Practical Magic

In our continuation of our spooky season celebration we are taking a little detour into cozy country with a couple of very special guests. We talk midnight margaritas, falling for Dracula cowboys, and gathering the ladies for impromptu seances.

Critics: 25% Audience: 73%

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome everybody to the polarized podcast.

(00:21):
Glad to have you back.
It's spooky season is in full effect.
This is a podcast about polarizing movies, polarizing movies in the sense of Rotten Tomato
scores.
Sometimes critics love it.
Audiences hate it or vice versa.
Those are the movies that we discuss on this pod.
Today we have a really fun episode.
We got some guests and we got a really fun movie.

(00:43):
We're talking today practical magic.
This movie came out in 1998 and the scores for it are 25% critics, 73% audience.
Pretty interesting.
But let's get right into it.
I would like to first intro my co-host and sometimes your program as the forever guest.

(01:06):
I was going to not say it this time.
I think last episode we recorded you're like, well, I'm just I'm just a forever guest.
I'm like, OK, I don't know if I want to keep doing this, but I went off to fart anyways,
because I love that.
It's fun.
But yeah, my co-host James Lindsay.

(01:26):
How the hell are you?
I'm the forever guest, baby.
I always will be the permanent fixture on the wall of this podcast, baby.
You will be the permanent host forever.
Wow.
So like a Dorian Gray situation, I curse thee.
Oh, like I'm the I'm your picture on the wall.

(01:47):
Yeah, yeah.
I don't know how that relationship would work.
And if you were to ever look at the picture, you would become the guest and I the host.
Whoa.
Whoa.
Man, that's a head trip.
Very spooky.
That's some practical magic for you.

(02:12):
Practical magic.
I'm excited to talk about what that definition means to people and how it came up in this
movie.
Today, I was thinking a lot about bewitched.
How much practical magic is in that show?
Yeah, it should be called Practical Magic.
Yeah, the bewitched show should be called Practical Magic.
And then you call this movie bewitched.

(02:33):
Which works.
I think that works pretty well.
Either way, I think Practical Magic is a great title.
I like it.
I like it a lot, too.
Before we enter our guests, sir.
I'm trying to think, is there a check in about spooky season we want to do with each other?
Spooky season check in.
Spooky season check in.

(02:54):
Spooky season check in.
We watched it follows recently.
It was still very good.
I hadn't seen in a while.
Excited to see what that director does next, if he does anything again, because he did
that under the Silver Lake movie, which is bad shit.
And I love it for what it is, but it's insane.
I'm surprised how much I hated that movie because it's a really big Southland Tales

(03:16):
guy.
I thought I would really like that movie more.
And then it was because it was like a taste of my own medicine of like I've shown people
Southland Tales and I'm sure they probably felt the same way that I felt under the Silver
Lake where I'm like, huh?
What?
I just I don't know.
For some reason to me, Southland Tales has so much more funnier things said under the

(03:40):
Silver Lake might have more funny situational stuff or whatever.
I don't know.
For some reason, I just really came away from it being like, I wish it was like unintentionally
funnier as opposed to trying to be so much more of a head trip.
That's fair.
They are both singular as their own purpose and what they are.

(04:01):
And that is why you want to compare them.
I'm sure.
And I kind of feel that same way.
But at the end of the day, they are very much their own thing.
But that is a funny way to describe it, because when I showed it to you, I'm like, yeah, either
Brandon's going to be really into this or he's going to fucking hate it.
So that's to be expected.
And that's essentially the same with Southland Tales of like, I'm sure you've shown that

(04:23):
you've shown that movie to plenty of people.
And and I've seen it myself.
I've seen people watch that whole movie and be like, what the fuck was the point of that?
And then you do the same thing for under the Silver Lake.
So it's it's it's the beautiful part of those kind of those kind of movies, I'd say.
And now it's Megalopolis and we get to go all through it again.
My God.

(04:44):
Yeah, I'm definitely.
Yeah, I mean, it's yeah, I'm really hoping that Megalopolis for me lands more like Southland
Tales than under the Silver Lake.
But it's really seems like a crapshoot going into it because of how people on, you know,
movie critics, TikTok and social media, as well as like critics, like professional critics,

(05:04):
you know, it's.
Yeah, it's really a crapshoot.
It's kind of 50, 50 on people being like obsessed with how kooky it is and how.
You know, serious it takes these ideas that it posits that are, you know, are just so
wild.
But yeah, other people are like this movie sucks and no one should watch it.

(05:28):
You just got to give it the same treatment of Southland Tales.
You got to watch under the Silver Lake like 20 more times.
And then you'll you'll get come around.
Wow, man, especially a movie like Megalopolis, that's like what almost three hours.
Yeah, that was really hard.
I don't know if it's three.
It feels like it for sure, especially the last act.

(05:51):
Yeah, so we'll see.
Well, yeah, we'll have to check in.
Stay tuned for it follows to whenever that happens.
Yeah, stay tuned for that.
But that would be incredible.
You know, to.
So yeah.
So yeah, for a spooky movie check in its spooky season, which is in full effect right now,
you know, it follows is incredible.

(06:12):
It does so many things right.
And I have mentioned it plenty of times, but I am I lean more towards liking something
that.
Is really good about keeping things like to the idea and not getting to bog down and maybe

(06:34):
the world building or the need to also kind of comment on a bunch of other stuff.
And I really just appreciate it follows for being pretty laser focused on like this is
what you know, it's beat by beat.
And there are conversations that are interesting that the characters have.
But almost all of them are really just in service of talking about what is happening

(06:57):
to them and moving the plot along.
And I really just think it's also visually very good.
I mean, effective in being spooky.
I, you know, watching it again, even though I know, you know, that's which is an interesting
thing about horror movies.
Right.
And almost to a testament to the best horror movies is since horror movies, if.
You know, if they don't age well because you know what's happening, so it loses a lot of

(07:21):
its arms.
I would just posit that is like that's a sliding off into like maybe wasn't like really incredible
to begin with.
And it was just OK.
And now that you just been exposed to like all of its tricks and just sliding off in
your opinion of being like whether or not you want to watch it or whether or not you
want to go through that process again of, you know, what the conceit of the movie is.

(07:44):
But yeah, having seen it follows already a couple of times.
I mean, I don't know.
There's still.
It's one thing in particular that's so cool about it is because of what the concept of
the movie is, it's.
It like as a byproduct, which I find just wildly fascinating is it forces you to look
in the background of stuff all the time, which most people like, unless you've seen a movie

(08:09):
multiple times, most people are just almost like magic, like movie magic.
You're so just present in like what's happening in the foreground.
So the rules of the movie or the conceit of the movie, like force you to be like looking
just all across like what's going on behind, you know.
And I think it also does well to like sometime posit people who could be that in the background

(08:33):
to continue to always like keep you looking in on edge that is that person in the background
walking towards them or are they walking just normally to wherever they're going.
And what a great movie.
It makes you.
Yeah, it forces that paranoia that all the like that certain characters are feeling in
the movie upon you and to have them experience it themselves.

(08:56):
And then you experience it as an audience looking into the movie and doing that same
thing where these literally slow wide shots that the cuts are pretty purposeful and extenuated,
not a lot of quick cutting and a lot of like slow like pans around or, you know, rotating
around the shot and everything very slowly.

(09:17):
It just forces that this dread, which is some of my favorite aspects of my favorite scary
movies are the dread of it all.
And it's also a movie that is a sentence for the title.
Yeah, got a little of that.
Yeah.
Complete sentence, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, it follows subject predicate noun verb done.

(09:41):
We just got teleported back to seventh grade.
I love it.
Yeah, it was a very spooky, scary movie.
Unlike the movie we will be talking about today.
Very fun with some very fun, fun people.
Yeah, let's get it going.
Let's get it going.
No more check ins.
Let's get it going.
Let's start talking about this movie because I'm sure there's a lot to say and we want

(10:04):
to take as much time to do so.
So I'll enjoy them returning to the pod.
I don't remember how many times it's been, but I want to say probably four or five at
this point, maybe going into this being the six or somewhere around there.
But our first guess, I want to intro.
Welcome back to the pod.
Kara.
Hey, I'm excited that you're here.

(10:25):
You're on mute.
We can't hear you.
Yes.
OK.
There she is.
Yeah.
That was spooky.
I was like, is that you, Kara?
Kara, look out behind you.
A hex or curse was put on you and you lost your voice.

(10:46):
That's what happened.
It has nothing to do with the little mermaid situation.
Oh, it's a little mermaid situation.
Yeah.
Gain the feat.
Lose your voice.
Good pro.
Dale is old as time.
Those two things are.
Oh, shit.
Uh oh.
You get a.
A cool, hunky beast as a boyfriend, but you're you're in prison.

(11:15):
You're in prison.
Yes.
Practical magic.
Excited to have you on the car.
You know, while we wait for our other guests to log back on, we could start talking a little
bit about history, because like it's going to very little is going to come from me on
this because I just watched this movie for the first time.

(11:38):
Not to say that I hadn't heard about this movie plenty of times throughout my life,
but it was never something that I don't know that somebody was like, we're renting it,
we're sitting you down.
We're watching this.
So, yeah, I knew about it, but I never seen it.

(12:03):
I mean, so for James, we can get into YouTube.
Cara, I mean, did you see this?
It came out, maybe even.
No, I'm actually in this similar.
Oh, you are.
Cool.
I had seen it like a couple or like I had never watched it from beginning to end, but

(12:25):
it would like pop up on TV, maybe like TBS or something.
And like I'd watch it like some parts here and there.
So like some parts I was like familiar with.
But until recently, I hadn't watched it since like from beginning to end.
So that was it kind of felt like a new experience for me as well.
Were there any like defining things about it that you do remember?

(12:48):
I know there's plenty of movies like that for me that like I caught a little bit on
TV between commercials or something while I was flipping the channels.
Was there any sort of or like a feeling that you had towards this movie or things from
like your friends that would that they would say about this movie that you get from just
like osmosis, you know?

(13:09):
Definitely the vibe of it being like a cozy fall movie.
Like I always thought of it as like, yeah, I just remember them being in the house a
lot.
I remember the parts where they are like outside of the house as much.
So like I just thought of it as like this cozy fun or cozy, like homey witchy kind

(13:31):
of movie, which it totally is.
Yeah.
What you described is definitely the best parts of it is in that house and which I guess
inside is a set.
And then the outside was a facade essentially that they put up in Washington, I believe,
where they shot it.

(13:51):
But they were warned that it was on native land and to not dig into the soil, into the
dirt very much poltergeist, Brandon.
I know you don't fuck with Native American.
It wasn't a burial ground, but it was land that they said not to dig into the soil.
So they put a platform above it and just put this facade of the house.

(14:12):
And then the rest was a set in Hollywood.
But they just yeah, they make it look so comfy.
So much so that Barbara Streisand saw this movie and was like, I love that house.
I simply must have it.
And sought to purchase the house.

(14:33):
And she had to be told that it was not it did not exist how she saw it because it was
just the shell they tore down immediately after it was done filming and then a set,
a combination.
But that's just Barbara Streisand at the height of her power.
Just being like, I want it.
I totally get it.
If I saw something, if I saw a house that I liked in a movie and I had that kind of

(14:57):
power money, I'd be like, I want that.
I'm going to move into that.
So totally get it.
Yeah.
I mean, that kitchen, like to know that kitchen doesn't exist.
It's kind of a bummer.
Yeah, totally.
Like there's, oh, and then what is it?
The atrium?
There's like, well, you trams and then there's a greenhouse and then just the foyer and the

(15:22):
stairs and all of that stuff.
Really cozy, really, really cozy.
Oh, we got our gas back.
OK.
Oh, fantastic.
Yes.
Oh, yeah.
Where they have the seance at the end, right?
Is that kind of talking about that's a nice open, tall ceiling room for to have a nice
seance in?

(15:44):
That's it's so funny, though, about the barbers.
She had been in movies before this, obviously.
And so for her not to know that fact of like movies don't necessarily work like that.
They often don't.
I would pause it is like often there.
You're not in movies aren't shot in an actual house.

(16:07):
It's usually just the facade of it and then you then it's the interior is typically a
soundstage or like a set of some kind.
It depends.
But yeah, I don't know movies back then, but I've definitely filmed in a lot of houses.
Nice.
OK.
Yeah.
And they use the same as the same as it doesn't happen.

(16:28):
But yeah, totally.
That could be different sometimes.
Yeah, for sure.
But the most egregious example of a movie that we talked about on this podcast that
has such a clear example of using different interior to exterior is malignant.
And it's like this really narrow house, old timey house on the outside that they do a

(16:49):
lot of outside shots of.
And then you go inside and there's these big high vaulted ceilings and huge open rooms
and stuff where they're able to do a lot of crazy camera work and everything.
But that's the movie magic, I guess, can work on even people like Barbra Streisand.
I can retell that story to the to our guests, but let's first introduce our brand.

(17:12):
Yeah, absolutely.
So first time on the pod about this guest.
Hey, we got Jessica.
We have Jessica on the pod.
Hey, Jess, thanks for coming.
Hi, Jess.
Hi, Jess.
Thanks for having me.
Longtime listener, first time caller.
So excited to be here.
He said it, she said that they are first time that's our first time hearing that.

(17:37):
Yeah.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
So glad to have you on this pod.
And talking about this movie, we had just gone through a little bit with Cara about
like history with this movie.
So Cara and myself don't really have too much of history with this movie.

(17:57):
I mean, specifically, we haven't really just watched it last.
So I mean, you might be our.
I don't know, resident witch or what?
Resident Practical Magic person, because, yeah, I think you've had a history with it.
But please.
Yeah.
So this movie has always held a near and dear place in my heart.

(18:20):
Came out 98.
I watched it in theaters in 90.
Yes.
I remember I was like, I want to see this movie.
And honestly, I watch it, if not twice a year, perhaps four times a year.
It's a spooky season like cult classic for me.

(18:41):
But in the springtime when it's a little too hot outside and I want it to be fall and I
want to be by the seaside, like I'm like, I'm going to watch Practical Magic.
I don't care if it's March.
Hey, you know what?
For all the seasons.
It really does.
It's extremely rewatchable as well.
And my brief, I don't have a history with this movie.

(19:02):
And the way that Karen and I saw it to prepare for this podcast was this movie theater down
the street from us kind of got revamped and they're showing old showings of movies.
And for spooky season, they have a lot of Halloween movies and they have Practical Magic
playing.
So we went and saw it in a big packed movie theater.
And that was, I think the best way you could possibly see it.
And we ran into some friends there and they were saying essentially exactly the same thing

(19:26):
that you just said of like, this is at least at least once a year, you know, during spooky
season, if not more.
And to have that memory of you in the theater in 1998, man, I can just only imagine tiny
little jazz walking out of that theater.
Just what it what it must felt like.
Oh my God.
To Mekyu cinemas, we came to the movie park and I was like, I want to go to see this movie.

(19:51):
Like.
What?
So what about the movie do you think was the pole?
Was it like Sandra Bullock?
Was it witches?
Was it like was there something in particular that you're like, I have to like that really
drove you to the theater to see it?
It was definitely the witchcraft, which is funny.
After watching the trailer earlier, that is my first time as an adult watching it, which

(20:16):
now I probably would not have spent money to go see that movie.
Wow.
They had bitched by Meredith Brooks in the trailer.
But again, I hold it near and dear to my heart.
I will pay over and over to watch it every time I will say I own it on DVD.

(20:38):
Nice.
That's the move.
I bet that was a popular DVD.
It was the witchcraft.
Who doesn't want to be a spooky witch and have powers and just make things happen?
Well, absolutely.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think the way that it approaches it, too, and really it must have been like cool,

(21:03):
you know, like it doesn't make it.
It's not like Hocus Pocus where it's like really.
Disney.
Like all all witchcraft is is bad by and large and evil.
And it has this more modern sensibility to it because the witches that are doing it are

(21:23):
like ice and cool and like, yeah, it's not really about like, I don't know.
I mean, it ends up becoming a lot about raising the dead, which is very, you know, I guess
this is what I'm saying.
But there's a lot more to that in this movie than just like a hocus pocus or some type
of like more scarier movie.

(21:45):
You know, we'll get into it later.
But they actually like address it in the movie that it's like, oh, not all witchcraft is
is evil.
And they and they and they talk they talk about it very briefly on the different types.
Yeah, which.
The lore of it all, I found like the right amount, you know, it doesn't get like super

(22:12):
duper into like the origin of certain demons and magic and undead stuff.
It just I think this movie does pretty well to just like this is what you need to know.
We need to say these things in order to do this.
And then I guess I would like to know a little bit more about like the potion making of it

(22:35):
all would be my great.
It's like I kind of wish that I got a little bit more potion making.
But you know, I felt like that even when they.
No, you guys go.
Even when they set the scene at the beginning, it's like very clearly as Americans like this
is New England during the witch trials.
And they're like, you're like, where is this New England seashore?

(22:57):
These are witches.
All right, we got this.
If this were shown to Europeans or something else like in American culture, that's already
engraved.
We know exactly where witchcraft took place.
It's the witch trials and it was normalized in the movie.
Like everyone was aware of witches existing.
It wasn't like we what witches exist.
It's just like, no, they're the witch.

(23:18):
They're the sisters, the witchy sisters.
It was just like already known.
I thought that introduction was was a lot of fun.
And there was like a lot of like tongue in cheek, like jokes throughout the introduction
because Diane Weiss, I think that's giving the introduction.
If I'm not mistaken, and the whole history of the family and the unrequited love sort

(23:40):
of element of the magic as well, how that's kind of the curse upon the family.
And I like the blaming of like of men for all their problems on, you know, on the witches.
And that's how like the like, I don't know, just that kind of that humor that is starting
right from the beginning, like it kind of goes throughout, I think is a nice addition

(24:04):
to to the magic.
I think the movie also from the start is.
It's just like it makes women cool and like explains like their motives.
And like, I can just imagine like young girls being so attracted to this movie because it's
like the women in it from the jump, you know, this woman's getting hanged.

(24:28):
But then she just like breaks out of it and then like everybody's like, oh, shit, afraid
of her.
And my understanding is like she does get like outcast or whatever.
But she like immediately like tells everybody to kind of go fuck themselves and like it
has the power and like takes her power and, you know, rewrite some of her history, even

(24:51):
though there ends up being this curse, which in itself, I find really, I don't know, fascinating
the idea of.
It's not necessarily like men are bad.
It's like, what would you say it like?
Like what the curse like is trying to say or like what the point of it is communicating

(25:14):
some idea of maybe relationships or just how you might look at relationships, because I
think the idea that falling in love, like you can't do that.
And so it's for like then it is representative in the ends of like these women have never

(25:35):
fallen in love, but they got so much of their own shit going on.
And it's not like they're like.
They're not that bitter about it.
They accepted their fate given the lineage that they come from, and they kind of made
the best wife for themselves out of it or like in spite of it.
You know, it's just it's it's kind of ends up being just like a pitfall that you could,

(25:59):
you know, succumb to because you end up falling in love.
But often it just seems like even the falling in love has some like there's a little bit
of manipulation there of like when the guys show up, I'll actually fall in love with them
and all of that stuff.
And it's just it's really all of those rules, or at least what it's trying to say, I find

(26:20):
really I don't know, could be it's an interesting approach.
It's a really interesting approach to I think I think you bring up something really interesting.
Like as a kid watching, it was definitely topical on like witchcraft.
And then I watched it again as a teenager and you kind of pick up on like the bad boy
romance.
And then as an as more of an adult in your 20s, like you bring up a good point that the

(26:42):
lens is more focused on women and that romance and partners are secondary.
Sure.
Yeah.
Because because they're going to die if they fall in love with you.
Like which that that is like such a juicy kind of like result of this of the characters

(27:03):
can't fall in love.
So it's like there's this tension or this this conflict that's happening where you're
like you don't want your main character to fall in love as opposed to the stereotypical
like, you know, romance movie or whatever is it's about, you know, a guy coming in and
sweeping her off her feet.

(27:24):
And it's I don't know, there's like an edge to it that I find really interesting.
And I found it pretty enjoyable.
You're like, oh, don't fall in love.
Don't fall in love.
And then the second she does, you're like, well, this is going to end terribly.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I like that was what I enjoyed the most out of this movie.

(27:45):
Like I I was so drawn to the sisterhood and the coven aspect of it all.
More so than the romance.
Like I could care less about the romance.
Like I mean, it's cute, but like I agree with Jassica.
I think maybe when I was younger, I would have been more drawn to like the romance and
the aspect of it.
But like as an adult, you know, as as we get busy and we just like it's harder to see like

(28:10):
our friends and everything in our family, like just that.
Like the parts that I was like crying was when like the women were together when when
Sandra Bullock and what's her name were together and they had that like sisterhood.
And yeah, I'm like, it's good to maintain those those bonds and like, yeah, maybe your

(28:35):
romantic partners fall relationships fall apart.
But then you always have your coven.
You always have your like sisterhood or like your your chosen family around.
And that they're the ones that are going to support you.
And that's what I was like kind of drawn most to in this movie, like even more so over the
witchcraft, which like I love witchy things.

(28:56):
I'm all about witchcraft and casting spells and all that.
But I was like, oh, my God, I love like the coven aspect of this movie so much more.
Oh, yeah, I think I agree with you.
Yeah, it's the layers, right?
Like younger, it was the witchcraft, it was the romance.
Now it's like how the sisters show up for each other in different ways.

(29:16):
Like I love when Nicole Kidman comes in for the PTA scene.
Yes. Like it's a different type of support.
And then ultimately at the end with the coven coming together, especially when for so long
like they were others.
And now it's like we're bringing you in.
Yeah, it's like the girls bathroom.
It's the most important place.
Absolutely.

(29:38):
That's my favorite.
That's what I get out of it.
Yeah. Yeah.
And I feel like plenty of other movies would do this.
Like fall into this trap of there needs to be more of a conflict between the sisters.
And that's really never like they're not really at odds with each other.
Like they're they're in trouble themselves individually.

(30:01):
There's not really a lot of like inner fighting between the sisters at all.
Like I would almost argue, I don't think there's really any.
It's just like more of like concern and like wanting to show up for you and try to help
you rather than, you know, Nicole Kidman go because of her lifestyle.
Like, yes, seems like Sandra Bullock isn't even like that.

(30:25):
I don't know, like Madden Nicole Kidman about her lifestyle that she's living.
She just shows up because she needs to help her.
And then they just help each other and work their way through it.
It's really. Yeah, it's really quite wonderful.
Like they represent each other.
It's quite wonderful. They recognize each other's differences.

(30:46):
And that's very special.
It's like you can still recognize that, like you are different.
But then there's still that bond between you and like no matter what happens,
like you could not see each other for like years.
There's still going to be that special bond at the end of the day.
And like that's what keeps them together.
And I think that's really special because that's also another thing.
Like as you get older, maybe you you and your closest friends when you're younger,

(31:10):
don't share similar interests, but like there's still something
that kind of holds you together, like whether it's the past,
like things that you've gone through together in the past.
But like you can also recognize like, oh, we're different people now, too.
Like if we had met now, I don't know if we would have been friends,
but there's still something between us that keeps us in each other's lives.

(31:32):
And we care for each other on a different level.
I love that from a structural standpoint for the movie.
And so there's plenty of times that happens in especially like a duo
in any sort of movie, like if there's going to be a conflict,
there might be a big fallout between them.
And there's sometimes where that just falls flat for me.
I'm like, well, I know they're going to get back together
for the third act or whatever.
And I do appreciate how this one not only has that understood

(31:55):
sisterhood and bond between them, that's unbreakable,
but just that you show there them as children.
It's not necessarily a coming, a coming of age story.
It kind of moves right to them being adults and having adult issues
and living their own lives and their own lifestyle.
And the fact that they are accepting of each other's ways of lives

(32:18):
and how different they are is just more of an adult way of the movie
handling itself and the characters as well.
And then as far as the conflict goes, it's never they have their disagreements
about methods and how they want to do something, but it never reaches
that full point where they have a have a falling out.
And I think that would have been a waste of time.

(32:38):
And the only time there is a fallout is with their aunts, which is hilarious.
We're so there's like you guys fucking started this.
You can figure it the hell out, you know, and they just go
and then they have to come back like, oh, you saw it.
OK, we got to pick up the pieces and, you know, finish it.
And they're like, well, do anything.
And I just that and that respect for the elders is more

(32:59):
what's about at that point. I love that.
In that same vein of like the sisterhoods, you can see the generation
of like the two aunts have each other's back.
Like Sandra Buck and Nicole Kidman, they have each other's backs.
The daughters like and I love the black.
I think of it as black cat, orange cat vibes for each of the generations.

(33:20):
And even like when the little girls have decided
that they want to keep this love interest around and they throw the maple syrup.
It's like we're in on this together.
Like the sisters are always bonded together.
And I love that. Yeah.
And the way that sometimes it just comes out without even having to build it up
in any sort of way when they are in the car

(33:40):
and they are in deep trouble with Dracula, cowboy Dracula.
And she there's they just do it visually.
She looks in the mirror and she's like, I have the what do you call it?
The belladonna, whatever the poison stuff.
I have it in my person.
You just just in a moment where they look at each other in the eye
through the mirror and they have that telepathic connection.
And the way that that just comes comes across as.

(34:03):
Yeah, I know.
Like the little practical magic moments are great.
But that's also so like.
Normal and real relationships, too, like I'm sure you, James, you and Brandon
can just look at each other and you know what the other person's thinking,
like just from a look, like when you're really close with someone, you can just.
They you can just read each other's minds, and that's that's not like magic

(34:27):
or anything that's just like also part of like everyday life.
It's magic. It's practical.
It's it's practically magic.
Right. Yeah.
It's actually magic.
Well, I love that.
Yeah.
To talk about the well, OK, first off, I want to ask everybody, which
which do they are they out of the two?

(34:48):
Let's let's just do just Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kimber.
Which which are you are which which is which? Yeah.
You want to start off, Brandon?
Yeah, I'm definitely Nicole Kidman.
I'm for sure, Nicole Kidman.
I yeah, I don't know.
It's like that.
I think her journey in self discovery and her like

(35:12):
kind of pursuits and the way that she approaches it,
I find, yeah, I find that free spirit in nature more my speed and
and yeah, I guess I would say Nicole for me.
Cara, I think if it was a spectrum,

(35:37):
I'd lean more towards Sandra Bullock,
but I think I'm a little more spicier than that.
Like I do also crave like spontaneity and venture and not always going by the books.
But I I think I do tend to lean a little more Sandra Bullock.

(35:57):
But I'm not necessarily like I would want to be Nicole Kidman.
That's the thing is just naturally my natural state.
I think I lean more towards Sandra Bullock.
So that's it. I'm on the spectrum.
Shame. How about you, Jess?
I think in the same in Karis, kind of same vein,

(36:21):
I would say I used to be leaning a little bit more Nicole Kidman.
And as I've gotten older, I am now leaning a little more.
It's Andrew Bullock.
I appreciate that sentiment.
I think I'm I'm right there with you where you might find me more sitting,
you know, mixing my tea with my magic instead of running around doing

(36:43):
doing more hardcore stuff.
But. Which is never really a problem with that,
which I think I had mentioned before, maybe to you, James,
but just to talk about like the rating of this and also like,
I think it does really well to ride that line of like as like

(37:05):
if you're seeing this movie and you're like 10 or 11,
you're you're definitely in that headspace of like looking up
to like adult stuff as being really attractive and be like,
oh, they got, you know, they can do their own thing.
Man, that pool party looks like a lot of fun.
That pool party. And there's parents.

(37:28):
But there's like heavy stuff in this.
But in like kind of a tactful way, I was surprised because I like
when, for example,
when the center bullet goes to the Cole Kidman's
hotel room,

(37:49):
it's the Cole Kidman is definitely giving a performance of
she's like kind of strung out.
She's really like,
yeah, kind of in the wrapped up in
in almost like a drug binge or or, you know, something to that effect.
That's never ever communicated.
That's never ever communicated at all.

(38:11):
It really is just like
it goes so far to say she's really sad and she has this problem with this guy.
And that's about the extent of it.
And then at the pool party, it's not like I don't think anybody's even really drinking.
It's literally just people.
They have. I just remember you should have

(38:32):
glass bottles next to that pool.
That's all I remember that they were drinking.
So there was a beer in there.
That's where I'm like the Sandra Bullock.
I'm like, hey, no glass.
They're taking shots.
That pool is like very reminiscent of like the boogie night.
Yeah, big time.
I was thinking the same thing.
Twenty five years. Yeah, totally.

(38:52):
The whole kid minute. Totally.
Yeah. And then the same one.
Yeah, I feel like it might be. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And then like she she talks to Sandra Bullock about him,
about being the Dracula cowboy and how they spend all night.
Worshipping each other.
And you can tell he's very clingy where she asked.

(39:12):
She has to go to the bathroom.
And he says, let's go together and won't let her just go to the bathroom by herself.
Red flags. Red flag.
Made the flags.
But I think if I think if I was younger, that would have been fun.
But now it just feels like I need my space.

(39:35):
Like, no, please let me go to the bathroom.
We'll come back to worshiping each other in just a moment.
I swear. I mean, and also to what a crazy move that in just the in the movie,
just solely what we've seen is they have seen each other.
Like they started flirting from across the room. Right.

(39:55):
And then she goes to the bathroom or something.
And then he walks up behind her and then without saying any words,
puts a I don't know, something over a hot stuff.
And I was like, this is a crazy move.
There's no there's no conversation about it.
This is that's something that you like would happen.

(40:16):
A little eyes wide shut.
You can't just do this without any
talking about what
you said, you know, what you want.
So this movie is kind of fucking crazy.
He's actually from Transylvania, too.
Like she says, Dracula, but she's like, oh, he's actually from Transylvania.

(40:37):
And I was really waiting for him to reveal that he's a vampire.
I wouldn't be surprising in a movie like this.
I mean, there's witches.
Oh, that's true.
But then it would be a hat on a hat, I guess,
once we find out what happens with them.
But you know, Dracula Cowboy is already a couple hats.
Yeah. Yeah.
He doesn't have room on the head for any more.

(40:58):
It's also crazy when she's talking about like, oh, we worship each other.
All night.
And she's like, oh, yeah, I have to put Bella Donna in his drinks
just so I can get some sleep.
And yeah. Yeah.
You mean that's right.
Yeah, no, it's not.
Fancy threads situation now.
Oh, my.
Or or what is it?

(41:20):
So the what did you put in the medicine?
Oh, the flowers of the flower.
I don't know if it's a tasteful
impression that Carl and I have been doing lately, but
or since we saw that movie.
But yeah, what did you put in the medicine?
What did you put in the medicine?
Yeah. Oh, God, it is funny to think about.

(41:41):
Like, I guess really, though, like it handles well in my mind,
having mature themes in it,
but in a way that it's never too racy or too like edgy
and needing to be like, you know, have like some sin,
like a lot of cynicism in it or the feeling the need to show it.

(42:05):
And I and I think that works well for this
because this movie has has so much to it to really suck in.
Like, I don't know.
Teenage girls are like preteen girls, even, you know,
with so much other great shit going on with the characters.
And it's kind of nice that it doesn't like need to get into

(42:28):
like adult themes too much, but it doesn't enough that it is good.
And it like shows that it's there, but it doesn't feel the need to like
go so far and like kind of like, I don't know.
It's very for 13.
Yeah, very.
It's very PG 13, which yeah, I don't know.

(42:48):
Sometimes like we just watched the ring and that's PG 13.
And it sucks that that was PG 13, you know, and there are sometimes
where you're like this movie would have benefited from allowing itself
to visually show actions that would contribute to like showing
a character being really bad or showing how bad, you know,

(43:10):
this kind of lifestyle is or whatever.
And this does well to allude to those things in a way that I think
the tact of it is really nice.
I think it's really solid and allowing itself to be mature enough,
but never feeling the need to go overboard.
What do you all think of the like inciting incident and the fallout

(43:32):
of it and everything of like, I mean, the tent scene of him
essentially kidnapping them and taking them to this abandoned
or not abandoned, but just like this location, the docks
essentially looks like where it just seems so scary in that moment

(43:54):
where he tries to choke her and Sandra Bullock has to poison him
and then having to try to revive him and then burying him in the Rose
Bush's like how did you how did 1998 jazz feel during all that part
that whole section?
So I actually recall watching this movie in theaters and remember
like looking at my mom and thinking like, wow, this got a little

(44:17):
violent suddenly as an eight-year-old, but it's very, very, but it's
very small and very minute as an adult.
I think they take like violence against women and it's never okay,
but it is much more abusive and it's much worse than that.
And they convey that message of controlling and like being physically

(44:38):
abused by like look on her face and like wanting to be with the sisters
and that overbearing controlling vibe.
I think they do a good job at like dancing around the issue while
still expressing that this is a very intense scene.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, like communicating all of the negative aspects of his character

(44:58):
and turning him into a villain.
But again, never needing to really show a lot of violence on screen,
which I mean, honestly kudos to the movie for that.
It's like, you know, I mean, sure.
I guess maybe would have got a ratings or some weird.
I don't know exactly like movies are able to get away with like violence

(45:20):
against women in particular.
And then in like, I don't know where the threshold of it becoming
ours, but nonetheless, here in America, as long as there's no sex
and if those women are enjoying the sex and get out of here says the MPAA.
But violence is all right with them.
But sex is not exactly right.
Yeah, what a puritanical society.

(45:42):
But they make him like they like they make him a joke, which I think is
is, I don't know, really a nice way to deal with an antagonist
that like is malicious and scary.
And they show the realism of that in that moment from from that moment on.
He is kind of played for laughs almost like whatever his the threat
of him coming back and all that, of course, is like an inconvenience

(46:05):
to say the least, but like I just enjoy the slapstick nature of what ensues.
And it if anything, like is a bonding moment for them in a weird way.
But yeah, it got really intense.
And then it pulled away and started to become like more lighthearted again.
And they pulled back and then they introduce

(46:28):
Aiden Quinn pretty quickly into and they come back to the house.
And it's more just, yes, in the town side and the house and everything.
But yeah, bringing him back to life is pretty.
The intense and the intensity of like watching someone like
with the intention of trying to burn like their insignia on a human skin.

(46:49):
And within like a five to 10 minutes, he's
they're like doing whipped cream pentagram.
Yeah, she's like slapping.
That's where you see that swing of like intense violence
to slapstick nature. Yeah.
Let's go seven.
She eats some of the whipped cream.
It's like kind of like sideswimmy.

(47:09):
I was like, wait a minute. Whoa, holy shit.
You know, and that's what it's all about.
Either the whipped cream on, you know, and then just like, oh, yeah, this is great.
I don't remember also to why the whipped cream was like it was so quick.
She was like, oh, that's perfect.
She needed something that had a like a certain ingredient in it.

(47:29):
And then it was like something white, something white, I think.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, just OK, the color of it. OK, gotcha.
Gotcha. Yeah. Yeah. Ready?
Whip white. Perfect. Yeah.
Practical magic, baby. Let's go.
Well, I thought it's so funny into the slapstick nature of it,
which is good, like deflating him, making him out to be a joke,
making him to be a bad guy.

(47:51):
Like all of these things are like, I don't know.
It works well.
The like approach or how they like really try to communicate,
like him being a piece of shit.
They bring him back to life and immediately kill him again,
which was really like, I was like, oh, and then they bury him.

(48:14):
So I don't know.
It was I got a little bit of like, wait a minute.
So you brought him back to life,
but then he just immediately is a douche again.
And then they kill him. And then they're like, you know what?
Let's not bring him back to life.
And then they bury him.
I kind of loved a little bit of this, like
this idea of at first, they were giving him

(48:35):
like almost the benefit of the doubt and going like,
we're not going to be responsible for killing a person,
even though he's terrible.
But then him being immediately evil coming back to life again.
They're like, you know what? No.
What a deal with you.
Just sweep it under the rug.
He actually do sweep them at some point.
I love that.
Like Sandra Bullock is like warning her.

(48:57):
She's like, they said that if we bring him back,
he'll come back dark and unnatural.
And Nicole is like, well, he was already dark and unnatural.
So whatever.
So who cares?
All right. All right.
All right. Well, anyway, so let's do this.
I was also thinking about the timeline right now of like
where Sandra Bullock flies out to go save her sister.

(49:21):
Yeah. And then they're driving and then they wind up back at the house.
I'm like, you have to drive with that dead body, like back to New England
from what I presume was the Southwest of Arizona.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like L.A., maybe.
I mean, it seemed like a very L.A. house to the point of like, honestly,
if you were to tell me, yeah, that's so funny that you brought up
like if you were to say that this is the Boogie Nights house, I would have blamed you.

(49:43):
But like, yeah, totally looks like because it's like a lot of
glass looking a pool and all of that stuff.
And even kind of is pretty on the case.
He knows where the car is out right when he shows up and he shows up pretty quickly.
Although the roses are growing, I guess, very quickly as well.
I love that.
I love that idea of.

(50:05):
He. Somebody like this lingering
thing that is like festering, but it's visualized in roses,
which I don't know if they explain why roses were the thing that he like.
And why he manifested himself like that, maybe because of like the thorns of it all.

(50:26):
But it's very telltale.
I guess.
Hey, there you go.
That's all I need.
But this idea of like looking outside your way.
It's almost like.
Like telltale horror, like egg around and poach, which is very gothic.
Wait, I just said that.
I literally.
Oh, sorry.

(50:47):
I don't know what I heard, though.
You're like, that's all I need.
No. Okay.
That's all I need.
I will say.
I'm glad we came there together.
Yeah.
But yeah, I don't know.
I think that like visualized.
I think that like visual.
Yeah.

(51:09):
Use of something growing in your backyard and then you see just like getting bigger and becoming more of a problem is it's a cool motif.
That's yeah, I think that a lot, especially because they're trying to hide that fact from.
He did Quinn.

(51:31):
So, you know, it's always this thing that's like there where you're like, oh, but there's the dead bodies responsible for the roses.
And as he comes into the house and all that.
Yeah. And one of the daughters even says like, oh, there's there's a man out by the roses and like what rose is like, oh, they popped up overnight.
Oh, I missed that.

(51:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
His shoes start to show to you.
Don't his like boots start to show as well to like start to grow.
Oh, right.
Yeah.
I think so.
And then Sandra Bullock has a scene where or maybe Nicole can where she starts chopping down all the roses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's when Aiden Quinn shows up and have their little meet cute, I guess.

(52:16):
I really I really like him.
It's interesting that, yeah, that he's kind of combined love interest and police officer investigating where he kind of has to cover both bases and he does it well.
But it is a lot for him to take on.
What do you what do you guys think?

(52:36):
Well, I have to say we're missing one crucial scene before Aiden Quinn comes into the scene.
The father is.
Yes, it is the midnight margarita scene.
Oh, yeah.
The bottle of tequila shows up.
That is absolutely magical in the movie.

(52:57):
Absolutely.
It's definitely up there with that.
It's either that or the Kevin scene at the end.
And my little research was revealed that they all apparently took shots of tequila as a film crew.
And they're actually a little tipsy when they shot that scene.

(53:18):
And one of the quotes was like, Good thing like the director of photography didn't drink at all because we were all having lots of fun.
Which makes me happy.
That's Dracula cowboy coming back in a different sense.
Yeah.
It's when that tequila bottle appears and now spewing out different things.

(53:38):
And also really fun fact, if you watch the movie, start the movie at eleven eleven, the midnight margarita scene happens at exactly midnight.
Wow.
That's satisfying.
All right.
Next time I watch this movie, I'm going to have to get the midnight margarita is ready to go.
In the middle of the movie at some point, I mean, it just sounds like a tradition that I'm sure it started that after this movie that some people probably still do every Halloween night.

(54:07):
Once it hits midnight, get the margaritas going.
Yeah.
And I love how they just like, yeah, how you were saying, like they just start like spewing out everything.
They're cackling like witches and they're just letting loose, having fun.
I'm like, yes, this is like when girls get together, we have our drinks.

(54:27):
We have a little hot goss and we just let loose and so much fun.
But then they realize, you know, they are and then they realize like he's now reincarnated.
They're like, where did you get this bottle?
Yeah, and disappear.
And that's when Aiden Owen comes in, I believe the next day, two days later, we have that nature.

(54:47):
Mm hmm.
We are you saying the ants like manifested Aiden or oh, no.
Oh, OK. No, right.
I was saying chronologically, like here and then the cops come in.
Yeah.
Just the chemistry with all four of them is impeccable.
And I think that just adds so much to this movie.

(55:08):
Not only Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman really hit it off.
I feel like as as people because they're their sisterhood is very believable.
And then the aunts are just just nail it to both of them.
Dianne Wiesen, what's what's her the other aunts name?
Rizzo.
Stalker Channing.

(55:30):
Stalker Channing.
Stalker Channing.
Yeah, just like I don't know.
She's the more kind of like has the no like doesn't take any bullshit sort of like deadpan sort of face.
And Diane Weiss is kind of more a little bit more maternal and warm.
And but they both have the funnest of hats.
Yeah, they do.
If I could have the fun, fun hats, midnight margaritas has to be some sort of tradition.

(55:57):
Fun hats, margaritas Halloween.
Oh, life.
I love it.
That is life.
Then.
Yeah.
So Hayden approaches.
Yeah.
I was just going to say, honestly, who doesn't want them as their aunts?
They're so fun.
They have chocolate cake for breakfast.
They do margaritas at midnight.
Yeah, I want to be that.

(56:18):
I want to be like I'd rather be them than like Sandra Bullock or.
All right.
I pick Diane Weiss.
I'm Diane Weiss.
Yeah, like they're going to take Evan Rachel Wood and the other daughter out to like the
I forget it was like the witch festival or something like that.
Like no dancing naked in the moonlight.

(56:40):
They're essentially like, oh, honey, that's optional, you know.
Oh, the answer.
The answer like more game than Sandra Bullock.
Sandra Bullock is like.
Against it, you know, so I don't want to be Sandra Bullock.
Like I feel like I'm in the middle with the ants.

(57:00):
They've known the rules for so long that they know how and when to break them.
I think Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are starting to try to figure that out.
Yeah, I mean, also to the center, Bullock's like motive behind that is because of losing her husband.
He seemed like a great guy.
I mean, I don't know.
Yeah, him.

(57:21):
We didn't talk about his his death at all, but
in the daughter, is it the beetle or the cockroach scene?
That's yeah, that's the like signifier.
Yeah, that the time has come for the partner to receive a bicycle parade fake out accompanied by

(57:45):
getting run over and the tragic shot of apples falling from from the sky onto the asphalt.
It was extremely sad and Sandra Bullock plays it very well too.
And just like putting herself under the blankets, not wanting to come out.
And then Evan Rachel nails like that whole
just she does comfort her mom.

(58:08):
And then Sandra Bullock grabs her and puts her into the blanket with her.
I'm just so cozy and such like a warm familial just all the community
and elements of a sisterhood motherhood all that stuff.
Like I think is definitely one is the strongest parts of the movie for me,
which is such like a feeling.
And and even though I never saw this movie in 1998, seeing a movie that was made in 1998,

(58:32):
I think really hits me in a way too, because I think same as just the same.
Like those are probably when I was going to my first movie theater experiences.
And yeah, Batman and Robin bad movie.
I saw it in movie theaters.
So it's like it's a good movie to me because it just brings me back to that place.
Or the running joke is lost.

(58:52):
Real Jurassic Park, too.
It's just like, oh, I just saw that.
I remember seeing that movie in theaters and the sound was so loud
to my tiny little ears, my fresh ears that having gone to a bunch of Coachella's.
And so I it was just like, is this supposed to be this loud?
Is the dinosaur supposed to be roaring this loud?

(59:12):
I remember when that was an issue for me as well.
And stuff is that how loud it is, which is my cousin who has a seven year old.
And he explained the same thing of like some movies.
It's tough to take the kids to because they get really like freaked out
or really scared just solely based on how loud the movie is.

(59:34):
Isn't even so much like what the move, you know, whether or not the movie is scary or whatever.
It's just this year like being in a theater and sometimes it gets really loud for kids
at a certain age. It's like that alone is like, I don't like this.
I then starts crying or wanting to leave, you know, sensory overload.
But this has just such a warm shot on film. Look to it.

(59:57):
There's a lot of like ambers and just warm feeling in the in the house and all that.
So it just hits me on on that cozy level for sure.
And especially now we're in like the thick of the movie of them just essentially
hanging out in the house and keeping eating Quinn off off the trail.
And I would love to have brunch on, you know, even if there is some poison maple syrup,

(01:00:19):
I don't care. It's just looks so so nice to have brunch outside like that.
That seemed like a fun time.
And that seems to the daughters get involved.
And again, just another level that this works on with just like women
look like helping and loving women is like there's not really a whole lot of conflict
either between like either this the daughters between themselves

(01:00:42):
or there's a little bit of contention with Cinder Bullock not wanting her daughters to learn magic.
But it's so wonderfully offset by Nicole Kidman being the cool aunt
that they have that scene where they're like the daughters are there.
Nicole Kidman's there and you just like get it just is so like.
Yeah, it's just it's suiting off the screen.

(01:01:04):
That's idea of like the daughters are so like, you know, taken care of
and they got all these cool like role models in their life.
And there's they have they're also like, yeah, like
one of the daughters, the Evan Rachel Wood daughter
being more mature at times than Sandra Bullock and having those scenes.

(01:01:27):
It's like, no, I don't know.
They're all they all fit in.
You know, they all bring something to the table that really helps each other out.
And all of that is pretty frictionless.
It's very much welcomed of like, oh, my God, they're now having fun doing this or
and what have you. And also, too, it's.

(01:01:50):
Got to be like cool as a mother or I mean, it's very convenient,
but you are ostensibly like not a twin, but like your sisters, like the same age.
And then you have daughter like two daughters that are the same age.
They're also like one redhead and one brunette.
And it's like, man, that's got to rock as like a mother.

(01:02:11):
You're like, I just had like
now I get to be the parent to what I was.
And that's generationally, there's just pairs all the way to just like
these pairs of women all the way down.
And it's like it's one of the best feelings in the world.
And this is a little bit off topic, but it just made me think of like,

(01:02:34):
you know, had mentioned how like Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman,
they recognize that they are different.
You know, they're not the same.
They recognize each other's differences.
And instead of like bashing heads or anything,
they just acknowledge it and work with it.
And I started watching Peaky Blinders and there's this one.
I know it's kind of a random thought, but like

(01:02:57):
there's this one scene where like
the this cool aunt in the show,
she's chatting with this other girl who's kind of like her enemy.
And she mentions like.
How like they have this like opportunity to like get violent and like
basically kill each other, but they the cool aunt is like,

(01:03:19):
oh, you know what, we're smarter than the boys and we're not going to fight.
We'll talk it out.
And I think that's the other thing about this whole sisterhood.
It's like they're not there's there's not a lot of
violence or tension or physical things because they I mean women.

(01:03:40):
I don't want to speak for all women, but like we tend to like talk things out
maybe more and like we can like get to a place where like
we'll agree to like disagree, but there's never for like violence or like
I mean, I don't want to speak for all women, but I know what you mean though.
Yeah, I get what you're saying.
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely.

(01:04:02):
Like all of those could be something that is in a movie like this, too,
that you're talking about.
And that's that's why the fact that this movie doesn't fall prey to those.
Stereotypes or like falls into that kind of dynamic is interesting.

(01:04:22):
I mean, it's proof that like.
This movie like we mentioned, I think before we started recording is like
mainly made by women, too.
I know that we know that the director is and there is some writers, but like
the head writer is a woman, you know, and then it's just like, yeah,

(01:04:43):
I don't know, like all the way through the production.
There's a lot of influence there.
So it's nice to see that.
I don't know, like some stereotypical thing or some, I don't know,
male perspective superseded something.
It really just like.
I don't know, came from a place that understands these characters

(01:05:03):
and how this would actually go very well.
And I yeah, I commend the movie a lot for that, you know, it nails the the third act.
And when you put it like that, Kara, it's like, yeah, I could.
It could have gone into the place.
I don't know. I think it was based on a book or something.
But whatever the original story was, I don't know.
But it could have gone to a place like a big showdown with Dracula

(01:05:26):
cowboy or something.
And maybe they even have to get the coven together to fight him or something.
But what it boils down to, which is it was a very interesting way of doing it,
of him possessing Nicole Kidman.
And I thought that was very representative of like a toxic relationship and everything,
too, which I really like of like of him just controlling her body,

(01:05:48):
like all the way down to just he like is now inhabiting her
and controlling her body and speaking for her.
And Sandra Bullock's way of combating that is through love and through like sacrifice
and trying to get through to Nicole Kidman during the whole exorcism and
and seance and everything.
And I think that the the power therein of that,

(01:06:11):
of the community and knowing as writers that you can bank
the third act climactic moment upon that
whole scene and how it played out, I think just works so well.
And even for Aidan Quinn's arc of a character,
something that he uses to combat

(01:06:33):
the bad guy is a power that he learned from them
is of using his talisman, of using his his symbol to it comes across.
She's the power of the power of the popo baby.
But I like the idea of like it's like imbued with his personal.

(01:06:53):
I know, but it's like.
But I like the idea that was really shocking to me.
It's beyond that, though. I don't know.
I could give me maybe give me too much credit, but that it's not the
the institution of the pigs.
It's the institution like the importance that he places upon that symbol.
Like it's how he his subjective view of his and his own personal

(01:07:17):
importance upon justice and something that he prides on himself.
And he places it all in that power within this symbol.
And yeah, I don't know.
Another form of practical magic could have used even even more of it.
But I like those moments, man.
And it is earnest and sincere.
And yeah, probably comes across a little cheesy, but it's hard to deny

(01:07:40):
how good it makes you feel to in those moments.
Absolutely. Yeah, I feel like this movie could have easily been,
like you've said before, structured in a way in which
Nicole Kidman and Sandra Bullock are at odds with each other.
And then it's a man that requires them to come together and realistic.
And in this movie instead, like or like

(01:08:03):
the the a man or the enemy like a singular enemy being what like forces them to,
you know, let all bygones be bygones and whatnot.
It's so much more interesting than that where he possesses her.
But it's not like anybody's like Nicole Kidman's the problem.
They're like immediately like, OK, so we need to like get together,

(01:08:26):
call the ladies up, get them over here and let's get this douchebag out of this.
How did it go? Give it. Let's get her out of here and just do that instead.
And it just doesn't. Yeah.
And I adore that scene, like when they call the coven together.
It's not just hey, there's the backstab.
Like, yeah, her sister really just got out of a bad relationship with her ex.

(01:08:49):
Yeah. And they all bond over this fact that like, yep, been there, done that.
Let me help you out.
Like women love to talk and like we bond over talking
and sharing stories and yeah, it's just all all of us.
So and that phone trancy, it was like Sally's sister.
She's like, finally just came out as a witch.

(01:09:11):
You have to go over it. I'm like, yep, I've been part of that before.
Like, I love that.
It's the tree coming back and how like that was such a dramatic moment.
And the the like the pecking order of the totem pole of that tree
and finagling it and then needing it later.
And just that whole the montage of calling them over,

(01:09:33):
squashing their differences and more acclaimed character actress Margo Martindale.
So I know she's so she's so down.
Oh, my God. And they're like, yeah, like I felt I felt like my my daughter
was getting sick and she was all the way halfway across the world.
And I could just tell, you know, and then Diane Weiss comes by.
There's a little witch in all of us.
Oh, those little moments.

(01:09:55):
They nailed it. Oh, my God.
And got it. Yeah, it's like a heist movie almost.
It's like we got to get the team together.
It's like calling, calling up and they're all doing their own things.
And it's like, hey, we're like, we got to get you out of retirement
to get over and do this company.
And I loved it. So we didn't.

(01:10:15):
Didn't one of the girls like bring a handheld vacuum or something?
That's actually like, yeah, I totally get that.
I feel like I would do that if I didn't.
Yeah, he's like, I showed up. I'm here.
I want to participate.
I love that idea, too.
And like, yeah, like whether it's the whipped cream or just like

(01:10:35):
you can use what you have and it's powerful enough.
Yeah, like it's it's a little bit.
You put the yeah, you put the power into the object yourself.
It's about the people. Yeah.
I totally relate with that character like I don't have this, but I brought this.
Perfect.
They got a in there. They got a cauldron.

(01:10:56):
Oh, love a good call, but they don't even use it. So.
They probably vacuum up some of some of the ashes.
So the ashes, because, yeah, they all have to like at the end of it.
Yeah, like sweeping out of the house, like banish him or whatever.
Which that was like.

(01:11:16):
I don't know. Yeah, such a fun visual element.
Like it just it's in line with the witchiness of it all of, you know,
turning it into ash and needing to sweep out this bad stuff out of the out of.
The place of bad energy, it's.
Yeah, it's this is a fun movie.

(01:11:37):
Guys, this is a really fun movie.
Absolutely. And they get to where they they get the witchy costumes at the end.
They get the brooms, the community at large accepts them for who they are,
and they get to be their full witchy selves unabashedly.
I it just it's I don't know.
It pays pays off very well.
And I like the fact that it's feel good essentially throughout with, you know, the

(01:12:03):
a greedy scene with with a bad dude, but it really is a feel good movie.
It never gets never gets too down for me.
And yeah, I can see that I can see you watchable.
Oh, excellent. Oh, let's yeah.
Let's get into the little soundtrack talk.
So those there's like two original Stevie Nicks songs that were made for this movie.

(01:12:24):
Right. So Crystal, like the like the scene that it ends on, Crystal is actually a
it is a Stevie Nicks song that she wrote for Fleetwood back that Lindsay Buckingham
originally sang on one of their early albums.
And she really did this.
Oh, wow. Soundtrack.
That is cool. I love this movie.

(01:12:44):
I don't think you guys understand.
That's why you're here. This is great.
That's why you're here. That's why we're doing this.
We need more fun facts. Yeah, more fun facts.
I will.
I will stand out song wise for me was the is this real song?
It is very ahead of its time.

(01:13:07):
I like the box.
Oh, like the trip hoppy one, right?
Yeah, it's like a trip hoppy and gets it.
So, yeah, like by and large, I'm like instrumentalist.
Six hundred.
But it is.
Way ahead of its time, I was really blown away when that song came on.
I was like, what the fuck is this song?

(01:13:28):
I've never heard this song ever, and I adore it.
Yeah, is this real question mark?
Such a cool song.
But I mean, it's also got some real like.
Bangers on this as well.
Like, well, plays a lot of was at Faith Hill, right?
Yeah, this is. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Oh, yeah. It gets into that.

(01:13:49):
And Sandra Bullock's like walking down the street in her little shorts
and her cowboy boots and her bangs.
And she's like, I'm going to go kiss my hot apple guy right now.
She has some great hair moments in this movie for sure.
Practical magic was brat before brat.
You heard it here first, folks.
You heard it here first.

(01:14:10):
Oh, pre-brat practical magic.
I think I got that.
Yeah, there is.
Yeah.
How do you have Joni Mitchell here?
Yeah, Stevie Hicks, Faith Hill.
I mean, Harry Nielsen.
Oh, my God. Yeah, hell yeah. Yeah.
What a great that record drop of of lime and a coconut man.

(01:14:36):
OK, every time I.
Be at that every time you watch that scene like.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that scene.
Yeah, totally.
Also, every time the four of us are together, we have to play that song
and drink some margaritas.
Done. Done.
I love that it's not just margaritas to that it defaults into, you know,

(01:15:00):
to shots and just mix.
All right.
We're in shots and just salt on the hand and everybody's.
Great. It's great. It's not. Yeah.
You guys ready for midnight?
It's so natural. It's so natural.
That's what's.
All right, here we go. I'm going to play it.
Look at that, Adrian. My God.

(01:15:26):
A lot of frogs.
A lot of frog stuff, which I'm not a big fan of frogs.
I. What do you got against frogs?
Frogs.
I feel like I'm just going on.
I mean, I was just.
Yeah.
I'm so weirdly afraid of the touch though.
You're just going to like how it works like all over.

(01:15:49):
And you can.
Would you eat frog legs?
Delicious.
I recommend.
I feel like I've tried. Maybe I haven't.
I feel like it'd be like chicken.
Watery fishy chicken.
Mid-by-by.

(01:16:10):
Let's go.
It's just dancing.
It almost scares.
I love when Sandra Bullock can be good.
I'd like to throw one back with Diane Weiss.

(01:16:31):
There's a blue light coming out of the window.
I love it.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.

(01:16:52):
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
Ooh.
This must have been a fun day on set.
Don't you know.
Don't you know.
Don't you know.
Don't you know.
Don't you know.
Oh.
Oh.

(01:17:13):
Ooh.
This camera's having a great time too.
Oh.
We need to talk and let them come in the morning.
It's so fun.
Yeah, the camera goes like in a circle up the stairs.
And then as they're drinking, it's
kind of circling around them, like opposite way
that they're going.
That's, yeah, it's a fun camera work.

(01:17:34):
Fun movie.
Fun movie.
It really is.
But other fun fact, there is a second one coming out.
I saw that.
Oh, interesting.
It was just announced this year.
So it's perfect that we're talking about it.
How do you feel?
How do you feel about that, Jas?
Yeah.
So I read both books.
I don't know how I feel about the remake.

(01:17:55):
But Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman
have signed on for Pactual Magic too.
Nice.
Anyone else?
Do you think Evan Rachel Woods would come back?
I guess, no, probably not.
She's like two.
She could be.
Yeah, she could be one of them.
Sounds like the odds are still around.
But yeah, who knows if they'll make an appearance.

(01:18:17):
I'm hoping.
I don't know if I'll see it in theaters.
I'll definitely watch it, though.
Yeah, same.
Yeah.
I'll watch it.
Sure.
I'll watch it for sure.
The fact that they're together, I mean, and if we get,
I don't know, I know it's one of those things in sequels
is like, oh, they're doing the same thing in the first one.
But if they don't do another Midnight Margaritas scene,
then I will be very disappointed.
They better have another one.

(01:18:38):
I'd say.
I got a little list of some other fun facts.
The production was cursed by a real witch.
The making of Practical Magic got eerie when director Griffin
Dunn hired a real witch to serve as a consultant.
In return for her services, she was paid a fee
and put up in a nice hotel.
Dunn told Vulture that the witch surprised him

(01:18:58):
with a phone call in which she inexplicably demanded
a percentage of the film's profits
and an additional 250k payment.
Whoa.
The producers obviously wouldn't agree to this.
So the witch said she was going to put a curse on both
the movie and its director.
So she later left Dunn a voicemail
in which she threatened a land of curses,

(01:19:20):
then began speaking in tongues.
The woman also attempted to sue Warner Brothers.
Unnerved, the studio paid her to go away.
And then Griffin Dunn later on got an exorcism
to be sure that he could get rid of whatever curse
that she placed upon him.
Who is this witch, do you know?

(01:19:41):
I do not.
There's no name attached.
But they hired a real witch as a consultant.
They wanted to.
I mean, that's pretty cool.
That's cool.
Random fun fact, did you know that Guillermo del Toro has
undergone multiple exorcisms?
I did not know that.
I believe that.
I believe that.
Multiple.

(01:20:03):
My thing with it, lately I've been enjoying TV shows more
just because if it is a really good TV show,
I never want it to end.
No, don't worry.
And that's not a great argument because I
should be doing other things.
But if they're really good, it's like if you're
reading a really good book, you don't want it to end.
Or if it's a series, you want to keep reading the series.

(01:20:28):
That's where I have the problem sometimes,
and nowadays, especially, I hate to say it in this way,
but cancel culture in the aspect of Netflix
canceling a show after one season.
I have just invested eight hours,
and there is no clear cut ending.
And so that's why there are certain ones where I'm like,
I'm not even going to start it because I just need to know

(01:20:48):
if it has an ending after three seasons
and if it was worth my time.
I find myself watching shows that I'll wait for them
to go through their run, and people are really into it.
And then it ends.
I'm like, does it have a good ending?
And they tell me yes.
And I'm like, OK, I will start succession.
That sounds good.
Yeah, it's five seasons.
It's going to end well.
Hell, yeah, let's go.

(01:21:09):
And then I finish it a year after everyone's
done talking about it, and no one cares anymore.
But it's a good show, and I know it's going to be good.
I really just said that I just finished Travelers.
On me, I wanted to start that.
Is it good?
It is good.
No, it's good.
And it has a clear cut ending.

(01:21:30):
OK, OK, cool.
Wait, I feel like you and I like the same things,
because after watching Dark, I was like,
I just want to watch anything that's similar to Dark.
And then there's not a lot of things close to Dark.
But I liked Archive 81.
I thought that was in a similar vein.
What else is spooky?

(01:21:51):
I don't know.
A lot of Flanagan stuff.
Like I devoured, like, Follow the House of Usher,
devoured Midnight Mass.
Yeah, like you said.
Follow the House of Usher was arguably some of my favorite.
It was like, arguably one of my favorite retellings
of an Edgar Allen post, right?
I'm like, this was phenomenal.

(01:22:13):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, I agree.
Just a huge fan of that guy, because I don't know.
It's just, he's a really good writer.
He's such a good collaborator.
So there's like all of the characters and actors
that he works with make the character, like, do well to bring
his good writing even more texture and even more interest.

(01:22:36):
And then it also, too, he's like, it's a limited series.
It comes out and it's kind of the beginning and an end.
And it usually happens in one season.
And that's the kind of stuff that will
get me to watch a television show is when things are set up
like that.
Midnight Mass is incredible.
I've been wanting to, well, I kind of started rewatching

(01:22:59):
Haunting of Hell House, but I want to get back into it
and finish it, because that's just so good.
It's so good.
Good.
Yeah.
We're looking, James, I can check this out.
Oh, we are.
All good.
I'm probably just going to keep all this in.
Welcome back, everybody.
I think we cut off sometime around the Guillermo del Toro
exorcism.

(01:23:21):
Fun fact, so I don't know if you wanted to finish that thought,
because I don't know if we got the end of it,
if there was any.
And that alone is a fun fact.
I think you were rattling off a couple of fun facts
about the movie.
The witch that cursed the movie.
She cursed it.

(01:23:42):
And then apparently, Gryffindun got exorcised.
Yeah, they got tipsy for the midnight margaritas.
Yeah, I guess Sandra Bullock did this because Speed 2 bombed,
and she wanted to do more, yeah, toned down romantic,
like not big summer blockbuster movies, you know,
something a little smaller.

(01:24:03):
How Aiden Quinn got his role, Denise D'Novi,
practical magic's producer, told the Chicago Tribune
that she had a very specific reason for wanting
to cast the actor in the role.
Namely, he had the same qualities
as a certain Hollywood star, but he was a little bit more
of a
he had the same qualities as a certain Hollywood legend.
We wanted a Gary Cooper kind of guy, quiet.
Tazza Turn, she said, referring to the star of High Noon

(01:24:26):
and Meet John Doe.
He radiates goodness, but he's manly, too.
Totally.
The composer's score was thrown out last minute.
There was a different composer, Michael Meiman,
who's been nominated for three Golden Globes
and a dozen other awards was hired by Gryffindun.

(01:24:46):
Which he told Soundtrack.net was the best score
I think I've ever in for a film that engaged me, not at all.
And when Dunn turned his gun into Warner Brothers Pictures,
the studio executives felt it had some significant problems
and the music was one of them.
They ordered Dunn to dump Niemann's work
and another well-known composer, Alvin Silvestri,
was brought in to quickly compose a new score.

(01:25:09):
So they just dumped that dude's work.
Wasn't easy to build the mansion.
I think I mentioned a little bit earlier,
you might have hopped off for a second, Jas,
but yeah, the mansion was just like essentially
a hollow house that was put on the spot in Washington.
And they didn't want to dig into the ground

(01:25:31):
because it was Native American soil.
So they put a platform right on top
and put the house on top of that,
as to not disturb the soil.
And they tore it down at the end
and all the interior is from a set in Hollywood,
but it fooled one Barbara Streisand
who wanted to buy the house and she could not.
Because she liked it so much.

(01:25:52):
Sorry, Babs.
Sorry, Babs.
Sorry, Babs.
So sorry, Babs.
You can't have it.
You can't have the practical magic in it.
You can't have the shopping mall.
Right, yeah, you're, what is it,
a Nordstrom's in her basement or something like that?
Crazy.
You got, Jas, do you know that?
I think, Carl, we've talked about it.
We've talked about the Nordstrom's in Babs' house.

(01:26:15):
No, yeah, no.
Educating.
So Babs, you know,
height of power, built a shopping floor
of a Nordstrom cement so that she could
get the experience of shopping in a department store

(01:26:37):
without anybody bothering her essentially.
And so it's a-
I get that too, I get that too.
Yeah, it's a, yeah.
It's just, it's so interesting to think about having
a place in your house, like if you are gonna do that,
that means you are gonna get items of clothing
that aren't your size to fill up the space

(01:27:00):
unless you get everything your size.
So anything you grab off the rack, it fits you.
But I'm sure you want the real experience where like,
well, I gotta try this on.
Could you imagine?
She's like, I love this, but it's not in my size.
Do you get shipped to my place?
And her and her might be like, I gotta love this.
This is so great.

(01:27:21):
I'm getting off right now.
This is exactly what I want.
Do you guys have this in the back stock?
Let me go check.
So, so crazy and silly.
Oh, Babs.
Yeah, that's weird, weird flex, but okay, Babs.
I mean, yeah, he's one of the most famous people ever.

(01:27:41):
So it's the age of Neverland, I guess,
and just creating constructs in your house
to relive childhood things that you didn't get to experience.
Yeah, to mimic the world that you could just go out
and experience.
Yeah.
But you don't want, yeah, she just didn't wanna be noticed

(01:28:01):
or like bothered by anybody.
So I guess you just hire actors to shop around with you
and just not talk, like don't fucking talk
and don't look at me.
And it was like before online shopping.
So she had to do this.
Yeah, over.
Do you think Babs is doing that now?
She's just online, just like, I used to have a mob
in my house and now I'm just on this website.

(01:28:23):
What's a website anyways?
All you new celebrities, you just get whatever you want,
shipped to your house.
I had to have it stocked.
Yeah.
And search for it.
Ask John Peters, he'll know.
Can you imagine her as an influencer?
She's like, thank you.

(01:28:43):
Thank you, Lululemon for sending this to me.
Uh huh, right.
She should probably just buy them all.
Yeah.
She could definitely buy them all.
Yeah.
Especially these days, man,
balls are probably going through pretty cheap.
We could all probably buy them all.

(01:29:05):
Let's write that move.
We just all like get it.
John Krasinski, we have an idea.
Get them all.
Matt Demon.
We brought them all.
We bought them all.
The sequel to We Bought a Zoo.
Exactly.
Yeah, right.
Exactly.
Let's put a little question mark at the end.
We bought a mall?
Mall?

(01:29:25):
It's in the poster?
That's us.
It's us, just like.
Uh oh, what do we do now?
We did it.
Well, stinkers.
Stinkers, we'll get us.
It's not an indoor mall.
It's not an outdoor mall.
It's actually a strip mall in Temecula.
Yeah, I'm right.
Yeah.
Imagine what we could do.

(01:29:46):
Anything.
Could really do anything.
I'd make a fun house.
That's what I'd do with part of the section of it.
I know I'd make a mall-sized fun house.
It's a whole mall.
It's a fun mall.
It's with goofy mirrors and shit.
Yeah, just a huge mirror.
Just the mirror part and throughout the whole mall.

(01:30:08):
And if you get lost, you're lost for days.
But during October, it has to be a haunted mall.
Yes.
It's experience.
Yes.
Spirit Halloween takes over the whole mall.
Oh my God, could you imagine?
I'm gonna do like a Red Bull event there
and have like skydivers land in it while dirt bikes

(01:30:30):
do loops around them, some Red Bull shit, you know?
Yeah, Red Bull shit.
You know the Red Bull shit.
Yeah, I do, yeah.
Just call him Red Bull.
He's like, do you some, I got this abandoned mall.
You guys wanna do some Red Bull shit over here?
I wanna do some Red Bull shit.
That's how that stuff happens, right?
Well, those are all my fun facts about practical magic.
Do you guys got anything else
before we hear what the critics and audience

(01:30:53):
have to say on Round Tomatoes?
I'm looking at my notes.
One fun fact, or one little bit that I found very fun
is Aiden Quinn is like over for the tea party
and he makes pancakes in their cactus shape,
which I thought was the really interesting choice

(01:31:14):
of cactus shape.
And then there's this whole bit about the daughter being like,
oh my God, he knows how to flip pancakes.
And then she runs out, runs out of the way.
She's like, guys, we can't poison him.
He knows how to flip the pancakes.
He's perfect for mom.

(01:31:34):
Flipping pancakes, I just thought was just such a fun
characteristic to be what he about.
I do like in that list of characteristics
of like the perfect man that couldn't exist,
just flipping pancakes and riding a horse backwards.
Oh my God, absolutely.
Two different color eyes or whatever.
It would have been cool if that was very obvious.

(01:31:55):
So if he just had two different colored eyes.
That was one of the things, right, Carla?
Yeah, but it didn't look like he had
two different colored eyes.
So I was like, hmm, he isn't Mr. Perfect after all.
Yeah.
A little slam.
He doesn't need to be Mr. Perfect.
He just needs to be perfect for you.

(01:32:17):
Mr. All right.
Mr. Right now.
Right now.
Mr.
Mr. Accepted.
Me out of jail free card.
Mr. Adequate.
All right, sure.
There's a line in the movie that
when it's being a slut of crime in this country.

(01:32:37):
I love that.
It's pretty crazy.
It was, it was from Nicole Kidman.
I think Nicole Kidman said yeah.
But I like how they call each other sluts
and midnight margaritas and they start laughing at it.
Yep.
That was funny.
Yeah, it is.
I do love Nicole Kidman scene where she like
walks in the PTA and she's like, hold on to your husband.

(01:32:58):
Yeah.
Yeah, that was fun.
That was good.
That was good.
Yeah.
I like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, it's, Nicole Kidman is funny to me
because she is like so incredibly statuesque
that it is kind of, it's gotta be a little bit like that
where her is like in like normal life or whatever.

(01:33:21):
Most people are gonna be like, who the hell is that person?
They look like they're from another planet.
Yeah, she's on another level.
She's so tall.
That's why she's on that, on the next level up.
And 98, she was still like definitely still married
to Tom Cruise, right?
Oh, was she?

(01:33:41):
Probably.
Probably.
Was it Days of Thunder or something when they,
yeah, I think so.
She looks like Eyes Wide Shut era.
Yeah.
Yeah, I feel like he's working on Magnolia
and like she's doing practical magic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a good place.
She is still acting a lot.

(01:34:02):
Nicole Kidman is working a fuck load.
She's in everything.
She's in a lot of like TV shows,
constantly coming out with like,
not only being a recurring character on like
Big Little Lies, but also them being in like
limited series television shows
and then also in movies.

(01:34:24):
And ABC, AMC's commercial.
And they're all so fat.
Heartbreak does feel good in a place like this.
I mean her most iconic role, some might argue.
I think that is her most iconic role.
That's how the next generation knows her.
Yes.
Us millennials are like, Oh, practical magic.

(01:34:45):
You don't even know.
At least now I say that.
Yeah, I think I guess the kazoo thing was kind of funny
that I was like one of my notes was like,
she's playing the kazoo and then she's like,
Hey, can I see that?
And she just throws it and there's like a sad little kazoo
noise that comes out as she throws it.
It's like.
That was like really funny.

(01:35:08):
And then that guy like that comes into the story.
He's like, I put it on my head and it doesn't work.
And she's like, you're not supposed to put it on your head.
And she's like, if not on my head, then where?
And they all look at him.
There's like an awkward pause.
And he just like goes, Oh, and walks away.

(01:35:29):
It's not on his head, but somewhere else.
He figured it out after being a Karen about it.
I do like the scene where
where what's his name, Aiden?
Aiden is confronting.
He's like, did you kill him?
She's like, yeah, twice.
Yeah, totally.

(01:35:50):
He's like, what?
You lied to him, which is like, oh, that's so fun, too.
There's like this ticking time.
It's like one of those like, yeah, that concept of, you know,
we got to kind of keep her away from him because if she gets like in his sphere,
then she's just going to spill the beans on all the things that are going on.

(01:36:13):
And which just creates tension in such a fucking fun way.
Man, I can't say this about this.
We've got a lot of fun shit going on.
It's so fun, which is crazy to me that on Rotten Tomatoes,
it is a 25 percent by the critics.
That is so fucking insanely low.
It blows my mind that it had that is like it is represented that way.

(01:36:34):
Like, I don't think it was like the most successful upon release either.
Maybe I mean, especially with those numbers,
but it must have just like been a big VHS,
DVD sort of rewatch for for the audience, because 73 percent.
I mean, that's I mean, that's one of the bigger disparities for
us here at the podcast.

(01:36:55):
I feel like that we've that we see like it's a very much fits
what we're trying to do here.
So I don't know. Yeah, that just that surprised me.
And I'm going to read a few reviews from these critics here
and get a little taste of maybe why they didn't like it.
Jamie Bernard from New York Daily News gave it a one out of four
and said, it doesn't seem as if there was much communication

(01:37:16):
between the three screenwriters who are credited with adapting Alice Hoffman's novel.
Perhaps they should have tried ESP.
Alice. Nailed it.
Angie Arrigo Empire Magazine, two out of five.
It toodles along being cute, but to further its notions of sisterhood

(01:37:38):
and the power of women, it also takes a spin through Thelma and Louise territory,
then revisits the exorcist to up the supernatural content.
It's enough to make your head spin.
I guess it is a little film on Lucy.
I don't know a little bit.
The killings on the guy just because two women.

(01:38:00):
Yeah, I don't know.
They kill a guy.
It's it's a killer guy. Yeah, it's yeah.
It's that of like, yeah, yeah.
I guess it's like contemporary at that time to make that comparison or whatever.
That's it. Rita Kempley, Washington Post.
Though the tale is not without its charms, its spell is repeatedly broken

(01:38:23):
by the random pace and tone.
Pace and tone issues from this critic.
I'll do one more from Jack Matthews, Los Angeles Times.
Even at today's inflated ticket prices, a two for one
which offer like this should be a bargain.
So why isn't it?
Why does practical magic with its big stars and major studio movie budget

(01:38:47):
feel like a sitcom with the air let out of it?
Oh, oh, oh, shots fired.
Somebody did not like this movie.
Yeah, yeah.
The total shifts.
Yeah, I can imagine being the biggest critical like problem
with it that people might have is the at this idea of, you know,

(01:39:09):
of sexual predator killing a guy, but then also Margarita Midnight.
And it's just it goes between those two things.
But yeah, I don't know.
For somebody that is not a woman, but seeing them deal with the issues
of a of a predatory man seemed like something that was worth having in the movie.

(01:39:35):
I don't know.
Cardin, Jass, did you think that was like too far with how
with subject content to deal with as far as like having a predatory guy
and having him act the way that he does in this movie?
Did it go too far and total shifts to go back around to be funny?
Because I thought that was like a scary.

(01:39:56):
I don't know. It seemed like an accurate, scary element of being a woman
and having a guy just turn on you like that and and and
become abusive. I don't know.
I think they do a really good job.
I think the movie does a good job at.
I understand you on these total shifts and not making the scene out

(01:40:17):
as bad as it could have been, making it a PG PG 13, like
domestic abuse situation.
Yeah, absolutely.
I agree. I don't know. Do you think do you think so, Car? Or?
So, I mean, I like that they kind of just kept it pretty
like that they didn't go too deep into it.

(01:40:38):
It could like if they did, it could have been like almost like
a lifetime movie or something, you know.
But I like I mean,
the main focus was about these women and their power and they were
they they got their power back, you know, and that was the biggest theme.

(01:41:00):
So it was fine that they didn't go to until like the darker
elements of being an abusive relationship or anything like that.
That it wasn't the overriding moral of.
Yeah. Sorry.
And it would have been more lifetime if it had a more broader moral
thing to do with him.
And I like how he's more just written off at the end.

(01:41:21):
And it is about the strength of.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The women together.
But OK.
OK, well, yeah, it's check out some letterboxed reviews from the audience.
Strictly five stars.
We'll start with.
Here we go.
Start with Robin five stars.

(01:41:43):
Midnight margarita scene is everything I want my life to be.
And Indy five stars, what's better than this?
Gals being witches.
Test five stars, any man who falls in love with them,
dies an untimely death, if only there was another option.

(01:42:06):
Just become lesbian witches.
From Phoebe five stars, this has a 22 percent on Rotten Tomatoes,
and you expect me to believe in film criticism.
Maddie Flowers, she he
five stars.

(01:42:27):
Sorry, letterboxed film bros, but this is a five star movie.
It's five star in the way that the sisters love each other so much.
And it's five star in the way that they dance around the kitchen,
the way that the herbs are growing, growing, growing in that beautiful room.
I bet the basil smells so yummy on your fingers.
And I bet the sweet red wine chilling in the kitchen fridge is even more delicious.
It's five stars in the way that true love is real and true pain is real, too.

(01:42:49):
And a beetle might chirp and a warning in the movie.
But can you decide if you're happy or sad
that it doesn't alert you in real life as well?
CV Nicks is our white witch, our Hail Mary full of grace,
a movie that gets that and gets what it means to make your own
witches brew of dinner on the stove and gets what it means to consider your luck
and the moon and the roses growing too fast.
That's a five star movie to me.

(01:43:11):
The magic of blood bond, the magic of your intentions and what it means to fight,
the magic of a good song and a cozy hearth and the magic of cool dirt under your bare feet.
Marry me and marry part to everyone who gets the magic of this movie and marry me again.
Well, you can't get double married.

(01:43:31):
You can't get double married. OK.
Very poetic. Emma gave it five stars.
Girls don't want boys.
Girls want the practical magic house and Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman
and two witchy aunts to be raised by and Stevie Nicks to be the soundtrack to their lives.
Oh, yeah.
The box.
Bam.
Straight. Straight.

(01:43:51):
Straight.
Straight.
Straight.
It's basically what we're talking about.
That's what I'm talking about.
Uh, lean five stars.
God, I just want to crawl into this movie and live in it.
A reviewed by a five stars.

(01:44:12):
OK, Sandra Bullock lighting that candle on fire by gently breathing on it.
Really is the most beautiful scene in cinematic history.
And that's that.
Oh, OK.
OK, well, like this is nothing we can say about that because it's a fact.
That's done.
Kevin T.
Porter, five stars, Stalker Channing and Diane, we get screaming drunk, dancing

(01:44:36):
around the kitchen and Margot Martindale's growls.
Come on, ladies, let's clean house after evaporating a guy.
So this is the greatest movie ever made.
Five stars.
Kevin T. Porter is fantastic.
He's such a good follow.
That name does sound very familiar.
Yeah, Kevin T. Porter is cool.
And we'll do one or two more.

(01:44:58):
Jade talks too much.
Five stars.
She quotes Aunt Frances Owens.
My darling girl, when are you going to realize that being normal is not
necessarily a virtue?
It rather denotes a lack of courage.
Fun fact.
Cinema peaked in 1998 when Sally, Jillian, Aunt Frances and Aunt Jett danced
around their kitchen to Harry Nilsons coconut while drinking midnight

(01:45:21):
margaritas.
Don't believe me?
Watch this clip and my point will be proven.
It's the midnight margaritas clip.
Another one from my all time fave.
So much fun and a perfect cozy fall watch.
The Owens sisters remind me of me and my sister.
And finally, from Siobhan, five stars.
Sorry, I'm sorry.
No one warned me this was the best movie ever.

(01:45:43):
Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman being girlboss witch sisters who find love
and bring down toxic abusive men.
Exactly.
Petition for the Owens family to adopt me, please.
I love that review.
That review is Brad.
Yeah, it's fixed on Brad.
The energy from letterbox reviews are just so straight from the gut, straight

(01:46:06):
from the heart.
I don't know what to say.
But it's just the they cut the bullshit.
They're not trying to come up with anything other than just the true feelings
of it feels like you're you're reading reviews from people that really just
watched the movie and running telephone to just like put it in right as they
are feeling it rather than a critic that we love our critics here too, but are

(01:46:28):
like, wow, they spent all night coming up with that ESP joke.
And they're like, you know, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,
I'm like, copy, paste, save print, which like didn't even really nail it.
I had to think about that.
Yeah, totally.

(01:46:50):
It's also the critics.
It's of the time too, because they're trying to like make a case that like the
tonal shifts or the way that it handles certain material isn't going to age
but it's, I don't know, it's almost like time has proven that it's not really how we all see it.

(01:47:11):
And it's not, and its influence is actually pretty profound in a lot of great ways.
And all of the more technical stuff that you would critique.
Most people don't view that as a problem or just, yeah, I don't know.
That doesn't contribute to it being a bad movie because of some things that they think would be.

(01:47:31):
Yeah. It is interesting to watch the kind of movies like this that the audience really takes
as their own and embraces so much so that, yeah, if you were to do a fresh
watch from critics of this movie, I don't know, it just, it might come out differently as
like created today, just to understand its cultural relevance and how much it holds up as

(01:47:56):
a rewatchable thing and having a fresh set of eyes. I think again, that's what letterbox is
nice for too, cause you get to read people, Oh, I just watched this for the first time.
And this is how I feel about it. And I feel like that's so cool to see something hold up so well
in a modern way like that. But I'm sure I could find bad reviews from the audience as well, but

(01:48:18):
this is how it's represented on Rotten Tomatoes. And it's interesting to go through this whole
back and forth about it to see a movie that's represented by 25% is just as rough. So I'm
curious now, Karen, Jas and Brandini, best host ever to give your final thoughts and a score

(01:48:39):
zero to 100. Jas, would you care to go first since first time, or do you want to,
do you want to pass it on?
Yeah, don't.
Don't. I would give this movie solid 83% out of a hundred. I think that topically it is a story
about a dead ex boyfriend, but really it's commentary on a supportive sisterhood and

(01:49:02):
overall excellent fall autumn vibes. Who doesn't want to live in that house, drink midnight margaritas.
If you don't, then we don't want to be friends. We don't want to know those people.
It's like this movie in my mind creates such a strong vibe where it's like, if you don't like
this vibe, then I don't know. It's tough to like, it's tough at times. And that's why I think it's

(01:49:25):
polarizing. Like, like, I don't think I've ever met anyone who dislikes this movie. It's either
I've never seen it or yeah, I love it. Except for all of the critics. That's it. Solid 83%.
Nice. Well put.
Kara, what do you think?
For me, so this movie isn't nostalgic for me or anything. I can imagine like

(01:49:48):
loving it even more if it was nostalgic. But I do love the cozy vibes. I love
the sisterhood element and the support group element. And yeah, it was, it's definitely
like Jasper saying, like a good one to like get fall going. Like if you, if you want to get into

(01:50:11):
the fall spirit, putting this movie on helps that. And yeah, I, I'm going to give it a 75
just because I think I'm not as attached to it as like maybe as like kind of a first timer.
But I definitely would watch it again. And there are moments in the movie that I like

(01:50:39):
loved, but I can understand like there are moments where I didn't care that much about what was going
on. Like, I don't know. I didn't really care about like the romance between Sandra Bullock
and Aiden Quinn. Like I know it has to happen, but like, I didn't feel the sparks there.
So there were some moments where I was like, okay, can we like move this along? Like I'd like to like

(01:51:03):
see the midnight coconut scene or like the, the, the common thing at the end. Yeah. So,
um, yeah, it's a 75. Excellent. Go for it. No, you go for it. Um, man, yeah, this was such an
enjoyable watch. And the reason that it was an enjoyable watch is because the people that

(01:51:27):
like the story of it all and the characters of it all were really, I just, man, it goes such a long
way with me to watch something where it isn't so much about the drama and it's more about like
loving the supportive like nature of the characters helping each other out through a plot problem
rather than like the plot is mainly about the conflict. Sure. There is a conflict, but man,

(01:51:51):
this movie is really not about that. It's more so about how all of these personalities
provide something for each other. And then they like work off of that. And there's just these
dynamics that all have their own little like, uh, addition to somebody working through something or

(01:52:11):
just, uh, showing more clearly like how this personality has its own benefits and how it
should be respected and should be loved and cared for. And this movie also too, just from what
actually happens has some funny dialogue, has some pretty funny sequences. Obviously the coconut
midnight margaritas is a blast. It's hard not to be like, well, that is just so fun and enjoyable.

(01:52:37):
And it just radiates and you're like, Oh my God, I'm having fun too. And so yeah, I'm going to give
this movie an 85% is where I really had a wonderful time watching this. And I think a lot of people
should watch it if they haven't seen it already. I absolutely would highly recommend this movie for

(01:53:00):
a, for a fall watch a Halloween watch that you're not feeling like you want to get super spooky with.
Um, I was, I was happy to have the chemistry of Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman together that
drove, uh, so much of the movie for me was, was the vibes and the, and the vibes between them and

(01:53:21):
the aunts and everything too, the warmness, the warmth in the house, um, and how they set that up.
And I thought that it was able to straddle the line between the drama just enough to propel a,
a plot, uh, and to get you back into the house with, with them and to have, uh, good times there.

(01:53:47):
And I think that that's really where this movie shines for me. And I'm grateful that I was able
to experience it in a packed, uh, movie theater. I think that the, that's just kind of infectious
when you can see, um, how it can interact with a, with a full house and having them laugh, uh, and,

(01:54:10):
uh, react to all of those big moments just makes those moments even stronger in my mind.
Cause I have those, the audience reaction to it and seeing how it lit up that crowd was undeniable.
Um, and I think that definitely goes a long way, but I can totally see myself rewatching this.

(01:54:31):
Cause I think one of the reviews said of like, I just want to live in this. And I totally get why
it's one of those movies. It just, uh, even if you're not fully paying attention, I could imagine
just having it there during fall season would be like a form of a, of a roasting fireplace for,
in a way, cause it just, it brings such, so much warmth out of the screen. Um, and yeah,

(01:54:56):
so it's not going to be, I guess, if I had any criticisms, yeah, I get like the combining
Aiden Quinn and with the, uh, detective and the love interest was, you know, it gets a little,
that's a good point, Kara. It does get a little hollow cause he has to do so much. Um, and it is
just casual, I guess for better or worse, you know, it's a, it's a casual movie, but that has,

(01:55:20):
that's a, as more good than bad, I think. So, uh, I love, I love the energy and again, the, the,
the final big moment of all the women coming together and having a seance and an exorcism
and then sweeping the bad dude out of the house was like, makes me want to get up and cheer, uh,

(01:55:41):
when that happens. And I absolutely love, love that payoff of the, of the tree and, and calling
all the ladies was, uh, that moment hit, I think the hardest in the movie theater was when she
went to the tree to call the ladies, the crowd is just fucking off. They loved it as did I.

(01:56:02):
And so I will, yeah, I'm definitely going to be, uh, with all, all you fine folks here. And I've
always been feeling a high 70. So I'll do a 78 noon to 78. And I, uh, you know, maybe it'll grow
even more as I watch it again. And, um, after seeing the movie theater is like Brandon was
watching the last time I was like, Hey man, I'll throw it on with you. And I watched it again. So

(01:56:23):
I have seen it twice already and it was no problem watching it again. Uh, so yeah, highly recommend
to, uh, to anyone out there that even thinks that they might enjoy it. I, I'd take a, take a look.
And my last thing is, yeah, it's, it's a 1998 movie. That was my one point earlier. It's like,
I don't have nostalgia, but I just, that time of movies and seeing the, you know,

(01:56:47):
people at this time and how it's shot and film and those, how the oranges and the ambers look
and that blue light come through the window in the back, like all that stuff just puts me in a,
in a happy place. So, uh, speaking of happy place, I've been in a happy place for the past couple
hours with you guys. It's been such a blast. Um, it was a true pledge. I can't thank you enough

(01:57:08):
jazz for coming on for your first time and providing a lot of knowledge, uh, about this movie.
And, uh, I hope you've enjoyed yourself and you'll come back and visit us again. Any, any other
movie that you, that you would like to want, um, as to you, Kara, thank you again. My lovely wife.

(01:57:32):
We appreciate your guys time so much. And, um, I guess this is the time where I'll and Brandon,
best host ever. How can I forget? It was good for the forever guest. That's how you know. Uh,
and this is now where I'll announce our next movie. We're jumping out of cozy, warm vibes into cool
blue green, uh, land of, uh, horses and wells and girls that climb out of said wells. The rain

(01:58:03):
released October 18th, 2002. Spooky, spooky, very spooky. Uh, it has a 71% by the critics,
a 48% by the audience, a critically favored movie that came out not long after practical magic.
And those critics were like, yeah, we're feeling edgy, edgy ring over the warm, happy practical

(01:58:28):
magic. Um, I'll read the little, uh, premise here before we scoot off. It sounds like just another
urban legend, a videotape filled with nightmarish images leads to a phone call foretelling the
viewer's death in exactly seven days. Newspaper reporter Rachel Keller, Naomi Watts is skeptical
of the story until four teenagers all die mysteriously exactly one week after watching

(01:58:51):
just such a tape, allowing her investigative curiosity, curiosity to get the better of her.
Rachel tracks down the video and watches it. Now she has just seven days to unravel the mystery.
Join us next time folks for the ring. It's been real. If you want to watch us live or on twitch.tv
slash polarized pods, send us a line at polarized the pod at gmail.com. Review, subscribe on Apple

(01:59:17):
podcasts or anywhere else you are listening to this. Thank you again, Jazz. Thank you again,
Cara. Thank you again, Brandini and thank you again, James. Twol you on this fine, spooky night.
I wish you a happy spooky season. Good night.