The Bechdel Cast - Adventures in Babysitting with Maebe A. Girl

Episode Date: July 10, 2025

Don't f**k with the Bechdel Cast on this episode on Adventures in Babysitting (1987) with special guest Maebe A. Girl! Don't forget to grab tickets to our upcoming Midwest Tour at linktr.ee/bechdelcast Follow Maebe A. Girl on Instagram at @maebeagirl and visit https://maebeforstatesenate.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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at youtube.com slash at las culturistas. Ding dong, Las Culturistas calling from YouTube. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. And here's Heather with the weather. Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now let's get a read on the inside of your car. It is hot.

You've only been parked a short time and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the backseat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise. And that could be fatal. Cars get hot fast and can be deadly. Never leave a child in a car. A message from Nitsa and the Ad Council. On the Bechdel cast the questions asked if movies have women in them.

Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effing vast. Start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Wee woo wee woo another plug for our upcoming Midwest tour. It's gonna be a great one guys for the first time we are touring with the Bechdel cast throughout the Midwest in the following four locations at the end of the summer. End your summer with us. First in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ever heard of it? I have. I have too. That's where they raced the Weed & Mobiles a couple of months ago. It's also where Let's Fest is going to be happening the last weekend of August and we will be performing

on August 30th at 2pm and that is going to be at the Fountain Square Theatre as a part of Let's Fest. I'll also be doing a solo show also at the Fountain Square Theatre. So come all day, come all weekend. It's going to be a great lineup. Some past guests of the show will be there. It'll be a blast. Our next show is in Chicago. Oh, is that where today's movie takes place?

It's all tied together. Our web connects them all. Our web indeed connects them all. So the following day on August 31st, our show is in Chicago at the Den Theater. We're so stoked. Chicago heads in particular, you guys have been asking for this four years and we are finally doing it. From there, we are going to be headed to Madison, Wisconsin at the Burr Oak Theater a couple days later

on Thursday, September 4th. We're also so stoked for that show. I've never been to Madison. I've never been to Wisconsin. It's beautiful. I'm excited. Wisconsin rocks. I've also never been to Minneapolis, which is where our final show of the tour is on

September 7th. It's at Dudley Riggs Theater. And we are going to have a blast. We are still deciding on what movies to cover, but we will announce that very soon. Sound off in the comments if you have particular Midwestern classics that you would like to see covered. No John Hughes this time, chill out.

Yeah, we've done enough. We've suffered long enough, but we are very, very excited. Keep your eyes peeled for our movie announcements. But in the meantime, get your tickets, because our live shows are always a blast. We're so excited to bring them to the Midwest. Not only do we do our classic discussion, we do bits, we do audience involvement,

we have exclusive tour merch, we do meet and greets afterwards They're always really really fun and we hope to see you there grab your tickets at link tree Bechtel cast will also stick the link in the description of this episode Tickets will likely sell out. Yes for all of these shows not to brag But people love us, but we really have never toured here before. So you gotta, so if you're on the fence, just get it done now and we'll see you at the shows. See you there.

The Bechdel cast. Jamie, don't fuck with the Bechdel cast. I almost said babysitter and then it turned into the name of our show who me I'm just a guy from the city. I'm scary. You're so scary I'm what a kid thinks of when they think of a scary guy. Yeah, welcome to the baby tell cast That's I think what I was trying to say and then I just couldn't don't mess with the Bechtel sitter. Okay, there it is

That's it Anyway, we figured it out. We're you know, that's the beauty of podcasting. You don't really need to know what you're saying When you open your mouth. Yeah, that's 99 of podcasting. I would say yeah Yeah, I think we actually think harder than 99 of podcasters and that's not saying very much. No, the bar is low. So welcome to the Bechtelcast listeners. My name is Caitlin Durante. My name is Jamie Loftus and this is our show where we take a look at your favorite movies

using an intersectional feminist lens, using the Bechtel test as a jumping off point for discussion. But Caitlin, what the hell is the Bechtel test? Well, it originated in our best friend, Alison Bechtel's comic, Dykes to Watch Out For. I love that we can adjust the show to reflect that we have spent exactly 45 seconds with the real life Alison Bechtel. I would say it's more like 45 minutes plus a different encounter. I guess I meant physically. Physically, physically. That added 45 seconds to the till.

45 minutes and 45 seconds when you combine our recording with her and our in-person meet and greet. Anyway, we are best friends. The Bechdel test, there are many versions of it. The one that we use requires that two people of a marginalized gender have names, they speak to each other, and their conversation is about something other than a man. And ideally, we like it when it's substantial dialogue and not just a throwaway, oh, hey, girl, or whatever. Unless that is very meaningful and it depends. It could be.

Your mileage may vary. Yeah. But yes, that is the show. And today we are covering a request that has been around for really as long as our show has. I want to say it's a classic for many. We're covering adventures in babysitting. Chris Columbus's first movie from 1987.

And our guest today, she's the first drag queen elected to a public office. She has been serving on the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council since 2019. She works professionally as the operations manager for SELA, Neighborhood Council since 2019. She works professionally as the operations manager for SELA, Neighborhood Homeless Coalition, and she just announced a run for California State Senate in District 26. It's maybe a girl. Hello. Welcome. Hello. Hey, everybody. Super excited to be here. Thank you for coming. Such a pleasure to have you maybe. Before we get into the movie, just tell us a little bit more about your campaign

and let the listeners know what you're all about. Yeah. So I've been involved in local politics since about 2019. That's when I was elected to the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council. And I actually just recently got re-elected for my fourth and final term. We actually we have term limits which is remarkable that we have term limits on the micro-governmental level. I didn't realize that until you got elected to a fourth term. Yep so this will be my my final two years on the Neighborhood Council. It's been a really awesome experience. You know, a lot of local organizing

and getting your neighbors to get together and care about the community. You know, we also influence legislation at the city level through community impact statements. We do neighborhood purpose grants. It's been a really awesome experience. I definitely have my complaints as well. You know, when it comes down to it.

We're supposed to act as advisory boards to city council and whether or not city council actually takes our advice, very much up for debate. So we are an advisory body, we're not a legislative body, and having been involved at this level for over six years now, I am ready to move on to something bigger and larger. So by the time anybody is listening to this, I will have announced a run for California State Senate's District 26 in 2026. And basically that covers the Hollywood area, Silver Lake, Echo Park, parts of downtown, K-Town, Eagle Rock, Highland Park. And I'm very excited to get back on the campaign trail.

Many of you might know I ran for Congress. I ran for U.S. Congress. We came pretty close in 2022. I came in second place out of nine candidates, advanced to the general election. It was the first time that an openly trans non-binary person has ever advanced to a general election for a seat in US Congress. And this time we're ready to make it happen. I think it couldn't be any more necessary

than the politically tumultuous time that we're going through right now to have progressive representation. Truly. And as a maybe head, I would like to add, I just, I have admired you from afar and then as a friend over the years, as I've been lucky to both campaign for you and then also work with you hands on at CELA. I mean, maybe works day in and day out with our neighborhoods, unhoused population. And in a way that I have never seen anyone running for office do in earnest, actually get to know the most disenfranchised people in their districts and try to understand more meaningfully, like what are the issues they're experiencing and what can we

do to help and how are they being filled at every level whether that's community, city, state, and federal. So I just we love you. I just am so happy you're here. Thank you, Jamie. It really means a lot to me. Thank you. Of course. And then there's the feature film Adventures in Babies, you. Of course. And then there's the feature film Adventures in Babies, which I was actually really surprised at how much overlap there is in this conversation, weirdly enough. Yeah, for sure. So maybe what is your relationship with this movie? So I will say this is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's probably, I've probably seen this movie more than any other movie I've seen. It's at least in the top five in terms of the number of times that I've seen it.

I can pretty much watch the whole thing and just, I could lip sync the movie. Actually, maybe I should do that. I'm a drag queen. Wow, lip sync for your life. Yeah. So I think, I don't know, I just, I loved it as a kid and I still watch it probably at least once a year. For me, it's like a comfort movie.

You know, we talked earlier before we started recording. I'm originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, but my family moved to Chicago when I was nine. That's where I grew up, sort of came of age, if you will. So having been in LA now for over 12 years, I think it's also very nostalgic for me, like nostalgic childhood wise, but also for Chicago. Yeah.

Well, I didn't know that you spent time as a kid in Chicago. It seems like such a cool, I don't know. It's so wild that like the Midwest and Chicago specifically, the greater Chicago area is the basis for so many seminal movies because of movies like this. Totally. And everything John Hughes has ever done basically. Caitlin, what's your experience with this movie?

I did not grow up with it. Interesting. Yeah, the 80s movie that Elizabeth Shue was in that I watched all the time was Back to the Future 2. So there's a fair amount of Back to the Future overlap because isn't Marty McFly's little sister plays Sarah? Oh, wait, Marty McFly has a little sister question mark.

I think it might be in one of the alternate timeline things. Okay.. Oh yeah I'm like my mind is being blown right now because I'm like I didn't recognize that little girl at all. Anyway yes so I had not watched Adventures in Babysitting until maybe two years ago I think it was just because I was like oh we'll need to cover this eventually. Let me familiarize myself with it vaguely. And I remember thinking that it was different than what I was expecting. It's like grittier. It's like a teen version of After Hours, which is what the screenwriter was going for. But I was like, oh, I thought this would be like way more lighthearted.

I was like, whoa, I didn't, I thought they would just like, I don't know, hang around a jungle gym or go to the park or I don't know. But I was like, they get into some, some misadventures, I would say. But I still thought it was a romp. It definitely is a romp. I mean, it's like a Chris Columbus movie. It's like even when it's some things that are fucked up of like the pacing is pretty incredible. Like, yeah, 10 out of 10 on the rompo meter, but I have a lot of thoughts.

Otherwise. And yeah, I just watched it again to prep for this episode. And then I also did some extra credit and watched the 2016 DCOM reboot starring Sabrina Carpenter, among other child stars who I have no idea who they are. And have some some stray thoughts on that one too that we'll get into eventually. But yeah, I don't have a much of a history with this movie. But I'm excited to dig in. Jamie, what's your relationship with it? I first wanted to just correct. So the reason that it's not Marty McFly's little sister, it's Lorraine Baines little sister. Oh, yes. Okay. The actor, the child actor who plays Sarah,

Maya Bruton is a character in Back to the Future. I'm not a Back to the Future head. I can't answer to this shit. Okay, no, that's okay. And I feel guilty in advance because I feel like I am gonna be a microgenerational hater on this movie. I have seen Adventures in Babysitting once at like a middle school sleepover. I remember really vividly because it was like

such a fun night and we took a sip of vodka from someone's mom's bottle and it was the only time I tasted vodka before college. So I associate this movie with my first sip of vodka and the hot dog joke which is the only thing I remembered about this movie, is then no wiener! And we were laughing. You don't have money for me, I don't have a wiener for you, or whatever it is. And so we were 12 and so we were laughing and that was, and the other connection that I had to this was I was a big fan of Rent as a middle schooler when I saw this and so I was thrilled to see Anthony Rapp, a very young Anthony Rapp who plays Mark in the original Broadway cast of Rent and also plays Mark probably shouldn't

have because everyone was so old in the movie adaptation, but Chris Columbus goes on to adapt Rent for the screen in 2005. Not well, but I loved it. And Anthony Rapp is in that as well. So I think that that was probably why I was like wanting to watch this movie as a kid, because I was like, there's a rent connections. And that's about my only connections to it. But I do, I have a lot of thoughts about it. I think that there's like a lot going on in this movie that makes it a very interesting time capsule. Definitely. Well, let's take a quick break and then we'll come back for the recap.

And we're back! Okay, so here's the recap of Adventures in Babysitting 1987. I just want to place a quick note at the top. As far as the version I watched slash am doing the recap on is the Disney Plus version, which is slightly edited from the original version. I don't think the Disney Plus version cuts any scenes. I think it's mostly just like slight changes to dialogue. I think so.

Based on what I was finding. Yeah. And we'll talk about these changes later, but just wanted to give that little disclaimer in case I like am leaving something out that people are like, what about that moment or that scene? Cause the theatrical version and the Disney plus version are slightly different. So just FYI.

Okay, so we are in the suburbs of Chicago. As we so often are in movies in this time. Truly. In Chris Columbus movies specifically, as we so often are. Yes. And we meet Chris Parker, played by Elizabeth Shue. She is a 17-year-old high school senior, and she's getting ready for a big dinner date because it's her anniversary with her boyfriend Mike Toddwell, played by a young Bradley Whitford.

And not to shame him, but when we say young, he's like 29 years old in this movie. He's like, you know, he's I guess young in the span of like, between here and the Ming dynasty, but he's certainly not, you know, a teenager. Yes, true. And he shows up in his car with a license plate that says, so cool. So cool. To tell Chris that he has to cancel their date because his

little sister is sick and he has to stay home and take care of her. So Chris is really bummed. She was really looking forward to the anniversary dinner and her friend Brenda comes over to console her and also to complain about her overbearing mother in a scene that passes the Bechdel test. And then a Mrs. Anderson calls wanting to know if Chris can babysit her daughter tonight. And Chris reluctantly agrees. We cut to the Andersons. We meet Sarah, the, I don't know, nine-year-old girl.

She's a little stinker. She's got the best outfits. Oh yeah. She loves Thor. Before it was cool. Yeah, before Thor was Chris Hemsworth. Right. So this is who Chris will be babysitting.

And then Sarah's 15-year-old brother, Brad, played by Keith Coogan, is also there and he has a huge crush on Chris. The Anderson parents give Chris a few instructions on how to care for Sarah, like make sure she has cough syrup and stuff like that. And they say they'll be home by 1 a.m. and then they head out now Brad is supposed to sleep over at his friend Daryl's that night but now that he knows Chris is gonna be at his house he wants to stay home and Daryl shows up played by Anthony rap he wants to hang out he's like hey Brad look at this centerfold model in this month's issue

of Playboy. She looks just like Chris. And so we're like, oh, he's like, you know, that like 80s pervert kid stock character. Yeah, poor Anthony Rapp. He was really putting a box on this one. Yeah. I also just mentioned this Playboy issue during the recap because it keeps coming up throughout the movie. It's Deus Ex-Playboy as a former Playboy employee. I support. Yeah. Checkoffs, Playboy issue. Then Chris's friend Brenda calls saying that she decided to run away from home because her mom is that awful and she made it as far as the bus station in the city. But she's freaked out and she needs Chris to come pick her up because she doesn't

have any more money for a bus or a cab ride home and Chris agrees but the only way she can really make this work without anyone like telling on her that she like left these kids to go into the city is if she takes Sarah and Brad and Daryl along so they all pile in Chris's mom's car and she drives them to the big scary city. I do love a good station wagon. That's something that I genuinely get nostalgic for. It's like, where the hell did those cars go? I liked them. We knew they weren't made out of wood, but I liked the effort. Oh, I loved that game you would play when like, yeah, the wood paneling on the side. We call it like Woody Whacker or Woody Whackback or something like that. Wait, I don't know this game.

Yeah, you'd be in the car, your parent was driving, and then you'd see one of those like wood sided paneled station wagons, and then you'd hit the person those like wood sided paneled station wagons and then you'd hit the person next to you and you say woody wacker no whack backs or something i don't remember caitlyn what you were hitting cars i was hitting my sister what do you want oh you hit your sister yeah yeah yeah oh yeah i guess it's okay to hit your sister. Yes. I thought you were leaning out of the car and hitting the car. No, no, no, no, no, no. Okay. No. Yeah. No, you can hit your sister. That's okay. Yeah. Thank you. She turned it out fine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She's great. Okay. So on the way into the city, they get a flat tire and have to pull over and there's no spare in the car. And Chris realizes she forgot her purse back at

the house so they don't have any money to get like a tow truck or anything like that but a tow truck driver conveniently shows up anyway this is John Pruitt there is a lot of ableism around this character and we'll talk about that later but out of the kindness of his heart he hooks up the car and drives them into the city but before they reach Dawson's garage where he's taking them to he gets a call about another man being over at his house, who's like fucking his wife. So he drives everyone to his house and starts shooting this other man who his wife is having an affair with. He's having a day. Like, he's just having the wildest day. I want to show him grace,

but he's having a difficult. I want to see a spinoff movie like Adventures in Toad Truck Driving. It is demonstrated repeatedly. He's got a good heart. Yeah. But it escalates very quickly with him. Yeah. He has a gun and he's not afraid to use it. Sure.

And so the kids dash into the first car they see, which is in the process of being stolen by a man named Joe Gibbs. And Chris starts freaking out, but she realizes that she has to be level-headed. You know, she's the responsible one in this situation. So she puts her babysitter hat back on. She keeps her cool. She's like, Sarah, take your cough syrup. Brad, don't eat chocolate. It'll give you acne. Darryl, put your seatbelt on. And we're like, wow, she's such a good babysitter. She's doing great.

So then Joe takes them to this warehouse full of stolen cars where this group of crime bosses is having a meeting and they're like what the fuck are these kids doing here they're gonna rat us out to the cops it's so wild that I mean and we'll get into the implications of these stock characters but it's like every possible stock character that could appear in this movie does. Because then you just get to like a godfather pastiche in the middle of you're like, yeah, I guess like, I don't know. Right. So these crime bosses lock Chris and the kids up in their office, but the kids escape through a hole in the

ceiling. But not before Darryl takes a copy of the Playboy magazine that he finds in the office. But oh no, that's where the crime bosses have written all of their crime notes. Wait, how does he refer to it? He was like, that's the Philadelphia idea. Is it? You're like, the what? Yeah.

Deus Ex Playboy magazine. Yeah, yeah, certainly. I want to add that I remember them saying those notes were so important and I think they would have let the kids go if not for taking that magazine because they said That if they had the magazine that the information could put them away for 20 years So the stakes are very high for these crime bosses. They shouldn't have put the Philadelphia plan in there That was a big mistake. Yeah, their Philadelphia story needed to go elsewhere. Yeah, okay, so when the bosses Discover the kids have escaped, they start chasing them. Chris and company run into a blues club and

accidentally end up on the stage and so the owner of this club, played by Albert Collins, won't let them leave until they sing the blues. This is a pretty iconic scene. Yeah, yeah. It is also replicated in the Sabrina Carpenter 2016 adventures in babysitting where she has to- Oh, and she can actually sing. No offense to Elizabeth's shoe.

Well, she has to improvise a rap. No. Well, she has to improvise a rap. No! She, she and the other kids, and in the reboot there are like eight kids for some reason, it's double the number of children, and they all improv a rap, they freestyle rap their way through this needing to get out of the whatever club they find themselves in. And it's a very bad song, I would say. It's a strong argument for producing original stories. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Anyway, so Chris improvs a blues song about how hard it is to be a babysitter. And I believe the song is called babysitter blues. Is that right?

Babysitting blues. Babysitting blues. Okay. Yes. Yes. Yes. Important. Important. Yeah. And so after that, Chris and friends leave the blues joint and Brad is like, Hey, Chris, your boyfriend sucks. You should be interested in me instead, especially because I just noticed that you're more than a pretty face, and you actually have a personality as it turns out." And she's like, um, okay. That's one of the only ways, I mean, not totally, but one of the only ways in which this movie

slightly subverts 80s plot lines where usually that would just confirm end game between these two characters is like, hey, I just realized you had two brain cells and you should probably be my wife. And usually that means that that will happen. Very true. But spoiler alert, she's just going gonna end up being with some other guy. A different guy, yeah. Meanwhile, back at the bus station, Brenda is having a time.

Someone takes her glasses, so now she can't see, and she picks up what she thinks is a cute little kitten, but it's actually a huge rat and she's like yucky and then back to the babysitting adventure the two crime boss guys plus Joe Gibbs are still chasing the kids who managed to evade them again by getting on the metro the L if you will where they find themselves in the middle of a turf war between rival gangs. It's literally like the amount of thought put into the sequence is like sharks versus jets.

Like they might as well be snapping. Yes, but they're wearing blue and red. So I think it's implied that it's like maybe a Bloods and Crips thing. Yeah, but it's so musical theater coded. Absolutely. I'm curious where the edits are coming in. Were there edits in that scene? Oh, this is the big edit.

This is the big edit, okay. In terms of dialogue. I wasn't aware that there was edits to that extent. Yeah, so basically they're about to kill each other, these two gangs, but Chris intervenes and she in the original version says, don't fuck with the babysitter. And that's like the famous line of the movie. They should let her say that.

I know, but the Disney Plus version has her says, don't fool with the babysitter. I can't believe it. We should have left that behind with TNT edits. Why are we still doing it? Because at this point, Disney Plus is such, and they should still hire me, but there's such a shit hole

that I watched Secret Lives of Mormon Wives on that same platform yesterday How can you just let her say don't fuck with the babysitter? There's no laws on this platform anymore Come on. There are movies with like nudity in them on Disney Plus Yeah, Teton we watched Teton on Disney Plus like It's silly. Yeah, there's no need like, do a PG edit. I don't know. Yeah. Especially because, well, the movie's still rated PG-13, and PG-13 movies, I think, are allowed one fuck? Maybe two? Because there's-

I wonder how that's changed. Yeah, I think it's like one hard swear. I think it's two because in the original, the reason that Chris says that is because one of the gangsters says, don't fuck with the Lords of Hell. Yeah, stabs Brad in the foot with the knife. She pulls the knife out and says, don't fuck with the babysitter. So I guess that's two right there.

That is two. But that's also just a really good callback. So right. There should be an exception. There should be an exception. Also in this scene, and I couldn't totally confirm this, but different gang members call Chris a witch, which I imagine the original line would have been. They say bitch the first time. They say bitch once.

Oh, I rewatched and I was like, I assumed that was edited. Yeah. They say bitch once and then they say which the rest of the time, but I'm assuming based on your description in the original that there was no witch. It was all bitch. It was all bitch. And then all bitch, no witch. It was all bitch. It was all bitch and then all bitch no witch. Wow. New merch maybe. Anyway, the point of this scene is that a knife gets dropped on Brad's foot or he gets stabbed in the foot. So they rushed to the hospital. It turns out Brad only needs one stitch, but there is a misunderstanding between the hospital staff and the kids and for a moment

Chris thinks that Brad died from his knife wound and so she faints because women be fainting But he's not dead and everyone rejoices Now meanwhile the the tow truck guy John John Pruitt, is also at the hospital because he was previously in a gunfight a few scenes ago. And he's like, oh, come with me, kids. Your car is fixed. And it's at Dawson's garage.

By the way, he, you know, Mr. Dawson's gonna make you pay $50 for the tire repair. But the kids don't have $50, so they have to figure out a way to get some money. So they come upon a frat party where Chris meets a college guy named, I think, Dan, who at first thinks she's Miss March from this month's issue of Playboy magazine. So he like approaches her and they start chatting and flirting and dancing and Brad who again is in love with Chris is like womp womp. Meanwhile a drunk college girl is kissing aka assault, a visibly 15 year old Darryl. So we have that.

Then Chris asks Dan if she can borrow $50 and he's like, no problem. Here's free money. Except he only has $45 on him. And he also drives them to Dawson's garage. It does feel like you're going to say Creek every time. Dawson's Creek. And then it keeps being garage. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So Chris and friends go to the garage and meet Mr. Dawson. No relation to Jack Dawson. He is played by a young Vincent D'Onofrio. Which, what a thrill. What a thrill to see. Right. Yeah, move over Chris Hemsworth. D'Onofrio had it all figured out in 1987. Right, because he has long blonde hair and is holding a sledgehammer, which is famously a tool that auto mechanics use all the time.

I also like, I mean, we'll get into this afterwards, but I feel like so much of this, for better and for worse, is written from a suburban kid's perspective of how they would view the city versus how cities actually are. Oh, yeah, for sure. And so I feel like it's like, if you're a 10 year old seeing this movie, you're like, sure mechanics have Thor hammers. They could, you know. Right, because the idea here is that Sarah thinks this guy is Thor, and she accidentally insults him based on another line that was edited.

So earlier in the movie when we first meet Sarah and her brother Brad, Brad calls Thor a homophobic slur. But the Disney Plus edit of that is Thor's a weirdo. And Sarah's like, No, he's not take that back. And so in this scene, she's like, Oh, yeah, my brother said that you're a homophobic slur, but again, it gets edited to weirdo. So this really upsets Mr. Dawson. And he also is upset that they shortchange him with the $45 instead of 50.

So he gets pissed and refuses to give their car back. And these are reasonable reactions to what happened in script. Yeah, right. But then Sarah is like, wait, Thor, you're my hero. You're a good guy. And she gives him her helmet and this endears Mr. Dawson to the kids.

And he's like, you little stinkers, here you go. Here's the keys. So they drive off and head to the bus station to pick up Brenda, who has gotten her glasses back, by the way. She's trying to get a hot dog, et cetera. But before Chris and the others reach the bus station, they drive past the restaurant that Chris's boyfriend was supposed to take her for their anniversary dinner because they

see his car parked outside with the so cool license plate. No, mistaking it. If you're cheating, if you're a serial cheater, here's my advice to you. Don't get a vanity license plate. Don't drive a red Camaro with a very recognizable license plate. Just drive a nondescript Prius. No one will know. Why do you think I drive a Prius? Because you're a liar. I mean, I'm freaking all the time, but everyone else knows about everyone else. Everyone knows. That's your bumper sticker. Parked because I'm freaking all the time, but everyone else knows about everyone else. Everyone knows.

That's your bumper sticker. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Parked because I'm fucking. Exactly. Okay, so they go inside the restaurant and Chris finds her boyfriend Mike with another girl and she confronts him. He gaslights her and belittles Chris so Brad yells at this shitty dude Mike Darryl kicks him in the ass and everyone

runs out of the restaurant except they've kind of lost Sarah and the crime boss guys find Sarah and chase her to the building where her parents event is. And Sarah, like, there's this, there's high jinks where she has climbed onto the roof, slash is like dangling from the side of the building. She's like 30 stories up. LESLIE KENDRICK It's like yada yada. It's the third act, you know, with kids on a roof, who knows. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And one of the bad guys is still chasing after Sarah.

The other bad crime boy is... The other what? The bad crime boy. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. He ends up at the event with Sarah and Brad's parents, as do the rest of the teens. And they see Sarah outside of the window, they save her, Joe Gibbs shows up, the one who had stolen the car toward the beginning of the movie, and he gets the Playboy magazine from them.

But he's friendly. He's like, I'll help you guys. And then he punches his bad crime boy boss. And so Chris and Brad and Sarah and Daryl are safe. Cut to them picking up Brenda at the bus station and driving like a bat out of hell back to the Anderson house. They arrive, Chris hurriedly cleans everything up while the kids rush to get ready for bed and then Chris sits down just in time for Mr. and Mrs. Anderson to open the door and return home completely unaware of the adventure the kids just had. Then Chris says goodbye to Sarah, Brad, and Darl. And as she's leaving, that frat guy, Dan, shows up

because Sarah had left her roller skate in his car with her address on it, which is how he knew where to go. Yeah, Bishemi tells that, see how it does. Yeah, exactly. And Dan is like, oh, maybe you could babysit me sometime. Babysit on my face, that is. And then they kiss. And that's exactly what he says. That's exactly what he says. And it's so weird that Disney Plus didn't edit that. They didn't edit that. They actually added that in, which is wild.

And then they kiss and that's how the movie ends. So let's take a quick break and we'll come back to discuss. And we're back. Yeah, maybe where would you like to start the discussion? What's jumping out to you? And we're back. Yeah, maybe where would you like to start the discussion? Let's jump it out to you. You know, let's let's start at the beginning. You know, I want to point out as I was rewatching this for the umpteenth time last night, I

saw a plot hole really, really early on that could have just made the movie not even happen. So, you know, Chris is at home, she's depressed, she's sulking, she's talking to Brenda. And when her mom comes in and she's like, oh, Mrs. Anderson just called, wants to know if you can babysit tonight. And you know, that almost doesn't even happen, but she agrees, she shows up and Mrs. Anderson is just like,

oh, you know, thanks for agreeing to babysit at the last minute. And there was just something unbelievable to me that the Andersons, and they live in a nicer home. It's, you know, it's very like uppity suburbia. I think it's Oak Park. And I just, I could not believe that they were going to this fancy events and didn't think until 20 minutes before, oh, we should get a babysitter.

Mm-hmm. Right. It's like, it's just as simple like the babysitter is sick or some half-assed something. Yeah, they had to cancel last minute. Yeah, I was searching for some sort of throwaway line as to why and, I don't know. Yeah, there is no reason given.

They're just negligent parents, which actually does kind of come up later when we see them again. They're like, well, they're probably fine. And like literally the daughter's dangling outside of the party. Parenting in the 80s seemed very chill based on what I've seen in movies.

Yeah. But I do think that that opening scene, I mean, we've seen so many versions of that type of scene to open a movie. The other two that jumped directly to mind, I think, are both from the early 2000s. It's Charlie's Angels 1 with Cameron Diaz, which is full panties,

like kind of more exploitative version of this scene. And then also the Lizzie McGuire movie, 2003, that is, I think, ripping off this scene directly and is fairly wholesome. I don't know that the Adventures in Babysitting scene is the blueprint for girl twirling around in bedroom to a pop classic, but I think this is my favorite version of it

that I've seen. I like it. Yeah, it was fun. Yeah, it's a really iconic opening. I do have to say that. And even at the beginning, like as soon as you see like the logo of the production company,

I think it was Touchstone, and you just hear like the first few like chords of the song, you just just you know exactly what's coming Yeah, mm-hmm. Yeah, it's great and Elizabeth shoe is awesome in this movie. I feel like she Brings more to the character than is necessarily on the page Right. So speaking of I'll give a little there's not much like production stuff that's very relevant here. But as we mentioned, this is Chris Columbus's directorial debut. The screenplay was written by writer David Simkins, produced by Deborah Hill. Yes. Hill, who we've talked about on the podcast before. And Linda Obst, two really iconic women producers, because Deborah Hill obviously got her start

with John Carpenter doing Halloween. She started super young and then went on to work with Cronenberg and then also on big top peewee adventures in babysitting, Escape from LA like Clue, so many of my favorite movies she had a hand in. And then Linda Obst, who I think passed away fairly recently and went on to work, I think with Christopher Nolan. She also worked on Sleepless in Seattle, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Angus Thongs in Perfect Snogging, a recent cover, and Interstellar. Chris Columbus weirdly kind of closes the end, but that was her last credit before she passed. Okay, yeah. So yeah, some iconic people behind the scenes. It seems as though David Simkins,

a screenwriter, drew inspiration from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and again, After Hours, like I mentioned before. No. No. Also, several critics compared Adventures in Babysitting to risky business. My point here is that a lot of movies like this where there's like a series of misadventures that happen over the course of a day or a night

have a protagonist who is a man or a teen boy. And Adventures in Babysitting feels like one of the few movies from this era with a female protagonist. So that's something. Yeah. So that's pretty much the kind of relevant production context. Yeah. They wanted Molly Ringwald to be the lead, but she couldn't do it.

All of the 1980s facts that you could almost make up. Predict, yeah, yeah. So basically the general premise of the movie to me, the narrative thrust, if you will, Wow. Yeah, is what would be so scary and create so much conflict for a group of middle-class white kids from the suburbs? Put them in this city where there are black people and poor people and

that's like the logic this movie is operating on where like Basically, here's who this movie Like, basically, here's who this movie thinks is scary. People of color, and especially black people, people with physical disabilities, people dealing with drug addiction, people who are unhoused, people who take public transit, working class people, sex workers, immigrants. Like, it's just everything you'd expect from

a movie of this era. Almost every group of marginalized people is like, so scary. But also very, I mean, not uniquely tied to Chris Columbus's catalog during this time, but like a lot of his early work encapsulates these themes directly, right? Where he wrote Gremlins, which the inciting incident is an encounter with an Asian person. And that is what like wreaks havoc into this otherwise quiet white suburban life in the eighties. Adventures in babysitting, even though he didn't write it feels like an escalation of this. I think you could make the same argument for Home Alone. This idea of like this city life and the idea of like poverty making its way into the quote

unquote safe lives of this like Oak Park white suburban community. Like it seems so connected to his early work in general, which also makes it even wilder that they were like, yeah, let's let this guy direct rent. I don't know. Right. And I mean, there's a lot of, you know, direct overlap in like region and people that he worked with, with John Hughes is work. But I feel like John Hughes for all of the criticism we have lobbed at John Hughes on this show, because I think he has made a couple of just kind of evil movies and then a couple of really good ones, but there isn't really as much the shades

of gray that you could see in a John Hughes movie in Chris Columbus movies. I'm not sure, because I felt like as I was going through like taking notes for this movie and listing sort of like you're saying Katelyn the list of others quote unquote not because they actually are others but because that's how the movie presents these characters to us where totally it feels like this movie is written from the perspective of a white suburban kid in the way that they would imagine a city versus the way that a city actually is where it's not that all of the characters who are like you're saying like who are black who are immigrants who are poor who are sex workers like any other quote unquote othered character in this movie

Anyone who we come to love we only come to love because they help these white characters It's like it's not because we come to know anything about them, right and the systemic issues That create cities are you know? This movie doesn't have an interest in and it's not the job of a single movie, but it just feels like it's a lot of stock characters that like, well, if this character helps, I mean, I think Joe is a good example where they literally present the fact

that he exists as a jump scare. Like with the music, where it's like, bloop, here's a jump scare. Yeah. Like with the music, where it's like, whoomp, here's a black teenager. You're like, well, we didn't need to choose that music cue, right? But like, because over the period of the movie, we realized that he, we don't know the circum, his circumstances. We don't know anything about him other than he decides that he's going to be kind to these white suburban kids. And that's why we like him. And I feel like we kind of see that in the

characters that we come to like, we only like them because from the like very white perspective of the movie, they quote unquote, like earn our trust. The same thing. I mean, that whole blues sequence, I feel like illustrates that really well, where it's presented as like, this is a really hostile environment. Why doesn't anyone want Elizabeth's shoe here? And it's like, well, but when it turns out the club really likes her, all of a sudden it's safe and they're comfortable.

And I don't know, I mean, it's just, it feels like a very kind of like Reagan era time capsule in that way, where it's like the systemic issues that affect a city and a very kind of like Reagan era time capsule in that way where it's like the systemic issues that affect a city and a very specific city, Chicago in the 80s is presented as like, this is just how it is. And ultimately like the movie is presented as like, it's so cool that these like young white teenagers

survived this experience. I don't know. I don't know what to make of it. I was like, I had a hard time with this movie. Yeah. Well, now I feel bad for liking it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.

No, we always say you can like whatever you like. We just encourage people to think about the media they consume critically, but I mean again like Back to the Future 2, 1, all of them have same a similar slew of problems and you know, they're still my favorites, but also I kept saying Joe Gibbs It's Joe Gip is the character's name. So my bad Yeah played by Calvin levels who was I think mainly a Broadway actor prior to this. He was a Tony nominated actor.

So there you go. There you go. And then the kind of subplot with Brenda being stuck at the bus station. And it feels like most of the characters that she encounters there, and this is relevant to so much of the work that you have done, maybe, as far as like, it seems like they're all implied to be unhoused. Totally, yeah. And therefore, like, they're crazy

and like all of those tropes. Right, or they're like thieves. I was like, oh, maybe you can really speak to, yeah, like just the way that unhoused people are presented. Totally, yeah. I definitely was thinking about that as I was rewatching it and just the tropes of the characters, they're caricatures.

And I think, you know, watching it as a little kid, I thought, you know, some of it was funny. But I think absolutely from that perspective of how you described it earlier, Jamie, as a, you know, a white kid that grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, I feel as if I viewed it through that lens. Sure. And not really knowing what, you know, I didn't have many interactions with people experiencing homelessness when I was probably until I was, you know, a late teenager. And you know, watching it now, you can definitely see that these are just caricatures of human beings.

And, you know, working in a field with people experiencing homelessness, you realize these are human beings and you can't just make these assumptions about what people are like simply by knowing their housing status. But yeah, the characters at the bus station definitely were all implied to be either unhoused, dangerous, or both. Yeah, that's just how unhoused people are presented to us from the time that we're very, very young. I'm trying to think of like the first, I want to say it was the movie Big Daddy for me, which feels embarrassing. But just the way that is specifically in like comedy that unhoused people are presented

as either a part for an extra or a cameo to basically just like mock the end house. It's so normalized and still is. I just thought, what was the Kiki Palmer movie? Kiki Palmer in Says That, One of Them Days. There's a character like that in that movie, a movie I otherwise liked that came out this year. This year, yeah. This is still a very, very common trope that is like, you know, just deployed in comedy in this like

lazy way. And I feel like that's part of why it's like I paradoxically like this is a well made movie, like it's paced super well, the jokes are constant, the performances are good. And it also just sort of like takes you through this sort of like walking tour of white suburban anxieties in 1987. Like there's so many where I think about the they meet a 17 year old sex worker and a scene that felt like an opportunity and then ended up not being used in that way where you know Anthony Rapp's character because he's the you know, like little 80s piece of shit kid. Yeah is talking to a sex worker and not realizing that she's a sex worker and

Elizabeth shoe comes over they have a brief conversation. They realize that they're the same age The sex worker who does not get a name I don't think says says, I think Elizabeth Chu asked, how did you come to be doing this? And then she's just like, oh, well, I ran away from home, which is also overly simplistic. We don't know why. But she's just more positioned as a warning about what could happen to Brenda if they don't pick her up from the bus station. And then they just say, bye. And they don't, like, as I was watching this,

I'm like, it would have been fun to start with, just like, even with like one kid, instead of forcing this weird, like two teenage nerds trying to fuck the lead, which is every 80s movie of all time. If you just started with the babysitter and Sarah, Chris and Sarah, and then they sort of meet people and they form a Wizard of Oz kind of coalition

as they go along versus these kind of like two useless suburban teenage boys, no offense. I almost feel like you could, you know like you could still be dated to an extent, but this movie had the opportunity to have the stereotypical protagonist in kid comedies of this time actually interact with people. But it's sort of like they meet people and then they're like, well, bye. You know, that's kind of what the movie because it's so like episodic. Yeah. And I mean, as we've talked about many times on the podcast before, especially with comedies

or movies with a lot of comic relief for such a long time. And again, sometimes still to this day, the comedy is relying pretty solely on punching down type jokes. And this movie certainly does that. It feels as though basically every kind of like 80s trope or any like, you know, status quo upholding thing is done here where, you know, it's the stuff that we've already talked about. It's the, you know, adults hitting on or kissing teenagers is totally fine, according to this movie.

I was like, particularly without getting too into it, but like particularly that happening to a young Anthony Rapp, which becomes such a large part of his story that he started speaking on when he was an adult. Like it just feels especially like, not that there's an appropriate way for that to happen, but just because of Anthony Rapp's personal history, that felt especially, like, pointed. Yeah.

Jesus Christ, like, who was looking out for these kids? Yeah. And then his character is written to be someone who, for example, after they've picked up Brenda and she's sleeping in the car on the way home, he, like, tries to, like, peek under her shirt. And at least Brad stops him. Which is presented as like, well, she should be with him because he's not trying to assault her.

I've seen a lot of, I don't know, it's so interesting, because our show's been on since 2016 and a lot of the kind of feminist arguments for movies around 2016 when we started the show were basically like, well, if there is a female lead and she didn't get assaulted, that's a feminist win. And that was a lot of it, because I was interested in like what, because it's like this movie has been through a lot of, you know, rounds of discourse because it's been around for a long time. And yeah, the last round of discourse with this movie, I think was in like the late 2010s

where they're like, this movie is a feminist slay because she does not end up with Brad, question mark. Although I do think that that is interesting for the time because the movie is telegraphing. And I also feel like a lot of movies at this time telegraph like the cool girl has to date the nerd because he just realized that she can think. Is a human?

Yes, yes. And that doesn't happen here. But then something else happens that I think is like annoying in a totally different way. Yeah. Basically, we're to believe he's an adult man. He's 18 or 19, you know, legally an adult. I'm not upset about like an age gap, but it's just like, who is this guy? And he's also kind of following her to her house.

That was the issue that I had. It was like, because I, I don't know, when I was 16, I dated a 19 year old and you know, I think that that dynamic can differ, but like it's someone within two years of her age range. I'm not super upset. I mean, also Brad is within two years of her age range on the other side Mm-hmm, but this guy followed her home. That's what I'm more concerned about Because it's like what if she wasn't into him and then he simply followed her home

Yeah, it's there's something some stalking happening. There is the movie ending with this like I think very wedged in hetero kiss? Because that's not what the movie's about. The movie's about... I mean, I guess it does open with she gets ditched by her boyfriend, so if the arc is like, oh, well, who's going to kiss her now that her boyfriend ditched her? Oh, she meets this other guy. But the core of the movie is about her as a babysitter and the adventures they get in. I don't know. It felt a little unnecessary.

And then he kissed me. And then he kissed me. And then he kissed her. And then you're like, but wait, who kissed her? Who is this guy? Just a couple other things, you know, again, tropes that are adhered to that are extremely reductive. There's that doctor in the hospital who speaks English with a not American accent, and he is characterized as being goofy and cartoonish and not smart or good at his doctor job.

You have that scene where Chris sees her boyfriend with another girl and Chris's first instinct is to insult the other girl and slut shame her rather than like be pissed at her boyfriend which she is in the next moment but like her first thing is like... I mean it's very 1987 yeah yeah yeah for sure so you know a bunch of things like that. Maybe, I'm sorry, I feel bad that we're just like- No, no, it's- Piling on. Totally, it's, I mean, I recognize that.

I mean, you know, that's, it, not as an excuse, but it's just very of that time where like- Definitely, yeah. I would be, you know, a little shocked to find, you know, some movies where we don't see those kinds of tropes. And but yeah, there is a lot to unpack about a lot of the characters and scenes. And yeah, at the expense of marginalized communities. I did note a couple exceptions to the pretty tro know, pretty tropey nature of the writing,

which is that, I mean, I guess aside from like, the protagonist of a movie from the 1980s is a g-g-g-girl. But then there's also the little girl, Sarah. She is obsessed with Thor slash like superhero stuff, like rather than something traditionally hyper feminine and you know, superhero and comic books and all that kind of stuff is like, has been pigeonholed into a quote unquote masculine interest. I love Sarah.

She's so chaos. I love her. I love that she's like a little bit evil in a fun way. She's always laughing when they're getting into car crashes. And then even, you know, like at the restaurants when she's like being all sneaky and sneaking the pastries off the pastry cart. And then she just decides, you know what?

I'm leaving. I'm going to the toy store. Yeah. This is none of my business. And then this is how the whole building moment happens. Right? Yeah, I really appreciated her character. I feel like this is like precocious young kid done right. Cause she still feels like a kid, right?

Like she still wants ice cream and toys and has very like kid-like interests, but she's also, I don't know, that moment at the beginning where she, I guess that I am pro Disney edit, but yeah. In this case, yes. That edit at the beginning, sure, I'm pro that, but that she basically tricks her older brother

into admitting that he has a crush on Chris. And it's younger sibling, Devious, done well. And I really like her. And I like Chris too. I think that there were opportunities for Chris that weren't really taken in, again, in a way that is very of the time, right? But the moment I was like, I think just Bechtel cast frustrated by was there's a moment towards the beginning of the movie

when Chris has just come over and Sarah asks her, what are you going to major in in college? Nicole Lange Oh, yeah. And then she just goes like, what? Yeah. I'm not going to college. Well, I don't even know if that's the application. It's unclear if she even heard it. And then Chris's life outside of babysitting and having crushes has never brought up again, which is like, you know, if you're 17, obviously your life is small in ways that are to be expected,

right? But it was just like, and I wouldn't advocate for like a change that would be like an overcorrection. Like, here's a question, Caitlin, did they add a weird woman in STEM ambition for the Sabrina Carpenter character? Was she like, I really want to be a chemist? Not women in STEM, but she wants to be a photographer, or an artist. She's like vying for an art or photography internship or something like that. OK.

I appreciate that. Does it ever come into the plot? Probably not. But I just thought it was funny that in the 87 version, she's like, what? And then it never comes up again, like an external life for her. That scene is Sarah being like, yeah, what are you going to major in or something? And

Chris responds by saying, I'm not going to college. She's like, college? Ew. And it's kind of like, I mean, it was more affordable in the 80s. So if you were going to go to college, that was the time to do it. But Well, it seems like I mean, given their socioeconomic, like, you know, probably could, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, sorry. Maybe we cut you off. No, no, I was just gonna say, I mean,

Sarah was digging through her purse, which also sort of lends to that, you know, sort of devious little character, the little sister character you were talking about. And she directly asks Chris, she goes, are you gonna go to college? And Chris is like, what? No, thanks, Mom. And like, obviously, like, her mom is trying to convince her

to go to college, and she's just not having it. And I think it's because she's so preoccupied with So Cool. Mr. So Cool. But to the Sarah being a little stinker and like ragging on her older brother about the little crush that he has, I think another subversion is that a teen boy is characterized almost entirely by his crush on a girl, where normally you would see a male character be way more fleshed out and that then a teen girl be solely defined by her crush on a boy. But that feels like there's a little bit of a flip there.

That's true. I guess that there is like some equity there where it's like. Chris has more dimension than most of the kids, because she also has a friend named Brenda, who's at the bus station. And then the two teenage boys are horny, horny, horny, and Sarah likes Thor. And that is really what we have. And I don't, I'm not complaining about it. I do like a like low concept, like these are the characters, this is what we've got. Yeah, I guess it's just like the, idea that like I feel like with some very slight additions to Chris's character, even I don't know watching it through this time, like maybe you're saying like the promise of like the and then he kissed me at the very beginning

is fulfilled by the end. But that's like not really her central goal the whole time. And so I wish that there was like just a slightly different ending I'm not upset that she ends up with a boyfriend It seems like that's something that she wants is like someone who is thoughtful and treats her well, which this movie interprets as Following you to your house. It was 1987 But I don't know. Yeah, How did everyone feel about the ending? I mean, it's obviously very dated.

I mean, it's interesting. It's kind of like, you know, in the last like 15 minutes, they like wrap up everything. I mean, from getting the car back to racing home to cleaning up to pretending like nothing happened who ended the evening. And then he kissed me. So it feels like not necessarily like it feels like the finale is not just the kiss, but like sort of the scene where they're like, OK, we're getting out of the city. We're going back to the suburbs.

Like, that's the beginning of the finale. And then like the the kiss at the end is just sort of like what they probably thought was like the cherry on top. Right. Yeah, no, I totally agree. The 2016 DCOM reboot for Sabrina. As a Sabrina fan, she had to go through so much to get to Short and Sweet. She really did. But I don't think like the final frame of the movie are like teens kissing each other, but there are various hetero love interests sprinkled throughout the movie where Sabrina Carpenter's character has a crush on a boy and there's a misunderstanding where, oh no, someone told him that she wasn't interested, but she is interested and that, you know, culminates and she like,

lets him know that she does like him after all and that's nice. The other babysitter, because there are two babysitters in this one. There's two babysitters? Two babysitters, two families, two sets of kids. No, too much. One of the younger girls likes one of the younger boys from the other family. So there's another hetero love interest in that one. And then they just like double down. They're like more more teenage couples. So the other babysitter and again, I'm probably supposed to know who

that is. I don't have the tab open. I don't know who plays her, but it's the other babysitter. She is given a love interest who is a cop. So it's, you know, it's bad. And I think that's all I really had to say about the reboot, except that the 1987 movie, like you said, Jamie, like it's well made. It's a good script. I think it's like directed well too.. Like, it's, I get why people really like it. Totally. Yeah, it's a fun romp. It's easy to follow. Yeah, we're having fun. The decon reboot is so convoluted. It is

nonsensical. It loses the thread almost immediately. I somehow could not follow along. I was like, what is happening? I'm sure that the budget was like $12. And I recently read actually to get ready for our upcoming Camp Rock episode. I just read a book about the history of decons that came out I think last year called Disney High that said that the Adventures in Babysitting reboot was in the works at Disney for so long that I think by the time it actually came out, they very much just kind of sharted it out because it was originally supposed to star Raven-Symon in like 2007 or something.

And then like it just kept not happening. And then poor Sabrina Carpenter, her number came up and she had to be in whatever piece of shit you had to watch. But this movie isn't a piece of shit, and I actually do, I mean, it's like, Chris Columbus, I am constantly frustrated and impressed by him because he directed this

when he was like 28. He'd already written Gremlins. He would go on to to I mean, yeah, like a couple years after he directs Home Alone, like obviously, he went on to have a ridiculous career. But it's interesting to seeing kind of how much of what his kind of thumbprint in like American Family movies are kind of right from the jump with even before this with gremlins of like you have this quote unquote like allegedly idyllic suburban life and then there is this sort of outside factor. I mean you could even attribute this to his

Harry Potter movies of like this idyllic suburban life that with complicated families inside being disrupted in some way by an othered force. You're a wizard, Harry. Right, whether it's a gremlin or wizards or Robin Williams in drag and Mrs. Doubtfire. Like there's so many outside. Like that is just his playbook. And I guess that never like fully came together for me until sitting with like his first, the first movie he directed. But this is very much a through line. Babysitting with it. I babysat with it. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, did we all did we all

babysit at different points? Any babysitting stories to swap? No, I didn't really babysit. I mean, I'd watch my little brother sometimes, but I don't know if I, it didn't feel like babysitting. I never babysat for non-family members. Okay. Yeah, neither did I. I didn't want to be around children. Okay, well nevermind.

No, but tell yours. No, I don't have any. I babysat a lot, because I had a huge family and that's what they do. They exploit your labor. But you get to know your cousins really well and so that's the upside of it. True. Yeah, I wiped all my cousins' butts.

Whoa. It's fun. I've, wow. Have you ever wiped a baby's butt? I never have and I never will no Sorry everyone. I'm really good at it. I learned this when I was quite young I Love that for you. That was I think that was honestly. This is a separate. This is a side-tanded but I think that's part of why I

One of the many reasons I connected to American Girl books reasons I connected to American Girl books was they were always having to wipe baby butts. And I was like, well, she's so me. She wiped a butt today. I'm just like Kirsten. Ruthie Wow, visibility of wiping baby butts. Bekkah Yeah. Ruthie Does anyone have anything else they'd like to talk about? Bekkah No, I mean, this is like a tricky movie in a fun way where it, yeah, like I like it. It's a fun movie to watch. It's well made.

It's funny. And there's all this 1987 stuff going on inside of it. You know, the only thing that I wanted to mention, I know we talked a little bit about some of the vocal dialogue that was altered in the Disney edits. And I gotta say, I, as a homo, I never felt offended by that joke, that line. I actually, like, I don't know. I thought it was funny. Yeah, it definitely is rooted in homophobia. But I also feel like I take issue with pretending that that never existed, that that never that that line was never there. It sort of feels like it's glossing

over, you know, the prevalence of homophobic throwaway comments, you know, from the 80s that went until like the 2000s. I mean, still today. So it kind of, I don't know, for that reason, I wish it was still there. Yeah. Yeah, I totally see your point. And it's interesting that the, like what this movie shows to censor and edit and not, because it's like, I understand maybe the feeling inclined

to want to censor homophobic remarks, but like you're saying, that ends up just sort of like erases the fact that there was rampant homophobia during this time that was so normalized and like we need to contend with that because it has lasted and informs homophobia today. So to pretend like it never existed is weird. But then there's all these, you know, there's these moments that are shaming of sex workers and that are implying that all the people of color in the movie are in a gang or they are...

Unfriendly or... They're car thieves or... Uneducated. Yep. They're in a blues club and absolutely loving these white teens sing a shitty song. And that's what makes us like them is that they like Elizabeth shoe improvising. I also felt that way about, about Joe Gip where like Joe is a lovable character from the moment we meet him. Yeah. From the beginning. like Joe is a lovable character

from the moment we meet him. Yeah, from the beginning. Like he is a very, very sweet person. I wish that we got to know him better because at the end, at least in the cut that's on Disney+, he is I think the kindest that we see a man really be to Chris in the entire movie. Yeah. Where she is once again compared to this Playboy model.

And he's just like, I forget what the exact wording was, but it was like, oh, you're even better. She's got nothing on you. Right, and he says it in a way that doesn't aggressively sexualize her in the way that everyone else who has made this comparison has. Totally. But it also feels like the movie in a way that like I can't really articulate, but like

he's never seen as a viable interest for her. And that feels very pointed in this like aggressively white suburban movie, because I think if he were not a black actor, he would of course be, that's the guy that you would go with as the person who is sweet with you. If we absolutely need this teenage girl to end up with a guy at the end of the movie. Adding that moment felt very interesting because in 10 minutes she ends up with this college

guy who is also nice to her, but Joe is so present in the story, but I feel like there is almost this like, and this is me galaxy-braining it, so feel free to be like, shut up. But it just feels like there's this implication that really the one place that the kids go that isn't presented as like actively horrifically dangerous is a mostly white party. Which is hilarious because those can be incredibly hostile and dangerous places. That's maybe one of the most dangerous places a teenage girl could be, but it's presented as almost like,

I don't even know if he has a name, but it's presented as almost like, I don't even know if he has a name, but the guy she kisses at the end. Dan. It's almost implied that like, he's passing through the city. You know, like he'll be back to the suburbs. He is quote unquote safe for her. Whereas. Yeah, he's a yuppie, like fucking boat shoes wearing.

Yeah, attending the University of Chicago. Right. Where it's like, where Joe is presented as not a viable love interest, in spite of being equally, if not more, kind to her. Yeah, it just feels very of the moment and kind of quietly racist in the way that, like, he's not presented as viable.

Mm-hmm. Because based on everything that happens and this movie's insistent on her having a love interest, in the way that he's not presented as viable. Because based on everything that happens and this movie's insistent on her having a love interest, he should be in the running. Why wouldn't he be? Totally, yeah. So it's all the things like that

that make this movie glaringly. Ronald Reagan was president. Also, not for nothing, Brenda, played by Penelope Ann Miller, went on to play Nancy Reagan opposite Dennis Quaid as Reagan last year. Whoa. So, because I was like, this is like one of the most like Reagan coded family comedies I've seen. And then I was like, and she literally played Nancy Reagan. There you go The quades what a family

anyway What a web they weave. She's also she was also in I she her I don't know but her Her filmography is very Republican coded. She also was in Rudy the Rudy Giuliani story, which was a TV movie. Nicole Zichal-Klein Whoa. Nicole Zichal-Klein Yeah, I don't know. Nicole Zichal-Klein I'm also saying she was in kindergarten cop and Carlito's way. Nicole Zichal-Klein

Which are just, I guess, facts about her. Nicole Zichal-Klein Yeah, nothing to see here. Nicole Zichal-Klein Not quite as Republican coded, yeah. Nicole Zichal-Klein Anyway, okay. Does the movie pass the Bechtel Test? Technically, yes, it does. Yeah, I mean, Chris talks to Brenda about Brenda's mom. Chris and Mrs. Anderson talk about Sarah. Chris and Sarah talk about roller skates and ice cream.

So, you know, quite a bit of passing the Bechdel test. You know, I have a slight argument in there. I mean, I've heard, you know, the Bechdel test being a conversation between two women. And technically, Brenda and Chris are teenagers. They're 17. You know, they're not full adult women yet. And so if you take that out, I don't know if it passes. I mean, I don't think there's any, you know, mature adult women who have a conversation between each other, but we definitely see, you know, lots of men having conversations, like the bad guys who run the car operations. So that's sort of my only argument, where I'm like, I...

It feels like it does, but I don't know. It's a little between pass and fail for me. I feel like spiritually, for me, it definitely doesn't. Because it's such a bummer, especially because we're set up with what you would hope, because I also didn't really remember the details of this movie. We're like, oh, we're starting with these two teenage friends.

And you want their friendship to be a more driving force in the movie, but it just isn't, which sucks because I thought their opening exchange was really funny, where Brenda was not afraid to be like, yeah, Bradley Whitford's a liar. I was hoping for more of that dynamic. But then she just gets stranded at the bus station and she's just like a plot factor versus a character for the most part. Yeah. She's also like, I'm going to spike my mom's soda with Draino. with Drano, I'm gonna murder my mom, is Brenda's vibe. So she's hard, she's hard. She's just. She's so hard.

Yeah. Until she goes into the city and then she's the softest motherfucker I've ever seen. You know, I guess that explains though, why she ran away, you know? Yeah. That's why she ended up at the bus stop, that's why the whole adventure ended up happening. away, you know? Yeah. That's why she ended up at the bus stop.

That's why the whole adventure ended up happening. So, you know, it almost required Brenda having a poor relationship with her mother. Yeah, it's true. Anyway, as far as rating the movie on the Bechtel cast nipple scale, where we rate zero to five nipples based on examining the movie through an intersectional feminist lens. I would say that this movie... Mm-hmm. I think like one nipple. It's not...

It's not doing great. It is again adhering to many many tropes that punch down to marginalized people and communities. It is just making the easy choice almost every single time, the tropey reductive choice almost every single time and not really subverting anything significant. But it is fun. I like that it is yeah like a wild little caper kind of thing or you know just a wild story of a night of misadventures that does center a woman. And yes, it is a white woman from the suburbs. And but you know, she she takes initiative, she has agency, she drives the narrative quite a bit. So there's

I don't know, there's something there. And the car. And she drives the car literally. So I'll give the movie one nipple and I will give it to the shirt worn by one of the like car thief guys who's just in the warehouse that says eat the rich. And Brad is like kind of like looking at everyone he's like cool shirt but he's like not really being serious he's frightened and that is meant to be like a shirt that's scary oh no eat the rich but i'm like no that is a cool shirt and i'm giving my nipple to that the end oh i'll meet you there i'll give it oneipple. I'm tempted to give it 1.5, but I don't know why and so I guess... I was kind of there too.

Okay, well then I'll do it. I'll go 1.5. I do think that with Chris and Sarah, while they are like white suburban kids, we do get a little more depth and centering than we do in your average 80s movie. I think I like Chris. I wish I knew more about her. I think Elizabeth Chu brings a lot to that performance. I could take your leave Brenda to be perfectly honest, but Sarah. I love Sarah. I love like little tomboy kid with a very specific interest. I feel seen by that. I love that she has this weird Cronenberg. She loves getting into car crashes. She's a weirdo. I really appreciated that character. I remember that being the big standout to me when I watched it when I was younger. And yeah, I mean, and like we've been talking

about for an hour and a half, there is, I think, this element of this, to me, time capsule of white suburban anxieties at this very particular moment that acknowledges but doesn't state a lot of things that we now historically know were going on in the mid to late 80s in a lot of cities which is there are drug epidemics that were being pushed by the government. There's like all of these, you know, the AIDS epidemic was happening. Like there are all of these very, very serious issues happening in the background of these scenarios that are I think presented more as like, what would a white suburban kid think this scenario would be like versus what it actually would be? And so I feel like this movie is best consumed when you frame it as like a fantasy versus any reflection of like reality. Yeah. Anyways, I'll give it one and a half.

I don't really know why, but I'm giving one to Sarah and then I'm giving one to Sarah's mom because she's just phoning it in. Yeah. She's like, who's the caterer at that party? She's like, if she dies, she dies. I was like, wow. Love that energy. Maybe.

How about you? I'm gonna say three and a half. And I'm saying this based off of my love, my early love for this movie. I would have given it five as a kid, but it's always revisiting these things. For that reason, I'm gonna deduct one and a half nipples. Excellent, well, thank you so much for joining us.

Of course. I really enjoyed this. And where can we find you? Where can we find more about the campaign? Amazing. Yeah, you can find me on Instagram. It's at maybeagirl. That's M-A-E-B-E-A-G-I-R-L. And then our website is maybe for state senate.com. Yay. Amazing. We're so excited.

Thank you. You can follow us on Instagram, mostly at Bechtelcast. You can subscribe to our Patreon, aka matri on, where you get two bonus episodes every month, plus access to the back catalog of matri-on bonuses that always center an amazing, genius, hilarious theme. And then that's all for $5 a month. You can go to our link tree for different important things. And with that, let's pile in the station wagon and get home and pretend we've never been to a city before.

Yeah, the city's too scary! I'm scared! Bye! Bye! The Bechtel Cast is a production of iHeart Media, hosted by Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus, produced by Sophie Lichterman, edited by Mo Laborde. Our theme song was composed by Mike Kaplan with vocals by Catherine Voskrasensky. Our logo and merch is designed by Jamie Loftus and a special thanks to Aristotle Acevedo.

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