Unpregnant

Jamie and Caitlin discuss Unpregnant and how it should be called Ungregnant. 

(This episode contains spoilers)

Here is the doc with info on Abortion Funds in Every State: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T-aDTsZXnKhMcrDmtcD35aWs00gw5piocDhaFy5LKDY/mobilebasic

And here is the Bitch Media piece by Kyndall Cunningham "Unpregnant Is Too White To Be Revolutionary" - https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/unpregnant-abortion-race-problem

For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast.

Follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On the bel Cast, the questions asked if movies have
women in um? Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands?
Do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef in best start
changing it with the Bedel Cast. Hello and welcome to
the Bechtel Cast. My name is Caitlin Dronte, my name
is Jamie Loftus, and the world is on fire yet again.

(00:24):
So we are recording and an emergency oops, no rights
episode of the bachel Cast. Oh we laugh, so we
don't cry. We laugh so we don't cry, but we
still cry. But we still also cry, you know, because
we're laughing so hard. Yeah. Sorry, Uh, difficult week. You know,

(00:48):
we're doing our best. Uh. I hope everyone is doing well.
We have been wanting to do this episode for a while,
but um, we'recovering the movie argument. You know, you clicked on,
you clicked the episode, you pressed play. That's on you.
But we we've been wanting to do this episode since

(01:09):
this movie came out, but we kind of fast tracked
it for this week for obvious reasons. If you're listening
to this at a later time, we are recording this
the week that UM the Supreme Court intention to potentially,
uh remove the right to abortion has been leaked just

(01:32):
to be totally clear about what exactly is going on.
It's very common knowledge, but we want to just be
sure the Supreme Court is poised to make this decision
about abortion on whether it's protected by the Constitution or not.
This was a draft of a February Supreme Court opinion.
It was leaked, and it's sort of would lead you

(01:53):
to believe that the Court is going to be overturning
Roe v. Wade Um, which made abortion legal nationwide back
in the seventies. Basically, they're trying to make abortion unconstitutional
and rolled back fifty years of progress. There have been
protests this week. There's been a huge call to action
to donate to local abortion funds UM, which we will

(02:18):
you know, right right at the top, we're going to
be linking to resources UM in the description of this episode.
We are also pledging a portion of our Patreon income
this month. UM. Also, something that I learned this week
is that Planned Parenthood, while a wonderful organization, is not

(02:39):
the fastest way to get money to local abortion clinics,
and it is more efficient to donate directly. So that
so we'll be linking to that um, especially in states
where abortion is more difficult to access. Uh, God fucking damnit.

(03:00):
We'll talk about it. But but this is this is
the Unpregnant episode, and this is the Bechtel Cast. But
what the heck is the Bectel Cast? Caitlin, I simply
I forget. It's our podcasts, in which we examine movies
through an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechtel Tests simply
as a jumping off point. The Bechtel Test, of course,

(03:22):
being a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechtel,
sometimes called the Bechtel Wallace Test. There are many versions
of the test, but the one that we currently use
is as follows. There must be two characters of a
marginalized gender with names who speak to each other, and
their conversation has to be about something other than a

(03:43):
man for two or more lines of dialogue, and ideally
that exchange of dialogue is narratively impactful. Not going to
be a problem today because we are covering the movie Unpregnant.
It is a recent movie. It came in on HBO.
Max Um, So, Caitlin, do you have what was your

(04:05):
history with this movie? I did see it right when
it came out, because there was quite a bit of
buzz about it. It was released in I think September,
and a lot of listeners were like, hey, the Bechtel
Cast should cover this, and we're like, okay, we'll put
it on the list our list of eight million things

(04:27):
to cover. But so I did. I did see it. Um,
I'll be honest, I didn't like it that much. I
think that it's doing some really good things and other things,
the execution is weird. So from a storytelling standpoint, from
a like Bechtel Cast standpoint, you know, there's there's something

(04:49):
in your in your pro life, and of course I
am anti choice, so that I'm sure made it a
difficult watch for you, certainly certainly. Um No, Like I
think it's it's a really good premise with execution that
misses the mark in some regards. But I think maybe
the reason that we kind of didn't cover it right

(05:11):
away is that it wasn't necessarily the most our favorite
our favorite, um. But it is a good conduit by
which we can discuss current events, so that's why we
are covering it. Now. What is your relationship with it, Jamie? Uh?
Literally identical so it when I came out due to

(05:34):
the buzz due to the listener interest. Also that was
like a little all over the place it did, I
mean maybe fall in love with both of the lead
actors at this movie. Haley Richardson and Barbie fare are
so fun in this movie. I feel like they are
able to sell a lot of stuff that is not

(05:55):
Like just I don't know. The pacing of this movie.
We we both think is weird, but it's not really
why we're here to talk about it, even though we'll
probably keep pointing it out because we're bitches. Ah. But yeah, no,
I was excited to see this movie come up. I'm
very glad it exists because I mean, just in general,
there is a lot lacking when it comes to the

(06:16):
representation of abortion in media in general, which we've discussed
here and there on the show. Yeah extensively. We've we
covered an Obvious Child on The Matrian a couple of
years ago. At this point, I don't really fully remember
our discussion around it, but I do remember that movie
is not my favorite. Like, I don't know, but there

(06:36):
but there's so few options because abortion movies are so
often spun as tragedy porn, and like, I really appreciate that,
and you appreciate it when it came out two years ago,
that this movie it's an abortion romp while still hitting
all the appropriate you know points. I feel like it

(06:57):
treats the subject matter very respectfully. Right, it's a teen
road trip abortion romp. Look, I would be down for
another abortion romp. Same. Yeah, it's this movie is all
over the place, but yeah, as far as what it's
trying to do, I think it accomplishes the goal. The

(07:20):
performances are fun, uh, and then we got a lot
of other stuff to talk about. But that's why we
recovering this movie. It's I mean truly, I think for
our listeners, nothing that you're not familiar with already in
terms of like why this is so horrible and why

(07:40):
people with uterus as having less rights than two generations
prior than them is just absolutely fucked beyond belief. But
I mean, the one thing that this movie doesn't hit
on that, I mean, it's not anyone movies responsibility to
hit on everything, but I do think it's an important

(08:02):
point to make in this conversation of um because this
is a movie about a teenage girl an underage girl,
which is relevant to the law. Uh here is you know,
struggling to get access to an abortion without parental consent
with extremely religious parents who probably would not want to

(08:24):
do that. But I think it's important to remember and
point out that, um, the people who primarily suffer when
abortion is outlawed are low income people. Yeah, I guess
it becomes very much an issue that's divided among class
and race lines. And the further marginalized you are by

(08:45):
American society, the less likely it is you will have
access to uh safe abortion. So it affects everyone, but
it also disproportionately affects marginalized people, low income, people of color,
cross class and race lines, and it Yeah, there's well,
we'll also link to resources on that. That's I think

(09:06):
just one of the one of the few important points
about abortion that this movie didn't completely skip. Yes, yeah,
uh so I just want to put that right at
the top, and I think I'm just gonna I'm just
gonna read it because that it Unfortunately, this Linda West

(09:29):
quote goes viral every couple of months when they try
to repeal Roe v. Wade every couple of months, but
it is I mean Linda West is brilliant, and I
just want to read it here before we get into
uh duncan on the movie, which is what we're good at.
Uh So, this is Lyndy West on The Daily Show

(09:50):
a couple of years ago. I believe she says this quote.
Anti choice people are not trying to stop abortion. They're
trying to legislate who can and cannot have abortions because
conservative politicians, their wives and mistresses and daughters are always
going to be able to get an abortion somewhere. All
criminalizing abortion will do is keep people trapped in poverty
for generations. That's the goal. And if it wasn't the goal,

(10:13):
they would spend their time and money on comprehensive sex education,
free birth control, and free contraception. Unquote. Yeah, no, notes,
and I'm upset. It's a very upsetting time in the world.
Should I recap I'm pregnant? Yeah, all right. We open

(10:35):
on Veronica played by Hailey lou Richardson. She is taking
a pregnancy test in the bathroom at her high school.
A girl walks into the bathroom while this is happening.
This girl is Bailey played by Barbie Ferrara. We learn
that Veronica and Bailey used to be best friends but

(10:57):
had a falling out at some point. The test turns
out to be positive. Veronica is pregnant or she I
was gonna say, this movie is even though we're like
even in the depths of Hell. The movie is called
ant it is called on. That's just a fact. It

(11:19):
was embarrassing. I mean, and I didn't want it because
it is like, it's a movie that you want to
root for, but there it was embarrassing that literally all
the marketing materials were misspelled. It's not a good look.
It's not a good look. Everyone the movie is called
they're saying it wrong. The whole movie they messed up
spelled wrong on the poster. I bet it spelled wrong.

(11:41):
I like, hello, yeah, why didn't you call us to
consult because that would have been our only note. Exactly fine,
and replace prag with greg Thank you. That scene where
they're on the ride at the carnival and Veronica is
dreaming I'm pregnant, she kept messing that line read up.

(12:04):
She should have been screaming I'm gregnant. I was like,
don't we have another take of that where she's saying
the line correctly. It's it's gay and gregnant. We're gay
and we're gregnant. But yeah, I mean alliteration that scenes
should have been really hilarious and empowering, but I couldn't
get past the distraction of of the of the line
being said wrong over and of her Yeah. All right, Well,

(12:29):
so she is confirmed to be gregnant. Apparently the condoms
she used with her boyfriend, Kevin we're not effective. Veronica
is freaking out. She goes home and researches getting an
abortion and learns that because she's in Missouri and she's
under eighteen I believe she's seventeen, she would need her

(12:52):
parents permission to have an abortion, which she can't ask
for because her parents are conservative and religious. The closest
place where she would not need parental consent as a
minor to get an abortion is Albuquerque, New Mexico, which
is a roughly fifteen hour drive from where she lives.

(13:17):
I believe this is all um accurate. So far, so good? Yeah, sadly, Yeah. Unfortunately,
Veronica packs a bag and tells her mom that she's
going to spend the weekend with her friends studying. She
goes to her friend's place, but it turns out that
someone had found her pregnancy test at school in the dumpster,

(13:39):
and all of her friends are speculating on who it
belongs to. So Veronica, realizing her friends are going to
be very judge, decides not to tell them that it's
her who is pregnant. She sorry, gregnant, Yeah, I'm so sorry.
He's not like Hanley Richardson. It's embarrassing. She does tell

(13:59):
her boy friend Kevin, and he responds by asking her
to marry him, and then reveals that around a month ago,
after they were done having sex, he noticed that the
condom had broken, but didn't tell her. She's very upset
by this and storms out, Yeah parts parts of this
scene work for me. Others I'm like, what is going

(14:21):
on at this? Definitely not in Olive Garden. Uh okay.
So side note, Jamie and I and our friend Bryant
are in a group chat called all of Garden Friends,
and as we speak at this very moment, Bryant is
texting us from the Olive Gorden Friends group chat, probably

(14:43):
asking us to go to Alive Garden. I'm guessing he's
trying to get us. It's even more embarrassing he's trying
to get us to join his amc A List entourage,
which I will, which I'm I'm literally doing it right now.
Is God. Our lives are quite frankly embarrassing, but we're

(15:05):
really good at it. Okay. So then Veronica goes to
Bailey and asks if she will drive Veronica to Albuquerque.
Bailey agrees. They leave that night. That was one of
my favorite moments in the entire movie. Barbie Fera is

(15:26):
so funny and charming where she's that thing where she
slams the door in her face and then she opens
the door again and she's like, I was kidding, I
do not have anything going on right. It's so funny.
I love her very good. So they set off. They
stop at a pawn shop so that Veronica can pawn
the engagement ring that Kevin gave her, but he shows

(15:49):
up because he was following her. Yeah, because he's a stalker.
But it's a joke. But it's not that you're just like, hello,
what Kevin character is all over the place. Anyways, it's, uh,
we need to talk about Kevin and we will we Wow, Wow,

(16:10):
we do need to talk about Kevin. I'm gonna also
someday we're going to have to cover a Kevin Smith movie,
and then and then we're really going to need to
talk about Kevin. Oh my gosh, there's going to come
a day when we're gonna need to talk about Kevin who. Well,
we're the other Kevin's Kevin Costner movie to talk about
that Kevin passed. I hate him so much. He's like
my least favorite Hollywood figure. Who the Kevin. I like

(16:31):
Kevin Klein. I like Kevin Vinkin is good. A Fish
called Wanda is a fun movie. We don't need to
talk about that, Kevin, but but I would be happy
to sure. Anyways, Kevin's sorry an important aspect of the episode. Yeah, alright,
So Kevin was stalking Veronica, but they get rid of

(16:53):
him and continue on their way. Along the way, Veronica
and Bailey start to bond and rekindle their friendship a bit,
but Bailey also judges Veronica for the person she's become.
She's become this kind of like sheeple carbon copy of
all the popular girls that she's friends with. The classic
It's you know that thing that happens in every movie,

(17:16):
right where one change but one is a computer video game.
One's a video game, and one's a book and that's
not cool. And you changed because Star Trek and I
was like, all right, now we're talking. Now we're talking.
She's like, we used to speak cling on together, and
now we don't speak cling on together because you're too

(17:37):
busy to do your homework. Question Mark Rict? Anyways, who knows?
Who knows? The next morning, they set off again, a
bit behind schedule. They make a pit stop for some
food and Veronica reveals that she hasn't made an appointment
yet to get the abortion. Bailey reveals that the car

(17:58):
they're driving she's ole from her mom's boyfriend, and the
cops are following them because of this stolen vehicle, so
they have to bail and abandon the car. But some
friends that they met at the diner where they stopped, um, yeah,
they meet when he starts sexually harassing them, but then

(18:18):
he quickly becomes a hero and their friend. There's a
whole thing to talk about with this character. But this
guy named Rod and his friends kind of swoop in
and give them a ride to these fair grounds that
are near a bus stop. There at the fair slash

(18:39):
Derby Center, they meet Kiarra Matthews, who is this Derby
racer lady who Bailey develops an instant crush on. Bailey
comes out to Veronica. There's a discussion to be had
about this whole situation, but um, they to Carnival Ride

(19:01):
and scream about how they are gay and gregnant. But
then again Hayley Richardson gets the line wrong. Then this
married couple Kate and Mark played by Sugar Lynde Beard
and breck and Meyer. You're like, what this is. There's
this suspension of disbelief you have to do from this

(19:23):
point onward. It's a road trip movie. But it's just like, wow,
We're yeah, they really they really take it to I
think the second they're like ditch a car at a
diner in Texas, You're just like, all right, well, I
guess the movie. The part of the movie that made
sense to be has ended. It's ceased to exist. This Honestly,

(19:44):
this script felt like Also there's five credited writers, which
is usually indication that, like, you know, there's a lot
of ideas and inconsistencies and things all mashed together. This
felt like a second draft of a script, and it
needed like a fourth or fifth draft. So and it's
abover because it's a lot of a lot of good writers,

(20:05):
including Jennifer Cayton Robinson, who wrote Someone Great. She also
is a credited writer on upcoming thor Love and Thunder.
Maybe they weren't given enough time question mark. I read.
I read that the director Rachel Lie Goldenberg, who was
also a creditive writer, um that this movie was made
on a very very very tight turnaround. It shows you're

(20:30):
so mean. I am mean, but I'm so mean about this.
Let me defend myself here. I think a fun romp
like road trip romp about girls trying to access an
abortion is such a great premise and if executed well,
it could have it could be a movie that, like

(20:51):
people want to revisit over and over for years to
come because there's a lot of value in a very
good movie that also makes an important statement. But if
a movie is just sort of like executed not that
well and it's not gonna like, it doesn't really stand
a chance of being like a cultural touchstone, when a
movie like this should be a cultural touchstone, you know.

(21:14):
But that's a lot of pressure to put on one
movie just because it's about abortion. Fair I do believe
that there's better movies to come that can take a
concept like this and hopefully have the time and money
to make a meal of it. Yeah, because it does like,
at some point just take a turn for the bizarre
in a way that does feel like Pineapple Expressie, I

(21:37):
guess where you're just or like hangovery, where you're like, Okay,
they're just this is just like we're going from set
piece to set piece and where there's gonna be a
lot of character actors and there's gonna be a lot
of really dangerous crimes that are supposed to be funny,
and you know, I don't know. Yeah, once the once
the car thing happens, I'm just like, oh, this is
not the grounded indeed road trip be I thought I

(22:00):
was watching, right, I still haven't seen Never rarely sometimes always.
I think that might be a more grounded and probably
less like fun tonally, but just like a more grounded,
probably better executed version of this premise. But I again
cannot really speak to it because I have not seen it.

(22:21):
But we should consider covering that one at some point too.
We should. Hey, I mean they're they're you know, they'll
be they'll be back for our rights. So there's always
going to be there. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, don't you worry.
It's it's Oh sorry if we sound weird today. Uh sorry,

(22:43):
it's not great. It's not our fault. Also that I
will I will say one of my least favorite things
about this movie is the tagline, which is She's a
taype A without a Plan. B. I was like, I mean,
it's not the worst, but I don't hate it. I
She's a taipe without a plan V. It's like, but

(23:03):
they didn't spell ungregnant, right, Yeah? What um mistakes? Breckon
Meyer Commire and his wife. Breckon Meyer approaches you at
a county fair in Texas, w y d start in
his car. He's like, hey, I overheard that you need

(23:24):
a ride to New Mexico. We're headed there, and they
offer Bailey and Veronica a ride, which they accept, but
before they head off, Bailey and Kira meet up at
the fair. They kiss, yeah, and then Veronica and Bailey
leave with this married couple who have a baby. So

(23:45):
they seem harmless. That's why they, you know, accept the ride.
This ride from strangers. But this couple turns out to
be these anti choice crusaders who had actually overheard them
talking about Veronica getting an abortion and making the appointment,
which another suspension of disbelief, saying that I'm just like,

(24:06):
how did they hear? What? No? Anyway, so then they
kind of abduct Veronica and Bailey, but it's like funny abduction.
It's it's so wild and zany. They steal the couple's
SUV and escape, but Breck and Meyer chases them in
their scary anti abortion RV. They managed to get away

(24:29):
and they head to a nearby town and find this
guy Bob played by June Carlo Esposito. Yeah, so you're like, oh,
we're just we're just going there, like okay, Breck and
Meyer tapping him out. Let's tap jan Carlos Busito in like,
it's just like cars. It is like a character actor
relay race at some point, Yeah, truly. Yeah. Bob owns

(24:54):
a limousine service and he takes them the rest of
the way to Albuquerque, but on the way, Veronica and
Bailey get in a fight because Veronica said some shitty
things about Bailey to her friends on the phone that
Bailey overhears. So Bailey storms off, but Veronica tracks her
down again. Turns out Bailey had gone to her dad's

(25:14):
plant shop in Albuquerque because she wants to reconnect with him,
but he blows Bailey off. Allah Kim Cattrell blowing Britney
Spears off in Crossroads. Hello, I okay, I did not
thank you thank you for the Crossroads representation. I literally okay.

(25:35):
So fun fact about me. I do work with mostly
men at my day job, you know, and that's brave
of me. And I tried to contextualize something I was
pitching for an outline the other day in the context
of Crossroads, and how did that go? They They were like, wait,
it's our favorite movie. We love it so much. Why

(25:57):
isn't it easier to access? Uh? Shanda's early work is
so underrated? They all said that. In unit said they
were like, isn't that a store anyway? Isn't that a
thrift shop? Alright, dude rock Anyways. So Bailey is trying
to reconnect with her dad, but he's being an asshole.
So Veronica calls him out, tells him out how awesome

(26:21):
Bailey is, and then she tastes him. She sure. Then
they go the rest of the way to the clinic,
where I'm just glad they used the taser because it
was like a Chekhov's taser situation. It was a Chekhovs
tasers certainly, and that's how they decided to use it.
Good for them. Um. They go the rest of the

(26:41):
way to the clinic, where Kevin, Veronica's boyfriend, has shown
up again. She breaks up with him once and for all,
and then Veronica has her abortion. It all goes well,
but they need to get back home, so Veronica has
to call her mom, who arranges for them to fly

(27:02):
back to Missouri. When Veronica gets home, she and her
mom have a talk. Her mom is disappointed that Veronica
had an abortion, but she still loves and supports her.
And then the next day at school, Veronica tells her
friends that it was her pregnancy test and then she
ditches them to sit with Bailey at lunch. The end,

(27:25):
who ungregnant? And with that, We're gonna take a quick
break and we'll be back after these I feel like
Robert products and Services products and we're back. We are back,

(27:48):
all right. So I guess it probably makes the most
sense to start by talking about how this movie treats
the subject of abortion. Um, true, true, Yeah, Because I mean,
the plot of the movie hinges on the fact that
access to abortion is often limited because our society does

(28:10):
not like it when people with uterus is have bodily autonomy.
So the movie becomes commentary on how unjust and ridiculous
and harmful limited access. It's yes, um, one thing that
I liked about. So again, I think my my biggest
criticism of how this movie handles the topic of abortion

(28:33):
is it makes just no reference to what we're talking
about earlier, of how people with verses who are marginalized
by race and class tend to be disproportionately affected by
this issue. Something that even if Hayley Richardson is the
protagonist of this movie, even though you would argue she's

(28:55):
not like the best candidate for it, but even if
she is, like there was room in the story for that,
Like you could cut so many things in favor of
finding a way to make that very important point. There
are other areas that I thought the movie was more
effective on. UM. I always get. I mean, we've talked

(29:17):
about this. Anytime there's a movie about teen girls, they
have to be like middle to upper middle class or
we'll we'll simply die. This happens with very little exception.
We do see that Bailey's character is being raised by
a single mom, you know, uh, and that becomes important

(29:37):
to her story. But still, in general, this is like
a middle class story, and you know, when Bailey does
need to be built up by her parents financially, it's
not a problem. It's more of a beliefs issue, which
is something I thought was good. We're like in the
character of oh, sorry I met Veronica, not Bailey, It's sorry,

(30:00):
we understood losing my rights over here, give me a brain, um.
But I did like that in one character, the story
was able to incorporate how she is struggling to access
abortion because of where she lives and because of the
laws of where she lives, and what an absurd distance

(30:23):
and this is like all true that an underage person
would need to go to to get an abortion without
the consent of their parents. I thought at that point
was like they really hammer it home. And that scene
on the train tracks where she's basically giving like a
speech to the Senate, right, but it's effective, Like for

(30:47):
you know, I wish I had heard stuff like that
when I was a teenager. Like you can argue it's
a little overwrought, but for what it is, I'm like
it's all effective, um, and also it manages you, um,
kind of tie in the theme of parents that would
not consent and having to navigate that. And I thought,

(31:10):
you know, for all the weirdness that happens in the trip,
I thought that that worked of like Veronica, Um, even
though she needs help getting back home, she knows that
she needs to get there and get her abortion before
her parents can be involved, and it has to be
like the whole story is driven by her desire to

(31:36):
get an abortion and not design whatever she she wants
to get an abortion. She does. It's the right choice
for her, and her parents just can't be involved because
of their beliefs. So yeah, I thought it managed to
get a lot of common issues with abortion access in
but also missed some glaring, glaring ones. Yeah, exactly right,

(31:58):
because it's like, yes, Ronica has to travel close to
three hundred miles to be able to access an abortion,
but the movie does feel like it kind of reeks
with white privilege that the movie does not interrogate anyway. Uh,
money is not really an obstacle for her. She starts

(32:21):
out with I think a thousand dollars and then gets
an additional hundred after pawning the ring. The ring was
such a contrivance. I was so annoyed by the ring.
I was like, what's happening? But yeah, I mean, it's
like unequivocally true that black and Hispanic people are most
affected if Roe v. Wade is overturned, and that is

(32:46):
just not a space that is made in the movie.
Certainly not. However, I would say that the way the
movie handles other aspects of abortion I thought or generally
very positive and handled well in the sense that when

(33:07):
Veronica finally does get to the clinic to have the abortion,
the movie like walks you through via voiceover and visuals
what one can expect from the procedure. You know, It's
like you change into the gown, you get the vaginal ultrasound,

(33:28):
They'll draw some blood, They'll hook you up to an
i V. You'll sit in a waiting room with other
people who are waiting for the same procedure. You go
in for surgery. The athesiologists will put you under. The
doctor will insert a wand to remove the fetus. It
will be done in ten minutes. You wake up in
the recovery room. Like walking through someone step by step,
especially someone who's never had an abortion, or like a

(33:51):
teenager who is maybe terrified at the idea of it
because there's so much misinformation out there and so much
rhetoric about how evil and awful and scary and violent
and murderous abortion is that the right perpetuates. So like

(34:12):
if a teen is seeing this, or like just any
young person or a teen's parents too, I mean, I
really do think like there's been so much generational misinformation
about abortions where I know, like in conversations I've had
with older women and older people in general in my
life that even though they are pro choice, I think

(34:35):
that they have some anxiety around what abortion entails that
is based on like fearmongering from their generation, from when
Roe V. Wade was passed the first time, you know.
And so yeah, I think that like truly anyone could
benefit from watching that. And I have a quote from
the director here because I thought that, yeah, that part

(34:57):
was obviously it's like the most important part of the movie,
um and and it seems like they took a lot
of care with it. So the director, Rachel Lee Goldenberg,
had this to say in an interview with a Word
Daily dot Com scholarly Journal, Yeah, okay, Awards Daily dot Com.

(35:24):
She has a quote, I've had an abortion, but I
had a pill abortion. This was new information to me,
which is wild. I had this moment where I knew
I wanted to do something special when I came on board.
It wasn't fully fleshed out in the script yet. I
went with my writing partner on a tour of planned
parenthood in Los Angeles and asked the nurses to walk
us through it. It made me realize how much he

(35:46):
didn't know, and that fascinated me. It struck me that
in the moment, we couldn't spend that much time with
this young woman and sent her behind a wall. It
feels like she has come to this place where she
has said the word abortion and she's confident in her choice.
So what do we have to be a shamed about now?
As an audience, we should be on this journey with her.
As I was going through all the rooms, I had
no idea there were so many I should show people

(36:07):
that most importantly, it comes from a character place and
this is what Veronica is going through unquote. So I like, that's, uh,
that's lovely because that's like I think that you know,
even even people who support the right to abortion don't
necessarily know what it entails. And I would include myself
in that in certain respects. So good scene, Yeah, can

(36:30):
I found it informative and and helpful and esthetically pleasing.
It's it's pretty, it's calm, it's you know, the voiceover
is very calming. Yeah, just representation on screen of an
abortion taking place that isn't like scary, that isn't a
character panicking and freaking out. I'm reminded of that scene

(36:55):
from Blue Valentine that we discussed recently where the character
seems in pain and then freaks out and then stops
the abortion mid procedure. So I just I appreciate just
showing an abortion as a medical procedure that is quick
and not necessarily a horribly dramatic experience. And I feel

(37:17):
like it it kind of without even having to. But
that speaks to the point of, like how important it
is to have access to safe abortions too, because Veronica
has to travel, you know, a thousand miles to have
a safe abortion that her parents don't have to consent to,
which should not be the case. I mean, she states
it very on the nose and broadly and that scene

(37:38):
in the train tracks where it's like, why do I
need my parents permission to get an abortion? But I
don't need my parents permission to have a GREG, to
to shove a GREG through my bodily canals, et cetera. Um. Um,
But like seeing seeing um, seeing her get a safe

(38:00):
abortion that she's you know, very comfortable with, which is
I think yet another thing that Blue Valentine funked up.
And and we've been hearing that point a lot this week,
and it's something we've heard in the past, because it
is true that, you know, abortion being made illegal or
far more difficult to access is not going to end abortions.

(38:20):
It's just going to make them less safe for people
who need them. So um, yeah, I think seeing her
finally get access to a safe abortion that she is
you know, there's there's never and I think that that's
like smart writing as well, where she's never unwavering on
her on what she knows is the right decision for her. Yes,

(38:44):
it's just all the other stuff that is weird, Right,
It's like everything is surrounding this specific abortion for this
specific character I think is handled well. The lead up
to it. They managed to work in some important statistic
into the dialogue. I thought you're talking about the weird
stuff they do, like the you know they say like

(39:06):
at the fair, They're like, it's simply a medical procedure
one and four. You know, they say women, I would say,
people with you terses have an abortion. You know. Breck
and Meyer is like, did you know that having an
abortion will reduce your chances of getting pregnant later on?
And Veronika is like, no, that is completely false. So

(39:26):
and then Breck and Mera went, oh my god, I'm
so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'll leave now. Um. So,
there's like some good facts and stats about abortions that
they work into the dialogue in sometimes clunky ways, other
times more seamless ways. It feels a little edge detainment.
At times. The info is good, right, right, And then

(39:49):
the aftermath of the abortion, where you know, Verona comes
out with a spring in her step. She she seems
to be feeling well. She tells Bailey that she feels relieved.
She tells her mom later on, like, I know I'm
supposed to probably feel bad about this abortion, but I
don't feel bad at all. I know that I made

(40:10):
the right choice for me, and even though her mom says, well,
I'm disappointed, like, Veronica never apologizes or kind of wavers
in her feelings of this was definitely the right choice
for me. So to have all of that represented on
screen is great and I think the movies strongest element.

(40:34):
I agree, I agree, and I did um. I was
also interested to read in that same interview with the
director rachel Leie Goldenberg, that there were multiple options of
how to kind of land the plane on Veronica's relationship

(40:54):
with their mom at the end of the movie. I
do kind of I think, for what the movie is
and what the tone of the movie is, I like
where it landed because it felt a little soapy, but
without being like completely unrealistic. Because when she got home,
I was like, it would be weird to me if
the mom was just I mean, it would be great

(41:14):
in the life of this fictional character if her mom
was like, it's totally okay, I totally accept you, like
that is what you would want as a teenager. But
I like that it was it felt more grounded in
a way that the vast majority of the movie doesn't wear.
Her mom says, I think that the line is something
like I would not have made that choice. That is

(41:37):
not the choice that your sister made, because we learned
at the beginning that her sister also um had a
child relatively young, and it just sounds like the mom is,
you know, kind of starting a journey. I would hope
towards being able to respect a person's right to choose

(41:59):
what to do with they're fucking body, um, and I
would hope that that is something that like, I think
that that's a useful scene potentially for for older people
to see. Yeah, so I I kind of thought that
was cool choice. Yeah, I think it at tracked For me,
it played pretty realistic in a movie that often abandons realism.

(42:25):
The whole second act is like it takes place on
a different planet, but then it comes back to the planet.
I have complicated feelings about it because on one hand,
I like that this movie is totally very light and
a romp. Yes, not to say that like getting an
abortion is a fun romp, but I think that this

(42:46):
movie's lighthearted tone helps take away a lot of the
scariness and you know, apprehension that some people might feel
around getting an abortion. But there's a lot of instances
where the movie gets very cartoonish in a way that

(43:07):
I had difficulties suspending my disbelief for It's so the
second act of this movie is so weird and all
over the place. Yeah, did you have anything else to
sort of talk about about the fairly grounded third act
of the movie, Because I don't think we can get
into the we can get into the fun stuff. Now, sure,

(43:30):
let's let's take a quick break and then dive in
and we're back. Uh yeah, where would you like to start?
I said, the fun stuff? It's not also not there.
There is some stuff that I would say. I would
say the whole breck and Meyer portion of the movie, Like,

(43:54):
I can't even get mad about it. I'm just like that,
what a weird way to frame an abduction, Like it's
so goofy that I'm I don't, I can't in good
faith be like that's bad for the use of the world.
And it's like I just think it's just like kind
of weirdly written, and like why, Yeah, it's like all

(44:17):
all well and good. It makes sense that they're traveling,
you know, through the Deep South. It makes sense that
they would potentially meet people who are not in favor
of the right to an abortion. It makes sense as
an obstacle in this story, but the execution is what
I think, not really doing much or it's no, it's

(44:39):
I would I would say it's doing a lot well,
doing much as far as like effective commentary. Oh yeah, no, no, zero.
But but was I laughing kind of? But I was
just like confused. I you know, I like breckon a lot.
He's enjoying the post that sequence was so Yeah, I

(45:00):
worked with him on Robot Chicken. He's the best sweetheart,
But that that whole sequence is very, very strange. I
didn't understand. Uh there, what what are other stuff that is?
Like I don't have really, there's just so many sad
pieces of this movie that you're like, actually, we need
to talk about Kevin. Okay, let's talk about we need

(45:21):
to talk about Kevin. Where where to begin with? On
one hand, I guess the positive thing about Kevin's involvement
in the story is that he is a creepy, stalkery,
manipulative boyfriend who is actually framed as having those toxic

(45:41):
qualities since a lot of teen movies have historically presented
those behaviors and traits as being romantic, so at least, yes,
it doesn't do that. I do like that. I like
the line that that Barbie Ferrara says where she's like, yeah,
that's say anything stuff like I thought that that, you know,
that worked well when she was like, yeah, he kept
asking me to go out with him until I said yes,

(46:02):
and I prefer its like, uh, that sucks. Yeah. Veronica
was like he stood outside my window all night one
night and Barbie's like, yeah, say anything. Made that seem cute,
but it's called stalking. I just think that when it
comes to we need to talk about Kevin, I just
felt like, where Veronica and Bailey tend to be pretty

(46:27):
grounded characters, it did not find Kevin to be a
very grounded character. And I think it would have been
more effective commentary if he were, because he does come
off a little cartoony where it's not that he's not
doing things that young men often do in this situation,
which is be conditioned to be like, you know, we

(46:48):
have to settle down together and like, you know, acting
like they're living a hundred years ago. That like, for
sure happens. Stalking certainly happens. Predatory creepy behaviors in relationships
certainly happened, but the way it's written and framed and like,
it just felt goofy and cartoony, and I just didn't

(47:09):
think it didn't land for me. Yeah, he just seemed
like a character that was written to say a bunch
of stuff that men say in these situations. Yeah. Yeah,
Like he was like Patriarchy the Guy of this movie. Yeah,
in a very like one dimensional way, rather than being

(47:31):
a character that felt like a real person who also
may say those things. But just I don't know if
it was the performance or just like the lack of
development put into this character, but it did feel too
cartoonish to feel like it was making any kind of
effective commentary. I think it was like it was a
lot of stuff going on. But I will, okay, I

(47:53):
want to I want to put that on wax and
make that an official Betel Cask canon. Patriarchy the Guy
as a stock character because I always understand where it's
coming from, and I rarely find it to be effective.
It's never just one guy, never just one guy. And again,
even if they're even if you do have a character

(48:15):
that represents a lot of ideology perpetuated by the patriarchy,
sure it still needs to be like handled in a
way that makes sense. We live in a society for
crying out loud. If you got patriarchy, the guy, I
want to know how he became patriarchy the guy. He
wasn't born patriarchy the guy tell you that much. I

(48:38):
don't know why I'm upset. I think I'm just hungry. Um. Same,
we need to talk about Kevin. Yeah that I I
support the spirit of it. I didn't think it was
executed in a way that made sense. What about what
about Dad tazing? How do we feel about Dad tasting?
I didn't That didn't work for me either. Nope, Um,

(49:03):
that did not work for me. I would say it
plays into some tropes to like, I don't know there
was that there was also there's a scene where like
Bailey notices a cop following them and then they just
veer off the road in a way that makes them
seem extremely suspicious. But then the cop is like welp,

(49:27):
which they famously are obsessed with. I don't understand why
Veronica wasn't more panicked. Right when Barbie Ferre did that,
She's just like, oh, yeah, I guess let's get breakfast,
like right, and she's just like yeah, it sounds great.
There's a couple different times where like there is a
problem presented and then it immediately goes away, which I
just always I'm like, man like, when they wake up

(49:50):
late in the middle of the desert and they're like,
we're gonna be late, and then it's followed by a
montage of them like kind of hanging out, like feeding animals.
I was like, so they're not, like right, so they're
on time, jing at a diner, So why did that happen?
If that would happen, you would starve or go to
a McDonald's. Come on. Similarly, there's a scene where Veronica
comes back to the limo after she and Bailey have

(50:13):
had this big fight where Bailey storms off and Bob
is fixing the limo because it has broken down, and
she's like, well, what the heck? What how is long
is this gonna take? And then he's like, oh, just
twenty minutes, and then cut to them in the limo
driving off again. So it's like, Okay, this wasn't an
obstacle then, so cut it out of the script. Yeah,

(50:34):
there's a lot of stuff like that. The whole just
the timeline of the entire story didn't make any sense.
It seemed like sometimes it would be like midnight, but
then they were at a fair and then they were like, okay,
let's drive for four more hours to Albuquerque. Or it
would be like five o'clock in the morning and they're like, hurry,
we have to drive four hours to get to the

(50:56):
appointment at eight A. Yeah, you know, just like all
this stuff that made knows their money and the way
the money was spent was so bizarre to me. They
didn't use Google Maps on their phones the entire time.
What I don't that is like a major I mean,
I still believe that we as a society have not

(51:19):
figured out how to effectively put phones in media. And
anytime you hear like whoop, unlike something annoying is about
to happen, and it's always like they they do the
Jane the Virgin thing where it's like the text appears
alongside the head. You're like, I guess this is about
as well as we can do, but it always feels
cheesy and and and then to write around that by

(51:42):
being like she she's a book, so she printed a map,
Like why are we using a map? What are you doing?
You don't know what turns to make and what exits
to take when you print out a map that spans
three hundred miles, like there aren't enough detail whatever. More importantly,

(52:03):
I would like to talk about the way queerness is
handled in the movie. Sure. So they're at the fair,
Veronica senses that Bailey might like girls, which she kind
of like coaxes out of her, which I would say
maybe not the best approach, especially since they're not really
friends anymore, and maybe Bailey does not want to slash

(52:28):
is not ready to come out to Veronica. But eventually
Bailey nonchalantly says like, yeah, I like girls, No big deal.
And then Veronica assume assumes that she's the first person
that Bailey came out to, and Bailey's like, no, I've
been out to my mom for years, plus this list
of other people, which I didn't mind. It was nice
to like that we didn't have to have like a yes,

(52:50):
this is my secret and and I'm finally coming out
and like all the ways that that's often weirdly handled
in media. So I'm glad we avoided that. And if
I remembering correctly, I think that that is like something
Barbie Farra has also spoken about, like wanting to see
Mora because Barbie as a queer woman herself, and it

(53:11):
seems like that's like something that she appreciates in a character.
So I was all for that. It's like just the
one offline. You're like, Okay, that works, right. Um. What
I am more concerned about is the kind of brief
romance between Bailey and Kira. I am glad that the
script gave some real estate to a queer relationship, but
I felt weird about it because Bailey is still in

(53:34):
high school presumably the same age as Veronica seventeen, and
Kira seems to be pretty significantly older. She and all
her friends I think are at least twenty one, because
we see them like drinking alcohol in public that they
seem to have legally purchased. There's other indicators that I'm like,

(53:54):
Kira is like twenty five at least it just would
have been like again, it's and we see this that
feels like it's falling back on just a general teen
movie trope where that's how many times have you seen
that in like hetero context in a teen movie, Like
that's just a classically bad trope that you would think

(54:18):
this movie would have thought like, why couldn't they just
meet another high schooler at the fucking fair. It's actually
statistically more likely that you would so easy, such an
easy choice to make. Why you have doing the derby
whatever that's called. Yeah, but why not? You're in Texas,
That's probably That's what I pictured teenagers in Texas doing.

(54:40):
I'm like, they're driving soapblockers around I don't know my business.
They're driving mad Max Fury road vehicles around a track.
Of course. Yeah, I was like, it looks cool, like
no disrespect before all of our listeners from Texas are
like mad at me. But yeah, I mean, I just
think that that character. I I think that it may

(55:01):
have just been that the movie wanted to cast Betty Who,
who is like this iconic queer singer who plays the role,
which for sure like Betty Who's awesome. However, Yeah, I
think that, like, this movie seems very vested in steering
clear of teen movie tropes, and so having a teenager

(55:21):
hook up with someone who seemed to be well into
young adulthood felt like a very clear mistake, really icky,
and essentially, because queerness is so infrequently represented in this
genre in a meaningful way, it feels like an even
bigger fumble for sure, especially because what happens after they

(55:43):
meet and have flirted a little bit. They're in like
a ballpit or something, and Kira turns into a music video.
Kira does ask for consent to kiss Bailey, which great,
always get consent, but then Bailey is like, I've never
kissed anyone before, and like, twenty seven year old Kira

(56:03):
should have been like, oh, actually, maybe I shouldn't kiss
this stranger. She keeps getting older in your mind, she
do years her mid late twenties. She should have been like,
I don't know, maybe I shouldn't kiss this stranger after all,
who is clearly a teenager. So that makes it seem
like there's this kind of like predatory lesbian trope happening,

(56:25):
and it just felt really icky. It just it's like,
just cast someone else. I'll due respect to Betty who
because it's like you don't want you know, I want
Barbie to get her first kiss, but like from a
high school from another seventeen year old, Like, yeah, that
was not hard to do at the very least. It
is queer characters played by queer actors. Since both Barbie

(56:48):
Farra and Betty Who are queer. But and it's like,
you know, Barbie Ferrera is like twenty five like it
in terms of like production wise, it's all of a
board in the story it doesn't work. Yes, great, so again,
great idea of like a queer teen getting her first kiss,
but the execution. And that's not to say that, you know,

(57:11):
teenagers don't sometimes get their first kiss from someone who
is technically a legal adult. I don't always like feel
super comfortable gatekeeping like a seventeen year old can't kiss
eighteen and a half year old like stuff like that,
like obviously, like it's a lived experience thing. But because
it's like a movie and it seems to be a

(57:32):
significant age gap, that that is more where I have
the issue. Yeah, so uh yeah, I I also made
a note of that. But you know, Barbie Frere and
Betty Who relationship, I r L. I would take it fine,
fine by me? Why not? I also went to examine

(57:57):
So we've already discussed how the movie fails to acknowledge
in any meaningful way that women of color are disproportionately
affected by limited access to abortion. There's another way in
which race is very mishandled. So in general, the characters

(58:17):
of color, whether it's like Veronica's friends who we meet
at the beginning and end, whether it's the people who
Veronica and Bailey meet along the way of this road trip. Also,
a woman who owns a pawn shop is a black
woman who pulls a shotgun on we need to talk
about Kevin, Right. You have the Geane Carlo Esposito character,

(58:41):
who is also a gun loving eccentric, like a what's
the oh my god, what's the u anni kind of yeah, libertarian,
libertary type yeah. And then you have the was the
character's named Gerade Gerade, Yeah, who is presented as a
pred tory character who's harassing them and then becomes their friend.

(59:05):
And I don't know how much of that is a
failure of writing, how much of that is a failure
of casting, right, because I would argue that those characters
don't necessarily seem like they're written to be any particular
race exactly. Okay, So there's a lot to unpack about that.
So in general, the people of color just serve as
scenery in this white story, or like helpers of the

(59:28):
white characters, um white or white passing. Right. Gerrard is
one of the only black characters in the movie, and
he's also the character that draws a lot of attention
to himself and creates a diversion when cops in Texas
come looking for whoever stole this vehicle. That was like
so fucking bizarre. It feels like one of those things where,

(59:52):
like you said, the character probably wasn't specifically written as black,
but a black actor was cast in that role, but
the script wasn't change in any way to reflect the
actions or choices that a black person would most likely make. Um.
I want to cite this great article I've found written

(01:00:15):
by Kendall Cunningham entitled color Blind Justice. Unpregnant is too
White to be revolutionary from Bitch Media. I'll just read
a few quotes and do some some paraphrasing. Here, Kendall
says quote. While Unpregnant succeeds in illustrating a larger thesis

(01:00:37):
about the state sanctioned roadblocks to abortion, it fails at
developing its supporting characters, specifically black people who rescue Veronica
and Bailey from peril and help them reach their destination.
It's hard to tell whether these one dimensional characters of
black people as benevolent saviors are part of a broad
message about prejudice that the writers failed to develop, or

(01:00:58):
the result of color blind and casting with no consideration
of the stereotypes and problematic tropes being invoked. By the
end of the otherwise charming and well written film, I
felt annoyed and exhausted by displays of empathy and sacrifice
that so often go unthanked and unreturned by white people,
particularly when it comes to the larger political issue of

(01:01:19):
reproductive justice in the United States. Kendall goes on to
discuss how all of the black characters from Peg in
the pawn Shop, Grad in the Diner, Bob the limo
driver all exists in this narrative only to help this
white girl on her journey right and here like making

(01:01:39):
personal sacrifices too often help her when she does have
access to like other options. It's really because it's the
pawn shop owner overpays her for her ring. The gene
Carlo as Zito character also canonically this was bothering me.

(01:01:59):
They would have been getting to the limo place at
like six in the morning and he was like ump
and running a limo company. What are you talking about?
Drops everything He's like, my business is canceled because a
white teenage girl needs something like Yeah, it's egregious. And
then and I think that my my guess is that

(01:02:19):
it's there are five white writers on this movie, right, Yeah,
that didn't take things into consideration that they should have considered. Um.
The most egregious example for me was the Gerard scene,
in which Kendall has this to say. Quote at no
point in the scene. And this is again the scene

(01:02:41):
where Gerard creates a diversion so to distract the cops.
Quote at no point in the scene. Does it feel
as if director rachel Leie Goldenberg understands the racial tension
and potential dangerous situation she's representing on screen. It's hard
to believe that a black man in Texas, surrounded by
cops would risk his freedom and possibly his life to

(01:03:03):
help two white teenagers get away with a crime, even
in the seemingly harmless form of patriotic expression. In a
moment meant to be humorous and charming, Rod comes off
as an eager puppet for white people. Unquote. Um. And
then I'll just I'll share because I will will link
this this piece by Kendall Cunningham in all of the stuff,

(01:03:26):
but I just found it very insightful. The last thing
I'll quote is this quote. It seems as if Unpregnant
is trying to create a larger point about white folks
perception of other white folks as immediately trustworthy and well meaning.
Um parentheses. This is Caitlin talking like the way that
they immediately trust Breck and Meyer and family versus they

(01:03:51):
don't trust grad right away. Also, the movie frames him
as not trustworthy right away because he hits on them. Yeah,
and he makes them uncomfortable. Right. So back to the quote, um,
white people's perceptions of other white folks as immediately trustworthy
and well meaning versus their perceptions of black people as
threatening and unapproachable. If inserted on purpose, this idea rings true,

(01:04:15):
but is riddled with notions of respectability, particularly the idea
that black people should be respected because we might not
be as hostile as white people may assume us to be.
There's also the fact that black people hardly received the
unmitigated compassion and support when it comes to accessing healthcare
as white characters like Veronica do. Kendall goes on to say,

(01:04:35):
if only Unpregnant leaned into this irony a bit more.
It's black characters may not have seemed as detached from reality. Overall,
the off putting racial elements and Unpregnant mostly made me
long for more modern portrayals of black people getting abortions
in film whose geography and economic status often impede their
ability to terminate pregnancies as well. Unquote, So shout out

(01:05:01):
to that piece written by Kendall Cunningham, and shout out
to Kendall Cunningham, wonderful writer. Certainly, Yeah that the it
you can't want five white people write a movie you
just can't like, and and it's that was I mean
of the many frustrating, sloppy elements of this movie, particularly

(01:05:24):
as Kendall points out, particularly because this is about an
issue that disproportionately affects black and brown people. Yeah, it's egregious,
it's unkind to the actors, and it undercuts what it
appears the movie wants to do, which is be thoughtful,

(01:05:48):
thoughtful and progressive, progressive, which the treatment of I would say,
virtually all of the non white characters in this movie
are not treated thoughtfully or like like people, you know,
like it's just I mean, there's a lot of people
in this movie that aren't acting like people, but the

(01:06:10):
way the tropes applied and the clear like even if
if if a number of these characters were not written
as UM any particular race, like that's a cast like
you need to talk to your casting director about what
their problem is that and depending on who you cast,
you need to go back and make changes to the

(01:06:32):
script to reflect what those characters would actually do and
say in these situations that you've written. So there's a
big failure to do that in this movie. A couple
a couple of different fumbles required for for it to
turn out quite that bad. Yeah, a few things that

(01:06:54):
I thought were not handled the worst. While there is
not a whole lot of diversity in general, including diversity
in body size, you do have a character who is fat.
We have Bailey played by Barbie Ferrera. Especially if for

(01:07:14):
comparing this to other teen movies, especially from past decades,
there is usually a noticeable lack of body diversity um
where you see nothing but thin usually white Western beauty
standard bodies, so you usually get a field full of

(01:07:35):
Hayley Richardson's right, So it's nice to see some diversity
in size and have that be normalized. Barbie is like
truly the funniest. It was, like, again, I felt shutting
on the reading of this movie a lot. But do
hear how many like not well written lines Barbie Ferrero
was able to sell to me. Anyways, I was like, bless,

(01:07:57):
like she is just so talented and and yeah, and
I also appreciated how I feel like in your average
teen comedy, you don't get to know like Barbie Ferrara's
role in the story would normally be sidelined quite a
bit and you wouldn't get to learn a lot about her.
I appreciate that the movie went out of its way

(01:08:18):
to give her her own story, even though sometimes I
was like, dad, Taser, that's what we're doing. Uh, we're
leaning into the dead Pete dad trope, and then we're
doing like this two thousand and seven jet Apatau thing. Okay,
uh sure, But in any case, and and there were
I think generally as far as this, I mean, we've

(01:08:39):
seen this story of like that you changed and I'm
a hot topic girl, Uh you know, story a bazillion times.
But I thought that that was pretty well executed, and
like the two actors have such great chemistry that even
when it wasn't awesome, I was like, they clearly like
each other. I like to that. I think some kind

(01:09:01):
of like popular girl tropes are avoided or subverted in
this movie, where Veronica seems to run with like the
popular girls, but she she can read like she can read,
she cares about her studies, she's a trekky nerd. She
doesn't have street smarts, and she doesn't drink, but she
does have sex. Like just you know, that's various qualities

(01:09:25):
that are usually way more rigidly represented in like a
popular girl. But you know, she's seems to be more
well rounded. I don't know, not not a huge thing,
but yeah, it's it's just like a little a lot
of little attempts taking place in this movie. Um, did

(01:09:45):
you have anything else? I don't have anything else, how
about you? None of that's about all I had. This
movie does pass the BACKFLF test, Yes, quite a bit.
It's mostly Barbarie Ferrara and Haley Leu Richardson talking in
a car for quite a bit of the movie. Also,
you've got conversations between mothers and daughters. You've got conversations

(01:10:09):
between popular girls. You've got all sort You've got conversations
between anti abortion fundamentalists and Hayley y Richardson. You know,
you've got all sorts of conversations taking place that doesn't
have to do with with men. Uh So, yeah, no
problem there. However, we are now at our nipple scale

(01:10:34):
sero to five nipples based on how the movie fares
when looking at it through an intersectional feminist lens. I think,
setting aside that I think there's a lot of, like
just like screenwriting issues, I would give this, I think
a three in that it is. It does have an agenda,

(01:10:57):
and a progressive agenda that is seeking to humanize getting
an abortion, and part of the agenda is to make
having an abortion seem less daunting and scary and just
the normal medical procedure that it is. I appreciate that

(01:11:19):
that is the agenda of the movie. As we've discussed,
there's a lot of missteps and what it fails to
acknowledge around the abortion discussion in terms of people of color,
especially from a lower socioeconomic status. UM people of color
who live in states where abortion is already difficult to

(01:11:41):
access are more likely to have to have an abortion
because of other factors, not as easy access to health
care and birth control, not as easy access to education,
things like that. Yeah, and it's it's like they're they're
are you know, certainly Veronica's character has obstructions to access

(01:12:06):
of worship, but she I just think for this story,
it she's not the prime candidate for leading this story. Absolutely,
And and also it's it's like the movie has more
than enough room for additional characters and perspectives like they're
they're just they're you can't include the whole of breck

(01:12:29):
and Meyer sequence and then tell me there wasn't time
for it. There was time, and it was a massive
oversight in addition to all the ways of this movie
fumbles with race in general. Right, and if the writers
are like, oh, I don't know, I just felt out
of my depth talking about that in the movie, and
it's like, well, then bring in other people exactly who

(01:12:51):
can speak to that more effectively. If George Miller can
do it, you can do it, right. You haven't heard
our Mad Max episode comes out next week, because that
will makes so much sense next with that will make
so much sense in a week. So Yeah, the failure
to acknowledge that people of color are very disproportionately affected
by limited access to abortion. I think is A is

(01:13:13):
a major misstep for this movie. The way that characters
of color are treated, the way the queer relationship pans out,
a lot of it is just quite a few missteps.
I do appreciate that the kind of emotional relationship core
of the movie is A is a friendship between two

(01:13:35):
girls that shouldn't be a rare thing in film, but um,
it is. So I appreciate that. I appreciate the lack
of absolution for the Kevin character. I think that, you know,
if this movie was made, you know, and even fairly recently,
that would not be a guaranteed thing. There's definitely things

(01:13:58):
that this movie is doing right by it is also
doing quite a bit either wrong or just completely ignoring
the glaring reality of right. Yeah, so I think I'll
go with, like, I don't know, two and a half
fields a little too low for three. I think I'll
go three. I'll give one to Barbie Ferrera, I'll give

(01:14:19):
one to the actor who plays Peg Gerald Prescott, and
I will give my third nipple to PEG's reference to
the human centipede. I did appreciate that well, delivered and
a rare goodline in this movie. Yeah, I'm also going

(01:14:42):
to go with three here for all the reasons described
there are, particularly on the issue of class and race
as it pertains to access to abortion. It's like, how, how,
how how can that not come into the story in
addition to the people of color that are in the

(01:15:03):
movie and how their characters are sidelined. They're just servicing
the sins white teenager and and and so on and
so forth. It's just a huge, kind of inconceivably huge
miss in that regard. And it's the more we talk
about it, the more I'm like, what the fuck? Um, So, yeah,
I'm gonna give this three nipples. And I think I'm

(01:15:26):
gonna give him all the Barbie because I wanted to
have a spare. I just think she's a delight certainly. Well, folks,
that is our episode on on greg Nant. Yes, so
no more Greg's and uh and and and good riddance

(01:15:48):
uh again. We're gonna be linking to resources on more information,
will be linking to the Bitch media piece. Will also
be linking to a Google dog of state by state
places to donate to individual abortion clinics. We will be
doing the same, don't you worry. And we'll also post

(01:16:13):
these resources to our social media, speaking of which that's
on Instagram and Twitter at bucktele Cast incredible, and that's
just where you can find us there. Absolutely you can
also find us on Patreon aka Matreon, where we do
to bonus episodes every month. Yeah, you also have access

(01:16:34):
to the back catalog of all of those over one
hundred bonus episodes. I'll be goddamned, including uh two movies
that handle abortion in uh ways that I mean obviously
I don't know. I had to revisit Obvious Child, but
certainly a movie that it handles abortion terribly. We covered
on the Matreon, which is Juno. Uh so they're all

(01:16:57):
it's all there, Baby had on, Head on over, come
on down, and uh you can get our merch at
t public dot com slash the Bechdel Cast if you
are so inclined, and uh, we'll see you next week
for Caitlin's birthday episode. Bye bye Bye