The Bechdel Cast - Girls Trip with Madison Shepard

Episode Date: February 1, 2018

The Glossy Posse (Caitlin, Jamie, and guest Madison Shepard) take a wild trip to the podcast studio to discuss Girls Trip!(This episode contains spoilers)For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast. Follow @MadisonShepard on Twitter! While you're there, you should also follow @BechdelCast, @caitlindurante and @hamburgerphone  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed 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. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty and I'm the host of On Purpose. This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Andrew Huberman. Dr. Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, known for his research on brain function, behavior, and neuroplasticity,

the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself. The expectation on us is not perfection, being able to toggle between these different states. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. Hey fam, I'm Simone Boyce. I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. behind her new novel, Everything We Never Knew. I am showing up for my younger self, and it is becoming a ripple effect energetically in my life, and that's why I feel so safe now.

Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 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 Hello and welcome to the Bechdel cast. My name is Caitlin Durante. My name is Jamie Loftus. And here are our last names. Last names. We got exactly one last name request and we took it right to heart. I'm doing it for the follows. I want you to follow me at Caitlin Durante on Twitter and whatever else. I'm doing it because I felt like someone asked me to do something and I'm not good at saying no. But it also didn't seem like a bad idea. It's not making my life worse. It's not making anyone's life worse, hopefully.

Right. my life worse. It's not making anyone's life worse, hopefully. Saying my last name making your life worse. Please flood my mentions. Let me know I'm ruining your life by doing truly the bare minimum. How are you? I'm good. We are here talking about movies, specifically the portrayal of women in movies. The podcast theme. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We got so involved in the last names, we forgot to say why we were here or what we were talking about. That's okay. Right. So, yes, we are talking about the portrayal of women in movies.

We use the Bechdel test as sort of a yardstick. So it's a test applied to all media in which two women need to have a discussion, two lines of dialogue exchange about something other than a man and the women in question need to have names all true yeah yes not a hard test to pass however not a lot of stuff passes not a lot of stuff passes and not a lot of media and movies specifically do a good job portraying women so what boo hollywood come on i think they're doing a great job. Oh, yeah. It's been historically wonderful. Very healthy culture.

So that's what we're talking about in the Bechdelcast today and every day. And every day we have a guest. Yes. And we usually don't talk about movies so recent. I'm excited. Yes. So we're talking about Girls Trip. But before we get into that discussion, let's introduce our guest.

She is a comic. She has been a panelist on the pre-show for Empire. Wow. Madison Shepard. Hi. Hi, thanks for being here. Hello. I've been here the whole time. I know. I just haven't said anything. The most tense part of the podcast. Like, when do I jump in? It's like double dutch. Like, when am I going to get a...

It was seamless. Thank you. Anyway, thank you for being here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. I'm stoked to have you. So we're talking about Girls Trip. Yeah.

You saw the movie in theaters. I did. I saw it actually as a double feature with Rough Night. I saw Rough Night and then I went to see Girls Trip, like, within an hour and a half of each other. Because they're similar movies and then it's a group of women having a wild weekend or night or whatever not an unfamiliar premise no not at all but one of them did much better than the other one and that was girls are talking about better yeah i didn't see rough night and i didn't feel the need to so i don't i'd be interested in seeing it i wasn't aware that in rough night it takes this premise and that but they like kill a guy and something

spoiler alert i guess i just i i mean i did not see either of these movies in theater but they were marketed in a very similar way so that i was very surprised when i was reading through the synopses for both that in one, they kill someone. That wasn't clear in the marketing. Did not realize that either. I really loved Girl Strip. Same. Yeah, I also didn't see it in the theater because this was my pre-MoviePass days. I have it now and I've seen all kinds of movies.

If MoviePass wants to sponsor us because we've been plugging your product endlessly for the past few episodes. Or just like send me mine. I've already paid for it. Right. Yeah. So, yeah, I just saw, I bought Girls Trip on DVD, brag, and I watched it twice in the past couple of days. That feels like a lot. Can I be honest with you? I tried to watch it twice. I watched it one in the past couple days. That feels like a lot. Can I be honest with you?

I tried to watch it twice. I watched it one and a half times. I couldn't do it. I watched it one time, and it was just right. That's enough. I think my brain just is not good at absorbing media. I think because I've just absorbed so much of it that it takes my brain like a second viewing to really digest stuff. Caitlin, you do have not one but two college degrees.

I'll bring it up so you don't have to. Thank you. You know that I hate to bring it up. You know who also has multiple degrees? I know. I thought of you. It's Queen Latifah and she mentions it in the movie. Yeah, that's true.

Wait, does she in real life or just the character? I think just the character. Queen Latifah didn't have time. I mean, she was on Living Single. Which I just started. i just started watching that on hulu i'm really enjoying it i love that show i still need to see it yeah yeah it's so good queen latif has been like in the entertainment industry since she was like 18 yeah yeah i don't think she had time she was 23 when living single came out so and she was a star of it and she she has not aged a day. I mean, she was looking a little old in this movie for me. I won't lie.

But I've been watching her on TV since I was a child. Yeah, right. You know. I had to do some age checks for the main cast in this movie because, I mean, all the main cast except for Tiffany Haddish is over 40. Yeah. Which, I mean, they all look...

They're all about 9 or 10 years apart in age. Right. Which, I mean, they all look... They're all about nine or ten years apart in age. Right. Yeah. Right. I mean, from Tiffany. Right, yeah. Because Queen Latifah, Regina Hall,

and Jada Pinkett Smith are all born in 70, 71. Yeah. And then... I think Tiffany had... This is all to say that it's very cool that we're seeing representation

of women over 40 in a movie. Because you rarely do. Yeah, and they look great. Yes. You know what I mean? And because you rarely do yeah and they look great yes you know what i mean and they're living their lives and they're successful and yeah doing their thing it's great yeah totally and they were playing women their age too because i think there's always such a tendency to be like well they all look amazing so let's just pretend they're 30 and it's like they all they're all pretty much playing within a few years of their own age. Except for Tiffany who's having to play age up. Yeah.

Which is interesting. Right. Well, should I do the recap of the story? Yeah. Yeah. And Madison, feel free to interject the recap. Jump in. Okay.

Don't interrupt because I usually don't do a good job. I love interrupting. So the story focuses on these four main characters, the actors I just named, but it is Ryan played by Regina Hall. Sasha is Queen Latifah's character. Lisa is Jada Pickett-Smith. And Dina is Tiffany Haddish. Have you ever seen a female character named Ryan before? No.

Because one of my best friends growing up was a girl named Ryan, and I'd never seen them before. I'm so excited. I texted her. Wow. She's like, I i know everyone texted me you're a year late so these four women who all went to college together they were this very tight-knit group called the flossy posse but the dumbest handshake ever in the world i was like what the fuck does it have to do with anything? I'm like, we can leave it a denim vest because I was very happy with it.

They all wear pendants with FP on it. Oh, yeah. That's enough. Yeah. No, we also need a handshake. And they have that one song that whenever they hear it, it just brings them all together and they have to dance. I still don't know what song that is, though. Me either.

It's not clear because they dance to a fuck ton of songs in that movie. This is a dance heavy movie. The movie opens with voiceover explaining this. You're like, you know that one song that your group

will anytime you hear it. And we don't get to hear the song. Fucking voiceover. But so much emphasis is placed on that because it's the first thing you hear in the movie you think it's going

to pay off later and then it doesn't. Never. It comes up again. I'm just like, oh. I almost forgot they had that dumb handshake until they did it at. And I'm just like, oh, yeah. I almost forgot they had that dumb handshake until they did it at the end.

I was like, oh, that's still stupid. I forgot about the pendants until the end where Regina Hall grabs her necklace and then everyone else grabbed their neck

and was like, what's happening? And I was like, oh, right. We haven't seen that in an hour. I didn't even think I made that connection.

Yeah. There are so many friendship talismans. I didn't keep track of them all. Hey, they're all friends did you know they like each other but sometimes they don't get along yeah which is pretty much the story i mean this is a more much more character driven piece uh this is a character's film it's an actor this is an actor's film yes i would agree so the the story is basically that ryan pierce is like a successful author and kind of public figure. And she has this.

She's like Oprah. Pretty much. She's like pre-Oprah. Right. Yeah. But connected with a dude. Right. Her brand is built around the fact that she can have it all.

So she has this very handsome husband. Dumb husband. Right. But she's also got this career. So her whole thing is like i have a personal life and a professional life queen latifah's character is like perez hilton sort of like a like a gossip blog like a go fuck yourself yeah yeah that was a deep early 2000s somebody brought it up like two weeks ago and i've just been saying it

like remember that website I was obsessed with? I don't remember that. Oh my God. Oh my God. That was like middle. Like I had to sneak onto the school library computer to see that website. Oh. Anyway, so Ryan gets invited to be the guest of honor at Essence Fest in New Orleans.

But she and her pussy posse haven't... Flossy posse. I'm sorry. What did I say? I'm sorry, Leonardo DiCaprio. Oh, no. When I think of pussy posse, I don't think of them. I think of that terrible Facebook group we were all a part of years ago, remember?

Rest in paradise, that fucking Facebook. Jesus Christ. This is for sure not the first time I will accidentally say pussy posse, and I am sorry. You're basically Toby McGuire. Oh, no. So the flossy posse, they haven't really spoken in a few years and they kind of like fell out of touch just because their lives all got so busy as you do as an adult.

So Ryan takes this opportunity of being invited to Essence Fest to sort of get all the gals together because she's got like VIP access. And they're like, we're going to get together. We're going to have a crazy weekend. We're going to party. And it's going to be just like old times. She has this funny like plot driven vision at the beginning where it was like she's just sitting there and then she's talking to her manager or the Kate Walsh character. My God. She was in the secret like best parts of the movie.

She is great. She I love Kate Walsh in all things. But Kate Walsh goes up to Regina and Regina Hall all of a sudden is just like, I've got to get the flossy part. Because she sees two makeup artists who are only two women who probably just met on the job today, you know, laughing. And she's like, I miss laughing with other women. It's pretty tenuous. I was like, oh, is that the inciting incident when she looked to her left? Kind of, yeah.

But whatever. It got the movie started. Sure. So they all get together. They go to New Orleans. You find that Ryan and Sasha have a little bit of beef. You find that, like, Dina. Which little bit of beef you find that uh which doesn't get explained until like fucking so deep in this movie yes i'm like why don't we get a hint of it

before right like why are we finding out almost at the end what happened you would think that that would be some sort of like second act like midpoint thing yeah because i was like i was at first i was like oh it's kind of cool they're going to tell us right away. But they don't tell you until like an hour and a half in. Yeah. And then it's just shouted. And it's like, oh, you both suck. That's basically what we find out. Right.

Yeah. Right. Were you expecting this much interrupting? Because I'm not sure. No, no, no. This is very normal. Okay. It's par for the course.

Okay. This is par for the course. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So Lisa, meanwhile, she has a couple kids. She was married and divorced. And her character is sort of built on the fact that she's a very nurturing, motherly person who kind of left her wild party girl days behind.

Yes, but I think that a lot of her character points are built on, like, she's uptight. Right. She's uptight. She's uptight now. Right. But once she gets a dick in her, she's going to loosen right up. Yeah. Yeah.

I thought that character was interesting to me. We'll get there. Yeah. Sure, sure, sure. And then Dina, Tiffany Haddish's character, she is still a wild party gal. She had chlamydia at one point. That's her backstory that we learn in the beginning of the movie. She wears fucking wigs throughout the 90s, apparently.

Yes. Every time, just throughout the 90s apparently. Yes. Every time just like the worst fucking wig. Also I'm like okay can we just talk about that scene where she has chlamydia? No one was wearing backpacks at that point in the 2000s. We only started wearing backpack purses again like last year. Like I was also how the

fuck old are they? Because in the opening montage they're like dancing like it's fucking 1992. Like, they're in Living Color. And I'm like, wait a minute, but they graduated in 98? I call bullshit. That's not what was popular in 98. And I'm just like, what? They weren't in college for fucking seven years.

I'm not doing the math right. I think that's six years. But whatever. Anyways. That's too many years. Well, Queen Latifah was getting so many degrees. It takes a while. I know this from experience.

She has 400 degrees. I do have several degrees. She has 98 degrees. That's my goal. I can't forgive you for that. Well, I was going to sing an NSYNC song. That's not 90 degrees. Sorry, guys.

No, that one is. The hardest thing I ever had to do they turn around and walk away pretend that i don't love you so good and then the follow-up we were kind of harmonizing can we talk about that i'm not good at harmonizing do you want to start a girl group yes it's It's all I think. You should call it the pussy possum. And then their follow up single Una Noche. Love it. Give me just one night.

Una Noche. This is no way. That's a J-Lo song for sure. No, it's 90 degrees. To give you the time of year. Oh, that's right. Oh, you know what? J-Lo has, J-Lo has, waiting for tonight.

Yes. That one's a great one. I do know that one. When you will be here in my arms, waiting for tonight. And then she goes, for a couple minutes. She can't fucking sing.

That's why. Just let me nay on the track for a minute. Can I reveal something stupid about myself? Yeah, please. Whenever you girls were listening to that kind of music, nay on the track for a minute. Can I reveal something stupid about myself? Which, whenever you girls were listening to that kind of music, I was listening to Korn. Oh, I love Korn. Nine Inch Nails.

Oh, I've seen Korn live. We could talk about, let me tell you something. I saw Korn on the Freak on a Leash tour back in the day. I got in trouble because remember when Limp Bizkit did that Napster tour and they were like, we'll give you a free concert.

Well, my friends all told their mom that they were at my house and I told my mom I was at my friend's house, which resulted in my big ass white mom showing up with her bobble fucking station wagon embarrassing the fuck out of my black ass and like grounding me the rest of the summer and sending me to El Paso.

So I have a fucking skin in the new metal game, bitch, is what I'm saying. So high five. Oh, my God. That's an extreme sacrifice. I never did anything. I cried when I met Marilyn Manson. Bitch, I will get into it. I almost got a Twiggy tattoo out of fucking.

Anyways, we'll get it. That's great. We could have a we could talk about this. Yeah. Can you tell me something embarrassing? I don't think it's embarrassing. I think it's great me about your time i just basically talked over oh no no i mean i'm with you i didn't do it to be heard yeah absolutely i didn't do nearly anything as hard as like going to a concert and lying to my parents about it in fact i didn't go to a concert until i was like i think think 20. Wow. Yeah, I've lived a very awful sheltered life.

My mom and I went to see the Backstreet Boys the night before 9-11. You guys caused it. It was basically her fault. Wow. It was brutal. What a reveal. Yeah. What we didn't know at the time.

It was literally my mom at one point, because she's just like a doofus. We were talking about, I was like, oh, yeah, that concert was so much fun. Because I was like, whatever, nine or ten. And then she was just like, yeah, it really was a simpler time. I was like, mom, chill the fuck out. It was the night before 9-11, so obviously it was a simpler time. I guess you guys could walk to the airport gate together. That's about the only big difference.

Well, anyway, so back to girls trip. All right. Old women talking about our old ass experiences. So the four women are in New Orleans. The first night they go out and they get a little crazy. They're at a party. But early on, they learn that Ryan's husband, Stuart, has been having a possible affair with this woman named Simone, who is an Instagram model. And can we just talk about how every hot woman in black media has this voice? And Simone, when she confronts Queen Latifah, yeah, maybe I'll

give you the hot tip on your website. And then she like pivots Queen Latifah, yeah, maybe I'll give you the hot tip on your website. And then she like pivots. I'm like, why do you have to talk like that? Since like fucking Harlem Nights, like every like sexy black woman in the thing always has this voice. I'm very upset and I'm imparting real important

information, but I can't fucking find the breath to tell you. She's like half panting. My my fucking waist clincher is keeping my diaphragm from fully dropping so I don't have the breath to bitch you out yeah good point but it was spot-. That's what she had. Yeah. She can't fully inhale. Yeah. We'll get to her character, too, because the way that character is treated is all over the place. Oh, boy. She does have a great butt, though.

That keeps getting brought up, and it's true. They're never wrong. They're never wrong. So, yeah, this character, Simone, is introduced, and there's, like like a photograph of her kissing Ryan's husband, Stuart. Another trope of the genre of like every time someone's romantic partner is caught cheating, it's in glorious high quality 1080p. Like who took this picture? It's gorgeous. It's backlit. Like were they posing?

Is this, like, country homes? And it's also, like, pretty tame, too. Like, I mean, having seen, like, the real, like, videos and footage of, like, people cheating, like, it's never that glamorous. Yeah, it's like pixelated raw dogging. There's a double chin in the background. Anyways, gorgeous cheating photos and honestly great point yeah so sasha lisa and dina all find out about this and they're like hey ryan your husband is kissing another woman and ryan's like actually i already knew about this and they're like no it happened like last night she's like oh crap so this becomes sort of an ongoing conflict

where this woman keeps showing up because she's also there at Essence Fest and Stuart's all like, no, this is all like, I'm not going to talk to her anymore. This is over. We're going to work on our marriage and Ryan believes it and then that storyline kind of comes to a head.

He's gaslighting her so hard. Every single time he's on screen, he's like, you need me, you need me, you need me. I'm not going screen he's like you need me you need me you need me I'm not gonna change but you need me but she doesn't need him he needs her the twist he is cut out of

the target Walmart-esque deal at the end what is it Mary Mart? no Mary Mart for you I love how they go out of the way to not give too much emphasis on that deal because it's like a plot point. But I feel like also it's like in today's climate, no one's like rooting for a target deal. Like, oh, I hope that like this really sinister corporation comes out on top no matter what. Yeah, good point.

Very tastefully. Yeah, that's another component of the story where Ryan and her agent, Liz Devely. Just say Kate Walsh because nobody cares. Although, I couldn't help. Totally. But her character's last name is Devely, which I couldn't help but notice

sounds a little bit like devil, which she is kind of pretending to be. She's like Liz, the devil. I mean, she spends the whole movie. It's like not that far from Cruella de Vil. Like she's,

she's not a good character. I mean, she's a good character, but she like, she makes a lot of missteps in the story. Yeah. I'm like fire her. Yeah.

Right. And why is she always the fuck around? Yeah. I mean... Look, I guess she's trying to, like, garner this deal for Ryan, this huge... And why is it happening during this fucking other job? In the middle of Essence... Like, she's working.

This deal has to be made during Essence Fest. Right. Also, like, shout out to Essence Fest for fucking sponsoring this entire movie. Right? Yeah. Jesus. And it made me really want to go to Essence Fest, y'all. Never been.

Would go. It sounded, yeah. I mean, it was like, what was that movie? Because the framework of Essence Fest makes total sense for this movie. What was that movie with Vince Vaughn that's on the Google campus? And that's the whole movie. Oh, Interns or something. Yeah, Interns. Interns or something where he and Owen Wilson are like, we work at Google and that's on the Google campus and that's the whole movie. Interns or something. Interns or something

where he and Owen Wilson are like, we work at Google and that's the movie. Yeah. I saw that. I saw that. Oh, no.

I read the script for that like an early draft. Wasn't very good. Hot brag. Yeah. Hot brag. It was in graduate school where I did go

to get a master's in screenwriting. I hate to bring it up. Sorry. You and Sasha, the gossip blogger, are both educated, strong black women. So, yeah, I mean, that's pretty much

the story. It's Ryan trying to get this deal and impress this woman, Bethany. Her agent's helping her out. She's there with all of her friends. Stuart's cheating on her. Everything kind of comes to a head at the end of the movie where there's this big speech where Ryan's like, no, I can't have it all, and I'm making my marriage work,

and da-da-da. And then she's like, wait a minute, this is not the message I want to send out into the world. Even though this is the message she built her empire on. She's like, let me just dismantle that really quick and say a different thing, which is like, you just got to be true to yourself and in friendship and da da da. And then Bethany is so impressed.

She's like, actually, yeah, let's still give you that deal. And we're going to cut Stuart out of it. And it's just about you being a strong, independent woman. And then she brings in Sasha and then their friends again. Yes. I just like that Kate Walsh is like, turns out single women are a huge market. It's like, oh, you mean every fucking person watching this fucking movie? Yeah, bitch, we know.

And that is Kate Walsh's character's big takeaway from the entire weekend. She's like, oh, it turns out I did not know what my job was. I'm like, how could you? That's your job to know. Yeah. Kate Walsh, come on. Yeah. Anyway, how could you? That's your job to know. Yeah. Can't watch. Come on. Yeah. Anyway, so that's the story. Great.

I'm glad we got there, but also brought up corn. We harmed it. We did do a full-on singing break. It was beautiful. Yeah. I always want to be like movies where they have like dance parties break out or like singing breaking out is like unrealistic of women. But we did that.

But we did do it. Well, that happens in this movie where there's an extended scene where they're they're in a dance off. Yeah. Which is one of my favorite scenes in the movie where the flossy posse and then Simone. Thank you. I paused and I was like, please don't say pussy posse. Pussy, pussy, pussy. The pussy, pussy.

So the flossy posse. And then Simone also has a posse with exactly four women. And then they have a dance off. Also, why is Simone at this club? What are you doing? I don't know. Yeah. Well, I think we've pointed out that maybe the story doesn't make entirely 100% sense and maybe isn't the most tightly written movie. But, I mean, it's like a hugely important movie. So we see almost no representation of women of color in movies and certainly not where they are framed as the stars, the main characters. So that was just really fucking awesome to see. I feel like so many movies make just huge mistakes when representing people of color. It's either that the movie doesn't have any people of color

in their entire fucking movie or... Rough night. Yeah, yeah. And hundreds of others. Almost all of them. Yeah, exactly. If a movie does have a person of color main character, we often don't know anything about their life or their backstory. We talked about this on the craft episode where the one woman of color, we don't know anything about her family life or her interests or anything like that.

We never go to her house, but we go to everyone else's house. Exactly. Yeah, so that's a huge thing. And or the person of color character will be some sort of trope or stereotype rather than like an actually fleshed out, well-developed character. Yeah. I mean, like my boyfriend posted because he also had to watch it a bunch of times because we share a bed and I was like, this is where we're watching it. And he posted. He was like, well, I don't think that it passed the Bechdel test. Because just to speak to what you were saying, in response to a very lively comment thread about the subject, somebody brought up what they call the DuVernay test, which is like bringing up, you know, do the people of color have names? Are they being comforting or supporting of like the white characters?

Like, are they magical or not and i'm like well i mean people of color are magical but like you know what i mean but this movie like you know 100 passes that other one too you know what i mean uh-huh just for those reasons yeah yeah yeah which is remarkable because we should bring so few tests more yeah yeah yeah yeah definitely yeah i could definitely see a movie not passing the Bechdel test, but definitely passing the DuVernay test, especially if it's a movie about black men. That is a thing that I could 100% see happening. Shout out to black men. Black men, you're doing great.

Yeah, it's like such a remarkable thing to see so few mainstream movies feature even one developed person of color character, let alone several like this movie does. And in the first few minutes of the movie, we get a clear sense of each of the four main characters. It's four black women over the age of 40. Again, representation that we rarely see on screen. And you either find out what they do for a living or some other distinguishable trait about their character. I think you find out what all of them do except for Tiffany Haddish. She just works in an office and kind of bans her or something.

And gets fired. It seems like that scene was super fun and then you get the feeling that that had happened like 45. That happens like every other day. Often. She's like, actually I do still have this job. And they're like, um, okay. We're not going to fight yet.

Which is great. Right. Yeah, I mean, like, the top five minutes of this movie is, like, giving all of our main characters. Even Jada, she's some kind of doctor or medical professional. She's a nurse? Yeah, she was one of the scrubs. Yeah, I don't know. I saw her and I thought doctor, especially with that house.

But who knows? Right. Yeah. That was another unclear thing, because they do say she's a nurse a couple different times but then we find out again like in that conversation very late in the movie that she lives with her mom where at the beginning i thought that she like mom was visiting over it yeah to like take care of her kids right yeah so i mean who knows there there's some stuff that i'm like what what i don't i totally missed that she was a nurse. They do mention

it at least once or twice. Good job, this movie. Because Regina Hall's character, I'm pretty sure there's at least one moment, it's usually directed at Queen Latifah, but she can be very condescending to her friends and is

condescending to each of them as it pertains to something about their life at least one like where I mean with Queen Latifah is pretty constant of like well you run a gossip blog even when Queen Latifah is like yeah and this is why you should listen to me because I run a gossip blog and I know what they're gonna do to you but she also like sort of makes fun of Tiffany Haddish's character for being like loose and like too crazy for her age and then I like does come down on Jada Pinkett's character for either being like too uptight or at one point she's like you're a nurse I'm like yeah that's great what are you talking about it's really good it's weird huh yeah I don't know so like I would classify this sort of as like a girl group movie.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. We've done a few others of those on the podcast already. Mean Girls, Heathers, The Ghostbusters Reboot, Clueless. Loved that episode. Thank you. Spice World. The Craft.

The Craft, A League of Their Own, I would even count. Whoa, we've done a lot of them. Yeah, we've done a lot. But there's a ton of others that we haven't done. Bridesmaids, Pitch Perfect, Now and Then, Grease, Whip It, Bring It On, Charlie's Angels, Crossroads, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. That's a good one. Josie and the Pussycats, Little Women, Steel Magnolias, 9 to 5, First Wives, Spring Breakers, Jawbreaker, Rough Night. There's a ton of these.

Yeah. Almost all of the ones I just named have either no people of color or one maybe in their main ensemble cast. Of the ones that I could find that were super mainstream that

featured a predominantly women of color cast were Dreamgirls, Waiting to Exhale, and a movie called Set It Off, which I... Oh, you don't know about Set It Off? I don't know. Bitch, you gotta know the... Get another black woman on here and talk about Set It Off.

It is an important movie to black people. Yeah. It's an amazing movie. And Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah are both in it. Oh, hell yeah. And they make a lot of references in Girls Trip to... To that movie? Set It Off. Oh, way. There's like a couple lot of references in Girls Trip to set it off. There's a couple of little references.

Usually in that fight scene with the wigs and the... This movie looks amazing. It's about a bunch of women robbing a bank and Queen Latifah plays a lesbian in it and is like full on out, which is like awesome. And it's tight as fuck.

Nice. I'll watch it right away. Wait, I'm so excited to watch this movie. Yeah, usually if this is a this is why it's important that like black artists also write, I think, because the reason that those movies that you listed got made is because of black writers. And we already know the statistics that came out last year, which literally broke my heart and made me cry about, like,

just the lack of black writers in writers' rooms. TBS, I think, had zero black writers on any of their writing staff, which punched me in the fucking puss. I mean, my God. In your pussy posse? My pussy posse.

My pussy posse pocket. And, you know, this movie is actually one of the first movies in history to be directed by black people, written by black people, and starring black people to surpass, I guess, $100 million. I read that on IMDb. So it's, like, really an important movie. Totally. And why all black artists need to write. Yeah, absolutely. I was reading this Hollywood Reporter article entitled,

Girls Trip Box Office Breaks R-Rated Comedy Curse Proves Power of Diversity. Just a quick thing at the top. It says, for decades, Hollywood studios have operated on the premise that a film featuring a black cast wouldn't necessarily reach and play to a wider audience, but moviegoers are taking matters into their own hands, challenging that assumption and proving Hollywood wrong. The latest example came over the weekend as Universal's critical Darling Girls Trip opened to a rousing $30.4 million.

That's almost double their budget, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The best start for an R-rated comedy in two years and the best showing for any live-rated comedy in two years and the best showing for any live action comedy so far this year because the movie it had a budget of 19 million and then it grossed domestically over 115 million makes my eyes misty yeah that's amazing so good you know i mean they're not wrong in thinking that a lot of black ensemble movies don't do well and it's also because i think're not wrong in thinking that a lot of black ensemble movies don't do well. And it's also because I think there's a quality issue in a lot of black entertainment.

You know, there's movies like Almost Christmas and all these other kind of like we don't get a lot of like really well written black entertainment, I think. And I think that this movie kind of teeters on the brink of not being particularly good in terms of like the story. You know what I mean? So it does happen. I mean, Tyler Perry comes out with movies and there's a ton of movies in that vein. They don't do well because they're not good. And the reason this movie was so fucking good is Tiffany Haddish. You know, like if she wasn't in the movie, it would not have done well.

She made that movie. I mean, even looking at... If you look at that character on paper, that's a hard character to pull off. And pull off. Yeah. She kills it. She's so funny. She also improv'd a lot of her lines and wrote a lot of her lines.

Hell yeah. Herself. So that stuff is... I mean, her stand-up is incredibly funny. It's no surprise. I wrote down some of my favorite jokes from the movie, and they were all by her. Yeah. She has all the laugh lines in that stuff is. I mean, her stand up is incredibly funny. Like, it's no surprise. I wrote down some of my favorite jokes from the movie and they were all by her. Yeah. She has all the laugh lines in that whole movie.

Yeah. Yeah. She wouldn't be funny without her. She calls Stuart a milk dud head. Yeah. It's great because everyone's thinking it. You look at him and you're like, he looks like a whopper. He looks like a milk dud.

She says, you look like an ugly, dirty Mr. Clean. Yeah. And then the scene where she's demonstrating grapefruiting. And then at the end of it says, you never want to do this with a pineapple. I almost died. Fucking funny. Oh, and that scene I like when she is doing it and then she's like, oh, she does like a little Cosby thing. And then she like licks the balls.

Like, amazing. That physicality is so good. She like pretends to the balls like amazing she's like you gotta pretend to choke you know you don't want to you want to make make a man my favorite my favorite Tiffany hat I mean it's like it's all so good but they're the at the end of that weird late in the movie exposition scene where she like keeps leaving and then has like one more thing to say and kept keeps turning around and it's just like this long shot of her like trying to leave the scene five different times she's like take it and take your debit card because i don't want you no credit you're low limit having ass basically she just stole everything from ryan and she's like fine i'll return it including her id like what the fuck was she planning to do she like returns everything

one thing at a time and then like stumble oh it's so good the scene where she buys the bottle of absinthe and then she keeps being like this will last you five years she's like five months god and he's like no you're not hearing me

she's like five days great and then she leaves by saying this is about to be used very irresponsibly thank you yeah so good yeah she she for sure made this movie uh she her performance is so funny like some of the humor in the movie wasn't for me like i don't like gross out humor so like the scene where they're all like peeing on the zip line all over everybody i was like first of all who pees via a fire hose spraying out of their crotch like what that's not how p works i like that jada pinka did it and then tiffany haddish did it i think i missed that the first go around yeah i mean she like jada pinka did it on

accident and tiffany did it on purpose i there i mean there's like a lot of that's what like part of what is interesting about this movie to me is it is such a setup we've seen before but never with an all women of color cast so there are like tropes of the genre that you see of like i love the grapefruiting scene but there's something like that in every like version of this setup of like a gross out sexy and a gross out. A body function scene that's gross farting, shitting, peeing. The Melissa McCarthy shitting in the sink thing in Bridesmaids. Right. First thing I thought of.

And then the whole absinthe sequence is like. A tripping. It was very tripping to me. Like there are definitely like tropes of this setup, but that's like, I don't know. It's like, oh, well, that's tropes of this setup. But that's, like, I don't know. It's like, oh, well, that's what we signed up for. Right. Yeah. And, I mean, it's just nice to see a different version of that, like, different representation.

Because usually we see it by fratty white dudes in a movie or, like, hot white ladies. And it's, like, right. So it's just, I mean, it's cool to see black women do it for once yeah um it's also through our lens so all the jokes and the humor it's just like it's just it was gorgeous for that but one of the things i'm like most i almost didn't think this movie passed the bechdel does because of the amount of focus on men in this movie we almost lose character development and finding out more about their friendship because of all of the shit about dudes. Yes. All of the stuff about men.

There's so much. It's so male focused. My fear that like one thing I was afraid of happening the whole movie because we are forced to wait so long to find out what happened between Regina Holmes and the T-Bone. It was over a man. I was so worried that it was going to be some sort of falling out over a guy. And it sort of, it had to do with Stewart, the reason. So the reveal is that Regina and Queen Latifah had started a publication together, but then Regina pulled out rather abruptly when it seemed like she could do better with Stewart.

So it did. It was sort of around a man. I was afraid it was going to just be like, oh, we got in a fight about a guy and then we can't be friends because that happens all the fucking time. For sure. Also, like, why didn't Queen Latifah just play a lesbian in this? I was wondering that as well. Because she doesn't have, except for that time when she makes out with that lamp, she

doesn't, which is amazing. What a great physical bit. Also, the best sex scene in the movie was Queen Latifah hunching on a lamp with her hair swinging. Like, you know, she never has any romantic scenes. So it was interesting, I guess. Yeah. There's not really any queer representation in this movie that i in fact they they make some remarks that are kind of vaguely homophobic even a couple times

in the movie where they'd be talking to a man and they'd be like oh do you have a wife no do you have a husband like yeah kind of like condescending and just like not very like what if he was gay and yeah what's wrong with that and they just yeah it would have been nice to see some queer representation queen latifah could just fucking come out already you know what i mean not officially no she's not officially out but like there's all the paparazzi pictures you know or her and her girlfriend ebony that's her name i thought the same thing about um i didn't articulate this on the episode but we recently did an episode about the ghostbusters reboot and i was like kate mckinnon lesbian actor could have made her character lesbian yes yeah and that would have given people the opportunity i mean it her being a lesbian might not have served this

story at all but like it would just would have been hindered the story right and it would have given like young people an opportunity to see lesbian representation on screen. So I was like, that would have been cool. But I also kind of wanted to compare this movie to that Ghostbusters reboot because we talked about on that episode that the characters in that movie and Ghostbusters aren't very well fleshed out. They don't really have distinct personalities, save for Kate McKinn character being you know a little kooky and maybe socially awkward i think that that is just like paul feig does not know how to reel it in right and it's like improvise i don't know make it up right figure it out and so then like no i don't know yeah but but conversely uh girls trip i think its characters are much more fleshed out. For sure. I think it was probably to do with the women's improv, though. I don't know how much of it was actually written in.

Right. Because Tiffany Haddish's character, there's no way that they wrote that like that. You know what I mean? She for sure built all of that stuff. Yeah. I wanted to talk a little bit about Lisa. So that's jada pinkett's character because there were a few moments that kind of like i don't know like my antenna went up a few different times because she is framed from the get-go as she's divorced she's

hyper protective of her children kind of like a type a uptight character and her friends give her some shit for that fine we've seen a character like this a million times but there's like a few moments like back to back where they go to this hotel and there's that guy who shows up who thinks that they're like is trying to pay three dollars for a blow job oh i forgot about that yeah that's a very weird moment in this movie where i don't know i'm interested in what you what you guys think about it. Because he shows up, he is like, there's usually a woman who gives me a $3 blowjob mirror. Rochelle.

Rochelle. And they're like, oh no, get out. And then he spits on Regina Hall, leaves, and then flashes them. And they all freak out. But kind of in like a well this is so weird and kind of funny kind of way and then lisa as a button i'm like is anyone gonna say anything like what what how is the movie viewing this scene you know and at the very end lisa's like i don't think that was funny at all and that's just and that's the end of the scene i was like i i don't know

how did you guys be i was i thought that was the the end of the scene. I was like, I don't know. How did you guys, I was. I thought that was the funniest part of the scene was her button. Yeah, yeah. I was like, well, at least someone said something. Also, I liked seeing Dick in the movie. I heard that too. I was like, hey, tight, great. We see the Dick.

We've seen 80 billion boobs in movies. And some bushes too. Yeah. We hardly ever see Dicks. So even when it's a gross dick like that dude's was and he was doing okay i mean for his age you know he wasn't i just was like don't don't spit on regina hall oh i still i miss that i think he spits on her face yeah that doesn't get addressed we cut to the next scene and they're going out and everyone's teasing lisa for her

outfit which is ridiculous that's also kind of a running gag in the scene and they're going out and everyone's teasing Lisa for her outfit, which is ridiculous. That's also kind of a running gag in the movie where they're all making fun of what she's wearing. That was a great Tiffany Haddish line, too, where she's like, you look like someone's Puerto Rican grandpa. Oh, no, that was Queen Latifah. Oh, was it? Tiffany Haddish was like, and don't take so long. Back there making tamales or whatever. But then that one, too, there's like a little moment where they're basically like, and go shave your huge bush.

Your hairy piss. Leave Jada's bush alone. Let her have her bush. She should change, but she doesn't have to shave her bush. But she should change. That dress was amazing too. Can we talk about it? I was like, I want that dress.

There's a lot of really good looks and really weird looks in this movie. I have never in my fucking life seen Queen Latifah dressed so fucking horrendously ever. Who fucking dressed? I tweeted about it at the time and I tweeted about it this weekend when I rewatched. Why? Why would she dress up poorly? Like just because she's a size 14 doesn't mean that she needs to wear like just every ugly, ill-fitting thing they could find. I was like, could she not get a fucking tour sponsorship?

Fashion Nova Curve couldn't step in and give the bitch something that like showed off her waist. I mean. And it's weird because she even says in the hotel room, like, Oh, I have to look really good because I'm sponsored or like, whatever. Like she says that she's covering the lie of having her,

having to return her clothes. But I'm like, how do you, how do you live in that apartment and drive the car that was repossessed and not have also spent some of that money, like looking really good. She's dressed like a rockabilly duvet at one point. I mean, another time it's like she has a fucking Target prom dress that's also a jumper romper thing. A lot of jumper romper things for her.

I just, I was so disappointed in that. I'm just sick of like, as a big bitch, I'm sick of big bitches looking ugly on screen. Everyone else can have a cute look except for Queen Latifah. The only good one she had is at the end in the second line. I liked that dress. That was a nice one, yeah. Anyways, sorry. Valid points.

And there was no lack of, there was a lot of outfit changes in this movie. It's not like there was one. Yeah, there were tons of outfits. I liked everyone else's costumes. Tiffany Haddish, I don't think, had a bad outfit. I want that dress she was wearing when she's on the airplane, singing I'm Every Woman. I was like, where do I find this dress? I need it.

Oh, that was another genre trope that it was like, oh, drunk on an airplane. Yeah. For sure. Can we talk about Kate Walsh's character? Yes. Let's talk about Kate Walsh's character? Yes. Let's talk about Kate Walsh. So you first meet her and she's like sexually harassing Stuart, number one.

Yeah. In a very uncomfortable way. I mean, white women and their treatment of white. Here's the thing. This is a general statement. And before any of your white lady listeners try to get at me in my mentions, my mom is white. My dad is black. So I'm talking shit about us, girlfriends. Listen, white women are the first people to jump up and shout about sexual harassment.

But yet, let's even look at like stand-ups. Like white women who are stand-ups are very much like against sexual harassment and all of this stuff. And that's great. I'm with you, sister. But then you can't have jokes in your act about how big black men's dicks are you can't then turn around and completely objectify black men as these pieces of meat so that scene for me i was like that's realistic i like seeing like white women treat like touching them inappropriately in public just basically taking them and making them just their junk you know yeah it happens all the time with white women

so for me i was like oh that's a real thing and also even though like as an audience member you want regina to like fight and be like don't touch don't ever touch you but in real life you wouldn't you wouldn't be able to say anything this woman's your agent she's like helping you get work and stuff like that i wanted your take on it, certainly, but I thought it was probably a comment on that very thing where white women, society in general, but, you know, especially, again, fucking shitty white people, sexualizing.

53% of y'all suck. I'm just saying. Every election, you show up and you vote the wrong fucking way. Talk to your aunties and your omas wherever the fuck you were from. Please, ladies. Have them tough conversations you're supposed to be having talking oh god i'm sorry what was your i figured it was probably no no this is good i thought her like inappropriately touching stewart was probably a

comment on like the over sexualization of black men in culture society life yeah yeah and then that conversation i mean and then doesn't that the other i think that this is like the longest we see them on screen together uh there's that conversation between kate walsh and regina hall that comes right afterwards where kate walsh is like not picking up on like she bye girl yeah right yeah yeah gonna get turned yeah yeah it turned yeah yeah she's using a lot of like she's for sure like culturally appropriating a lot of language and regina jamie you mentioned this like handles this very well and that she's like it's crazy how well she's like it's like it i i watched that scene two or three times because it's like I don't I mean, I'm interested in what we all think about. But it's like it was like, whoa, you know, so perfectly stated and also is so not on her to have to say at the same time.

It was just, you know, I appreciate, too, that like at the end of Regina's speech there, even Kate kate walsh i'm not gonna try to learn her character's name um she says i'm not even offended thank you that was really touching and i get it and then turns around and you know obviously doesn't get it but like like i think that it was so it's what you know a lot of us think and feel you know yeah i feel like kate walsh's character was like the queen of like microaggressions almost in this movie because she's like just borrowing a lot of language and regina's response is you can't keep saying these things like you can't keep talking like this you're going to essence fest there's going to be half a million people celebrating black womanhood you are a guest act appropriately right and then kate walsh her character she ignores her and basically just keeps doing it.

And then every time after that, they're just kind of like, well, shrug like we tried. And I guess she's just going to keep being an awful white woman. But, yeah, I just I thought that was like a really awesome scene to see play out in the movie where she's actually confronting Kate Walsh's character about it. Although I will say it does come up later and it actually kind of works, I guess, to a benefit during the cooking demonstration. Right. When she's like, you know, it's a colloquialism. Like, you know, put your foot in it, slap your mama. So like that, I think it comes back a little bit. But yeah, it was a really impactful scene, I thought.

Yeah. I just wish that black men were treated better sometimes by white women. Yeah. And the fact that Regina's character leads with, she's like, and I'm saying this out of love and has to do all these qualifying her own accurate statement before she says it. That was a really, really, really, really, really good scene. Yeah. Can we talk about Kate Walsh drinking a candle?

Yes. Let's. I was talking to Danielle Perez, who you've had on the podcast. Hocus Pocus up. Yeah, she's one of my dearest, oldest friends. Emphasis on the oldest. Oh, okay. She's like two decades older

than me. 12 years old. I'm not even supposed to be here. did i drive here um no but um like that is one of the like most memorable images for me from that movie is like kate walsh drinking that fucking candle i had to go back and check i'm like wait that that did happen that did happen yeah because she's got like the wax then like melted on her lips for a while. She tries to pay for their drinks with her fucking shoe. I think she could do that.

And then the button on that scene is Queen Latifah is like, here, my date will settle this bill. And she's talking about the lamp because she was tripping and making out with the lamp. And then Kate Walsh, who's also tripping, stands up and she's like, welcome. Nice to meet you. To the lamp. It's great comedy. Kate Walsh, her character is like too much in every conceivable. Like, yeah, the queen of microaggressions.

And I think just like, oh, yeah, this is something I've seen and possibly even been guilty of myself in the past because, you know, white ladies have to be fucking accountable is like of overcompensating. Like her character is constantly overcompensating. She genuinely doesn't get it, but also seems to want to be accepted. But she doesn't. She's not putting in the work and she's not actually listening. And so she just ends up, like, in every scene she's overcompensating

and in some ways it's, like, uncomfortable and then in other ways she's drinking a candle. Right. Yeah. And also, like, the whole time making money off of black people, black culture, which is also, I think, a comment on the entertainment industry in general.

Like, you like to make money off of us, but yet you don't know us. Right. You know? Yeah. I think she's doing it as maybe a way to say, like, yeah, I can relate to you or, like, see, I'm relatable, but, like, not putting in any effort to listen and have a discussion and things like that. Yeah.

Which is timely as fuck. Because we all have to have these things like that. Yeah. Which is timely as fuck. Because we all have to have these conversations. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. Can we talk about Simone? Have you talked about Simone?

Yes. Oh, Simone. Simone. So Simone is the Instagram model who Stuart is having an affair with that Ryan sort of knows about, but she doesn't necessarily know all the details then in the movie later on simone reveals that she is pregnant with stewart's baby wow that scene to me when simone because she's around and it's like you know there's like the cooking demonstration where it

turns into this big physical comedy scene whatever but that scene with queen latifah that was so bizarro to me the way it played out because it the first half of that scene i was like oh we are getting to know this character a little bit and it was before she was kind of this like two-dimensional like she's just the person that regina husband is cheating with but then she comes in and she like she's she has a few good lines in there of like i didn't make this baby by myself you know like basically asking that stewart be accountable to her and not just totally fucking blow her off because he you know was an active part of that relationship and for that part i was like oh this is cool i feel like we don't usually get to see

the other woman character treated like this but then she's like by the way i'm blackmailing you goodbye and then i was like oh man it kind of for me it like sold out the little bit of characterization she was given because then she just became the villain again like she's a person for two seconds yeah and then she's the villain again and then they said she looked like a dog oh right although that was a really funny bit the the whole tiffany had a dog baby oh that was great that was a great bit yeah yeah yeah that did i feel like she was kind of cheated out of more of an opportunity to be more like well-rounded character because then she yeah i mean sure you like movies have to have villains like not everyone's going to be nice but well this kind of movie doesn't really have to have i don't know i i felt like i'm talking through this in real time but i i feel like

how different would the movie be if that scene doesn't end with her saying by the way i'm blackmailing you goodbye because i feel like the the conversation between regina hall and stewart would still have happened anyway it's like i i just I don't know why she had to be a villain. She was putting Queen Latifah's character, I think, giving her some skin in the game. Giving her stakes in it. That's why she did it. That makes sense. Right.

Because then whenever that photo is leaked, Regina thinks Queen Latifah's character did it. Which is a weird jump also. I'm like, I never for one minute believed that Queen Latifah was doing that. Because even it's set up that she's losing her house and her car's getting repossessed and all this stuff. And she's in a financial crisis. But her character is established and developed in such a way that she would never sell out her friend, basically. Well, that brings me to the point of a lot of the conflict in this movie derives from relationships between these women. So it's either like within the group, there's tension or outside of the group, there's tension usually with Simone. And some of the conflict does derive from Stuart and him being a piece of shit and cheating on Ryan and stuff like that. And glorious high definition every single time. I'm still not over those fucking pictures.

They're beautiful! But the fact remains that a lot of the conflict in the movie derives from complications between female characters, which, I mean, I don't know what, if any, statement is being made there, but society perpetuates this idea that women are catty and there's all this drama between women, and women can't get along and stuff like that. And movies that promote this, I'm always like, well, like, I don't know. I don't know how I feel about it. I don't know.

I mean, is there a version of because there are so many versions of this setup. Is there a version of this setup where there are main cast members so that we've got to put them in conflict with each other or nothing happens i don't know i mean no yeah i don't know but maybe maybe that's not true i'm trying to think of like a counterpoint to that but there i mean there is a there's a lot of the conflict in this movie comes from regina hall's marriage and how her friends perceive it. Right, that's true. So that's where a lot of it comes from. Yeah.

Plus, I mean, if you see a male counterpart version of this movie where you see something like old school or the hangover kind of thing where there's also conflict among the male characters, so it's not necessarily a gender-specific thing.

It's just sort of like how these movies are structured and where conflict is derived because it often is just like interpersonal relationships between the characters. The gang has to break up so they can get back together at the end and ride victoriously. Cheetah girls! Let's do cheetah girls.

I've seen cheetah girls in a long time. I don't think I ever have. Oh man. Does anyone have any other thoughts about the movie? I would say that the Bechdel test is, it's really good. And I'm glad we have it because it helps frame a lot of stuff. I think that this movie, it technically passes it. But I was mentioning this earlier.

I just, it's so about the men. Like, there's this other, like, weird subplot about, like like let's talk about the end of the movie. Like the last scene where like Ryan's had her speech and they know that she's going to get this deal and they have a night out. They go see a concert. There's this monologue that Ryan has where she's talking about at the end of the day, all you have is your friends. And then the image on the screen is her hugged up with this dude who the whole time is like basically like her knight in shining armor like shows up like nobody has uber in this world apparently they can't just like call a ride oh this was the julian yeah i kept calling i'm like the guy puts them in a better hotel he comes and picks them up after their thing with the cops just all of this kind of crazy stuff and it's it it's just like i don't i don't know if i needed any of that. I don't think he needed to be there.

Yeah, it didn't make sense to me. It also sort of actively goes against what it seemed like our takeaway was supposed to be. And if we're talking about the dynamic between, because we haven't really talked about the dynamic between Reginald and Stuart, because it's, I mean, I think that there's a lot to unpack there yeah but I feel like some of it was there was a lot of energy being put to make fun of the other woman although there's also a lot of energy put to calling Stuart a milk dud and a lot of really really creative insults yeah like every scene we see Regina and Stuart and I mean he's gaslighting her to some degree and basically saying like, well, if I'm not in your life, your career is going to fall apart.

And we know the whole movie that, you know, she's going to figure out this isn't true. But yeah, I don't know. It's like there's there's energy put into like why there didn't need to be another male character. Yeah. That that was a romantic interest. And none of the other three characters really got a romantic interest really. Oh, we didn't even talk about Jada's little chocolate piece. Oh, yes.

Oh, yeah. That's where it technically ends is them looking at the thing. When this guy first comes on screen, I was in Glendale when I saw the movie. I want you to know that like every single woman and gay dude in that audience was like, yeah. There was such a like a loud physical like vibration that went through the room when he was like smizing up at her. And it's like, oh, gorgeous face. I mean, he's unreal. Yeah.

And then you see him pretty much naked except for like grapefruits on his dick later on. Which was amazing. But yeah, I mean, she that was a kind of a cool one, I guess. I liked that just because we got to see him. Yeah. I mean, he was great. But yeah, I mean, that was kind of a cool one, I guess. I liked that just because we got to see him. Yeah. I mean, he was great. Yeah. So with that kind of subplot with Jada Pinkett Smith's character and this guy who that she's painted is this like uptight mom who's

just like focused on her kids and she hasn't had sex in a couple years and everyone's like you got even her mom like it was like you need to go like dust out the cobwebs and like yeah i don't love that right because it's basically saying especially when it's like a hetero thing it's like only a man can cure you of this right well they said like at one point like you know penetration is medicinal it's like yeah that's a little heteronormative and she also is saying like in the drunk plane scene she's she's kind of saying like i masturbate all the time she's like i've got a shower head and it's been very good to me she's a lot of erotica right oh yeah very like intense erotica or whatever I was like oh

I mean she might be fine I don't know yeah I don't know that whole like uptight lady character that we see all the time and then the message

is like she just needs a good dicking and she'll be cured yeah also like I don't think there was such a big difference for me

in terms of her portrayal of the characters change I thought that her performance was a little bit flat when it came to this because i think that you can take that character and be so uptight and then really go loosey-goosey with it and i don't know if she did that i don't know if she fully completed the arc for me as an actor but yeah it's i mean yeah and i think that that's what's that fucking, there's a movie with Sandra Bullock where she has just terrible bangs.

And that is a lot of them. Everything she's ever done. Two weeks notice. That's the bad one. Where basically it's like, Sandra Bullock is mean, but good at her job. And then Hugh Grant fucks her and her life is changed. That's every movie in the 90s. Just so work clear.

I mean, Hugh Grant must have just the magicalest dick. I mean, his character. Him and Colin Firth just must be ejaculating straight up miracles. May I just say that Hugh Grant in Paddington 2 deserves an Oscar. Really? He did such a good job. You're literally a Paddington stan. I love Paddington. I love Paddington 2 deserves an Oscar. Really? He did such a good job.

You're literally a Paddington stan. I love Paddington. I love Paddington 2. They are terrific movies that treat its female characters pretty well, I would say. I think they would make for interesting episodes just putting it out there. I got your texts. A message received. But verbal confirmation also important.

Hugh Grant does a really bang up job in Paddington 2. Is Hugh Grant, is he like a guy or is he Paddington? No, he's a guy. He's in the movie as himself. Not as himself, but kind of as himself. He's like, well, yeah, he's always playing himself. Yeah, he's never playing somebody. But he's also playing like a washed up actor who hasn't worked in a while.

Oh, is that what he's doing? That's his character in the movie. Yeah, he's playing himself. Yeah, he's also playing a washed-up actor who hasn't worked in a while. Oh, is that what he's doing? That's his character in the movie. Yeah, he's playing himself. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's all good. Can I just really quick, I just want to bring up one. Can I just say shout-out to Mace? He made a cameo during the movie, as did P. Diddy.

Oh, my gosh. Can we talk about how proud I am that he got his SAG healthcare this year? You know what I mean? I was like, good for you, Mace. Good for you. There wasn't one cameo in this movie that bugged me. And also, it was the perfect set.

My thing with cameos is if it's not set up just so, it bugs me. We did the Ghostbusters, the new one, and there's an Ozzy Osbourne cameo in that movie that makes no fucking sense. I don't even remember it. But we're at Essence Festival in this. And so every cameo is like well contextualized and really welcome and exciting.

Yeah. Elbanya. How do you say? Elbanya Lanzana. I'm fucking up her name. But she was great when she confronts Queen Latifah. I do think she was going to hurt her. Yeah.

That's a note down my mind. I think they cut right in time. Yeah. Yeah. Hey, yeah. let's talk about whether or not the movie passes the bechdel sorry i've been like talking about it since i got on the podcast what a bitch the whole point of the podcast is to talk to you about it we're actually we're trying to take it a little bit like we use the Bechdel test as like literally step one we don't yeah so we can talk about everything all the time for our version of the Bechdel test the bar is very low

extremely two women talking about not a man for literally two lines of dialogue this movie passes pretty handily yes right if we if we were doing it like the entire scene between two women has to pass right this movie might not or not do it as well but with our version it's just a two-line exchange so in that case talks for taking another look at the way we look at the test too because it's there are some movies that pass the Bechdel test that are so horrible to women and there just happens to be a scene with a waitress with a name at one point. Right, yeah.

But yes, the female characters, who outnumber the male characters, may I say. There's scenes where Ryan is talking to her agent Liz about deals or the flossy posse or about Regina Hall's titties at one point. So that, I guess, passes the test. Lisa talks to her mom about taking care of the kids.

They all talk to each other about their friendship and all kinds of stuff. Dina and Lisa talk about how Dina has hid pot in her booty hole. Best line in the movie. I'm surprised that made it to the previews and all that, like all the commercials. That was one of the big, yeah.

Yeah, so there's tons of scenes where they're... They talk about everything. And they do talk about men a lot. But they do. But they talk about everything. Yeah, I would say these scenes at some point they pivot and become exclusively, the objective becomes like getting a man. For a lot of them, yeah. Once they get to New Orleans, it's like

almost 50% of them, they just go straight there. Yeah, that's true. But they get to New Orleans, it's like almost 50% of them, like, they just go straight there. Yeah, that's true. But still passes. And so, yay for that. Now let's rate the movie on our nipple scale. Zero to five nipples based on its portrayal of women. I'm going to give it like a four and a half.

Like we've already discussed, it's just so awesome to see representation of four women of color on screen as the main characters. They're driving the story. We know about them. We know about their backstory. We see strong female friendships. Yeah, it's just really fun to watch. And especially I love women in comedy, seeing women be funny on screen, a lot of times if there is a comedy movie and there is a female character in it, she doesn't really get any of the jokes. Or it's funny when she gets hit in the face with a ball.

And that's like the only comedy that she gets to do on screen. Or one of my favorites. She's stupid or she's mean. yeah also yeah can I just say that the reason mine doesn't get a perfect score is I feel like a lot of too much emphasis was placed on men and the conflict around men and oh we have to get a dick

and oh you need to get laid by a man and stuff like that so that's why it doesn't get like a perfect five I'm just giving it a pass because I'm black and it's a black movie

you know what I mean and please God in ten years please let me be in a movie like this you know what I mean please ten years maybe next year yeah I need new teeth so yeah please And please, God, in 10 years, please let me be in a movie like this. You know what I mean? Please. 10 years?

Maybe next year. Yeah, I need new teeth. So yeah, please. Are you giving your nipples too? Yeah, four and a half. And I'm going to each of the four gals gets one. And then my half nipple, I'm going to give it to Julian. Because he was a nice boy.

And he's cute over Julian I know honestly I could have done without him but yeah why do you have a mohawk? why did he have a mohawk? and fake spacers? come on it's fucking 2017 dude get your look together

shout out to Neo who also made a cameo anything where there's like an artist playing live, Neo is that artist. That is true. He's always cast as that. Someone make an IMDb for Neo's cameo records. There's got to be 50. Yeah, minimum.

Yeah. Well, first of all, this movie for me would get five large chocolate areolas the size of your face and shout out to it for featuring black women diversity in size diversity in shape and the hair textures lots of lovely wigs i want to give them to regina hall's lace front you know what I mean? I just want to like shout out that. Her pretending to wrap it up at night. I was like, bitch, just take it off and put it on the stand. Why are you? Who are you kidding?

But no, actually, I take it back. Four go to her lace front and one goes to Neo. Just because, you know, he was there. We can't forget that he was in this movie too. I feel like Neo is super punctual for some reason he does so much i'm like he's gotta be like so great to work with because he's in everything when i see him if i saw him without his hat on i would have no idea what he looked like you know what i mean he always has that hat oh yeah that's the only reason i know it's neo it's his signature look i'm gonna give it uh four and a half as well for all the reasons that we stated.

It's like just such a wonderful thing that this movie is in the world and that we see women of color and also mostly over 40, which it's like amazing. And the fact that it did so well and so many people come to see it. Also, a lot of the background is all people of color. A ton of movies will have maybe a few people of color main characters, but then everyone else in crowd scenes or whatever. Oh, yeah. The crazy version of New York City that's all white that we see in movies all the time. Everything. Everything. Awful.

Yes. So this movie is wonderful. gripe with it would be that there was good opportunities to put in queer characters that i felt like was kind of a missed opportunity especially because hello queen latifah is literally right here uh so that that was like the one thing that uh bugged me a little bit and i could do without julian but other than that it's it's genuinely a really fun movie to watch which movies with this setup are not always fun to watch and it's like unlike any movie i've ever seen before yeah i'm giving uh one of i'm giving each lady one nip and then i'm gonna give my other half nip to simone because yeah i wish

because she deserved more yeah and now she has to go and have Stuart's kid right sucks sucks do you think they'll end up together I kind of get the feeling that they might anyways that could just be me projecting maybe we'll find out in Girls Trip 2 I know probably starring Dulce Sloan please I'm calling that into the universe for you sis

oh yeah I love that I love Dulce yes Madison thank you so much for being here. Thank you. This has been so much fun. This is fun of us. Thank you so much. Where can people find and follow you online?

Y'all. Okay, so first of all, I sometimes update my website, and I pay $20 a month for it, so visit it. Squarespace. Promo code my pussy here. No, you can find dates and info about me at themadisonshepard.com You can follow me on Twitter at madisonshepard and on Instagram

I'm very good at Instagram stories. I love shouting them out for myself if I don't mind to toot my own horn. Please. At Madison underscore Shepard because I was too old and got into Instagram. Anyways, it's a whole thing. But yeah. Find me there, y'all.

Yes, do that. Find us, the Bechtelcast, on Twitter, Instagram, our website, bechtelcast.com. Facebook.com. Facebook.com. Facebook.com, you never hear that. It is a.com, though. It is.

It is a.com. Sometimes I say Instagram.com and I'm like, I'm a fuck-up. I'm actually a loser and a mom. You can also go to patreon.com slash I'm like, I'm a fuck up. I'm actually a loser. You can also go to Patreon.com slash Spectocast and subscribe to our Patreon. Oh, please, for the love of God. It's $5 a month. That's hardly anything.

Just don't drink those two coffees from Starbucks and instead give us your $5. Give these hoes their money. Please, they need it. Check us out there. And yeah, that's it. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Jay Shetty, and I'm the host of On Purpose. This week, I had the opportunity to

speak with Dr. Andrew Huberman. Dr. Huberman is a neuroscientist and professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, known for his research on brain function, behavior, and neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to adapt and rewire itself. The expectation on us is not perfection, it's being able to toggle between these different states. Listen to On Purpose with Jay Shetty on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Trust me, you won't want to miss this one. Hey, fam, I'm Simone Boyce.

I'm Danielle Robay. And we're the hosts of The Bright Side, the podcast from Hello Sunshine that's guaranteed to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with Grammy Award-winning rapper Eve on motherhood and the music industry. to light up your day. Check out our recent episode with Grammy Award-winning rapper, Eve, on motherhood and the music industry. Nah, it's a great, amazing,

beautiful thing. There's moms in all industries, very high-stress industries, that have kids all across this world. Why can't it be music as well? Listen to The Bright Side from Hello Sunshine

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.