2000-Era Pop Star Movies & Crossroads (2002)

On this week’s episode of Dear Movies, I Love You, our hosts Millie and Casey are going full Y2K to talk about Crossroads (2002), Britney Spears, and all the other glorious pop star movies of the era. Plus, a birthday party-related bit of film advice.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Casey, my bro.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
What's happening, Millie? What's up? My also my bro, you're
also my bro, my bro. Oh Millie. There's just so
much happening in the world, but more importantly, there's so
much happening on this podcast today. This is an exciting
episode that I was really that I circled on the calendar.
I'm really excited to be talking about this.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Yes, absolutely, we are going to be discussing a very interesting,
perhaps important, formative era of filmmaking, certainly for me, I'm
sure for you as well.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Huh, Yes, absolutely. You know, you think about the great
times in cinematic history, you know, nineteen seventies, you know
movie brats with Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola. You
think about, you know, the French New Wave, and you
think about the period of time we're going to be
talking about today.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah, it's like the year was nineteen thirty nine and
the best pictures of the of the year. That's my
Katherine Happern impression. Sure, we're going to talk about the
two early in a mid I would say two thousand's
era of pop star films. Yes, so we want to

(01:19):
talk a little bit about the movie Crossroads from two
thousand and two, which of course you know, is starring
and sort of conceived by.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
I learned this, Yeah, conceived by Britney Spears. That's right.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
We have probably so much to unpack, yes and yeah,
So that's gonna be the crux of our conversation today, and.

Speaker 2 (01:43):
It's gonna be a Jembo side. We're really gonna go
deep on it, so it might take up more more
of the episode than normally the main discussion does, but
it needs we need to hold space for this topic
and Brittany, so we're gonna be talking about that. We'll
have some film advice at the end, employees picks. But yeah, yeah,
lots to do, lots to come on this episode, all.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Kinds of stuff, So please stay tuned. You are listening
to Dear Movies. I love you, girl, I love you and.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I've got to.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Love me to check the box. Hey everybody should I
say everybody?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Very good? By Oh my god, Milli. This is our podcast,
Dear Movies, I Love You where a podcast for those
who are in a deep, meaningful relationship with film. Yeah,
and it's a lovely place to be, Millie. We have
so much to do on this episode, but we must start,

(03:01):
as we always do, with our film Diary, opening up
the diary to talk about the movies we've seen this
past week and how that has affected our lives, positively
or negatively.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can you drop in the sound of like Dracula's tomb
being open for something right? Because you know, actually a
couple of people had mentioned it to me. They're like,
I mean, listen, this is not the public's opinion by
any means, but just a bunch of ding dongs that
are my friends. Really. I always like how you pretend

(03:36):
to open the film Diary. Every time you announce the
film Diary.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
It's a it's a physical book, like it's the theater
of the mind.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
Rely, so now you have to, like, you know, make
make that very visual for people to drop them.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Yeah, let's hear what you got. What do you have
to say really about the movies you've watched this past week.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
I was so jazzed to be recording this episode, so
I really just watched I mean, beyond what we were
going to talk about today, I really just watched one movie.
But it's a good one and I'd seen it before,
so I was watching TCM again. You know, me I
can't let it go. Apparently apparently I watch it's like

(04:17):
going back to your old high school.

Speaker 2 (04:19):
Yeah, that's up.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
I can't open. TCM plays good movies, and that happened
before and after I worked there. So there was like
a little night of movies that were directed by the
great Dorothy Arsener, who, if you don't know Dorothy Arsner,
she was pretty much one of the, if not the only,

(04:44):
women who were directing films in like the very early
days of Hollywood, right, So it was like and honestly,
the only other person really was like Lois Weber or
something in this era, very very important, like an absolute
iconic individual in film. But I watched her movie from

(05:06):
nineteen thirty two called Merrily We Go to Hell.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
And you have talked about this movie before. I have.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
I talked about it when it might have been during
the Stars Born convo because we talked about Frederick marsh
being my main man.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
Yes, it's on the Criterion collection.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
It is. This movie is fantastic. I mean, first of all,
it's an hour and eighteen minutes, which is great, but
it's this pre code.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
It's billed as.

Speaker 1 (05:36):
As a comedy romance, like a rom com, but I
think it's actually darker than that. It's almost like a
romantic drama. But it's about you know, these two people
who are you know, who get together, Frederick marsh and
Sylvia Sidney, who, by the way, if you don't know
who Sylvia Sidney is, she is maybe known to people

(06:00):
of kind of our age group as the woman from
Beetlejuice that is like kind of the caseworker, yes, of
Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis. And she's got the slate
you know, yes, Judo of course smoking cigarettes and the
and the cigarette smoke comes out of the slash in
her neck, right, yes. So if you think about that

(06:23):
and you think about that woman when you see this movie,
you're gonna be like, holy shit, I cannot believe that's
the same woman because she is so goddamn hot and
gorgeous in this movie, like almost in a modern way, right,
because you look at these like nineteen thirties like pre
co movies, and you're kind of looking at like, you know,

(06:45):
the the kind of looks from back then, which were
like kind of flapperish, like short hair and like like
long necklines and like exposed backs and stuff. You know,
there's a very nineteen thirties, like nineteen twenties, nineteen thirties,
look about some of these women, right, And it wasn't

(07:06):
just Sylvia Sidney. It was like, you know whomever, Katherine Hepburn,
Joan Crawford, like all the greats of that era. So
in spite of Sylvia Sidney looking like that kind of
nineteen thirties beautiful glamour girl, she looks modern, like she
has a modern face. And I can't describe exactly why.

(07:28):
I think that she's just absolutely gorgeous. And of course,
you know Frederick March like, for my money, the most
charming drunk to ever play a charming drunk in Hollywood.
But it's basically about their relationship, and you know, he's
an alcoholic duh, and he's it's kind of this like

(07:49):
modern era where they're they kind of have an open relationship.
And then she's like, well, if you're going to have
an open relationship, then I'm going to have an open relationship.
And then of course she starts like going on on dates,
and she actually goes on on a date with a
very very very very carry Grant and it is really modern,
I would say, really modern for the era obviously pre

(08:11):
code movies, so they were getting away with a little
bit more kind of stuff. But also the idea that
it's like, this is a movie that was directed by
a woman, and it feels like it feels that way.
I think it's better obviously that it was directed by
a woman, and like you can just tell there are

(08:31):
certain touches to it that I think make it so sure,
But if you haven't seen it, I mean, if you
really want to try to, even if you're like, don't
know much about pre code movies, I feel like this
is a good entry point.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
I mean, really, can you explain briefly what pre code
what that means?

Speaker 1 (08:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Sure, because I don't even know if I totally know
what that means.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Right, So basically the pre code era of early Hollywood, Right,
it's basically an era of Hollywood filmmaking that was right
after sound starts, because you know, obviously there was silent
era where they didn't have sound technology. Sound comes into
filmmaking and then you know, basically a few years later,

(09:20):
so we're talking about late twenties, early thirties here, okay,
and then around I would say nineteen thirty, well I
think it's nineteen thirty four nineteen thirty five, they decide
to establish a production code, right, so basically it's this
code of ethics within the Hollywood system that basically said, well,

(09:44):
you're not allowed to show X, Y and Z, right.
They wanted movies to be very you know, appropriate for
movie going audiences, you know, and it was basically like,
you're not allowed to show nudity, you're not allowed to
talk about abortion, you're not allowed to have women having jobs.
I don't know that's not true, but you know what
I mean, Like in that very like sure, it was

(10:05):
what you would expect, you know, very patriarchal, very like sanitized,
very you know, it was very hetero, extremely hetero. I mean,
like it was just that kind of like American values
bullshit that they were like enforcing for all the movies
that came out. So you have this period though of

(10:25):
a few.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
Years where people are going ham Yeah, people were.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Going fucking apes shit. I mean, like there wasn't like
porn necessarily, but in the context of the era, you
were able to talk about a lot of stuff that
you know, you weren't able to talk about after nineteen
thirty four nineteen thirty five, So you know, there's you know,
movies about single mothers, about getting drunk, about women who
were you know, going outside of the marriage and dating

(10:52):
other people, and you know, so there's all these other
subject materials, and plus it was also just like this
kind of you know sex see like you know, and
when I say sexy, it's not this sexy that we
know now, which is very much like informed by pornography
and the Internet and all this kind of stuff. This
is a very classy, kind of burlesque type of sexiness,

(11:17):
which is very like to me, I think is even
sexier because it's like, you know, you're seeing a lot
of legs, like you're seeing a lot of like people
women in bras, but they're not showing their bare breasts.
They're just like, you know, kind of looking a little
a little titillating. It's not you know, completely over the top,
but it's not you know, puritanical. So I think there

(11:41):
there's a whole a whole section of film fans that
are like really into these pre code movies because again
that that code lasted until pretty much the mid sixties,
So you think about how important the pre code was
in that regard where you're like, oh, well, here's like
a whole free period of like sexy filmmaking, you know,

(12:03):
really fun advances in terms of subject matter, and you know,
like kind of modern people, modern women, modern men, and
then all of a sudden it just gets cut off
for like the next twenty five thirty.

Speaker 2 (12:16):
Years, right, I see, so very good. Yeah, well, thank
you for explaining that. I'm sure people appreciate getting to
hear exactly what that means, because I've heard that that
term gets thrown out a lot and pre code movies,
and uh yeah, fascinating fascinating just.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Means pre production code. So go look it up. There's
plenty of books about it. You know, it's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Era very good. All right, Well, I think it's my turn.
Ye film diary scribble scribble scribble. Okay, I watched three
movies this week, which is pretty good for me. I
watched Dune and I watched Dune Part two. So the
Danny Ville Neuve Ones Di Danny Villa know of movies.

(13:01):
I do want to rewatch the David Lynch one because
the David Lynch movie is a combo of Doune one
and two part two, Like it's all one movie. That's
the only one i've seen.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
I haven't even seen these.

Speaker 2 (13:13):
These were good, They're good. I liked them. I think
I liked the first one a little bit more because
I kind of like seeing all the spaceship stuff and
the buildings and stuff. And the second one is much
more about Paula Tred's out in the desert on his
own becoming the lisan Al Gayib who is the Messiah.

(13:34):
I did read the book too, so I was sort
of like prepped to see these movies. I have a
weird complaint about these movies, and particularly the second one.
I know this is like a very strange thing to say,
but for some reason, with the done two, I was
very aware that these were movie stars in a movie.

(13:56):
I hear it like, it's just the alone. It's Austin Butler,
Timothy Schallamey Zendaia, Florence Pugh, Anya Taylor Joy. It's like
all these beautiful youngsters in one movie, like Hollywood's elite
all in one movie. But they're like roughing it out
in the desert. But they still look fantastic and their

(14:19):
hair is perfectly coffed, you know. So for some reason
I was very distracted by that while watching this movie,
which is like kind of a I feel like that's
like a weird thing to say, Like that's like a
stupid person like critique of a movie. But I was
very aware while watching this of that for some reason.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
I don't think that's stupid at all. I mean I
feel like sometimes the stars are too big to be
I felt like a fantasy realm.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Yeah, that's it. It was like a fantasy realm and
they were too big, and it's like Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Oscar,
I mean, these are all like really big movie stars.
I think they could have thrown in a few more
or I don't know, character Jason Momoa, a few more,
like character actor people we weren't as aware of to

(15:07):
fill in the rest because it was all just beautiful
movie stars filling every single role exactly.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
It's kind of like when you watch the All Star
Game for basketball and it's like every fucking great player
and then the game is shitty because.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
No one's playing defense.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Yeah, no one's playing defense. Everybody's just trying to like,
you know, do great dunks and you know, do great moves.
So it's kind of like not a real game. It's
kind of like, yeah, there's one of all famous, famous people, right.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Yeah, so I was very aware of that during and
it's like, yeah, like it's a fantasy too, so you're
there's a little bit even more suspension of disbelief that
you're required to do. Yeah, and yeah, I don't know why.
That was just really popping up in my head when
I was watching it. But they are good. They're fun,
you know, I can't I don't really have any other

(15:57):
interesting things to say. They're a good adventure, you know.
I talked about Lawrence of Arabia. It's like expanse of
huge desert scenes. It's like it's cinematic, you know, and
it takes you places. So and then I also watched
the documentary about the Sopranos called Wise Guy David Chase
and the Sopranos, and I thought this sucked. Ah, we

(16:23):
just watched we just rewatched all the Sopranos, and I
like the Sopranos a lot, and I was looking for
a little bit more info. But it's a lot about
David Chase, the creator. And then it just sort of
like bobs around to other sort of things about the show,
but it doesn't really go very deep. It felt very
sort of surface level, and I don't feel like I
really learned anything interesting. But that's it. Everyone closed your

(16:45):
film diary.

Speaker 1 (16:47):
Creak close that fucking film diary right now.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
Oh, there we go. Close Italian's coming out, Millie. This

(17:12):
is our main discussion, and like we mentioned at the top,
this is a huge one. But you're the person that
presented this idea. What where did this start? Why did
you do this? We're talking about two thousand era pop
star movies with an emphasis on crossroads from two thousand
and two. But what was the impetus behind this? MILLI?

Speaker 1 (17:32):
Well, besides the fact that I'm a film programmer and
I'm constantly looking at the calendar being like, huh, what
are we what are some anniversaries?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
What do we got?

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You know, what's been a long time. Let's go back, right,
Because that's the thing about being a programmer and being into,
you know, presenting film or giving histories and contextualizations about film,
is that, you know, sometimes you've got to think about
the these kind of cyclical eras of things, right, And

(18:03):
it always to me feels like I don't know if
you feel this, but like there's always this like weird
kind of like twenty thirty year reevaluation about things that happens,
and not just movies but music of style. Yeah, you
know when people are like, huh, I miss showing my

(18:24):
thong outside of my jeans.

Speaker 2 (18:26):
Yeah. I miss having to shave all of my pubes
so I can wear low rider jeans.

Speaker 1 (18:32):
I miss shiny shirts that look like an optical illusion.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
We'll get we'll get into it. Some of the fashion
in Crossroads. Maybe sick, maybe what a vomit kicking? I
was nauseous? Oh fu.

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Anyway, Yeah, we're going to get into that picture. So anyway,
as I'm like thinking about, you know, the podcast and
when we're doing our own little programming for the episodes, right,
I was like, Fuck, I haven't seen Crossroads in forever,
and really I haven't seen a lot of these movies
that we're gonna bring up today in forever. It feels like,

(19:11):
you know, I said this on I saw what you
did multiple times anytime we talked about a movie from
like the late nineties early two thousands, like if you
call like two K cinema, if you will, right, sure,
there was like I immediately got a sense of almost

(19:31):
kind of like dread because we both lived through this era. Obviously,
I was in college when I when this, and I
was in my shithead phase. So I graduated my underground
in two thousand and two. So and I was working
in college radio when I was in the film program.
So of course I was like, I say too based

(19:52):
for shit too based. But I did have this weird
kind of college kitty. I appreciation for this era, for
the kind of Britney Spears, in Sync, Backstreet Boys era.
Part of it was because I had a lot of
friends that were working in the music industry. I was
working in the music industry too when I was in college,

(20:15):
and I had friends that worked at Jive Records. Like
Jive Records was like the label that housed all of
these fuckers, like all of the boy bands. I think
Jive was part of this movie in fact of Crossroads
or some something. I think maybe they did. I think

(20:36):
it was the soundtrack or something like that, like the
Jive was involved, But basically it was like that was
the record label that had, you know, all of the
kind of boy bands, Britney Spears, et cetera. Right, So
anyway I had I was going to see these kind
of concerts. I mean I once saw in Sync the
no strings attached to it. That was like I'd never

(20:58):
been to an arena show in my life, and it
was like completely blown away. I went and actually saw
Britney Spears in Atlanta when bb Mac the band bb MA,
oh yeah, when they opened for them. We've got to do.
We got to meet them. We went to their kind
of like fan greeting before the show. So I was

(21:20):
all up in the mix, you know, and sure, what
I think is really interesting about We talked a bit
about this with Rose and Jen, about the kind of
mut idea of a music film and about how it
kind of feels like they don't do things like that
as much anymore. Yeah, but this was that kind of

(21:42):
like second era, it felt like for me, where they
were basically taking pop stars of them of the times
and putting them in their own films.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
Right. Yeah, We're going to go through a few of these,
but one that came to mind one of the first
ones of this second era was Spice World, Yes, which
came out in nineteen ninety seven, of course, and I
feel like the music movie like Spice World is more
in the tradition of rock and roll high school, I think,

(22:15):
where it's like silly and campy. But that's what makes
kind of Crossroads. And I think from Justin to Kelly
is also pretty campy and silly. Yes, And I haven't
seen Glitter, but that seems pretty campy.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Yes too, Glitter Mariah Carey's Glitter fantastic. I saw that
when it came out, and uh yeah, so here's here's
a quick list. If you're not please, yes, if you
don't understand what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
Okay, I was just gonna say, that's what kind of said.
That's why I feel like Crossroad sort of sits alone
a little bit, which we'll get into him.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
I'll discuss the movie, but it sits alone a little bit. Casey, Okay,
like a little bit, and we'll we'll talk about why.
But you've got you know, obviously said Spice World nineteen
eighty seven, Glitter two thousand and one. There's a movie
called On the Line from two thousand and one, which
which starred Lance pass A, Joey Footone from Ensync. Okay,

(23:10):
if you want to talk about this movie as part
of this, you probably could. But I would say eight
Mile with from two thousand and two.

Speaker 2 (23:18):
No, No, I think that's a that's totally right on right.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
There was also the double Mandy Moore films. There was
a Walk to Remember from two thousand and two, and
then there was a movie called How to Deal from
two thousand three. Now we can argue about Aunt Mandy
Moore actually being because she acted obviously many like a lot.

Speaker 2 (23:45):
She's still acting. Yeah, I feel like she is much
more known as an actor than a singer. I actually
can't even name more than one or two of her songs.

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah, I can name one. I think Andy Yes, which.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
I actually like Casey like I love I love the
music video with the VW bugs. Yes, I was there.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
To me, that was a very bubblegum song, like, oh,
very bubble gum song. But then also you've got like
the Hillary Duff stuff like two thousand and fourst Raise
your Voice. So like there's this, oh just from Justin
Kelly two thousand and three. I don't think I mentioned that,
but it's like this is yeah, this to me is
all part and party of like this kind of era.
So you've got the American idol stuff, You've got the

(24:28):
TRL stuff. You've got like these like huge you know,
sort of pop stars who are kind of being you know,
put in front of our faces, and then they're like singers,
but they're dancers, and then they're actors. A lot of
them actually were on They were on like Mickey Mouse Club,
like Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake, Brittany and Ryan Gosling,

(24:53):
which everybody forgets, but I'm sure you don't forget, folks.
I know you don't forget that Ryan Gosling was Mickey
Mouse But uh, Anyway, So to me, this is fascinating
because it's almost like again, I think you and I
and I think we're both kind of interested in just
these weird like explosions of films right where you're like,

(25:15):
why did that happen? Why was there in a five year,
ten year span a shit ton of movies that were
like the same thing. Right?

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Yeah, it is interesting too because if you look, and
I haven't done like total research on this, but it
seems like none of the movies you listed were huge hits.
Like some of them I think made some money, but
none of them were Like I think eight Mile might
have actually been the one that felt like it caused
the biggest waves when it came out, but like, I

(25:45):
don't think Crossroads did particularly well, a lot of these
are just critical flops, I think from Justin mc kelly
is always popping up on worst Movies of All Time lists,
So it is just like interesting why they kept churning
the out one after another and like why that happened? Well,
I think, I mean the reason it happened is because

(26:06):
there was a boom of all these pop stars all
at one time, the Instincts, the Backstreet Boys, and then
like we mentioned like Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, Mandy Moore,
Christina Aguilera, these boy bands and these uh these pop singers,
all like tons of them popping up at the same time.
So it makes sense that maybe they started they wanted to.

(26:26):
You know, it's kind of an old fashioned, like nineteen
fifties idea of like let's put these musicians in teen
movies to get like to make money that way. Well,
and like what you know, what's.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Really interesting to me specifically about sort of what's happened.
Like if you think about this era and you think
about say pop music right now, right the Taylor Swifts,
the Billie Eilishes, the BTS is like whatever you want
to call it. Yeah, it feels like certainly in the
you know, Taylor Swift, Beyonce Bts stuff Like there are

(27:02):
documentaries coming out about these people, right, but they're not
in these narrative feature length films like yes, you're not
seeing like Sabrina Carpenter in a movie about how she
has to run away from her single dad in order

(27:25):
to find herself in California or whatever.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
You know what I mean, Like totally they're not.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
It seems almost kind of like too corny for any
of these people. Now at this point, if you're a
musician and you're in a narrative film, you're kind of like,
I don't know, either a cameo or some kind of
like you know when we saw like Omar Apollo and Queer,
Like when you're like watching sort of things like that,

(27:49):
like there's not there isn't this. It's like nobody wants
to be the monkeys in that way. They don't want
to create this fictional world for this superstar where they
get to they have to basically act out their own
fake lives or something like that.

Speaker 2 (28:04):
Yeah, it's too sincere or something or it's like too
and so it's embarrassing. Yes, well let's talk about not
for me. I think it's great, but for these celebrities,
I think they would find it.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Oh no, everyone again, everybody else is too based for Crossroads.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
Yes exactly.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
I don't want to Crossroads.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
I just want to say something about Britney Spears, who
I have such a soft spot for Britney Spears. I
was like a teenager when she came out and I
was like in love with her. I thought she was
so just approachable and fun, but also like she was
kind of like jockish you and athletic. And when hit

(28:54):
Me Baby One More Time came out, she was just
this fully packaged pop star. I mean that video and
that song were huge. I watched it again after I
watched Crossroads, and I was just like affected by it again,
just being like this is so it just feels epic
and so grand and uh so. I always was like

(29:16):
a huge fan of Britney Spears. I always felt like
she was so much I feel like every other pop
star that came after her, that was kind of even
Christina Aguilera, I felt like they were kind of like
copying Britney Spears. I felt like they were all kind
of copies of Britney Spears, and she was so dynamic
and exciting, and I've always rooted for her, and so
when she had her kind of breakdown in the mid

(29:37):
two thousands, I feel like she never quite recovered from it,
and I worry about her to this day. I mean,
I don't know if you follow her on Instagram, but
it is it does not seem like the instagram of
a person who is doing great, and it makes me
really sad to know of the struggles that she has

(29:58):
had because she was so dynamic and exciting and in
some ways, I know this sounds insane, probably, but I
think of her as like Elvis. She's like the Elvis
of my time, where just like the way she moved
and danced and sang, she just had electricity going through her.
And then that the popularity that she had and like

(30:23):
the pressure that was on her made her crack, kind
of like Elvis. And I really do hope that she
has kind of a second act. She's only in her
early forties, you know, And so yeah, I love Britney Spears.
I root for her, and I think watching I Saw
Crossroads in theaters, but watching it again now after all

(30:44):
we know about Britney Spears, it was a bit of
a tough watch to be honest.

Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, I mean, thank you for sure.

Speaker 2 (30:50):
I'm sorry if this sent into a dark direction. Well
that's just sort of what I was thinking about when
we watched it.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
Well, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
As a woman, I my, it's almost like too hard
for me to talk about how I feel about not
just Brittany generally, but women of her level of fame
and the ways in which the obsession with her.

Speaker 2 (31:28):
Was so.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
Like dramatic. And I'm not saying unprecedented, because there have
been women like her, like Marilyn Monroe. There's been so
many women who become kind of like the fascination of
a culture, right, Yes, And it's really hard for me
to talk about, I think as a woman, to be like,

(31:54):
the ways in which she had to navigate it is
still nownavigating it. And maybe there were times where she
wasn't protected and maybe there was.

Speaker 2 (32:09):
We were in an era.

Speaker 1 (32:10):
Certainly in this period, and I have to say it
because I talked about this and I saw what she
did constantly. I personally feel like the early two thousands
was like a really low point for feminism in a
lot of ways. And I'm not saying for her specifically,
like I don't know anything about her feminist politics, if

(32:31):
she has any, Like I'm just sort of like, I'm
taking that part of the equation out of it. I'm
saying the ways in which, like the culture objectified her
specifically in this time.

Speaker 2 (32:44):
Period, yeah, because it was rough, like yes, you know, it.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Was really masculine, really machismo, like I mean between the
I call it like the Girls Gone Wild era of
kind of like sexualization of women in these like really
really extreme ways, but also just like gross dude things
like just like really ugly masculinity.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Yes, and yes, you know.

Speaker 1 (33:14):
And so I just can't even imagine what it must
have been like for her. And there are times where
I'm like, oh, well, I can't even say anything about
her current state because it's so informed by that, you know,
and her entire life being in the entertainment industry, and

(33:35):
so I'm just like, yeah, I'm with you, Like it's
kind of too sad for me to think about in general.
And then when you watch this movie, there were like
times where I was like, oh, yeah, like they're trying
to get her in her underwear as much as possible,
and that was her career at that time as everybody

(33:56):
wanted to see her in like little cute pink underwear
sets and yeah, you know, like and there was a
point of me that's like, well she looked amazing and
she was like, like you said, like athletic and extremely gorgeous.
And I was like, okay, well, like that's like her
body was being objectified for so many people, and it

(34:17):
was like, you know, watching this movie made me remember
all of it. It like came back to me, you know.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
What I mean. Well, one of the things that I
found like kind of disturbing when watching it, well, let
me just do you mind if I give a quick synopsis?

Speaker 1 (34:33):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (34:33):
No feel okay, okay. So this is the synopsis of Crossroads.
So we're in Georgia, Baby Lucy Britney Spears, kit Zoe Saldana,
and Mimi Taryn Manning. They all used to be best
friends in middle school and one night they bury a
box in a yard with all of their wishes and
they promise each other to meet there again on the

(34:55):
night of their high school graduation. Well, fast forward to
high school. They're not from anymore. Lucy is a valedictorian virgin,
which comes up. I have more to say on that
comes up a lot. Kit is a very mean, popular
girl who's engaged to some guy in college at UCLA,
and Mimi is barefoot and pregnant. Basically, they and they

(35:16):
still meet up on the night of their high school
graduation and they agree to accompany Mimi on a road
trip to la from Georgia so that Mimi can audition
for this record company contract competition. It's a little unclear
what that is, but she's gonna go audition for a
you know, a recording contract and that will solve all

(35:37):
her problems. Who's gonna drive them? Why? It's the honky
bad boy Ben played by Anson Mount. And what will
happen to these girls who are not yet women? We
will see as we drive across country and sing along
to all sorts of pop songs of the time. So
that's basically Crossroads. And dan Ackroyd is Britney Spears dad, who.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
Again, I gotta say quickly about dan ackroid I feel
like is he the king of playing single fathers and films?

Speaker 2 (36:09):
I was like my girl Crossroads.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
It's like if there was a mom sad dad that
fucked off or died and you got a one, and
you got one dude, who's holding on the ford. It's
dan Ackroid with a.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Buzz cut, looking sad forlorn, trying to protect his daughter. Yeah,
it's he emanates that energy immediately. I remember watching it
in two thousand and two being like dan Akritz in
this movie as a fourteen year old boy.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
I can't believe zoe Saldonna Is I a hundred percent.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
For Oscar winner Zoey Seldonia. I know, isn't it. But
as we were kind of alluding to before this, this
movie was, you know, just on the topic of taking
advantage of Britney Spears and like the the male gaze
of putting her in her underwear and parading her around

(37:04):
in this movie. Another big thing I feel like in
the early aughts was like the obsession with the virgin
or like, oh, we can't wait until she's eighteen. Like
that was like there's like maxim magazines like count down
to the Olsen Twins are eighteen type of stuff going on.
And so watching it this time and knowing who we

(37:24):
know is Britney Spears, I think of Britney Spears as
like backflipping athlete. I think of her as like an athlete.
She's like so like in some of her best dance sequences,
she's really just like able to move her body in
such a miraculous way. And in this movie, a movie
about her that apparently she like helped come up with

(37:45):
the storyline, they make her virginal and timid and like
a valedictorian and it's basically a movie about like who
she's gonna like give her virginity away too, And it
really is disgusting to watch. And it's like, knowing what happened,
you know, what she had to go through, it makes

(38:08):
it hard to watch this movie. And I was just like,
why can't she be like, like, she doesn't dance in
this whole movie, and I feel like that's what she's
like known for. Yeah, you know, I don't know. I
just there's a lot to take in with that sort
of storyline that was really just upsetting for me.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
Well I'm like that, like I think, obviously, okay, let's
let's get let's strip this back. Okay, let's say what
is Okay, First of all, there's a lot of things
I forgot about this movie in terms of personnel. Okay, sure,
So Dan Aykroyd as the Dad, Zoe saw Donia as
kid like one of her friends. I didn't realize that
Shanta Rhymes did the screenplay.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
Isn't that shocking? And I should say this was directed
by Tamar Davis, who directed Billy Madison and Half Baked.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
Right, Tamber Davis, who I talked about on I saw
what she did. She did a lot of music videos
and she's a good filmmaker and she we did Half
Baked on the podcast. But and so, yeah, there's great
people attached to it. So there's like a female female screenwriter,
lots of like great actors in the cast. Yes, Like

(39:17):
what the fuck is going on with this thing?

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Justin Long pops in there.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Okay, you're putting the car before the horse because I
got I'm sorry about Justin Long. What I will say
is this, they're trying so hard to create these archetypes
of women, like like, okay, what do we do to
get these three crazily different women in a car and

(39:42):
have to work out their friendship? His very like Sisterhood
of the Traveling Pants kind of way, even though this
movie came out before Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, the
movie that is not the book. But I was not
buying it for one fucking second, dude.

Speaker 2 (39:59):
What what exactly were you not buying just.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
The whole like sweetie, Like when she shows up in
her fucking like church outfit like her mom. You know,
I was like, this isn't like this is insane, Like yes,
this is first of all, I don't even buy that
the Tared Manning character knows uh, this fucking girl at all.

(40:25):
Like I'm like they in my experience in my high school,
those two bitches would have never crossed paths in a
million years, in a million.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Years, not even in sixth grade.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Not even in Georgia, not even in Georgia. Okay, it's
like you're trying to tell me that Tared Manning's trailer
park adjacent character was gonna know, Britney spears this character
in her like like lack partner, white pick offence, like
girly girl thing. No way, yeah no, Tared Manning's character

(41:02):
teaches the Zoe Saldana character how to punch. Okay, like
these girls wouldn't have hung out. I wouldn't have hung
out with a girl like that.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
Yeah, just okating out there.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
So I wasn't buying it whatsoever. Now I have to say,
like to your earlier point about this being this like
kind of era of virginal obsession. I mean, we have
I mean remember, you know, we're like in the American
pie era. We're in this Stacy's mom era. There was

(41:34):
all this shit about like virgins and Milfson and fucking
all these like things, and I'm just like, what is wrong?
What is like? What happened to America when this when
this shit was popping off? You know, might have you
might be fucking right about that. I gotta be honest,
you might be right, but I feel like it's set

(41:56):
the table for this whole storyline, which I'm kind of
and then it's like the idea that she's doesn't okay,
So how does it go? Basically, Justin Long we got
to talk about Justin Locke.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Yes, Justin Long is in the movie for four and
a half minutes, the first four and a half minutes
of the movie where he plays Britney Spears lab partner
and they're going to have sex on the night of
prom and then she's like, this just doesn't feel right.
But that four and a half minutes was probably the
most fun. Yes, Like, when Justin Long is ejected from

(42:33):
this movie, there goes all the jokes and humor and
joy I felt like in any way, like there is
no comic relief in this movie other than Justin Long,
and he's gone very quickly, Justin.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Long in his sleeper build. Have you ever heard about
a sleeper build?

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yes, Okay, go look it up.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
Okay. I was like, Okay, when you find out later
who the other guy is, I mean this spoiler alert,
spoiler alert. This movie is over twenty years old, so
hopefully if you don't want to spoiler, just this, put
this shit away.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
Just really, this will really ruin this movie for you
knowing this information.

Speaker 1 (43:12):
When she eventually gives it up to the guy that
she's been on the road trip with, the fucking rock
and roll guy with the angel wing tattoos on his back, okay, yes,
I'm like, you chose the wrong dude. I'm like, jo't
fuck this guy at all.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Okay, he was in jail.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
He was in jail. That is like tantamount to fucking
kid rock or whatever, like the manifestation of this over testosterony,
like rock and roll guy of this era. That's who
she gave her virginity up to instead of Justin Long,
who I mean, he might be a beta creep. I
don't know, but he seemed sweet and earnest and they

(43:59):
were friends, and you know, he was being all cute
and then you know, yeah whatever. But she eventually was like, no,
don't you want it to be special? And then she
focks this guy with the angel wing tattoos, and I'm like, gross, girl, gross.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I mean Justin Long has the funniest joke of the movie,
where Britney spears is like, do you really want to
look back twenty years from now and think about how
you lost your virginity to your lab partner? And he's like, yes, yes,
I do want to think.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
I want that to do.

Speaker 2 (44:28):
It's like I was like, oh, that's kind of funny,
But this movie I found totally joyless and humorless. Maybe
trigger warning here? Did you talk about some of the
events of this movie? We learn that Tarreen Manning is
pregnant because she was raped. Yeah, we later spoiler alert

(44:52):
we later learn the person who raped her was Zoe
Saldana's fiancee Gez, and then Taren Manning falls down the
stairs and loses the baby.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Jesus.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
That is so I can't believe they allowed this to
be in It's that is so dark, so dark, Like
I was shocked, rewind, I did not remember that it
was this dark of a movie, right.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
You know. It's funny because I have read people online
who have gone back and watched this film, and they
have talked about that. A lot of what I've seen
and read about, you know, kind of rewatching Crossroads is
that it's dark, like the subject matter is crazy dark.
And you know, I think, you know, from a very

(45:49):
basic research reading of the film, I think that was
part of the plan for at least for Shonda Rhymes
and Tamar Davis's part was that they wanted to make
it about like real female problems, right, like real things
that women go through, and they didn't want to sugarcoat it,
and they didn't care if it was a Britney Spears movie.

(46:11):
And that about basically how Britney Spears was sort of like,
I mean, she was the one that kind of engineered
the whole movie to exist, right.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:21):
But I think that's really interesting because yeah, I mean,
I'm just saying it is dark. I think that they
had good intentions to make it dark, but I also
feel like it's just I feel the playout is a
little bit different but.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
I feel like putting these dark, real life issues in
a movie like this. First of all, there's just too many,
like really horrible real life issues in this movie. But
by putting it in a movie with Britney Spears, who's
a pop star and it's her first movie, I feel
like it kind of minimizes those problems or it makes
them feel like not as big of a deal as

(46:59):
they are. Like as a person watching it as an adult,
I was like, oh my god, can I can I?
Can I throw something at you? Sure if you were to,
if you like, we're an executive back in the early
two thousands and they're like, Britney, we want to make
a movie with Britney Spears. Do you have like a
pitch of what type of movie that would be or
should be?

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Sure? I would say Britney Spears attends a exclusive mysterious
dance academy in Europe uh huh, where she's forced to
live amongst other dancers and is essentially discovering that the

(47:50):
house that they live in is haunted, okay, and that
there are mysterious murders happening within the confines of the house.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
So you want her to be in Suspiria. It sounds
like which isn't a bad pitch.

Speaker 1 (48:07):
I know, like in a Giallo movie, or like, it
doesn't even have to be as big as Suspirio. She
could be in fuck. See, this is why I'm not
an executive. I just want to let y'all know.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
This is the reason why my idea is, She's had
the opportunity, but she just this is she wasn't able
to seize upon. Oh.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
Of course, I would put her as quickly as possible
into the most fucking nineteen seventies Elizabeth Taylor weird art
house film possible. I'd put her in Identicit, I'd put
her in Ash Wednesday. She's gonna have like facial reconstruction,
reconstructive surgery that feels topical for modern celebrities. I would

(48:54):
have her be full fast bender woman like. Put her
in is like candies heels and like these you know,
bright seventies dresses. You know, like she's gonna be like
the art house mama. And that is exactly what I

(49:17):
would do with her. And this is why I do
a podcast with you, huh. And I don't make decisions.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
I don't think you're like wrong, because I think she
needed to be in something fun, yes, like or that Showcases,
because I feel like there were a few moments where
she got to be kind of like goofy, and I
feel like she shined a little bit more. And I
this is just such a dour film. I feel like
they were trying to make her like a serious leading

(49:44):
lady by making this movie so dark. But I don't know,
I just felt like that was kind of a mistake.
I think when I was talking about this with my
wife Tricia, she was like, they should have given Britney
Spears a spice world, a goofy, over the top, bright
colored movie. Or they could have done like a Purple Rain, yes,
where it's like we see a lot of performance of

(50:07):
her performing and doing what she does. Like I mean,
I love Purple Rain, but like Prince is a horrific
actor in that movie, but it's still a fun and
delightful movie to watch. They should have done something like that.
Or they could have done like a Klio from five
to seven type film with Britney Spears, which is a

(50:28):
nineteen sixty two film by Anya Svarda about a pop
star who discovers she might have cancer and she's kind
of just walking through Paris, going to rehearsal and doing
going about her day and sort of seeing her normal life.
And I think Britney Spears would have been great in that.
Well let me make of that.

Speaker 1 (50:43):
That's I think the difference between that era and maybe
now right where in a way. I mean, not that
they do this or are doing this at any stretch,
but like I could see somebody like her, like of
her stature, maybe not of her statue. I feel like
maybe the rung below. Maybe you're not Beyonce, maybe you're

(51:04):
maybe you are Lady Gaga. Maybe you are I don't know,
Phoebe Bridgers or something. You could be in an a
twenty four horror film. You could be in like a
weird art house film. I think that feels possible, even though,
like I said, I don't think they're necessarily doing that
at this point or will I think back then, there's

(51:24):
no you couldn't have gone dark. I mean, do you
want to talk about production code?

Speaker 2 (51:28):
You like?

Speaker 1 (51:29):
That's the thing. She probably in another world could have
played any of these other characters in her little cadre
of women, you know, like, instead they opted her. She's
the virginal good girl. You know, she's not she doesn't
have the big issues that all these other girls do

(51:52):
in that way, like you know, of course she's got
the thing with her mom, but it's a thing of like, oh,
she's not like falling down the stairs and having a miscarriage,
you know what I mean. And it's like, yeah, she's
not given the meat of a role, and so it's
seeming that you give her that meat or you put
her in a fantastical like Purple Rain type of thing

(52:13):
with performances and dancing and like almost kind of like yeah,
rock and roll high school or like the fabulous stay
in this type of thing. It was hard because this
is like a middle ground between those two things for sure.

Speaker 2 (52:25):
I know. But it's hard because the music in this
movie frankly sucks. I think not I'm Not a Girl,
not Yet a Woman is a weak song, and that's
like the climax of the movie. And you're kind of like, yeah,
I know Brittany makes these sort of sadder songs, but
you know her for her pop hits you and so
like when the credits roll and Overprotected comes on, you're like, hell, yeah,

(52:48):
this is what I've been waiting for. But the movie's
over by that point, did you.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Not think it was ridiculous that she's saying that at
the final the final scene, she fully had that outfit in.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Her bag, right long sleep, the sleeves are long as hell.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
But that her two friends tared Mannig and Zoe's held
on his character we're singing back up. That felt like
a monkey's episode. Actually, yes, autely, you see that these
two friends or hers like bopping around in the back,
like sing singing her song that she just wrote with
the other.

Speaker 2 (53:22):
All right, well, thank you, Milly. This was a very instructive, constructive,
and destructive conversation. I feel like and.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
I'm trying very hard to not be depressed. But you're welcome.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Millie. We are at our film advice segment and we
have an email that someone sent us. Yeah, I'm going
to read it for you. Here we go. Hi. Hello. So,
my favorite movie theater, the River Oaks Theater in my
hometown of Houston, has just reopened after a lengthy renovation.
It plays the obscure and cinephallic movies. It plays the

(54:06):
obscure and cinephalic movies. Yeah, that's right. I have so
many memories there, so many dates midnight rocky horror shows,
underage drunken stupors at their bar. I love it. A
part of the renovation includes a small room with space
for catering that can be rented out for private screenings.
On my last visit, I was flirting with the cute
guy ripping tickets and he offered to give me a tour. Ooh,
when we go to that room, I was really impressed,

(54:29):
and it's kind of affordable. I'd love to host a
birthday party there. I can do either my birthday in
August or my other celebratory day the weekend before Halloween.
I hate talking through movies, but for a party, I
feel like mingling should be encouraged. People grubbing on whatever
food I bring in a little and light chit chat.
But this will also be centered around a movie, which

(54:49):
I'm sure some will want to watch and pay attention to.
Here's my question, what should I play? A crowd favorite
that can appease twenty to thirty people, but that's also
okay to talk through a fun movie for August, but
also a horror movie for Halloween. Help Noah?

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Okay, no, now I I strap it strapped the fucking Noah.
I have done this. This is why I picked your
email for this episode because, first of all, as of
this episode, uh, my birthday was a couple of days ago. Okay,
happy birthday. Okay. Now this year I decided to go

(55:27):
to Japan for my birthday, so you know, uh, however,
I think it was two birthdays ago. I did exactly
what you did, which is that I rented a movie theater.
Now I know you're thinking, wow, that's so fancy. You're what,
are you like justin Guarimi or something, And I'm like, no,
I'm not. It was extremely cheap like, and it was

(55:50):
here in the plaza. It was one of the smaller
movie theaters up top, and it was extremely cheap. And
I don't know about you. I've talked about this with
several of my other friends who are over I I'm
at this point where if I'm throwing a birthday party
for myself, I'm just doing it and I'm paying for it,
and you just show up. I got no time for

(56:12):
the fucking Hemmen and Hawn, the people who are like
beleaguered to come to my birthday, right, They're like, oh God,
I gotta go to this party. I gotta pay for
the thing, and I gotta buy a present, like, no, no, no,
I'm gonna make it real easy for you. If you
like me, come to my birthday party. It's already paid for.
All you gotta do is show up, right. So that's
exactly what happened. I paid for you know whatever, paid

(56:34):
for the rental, and then texted like a shit ton
of my friends and said, come and see this movie
with me for my birthday now. So there's that part, right,
You got your planning, Okay, now you have the choice.
And I say this, I don't know who your friends are, Okay,

(56:55):
let's just say it. When I was going through my
list of the people that I wanted to bring to
my I was like, we got a real mixed bag here.
I got a lot of different types of competing interests
at this fucking joint, right, And I was telling myself,
what is a movie that I feel like everyone can

(57:17):
get behind? So if you're a straight white guy, if
you're you know, a nine binary black person, if you're
a woman, a man, if you've got kids, if you
don't have kids, like, what is something that like is
just too stupid and joyous that everyone will enjoy it?
And I decided that movie was.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Roadhouse hell yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Roadhouse the original all right with Patrick Swayzee to tell
you in case you got it, confuse with the Jake
Jillenhall Roadhouse reboot. Okay, now, the reason why I picked
this is because this movie is gay as shit. It's
also straight as shit. There's like women, hot women, hot guys.

(58:06):
There's it's it's ridiculous, there's a it's action oriented, classic
lines and also to your point, Noah, you can talk
above it. It's not like a piece of art to
where people really need to like study it. Like a
guy gets this fucking throat ripped out, like we can
scream and kiki and do all this guy.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Aren't there multiple throat rips or is there just one
main throat rip in that movie?

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Well there's you know, his previous throat rips, which we've
not seen one.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
Okay, that's right, they're alluded to. Sorry, but do you
know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
It's like it's like a joyous, raucous, stupid fun movie
that appeals to everybody, Like every everybody of all stripes
can get behind watching this movie. And that is literally
what happened. Like I brought you know, the movie to
the theater. All these people showed up. I had probably,
like I don't know, maybe like fifty people there, which

(59:05):
is really weird. I don't even remember how I know
fifty people, but that's kind of how it worked. And
everybody lost their shit, like it was super fun. Everybody
was real on board. A lot of people hadn't seen
it before, because I have some younger friends that weren't
like not you know, in the roadhouse era. When this

(59:25):
movie came out, they were blown the fuck away. My
friend's fucking mom was there. She hadn't seen the movie
since the eighties, and she was like, holy shit, it
was a ride. I was like extremely pleased with myself,
Like I was like, this is maybe one of the
funnest movie experiences I've ever had, And it was just

(59:46):
like it fired on all cylinders. It was just that
perfect thing. And it wasn't like I am a fucking genius.
I just thought, Okay, practically speaking, what is something that
hits all these marks?

Speaker 2 (59:56):
Right? Sure?

Speaker 1 (59:57):
So that's kind of what I would suggest for you,
you know what. Again, I would do like an assessment
of who you're inviting, find out like get a temp
check on, like what their levels of humor are, like
who's coming, you know, and then decide like and in
terms of a movie that is fun for August but
also a horror movie, I mean, Casey, I don't know

(01:00:18):
if you think have any thoughts on.

Speaker 2 (01:00:20):
That fun for August but also a horror movie. I
do have one. Oh, go ahead, Okay. There is a
movie that I'm obsessed with and it looks fabulous and
it stars Mary warren Off and it's from nineteen eighty six.
It's called Terror Vision. Oh yes, and it's a very
bizarre but like bubblegum kind of looking movie about aliens

(01:00:45):
coming through at satellite dish to like terrorize this family.
But it's so silly and visually stunning and don't you
don't really need to hear the It looks great. That's
the thing. At parties like this, you wanted to like
be visually like to entrance people so they don't have
to like listen to what's going on. And I think
Terror Vision is very silly and fun and campy, and

(01:01:09):
I think it would be perfect. It's not scary at all,
but but it looks great and I would highly recommend
Terror Vision. Yes, that's my that's and it's kind of
a summer movie because there's a lot of like, oh,
we're barbecuing in the backyard kind of scenes like with
it's kind of like pseudo nineteen fifties sort of weirdo

(01:01:32):
kind of John Waters vibes a little bit, but with
like aliens coming to kill the Nuclear family. And yeah,
I highly recommend that, and I think that would work
well at a party.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yeah, so that's great, that's I think a good Again,
like with if without having a conversation about who's coming,
that generally is a good I would say that's a
good recommendation. But yeah, I encourage you to do some
light race on your friends. I would love to go
to a movie theater for someone's birthday party. And I

(01:02:04):
feel like that's happening a little bit more now these
days with some of my friends. They're doing stuff like that.
So if I lived in Houston and he wanted me
at your birthday party, I would come.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Just throwing that out there, fabulous. Well, if anybody else
would like, if anyone else needs advice, we're here for
you film advice. We're your film advisors right into Dear
Movies at Exactlyrightmedia Dot com, or you can leave a
voicemail and you can just email that to the same
email address, dear movies at exactly right media dot com.

(01:02:37):
Keep the voicemail under a minute, and please record it
in a quiet space. I don't want you recording, you know,
in an actual roadhouse, because we wouldn't be able to
hear you, you know. So anyways, moving on to employees picks,
this is our film recommendation based on the theme of
the discussion today. Millie, do you have an employee pick

(01:02:59):
for our listeners today?

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
We've pretty much named all of the boy band girl
girl singers movies.

Speaker 2 (01:03:06):
I think if you name if you pick the same
movie as me, I'm gonna be very mad. But continue.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Okay, So I'm going a little sideways and I'm gonna
pick this. So this is a movie from two thousand.
This is a movie that features an actor that was
extremely popular in this particular era, which is why I
picked it. M He is the star of the American

(01:03:33):
Pie movies. The movie is called Loser from two thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:39):
Yes, yes, yes, it's a teen rom com.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
Basically it was actually directed by Amy Heckerling, who did,
of course, as you know, fast Times at Ridgemont, Hi, Clueless,
et cetera. This movie, now, I saw this movie when
it came out because it played a lot on cable
when it came out.

Speaker 2 (01:04:00):
It is.

Speaker 1 (01:04:02):
So charming, so charming, and like I said, when I
think about like this era, when I think about, like,
no disrespect to Jason Biggs. Okay, I don't know him,
I don't know his life, but you know he was
like the star of this really you know, huge franchise
in this era that was super raunchy and super kind

(01:04:22):
of like you know, I don't know, has anybody done
a critical reappraisal of the American Pie movies. I don't know.
I don't know if we should do that, but I'm
throwing it out there right. This movie is so cute
and charming. It was kind of like it kind of
feels a little like a like a Jack Lemon kind
of movie. Like he kind of plays this like Jack Lemon.

Speaker 2 (01:04:43):
Was inspired by The Apartment.

Speaker 1 (01:04:45):
Right exactly. So that's what I mean. It's like it's
got this like he plays this kind of like lovable
cutie who has you know, a crush on his on
one of his classmates who's played by Mina Suvar, who
you know was another person, right, wasn't she an American
pie too?

Speaker 2 (01:05:06):
She was an American pie. Yeah. I don't know if
she was in the sequel, but she was in the
first one, right.

Speaker 1 (01:05:11):
But you know again another actress who I feel like
is very emblematic of this era as well, but like
that doesn't so they kind of like have a thing.
She's like in love with an older guy and like
you know, he's trying to woo her, but he's also
kind of awkward and like you know, he's like a
Jack Lemon type. He's a lovable schlobby type of cuting.

(01:05:32):
So anyway, I loved this movie when it came out,
Like when I saw it, I was like, this feels
like so not the rest of these movies. I don't
know why. It has heart, it's like tender. They're what
are the actors in this movie? Zack Orth? Have you?

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
You know? Zack Worth is right love, He's great and
what hot Americans?

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
So yes, he is so good in this movie too,
Like he this is the movie that made me really
like him as an actor. You know who else is
in this movie? Dan Ackroyd is in this movie.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Ah, mister sad Dad himself yeah, and I just.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
Like and I gotta tell you, in terms of music,
they this is maybe one of my absolute favorite end
songs that happens at the end of a film. I
think about it a lot, and now when I hear
the song, I think about this movie a little bit.
At the end credits spoiler alert, they play the song

(01:06:34):
no Myth by Michael Penn and I my heart explodes.
My heart simply explodes, And it's one of the best
uses of that song ever. And I love it at
the end of this movie. So that is my.

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
Well my pick. Also, Teenage dirt Bag from by weedst
is on the soundtrack for this movie. That's where this
song comes from. And the music video for Teenage dirt
Bag is Loser. It has clips from the movie Loser.

Speaker 1 (01:07:00):
Wow, I did not know that. But it also has
like the soundtrack is like like it's got the Offspring
in Blink one eighty two and blood Hound Yang Remember Bloodhounding.
I kind of thought they were funny.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
I'm not gonna lie, that's fine, that's fine.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
I kind of thought they were funny. And also alien
Ant Farm anyway, another top of alien An Farm too,
but you know, like tall Tall Bachman She's so high
is in this.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
Like yes, but a time.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
This shit is stacked with this era of music. So anyway,
it's a great film, two thousand Loser, directed by Amy Heckling.
Please check it out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Amazing, what a great suggestion. I have not seen this.
It's going on my watch list. It's right up my alley.
I gotta watch it. I am choosing a movie which
came out in the early two thousands and it's about
a band, okay, and it's called Josie and the Pussy
can Ah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:55):
There we Go.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
And this is such a of course, huge box office
bomb when it came out in two thousand and one.
It's with Rachel Lee Cook, Minneapolis Queen Rachel Lee Cooke,
Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson. They play a band from Riverdale
because it exists in the Archie universe. And it's just
a really funny commentary on like, you know, corporate intervention

(01:08:20):
in pop music and making fun of boy bands. And
there's like a really funny fake boy band called Dajore
that has like Seth Green and Donald Fason in it.
And it's a really funny, silly movie. Parker Posey's in it.
Alan Cummings in it, Missy Pyle is in it. It's
just like bright and loud and fun and the mute.

(01:08:42):
The score is really good and I feel like they
should have done something like this for Britney Spears, something
fun and silly. And you know, TRL is really included
in this movie with Carson. Carson daies in this movie
if you remember Tim and Tara Reid were together at
the time. It is directed by Harry L. Font and
Deborah Kaplan, who wrote and directed another movie I've talked

(01:09:03):
about in this show, Can't Hardly Wait. So yeah, check
it out. Josie and the Pussycats two thousand and one.

Speaker 1 (01:09:09):
Gotta tell you, I hate to go in the horny territory.
Uh oh, but I listen. I'm a straight woman. I
am a straight woman unfortunately right because it's unfortunate. I
absolutely love Rosario Dawson, have for years.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Oh my gosh, Millie, Wow, what a day. We did it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:34):
We did it.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
We're at the end of our episode.

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
Can you believe how do you feel all about now
having gone back in time and thinking about your early
two thousand self?

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
Oh I did know self examination of myself. You know,
I don't know you know when I saw cross I
didn't bring this up. But when I saw Crossroads in
the theater, somebody saw it before me and they're like,
Britney Spears gets naked in this movie. And I was
like what. And I was like, this is Peachy's thirteen.

(01:10:03):
She can't get There's no way, There's no way. And
then I remember it with my friend and he's like,
when she gets naked in the movie, I'm gonna yell.
And I was like, got it And it didn't happen.
She doesn't get naked in it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:17):
Yeah, she gets skimpy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
She gets skimpy.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
And I will say she has the most even tan
I have ever seen in my entire life.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Sure, like there's no different machine. Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
I was like they got every nook and cranny of that.
When they did her spray tan, I was so impressed.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
So have you ever heard John Early do his Britney
Spears impressions? No? Do you know who John Early is?

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
Okay, don't even fucking joke.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
I will send you clips of him singing lucky and
I'll sing I saw him in concert and he's saying
over protected and it's very good. He's it's like a
spot on Britney impression.

Speaker 1 (01:11:03):
Have you seen him do his boy band dance like
especially like the web the fuck Donald Trump dance where
he does his like this is like Backstreet Boy. I
mean that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:13):
I've seen everything. John Early has every AnyWho, moving on,
This is the end of our show. Yeah, thank you
for writing in for film advice again. You can send
all your questions to Dear Movies at exactlyrightmedia dot com.
Mainly where can people follow us on social media?

Speaker 1 (01:11:29):
So yeah, follow us on uh Instagram and Facebook. We
are at dear Movies. I love you. Just let you know.
Back by popular demand, Casey and I are going to
do another Instagram live. This time it's going to be
April ninth, So that's upcoming. That's Wednesday. It's going to
be at eight pm Eastern. Yeah, so come on, come forward.

Speaker 2 (01:11:54):
Come on down, bring get a babysitter.

Speaker 1 (01:11:57):
You know, quit your job if you have to, like
do whatever you have to do, like reschedule that leg surgery,
like do whatever you have to do. But yeah, so Wednesday,
April ninth, eight pm Eastern Instagram Live, we'll be there.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
We'll be there. Last one was really fun, fabulous and
if you want to follow us on letterboxed do so at,
Casey le O'Brien and m de Cherco. Oh, Millie, thank
you again for another wonderful episode. This was wonderful. I
really could dedicate several more episodes. We might have to
crack open this subject again.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
I like how we're lied on it for sure, because
we've got so much to say and we didn't say half.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
I think we left a lot a lot on the
cutting room floor.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
Maybe this will be a multi part let's go, let's see.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Yeah, I mean this is this podcast is going to
go for the next twenty thirty years probably, so we've
got to fill it somehow. Well, thank you Millie for
making a great podcast with me.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
Yeah, thank you bye everyone Bye. This has been an
exactly right production hosted by me Milli to Cherico and
produced by my co host Casey O'Brien.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
This episode was mixed by Tom Bryfogel. Our associate producer
is Christina Chamberlain, our guest booker is Patrick Cottner, and
our artwork is by Vanessa Lilac.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Our incredible theme music is by the best band in
the entire world, The Softies.

Speaker 2 (01:13:33):
Thank you to our executive producers Karen Kilgareff, Georgia hart Stark,
Daniel Kramer and Millie to Jericho. We love you. Goodbye,
Beker