The Bechdel Cast - Aquamarine with Demma Strausbaugh & Imani Davis

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

On this episode mermaids Caitlin, Jamie, and special guests Imani Davis and Demma Strausbaugh (hosts of Players - A Film Industry Podcast) emerge from the ocean and become human to discuss Aquamarine! Here's the piece from Lez Hang Out podcast - https://www.lezhangoutpod.com/eps/sbg99aquamarine#:~:text=If%20you%20haven't%20seen,with%20her%20and%20save%20the  Follow Imani on Instagram at @imanimdavis, Players - A Film Industry Podcast at @players_pod, and RM.19 Productions at @rm.19productionsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. Calling all Yellowstone fans.

Let's go to work. Join Bobby Bones on the official Yellowstone podcast for exclusive cast interviews, behind the scenes insights, and a deep dive into the themes that have made Yellowstone a cultural phenomenon. Our family legacy is this ranch. And I protect it with my life. Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

I'm so sick of hearing men talk about women's basketball. This is Lexi Brown and Mariah Rose. And we've got a new podcast, Full Circle. Every Wednesday we're catching you up on what's going on in women's basketball. We've got you with analysis, insight stories, and a little bit of tea. Full Circle is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. Listen to Full Circle on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty,

founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Lately on the NPR Politics podcast, we're talking about a big question. How much can one guy change? They want change. What will change look like for energy? Drill, baby drill. Schools.

Take the department of education, close it. Schools. Take the Department of Education close it. Healthcare. Better and less expensive. Follow coverage of a changing country. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. On the NPR Politics Podcast, listen on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. On the PectoCast, 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 effin vast, start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Jamie is the prettiest girl in the whole wide world. Caitlin is the most beautiful person I've ever seen in my entire life. Like, I, okay, can I be honest? Those earrings are so creepy. I would rip my fucking ear off. I would be like, those things are killers

because you know the second you fall asleep they start saying bad shit. Yeah. That was, I couldn't stop thinking about the second, the second they were like, what's the, it's like that old, God, why did my brain go here? But like that old Liz Lemon joke where she's like, you should kill yourself.

It's like, that's what the starfish earrings do the second you start to drift off to sleep. And also for some reason on the Wikipedia page for this movie, they're all credited as the voices of their own starfish earrings and you're like yeah okay say less like I don't know yeah there's not information we needed I reject that information I um yeah the starfish earrings they've gotta go or at least like they they needed a different. Nothing is more obvious to me that my love language is words of affirmation than in this moment

because I was into it. I feel like I need those, I need to buy those immediately. Go out into the ocean and scavenge these tiny little starfish earrings. I was honestly a little scared to say something. I was like, oh, they weren't into it. No, speak your truth. Yes, all opinions are welcome.

But you're right. Objectively terrifying starfish earrings. In retrospect, it is a creepy voice. The fact that they do themselves is very interesting and adds a new flavor. I mean, I guess it's self love. Yeah. And that's nice.

And they're like. But still creepy. And Moni is amazing. Maybe it's just, I don't have enough faith in my own self. Like my version of self love sustains for like a minute at a time. Like I would not go to sleep with those things on because it gets dark.

That's when the dark thoughts come at night. Real. Yeah. Anyway, hello and welcome to the Bechdel cast. My name is Caitlin Durante. And Caitlin is the prettiest girl in the world. My name's Jamie Loftus and she sucks. And she deserves to die.

And this is the Bechdelcast, our podcast where we take a look at your favorite movies using an intersectional feminist lens, also using the Bechdel test as a jumping off point for discussion. But Caitlin, what the hell is that? Oh gosh, it's a media metric created by queer cartoonist Alison Bechdel, sometimes called the Bechdel Wallace test.

There are many versions of it. Ours is, do two characters of a marginalized gender have names? Do they speak to each other? And is the conversation about something other than a man? And we also like it when it's a narratively substantial conversation and not just throwaway dialogue. Absolutely. And today we are talking about a movie that I believe has been a consistent request for the entirety of this show, of this program.

And we have finally found the right guests to discuss this beautiful, incredible work. Yeah, it's because they're both mermaids. Yes. It took us this beautiful, incredible work. Yeah, it's because they're both mermaids. Yes. It took us this long, but we found them. We have expert opinions. Look, if you keep your podcast on long enough,

you will have mermaids as guests. Alfred Molina, then mermaids. That's how it works. A natural trajectory, yeah. And we're covering the 2006 Classic dare I say Aquamarine based on the book by Alice Hoffman Wow and our guests joining us are the hosts of players a film industry podcast

It's Dama straws bar and Imani Davis It's Dema Strasbaugh and Imani Davis. Hello. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you guys so much. Yeah, thanks for having us. Thanks for being here. Excited to dive in. Wow.

Cooking already, cooking already. Imani, who told, who told that we were mermaids? I know, it was me, I swear. Yeah, sorry to dox you. I love, I'm so excited to talk about this movie because the mermaid rules to me are so chaotic. I love the mermaid rules. They're just like, whatever.

Also, she's a mermaid, but also she's a genie, but she doesn't follow the genie rules. She's like, there's no rules. It's whatever you want. It's only one wish, not three. Yeah. One wish with no rules. It's whatever you want. It's only one wish, not three. Yeah. And one wish with no rules. Right. Right. She say you can't kill someone or does she not even specify that? The only stipulation she gives is that it has to follow. It can't like violate the laws of nature, which is very open to interpretation. I think. Right. So yeah, that's the only thing with the genie wish,

the one genie wish she grants. Her mermaid rules are basically like gremlins rules, because it's like she can't get wet, and during the daytime, it's okay, but like, what is it for gremlins? After midnight, you can't feed them or something? You certainly can't get them wet. And you certainly can't get them wet, so.

Well, Aquamarine actually does need to be wet. It's a bit of a reverse gremlin because she has to be wet at midnight because she's a fish. Right, but I guess the rules for her to be a human or to be in human form are the like, you can't get her wet and it's only during the day. It's a very complex text. Very complex text. So rich.

Let's talk about our experiences with this. Imani, what's your history with Aquamarine, the book, the movie, the idea? Yeah, I didn't get to read the book when I was younger, but I remember the movie coming out and being like super hyped and revisiting it. It's like such a Y2K time capsule. And I feel like I definitely found myself being like, I want to be a mermaid for Halloween. Like I want blue hair streaks. I want some of these starfish earrings. And so there's like, there was this longing to like be in this world of helping out my mermaid friend get the guy.

A tail is old as time. A tail? A tail. Okay, okay. Dama, what's your relationship with it? Slumber parties come to mind. It was a lot of parallel giggling with the characters on screen. It's very much for me a like friendship watch where we were absolutely gagged at the jokes and just falling for it and very into it. And my child, I obviously have very different opinions about it now, which we'll get into. but when I was younger was totally into all of it and also I was like oh this movie taught me about true love which I was very into when I was young as well so I do love the true true love between friends is so beautiful my history with aquamarine is I more clearly remember reading the book than seeing the movie.

I think I'd saw the movie at like a sleepover, but I very clearly remember reading the book in some time in elementary school and really loving it. Obviously I love a mermaid for a long time. It was the only thing I could draw. So people thought I was really into mermaids, which is probably why I was given that book. But it was just the only thing I could draw

was a mermaid that looked kind of fucked up. But I, yeah, I remember being really affected by the book because the friends, and it was also because I had a good friend when I was a kid who moved away. But the fact that I kept expecting, and when I was watching the movie, I felt that little pang again of like, oh my God, and then they don't end up together at the end.

It makes me so sad. I just, more clearly than any of the weird mermaid rules, I don't really remember the differences between the book and the movie, but yeah, like this like amazing friendship between these two girls. And then at the end, they're separated. And I think it affected me at the time

because I was like, it's like me and Amanda. And I was surprised they kept it that same ending for the movie. It feels like it's kind of a gutsy way to end a movie because I feel like it's so tempting to Hollywoodify it and be like, actually my mom is going to work at, brr, brr, brr, brr, you know, but they, I don't know. Yeah, I really enjoyed the book.

I like the movie. It is a wild time capsule. I'm like, oh, there is a Weezer Island in the Sun plot point. Like that is, I always associate that song with the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie, Island in the Sun, which is literally named after that Weezer song. And I think would have come out around the same time. Anyways, tweens loved Weezer in the mid 2000s.

And what an interesting moment that must have been for Weezer. Right? I liked this movie. Yeah, I found myself pleasantly surprised by it. And we just covered Angus Thongs and Perfect Snogging, which is a movie from the same era that I don't think holds up quite as well.

And so even though there's a lot of the same, it's the same playbook, but I really appreciate this movie. And also just, Emma Roberts, Jojo and Sarah Paxton, come on. Dream cast. Come on, 2006, we were there. Caitlin, what's your history with Aquamarine? I had no exposure to it whatsoever. Never read the book, never watched the movie.

I had like aged out of it by the time the movie came out. And I don't know when the book was published. I meant to look that up, but. It was 2001. Yeah, I would have been too old for it then as well. So I was not interested. Yeah, so this was my first time watching it. And watching this movie as a full adult in the year 2024 for the first time is interesting.

I agree that I was like surprised by the takeaway from the end and the kind of twist like no hetero romances be damned. This is a movie about female friendship. I was like what? It took me by surprise. So I'm excited to talk about it further, but I have no attachment to this movie whatsoever. So Caitlin's the neutral party. It's true. I also just another I don't know there's so many very 2000s things about this. It took me so long to figure out who the villain was. And it's because she was on Gilmore Girls. Any Gilmore Girls watchers in the chat, except for Jamie,

she was, for all my Gilmore Girls heads, she was Dean's wife, and she also was like, had to play this kind of like shrill stock character She's like Dean get to work Buy my food and like they just I this this poor actor has to play all these crummy parts But that was where I recognized her from I clocked her immediately because she was in a Cinderella story And I feel like she's like the 2000s like evil villain lady.

Mean girl. Yeah. It's like her and Megan Fox kind of who is I believe the villain in Holiday in the Sun. Whoa. And Confessions of a Teenage Drum Queen. John Tucker must die. Yeah, so Cecilia is played by Ariel Keble

who I recognize from John Tucker Must Die. Right. She's one of the people who are trying to kill John Tucker? I forgot she was in that. And she was in Fifty Shades of Grey too in the same role. I think it's actually the second one. She plays Gia Matteo. Yes, and she's the person, again, the same cast words, like she's trying to steal Christian and like Christian is just married and there's like this standoff moment

where Mrs. Grey is like, you can refer to me as Mrs. Grey, and then she kind of backs off. What does Ariel ever do to anybody? They're just like, this lady's mean. Wow, okay, well, shout out to her. I guess we all know her for something different. Totally.

Yeah. So let's take a quick break and then we'll come back for the recap of Aqua Marine. Lately on the NPR Politics podcast, we're talking about a big question. How much can one guy change? What will change look like for energy? Schools? Health care?

Follow coverage of a changing country. Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. On the NPR Politics podcast, listen on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. WNBA player with her own podcast I could listen to. Hey, this is Lexi Brown, WNBA player and professional yapper. And this is Mariah Rose. You may know me from spilling the tea on Hoops for Hotties on TikTok. And we've got a new podcast, Full Circle. Every Wednesday, we're catching you up on what's going on in women's basketball. And not just in the WNBA, but with Athletes Unlimited, Unrivaled, and college basketball. We've got you with analysis, inside stories, and a little bit of tea.

I know you guys have seen a lot of former and current basketball players telling their stories from their point of view, and I just think it's time for the girlies to tap in. We want to share all of the women's basketball stories that you won't see anywhere else. Tune in to Full Circle, an iHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner

of iHeart Women's Sports. Everyone's forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them. Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy is this valley. Time to remind them. Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy is this rich. And I'll protect it with my life. Hosted by Bobby Bones, the official Yellowstone podcast takes you deeper into the franchise that's captivated millions worldwide.

Action! Explore untold behind-the-scenes stories, exclusive cast interviews and in-depth discussions about the themes and legacy of Yellowstone. You know the first stunt to settle this valley fight was all they knew. Whether you're a long time fan or new to the ranch, welcome to the Yellowstone. Bobby Bones has everything you need to stay connected to the Yellowstone phenomenon. I look forward to it. Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go to work. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters

King and our dear friends, Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Each week, we'll sit down with inspiring figures like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter, and their plus one, their ride or die, as they share stories never heard before

about their remarkable journey. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. ["My Legacy Theme"] All right, let's dive into the ocean and do the recap. Okay, we meet best friends, Claire and Haley,

played by Emma Roberts and Jojo respectively. Not to be confused with Jojo Siwa, which when she like started to become popular, I was like, don't you mean Jojo? And I had to learn that they were different pop girlies. I was happy to see that JoJo, like our JoJo, is doing very well. She was on Broadway last year playing Satine

in Moulin Rouge the musical. Like she's, yeah, like she's thriving. Love this for her. Yeah. Yeah, I mostly know her from that song, Get Out, Right Now. Oh my God. I feel like I can close my eyes

and watch that entire music video front to back, just from memory. Yeah, frame for frame. She was also in a sneakers commercial. Yeah. That I still remember because at the end she's like talking about all the things she has to do and then they show her sneakers and she's like, and a math test? And then it's like, or no, Skechers. Skechers. She was in a Skechers commercial. I was like, sneakers

commercial. Skechers. That feels very Jojo coded. Can't explain exactly how. Totally. And that movie RV, she was also in. Oh wow. I bravely saw RV in theaters. I think I did too. Thank you.

With my mom. And this was also the era of Emma Roberts where she was on Unfabulous too. And I loved that show so much. Talk about a time capsule just Y2K. Truly. So the gals are in the movie playing Claire and Haley. They're at the beach somewhere in Florida somewhere called Bay Bridge I think.

I don't know if that's a real town or not. I didn't look it up. It's the last few days of summer vacation before they start I think eighth grade, though Hayley is about to move to Australia because her marine biologist mom got a really good job there. But Hayley deeply resents having to move and leave her best friend Claire behind. Claire's backstory is that her mom and dad drowned at sea and so Claire lives with her grandparents who own, I think, the local beach club or something. You hate to hear your parents drowned at sea. You hate.

That is heavy. I know, I also was like, this was a completely irrational thought, but I was like, you could do that in 2006? People were still drowning at sea? Like, what were they even up to? I don't know. Yeah, it gives like 1800s, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. It was like, wait, what were they looking for? Anyways, I don't know Maybe no aquamarine. Maybe they taught her the meaning of love or something. Yeah. Yeah aquamarine sees her parents and That's what inspires her to come ashore to find love. Here's my here's my horror pitch aquamarine whoopsie daisies calf size the boat killed her parents. And then was like, Oh, jealousy. Yes. So she's like, and then I'll strike when Emma Roberts is vulnerable. The sequel. I love that. Yeah.

Okay. So also on the beach is a lifeguard named Raymond, who the friends have a big crush on. Then a mean popular girl, Cecilia, who we were just talking about, and her gaggle of mean girlfriends show up and flirt with Raymond the lifeguard to Claire and Haley's dismay. That night Haley like jokingly casts a spell to try to make the ocean stop her mom from moving to Australia. What a sentence. She does it in jest, but like, it like is sad at the end when Jojo goes to Australia, but you're also like, good for her because they lived in Tampa. Like yeah, you should absolutely go to Australia. Yeah, but she doesn't want to go there. She thinks.

Tampa's amazing. And so she jokingly casts this spell and there's like this storm and lightning strikes and it seems like the spell works question mark because the next morning Claire and Haley go outside to this swimming pool that's right by the beach. Is that a thing? I don't know. But Claire falls in the swimming pool and she sees something in the water. But before she can get a good look, Raymond jumps in and saves her. And she tells Haley she saw something.

So that night they sneak back to the pool and discover a mermaid. And she's like, hi, it's me, a mermaid. And we will eventually learn that her name is Aqua Marine, although it takes forever for her to introduce herself. It is a full half hour. I had to check. I was like, how is this the first time? They say the name.

Yeah, they hang out for like a full day. And then she's like, by the way, I'm Aqua Marie. And she, of course, is played by Sarah Paxton. No relation to Bill Paxton, from what I can tell. No. OK, I tried to look into that too, yeah. I was like, this is important research. And it yielded no results. But yeah, I don to look into that too. Yeah, I know I was like this is important research Yielded no results, but yeah, I don't think they're related

Anyway, she seems nice and friendly But then this guy Leonard who works at the Beach Club and who Claire and Haley are scared of he starts to approach So they have to run off but they tell aquamarine that they'll come back tomorrow But when they do, they discover that the pool has been drained, so they think she's like gone forever or dead or something. But just kidding, Aquamarine turned herself into a human with legs, although,

this is when we learn the gremlins rules. This is mermaid rules, yeah. Where she can't get wet or else her tail will come back and her tail will definitely come back no matter what when the sun sets. But during the day she can be in like human form. Oh, and if you help her, you get one genie wish. Yes, but that is what has not really any moral rules.

Yeah. She also makes fun of them. She's like, you guys think genies are real? Ha ha ha. Not really any moral rules. Yeah. She also makes fun of them. She's like, you guys think genies are real? That's so true. There's a little mix of Cinderella in there too. Like Gremlin's rules and like a little Cinderella. Yeah.

And then she also has the Ariel thing going on because she only has three days to fall in love. Yes. It's just an amalgamation. A lot of stuff. Three days to fall in love because this is very important. The reason she doesn't want to go back into the ocean is because she doesn't want to be a child bride. Right. Yeah. That her father has arranged. Yep. Correct. Picture this, your dad says, unless you can prove to me that love exists, I will make you a child bride in 72 hours. I'm wondering like what, what Fisher in the sea, like what are the merman, the merman like that where she's like, this is awful. I can't.

It felt like they didn't have the budget to show us a second mermaid. They had one tail. It seems like mermaid culture is a patriarchy. For sure. And, and they don't believe in love. That's part of their culture. A loveless patriarchy, just like ours. Damn.

Is her, is her dad Poseidon? It feels like that is implied. But it felt like she was avoiding saying his name. The mermaid names took a long time to- They couldn't afford the rights. Poseidon had the rights to say Poseidon. Pay big Poseidon. They could barely afford aquamarine. All right.

So they bring her to Claire's house where aquamarine's dad, who may or may not be Poseidon, calls her on a shell phone, hilarious. Basically on just like a conch shell and reprimands her for leaving because she ran away to escape being a child bride. And as we've said, she has three days to find true love and to prove to her dad that love is real. So then Aqua Marine sees Raymond and decides he's the guy that she wants to fall in love with.

And she tells Claire and Haley that if they help make that happen, she'll grant them a genie wish. There is a nice, I did appreciate, I mean of all, because I feel like this movie is like really, I don't know, maybe it's because we just watched a movie that I felt like was not as good on friendship between girls. I did appreciate that it's like Haley and Claire both have this huge crush on Raymond, but when Aquamarine is

like, I have a crush on him too, I feel like a lesser movie would have been like, well, you can't have a crush on him and ram ram ram. But it's like, they're all very supportive and like, I don't know, they never turn on each other for some goofy reason, like boys. Right. There was some initial pushback to the Raymond crush, but they got over it very quickly.

Totally. It was like, everyone wants him. Even guys! I loved that. And a few guys. Yeah, so like all the girls want him and even some boys and we're like, yay, queer representation win! Queer representation, parenthesis implied. I was like, wait, I love that. They do push back, but they change their mind and agree to help Aquamarine as soon as they learn about this wish,

because they realize they can use the wish to keep Hailey from moving away. So they prioritize their friendship with each other over a boy and so they're like yeah we will help Raymond fall in love with you in three calendar days and so in an effort to get Raymond to notice Aqua Marine they ride their bikes past his house so you know they're doing some light stalking, and Aqua Marine goes flying off the handlebars

and scrapes her knee. So Raymond comes out and like tends to her wound. Okay, really quick, really quick, I'm sorry. First of all, incredible, like 2000s era hot girl pratfall by Sarah Paxton. But there, I, for some reason, you know how like Raymond's just doing sit-ups at his house, you know, like hot guys do?

Or something. I do feel like that really embodied like what a young person's idea of what a hot guy is doing at home. He's like, he's probably at home doing crunches and talking to himself. But he is talking to himself. And what home doing crunches and talking to himself, but he is talking to himself. And what he says as he's talking to himself,

he's doing a sit up, okay, sit up. Ooh, that hurts. Second sit up, but this will make it all worth it. And you're like, what the fuck are you talking? It's really quiet, but I rewound it like three times just to make sure that that Weird and it's clear that he the kid isn't saying it. So they added it in. That's just like ADR That hurts but this will make it all worth it

What is this yeah, what do you say this What is this? Yeah, when you say this. Fascinating. I just loved it. Someone made a choice to put that in. Yeah, I was like, if I'm the director of this, they're like, something's not working with this scene. We should make him give positive,

he's basically being his own starfish earrings in that. Yeah, oh my God, yeah. Moment. Wow. Ooh, that hurts, but this will make it all worth it. You're the most muscular boy in all the land. You're awesome Raymond. Everybody loves Raymond. But it's his own little voice telling him. You're awesome Raymond. Anyway so he runs out to help Aqua Marine but she doesn't really understand human social cues.

So she's like awkward and overzealous. And then the mean popular girl, Cecilia shows up to get a driving lesson from Raymond. And then you realize, okay, she must be 16, at least. Raymond also seems to be like 16, 17. So he's like a few years older than Haley and Claire. I think that it's also implied that Aqua Marine is a bit older. She's also 16 kind of thing. I feel like I always got very like cool

older sister vibes from her. Right, but then it makes you wonder why Cecilia and her friends spend so much time making fun of like girls way younger than them Is that a thing that happens? About making yourself feel bigger Well, she doesn't have her own starfish earrings. So she has to get validation by putting other people down It's true. She's even mean to her other friends and that's why they ditch her later. Yeah, true.

She had that coming. Her dad was a little out of pocket towards C.A. but we'll get to that. I was like, oh my God, surely this is partially your fault. You did not bet this. Okay, so Celia shows up to get a driving lesson. So Claire, Haley, and Aquamarine head back home so that the friends can teach Aquamarine more about how to get a boy to like you via a bunch of teen magazines. And there's a whole montage to this effect. What a throwback. It literally I think they cut they do like a close in on like, keep smiling.

Definitely a time capsule. I was like, I had those magazines. What was it? It was like Cosmo Girl. Yep. Seventeen Vogue. Tiger Beat. I loved those magazines because they were for some reason

a little bit smaller than my mom's magazines. Like I, do you remember like Teen Vogue was just, it was little. It was littler, yeah. Yeah, I liked it anyways. I didn't have, I'm missing out on this. I wasn't allowed to have those, but I had like the Care of Keeping You book.

Does that count? Yes. Oh, a classic, a classic. Absolutely. Didn't teach me how to flirt with boys though. It's probably why I was so bad at it. I feel like the American Girl books were pretty wholesome. I have, it's in here somewhere.

They did make an American Girl book about how to flirt. Really? Oh really? Yeah. I need that now. Yeah. I still need that. Yeah, I remember.

And my mom was a freak, so she got it for me. She's like best of luck. Good luck out there. Hilarious. Okay, so then the three of them head to a street fair where Raymond is and he and Aqua Marine connect and they go on a paddle boat together and he and Aqua Marine connect and they go on a paddle boat together. And he's like, wow, you're not like the other girls. And she's like, Teehee, really? But then she realizes the sun is setting, which means her tail will come back very soon.

So she has to hurry away and Claire and Hailey take her to a water tower for Aqua Marine to spend the night in. Pretty brilliant. How she did not get a drop of water on her during the paddle boat sequence. I know. I was like, you're worried about the sun setting. What about the water? She forgot the other rule.

Well, there are a lot of roles. Also curious just about the water tower choice, because there's also the scene, the iconic scene with the bathtub, like chilling in the bathtub with the tail. I'm like, well, why didn't she just chill? There were so many other sources of water. The water tower. I don't know why they go to the lengths of taking her up a water tower. We don't know.

It's so that she can get quote unquote trapped there by Cecilia later, but it feels very contrived. Wow. Meanwhile, I wrote water tower smart idea. Yeah. Okay. Got it. Got it.

Got it. Again, every, this is a safe space. Every opinion is valid here. I thought that was pretty inventive of them. I feel like it's like the bathtub is like a fishbowl and then the water tower, it's like staying at a aquarium. And then there's the ocean. There's different, yeah, there's different levels to this. The water tower is like an apartment. You can just sing Weezer there by herself, which she does later. Which she does. And she couldn't go back in the swimming pool because it's established that they drained it. So actually maybe it is brilliant.

I was, it was really late when I watched this. It's like, Um, so the next day is this big beach party called the last splash. And it seems like Raymond was going to ask aquamarine to go with him. So the girls go on a shopping montage for an outfit for aquamarine. As you do in the 2000s. Where it establishes further that she's not like other girls because they're like these are secondhand clothes and she's like guys give them a chance Wow sustainability Queen I did I mean it's like it is so contrived to have a like clothes trying on sequence But it's I love 2000s ones because they're always trying on the most butt ugly shit like in the world where you're like you guys look horrible you look so bad.

And then she tries on a dress that it looks I mean whatever but the sleeves are especially ugly so she just rips them off but I don't think buys the dress then because we don't see her wearing it again so she just like defaces the property of the store and then leaves which is iconic but she's not like other girls. It's true. Yeah. She gets a pass. It's okay. Right. So after the the shopping montage aquamarine makes Haley ride on a dolphin to go out into the ocean and collect the starfish earrings that give them compliments. Duh. But then Aquamarine finds out that Raymond is going to the last splash party with Cecilia

because Cecilia had lied and told Raymond that Aquamarine has a boyfriend. So Aquamarine is devastated and she runs off. But Claire and Hailey managed to find her and Raymond and help clear things up and arrange for them to go on a date to the last splash. Although Raymond almost sees Aqua Marine as a mermaid when she's taking a bath. And so there's a close call there. Iconic. Where Jojo has to like jump in the bathtub with her pretending to be her legs. But she didn't have to do.

No, so unnecessary. Yeah, when you're in the bath, you don't need to prove your legs. I love that she committed. Yeah. Yeah. So then the date happens and Aquamarine and Raymond have a nice time. They dance, but then they dance to Weezer's Island in the Sun, of course. They bribe the musicians with a piece of cake.

They walk on stage and they're like, please. They like handed off and I'm like, is he going to eat that now? Or what do you mean a piece of cake? It's a weird bribe. Uh, so then the date is happening, but sunset rolls around again and aquamarine has to abruptly leave once again, but she tells Raymond to meet her on the pier the following morning at 9 a.m. and then she gives him a kiss on the lips and he's like, awoo-ga! And then Cecilia follows Aqua Marine to the water tower and discovers that she's a mermaid. So Cecilia breaks the ladder so that no one will be able to go up or down.

And then she goes back to the party and tells her friends that Aqua Marine is a mermaid, but they don't believe her. But Leonard overhears this and he starts researching mermaids in a book and he has this piece of jewelry that he had found in the drained swimming pool and it matches up with mermaid jewelry. So he's like, wait a minute. I had to check because I was like, this character feels added. So I checked the synopsis of the book and indeed there is no, not a Leonard in sight. There's no Leonard?

No. He is very random because they're like, because it wasn't even like, I mean, I guess that the girls learned not to judge lone adult men in Florida, which I don't even know if that's a good lesson to learn. Like you should be suspicious of this man. But yeah, Leonard, who knows? Bless his heart, seems like a nice guy. I think they're being classist and ageist

by being afraid of him. I think I'm a 13 year old girl. I'm not talking to a huge stranger. Fair. That was me. He's also not trying to befriend them or anything. They're just unreasonably scared. That's true. I guess they do know him, right?

Yeah, cause he like works at the club that her grandparents own. Oh yeah, they're being classes then. Okay. I can't forget, I was thinking of him as like the neighbor from home alone. I was like, I understood why they were scared of him. That's what I thought.

Yeah. He does get a wish as well, and I need to understand, did he force that woman to fall in love with him or what? Great question. I think he did. I think he did. I was like, wink, wink. I'm like, wait.

We need more rules with the genie wish. You could have just asked her out. That couldn't have happened with Aladdin's genie. That was one of his rules. Right. Because he says, I can't make anybody fall in love with anybody else. And he won't kill anyone. We need better rules.

I feel like her wish to get, if you help me with this man falling in love with me, then you get a wish. But then Leonard would just like happen to like help her down a tower and she was like would you care for a wish she's just like passing them out now yeah right the the amount of effort and labor you have to put in varies but you'll still get the same like caliber of wish you could still just like arguably ruin a woman's life just for no reason at all. Great. Okay. I think I'm catching on. So the next morning, Hailey is having second thoughts about the wish that she and Claire are planning to have because Haley realizes that her mom has worked really

hard for the job that she got in Australia and she doesn't want to ruin that for her mom and this makes Claire really upset the thought that Haley is going to abandon their wish and they get in a huge fight and say some really mean things to each other meanwhile Meanwhile, Cecilia tells her news reporter father that she heard cries coming from the water tower so a rescue mission is underway but really Cecilia just wants to expose aquamarine as being a mermaid on TV but this plan backfires because they don't find her and Cecilia is like there is a mermaid up there, I swear.

And everyone's like, uh-huh. And it turns out that Aqua Marine wasn't in the water tower because Leonard had climbed up and rescued her. Because he has his own ladder. So he gets a wish now. And it turns out he's actually nice and not creepy, I guess. Yay! Yay!

Leonard! Then Aqua Marine goes to meet up with Raymond on the pier because it's, I guess, 9 a.m. the next morning. And she asks if he loves her because if he says he loves her, that's the proof she needs to show her father that love is real. And he's like, well, I like you, but we've only had one date. So as far as love goes, I would say no. Fair.

Which is like, and he's super sweet about it. Yeah. I really appreciate it. I mean, like it's, you know, he's a very stock character, but like Raymond's like a sweet person Yeah, he's really nice and it's like yeah, totally very fair. I remember being like I think devastated How could he Right because every other movie would be like yes, I love you But he's so nice about he's He's like, Well, I'm not

saying I won't ever it's just we should go on some more dates. You're like, Oh, Raymond. He's like, we've known each other for two days. So fair enough. So just then, Cecilia shows up and pushes aquamarine into the ocean, which of course turns her back into a mermaid. And then her merman father, who we don't see on screen, but. You can't afford it. We just see him via a lot of bad CGI. Budget for sure. He's like trying to pull her back home

via like waves and whirlpools and stuff. So Claire and Haley jump in to try to save Aquamarine and also there's this whole subplot where because Claire's parents drowned at sea she's afraid of the water and she refuses to go in the water. So it's like a big deal that Claire jumps in and they're like well Aquamarine will set you free with our wish, much like how Aladdin uses his last wish to set the genie free. But Aquamarine is like, there's no use.

Raymond doesn't love me. So I can't even grant your wish. But then she realizes that Haley and Claire jumped in to save her and they're willing to give up their wish for her because they love aquamarine. So love does exist. It just doesn't have to be romantic hetero love. So her father like releases her from this marital obligation, AKA from being a child bride.

this marital obligation, AKA from being a child bride, and Claire and Haley want to wish that Aqua Marine stay with them. But she's like, nah, I'm a mermaid, so I gotta be getting back to the ocean now. I know. I feel this. And my family. Who wants me to marry someone.

Like, I felt so bad for Claire at the end of the movie. I'm like, damn, she got none of what she wanted. She got nothing. She got a kiss on the cheek from Raymond. That has to count for something. That was... They were very happy about that. As does Hailey. And then Raymond also gives Aqua Marine a little kiss on the lips again and he's like see you later She's like bye. Bye And the friends have made up so Claire and Haley

Our best friends again and they both accept that Haley is moving away But they are like we had the best summer ever and we'll cherish that forever. The end. So that's the movie. Let's take another quick break and we'll come back to discuss. ["The Best Summer Ever"] Lately on the NPR Politics podcast,

we're talking about a big question. How much can one guy change? What will change look like for energy? Schools? Healthcare? Follow coverage of a changing country? On the NPR Politics Podcast, listen on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm so sick of hearing men talk about women's basketball. If only there were a professional WNBA player with her own podcast I could listen to. Hey, this is Lexi Brown, WNBA player and professional yapper. And this is Mariah Rose. You may know me from spilling the tea on Hoops for Hotties on TikTok.

And we've got a new podcast, full circle. Every Wednesday, we're catching you up on what's going on in women's basketball. And not just in the WNBA, but with Athletes Unlimited, Unrivaled, and college basketball. We've got you with analysis, inside stories, and a little bit of tea. I know you guys have seen a lot of former and current basketball players telling their stories from their point of view, and I just think it's time for the girlies to tap in. We want to share all of the women's basketball stories

that you won't see anywhere else. Tune in to Full Circle, an iHeart Women's Sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. You can find us on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports.

Everyone's forgotten who runs this valley. Time to remind them. Yellowstone fans, step into the Yellowstone universe. Our family legacy is this rich. And I'll protect it with my life. Hosted by Bobby Bones, the official Yellowstone podcast takes you deeper into the franchise that's captivated millions worldwide. Explore untold behind-the-scenes stories, exclusive cast interviews, and in-depth discussions about the themes

and legacy of Yellowstone. You know, the first studs to settle this valley fight was all they knew. Whether you're a long time fan or new to the ranch, Welcome to the Yellowstone. Bobby Bones has everything you need to stay connected to the Yellowstone phenomenon. I look forward to it.

Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go to work. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear friends Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives.

Each week, we'll sit down with inspiring figures like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. And they're plus one, they'll ride or die, as they share stories never heard before about their remarkable journey. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. My favorite thing about Aquamarine, the character that I must have gone wild over when I was a kid was her mood ring nails.

I was like, that's the coolest, like 2000s cool girl detail ever. I loved it. And this is, did anyone else think she kept doing this like joke where I guess mermaids don't cry or whatever or something. I'm like, what is it like? Like there, but she, she keeps saying I'm leaking,

and I was thinking about Jim Carrey Grinch, because that's what Jim Carrey Grinch says. And I was like, wow, she's literally taking lines, cribbing lines from Jim Carrey Grinch. And that's all I have to say about the movie, no. Yeah, no, the end of the episode, I liked when she wouldn't swear, but she'd

use like sea puns instead. She'd be like, Oh, what a barnacle. She says like salt instead of shit or something. I don't know, but it's really good writing. Bull shark. Oh yeah. It's kind of funny. So before we get into the discussion, I just wanted to shout out the production team, which there's a lot of women in the production team. Granted, like this entire production, is a very white group of women. But we have a first time director, Elizabeth Allen, directed the movie.

There is a woman who co-wrote the movie who has a wild resume, Jessica Bendinger, who she wrote Bring It On. She was a writer on Sex and the City. She was a writer of First Daughter, and she wrote Stick It, the same year as Aqua Marine. So, oh wow. Amazing.

What a goddamn resume, right? Also edited and produced by women. So I really appreciate that. And I feel like you can really feel it in the way. And it's also obviously adapted from a book by Alice Hoffman whose most famous work is Practical Magic. But she has also a very long resume of having written so many books.

Yeah, like she's an all-timer. But she has also a very long resume of having written so many books. Yeah, like she's an all-timer. But yeah, I don't know, I really like that team. I feel like this movie is, and this story in general, is I think generally better than a lot of comparable stuff at the time. I like the emphasis on friendship. I know that there's a lot of comparable stuff at the time. I like the emphasis on friendship. I know that there's a lot of like queer readings of this movie that I'm excited

to talk about. I just like yeah it's a fun movie and I like that women made it. Yeah and I feel like a lot of these, because I already visit them sometimes, a lot of these like early 2000s just like young girl coming of age stories have been directed by men so it's just refreshing to see a production full of women. Truly and you can usually tell when they're directed by men versus when they're directed and written by women because yeah as we've said this movie and not that like Heteroromance can't exist in a story, but it's often so much emphasis is placed on that and Like we talked about recently on the Angus thongs and perfect snogging episode

It's a group of friends who are characterized entirely by their crushes on boys and don't seem to have anything else going on outside of that. And you know, it's like, what are their common interests? What brings them together as friends? What, you know, it's the movie just ignores all of that and focuses entirely on the hetero romances, whereas this movie, sure, there is emphasis on these girls helping this mermaid to find love, hetero love with a boy, but the way it culminates is way different than we're used to seeing in the sense that they do prove that love exists but it's platonic love among friends who are girls. Unless, unless, unless there is romantic love

between girls. Right, because there is gay parentheses implied. And the performances, I think, by all three of them are really good and really thoughtful. And unlike, I know we keep bringing up Angus, but we just watched it and like Emma Roberts and Jojo have this like really deep complicated codependent friendship that we actually do kind of learn a lot about and they're like we're all each other like

has and we both feel like you know lonely and kind of disconnected and we don't wanna be separated and we love each other. And but like, it was just, I don't know. Even though it's like, I think there's always more room for like, what are their interests? Like, what do they like? What do they wanna do? I felt like, I mean, their friendship is so intense and authentic and it really worked for me.

Yeah, I think that's my favorite part about this is the capturing of young, like junior high friendships, which I agree, there are other layers to what little teenage girls talk about, but I do love that they're're very like giggly and fun and they just show them having fun together and and I agree I think that Emma Roberts and Jojo have such a good little chemistry about them too I think that really worked well together yeah and I think that Aquamarine was just a fun it

was like manic pixie dream girl before before Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But also in like, I mean he does say you're not like other girls, but I feel like from like a female, like it was like, I don't know, instead of the man and girl like Manic, and we see there like, it was like all three of them as a unit that we're seeing. And yes, in the Code of Ends, which they rope in Aquamarine on. and we see there like it was like all three of them as a unit that we're seeing and Yes, and the code of entities thing which they rope in aquamarine on they're like, yes. Okay, and now we are Yeah, and don't go Like you gotta let her go. They're never not together Like they're always following each other even on the pier

They were like under the pier and then they're like, let's just go up. And like, I was surprised Raymond was never like, are you ever not around them? Or do they need to like always be chaperoning or what? I guess Raymond is used to being followed around by them. So maybe they're just part of this. Yeah. It's like, there's this part of the scenery to him because they're also, I think before they were following awkward marina around around they were just following Raymond around. That's how the movie starts. They're like spying on him. Yeah, the umbrella. And quizzing. Yeah, doing quizzes about him.

Oh yeah, the Raymond quiz. They're doing Raymond trivia. Right in front of him. Right. I mean not only is there like a component of manic pixie dream girl kind of thing I was also detecting hints of the like born sexy yesterday trope because aquamarine does seem to fall in love with the first man that she sees and there are a lot of like Human customs and social cues that she doesn't understand. But what differentiates it from other examples of this trope is that it's not the man who teaches her about social cues and teaches her about romance. It's the two girls. It's Haley and Claire and their advice comes from what

they read in magazines, which is often offering very tropey, misguided advice. But I like that Aquamarine pushes back on that too, where after they read that whole pile of magazines, she's like, so we're supposed to be flirty, but demure, devoted, but not desperate, available, but elusive, and does meaningfully comment on it. And I don't think that, I mean,

another thing I like about Aquamarine is, I don't think she really, I mean, she absolutely does fall in love with literally the first man she sees, I think. But- She's like, him, it's him. Yeah, and they're like, no, that's the one that we don't want you to.

And she's like, sorry, this is another mermaid rule. First dibs. Exactly. But I feel like Aquamarine doesn't really get the guy by following the rules of the magazine, which feels good. Like she gets the guy by being herself. Which he interprets as, you're not like the other girls.

Right. Yeah, does that just mean being not like other girls? Does that just mean being like innocent and gullible? I don't know if it's that. I don't know if it's that she's nice and not mean the way that Cecilia and her friends are mean and judgy But that's not how that's not how the other two girls. Yeah, I don't I don't get it either It's just like something. Oh, he does say though because she's hot. Yes Unlike other girls you are hot. Yeah, do you love me and And he's like, no, but I think you're hot.

Later, later, dudes. Like, he gets in the jeep. All right. All right, Raymond. I think he does like a finger gun. I think he's like, phew. See you later. What would have worked better is that if we understood anything

that they connected about that Raymond and Aquamarine like had in common and sure many teenage romances are high aren't yeah they they're not connecting over anything very meaningful but like truly what do these people have in common other than they both know how to swim like I wish they had just established like one thing, like one reason that Raymond likes her and wants to keep hanging out with Aquamarine. One reason why Aquamarine chose him out of anyone else she could have chosen. Yeah, the movie just skips over all that.

It could have even been just a line. Yeah, it could have just been an exchange. They like the same music like something. Yeah, yeah. She also loves Weezers Island in the sun. I mean, they do both love Weezers. Oranges or something. But I do really like how the romance culminates as far as she's on the pier at the end, repeats the question, do you love me?

And he's like, well, I feel he should have been like, I'm having deja vu. Haven't you said this before two days ago? But he says like, we've been on one date, I like you, and I'd like to see where this goes. But like, love is a strong word, which is a very realistic and pragmatic way to approach the end of a movie like this. Because again, so many other movies would have been like, and yes, they are in love love even though they've known each other for two days and they don't really know anything about each other but they've fallen abruptly in love and isn't that so believable? I'm very curious your guys' thoughts on because I do think that's very healthy and his response was very healthy do we

think as a group and I have my own opinion on this but I'll wait it's healthy for them then to be the two girls like is that healthy that they're like we love you like as a friend great question you know they have certainly spent more time with aquamarine and they do seem to have bonded over more things such as magazines and dress shopping. Well, and also I, to be fair, I mean, like all three of them feel like misfits to some extent or like estranged from their family

or like Jojo doesn't, like it clearly does not have a good relationship with her mom. The one thing we see her mom in, she's pretty mean. She's like, what are you thinking? And then JoJo says it and then she's like, shut up. I'm leaving. See, I was on the mom's side there. I was like, JoJo's being a brat.

Shut the hell up. I was on JoJo's side. I was like, mama, stop. But they're all, I get why the girls like hyper bond to Aquamarine. It's probably not the healthiest thing, but it makes sense to me where it's like Aquamarine's another like, you know, girl that doesn't feel like she fits in where she's from. Totally. And I, I too was on JoJo's side. And then I felt like this pang of empathy when the mom's friend kind of came in and was like, oh my gosh,

like this is so competitive. I was like, oh my god, like they're showing the mom and like this pursuit of this 10-year grant. I was like, well okay, maybe she doesn't have to be touched. A single mom who works two jobs. Yeah. She's following her dreams. Yeah. She was like left by her ex-husband. Yeah. Yeah. They just throw that in there. She's like rebuilding as a single parent. Yeah. I mean, it's I she was a little short with Jojo, but it's also like,

yeah, Jojo, unfortunately, you do have to go to Australia. Your life will be better there. Yes, outside of Tampa. Yeah. I mean, I'm gonna be so honest. I was like, oh, for sure. I've been there, I would be like, I love you. Yeah, oh my God.

When you were like 13. Totally, you're like, oh my gosh, you're gonna be best friends forever. Best friends forever. They sell it, I felt it. No, I was definitely on their side with that. I'm like, oh yeah, that's real. But the love with Raymond would not be real.

I'd be like, don't trust him if he said it. But with the girls, I was always like, yeah, they love her. Because I would too. Exactly. Because you know where we got another side of the falling in love like two days and it goes back, frozen. Yes, I was thinking that too.

Yeah, like this is like almost a pre-frozen thing where it's like just pushing back on those tropes in a way that like, at least at the time was like, oh, that's fun, I never see that. That's so funny because I was thinking of Ex Machina. I was like, this woman just came out of the ocean and is meeting humanity for the first time. And she tricks Dom Al Gleason like immediately

where he's just like, I will do anything for you. I will help you escape. Raymond is smarter than him. I will help you escape. And she's like, I got you. No, Raymond could never. That's wild that Raymond is smarter than Tom Nolte at Ex Machina. And he was like a science genius. Just goes to show, lifeguards are smarter than scientists.

Wow. And you can quote me. The movie I kept thinking of was Shape of Water. Oh my god. Oh, sure. I was thinking of the 13th year, not only because it is the suggestion that comes up, that's like a Disney Channel original movie that was like, I think I was like too young for when it came out, but I saw it on reruns and it was about a young man. And that was, well, I think we should cover it someday

because I just remember being horny, horny, horny when I was 10 watching that rerun being like, what, what? So just some thoughts. I have something I wanted to share about the queer readings of this movie. I thought it was really fun. We have actually, from Friends of the Pod,

the Les Hangout Pod. Oh yes. I believe we had them on our Debs episode years ago. But they released a full article on their site, Ellie and Lee, about how much they love Aquamarine and how queer coded they felt it was when they first saw it. So I just wanted to share, and it's also just a funny post, so I wanted to share just a paragraph from that.

They write, somehow things get even gayer as the movie progresses. Aqua's whole mission is to get someone to fall in love with her and prove to her dad that love exists. Who is known to fall in love that quickly? Lesbians. Of course, the man she chooses is the first man

she laid eyes on and he does not love her yet. It's been a day. But you know who does not love her yet, it's been a day. But you know who does already love her? The little baby lesbians. In the end, the girls risk their lives to save Aqua and realize they love her the same way that they love each other. When they tell her, she realizes she loves them too

and one of her happy tears falls into the ocean causing her dad to cease his rage storm. Her dad now knows that love really does exist but canonically he only knows gay love exists. He has zero proof that heterosexual love is a thing. Aquamarine goes back to her pod to spread the gay agenda like an aquatic lesbian Jesus. And we can only assume that all of the previously loveless mermaids are now happily pairing off into queer partnerships, throuples, and polycules. So there you go. The queer read of Aquamarine. We can link to that whole post. It's very funny. Please. Yes, that's hilarious. Also wanted to point out that Chappell-Rone cited this movie as inspiration for the music video for her song casual.

Oh, that totally makes sense. She described it as being aquamarine, but like, gay. But like, gay. So there is a demand for aquamarine, but gay. But gay. Clearly. Right? Overly gay. but gay. But gay. Clearly. Right? Overly gay. Yes. So, Hayley throughout the movie wears clothes that seem to be kind of more, you could read it as gender neutral, maybe read it as like more masculine clothes, and the bully girls keep making fun of her for it, and of course they are stylized as being very like... They're literally driving around in Margot Robbie Barbie's car. Pink convertible, yeah, hyper feminine kind of thing. And they're always like pointing out like, oh, like why are you wearing those hideous boyish clothes?

And on one hand, sure, there is a precedent for hyper feminine women to judge women who present more masculine or to bully anyone who doesn't fit the mold of a very binary gender spectrum and gender presentation kind of thing. I found it an interesting component of the movie because it never really goes anywhere except to maybe subtly suggest that Hailey is for sure a lesbian based on the way she dresses. But yeah, I don't know exactly why else that's there except to maybe just show that Cecilia and her friends are mean,

but to choose that to be like the thing that she bullies them for. I don't know, I was just curious on other thoughts about that. Yeah, I feel like in this time period, and things have kind of like shifted, but there is that like the tomboy, like kind of a trope that pops up.

I came up in like American Kate and Ashley movies too. It's just like a common character type and I feel like we can look at that now and be like, oh yeah, like this is kind of like queer coded or it's like, this is a non-binary person with the way that that showed up of like, oh, it was a girl wearing like guys clothes and it's just a little more nuanced.

It's more nuanced now. Yeah. Right, for sure. Yeah, I mean, and I think on the flip side of that is another example of, I think that the Cecilia character was kind of like my least favorite portion. I don't even think she really needs to be there, if I'm being honest. Like, this is not a movie or a story

that really needs a villain. I feel like it's a story of friendship and self discovery and the fact that it's, and also Cecilia is not a character in the book. She is a villain added for the movie, which is further proof that this is a story that is about friendship. Raymond is definitely in the book,

but I was like, Raymond, we could get rid of him too. I just like, it should be focused on these core three, two girls and a mermaid. And yeah, just the Cecilia stuff stuck out like a sore thumb because that felt like the tropiest part and an otherwise like movie that seemed to be subverting a lot of tropes we're used to seeing, but the mean girl trope and the demonization

of hyper femininity, all of that 2000s stuff was still very present in a way that was just like, why? And I think that they, and we were talking about how we wanted more of these characters and what they want and their personalities, because it's interesting. I found throughout the entire movie, everyone was dealing with the consequences

of men's choices, like Aquamarine's dad forcing her to be a child bride. And then Jojo's mom, she has to, you know, she doesn't have support from like her husband and has to like move around. And not that she needs the support support she could, you know, be a single mom and slave, but that seemed to be, I don't know, they hinted at that being like at least something like a core element of Jojo's life. And then like they're at the mercy of Raymond, it seems falling in love with Aquamarine when it really could have just been these

three girls, like exploring them as characters and like growing their friendship and like even Raymond, he couldn't have played as big of a part because it could have just been like, I don't know, maybe he just goes off with Cecilia and they do their thing and then they kind of had this, maybe they all three like have a fight and then they come back together and they discover, you know, they just love each other or something I don't know I just thought that was something that I would have liked to see a little more about them and their personalities I agree I agree a couple other interesting departures from the book I just wanted to point out it's a

really good book I've not read it out. I need to read this book. It's a really good book. I've not read it, but I did read the Wikipedia plot summary. So. Let's go. So in the book, Aquamarine is still randomly drawn to Raymond. But in the book, she does not have the goal of proving to her father that love exists.

She just wants to like hang around because she's attracted to Raymond. So the whole like, interesting, you know, storyline of like trying to escape a marriage and prove that love exists to her father seems to be added for the movie as far as what I can tell at least. Also in the book, Aquamarine never turns to human form.

Claire and Haley put her in a long dress and a wheelchair to hide her mermaid tail and the fact that she cannot walk. Yeah. So she stays a mermaid the whole time and then they just disguise it. And Aquamarine does go on the date with Raymond and he doesn't notice and it's a nice time.

But then he does discover she's a mermaid pretty soon after that because he sees her save a boy who has fallen in a swimming pool. And he's like, oh wow, you're a mermaid. That's okay, I still like you. And then the book ends with Claire and Haley bringing aquamarine back to the ocean because like being on land is bad for her health. And so they're like, okay, return to the sea, our new friend. So the component of like, well, we're proving that love exists

because of our female friendship is also an add on for the movie, but the book is also just like, yeah, and they're friends and isn't that nice. And then it's Claire who moves away to Florida. So I don't know where the book takes place. I guess they're not already in Florida. Anyway, I don't know that I did not remember that she never gets like, I am I am okay with that. I'm okay with that, I am okay with that change. I'm okay with that change, I think.

What a, that would have been a very complex, that's a lot of tail, that's a lot of tail. That's a big tail. That's really funny. I have a, sorry, I did at the beginning, I was on Sarah Paxton's Wikipedia page, go on this journey with me. And I was like, what are other things I've seen her in?

I've seen her in a lot of things, she's been around forever. But I remembered that she replaced the girl who plays Marnie in Halloween Town in the third Halloween Town movie. So I originally hated her because I was like, you're not Kimberly J. Brown, what did you do with her? And also it just sucks when I'm just like,

just write a new character. That's clearly not her. Anyways, so I was thinking about that. And then I was like, let me check Kimberly J Brown's Wikipedia page, which led me to the realization, has anyone here seen Halloween Tentu Calibar's Revenge? Yeah. Okay. So, and how in that movie, Marnie kind of like starts a thing with Calibar's son, Cal. Oh yeah. They got married this year. They like didn't see each other for like 20 years and then met up at like a Halloween town reunion event

and fell in love and they got married this year. No way. Isn't that really nice? And they fell in love in two days. Isn't that amazing? I just, um, that was, yeah, that was, uh, I was like, Ooh God, it's so embarrassing being so susceptible to nostalgia culture, but that really hit. I was like, Whoa, Marnie and Cal got married. Those are my friends from Halloween town.

Wow. That is really cute. Anyways, that's my story about Sarah Paxton. No, that's great. Does anyone have anything else they'd like to discuss about the movie Aquamarine? I just have to say that when she's heartbroken in the bathtub eating Ben and Jerry's, the amount of times that I quoted, I have two new men now and their bathtub eating Ben and Jerry's the amount of times that I quoted I have two new men now and their names are Ben and Jerry and the amount of Ben and Jerry's ice cream I bought after that movie or I didn't buy it was I was young I Requested it they really I don't know if that was intentional like a product placement deal or whatever

But they really had me in a chill cold. And it really just hit so hard. And I still love Ben and Jerry's. Yes, that hit me too. I was like, they must have paid for that because she's like, fish food. Oh, it's fish food. That's, that's comedy. Which is my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavor. It is. There's just like a lot of like possible product things. Like I was like, thinking back to it, to I was like did they have the mood ring nail polish like was that a thing was there like starfish airing through your mind? I feel like mood ring nail polish must have existed it sounds like it did. I'm gonna get a mood ring again. I definitely had mood ring rings and do you remember those little it was a watch but it was the size of a ring and

you wore it on your finger. Oh! But it was like a watch with an elastic. Those are back! What? Yes! I have to get one. I was so obsessed with mine. The watch rings? And mine was also a mood ring and it had a little alien face on like the the face of the watch and it would change colors based on absolutely nothing and it had nothing to do with my mood. There I said it. But anyway, I loved my watch ring and I have to get another one. Yes. Now that they're back. Also, I love the test they do to see if he likes her. What is it? He like plays with his hair, stretches, and then flexes. And flexes. Okay, I kept having such a hard time with this because it was not clear to me when he was flexing,

but the movie telegraphed him. Like, it's not as though, like, because when he was flexing, he wasn't actually flexing, or I don't know, it just didn't seem obvious that he was flexing. I wrote down it's bend and snap for teen boys. Wow. In a way.

In a way. In a way. The movie does pass the Bechtel test. A lot, yeah. Okay, I figured. Yeah, watching it, I was like, I think this checks all the boxes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so, you know, it's mostly Claire and Hailey

when they're alone. If they're with Aquamarine, the conversation usually turns to Raymond, but if it's just Haaley and Claire, they talk about their friendship. They talk about Haley moving away. They talk about the ocean and the water. They talk about Aquamarine and how to hide her in various locations.

They talk about how ugly some of these consignment store dresses are, et cetera. It passes a lot. I feel like it does speak to, like this movie had women at the top of it. And so I would imagine that it's possible that there was just way less pushback for actually centering the girls at the center of the story. And even that still meant that you had to add

a quote unquote bitchy character, which feels very of the time. And I wonder, I'm like that to me, I'm like, I'm gonna assume that was a male studio note of like, where's the villain? Some shit like that. Get Cecilia Banks on the phone. Mm-hmm.

Right. Worth reiterating that this is an incredibly white cast that has basically no diversity. I think Cecilia has one friend who is a person of color, but aside from that, I didn't catch her. No, but she doesn't speak. She has like one line of dialogue and she's barely ever on screen. So yeah, if you blink, you'd miss her because it's such a predominantly white cast otherwise. So that brings us to our nipple scale as far as rating the movie on a scale of zero to five nipples, examining the movie through

an intersectional feminist lens. As per our discussion, I appreciate a lot of what this movie does as far as defying tropes about coming of age, movies about girlhood and romance, and the movie does place so much focus on the friendship between Claire and Hailey and Aquamarine. And the boy is just sort of like a vehicle

to get them to realize how deeply they care about each other. And that's interesting. The movie being so white is very glaring. So I'll dock some nipple-age off for that. And it's like, you know, obviously there are queer reads of the movie, but the like text, the intention, I think of the filmmakers is like,

yeah, these are all straight people, duh. So I think I'll go like three and a half nipples with all of that in mind. I'll give one nipple to each of the three friends and my half nipple will go to the movie gremlins because they have the same rules. I'm gonna do three and a half as well. Yeah I think it is it is a very white movie that is uh It is a very white movie that is telegraphic straightness, but I don't know. I think that the baby bisexual in me

was feeling the vibe of this movie. I understand why it is a formative text for many millennials in that sense, but also speaks to how when there wasn't any representation, you just had to see it And discover it in any case. Yeah, I love that this movie is committed for the most part to really centering on this friendship and And I like that. It's like a complex

Friendship too and that both of these kids don't appear to be especially wealthy I mean I don't think I think that they're like maybe lower middle class it seems like which is just you know class wise I don't think something we see very often I feel like it's usually upper middle class with friend dynamics that are far less complicated and thoughtful. And so, yeah, I love Claire and Hailey's friendship. It really does break my heart every time when they don't end up together. But yeah, I think it's a lovely movie

and it holds up pretty well. And I'll give it three and a half nipples. I will give one to Jojo. Shout out to her for being on Broadway now. I will give one nipple to Elizabeth Allen. This is her first feature. And it's like really, really good first feature that she's gone on to have a really successful career mostly in TV, but she's like directed an episode of fucking

everything. I will give one to the editor, Jane Moran, because I love seeing women in the editing booth. And I'll give the last half to Alice Hoffman for having a really cool mermaid idea. She's like, I saw Disney's Little Mermaid. And I'm gonna do it better. Yeah. What about y'all? Yeah.

Yeah, I agree with three and a half nipples. Like, okay, I'm also going to be saying three and a half nipples. Because of, yeah, this is the way it like, it does go against the grain. I feel like of the time too when so many things were just like this is how it is that nothing was passing the Bechdel test really not a lot of stuff and I would appreciate you know even just like the the the tropey black sidekick friend what a love to see her. Nothing. Nothing. There so I'm gonna give one of those those to split amongst the three and then one to split amongst

the women production team. We're going to get one to letter it because I was also doubting him at the beginning. And then the half to the non-existent black sidekick friend. Maybe, okay, here's a pitch. That's your wish for Aquamarine. I was gonna say, Aquamarine's best friend back in the ocean is a black mermaid. What, is that real? No, I'm just saying.

Oh! But. To make it up. It's like, is that the book? Canon? No, I wish. That's the book. Yeah, but no, this is my hypothesis. And so we there is a black

character. We just don't see her on screen because the budget budget is a budget thing. Yeah. Love it. All right. Well, I am not going to lie. I was leaning three and a half. But since everyone did three and a half, I'm going to be controversial. I'm going to go just for three because there were some issues I had, yet zero people of color. I didn't love the child bride elements. There were parts where it felt very male gaze-y when it did need to be. And then I have to say, it really bothers me when there is the catty mean girl for no

reason. Like Cecilia Banks, I'm rooting for you to get another role that is not the villain. So I will give it three nipples and one of them will go to the power of female friendship and to slumber parties and having fun like giggling with your friends at that age. One is going to go to the mom for getting her flowers and her 10 year grant journey. Single mom works. I think it's one job, but we'll say it's two to fit the joke. And then the last nipple I'm going to give to, I'm going to say to mermaids everywhere. We exist.

To all our mermaid listeners. To our fellow mermaids. Wow. Well, thank you so much for joining us for this lovely discussion. This was such a blast. This was so fun. Thank you guys so much. Tell us where people can listen to your podcast, follow you on social media, plug anything

you want to plug. Yeah, definitely follow Palayers, a film industry podcast on Spotify. You can get updates on there and such. We post updates on social media too on my social media, so at Imani M. Davis on Instagram, and then also through the production company that Demma and I work with, Room 19 Productions, so you can get updates about the plot on there on that Instagram page as well. But yeah, we have all kinds of topics about the film industry, breaking in different industry

trends, things that we want to like gab about. So check that out. Amazing. Yeah. And then for all my Chicago film girlies, non-binary folks in film and mermaids, we do Film Girls Brunch here as well. I know Imani does it in LA too. So you can follow us.

I want to go to that. Yes. Come to Film Girls Brunch. In LA. We have it in Chicago. You can, if you follow like Room 19, you'll get updates on that as well. Come to one of our Film Girls' Brunch meetups too. I'm a filmmaker in Chicago and love connecting with other women in film.

Wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us again. Come back anytime. Thank you so much for having me. Brun is more Mermaids. We love to see them. Well, we still have to cover mermaids with Cher and Winona Ryder.

And who else is in that movie? I've never seen it. And there's Splash and there's the 13th year. There's so much. So much mermaid content. This is the thing now. Yeah. We'll come back for all of these.

Absolutely. Amazing. You can follow us on Instagram mostly these days This is the thing now. Yeah, we're doing we'll come back for all of these You can follow us on Instagram mostly these days at Bechtel cast You can subscribe to our patreon aka matri on where you get two bonus episodes every single month Always centering on a fun little theme plus access to the entire back catalog of bonus episodes And that's all for five dollars a month at patreon.com slash Bechdelcast. And you can also get our merch at tpublic.com slash thebechdelcast. And with that, let's go up into the water tower and have a Weezer karaoke night, shall we?

Yes. Yup. Bye. Bye. The Bechtel cast is a production of iHeartMedia, 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. For more information about the podcast, please visit linktree slash Bechtelcast. Calling all Yellowstone fans. Let's go to work.

Join Bobby Bones on the official Yellowstone podcast for exclusive cast interviews, behind-the-scenes insights, and a deep dive into the themes that have made Yellowstone a cultural phenomenon. Our family legacy is this ranch. An architect of my life. Listen to the official Yellowstone podcast now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to My Legacy. I'm Martin Luther King III, and together with my wife, Andrea Waters King, and our dear

friends Mark and Craig Kilburger, we explore the personal journeys that shape extraordinary lives. Join us for heartfelt conversations with remarkable guests like David Oyelowo, Mel Robbins, Martin Sheen, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, and Billy Porter. Listen to My Legacy on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is My Legacy. I'm so sick of hearing men talk about women's basketball. This is Lexi Brown.

And Mariah Rose. And we've got a new podcast, Full Circle. Every Wednesday we're catching you up on what's going on in women's basketball. We've got you with analysis, insight stories, and a little bit of tea. Full Circle is an iHeart women's sports production in partnership with Deep Blue Sports and Entertainment. Listen to Full Circle on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. Lately on the NPR Politics podcast, we're talking about a big question.

How much can one guy change? What will change look like for energy? Drill, baby drill. Schools. Take the department of education close it. Healthcare. Better and less expensive. Follow coverage of a changing country.

Promises made, promises kept. We're going to keep our promises. On the NPR Politics Podcast. Listen on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.