Prince & Purple Rain (1984)

On this week’s very purple episode of Dear Movies, I Love You, our hosts Millie and Casey discuss all things Prince. They chat about their favorite albums, Casey’s personal connection to Purple One, and finish things off with an in-depth analysis of PURPLE RAIN (1984) and the P.C.U. (Prince Cinematic Universe).

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Yo, Casey, what's a oh, not much?

Speaker 2 (00:03):
MILLI feeling healthy post COVID, feeling great. How are you doing?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Just fine? I have this weird feeling that this episode
is going to feature you a lot, right.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Dearly beloved. Yes, uh, I have a lot to say
about Prince. I feel like I have a very personal
connection to him. But I think you might be a
fan as well, Millie. I think you're going to have
a lot to say about the Purple One as well.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
That's right. I am really excited to dive into the
Prince universe, the Prince Multiverse.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
The Prince Cinematic Universe, which we are going to touch upon,
and I'm excited to talk about.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Yeah, I'm a fan of the PCU, but I also
want to talk about Prince as like an actor, because
we've kind of dangled that topic in previous episodes of
whether or not Prince is a good actor.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
I feel like I have a lot of thoughts about that.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
I know you do. I know you do, and I
want to be able to bring up some of his
other films. And I know he didn't make many films,
but listen, stay tuned, everybody, Okay, I think we're gonna
have a lot of fun. Okay, let's have some action.
Let's have some asses wiggling.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Asses wiggling. Millie demanded that we had asses wiggling on
this episode.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I want some perfection.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
Okay, that's right, Millie. And you know what I always say,
if you didn't come to party, don't bother knocking on
my door, you know what I mean. So, uh, that's
kind of the approach to this episode and the podcast
in general.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Very much agreed. So stay tuned. You're listening to Dear Movies. Dear,
I love you, and I've got to love me to
check the books. Hey, everybody, this is Dear Movies, I

(02:13):
Love You, a podcast for those who are in a
relationship with movies, very very tight, close, long term relationship,
you know, passionate, passionate. I mean, we're not afraid of commitment.
As you may know. My name is Millie.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
To Jericho, I'm Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
And yeah, this is gonna be great. We're gonna talk
about the Purple One Prince.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yes, because his birthday is coming up?

Speaker 1 (02:38):
Oh is it?

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Ah? Yes? Wait what June seventh is his birthday? I believe?

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Oh so he's a Gemini. Huh makes sense makes some
sense creative, you know, maybe like two sides of a personality.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
I will say I don't know a lot about astrology,
but I do respect it.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Well, that's great because I know a lot. I mean
I don't know a lot lot, but I know enough
to make a value judgment on Prince being a geminis.
I mean, you know, he can be sexy and sweet,
as we were going to talk about in Purple Rain, but.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
He's got a dark side too.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Wait, what are you You're I'm a Capricorn, no wonder.

Speaker 2 (03:20):
One time I was in in film school, I used
to work for the camera rental department, and our cinematography
professor walks in. His name is Charles Swanson. Loved him.
He actually was a huge Prince fan too. To bring
this full circle, but he comes in. He points at
me and he goes, Casey, what's your sign? I go,

(03:40):
I'm a Capricorn. And he turns to everyone in the
rental department he goes, hey, listen up, don't fuck with Casey.
Right now, he's a mess, but in ten years he's
going to be on top. So stay away from him
for now. But in ten years he's going to be
on another level.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Well, look at you. You're on another level.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
On another level. I'm on a podcast. Yes, the prophecy
was Yes, prophecy was fort told.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
That's wild. That is like one of my favorite things too.
By the way, I've talked about this before, but two people,
this is no shade to you. Maybe it's okay, but yes,
I listen. It's part of part of it. Part of
doing a podcast with me is eating a little shit.
You know, when people are not into astrology and you

(04:28):
are in astrology and you're able to just sort of
like leave this like dangling phrase for them to be like,
they'll tell you, you know, like you're a cap record and
I'm just like, oh god, yeah, of course, uh oh,
and then you're just like, what does that mean? What
does that mean? I love that moment. I love when
you freak out that we know something about you that
you don't know.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
Well, I'm still talking about when my cinematography professor called
me out in front of my other Oh you were.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Rocked by that, clearly. So I feel like that's a
a good question for a professor to just lay on
a class, to be like, yeah, what's your sign? Everybody,
Let's go around the room.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah. Anyways, this episode is I'm very excited. But really,
you know, just at the top of the episode, sometimes
we talk about movie news. I don't know if you
care about this or not, but do you have any
opinions about the app? Max? Going back to HBO? Max?

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Okay, what day is it? What time is it?

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Today is Friday? We are recording this Friday, May sixteen?

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Okay, because okay, what I got laid off by the
company that owns Max HBO, Max HBO, Go HBO, now
whatever you want to call it. You know, basically, there
was some paperwork that said that I pretty much couldn't
complain about the company for a little bit.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
I see, I see. I didn't realize that. I wouldn't
have brought this up.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
But I think that time is over, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
The window you're outside the window there.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Now, I'm now, I'm just a plead. I can do
whatever I want. Sure, And so here's my thoughts on this.
This ship is too wild, too wild, because I'm gonna
tell you right now, when they changed to Max, I
was like, what the fuck? Yo, Like, this is no,
you can't just do that, Max? What does that even mean?

(06:27):
Max Fisher who are you talking about?

Speaker 2 (06:29):
Talking about rushmore Max Rush, Max Minnguela. I don't know
who the hell is Max Weinberg.

Speaker 1 (06:36):
There you go. How many Maxes can we come up with?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Is odd that it? You know, I know Max's like
to the Max, but like taking more of a broader
view of it, it's like naming it like Ted.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
It's like or yo yo the streaming service for you
and your family. No, I like this. It's kind of
this feeling of like, Okay, well you went back to
the thing that I thought was working the best, which
is hbox. I I'm sitting here like how many apps
am I going to have to delete from my Apple

(07:08):
TV that have all these like dead names? Right? Like
it's so stupid, It's so fucking stupid. And I'm just like, okay,
well now we're just back to the thing that made
the most sense, and you know, that's it. And it
kind of feels speaking of messy. This is messy, don't.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
You, very messy, very publicly messy. You remember when Netflix
was like, hey, we have our DVD rental service and
then we have streaming, and the the streaming service is
going to be called Quickster. Do you remember that they
did that for like two seconds and everyone was like
what yeah, and then and they went back on that.
So yeah, well we just using it. I'm flipping it.

(07:46):
It was one was flip Quickster and one was Netflix,
and I can't remember which.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Was which, but well, I think we should start yo
as I think.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Is there an exclamation point at the end of ye? Sure? Okay, cool?

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Sure it could be yot yeah yo, and then I
will start acquiring content for it immediately, since that's okay.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
You kind of know how to like literally, you're like
the best person that could put together a streaming service
that I know.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
I mean kind of I was gonna say it, but yeah,
now that you've said it, I'll agree.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
I think it's funny because I think they realize, like, oh,
people like quality, and like I think HBO has a story.
It's just funny they're kind of like realizing that thing
and like HBO is sort of synonymous with like quality television,
and then they they're like, huh, I guess people like
good stuff interesting, very interesting.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Well, it's like you look at these companies that have
all these like different properties, different you know, and you
look at a company like Warner Brothers, Discovery, HBO is
kind of the crown jewel of it sure, right, and
and Warner Brothers Discovery is a lot of arms. I mean,
obviously they have the Discovery channels, they have to turn channels,
they have Warner brother their studios, they've got DC, They've
got like all these things, right, all these properties. And

(09:06):
I think that there was like there's always this like
back and forth with like all these companies that are like,
you know, are we going to like use the thing
that everybody loves as a part of the branding should
it be its own separate branding? And I just think
that there's just internal chaos about how to play the

(09:26):
HBO card at all times. And I'm just sort of
like just fucking let it go, Like, let just let
it flourish, let it happen. Like people love HBO, they
love all the shows on HBO. Let it let it
let them, let them continue making good shit.

Speaker 2 (09:41):
And you know that's yeah. Just think about how relevant
Sopranos is still in like the cultural language, Like there's
so many Sopranos memes out there, like people still discuss
that show more than most current shows. And I don't know,
it just seems silly to like cut off that history

(10:02):
that they're attached to.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, I mean, don't even get me started. I really truly,
I mean like I think that HBO changed the game,
like a completely changed TV. It created prestige television like that.
You can't deny that, no matter how many different like
iterations of a fucking stupid name that you come up with, Like.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Yeah, even if it's on max Yo, you know it's uh,
it still should get credit for creating you know, prestige television, doesn't.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
I demand a huge check if they're gonna buy max Yo,
if Yo is going to be a part of that,
then they're gonna have to buy that from me. I'm
gonna sit on that domain.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
AnyWho. I just wanted to get I just wanted your
thoughts on that, So thank you for sharing.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
I don't know if they were helpful, but that was
just my They were helpful a mediate opinion.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Emotionally, they were helpful like a bomb. All right, we're
gonna move on to our film diary, where we talk
about the movies we've watched in the past week. So
let's open up those nighties.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
The funk of forty thousand years.

Speaker 2 (11:09):
Why do our diaries stink? So much smells like you know.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
I was like, old man, it's crazy old bandages.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
Milli, what have you watched?

Speaker 1 (11:22):
Okay, so let me preface all of this by saying,
I didn't really watch a lot this week.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
MILLI lived this week.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
I did.

Speaker 2 (11:29):
She was.

Speaker 1 (11:32):
I have type of movies. I was not living life. Okay.
I did a few things. I did a DJ set.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
In Atlanta, So Millie, I need to come to one
of your DJ sets at some point in my life.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
You should. I'll DJ for if you have a party. Oh,
why don't you run out First Avenue and I'll DJ
at you're a party?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Ooh, wouldn't that be great?

Speaker 1 (11:55):
Well? And it was fun because I I sort of
themed it. I mean, this is where to this podcast,
but I themed it. I was really like wanting to.
I think it's because we're about it's about to be summer.
It's June, you know, like we're about to like get
get into the summer season. And I was like, I
really leaned heavily into like the Jonathan Demi universe around

(12:18):
this time, where I'm like, I just want to listen
to his soundtracks. I want to watch stuff like something
Wild and Married to the Mob, stuff where it's like
people wearing like polka dot dresses and you know, banana
shaped earrings and they're like trapesing around going to like
parties and you know that kind of feeling. So I

(12:39):
was like, yeah, let's do a night where I'm like
kind of inspired by that vibe.

Speaker 2 (12:45):
Right. I have the Something Wild soundtrack on vinyl. Yeah,
I listened to it.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yeah, I and I and I brought that. I brought
I brought the Marriat to the Mob soundtrack and had
a little DJ night where I was playing like it
was kind of a mix cause thing about Jonathan Demi's
soundtracks that are so great. It's kind of this mix
between eighties new wave but then like world music, like
eighties world music, reggae, AfroB that kind of stuff, and
so I kind of mixed it all together and I

(13:14):
think it was well received.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
So but what movie did you watch?

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Oh? God? So I was literally I came home from
another event that I had this week, was that I
went to my second K pop show. We'll maybe talk
about that later, and I like, you know, got home,
put my feet on the coffee table and then turn
on the TV and the movie Manhunter was on Manhunter

(13:43):
nineteen eighty.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Six might be connected to a movie we're talking about
next week.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
That's right. We talked about Do we talk about William
Peterson recently?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
We did because I just watched to Live in Diane, La.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
That's right. We talked about will Peterson being kind of
this like crazy fun actor who sort of like was
in some really cool eighties crime adjacent movies and then
sort of like went to television. Yeah, and we kind
of never heard from him again in that way.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
While he's making millions of dollars on like n.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
He's just like cashing royalty checks for the rest of
his life. But yeah, it was great. I was like
I kind of came into it, well I guess right
when it started, and I've obviously seen it before Manhunter
Films in Atlanta, But it was it was great, and
I just kind of sat there and watched a bit
of it and yeah, I was like, oh man, this

(14:43):
is hitting right now. And then I think I might
have fallen asleep, okay at one point. So that's what
I mean about this week, where I was like, oh,
I sat in front of a film that was a
play on TV, and then I might not have finished it. Sure,
but I'm gonna log it. I haven't logged it yet,
but I'm gonna long it because I technically watched it.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Okay, if you've seen it before and you fall asleep
during it, that counts as another watch. I think tom
Noonan is one of the most frightening interesting actors. I
feel like we could do a whole tom Noonan episode.

Speaker 1 (15:16):
Tom Noonan reminds me of a guy that I've worked
with in television for like twenty plus years, who like
maybe works in like master control.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yes, I can see it so clearly.

Speaker 1 (15:36):
Here was like a tech doll.

Speaker 2 (15:38):
He would work in the basement of the film school
I went to where I was called out for being
a capricorn, you know, like in Looking after like you know,
film reels or something. Yes, I can see that totally.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
He also wrote and directed a movie called What Happened Was,
which is supposed to be pretty good. Have you heard
about this movie?

Speaker 1 (16:01):
No?

Speaker 2 (16:02):
It won the sun Dance Film Grand Jury Prize in
nineteen ninety four, and I think it was re released
on Blu Ray like last year or something. But it's
supposed to be really interesting and I want to check
it out. Anyways, Oh, interesting. Well, I'll have to see that.
That is so random, by the way, Yeah, very random.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
So that's it for me.

Speaker 2 (16:22):
What about awesome? I watched Black Bag twenty twenty four.
Is Black Bag by Steven Soderberg. You've seen this right?

Speaker 1 (16:29):
No?

Speaker 2 (16:29):
Oh you didn't watch it? Oh No, it's really good.
It's really fun, a fun kind of sexy spy thriller
with zero action sequences. But it's fun. I mean, it's
Michael Fassbender, Kate Blanchette. It's really great and it's really tight.
And I feel like Steven Soderbergh like shot at one weekend.

(16:51):
Yeah you know, I say this in my letterbox review,
but he just like farts out movies better than a
similar director would make, like in his entire career. You know,
like he's just he is operating on such a high level.
He's great.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Yeah. That's what we love about him, right, is that
he's able to just kind of like, yeah, do something
over a weekend, like a weekend project, and then it
ends up being a good movie.

Speaker 2 (17:13):
But he is the cinematographer and editor on his movies too,
and it's just he's like a wild man. It's just crazy. Anyways,
Black Bag there you go. It's good.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
I'm gonna watch it for sure.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
Yeah, it's good. Yep, that's it. Close up the.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
Diaryg God, suffocating in here. It's crazy, too much dust.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
All right, We're moving on to our main discussion, which
we teased at the top, is Prince and Purple Rain. Millie,
do you have a favorite Prince album? Do you listen
to Prince?

Speaker 1 (18:03):
All right, I'm not gonna even answer that second part whatsoever.
Absolutely not answering that second part. Okay, fine, first part.
Let me think about this. I Jesus Christ. I mean,
to be honest, it's probably Diamonds and Pearls. That's like

(18:25):
the real ok yeah, because I that to me was
so Purple Rain. I think the album is definitely it
has to be the favorite by default, right because every
song on that album is fucking unreal.

Speaker 2 (18:45):
Right, even watching the movie this time, I was like,
I can't believe this is also on that album, Like
just hearing the songs again and I think, uh, I mean,
we can get into this later, but I think Purple
Rain is not only his best album, I think it's
the best album of all time.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
Yeah, I truly think you're right about that. Like it's
got to be.

Speaker 2 (19:06):
I'm not joking. I really think it is like the
greatest album. I'm top to bottom of all time.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
Listen, I'm with you. I feel I feel like it
is really flawless, Like you really can't find one like
not even like mediocre track on it. Yeah, everything is great.
So that's the thing. I'm like, Okay, Well, Purple Rain
is obviously the greatest, one of the greatest albums of
all time, like definitely top five in pretty much everybody's list, right,

(19:33):
But I think about the fact that I the Prince
stuff that I loved as a kid was like that
era of the like it kind of was like Diamonds
and Pearls, a little sign of the times, like that
kind of late eighties, early nineties era. Like you know, obviously,

(19:55):
when like, for example, the Batman soundtrack came out, I
was bet so fucking lit, dude, bat Dance. Can we
talk about fucking bat dance Dance? That shit is unbelievable.
I've actually DJ bat Dance at DJ dance.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
That song goes oh, that is a great that would
if that came on at the club, I would be
electricity would be comeing out of my fingers. I would
just be so amped.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
The best thing to do is if you're like go
out there and DJ like like a house slash like
industrial music night, like you know, like when you're out
there bringing out your fucking Jesus Jones records and your
EMF records like that sort of like late eighties early
nineties like dance music where it's like everything it's so
heavily sampled. There's it's very layered. There's a lot of

(20:48):
like electronic wizardry happening and all that music, and then
you throw on bat dance, people will go fucking ape
shit banana. It's like I love that, so like that
to me is sort of my era of Prince. The
most is the whole like again, Side of the Times,
Diamonds and Pearls. I would say Diamonds and Pearls or
Sign of the Times would probably be my personal favorite

(21:10):
Prince album. I don't know what about you.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Well, Like I said, I love, Purple Rain is the
one that that was kind of my entry point and
it's just so good. Yeah, and so I kind of
have like tears, I guess, like for me, Purple Rain
nineteen ninety nine, Dirty Mind and Sign of the Times

(21:36):
are his best albums, sure, I love almost like those
are all like so good. Then one notch below I
would say are Prince's self title album, which I really like.
There's a lot of really good stuff on that that
to me is like his first real album. And I

(21:56):
love Controversy too, that's a really great album. And Parade,
which is the soundtrack for Under the Cherry Moon, is
really great too. I would put that it's a little
bit like I don't think it's quite on the level
as Purple Rain, and on that second level I would
put Diamonds and Pearls too. I love it, but I

(22:19):
just I just think nineteen ninety nine, Dirty Mind, Purple Rain,
and some of the Times are his like elite albums.
Oh and you know, it's interesting there's so much night
He's put out so much music since, like Diamonds and
Pearls that I haven't listened to, like a lot of
his nineties and two thousand stuff. There's like hundreds of

(22:41):
songs that I just haven't listened to, and like once
in a while one will come through, like what is this?
And so it's kind of exciting that there's all this
music that I still have to kind of discover you know,
of his and I don't think it's quite as to
the level of his like eighties output, which, like his
run in the eighties is one of the best of
any musicians of all time, and so you're never going

(23:02):
to maintain that level. But it's exciting that there's like
all this music out there.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
I hear you. I mean you're like, I kind of
did start slipping off in the mid to late nineties.
I mean I remember when like Rave Onto the Joy
Fantastic came out.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
I Rave They Fantastic. Yes, I was just like, okay again.

Speaker 1 (23:23):
It's kind of that feeling like we talked about while
we were discussing Ellenda Lawn movies, where you're just like
in this run of good shit and you're like, I
don't want to leave it. It's so good. It's like
a warm math, you know. So, and I feel bad
about that because I want to be a real Prince fan.
I want to be comprehensive, but you know, let's get serious, Like, yeah,

(23:45):
I like what I like, and I like my nostalgia
for him. This is a question I want to ask you, actually,
do you remember when you first discovered him?

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yes, So I wrote this It wasn't public anywhere, but
I wrote when he died, I wrote this really long
letter on Facebook, which maybe I'll post it as a
result of that, just what Prince means to me. And
my mom had the which is this is a really
great This is a great actually entry point to get
into Princes is the Hits Slash B Sides compilation. And

(24:21):
you know, the hits are the first two albums, but
then there's like the B sides, which has like a
lot of the albums, a lot of the great songs
that just weren't on an album, like seventeen Days, which
is one of my favorite print songs, and like Erotic
City Classic, and you know, I really liked the song Kiss.
That was like that was the first song that I

(24:43):
like loved as a kid, And so I put on
my mom's Hits Slash B side. Do you know how
when you're a kid, you like pretend to have like
a radio station, and so you're like, I was trying
to find Kiss on the Hits album. I didn't know
where it was on the tape, you know. And I
put on the song Sexy MF which has like the

(25:03):
lyrics like you sexy motherfucked, and my mom. I hear
my mom running down the stairs and then turns off
the the stereo and it's like, do not listen to
side too of this tape. And so it was kind
of a moment where I was like, Ooh, Prince is
like scandalous or like dangerous or something, you know, because

(25:25):
my mom was like, do not listen to side too,
you know, So he was always kind of like, you know,
this interesting, dangerous figure in some ways. Yeah, so that
was how I first sort of discovered him. Yeah, you know,
but he's my hometown guy too. Yeah, yeah, you know,
I'm with you. Kiss was absolutely the first time I

(25:49):
ever saw Prince.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
Yeah, and I remember because that saw came out in
eighty six, so I was like maybe I was probably
like seven or eight years old, and I remember watching
it on MTV. They used to play the shit out
of it on MTV in the music video, and it
was this like moment. You know, I talk about being
a young woman and being like activated by like certain gentlemen,

(26:15):
older gentleman when you know, it's like when you're a
young person and you see you're kind of developing your
like I don't know your sexual feelings or your romantic feelings,
and you see like people on TV or in movies
or like musicians, and you're just like, whoa, they're like
really like forming me right now. And I remember seeing

(26:36):
the video for Kiss, and there was just so many
like weird emotions that I was having because the song
itself is is fun and danceable and like, you know,
like has somebody weird weird and so many classic weird,
funny lines if you think about it, like you don't
have to watch Dynasty to have an attitude. Like I
was like, oh, Dynasty is on TV right now. I

(26:57):
know exactly what he's talking about. My mom's obsessed with Dynasty.
So it was that feeling of like kind of the lyrics.
But then the video because it's like, Okay, first of all,
you've got Prince himself who is like in that like
little titty top, like the little crop top with the
like breakaway kind of ballero pants, and he's like dancing

(27:21):
sexually with this woman in like a veil and sunglasses,
and she's like wearing bikini black bikini bottoms and you're
just like, holy fuck, I feel like I'm watching a
porno right now. I don't know why. And then it
cuts to like Wendy who was you know Lisa Wendy
in The Revolution, and she's kind of playing the guitar
and there's like this moment where he like gets in
her ear and she like winces, and I thought that

(27:43):
was so cute when I was growing up, like she
kind of like they kind of have this like playful
relationship in that vein.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
There's a moment that that happens in Purple Rain too,
where he goes up to her and she kind of
like is like.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Yeah, which is so I'm gonna say that the term
that gen Z kids use, which is it's so meat coated.
I love so it is I like wincing or like
rolling your eyes when this guy is like coming up
to you and like you know, trying to rise you basically,

(28:18):
but in a very playful, fun way. And that's like
I love that. I like love that moment. And that
was the part of the video which I was like, Oh,
that's that's what's making it fun for me as like
a kid, like seeing this kind of interaction. But then
there's also this like heavy sexuality and you know Princess
has so much body confidence. Yeah, it's this like he

(28:42):
just knows how to work his shit. And I think
that that was a very eightious thing for men, Like
eighties masculinity in a lot of rock and roll and
like in you know, R and B music was very
much about like men who were pretty much in their underwear.
I think about like people like David Lee Roth similarly,
where it was like these are people who are in

(29:03):
very tight clothing who are just owning sexuality, and the
men have like accountenance to them or sort of a
confidence to them. That was very alluring to me as
a child. And I feel like that kind of fell
by the wayside, like guys are not wanting to you know.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
It's goofy too. It's like, yes, silly like like that
that got really lost along the way, like being silly,
like men have to be so stoic now.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
Well, but their silliness is in a different way. It's
like their silliness is like gym from the office. They're
like goofy making jokes. There's not like guys out there
that are kind of like licking their index finger and
like rubbing their nips or anything like in this like
very fun, playful but also like sexual way. It's very
like I mean, it seems kind of aggressive, I guess

(29:54):
from a long lens, but at the same time, it's
it really is not. It feels very like seductive but
with a w kind of feeling. And that's like Prince
to me in a nutshell. And this is why I
became like obsessed with him as a kid, because I
just I loved people like that. I loved these, you know,
kind of sexual performers like Madonna and Prince and George

(30:14):
Michael and people who were just really like putting it on.
So I loved Prince and that's kind of like when
I discovered him as that kiss era.

Speaker 2 (30:23):
So yeah, yeah, Well should we get into the movie
Purple Range? Should I give a little synopsis?

Speaker 1 (30:30):
This is me. I'm clapping like I'm in the audience,
So go ahead.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Oh man, wouldn't you don't you just wish you were
in one of the people with crazy makeup and hair
in the audience of First av Like I love the
intro secrets of this movie where it's just kind of
like these faces of audience members in this like new
wave scene, just like it's amazing.

Speaker 1 (30:53):
I listen, I was gonna talk about this, but like
the shots of the crowd, especially at the end like
when they're the Purple Rain sequence, It's like, can you
fucking imagine being there?

Speaker 2 (31:03):
See my god, I'm getting emotional just thinking about getting chills. Okay,
So Purple Rain came out in nineteen eighty four, directed
by Albert Magnoli, which is this is like kind of
one of the only things he ever did. It's kind
of wild. But we're in Minneapolis, baby, It's nineteen eighty four.
First AV is the hottest club in the world. It's

(31:26):
where people go to make it in Minneapolis. Who knew?

Speaker 1 (31:30):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (31:30):
The Kid played by Prince is one of the biggest
stars of First AV, but he's getting on everyone's fucking nerves.
There's ongoing conflict in his band and his biggest rival,
Morris Day, is looking to take him down. Enter the
beautiful Apollonia. Princess smitten but is unwilling to help her
music career, so she teams up with Morris, his rival,

(31:54):
to start the girl group Apollonia six. This piss is
off the kid. Tensions rise in his personal and professional life.
Will the Kid come out on top?

Speaker 1 (32:03):
Who knows?

Speaker 2 (32:05):
That's Purple Rien?

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Very well done?

Speaker 2 (32:08):
One thing? I love you know. I'm going to just
talk about Minneapolis. Let's go and Prince go. You know,
I think when people think of Minneapolis for the longest time,
they think of Fargo, and they think of the Coen Brothers,
and they think of white people, and like stupid white people,

(32:30):
like kind of hicic, rednecky, kinda doficit white people, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Like rose Enyland from The Golden.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
Girls, yes, exactly, or like drop dead gorgeous. But for me,
as someone who grew up in Minneapolis, the city.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Were you sorry?

Speaker 2 (32:49):
I wasn't born here. I was born in Saint Louis,
but my family's from Minnesota, and uh so my parents
were briefly in Missouri, and I was born in Saint
Louis and when I was three, we moved to Minneapolis,
and growing up there, I always thought of it as
more of like a cultural cool city that's artsy and

(33:13):
diverse and interesting. And so Purple Rain and Prince fit
that vision of the city a little bit more for me.
And it's cool watching Purple Rain because it feels kind
of like a mini New York or something. It feels
like a cultural hub in the movie. Now, some of
this film was shot in la like some of those

(33:35):
scenes where he's like under bridges on a motorcycle and
there's like an exterior shot of a hotel. But for
the most part it was shot in Minneapolis and downtown Minneapolis.
And I think Prince has done so much for Minneapolis
because I think he really he's like Bruce Springsteen and

(33:56):
that he is proud of being from here. He holds
it up, he celebrates it. He lived here, and it's
cool to have someone to lead the way like that.
And I he was always a hero of mine, just
sort of artistically, even like when I moved to Los Angeles,
I could kind of point to Prince and be like, Yeah,
we're from the same place, and he's someone from my

(34:19):
hometown that's like weird and celebrated and isn't a hick,
you know, And so Prince for me, I hold incredibly
near and dear to my heart. He is the only
when he died I cried. I've never cried because the
celebrity died, and he just because he just really meant

(34:40):
so much to him. It was such an inspiration and
like kept me going a lot of the times when
you know, it's so easy to like doubt yourself in
any sort of creative field and to feel like, well,
Prince did it and we're from the same place. Yeah,
and so I just love him and I love that
he's from my hometown. And I'm so proud that he's

(35:02):
from my hometown. You know, that's cool, that's so cool.

Speaker 1 (35:05):
Yeah, I mean, I yeah, I do think I cannot
separate his I can't separate your town from him, which
is I think important because then it does anchor him
into it, which is why you feel so much pride
and so much love for him, but so purple rating
the movie, Yes, do you like is there any kind

(35:26):
of like I'm sure there's so much mythology around it,
like where you are, like in terms of the people
like film, like or do you know people that.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
Were in it?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
Do you know, like you know that's interesting. I don't
really know.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I don't know. You know, it was filmed nineteen eighty four.
I was born in nineteen eighty eight, so it's a
little bit you know, obviously happening before my time. But
you know, I think that first most of this movie
takes place at first av right, and so like all
of the kind of like energy and mythology that this

(36:02):
movie you know, emanates, it's it's still connected to First AV.
Like First AV is still the place, like it is
the venue. So that's sort of like the legacy I
think of the movies mythology.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Yeah, is it still the kind of thing where like
a person like Apollonia would travel from New Orleans to
like play it first That's so interesting.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Lizzo is from Houston, but she moved to Minnesota. I
don't know if it was because of First AV, but
she like got her musical start here. So people are
still moving to Minneapolis to like do music in that way.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Wow, that's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
Yeah, yeah, well.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Listen, I I'm just so fascinated by the idea of you,
like being such a Prince fan and having him be
kind of your hometown hero, and the idea that this
movie Purple Rain, like I should know a ton about
the backstory of like how I mean, I know that

(37:07):
Prince really wanted to be in a movie. Like wasn't
that the story where he's basically like, I'm gonna make
a movie about me or else I'm out of here.

Speaker 2 (37:15):
Yeah, he was like I'm not making another record until
like there's a movie about me. And this is sort
of it's sort of a cross a Crossroads, like Britney
Spear is similar backstory where he kind of came up
with the bones of a story and then Albert Magnoli
like wrote a script and directed it sort of based

(37:36):
off of that.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
Do you know if there was a lot of his
like personal story in the movie, because there is some
sort of like it feels anchored to his life, his
real life, but then there's also like things that are
not Like I wanted to ask you about this, so
like his parents were both black.

Speaker 2 (37:54):
They were both black, and I know Prince's mom was
upset that there was a white woman playing her in
this movie.

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Well, and then that's maybe gonna come up again as
I sort of walk around with my feelings about Purple Rain,
because I was like, I mean, yeah, I would be
upset too, by the way, if like this movie just
put a white lady in my place. Yeah, you know, well,
and there's so many like real life like his real
band is in the movie, right, yes, And there's this

(38:24):
whole you know, backstory or like b story about his
band basically hating him. Yeah, and you know Wendy and Lisa,
who are you know, the two women in the Revolution
who are like, hey, we wrote a song, you should
accept it and let us play it, and he's like,
fuck no.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
You know, it is interesting because I think he is
known as like in real life, was known as a
perfectionist and a little bit of an asshole. Yeah, And
so to have him be that way in the movie
is interesting. But then it is also interesting and I
said this to Trisha when I was well watching it.
In the movie, Wendy and Lisa essentially write the song
Purple Rain, but that's not accurate. In real life, Prince

(39:09):
wrote Purple Rain, right, But to have that that depicted
in the movie, that they like wrote the song is
kind of a selfless act by Prince. Like I feel
like some artists would be like, I don't even want
it insinuated that I didn't write that song.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (39:26):
So it's kind of interesting that he allowed that to
be in the movie.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
Well, it's interesting that you say, you know, sort of
like the way Prince was sort of in real life
in terms of being a musician and artist. Because I
literally just read or I listened to it on a
podcast on the New York Times podcast app. But there's
an article that came out in the New York Times magazine.
I want to say, is like late last year about

(39:54):
this documentary that Ezra Edelman had made about Prince. You
know Edelman who made the OJ documentary.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
And USC for it.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Yeah. So it's this wild story about basically how he
he made this like nine hour documentary about Prince and
it's like done and it's finished, but there's this fear
of it being released because it's it's showing Prince allegedly

(40:27):
having not seen it in his human form, which is imperfect,
and it shows him maybe in ways that were like
not ready to accept at this time. And I think that,
like that is so interesting to me because it's like
this thing is finished, it's in the can, you know,

(40:48):
and yet we'll probably never see it because it's too
real or.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Something that the state won't allow its release, right.

Speaker 1 (40:56):
And so there's this moment where I'm just like, I mean,
I can see two sides of it. That's the part
where I'm like, oh, I can see that I can
see feeling some type of way about not being able
to access this, you know. I mean, this is like
probably the best document of his life that exists, right,

(41:18):
And he was very mysterious too in a lot of ways.
You know, during his life. And yet I'm also like,
but yeah, maybe I don't want to see how the
sausage is made. I'm not ready. Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Well, I mean there's all these I mean, the lore
of Prince. I have a million stories about how he
is like an eccentric in his real life, and some
of them are unflattering. I mean, have you ever heard
the song I Hate You off the Gold Experience by Prince?
I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's about Carmen

(41:49):
Electra who was a Prince girl. Yes, and she says
that they were kind of like dating, and but she
went out with another guy and Prince found out and
Prince was like, I have a song I wrote for you,
and the song is I Hate You, and he like

(42:11):
performed it for her and they were like done after that. Yeah,
I'd say, like so like and he could be kind
of like cut throat with people. He had high expectations
of people, right, you know, because he's such a perfectionist.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
And that that shows. This is the thing about Purple
Rain though that is in the movie right as we
just alluded to. Yah, there's this part you know again,
this b story of him sort of being this like
relentless bandleader. He doesn't listen to his band members. You know,
they're all they all hate him. You know. He has
obviously like a lot of confidence and he's very cocky,
and he's going back and forth with Morris Day. That's like,

(42:45):
you know, we're gonna touch on Morri's Day, trust.

Speaker 2 (42:47):
Me, Oh we are definitely too.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
But it is this, there is this complexity of Purple
Rain that I feel like is interesting from a film
perspective in terms of the way we see these like
musician movies, right, like Crossroads, Right. We talked to you know,
ad nauseum about Crossroads being sort of this like kind
of I don't know, like kind of slightly unrealistic, kind

(43:14):
of terrible film where we felt like we could have
it could have been so much more for Britney Spears
and it.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
You know, I think we were like, she should have
done a Purple Rain. It's just performing more.

Speaker 1 (43:24):
Right, right, right. But that's the thing is that a
lot of these musician films are that, and they're not
Purple Rain, do you know what I mean? Like, I
mean maybe eight mile would be close, but even an
eight mile it's not like this. It's not showing, you know, princess,
this kind of like mercurial, salty and sweet type of person,

(43:47):
and it certainly doesn't show like the trauma that his character,
the kid obviously faces the movie, which is that he's
got this incredibly hardcore home life. Right, never get married, Jesus.
Can you like the dad smoking a cigarette crying telling

(44:09):
his son never get married. I'm like, yo, that would
I would be remembering that fucking moment for the rest
of my damn life if that happened.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Yes, Oh my god, that's an intense scene.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
So he's got this. So the kid obviously tripe saying
around Minneapolis performing, you know, fallen in love with you know,
the character of Apollonia, who's played by Apollonia, you know,
kind of in this sort of constant battle of the
bands with Morris Day in the time. We were kind
of this like beloved house band or whatever at first act, right,

(44:44):
but yet he comes home and his father is abusive
to his mother, violently abusive and sort of like is
a failed musician. There's kind of that storyline where it's
kind of like a son is sort of looking up
to the father but knows that the father is kind

(45:05):
of a failed man type of thing and wondering if
he's going to be like him, and in certain ways
he is like him in the movie. But yeah, I
feel like that there's a complexity to that storyline that
makes Purple Rain better.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
Then that's the thing. It's better because it is more
complex and it shows I mean, Prince beats Appollonia, yes,
which like, can you imagine a modern day pop star
being like, oh yeah, my character who's essentially me is
going to beat this woman in the like, yes, that
takes a that makes the movie more interesting and better.

(45:44):
You know that it is showing Prince in such a
negative light, yes, in this movie.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
Well, and that's I think this is kind of a
thought that I was having when I was watching it. Again.
I mean, I've seen Purple Rain like a hundred times,
right sure, And actually, anytime I see it in a
movie theater, it's like raucus as fuck. Have you ever
seen you probably seen movie theater?

Speaker 2 (46:05):
You know what. I don't think I ever had.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
Holy shit, you've never been to like a revival midnight
screening or.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
Something like that. I have them all the time. I should.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
Yeah, you know, Oh, it's like the last time I
saw it in the theater. It was in Atlanta, and
people were like dancing in the aisles like maniacs. It
was awesome. But this time, you know, I was kind
of like going on a deep dive because iknew we
were going to talk about it on the podcast, and
you know, it was reading kind of these different takes
about sort of the the treatment of women in right,

(46:33):
because I mean, you've got a lot of bad things
happening to women in this movie. It's like, really, I
always like cringe when this happens. But like when Wendy
goes off on prints about or the kid goes off
about like, you know, come on, dude, like you're being
a fucking asshole, like why you got to hurt people

(46:53):
that kind of stuff, And then it cuts to the
surgeon and he's just like, oh, Wendy's got the period thing,
you know, like he starts talking about her period.

Speaker 2 (46:59):
I'm like, so, doctor fink that's doctor doctor. I don't
know if he's a surgeon.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Well I think he's a surgeon because he wears a mask.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Oh that's true, and it's got green scrubs. I don't
know if that. Yeah, I mean he's anyways, continued, he's
he's some.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
Kind of surgeon. I don't know if he's a brain surgeon,
but anyway, he but like he kind of makes us
like stupid. You know, it's like one of these like
stupid guy jokes about women's periods. I was like, ah,
that's so stupid. And then like, I mean, obviously you've
got like the whole thing about hitting Appolonia, which you know,
I feel like is related to something else, but it's
also just the idea of war's date being this like philandering,

(47:36):
like calling women bitches that kind of stuff, Right, Yeah,
I mean a lot of that is the time period. Obviously.
I mean this was kind of humor back in the
in the eighties. I mean, whether or not you like it,
it is. But I also think, look, I started really
sitting with all this because I was just like, okay, yeah,
like purple n there's a lot of stuff going on here,
and a lot of like the women, like the woman

(47:57):
that gets thrown in the dumpster is white, m you know,
like Prince's mom is white in the movie, and so
there's this like kind of racialized component to it that's
really interesting too to me from like a long lens.
But but also like I feel like the thing about
the movie, the narrative structure of the movie is that

(48:17):
it really talks about Princess being like he's experiencing trauma
in his old life, and there's this whole like sequence
after he hits apoloney. I mean that happens right after
he sees his father basically beat his mother again. So
there's this feeling of like, Okay, well, this isn't just
like this isn't Morris Day just being like where my
bitch is at? This is like Prince. There's a little

(48:41):
bit more thought to like these violence sequences because it's
being attached to other parts of the story, which is
that here's here's a young man experiencing violence in his life,
and how does he like process that. Is he going
to like repeat the sins of the father or is
he going to become his own person? So it's very
interesting to me. I just think it's like off the cuff,

(49:02):
you would be like, oh, this is so gross towards women.
But then I think it's doing a little bit more
in the in the story to make that a little
bit more complex. Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And I think for me, it
feels like it elevates us slightly above sort of the
misogynistic humor of the day, and it feels like it's
at least giving a little bit of reason for it,
and like like you're saying like meaning behind it, like

(49:34):
we can attribute this abuse of women to something that's
happening to the characters. You know. So for me, it
wasn't as disturbing as so many, like rewatching so many
movies from this time, yeah it is, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yeah, well yeah, like I said, I just I think
I ultimately my point is that I feel like I
appreciated the movie more because it wasn't just like.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
A throw Yeah. Do we want to talk about Prince's acting?

Speaker 1 (50:04):
I mean I do. Do you want to?

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Yes? Well, so watching Purple Ren the first time, I
remember watching it and being like, Prince sucks as an actor,
But this time I was like, actually this is working
a little bit. And maybe, you know what, maybe this
is informed by me watching Under the Cherry Moon, his
follow up film to Purple Ring, which we both rewatched

(50:30):
this week too.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
I have so many thoughts about this, dude, because that's
I think what we were alluding to in the opening
is that I feel like over the course of his filmography, like,
there are certain movies where his acting is incredibly charming. Yeah,
and Under the Cherry Moon, I haven't seen it since

(50:53):
I was young, and when I first saw it, I
was like, I don't know what this is. It feels
like an episode of the Monkeys. Yeah, it feels kind
of like a hard Day's Night, but it's also bad.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
That was like my impression of it as a kid. Well,
I remember my mom being like, yes, Prince made an
incredible film and then he made another one that was terrible.
That was like the narrative growing up that I had,
you know. And you know, Prince's acting style in Purple
Rain is I would say muted. He's much more like

(51:25):
emo and like kind of quiet and you know, more
of a loner. Wherein Under the Cherry Moon, which is
like black and white, it's sent it's set in like
the French riviera, I guess, and he is like a jigglo. Basically,
he's like a seducing old women to get money from them,
you know, and his character is like a total goofball.

(51:47):
He is very similar to kind of like Morris's Day
In Purple Rain, he's like this goofy, silly, kind of
like expressive, little weirdo. I don't know, And it's like
a totally different type of character than from Purple Ring
Oh one. Okay.

Speaker 1 (52:04):
First of all, Jerome is in it.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
He places like Rome, who is in Purple Rain as
Morris Day's right hand man. He's the guy who holds
a mirror up to Morris Day while on stage. He's
kind of his like dancing man, his bostone will his
boss tone. Yes, who is that guy who would hold
an umbrella on an outcast videos?

Speaker 1 (52:27):
Bentley?

Speaker 2 (52:27):
Yeah, Fonsworth Bentley is kind of like that. So he
is like the number two guy in Under the Cherry
Moon and they're both goofballs.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Well, like to me, did you not think this? They
kind of have this weird like they were kind of
like bisexual.

Speaker 2 (52:46):
You can take kind of us. They were like so
gay and like very bisexual and like flirty with each other,
and like there's like a scene where like princes in
the tub and like Jerome comes in and they're naked
and they're kind of like there's a lot of like
eye movement, like ooh, googly eye acting in that.

Speaker 1 (53:08):
Yeah, and he's like like Jerome is above him, like
throwing rose petals in the bath or whatever, like flower pedals.
And I'm just sitting here going, Okay, here's two men
taking a bath together. Meanwhile they're out there there being
two old French hose. That's what this movie is about,
is like you want to watch Prince and Jerome being
a couple of French hose. And you know, maybe it's
because it's set in France. Maybe it kind of reminded

(53:30):
me a little bit of like a Filleeny movie.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
It was very like, yeah, I can't like French new
wave vibes to it too. It felt very there is
like some Goodard sort of stuff, yeah, just in terms
of like being silly and running around and causing a
scene and like an aristocratic event, you know.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
Yeah. And I want to say the movie was written
by a woman, and I don't know.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
If Becky Johnson, I believe her name was.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
Yeah, but there's this like very easy, breezy, kind of
bisexual energy in Under the Cherry Moon that I actually
really appreciated. I was like, this is kind of cool, and.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
I was when I watched it this time, I was like,
am I an idiot for thinking this is good? I
was like I was like enjoying it. I mean, obviously,
I do think Prince doesn't quite he can't quite go
all the way with his performance, Like there are some
moments where I feel like he doesn't quite know what
he's doing sure in front of the camera, but for
the most part it was kind of working for me.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, I thought so too, it felt. I think it
was because I don't know. When I first saw it,
I was young. I just didn't really have the cinematic
language to really like understand what this movie was about
or what it was trying to sort of invoke or whatever.
But like now, as a much older person, I was like, Yo,
this is like really fun. This is like this gorgeous
black and white. Prince is super charming, Jerome is really

(54:51):
funny and charming. And then you've got like Kristin Scott Thomas,
who plays kind of her first movie, yes, the love interest,
and she's kind of got this like I don't know,
this kind of like Breakfast to Tiffany's Audrey Hepburn kind
of feeling to her.

Speaker 2 (55:04):
Well, I thought it was I was like, good on
Prince to be like, because this movie is like silly
and not deep and it's not really trying to be
you know, it's like it And I appreciated that about
Prince because I could totally see him taking himself way
too seriously and this movie does not like take itself seriously,
but it's still stylish, yes, you know, And so I
really I on rewatch, I really like had a blast

(55:28):
watching it.

Speaker 1 (55:29):
Yeah, I did too, And it made me like, I
think there's a reevaluation of Under the Churry Rooms because
there's I mean, when I looked at my letterbox and
saw like a couple of my friends had seen it,
there was a big portion of my friends that were
like eh, and then there was like this group that
had rated like five stars, like this is a fucking
brilliant movie. Like it was, like, so I feel like

(55:50):
it's it's either been reevaluated or is about to be.
And I loved it. I actually loved it. Obviously I
didn't like it when I was a young person, so I, yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
It's different. But I could see why people were disappointed
because there actually aren't any musical performances in it, Like
he plays a musician, yes, but he's not. I guess
there's like one or two, but it's not like Purple
Rain where it's like wall to wall music. Yeah, you know,
it's more of just like a story, like a straight movie, yeah,
than Purple Rain.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Yeah, it kind of feels like, you know, one of
these like Jacques Tatis meets Felaty meets like kind of
like a screwball comedy type of feeling. So I don't know,
I appreciated it, and uh, yeah it was good. But
I actually think Purple Rain is a well shot movie,
don't you think.

Speaker 2 (56:39):
Oh yeah, no, one hundred percent. I thought it was
like really well directed, and like, like I talked about
those opening shots of the audience, it really establishes the
vibe so efficiently, and like when Let's Go Crazy, which
is the first song on the album, first song of
the movie, when that starts with the daily bit of it,

(57:00):
I mean I was, I was on my feet, I
was so I was amped up. Yeah, and it's like
such a great way to introduce the movie and the world.
And yeah, I thought it was really well shot. It
looked fabulous.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
Yeah. I think from like a pacing perspective, it's perfect,
Like it literally every musical sequence that happens makes you
feel so keyed up, like and of course you know,
it kind of crescendos to this unbelievable like Purple Rain,
you know, like the whole like intensity of it, and

(57:35):
then it's like, Baby I'm a Star, You're you're just like,
holy shit, this is perfectly paced. But there's like actually
some great shots. There's that one shot I guess it's
like a steady camshot of him, like right after he
does Purple Rain and he's like going through the hallways
of the back of First Ab and it's like, man,
that is fucking great.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
That's a bit. It's like emotional. It's emotional because he's
like he's like, I suck. I suck. And then it's like, no,
you don't like it's it's just like so it's so good.
It's and it's really emotional that shot.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Yeah, And it ends like like he approaches that like
waitress with the blonde the bleach blonde like kind of
short hair, and she's like crying, and I was like,
that's how we feel.

Speaker 2 (58:14):
That's me.

Speaker 1 (58:15):
We feel that way after seeing him do Purple Rain
in honor of his father in the movie, and then
the classic shot of U during Baby I'm a Star
War it's that circle shot of him and he's kind
of like doing his whole life.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
He's rubbing and like shuffling his feet. I do that
in my house alone. No, that's not Baby I'm a Star.
That's I would Die for that, I would die for you.
But the but Purple Rain into I Would Die for
You into Baby I'm a Star. Is it's amazing in
the movie. Yes, it's so good.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Yeah, I mean it was like they had to basically
shoot him from the middle and he's just kind of
it's like the camera serv I mean, god, dude, I
was like, Yo, they really fucking nailed this movie. Like
they did really well.

Speaker 2 (59:00):
I will say the one part of the movie where
I'm like, I don't know if I there's like this
whole part where they're like, man, Prince sucks tonight and
they're playing like computer Blue and Darling Nicky. You know,
like that's the one part where they're like he's not
up to his normal game. But I'm like, these songs
are like the best songs I've ever heard. Like you

(59:21):
know what I'm saying, who's the who's.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
The guy that plays the club owner in the purpose? Oh?

Speaker 2 (59:26):
Yeah, what's his name?

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Forgot his fucking name? Where he's just like he's like,
you got one song? What the fuck? You know? He's
just really like he really begrudges the Revolution. I'm like,
I don't know who else you can get here.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
Honestly, you think Des Dickerson is gonna play the stage
as well as Prince, I don't think so.

Speaker 1 (59:45):
Yeah. I mean, I mean to be completely honest with you.
When fucking Apollonia six gets in there finally after they've
been practicing and they do sex Shooter, I'm like, you're
telling me that you'd rather have this than darling Nicky.
We're basically Princess or wasn't He's like sweating and he's
wearing that mask, and I'm like, so, as a club owner,
you're saying that sucks more than A six.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
That sex Shooter song was is not good? And uh
that was a real single that wasn't just.

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
A played it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
I've played it in the club, so uh six.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
Okay. So this is the thing about Appolodia too. I
want to talk about this because I love Appollodia. She's sexy,
but she's also cute. Yes, very hard to nail. It's
very hard to be sexy and cute at the same time.
And when you see somebody who's both, You're like, how
is it possible? And I had read that, you know,
obviously Vanity was supposed to be part of it. That's

(01:00:44):
kind of its own little mythology or legend. And then
they had actually asked Jennifer Beals to be in the movie.
And you know, both of these women are extremely attractive
as well. So it made me think about Prince and
about his women, like the women that Prince gravitates towards,
And I'm like, is there a Prince lady? Is there

(01:01:06):
like an archetype of a Prince lady?

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I mean, think about Carmen Electra too. They all are
kind of a similar kind of racially ambiguous, sort of
futuristic type of woman that they that he likes to
have yes around like.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
I also think about Susannah Hoffs from the Bengals, who
there was a very famous story about how Prince was
kind of obsessed with her too, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
this is a this is a woman who wrote he
wrote Manic Monday for her. Yes, yes, but even the
women that he has in his videos, you're not seeing
any Sabrina Carpenters in there. I feel like these are

(01:01:44):
women who are You're exactly right, racially ambiguous, usually brunettes,
usually kind of a heavy eyeliner, kind of like a
mysterious sensuality to them.

Speaker 2 (01:01:54):
These are not virginal women. These are sexual women. There's
no blode, there's no perky blonde.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
It feels like there's no collegiate perky blonde in the
Prince multiverse. It's like a yeah, it's kind of like
a mysterious siren from maybe another country, but we don't
know where.

Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Yeah, you're you're You've gone through the stargate and you're
on this sand planet with like an alien race, and
that is where like Prince finds these women.

Speaker 1 (01:02:24):
I feel like, I mean, I gotta be honest with you,
as as a semi racially ambiguous woman myself, I appreciate
that shit, Rob kind of like, okay, maybe a little
something for us once in a while. Okay, I appreciate that.
You know, the world gravitates around you know, the Britney

(01:02:45):
spears is and the and the perky blondes and like,
you know, the cute little outfits. So I like, I
like a little heavy coal eyeliner.

Speaker 2 (01:02:55):
Look, see this is why this isn't one of his women,
but in his band. I can't believe that Prince allowed
there to be a guy dressed as a doctor like
that is so like everyone else's like has the uniform. Wendy,
Lisa Brown Mark, I can't remember the drummer's.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
Name, Bobby.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
But yeah, they all are dressed as if they're in
Prince's band. And then the doctor's like, I'm dressed like
a surgeon and I've got a stethoscope around my neck.
I just think it's like kind of outrageous.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
But they all have the same hair.

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
They all have the same hair.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
Yeah, it's this like real poofy aquaint. But then there's
like a side that's smoothed down, maybe shaved on the side,
like a little undercut. So even the doctor has that hair,
which I'm just sayings as a surgeon, you wouldn't be
able to rock that look. You'd have to put that
back and a hair in it.

Speaker 2 (01:03:47):
So, oh man, Millie, is there anything else to talk
about with Prince?

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
You know, I don't know. I feel like we went
so hard, which I appreciate. I'm sorry. I don't care
if this isn't interesting to anybody else. I needed to,
you know, basically, get these feelings out of my body.
I don't know about absolutely. No.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
I mean I have so many feelings. Have I told
my plane story with Prince No. It was my freshman
year of college and I went to Loyal and Merry Mountain,
Los Angeles. Stop me if I've said this before. And
I'm going back home for Christmas break. It's the first
time I'm going back to Minneapolis after being at college

(01:04:28):
for the first semester. And I'm a terrible flyer. I
do not. I like, I really have a hard time flying.
We take off and immediately the captain is like, we
are dumping fuel and returning to lax. The flaps are
malfunctioning on the wing Jesus. So we land hard. Oh god,

(01:04:52):
and there's like fire trucks around. I'm like dying, Oh
my god. We're fine. We get off and I'm like, damn,
I want to go home, you know. And the next
flight available is the next morning. So it's like twenty
four hours later. So I go and spend a night
at a friend's house in La Then I go back

(01:05:12):
the next morning and they're like, this flight is canceled too.
She says. The next flight that's available to go back
to Minneapolis. That you can get on is the Red
Eye tonight. So I stayed in the airport all day.
Oh my gosh, and I'm like, I'm never fucking getting home.

Speaker 1 (01:05:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:27):
I just felt like I'm not getting home.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
I get on the Red Eye. It is like empty.
I feel like there's like five other people on the
entire plane. I have a whole row to myself and
I'm in the front row of coach, you know, And
I'm like, I just was like, this flight isn't taking off.
We're not getting home. Prince walks on board the flight

(01:05:50):
in a turquoise suit. He looks at everyone on the plane,
He bows to everyone on the plane, sits in the
first class, and I'm like, I'm going home, bab, Holy's
getting us home. So that was, Uh, that was when

(01:06:11):
the only time I saw Prince in person.

Speaker 1 (01:06:15):
Holy fucking shit. That felt like a dream. But that
actually happened.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Yes, that actually happened.

Speaker 1 (01:06:21):
Did anyone speak to him? Did he? I mean I'm
sure no.

Speaker 2 (01:06:24):
It was like I can't emphasize how few people were
on this plane. And you know, I'm like close enough
to be like, I think, you know, we may have
made eye contact. I'm sure he kind of like came
in and like looked at everybody, bowed and then sat down.
And I could tell the flight attendants were like very
like everything okay, can we get like they were? I

(01:06:46):
can tell they were like checking in a lot on him.

Speaker 1 (01:06:49):
You know, do you know what snacks he ate? Could
you say?

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
I'd love to have?

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
I should have asked did he have a couple of
bisco Off cookies and maybe those like pretzel thins?

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
I I one can only dream. Really, I have no
concept of what he was, but that was very exciting.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
Holy shit. I can't even imagine him being on a plane.
It feels like he just teleports to places.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
It seems like he would have his own private jet
that's purple, but he was on the flight.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
And it's like the shape of the guitar from Purple
Rain or something.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
I don't know, Yes, exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
Wow, dude, that's an incredible story.

Speaker 2 (01:07:21):
Thank you?

Speaker 1 (01:07:21):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I honestly, you know, I could we
could probably go on another couple hours on this shit,
because I mean, this movie is a legendary film and
it's probably I would say it's probably the best movie
like a narrative film about a musician featuring a musician

(01:07:43):
featuring the songs of a musician that I've ever seen,
and also like great character work. Great. I mean, there's
obviously I think we just talked about there being sort
of a complexity to the storyline that is engaging and interesting.
I mean, Morris Day. We haven't even really talked about
Morri's day. All I know is that he's this like

(01:08:05):
he's this like perfect batman villain the entire time.

Speaker 2 (01:08:08):
He really is.

Speaker 1 (01:08:09):
You know, he's just like like his little whatever it is,
little scream that he does every so often, which I
can't replicate at all, But he's he's so stupid and funny.
I love the part where he's like sitting with Appollonia
and he buys a bottle and he tells the way
Tress like keep the change, and that he like pulls

(01:08:29):
Jerome down and it's like make sure I get my
change or whatever.

Speaker 2 (01:08:34):
He'll get my change. Oh my god, outrageous, outrageous and
Jungle Love is a great song.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Oh yeah, another club banger. But I gotta say, I'm
really actually so, I'm really actually happy that I got
to hear like your kind of personal take on this
because I know how much Prince means to you, and
you got to publish that Facebook post.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
I mean I just be like, yeah, I I'll post
that somewhere. Maybe we can post it on our Dear
Movies I love You Instagram so people can see that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
But this is I think a perfect example of the
concept of this podcast, which is a movie that you're
just like in love with and have been in love
with forever and you just have deep feelings for. So yeah,
I've had a good time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
All right. Now it's time for Employees' picks, where we
recommend a movie based off what we talked about today.
This is gonna be a little tough because there's a
few options. But what do you got, Millie?

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Well, I know, did you say you hadn't seen some
of the Times or you have?

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
I have seen, like, I've watched a lot of it,
you know, like songs, but I haven't seen it all
the way through.

Speaker 1 (01:09:52):
Well, okay, so this is gonna be a very softball
pick as an employee of this podcast this week because
I'm going to actually recommend Sign of the Times because well,
for two reasons. Number one, it's fun as shit. I
actually saw it in the in the theater when it

(01:10:14):
was re released, because that's the second thing about it
was that it was unavailable for a while. I hadn't
seen it at all until I saw it in the theater,
and I don't really know why it happened. I mean,
I think that there was like some weird kind of
like like there it was released on DVD like in

(01:10:39):
another country or like a blue ray or something, but
it was unavailable in the US for a long time.

Speaker 2 (01:10:43):
I only knew of it on VHS for a long time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Yeah, And it's not a narrative film. It's basically a concert,
but there's like, you know, kind of these like weird
you know, skits happening through it throughout the movie, and
it's like this big stage set that kind of looks
like a town or something like that. But it's like
it's fucking awesome, dude. Like And there's actually like a

(01:11:08):
bit in the middle where it cuts to the video
for you Got the Look with You Got the Look?
Yes Yes boy versus girl in the World Series of Love?
Would you not want to go to that World Series
that year? But it's it is so fun, Like the
songs that are bit it are incredible, Like I'm sorry,

(01:11:31):
but hot Thing is one of the best songs ever period.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
I've said it. I remember when we were really getting
I really got into prints in college, like I was
into Prince in high school, but like really going into
his catalog. And I remember my friend Dave when we
were listening to Sign of the Times. We both went
to Catholic school and we'd have to do these like
stupid religion presentations all the time, and my friend Dave

(01:12:01):
was like, I'm so mad I didn't know about the
song the Cross while we were in Catholic school because
I would have used it in like every one of
our religion classes presentations.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
Yeah, it's like, I mean this this shit is like
wall to wallbangers obviously, ye. But like there's like at
the time when they were doing that Side of the
Times tour, it was like chilia E was playing with them,
and so like she's in the fucking movie and you're like, goddamn,
she's the best. Sheili is absolutely one of my heroes,

(01:12:34):
another one of these Prince women that I admired as
a child. But honestly, there's this female dancer named kat
Glover that's in It's like on stage maybe the Bosstone
of this of this tour, and she is unbelievable, Like
she is working it so fucking hard. She sells every

(01:12:54):
single moment and you really just can't take your eyes
off of her. So she's kind of like interacting with
Prince and you know, doing the whole thing. But I'm
just like, it's really fun, Like if you're going to
watch like a straight up concert film, this is super fun.
So if you can find it, which I feel like
it's maybe on Amazon Prime now and stuff, it's like available, Yeah,
I think it is, so I would watch that, especially

(01:13:15):
if you're a big Prince fan and you love this
era of Prince souit some of the times that nineteen
eighty seven I think, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:13:23):
You know, there's a few options here. I could go
a Graffiti Bridge, which is the sequel to Purple Rain,
but I've actually never seen it, so I'm not going
to suggest that. Could suggest Batman because they did the
soundtrack for that movie. He also did the soundtrack for
Spike Lee's Girl six, which I also haven't seen. So
what I'm going to recommend is everyone go to YouTube

(01:13:45):
and watch the tribute to George Harrison while my guitar
gently weeps. Prince. They play this song, you know, in
honor of George Harrison, and it's like Tom Petty, Steve Winwood,
Jeff Lynn and George Harrison's son, Danny Harrison, and it's
kind of like, oh, why is Prince there? But he

(01:14:06):
does this solo that is so crazy. He completely takes
over the performance and it's almost inappropriate that he's performing
that outrageously at a tribute for George Harrison. But you
can see George Harrison's son laughing at what Prince is doing. Like,
I think it just showcases how good of a musician

(01:14:29):
Prince was, because I don't think people quite realize how
talented and prolific and how he was like an incredible
technical musician. Oh yeah, And it just kind of showcases that.
And it's cool. And he does a very silly move
where he falls back off stage in his security guard
catches him and pushes him back onto the stage. It's

(01:14:52):
kind of wild. And then he throws his guitar into
the air at the end of the performance and it
never comes down, and so check it out. It's a
great it's not a move, it's cinematic in its own way.

Speaker 1 (01:15:03):
Yeah, oh yeah, I gotta watch that immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:15:06):
Have you not seen it?

Speaker 1 (01:15:07):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Oh, it's amazing, It's amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
I gotta check it out.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
Yeah, so check that out.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
That's a good employee pick. If I've ever heard one
making us, go to YouTube. I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:22):
Go to YouTube, Millie, can you believe it? What an episode.
I feel like we really let it all hang out.
We did this one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
I feel like I've exercised my demons, which are awesome
demons that love Prince and will dance to Housequake every
time it gets played Housequake.

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Shut up already, damn.

Speaker 1 (01:15:44):
But uh yeah, though this is great. I love it.
I love talking about things that we both enjoy equally
maybe together.

Speaker 2 (01:15:54):
And yeah, Princy's such a unique person. I don't I
don't even quite understand. He's so silly. Two. It's like
there's such a silliness to what he's doing. It's it's unbelievable.
I just I's he's endlessly fascinating.

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
I know it's hard to be cute and sexy at
the same time, and I feel like he he nails
that pretty good. Rip Rest in peace, King Alp. All Right,
so listen, next week, we teased you, we tickled you,
a little bit. I think in the film Diary about
what we might be doing next week, which is that

(01:16:32):
we're going to talk about the director Michael Mann. Mm hmm, yeah, yeah,
who directed man Hunter, but he also Drew Thief Thief.
Did he direct Last of the Mohicans? I can remember.

Speaker 2 (01:16:49):
I think he did do Last of the Mohicans. I've
never seen that. But he also directed Heat from nineteen
ninety five, which is what we're going to be talking about. Yeah,
because it's the thirtieth anniversary of that movie.

Speaker 1 (01:17:02):
Oh my dear lord, are you kidding? Oh yeah, it
is ninety five.

Speaker 2 (01:17:06):
I'm not joking.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
That makes me sick. Dude, Holy shit, I'm old. He
is absolutely one of my favorite movies. It's so fun,
and we're gonna talk about it, and we're gonna talk
about Michael Man as a director, what he brought to
the table stylistically in terms of, like, I don't know
crime films, and you know, he created a vibe. He's

(01:17:31):
a vibe creator, a vibe curator.

Speaker 2 (01:17:35):
So he is h yeah, no, absolutely, I think you're
totally right. Very viby, very viby. I was trying to
remember the name of that horror movie he directed where
it's like a big the keep. That's what it is. Yeah,
from the eighties. But that's our show. We give out
film advice in this show sometimes, So please write in

(01:17:59):
to Dear move view is that at exactly right Media
with your film grapes, your questions, your you know, if
you need advice from us, please write in, or you
can leave us a voicemail by recording it on your
phone and just emailing it to Dear Movies at exactly
rightmedia dot com. We'd love to hear your voices.

Speaker 1 (01:18:15):
I would love to hear your voice. Yeah, and if
you want to follow us on socials, we are at
Dear Movies. I love you on Instagram and Facebook. You know,
I feel like I create No, maybe I didn't create
a Blue Sky account. I did the thing again where
I was like, yo, I'll get on blue Sky. I
forgot I had an account, and then I just forgot,
just forgot that I have it. So if you're on

(01:18:35):
there and you see us, give us a follow. If
you're on there and we're not on there, that means
I forgot to create the account, is what that means?

Speaker 2 (01:18:45):
More to come on this, Yeah and watch this space, watch.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
This space and then we are also on letterbox. Our
handles are at Cacli O'Brien and at m de Chericho,
so find us there.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
That's right, and listen to do movies I Love You
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get
your podcasts, and please rate and review our show. It
helps get the word out there, and when people are
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I should listen to this show. So if you like it,
the let the world know. You know, it's so easy

(01:19:18):
on yelp. You know to not give a good review
when you like a place, so think about that, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:25):
Well, all right on that notes, Thanks everybody for listening. Casey,
thank you for being from Minneapolis. You're welcome, and for
being a cool white guy in a prince.

Speaker 2 (01:19:39):
I try really hard, I really try, but thank you Millie.

Speaker 1 (01:19:45):
You're so welcome. Bye everybody, Bye. This has been an
exactly right production hosted by me Millie to Cherco and
produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 2 (01:19:58):
This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel. Our associate producer
is Christina Chamberlain. Our guest booker is Patrick Cottner and
our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Speaker 1 (01:20:07):
Our incredible theme music is by the best band in
the entire world, The Softies.

Speaker 2 (01:20:13):
Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia Hartstark,
Daniel Kramer and Millie. To Jerico, we love you.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Goodbye Beker