Speaker 1: Can I tell you about an ad that I heard
Speaker 1: on this very podcast.
Speaker 2: Sure you get ads, I do get ads.
Speaker 1: I do, I do get ads. Okay, it's a dog
Speaker 1: food ad and it's a dialogue between two people, okay,
Speaker 1: and one person says, is your dog's food human grade
Speaker 1: or feed grade? And they go on they say feed
Speaker 1: grade is meant for cattle and livestock that can only
Speaker 1: live a few years. And the other person says, this
Speaker 1: one's human grade. Wow, Can I have some?
Speaker 2: Are they gonna eat it?
Speaker 1: That's that's that is that's the implication, Like the dog
Speaker 1: food's so good. The owner is like, you know what, good?
Speaker 2: Yum? For real?
Speaker 1: For real though, for real? Though this this cow liver.
Speaker 2: My doctor has told me I don't eat enough protein.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's how I do it?
Speaker 1: Just alpo.
Speaker 2: Maybe farmer's friend is now my friend too.
Speaker 1: Do you think the dog food that Crystal Connors Ain't
Speaker 1: and Showgirls was human grade?
Speaker 2: No, that bitch was eating puppy chow, the actual kibble,
Speaker 2: breaking your teeth if you had to, would you eat
Speaker 2: dog food or cat food if you had to pick?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's wet we're talking the West. Yes, the wet
Speaker 1: food in my experience. The dog wet food smells better
Speaker 1: yes than the cow.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say if we had the same like yes,
Speaker 2: because cat food smells horrible, like really horrible, and dog
Speaker 2: foods sometimes every once in a while it kind of
Speaker 2: looks like steak.
Speaker 1: Throw it in a frying pan. Every time, when I
Speaker 1: feed Oliver in the morning, I have I have a
Speaker 1: little spoon and I because he doesn't get a whole can,
Speaker 1: so I have to scoop some out. And I swear
Speaker 1: this has never happened. But I'm so used to cooking,
Speaker 1: and usually when I cook, you like taste, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: one of these days you're going to use it. I'm
Speaker 1: going to just absent mindedly put this in my mouth
Speaker 1: and then I'm going to scream at the top of
Speaker 1: my lugs.
Speaker 2: Hey, Paul America, And this is that aged well yesterday's
Speaker 2: pop Culture.
Speaker 1: Today dance movie August.
Speaker 2: I want to dance with somebody, with somebody I know
Speaker 2: they couldn't see the jazz hands. You think the listeners
Speaker 2: felt them a thousand percent?
Speaker 1: They felt the jazz hands.
Speaker 2: Right, I'll intro that with like, full chested jazz hands, full.
Speaker 1: Chested yes, what is the over under on the number
Speaker 1: of times this month that I'm going to sing. God,
Speaker 1: I'm a dancer so many times A dancer dance.
Speaker 2: Too many times?
Speaker 1: Yeah, conservatively seventy six.
Speaker 2: Don't ruin my favorite month, Dance Month.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, Erica, I can ruin this one. We are
Speaker 1: mere weeks away at this point from Spooky Movie Month,
Speaker 1: followed by Classics Movie Month, followed by Holiday movie.
Speaker 2: Just what I think that nothing can beat those like
Speaker 2: three last months of the year. We fucking kill it
Speaker 2: with dance dance movie. Look, spoiler. Last month was slog
Speaker 2: for me. I'm not gonna lie, it's not It wasn't
Speaker 2: my month.
Speaker 1: It's fine.
Speaker 2: This month is for me. I love a fucking dance movie.
Speaker 1: All right. Before we get to the first dance movie
Speaker 1: of the month, though, Erica, we have five star Apple
Speaker 1: podcast reviews. Erica, do you want to read the first one?
Speaker 2: Sure thing? This first review comes from Diane five one
Speaker 2: seventy nine. In case anyone needs to know her pin
Speaker 2: code for her ATM.
Speaker 1: I think that's her birthday, say it? She is almost
Speaker 1: exactly our age.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, pretty sure that's the pin code for
Speaker 2: at best. Though, whenever she's in a hotel room. That's
Speaker 2: what's going in the scene. Oh yeah, just say it,
Speaker 2: Just say it, Diane writes, I've got a golden podcast.
Speaker 1: Do it right, I've got a golden podcast.
Speaker 2: Who needs a Wonka bar when you can have this
Speaker 2: podcast as a prize instead. I'm not sure when I
Speaker 2: last saw a recent movie. I love the hilarious recaps
Speaker 2: and analysis of movies from my youth. I love Paul
Speaker 2: and Erica, even though they don't share my affinity for
Speaker 2: I've got a golden tick and song. Wonka is my
Speaker 2: favorite slot machine to play, and the song makes my
Speaker 2: heart sore when the Opa Loompa feature is activated.
Speaker 1: That's so specific.
Speaker 2: I love this person so much. Diane, you're the best.
Speaker 1: Diane. Are you in Atlantic City or Vegas?
Speaker 2: You're in Oh? I want her to be in Atlantic City.
Speaker 2: I wanted to be an Atlantic City friend. I wanted
Speaker 2: to be a Jersey girl, but it could this could
Speaker 2: be I'm in love.
Speaker 1: We're the Jersey Girl.
Speaker 2: Ye, no joke. I was going to open the top
Speaker 2: of this episode with Dancing in the Dark. I love
Speaker 2: that song and I don't have it in me straight.
Speaker 2: I started. I've started to do the Springsteen voice. I
Speaker 2: was like, I don't have it.
Speaker 1: I don't have it. Not today, Not today, Satan, not today.
Speaker 1: We have one more review for today. This is from
Speaker 1: short Worker, and they write love it. I really enjoyed
Speaker 1: this podcast. I was hooked by the episode on Willy
Speaker 1: Wonka and the Factory. I love the banter, and even
Speaker 1: though there is some talk that is off topic, it's
Speaker 1: not too much. Some other podcasts been half the show
Speaker 1: or more talking about politics, which is annoying.
Speaker 2: We only spend about five minutes talking about politics.
Speaker 1: And then we become too depressed and move on.
Speaker 2: And then we move on. I don't think anyone's like,
Speaker 2: wonder what their thought is.
Speaker 1: That's my that's my take on it. I'm like, no
Speaker 1: one's listening to this and be like they might be
Speaker 1: like they might be getting getting for both sides.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who knows. Maybe they're fair and balanced.
Speaker 1: So I appreciate the funny back and forth and for
Speaker 1: the great review of the movie. Thank you for being great.
Speaker 1: You have a subscriber for life. Ah well, this this
Speaker 1: does put me off Presidential Movie Month because I don't
Speaker 1: want to upset short Worker.
Speaker 2: I was gonna, yeah, I was gonna suggest we do
Speaker 2: right wing as.
Speaker 1: Possible movie by Canal legislators that work month. Oh wait,
Speaker 1: there's no movies.
Speaker 2: There's no movie. Aaron Sorkin wrote something.
Speaker 1: I'm sure at some point some fantasy short worker. Diane
Speaker 1: five one seventy nine, Thank you so much that you
Speaker 1: both love Willie Wanka and the Chocolate Factory. We can
Speaker 1: we can place about where we are in reading these reviews,
Speaker 1: because apparently these came out right after we did Willy
Speaker 1: Wank on the Chocolate.
Speaker 2: Factory on the podcast, like what like five seven years.
Speaker 1: Ago something like that. I don't know. Time has no meaning.
Speaker 1: If you would like a that age bel tope bag,
Speaker 1: please go ahead, give us a shout out, let us
Speaker 1: know it's is you, and I'll send it off for you. Erica.
Speaker 1: What is the dance movie that we are first doing
Speaker 1: for this month?
Speaker 2: Oh my god, today's film, you guys. Today's film is
Speaker 2: the two thousand and one Coming of age drama dance
Speaker 2: slash dance film Save the Last Dance.
Speaker 1: Save the Last Dance, which before we even get started to.
Speaker 2: Paul was voguing. By the way, as I would say,
Speaker 2: I was trying so hard to pay to not break,
Speaker 2: but Paul was giving me the full fucking vogue and
Speaker 2: it was everything.
Speaker 1: But does that title make any sense? No, it doesn't
Speaker 1: no sense.
Speaker 2: Right, No, that's gonna happen a lot this month. Yeah,
Speaker 2: we're gonna get a lot of things that don't make
Speaker 2: any fucking sense. When you try to shoehorn the world
Speaker 2: of dance into any logical storyline, it just doesn't. Like,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1: Yes, and Save the Last Dance. The song is so
Speaker 1: so creepily threatening when you really think about it. But
Speaker 1: don't forget who's taken you home? Arms you're gonna be
Speaker 1: oh d Save the Last Dance?
Speaker 2: I guess it? Okay, weirdo? Can I just maybe go
Speaker 2: home with my girlfriend? I?
Speaker 1: Actually, I genuinely so much live all those.
Speaker 2: Like weird, misogynistic songs from the fifties, like it just fine,
Speaker 2: it's fine, whatever, it's fine.
Speaker 1: By the drifters, shut up, different time, all right. Save
Speaker 1: the Last Dance was requested by Parker, Robin Christy, Laurie Mikey, Aaron, Danielle,
Speaker 1: Chris and Meghan Another, Laurie Miggi, Emily Ellen, Austin RuSHA,
Speaker 1: Mary Melissa Another, Emily Alase, another Melissa Cee end Amanda.
Speaker 2: This was so requested, y'all. This was the winner win
Speaker 2: Winter Chicken Dinner A deluge. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah. This movie was written by Dwayne Adler and Cheryl Edwards.
Speaker 1: It was directed by Thomas Carter and stars Julia Stiles,
Speaker 1: Sean Patrick, Thomas, Kerry Washington, Fredro or Freedro Star. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure to say that first name, Bianca Lawson and
Speaker 1: Terry Kinney. I think it does bear just pointing out
Speaker 1: before we go on, Hm, this was directed by a
Speaker 1: black man. I think that is good for everyone to know.
Speaker 2: Oh good, that's that is actually you know what that
Speaker 2: does help help?
Speaker 1: It helps us.
Speaker 2: This movie does not age as poorly as you would
Speaker 2: think given the like if you just read the logline,
Speaker 2: I'm actually spoiler, I'm pretty fine with it.
Speaker 1: Basically, I agree, I think it. I don't know that
Speaker 1: age is well, but you can see all the ways
Speaker 1: it's really trying, and it's it's almost like that whole
Speaker 1: thing where like friends want to glad Award like friends
Speaker 1: at the first lesbian wedding ever on TV and now
Speaker 1: we're like friends is super homophobic or like, Yeah, this
Speaker 1: movie was definitely a step forward.
Speaker 2: It was pushing the needle.
Speaker 1: In representation and it should be celebrated in honor for that,
Speaker 1: even if some things make me want to curl up
Speaker 1: and die when I hear them.
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, some of it is so like retrograde, but
Speaker 2: also at the same time, they're like trying something. Hey man,
Speaker 2: you've got to get a movie through the studio system. Exactly,
Speaker 2: it's not easy. Carrie Washington was working as a substitute
Speaker 2: teacher when she booked Save the Last Dance. That's amazing.
Speaker 2: I love that. Can you imagine, like, Carrie Washington, is
Speaker 2: your is like English sub for today? You know? She tried,
Speaker 2: she was. She wasn't like, let's watch the movie. She
Speaker 2: was like, what chapter of Little Women are you on?
Speaker 2: Open your books? Were getting into it?
Speaker 1: She didn't when nature calls to her summer school classes.
Speaker 2: That was not, by the way, a substitute teacher. That
Speaker 2: was the teacher teacher, that was the main ass teacher.
Speaker 1: Remain's one of my favorite stories. I will bring it
Speaker 1: up every chance I get.
Speaker 2: She apparently made so little money on this job on
Speaker 2: Dave the Last Dance, and she had to go back
Speaker 2: to uh substitute teaching after the film finished. She did, however,
Speaker 2: switch to elementary school subbing, as she had high school
Speaker 2: students showing up to her classes to quote unquote watch
Speaker 2: Shanil teach French. Excellent, excellent, everything about this.
Speaker 1: Every high school student who did that kudos well done.
Speaker 2: Also, of course that bitch top French. Of course she
Speaker 2: did Washington, You magnificent woman.
Speaker 1: Erica Save the Last Dance has a fifty four percent
Speaker 1: critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a fifty nine percent
Speaker 1: audience score, and has a fifty eight percent critical rating
Speaker 1: on Cherry Picks.
Speaker 2: I think it's a little more enjoyable than a fifty
Speaker 2: nine percent. Look, I get it. Dance movies are not
Speaker 2: for everyone, sure, and I am deeply in the pocket
Speaker 2: of big dance. So like, honestly, you give me a
Speaker 2: few good dance scenes and I'm happy. I'm happy like
Speaker 2: like a pig and shit.
Speaker 1: So it made you happy in this movie because I
Speaker 1: didn't think that, you know what it was?
Speaker 2: Honestly, truly, it wasn't even that like the dancing was
Speaker 2: so good because it wasn't like a step up situation.
Speaker 1: Well what could be? Because step up is special.
Speaker 2: Because step up films are excellent because they hire dance,
Speaker 2: professional dancers.
Speaker 3: And the like cannot act except for Channing Tatum and
Speaker 3: then they're like, try acting and see what happens.
Speaker 2: But the dance scenes are spectacular in this one. They
Speaker 2: hired professional actors yea to then teach them how to dance.
Speaker 2: So you're right, genuinely, it's not as like it's not
Speaker 2: directly in my wheelhouse. But I love the effort.
Speaker 1: I do.
Speaker 2: I am here for the effort absolutely.
Speaker 1: I would actually say, all this is a little low
Speaker 1: critically like it. It's a very silly movie, but like
Speaker 1: it's one of those ones that like its heart's very
Speaker 1: much in the right place. I don't know, fifty fourth
Speaker 1: to see feels low to me. I would probably give
Speaker 1: it like a sixty five percent critical rating. I'd be
Speaker 1: like the charm of Sean Patrick Thomas and Kerrie Washington.
Speaker 1: It's gonna float a lot of stuff. And Julia Styles
Speaker 1: as well, like actress or movie star. I think Julia
Speaker 1: Styles has the movie star more than the actress in
Speaker 1: this movie. I think she's a better actress now than
Speaker 1: she was back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's a little flat in this movie, but I
Speaker 2: think yes, charisma either, Paul, I don't think she's either
Speaker 2: of those things. I love yes, charisma, I like her.
Speaker 2: I just she's she's never like impressed me. I have
Speaker 2: to say, she's never blown me away.
Speaker 1: No, But but in this movie, like I do for Sarah,
Speaker 1: like there is something about her and it's not like
Speaker 1: forgive me, like the depth of performance that I do
Speaker 1: like root for her. Yeah, and I like her and
Speaker 1: like and Sarah makes mistakes and I forgive Sarah for
Speaker 1: making mistakes. So like to me, that means like there's
Speaker 1: an X factor in Julia styles that I just like Erica.
Speaker 1: When did you first see Save the Last Dance?
Speaker 2: I think probably like ten years ago, maybe.
Speaker 1: Like, okay, it's kind of been a odd time.
Speaker 2: Would not have seen this in the theater. I don't
Speaker 2: know if I knew I was like into dance movie honestly,
Speaker 2: I swear to god, it's the Step Up movie that
Speaker 2: like made me realize how much I love dance movies.
Speaker 2: You would have thought like Footloose or Dirty Dancing for
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, would have done that and liked.
Speaker 2: I don't think it was until I saw A Step
Speaker 2: Up in the movie theater and I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, I want to watch every dance movie ever made.
Speaker 2: I don't honestly remember why I saw it. It was
Speaker 2: on TV and I was like, all right, I'll watch it,
Speaker 2: and I thought it was fine. That was so stupid. Yeah,
Speaker 2: but in the best way. I think that's that was
Speaker 2: the first and only time I'd seen it, and now
Speaker 2: yesterday that was the second time. How about you.
Speaker 1: I had never seen this movie. Weirdly, I don't know
Speaker 1: why I didn't see it. This is very much my wheelhouse.
Speaker 1: I should I should have seen this movie. I have
Speaker 1: to presume it was like on this on the docket
Speaker 1: to see and I got distracted.
Speaker 2: And one, we're busy, We're busy.
Speaker 1: We're in college.
Speaker 2: Were full aid, I'm out of college, even like we're
Speaker 2: full ass adults at this point. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So i'd never seen it before. I basically i'd
Speaker 1: seen like all of the dance scenes, just because I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a there's a whole SNL sketch about the final
Speaker 1: dance scene in this movie. At this point, it's pretty
Speaker 1: it's pretty iconic.
Speaker 2: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I enjoyed it by and large. Like I said,
Speaker 1: there's some really cringey two thousand and one moments, but
Speaker 1: the movie's trying something and I respect it, and I
Speaker 1: was never bored. No, it did make me wonder why
Speaker 1: Sean Patrick Thomas isn't a bigger star, because I think
Speaker 1: he's He and Kerry Washington, for me, were the two
Speaker 1: that like popped.
Speaker 2: Yes, I have a thousand percent agree.
Speaker 1: I looked up his IMDb. He actually has worked very.
Speaker 2: Steadily because he had had this same attorney where I
Speaker 2: was like, why don't I see this guy everywhere? He's
Speaker 2: so hot? Yeah, and spoiler alert, he's aged really beautiful,
Speaker 2: Like he looks hot still.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he's like even hotter now than he was two
Speaker 1: thousand and one.
Speaker 2: Get ugly or like like you're like, oh, I guess
Speaker 2: you're a character actor now, buddy, Like, no, no, he's
Speaker 2: still super hot. He does like like procedurals. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: does like TV shows that you and I don't watch,
Speaker 2: which is why we don't know him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I literally wonder. I always think when people
Speaker 1: do that, they're like, you know what I have, I've
Speaker 1: done this. I want to be an actor, but I
Speaker 1: also want to have a life and I'm going to
Speaker 1: go get a job where I book three procedural guest
Speaker 1: starring roles a year and like do one Hallmark movie.
Speaker 2: But he was in like one I don't remember the
Speaker 2: name of it now, so I don't have an in
Speaker 2: front of me. But he was in like one procedural
Speaker 2: for like two hundred episodes. Really, so he had a job.
Speaker 2: Hold on, I'm going to look him up. While you're talking, Paul,
Speaker 2: keep going.
Speaker 1: Keep talking. I'm not even going to pretend to pay
Speaker 1: attention to you. Did you hear that listeners? She said,
Speaker 1: I want you to fill silence. Well, I look at this.
Speaker 2: Okay, I found it. The TV show is called The
Speaker 2: District and I'm wrong. It's eighty nine episodes. That's a
Speaker 2: little shit ton and it ran for like four years. Okay,
Speaker 2: So like, yeah, that's what he's been doing.
Speaker 1: He made his bank. He's like, I saved, I save
Speaker 1: my money. I have a nest egg, I have a
Speaker 1: nice house in Los Angeles, and I'm gonna do guest
Speaker 1: starring roles and like have a normal fucking life for him.
Speaker 2: Also, I didn't realize this. I didn't see this. I
Speaker 2: still haven't seen this. But he was in that like
Speaker 2: Macbeth that you loved, the Cohen brother remember brother, It's
Speaker 2: like one Cohen Brother made that one.
Speaker 1: I did love that movie. All right, Erica. The tagline
Speaker 1: for save the Last Dance, Save the Last Dance, Save
Speaker 1: the Last Dance, Save that dance. The tagline was the
Speaker 1: only person you need to be is yourself.
Speaker 2: You know what? Fine? That works, That works for this bullshit.
Speaker 1: The more of Elvita you can get onto this movie,
Speaker 1: the better it is. It's like those it's like this movie,
Speaker 1: this movie is those are those? Are those theater nachos
Speaker 1: where it's just cheese product like that just poured out
Speaker 1: of like a squeeze bottle. Yeah, and you know, you
Speaker 1: know it's gonna lead to something horrible in like four hours. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you don't care.
Speaker 2: Gastro Intestinal distress is what it's gonna lead to. Yeah, No,
Speaker 2: that's perfect. This movie is so cheesy and like exactly
Speaker 2: that's it's meant for fourteen year old girls to.
Speaker 1: Yes, Erica, I really want you to read the iTunes
Speaker 1: synopsis for this movie, because I know you haven't read
Speaker 1: it yet, and i'd like to get your live reaction
Speaker 1: as you read.
Speaker 2: So excited, Have we ready, kids, Here we go. Sarah
Speaker 2: wants to be a ballerina, but her dreams are cut
Speaker 2: short by the sudden death of her mother.
Speaker 1: Okay, so far, so far, so good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's correct. That is what happens in the film.
Speaker 2: She moves in with her father, who she has not
Speaker 2: seen for a long time in Chicago. Oh no, I
Speaker 2: read ahead, I read ahead.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry there from the top of the sentence. Give
Speaker 1: the audience the experience you had, Erica.
Speaker 2: She moves in with her father, who she has not
Speaker 2: seen for a long time in Chicago, mainly the ghetto.
Speaker 2: In the ghetto with her father, Kama, who she has
Speaker 2: not seen for a while, Comma in Chicago, Kama, mainly
Speaker 2: the ghetto. Are we Are we comfortable saying ghetto?
Speaker 1: I am not. I will only be quoting it.
Speaker 2: I don't feel like this is a ghetto. I feel
Speaker 2: like this was written by someone who does not understand
Speaker 2: what like working class families live. Like, yeah, I'm like,
Speaker 2: they look like my apartment building, you guys. She gets
Speaker 2: transferred to a new school where she is the only white.
Speaker 1: She was just reading blind. She didn't read on that one,
Speaker 1: and I.
Speaker 2: Tried to fix it. My brain was like, there's another
Speaker 2: word that we're missing here. I'm gonna read it as written.
Speaker 2: She gets transferred to a new school where she is
Speaker 2: the only white there, not person, not girl, not transfer,
Speaker 2: just white, the only white there. And no, she it's
Speaker 2: not true. There's like four other white kids in this
Speaker 2: school at least.
Speaker 1: Yes, they make a point of having a white table
Speaker 1: in the lunch room.
Speaker 2: We're like five, that's true. I really did love that though.
Speaker 2: How many fucking high schools in this country have a
Speaker 2: black lunch table? Like, yeah, they should have a white
Speaker 2: lunch table.
Speaker 1: Okay, Eric, I'm gonna give you this next sentence is amaze.
Speaker 1: I want you to really try to read the words
Speaker 1: on the page. Don't fix them, read the words as
Speaker 1: they are. Her life, oh.
Speaker 2: God, Okay. Her life takes a turn for the better
Speaker 2: when she is friends with Shanil period new sentence later, Comma,
Speaker 2: she falls in love with her brother, Comma, Derek.
Speaker 1: Now the problem with.
Speaker 2: This is tell them what she's calling in love with
Speaker 2: her own brother.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, listeners, there's no incest in this movie.
Speaker 2: And I know this was written before AI, so we
Speaker 2: cannot blame the robots for this. O human person wrote
Speaker 2: this actual synopsis I've never seen, and I've forgive me
Speaker 2: for using this phrase. A magical Negro who is also
Speaker 2: the main character of the film.
Speaker 1: It's true.
Speaker 2: He is both the main character or one of two,
Speaker 2: and the magical black person helping the white person. It's
Speaker 2: it is the mental gymnastics they must have done to
Speaker 2: create the character of Derek. I understand it, like they
Speaker 2: don't want him to have a single flaw because like
Speaker 2: the America is what it is, and so they don't
Speaker 2: want the black male character to have a single goddamn flaw,
Speaker 2: and so he is perfect in every single way. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and to the point where he's almost not human.
Speaker 1: I have another actual synopsis for you and the listeners.
Speaker 1: Does this movie know there's a difference between dancing hip
Speaker 1: hop and dancing to hip hop?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: No, there's no difference in this.
Speaker 2: He barely understands what ballet is.
Speaker 1: It's barely barely. All right, listeners, stick around. We're gonna
Speaker 1: play a couple of commercials here. If you hate commercials,
Speaker 1: I understand, you can just go to our patreon that's
Speaker 1: patreon dot com slash that Age Well podcast. If you
Speaker 1: join at any you will get ad free episodes and
Speaker 1: more with that membership. If you don't want to do that,
Speaker 1: you can stay right here and listen to these commercials
Speaker 1: and then we will come right back and take you
Speaker 1: through Save the Last.
Speaker 2: Dance, Save the Last Dance, and we're back. Paul, did
Speaker 2: you save that last dance for me? I say, I
Speaker 2: had one on the table and it's gone good. Don't
Speaker 2: tell me the cat ate it again, because I don't
Speaker 2: believe you. You have dance all over your face, delicious,
Speaker 2: You dance all down your shirt, you filthy pig.
Speaker 1: All right, So Save the Last Dance opens on a
Speaker 1: train where Sarah Johnson played by Julia Stiles, is sitting
Speaker 1: amongst your bags and staring out a window. She's the
Speaker 1: girl on the train, y'all.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's forlorn.
Speaker 1: I would say, I'm gonna, I'm actually just gonna stop
Speaker 1: right here. I'm gonna I'm gonna put a pin in
Speaker 1: everything right now, right away. I will admit this is
Speaker 1: very East Coast count content was about to what I'm
Speaker 1: about to say. I saw this, I immediately presumed New
Speaker 1: Jersey transit.
Speaker 2: I will admit that, okay, and then that's not crazy.
Speaker 1: It's not crazy, FYI, listeners, They're not New Jersey. This
Speaker 1: is Chicago. This entire movie takes place within Chicago and
Speaker 1: the Chicago suburbs. But we're about to see her flash
Speaker 1: back to a Juilliard audition, and I assumed for far
Speaker 1: longer than I should have, that this movie was taking
Speaker 1: place in New York City, and the amount of notes
Speaker 1: I took of being like, that's not New York, that's Chicago.
Speaker 1: They're doing Chicago accents before I presume to question my
Speaker 1: own assumption, Oh to where they were?
Speaker 2: You know what? That is the journey one's supposed to
Speaker 2: take while watching this film. Now, you did it wrong,
Speaker 2: but you still took the journey I did. You were like,
Speaker 2: you know what, let me challenge my own assumptions about
Speaker 2: what I think the world should look like.
Speaker 1: So Sarah is sitting on the train. A very kind
Speaker 1: woman comes up. She asks if is a seat taken?
Speaker 1: Sarah says no. She moves her bags, Girl, put your
Speaker 1: lugs on the legg of track, and the woman notices
Speaker 1: a ballet magazine sitting atop her things, and she says, oh,
Speaker 1: do you dance? And Sarah says, I used to Jesus
Speaker 1: Christy And.
Speaker 2: The woman's like, okay, I guess we're not having a conversation.
Speaker 2: Never mind, I've never seen anyone know and someone it before,
Speaker 2: but okay.
Speaker 1: So Sarah continues to stare out the window as we
Speaker 1: flash back to the extremely recent past. I cannot stress
Speaker 1: enough how what is about to happen could not have
Speaker 1: taken place more than a month ago. Yeah, we learned
Speaker 1: that Sarah used to live in the Chicago suburbs with
Speaker 1: her supportive single mother. She was best friends with this girl, Lindsay,
Speaker 1: who is an extremely prayer forward young woman.
Speaker 2: That actress is doing the Lord's work. I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: say say because Lindsay has like three lines in the movie.
Speaker 2: They are all the lines of like the white girl
Speaker 2: who does not understand black culture at all, and she
Speaker 2: leans hard to them and they're funny every single time.
Speaker 2: She's like, the movie's like punching bag a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Lindsay. At one point, she's with Sarah and Sarah's
Speaker 1: about to go to a Juilliard audition. It's like her
Speaker 1: last day in school, and she like grabs her hand
Speaker 1: and she starts She's like, I'll pray, I'll pray, and
Speaker 1: she starts like loudly praying in the public school hallway,
Speaker 1: and the look on Julia Styles's face excellent, excellent.
Speaker 2: It's a perfect look of like I'm gonna let you
Speaker 2: do this. It seems important to you, but I am
Speaker 2: mortified and confused. Yeah exactly, which again, like I'm like,
Speaker 2: has this the first time Lindsay's done this?
Speaker 1: It's definitely not. Lindsay's way too comfortable for it to
Speaker 1: be the first time. So we learned that Sarah's dream
Speaker 1: was to attend Juilliard for dance, and her big audition
Speaker 1: is coming up. Her mother promised to take her, but
Speaker 1: she wound up needing to work on that day, and Sarah,
Speaker 1: being a seventeen or eighteen year old, girls like, come on, mom,
Speaker 1: you promised, and she can't go. So she gets herself
Speaker 1: to the audition and we see her mother like putting
Speaker 1: her on the bus and saying I will be there
Speaker 1: before you take the stage. Sarah's waiting for her mother
Speaker 1: in the holding area, but she's called in before her
Speaker 1: mother arrives. She starts to dance. Okay, I'm just gonna
Speaker 1: say really quickly, U huh. Julia Styles does a lot
Speaker 1: of her own dancing in this, not all of it,
Speaker 1: but a lot of it, And from what I read,
Speaker 1: she took like an intense two months of like dance
Speaker 1: training to try to look as good as she possibly could.
Speaker 2: Two months, that's it.
Speaker 1: Two months.
Speaker 2: That's not enough time.
Speaker 1: It's simply impossible. If you if Mikhail Barishnikov had never
Speaker 1: danced before and you put him in two months of training,
Speaker 1: he would not look like a professional dancer after two months.
Speaker 1: That is a lifelong pursuit.
Speaker 2: Like, they should have black swand this and just put
Speaker 2: another fucking dancer in every time they like cut away
Speaker 2: from her face.
Speaker 1: Yes, they should have just done it.
Speaker 2: They should like and that's fine. Like, honestly, that doesn't
Speaker 2: bother me when movies do that. No, it's very difficult
Speaker 2: to find a ballet dancers who can act. Might I
Speaker 2: show you all centricity stage?
Speaker 1: Yeah, Zoe Saldana was an actor who used to dance.
Speaker 2: Ballet, Yes, and you can see that. And then the
Speaker 2: rest of her castmates excellent dancers.
Speaker 1: So Sarah is dancing, and we cut between her audition
Speaker 1: and her mother speeding through the streets of Chicago to
Speaker 1: meet her. Sarah stumbles in her audition just as her
Speaker 1: mother gets into a fatal car accident. We do meet
Speaker 1: the auditioner here and he does not know that her
Speaker 1: mother just died.
Speaker 2: But also this actor again, Lord's work because he has
Speaker 2: two scenes and the direction is I need you to
Speaker 2: be the biggest bitch ever. And he's like done.
Speaker 1: He's like, I know exactly what facial hair to wear
Speaker 1: for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, He's like, I know the look I want to have.
Speaker 2: I know this sneer I want to have in my
Speaker 2: voice when I talk to a child. Yep, I just
Speaker 2: really quickly want to have a little PSA right here
Speaker 2: at the top of this episode. For those of you
Speaker 2: who are still in high school, or for parents of
Speaker 2: kids who are still in high school, considering like post
Speaker 2: high school dreams, please have a safety school. Juilliard cannot
Speaker 2: be her only option because bitch, you're not good enough,
Speaker 2: and it's so awkward to watch her and be like,
Speaker 2: I'm going to Juilliard. No, you're not. Juilliard is very hard.
Speaker 1: To get into, famously difficult.
Speaker 2: There are so many dance schools that'll take you, like
Speaker 2: or like colleges that have a dance department, and you
Speaker 2: can also study to be a veterinarian justin King like girl.
Speaker 2: So Sarah arrives.
Speaker 1: In Chicago mainly the ghetto.
Speaker 2: Mainly the ghetto, the ghetto. Oh my god, it's so
Speaker 2: I'm so uncomfortable, like I'm sweating saying those like what
Speaker 2: is that? Anyway? Moving on, she has met at the
Speaker 2: bus stop by her jazz musician father Roy played by
Speaker 2: Terry Kenny Field just in left like Sam Rock well
Speaker 2: that For a minute, I was like, is this is that? No?
Speaker 1: Never mind, I want to say something right now.
Speaker 2: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: What this movie does to Terry Kenny is not fair
Speaker 1: because they they want him to be the guy who
Speaker 1: wasn't a bad guy, but wasn't ready to be a
Speaker 1: father and wanted to be a musician and was a
Speaker 1: shitty father, but is a good guy fundamentally, Yeah, and
Speaker 1: they want him to learn to be a good father
Speaker 1: over the course of this movie. But because this is
Speaker 1: how they've introduced him, and they give him the line
Speaker 1: that's like, oh sorry, I couldn't stick around after the funeral,
Speaker 1: had to get back for a gig. He it's impossible,
Speaker 1: he can't climb this mountain. He didn't go pick his
Speaker 1: daughter up and drive her back to or even go
Speaker 1: like take her bags and take the train back with
Speaker 1: her to meet him in Chicago Mainland, the ghetto. Mainly,
Speaker 1: they have so over peppered the sauce on this guy's
Speaker 1: a dick that. I don't think they can get it back.
Speaker 1: They need some acid or dairy and the sauce to
Speaker 1: like take out the pepper.
Speaker 2: I didn't put together the fact that you're right, he
Speaker 2: missed he like left right after the funeral for like
Speaker 2: a gig.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like who's shut down the house?
Speaker 2: I mean honestly though, like seeing how he's how he's living, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm guessing like he needed that money from that gig.
Speaker 2: Like he's like, well, I had to pay the rent,
Speaker 2: so I needed that fucking gig. Yeah, who shut down
Speaker 2: that house?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: What happened to that house? Maybe they were renting also
Speaker 2: in this.
Speaker 1: Possibly, but like whatever, there must be some money that
Speaker 1: that Sarah and you would think.
Speaker 2: You would think there's like an ant or something that
Speaker 2: she could go yeah with a grandparent. Yeah no, no,
Speaker 2: just to day. The movie's not interested in any of that.
Speaker 2: There's never a line where they're like, your grandparents are
Speaker 2: a home, so they couldn't take you in. So Roy
Speaker 2: takes Sarah to his apartment. Look, it looks like a
Speaker 2: dude who's been living there for thirty years and doesn't
Speaker 2: know how to do anything. He has one bedroom that's
Speaker 2: set up and another room. I don't understand what this
Speaker 2: other room is.
Speaker 1: I think he has a two bedroom apartment. And because
Speaker 1: he's a dude, he just like threw garbage in the
Speaker 1: other room and so he's never like he never set
Speaker 1: it up. He probably got cheap because the room, like
Speaker 1: the paint doesn't finished. It's not just this brick.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say it's exposed. It's not exposed breaking
Speaker 2: a hot way in a fun way. It is plaster
Speaker 2: has fallen down, yeah, and like has never been fixed.
Speaker 2: It's not painted. It looks like there's holes in the floor,
Speaker 2: like where mice can get through. He even has a
Speaker 2: line where he's like, well, you know, the rent's cheap
Speaker 2: and the mice you're friendly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, in this.
Speaker 2: Apartment, I was like, I hate everything about this. Poor Sarah.
Speaker 2: But yeah, So he basically has his daughter sleep.
Speaker 1: On the couch, yeah, on the pull out.
Speaker 2: And again I'm like, you had a month, buddy, Yeah,
Speaker 2: she passed away a month ago. You've had it. Even
Speaker 2: if you only had two weeks. You could get a mattress,
Speaker 2: you could get a bed, like you can try.
Speaker 1: So Roy takes Sarah to her new high school. He's like, oh,
Speaker 1: do you want me to come in with you? She's like,
Speaker 1: I got it, don't worry about it, Erica. Something is
Speaker 1: different about this high school from the high school that
Speaker 1: we saw her in earlier. I can't put my finger
Speaker 1: on it.
Speaker 2: Have you ever been the only white person in a room?
Speaker 1: I had been on the only white person on a
Speaker 1: subway car. Oh, okay, like in college at one point,
Speaker 1: like I'm going somewhere in Brooklyn or something and like
Speaker 1: looking around at me, like.
Speaker 2: Oh, I'm I'm the token.
Speaker 1: I'm the token. And it was a very like eye
Speaker 1: opening experience for a kid that was like sheltered and
Speaker 1: grew up in a mainly white area and like and
Speaker 1: it was fine. To be clear, I wasn't terrified or anything.
Speaker 1: I was just like, oh, it's is different.
Speaker 2: It actually it's a I feel like it's honestly, I'm
Speaker 2: not ketting an experience everyone needs to.
Speaker 1: Have, absolutely at some point. It's very helpful.
Speaker 2: I have put myself in that situation a couple of times.
Speaker 2: Every time it's because it's not an accident, like the
Speaker 2: subway where I've gone to I'm like, I bet I
Speaker 2: won't be the only girl at this poetry slam. I bet,
Speaker 2: I bet I won't be the only white girl at
Speaker 2: this jazz thing. And I'm like, oh no, I'm the
Speaker 2: only white girl here and it's fine, and like I
Speaker 2: always walk in being like, well, it's not a big deal,
Speaker 2: and it isn't obviously, but you do notice it when
Speaker 2: you're a odd person out and it's it's absolutely the
Speaker 2: most eye opening experience. I cannot stress this enough. Folks,
Speaker 2: if you are a white person in America, put yourself
Speaker 2: in a situation where you are one or two of
Speaker 2: the only white people in the space, just for fun,
Speaker 2: just to try it out. I'm telling you, Like and again,
Speaker 2: literally no one pays attention to.
Speaker 1: Me, no one cares.
Speaker 2: Everyone ignored me. And every time, like I've been in
Speaker 2: that situation like five or six times, because I keep
Speaker 2: putting myself in that situation.
Speaker 1: Stop booking yourself into the black, queer, lesbian spaces.
Speaker 2: Ericat I'm gonna gonna win at the Apollo one time.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna It's crazy how you immediately clock it. And
Speaker 2: of course, like my black friends were all like duh, yeah, duh,
Speaker 2: you fucking dumb cunt, and I'm like, yeah, I know,
Speaker 2: but until you live it, you don't realize. You don't
Speaker 2: realize how like odd it is and how eye opening
Speaker 2: it is. By the way, poetry slams are fucking lit,
Speaker 2: So do just do that.
Speaker 1: All right? So Sarah, who seems to be a pretty
Speaker 1: self asshored kid, gets to the office. She's guided to
Speaker 1: her first class, which turns out to be English. I
Speaker 1: would like to give kudos to the filmmaker for making
Speaker 1: this a rowdy high school.
Speaker 2: Yes, we are not getting a lean on me situation
Speaker 2: where the high school is like a literal warzone, like
Speaker 2: like literal war zone.
Speaker 1: It is a very normal high school where the kids
Speaker 1: are boisterous in the hallways, as they aren't all kinds
Speaker 1: of high schools.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: By the way, this high school, even though it's called
Speaker 2: Wheatlee High in the film, it is supposed to be
Speaker 2: Wendell Phillips Academy, which is a real high school in Chicago.
Speaker 2: And because there's a moment where she's walking through the
Speaker 2: halls and she sees like a picture of like Dinah
Speaker 2: Washington and Marla Gibbs and Sam Cook who all went
Speaker 2: to this high school. And I was like googling it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, did they really all go to the same
Speaker 2: high school. They's sure as shit did, and Wendell Phillips
Speaker 2: Academy had an insane number of celebrities that went there,
Speaker 2: including nat King Cole. All right, like, it's a cool play,
Speaker 2: but the film I should mention is not filmed there,
Speaker 2: and in the movie it's called Wheatley. But apparently this
Speaker 2: was the idea. Yeah, the inspiration behind this high school gotcha?
Speaker 1: All right, So she's in English class. She impresses the
Speaker 1: teacher by giving a smart answer about in Cold Blood.
Speaker 1: She talks about how Capoti mixed true crime with his imagination,
Speaker 1: but then she quickly has a run in with Dereck
Speaker 1: Reynolds played by Sean Patrick Thomas. He manages to outshine
Speaker 1: and embarrass her for her blind spots. Right. He points
Speaker 1: out that Capoti's true accomplishment was bringing crime out of
Speaker 1: the ghetto and into white society, right because he said
Speaker 1: black writers did the whole like mixing true crime with
Speaker 1: the imagination thing already, but nobody read them, and then
Speaker 1: Truman Capoti got credit for it, and she's like, people
Speaker 1: read the black writers. She's like, yeah to you, and
Speaker 1: she has nothing to say.
Speaker 2: I would have lied, honestly.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you've got to lie that one some one calls.
Speaker 2: Me out that hard. I would have been like have
Speaker 2: I of course yes.
Speaker 1: And then skip the next class on directly to library
Speaker 1: and just mainline James Baldwin the fucking.
Speaker 2: Thing James Baldwin ever wrote, and be like, I know,
Speaker 2: James Baldwin. Sir. Sarah heads to her locker. She puts
Speaker 2: her backpack on the ground behind her, which even in
Speaker 2: my school we didn't do that.
Speaker 1: Even if you're not in a place where it's you know,
Speaker 1: it might be stolen. Bitch, that's a tripping hazard.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: What are you doing?
Speaker 2: You have no spatial awareness. You're a dancer. Your whole
Speaker 2: personality is I'm a dancer.
Speaker 1: She has the same amount of spatial awareness as Sean Conner
Speaker 1: does as James Bond, where people are constantly sneaking up
Speaker 1: on her.
Speaker 2: A cool girl Shan Niel played by Carrie Washington.
Speaker 1: Okay, can I interrupt you really quick? Sure? May, I'm
Speaker 1: going to read you Kerry Washington's opening line, and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to be putting any spin on this. I
Speaker 1: want everyone I see the trap that's being laid for me,
Speaker 1: and I will be saying this as whitely as I
Speaker 1: possibly can, because I am practically translucent.
Speaker 2: Because you won't. You won't be saying it any whiter
Speaker 2: than Carry Washington does.
Speaker 1: Kerry Washington says, opening line, Yo, La Trees, mister Jackson's
Speaker 1: civic class, you will have a pop quiz. Do not
Speaker 1: front on it. It's mad hard.
Speaker 2: I that Yeah, that wrote that.
Speaker 1: An adult wrote it. An adult took all the nineties
Speaker 1: slag he could. He put it in a salad spinner.
Speaker 1: He pressed it three times. He threw the magnetic poetry
Speaker 1: onto the table. He's like, Kerry Washington, say this.
Speaker 2: He gave it to his thirteen year old Sunderraid and
Speaker 2: the kid couldn't care less. And he's like, yeah, that
Speaker 2: sounds right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly how kids talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fine, dad, don't worry about it. So Shaneil
Speaker 2: walks behind Sarah and takes the backpack.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Sarah turns around, her bag is gone, oh no, I've
Speaker 2: only been here a minute and already I've been robbed.
Speaker 2: She spins around and Shanil is standing right next to her,
Speaker 2: like a few lockers down, and she's holding the bag
Speaker 2: out and she's like, be careful like, it's really easy
Speaker 2: to get robbed around here. You got to pay attention.
Speaker 2: Sarah thanks Shanil for being kind. She turns back to
Speaker 2: her locker, and then when she turns back around to
Speaker 2: continue to talk to Shanil, Shaneil is gone.
Speaker 1: Yep, we cut to the lunch room. Sarah is as
Speaker 1: the new girl is trying to find a lunch table.
Speaker 2: Who hasn't had this struggle.
Speaker 1: Look, forget Saving Private Ryan, forget the first ten minute
Speaker 1: of Saving Private Ryan. This is the this is the
Speaker 1: worst scene of American cinema.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the scene in Mean Girls when Katie's trying to
Speaker 2: find a table. Like we've all seen this a million times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's horrible enough when you're not the
Speaker 1: new kid and just got into a fight with your
Speaker 1: friend and then you're like oh oh, it's like oh
Speaker 1: my god.
Speaker 2: Oh no, and then you don't have you have to
Speaker 2: find a secondary group of friends and they all know
Speaker 2: why you're there, and they know you're gonna leave them.
Speaker 2: You're gonna ditch them the minute your other friends take
Speaker 2: you back.
Speaker 1: Uh huh. Yeah. So she spots the white table as
Speaker 1: we reference, there's the white table, and then she sees
Speaker 1: Shanil sitting with a bunch of her friends, and she
Speaker 1: makes her way over to that table. Sarah, good for you.
Speaker 1: I have a question for you, though. Does the movie
Speaker 1: pos it a little bit that Sarah does not see color.
Speaker 2: Later in the film a little bit? Yeah, yes, But
Speaker 2: I think also that's where this movie moves the needle,
Speaker 2: is that Sarah does see color. She genuinely does not
Speaker 2: give a shit. Yeah, she doesn't seem afraid, do you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? There's a version of this movie
Speaker 2: that could be made where like the white girl walks
Speaker 2: into the black school and his like eyes wide and
Speaker 2: like clutching her backpack to her and like acting acting
Speaker 2: like a fucking idiot, And that's not Sarah Creara. Sarah
Speaker 2: is miserable because of all the shit that's gone on
Speaker 2: in her life. So she's not exactly thrilled to be
Speaker 2: anywhere right now. But yeah, she's She's walking through this
Speaker 2: high school as normally as one would in any situation.
Speaker 1: Agreed. So she makes her way to Shanil's table, but
Speaker 1: the last seat is taken just as she arrives. To
Speaker 1: be clear, not a blocking situation, just bad luck, bad timing.
Speaker 1: She turns away but not before Shanil notices her trying
Speaker 1: to like make a connection, and she walks away. She
Speaker 1: winds up at a table full of nerds, and Shanil
Speaker 1: goes over and rescues her. She's like, come on, stand up,
Speaker 1: come sit with us, but provide you never sit this
Speaker 1: table again. And they're black nerds, which is nice representations.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, and that black nerd was super funny.
Speaker 2: That kid, she sits down and he is like angry
Speaker 2: at the world. He's like the Internet before the Internet
Speaker 2: basically is that kid. He's like, our entire generation is
Speaker 2: completelyda from the neck up. It's like nobody even reads anymore.
Speaker 2: And she's like, my name is Sarah, Will you calm
Speaker 2: the fuck down?
Speaker 1: So Shanil brings Sarah over to her group of friends.
Speaker 1: She introduces her around, and Sarah sits down, and that
Speaker 1: makes the very bold choice, And this is the first
Speaker 1: real rookie era that Sarah makes. She makes the bold
Speaker 1: choice of spotting Derek and proclaiming him an asshole. Now look, kids, PSA,
Speaker 1: for this episode, you're anew in a group, You're trying
Speaker 1: to make connections. You don't have opinions for no less
Speaker 1: than two weeks. You smile and nod, and they may
Speaker 1: express opinions that you don't agree with and make you
Speaker 1: decide you don't want to be friends with them, and
Speaker 1: then you can remove yourself from that situation. But you
Speaker 1: don't come in look at a stranger and be like
Speaker 1: that person over there that I don't know your relationship to,
Speaker 1: that's an asshole.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was a mistake. Yeah, you agree with what
Speaker 2: they say basically, and they're like that girl sucks, that
Speaker 2: guy sucks. You're like done and done. They're on my
Speaker 2: shit list.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I hate them?
Speaker 2: Who else do I hate? You point out everyone I
Speaker 2: hate in this room?
Speaker 1: To me, you are a sympathy hater. You tell me
Speaker 1: who I hate.
Speaker 2: What grudges do I need to hold for the rest
Speaker 2: of y'all?
Speaker 1: I'm ready. I can take. I am at less holding
Speaker 1: the world on my shoulders. Only the world is your grudges.
Speaker 2: Can we talk real quick about Shanil and her friends?
Speaker 1: Whatever could you want to talk about? Okay?
Speaker 2: There are three white girls in this entire school according
Speaker 2: to this movie, right, there's a table white kids. It
Speaker 2: seems to be mostly boys and one girl. Maybe I
Speaker 2: missed another girl in there. It could be another girl
Speaker 2: in there, but I just clocked one girl there right,
Speaker 2: The other white girl at the school is already at
Speaker 2: Shanil's table. Her name is Diggy. And then Chanil like
Speaker 2: plucks Sarah out and it's like, you can come sit
Speaker 2: with us. Does Chanil run a club for wayward white girls?
Speaker 2: Does Shanil run like an outreach program? She's like, I
Speaker 2: will take the cool white girls, of which there are
Speaker 2: two at the school, and I will integrate them into
Speaker 2: my society and will guide them into my group, and
Speaker 2: I will guide them through the halls of Wheatley High School.
Speaker 2: Because I was like, this is weird that she is
Speaker 2: so nice to Sarah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and not only that, but the girl playing Diggy
Speaker 1: who does a good job, but she goes for it
Speaker 1: like this is a This is a white girl that
Speaker 1: is fully ensconced in the black culture around her, yeah,
Speaker 1: and views herself as absolutely part of it.
Speaker 2: She's not doing like a Seth Green and yeah, can't
Speaker 2: hardly wait, Like she's not overplaying it and so she's
Speaker 2: doing to be fair, Seth Green was supposed to be
Speaker 2: overplaying it. She's doing it in a way where it's
Speaker 2: like she just kind of fits in with everyone else.
Speaker 1: And also, this character is in a community where it
Speaker 1: is majority black, so her being of that culture would
Speaker 1: make more sense than the people that in my suburban
Speaker 1: high school where there was like there's like a I
Speaker 1: don't know, ten percent black population and everyone's playing at it.
Speaker 1: That was problematic.
Speaker 2: Problematic. Yeah I had both of those growing up, in
Speaker 2: both situations, but like, yes, yes, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: So in any case, Sarah calls Derek an asshole, Shaneil
Speaker 1: turns around and she's like, you're talking about my brother,
Speaker 1: and Sarah's like, oh fuck, and she knows, like that's fine,
Speaker 1: I don't care. She Neeel's cool about it.
Speaker 2: She's cool well because like a sister would think her
Speaker 2: brother's an asshole. There is a crucial thing though, Sarah
Speaker 2: goes he thinks he's so smart and so cute, and
Speaker 2: it's immediately it's like, oh, you're into him. That's why
Speaker 2: you're so mad at him for like besting you in
Speaker 2: that scene earlier, because you want to quook him.
Speaker 1: Uh huh.
Speaker 2: Fair.
Speaker 1: For God's sake, anyone who is of a proper age
Speaker 1: who saw that kid? I mean, and Patrick Thomas is
Speaker 1: twenty four or something, if.
Speaker 2: He's a minute when they Like. Paul and I both
Speaker 2: had a conversation off Mike about this earlier. Were like,
Speaker 2: Shneil and Derek are both Best Kid nominees, but we
Speaker 2: can't actually nominate them for Best Kid because the actors
Speaker 2: playing them are adults, and it's weird. It's weird to
Speaker 2: call like thirty year old Kerry Washington best Kid. I
Speaker 2: refuse to do it.
Speaker 1: She not once does she appear day less than twenty
Speaker 1: five movie.
Speaker 2: Meanwhile, we cut to Derek and his friends Snooky the
Speaker 2: class clowns.
Speaker 1: This is not the movie's fault. They couldn't have known.
Speaker 1: They couldn't have known that Snooky would become famous on
Speaker 1: Jersey Shore.
Speaker 2: I kind of wonder if, like that, if that woman
Speaker 2: took her name from this movie, if this is a
Speaker 2: favorite movie of hers and she's like Snooky, I'm taking Snookie.
Speaker 2: Snookie is one of my favorite lines in the movie,
Speaker 2: when he's introducing himself to Sarah. Later he goes, they
Speaker 2: call me Snook, the Kuci crook everything. And then we
Speaker 2: meet Malachi Kai played by fred Rostarr, who is just
Speaker 2: at a juvie. He's had a life, He's got a
Speaker 2: hard life. This kid, this.
Speaker 1: Kid's he's a rapper. He's pretty good in this movie.
Speaker 2: He's I thought so too. I did the same thing
Speaker 2: where I was like, who are you wife? And I
Speaker 2: seeing you before. It's because he's a rapper. Derek is
Speaker 2: kind of straight laced. Derek is the smart one. He's
Speaker 2: gonna go to college. He's gonna be a doctor. That's
Speaker 2: his trajectory, right. He wants to go to Georgetown specifically,
Speaker 2: so like he's got high hopes. So it seems like
Speaker 2: these two lifelong friends are starting to become an odd
Speaker 2: fit for each other. It's clear there's like a lot
Speaker 2: of love and there's closeness between them and loyalty between
Speaker 2: them because they grew up together. And we're gonna find
Speaker 2: out later there's another reason maybe why Derek feels like
Speaker 2: he needs to be loyal to Kai.
Speaker 1: Homosexuality.
Speaker 2: I wish, I wish. We find out that Kai just
Speaker 2: came back to school. He had been serving a sentence
Speaker 2: for a crime he had committed and now he's back
Speaker 2: in school and Derek is trying to keep him on
Speaker 2: the straight and arrow.
Speaker 1: Yep. We cut to that night at dinner. Roy tries
Speaker 1: to be a dad, right, he tries to bond with
Speaker 1: Sarah by offering her a Swanson Hungry Man frozen dinner.
Speaker 1: She's like, no, thank you. He invites her to come
Speaker 1: see him play that night and then they can get
Speaker 1: dinner afterwards, and she says it's a school night, Roy
Speaker 1: and heads out for his gig. He says, you can
Speaker 1: eat her naughtyat and I'll be back when I'm back,
Speaker 1: and like, look, I know, parenting is incredibly hard, the
Speaker 1: hardest job in the world being a parent. You never off,
Speaker 1: you never have vacation day. Your heart is walking around
Speaker 1: outside of your body. It's difficult, but.
Speaker 2: Beautiful way of putting that thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but some things are easy, and not saying
Speaker 1: you can eat her naughty I'll be back when I'm
Speaker 1: back is one of the things you just shouldn't say
Speaker 1: as a parent.
Speaker 2: Just man, just try try. The next day, Sarah runs
Speaker 2: into Shanil, Derek, and Snook. This is when we get
Speaker 2: that great line from Snook on her way into school
Speaker 2: and she and Derek have another moment. Then we cut
Speaker 2: to gym class, where Sarah impresses Shaneil and her friends
Speaker 2: with her abilities on the balance.
Speaker 1: But I love, I love that this school has the
Speaker 1: same view of gymnastics as Rydell High.
Speaker 2: Every every high school in these movies has gymnastics. What
Speaker 2: did we've run out of money?
Speaker 1: I did not have gymnastics in high school, Jim, I
Speaker 1: know that.
Speaker 2: Dear Dade County School District. How dare you rob me
Speaker 2: of my gymnastic dreams? This made me laugh. There's a
Speaker 2: girl and they're like not in their circle, but like adjacent.
Speaker 2: Her name is Nicky. She is played by Bianca Lawson.
Speaker 2: She is a fucking twelve. She is a model basically
Speaker 2: walking around this school and she looks at Sarah on
Speaker 2: the balance beam and she's doing fine, She's doing some
Speaker 2: basic balance beam nonsense, and she looks threatened. Nicky is
Speaker 2: threatened by Sarah, and I'm like, no, in no planet
Speaker 2: with NICKI look at Sarah on the balance beam and
Speaker 2: be like, oh no, there's a new hot shit girl
Speaker 2: in town. No, what are you talking about? They're just
Speaker 2: trying to shoehorn this, Like yeah, this animosity between these
Speaker 2: two girls into this movie so hard and it makes
Speaker 2: no sense. Later on they're gonna they're gonna tell us
Speaker 2: a reason why, but like there was a better way
Speaker 2: of doing it.
Speaker 1: Well, because it doesn't make sense. In this scene, they're
Speaker 1: gonna wind up having a conflict over Derek, right, which
Speaker 1: the fundamental like idea that Nicky used to it. Derek
Speaker 1: wants to get back with him, and now he's interested
Speaker 1: in Sarah as a point of conflict. That's fine, but
Speaker 1: like now she's just a girl who happens to be
Speaker 1: like pretty good on the balance beam and Nicky's like, how.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's my thing. No it's not. We've never
Speaker 2: seen nick can a balance beam. We will never see her. Like,
Speaker 2: what is the problem?
Speaker 1: Being good on the balance beam can't be your thing
Speaker 1: if you're also a cool girl. I'm sorry. I love gymnastics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just not not in high school unless you're some
Speaker 1: mo fucking biles.
Speaker 2: It's not cool. It's not cool. Yeah, and dude, the
Speaker 2: movie I think smartly does it engage in like the
Speaker 2: I don't like white women.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So after class she kneels like, hey, you were really
Speaker 2: good on the balance beam and Sarah's like, yeah, I
Speaker 2: used to dance ballet and she kneels like, oh, you
Speaker 2: should come with us the steps, which, again, every fucking
Speaker 2: high school movie has this the local club where somehow
Speaker 2: teenagers are just allowed. And I know this movie they're
Speaker 2: getting fake id's yea, but the entire senior class is there. Yes,
Speaker 2: the entire senior class is in this fucking club. So no,
Speaker 2: you can't just be like it's it's a regular dance
Speaker 2: club with regular adults, because I did that as a kid.
Speaker 2: I was able to get into regular dance clubs with
Speaker 2: regular adults, and it was fucking weird and you had
Speaker 2: thirty year old men hitting on you and yes, creepy
Speaker 2: as fuck, and that's not what's happening.
Speaker 1: Instead, this is this is a kid's club, all right.
Speaker 1: So after school, Shanil asks Snookie to help Sarah get
Speaker 1: into the club. So he's like, all right, give me
Speaker 1: twenty bucks, and Sarah's like why and he says it's
Speaker 1: for a fake ID, and he starts to spin into
Speaker 1: this like kind of monologue about how she assumes she
Speaker 1: was gonna get it on her looks. She cuts him
Speaker 1: off with Snook, you talk a lot of shit for
Speaker 1: someone who never says anything, and Shaneil and Derek love it, right,
Speaker 1: so Sarah is validated. Sarah gives Snookie a twenty dollars
Speaker 1: bill and when Derek says that steps ain't no square dance.
Speaker 1: She brags that she'll dance in circles, probably around him,
Speaker 1: and Derek laughs. Right, so this like peacocky, braggadocious energy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, these kids are great. Next night, Sarah heads to
Speaker 2: Shaneil's apartment. It's warm, it's homy. We find out a
Speaker 2: little bit about Shanil and Derek's home life. They seem
Speaker 2: to not have parents. There's an older woman they call
Speaker 2: Mama Dean who takes care of them. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: if that's their grandmother or just like.
Speaker 1: A foster mother or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like someone in their in their life who takes
Speaker 2: care of them. We also meet Chanil's baby, Christopher, who's
Speaker 2: being cared for by Mamma Dean, mostly so that Chanil
Speaker 2: can still go to school and like have a semi normal,
Speaker 2: like teenage existence.
Speaker 1: Yea.
Speaker 2: The girls head out and like, I am so glad
Speaker 2: this happen because I'd forgotten the scene in this movie.
Speaker 2: And Sarah shows up to this apartment wearing a tank
Speaker 2: top with a matching cardigan and like a pencil skirt
Speaker 2: and boots and like, there's a miamiist to my brain
Speaker 2: where I'm like, if you're going clubbing, you'd wear the
Speaker 2: sluttiest thing you own. That's how you go clubbing is
Speaker 2: you wear the absolute trashiest, street walkeryest thing you own.
Speaker 1: Is that why you're wearing that tubetop? Are you going out?
Speaker 2: I'm going out after that? Yeah, I'm wearing the tubetop
Speaker 2: and nothing else.
Speaker 1: No, you know, like a tubtop can become a skirt,
Speaker 1: can pull it down.
Speaker 2: Yeah faro, Yeah, my ass my asshole is on this chair.
Speaker 2: My bear asshole is touching the chair that I'm sitting
Speaker 2: on right now. But yeah, it's so like, I'm like,
Speaker 2: that's when you're wearing to go dancing. What's wrong with you?
Speaker 2: So I'm so glad that she asked Shanil and Saniel's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: you look fine because she's trying to be nice. And
Speaker 2: then she's like no really and Saniel's like, okay, no,
Speaker 2: you don't look good. Yeah, we have to fix this.
Speaker 2: So they do a very quick like makeover, honestly all
Speaker 2: Shanil does, and it works. It's enough is she takes
Speaker 2: the cardigan off, she wraps Sarah's hair in it so
Speaker 2: it looks like a head wrap, and then she gives
Speaker 2: her like like a headscarf and then she gives her
Speaker 2: her her whoop earrings. Yeah, so that Sarah looks slightly
Speaker 2: more like a teenage girl and not like someone's actuary.
Speaker 2: They go into the crowded club, Shanil takes a moment
Speaker 2: to like, there's a guy who grabs her in the
Speaker 2: ass as she's walking by. She grabs him by the ball,
Speaker 2: squeezes tight and the guy's like, okay, okay, okay, you
Speaker 2: got it. You got it, like meaning like I'll leave
Speaker 2: you alone, and she goes, got what the right to
Speaker 2: pass by your greasy tickle dick self without your paws
Speaker 2: on my ass? I love this kid.
Speaker 1: The tickle dick, the insult tickle. I've never heard it,
Speaker 1: never heard of it. I've never heard it. And it's
Speaker 1: a little bit of a thinker because at first I
Speaker 1: was like, well, what is it? Oh? Oh, it's like
Speaker 1: just a tickle down there. I can't even feel it
Speaker 1: because because you dick so small.
Speaker 2: Oh I'm putting that together now. I just thought it
Speaker 2: was wordplay, and I do love wordplay. I love the
Speaker 2: internal rhymes, and I like better than pickle dick.
Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely, tickle dick.
Speaker 2: Tickle dick is meaner excellent.
Speaker 1: It's better than fickled dick. Fickle you can't count.
Speaker 2: On honestly, fickle dick could be good dick. It could
Speaker 2: still be good dick, but.
Speaker 1: You don't know if it's going to show up.
Speaker 2: What if you grab some guy by the balls to
Speaker 2: like to do this to him, and but it's fucking
Speaker 2: enormous and you're like, oh, I can't use my backup
Speaker 2: tickle dick. I have to think of something else to say.
Speaker 1: A brickle dick, trickled dick.
Speaker 2: You know what, sir, too big? No one wants that.
Speaker 2: Put it away, Put it away, put it away, No
Speaker 2: one wants that. That's uncomfortable.
Speaker 1: Go into sex work immediately, you'll make a million dollars.
Speaker 2: So Sarah is like in awe of her new best friend,
Speaker 2: which as anyone should be. She's like, this is such
Speaker 2: an upgrade from Lindsay, I can't even say. They go
Speaker 2: into the club, they start going around. Sarah officially meets Nicky.
Speaker 2: Nicky openly hates her from the jump again, Nikki could
Speaker 2: not be more beautiful. Luckily, we find out Shanil also
Speaker 2: hates Nicky because Nicky dumped Derek and treated him like shit.
Speaker 1: I want to circle back to another PSA for the
Speaker 1: listeners out there. So Sarah again does the thing where
Speaker 1: she engages in the conversation in the play by play
Speaker 1: in the repartee amongst this group of black women and Diggy,
Speaker 1: but Diggy, who's notably not saying anything, just like everyone
Speaker 1: can't we be friends?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Diggy has it right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So as a white person, I'm just gonna just
Speaker 1: don't police black people's use of whatever slur they want
Speaker 1: to use that's pointed at black people. Just don't do
Speaker 1: it what they just don't do it? Because Nicki says,
Speaker 1: I ain't walking on eggshells just because you brought the
Speaker 1: Brady Bunch to the Negro club, and before Shanil can respond,
Speaker 1: Sarah says, maybe you came to the wrong spot because
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure there aren't any negroes here.
Speaker 2: Too, which I admit I was also like, why are
Speaker 2: you talking? Don't talk, Sarah, why are you talking. Luckily
Speaker 2: they cut to Shanil and Saniel's like, oh, yeah, she
Speaker 2: got you, and I'm like, oh thank god, this went well.
Speaker 1: Again. The best kid for Shaneil if she wasn't twenty
Speaker 1: seven years old.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, she's easily best kid, best best middle aged woman
Speaker 2: pretending to be a kid. Yes, absolutely, Now now.
Speaker 1: Should she be checking her white friend afterwards? Be like, fy,
Speaker 1: that's fine, but again, don't police our language about each other.
Speaker 2: I like maybe maybe she's like at the two strike policy,
Speaker 2: she gets one, she didn't one.
Speaker 1: It's fine and it was funny, and she landed on Nikki,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let it go and like and.
Speaker 2: Like Sarah doesn't do it again for the rest of
Speaker 2: the movie, so like we're just gonna let it. She
Speaker 2: kept doing it. Yeah, she was like that white teacher,
Speaker 2: you're an avid elementary, Like Jacob, shut up, Like that's
Speaker 2: that's a different story.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out. If I had a new friend,
Speaker 1: new girlfriend comes in, I introduced her to my friends,
Speaker 1: and the first thing she's like, your fuck? How how
Speaker 1: how forgiving? Would I be like what what's up? Holmost,
Speaker 1: or even worse, if it was a straight male friend
Speaker 1: and he was trying to fit in, it's like, yo.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, I would actually love to see that.
Speaker 2: Can we adopt straight? And we adopt?
Speaker 1: And I was really confident that it wasn't like he
Speaker 1: know he loves gay people, he's trying to fit in right,
Speaker 1: like he would get the one. I think I would
Speaker 1: give him the one.
Speaker 2: Well if he's quoting Tricksy and Katya, you know, like Hill,
Speaker 2: if he's doing that and they're like, no, no, you
Speaker 2: don't understand he's quoting Tricksy and Katya. Can we please
Speaker 2: let's adopt a gate a straight man, because we don't
Speaker 2: have any inner circle of friends and we really.
Speaker 1: Need we have we have well, we have husbands.
Speaker 2: We have husbands, yeah, but none of them. I know
Speaker 2: them all, I love them all. They don't have the balls.
Speaker 2: They're never gonna do it.
Speaker 1: My brother hangs out with us sometimes, but alas he's
Speaker 1: he's in old gen X, and I don't think an
Speaker 1: older gen X can pull it off.
Speaker 2: I want him to try, I really want him to try.
Speaker 1: I don't think he would. I don't think he'd be comfortable.
Speaker 1: My brother was the captain of the football team in
Speaker 1: the eighties and he grew up with a little gay
Speaker 1: brother who is six years younger than him. And I've
Speaker 1: never heard him muse a geysler.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, but not in a good or bad way. No,
Speaker 2: if it's in a good way, all right.
Speaker 1: So, so now the club is bumping as the kids say.
Speaker 2: As the children say.
Speaker 1: Derek arrives at Steps with Kai and Nicky approaches Derek
Speaker 1: right she asked him to dance, and he immediately makes
Speaker 1: it clear he has no interest in getting back together
Speaker 1: with her after she dumped him for a college boy.
Speaker 1: He just shuts her right down.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she should be dating college man. That's how attractive this.
Speaker 2: She should be dating like a billionaires do.
Speaker 1: I want need to write a letter of what caution
Speaker 1: to Beyonca Lawson to be, Like, if you see a
Speaker 1: Cuba or a Guayan woman staring at you.
Speaker 2: From across trunk room, deeply in love.
Speaker 1: With you, I want you to just calmly stand up
Speaker 1: and walk out and then get to a city place.
Speaker 2: Am I deeply Lawson? No? Yes, maybe shut up.
Speaker 1: So Sarah and Shaneil go to the bar. They run
Speaker 1: into Kenny. Kenny is Christopher's father who Shaneil is pissed
Speaker 1: out because he's kind of a dead beat dad. Not
Speaker 1: really a deadbeat dad, but like he's a kid. He's
Speaker 1: not succeeding at the whole father thing right, Like it's
Speaker 1: not like he just disappeared, but he's like I had
Speaker 1: to work, I couldn't pick him up, but I didn't
Speaker 1: call it like it's it's all the bullshit. She also
Speaker 1: unfortunately finds Kenny irresistible. Fair enough. The guy's good looking.
Speaker 2: It's good looking, man, it's very handsome. Is he Lawson
Speaker 2: good looking? No?
Speaker 1: No, no one is no one is it's Bianca Lawson.
Speaker 1: Then everybody else and.
Speaker 2: It's literally the rest of the monsters.
Speaker 1: Shanil goes to dance with him, but she like, she
Speaker 1: gestures to Sarah. She's like, I'll be back in five minutes.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I just I can't. I can't not do it.
Speaker 1: I can't not do it. This guy's so hot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: fair yeah.
Speaker 2: So Sarah's very cool at being ditched at the club
Speaker 2: by her friend. I have to say. She's just hanging
Speaker 2: out at the bar, being normal. She's just trying to
Speaker 2: order drinks. Derek approaches her. The two of them spar again,
Speaker 2: but it's so like, like just kiss already, just kiss already.
Speaker 2: Derek points out, Hey, I'm supposed to be dizzy from
Speaker 2: all the circles you're dancing around me, remember, And suddenly
Speaker 2: Sarah's like, oh, not tonight. I'm just here to observe tonight.
Speaker 2: I'm not a narc. I'm definitely not a narc. Don't worry.
Speaker 2: I'm not here to buy drugs. By the way, does
Speaker 2: anyone know where I can buy some drugs? Just wondering?
Speaker 2: Can you point me to the highest step drug dealer
Speaker 2: in the club? I am not a narc, you guys.
Speaker 2: But yeah, she's very clearly like uncomfortable and he's like, no, no,
Speaker 2: come on, get on the dance floor. So she should
Speaker 2: be better at dancing than this. She should be better.
Speaker 2: I am not a trained dancer. I was better at sixteen,
Speaker 2: at seventeen than this at dancing. I was, I believe you,
Speaker 2: like you, like, how are you this bad at this?
Speaker 1: Because the movie posits so like for a long time,
Speaker 1: I was a TA for like movement in dance classes.
Speaker 1: I will say that, like some of the most difficult
Speaker 1: people to teach were the ballet kids. Like the kids kids,
Speaker 1: they were all women, the ballet girls that came in
Speaker 1: and wanted to move in a different way. Right, So
Speaker 1: like I can kind of like understand how she may
Speaker 1: not know how to dance outside of like the very
Speaker 1: regimented way that she's used to dancing. However, she should
Speaker 1: still have basic rhythm.
Speaker 2: That's she's so offbeat, like the whole I'm like, this
Speaker 2: is not even a hard song, No, it's like a
Speaker 2: it's like a one two one too, and she just
Speaker 2: she can't manage to fit, yeah, to catch up to
Speaker 2: that beat. And I'm like, why are you so bad
Speaker 2: at this?
Speaker 1: Because when they start positing that he's gonna teach her
Speaker 1: like actual quote unquote hip hop steps, I'm like, it
Speaker 1: makes sense that she want to be good at this
Speaker 1: because there's a different way you hold your there's a
Speaker 1: different center of gravity, there's a different pose that you
Speaker 1: should be hitting, So all of that makes sense. But this,
Speaker 1: I'm like, she should be able to like step touch
Speaker 1: to a beat pretty well, like move.
Speaker 2: Your hips just a little bit.
Speaker 1: How white is she? Is? She polar ice cap white.
Speaker 2: Snow white. She is snow white white. Like it's embarrassing
Speaker 2: to watch it. Julia House does a very good job
Speaker 2: in this scene of being like she's embarrassed, but like
Speaker 2: she doesn't let that stop her right from like trying
Speaker 2: at least to dance. It's so embarrassing to watch, and.
Speaker 1: Derek is so much nicer to her than I would
Speaker 1: be if I brought some guy onto the dance floor
Speaker 1: and this is what he was doing. I mean, she
Speaker 1: was insanely hot, which okay, I get it now, I
Speaker 1: understand Like this the movie is positing that Sarah is
Speaker 1: so hot that Derek is willing to look past this.
Speaker 2: She's not.
Speaker 1: She's not.
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, she's not. No, I know I would be like,
Speaker 2: you know what, I do want to drink.
Speaker 1: Let's go back. You move. I thought you moving was
Speaker 1: gonna be good, but now I'm just thinking you're gonna
Speaker 1: be a bad leg because you have no rhythm none.
Speaker 2: So okay, so he decides to take pity on her.
Speaker 2: He like helps her stop clapping off beat, which is
Speaker 2: so embarrassing to watch. Hey shows her as simple step as.
Speaker 2: The two of them dance together, and they like again
Speaker 2: like a they're warming up to each.
Speaker 1: Other y R. Meanwhile, Kai notices a drug deal going
Speaker 1: on in like this corner of the club, and he
Speaker 1: considers the club his turf, so he starts a fight.
Speaker 1: Derek sees it. He immediately runs to help his friend
Speaker 1: immediately goes to defend Kai. They beat these two guys up.
Speaker 1: Derek's like, let's go, let's go. He tries to drag
Speaker 1: Kai out. Kai is like okay, okay, and then spins
Speaker 1: around lands a couple of more kicks on the guy
Speaker 1: that he initially started beating up, and they run out
Speaker 1: of the club's back door, all of this hubbub hubbub.
Speaker 1: Sheneel's like, we gotta go. She grabs Sarah. They run
Speaker 1: out the front and they meet up with Kai and Derek.
Speaker 1: Kai heads off and Shaneil starts yelling at her brother
Speaker 1: for fighting. She's like, you need to stop getting mixed
Speaker 1: up with Kai. Like I get it, but like enough,
Speaker 1: he's bad news. You're gonna get in trouble.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: They get back to their neighborhood. Sarah's like, oh, I'm
Speaker 1: just a couple of blocks away, and she knows, like, no,
Speaker 1: you cannot walk home alone. It's not safe. And Derek's like,
Speaker 1: I'll go with you, so he and Channeel's like at
Speaker 1: her house already, it's not like you can walk home alone.
Speaker 1: Oh you're fine. Yeah, she's already there. So Derek walks
Speaker 1: Sarah home. He offers to meet up with her after
Speaker 1: school to help her work on her moves.
Speaker 2: Okay, Okay, here's what I think the movie wants me
Speaker 2: to think is happening. Okay, what the movie wants me
Speaker 2: to think is happening is that Derek is so enamored
Speaker 2: he's just looking for an excuse to spend time with Sarah,
Speaker 2: which that makes total dramaturgical sense. Yeah, But what I
Speaker 2: think is really happening is that Derek doesn't want to
Speaker 2: be a doctor. Derek wants to be a choreographer.
Speaker 1: I just want to dance.
Speaker 2: Derek just wants to be Debbie Allen. The rest of
Speaker 2: this movie, Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I'm going
Speaker 2: to lay out a case here that Derek's true passion
Speaker 2: is choreography, and the movie is choosing to guess, like me,
Speaker 2: with this romance that's happening with the two of them
Speaker 2: in the movie, which both of these actors have chemistry,
Speaker 2: so there is like a lovely romance in the movie.
Speaker 2: But I feel like that is secondary to the true
Speaker 2: story that's happening here, which is Derek's budding career as
Speaker 2: the next Justin Beck, and like he needs this needs
Speaker 2: to come out.
Speaker 1: I also, like, I just okay if he's just teaching
Speaker 1: her moves so like so you can go to steps
Speaker 1: and you cannot look like a fool on the dance floor.
Speaker 1: All you need to do is just you just need
Speaker 1: to move a little bit. That's it, you really, it's not.
Speaker 1: You don't have to show off. You will be able
Speaker 1: to freak with somebody.
Speaker 2: That's why. That's why I think he wants to because
Speaker 2: he's showing her like moves, and.
Speaker 1: I mean, and these moves are not hard. There's there's
Speaker 1: one that's almost a great vine, y'all.
Speaker 2: There's a great vine. There is a greapevine one hundred percent,
Speaker 2: but like and I'm just gonna scud ahead, way ahead.
Speaker 2: Later on in the movie, there's a moment where he's
Speaker 2: like hit it, Like why aren't you hitting it? I'm like,
Speaker 2: I'm like why He may as well be being like, girl,
Speaker 2: your extension is off? And then like when did Derek
Speaker 2: become a choreographer?
Speaker 1: So Sarah agrees to meet up with him after school
Speaker 1: to work on her moves, and she thanks him for
Speaker 1: walking her home and they smile at each other. Kiss, kiss,
Speaker 1: kiss kiss.
Speaker 2: Sarah walks in to like, I don't know, it's probably
Speaker 2: like midnight ish, I'm guessing, and it's not that late
Speaker 2: because they had to leave the club pretty fast. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and her father's upset that she wasn't home when he
Speaker 2: came home on a break from his gig at the club.
Speaker 2: He's like, well, I didn't go back to the club
Speaker 2: because I got freaked out that you weren't home, and
Speaker 2: now I missed half a night's work worrying about you.
Speaker 2: And Sarah's like, well, you weren't interested in being a
Speaker 2: father in me for the last seventeen years, so I
Speaker 2: don't know why you care now. And I'm fine. I'm
Speaker 2: an adult. I can take care of myself. He snaps
Speaker 2: at her, and he's like, look, I don't need much.
Speaker 2: I just need to know where you're going and when
Speaker 2: you think you'll be home. These are very basic tenets
Speaker 2: of child adult behavior. Just give me, throw me a bone.
Speaker 1: I read Dadding for Dummies and they say I should
Speaker 1: know where you are.
Speaker 2: But he's not wrong, No, he's not wrong, like leave
Speaker 2: a note, went out with friends, will be back by
Speaker 2: Because honestly, with this dad, if she said we'll be
Speaker 2: back by three am, he'd be like, well I don't love.
Speaker 1: It, but okay, well yeah, he has no standing and.
Speaker 2: As long as she's back by three am, it's fine.
Speaker 2: He's not gonna ground her.
Speaker 1: We cut to our first dance montage, Derek teaches Sarah
Speaker 1: how to stand, how to sit, how to grunt, along
Speaker 1: with some real slick dance moves.
Speaker 2: There's a moment here where he's like teaching her how
Speaker 2: to manspread? Yeah, why man spreading? What part of dancing involved?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 2: Is it because his budding choreographer brain. He's like, I
Speaker 2: need her to be able to open up her hips. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And the only way I could do that is to
Speaker 2: be like, you know how when people man spread on
Speaker 2: the subway.
Speaker 1: Let me show you, you know, when you have a
Speaker 1: real sickle dick and you have to and you have
Speaker 1: to make room for the.
Speaker 2: Curve, you know how, like when men take up so
Speaker 2: much fucking space. I need you to take up space
Speaker 2: right now, Sarah?
Speaker 1: Yeah, like instead of.
Speaker 2: Like, don't contract expand.
Speaker 1: So they're in the cafeteria for this one. At the
Speaker 1: end of the session, he tells her they're gonna have
Speaker 1: to find someplace else to practice, and I'm like, why
Speaker 1: what if you could go here? Whatever, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: They move on, maybe because.
Speaker 2: It's too embarrassing to be mean.
Speaker 1: She demonstrates a bit of her ballet skills and when
Speaker 1: he's like, what the hell was that because she does
Speaker 1: like an arabesque whatever.
Speaker 2: Don't pretend you don't know those dance moves. Derek, do
Speaker 2: you know why he has today? He's like, we gotta
Speaker 2: go somewhere else. It's because he realizes his friends are
Speaker 2: gonna mock him for being the choreographer that he is.
Speaker 1: God, I'm a dancer like his dancer dancer.
Speaker 2: His friends are gonna ras him to death and be like,
Speaker 2: you were supposed to be a surgeon and now you
Speaker 2: want to be Twila Tharp. Fuck you.
Speaker 1: Man. If Snookie finds out about this, he's never gonna
Speaker 1: hear the end of it.
Speaker 2: He's never gonna hear the end of it.
Speaker 1: So he's very impressed. He's like, what was that? And
Speaker 1: she's like, I don't want to talk about it. It's
Speaker 1: not a big deal, and she walks away and he says,
Speaker 1: I think it is.
Speaker 2: The Next day at school, Sarah's walking into the girl's room.
Speaker 2: She sees Kai in there with a girl and Kai
Speaker 2: is like slamming this girl against the wall and being like,
Speaker 2: where's my money? Where's my money? Yeah, And for a
Speaker 2: minute I was like, are they wait? Oh my god,
Speaker 2: is he supposed to be a pimp. That's fucking horrible.
Speaker 1: I had the same thought.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh my god. And then it's like, no,
Speaker 2: she bought drugs from him and then didn't pay him
Speaker 2: back or like pay him for the witch PSA. I
Speaker 2: guess for this episode. I never thought i'd have to
Speaker 2: say this, but drug dealers, if you're listening to us,
Speaker 2: get the money up front. What are you doing? Why
Speaker 2: are you selling drugs on layaway.
Speaker 1: You can't sell drugs on spec That is a.
Speaker 2: Bad business practice. You get the money up front for
Speaker 2: the drugs. I can't believe I have to tell anyone this.
Speaker 1: I thought this was if they teach us in drug.
Speaker 2: Dealing school, in drug one oh one, in drug pushing
Speaker 2: one on one.
Speaker 1: I mean, while we're on this topic, do we also
Speaker 1: tell them not to get high on their own supply it?
Speaker 2: Does he get high of her?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: I'm just saying just doing that, Oh, fair enough, blanket. Look,
Speaker 2: we should start our own drug dealing one on one podcast.
Speaker 2: I feel like there is a there is a need
Speaker 2: for this in the world. People need to know all
Speaker 2: the all the major pitfalls one can take when entering
Speaker 2: the drug dealing world. Yeah, when opening your own drug
Speaker 2: habitat ury.
Speaker 1: Absolutely everyone likes everyone likes it. A spoke menu. We'll
Speaker 1: just start there.
Speaker 2: We'll start there. Yeah, yeah, yeah, make sure you under
Speaker 2: you know what, don't get high on your own supply,
Speaker 2: but also know what you're dealing with. Yeah, know what
Speaker 2: you have, Know what your product is, know your own worth,
Speaker 2: know your own worth. Yes, yes, let's shark tank this shit.
Speaker 2: But anyway turns out Yeah, girl owes him money for drugs.
Speaker 2: Sarah comes in. She sees Kai slapping this girl around
Speaker 2: and she's like, hey, stop it, as one would. Kai
Speaker 2: does not take kindly to this. The girl runs away.
Speaker 2: All of Sarah's fight kind of drains out of her.
Speaker 2: You see it really quick. She's like, oh fuck, I've overstepped.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: He like gets really in her face and he's like
Speaker 2: you do not get in my way. Do you understand?
Speaker 2: And she's like I understand, and then he leaves her alone.
Speaker 1: Yep. We cut to Sarah and Derek. They're walking to
Speaker 1: another dance practice and she asks him about his relationship
Speaker 1: with Kai. She's like, that guy's scary. Why do you
Speaker 1: hang out with him? Derek says, look, Kai has a
Speaker 1: good heart. I know. He's like he's had a rough life.
Speaker 1: I'm never going to abandon him, and he explains it.
Speaker 1: A while he and Ki were caught robbing a liquor
Speaker 1: store and they were running and they went in different directions.
Speaker 1: It looked like Derek was gonna get caught, and Kai
Speaker 1: started to make noise and sacrificed himself, so Derek got
Speaker 1: away scott free. Yeah, and then he absolutely refused to
Speaker 1: give up Derek's name to the DA so he went
Speaker 1: to Juvie and Derek saw no consequences. Yeah, which rightfully
Speaker 1: would inspire a lot of loyalty.
Speaker 2: That is good writing, I tell you, because as soon
Speaker 2: as he said that, I was like, oh, because I
Speaker 2: was already with this relationship, just like the two actors
Speaker 2: have good chemistry together, and I believe that they've been
Speaker 2: lifelong friends and one just went one way and the
Speaker 2: other one went the other. But this now is like okay,
Speaker 2: because also I'm like, why doesn't Sarah just say this
Speaker 2: guy threw me up against the wall and threatened me.
Speaker 2: Right after Derek says that you really can't be like
Speaker 2: this guy through we have against the wall and threatened me,
Speaker 2: you have to be.
Speaker 1: Like Okay, she's learning from that first scene, she's not
Speaker 1: calling someone an asshole until she understands the relationship they
Speaker 1: have with the person she's talking to. Good job, Sarah,
Speaker 1: So Sarah backs off the Kai talk. Derek asks her
Speaker 1: about her. She immediately gets extremely defensive, and he's like,
Speaker 1: I'm just like, what, how's your relationship with your mother?
Speaker 1: Like what's she like? You never talk about her? And
Speaker 1: she's like she's dead and he's like, okay, sorry.
Speaker 2: I didn't know that Kai killed her.
Speaker 1: So he takes her to an abandoned furniture store that
Speaker 1: he used to work at, and there's another dance training montage.
Speaker 1: She's like, a full this. I think this is the
Speaker 1: where he's like, no, you have to hit it a
Speaker 1: full choreographer.
Speaker 2: And I'm like, he is now a choreographer. He basically
Speaker 2: like you cut away from him, you cut back. He's
Speaker 2: wearing like a leotard and like and and like yoga
Speaker 2: pants and he's got a score of heround his neck
Speaker 2: and he's like again again, he's got one of those.
Speaker 1: Walking starts, slamming the walking stick to the beaty you
Speaker 1: will call me Madame Radmanova.
Speaker 2: We cut to Sarah and Shanil hanging out she Neil
Speaker 2: tells Sarah and the audience out their backstory about their
Speaker 2: mother abandoning them when they were young. She does have
Speaker 2: a heartbreaking line here where she talks about her mother's
Speaker 2: past and she says their mom was in jail for
Speaker 2: drugs and things women do for drugs, which I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: that's that's fucking heartbreaking. So yeah, they're on their own,
Speaker 2: and then they start talking a little bit about Derek.
Speaker 2: Sarah's like, so, tell me a little bit more about
Speaker 2: your brother. What's swiss he into? What's he like? Does
Speaker 2: does he like girls? Her offbeat?
Speaker 1: Does he like the other white meat? You know what
Speaker 1: I mean?
Speaker 2: And she kneels like, oh, you like Derek, And Sarah's
Speaker 2: like no. Then of course she can't keep the smile
Speaker 2: off her face. And then at that moment, we hear
Speaker 2: Derek come into the house. He's got the mail, he's
Speaker 2: thrilled he got into Georgetown, celebrating. There's big hugs all around.
Speaker 2: Derek hugs Sarah. Sarah is like red in the face
Speaker 2: from blushing, Like Derek doesn't realize like how much she
Speaker 2: likes him up until this moment is very sweet.
Speaker 1: Yep Erica, that's about halfway through the movie. Should we
Speaker 1: take a little break.
Speaker 2: Here, You know what, let's just stop the movie here,
Speaker 2: let's take a dance break. Everything good has happened. Derek
Speaker 2: got into Georgetown, Sarah's made two best friends. We're good.
Speaker 1: End of movie. End of movie.
Speaker 2: Nothing bad's gonna happen, y'all.
Speaker 1: We'll be right back to finish taking you through. Save
Speaker 1: the last dance, and we're back.
Speaker 2: We come back to find Sarah and Derek on the
Speaker 2: train on the l there now, I think officially on
Speaker 2: a date. They are like kind of snuggling a little bit,
Speaker 2: and they're cheerful and happy. And there's a white woman,
Speaker 2: an older white woman. Actually I'm giving that too much
Speaker 2: like class that inflection. She's bedraggled, she's nasty, she's a
Speaker 2: nasty old white lady, and she's giving them side eye
Speaker 2: because gross interracial coupling miscegyny ew and Sarah notices it first.
Speaker 2: She starts to like get inch closer and closer to Derek, Derek,
Speaker 2: bless him, not noticing it for a while.
Speaker 1: Derek learned at a young age to ignore racist white women.
Speaker 2: Yeah, who has the time? Who has the time? And
Speaker 2: Sarah finally like she's like, hey, we have an audience,
Speaker 2: and they see and Derek sees her too, and the
Speaker 2: lady's like hoop hooph, and so they decided to put
Speaker 2: on a bit of a show. So like Sarah starts
Speaker 2: to like snuggle up on Derek's neck and then they
Speaker 2: start to kiss. It's very I think they're so cute.
Speaker 2: These two are so cute.
Speaker 1: I like them together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the woman is like gross, and she she
Speaker 2: actually stands up and like leaves the train. So the
Speaker 2: two of them laugh. They're like enjoying making the right
Speaker 2: the old racist uncomfortable. Excellent. All good. Right, they get
Speaker 2: off the train, they're they're walking in this neighborhood and
Speaker 2: she's like, where are we going? And Derek's like it's
Speaker 2: a surprise. And she's like, this is your celebration night
Speaker 2: for getting into Georgetown. It shouldn't be my super and
Speaker 2: he's like, well, that's the way it is. He's perfect.
Speaker 2: He is so perfect.
Speaker 1: The worst part about him is that he is too
Speaker 1: loyal to his friend who has gone to a down
Speaker 1: a dark path.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's the worst thing about him. His flaw, that's
Speaker 2: the only flaw he seems to have. That and maybe
Speaker 2: he's a little too comfortable being kind of a dick
Speaker 2: in English class. Yeah, it's not even that big a deal.
Speaker 2: They walk up to the Chicago Theater advertising a performance
Speaker 2: by the Jeoffrey Ballet, and he's like, surprise, I took
Speaker 2: you to the I'm taking you to the ballet. I
Speaker 2: am a seventeen year old boy. Uh huh, I want
Speaker 2: to I want to say this out loud again, so
Speaker 2: everyone heard that I am a seventeen year old straight
Speaker 2: boy who is taking my girl to the ballet, because
Speaker 2: that's what she's into. This person doesn't exist. Yeah, this
Speaker 2: is a unicorn. Sarah's like, oh no, oh no. She starts.
Speaker 2: She starts to like get even more pale than she
Speaker 2: already is. She's like, I can't go in there. I'm sorry,
Speaker 2: I can't go into the ballet. She acts all weird.
Speaker 2: The two of them eventually do end up going in
Speaker 2: and they watch the performance of the horniest ballet the
Speaker 2: Geoffrey has ever put on.
Speaker 1: I mean like, it's inches from actual intercourse happening on stage.
Speaker 2: She's almost penetration. There's the only thing stopping penetration is
Speaker 2: a well placed dance bell.
Speaker 1: It wells played dance Bell in a thin layer of nylons.
Speaker 1: It is.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm like, it's so funnycause I've seen Jeffrey
Speaker 2: a few times and I'm like, I don't recall them
Speaker 2: being the horniest.
Speaker 1: Dance company ever. Afterwards, Sarah is emotional and Derek asks why.
Speaker 1: She tells him that she just wants to go back
Speaker 1: to when her life made sense, when her mother was alive. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this scene is, this scene's rough, it's it's a
Speaker 1: very difficult scene. The writing is very surface. She says
Speaker 1: exactly what it is to explain to the audience exactly
Speaker 1: what she's feeling, which is not really how people talk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's Julia Styles is doing her level best.
Speaker 2: This is not her fault.
Speaker 1: It's not her fault. The writing is really rough.
Speaker 2: Dancing is her fault.
Speaker 1: I don't even think that because the director should have
Speaker 1: been like, no, we're gonna hire a body double, like
Speaker 1: you're gonna get in intense, We're gonna you're gonna do
Speaker 1: like some things, but like the majority of the dancing
Speaker 1: is gonna be a body double.
Speaker 2: Are you gonna take like six months to learn ballet
Speaker 2: not two months?
Speaker 1: It still wouldn't be enough. It's still like, that's not
Speaker 1: a cut on her, that's a cut on any any
Speaker 1: twenty five year old who's gonna try to look like
Speaker 1: they've been dancing like an eighteen year old who's been
Speaker 1: dancing for seventeen years.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna take six weeks, six weeks worth of ballet
Speaker 2: glasses at the minute we're done with this, and then
Speaker 2: show you up in a month and a half, My friend.
Speaker 1: You would be dead in two days.
Speaker 2: I would be a graceful Missy Copeland's got nothing on.
Speaker 1: Me, step aside, she's retiring anyway, all right. So Sarah
Speaker 1: breaks down. She admits that she blames herself for her
Speaker 1: mother's death. All her mother wanted was for Sarah's dreams
Speaker 1: to come true, and Sarah insisted that she'd be at
Speaker 1: the at the Juilliard audition, and it wound up killing her.
Speaker 1: She's dead because of me, Right, It's the kind.
Speaker 2: Of nonsense that like you wouldn't believe an adult, but
Speaker 2: a seventeen year old would think that. Yes, Like I'm like,
Speaker 2: all right, yeah, that's you're gonna needed some therapy, but like,
Speaker 2: it's not your fault.
Speaker 1: It's not your fault. Derek perfect again is like, your
Speaker 1: mother's death was not your fault and your mother would
Speaker 1: still want your dream to come true.
Speaker 2: Yes, got it right, Derek. That's the thing too, he
Speaker 2: can't be best boy because everything he says only a man.
Speaker 1: Everything he says makes you attracted to him, so like.
Speaker 2: Like I'm uncomfortably attracted to the teenagers in this film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Sarah says, I don't think I can do it
Speaker 1: without her, and Derek is like, look, what do you want?
Speaker 1: Do you want to go to Juilliard? And Sarah admits
Speaker 1: that she does, and Derek says, then it's up to
Speaker 1: you to make your dream come true. And he walks
Speaker 1: her home and he kisses her on her front porch
Speaker 1: and he smiles that million watt Sean Patrick Thomas smile,
Speaker 1: and then he heads home with like a spring in
Speaker 1: his step, and basements across the country flooded.
Speaker 2: I'm genuinely how did he not become a huge star?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I literally am like, either it was it was like
Speaker 1: the racist system, or he genuinely didn't want to.
Speaker 2: What Shawn Patrick Thomas needs is Shonda Shanda, are you
Speaker 2: listening to me? You made Kerrie Washington a mega WATS star.
Speaker 2: We need you to do the same for for this
Speaker 2: kid too, because this kid, he's literally my age.
Speaker 1: We deserve to get to see that face.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that asks. Yeah, let's get really put him on.
Speaker 2: Bridgerton took the words right out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So after the date, Sarah's reevaluating her life, her decisions.
Speaker 2: She goes into her closet, she takes out her point shoes,
Speaker 2: she starts practicing again. She tells Derek that Juilliard is
Speaker 2: holding auditions in Chicago next month.
Speaker 1: Okay, pause, yes, Paul, we have to talk about the
Speaker 1: timeline of this movie. Uh huh, Okay, So her mother
Speaker 1: passed away at this point. Let's say maybe she's been
Speaker 1: in in Chicago out in parentheses two months.
Speaker 2: Ah No, I feel like it's longer.
Speaker 1: You think it's long. So it's like like half the
Speaker 1: school year. Like, let's maybe her perhaps her mother passed
Speaker 1: away in like September October, so she auditioned in the
Speaker 1: Chicago area, presumptively in Chicago, no more than like five
Speaker 1: months ago, and now there's another Juilliard audition for admittance
Speaker 1: that fall.
Speaker 2: Julliard didn't find anyone. They were looking for Julia. They
Speaker 2: needed Julia Styles all right, oh, like they're like, no
Speaker 2: one has used a chair in their audition yet, I
Speaker 2: have thoughts about that chair. I I if the thoughts
Speaker 2: are that chair was perfect, change nothing that I agree
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 1: The chair also got into Juilliard. That chair expressed things.
Speaker 2: What if the chair also got it in Juilliard?
Speaker 1: What if she shows up for Juilliard and he's like,
Speaker 1: where's the chair?
Speaker 2: Where's the chair? No, we wanted the chair. We were
Speaker 2: talking to the chair, not to you. So she and
Speaker 2: Derek start to practice now in like in aband furniture
Speaker 2: store that he worked at last summer. Don't worry about it.
Speaker 2: Just don't worry about it. These two are breaking into
Speaker 2: a building, using the fire escape to get into this,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, first of all, how are there not
Speaker 2: already people squatting in there? Second of all, how are
Speaker 2: they not like is how is it not rat infested?
Speaker 2: Find something? Fight a park? I don't know.
Speaker 1: It's an abandoned building in Chicago in the winter, famously
Speaker 1: very cold.
Speaker 2: Fucking freezing in there. Good call. I forgot about the
Speaker 2: fact that it's winter. So he's like, all right, girl,
Speaker 2: we gotta get you practicing. We gotta get your ballet
Speaker 2: up to shape, and she says maybe the funniest line
Speaker 2: in the entire film. She turns to Derek and she goes,
Speaker 2: you know, I'm okay with the ballet part of the audition,
Speaker 2: but I need you to help me with my free form. Paul,
Speaker 2: there was a montage you did not put in here
Speaker 2: earlier where she goes to a ballet class. And watch
Speaker 2: her at that ballet class, and I can tell you,
Speaker 2: as someone who has never taken ballets, is not a dancer,
Speaker 2: but has seen ballet, has ballet. Girl, you're not ready
Speaker 2: for the ballet part of that audition. Okay, So here's
Speaker 2: the crazy You are not fucking ready.
Speaker 1: Here's the crazy thing. They put her in a ballet class. Fine,
Speaker 1: and then they I don't know what the move is called,
Speaker 1: the move where you lift your leg back. I think
Speaker 1: it's in our basket.
Speaker 2: I don't know, because I don't know anything about ballet
Speaker 2: except that she is not ready.
Speaker 1: But they put her with a bunch of girls her
Speaker 1: age who are ballet dancers. So everyone else's leg is
Speaker 1: like two feet higher than Julia styles like, just have
Speaker 1: the other ballet dancers. All right, girls, we're just gonna
Speaker 1: lift our legs this high, so it looks like that's
Speaker 1: what she's being told to do.
Speaker 2: Yes, she looks terrible.
Speaker 1: She looks bad next to them, and it's not her fault.
Speaker 1: You're setting her up for failure.
Speaker 2: And she's like, no, no, don't worry about the ballet. Derek, Derek,
Speaker 2: I got it. What I need you to help me
Speaker 2: with is this? What's hip hop? What is that?
Speaker 1: So we cut to steps there is I believe it
Speaker 1: is an ice cube song that's playing with the line
Speaker 1: I got dick for days, you got asked for weeks
Speaker 1: and I have to say straight adoptee into our friend group.
Speaker 1: That's another one you could try shouting out. So Derek
Speaker 1: takes Sarah back out onto the dance floor. She's much
Speaker 1: more comfortable. They start to gather in audiences they dance,
Speaker 1: and this is one of them, like.
Speaker 2: The I hate this so much because people are like Derek, Derek.
Speaker 1: Go, Sarah, Go Sarah, And I'm like, I don't think.
Speaker 1: I don't. I genuinely don't think high school students were
Speaker 1: doing this in two thousand and one. I feel like
Speaker 1: I did this when I was in middle school. That
Speaker 1: was a thing.
Speaker 2: Also, this movie is positing They're not at like a
Speaker 2: high school dance. They're at a club.
Speaker 1: They're at a club.
Speaker 2: There are there people at this club who do not
Speaker 2: know who these two people are erect. There are adults
Speaker 2: on a date at this club. There's two people who
Speaker 2: worked a hard week at their adult jobs. They hired
Speaker 2: a babysitter. They're like, let's go to a nice let's
Speaker 2: go dancing. Yeah that is that is what's in this club.
Speaker 2: And now they have to cheer on two seventeen year
Speaker 2: olds as they're dancing badly at the club.
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna run
Speaker 1: and grab a mattress pad for Erica's seat because Nicki
Speaker 1: is back.
Speaker 2: It's fine, I'm fine. I don't need Look. Is she
Speaker 2: is she the most beautiful woman I've ever seen? Maybe? Yes?
Speaker 2: Is she also breathtaking? Yes? Also yes? Can I handle it? No?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: No, No, I can't I can't handle it. I can't
Speaker 2: handle it.
Speaker 1: She notices them dancing. She decides she wants to cause
Speaker 1: little chaos, so she heads to the dance floor, and
Speaker 1: she inserts herself between Derek and Sarah.
Speaker 2: You can't shurt herself anywhere. She wants as far as
Speaker 2: I'm concerned Derek.
Speaker 1: The movie implies that Derek's like not really paying attention.
Speaker 1: So he starts dancing with Nicki and Sarah kind of
Speaker 1: is half dancing with Snookie, but she's also kind of
Speaker 1: left out in the cold.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, okay, this okay. Maybe I was gonna say, like,
Speaker 2: Derek's worst trait is that he's too good. Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: too good of a friend. This I could actually be
Speaker 2: his worst trip.
Speaker 1: This is this is a fuck up.
Speaker 2: This is this is a major fuck up. He starts
Speaker 2: like dancing with her, but like, like he almost gets
Speaker 2: lost in the moment with Nikki. You know this is
Speaker 2: your ex? Yeah, you hate you know what she's trying
Speaker 2: to do. She's not like she's not playing innocent. She's like,
Speaker 2: I am here to cause chaos. And you know your
Speaker 2: girlfriend is watching, bitch, what are you doing?
Speaker 1: Yeah? So Sarah heads off the floor. She's pouting on
Speaker 1: the sidelines, and Kai spots her and he's like, great,
Speaker 1: here's another chance to put this bitch in her place.
Speaker 1: He walks over and he tells you that you never
Speaker 1: look as good as she does with him. That's oil
Speaker 1: your milk. Ain't no point in trying to mix, and
Speaker 1: Paul screams at the TV it's oil and water. I
Speaker 1: get it. I know it's a black and white thing.
Speaker 1: I understand, but like, find a better metaphor then.
Speaker 2: Also, just just be like you're you're seven at best,
Speaker 2: and she's a fucking twelve. Let's not even bring race
Speaker 2: into this.
Speaker 1: At that point, Derek, he notices that he's been titmatized
Speaker 1: by Nikki and he heads over to Sarah. He says,
Speaker 1: he was just dancing. There is nothing between me and her.
Speaker 1: He's like, you were dancing with Snookie. I was dancing
Speaker 1: with her, not a big deal. I didn't mean to
Speaker 1: hurt your feelings. And he apologizes so like, even when
Speaker 1: he fucks up, this seventeen year old boy immediately is like,
Speaker 1: I fucked up. I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to
Speaker 1: Please forgive me.
Speaker 2: He's so good. God, damn it, Derek, You're perfect.
Speaker 1: So she lets it go. She takes him back to
Speaker 1: her place. She mentions that her father will be gone
Speaker 1: all night. And we know what that means is that
Speaker 1: the express train to a dick down's entrance music.
Speaker 2: I hear, are these two kids gonna bone down? And
Speaker 2: the most uncomfortable mattress have ever made? Yeah, do you
Speaker 2: think they pulled out the couch and they just fucked
Speaker 2: on the couch?
Speaker 1: I hope they fucked on Roy's bed.
Speaker 2: Oh no, that's worse than the couch.
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I think the couch is better than Broyce Orr back.
Speaker 1: In the Mystic's a thing where like where like what
Speaker 1: is the bigger boner killer?
Speaker 2: There is no chance that the mattress on Roy's bed
Speaker 2: isn't a fucking crime scene.
Speaker 1: You know what. That's fair.
Speaker 2: There's no chance that the mattress on Roy's bed wasn't like,
Speaker 2: wasn't found on the street. Yeah, dragged into that apartment.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know what, we did skip over this part,
Speaker 1: but he doesn't mention in the beginning that he put
Speaker 1: a new mattress on the pullout. Yes, so she is
Speaker 1: that mattress is fresh.
Speaker 2: The pullout couch, Like, it's gotta be cleaner than that
Speaker 2: mattress than ratchess.
Speaker 1: Are You're right?
Speaker 2: I want to in my because I don't want to
Speaker 2: think about these two hot people taking their clothes off,
Speaker 2: getting ready for the moment, and then one of them
Speaker 2: being like hang on and like trying to pull out
Speaker 2: the couch.
Speaker 1: You got to pull it out before you start getting
Speaker 1: in the moment, you guys.
Speaker 2: Because there's just nothing sexier.
Speaker 1: I usually don't advocate for the pull out method, but
Speaker 1: in this case.
Speaker 2: You've got to pull out first. You gotta pull out
Speaker 2: early and first. Like, there's nothing less sexy than watching
Speaker 2: someone try to pull out a.
Speaker 1: Couch, porking it up, like I gotta get it this time.
Speaker 2: Come on to get it at the right angle.
Speaker 1: Almost there, almost there.
Speaker 2: You're as out. You're pulling up that couch.
Speaker 1: Just showing full hole of the person behind you. Then
Speaker 1: you slip and you fall over, pressed tam on the floor.
Speaker 2: You just go, God, damn it. The other person's like,
Speaker 2: I told you you got to go.
Speaker 1: At an angle, get your dick caught in it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, let's just hope they just fuck on the couch.
Speaker 1: Young.
Speaker 2: They're young, they're athletic, they can do it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: A couple of things I love about this scene. You
Speaker 2: rarely see a high school movie where there's a sex
Speaker 2: scene where there's not like like agonizing.
Speaker 1: Over it first, or consequences after.
Speaker 2: Or consequences afterwards, exactly where there's like this this. I
Speaker 2: remember even ten years ago. The first time I saw
Speaker 2: this movie, I remember thinking, oh, that's something I've never
Speaker 2: seen before.
Speaker 1: Kudos to not only them getting to bang it out
Speaker 1: on the couch because father's gone all night, but her
Speaker 1: father being gone all night means we were spared a
Speaker 1: scene of the white man explaining jazz to the young
Speaker 1: black man.
Speaker 2: Oh, although honestly I would have loved that. Yeah, would
Speaker 2: have loved that for him to be like, let's talk
Speaker 2: about jazz, okay everyone, sweet sex scene, lovely buckle up
Speaker 2: movies about take a hard turn. We cut to a diner.
Speaker 2: Derek is like walks in. He sits with Kai and
Speaker 2: a couple of their friends. They all start making fun
Speaker 2: of him for dating a white girl and he's like, yeah,
Speaker 2: well you know. And then Kai is like, so, anyway,
Speaker 2: I'm planning a raid across town cause there's some drug
Speaker 2: dealers who are trying to encroach on my territory and
Speaker 2: I'm not into that. And I'm thinking drive by, Yeah,
Speaker 2: what are we thinking? That's no bad ideas in a brainstorm,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna start with drive by. And everyone's like, wait,
Speaker 2: what you want to do a drive by? And he's like,
Speaker 2: I know what you're thinking, don't worry, I have a gun,
Speaker 2: and then he shows that his gun, and Derek's like, ooh, okay,
Speaker 2: this is all terrible. Maybe we don't do any of this.
Speaker 2: Maybe you stop dealing drugs. You just fucking go to
Speaker 2: school like a normal kid, and like try to like
Speaker 2: educate yourself and go to college and get a job
Speaker 2: and just be a person in the world that's not
Speaker 2: like a gun slinging drug dealer. Yeah, and guys like, no,
Speaker 2: that sounds real boring.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna do this. I like my idea better, thank
Speaker 3: you for the idea. But no, yeah, no, no, excellent.
Speaker 3: I'm so glad I'm getting all the into this. But
Speaker 3: that sounds so boring.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't want to do it.
Speaker 1: We cut to the girls playing basketball in a gym
Speaker 1: class while Derek Kai and the boys play a pickup
Speaker 1: game in the park. I don't know if it's supposed
Speaker 1: to be happening simultaneously. I don't know why the girls
Speaker 1: would be in school while these Maybe maybe it's not
Speaker 1: really simultaneous, but I think.
Speaker 2: It's like to show that, like, look, the boys are
Speaker 2: playing like nicely and the girls are not.
Speaker 1: Tensions escalate in both games with Sarah and Nikki getting
Speaker 1: into a brawl while the boys get hit by a
Speaker 1: drive by, though no one is killed, right, they hear
Speaker 1: the gunshots, they all they all go to the ground.
Speaker 1: Snookie's there, Derek's there, Kai is there, the other like
Speaker 1: you know, bit players are all there, is there.
Speaker 2: No one even gets hit. I don't think.
Speaker 1: So the movie is starting to like it's starting to
Speaker 1: hit the stereotypes really hard, right, Like in the beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie when when shaneil had it had was
Speaker 1: a teen mom, right, I was like, oh, but the
Speaker 1: movie is like not portraying her as like, you know,
Speaker 1: she has no future, Like it's not it. This is
Speaker 1: a thing that happened and she's dealing with it and
Speaker 1: she's still going to school and she has a support system,
Speaker 1: and like there are that's good representation, right, Like it's
Speaker 1: part of her life and there are millions of young
Speaker 1: women out there that are experiencing this. Great right, But
Speaker 1: then we start to get into more of the drug
Speaker 1: stuff and can we deepen this a little bit? This
Speaker 1: is first thought yeah in the hood? Yeah, and and
Speaker 1: like like Kai, I think I think the performance of
Speaker 1: Kai is good, but like he doesn't get much depth
Speaker 1: as a character. He kind of gets depth from Derek's
Speaker 1: story and Derek liking him and wanting to not lose
Speaker 1: him as a friend and stuff, but like he you know,
Speaker 1: learn about his.
Speaker 2: Life now that I think about it, they don't really
Speaker 2: go deep on anyone except for Sarah and Shanil. They
Speaker 2: don't really even good that deep on Derek, right, because
Speaker 2: he has to be perfect. He has to be perfect.
Speaker 1: It's perfect. It's perfection all the way down with that one.
Speaker 2: There's really nothing. Yeah, there's just he likes Sarah. He
Speaker 2: likes school, I guess, and that's it, and he's a
Speaker 2: good friend. Yeah, But like, they don't go deep on
Speaker 2: those two are truly the only characters that get any
Speaker 2: kind of like arc are Shanil and Sarah. None of
Speaker 2: the boys get that, which is a little disappointing now
Speaker 2: that you're saying it, because it didn't super occur to
Speaker 2: me until right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, like for two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: this is probably like important representation, like having an interracial relationship.
Speaker 1: It's the head of a rom com, a teen rom com,
Speaker 1: no last like rom drum. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough
Speaker 1: was good. It's not nuanced, is all I'm trying to say.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a thousand percent. Yeah, there's nothing nuanced though, even
Speaker 2: the stuff that like we do know about that we like,
Speaker 2: oh sure, the ballet stuff is not nuanced. Yeah, the auditions.
Speaker 2: The only times the movie like pulls back a touch
Speaker 2: and it has like the slightest bit of nuance, You're right,
Speaker 2: is when they first show the high school that they're
Speaker 2: all in and it's like a normal high school. It's not.
Speaker 2: It's not the Lean on Me School of Terror and
Speaker 2: like a couple of bits with Shinil and Sarah, but
Speaker 2: there's very other than that. Everyone is just like stereotype
Speaker 2: stereotype stereotype.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I can't figure out given the genre of
Speaker 1: the movie like this, it might just be more of
Speaker 1: a genre thing, right, Like this is not an indie,
Speaker 1: you know, a twenty four release where they're trying to
Speaker 1: really like go deep, Like, so is it only something
Speaker 1: I'm pointing out because it's since it's not all white
Speaker 1: kids all the stereotypes now, are these harmful stereotypes are not?
Speaker 1: Or is it like it's all the capitol R race
Speaker 1: thing is starting to come up with a little bit.
Speaker 2: A little bit, Yeah, one is about to come up
Speaker 2: a lot. Yeah, so after the fight and like, we
Speaker 2: don't get much of the fight in the movie, but
Speaker 2: the aftermath is real, Like, they don't look good, they
Speaker 2: look beat up. Sarah, nick You're sitting next to each other,
Speaker 2: and Nicki says, this ain't over, bitch, and Sarah's like,
Speaker 2: I don't even know why it started. What do you
Speaker 2: mean it's not over? What the fuck is your problem?
Speaker 2: And Nicki says the quiet part out loud. She's like,
Speaker 2: white women taking black men. We don't like it. It's
Speaker 2: not it's not a good look for you. She goes,
Speaker 2: the whole world ain't enough. You gotta conquer ours too,
Speaker 2: And this is the first time that it dawns on
Speaker 2: Sarah that it's not just old racist white ladies who
Speaker 2: are gonna have a problem with them, it's everyone else.
Speaker 2: And like there is again, You're right, there's like it
Speaker 2: goes into stereotypes, like Derek is quote unquote the good one.
Speaker 1: This would also be more effective if the backstory of
Speaker 1: Nicki and Derek wasn't that she cheated on him and
Speaker 1: now wants him back. Yeah, Like what if Nicki just
Speaker 1: had a crush on him and he chose Sarah and
Speaker 1: he wasn't interested in her for whatever reason.
Speaker 2: Well cast behind, so Sarah pushes back. She's like, where
Speaker 2: can I like each other? If you have a problem
Speaker 2: with it, screw you, Yes, none of your business.
Speaker 1: That night, at Sarah's apartment, Derek comes to visit, having
Speaker 1: heard about the fight. She opens the door. Roy appears
Speaker 1: behind her, and Sarah's like, I'm fine, Like, we're good,
Speaker 1: you know, go now, I'll call you and Roy helps Sarah.
Speaker 1: Patra bruises with like first aid. So Roy's becoming a
Speaker 1: good father. For track, Roy has an arc. We don't
Speaker 1: really follow it, but it's true he has an arc.
Speaker 1: He's a better father. We cut to steps. Kai is
Speaker 1: again pressuring Derek to join him on his planned raid.
Speaker 1: Like Derek can't say no. He's not saying yes, but
Speaker 1: he can't say no either. Derek doesn't respond, and Snooky
Speaker 1: and Sarah appear behind him. They were apparently like just
Speaker 1: dancing on the floor, and Kai kicks Snooky to the
Speaker 1: ground and mocks him for hitting the deck during the
Speaker 1: drive by.
Speaker 2: Which like everyone did, Bro, that's what you're supposed to
Speaker 2: do in that drive by.
Speaker 1: You're the only one who stood up and started shooting back.
Speaker 1: Because you were the only one with a gun.
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you not know how drive bys work?
Speaker 1: All right? He's drug dealing one on one drive bys?
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is two on one, like if you hit
Speaker 2: the drive by part of drug dealing your advanced. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there is a line here that is so goddamn funny.
Speaker 1: I know. Wait, is it funny or is it corny
Speaker 1: and cringey?
Speaker 2: It's funny because someone, an adult wrote this for a child.
Speaker 2: An adult wrote this a for a ostensible Obviously, all
Speaker 2: these people are like twenty five years old, but like
Speaker 2: the character of Kai is supposed to be seventeen years old. Okay,
Speaker 2: Sarah and Snookie come up on their conversation and Sarah
Speaker 2: tries to intervene because there's tension there, and Kai says,
Speaker 2: this is an A and B conversation, So see your
Speaker 2: way home.
Speaker 1: I tripped on that so hard.
Speaker 2: How did that make the final cut of this movie?
Speaker 2: How did the actor not be like, no, I'm not
Speaker 2: saying that. How did the editor not be like, this
Speaker 2: is supposed to be a teenage boy?
Speaker 1: Yeah, he wouldn't say that.
Speaker 2: How did the director not cat like, who is who dropped?
Speaker 2: There's so many balls that got dropped? To the moment
Speaker 2: where Kai, the gun toting drug dealer Yah who is
Speaker 2: seventeen years old in a year two thousand and one,
Speaker 2: says that to another seventeen year old it doesn't make
Speaker 2: any fucking sense.
Speaker 1: So Sarah's like, Hey, I'm leaving, are you coming with me?
Speaker 1: This is when Kai does the whole a B thing.
Speaker 1: Sarah tells him to fuck off, and Kai actually goes
Speaker 1: for her, like he steps at her, and Derek gets
Speaker 1: in his way, so Kai tells him to get out
Speaker 1: of his face and take his trailer trash ho with him.
Speaker 1: Derek punches him and the two stare at each other,
Speaker 1: and then Derek takes Sarah and Snookie out of the club. Right,
Speaker 1: so there's been a break here between these two lifelong friends.
Speaker 2: We cut to Derek and Shaneil's apartment. Kenny has arrived.
Speaker 2: Remember Kenny the father of Shaneil's baby. Until you mentioned
Speaker 2: that she had a baby like ten minutes ago, I'd
Speaker 2: forgotten fully and forgot. I was like, right, she is
Speaker 2: a kid. He comes to take Christopher the baby for
Speaker 2: the weekend. Christopher is freaking out because like he's not
Speaker 2: he's just he's being fussy. Cute kid they cast a
Speaker 2: really cute kid to play Christopher.
Speaker 1: And he doesn't recognize Kenny because Kenny's not there a lot.
Speaker 2: Yes, that's the thing. He's like, no, you can't take
Speaker 2: me away from my mom. Who are you? You weird
Speaker 2: tall man? Yeah, I don't want to be with you.
Speaker 1: And this baby's incredible because he gets all that done
Speaker 1: with subtext.
Speaker 2: He's so good, he's so good. This baby went to.
Speaker 1: Juilliard, and this baby you grew up to be Michael B. Jordan.
Speaker 2: This baby actually like went with the chair to Juilliard. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Kenny is like, come on, let me, let me
Speaker 2: take him, and he and Shaneil get into like a
Speaker 2: verbal fight. It gets ugly, not physically ugly, but verbally ugly,
Speaker 2: and he's like, fine, fuck off and he just leaves
Speaker 2: without the kid. Turns out the baby is sick, that's
Speaker 2: why it's crying.
Speaker 1: So Schanil winds up at a doctor's appointment with Christopher at
Speaker 1: a very overworked office. Sarah is with her friend, essensibly
Speaker 1: just to help. So Shanil, very stressed out, not in
Speaker 1: a good place, is like, oh, so does Sarah blame
Speaker 1: Derek for the fight with Nicki and Sarah says, no,
Speaker 1: I explained about Nicki, and Shanil's like, oh, so, like
Speaker 1: you don't take any response ability for this, and Sarah
Speaker 1: says what and Sheanil says, maybe Nicky has a point.
Speaker 1: She says it hurts people to see Sarah and Derek together,
Speaker 1: particularly black women. And this is where we say more
Speaker 1: of the quiet part out loud. Derek's a good guy,
Speaker 1: Sarah's poaching one of the few good black men left.
Speaker 2: I hate this argument. Yeah, look, I get it, it's
Speaker 2: a real argument, but I just I don't know. I
Speaker 2: hate seeing it in like popular culture that's meant for
Speaker 2: white people.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And the reason I hate that for a white audience
Speaker 2: is because it really like ingrains this stereotype. Yeah again,
Speaker 2: I really do get it. This is the world that
Speaker 2: we're all living in. You have to consider who this
Speaker 2: movie is for and who's probably gonna watch this movie,
Speaker 2: and like it's gonna be probably a majority of white
Speaker 2: girls right watching this movie, and like it's a little iffy.
Speaker 2: There is a really good line here where Shanil says,
Speaker 2: this is what NICKI meant by having you in our world,
Speaker 2: and Sarah says, there's only one world. Shanil right, which
Speaker 2: is a fairly good argument, I will say. And then
Speaker 2: Shanil turns to where she's like, that's what they teach you,
Speaker 2: we know different yep. Also excellent argument.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, and it's very true because that was what
Speaker 1: I was taught me too, a hundred percent what I
Speaker 1: was taught, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So she tells Sarah to open up her eyes, look around. Hurt,
Speaker 1: Sarah just gathers her things and leaves, and Shanil kind
Speaker 1: of looks after her regretfully.
Speaker 2: So we cut to the next dance rehearsal. This is
Speaker 2: the moment where Derek. This is where Erica goes Derek.
Speaker 2: Is why is Derek a choreographer all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: Because this is when it dawns on me that like,
Speaker 2: not only is he like teaching her steps, he's choreographing
Speaker 2: her dance for her audition.
Speaker 1: Yes, Like I didn't realize that until like the second
Speaker 1: time through.
Speaker 2: He is one hundred percent like and so he gets
Speaker 2: like annoyed with her when she doesn't hit her steps
Speaker 2: and like your extension is off and like what are
Speaker 2: you doing? And she's like, shut up, Balanchine, I'm trying,
Speaker 2: Like she's out of sorts because of the fight she
Speaker 2: just had with Shanil, And Derek is like, Hey, everything's
Speaker 2: going to be okay, Like, you're gonna have the audition.
Speaker 2: You're gonna be amazing at it because my Steps are
Speaker 2: unimpeachably good.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: In fact, after you audition for Julliard, they're gonna be like,
Speaker 2: guess what, girl, you didn't get into Juilliard? But who
Speaker 2: is your choreographer? We want them? Yeah, He's like, hey,
Speaker 2: have you picked out a dress for Main Squeeze night
Speaker 2: at Steps?
Speaker 1: Again? This is this is an actual club, but this
Speaker 1: is not This isn't a prom I don't know.
Speaker 2: I do feel like clubs are cheeseball, though I have
Speaker 2: definitely seen club promote some cheeseball shit, and like, I
Speaker 2: this this might if this club is cheeseball enough to
Speaker 2: have like a mostly high school clientele, it might be
Speaker 2: cheeseball enough to have a Maine Squeeze night. So he's like,
Speaker 2: have you picked out a dress for our our next
Speaker 2: date night? Right? And she's like, I don't know, should
Speaker 2: maybe after the fight we should just cool it for
Speaker 2: a while and not go out in public very much.
Speaker 2: And Derek's like buh, are you embarrassed to be seen
Speaker 2: with me? And she's like, no, you should be embarrassed
Speaker 2: we see with me. You are you forgetting what is
Speaker 2: happening here? And she's like, I don't know what I want.
Speaker 2: I'm just tired of having to defend our relationship to
Speaker 2: every everyone, to the world. And Derek's like, well, that's
Speaker 2: the world we're living in. Shit gets hard. You don't
Speaker 2: just walk away because shit gets hard. You have to
Speaker 2: keep moving forward and persevering. He's such a he's such
Speaker 2: an adult. He's like, he should be a therapist.
Speaker 1: A therapist, choreographer, the therapies you through the dance.
Speaker 2: You know that exists?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, Derek would found the studio for that and make
Speaker 2: a billion dollars. And then he kind of hits her
Speaker 2: on like on a nerve. He goes, you know, you
Speaker 2: quit on your on life after your mother died, and
Speaker 2: now you're gonna quit on me, and she's like, do
Speaker 2: not talk about my mother. He immediately apologizes. He's like,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, my bad, and he's like, I've been defending
Speaker 2: your our relationship to everyone too. It's not just you.
Speaker 2: I thought we were in this together. That's why I
Speaker 2: was happy to do so. But if you're not happy
Speaker 2: to do so, if you think this is too difficult,
Speaker 2: then fuck off. And then he leaves yep.
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of the breakup, Derek agrees to go
Speaker 1: with Kai on his raid.
Speaker 2: Buddy, Buddy. The move here is Pint of ice Cream.
Speaker 2: YEP is movie you cry too, absolutely Sandra Bullock movie
Speaker 2: You don't want your You don't want your friends to
Speaker 2: know you secretly watch and weep at.
Speaker 1: Love Potion number nine.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. The move here is to go fuck Nicky. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the move here, that's.
Speaker 1: What you always think. The answer is Erica. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: a good day, Maybe I should go fuck Nicky. It's
Speaker 1: a bad day. Maybe I should go fuck me.
Speaker 2: Maybe I should just like let Nicky hang out, like
Speaker 2: pick out my clothes. But genuinely, I'm like, this is
Speaker 2: such an overreaction to a mediocre girl dumping him, or
Speaker 2: him dumping a mediocre Look. I look, I love this movie.
Speaker 2: I like this movie very much, But Sarah is mediocre.
Speaker 1: Sarah continues to rehearse her upcoming Juilliard audition, and we
Speaker 1: learned that it is now the next day, so time
Speaker 1: has moved forward.
Speaker 2: It's the day of the show, y'all.
Speaker 1: The day of the show, y'all, at home, she's paging
Speaker 1: through a photo album of her mother and Roy comes in.
Speaker 1: He wants to say good luck, and then he shows
Speaker 1: her that he finally fixed up her bedroom so she
Speaker 1: has her own space. Okay, this apartment.
Speaker 2: She walks into this apartment and he like does the
Speaker 2: reveal that he painted her room and everything, and then
Speaker 2: he has a line where he goes, some of it's
Speaker 2: so wet. You're telling me she walked into this four
Speaker 2: hundred square foot apartment and wasn't like, why does it
Speaker 2: smell like paint?
Speaker 1: You're telling me that he was apparently able to do
Speaker 1: it in one day while she was gone at school,
Speaker 1: and it took him three months to do it.
Speaker 2: That that tracks, Actually, that part actually does.
Speaker 1: She should have been like, maybe if you had done
Speaker 1: this earlier, you wouldn't have to sit on my fuck
Speaker 1: couch to watch television.
Speaker 2: I would like you to know that I did a
Speaker 2: doggy style on.
Speaker 1: That couch and I didn't turn the cushions over afterwards.
Speaker 2: Now enjoy your episode of Dateline.
Speaker 1: So Roy says that he knows he doesn't deserve a
Speaker 1: second chance to be her father, but he hopes she'll
Speaker 1: give him one and she starts to cry. She confides
Speaker 1: in him about the breakup. She treats him like a
Speaker 1: dad for the first time, and she says she just
Speaker 1: wants someone at her audition who loves her. And Roy says,
Speaker 1: I love you, and I.
Speaker 2: Gotta say this actor killed him because it got me.
Speaker 2: I was like, oh me too, me to this actor
Speaker 2: fucking nailed it. He's so good. Okay, look you like,
Speaker 2: I get it. Like with your mom maybe in the
Speaker 2: beginning of the movie, but by now you've auditioned several
Speaker 2: times for Juilliard. You need to learn how to audition
Speaker 2: on your own. Your mommy and daddy cannot come with
Speaker 2: you on every audition for the rest of your life.
Speaker 2: You needs to tough enough.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: We cut to the park, Derek is helping she kneel
Speaker 2: with Christopher. She's like, hey, man, I heard about your
Speaker 2: breakup with Sarah. I might have had.
Speaker 1: Something to do that might have been somewhere between fifty
Speaker 1: my fault.
Speaker 2: So she's she's like, listen, I'm really sorry, but I
Speaker 2: told and she tells him everything about her confrontation. She's like,
Speaker 2: I was dealing with bullshit from like with Christopher and
Speaker 2: his father and I and I not the baby's fault,
Speaker 2: Kenny's fault, us dealing with bullshit from Kenny and I lost.
Speaker 2: I lost my head and I took it out on Sarah.
Speaker 2: I'm really sorry. And Derek's like, stay out of my life,
Speaker 2: and he's like, I gotta go. And Chaniel's like, wait,
Speaker 2: are you going to that thing with Kai? And like
Speaker 2: what's funny is like everyone knows. Yeah, this is the
Speaker 2: least well kept secret of this entire school is that
Speaker 2: Kai is going. At four pm on a Saturday.
Speaker 1: We'll be doing a drive.
Speaker 2: We'll be doing a drive ye in West Chicago. Like,
Speaker 2: what about the other kids, the other kids on the
Speaker 2: other side of that drive by? Do you think they
Speaker 2: were told ahead of time? Because fucking everyone knows. So
Speaker 2: she's like, don't don't go help Kai. I know you
Speaker 2: think you owe him, but you don't, and you have
Speaker 2: to move on with your life. And as Derek is
Speaker 2: leaving anyway, Kenny arrives in the park and he and
Speaker 2: Shaniel this has clearly been a thaw for their fight,
Speaker 2: and they greet each other warmly.
Speaker 1: I want to start tracking timing again.
Speaker 2: Huh. This, Paul, was your audition for NYU at ninety
Speaker 2: pm was not? Because this movie posits that her audition
Speaker 2: for Juilliard is at nine pm.
Speaker 1: Because I was trying to figure it out, because it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: in the park, it's it's daylight and it's still it's
Speaker 1: not spring, because it's still very great. Or if it
Speaker 1: is spring, it does not look like spring. It still
Speaker 1: looks like March at the at the latest. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's light. So Derek runs to meet Kai under
Speaker 1: the bridge to get ready for the for the for
Speaker 1: the public raid and he tells Kay He's not going.
Speaker 1: It's dangerous nonsense. Kai should stop it. Kai says, I
Speaker 1: should have given you up to the police, and Derek
Speaker 1: is like, you can walk away from this. You do
Speaker 1: not have to keep going. Kai says, I have nothing
Speaker 1: but respect and I have to defend it. So Kai
Speaker 1: drives away with the rest of the crew and Derek
Speaker 1: runs to Sarah's house, but she's already left for the audition.
Speaker 1: It is dark out time.
Speaker 2: It's nighttime already. When he goes to meet Kai. Yes,
Speaker 2: like he from the park to meeting Kai, he like,
Speaker 2: daylight has gone.
Speaker 1: Daylight has gone.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the twilight has ended, and like we.
Speaker 1: Are past the gloaming.
Speaker 2: Why did he even agree to this in the first place.
Speaker 2: I know he like, obviously he's not gonna go to
Speaker 2: the drive by, but like, there are things that I
Speaker 2: could reasonably believe that Derek would agree to because he's
Speaker 2: pissed off at Sarah, because he's pissed off at the world,
Speaker 2: and he just kind of wants to act out right
Speaker 2: like we're gonna go and rob something, but drive by
Speaker 2: equals murder?
Speaker 1: Correct?
Speaker 2: The answer is like, so Kai is reaching out to
Speaker 2: his friend and being like, would you like to come
Speaker 2: with me to murder people?
Speaker 3: To a premeditated murder, to a premeditated murder, to ending
Speaker 3: the lives of several people, whether they're good people or
Speaker 3: bad people?
Speaker 2: Who cares? It's we're going to a murder and like
Speaker 2: and Derek's like, I'm really mad at my girlfriend for
Speaker 2: breaking up with me, So yeah, I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 2: That sounds like a really good way to blow off
Speaker 2: some seam No no movie. I don't believe that Derek
Speaker 2: would ever even get close to agreeing to that, Like,
Speaker 2: this doesn't make any sense. We know now he doesn't
Speaker 2: do it. He goes. He shows up and he's like,
Speaker 2: don't go to the drive by. So we cut to
Speaker 2: Roy driving Sarah to the audition and he waits as
Speaker 2: she warms up, and Derek sprints through Chicago. He's on
Speaker 2: the l he's on the train. He's trying to catch her. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: we cut to Kai and his crew being so bad
Speaker 2: at drive bys. I get it, drive bys are not easy,
Speaker 2: but you could prepare yourself a little bit better for
Speaker 2: the drive by. So they're trying to execute their drive by. Basically,
Speaker 2: one of the rival gang members hits Kai's like Kai's
Speaker 2: car's gas tank as he's driving away. Because they drive by,
Speaker 2: they miss everyone. All the guys they were aiming for
Speaker 2: are fine. Then those guys are shooting back hard at
Speaker 2: the car. They hit the gas tank in the car
Speaker 2: kind of like I thought, for a minute, I really
Speaker 2: was kind of hoping the movie was going here because
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm like, this is so stupid, Yeah, the car.
Speaker 2: I thought the car was going to explode me too.
Speaker 1: I thought they were gonna be and kill them all.
Speaker 2: Which would have been too dark for this. It would
Speaker 2: have been funnier if this was a comedy. But like
Speaker 2: it's too dark. But basically the car kind of half explodes,
Speaker 2: it like gets on fire. Whoever's driving the car like
Speaker 2: swerves and hits another car and now they're like caught
Speaker 2: by the cups. So as that's going on, we see
Speaker 2: Sarah at her audition, we see the ballet piece. In
Speaker 2: your opinion, Paul, again, we are not professionals. If you
Speaker 2: are a professional dancer or professional choreographer, or if you
Speaker 2: even attended Juilliard, reach out and let us know. Do
Speaker 2: you think this is good enough to get into Juilliard? Paul?
Speaker 2: I pause it No, I don't think this is good
Speaker 2: enough to get into the community college. It is the
Speaker 2: weakest ass ballet audition. She at one point does one
Speaker 2: of those like jumps and it just she lands with
Speaker 2: a foot. But that's not why we're here, guys, Paul.
Speaker 2: Let's get into the contemporary dance piece.
Speaker 1: Okay, She brings out her chair. Yeah, for the contemporary
Speaker 1: dance piece. I just want this is one of those
Speaker 1: like old folding metal chairs that that are in like
Speaker 1: every like community rec center. Yep, right, Like that's the
Speaker 1: chair we're talking about. Just as Derek rushes in absolutely
Speaker 1: one thousand percent would not have been able to get in.
Speaker 1: But whatever, he's in there now, the same auditioner as
Speaker 1: earlier in the.
Speaker 2: Movie, same stupid bitch.
Speaker 1: That same guy that looks like he got he got
Speaker 1: he got drummed out of close up magic college.
Speaker 2: That same guy who absolutely sends a coffee order back.
Speaker 1: Yes, that guy, that guy again, and this actor is
Speaker 1: doing such a good job of portraying that guy. He's
Speaker 1: sitting there. There's a couple other people there. Sarah starts
Speaker 1: her piece and she stumbles again. She like does this
Speaker 1: thing where and she's basically doing like like Warrior three
Speaker 1: and she like falls forward as all of us who
Speaker 1: do Warrior three have done. However, we are not a
Speaker 1: for Julliard, and we do it.
Speaker 2: We're I supposed to have the core strength of a seventeen.
Speaker 1: Year old exactly. And then and then the yogi teaching
Speaker 1: the class goes, when you stumble, that's your body learning.
Speaker 1: You're like, thanks, and you can get back up.
Speaker 2: Right. No, that's middle aged, right, that's middle age you're
Speaker 2: talking about. By the way, when she says stumble, they
Speaker 2: cut to the bitch I did. The guy who's auditioning her,
Speaker 2: and he goes, oh, he's sneers he's so mean. This
Speaker 2: is a person who hates children. You should not do
Speaker 2: his job because his job asked like you are auditioning teenagers.
Speaker 1: This is a person whose dream it was to go
Speaker 1: to Juilliard for dance. He didn't get in, and has
Speaker 1: he somehow managed to get a job as the audition
Speaker 1: proctor and he.
Speaker 2: Gets to jerk off every night to the faces of
Speaker 2: disappointment that he's had that day.
Speaker 1: She apologizes and he's like, well, are you ready now?
Speaker 1: And she she can't speak, like, oh my god, all
Speaker 1: of this, her mother and Derek and her father and
Speaker 1: her life dreams crumbling around her. She can't speak. Erica,
Speaker 1: She's speechless, one might say. And Derek shouts from the
Speaker 1: back that she's ready. And the auditioner is what is this?
Speaker 1: What is this? And he runs up onto the stage
Speaker 1: and all the auditioners are like, well, this is not
Speaker 1: how we do things at Juilliard, young man. You get
Speaker 1: him out of here. We'll get him out of here.
Speaker 2: And he ignores them, and he's like, I'm the choreographer.
Speaker 1: Excuse me, I am Alvin Ailey. You twat I shut up.
Speaker 2: I have notes.
Speaker 1: So he rushes up to the stage and He promises
Speaker 1: Sarah that she can do it. He tells her, look,
Speaker 1: no one's watching you but me. It's just me and
Speaker 1: you here. Baby. The auditioner is like, are you ready,
Speaker 1: you tiny little bit, and Sarah's like, I'm ready.
Speaker 2: Derek goes into the wings and Sarah starts her piece again. Okay, okay.
Speaker 2: This This scene is said to All or Nothing by
Speaker 2: Athena Cage.
Speaker 1: I really really short interruption here, please the lines. The
Speaker 1: line got to work to get the is in this
Speaker 1: song and straight adopted to the friend group. You can
Speaker 1: add that on after I got Dick for days. You
Speaker 1: got to ask for weeks. You gotta work to get
Speaker 1: the cream. I think you do that.
Speaker 2: You're in I really want to meet our straight OFFTI.
Speaker 2: I'm so excited. We're taking guys, We're taking what do
Speaker 2: you think his name is? Submissions? I want it to
Speaker 2: be it's a street guy name I wanted to be, like,
Speaker 2: I mean, Derek would be a good name, right, Derek.
Speaker 1: Derek's a straight guy from this movie. I want something,
Speaker 1: I want.
Speaker 2: Something, yeah, top of Mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we Salt of the Earth. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah
Speaker 1: yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: Like Joe Joe, Joe. This is my friendly Joe.
Speaker 1: I actually do have a straight friend, Joe who could
Speaker 1: probably pull all of this off.
Speaker 2: I want to meet straight friend Joe. I want Joe
Speaker 2: Leo Leo. What about a Leo Leo.
Speaker 1: I love my straight friend Joe. He's a good guy.
Speaker 2: It's a good guy. It's a good guy. Look, we
Speaker 2: all have straight men in our lives that are good men.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Every once in a while you get a good one.
Speaker 1: He's one of the good hashtag not all straights.
Speaker 2: This piece blends ballet with hip hop moves. There's chair dancing,
Speaker 2: there's she uses the man's spreading. We're like, will the
Speaker 2: man's breading come back?
Speaker 1: Oh, it'll come back? Fucking does man spreading famously always
Speaker 1: comes back.
Speaker 2: Derek puts it in the dance. I the only thing
Speaker 2: it would have made it better is if they cut
Speaker 2: to Derek in the back of the room like a
Speaker 2: dance mom doing all that the steps in a half
Speaker 2: like half steps.
Speaker 1: He's marking the dance.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's marking it with her like hit it, Yes,
Speaker 2: she hit it.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about this chair, this chair, this
Speaker 1: shitty ass folding chair that she is like stepping on
Speaker 1: and doing all these that is a death trap. That
Speaker 1: is a death Okay, there is a famous there's a
Speaker 1: famous song in Chicago when Velma takes the stand and
Speaker 1: bib Newirth has said that she has like shoulder damage
Speaker 1: from having to carry that chair around because the chair
Speaker 1: was so heavy. Because the chair needs to be heavy
Speaker 1: because you have a grown woman flipping and taking her
Speaker 1: life over in her hands all the way over it.
Speaker 1: Oh so ned have a heavy chair, so doesn't fucking
Speaker 1: fall or move while she's doing that. Right this chair,
Speaker 1: she would be dead. She would have broken her neck.
Speaker 1: Two arabesques into this piece.
Speaker 2: She does that move that you see and like where
Speaker 2: she puts like she like knocks over the chair while
Speaker 2: she's dancing on it. Like yeah, like that that chair
Speaker 2: would have just slipped out from under our and slid
Speaker 2: fifty feet across the stage. Alas, despite the fact that
Speaker 2: Paul and Erica are duly unimpressed, yeah, yeah, the judges
Speaker 2: are all duly impressed.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, what are these? Is that a man spread?
Speaker 2: Is that a man I've never seen it, I've never
Speaker 2: seread that before.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I've never seen one in competition.
Speaker 2: What is this hip hop? I've heard of this. If
Speaker 2: my children have told me about hip hop, I've just
Speaker 2: never seen it before. The judges are so into her.
Speaker 2: She finishes and she's like thank you, and Derek's like
Speaker 2: whoa from her side, he rushes the stage, he hugs her,
Speaker 2: Sarah thanks the judges. The absolute prick of a judge.
Speaker 2: He takes his God he's wearing glasses. He moves them
Speaker 2: down on the bridge of his nose. He goes, miss Johnson,
Speaker 2: I can't say this on the record yet, but welcome
Speaker 2: to Juilliard. Look, let's talk about it. Like obviously that
Speaker 2: would never happen, but in my brain. He says that
Speaker 2: to her, and she's like, fuck, yeah, I got into Juilliard.
Speaker 2: And then literally five Misty Copelands come in right after
Speaker 2: her and blow her out of the water.
Speaker 3: And then they're like, oh shit, oh shit, well well
Speaker 3: we can We're never gonna see her again.
Speaker 2: We're only gonna take five girls from the Chicago area,
Speaker 2: and those other five were geniuses.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Then they're like, oh, remember when we said that part.
Speaker 1: Sorry, sorry. They're positing that she is so good that
Speaker 1: there is no way that anyone else. Maybe she was
Speaker 1: the last audition of the day because it is now
Speaker 1: approximately eleven o'clock at night.
Speaker 2: It's they're angry. They're just letting people into Juilliard. They're like,
Speaker 2: like I could murder a deep dish pizza. Let's go,
Speaker 2: let's go quickly.
Speaker 1: Little fact about Juilliard. The dance, the dance. The dance
Speaker 1: section is actually two hundred people, but they cut one
Speaker 1: hundred and seventy five of them the first day. No,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, you weren't meant to be here.
Speaker 2: Sarah and Derek embrace. Yes, victory for all.
Speaker 1: They head back home. They head to Maine Squeeze night
Speaker 1: at Steps, which is definitely not prom.
Speaker 2: And she's not wearing a dress.
Speaker 1: She's not wearing a dress, Hanil, speaking of what people
Speaker 1: are wearing, Okay, I haven't been to a club in
Speaker 1: a minute.
Speaker 2: I'm told one would never know, Paul, Yeah, one would
Speaker 2: absolutely never know based on everything about you, that you
Speaker 2: have not been to a nightclub in a minute.
Speaker 1: However, there was a time in my twenties where I
Speaker 1: did go to clubs and I did like dancing, And
Speaker 1: one of my absolute clearest memories is how fucking hot
Speaker 1: it is inside there.
Speaker 2: Every time they cut to the club. Shanil is wearing
Speaker 2: fourteen layers of clothes.
Speaker 1: She's wearing an actual long winter coat. Looks amazing to
Speaker 1: be clear, but like, you wouldn't wear that in a club.
Speaker 1: It's too hot.
Speaker 2: It's so hot. It's Satan's asshole, is there? Like yeah, absolutely?
Speaker 1: No, okay. So and Neil congratulates Sarah on her acceptance.
Speaker 1: They hug their friends again, and then they all head
Speaker 1: out onto the dance floor to do someone more that
Speaker 1: hip hop dancing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Sarah, go Sarah, Go Sarah.
Speaker 1: Oh, white Girl so embarrassing.
Speaker 2: This movie should have been called Go White Girl instead.
Speaker 2: Saved the Last Dance should have been called go White Girl,
Speaker 2: Go White Girl.
Speaker 1: If no one pitched that is that is a That
Speaker 1: is a massive fail.
Speaker 2: It's the same person who wrote It's an A and
Speaker 2: B conversation, So see yourself out and put it in
Speaker 2: the mouth of a seventeen year old boy.
Speaker 1: All right, everyone, That is the end of Save the
Speaker 1: Last Dance. Stick around. We will be right back with
Speaker 1: our random observations and final rankings.
Speaker 2: And we're back. Paul. I'm gonna put my chair away
Speaker 2: and ask you if you have any observations about this film.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I'm gonna start with a serious one, and
Speaker 1: then we're gonna we're gonna slide into the stupid.
Speaker 2: Got it, Okay, mine is gonna be all stupid.
Speaker 1: Okay, perfect because you know what we.
Speaker 2: Didn't celebrate enough, I think during the recap portion of
Speaker 2: our show is how completely stupid this movie is true.
Speaker 2: And honestly that's a feature, not a bug. Yeah, like
Speaker 2: you want you want your like Ernest High School for
Speaker 2: dramas to be also pretty stupid, pretty pretty fucking stupid.
Speaker 1: If they get too serious, it's no fun. Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: So in that very first English class where she first
Speaker 1: meets Derek, there is a moment where the teacher is
Speaker 1: asking the class like what did Truman Capoti do? Like
Speaker 1: what what made him special? Or whatever? Yeah, and Snookie,
Speaker 1: this is when we first meet. Snookie is like, yo,
Speaker 1: he was gay. He had a sweet tooth, right, which
Speaker 1: is pretty funny. And then he keeps going with like
Speaker 1: the the homophobia, you know, like yeah, it's it's not
Speaker 1: like the worst homophobia ever, like, but he's just like
Speaker 1: making fun of the fact that he's gay, right.
Speaker 2: Which means Snookie also never read James Baldwin. Derek.
Speaker 1: Yeah, good point. So the teacher is like, okay, great,
Speaker 1: we can and we can promote you to kindergarten enough.
Speaker 1: So I would just like to submit that this is fine.
Speaker 1: I am fine with all of this.
Speaker 2: Too, right. I think he's I'm pretty sure he does.
Speaker 1: Again a situation where like, yeah, that's what a kid
Speaker 1: in two thousand and one would say, And it wasn't
Speaker 1: The actor did a good job of It wasn't like
Speaker 1: he was disgusted by it. He was trying to be
Speaker 1: a class clown with it. So it was it was
Speaker 1: low key and the teacher.
Speaker 2: He's clowning on Truman Capoti.
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, exactly, and Truman Capote would obviously unhinches drawn
Speaker 1: swallow the kid hole, right, but the teacher shuts it
Speaker 1: down and like in a way, and the and then
Speaker 1: the class just drops it. And I just thought that
Speaker 1: was a very good way of like because people are like, well,
Speaker 1: that's how it was in two thousand and one. People
Speaker 1: said that. I was like, true, and this is a
Speaker 1: way to demonstrate how you can shut such a thing down.
Speaker 1: So I just thought that was a it was a
Speaker 1: good moment that didn't in any way like co sign
Speaker 1: any of like the homophobia stuff going on. It was
Speaker 1: like this this is who this kid is. This kid
Speaker 1: would say something like that, yeah, and that's fine.
Speaker 2: Well let me start with my most serious one for
Speaker 2: he's a little out of order. But like that sex scene, great,
Speaker 2: no real problems to it at all. I didn't have
Speaker 2: any real problems with it. I thought it was really
Speaker 2: elegantly portrayed for young people, you know, lots of consent everywhere, wonderful.
Speaker 2: If I had a note, though, it would be for
Speaker 2: the person underscoring the scene with this song true Colors.
Speaker 2: I get it, they're interracial. I see your true Colors,
Speaker 2: but it's about something else. It's so lame and on
Speaker 2: the nose and horrible. And there's no way either of
Speaker 2: these two kids listens to that music. Like neither of
Speaker 2: them is like, hang on, let me put on my
Speaker 2: Cyndi Lauper Fuck mix.
Speaker 1: Well, do you realize that's a cover?
Speaker 2: It is a cover. Yeah, I get that, part two,
Speaker 2: but no, bad.
Speaker 1: Bad, bad song choice fair enough.
Speaker 2: I do not like this song. This song choice killed
Speaker 2: my boner.
Speaker 1: Do you remember Lindsay Prayer Prayer Forward Lindsay's second moment
Speaker 1: in the movie, so she has that first scene basically
Speaker 1: disappears from the movie and then we have one phone
Speaker 1: call between between Sarah and Lindsay. This is after the
Speaker 1: first dance montage. So Sarah has just been in the cafeteria.
Speaker 1: She's learned how to stand, she has learned how to sit.
Speaker 1: She has demonstrated some ballet moves for Derek, and he
Speaker 1: thinks ballet is a big deal. Yeah, and now then
Speaker 1: she we cut back to her in the apartment and
Speaker 1: the she is in media res and a phone call
Speaker 1: with Lindsay, and Lindsay says, I'm just going to I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna do this conversation for everybody. Did you see
Speaker 1: anyone get shot yet? Cool? No, I didn't move to Bosnia. Jesus, Sarah,
Speaker 1: you're in the freaking ghetto. Forget about the drive bys.
Speaker 1: How are you supposed to meet anybody? Well? I did
Speaker 1: meet somebody. Actually, he's pretty cool. They got white guys
Speaker 1: at your school.
Speaker 2: Excellent. That honestly is pretty good writing. Except for that.
Speaker 2: Have you seen anyone get shot yet? That's even your
Speaker 2: dumbest Why it's not going to be that dump another
Speaker 2: stupid one. Yeah, this is not This is a little
Speaker 2: the actress fault. We've said wonderful things about Terry Kenny
Speaker 2: who plays Roy. He cannot convincingly carry suitcases up up.
Speaker 2: There is nothing in those suitcases. He is carrying them
Speaker 2: like they are made of air. Like a teenage girl
Speaker 2: didn't cram everything she owns into two suitcases.
Speaker 1: That house was big that she came from too. How
Speaker 1: much shit did they did they make her get rid of?
Speaker 1: You live with her dad?
Speaker 2: So sad?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like that girl didn't have to jump on that
Speaker 2: suitcase to fit all her shit in there. This guy
Speaker 2: is just like swinging them up the stairs like they
Speaker 2: weigh nothing.
Speaker 1: You notice that in her first Juilliard audition, they have
Speaker 1: a placard out and they misspelled Juilliard.
Speaker 2: No, no, oh my god, No, I didn't see it.
Speaker 1: It's j It's they spell that j u l l
Speaker 1: i a r d. It should be j u I
Speaker 1: l l i a r d.
Speaker 2: Is it the only time anyone spells Julliard?
Speaker 1: I believe so.
Speaker 2: So that means they got it wrong one hundred percent
Speaker 2: of the time correct, not not fifty percent or twenty
Speaker 2: five percent. One percent of the time that they showed
Speaker 2: the word Juilliard is incorrect. Maybe they had to maybe
Speaker 2: like the high school where they can't legally say oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: high school. They're like, it's not that Juilliard.
Speaker 1: This is the other Juilliard in the yard.
Speaker 2: It's the other school named Juilliard. Yeah, I just have
Speaker 2: one more. And it's I'm trying to decipher what the
Speaker 2: fuck this means. There's a scene like after after they're
Speaker 2: dancing in the club the first time, Derek is like
Speaker 2: trying to get trying to like flirt with Sarah and
Speaker 2: he goes, let's go braveheart. What what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 2: Is it because of her outfits? Because she's wearing like
Speaker 2: like like a Tartan looking like oh maybe She even
Speaker 2: says my clothes are from the Gap, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: maybe the Gap at that point was doing a lot
Speaker 2: of like Tartan colors.
Speaker 1: You know, I heard that line and I think I
Speaker 1: meant it. I think he I think I interpreted as
Speaker 1: him like calling her like scared to dance?
Speaker 2: But how is that brave heart?
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: I was like she's kind of being like pugnacious with
Speaker 2: him at the bar where she's just like, yeah, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna fight back with you or whatever. He's like, let's
Speaker 2: go brave heart, because you're a fighter. I don't know,
Speaker 2: genuinely confused.
Speaker 1: Well, don't you know, she screamed in his face. You
Speaker 1: can take my life, but you can never take my freedom.
Speaker 2: Did forget to mention she came to the club with
Speaker 2: blue covering off her face.
Speaker 1: Yeah, she kept calling him sugar ticks?
Speaker 2: Yeah? No, no, she covered she covered her face in
Speaker 2: blue paint, and she didn't have a broad sword. Yeah. Oh,
Speaker 2: I just got where you came up with sugar tips.
Speaker 2: I think that was absolutely not a movie, brave heart, Paul,
Speaker 2: How shall we rank Save the Last Dance?
Speaker 1: One to ten? Tickle dicks. If you put crazy eyebrows
Speaker 1: on your dick, it's a whipple dick.
Speaker 2: It's a if you if you put if you put
Speaker 2: little dots on it, it's a nipple dick.
Speaker 1: If you hold up, if you hold up two mirrors
Speaker 1: on either side of it, you can make a triple
Speaker 1: deck a trip dick, A trip dick.
Speaker 2: Here, even better, it's an actual trip dick. How about
Speaker 2: one to ten? Eleven thirty pm at night auditions?
Speaker 1: I loved those. I do remember a couple of times
Speaker 1: when I was acting. If you're auditioning for like a
Speaker 1: student film at Columbia, they'd be like, your audition's at
Speaker 1: ten pm, and I'd be like, no, it's not I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that.
Speaker 2: I'm not getting co code. I watched Fame. I know
Speaker 2: what happens at ten pm in an audition room. Try again,
Speaker 2: try I'm not taking this shirt off.
Speaker 1: One to ten straight adoptees named Kyle.
Speaker 2: Named Tafur.
Speaker 1: Tofur, that's it, named straight adoptees named Tafur. We got there. Finally,
Speaker 1: One to.
Speaker 2: Ten chairs that got into Juilliard.
Speaker 1: The dancing was incredible, but the chair, that fucking chair
Speaker 1: that transcended. Yeah, I saw God in that chair.
Speaker 2: That chair is the next Martha Graham.
Speaker 1: Did you see it doing the thing from bird Cage
Speaker 1: Martha Graham, Martha Graham, Madonna, Madonna, and he kept it
Speaker 1: all inside, all inside, all inside. Let's do this one, Okay,
Speaker 1: this one makes us happy. I think, do you want
Speaker 1: to go first? There? Shall I go first?
Speaker 2: I'll go first on this one, go for it. I
Speaker 2: think it actually ages pretty well. I'm trying to think of, like,
Speaker 2: how many high school films had an interracial romance at
Speaker 2: the center of them up until two thousand and one,
Speaker 2: And I don't know if that I can I really
Speaker 2: genuinely can't think of any off the top of my head.
Speaker 2: We're also they were like this is the thing. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Like it's the point of the movie. It's like, this
Speaker 2: movie's not really about dance, it's about like acceptance. So
Speaker 2: it makes a level of sense that they hit the
Speaker 2: nail on the head a lot about it, right that,
Speaker 2: Like every character seems to have an opinion except for God,
Speaker 2: bless him Roy, Thank God Roy is the only character
Speaker 2: who's like, I have no opinion about you, and you're
Speaker 2: a black boyfriend, But like every other character having an opinion,
Speaker 2: and like the struggle she feels about being judged for
Speaker 2: it and like feeling guilty in a way. Like all
Speaker 2: of that makes sense, even if it is a little cringey,
Speaker 2: because I feel like, hopefully we've moved past this conversation
Speaker 2: in cinema, not even in life, but just in cinema,
Speaker 2: we've moved past this conversation. But you have to give
Speaker 2: the movie credit for possibly being one of the earlier ones.
Speaker 2: And again, I'm talking about the high school genre, so
Speaker 2: I get it. Like, if that's the message, you really
Speaker 2: want to be crystal clear with it, it's cringey now
Speaker 2: to watch it, and it's a little like retrograde now
Speaker 2: because we're twenty five years ahead of it all in
Speaker 2: all the movies, Hard is in the right place. I
Speaker 2: think there are some stereotypes. I'm gonna let you talk
Speaker 2: about that since you brought it up earlier, But like,
Speaker 2: and I agree with you, I think there are some
Speaker 2: like uncomfortable and like first idea stereotypes in the movie
Speaker 2: that maybe we could have finessed nuanced a touch a
Speaker 2: little bit more. But you know what a plus for effort,
Speaker 2: I would say, thank you for Carrie Washington for carrying
Speaker 2: the emotional weight of this film on your back, on
Speaker 2: your very beautiful shoulders. Thank you, Bianca Lawson, just for
Speaker 2: being you, just for existing, bless you. Thank you. I
Speaker 2: hope she did. I hope she agedes well. Like as
Speaker 2: much as I've talked about how much I love this woman,
Speaker 2: I genuinely don't know anything about her.
Speaker 1: I mean, she played teenagers until.
Speaker 2: She was forty two, except that she's so hot.
Speaker 1: We may get a ceasing desist letter from her agent.
Speaker 2: But you know what, it's not a problem. I don't
Speaker 2: have a problem you guys. But good female characters pass
Speaker 2: the Bechdel test with flying colors. Yeah, I'm gonna give
Speaker 2: it an eight. Okay, yeah, I want to give it more,
Speaker 2: but as a white girl, I'm not sure I might
Speaker 2: be missing some shit that I'm like, a black woman's like,
Speaker 2: girl miss that, and I'm like, oh, you're right, I
Speaker 2: did miss that. So I'm gonna tentatively give it an
Speaker 2: eight because I just don't want to fuck this one
Speaker 2: up and be that girl. So yeah, eight out of
Speaker 2: ten chairs that fucking nailed their Juilliard auditions. Okay, how
Speaker 2: about you?
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, I agree mostly with what you're saying, Like
Speaker 1: great female representation, there's no gay representation to speak of.
Speaker 1: The little the little gay moment in the class is
Speaker 1: really all that happens, and I would say it's handled well.
Speaker 1: I don't know what to do with the stereotypes like
Speaker 1: like they are. They are I think broadly considered to
Speaker 1: be harmful stereotypes, but while they are not nuanced, they
Speaker 1: are they are still like stories that are being told,
Speaker 1: and at that time, the one that pops most strongly
Speaker 1: to mind is the teen mother. I think they deal
Speaker 1: with that well because a she's shown being a good
Speaker 1: and caring mother who cares for her child and it's
Speaker 1: not ruining her life. Perhaps there were choices she wouldn't
Speaker 1: have made earlier if this is where it was gonna
Speaker 1: wind up. But like she loves her son, she's very
Speaker 1: happy with her son. She's still going to school, she
Speaker 1: still has a future.
Speaker 3: Like it's it's so, I think that's saving up for school,
Speaker 3: saving up for school for design school.
Speaker 2: She wants to be a clothing designer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I think I think that's I think from
Speaker 1: my perspective, that is a net positive. I would say,
Speaker 1: I would say the black kid who's on the wrong path,
Speaker 1: who doesn't get off the path's a drug dealer. And
Speaker 1: the drive by like that stuff I think is a
Speaker 1: little harder to swallow.
Speaker 2: You also go too hard.
Speaker 1: They go too hard on it, right, Like I wish
Speaker 1: it wasn't it didn't escalate to drive bys, like if
Speaker 1: they had kept it more.
Speaker 2: Like selling drugs. Drug that's bad enough, ye talking about
Speaker 2: it like it's not a big deal. It is bad
Speaker 2: enough that he's like just to.
Speaker 1: Have him do that, and like getting into fights in
Speaker 1: the clubs and finally eventually Derek is like, I'm not fighting,
Speaker 1: Like that guy didn't do anything you're just starting fights
Speaker 1: or something like. I get that that like takes the
Speaker 1: drama out of it, but like it it reads as
Speaker 1: very like dare program. I guess, like to me, now.
Speaker 2: You take one puff of weed, next thing you know,
Speaker 2: you're doing drive back.
Speaker 1: Yeah. If you had told me at seven that if
Speaker 1: I smoke me and I would wind up pregnant, I
Speaker 1: probably would have believed you.
Speaker 2: If you if you smoke weed, you're gonna end up
Speaker 2: in a drive by the next day.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, So I don't like you said. We're two
Speaker 1: white people talking about we might be missing things, and
Speaker 1: we apologize if we are. We're trying to be as
Speaker 1: holistically thoughtful as possible. I think that the movie's a
Speaker 1: net positive, like it is pushing the genre forward. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give it a seven. I want to give it
Speaker 1: a seven out of ten chairs that absolutely the extension
Speaker 1: on those legs is it's enough. It's enough. You're in
Speaker 1: Juliard already chair with the caveat that we might be
Speaker 1: missing something. But I think it's a net positive, and
Speaker 1: I think that the movie's heart is very much in
Speaker 1: the right place.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit of a time capsule piece. It's
Speaker 2: very two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: It's very like, it's very It reminded me of Friends.
Speaker 1: We talked about. Friends were like, oh, Friends like had
Speaker 1: the first lesbian wedding on TV, and friends like one
Speaker 1: glad Awards, and now we're like, well, Friends is fucking homophobic.
Speaker 1: All things can be true.
Speaker 2: Well, it reminds me of our conversation years ago about
Speaker 2: American Pie. Yeah, where like, yeah, American Pie is deeply problematic,
Speaker 2: but at the time it was it really moved the
Speaker 2: needle into like sex positivity in a conversation, and it
Speaker 2: really there were a lot of girl characters that you'd
Speaker 2: never see before in like a fun sex romp movie. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it was like that was great and so like so like, yeah,
Speaker 2: there's problems now, but at the time it if it
Speaker 2: moves the needle, I think we should give it credit.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And I don't think any of this stuff
Speaker 1: in this movie ages into offensive. It just ages into like, okay,
Speaker 1: like it still little retrograde, tone deaf. Yeah, and so
Speaker 1: I think I think it deserves a high score. So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna give it a seven out of ten. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to offer a palate cleanser.
Speaker 2: Please watch that Chloe Fine min sketch on Saturday Night
Speaker 2: Live just Google. Look, I'm gonna spoil something, but there
Speaker 2: is a cameo that you do not want to miss
Speaker 2: in that It's not even a sketch, it's her on
Speaker 2: weekend up date.
Speaker 1: All right. So that is the end of our show.
Speaker 1: Everyone listening can follow us on Blue Sky, Threads and Instagram.
Speaker 1: Instagram is the only platform where we accept requests for
Speaker 1: our monthly themes. We have a tea pub and we
Speaker 1: would love it if you would leave a five star
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Speaker 1: you use. If you do that, just like Diane five
Speaker 1: one seventy nine and short Worker from the top of
Speaker 1: this episode, and you'll let us know that you did.
Speaker 1: We will send you a that Edgewell tote bag. And
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Speaker 1: dot com slash do age Well, and you can follow
Speaker 1: the instructions there.
Speaker 2: That age Well is produced and edited by a black
Speaker 2: folding chair that nails it. We have decided to name
Speaker 2: the chair, Paul Koa. We would liked the chair and
Speaker 2: I would officially like to think Parker, Robin Christy, Laurie, Mikey,
Speaker 2: Aaron Danielle, Chris n Meghan another Laurie Miggie, Emily Ellen,
Speaker 2: Austin RuSHA, Mary, Melissa yet another Emily Elise another Melissa
Speaker 2: See and Amanda.
Speaker 1: This.
Speaker 2: Like I said, this movie came in hot. People came
Speaker 2: out for this movie. Thank you all for reaching out
Speaker 2: letting us know what you want to hear. If you
Speaker 2: want to have a say in the topics we discuss
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Speaker 2: one have said subjects. So go on over to patreon
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Speaker 2: Speaking of which, guess what else the patreons get the patreons.
Speaker 2: The patreons e some of the tears on our patreon
Speaker 2: come with patrons. The word is patrons.
Speaker 1: That is the word.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that is actually the word. Patreonazi, the patronazzi, the patronaze,
Speaker 2: the glitter on the patrenati.
Speaker 1: There you go, some peers.
Speaker 2: Of our patreon come with Thanks from a podcast character
Speaker 2: and today we are hearing from the Grand Dam Lauren
Speaker 2: bacall m.
Speaker 1: It's been a while, hasn't it. But don't worry. Thanks
Speaker 1: to my high point, I've not only enjoyed the rich,
Speaker 1: deep flava of instant coffee, I've also never slept better
Speaker 1: in my life. Why because it's decaffeinated. I know in
Speaker 1: the months that have passed since I last visited, that
Speaker 1: you've covered my performance in nineteen ninety six is the
Speaker 1: Mirror Has Two Faces? Otherwise known as the film I
Speaker 1: should have won my Oscar for Perhaps if I had
Speaker 1: that year wouldn't have been so cursed. Best Actor Jeffrey
Speaker 1: Rush problematic, Best Supporting Actor, Kuba Gooding Junior problematic. Best
Speaker 1: Supporting Actress Juliette Binoche nothing yet but she's French. Let
Speaker 1: her cook? Oh no'sat But I'm not here to talk
Speaker 1: about what should have been on that fateful night in
Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven. I'm here to thank Heather for being
Speaker 1: a patron of that ag dwell, and also to thank
Speaker 1: Heather's cat Hamburger Brown, I presume, for being just the
Speaker 1: snugliest little angel that's ever put What what's that coming
Speaker 1: across the telegraph? MM? A report that Juliette Binoche has
Speaker 1: stated that we shouldn't forget that Harvey Weinstein was a
Speaker 1: great producer. Well, darlings, I don't want to say I
Speaker 1: told you so. I want to say Jette laddie, which
Speaker 1: is I told you so in French, at least according
Speaker 1: to this magical typewriter in front of me. Remember, award
Speaker 1: your legends while you have the chance. Hashtag Audre was robbed,
Speaker 1: and keep your coffee decaffeinated.
Speaker 2: For someone who drinks only decaffeinated coffee. She is sprightly,
Speaker 2: yeah that one.
Speaker 1: And she's also dead and dead. Yeah, and dead. You
Speaker 1: keep forgetting dead.
Speaker 2: Shown up here, dead, and she has more energy than
Speaker 2: both of us combined.
Speaker 1: Correct. It is a miracle, a miracle that God himself
Speaker 1: would be proud of.
Speaker 2: Excellent, excellent, Yes.
Speaker 1: Erica, any final thoughts on Save the Last Dance.
Speaker 2: I'm just going to lower my glasses to the bridge
Speaker 2: of my nose and look you up and down and say, Paul, yes, look.
Speaker 2: I can't say this officially, but welcome to podcasting. She
Speaker 2: apparently made so little on Save the Last Dance that
Speaker 2: she had to go back to working as a substitute
Speaker 2: teacher after the film had finished. After the film had
Speaker 2: finished wrapped, we try that again.