed,
and like we're supposed to be like, no, Tour, don't
be sad, It's okay, girl, But it's like, no, we
should be like upset for ice, Like there's there's just
a lot of moments where we're supposed to feel bad
for Kirsen Duns where I'm kind of like, whatever, fix it,
like you know. That's that is the big thing about

(27:47):
this movie for me is that it touches on like
race and appropriation because it is effectively about a group
of largely white upper class teens stealing from a community
of I think everyone on the Clovers as a person
of color, so they're stealing from people of color. Yet

(28:10):
the movie is told from the point of view of
the white people, and for most of the movie, the Clovers,
the people of color, are poised as the bad guys
that we're paying rooting against because we're rooting for the
white people exactly because the Protectors, which like this is
like the common start. You know, white women steal from

(28:31):
us all the time, how that is, but like the
fact that they put I always found it weird that
the Clovers were seen like as the bad people when
they were getting random uk the whole most reimagine this
movie from the Clover's point of view, because then it's
about like Isis and her squad working very hard creating

(28:53):
original cheers and then they see like two white girls
snooping around on their practice who belonged to a squad
of like all white people three hours away. Which, yeah,
it's like it should not be told from the point
of view of the white people. Yeah, we should be
rooting for the people who's whose cheers they're inappropriated. It's

(29:18):
so weird. Yeah, there there, And it also it sort
of feels like a weird cop out for Kirsten Dunks's
character to never know, and so we have her as
sort of like this channel of like, oh, I hope
that she makes it right, Like, let's because I feel
uncomfortable with that, and I really hope that Kirston Duns
and her dad figure this out, like and yeah, there

(29:40):
there's a lot of moments that there's just like some
dissonance and like, you know, we watched an Twine nineteen
is like that's not how hopefully most of us feel.
But the movie is so clearly feels certain that you're
going to feel that way that like Kirston and her
dad are gonna solve solve like white women stealing from
like black women, and that it's just the white man

(30:02):
is going to solve the problem of white women stealing
from black movement. Daddy is actually the missing piece there.
What if Daddy were here? Well, I was so worried
that it was kind of going to become a white
savior movie where she's like, my dad, I took money
from my dad and I'm giving it to you. And

(30:22):
I'm so glad that that's not what happened. But I
can't help but to think, and this this is a theory.
Let me know how you think about it. But I
feel like Isis rejecting the money was not the writer
of the movie is deliberate attempt to be like, hey,
I want to make sure this is not a white
savior story. I think it was more to make Isis

(30:43):
and the Clovers seem like more scary mean adversaries. Who
the hell named her isis also crossed my mind. Not
a crazi like movie. Just really is bad at naming anyone, Yeah,

(31:05):
real bad. Let's put the other team Isis and al Qaeda.
Isis is an Egyptian goddess question master's degree. Okay, yeah,
so I'm hoping she was named after that. I think
this was pretty scary ices I think by a long time.

(31:28):
But I mean, I mean they could have gotten with Cam. Yeah,
one off the table, They're like, No, Torrance versus isis
just like, oh my god, this movie comes on really strong.
I don't know, I don't really know, Like here's here's why.
I think that because the movie frames the Clovers as quote,

(31:50):
the bad guys and the and like adhering to for
a large chunk of the movie, the stereotype of the
angry black woman. So I feel like that her tearing
up the check wasn't like, oh, this isn't a white
savior story. It was more that like, we're mean. We're
not going to take your money because we're mean, Like
we're not gonna we're not going to try to reason

(32:11):
with you, and we're not going to try to let
you make it right. We're just gonna be mad. Right,
That's how I interpreted it. But I think there I
don't know. I mean, I guess the only counterpoint I
would have today is there's for so much of the
movie it was like I was like, when are we
going to get to learn anything about like the individual
characters on the Clovers, Because it's it's so deep into

(32:35):
the movie that you find out even remotely anything in
the in the closest you get is that scene where
they're writing the letter to the talk show host, where
they're like vaguely describing their economic background, they're vaguely describing
what their plan is. It's clear they have a plan
to get to nationals no matter what. So because that
scene came right before like the only moment we got

(32:56):
with them came right before that, I'm hoping that the
writer was trying to at least give Isis a moment
and and and try to help the audience understand where
she's coming from. It doesn't go nearly far enough in
just like developing the interior lives of anyone on The Clovers,
which is like such, why is like why do we

(33:17):
waste so much like real estate in this movie? On
fucking Cliff when half the cast is being ignored for
the whole movie, Like cut Cliff, and let's like learn
about Isis and and all of her and the girl
group black who is in the who are the only
other teammates on? Did anyone else listen to that group? In?

(33:39):
One of them is on Real Housewives of Atlanta. Now, yes, okay,
I've got someone with me. We've got a fact checker
and I've got a fact checker is constantly googling everything
to say, but we don't get to know anything about
about those characters. And it's uh, the closest we get
at the scene that comes right before that. I feel
like it's clear at least that Tore was deeply misguided

(34:02):
to do that. I don't think it goes far enough,
but I hope that that's the implication. Yeah, well we'll
never know. We'll never I mean, yeah, everyone involved with
this movie is dead, so there's no one to check with. Okay.
I was like, we should tweet at him right now

(34:25):
to keep going on tour. There there's a lot to
talk about going on tour, like like we're gonna do
to the East coast anyway. Plugs are later. I mean,
we know more about Tour than anyone else in the movie.
We arguably know too much about her to the point
where I don't care. There was one scene with her

(34:48):
mom that I liked. We don't get which is weird.
It's weird that there's like this whole scene with Tour
and her mom that is like generally positive, but we
never really go back to her mom again, and so
it kind of ends up not mattering, but they're doing
the back and forth of tours. Mom is like, you
cheer too much. Take a math class. And then Torrence

(35:09):
is like, you hate that I'm not a genius. You
hate that I'm an idiot. I like that. I like
that mediocrity visibility. We need more of that. Yeah, the
mediover people everywhere, and they're no, we don't see them
on screen. I mean we do, we do female form. Ever,

(35:29):
sure we do a lot to like Champion, like you know,
women's education and stuff like that. But Torrance was just like,
I don't really care about school. I only care about cheerleading,
and you're just gonna have to accept that, mom. And
then she was like and then her mom's like, take
a science class. And Torrance is like fine, And that's
that should have been a subplot, not Cliff Ray. That's

(35:53):
another great use of the time that we waste on Cliff.
But let's talk Well, we're on the subject of Cliff
as well. There is, of course of like vague, poorly
constructed love triangle in this movie with Aaron Tore and Cliff.
I've never cared less in my entire life. Oh god,

(36:15):
So Aaron is a male cheerleader who tours in a
relationship with the use of queer jokes in this movie
is just horrible. But Aaron is cheating on her with
a bunch of girls in college basically, and he's just
a dick. He tells her he doesn't believe in her.
And that's juxtaposed with this creepy scene on a swing

(36:38):
or where Kirsten dues, Okay, I'm just gonna walk you
through this scene with Cliff, please. Kirsten Duns is on
a swing. She's just had a conversation with Eliza dish Coup.
She walks off, She's going to do some cheerleading thing,
and then all of a sudden, Cliff swoops down twist.
He's been on the swing set the whole time. You're like,

(37:00):
oh my god. He starts to push her on the swing.
This is a sinister thing that perfect student children before
they kill them. Cliffs pushing her on the swing and
then just like pulls the swing back and then whispers
in her ear for what it's worth, I believe in you.
And she's like really, He's like yeah, he's just the

(37:30):
and and then she that is supposed to like give
her the motivation to not play Giarize anymore. Like it's
so ridiculous. She should very obviously arrive at this point,
like this conclusion on her own. Just Cliff. They're using
him to like motivate her to be a better cheerleader.

(37:50):
But he's just like there plays the guitar, and then
he like feels very entitled to her, like whenever he
makes the mixtape as the Flowers, and then he finds
out that she has. I mean, it's not really a mixtape,
it's a fully produced original song. Yeah, good, good point.
It's like Rebecca Black's Friday. It's like it's someone was

(38:14):
paid to do production on that. He just charged it
on his parents charge car, like he did everything. They're drunk,
doesn't matter, dude, when did we go to the studio?
Were in a benefit? We're still fucked up. There's like
a full there's like drums. Either he plays all those
araments or he like hired a band. He hired a band,

(38:35):
he hired the Rebecca Black people to do it there.
It's so funny and it's like one of my favorite
things that happens in movies is when someone composes an
original song and you can tell the movies like this
is gonna be a fucking hit, and it's just like, not,
that's what this song is like where he's like, you're cheerier.

(38:58):
I'm like, well, dude, can you see you if finger
you and curius it does this like jamming, and she's
like this song is really good or like you're not
fooling us. She's jumping on the bed without a bra
like she's just like every all the stops are pulled
up to make this song seem presentable, and she conveniently

(39:19):
picked her pom poms up to dance to this bullshit.
So I was like, I did independent cheerleading to the
chagrin of everybody. Everybody's chagrin, and I have never once
while dancing picked up my well, let me get my
pom poms and really really turn this up right now.
This is shitty music, right, It's happened. I forgot how

(39:45):
I forgot the music that the Toros and the Clover's
performed to at the end, and I was so I
was like rocked with anxiety of like, she's gonna dance
to the song They're gonna do a cheer to the
Rebecca black Friday song, like but thank god, they just
use jock jams, but I mean, yeah. My main thing

(40:06):
with the with the Cliff thing is he's there, he's entitled.
He's kind of like random in terms of he's all
over the place. It turns where his character is. He
feels like a studio note and he shouldn't be there, Like,
there's just no need for that subplot. He's a p
s A to future parents to tell their daughters that

(40:26):
they love them so they're not susceptible to these random
I believe in you kind of bullshit. Up. Tell your
child you believe in them, so they're not out here
falling in love with people making stupid ass songs for
them at the mall and ship. Tell your child you

(40:48):
believe in them. Any man who can pose his original
music for you, that's a red flag. Somewhere on the Internet,
there's a couple of mix tapes about thinking like this
was like early I was dating the fun fun boy
is fun boy ever and he wrote a song about

(41:08):
how he liked me, and then I rejected him, and
then he wrote three songs about and he wrote one
of the songs I think I've played for you before.
It's called your Body is Dumb. Maggie Love. Okay, it's

(41:29):
out of here. I can't even be here for that anymore.
Your body is dumb. Give me this fuse email, lad Dress,
send a letter to his mom. Anyways, he's a father. Now,

(41:54):
should we get into the just enormous list of horribly
problematic things that get said and done? Yeah, let's do
your let's do your power listical All right, it's very
two thousand. Ready for it to be very two thousand, boy,
Starting with there's a scene in a locker room where,

(42:16):
by the way, teen girls are undressing. They are in well,
I an underwear. I thought that that was more tastily
done than most movies. I mean, the worst one that
comes to mind is carry Whenever Sissy Space. It is
just fully nude. And that doesn't know that that that
locker room scene has never taken place on Earth ever.

(42:37):
Everyone's fully nude, groping their own titties in the shower.
I'm like, in, yeah, I guess there are stalls. I
guess I just don't high schools have stalls. I don't
see the need to show teenage girls in next to
no clothing. I agree, especially when I said your leading movie,

(43:01):
you don't need to add that extra layer of like, oh,
sexualized cheerleaders and oh they're taking their come home do better.
At least there's no I guess what I'm saying is
that there's no gratuitous, Like it's not as gratuitous as
most of these movies tend to be sure, but it's
still needless all the same. Um So, in that scene,

(43:23):
we have a number of girls calling each other sluts,
whors bitches, They're fat shaming each other. There are the
fun lines that, as a word smith myself I appreciated,
um Like, she puts the itch and bitch and she
puts the horror and horrifying. Does pass the Bechdel test?

(43:44):
Does spoiler? Good pass? Good pass? Gang? And then there's
also a weird moment where they're talking about Big Red
and how much of a bit she is and they
call her yeah that Courtney and Whitney say she doesn't
have feelings, just testicles, right, which is just like bad writing,

(44:06):
as are most of these bads. Don't you know when
you don't wear your feelings? Okoy, she doesn't have anger,
she has wisdom teeth there It's like, you know, this
invisible thing it's actually a body part well, since it's

(44:27):
testicle specifically, I guess they're saying like, oh, she's mannished,
she's manly because she does is not emotional. Yeah. Yeah,
So it's just I didn't know what to do with
that line either. I just put question marks. I I
have a lot of those as well. Yeah. Um, then
they're doing some cheer practice is and there are some

(44:47):
male cheerleaders on every team. There's male cheerleaders, which I thought,
and and there's a few bad jokes about it, but
not half as many bad jokes as I thought there
would be, except for one big one that is boy,
oh yeah, I do like that. The male cheerleaders are
like they're present, but they're like mostly sidelined, like this
is a very female driven movie. They're around too, and

(45:10):
they're they're like on the team and on every team.
It seems like I don't know about cheerleading. I don't
know if that's normal. I just I didn't know. I
you know, I didn't know. Yeah, so here's some lines
that some of them say, pinch some panties, someone slacking again?
What does that mean? And it doesn't sound good though?
And then do I look like a milkmaid because someone

(45:32):
feels like a cow. This is in reference to one
of them lifting up one of the women on the team.
That's somebody shaming stuff, right there. Body shame these women
just because he's weak. Yeah, I wouldn't in the gym,
I didn't lift myself. My job is to lift right
and it's five extra pounds and I can't do that.

(45:53):
Like this is your problem or whatever. Phil, Yeah, I'm
good to go with that. It sounds like some Phil
whip ship. The names are Jan and Lez of the male.
Why are these names? I don't. This is a mess.
This is just a word jumble. Let's see. There's the

(46:14):
scene where during the tryouts, one of the girls is
trying out to Sweet Cherry Pie. She's very she's exty dance,
and there's a lot of male gaze like shot like
the camera is like in her asshole. Well not just
not just that either. The women in the scene are
like one gags I'm like, you know what a woman's

(46:38):
body like this? But one goes and then the guys
are like, yeah, MI have bonar. I was like, we
don't don't need this, got it. Also during the tryout scene,
there are various jokes made about people with disabilities and
like competing in the special Olympics and things like that.

(47:01):
There's also the Pipping guy, though you gotta there's the
Pippin guy, so balances. That was like the only line
I remember from the movie. Is this not the audition
for Pippin? You know it's not? Bro Yeah, in the
gymnasium there sucking bath Salty doesn't know where he is.
He also looked forty too, Where you thank you all

(47:23):
suspicious a forty year old dude, like, is this not
the audition for Pippin? I'm supposed to be here? Must
I go there? Trying out for Pippin? Another great place?
If we cut Cliff, we can really explore that you
know exactly exactly where? Yeah. So, Also at the tryout scene,

(47:45):
there is a girl named Jamie who is Whitney's younger sister.
A lot of the cheerleaders on the team want her
to be on the squad because of how small she
is and how easy she would be to lift up,
which again has some like body shaming and locations and
then just being weak implications. And then I think it's

(48:07):
jan who makes like a blowjob gesture towards like Jamie,
which again I don't know what. I don't know what's
even implied by twelve, Like what is he saying? That
was another thing that was unclear because he's making it
at tour, and I thought maybe he was being like nepotism,
but like, what does nepotism had to do with dick sucking?

(48:27):
I hope in A and the and the few lines
right before that he makes a comment about how again
this like twelve or thirteen year old girl goes down
or like does sexual stuff to get what she wants.
I don't know, like she's she's visibly twelve, it is.

(48:50):
I think she went there. I was like Whitney went
and got her nine year old sister. Yea. So there's
a lot of there's like problematic stuff, but like it's confusing.
It's like it's like Uncanny Valley stuff where you're just
like I think that I'm not okay with this, but
it doesn't fully make sense. It was like at that
time where it was like we are this kind of

(49:13):
a movie, but we're gonna be talking about other stuff.
We're gonna push it to the limit in every possible way.
And it's like because this movie is like PG. Thirteen
or something, so I think it's trying to like navigate around,
like it's trying to do some innuendos that just like
didn't age well or never made sense. Like I'm not

(49:34):
trying to show that line of the R because they
know no one is going to go see that. If
it's an right, you know it's not gonna So they're like,
we want to get as close to an R. And
because this movie is for thirteen year old girls, right,
And that was like who who saw it? And who
you know at the sleepover for a thirteen year old?
Don't worry, there's more. Okay. We've got Courtney saying about

(49:57):
Missy that she looks like an uber insert slur for
queer women here, and then she uses that word several
times in a in a hateful way throughout the movie.
Torrance is brother to Torrence says, it's not my fault.
You're in love with a big gay cheerleader who doesn't

(50:18):
return your calls. Torrence says he's not gay, and then
he says, oh, so someone just made him become a cheerleader, okay,
And she's like he's just busy, and he's like, yeah,
busy scamming on guys and then that steam. It's like, actually,
he's actually scamming on girls, lots of them, because there

(50:42):
were all these like I mean, and I wasn't sure
that this movie wasn't above that cheap joke of just
being like, he's a male cheerleader, he must be gay,
you know. But then you see Aaron wake up at
his dorm and he has both a Sugar Ray and
a Matchbox twenty poster, and you're like, no, no, he
is straight, and a very bad kind of straight. He's

(51:04):
the most sinister heterosexual there is. He's got both of
the Devil's posters. He's a take a guitar out at
a party kind of mother fart. He's that kind of straight.
And then they put a villainous turtleneck on him. Later on,
I was like, no, no, no, yeah, bright Rent, he's

(51:25):
a bad man. It's just bad. Also, that scene ends
with towards his brother calling her a bit, so that
was very cute. Um they put the yeah, they put
the little brother. Okay, At one point in the movie
where I did laugh is where the brothers like it's
an emergency and then he farts. You gotta admit that

(51:46):
that's a funny joke. I laughed. Okay, that's crazy. How
sometimes a fart is better than anything you could write
in five years. I should have never gotten that master's degree. No,

(52:06):
you could have just been like, I don't know what
to put her. Write a kid named justin any farts? Okay.
Next comes the big one from me where they're all
in a car. The car scene, Yeah, the male cheerleaders
Jan and Lez are talking about their sexuality and then
Missy's like, well, what is your sexuality, which is you know,

(52:27):
maybe not of her business but um and then let's
says Jan straight, Well, I'm controversial. Missy says, are you
telling me you speak insert slur here? And then he's like,
oh fluently. And then Missy proceeds to call Courtney and

(52:47):
Whitney a slur and then okay, So to prove his straightness,
Jan is Jan the strike guy. Jan goes on to
disc gribe how he molests cheerleaders. He's like, no, I'm
super straight. I am a rapist. Like you're just like,

(53:08):
oh my god, Like he describes, well, do you have
the specifics written? Now? I was horrified. It's like, I'm
so straight, it's problematic. I'm so straight. I should be
in jail, Like, yeah, it's it's right, And then everyone
in the car is like, ha ha ha, yeah, you're

(53:30):
molesting her friends. Jam's like, no, Courtney is straight. I
know this because she doesn't wear underwear, and I can't
help if my digits slip occasionally. Okay, okay, number one,
you digit an't gonna slip doing a chairlift. That is
not a thing. That's you intentionally doing it too. If
you would be concentrating more on your form, you would

(53:50):
be able to lift more and not worry about if
anyone getined an extra founds and maybe keep your hands
in the right position. Yeah for maximum, When did Is
tweets at him, the finger tweeted at the actor another thing,
it is so like weirdly on the nose though, to

(54:10):
be like, no, I like it feels like a weirdly
like it sounds like modern satire. To be like no,
I'm like sis white dude, I'm a fucking criminal. He's like,
this is not helping anyone. This is not And then
the whole people are laughing about it. And then because

(54:31):
it's basically saying like, oh, she doesn't wear underwear, so
she's asking for it, is what the movie is trying
to stay here then, and it's also not logical that
she wouldn't wear underwear to it just like goes out
of the way to make one of the female characters
look dumb as fun. It's like, if you're cheerleading and
you know, like you're wearing underwear, not only are you

(54:51):
wearing underwear, you're wearing bloomers on the underwear, So that
part never matched for me. It's like, you're digits are
gonna slip, It's gonna slip in through or like come on, man,
like what are you doing? Champ right? Jan was that
short for well, we should see it play out. We

(55:12):
see it play out a few semes later at the
at the football game where he's doing the lift and
then we see her reaction and she's like it almost
seems like she's enjoying it, which is like very and
but then she like he lets her down and then
she kind of hits him, but we see him on
screen assault her while they're cheering. And then there's another

(55:35):
scene where I think it's Missy and one of the
cheerleaders male cheerleaders is like stretching her leg out and
there's two guys that pass and the two football jocks
who have been like harassing the male cheerleaders the whole right,
and then they're like, maybe we should do in the
d because they're they're like looking at like, oh, they're

(55:56):
touching girls, and then the other one just as a
gay slur to the other one, and then the scene
is over, and that's a scene that exists forever. Yep,
I probably missed some, and there's I'm just gonna do
a few more. Okay, so uh, there's a car wash
scene where we see like a closeup of Eliza dis
chest and then it's because it's her brother auggling her

(56:18):
until he realized it and he's like, oh, but it
means we have this very male gage shot of like
just a woman's breast you have. I mean, that whole
sequence is just like getting allegedly teen girls wet, even
though as with most of these movies that Kirsten Dunce
is and Kirson Dunce is the only legitimate teenager there's
it's Kirson duns and a bunch of twenty seven year olds. Also,

(56:42):
a quick fact check, a car wash is not a
good fundraiser. Oh did you do one? I'll buy Yourself.
Caitlyn thre onto his Savage Moments Part three, Holy Ship
have been attacks. I remember like in like elementary and

(57:05):
then junior high and even like my friends who like
cheered at like normal high schools and stuff like that
was just never. No one wants a bunch of teen
girls washing their car for twenty dollars. No, and they're
never in like it's so it's so movie to imply
that all car washes are hot teens in bikinis, because
I did. I did that with the Key Club and

(57:28):
we were wearing like three shirts extra really didn't make
much money, did you sixty? And it was like a
twelve hour day, right, and it was all y'all's moms
coming through to be nice. It was like moms and
neighbors being like, okay, but don't touch it. Bad idea,

(57:50):
bad for business. That's just a fact check. Yeah, thank you,
thank you for them and their children, and so please
stop looking at them. Yeah. And then the last one,
I'll say, there are more, but we're running out of
time is the choreographer Sparky whatever the funk is literally
everything he does, everything he said, every everything he does

(58:12):
is just wildly horrible. Here's the thing with all of
these moments. In some cases, the characters who are using
the homophobic slurs or who are using the language that's
like body shaming or slut shaming, they are framed as
being like bad, wrong people, like when it's the football

(58:33):
players who are harassing people and stuff like that. But
in other cases, these things are being said by the
characters who are supposed to like it's supposed to be
rooting for, like whenever Missy uses the various like homophobic slurs,
or when they're all laughing along when the guy is
admitting to assaulting his teammate. Yeah, t he And there's

(58:54):
there's not much, just because I do want to get
to the Clovers. But as for see, it's and again
I feel like she her character suffers because of Cliff's presence.
So many suffer at the hands of Cliff, so many
because she starts out as like a pretty interesting you know,
it's like she's she's a guff and I'm like, I'm

(59:17):
on board. But you know, it's like and she and
tore form of friendship, it's an unlikely friendship, but once
Cliff starts to get too involved, she almost gets sidelined.
And she's only like serving as like, oh, Cliff said
that you've got nice boobs, and you're just like, man,
this is a waste of Elijah Douche first of all.

(59:38):
And then it's like their friendship gets sidelined kind of
until the very very end, which is a bummer. Yeah. Uh,
And with that, let's talk about the Clovers, which I mean,
again it's uh, we really only know Isis in any
meaningful way played by Gabrielle Union, and she's I mean,

(01:00:00):
she's really fucking cool. Like I love that character, and
it's frustrating that you don't get to know her better
because there's space in the movie to do it, and
the movie just literally chooses not to do it, but
so much emotional depth if you're to like really concentrated
on the story behind them, Like there was really an

(01:00:21):
opportunity for that that they just let fall, right because
like I mean, in most cases, when you're seeing i
mean fucking varsity blues and ship like that, if you
see the cheerleaders, they're like, it's a bunch of like
suburban white people, so like, just to give visibility to
this group of cheerleaders who are all people of color,

(01:00:41):
and then like, what's their experience? Like, I want to
know more, and then the movie just like glasses over
that whole thing. Yeah, I mean, but there are a
few lines from from Isis when we do get to
see her, we get to see her almost always in
control of the situation. Sometimes that's aimed as her being
the villain, and then later on it you can see

(01:01:04):
her and tours starting to form like this captain's respect
when which you know captains will know she basically has respect.
There's a line where she's like, hey, you guys have
been stealing from us, but no longer I'm the captain,
that it's a captain. They also say do the right

(01:01:29):
thing over and over, and I'm like, are they talking
about this Mike Lee movie where he sometimes keeps being
like I want to do the right thing. I was like,
do you know what you're saying? And I want to
do the right thing. And then she does a little
wing and flashes her snaggle tooth. They're like, what's going
on here? And then she goes to East Conda drives

(01:01:53):
once again three hours. I'm like, there's gotta be a
phone number, but also she drives three hours. It goes
to see Isis and like all the Clover cheerleaders and
offers her white savior daddy check and says, once again,
I'm trying to do the right thing. And I was like,
what the funk is going on in this script? It's

(01:02:14):
so funny, A fun moment where one of the Clover's
calls Missy and Torrance buffies, which is fun because Aliza
Disku played Faith and Buffy the vampires Layer run around
this time, so fun. Fuck with her saying I want
to do the right thing. That further makes her into

(01:02:37):
the good person. Yes, very verbally saying she's trying to
do the right thing. She's trying to be the right person,
and you're you're not letting her do the right thing. Yeah,
it's just a microaggression. Yeah, I do like Isis gives
a pretty concise response that I really like. She says.
When Kirsen Dunn comes with her white guilt check, Isis replies, like,

(01:03:01):
what is this hush money? All right, it's guilt money.
You pay our way in and you sleep better at
night knowing how your whole world was based on one big,
old fat lie. And then she tears the check up
and that's like a great cathartic moment. You're like, you're right,
fucking fun Kristen Dunn's dad we just saw for the
first time in the last time in the movie, fucking daddy, like,

(01:03:21):
get out of here. And and then she you know,
pulls out the captain speaks. She's like, I'm trying to
be strong for my squad. I'm a captain. We're like,
we know the captain talk is strong in this movie,
but I I mean, it's it's so it's so weird
because I feel like, I don't know, like we're talking
about earlier. I don't know how the movie is supposed
it wants us to feel about this scene, But watching

(01:03:44):
it now, you're you're I mean, I feel like we're
all like, tear the check up. Fuck that. But I
think in two thousand, the way everything was then the
movie frames all the Clovers as the mean adversary is
that are causing problems and being mean. Yeah, there is

(01:04:04):
a quote about from Gabrielle Union about being in Bringing
On that I wanted to read to you is sort
of like an insight of where she was at around
this time. She's also twenty eight in this movie, which
you're like, how is that possible. It's blacked out correct,

(01:04:25):
extremely it's why Okay, So she says about getting cast
in Bringing It On. Uh, she says, I wanted this
cheerleading movie Sugar and Spice, but they didn't go black
on any of their roles. I couldn't even audition for
Bringing On. The story is about cultural appropriation and how
the hard work of African Americans has been repackaged with

(01:04:46):
blonde hair and blue has the social justice of it
appealed to me, Which is great that that is what
she saw. But the fact, I mean, just even bringing
up that she wasn't allowed to audition for this other
cheerleading movie because they didn't quote unquote go black, is
like such an insight to where casting was then and
just like what her options were. Like, I mean, I'm

(01:05:08):
so glad she was in Bringing It On, but that quote,
I was like, fuck, this is such a problem, Like
it's a problematic movie with problematic parts, but this was
the best option, right, right was the option. It was
an advertising looking option on top of that, which is
you know, like you said, it just speaks to what

(01:05:29):
was going on at the time and like what the
reality of the film industry was. Fact then yeah, and
so it's like has gotten better, it's fixed everything. I'm
so sorry everything everything. Thankfully we've resolved it as everything
is great. We got to check from daddy and it's

(01:05:51):
fixed and Finn. I mean, in general, I'm very glad
that the Clover's win and that the screenwriter had the
foresight to like because in every way they're the superior
team because they've never plagiarized anyone. They've earned everything they've gotten,
and like they're a better I mean, they have the

(01:06:12):
better routine every single time. So I'm glad that they got.
In my head, I was like they got School of
rocked where where like the ragtag team of young white
people lose and and it's fun to watch, but I
wish that there were more to criticize because I wish
we knew more about these characters in general, but there's

(01:06:34):
just like not we just don't know enough about the
movies should be told from their point of view, like
they should have been a different script, different story told
from a different perspective. On that note, like we don't
know a lot about them, and she didn't know a
lot about them, but the check when she got the
check from her dad, like she bullied her dad into

(01:06:54):
getting the dad's company to write a check. So what
could she possibly have told him to tell them to
write the check? Like, Hey, I need a check for
some some black girls that my daughter was stealing from cheerleading? Wise,
can you give me eight thousand dollars so they can

(01:07:15):
get to flour? Like what could you have told them?
Like and that's just another that like you just walk
like this guy just has the privilege to walk into
his employer and be like I need money to get
a team of people to Nationals And his company was
just like is your kid in No, I guess no
follow up questions for like this is not my child squad,

(01:07:36):
this is random kids three hours south and they were
still cool with it. And that like Tor was expecting
to just come in with a check that clearly, I says,
would have no idea where this money is from. She
doesn't know who Krison does dad is. We don't know
who Krison does dad is, and that Kars and Kness
was coming from this place of just like well you're
gonna want it, right and then like she was like, no,

(01:07:57):
what is this? Who is this from? Like I feel
like her dad would like work for Enron or something. Yeah,
like that, there does so much is off for en
Ron an interesting choice. I would say if I was
an isiss position, I would have crumpled up the thing
in front of her and thrown it and then when
she left, moved it out deposited Like, well, I made

(01:08:24):
my point, Like she won't know, Like what's she going
to know? Yeah, veryone's not going to miss eight thousand.
She's never gonna find out if I did it or not. Uh.
One thing I did like about this movie, and it
also brought up different like I mean it liked it
didn't like, Uh, was that you so infrequently get to

(01:08:47):
see young girl being athletic in any way on screen
and getting to see there's a lot of really athletic routines.
And there's like a lot of behind the scenes talk
of like all the main cast of the of this
movie had to go to Cheercamp together. There's some really
cute behind the znes PAGs of like Karson doesn't Gabriela
union stretching and like being friends and it's cute, but um,

(01:09:09):
but you know, getting to see girls be athletic is
not something you get to see in a lot of
teen movies really ever. And so it's cool because I
I mean, I remember in junior high seeing like these
routines and being like, oh, that's so cool and like
going home and like fucking loser dancing it out at
my house, which is like, I mean, it's like, these
movies do affect you, and it it made me wish that,

(01:09:32):
you know, there were more movies that you got to
see girls be athletic in different ways because you're only
you know, when I was younger, I really wanted to
be a dancer, and I'm sure that a lot of
that reason was because that was how I had seen
girls be athletic and colt and like popular culture is
that you're dancing, your cheering. You can only do a
few different things. And it's like men, like there should

(01:09:55):
be more movies about girls playing sports and like doing
other athletics. It because there's so few options for for
for stuff like that. So there's like five thousand movies
about men playing football and like winning the game, ten
movies about women's sports teams period. I love movies about

(01:10:15):
when the boys win the game at the last minute. Yeah,
they're the best genre. On that note, I like that
the movie showed the athleticism of cheerleading. Yes, people a
lot of the time think of cheerleading is just like, oh,
you're just shaking pom poms and dancing and shaking your
butt or whatever. But like my senior project was on

(01:10:38):
cheerleading injuries, and cheerleading is like the number two catastrophic sport.
It's after football, and football they were a ton of
like there's like a ton of athleticism required the cheerleading.
I like that this movie really showcase that. Yeah, I mean,
like and getting to see again, I appreciated getting to

(01:11:00):
see full routines too, Like that was really cool. And there,
I mean, there's still so much where if you want
to fall down the rabbit hole of how professional cheerleaders
are treated now, it's like such a wild thing where
most of them aren't unionized, most of them are paid
like minimum wage and like professional team cheer like for football,

(01:11:20):
like Major American football. You know, where the football players
are making millions and millions of dollars, there are some
cheerleaders out there who were making nothing and getting injured
like at a comparable rate. So it's still like, uh,
sport that isn't being taken seriously, And I don't know,
it's it is cool to just see women being athletic
and kicking ass like they don't require a cheerleading coach

(01:11:41):
to have any kind of training. Has demonstrated by Mrs
spirit Fingers. He just lets spark you mcgorakan or whoever
he made was show up convictions that they gave two
thousand dollars to don't do that. My name is Spanky.
They're like, coo coo, coo coo cool, We'll get the

(01:12:03):
two thousand dollars. Kirsten's dad is getting it for us.
That's got it. Uh do anything else? Get not? Really,
I feel like we've only scratched the surface of this wild,
wild movie, but there's so much here. Yeah, I guess
it's it is cool that you see the athleticism of cheerleading,
that you see cheerleading has a sport being taken seriously.

(01:12:26):
You see a female driven story where the women are
driving the narrative. There you see a lot of different
personality types among the women that you see, which is
like usually not something that you Yet there's women in
conflict and you understand why, which almost never happens sometimes
and then sometimes it's Courtney and Whitney being mean for

(01:12:47):
no reason, right right, I mean, I guess I was
more talking about like the tour. Missy tore in isis like,
share are some female conflicts where you're like, these people
are very different and I understand why they do not agree,
such as tours stealing constantly and she's like I know, no, AB,
because she's like I do. Yeah. I think that was

(01:13:12):
all I had sick, all right, yeah, do you have
anything else? I think that we covered all the points
and aired all of my grievances. That's why we're here.
This movie definitely passes the Bechdel tests at a million
billion times over, which is great. A lot of the
exchanges are like you're a stupid slut, you dumb bitch,

(01:13:35):
and and then the other girls like yes, and we're like, well,
it's technically passes flood match capital. A lot of the
conversations are you know about cheerleading and training and their
goals and you should take a science class. No, right,

(01:13:58):
so handle passes Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's rate on our
nipple scale. Let's do it sero to five nipples based
on the representation of women. Um, I think I'll go
I mean yes, we know it's from two thousand and
all the problematic things that come with that, So I'm
it's like a two I suppose, doting a lot of

(01:14:21):
points for all the problematic ship that happens and the
fact that it should have been an entirely different movie
told from the point of view of Isis and her
clover squad, basing it on the movie that we are
presented with. I'll give it to nipples. Didn't mention the
pretty nice moment at the very end with Les and

(01:14:43):
another like unnamed male cheerleader at Nationals and they're like, hey,
good job out there, and the other one's like, hey,
you too cool, and then it's like, I guess they're
gonna kiss later. I don't know, but like, but that
comes at the end of such a long string of
like homophobia and just horrible nous that I was like, well,

(01:15:05):
that's a nice moment, but remember all the other stuff. Movie. Um,
so two nipples and I'll give both to Gabriel Union. Yeah,
I'll go two and a half. Yeah. I think that
there needs to be such a move towards the women
of color in this movie, because that is not just

(01:15:27):
like the right the doing the right thing, if you will,
But it's it's the more interesting story is on the
conflict between these two teams, like fuck the romance subplots
like a shoehorn in later. The interesting parts of this
movie are these white girls are stealing from these black
girls because they feel entitled to do so, and the

(01:15:48):
conflict that ensues there, Like that is the interesting part
of the movie. I think that there's so much more there,
and there's more interesting story, there's more message there, and
just getting to know the black characters in this movie
is such an important thing that just didn't happen. There
was a couple of lines and then we get forty
five minutes of Cliff like, give me a fucking break.

(01:16:11):
It doesn't focus on the characters we need to be
focusing on. It doesn't give the screen time to the
characters that we need to know I would like to know.
You know, It's like we know isis sort of, but
we don't like. The characters that she's surrounded by are
basically indistinguishable because we only meet them once or twice,
and so it yeah, I mean, on and on that front,
it's very frustrating. I am glad that you get to

(01:16:33):
see women in conflict in a way that makes sense
a lot of the time. I'm glad that you get
women with different opinions to some different personalities. You get
to see them being athletic. There. There's there's a lot
of good things going on, but there's a lot of
fat that could be trimmed in favor of a story
that is better and more interesting and just it makes
more sense for this movie to be. Uh So I'll

(01:16:54):
do two and a half. I give one and a
half to Isis, I'll eve her hanging with the last half,
and then I'm gonna give the last one to tours
Mom because she should take a science class. I will
give this movie. I would say two nipples and like

(01:17:15):
a hair, you know, two nipples and an ingrown hair.
That's like one point. I did like that it was
a cheerleading movie as well. It told my interests um.
I did like that it had a lot of women
and more women than men. And I did like that
it was a movie where ultimately, like if you watched it,

(01:17:37):
you could see that the women of color were in
the right Like if you really like Waited Past, you know,
they're little narrative, you could really see what was going
on and then they want at the end. I liked
that to know end. But you know, for a lot
of the reasons why we've already discussed, like if you
I mean, it doesn't hold up. You look back on
it and you're like, wow, this was this movie was

(01:17:57):
trying to be something and missing that mark. So um,
and I'm gonna give all of my all my nipples
to the clover squad ahead and do that. The ingrown hair.
Everybody else can fight over that. Yeah. This, I hope
what happens with this movie is it becomes one of
those stepping stone movies of like it did not do

(01:18:20):
what it thought it was doing, and let whoever makes
the next cheerleading movie learn from it, learn from its
strengths and weaknesses, and then we can just move on,
you know, yeah, because it still kind of did characterize
cheerleaders in a certain kind of way is dumb, which
is like you need to like you have academic benchmarks,

(01:18:40):
you have to pass past high school. Stupid, Like that's
not a thing, right, totally. Well, Maggie, thank you so
much for drawing us. Where can you give it up?
For Maggie? Where can people follow you online? Do you
have anything you would like to plug. Yes, I am

(01:19:03):
on Twitter and Instagram. Maggie may haa haas Maggie spelled
normally m A G G I E and then m
A y e h a h a um plan c
at the Park Jamie and I show they put on
right here in Los Angeles, I mean Sam Angeles. And

(01:19:29):
that was not that funny. Yes it was with with
other past guests of the show, including Ever Maynard. And yes, yes,
thank you again so much for coming on the show.
Give it up for yourself, give it up for Aristotle US,

(01:19:53):
and give it up for the Ruby. Thank you to
everyone at the Ruby. And uh yeah, thank thanks so
much for coming. A great night, lad