Magic Mike XXL with Becca Ramos

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the Bell Cast, the questions asked if movies have women?
And um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start changing
it with the beck Del Cast. Hey Jamie, Hey Caitlin,
it's me Magical Caitlin, and I decided to give up

(00:24):
podcasting and go back to my roots, which is dancing,
and I want to join you on the little road
trip you're taking to the Stripper Convention and we're going
to do a show together. Okay, Well, Hey, well, I
don't know. It's not that simple. I think that you
have to let me punch you in the stomach before

(00:45):
we can really we got to resolve this. We have,
we have. We're in masculine crisis and I would just
feel better if I could physically attack you. Okay, is
that cool? Yeah, that's cool. That's just Florida rules. Baby
is what is at Florida? That's a masculine Florida greeting. Um,
we'll go to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Magical

(01:07):
Jamie and I'm Magical Caitlin, and this is our magical
show in which we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens,
using the Bechtel test as a jumping off point to
initiate a larger conversation. That's true, what's to tell you
what it is? Okay? Yeah, well at Bechtel test. A

(01:28):
Bechtel test, and the is I guess that that's true
because there's a bunch of different kinds. It's a media
matric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the
Bechtel Wallace Test. A lot of versions of the test.
It was originally created as a one off bit in
Alice and Betel's amazing comic strip Dikes to Watch Out
for having recommend And now it's sort of used as

(01:52):
a way of telling if there's more than one woman
in the movie. So here's the version of the test
we use. Um our test requires that there be two
characters with names of a marginalized gender talking to each
other about something other than a man for two lines
of dialogue or more. Should be a you know, meaningful dialogue.

(02:12):
Make of that what you will. A lot of movies pass,
a lot of movies don't. But today, you know, today's
a magical episode. I feel I feel good about today.
Oh my god, I I kind of always because we've
covered the original, we've covered Magical Michael as a live show,
as a live show in which I danced on top

(02:32):
of you. I was wondering if you would bring that up,
because I've been thinking about it all day. It's been
on my mind. And now we're covering Magical Michael Extra
extra Large, and I just forgot what what a good
mood I'm in when I'm watching these dou faces gyrate
and learn a little less than about life. Tell me

(02:55):
about it. I just love it. And we have an
amazing guest to discuss Magical Michael Extra extra Large with
us today. We certainly do. She's a super producer at
my heart, works on The Daily Zigeist and Last Culture Stas.
It's Beccaramos. Hello, Hello, Oh my god, you guys, I
am so stoked to be here. First of all, because

(03:17):
this is a little little dream. If I can indulge
you in a little story of my history with the
Bechdel Cast, the show. Oh my gosh, this is probably
one of the podcasts I've listened to the longest, Like
I've been a Bechdel head, probably since you guys started,
and I actually went to you You're the only podcast
I've paid to see live. I've paid to see y'all

(03:38):
in Portland, and I went to the New York show,
the last one y'all did before COVID. I had just
moved to New York, and I was like, oh man,
I don't know anybody here, and I don't have any
plans tonight, and I'm feeling really lonely and really sad,
and I just like I was looking at things to
do in New York and I was like, oh my god,
the Bechtel Cast is doing a live show. So I

(04:00):
just bought a ticket and I like went after work. Yeah,
so I've been a listener. I'm wearing a Becktel shirt
because my sweet sweet partner was like, I want to
take you to go see the Betel Cast live in
l A for Christmas, but then, you know, we unfortunately
couldn't make the trip. But yeah, so I just want
to give you all a little fangirl moment of mine

(04:22):
to be here. I am gushing, that's so nice. Oh
my gosh, we're so happy to have you. This is
so exciting. Yes, I'm so excited. I don't even remember
what the show was in Portland, but I do remember
going by myself because I was like, no one listens
to my podcast, so I'm gonna go by myself. And
I took myself on a little date, took myself to
dinner when because the Betel cast, and then I was like,

(04:43):
this is too stressule. There's too many people here after
the end of the show, you know, so I just
left and I was like my little two hours. I'm
excited to come back to New York so we can
actually like see you at some point. Yes, I think
that that Portland show wouldn't have been fun Club. Was
that what we did? Yes, it was fight Club and
I had never seen fight Club. I didn't even see

(05:04):
it for the show. I was just like, I just
want to go through the back podcast. I think that
we were so like learning that was such a fun episode.
And also I think after that when we were like, oh,
we shouldn't choose like really complicated for live shows, but
it was so much fun. And that theater is so
cool anyways, that theater is really fun. Yeah, I love

(05:27):
that theater in Portland. And at the time of this
episode's release, we will have just done a few shows there.
So with Sarah Marshall and now we can say Robert Evans, Um,
she'll be a fun little treat. I can't wait to
get that man in a hand in Montana Wig. It's
just gonna feel good. Um, Oh my gosh. Well, we're
so happy to have you here. We didn't know that.

(05:47):
That's so cool. We're so happy to have you and exciting.
We're talking about Magical Michael XXL. What's your what's your relationship?
Your your history with the movie. So the first movie
came out, like o G. Magic Mike when I was
a senior in high school, so I was probably freshly seventeen,
and I feel like I saw it with some girlfriends,

(06:09):
like some high school friends. But as I was telling
Caitlin off Pod, I revisited this movie after I had
watched XXL for this, I was like, Okay, well, let
me just like watch Magic Mike to see if there's
any like true connection. I know it's technically a sequel,
but I don't remember there being a lot of like
through And so I watched Magic Mike after I watched
Magic My xx L, and I was like, I don't

(06:30):
know if I've ever seen this movie. I was like,
I know a lot about it. I remember certain bits
and pieces, but there was a lot of moments I
was like, I don't remember this at all. But then
to say my history, Magic my xx L. It came
out summer, so I was a sophomore going to my
junior of college, and I distinctly remember seeing it with

(06:51):
some sorety sisters. Like that summer. It was like a
raunchy you know, like my first real summer, like as
a young adult on my own. Like I was living
in way Go, which is where I went was cool
yuck for the summer, you know, I was like interning.
I was working like three jobs so I could pay
my rent. I was like, I'm having a fun working
girl summer um. And then I've probably watched it a

(07:11):
few times since because it's it's a wrong it's fun
on the rampo meter. That's that's so. It really is like,
because we're going to release this episode like to line
up with the third movies release, and it does seem
like kind of like almost an anthology series movie exactly.
They're all kind of a different genre. Like this next one,

(07:33):
I kind of love it where it's like this next
one takes place in London and it seems like magic
Mike is the only continuous character, and I have no
problem with I don't know. I was like, Okay, there's
the Magical Michael movie. It's like glass Onion and like
what was the one before Yeah knives out? You know,
like very like you have one character and then you're

(07:53):
just kind of forming new adventures with you know, a
new cast each time, which I have no problem with that. Yeah,
I like it. Yeah. I was like, it's it's cool
and and this is the this is the Buddy road
Trip version of that movie, and I loved it. Wait, so, Jamie,
what's your history with the movie? I hadn't seen it. No,

(08:15):
I was, um, I was not tapped into the Magical
Michael cinematic universe before we covered it last year, and
then I knew we would cover the second one, so
I sort of I was very tempted to watch it,
but I mean, fortunately slash Unfortunately, I would have had
to rent it. And when I was introduced with a
three dollar stumbling block, I was like, all right, I'll

(08:37):
just wait. So I did just wait, and I wasn't disappointed.
I had. I mean, it's like I enjoyed this movie
a lot in a lot of the same ways that
I enjoyed the first one, and then also in a
lot of different ways. I thought it was like a
cool kind of building out and like sort of course
correcting some of the stuff about the first movie that

(08:58):
we weren't so wild about out. You know, not a
perfect but it's just like it's such a good ROMP movie.
It made me feel so good. It's like two hours
of like fun for play. Like it's just like it's
all for play. Um. The Donald Glover character, oh my god,
I was just like he was like four played the man. No, y'all.

(09:21):
When I watched this, I was like, I forgot how
many people were in this movie. I forgot that. I mean,
I vaguely remember Jada Piggins in this movie, Elizabeth Banks
of this movie, Donald Glovers in this movie. I forgot
Eric Delco of c S I, Miami Face, tray Hand
like Michael Strahand Twitch, Rest and Peace. But so many
people are in this movie. Wild Yeah, I was really

(09:43):
it seems like um, Steven Soderbergh called in every favor
that he had for this for this one, and it
was like, I mean it were I don't know. I
thought it was so Funnyeah. They were like we must
trade up from Matthew McConaughey, you know, and thank goodness,
like they were like get rid of one, gain eight
and it's like, you can't really do much better than
Jada Pinkett Smith. Like I kind of I think that

(10:05):
this movie did like an amazing thing, which is because
it is like Dallas is like a very iconic character,
but I totally forgot about him by like you didn't
need him at all in this movie. And the kid
who was like, I mean, God bless him, but like
that kid Alex Petty for they were just trying to
make him happen over and over and over and it
just wasn't happening, and they're like, we gotta get him

(10:27):
out of here, and so what's his face? Who did Elvis?
I feel like they were like coming up at the
same time, and he became awesome. Butler, you know, surpass
Alex Pettifer. They are kind of the same man in
a way. For the longest time, I only knew Austin
Butler as m Vanessa Hudgens's boyfriend boyfriend. Yes, and that's

(10:48):
as you should know him. I hope that if he
will not win an Oscar I mean and I hope,
you know, I guess maybe I'm saying I hope he doesn't.
It doesn't feel earned. You know, he can do other
stuff and and maybe win for that, but but not this.
But it would be fun if they brought him to
the stage as Vanessa Hudgens boyfriend, because that is still
his most iconic role. Well, Caitlin, what's your history with

(11:12):
Magic Mike XXL? I gotta now, Well, I will tell you.
I saw it shortly after it came out, I think
just once or twice. I very distinctly remember a few
different scenes in it, such as the scene where Channing
Tatum parkours all over his workshop and then has sex
with his work bench. Really, I distinctly remember the scene

(11:36):
where he goes to Jada Pinkett Smith's characters mansion place
and Magical Michael dances all over the place there. I
distinctly remember the scene where he goes to Andy McDowell's
house and everyone just like talks about their sex lives.
So there were a few scenes that I that were

(11:58):
kind of just like seared into my memory. But I
hadn't seen it in several years, and it was a
joy to revisit it's really so. I mean, Matt Bomer
really is Bomber or Bomber was like I could not say.
He still that scene for me where he remembered the
lesson that Donald Glover taught him and then he sang

(12:22):
his beautiful song. And there's so many parts of this
movie that we're I mean, I don't know, it's complicated,
but also like every time I had a complicated thought,
I was like, I kind of like was banishing it
from my mind because I was just like, I just
want to enjoy this. Yeah, it's kind of a challenging
factal cast watch because I didn't want to think too

(12:44):
hard about anything. Oh yeah, it's like after watching the
first one, after I watched this one, you can see
where they try to correct some of the issues they
may have made in the first one, but they were
still like of the time being fifteen not quite correct, right,
And I guess we'll talk about them. Job to get

(13:05):
into every every time we make a criticism, we're also
allowed to be like, but that's that. I was very horny.
It's complicated. Yeah, exactly. Okay, shall I do the recap
of the movie. Yes, let's go, let's get Yes, feel
free to sound and oh my gosh, wait, this is

(13:27):
another problematic favorite oars James Cameron and Caitlin and I
sent this story to you, I know I did. Where
James Cameron said that he is so locked in when
he's filming Avatar movies that someone needs to sound and
a wuga sound if they want his attention on set.
And I would just like to bring that energy to

(13:47):
this episode for any part that made you specifically like horny.
If you're willing to disclose, feel free to sound the
wua and everyone will know James that your else. But
that could be interesting. You know, he really responds to
the Auga. He really does. Um. Okay, wait, let's take

(14:08):
a break real quick and then we will come back
for the recap. Okay, so here here we go Auga's
and all we see Mike AK magic, Mike AK, magical Michael.
That's Channing Tatum. Famously, it has been three years, I

(14:30):
believe since he left stripping. He is now running his
own furniture company where he designs and builds furniture and
delivers it to his clients. He then gets a call
from Tarzan, which wait, did we notice that the apartment
is the same apartment from the first movie, like Brooks

(14:52):
apartment from the first movie. Doesn't it look very similar? No,
I didn't watch the first one. Okay, see I did
watch the first one, So I do think they are
using her apartment from the first movie. Well do you
think that he got her apartment in the breakup? Well
maybe she moved on to bigger and better things. What

(15:13):
was sad though, because I felt like his apartment was
really nice, except for, obviously in the first movie getting
destroyed by those drug lords. But he had a very
nice apartment. Yeah. I didn't even put that together. He
had a great apartment to hold that ugly as furniture
he made, I will say between the first and second movie,

(15:35):
he appears to have gotten better at furniture making furniture
he makes more wood base pieces. Now, yes, let's not
trash that washed up on the beach not beach Trump
bless his heart. He got better. He got better at
it with three years of practice. That Malcolm Gladwell ten thing.

(15:56):
Really yeah, feminist Malcolm Okay, so um, Tarzan calls because
him and the other guys from the first movie are
coming up through Tampa and he also has some bad news,
which is that Dallas, the Matthew McConaughey character, died, so

(16:18):
Mike goes to the wake, but it turns out to
be a pool party because Dallas did not actually die,
but he did bail on them. He took the kid
a k a adam ak Magical Michael Jr. From the
first movie, and they started a show overseas not Austin Butler. Right.

(16:40):
It goes on so Um Tarzan played by Kevin nash Ken,
Matt Boehmer, Big Dick, Ritchie Uh played by Joe Manganello,
Tito played by Adam Rodriguez, and their MC Tobias Gabriel Iglesias.
They are all on their way to Myrtle Beach for

(17:02):
a stripping convention and Mike is like, that's cool, have fun.
And then Mike goes home. He works on his furniture
in his workshop. This is when we get the scene
where Pony by Genuine comes on Spotify. Immediately Horny a
wuga wuga wuga channing like he's a star. He's just

(17:26):
simply a star. Yes, that is exactly how I felt, Jamie,
when like that moment happened. I was like, this is
why we come to the movies. You know like I
was like, he is a star. The movie was feeling
like a movie. It was a lot. We come to
this place for magic. We come to this place for magic, Mike.
We come to the place for magical Michael. The movie

(17:49):
felt like a movie hardcore. I like, couldn't. I watched
that scene probably three times. It took me a long
time and to watch this movie because I got rewatching
because you just see like he's resisting it. He's making
choices and he's laughing. He's like I remember, He's like,
I'm dancing like no one's watching. I love when we

(18:12):
are watching and we're loving it. He Channing Tatum seems like,
I mean, by all accounts, hopefully when you listen to
this this is still true. He seems like a terrific person.
He's not canceled by then, but so he Kravitce loves
him so much. Come on, okay. Dancing around his workshop
and fucking his workbench inspires him to join his friends

(18:36):
and go to the convention. So they all load into
Tito's fro Yo food truck and start their road trip.
They make a stop in Jacksonville at a nightclub called
Mad Mary's, where there is this drag show slash competition happening,
and Mike and the other guys get on stage and

(18:57):
compete in it, although no one is in drag for
some reason except for like the host of the show,
where I was like, there's one person in drag confusing, right.
Then there's a nighttime beach hang seen where the guys
are talking about their current work situations and their dream jobs.

(19:19):
A few of them air some grievances with each other,
and they're just like having a heart to heart. Then
Mike meets a woman whose name we will eventually learn
to be Zoe. Pretty far into the movie, to be honest,
I think it's like literally the last twenty minutes. I

(19:42):
do wonder how like deep into the writing process Zoe's
character was added because I mean it's like I didn't
hate that she was there, but it just felt like
she felt kind of shoehorned into every scenario she appeared in.
She definitely didn't need be there. I guess, yeah, it's
again it's like I'm not mad about it, but it's

(20:03):
like I felt like she like there there were more
interesting women in the narrative that you could have like
zoned in on, but whatever, is fine whatever. Um Zoe
played by Amber Heard, is a photographer. She and Mike
flirt a little bit. It seems like she wants to

(20:23):
smooch on him, but he's like, I shouldn't and he
wishes her a good night. The next morning, the guys
are back on the road again. Mike suggests they shake
up their routine at the convention, but the guys are like, no,
we only have two days. We gotta do what we rehearsed,
and also like, Mike, you've been gone for three years,

(20:46):
like slow your role, which is fair. Even so, Mike
is like, no, let's do my idea. And he's like,
all the songs and the dances are things that Dallas
decided for you. We have to do stuff that comes
from us, that comes from the heart. And so he
helps Big Dick Ritchie come up with a new route,

(21:09):
a new routine, and part of that process is Richie
going into a convenience store doing a horny dance for
the like grumpy cashier lady to a Backstreet Boys song
and he successfully gets hurt to smile and the guys
are like, whoo, well that was the bet. Yeah, he

(21:30):
had to make the cashier smile. To agree to change
the routines. Yes. So there's a lot of scenes in
this movie that you're like, yeah, the scene could have
gone a lot of different ways. Good thing you went
the way it went right. But I I know that
the writer of this movie read Caroline. He's a white

(21:53):
guy who went to Harvard. Like, he's not um much
outside of like what you would kind of expect from
someone who is successful in Hollywood. But he and Channing
Tatum collaborate a lot, and I was, I'm cure I
couldn't figure out where he's from originally, because there's so
much like solid Florida man lore in this franchise where
they were like debating about the Backstreet Boys and like

(22:16):
which member left and which and and they were like, yeah,
that's the greatest thing to come out of Orlando. And
as a Backstreet Boys head, even though they are thoroughly
canceled and with good reason, but these are facts that
I have locked into my mind forever. I was like, Yeah,
Kevin Richardson did leave and then come back, and that
was historically significant, and why don't we talk about that.
Kevin Richardson not canceled Brian and Nick canceled them rightfully.

(22:40):
So the other three we can keep them as far
as we know, as far as yeah, so far at
the time of recording, we can keep them, okay. So yeah,
we see the scene where big Dick Ritchie gets the
woman to smile, and you know who else was smiling
during that scene? Me keep that? Couldn't help it of us.

(23:01):
How big Dick Richie got his groove back like, it
was really beautiful and he brought a bag of cheetahs
into the mix. And it's hard. It's hard to not
love it, even when you're like, is this okay? It
was okay to the guy slamming on the window. Why
was the woman not frightened? Who knows? But it was
very adorable. Luff is like fucking about to break the

(23:24):
pain of glass with enthusiasm and love for his friend.
It's it's complicated. And then I was like, Jamie stopped
thinking and I was like, wait, no, that's your job.
Stop thinking and start feeling. Okay, So back on the truck,
they take Molly and they're like, oh, man, I love

(23:44):
you so much. I've missed you. Magical Michael. We're in
harmony right now. And they love each other so much
that they crashed the truck and Tobias gets a concussion,
So now they don't have transportation costumes because they threw
them out the window or there m c because he
is undered and the convention is in two days. What

(24:07):
are they going to do? Big Dick Ritchie is like, oh,
the trip is over, let's just give up. But then
Mike reveals that he and Brooke had broken up because
she said no when he proposed, and he's like, look,
my life is in shambles and that's the real reason
I'm on this trip. I'm trying to move on, so
we can't give up now, and they're like, okay, let's
do it. It never comes up again, which I kind

(24:29):
of like. He's like remember that girl from the first
movie and I was like, oh yeah, I didn't really
like her very much. And he's like, well she broke
my heart anyways, that we have to do this. Yeah,
and then they bail on Fluffy ad percent. They're like,
goodbye Fluffy? Did they leave him at the hospital? Like
how did they get home? You take the greyround with

(24:50):
a concussion? Like I think they circle back around because
at this point there in outside of Jackson outside Yeah,
because they're going to Charleston so or no, they're going
to is Myrtle Beach near Charleston? Are they in the
same place? I don't know. They have to go to
Savannah first, so they do, got to go to Georgia first.

(25:10):
So that's what happens. Florida Georgia line. Hello. So they
go to Savannah where Mike knows another em C because
they need an m C. And he knows someone named Rome,
who turns out to be Jada Pickens Smith, and she
has this house where women come and watch various male

(25:33):
strip shows or just kind of like male entertainer acts
in different rooms. We see a few of these different acts,
including those of Augustus Ak, Michael Strahan, as well as
Andre played by Donald Glover and Twitch and dance right. Yes,

(25:54):
yes he is Jada Pinkett Smith's rooms like assistant guy.
But then like when they bring when when Rome and
Magic Michael come downstairs, Uh, they have like a dance
battle almost right, like the main guy dancing against Magic
Michael is Twitch. Right. He plays a character named Malik. Yes, yes,

(26:17):
so that's Malik Got It, which was so iconic and
lovely and he passed last year. I man i grew
up watching you thinking dance one time? Really really, Oh
my gosh, my senior year, I was a dancer for
many years. Wait me too, Oh my gosh, should we
start a dance troupe together? I can't dance, but I'll learn.

(26:38):
My sophomore year of high school, I went to see
So you Think He'd Dance Live? And Twitch was there,
and my friends and I were like, like, it was
just so thrilling and what a loss, what an icon.
I didn't know he was in this movie, and I
was was frantically googly. I was like, is that Twitch?
What a legend? Beautiful? Okay, So we see these different

(27:04):
acts throughout the night, and then Mike mentions the convention
to Rome, and she's like, oh, you want a favor
from me even though you walked out on me eight
years ago, because apparently he used to dance for her.
So she's kind of like upset with him, and he
just like comes like waltzing back in, wanting this favor,
and she's like, you have to redeem yourself, and he

(27:25):
does so by doing a very horny dance. Uh woa,
ho was so good. I had so many questions about, like,
I mean, we can get to this in the discussion,
I had so many questions about like, and I was like,
I'm probably deeply naive, and I was looking for like

(27:46):
answers to this question wasn't able to find them. I'm like,
what are like the rules of consent that happened when
you enter this place? Because probably sign a waiver, I
would assume, And You're like, and I'm assuming because magical
Michael worked there, he would know the rules, So like,
I'm assuming he's not doing anything that is like out

(28:07):
of pocket or bad. But but I was just like,
what do you agree to? It really seems like you're
getting flipped and dipped around. What if there's an injury?
Because there like a medic it's just injury. Also, like
your personal space is at risk of being invaded, which
it seems as though if you go to an event

(28:28):
show like this, you just basically agree to consent to whatever.
I don't know how ethical that actually is. I don't
know if it happened. I mean, it's like I'm sure
that Like, I mean, I'm not sure the places like
that exists. It feels like if you sit in the
splash zone at Sea World, you understand there's you know

(28:53):
what was going to happen. Probably just have to go
in with the same mindset. If you're going to a
show like this, yes, and everyone is I mean canonically
everyone is fucking thrilled about everything that happens all night long.
There's no I saw not a twitch of an eye

(29:13):
of someone who was like, I don't know if I'm
okay with this. Everyone was very okay with it. But
I was just like, I mean, honestly, I just had
questions because I'm like, the places like this exists, and
could can we go? Could I go? I would love
Michael Straighthand and Channing Tatum to um ruined my life.
So my favorite part was when he put his hand

(29:35):
on both of their backs and he was doing the
like side like swivels around and like humps them both
from behind. Again a wouga. But I was worried about
the like the two the two women who like yeah
when he did that, but then he put another woman
on top of one of the women. I'm like, we
don't know about her back, what if she had scoliosis,

(29:56):
Like we don't know how secure as as sculios his head.
I was like, that would have that I would have collapsed,
would have broke me, would have broken me. I would
have you know, I would have died doing what I loved.
But but but I would have died. Yeah, I simply
don't know. It's a fantasy movie. Whatever, right, Okay, So

(30:22):
at the end of the night, Mike any other guys
say goodbye to Rome and then Andre Donald Glover takes
them to Charleston, where they go to the house of
this woman, Megan, who Tito had hooked up with maybe
like the night before at that like beach hang But

(30:42):
they first run into Megan's mom, Nancy, Okay, Andy McDowell
and her friends. And I didn't realize this until my
second watch of the movie to fully register what happened here,
because I was like, wait, whose house are they going
to and how do they know her? And who is
Andy McDowell in relation to any of these people? And
then I realized that, so Megan is this woman who

(31:05):
they met maybe one or two days before, they barely
know her. She was like, come through to my house
in Charleston. They just show up and go inside of
the house. They don't even they didn't not they just
marched right in. Honestly, the fact that the door was unlocked.
Was very Southern of them, Like, that does not shock

(31:27):
me that it's very as someone from the South. I
was like, yeah, I guess that's that's accurate. Yeah, And
then is this a Southern thing where the owner of
the house sees like five strange men in her foyer
and it is like, oh, hey, come on in and
have a drink. Honestly, it is that is the Southern hospitality.
I was like, Honestly, that whole scene was not that

(31:49):
crazy because I'm like, rich, lonely old women from the South.
Then what they see hot men? First, they didn't see like,
you know, most of them are white, you know what
I'm saying. So it's like they were not threatened. They
were like, oh, look at these charming young men. They
look like strippers. And if they're still in Georgia, I'm
sure they're like understand that there is a lot of

(32:10):
because from my understanding, there are a lot of strip
clubs in Georgia. So yeah, I think there's like it's
like Atlanta and Portland's I think the highest strip clubs.
Portland has so been quite a few of them. Kitlin
and I went to one once. We went to an
eggs and legs situation in Portland a couple of years ago.
We should go back, We should go back. A fan

(32:32):
of the show hooked us up, So thank you for that.
It's fast. We had eggs, we had legs. I was
curious about that because it was like the way that
Andy McDowell's character reacted made it seem like her daughter
brought home really hot troops of men. Constantly, She's like,
who is this? Oh my daughter? Okay, that makes sense.
I was like, wow, chill mom. She's a cool mom.

(32:57):
She's like, cool mom. So they you start chatting with Nancy,
and then Megan and her friends come into the room
and one of them is Zoe. So all of the
guys are talking to all the women. They're asking about
their like fantasies and their sex lives and all this stuff.
In another room, Mike and Zoe are chatting some more. Uh.

(33:20):
Later that night, Big Dick Richie ends up having sex
with Nancy off screen, which is a shame. It's a
shame would have liked to see. But then the next
morning they head out from Charleston and arrive in Myrtle
Beach at the convention. Surprise, Rome and Andre meet them

(33:41):
there because Rome has decided to m see the show
after all. Then they go to check in with Elizabeth Banks,
the director of Cocaine Bear herself. I hope that is.
I hope that's how history remembers her ultimately. What a
treat that would be amazing. Yes, um, so she's checking

(34:04):
them in. But then we find out that these guys
did not even register for the convention or book a
show there. They just showed up thinking they were going
to do a spot. To be fair, that is what
they just did at Andy McDowell's house, and it worked
out pretty spectacularly for them. I'm gonna say, as men,
I feel like that's made sense to me because I'm

(34:25):
sure Dallas did all that booking and stuff. I'm sure
they had no idea like that was something they had
to do. They were just like, well, we go to
this thing every year, so like, why don't we just
show up? We're going there. They truly are like baby
men in a lot of ways, where they're like, what
do you mean We're so beautiful? Why can't we Like,
no one's ever said no to me before. But I

(34:46):
don't understand Jada Pinkett s meant to the rescue. She
and I also liked that those characters were named Paris
and Rome and that they were friends. You're like, yeah,
it's all consense. Wow, he got, he got. And then
it's because of Realm's clout that Elizabeth Banks is like, okay,

(35:07):
you get this, like prime Spot. Then there's a montage
of them prepping for the show. We see them shopping,
they're making costumes, their building sets, and then they put
on a show that Rome m c s. We see
solo acts from all the guys, each one relating to
their passion. So Tarzan does like a painting thing, Tito

(35:30):
does a candy thing since he's the fro yo guy.
Ken sings because he is also like a musical performer
and singer, Big Dick Ritchie. It does this whole like
wedding slash kinky wedding night act. And then finally it's magical.

(35:51):
Michael and Malik do this like mirror act. They said
step up here we go then and we are like
a wuga. Zoe is there with Megan and she gets
brought up on stage and Mike dances all horny all

(36:11):
over her. Then like we see a little montage of
them like getting ice cream after the show, and that's
basically the movie. If you're wondering if there is a
conflict in this movie, they're kind of is not. There
is not. Often there's some like interpersonal tension between the characters,

(36:32):
but it's usually pretty quickly resolved and then there's not
much in the way of conflict aside from that, which
is usually not how you write a screenplay. But this
movie is great and I have no complaints. So that
is the story. Let's take a quick break and we
will come right back to discuss and back. Oh my goodness, Okay, yeah,

(37:03):
I I agree. I mean, I guess that there isn't
really much there. I didn't. I honestly didn't notice until
I was, like I really thought about it, because it
did feel like the main tension of this movie kind
of like came from both like this group of men
who we knew resolving their differences with each other and

(37:24):
then like growing as people whilst on a road trip.
And I love I loved that. I don't know, that's
all I really have to say that. I feel like
the biggest conflict was with Rome, right because it was
like obviously like this like new plot point being brought
up of like we have to make Chang Tatum this
central character, not that we didn't already make in the

(37:46):
central character by coming back, but it felt like in
the first movie, you don't get anything of the other guys, right,
Like it's all about you know, Magic Michael and Little
Michael and Brooke, and so I feel like this was
the moment to bring it back to like what is
Michael's history? He is a titular dancer, Like who is
this strife with his older host or manager? I don't

(38:10):
know what to call her, madam, I don't know, I
don't know her job title. But yeah, I feel like
that's where the biggest conflict was. But obviously it gets
resolved by the end of the movie. And yeah, back
to your point, Jamie, as far as like the movie
being about men like connecting and growing together and like

(38:31):
figuring themselves out, there aren't a lot of movies like that,
And there aren't a lot of movies that center male
friendship and male friendship in which the characters are like
vulnerable with each other and they like open up to
each other. So there's like all these like wonderful things
that you don't normally see on screen. Happening in this movie,
especially that these men are like such like expressions of

(38:54):
like heteronormative you know, like like these big, buff, hot
like himbo men, men that you wouldn't consider vulnerable or
people that would you know, express themselves that way, that
kind of thing so traditionally. Yeah, yeah, I felt like
that was like some of the most strong stuff in
the movie was like focused on their relationships with each other,

(39:16):
because it also didn't make it so easy for them
of like, oh, well, these are just like this is
a band of emotionally intelligent, like I think, mostly heterosexual
men as far as we know, which would be you know,
I mean that it would truly be a fantasy movie
because you're like, that's just like not how heterosexual men

(39:38):
are socialized. And so you do see towards the beginning
of the movie, like them trying to resolve interpersonal issues
with like traditional masculinities such as magical Michael starting by
being like all right, we're gonna do some therapy and
then he's like punch me and they throw up, and
you're just like all right, these guys like you know,

(39:59):
you're runk on a beach in Florida. Of course, that's
how you're going to try to resolve the problem. But
they continue to grow and I like that like every character,
although like I mean, I do feel like some characters
more than others, which we should talk about, but they
all enjoy being male entertainers. They get a lot of

(40:21):
personal satisfaction out of that. It just seems like it's
it's so funny because I feel like that's part of
what's so appealing about this franchise to me. Of like
you're watching men have impostor syndrome all the time, which
you don't really see very much of, Like they feel
judged by the world by being strippers, but also they

(40:43):
have other dreams and they want to have both of
those things at the same They want to have it all,
which is every movie about every woman ever, and you
never really see that about men because you don't really
see men and professions where they are treated like meat,
which these men are. So it's interesting seeing like these
different characters have different you know, and it like it

(41:03):
relates to their age in some ways, where Tarzan is like, yeah,
you know, I've I don't know, maybe like I don't
regret my life choices, but it would have been really
cool to have like a domestic life and you know
you have people that I mean, Matt Bohmer's character is
like I wish I had, you know, been a singer
and like you have everyone had the thing, like they

(41:25):
both love what they do and also I wonder what
life would have been like if they had done something else.
And that's really I don't know. You just don't see
it a lot with with male characters, specifically because men
usually get what they want well and them all showing
envy too of of magic Michael because he did quit

(41:46):
and he did pursue what he wanted to do, and
that was part of why they were upset with him,
because they were like, you know, as much as like
we're mad at you for abandoning us, we're also jealous
that you like found your thing and you like stuck
to your guns and you made it happen. But I
also so and I was worried that there was going
to be because this is an issue that we had
with the first movie, where because so often the way

(42:10):
sex work is presented in media, it's something that no
one chooses to do and that people are trying to escape.
And that might be true for some sex workers. But
there are a large number of sex workers who this
is their chosen profession and they're very proud to do it,
and they're very excited to do it. And there was
discussion around the first movie where Mike quitting stripping partially

(42:35):
it seems because that's what his girlfriend wanted him to do.
There was criticism around that, and so I was worried that, like,
there might be some degree of that in this movie.
But it seems as though all of the men who
are doing this work in this movie, at least a
few of them say if I had my dreams like

(42:58):
Donald Glover's, like, oh, if my LP dropped tomorrow and
I like made it big, I would still do this.
On the side, if I was, for example, childish Gambino,
I would still do this. You're like, all right, Donald
Glover as himself, he's not Donald Glover in this movie.
He's childish Gambino. Like specifically, I'm like, yeah, you are
in your child like everything about you, like the Fedora,

(43:19):
like everything about this era of childish Gambio. It is
not Donald Glover as he is today, because like today,
I'm like, he's not childish green to know he is
Donald Glover now, but then that is childish Gambio that movie.
That's not he is. And it's like, because the internet
childish Gambiano too, it's like really childish Gampio. Like absolutely,
I did not know he was in this movie, and

(43:39):
I was like, I forgot. I totally agree with You're like, wow,
this is a very specific Donald Glover we're getting in
this movie. Two years later, this Donald Glover was no
longer available, and arguably two years later, the body of
that Donald Glover would have made more sense in this movie.
But you know, man, it was wild seeing him in
this role and but was I was like, he's such

(44:01):
a baby. He's a baby. He was still doing like
Troy like he It was very it was a different
era of Donald Globber. It feels like the tail end
of that era. But yeah, I I totally agree with you, Caitlin,
because that was something we talked about in our first episode,
was that like it's made to seem like, Okay, well,

(44:22):
he got a lot out of working as a sex worker,
but at the end of the day, that's not the
quote unquote the sensible choice. But I like that this
franchise course corrects in this way. Where it's like, well,
this is like a huge part of who he is,
and like why can't more than one like it? Just
it sort of wants to explore like you don't need

(44:43):
to choose one thing and like the less of a person,
And that seems like what most of the guys are
kind of coming to terms with and struggling with in
in this movie in a way that I thought was
like pretty effective and cool because you also have Tito,
who's dream is to get this like artisanal fro yo

(45:03):
food truck slash dance party DJ. I love that all
their dreams are like best of luck guys. But so
his dream is to get that going. But he says
like nothing makes me feel better than that, aside from
being on stage, like he still loves performing. So I

(45:25):
appreciate that you have at least a few of the
characters expressing like this is not something I'm trying to escape. Uh,
this is something that like I will always do. So
I appreciated that, and and that they come to accept
each other like and it totally makes sense that they
have like the tension they do. Like I really liked
the conversation between Magical Michael and sorry I'm just gonna

(45:47):
keep calling him Matt Bomer. What is that? Damn Ken,
He's literally the Kendall. I was a little like not
sure what to make of him. I mean, I I
really like Matt Bomer, so I feel like maybe I
was like bringing I like Matt Boomer energy into the
chat on this one. But I did like how they

(46:08):
had to have converence, like a couple conversations before they
had really made peace, because it was like, oh that,
you know, like, I think it's interesting with people of
all genders when people get into, for lack of a
better term, because I am pro this, I've made whole
shows about it, woo woo stuff, and then sort of

(46:28):
are able to say, like, well, because I am now
a spiritual person, all of my past problems and trauma
have been resolved via this. And that is not always
not for everyone, is always necessarily true, because it's like
sometimes it's like you can use a spiritual practice to
avoid actually dealing with your ship, and it seems like

(46:49):
that's kind of what Kenn is doing and I did,
And there were moments where I felt like the movie
was kind of making fun of him for like the
reigy stuff over Gabriel Glacia Is like there were moments
where he's clearly being made fun of. Well, do you
feel like he was queer coded in this movie, because
to me, you watched the first one and none of

(47:11):
them really have speaking rules, right, like you kind of
like going back into it. I was watching the first
one and I was like, oh, yeah, they really aren't
actualized characters there, like a part of a group, but
you don't really learn much about them. You just know
like Ken's wife has big tits, and like they like
the funk and they do drunks. Like that's about it.
He doesn't really say more than three lines the whole movie.

(47:32):
But this movie, as they developed his character, it felt
really queer coded. And at this time, Matthew Bomber has
already come out, like he in the first movie had
not come out yet. He came out in which is
when the movie was released, So during the production of
that movie he had not come out. So by this
movie he had come out. So I was like, it

(47:53):
felt like to me, by the end of the movie,
they were trying to get to him having an arc
of you know, coming out, and then they just like
cut it, and it felt very like like not actualized
or like I couldn't tell what they were trying to do.
That's really interesting. I hadn't I honestly hadn't thought about
it that thoroughly, but I did. I didn't know that

(48:13):
Matt Boehmer came out the same year Magic Mike one
was released and has been out ever since, and I
don't know. We felt like I had a conversation on
this show many times where it's like, you know, it's
because you're a queer actor, doesn't mean you need to
play queer characters. But it did seem like at moments
where it was like, what are we trying to say
about this character? And I feel like it speaks to

(48:34):
kind of like a larger point that I have with
a lot of the non Magical Michael characters, which I
think some were better developed than others. I totally agree
with you that like Ken's story is like they're like, well,
he wanted to be a singer, and that's kind of
where they leave it, which is bizarre given the like
stuff you know about him from the first movie, which

(48:57):
never really comes back, and you're like, they broke uh, yeah,
never mentioned again. Yeah. And in fact, so there's a
scene on the beach where where Mike says to Ken like, oh,
are you still with Mercedes? And he says no because
he cites the reason being like they tried to do

(49:19):
monogamy and that didn't work out for them, so they
split up. And then that's what leads to magical Michael
being like punched me in the stomach. I was like,
where did this come from? Um? Because suddenly like one
of them is being passive aggressive. I didn't even notice it.
I'm not quite sure. But if you consider that Mike

(49:39):
has a love interest who is a woman, you have
Big Dick, Ritchie has sex with Andy McDowell, Tito has
sex with her daughter Megan, you have um Tarzan saying like, oh,
I would love to go home to like a wife
and kids. But there's never any men mention of Ken

(50:02):
having a romantic interest who is a woman. So I
think maybe based on that there is possible queer coding,
but it's not overt to me. It wasn't clear enough
that I felt like you could like. I just wonder.
I was like, is there something that was like cut?
I don't know, because it is also like there is

(50:23):
kind of a vibe of a one to one, and
I don't even mean that as an insult to this movie.
But as far as I know, the only and maybe
I'm incorrect about this, I'm not totally sure. As far
as I know, the only people I knew to be
openly queer who are in this movie are Matt Bomer

(50:43):
and Amber Heard, And it is a one to one
situation if we are interpreting Ken is a queer coded character,
where Matt Bomer is an openly gay actor and Amber
Heard is openly bisexual and has been for a long time,
and they make that can and into her character as
well in a way that I didn't take any issue with.

(51:04):
It was presented very matter of factly, and she wasn't,
you know, like bisexual characters are treated like shit or
like as jokes so much, and she wasn't. But I
did feel like, oh, yeah, the only actors in this
movie that I know are openly queer. I don't know.
I mean, it's it's I don't know, yeah, it's not
even a positive or negative. I'm just like, what was

(51:29):
going on? Interesting to ponder. I do like, like you mentioned, Becca,
that each character is given more characterization in this movie,
which helps too. Again, another issue we had when we
discussed the first Magic Mike movie is that it's a

(51:49):
movie that seems like it has the agenda to humanize
sex workers or you know, male entertainers, but it kind
of doesn't do that that much because it really only
focuses on two of those characters and puts the other
ones kind of in the background. This sequel doesn't do that.
It gives each of the five main Magical Michaels a

(52:14):
distinct either like arc or goal or just kind of
more characterization in general, although two varying degrees I supposed
to say, because I feel like Adam Rodriguez's character was
characterized by a large margin the least like I was
going to say that, Yeah, like the guys we learned

(52:35):
more about, because we do get characterization of everybody to
some extent. But like for my reading, it was like Ken,
even though that was ambiguous as you were just talking about,
but like Ken's was more of a I don't know,
I mean, I don't really have an issue with it
because some people were like a relationship thing with Ken.
It was more of a career thing whatever. But Ken,

(52:58):
Big Dick, Ritchie and tar Zanne I think got the
most attention. They are like three white passing men, and
then Adam Rodriguez I thought, was given the least attention
of the bunch. And then Gabriel Iglesias is like ejected
out of the movie rocket in the middle and and you,
I mean, it's it's not like there is I don't know.

(53:19):
I mean I'm curious to discuss that, because there was
some sort of I don't know, it's the discourse around
this movie when I was revisiting it for research was
so that I was like, I don't know, because it
is like a pretty diverse movie. It's not like you know,
who knows. Maybe Gabriel Iglesias was like I have to

(53:41):
go on a world tour. I can only be on
set for like three days or whatever. Like he's really
successful in it, and like it is a very diverse movie,
but it's still like there's still kind of these things
that feel very rooted and like, okay, like it's still
centers whiteness, light skinnedness. Yes, right. They even call out

(54:04):
Adam Rodriguez as like their token man of color in
their like group. They're like, yeah, we got the the Latino,
you know, and then Adam trying to throw it back
at Big dig Ritchie. It was like, well, you are
also technically a person of color, and he's like, I'm
Armenium whatever, I'm white. Like he literally was like, I
have internalized racism and I'm white. And you know, justice

(54:26):
for Adam Rodriguez because I have had a crush on
him for very many years and he's a beautiful Latino
man and he deserved. He was also the second best
dancer in my opinion. I think he's a better dancer
than Big Dick Ritchie. And I feel like he did
not get enough dancing time. Yeah, I agree, I agree.
He's wondering and it's like also, I was just like, wow,
Mr Criminal, minds the disrespect, Like it's just Adam Rodriguez

(54:51):
is an icon and they didn't give him enough to do. No,
he's an amazing dancer, but I just like, I feel
like it really actually kind of aim all the way around,
like who was characterized versus who wasn't at the end,
because they were all given big set pieces about like,
hey remember their arc here it is in a sexy dance,

(55:11):
and Adam Rodriguez is I think was like, even though
he is one of the stronger dancers, was one of
the and who like what he does in that routine
with the chocolate in the licking y're just like a
wuga Like I was going pretty hard. I was really
present in the auga zone for that one, but narratively

(55:33):
you're he's just in front of like the fro Yo truck. Yeah,
and it's like I again, And as far as I'm
at Bomber character, I honestly don't know where to fall
in terms of like how we were supposed to feel
about Ken. It did feel like the cannon from the
previous movie was abandoned in a way that felt a
little bizarre. It was done to everybody to some extent,

(55:54):
but like Ken's felt especially dismissed. But it is like
Ken and Tito have career based things going. But even so,
like Ken gets the bigger spotlight on his moment in
like the Antie McDowell sequence where you get to see
like Donald Glover in his childish Gambino era plants the

(56:16):
seeds of like you know you can and a plot
point I thought was like really cool of like well
you can like combine your passions in a way that
is really like beautiful and like you can use your
you know singing in musicality to like make women happy,
which is why we've been put on this earth, which
is kind of the theme of the movie for whatever reason.

(56:38):
And it's great, But like Ken gets that big moment
where he uses his dream to do what he's currently
doing in a way that makes him and a woman happy.
Tito doesn't really get that moment, and so like when
you see him dancing in front of his fro Yo truck,
it just like doesn't have the same amount of impact

(56:59):
because he wasn't given like the same moment in focus. True, um,
I was prepared to argue that Tarzan was given the
least amount of kind of characterization. Maybe it's just because
he's on screen the least amount of time. I felt
I kind of agree with you, Kaitlin, in a different way,

(57:21):
Like I agree that I think characterized he is the
least focused on, but I feel like Adams was more
poignant because he is the only brown one. Definitely, But
I was noticing that there were scenes that like Tarzan
wasn't even in, Like it seems like the four younger
guys would like go do something fun, and so I
was like, is this an ageist choice that's happening because

(57:43):
Tarzan is the oldest of them, can I tell you,
I mean, maybe this is like rude because I know
that Kevin Nash has been in a lot of stuff.
I sort of interpreted that choice of like, yeah, professional
wrestlers aren't always great actors. Uh, that was sort of
my thing. I was like, and I don't know, absolutely
could be agism. I think I defaulted to like, not

(58:05):
everyone's the rock and not everyone like but maybe that
was unfair of me because the scenes that Tarzan is
in I really loved him. He's a lovable character. Yeah,
but but if you think, like he does say in
that one scene that he would like trade his dick
swinging lifestyle for a wife and kids and people who

(58:28):
love him. But that's the only moment that we get
any indication of that, especially because we didn't even know
his name. Like there's that moment where Magic Michael's like
and and he's like Ernie and he's like, I don't
know anything about him. And then there's another scene where
later kind of booze him when he and when he
says like that was I thought that that was I mean,

(58:50):
it was like both very like it felt Soderbergie where
it felt very like I don't know, like I love
I love in soderberg movies, like the way that conversations
play out feel like pretty realistic and funny, even when
they're like not very sensitive towards everybody. But it didn't
really come all the way back around in a way
that felt sensitive to him because because he was like, oh,

(59:11):
this is what I want, and everyone's like bummer, You're like,
oh he he pours his heart out and everyone's like
buzz kill alert and then they move on if there
was like tomato tomato, and then they move on and
talk to a woman who we hadn't met before, won't
we won't see again, So it's like Tarzan's right there, like,

(59:34):
but if she doesn't go on a journey in that scene,
Let's be honest. I thought that then, was I was like, honestly,
I mean, like, I think it is interesting how this movie,
you know, I think, with varying degrees of success, but
this movie does attempt and seems to have an agenda
to navigate through a lot of different class systems and

(59:56):
races and gender and like I feel like it try
to use the road Trip movie in a in an
unusual way, which is like not to make I feel
like the road trip movies that were used to are
more often used to like make a mockery of the
communities they're passing through to characterize the protagonists, whereas like

(01:00:17):
this movie is trying to again with like varying degrees
of success, to like not do that, to like pass
through a lot of different classes and and but do
it in a way that like you have a moment
to appreciate someone in the scene that's like specific, and
there's not a lot of like movies like that. I

(01:00:38):
don't know, like the Antimidald thing. I was kind of
all over the place on that sequence. I didn't know
because it's like you don't really like I want to
like linger on like upper crossed white Ladies of the South. However,
the way that they're written and characterized, I thought in
that moment, especially with like a woman, I don't know,
it just got me thinking about like the boomer women

(01:01:00):
in my life who like Andy McDowell's character, I thought,
you know, she's very like cool, moming it, which who
knows how her daughter feels about that. That can suck,
but you know she's just like, oh, I've only ever
had sex with one person because that's what I was
told to do. And now I'm fucking miserable. I don't

(01:01:22):
really know what where her husband's like, I think that
they're divorced. Maybe I don't know. It seems like she
kicked him out, but maybe the papers aren't finalized. Vibes
like he obviously I felt like he cheated on her.
And then she was like wow, like I've only had
one dick in my life and you out here swinging it.
Get out of my house. Like, I'm not signing the
papers yet because I want the money right now, so

(01:01:45):
the house. She also says like we broke up because
he's gay, and then her daughter is like, you don't
know that for sure, and then she like like that yeah.
She's like, well he loved it when I stuck my
finger up his and then she means, no, I don't
want to hear it, and Tito was like, it's really
kind of fun. Tito did come in and say like, hey,

(01:02:08):
a finger up the bum, what's wrong with it? Yeah?
But with that, I mean specifically with the I I
know that she was given a name. I don't remember
what it is because I hate women but the character
who I just thought it was like a very vulnerable
writing point for like a middle aged woman to say, like,
my husband has never had sex with me with the

(01:02:30):
lights on. And I don't know if that's a him thing.
I don't know if that's like, but it's clear that
like she's internalized it and it's very insecure and it's like,
is something wrong with me? And then I don't know,
I mean it's I guess you can like come at
this movie in so many different ways because in a way,
the married troop of male strippers is characterizes like these

(01:02:52):
men are coming to save you and make you feel
good about yourself again. And I think there is a
way to look at that a little critically of like,
there's a lot of movies that I think really effectively
show fellow women and people of marginalized genders like helping
each other through stuff like that versus like this guy
you just met making you feel good about yourself. But

(01:03:14):
I also think that there is like some beauty in
that and some like that character seems to feel so
like vindicated and comforted by the fact that it's like, no,
you're hot, your husband is who knows what's going on
with him and you're beautiful and you're great, and like,
I do think there is some value in hearing that

(01:03:34):
from someone that you're attracted to in a way that
can be like really impact. I don't know, I liked
that scene, is what I'm saying, Especially because men are
not conditioned to be equipped to help really anyone with
their emotional issues that they're going through. I would like

(01:03:55):
sex workers of any gender are especially equipped to make
people feel valued and attractive and loved. That's like the
service that sex workers often provide. So even though like
at large, men are conditioned in such a way to
like not have those skills, these particular men that's their job,

(01:04:17):
that's what they're good at. So like Donald Glover gives
that great sort of like mini monologue about about that
of like how he and again, I do think that
there's multiple ways to look at this where there is
a patronizing vibe to a man saying like we're healers,
we heal women, and you're like, yeah, sure, but like
you know, but I think in the context of the

(01:04:39):
movie it is like an attempted, very wholesome message because
when the conversation is before that is like Donald Glover's
character talking about how through sex work he's like realized
how infrequently the women that he worked with are like
listened to and cared for. Yeah, and he's like, Okay,

(01:05:02):
so this is something that I can provide that like
unfairly the women that I meet are not given in
their day to day life, and it is I do
think it is a little overly simplistic, and I do
think it is, like, if you think about it too hard,
a little patronizing, but because it kind of makes the
women seem sad, like all of them are sad, and

(01:05:22):
some of us are just horny. Some of us are
like like, okay, i'm here, I'm single, you know, assumingly right,
Like it's like i'm single, I'm having fun or you know,
like if you're like a couple of my friends that
love going to strip club and they're not single, she's like,
I'm bringing my man, Like we're having a great time.
Like we're just like we're enjoying, we're tipping the ladies.

(01:05:42):
Like there's a whole spectrum available of reasons why you
would like seek out entertainment like that. Yeah, that's I
guess that that's like one of them more because this
movie is written and directed by straight white guys. Yeah,
like man, and I think you know the fact that
like mostly straight men are involved at the highest level.

(01:06:04):
I'm like, I don't really know how they pulled it off,
but I do think that there is, like there is
this tendency in this franchise that is true for some
women but not all, And I feel like maybe that
is where like the a little bit of dissonance comes
in that like there is always ad a necessary emotional

(01:06:28):
aspect to seeking out sex, work or seeking out pleasure, Like,
like there there's because of how the men in this
story approach their work, which again I'm like worked for me, um,
but it does seem like it's like a prerequisite that
most of the women they come into contact with are

(01:06:50):
not just seeking a physical experience but seeking an emotional experience, right,
Which is a bit trophy to assume that women need
an emotional component to sex and pleasure because women are
so emotional, even though, of course many women and films
are very capable of non emotional sexual gratification. Although to

(01:07:13):
go back to the kind of monologue that Andre gives
in the car, where he's saying, like, yeah, like men
don't listen to women. Men never ask women what they
actually want, and all we have to do is just
listen to them and ask them what they want. And
when they tell us, that's a beautiful thing. And my
initial reaction was like, it is beautiful, and oh my gosh, yes,

(01:07:35):
it would be so nice to have someone listen to
me and ask me what I want. But then I
was like, damn, women have to pay men to listen
to them, and that does pretend to care about them.
It is. I'm just like, but that has so many
implications too, because I'm like, well, first of all, it's

(01:07:57):
indicative of the way it's like the individual he's fault, right.
It's also it's just like indicative of the way men
are again like socialized in conditioned, especially in like hetero
romantic relationships, where like men aren't often really taught how
to like like be romantic or just like have the

(01:08:18):
emotional intelligence to like care for their partners emotional needs,
like just all this stuff. And I don't want to
sound like I'm I'm suggesting that it's pathetic or anything
like that in any way to like pay someone up.
And I don't think that the movie is trying to
code it that way. No, definitely not, And so I
just want to make that clear, like there's there's no

(01:08:38):
judgment from us or from the movie that like anyone
would pay for that type of like I don't know,
just like emotional care that these men are often giving
to women. But I guess I was just reminded of
the the bar is so low for male behavior where
it's just like all you have to do is just

(01:08:59):
like listen and then like check in with me, and
then it's just like, oh my god, I'm coming. Literally,
all those women, all those older women in uh, South Carolina,
were just like gushing. They were just so happy to
have these young men in their home. And also, like
I think Caroline in Savannah like is also sort of

(01:09:23):
utilized to a similar extent. And it's like it sucks
because in both of those sequences, I was like so
thrilled for them that they were like getting something that
they clearly like wanted. But with Andre and Caroline in
the Savannah sequence, like he brings her up, and I
think that it seems like she's expecting, you know, I mean,
I don't know, because I don't know if she's been

(01:09:43):
there before, but like you know, it seems like she's
expecting kind of a traditional, very very physical stripper experience
and then he lap dance fine, but then he shocks
and amazes her by asking her a question about her grandma.
And it's like, again, that scene really works for me.
I love how it plays out, and it's like the

(01:10:04):
character Caroline is clearly like wow, this is great. But
I did feel like she's a doing hard hard. Becca
was so hard. That was like my challenge Cambio obsession
era right like the first time, and I was like, uh,
you know, this time, I was like, I mean, I

(01:10:25):
was still kind of loved it, but I like back then,
I was like, oh my god, I needed that. And
so it's like it's in a way it's like I
don't know, like there's a way to come at it
where you're like, wow, that is something that most women
don't even feel entitled to in their day to day life,
to the point where it's like this would be a

(01:10:45):
really unusual thing to happen. And then the other way,
it's like, well, you know that, like guys are writing
and directing this, and it's like it is to some extent,
men writing what they think women want and then controlling
the behavior of the women in the story to be like, Wow,
this is what I want, and so it's like, you know,

(01:11:08):
it's a little yeah. I think some of those interactions
would feel more authentic had there been more women behind
the camera in creative positions, making creative choices. I had
way more Like I watched the movie all the way
through and I was like, well, I love this, I'm horny.
This is the best ever. And then I think I

(01:11:29):
forgot this between our episode of Magic Mike a year
ago and now. But I was like, oh, yeah, this
was all written by a white guy who went to Harvard.
Now I feel dubious, like I was tricked. I enjoy
his work, I'm a fan, but you're also just like
I don't want a white guy from Harvard to tell
me like what women of all generations and races and

(01:11:49):
classes want, like how how? But you know what, knowing
that it was written by a white man from Harvard
does explain why there wasn't more nudity. I mean also
like the ratings some but to me, I'm like men
are so I feel like prude for themselves, which is
why the rating systems the way that it is, where
it's like we must exploit women's bodies, but like if

(01:12:10):
a dick is on screen, it's rated X. You know.
I feel like this movie was a lot of fun
and it was horny in terms of the dancing, and
like the storyline was I think a little bit more
horny than the last one, because the first one is
like more gritty. You're only focusing on magic Michael. You know,
obviously magic Michael does his thing. But but I feel

(01:12:31):
like the first one was way more nudity in like
sexiness than in the second one. Like the second one
is like way more about the sensuality and the people
and like less bodies, Like we only see full ass
at the very end. Why wasn't there more acts? Was
not a problem with the first one, It was the

(01:12:51):
last as we even saw a little bit of Joe
whatever his last name, I can't pronounce it. It's dick. Yeah, yeah,
we did, we did, and we didn't get any dick
in this movie. Dick. I wonder why that was, Yeah,
because it was like this movie was more focused on
emotions and less focused on bodies. But I'm like, you
can have everybody, come on, let's figure it out. I'm

(01:13:13):
glad there wasn't like women knew this time, like there
wasn't the first one. I feel like there was like
unnecessary female nudity in the first one, where you're just like, Okay,
I guess like we're just living in round Florida, and
I guess that's part of it. But in the second one,
I was like, Okay, glad that we like course corrected that,
but also you don't have to take all the udy out.
I was like, the still men stripping, I want more stripping.

(01:13:36):
I had the same complaint, Well, well we're at it,
let's let's talk about the women that are in this movie,
because we've we've got to talk about them very much.
I think that to start with, I mean, uh, the
women that we see in the kind of peripheral of
this movie. And again, this feels like a very generally
positive but also like hinged with some baggage where there

(01:13:58):
is a lot of racial, class, and body diversity in
this movie on the surface, but in terms of who
gets characterized, it's still skews very straight and white. That said,
I was I think, even for a movie that came
out like right now, I was kind of struck by
And again, maybe this just says how low the bar is. Um,

(01:14:19):
it probably does, but like there is a focus on
women feeling pleasure in this movie. This was a big
talking point when this movie came out. There are many, many,
many like essays about how it's like, wow, women enjoying
themselves and like, oh god, we're just like so disservice.

(01:14:40):
It's depressing. Like, but you do see like women across
all these different lines enjoying themselves and being treated like people,
not being like monked or made a meal of by
the camera in any way that we're used to seeing.
And there is like you just see a wide variety
of like people of marginalized gender like having a good

(01:15:01):
fucking time and that's great, Like I really loved that.
But then in terms of like actual women who we
get to know and that's right, I feel like that's
perhaps a bit of a different story. Yeah, I think
especially when it comes to body diversity and body size,
where there's not much body diversity you see on screen

(01:15:23):
for the men, they all pretty much have a like
quote unquote standard male stripper body, which maybe you would expect.
But also maybe there's a conversation to be had just
on a societal level about like rigid beauty standards when
it comes to strippers and dancers and models and entertainers
in general. And I don't think that that's even completely

(01:15:45):
like an accurate portrayal of like people who do sex work.
There are men of all body types work, It's just
this movie focuses on guys with like pecks and six packs.
Very Hollywood, very very very shredded read. Yeah, um, there
is more body diversity seen in women on screen. While yes,

(01:16:06):
there are a lot of thin women, but there are
people with bodies of all shapes and sizes on screen,
including a number of fat women. However, are only ever
like featured extras. They're always in the audience of the shows.
We never hear from them or learn their names or

(01:16:26):
hear them speak. They are always like spectators paying for
this like kind of idealized image of masculinity, whereas like
the love interest characters for the various men are all
thin and attractive by Western standards of beauty. Yeah. Absolutely,
I mean it's like the three I think main women

(01:16:48):
we get to focus on this movie are Amber Heard,
Jada Pinkett Smith, and Andy McDowell, who all have very
traditionally Western beauty standards bodies. I think in particular with
the Zoe character, that was like all over the place
for me because she felt very studio notes to me
of like why does the magic Mike have a girlfriend

(01:17:09):
in this one? Because she is on the peripheral of
every scene you have to keep cutting to her to
remember that she's there, And it's like the script tries
to give you and you do get like I almost
understood why they liked each other, but they don't even
like it just felt very weird, like where you do
get a little bit of background into who Zoe is,

(01:17:31):
where she says, like what was it? Like I I
am a photographer, but like the first person who gave
me a career opportunity was trying to fund me and
like it ended poorly, and like it feels like kind
of a story that like I think unfortunately a lot
of people are familiar with of like imposter syndrome of
like am I even good at this if the person
who gave me the opportunity was trying to sexually exploit me,

(01:17:54):
which you know isn't exactly magical Michael's journey, but I understand,
like why would sort of connect on feeling exploited and like,
also he like seems to want like he notices her,
he wants to make her happy. But the character just
like was pretty underwritten. And then on top of that,
like I don't know, the things I appreciated about her

(01:18:15):
was that the movie went out of its way to
make her canonically by in a way that wasn't mocking
or like challenged by the fact that she seemed interested
in Magical Michael. He didn't have an issue with it,
Like it wasn't even talked about really other than her
just stating it, which is rare, felt normalized. Yeah, but

(01:18:36):
I just felt like the character was just like why
is she here, Like in a way that as a
bummer in a movie with so few women. I just
didn't like. She didn't seem to have much narrative impact,
and it just felt like she was added in in
a not the original draft. I also was confused by
an aspect of her character where at one point, I

(01:18:58):
think when they first meet her and Mike, she says
that she's trying to avoid ending up on the poll,
and I didn't know if that meant that she had
been a stripper and she's trying to avoid returning to it,
because that's how I initially interpreted it. But then I
was like, I think maybe, yeah, I think maybe she
means that she wants to avoid becoming a stripper, as

(01:19:21):
if that was something that like, if her photography doesn't
work out, it would be something that she would have
to quote unquote resort to. Yeah. I was like, that's
like a weird thing to stripper. And in this movie specifically,
it felt like one of those comments that people who
have unconscious biases it just bubbles out of them, kind
of like when I don't like gay people, but you know,

(01:19:43):
they say something homophobic. Like it felt kind of like
the same byword, Like it's like that's cool that you
do it, but like I don't want to do it,
but just like keep it behind clothes, don't every something
like that? Yeah right, yeah, Like I just I but
again it's like that I didn't even pick up on
that line, to be honest, but it just everything she
says and does feel so was this supposed to be here?

(01:20:06):
That's how I felt. In the very first scene they chalked,
I like literally even putting my notes. I was like
I felt like that improv Like it felt like they
didn't know what to do. Like I was like, was
this scripted? Like I felt like like she came up
to him and the notes were like talk about his
dick and he's peeing, and then they didn't know what
to do after that and they just like had weird
banter and then it didn't come up in the next

(01:20:26):
scene everything that had been Like That's why I was like,
was this character added after shooting? Like I couldn't find
any information about it, and it probably wasn't, but like
it just felt like, you know, like magic. Mike in
the next scene talks with Ken about other stuff that
they've established in the previous scene, but she doesn't come up.
And I feel like normally in a scene like that,

(01:20:47):
a character like Ken would be like so what was
up with that girl? Less like she just doesn't come up.
It's like she wasn't there. Because they have this weird
way like asking each other if they've had sex the
night before and it's so corny, but they're like what
did they say? It made me? They're like did you bangy?
Did you bang me? Not? Did you bang? Did you

(01:21:12):
bang me? And I'm like, what are you babies? Like
what are you saying? They're All twelve. Not that I
would put it past heaters axual men to like say
ship like that, but not in my presence. This movie
is for me, Like I don't want to watch this.
I will say that I was so And I'm curious
how this kind of bears out with Magic Mike three,
because I hope that between and now there has been

(01:21:35):
I think, you know, not a satisfactory, but significant cultural shift.
And when this movie came out, the audience for Weekend
one was nine percent identifying as women. And I'm wondering
how that kind of bears out for Magic By three.
I feel like have like men caught on to the

(01:21:55):
fact that they're just fucking awesome movies. Yeah that they're fun,
they're fun looking fun. What do you hate fun? Okay? Anyways,
but yeah, I I just and then also on top
of that, and this is like no reflection on the actor,
because it's like it's not her fault, but like the
fact that for both movies, it just seemed like a
very sequel e thing of like, oh, yeah, he dated

(01:22:19):
a hot, thin white woman in the first movie, so
we just need to find a different, hot, thin white
lady for him to date in the second. Movie and
you're like, well, no, you don't. And also I wouldn't
have been bothered if I don't know. It's it's always
bizarre when we come up on movies like this where
I'm like, I just I wouldn't have mind did if
that woman wasn't in the story, because it's just like

(01:22:42):
she wasn't effectively fit in. She would show up at
random points. I don't think she really factors into Mike's
development as a character very much, And all it really
seems like for her development is like she was kind
of and this was like a note we had about
Magical Michael's original girlfriend Brooke was that she's so uptight
she can't feel pleasure and like in an even lazier

(01:23:05):
way because she's barely in the movie. That's how Zoe's
character is made to seem like all the other women
in the scene are really engaged and they want to
like not only get horny, but like talk about their
feelings and as do the men, and like it's a
very kind of like wow, this is cool, but Zoe's
like I'm eating cake into kitchen. I'm not like the
other girls. I'm not horny, And it's just like what

(01:23:28):
are you trying to tell me with this character? Why
is she always in the other room? Like can she
ever be in the room. It's really bizarre to me
the way she's written. Yeah, um, but we have we
have other women to talk about that have way more
narrative Rome. Can we talk about Rome? Yes? I love

(01:23:48):
that she's a successful business owner. Most of her customers,
it seems, are black women. It seems as though Rome's
like mission statement for her business is she wants to
create a space where black women can enjoy themselves, where
they can feel valued and appreciated and beautiful. She like

(01:24:10):
makes a point to like go around to different women
at this like horny mansion and be like and like
you're all queens. I have so many questions about the
Horny Mansion, like and and that said, like listeners, if
you know that these horny mansions exist and if they're safe,
like drop the links. I want to go seriously to

(01:24:33):
the Horny Mansion. Um. But yeah, she just like she
wants to again just like create this safe space. And
it seems like a safe space for both the performers
and the clientele. And she seems just like be curating
this like great space again specifically for black women, because

(01:24:54):
black women are so historically undervalued and underappreciated that she's
and this never gets explicitly stated in the movie, but
that was my read on that, but also romantically discriminated,
you know, like this is a safe space for black
women to express their desires and to be desired in
a way that like in the other club circles, I

(01:25:17):
feel like it is more about like with the white
dancers and the white male entertainers, you know, it's about
them being like, look at me and all my sexiness,
and I know you want this, whereas like in um
Rome's club, you know, it's focus more from an honest
place of her pleasure, Like it's like, this is about

(01:25:38):
her desire and what does she want? How can we
make her feel special? Like this is about you and
not about how sexy I am. It's about how do
I turn you on? And there's so many rooms. There's
so many rooms that I got turned on um And
I think, especially like I listens, I make a lot
of comments right now about black and row woman I am,

(01:25:58):
and after Latina, I am a black and brown woman.
But all that to say, I feel like it was
very beautiful to see like especially dark skinned black men
be interested in desiring these you know, or making these
black women feel desired, because so many times oftentimes like
that is so not the case. So I thought that
was really lovely. That was like, you know, a space

(01:26:20):
where these women can find what they're looking for because
their communities refuse to acknowledge them. So for sure. Yeah,
and it felt like those themes and like that was
introduced in a very in a way that was very
organic to the story too, in a way that I
feel like sometimes killing I forget what movie we were

(01:26:41):
talking about this recently, where it feels like a lot
of times between movies and franchises, there's like a very
needed demand for like why was there no diversity in
this movie? Why was there no like diversity of race
or class or body type or anything. And then the
way that the sequels try to address it are very fine.
Here you go, like in a way that's very careless

(01:27:04):
and like worse than if they had done nothing. So again,
it's like the bar is absolutely on the floor. I'm
not even congratulating the Magic Mike team for having done this,
but it's like there was a glaring lack of diversity
in the first movie. It was something that we talked
about We're being in Florida, like it's like right, right,

(01:27:25):
and and so it's like the movie, you know, like
it felt like the higher up creatives like did hear
that criticism and tried to make the movie more equitable
and diverse in a way that also felt very like
in step with what the story was and not in
a way that was like fine, there you go, like

(01:27:45):
because I feel like viewers can you can feel when
that's happening. For sure, I agree, especially with the club
being in Georgia, Like I felt like that was like
very organic to what it could have been. And I
think the only way they could have done it right
was having um rome b Jada Pagin Smith you know,
or like a black actress like it definitely could not

(01:28:06):
have been a man. And I'm glad that they made it.
I'm a damn owning this horny mansion. Right. She's so
fucking I mean and truly like Jada Pinkett Smith is
just like such a potent person. She's so great. Like
you forget about Matthew McConney, like you just do, and
no you did not. I hated Matthew mcconnughey in the
first one, I feel like a better edition, Like because

(01:28:30):
Matthew coconney was so gross. His whole character was like
I'm on cocaine. Was the vibe Like it was just
like and it wasn't like Matthew McConaughey, like his character
like did not respect or understand what women wanted outside
of a way that made him money. It just seemed
like Rome. It wasn't that she didn't want their money.

(01:28:51):
She absolutely did, and judgment isn't passed on her for that,
and I think rightfully so. But also it's like she
knew what to do better Dallas did. She was creating
a real experience set at the core was what these
women wanted versus Dallas is like, I'm a creepy, money
hungry man who owns a club, you know, which, Like statistically,

(01:29:13):
women that own clubs like stripper clubs and things like
that have better, you know, employees because the women feel
cared for and protected in a way that men simply
don't do that to their workers. So well, a big
thing that the characters were dealing with in the first
movie is that Dallas was like exploiting their labor and

(01:29:33):
like not paying anyone well enough, whereas it seems like
in Rome's horny mansion, she's and again the movie doesn't
get into this with any specificity, but it seems at
least that the like male performers and entertainers in her
house are given like artistic freedom because some of them

(01:29:55):
are doing like very horny dances. And then you have
Andre who like only just like takes his shirt off
and and he's just like freestyle wrapping the rest of
the time, like he's not doing like traditional stripping, he's
like doing his music and also like showing his abs too.
But like it does it reminded me of like it's
like when you I don't know, I mean, I'm a

(01:30:16):
fan of Jumbo's clown Room in l A. And it's
like that is a club where it is predominantly women,
but not exclusively, but like it's a club where as
far as I know, generally people who work their love
working there because they're given a lot of creative freedom.
And that's like part of the point. And I think
that this is like a um criticism. I saw this

(01:30:38):
franchise that I don't know, I mean, I I have
never done sex working. I don't feel like my opinion
here carries a lot of weight, but I just wanted
to bring it up of like, because this movie I
do feel like there are elements of Magic Mike that
are like, it's kind of a fantasy movie in a
lot of ways, because in order for it to be
as cathartic and amazing as it is, you have to

(01:31:00):
ignore things that happen in the world. Things that happen
in the world don't happen in the Magic Mike cinematic universe.
And that's not a criticism. I'm glad that horrible things
don't really happen in this world. I love that about
this movie. Yeah, I was like, this movie was pleasant
from start to finish, Like there's no real traumas, Like

(01:31:22):
it was just guys getting to know each other and
solving their problem at the end of the day. That right.
So I came across this article that that came out
at the time that this movie came out in twenty fifteen.
It's by Chloe Cooper Jones in Vice articles called Magic
Mike Excel was the most important feminist movie, of which,

(01:31:43):
my god, if that's true, U was goal for us.
There's no women in the movie. But okay, right, um
not no women few okay um, But but she interviewed
the former president of the American Philosophical Association, a person
named Linda Martin Alcof, who had some criticisms with this

(01:32:04):
movie that I thought were interesting, even if I didn't
totally agree with them, and I just wanted to kind
of bring them up. She's sad. Dr Alcof quote. There's
a danger when popular culture uses feminist ideas in ways
that not only misrepresent, but mislead. This is the case
with Magic Mike XXL, which appears to be about the
gender equality of men and women in sex work. So

(01:32:27):
the movie makes use of this representation and then goes
on to portray sex work as a choice individuals can make.
It does not show the real costs, the constant violence,
regular dehumanization by clients, wage theft, and sexual violence that
is part of so much sex work. So there is
a falseness to that representation. Unquote. I see what she's saying,

(01:32:47):
but I also don't think that that has a place
in this franchise. That's not why this exists exactly, but
it does feel worth acknowledging. We're obvious like this is
a fantasy, like magic Mike XXL Special. I feel like
the first one they like kinda like that it was
all over the place, honestly the first one, but the
second one like it was like the goal is fun.

(01:33:07):
This is a fantasy. We know that this is not
how the world works, but that is the point of fiction,
that this is fiction so exactly. And then the other
criticism I myself of this movie popping up is for
all the diversity of like women feeling pleasure in this movie,
outside of the fact that it's still um, straight thin

(01:33:28):
women that seem to be getting precedents, that there's no
representation of disability, which I think it's fair, especially in
a movie that seems to be prioritizing such a wide
spectrum of pleasure that we didn't see any disabled women
did feel a bit glaring. But okay, what can we
talk a little bit more about Andy McDowell's character. Yes,

(01:33:53):
let's do it. I wanted to point out a few
positive a few things I enjoyed. You see sexual desire
in older women and like horny mom energy and like
they are expressing their frustrations of like some of them
are like feeling sexually repressed and you know, we we

(01:34:14):
talked to a little bit about this already, but I
was just I appreciated there being a representation of like
older women's sexuality being a thing on screen, and that
big dick Ritchie gets with an older woman or a
woman older than him, and they called her absolutely beautiful.
I think, like they were like that beautiful, amazing woman

(01:34:34):
or whatever. And they didn't call her old, and they
didn't say mills. And I appreciate that they were just
like she's hot as hell, good job, just accurate, I mean, right.
And I also appreciated that you have a mom telling
her daughter to like play the field and like don't

(01:34:57):
stop until you find like the best dick of your life,
where you would normally see on screen a mother like
slut shaming her daughter or like warning her of like
the quote unquote dangers of having multiple partners. I was
gonna say, because I tend to associate like a Southern
woman in her forties or fifties as being this kind

(01:35:18):
of like pearl clutching, like well, I never kind of like,
oh my goodness, and I know that that's a stereotype,
but I've seen it in a bunch of movies, and
when the only representation you see of something is a stereotype,
you think that that must be the truth, which is
what our whole show is about anyway. Yeah, so for
Nancy to be like, yeah, my daughter should fuck a

(01:35:40):
bunch of men, including male strippers, that was pretty serversive.
That was pretty cool, I liked, And again, it like
fit into the story in a very cool and logical way.
I read a few um accounts of like younger women
bringing their moms to this movie and mom's feeling really
like liberated by that scene because I did. I think

(01:36:02):
it was in that same Vice article where um, the
writer whose name is Chloe Cooper Jones was describing seeing
this movie with her mom and her mom like kind
of tensing up when the Andy mcdowalls scene started because
women are so conditioned to seeing like any woman over
a certain age treated as a joke if they're experiencing
any sexual desire. And then like really loving that scene

(01:36:26):
because I don't know, they're just like treated like people
that are horny, which makes sense, And I loved that
scene with like it just felt very like true to
that character where she was really horny, but also like,
what's going on where um Andy mcdowall's character like asked
big Dick Ritchie, like if she could unzip him, and
then he was or what did he say? Like she said,

(01:36:47):
can I pop the hood? Pop up something objectifying men?
That's not nice? But it's like that scene fucking ruled.
I just like it was really it was really nice.
I like that the movie wanted to take all of
these like I don't know, because it's like road trip
movies are so episodic like this, but this felt like
really intentionally episodic of like, here's a woman you don't

(01:37:10):
normally see in a movie like this, experiencing pleasure and
having a nice time. Isn't that great? All right, they're gone,
and that's kind of like, yeah, that was great. Yeah cool.
Another kind of episodic thing that happens a little stop
they make on the trip is the drag Show, which

(01:37:31):
I was the first stop. Yeah, yeah, I had some questions.
So you have this scene taking place at a nightclub
called Mad Mary's. The drag queen character Tori Snatch played
by Vicky Vox, is like hosting this show and then
says something like all right, now, all of you amateur

(01:37:54):
queens get up here and strut your stuff, and I'll
give you four hundred dollars to the winner. No one
who gets on stage is in drag, including because like
you understand why, like Magic Mike and his friends are
not in drag. But the first few people who get
on stage were clearly people who were there to participate

(01:38:15):
in this drag competition, and for some reason, they're not
in drag. And then you have these seems as though
mostly straight guys going on stage kind of inserting themselves
into this like queer space, into this queer competition, I
would say, not doing a very good job, and then
somehow still winning, and he was half passing it big time,

(01:38:38):
and nevertheless he persisted there. So I found that confusing,
and it just felt like a scene that was written
by straight men. Oh for sure, it's like men, like
they had no idea. They were like, oh, well, Fluffy
like is wearing the what's a face costume from the Yeah,

(01:39:04):
so he's wearing the costume, but that's not a drag costume.
That is like a normal costume. And it's also vaguely
racialized because like that is a like Argentinian banana. I
think they're from Argentina. Those bananas, um, so you know
it's just like okay, it was like the closest they
could think. They're like, well, we can't actually put them

(01:39:25):
in drag because like that's too gay and these are
straight men. We have to remember that they dress up,
but they're not gay. They're performing masculinity for women. It
has to be hetero, which is something that I'm curious about,
Like will the third movie Dare to not have a
single moment that feels a little no homo in a

(01:39:47):
way that I think that, Like, again, this movie improves
upon the first in that regard, but there are still
little moments where were just like why although there's one
crumb that I maybe would give the movie, give me
give me that crowb it's when I think they've checked

(01:40:07):
into the convention. So they're like staying in the hotel
in Myrtle Beach and Magic Mike and Tito get into
the one bed that's in the room, get into the
bed together, and there's no like gay panic moment, there's
no like what we hope to share a bed. They
just get into the bed together and start talking about
frozen yogurt, and I was like, wow, it's it's a crumb.

(01:40:32):
But I was like, huh, but honestly, like most movies
would be like, now let's go like let's go wild
on this moment. And I guess the crumb is that
they like don't make fun of the drag queens or
like you know, going to a gay bar like they
were like they apparently go every year. Yeah, they like
say that they go every time that they go to

(01:40:53):
this competition. So another smidgen crumb, another tiny little crome,
which like, yeah, it's like and it makes sense, like
it's like they have a lot in common. They work
in similar settings, like cool, it makes sense that everyone
would get along here and the movie doesn't like try
to do anything weird about it, right, and which just
goes to show how low the bar is, right because

(01:41:15):
you you're always like if something funked up about to happen,
because I don't trust these men, but this, I mean,
this franchise will will generally go with not even just
like a more realistic choice, but like the Path of
Least Resistance narratively, like it makes more sense that this
group of men would be friends than not. So yeah, true, Um,

(01:41:38):
is there anything else we want to talk about? No,
but I do want to mention that the Twilight Stripper
moment killed me and I always felt like that was
very of the era as someone who used to be
a twy heart. I Team I. Okay, I bounced back
and forth, but I think ultimately I was Team Edward.
Oh that's the wrong answer. Unfortunately it's all about Team Jacob. No,

(01:42:01):
but also like they're but the right answer is neither
team Nobody. Yeah, team not even Team Bella, like team
Why am I reading this? Like all three of them
are kind of diabolical, and I was, Yeah, I was
Team Jacob back in the day, and which you would
catch a lot of ship for that. It was brutal um.

(01:42:22):
But also all three teams everyone's wrong. Everyone was wrong.
Magic Mike EXXEL seems to understand that. It does seem
to understand that because they made fun of them, they
were like the fucking vampire acts warning. Yeah, And the
last thing I wanted to say, because I didn't realize
like the two I think the two most successful erotic

(01:42:43):
movies were Magic Mike XXL and the Final fifty Shades
of Gray movie. And so if we're putting ourselves in
that headspace, it made me appreciate Magic Mike exic fell
a lot more because you think of how you know,
they are both technically folks on women's pleasure. But if

(01:43:03):
you watch a Fifty Shades of Gray movie, it's like, oh,
this domineering guy who doesn't respect boundaries and it's like
ruining your life, like hates her, like you're just like, well,
I guess honestly, Magic Mike x Excel was in that
media landscape a miracle, which is so depressing. But yeah,

(01:43:23):
that was that was my That was my final thought
on it. But does it pass the Bechtel test? Folks? Oh,
you know what, I don't think it does or I
don't know if it's two lines of dialogue. But in
theory you got Paris and Rome chatting about their love
for one another. But it is narrowly like in the

(01:43:45):
vein of male entertainment. So I feel like that would
have been the only time that it would have passed,
right because all the horny moms are they aren't really
talking amongst themselves, They're mostly talking to the And I
do think it passed, but it wasn't like as thorough
passes you would like. I think there were like individual

(01:44:06):
because the movie does seem to go out of its
way to give every woman a name in a way
that almost felt glaring to me at some point, it's
sort of like these are my friends, blah blah blah
bla blah, and I'm like this pass eventual asked like what,
because it was a popular discussion of like what lass
versus what wasn't. And I do think that there were
a few off hand exchanges in the Andy McDowell sequence

(01:44:29):
that would have passed. I think that the Rome and
Paris like again contextually. Ultimately, I guess Rome's goal is
to get magical Michael into the room, but also she's
trying to get herself into the room. I think there's
a little bit of wiggle room there. It's not a
hard pass. You never see Megan and uh I can't
even remember her name in the movie, Zoe. You never

(01:44:51):
see them in a room together. They were like supposed
to be friends talk yeah. Yeah, Well, it's like because
Zoe just seemed so out of play, is out of time,
out of movie in this movie, where it's like we
keep being told she and megat her friends, but it
seems like she disagrees with Megan on everything. And like
they never speak. So I do think like in a
movie like this, while it is very valuable to have

(01:45:13):
a movie that is focused on I think coded heterosexual
men coming to terms with themselves and each other in
an emotionally intelligent way, is a is a good mission.
There's not a lot of movies that do that well.
This movie does it pretty well. But it's like there
was room for more women. It seems like, based on
the trailer that I've watched five thousand times for the

(01:45:37):
new magical Michael, that women are there. There are at
least two. There's like a mother daughter dynamic. In the
third movie, is Rossaiah is supposed to be Samahayaks daughter.
I think that they say that in the trailer. I'm
pretty sure I'll watch it after this, but I don't know.
Maybe I maybe, but I'm pretty sure that, yeah, they're
supposed to be playing mother daughter and like that's an

(01:45:59):
impression I got. Also, Channing Tatum knows her daughter and
then meets her mother, and it's like and that's like big,
and I'm like, who is he dating? And then I'm like, well,
maybe he's not dating anyone in this one, and maybe
that maybe he's been liberated from the need to be
in love with a boring character. But I like that

(01:46:19):
they didn't end up like truly at the end together,
Like it's like, yes, he danced on her, but I
think obviously he's like, this is also my job, like
and I want to have fun and I think this
is funny. But I like that they didn't like kiss,
like they didn't like it wasn't clear that they're like
ending up together. It was more like, like he had
mentioned throughout the whole movie, was like come have fun,
like like you're young, like you're young ones your friends

(01:46:41):
want to go, like just have fun with a bunch
of strip your we're friends now. They mentioned like we're
friends now. So I do like that. Even though obviously
it's like gear that he she is like the romantic
interest of his I like that it wasn't actually very
romantic and that they didn't kiss. It just seems like
their lives intersect for a few days and then that's
kind of it. Yeah, It's like I love stories like that,

(01:47:04):
and I agree with you Becca that it didn't seem
like the movie was like you'll be seeing this character again,
like yeah, and that's fine, Like whatever you know. I. Yeah,
I magical Michael. You know he's still hurting. He's still
hurting from Yeah, he'll from his engagement. You know, he
wasn't ready to take that off. He said he lit

(01:47:25):
a candle and everything. He was really tight. He was like,
I lit a candle and everything. She said, nod bacon.
I don't understand, bacon. I had epic random bacon. She
still said, freaking no, I will never understand. If you're like, well, whatever, magic,
you still got to grow up. Like there must have
been some other problems. She also sucked, so it's like

(01:47:46):
she did stop. She wanted him to quit stripping. Not cool,
Yeah she was. She was a bit of a like
a traditionalist in a way that I don't think suited
the beauty that is magical Michael his lifestyle. But maybe
he's going to fall in love with Samahiak. I think
that to me is sexy. Yeah, they can do that

(01:48:07):
for two hours and I will watch it. I'll be happy.
The same same writer. So the third one, Steven Soderberg
is back directing. I thought it was interesting. So and
I like like Steven Soderberg. I think he's a really
cool artist, where like he seems like kind of unpretentious
in the way he does stuff where he directed the
first movie and then for the second movie his cinematographer

(01:48:29):
from the first movie and him switched places. So in
this movie, the cinematographer is directing, Steven Soderberg is doing
the cinematography and editing, and they just kind of like
switched things up in a way that I thought was
like visually cool. And then in the final one or finding,
I guess we're to believe perhaps could be the final one,

(01:48:49):
but like you know, would I'd be mad? No, But
in the final with Steven Soderberg is directing again, which
I do think fits with the tone of the trailer
now that you've mentioned that, because the railer to me
is giving like step up one, yes, but like sexy,
like it's like it's giving the same type of draws,
like it's going to be more drama this time than
it is comedy. It does feel very like I haven't

(01:49:13):
seen any of the Tom Holland Spider Man's will be honest,
but I do like, you know, this character, you know
and love is in London, question more, and that's like
what is happening in the third Magic Like I can't
wait to see it. I will see it opening weekends.
I will laugh, cry, pee myself, like get very morny.
That's why I'm there, That's why we're there, That's why
we go to the movies. The movie. We come to

(01:49:35):
this place, we come from magic. We come to this
place to laugh, to cry, to care. Um. How about
that nipple scale of ours where we rate the movie
from zero to five nipples based on looking at the
movie through an intersectional feminist lens. I'm going to give
this movie. This might be wild, but I'm gonna give
it three point five because the two kind of like

(01:49:59):
main thrusts of the movie. That's my new favorite way
to discree. I've been saying that ship we need to stop,
we have to knock it out. It's triggering my fight
or flight response when we say that out loud. Okay, fine.
The two main themes of the movie are male friendship
that is like healthy and productive or at least trying

(01:50:21):
to be. And they're doing it in a very like
the way hetero men are conditioned to behave when it
comes to like emotional vulnerability. But they are like talking
through their problems. They're expressing vulnerabilities. They are saying that
they love each other, and yes they're doing it while
they're rolling on Molly and I'm expressing their love does

(01:50:42):
lead to a car crash um, But generally it seems
like the movie is very much in favor of this
male friendship and I really appreciate that. And I also
appreciate the focus on and this is mostly through the
Rome character, but her mission being like cult to vading
a space where women can like experience joy and pleasure

(01:51:05):
and to feel valued and to feel attractive and you know,
all these things that are good. So I'm gonna give
the movie three and a half nipples. I will give
one to Jada, I will give one to Elizabeth Banks,
the director of Cocaine Bear. I will give one to

(01:51:27):
the scene where Magic My dances to Pony by Genuine
and has sex with his work bench. And I'll give
my half nipples. And I'll give my half nipple to
Tito because he deserved more characterization. I'm gonna go three
and a half as well. I think that the Zoe

(01:51:48):
character was kind of the biggest miss for me in
terms of a woman, where it felt like she was
a character who has added as a girlfriend kind of halfheartedly.
We didn't get to know very much about her. Um,
I do appreciate like we were just saying Becca that,
like it wasn't forced on us as like and now
she's the great love of his life, because it just
like I wouldn't have worked at all. But it just

(01:52:09):
I you know, for someone who was pretty high build
in the movie, she could be removed from the movie
and nothing would change. She didn't really factor into Magical
Michael's growth at all. However, Rome is a great character.
I really liked her. I liked that they reset everything
at the beginning of every Magic Mic movie. But I'm
like kind of bummed that we won't get to see
more of her because it feels like that character like

(01:52:32):
she just like I would see h spinoff movie only
about her same and her horny mansion and her horny mansion,
like how do you the prequill Like her life was
magical Michael before went to Dallas, because those two have chemistry.
It was like wow, when he kissed her hand, I

(01:52:52):
was like begging for her forgiveness. I was like, wow, Wow,
this is great. Why isn't it me? I'm just gonna
right like it was Yeah, like I thought she was
a great character. I feel like she you know, I
would love to see her again down the line, but
in this movie she is wonderful. But I think for me,
she and the animate Dowel characters were the best written,

(01:53:12):
most narratively impactful women in the story, which is kind
of cool because you know they are like women over
forty and you don't usually see in kind of a
sexy movie older women taking narrative precedence over younger women.
I think there was room for everybody, though, But I
love this movie. I love it's like focus on um,

(01:53:33):
straight men getting their ship together. I love how it
celebrates sex work and doesn't shame it in the way
that I think the first movie, Tacit Lee did towards
the end. I think this movie kind of course corrects
that issue from the first movie. Um, there is more diversity.
I know that some of it is sort of like
or much of it is very surface level and flawed,

(01:53:53):
and we it is still a white character centric movie
in a way that I really hope the third movie
course corrects on Justice for Adam. But it's a hell
of a rob it's a hell of a horny movie.
I really enjoy it and I also do like it
is kind of nice to come at a franchise like
this with general optimism, where I feel like with future

(01:54:14):
movies and most franchises, I'm like, there's no way they're
going to do any better and I just need to
manage my expectations. But for a two movie franchise, I
feel like they made significant strides between one and two.
I am excited to see three. I hope it is
really awesome and at least I hope I get fucking
horny and a room full of my peers. That's what

(01:54:34):
I want. Um, so I will give it three and
a half. I'm going to give all of my nipples
to Twitch because I love Twitch and I was very sad,
I honestly like I learned when Twitch passed because it
was like last month, and I was really sad, and
then I didn't I wasn't expecting to see him in
this movie, and then I was crying. Uh just um,

(01:54:58):
you know, if you haven't seen Twitch dancing, and I
mean at any point, but like in his so you
think you can dance. Prime just a beautiful, wonderful spirit
in person, and I'm very sad he's gone. So all
my nipples are going to twitch. Nice Becca, how about you?
Oh my gosh, my time to give away nipples. Okay,
I'm also gonna go with three and a half. I

(01:55:20):
was leaning more for three, but then after our discussion,
I landed on three and a half. But I will
say I really love the arc of this movie from
the first to the second. After watching them back to back,
I think there was so much more joy in this
movie and it was just such a fun, lighthearted watch.
Obviously we dug into it. There's a lot to be said,

(01:55:42):
but I think generally for the context of the movie
and the content and for the timing it came out,
I think it is such a joy that, you know,
for the most part, withheld with time, which is you know,
rare for I think movies within even the past five years. Um.
I will say I do wish was horn Ear in
the sense that I did not see enough nakedness for

(01:56:03):
being a rated art movie. It really felt like a
PG thirteen movie. I was shocked when I googled that
it was rated are still and I felt like the
most sex we got was in the last ten minutes
and that just wasn't enough for me. But otherwise, yeah,
I agree with both, with everything you said. I don't
have much besides those two notes to add onto that

(01:56:23):
um and yeah, I'm gonna get my nipples to one
to Childe Cambino for my heart could not stand love,
one A Chang Tatum because I've been horny for him,
some step up, and then one Adam Rodriguez because I
love that man Delco forever. And then I have to
pulled a twitch ress in peace. Oh my goodness, Well, Becca,

(01:56:47):
thank you so much for joining us, truly long time coming.
I'm so glad we did it. Me too. This was
so much fun. It's like truly a dream come true.
I'm like, I listen every week and now I'm on it.
I gotta feel honored, So thank you for having me.
Becca is literally wearing a Bectel Cast shirt right now.

(01:57:08):
It looks so come back, say less. I will be here. Yes, okay, amazing.
And speaking of those shirts, you can get them at
t public dot com. Slash the Bechtel Cast. All of
our merches designed by Jamie and we've got some some
recent designs such as shrek Ian and feminist icon Paddington
and the Flower Mambo by Danny Elfman Hard to say

(01:57:30):
how that design is doing. That may have been just
for me, but I am enjoying it. I bet a
few people bought it. If you have, please let us
know because I've been seeing a lot of the other
two designs and really kind of radio silence on the
Flower Mambo by Da mcdanny Elfmand. Just let's work on that, folks.
Let's get the let's get the good word out there. Um.
You can also follow us on social media. We're at

(01:57:51):
becktel Cast on Instagram and Twitter for all of the
updates that you could possibly want in the world. You
can follow our patreon ak May Treon. That's at patreon
dot com slash bechtel Cast. Five dollars a month will
get you two additional episodes loose Fun, Katelyn Jamie Wildness

(01:58:12):
to There's there is actually like pretty thorough a Woga
energy over on the Matreon and you'll get access to
over a hundred I think close to a hundred fifty
back catalog episodes there as well over five years Alright,
goodness and Crusty over here. Yeah and um, with that,
shall we all get on the froyo truck and head

(01:58:33):
to Myrtle Beach Absolutely as long as it has a bathroom,
it does. Okay, Bye bye

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Magic Mike XXL with Becca Ramos