The Bechdel Cast - Full-Court Miracle with Faye Orlove

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

On this episode, Caitlin, Jamie, and special guest Faye Orlove discuss the Disney Channel Original Movie Full-Court Miracle. Happy Hanukkah!This episode contains spoilers)For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast.Follow @fayeorlove on Instagram. You should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the President of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer,

this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearths the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that?

That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams. Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, listeners. Just a quick note about this episode. Some of the audio quality is a little distorted here and there.

We are still recording remotely, so technical difficulties are a bit more prone to happen. We appreciate your understanding. Enjoy the episode! On the Bechdelcast, 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 hey jamie hey caitlin uh i think it's time we try i think it's time we try a full court podcast oh okay i get it i thought you were you know what i thought you were gonna do what i thought you were gonna go full mommy on me i thought you're gonna be like jamie you can't be a basketball player. I need you to be a podcaster like me.

I got you an internship. You've got to follow fucking Joe Rogan around all day. And if you don't, I'll be so mad at you. What a curse that would be. I know. Imagine following Joe Rogan around all day. What would happen to you? That would be terrible.

I don't even want to think about it. All right well really going in with some negative energy today which I think is which is good which is good. Maybe it sounds like we need a miracle. We need a miracle. To turn things around. We need a miracle. We need a long-winded metaphor. We need a feature- length metaphor is what we need uh welcome to the Bechtel cast hello I think that was our best intro yet you know what's fun hmm is the longer we do the show the less we know how to begin the show well because for the longest time we would just be like hi welcome to the Bechtel cast I'm Caitlin and then we decided at some point that we really needed to do a clever intro every time. And I was like, wait a second.

We're not even funny. Like, what are we talking about? Like, what are we doing? You know? But yeah, if you listen to like early episodes of the Bechdel cast, which you shouldn't. But like, but if you do, it's like, hi, welcome to the show. A lot of weakness. Look, we hit our stride at some point and then that stride was also messy.

No, don't say that. Don't say that. You're like, and then it just kind of stopped. We have an amazing episode today. We do. Oh my God. Sorry. episode today um oh my god sorry my cat has been using my i don't know why i bought a fabric bed frame like a loser but he has been shredding it and it looks 500 years old oh my goodness flea well let's start the show yeah yeah yeah let's do it. All right. So this is our podcast where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens. Yeah. Using the Bechdel test. Yeah. But Jamie,

I don't remember what that is. Oh, well, I can help you out there. The Bechdel test is a media metric created by Alison Bechdel, queer cartoonist. I don't I usually say that in the opposite order. But today i didn't um there's a lot of different versions of it here's the one that we use it requires that any piece of media have two characters of a marginalized gender with names who speak to each other about something that is not a man for two lines of dialogue the those lines of dialogue should be meaningful if you listen to the show you understand you get it and if you don't i feel like you'll get the hang of it it's all good yeah it's pretty it's pretty

easy honestly this movie does not not to get ahead of ourselves and if you're this is your first time listening we don't spend the whole show trying to figure out if it passes the Bechdel test or not did this movie pass i don't think it did right I don't think so also I would love it if someone's first episode of this show was full court miracle I would love if they showed their like full court miracle stands finally it's our fucking moment there's always there's always one person that's like I've been waiting for this specific decom yeah it's been a while since we've done a decom. It felt good. It feels good to be back in the,

in the, in the movies that cost $14 to make weeds. Yeah. You're in your comfort zone, Jamie. I feel like I'm out of my element. The only decoms I've seen are the ones that we've watched for the show. Plus teen beach movie one and two.

Well, you have to, we have to support friend of the cast, Gracie Gilliam, who is the queen of the beach canonically um so if you're listening to this gracie hello we see you and we recognize you as the queen of the beach now and forever yes but today we're talking about full court miracle and there i feel like it's fun to maybe say how we planned this episode, because it was at a wedding, but not just any wedding, the wedding of our guest, because always be booking

your podcast, even when you're at maybe the most personal event of a person's life. Yeah, so let's introduce her and we could all tell the story together. So she's an artist, owner of Junior High, a nonprofit community space in Los Angeles. You remember her from our episodes on Josie and the Pussycats and The Fast and the Furious. It's Faye Orlove. Shalom. Shalom. Welcome back. I guess I should have added to my intro notes that I'm Jewish.

Yeah. I'll go back and cut that in you um start over from when you did the intro though like you're yeah can we run that back full court podcast I know because yeah you don't want to lose that because it was so effortless the way that we did it so good well it was really cool being behind the scenes seeing how many times y'all practiced that it was just amazing yeah and i feel like it really paid off we've been rehearsing for at least a month yeah we've been really working really hard on this um faye we we planned this episode at i mean i would say maybe less than an hour after you got married

it was a pretty jewish wedding as far as non-rabbinical weddings go. Like we didn't have a rabbi, but there were a lot of Jewish moments. And I think what you just were like, we want to do a Jewish episode of Bechtel for Hanukkah. And I was like, immediately we have to watch Full Court Miracle. Yeah. And then you called your husband of less than an hour over and was like, Ross, we're going to do Full Court Miracle. And Ross was like yeah like

it was very exciting well it's his favorite movie and you're his favorite podcast so I was like this is the best gift I could give him besides my virginity you know which you did right oh he got both that day yeah oh amazing it was a busy day. It was busy. Yeah. I mean, I remember you saying that this would be your wedding gift to him. You being on this episode, Ross, this is your wedding gift. It is. And I'm still waiting for what he's going to get me. So TBD. What the fuck, Ross? I guess just like a happy life together and like eternal support. But like don't know i'd rather have something like hold well ross if you're listening you owe faye an equally amazing wedding gift as faye being on the bechtel cast talking about your favorite movie just saying i say honestly you owe faye

a full court miracle honestly ross brought this movie into my life, which is shocking because he's not Jewish. I had never seen this movie until he showed it to me as his favorite Disney Channel original movie that was really formative for him as this little white kid who wanted to be a basketball player. And I was like, I was pretty shocked when I saw the movie for the first time. All these little Jewish kids like you don't see that on TV. No, I was like, oh, my God, this movie primed him for a lifetime of me so so you were already like a full adult by the time you had seen oh it was probably like three years ago the first time yeah yeah wow I I didn't know that you hadn't grown up with this movie did you grow up with dcoms in general oh yeah I had shockingly never heard of this one i don't even know how i skipped it hmm this one is kind of a deep cut um i don't really fully know why no one talks about it yeah uh caitlin did you have any history with this movie

none whatsoever when what if she did like we never see like that's just so funny well because i famously have not yeah i didn't grow up with the disney channel right so i had never seen any dcoms until we started this podcast very toxic way to live i truly i resent my parents every day for not having cable in the house yeah but this is another one i had i had never heard of it either because there are some that like obviously I'd heard of you know your high school musicals your smart houses your I don't know whatever the other ones are that are like pretty popular yeah this one yeah didn't even so when we were talking about it at the wedding reception we were like yeah full court miracle I was like what are you what is this and much to my amazement

you followed up i was like this is never gonna happen look and and to be fair we have made some podcast guesting promises while drinking hard liquor which we were that we have not followed up on but this time we did well Well, I would have canceled you. I would have called you a medic. And it was out of fear that you would do that. Yeah. Well, no, I'm almost curious. Sort of.

I don't know, like research you've done to just prepare yourself because there's going to be a lot of Jews listening. There is. Well, I did do some research just to like I mean I did learn things from full court miracle I didn't think I had seen this movie before but then as I was watching it I realized I actually had seen it because I was like I sort of just assumed that I saw every decom that came out between like 1999 and like 2007 pretty much like that was my era and that's when i kind of topped out so i did see this but i think i just got confused because there's just other there's so many disney movies about basketball that i i just sort of didn't remember this one specifically because they're

playing basketball in high school musical they're playing basketball in a formative one for me which was double teamed it's like they're also iconically playing basketball in a formative one for me, which was double teamed. They're also iconically playing basketball in Luck of the Irish. That's another one. Yeah, but this one, they wear yarmulkes. Right. And that's on me

for not having a stronger imprint of this movie. But I had seen it before and I remembered nothing so so there you go i'm glad you came into it fresh yeah it's better that way i learned i learned i lived i laughed i loved and i also have some critical thoughts same whoa you didn't tell me we were gonna be critical of this film i'm so sorry for you to find out this way that this is what the show is about yeah wow let you guys take the lead because i have absolutely nothing to contribute negative

well should i recap the story and then we'll get into this criticism i have been waiting for the caitlin durant day full court miracle recap oh gosh i uh the people demanded we'll see how i do okay okay so we meet alex schlotzky he is a 14 year old kid who goes to okay here's my first question is this a middle school i know it's a hebrew school but they're like unclear because it would make sense if they're middle schoolers because like they would be as like 14 year old eighth graders or whatever. You know, they'd be like the top dogs at the school. But then I read on Wikipedia that he's a freshman. And I'm like, wait a minute.

Why are all these like 14 year olds the starting players of the high school basketball team? Did not occur to me. I sort of when he said he was 14. I'm like, well well that's the age where you just don't know you just don't know if they're in middle school or high school and i don't mind living in that mystery but that yeah that doesn't make sense that it would be all unless it's like the super jv team and they're just not telling right i don't know yeah i did consider that either way he's 14 and he he attends a hebrew school in philadelphia we meet his friend julie

who is sorry okay so that's the we were talking about this off mic that for all my degrassi heads is a i think maybe one of the most famous degrassi characters of all time oh manny santos my god i didn't recognize her how could you not recognize manny santos and by manny santos my god i didn't recognize her how could you not recognize manny santos and by manny santos i mean cassie steel oh my god she wasn't wearing a thong i could i didn't recognize her it is truly one of the great like truly one of the the greatest degrassi stars of all time she played mannyanny Santos from age 11 to like age 100. Like we don't even know. She might still be doing it. Very formative character to my childhood. I love Cassie Steele to this day. She's great. Also worth I just feel like yeah, the child stars in this

movie. They're really bringing it because the the kid who plays Alex Schlotzky is the kid from Max Keeble's Big Move. Alex D. Lins, Ross's idol. Really? Oh, Ross loves this kid. Oh, that is so... He contains a multitude. I love that. I've never met an Alex D. Lins stand before.

Oh, he... Well, come over for dinner sometime. I will. What's he up to? Anyways, yeah, Max Keeble's big move i really loved that movie and i was like wow max keeble uh now there's a man i want in my life is that another decom i don't what is this no that's a that that was on the big silver screen oh yeah but it's like same budget sort of i think that this was maybe i don't know if that this came up before or after

full court miracle but it had to do with a kid named max kiebel and he moved and that's basically the movie there's like shenanigans wow yeah sounds like a romp to me uh yeah this kid moves from one location to another and uh things get a little weird i think that there is a big food fight oh but maybe i'm projecting that onto my memory but i think that there is a big food fight got it anyways anyway you know everyone's everyone's out and they're doing a great job in the movie Full Court Miracle. Yes. So Alex loves basketball, but his school's team is the worst team in the district or whatever. And they lose basically every game, partially because their coach doesn't know what he's doing.

He doesn't know anything about the game of basketball. And also partially because the other kids don't like playing basketball, which I feel like is acknowledged constantly, but like never treated as a real problem that like 90% of the team doesn't want to do it. Right. And those people are named Joker, Stick, TJ, and Big Ben are Alex's teammates. Awesome. And one of my criticisms of this movie is that I don't know who is who. I don't know which character has which name, and I don't. That's true.

No. Alex at many times gestures to them and says all of their names, but I guess you never really know. Which one's which? Yeah, you don't. Yeah. Yeah. Who's Joker? Because you've got to stay away

from that kid oh right yeah what are we in a todd phillips movie i hope so no i'm kidding uh so the team plays a rival team the warriors with this kid tyler who mocks them and makes fun of them for being so bad at basketball. And then this Liberty tournament is coming up because, I guess, Liberty because they're in Philadelphia. I'm not sure. They keep calling it a tourney and I was laughing. But it's coming up in like a month. And for once, Alex doesn't want to lose. Also, by the way, Alex has a problem where he never passes the ball to his teammates.

So I guess we're setting up an arc here. And then anytime someone says that, though, he's like, well, maybe if you guys didn't suck, I would pass the fucking ball. You're just like, Jesus. Meanwhile, they're like literally there to support him. Like none of them want to even play. Right. Right. They're just like, yeah, well, we don't even like we're just doing this kind of for you and you're not even passing. And yeah, he's a piece of work that that kid. So then we meet Alex's parents. His mom is a doctor he tells them that playing basketball is his dream he wants to be in the nba but his mother who is like very kind of pragmatic uh is like the chances of you playing in the nba are so slim you should follow in my footsteps and be a doctor i think it is funny that

i feel like that's well maybe it's not super unusual for a kid's movie, but for just a parent to blatantly tell you your dreams are never going to come true at the beginning of the movie and have math to back it up. To be fair, this child is maybe five feet. There's no way. Faye, you don't believe in his

dream either? I want him to find happiness. Wow. Okay. I think that he went on to play in the nba let's hope so um okay so back at school alex goes to rabbi lewis who i think is his history teacher and asks if rabbi lewis will hire a real basketball coach who will lead them to victory the way that Judah Maccabee led the Israelis to victory against this evil king Antiochus. That story is, of course, the basis for the holiday and celebration of Hanukkah. Yes.

But Rabbi Lewis refuses to hire a new coach. Part of it is because Alex's mom is like on the board of directors or something at the school and she won't like allocate the funds for that. But Rabbi Lewis is like, what if you find a Judah Maccabee elsewhere? Judah McAbee elsewhere. So then after school, when Alex Stick, question mark, and Julie are shooting hoops, Alex sees this guy across the way. I love how you say hoops. Yeah.

Hoops. You said it like it hurt you to say that. Hoops. They're throwing some basketballs in some baskets and alex sees this guy kind of across the way who is really good at basketball and alex approaches him but this guy isn't really interested in talking to alex so then alex and his friends cyberstalk him based on his license plate. They're like able to figure out who he is. I love it.

It's an early 2000s like I'm in kind of. It's amazing hacking. I love it. They find out that he is a former college basketball star who did go on to play in the NBA. I think his name is Lamont Carr. And then some of the friends think that, oh, maybe this guy is the ghost of Judah McAbee because they have the same nickname and like some of the same details are the same. So at the very least, Alex is like, hey, maybe this is like the guy who will be able to lead our basketball team to victory. So the next day, Alex asks Lamont Carr if he will coach them.

And after a lot of convincing and an offer to pay him, Lamont reluctantly agrees to coach them the following day for an hour. So they have this practice. The boys are bad. They're out of shape. Then they have practice again the next day. But they're worried that they can't keep paying him so they have to like figure they start selling their like basketball trading cards meanwhile alex's mom is like here shadow this doctor so that you can

become a doctor in a like kind of storyline that ends up going nowhere because like julie just ends up taking his place in the shadow program right it's so unclear well whatever i just i always felt like julie was about to become relevant to the plot in a more meaningful way and then she never did they just kept like moving her to a different area because they're like she loves basketball i'm like oh she's gonna end up playing on the team she doesn't and then it's she's like i want the internship i'm like oh she's gonna end up becoming that i don't know doogie hauser or whatever she doesn't and then it's like and then she's like i'm mad at you and then she's like just kidding i'm not right and the movie's over yes correct waste of cassie steel's time okay so then lamont continues to coach them there's like a fundraiser that the boys do

where they're selling hot coffee on the street using alex's mom's espresso machine it's very weird um and then rabbi lewis invites alex and his family and Lamont over for Shabbos dinner. And Alex's mom is not thrilled with the idea of this stranger coaching these boys on the streets. So Rabbi Lewis suggests that they move the practice to the school and like kind of officially hire Lamont as the coach. But Lamont is like, I don't know about this. I'm actually here in Philadelphia trying to get picked up by the Sixers to play in the NBA but they decide to go through with the rabbi's plan and start practicing at school and they officially hire Lamont as the team's coach

but then one day Alex follows Lamont home and learns that Lamont is unhoused and living in his van. And because of this, Lamont had lied about his address when Mrs. Klein, who I think is the principal of the school, has Lamont's... I don't know what her job title is, but I don't like her. Get up her butt. I feel like she really didn't experience any consequences for what a mean and judgmental person she was. Truly. But she had had him fill out an application for this coaching job. And she's like very suspicious of the whole thing. So Alex, his dad, who is a real estate agent, Alex is like, hey, dad, can you set

Lamont up in this condo that's on the market that you're having trouble selling? So it seems like Lamont is living in this condo. So that happens. And meanwhile, Alex and his family are celebrating Hanukkah because it's hanukkah while all this is going on fun way to like mark the passage of time because this whole movie takes also how long how many does this movie just happen over hanukkah plus a couple of days well i can't because there's a month till the tournament when right i think it's just hanukkah towards the end when they like are playing the semifinals and then the finals yeah I think so okay so Lamont is continuing to coach the team but Alex is not doing well in school so he has to sit out until he gets his grades up and his team comes over and

helps him study the team is continuing to improve their basketball skills but oh no the Sixers call Lamont and have him sign a 10-day contract to play for the team which is might be a real thing I don't know anything about freelance basketball players is that a thing I wrote that down and then I forgot to follow up on it I'm like can you just freelance for 10 days? What I thought was weirder was the alternative that the, then the school offers him a position coaching, but it's day by day. Like that to me was weirder than a 10 day contract. He had a day to day position with children at a school. And like basketball season seems like it's like kind of almost over.

Well, I guess no, it goes into like, I don't know. I don't know why I'm pretending to know anything about basketball season seems like it's like kind of almost over well i guess no it goes into like i don't know i don't know why i'm pretending to know anything about basketball season we don't know anything about basketball however yeah a day-to-day position as a teacher you're like okay well that's a substitute teacher like that also i i don't know where my head is at right now. I'm like benefits. Can we get like come on right at this man health care his knee hurts, which also like I'm thrilled for him that he gets to play on this on the on the Sixers, but also it's like he's injured. Yeah. So how do you get a freelance contract playing professional basketball, which I'm not convinced

exists if you're the whole thing is like he's injured i don't know i don't get it i cannot find the logic there but yeah lamont leaves to go for this 10-day contract like right before the liberty tourney so he leaves and alex is like oh no we're gonna lose the tournament without our Judah Maccabee. But then Rabbi Lewis is like, hey, Alex, you should just look inward. Maybe you're the Judah. So it's time for the Liberty tournament. And Alex kind of assumes the role of the team's coach. They advance in the tournament and they make it all the way to the finals where they're going to be playing the Warriors. They're like rival team.

Meanwhile, Alex has reconciled with his mom and she's like, yeah, I should, I guess not try to push this whole doctor career thing on you, especially because you're only 14 years old. And he's like, thanks mom. And then it's time for the big game against the warriors uh they're losing the electricity goes out and so they decide to start the emergency generator and play this is exciting they the the rules that they establish here is that they're going to play the game continue playing until the fuel runs out in the generator whoever has you know more points when the fuel runs out that's who's going to win the tournament so they go back in they start playing meanwhile alex's mom has gone to see lamont and

a miracle seems to happen where his van which had broken down starts back up again so miracles are happening right and then back at the school where the game is being played um you forgot the part where there's the the the the rap the rap about dreidels wait yes when they dance yeah there is a dance and there's also like non-diegetic rap there's a rap about dreidels yeah playing underneath the dance faye you didn't i'm so distracted by the dancing i didn't even they're rapping about dreidels underneath yeah that really bad child dancing secret wait let me see if i can find it on youtube i bet you can't like that was i forget who i told i was that we were covering this movie and they were like oh that's the movie with the dreidel rap in it so i was like hyper like aware of it um but yeah once you know it's

there oh yeah please please we take an ad break i gotta watch that yeah we'll we'll get there in just a moment and then we'll we'll give you an opportunity to watch the dreidel rap. I'm so excited for you. Okay, so the generator barely has any fuel in it. And it seems like this team, they're going to need a miracle. The fuel, again, it's almost run out. But then Lamont shows up, a. mccabee and much like the miracle of hanukkah where the oil in the lamp was only supposed to last for one night but it lasts

for eight nights the fuel in the generator lasts long enough for alex and his team to keep playing catch up and win the big game and then they all celebrate and then alex's family becomes friends with lamont's family and they share a nice moment and then that's the end of the movie so let's take a quick break let's all watch the dreidel rap and then we will come right back Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was murdered there are crooks everywhere you look now The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere,

a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I've been thinking about you. I want you back in my life. It's too late for that. I have a proposal for you. Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. One session.

24 hours. BPM 110. 120. She's terrified. Should we wake her up? Absolutely not. What was that? You didn't figure it out?

I think I need to hear you say it. That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. This machine is approved and everything? You're allowed to be doing this? We passed the review board a year ago. We're not hurting people. There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.

Dream Sequence is a new horror thriller from Blumhouse Television, iHeartRadio, and Realm. Listen to Dream Sequence on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This summer, the nation watched as the Republican nominee for president was the target of two assassination attempts, separated by two months. These events were mirrored nearly 50 years ago when President Gerald Ford faced two attempts on his life in less than three weeks. President Gerald R. Ford came stunningly close to being the victim of an assassin today. And these are the only two times we know of that a woman has tried to assassinate a U.S. president.

One was the protege of infamous cult leader Charles Manson. I always felt like Lynette was kind of his right-hand woman. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI in a violent revolutionary underground. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer.

This is Rip Current. Available now with new episodes every Thursday. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We gon' always bring it to your heart with our first drink One on one, three on three, you can bring your whole team But be ready for the pain of your aching feet And the sound of the crowd when you earn your feet Won't nobody have your back, not even the guys on your team Your cheerleaders gon' be screaming, but they're screaming for me Cause I'm the one coming down with the football miracle

And with the runs, with the games, with the blasts You gon' hear me though, remember one thing that we all know is true Miracles can't do it real, cause I have it for you I made it, I'm the queen oh my god i've never thought about this song because their dancing is so incredible. Okay. Wow. Okay, and we're back. And we've seen the dreidel rap and we are all better people for it.

I always say there's no good Jewish songs and now I just feel like an asshole. There's been one since 2003. Dare I say it's better than anything mariah carey's ever done for christmas so wow oh wow i don't know i won't argue with you let's go let's go with that good song so faye before we get into the main discussion i'm curious how you feel about how um judaism and jewish culture is portrayed in this movie well as the definitive uh just like decider of all things jewish um yeah native decider um i say it's good you know

uh i'm pretty happy with it um no it's i love it because it's sort of in the background. It's like how it should be. It's not like the forefront where everything's like, I can't go out on Friday. It's Shabbat. I don't know. It's like another. It doesn't feel like intentional. The entire story could have happened without it being Jewish, but it has like a sweet Jewish. It's just cool seeing people very casually

being Jewish that makes sense yeah like you're not hit over the head with it it's just like sweet and you see these little family moments you're like oh I do that with my family and um it's just cute to have Hanukkah taking place in the background like not even in the forefront of a movie like I don't know because when we were talking about this at my wedding the only other movie we could think of that was like overtly Jewish was Eight Crazy Nights and that just like hits you over the head with it it's like we're eight nights of Hanukkah each night is like a whole and that movie does not age well because it's just Adam Sandler making one horribly problematic joke after the next. So I have not seen that since it came out and I don't really plan on rewatching it.

There's yeah, I was looking up in general like there's there's at least in like whatever Western media. There's just like not a lot of examples of movies that like, I mean, okay, so I'm on the Wikipedia page. First of all, you're welcome for Hanukkah films. And the only four movies that are cited are an American tale, which we should cover at some point. Eight crazy nights, which we just said we would rather not. The Hebrew Hammer, which does anyone know what that is? No idea. And Full Court Miracle. And that's it.

Yeah. Wow. That's it. Only four. I think, honestly, because I didn't grow up Jewish, I think that the piece of media that I most closely associate with learning about Hanukkah was a Rugrats special that came out. That was, I think,cababy only yeah yeah which I haven't revisited it but I'm I'm hoping that the Maccababies are is still it's still a

classic well the Rugrats are iconic so my uncle was a director on the Rugrats and one of their like lead writers and the entire like crew was very jewish and it was like a very overtly show like intentionally and it was awesome growing up with that because i got to go like meet all the voice characters and like see them that's so cool what yeah it's really cool i have all these original animation cells from rugrats and like um oh my god yeah well he was at the wedding i should have introduced you oh my gosh yeah but yeah no i love that the rugrats was formative for you it's just like what a sweet show and yeah macababy's gotta do what a macababy's gotta do like my little cousins and i when we were little we would play macababies as a game like that was our our like pirate or whatever other kids play we were like no we're literally the

maca babies verse like the evil Greeks um that's so funny the main jewish representation i saw at any point in my life was kyle broflovsky in south park and his his family i'm not even mad at that either i loved that it's true i mean it's i it is just like extremely scarce in uh in western especially in comparison to the like absurd amount of christmas media available in the world it just it keeps on going so we we really, I mean, I feel like we've been talking about this for years of covering a Hanukkah movie. And it just, it was just that there's, there's, unfortunately, at least at the time of this recording, not a ton of options. And so I'm glad that we're covering Full Court Miracle. And then also,

I think, I think I like learned shit by watching. Yeah. Like I feel like it's, I don't know. It's very like so many of the elements of this movie are really, you know, afterschool specialty in a way because it's a decom. So that's in the nature,

but I learned stuff in the scene, like the way that they integrate the, like the Shabbos dinner scene. I was like, I learned stuff in the scene like the way that they integrate the like the Shabbos dinner scene I was like I learned things about um I've never been to a Shabbos dinner so that was interesting to me I feel like they you know the way that the plot you know maybe heavy-handedly you know fits in the Maccabee story I was like oh wait yes like rugrats i remembered i remember that i like i mean i i liked how the the movie like you were saying just like this is the world that we're living in and it seems like there were a lot of um it was certainly written by a jewish writer i don't know if it was directed by stewart gillard let me just while you look that up joel

silverman who was one of the co-writers on the movie yes new real life lamont carr which is what this movie is based on because this is based on a true story and they knew each other at university of virginia in the 70s i want to say yeah and so he kind of adapted his real life story um joel silverman did for lamont carr's story um because there was a time where lamont carr was coaching you know like youth basketball teams and he yeah in uh in Boca Raton Florida no less not in Philly right in Boca Raton yeah there's a life story is fascinating I wish that they kind of stuck more to like Lamont Carr's actual life story because there were so many like he just sounded like a really fascinating guy yeah he's also a wine connoisseur and a dart player a dart player yeah i was just like where is that in the movie gloss over these facts

right like that's really and i i don't know caitlin did you have much luck i was trying to like fact check the more specific elements of lamont card that are included in the movie and they're the most of the information he passed away I think four or five years ago but most of the information around him seems to be pretty general so it was like hard to I don't know like anytime you're you see a movie that you're like based on a true story you're like okay but probably not though but what is real and what isn't and it right it was um in terms of like the broader elements of fake lamont's story um like you know he was unhoused at the time of coaching and like the son and the wife i was not

able to uh confirm those details in any way i couldn't find information about it either so yeah not sure about that but um yeah yeah in any case this movie had at least one jewish writer and and stars a uh young jewish actor yeah i was also trying to figure out like who of the cast the actual actors um alex d lynds is jewish dare i say all children looked very jewish they played jewish very well a lot of the cast is um i was like was this a canadian production because so many of the actors that they cast are from canada yeah but that's neither here nor there i mean full on there's a degrassi cast member. Anyways. I did find some criticism surrounding this movie about the movie leaning into a fair number of Jewish stereotypes, such as like the overbearing mother. Oh, that's every Disney movie. It's like the mom wants you to be something specific.

And like, you're're like but i like this arts thing and no that's silly people just look for things to be upset by and if you're upset by that okay that's valid like and i obviously do not speak on behalf of all jews but like i didn't even know that was a stereotype but my mom is so overbearing. Oh, my God. Your mom's a sweetheart. I love your mom. But that's kind of why I liked how casual the movie was. It wasn't like, I don't even want to say all the stereotypes I could have done that I've heard in my lifetime. So you didn't find there to be like egregious stereotyping with the Jewish characters in the movie?

I didn't at all. I thought it. I love this movie. It's like the only thing I have. I have to cling to it. I mean, I didn't either. But again, as a non-Jewish person, I like wasn't. What were other criticisms that you read?

I mean, everything was kind of vague. I found, I mean, believe it or not, not a lot of like prestige journalism has been written about this movie. So what I did find were just a handful of blog posts. One was from something called Mainline in Christmas, where it's by Erin Snyder. She seems to be watching holiday movies in general and trying to find ones that depict Hanukkah and maybe other Jewish holidays respectfully. She did not like the movie. She thought it was really bad for like mostly like plot hole reasons. Oh, well done. But also, yeah, it cost 12 to me but um also she felt that this writer felt that jewish stereotypes were leaned into but she doesn't get very specific about it so

i don't know what exactly she was referring to i will say that i mean and i can't really speak to the jewish stereotyping i did think that the the main obstructive forces for for alex were two women and everyone who was like super supportive of him and his dreams were like daddy and my rabbi think i'm so awesome and like i can this. And then it's like Mrs. Klein and his mother that are the obstructive forces, which for sure. So I think at least there's like a little bit of like shrew stuff going on. I mean, that's not Judaism speaking. It's more of like the 2003 Disney era where like women are telling you what to do with your life like that sort of thing but yeah i think that's a separate conversation where yeah

it's just like the two main like adult women in the movie happen to be sticklers for the rules and they have a vision to be i mean in a movie written and directed by men yeah well yeah yeah i did not phrase that well but there was like one conversation that felt like maybe was about to pass the bechdel test which was between julie and the mom when they're just like at the internship and they're like oh we have to go to the game and i'm like okay well that doesn't count yeah we gotta go watch alex play yeah i was like damn it um but yeah they were the only two female characters oh the principal but she was well yeah so between like alex's mom and dad dad is like the fun goofball he jokes around a lot and then mom is like i want you to be a doctor and you have you're 14 but you need to have your career path

already figured out and what i did appreciate that about that though was that so few stories feature a mother-son story arc it's usually a father-son thing so that for that to be like the main focus of i mean again it does make it so that the mother kind of is an antagonistic force for our protagonist alex throughout the movie but for that to still focus on like a mother-son relationship is like a pretty rare thing to see and on top of that for like 2003 it's like that the mom is very clearly the breadwinner of the family we see the dad doing more like traditionally maternal tasks like he is a cook yeah he's cooking well and when his mom cooks she's she doesn't have time to really cook as well which is kind of a recurring she throws

some waffles in a microwave and right and that's that's representation for there is like a moment when they're the principal is like dr schlotzky wants to talk to you and it's the mom and that's sort of a powerful moment where you would inherently defer to thinking it would be the dad but no he's a real estate agent but not a very yeah he's struggling to sell this one condo that he yeah he just simply can't sell i would say no offense to alex's dad but i would say it doesn't seem like he's trying very hard there's at one point where alex comes home during the day it's like a plot point where it's like oh we're gonna move lamont into this condo but it's like 2 p.m and alex's dad has like a cup of whiskey in front of him he's like he's like drinking during the day i was like how hard are you really trying to sell this one condo and every time someone's

like hey has sold that condo yet and he's like no no like he's he's making cakes and drinking whiskey on like a fucking tuesday he's chilling you're married to a doctor that's the life baby that's true that's true like why why try I guess like he so anyways Alex is the Alex's dad character he was so chill that I was like what's going on with this guy um yeah he's just making dad jokes but uh yeah I did appreciate that Alex's mom has an arc where, you know, they have a meaningful conversation about like her expectations for Alex. And he's like, you just need to let me follow my dreams, even though I know it's very unlikely that I'll make it to the NBA. Just like, let me have this for a while. And she's like, you're right.

I should like back off and just support you and not try to make you be a doctor. And then she says something like maybe the only doctor in your future is Dr. J. And I don't know what she was talking about. And I'm like, am I old or out of touch or both or everything? That's like the main basketball card that it's a famous basketball player. Yeah. Julia serving. Hey, got it. Is that the one he kept famous basketball player yeah famous Julia serving hey got it is that the one he kept selling and yeah okay yeah so that's her being like I accept your basketball

dreams which apparently Caitlin and Faye don't think he's gonna accomplish I do I think he's gonna do it and I believe in Alex um I did like that journey. Yeah, I feel like a lesser movie would attribute that whole journey to the dad. But the dad is kind of there more for comic relief. He's there to tell us facts about the history of Jewish basketball players. He's there to set off a car alarm. He's there to drink during the day.

He's more sidelined than the mom so i i mean i do i do i i see where i don't remember the name of the writer like i i understand where she's coming from with stereotyping and and if that is something that any of our listeners feel it's completely valid and and i also do see what you're saying fay of like there were certainly like a lot of moms in children's media who were depicted this way regardless of their religious background in 2003 so yeah definitely anything to me it kind of felt more like integrated than anything else i was like oh this is how they depict every family every like white family in a dec-com movie is this way with like a quirky dad but a strict mom and like a kid who wants to follow his dreams like

i was like we are no different it's also lizzie mcguire yeah literally it's just mcguire's parents i feel like didn't we have that discussion about xenon the oh same space space girl right yeah what is that called yeah so there there is like a precedent for it but yes i also see i feel like that also speaks to like how few jewish kids movies there are that it's like that would stand out there's nothing to really compare it to sure in a mainstream way yeah uh let's take a quick break and then come back for more discussion. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. the situation is desperate.

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Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we're back. Before we jump back into the discussion, I just wanted to quickly shout out, I think that there's a scene where they're letting the kid improvise and it made me laugh.

Ooh, wait, which one? I think that unless it was some very weird dialogue it's the scene it's like an important scene so i'm like what is going on um it's the scene where alex is talking to his mom and she asks him why do you care about basketball so much alex that was not adlib that was written he describes basketball so weird he's just like yeah you know and you have the ball and you throw it and go in the hoop and then it's like whoa oh my god it's in the hoop you know and they're like playing the the score like really loud so it's kind of hard to hear him too I was like is he just like is he having an off day I couldn't tell if he was it sounded like he was making it up it sounded like

you know how if you're like like how you love podcasting so much Jamie when you podcast the rest of the world just disappears you have no problem responsibilities no struggle you know that's what he was when he is playing basketball it's just him and the ball and the hoop you know um and it was beautifully written and it was very poignant conversation between a boy and his mother as he faced a window it sounded like he was being played off stage the scorer was playing so loud and he's like you know when the hoop and the ball and and then they keep cutting back to his mom and she's like you know when the hoop and the ball and and then they keep cutting back to his mom and she's like uh-huh uh-huh i liked it i liked when he said right at the beginning he's like mom i'm proud of you for being a doctor but that's just not for me like okay i mean that's what i

always said to my dad alex appreciates a powerful woman he does yeah that's why his best friend is julie who has two lines okay can we talk about julie because let's talk about julie really quick poor julie okay so the movie opens in such a way that it makes it seem like the friendship between alex and julie is going to be an important part of the movie that she's going to be a way more important like the first scene yeah that sets a precedent narratively that like she's gonna be an important character they never address why she's not on the basketball team or like or right like yeah does she does she go to the same school does she go to a different does she go okay i you know what

it's probably a boy's school now that i think about it right i i quit i was like not paying close enough attention but then like part of my head canon was like so at the end of the first scene they say goodbye to each other and she speaks in spanish so i'm like yeah maybe she doesn't even go to a hebrew school but she could be from a like i don't think it's i she very well could be a jewish character like true but but we don't see like it's yeah i think that that's just like some clunky ass writing because you're just like well how do they know each other and like does she i was never quite sure if she knew like joker and big ben and like does she know those i guess she does because she appears in scenes with them but it's like how do you guys all know each

other do you you don't i don't think you really you see her at games but you don't see her at the school she yeah she goes i don't think she goes to the school i don't think so either she does cheer him on at the games and i think maybe they're just friends because they like play pickup basketball together because she's a basketball player but we don't learn anything about her interior life at all but also she wants to be a doctor which comes up very suddenly right and then also gets dropped just as quickly i'm like honestly i was so i mean the bar is so on the floor for movies like this i'm like well I'm glad that they didn't like make her like a love interest you know like it could have been worse true but it just yeah it was so messy and bizarre and then there's like that scene where she was like I'm mad at you

and then 20 minutes later she's like I'm not mad at you and then she makes that really funny sign that says like miracles can happen and then she must have had a sharpie on hand because she crossed it out it says miracles do happen and then we were laughing and crying because that's a that's a beautiful story yeah julie man what a disservice she should have been on the team what do you lose by having julie on the team it sounds like she's a committed basketball player well that would have been interesting because most schools don't have co-ed teams at least at that age so i mean and at this i mean at this school it's like you might as well the team sucks let her play right she seems like she would be an asset to the team she's a better player than 90 of the team and she likes playing basketball which 90 of the team

doesn't see i so why can't she play on the team i assume she was jewish and went to that school and i always loved that they showed like a latinx jewish person because there are right right yeah but now that i think about it i'm like i'm thinking back to that scene where the rabbi is like teaching the first class about like the maccabees and i'm like were there any women in that classroom I'm wondering if it was just a boy's school and she I don't know now I gotta re-watch again yeah first to appreciate the dreidel rap I don't think she goes to the school but I don't think that that doesn't mean that she's not a Jewish character well I just use a lot of negatives I don't know if that sentence

came out the way I was planning right we can't make any assumptions but we never we don't know enough about her character to know whether or not she's jewish what we do know is that she plays basketball and she's like better than most of the people honestly they did they even need lamont car they could have just asked julie to like teach them basketball jul Julie's busy. She has an internship. Right. Julie's got an internship. Also like 14 year olds with internships. This is just outside of my frame of reference. Right.

But whatever. I'm glad she got to do that. Although I didn't know that she wanted to until she just said, I want to. And then she was doing it in the next scene and it had no narrative impact. Basically you can write her out of the movie and the story changes not even a single percent like but but also don't let her say she

should be in the movie and she should have just been written to be more important of a character who like contributes to the story the choices they make with her were so bizarre to me yeah and then the final character who is a woman is mrs klein who again between similar to like the mom and dad character where like the the woman is the you know the stickler like i kind of hesitate to use shrew, but she's kind of shrew. She is. Yeah. That's fair. And between Mrs. Klein and the other, like, main educator character in the story, Rabbi Lewis, you know, she is the disciplinarian.

She's the one who's always, like, trying to squash their fun. And, you know, she doesn't know how to be silly or goofy. And she's always, like, you know, doesn't know how to be silly or goofy and she's always like you know stickler for the rules whereas rabbi lewis is like very laid back and he's he even says like silliness is good for the soul i mean rabbi lewis is a really fun character i like i like him he's fun but he yeah he like exists in contrast to her yeah oh yeah i hated the um that principal character like it just felt very um it was hard to like observe the scene where she follows lamont home and not think it was like how weird did that feel what oh well that's the thing is like i think like it's heavily

implied whether the movie is even like acutely aware of this or not. That's like she's racist and classist. Yeah. And like her, I mean, she and it's through her that all of this shit comes through of like, God, I mean, there's so many. And I guess this starts the discussion about Lamont's character as well but the way that she acts when she is like pressuring him to give her a permanent address is really hard to watch and really frustrating and like especially because we as an audience know by then that he's unhoused and that whatever it's like if you know anything about those sorts of issues it's like well why would not having a permanent address preclude

you from being employed and how are you going to have a permanent address if you're not given sustainable employment? You fucking anyways. Yeah. And then she like stalks him and like just I don't I don't know. Everett is such a weird invasion of privacy. She sucks. And then. Yeah.

I'm curious to everyone's thoughts on like how the movie treats just sort of like the idea of being unhoused. Because we learned that Lamont is unhoused. He has family back in Virginia. So I'm like, is he just like living out of his van while he's staying in Philadelphia trying to get a job? Like, is his family housed back in Virginia? I think that's the implication. Yeah, it yeah and then they like set him up in this condo that alex's dad is having trouble selling and that not trying to sell at all just like drinking whiskey and right so it's like i don't know no one wants to buy it so i don't know i just i mean we've

definitely seen movies that handle the state of being unhoused worse and that are like cruel to characters who are unhoused but this this one felt a little dissonant to me but it definitely hasn't wasn't like the worst example we've seen depictions of a unhoused person of color speaking as someone who is neither a person of color nor unhoused um i was like this feels empathetic this feels like he's very human uh he has a whole you know it's not just like this person who the trope of like someone who's drinking or drugs or whatever this was just someone who is down on his luck and got injured which is a very typical reason do people do end up uh unhoused and i love this scene where they're eating dinner together

him and alex and yeah i loved that he was a human character as opposed to just like this depiction of the worst of it um but yeah the movie doesn't yeah seem to make a judgment call on him being unhoused and in fact the movie wants i think wants you to condemn the behavior of the principal who is like yeah judging him and trying to discriminate against him for being unhoused so yeah i thought i mean i thought it's like i don't know like everything in this movie it's very after school special it's very like of this decom genre where it's like it's all gonna be a little heavy-handed it's not gonna like age 100 well but i felt like at least where the movie was coming from felt like it was coming from an empathetic

place like the protagonist of the movie immediately empathizes doesn't judge Lamont for being unhoused they like you're saying Faye like they and I like kind of that like duality of like Lamont goes to Alex's house for

dinner and then Alex goes to Lamont's place for dinner and they have a discussion about it. It's like there aren't, I don't know. I mean, I've like the classic negative stereotypes, especially in 2003, where I feel like that stereotype was just like flying around then of either portraying unhoused people as the butt of jokes or kind of trauma porn and in a lot of regards this is like uh i don't know i mean there's there's more to be said about the lamont character but i i think it's kind of more empathetically done than most of those stories and not something that's like negative for kids yeah necessarily if you think about the audience how it is most kids this is it could very

well be some like a child's first introduction of someone who is unhoused and like it's kind of a sweet i guess like i don't know i don't know the word i guess empathetic introduction to someone who does live unhoused because yeah like they're definitely protagonists and they're seen as like this judah mccabee character this big hero and like a legend and an incredible talent and a sweet guy and we learn a lot about his life and his yeah his backstory his interior life we learn way more about him than we do about Julie, certainly. Poor Julie. Yeah, I ultimately felt like it was like an imperfect but like well-meaning attempt for 2003. Sure. But let's keep, I mean, let's keep talking about Lamont because I also like was happy.

And that was when I was like, oh, i want to learn about the real lamont and it sounds like there's a lot of like it sounds like the lamont of this movie is honestly heavily fictionalized and the main takeaway is like this basketball player uh who got injured briefly was the coach of a young jewish team like i think that that's maybe the extent to which it is, quote unquote, based on his life. Yeah, that's what it seems like. Because there's not a single mention of darts in the movie Full Court Miracle.

He should be drinking wine with Alex's dad. You know, like they should be... Midday, 2 p.m. Somaliering it up together. But as far as Lamont's character goes i i i don't know i'm like again it's i think that there are tropey elements to the way that he's presented in the movie that are like i i don't know what how did everyone feel i felt like there were magical elements about lamont that were presented like it it felt like very firmly in that trope of like the magical black character who shows up and, you know, helps the white protagonist reach his goal.

That's like literally how I describe the movie to people who haven't seen it. like magical black character who helps a bunch of white people be successful and then sort of has their story not really finish or develop right yeah oh absolutely but yeah i mean i was if that's the story they're trying to tell like how could they kind of avoid that but yeah definitely well it's that's so that's the problem is like i feel like they didn't need to tell the story that way like all of the magical elements is like, I feel like they didn't need to tell the story that way. Like all of the magical elements of this story. I like I don't know. It's tricky because I understand that the magical elements are part of what makes the Hanukkah metaphor so central to the story.

But I feel like that happens at the expense of Lamont's character and kind of leaning into a trope that is marginalizing Lamont's character, if that makes sense, where there are moments where, and again, it's like, I think that what is maybe, it's still very firmly this trope, but we know a lot about Lamont. We know about his background. We know what his goals are independently of coaching this team of 14 year old kids. He does achieve that dream briefly briefly and he does have a fully realized arc where he's realized or reunited with his family and then they're just like we're gonna move to philadelphia it's kind of clunky but but we do know a lot about his character but it's still like ultimately he is there to like usher these kids to victory and then there's a few moments where he's straight

up presented as magical i mean in the last scene where he shows up and the power is back on in the gym there's no explanation for what it is yeah that was bizarre yeah and for him to be the only black character who has right any lines or any characterization whatsoever it like is especially glaring yeah i also find it funny this is maybe a little off topic but i find it i don't even know what to make of this but like the miracle that happens is like we these kids gotta finish their basketball game the the stakes the look at these stakes couldn't be higher i agree yeah and i'm like is this really the miracle we need right now for these like 14 year old boys to win their basketball i feel like it was even less nuanced than that it was literally like there's only

enough oil in this generator or whatever energy juice whatever the hell it was to last for one minute and then it lasts for eight minutes like it's even less like right nuance than you're describing it was straight up like the miracle is very specific um in one regard i love that they kept using the word like miracle and that that was so heavy-handed a bit because that is like really the point of hanukkah and the point of hanukkah is like not that it's near christmas at all or like that you get gifts or that i don't know just like any of the things that you might associate from just like regular culture or whatever it really is like about this like i don't know ownership of like that moment and the legitimate miracle when a small band of jews were able to like fight oppression

and have oil that lasted long enough for them to resurrect their temple and like even though like it was so corny and the miracle for these young 14 year old boys was a basketball game i think it just like made made it seem accessible like what what miracle are you preach to a dcom audience that's gonna feel relevant that is fair usually a contest or a sport it's always like a contest. You're going to have to win something. But yeah, I mean, it's just like framing the context of like a miracle around something that a Disney Channel audience is going to think, wow, that really is a miracle. We won our tourney. That is fair. I didn't think of it like that, that it makes it very accessible to a young audience

yeah i think ultimately i just wish that like because there is that a amount of attention paid to the jewish characters that that same amount of consideration had been extended to like well how are we portraying the only black character in the movie and are we um effectively avoiding stereotypes which i don't think that they were also i i just like i also wish this is and i'm sure that this is a budgetary thing because like how would you do this but it felt like it kind of reminded me decom wise of the end of high school musical where you see all of zach affron's basketball game and then you see all of Zac Efron's basketball game and then you see none of Vanessa Hudgens' science contest. And you see like five hours

of Alex's basketball game and I'm like, what about Lamont? We don't even get to see Lamont in the stadium. I'm assuming because they couldn't afford to shoot in a stadium. But I felt like his story was kind of like dropped. Especially after this scene was like intense the scene between

alex and lamont where lamont has just achieved his life's goal like he's gonna play for the 76ers and these kids are furious at him they're so mad they're like how fucking dare you and i mean lamont could not have been more communicative from the beginning. He was straight up like, I am in town for a reason. It is to play this game with this team. That's all he's here for. He gets that opportunity. And suddenly everyone's like, wait, you never told us you'd leave.

Alex was so out of line. He's like, oh, you think that's what your family would want? And Lamont is like, yeah, I actually do. Like, that's why I came here. Right. And yeah, he even cites like, I have a family to support. They're relying on me.

And the only reason the catalyst that gets Lamont to agree to coach these boys is that they offered to pay him, which I'm glad they did. Like, I was like, imagine the movie if it's like these like, you know, son of a doctor and real estate agent or like, hey, random guy who I'm bothering, who's just on the court shooting hoops. Teach my team, but for free. glad that these like these kids had the wherewithal to like understand that you know someone's labor

should be compensated sure with money because we live in a capitalist society where that's how things work and that is like rooted in like lamont's motivation too where it's like he we we know that he needs money to continue pursuing this dream of freelancing with the Sixers which I still don't know if that's a thing but whatever maybe it is maybe it is I don't know how sports work hey Bechdel heads that are also basketball heads let us know let us know in the comments so yeah and then also just the end of I don't know like there were some points where I don't know i'm still i'm still mad about the mystical troping of lamont but there's there's some moments where his story is very front and center and then other times where it's kind of like you're just like wait a second what happened

there where you do learn so much about him you learn about when they're trying to figure out if he's the reincarnation of judah mccabee yeah you know they ask him about his background to verify that how many brothers did you have who is your father and he answers very honestly we find out that he had a brother who was a cop who died and you're like well that's a lot of information that information does not come back by the way it's just something that you learn um but then but then it's like at the end, I think the end, it just becomes so about the basketball game because it's a decom and the kids want to know how the basketball game is going to go.

But at the end, they kind of like Lamont's story. It's so like, it's literally like when Vanessa Hudgens comes to the gym at the end of High School Musical and it's like, we won too. Like it's that, which is an iconic moment in cinema where they drop her storyline completely and then she shows up and she's like we went too and we're like okay who cares but it's like did you forget to shoot some scenes of the movie because that's what it felt like for this movie where like right alex's mom goes to like give lamont a ride or something like that or they like then she like they pick up his

family at the airport but like those scenes feel like we need those scenes I wish it was unclear that that happened yeah and then Lamont just is like oh yeah by the way in the scene that we didn't we forgot to shoot we my family my family's here now and they're actually moving here which also I was like oh they're moving here but he just was freelancing wouldn't he just go home but now he has a full-time job which he didn't know until they already agreed to move there so it was just kind of confusing but and also but I guess that there is like that's a moment where it's not attributed the magical quality is like not attributed to Lamont but that scene where the mom shows up at assuming outside of the sixers stadium whatever yeah and then she's like

try to start your car and he's like it won't start and then she looks at like lightning and then she's like try to start your car and then it does start and i was like i guess that that was the magic of hanukkah. I don't know. Trying to cut the movie a little slack and saying that a lot of the magical elements are more about the Hanukkah metaphor. I don't even know if metaphor is the right word because it smacks you over the head so obsessively. But less about like the magical black character. But I mean, you just obviously have to be aware in particular about those things. But I'm like trying to not just ruin this movie for myself and i feel like a lot of the like the ghost and the magic and the

generator it's more about the hanukkah aspect than this like oh right i think it just it it becomes complicated when you only have one black character in the entire movie and that's like where he expected to be the ghost of a israeli hero yeah it's it's complicated when i first saw the movie i thought they were going to make like a really cool observation when alex or schlotz is like i think this guy is the ghost of judah mccabee. And then all his little Jewish friends are like, I don't think so. And it's obvious that they think he's crazy because A, like our ghosts are real and B, it's like this tall black guy.

And he says like, well, we don't know what Judah Maccabee looked like. It could have been. And at first you kind of think they're going to reference the fact that like Jews from Israel were like Middle Eastern and maybe like that is what someone looked like and then doesn't really come back or like i don't know when i first saw that scene i was like oh my god are they about to reference the fact that like jews historically have been people of color and

like are actually middle eastern and people's depictions of jesus are really whitewashed and like all these ideas and then i'm like oh no no no they're just making a yeah because it's a deep they don't touch on right i was i was yeah i was really um hoping that that would happen but this is not the movie where it happens yeah was there uh is there anything else that people wanted to touch on? I didn't really have anything else. I just wanted to say I truly like, you know, I enjoyed the performances in this movie. Even that weird scene where I truly think the kid was improvising how basketball makes him feel. Because he was like, you know, when you put the thingy in the hoop and it feels so good but anyways line of the movie is when lamont it's just like i don't know like you know when someone

starts real acting in the movie in the middle of like a movie that it's not like that right but when lamont is like don't ever do that don't put yourselves in a box i was like whoa oh yeah i felt it i felt it. I felt it. That was sweet, mom. It was really sweet. He's like, you really think a bunch of Jewish kids can win? He's like, don't ever do that. That was sweet.

I thought that was great. It was great. Shout out to the actor who plays Lamont, Richard T. Jones. He's like been in a bajillion things. I recognized him from Santa Clarita Diet. Quite the career. Yeah. Good for him.

So that's my way of saying that I've seen Santa Clarita Diet. And you know what? I thought it was just fine. I keep thinking you're going to say Santa Claus. Santa University, which is coming out this season. How dare you bring him up during our jewish episode i know i'm so sorry you really had a way to loop in santa faye do you want do you want to be in santa university this year i would be absolutely

honored can i play a jewish character yeah of course you can wow this is like really good for my career as a freelance i think this year is going to be called the santa vaccine but i won't know until i write it two minutes before we record amazing yeah wow i'm obsessed we should really have a star-studded cast this year if you're an extremely famous person um and you're listening to this right now um so i know if you want to be in santa let's uh let's try to get alfred melina yeah he's probably going to be busy doing press for spider-man but santa university counts as press i would say i agree it gets uh it was uh you know it gets press at the university, I'm sure. Millions of people listen to it. It was on a list. I know about it.

I don't even know. I don't remember if that's a lie or not. Wow. Well, anyways, let's talk about whether Full Court Miracle passes the Bechdel test or not. I think the answer is no. I did forget about that scene where Julie and Alex'slex's mom who do we learn her first name at any point oh or is she because we've learned that her eponymous his dad's name is marshall she's credited as cynthia if we learn her name in this like shadowing a doctor program which i did forget

about that scene but yeah i feel like they're they're talking about a male doctor that julie is shadowing and they're talking about having to get to alex's basketball game so it doesn't i was like very like tuned into that scene because i was like maybe no nope it doesn't. I was very tuned in to that scene because I was like, maybe. No. Nope. It doesn't. Shoot. Yeah, well, Ross. Well, we tried.

As far as our nipple scale goes, zero to five nipples based on examining the movie through an intersectional feminist lens um i mean for this to be one of four movies that prominently feature hanukkah i don't know if that was like a list of like american films or what exactly but either way there are very few out there and while hanukkah is not the most important holiday in the jewish religion it'd still be nice to have movies about it and movies about other holidays from any religion, because there are 8 trillion Christmas movies and so much representation in media of Christmas. And there are very few movies about any other holiday or religious celebrations or traditions yeah where's the winter solstice movie that's what i want to know but look i yeah i agree and i also i'm like

let's get santa university off the ground as well sure fair so it's complicated for me. Two things can be true. Yes. So I think it's really positive for this movie to exist and for young Jewish kids who saw this movie on the Disney channel to have felt represented by it for adults seeing it for the first time three years ago, such as yourself,aye thank you feeling represented I think that is a really positive wonderful thing I don't like the way the female characters are represented although again the two adult women do have an arc they maybe even have a redemption which is something that we talk about in holiday movies a lot where it's always like a dad needs to redeem himself because he was a bad daddy but

then he becomes santa now he's a good daddy or whatever those stories are about i think that that's what it's about so you know we get these you know kind of like stickler shrewish type of women but then they come around and they have an arc so i don't know i feel a few different ways you know, kind of like stickler shrewish type of women, but then they come around and they have an arc. So I don't know. I feel a few different ways about it. And then Julie just is like set up to seem like she's going to be an important character.

And then it's completely sidelined. We learned nothing about her. The, you know, the magical black character trope that is present. I don't know for me, this, I feel like it it's just gonna have to be like a split down the middle where like there's a lot of good things there's some not so good things two and a half nipples i'll give them to the menorah that is lit in a couple different ways a fun jewish fact about the menorah please is that it's actually just like a candelabra and the specific one you use for hanukkah is called a

hanukkiah because it has to have eight little hands and then one the main candle lighters called the shamash oh wow i did not know oh So thank you for giving your nipples. Yes. Oh, wait. I'm going to take a half nipple away from that and then give my half nipple to the dreidel wrap. I was going to say, I'm giving all my nipples to the dreidel wrap. I'll go two and a half as well. Yeah, I agree with what you're saying, Kayla.

And I feel like sometimes the Hanukkah metaphor chafed with other prominent tropes in a way that went a little under examined I wish that Julia had more to do because I'm just like you had Manny Santos and you did what with her nothing that's an interesting decision oh and I also just want to say I think that like yeah this is a great movie for the representation of Jewish kids. But it's also great for kids who aren't Jewish to like know more about Hanukkah because there's not a lot of media that is going to. I mean, it's like Rugrats. I don't know. Absolutely. This movie gave me a clearer understanding of what Hanukkah celebrates than I had before.

So that brings me so much joy. Truly. And truly like the stuff like I i yeah the shabbat dinner scene like i learned a lot and it's like kind of embarrassing for the world that there's not more media that teaches uh non-jews about judaism especially since jews run the media you know like you think we'd have more face perjuring herself at the end of the episode which is interesting i'll give you my two and a half nipples to the dreidel wrap done done beautiful faye what do you what do you say i'm honestly giving it three nipples i'm notoriously lenient about my nipple giving

and we love that about you yeah you know it's well meaning and i always throw on a half nipple for intention um and i just want to see jews on tv jews played by jews doing jew things that is my goal and i love seeing hanukkah on tv and i love seeing it geared at kids and it just being very chill and casual and saying that these kids are just like me they play basketball and yeah there's no good female characters and the black character has to be magic yeah these things are true well we have kippahs and we have hanukkias and we have hanukkiahs and we have a dreidel wrap and for that i'm going three nipples i will give my nipples to my non-jewish husband for introducing this movie to me and for being so excited to learn about judaism all the time and that is special to me ross we hope we didn't let you down. This episode is dedicated to you, whether you liked it or not. This is your wedding present, so you're welcome.

Oh, man. No, thank you so much for wanting to do a Hanukkah episode, and Chag Sameach to everyone out there. I hope you have such a good Hanukkah and light some pretty candles and just see your family, your chosen or otherwise. And you don't have to lean into all the trying to be Christmas slash capitalism, indoctrination moments. There don't have to be presents or buying things. It's just supposed to be about family and joy and miracles. And it's a pretty holiday shout out to the moment where

alex gets a uh an encyclopedia on he gets like wikipedia on cds and he's like thank you they're like you didn't want that love that um i do like the way his mom is characterized as far as like she's just like very self-aware and she's just like very, I don't know. She just like has a wonderful awareness about the world and her son. And she's like, I know you think my cookies suck, but I gave them to you anyway. I know you don't want Wikipedia on CDs, but guess what? It's happening. I would love Wikipedia on CDs.

Well, I guess that's the episode yeah Faye thank you so much truly happy Hanukkah that's thank you very much in Hebrew and Faye where can we find you on the world wide web oh my gosh you can find me at Faye or love on everything

no just Instagram I don't do tweets and then junior high is at junior high la on instagram and twitter i do not run the twitter so if you tweet at me i will not see it um and come to junior high i'm i'm very into doing things irl these days now that everyone's vaccinated get vaccinated also shout out to your art depicting a scene in titanic which i'm making merch for you don't worry thank you so much i really appreciate it oh sorry no i meant for caitlin not jamie oh shit yeah yeah i requested it so it's mine that's really no that's awesome for you guys that's so fun

but jamie if you play your cards right maybe i'll give you a certain winter solstice gift maybe you guys can like share this mug i'm working on or something no i can't wait to see it that's gonna be really cool i'm just getting merch for everyone um no i love you but thank you so much for doing a little Hanukkah episode. I'm sorry there wasn't a better movie to watch. Hopefully there'll be more soon. I hope so. You should write a Hanukkah movie.

Maybe I will use my knowledge of not writing movies. Take my screenwriting class. This was actually a long ad. Yeah, Caitlin's just trying to get your money. Literally count me in. I'm not a good right sicko you can find the you can find the bechtel cast on the internet as well we're on instagram and twitter at bechtel cast you can get merch for whatever holiday you celebrate because capitalism rocks rolls and rules baby no matter what religion we abide by capitalism baby it has a tpublic.com slash the bechtel cast you can also join our patreon aka matreon where we cover two additional movies just me and caitlin every month and what are we what are we doing here

december we're doing we're doing another princess switch because we're pilled yeah we're covering princess switch three not enough vanessa hudgens is yes that's our advance it should be at least five and then i think we're still deciding on a second december matreon movie so wow stay tuned but uh yeah f, thank you again for being here. Come back anytime. Thank you. I love you. Happy Hanukkah to you all. Bye.

Bye. In California, during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the president of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson. 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nickname Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI. Identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer, this season on the new podcast,

Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeartTrue Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017, was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unnerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Kay hasn't heard from her sister in seven years. I have a proposal for you.

Come up here and document my project. All you need to do is record everything like you always do. What was that? That was live audio of a woman's nightmare. Can Kay trust her sister, Or is history repeating itself? There's nothing dangerous about what you're doing. They're just dreams.