The Reel Rejects - 13 GOING ON 30 (2004) TOUCHED OUR HEARTS!! MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!

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Starting point is 00:01:05 You got anything else to tell the people before we hop into this? I'm ready to be 30, baby. Let's go. Let's go. Well done. Well done. And of course, got to. Gotta end on the Pat Benatar.

Starting point is 00:01:29 Oh, boy. Oh, boy. Wow, wow, wow. So nice, so good. Joe Grafazi. Another dad character. Another dad. He was in.

Starting point is 00:01:42 Free Larson, yep. Yep. Yep. Dang, dude. Proto Bree. Prodo Brie. Jim Gaffigan. And Swoop White Bear was the DJ.

Starting point is 00:01:54 Oh, my goodness gracious. Bubba Dean Rambo. Yeah, I get them dancer credits. and I love the pink text. It's good, gang. It's good. Good. Ending it classy.

Starting point is 00:02:07 We did it. Wow. What a wholesome, charming, life-affirming, coming-of-age film. Agreed. Aron. Johnald. What did you think?

Starting point is 00:02:23 I thought it was great. I thought it was so much fun. Jennifer Gardner is really great in this movie. I think this movie has so much. much heart and it really takes advantage of its premise and you really get to understand what it's like to be 13 going on 30 that's just like all the things that come with and you need the creativity of a 13 year old to really revitalize your magazine and and you know some people are still crappy when they're adults when they are when they were kids and yeah I like the

Starting point is 00:02:55 arc that she went through in this movie and the thing I was going to say that I didn't say at the and we're watching it is that I like the fact that she didn't get everything she wanted and she realized that essentially at the end of the movie she loses right and then she has to go back to being 13 so she can rewrite the history and win again because yeah she doesn't get the life that she thought she wanted she doesn't get she loses the magazine she loses the guy but then she takes this information that she and experience and then kind of re-rectified that i think that's beautiful yeah i yeah this movie had so much hard gave me gave me the tears give me the feels gave me the laughs and i understand why this movie played five hundred and six

Starting point is 00:03:40 times on abc family it was amazing absolutely one too the idea that you you have her yeah waking up 30 in the with all the things she thinks she wants slowly realizing that they all came at the cost of being a person she didn't like being and then yeah ultimately losing And in a way, I wouldn't have expected. Like, like, in a, and I wouldn't even have been mad if it was like, oh, it came down to the two pitches and they just went with Judy Greer or something. Like, it was like more messy and complex than that. And I think just, yeah, the use of, like, this is such a tight script, like, between the, the themes and the coming of age and the, you know, the fun and games of having a 13-year-old and a 30-year-old's body, the discovery of all that, the fish out of waterness of all that is very fun. but also just the way they used their threads and plot devices, the house, the magic dust, the whole thing about like, who's been leaking information to sparkle and, and, you know, every little bit was, nothing felt rushed, nothing felt, you know, too extended or like it outstayed, it's welcome, and everybody is cast so well, and it's just enough. Like, it's a compact, straight, forward movie experience, but with the right amount of nuance. And, yeah,

Starting point is 00:04:57 like it gives you a lot of humor and a lot of you know fun but also there's some poignance in there and some real heart truly heartfelt moments like this is not a movie i was expected to cry during no and i it got me a couple times and i'm like that's that's so lovely because like yeah you know from the outside especially when this was coming out i might not have been that interested because like oh it's a girl movie or it's a romantic comedy or whatever but like this is just i think this is just a good movie like regardless of a genre this is was just so lovely and yeah it made me feel and it gets you in that nostalgia and it gets you i think it's you know you're supposed to kind of make you reflect and and think back to who you

Starting point is 00:05:37 might have been you know when you were younger and how your life is going now and even though yeah it's not you know necessarily a film that's going to like rearrange your life for you i think it it leaves you with something to kind of reflect on for your own reality which is just kind of nice you know and yeah good check in for like oh am i the person i want to be and am i you know uh moving the way that I would be proud of, you know, if I was a younger person, unless you were a shitty 13-year-old, in which case maybe you improved. Yeah, unless you were somebody you liked and liked that direction. But I want to, you said, you touched on something about a rearranging your life.

Starting point is 00:06:15 And, you know, this is about style and fashion. Speaking of style and fashion, I want you to go on to rejignation.com. A, A, A. So you can get teas like these. Let's do it. Good segue. Also go get your sweaters off of Rejagnation. Nationshop.com. The Shedecks are doing some cool stuff over there.

Starting point is 00:06:30 And if you're listening on Apple or Spotify, rate us that five stars if you could. That's right. Do all of those things. Also, quickly, the trailer's playing. Girls just want to have fun as playing over the trailer. Crime! That was not included in the needle drops. But anyway, continue. Yeah, I just thought it was a lot of fun. You know, we get to experience what it's like being somebody who's coming into this world. and like all the things that like the the nuances of being adults being an adult and her kind of bringing that that new vitalization to that and her becoming a better post person at the expense not the expense but through going through this experience and yeah i'd like that she became the person who she wanted to become but realizing in that through that experience that maybe that's not what you would want because i realize it's not worth the cost of getting there exactly it's not worth the cost of getting there because when we're young we want to just fit in we want to be the cool kid and like you know you're you go for all the wrong things because that's what's cool and i like that we got to experience that and speed line that

Starting point is 00:07:43 growth and development through the the vehicle of becoming an adult and realizing that it's not as cool to be that wall in your adulthood and i think that this movie illustrated that well we had a coming of age comedy where she literally came of age and she had to learn emotional maturity through becoming a literal older person of herself and that's great yeah it's a very original concept and i'm happy we got the chance to to experience that and this movie's 20 years old this year which is insane crazy and it still holds up still holds up perfectly and and it feels like a classic which is yeah which is great it feels wonderfully time too because like you know obviously it's it's some you know recent era but even the like lack of that

Starting point is 00:08:33 many cell phones and it's about a magazine you know it's like there's something yeah kind of a bit more classic about that and too i mean you know without beating you over the head with it by any stretch it kind of also has that quality of like oh you're an adult but you're still kind of in high school and a lot of high school things are still happening and uh and yeah i think it's hard too to make like art in movie art that's actually compelling or or you know that is convincingly what it's supposed to be in context of the movie and I think that like the presentations at the end the the heroin chic one is like just cringe enough but also like this could be somebody swing and miss and then her pitch when she reveals and she does you know her little don draper speech sort of and

Starting point is 00:09:19 turns over all the flash cards like I was like that's actually kind of cool like like the photography and what she's put together here and being that yeah it's a mock up for a pitch i was like it's not a bad idea this actually seems like a plausible direction you might go and a nice rebranding of something and and just a cool collaboration between friends and the photography aspect like i don't know there's just so many well-proportioned things and you know the way that she gets back to mark ruffalo in this in the you know older in 2004 when she finds him you know and the way he weaves in and out of the story just the proportionality of everything i thought was really nice we get a little bit of her home life and her goofy hockey boyfriend and then a very

Starting point is 00:10:04 natural sort of rekindling of the connection and addressing the fact that they grew apart with mark ruffalo and then yeah that slow progression toward you know the end climax and i think yeah like for the will they won't they it was so nice and i think this like i think what's great is that I would have been satisfied like predictability is not bad necessarily like I was sitting there going oh I bet you know they will lose the pitch but then she'll start her own mag

Starting point is 00:10:30 or something like that and like I can imagine a movie doing that but I like that they went with a more nuanced choice for that where it's like but you're still going to pay the consequences of leaking all this to Sparkle to try and further her own career what a reveal there but also Judy Greer

Starting point is 00:10:46 is not doing anything good there she's being completely conniving And so, yeah, not only do you lose your fake friend, you lose your opportunity at one mag, you lose your opportunity at this mag, then you go and realize that, yeah, like your love and this connection to this person so important to you was the only real thing that mattered beyond all of this. And then to have him in this position where he's like, yeah, you know, these last two weeks have been great, but I've had a whole life since then. And, you know, this is the path I have chosen. And yeah, just like the way it all doesn't quite work out felt very life amid the fantasy. And it's one of those things that I think just makes everything stronger when she does go back. Because you know that, yeah, like, okay, if she reverts to 13, then you'll use all this to make the future better.

Starting point is 00:11:34 But like, yeah, I think it's necessary that she loses to make that work. But at the same time, I could just imagine a different version of this making less nuanced and less, you know, live. in choices and I really appreciate that and too I mean you know balancing that amid against the fantasy against the comedy against all the charm and I mean Jennifer Gardner like her her just portrayal of this young mind in an adult body was very lovely and appealing and and just totally on point you know yeah I will say that two things to go into Mark ruffalo's inclusion of it I think that having the rebrand of the magazine be something that's closer to what her experience as a teenager would be while making it this retro thing of it being a high

Starting point is 00:12:24 school magazine, a high school yearbook in an adult magazine. And that's like the thematic direction where we're going was, it was cute. And I'm like, okay, I like that. You know, making New York feel like it's like this high school thing. That's, that's fun. But also. And that thing about your big sister. Yeah, like the actual people you might want to aspire to rather than these unattainable you know high fashion models yeah right but also again like i like the fact that she got to see the outcome of or she had to experience the consequences of the shitty actions granted was it her actions technically it's you know it's the original version of her yes and no but the fact that those things came back and i like that you guys saw me cringing i didn't like the

Starting point is 00:13:12 fact that they were having an unfaithful relationship but then they made it right by him not leaving the wife at the wedding but then because she her going back in time and catching him early I'm like okay that's like an like ethical work around both of your lives may be for the better now like you could argue that there's maybe some ethical weirdness because she has all this knowledge nobody else does but like but I'm willing to not focus too heavily on that because yeah I think it is it's just such a lovely bow that yeah she comes right right back makes the exact opposite choice she you know tells off tom tom rips the you know report proposals she was supposed to do and even that is like it's a very similar thing to what they're

Starting point is 00:13:53 doing in the future uh yeah yeah i thought that was just a really nice like yeah rewrite the history and then they get their happy ending and everyone i think that's why it works is it seems like everyone's a little the better for it like mark ruffalo clearly he has a nice relationship with his fiancee now wife in the original timeline but you can tell he's at least a bit depressed or at least a bit resigned you know and that's a real thing that happens you know

Starting point is 00:14:19 and the two the parents like even though they're not in it a ton very they had a lot of impact for like the early scenes when they come in and dad's videotaping and stuff and mom's like oh she's you know going through some stuff and then she comes back later and even those just brief

Starting point is 00:14:35 moments of them finding her in the closet and then her you know just you know going just I don't know breaking down and and needing to be comforted and eventually like climbing into bed like it is like childhood just so touching and like

Starting point is 00:14:51 you really just felt the depth of despair in those moments and the and the heartbreak and I think the older you get the more times you're able to experience that that question mark of like have I screwed everything up like did I completely orchestrate like the wrong

Starting point is 00:15:08 life for myself and and You know, not as extreme as all this, but certainly, yeah, it hits a lot of really real notes while also being very fun and absolutely living up to like the fantasy of the high concept, you know? Totally. Like, this is great because this could have easily just been a fun, charming, romantic comedy. But it's also like a life movie. You know, it's a bit of a dramedy, even though it's largely comedic. And, and yeah, like the supporting players, I really liked her assistant, like whoever that actress is, I thought did a great job. great job she's so sweet andy circus was a joy to watch um very fun even just the other you know characters around who don't get that much focus i just thought were well cast and had a lot of presence and yeah like uh ruffalo's fiancee isn't a shitty character by any means and we are supposed to feel that conflict of you know we want obviously uh jena and matt to get together but you know yeah there is that too easy if she's shitty and like oh but she's the good girl you know yeah of course and yeah i think even if

Starting point is 00:16:08 if she did go to the wedding and like it's how we expected like they end up leaving together I feel like that I just left like a bad taste in my mouth because like all those people were there and like she didn't this other girl didn't do anything wrong but and yeah I'm happy that you know she went back in time got him early and then they had the life that they're supposed

Starting point is 00:16:24 to have yeah and him being like her family's down there everyone's here this is like the biggest day of her life our lives like this is really well done really well done let's read a couple of facts before we hit the road.

Starting point is 00:16:40 Hit the road, Jack. Now it makes me wonder, because I know Greg and somebody, maybe it's just Greg. Somebody watched 17 again here on this channel. Oh, really? Yeah, which is like a similar concept, but in reverse, I believe.

Starting point is 00:16:53 And I just wonder if there's any, you know, similarity contrast, et cetera between the two. This also got me thinking of what version of, you know, age swap movie I would direct or try to write, excuse me, which mine would be a lot more, you know, sort of...

Starting point is 00:17:13 I would lean more heavily into the potential for strange science fiction conundrums. But anyway, let's see. What do we got for trivia? Jennifer Garner was very happy with the studio's choice of Krista B. Allen to play the young Jenna Rink. What she looks like now?

Starting point is 00:17:35 She felt Alan really, embodied her at that age and later the producers of ghosts of girlfriends past got them to cast Alan in a similar role that's exciting haven't seen wow she has definitely grown up she doesn't look quite as much like Jennifer Garner now but they could be related you know for sure dang she must be in a fair amount of stuff no oh wow wow not bad oh she's on revenge i remember when revenge was huge uh cool oh and i love too that i thought that was a great great great great little uh flourish that she winds up befriending the girl in the elevator and then later she's at the sleepover it's like such a perfect little thing because like it's a little odd but not in any way like creepy or weird it's just like oh yeah you know like it's it's absurd a little bit fish out of water a little bit like it's the sweetest place for her to land and she can be a good influence on those young ladies right mark ruffalo's first scene was the thriller dance sequence he was terrified of doing the scene but jennifer Garner's enthusiasm was very infectious.

Starting point is 00:18:40 Andy Circus had to rehearse the scene separately from everybody else because he was in London at the time. He was fun, and I like that he wasn't shitty either. Like, they took a lot of, a lot of opportunities to do, like, the trite or, you know, just kind of trope thing. They didn't fall prey to, and I think that's really cool. When 13-year-old Jenner-Rink goes into the closet for seven minutes in heaven, you see actual photos of Jennifer Garner as a child on the back of the door. That's pretty sweet. As Jenna Rink softens, the production team adjusted her wardrobe accordingly. For example, wearing warmer colors.

Starting point is 00:19:12 Ah, that's smart. And Lucy Wyman, Judy Greer, becomes ruthless. As she becomes more ruthless, her fashion goes the same way. That's cool. That's a good attention to detail. Jennifer Garner improvised a great deal of Jenna Rink's childlike observations. For example, Alex Carlson plays Sam Ball, wants to play sex games with Jenna. She suggests battleships.

Starting point is 00:19:34 So that's, okay, so that was a bit of improv. That's pretty fun. Let's see. Do we got any more good ones here? And the studio, their first choices were apparently Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, and Judy Greer for these characters. So they got exactly what they wanted. And I'm glad they did because perfect casting. And props to Judy Greer.

Starting point is 00:19:54 Because again, it's thankless to play a hateable character and she does it so well. I have to remind myself in movies like these. If I hate you and I want to see you hit by a truck, You're doing a great job. You're doing a great job as an actor. Because sometimes people just stop it. I hate this character. But anyway, the slumber party scene was forced upon Gary Winnick at the producer's insistence over his strenuous objections.

Starting point is 00:20:22 He felt it cut away from the Jenna and Matt romance, which was the real crux of the film. But watching it on the Blu-ray director's commentary, he then felt this was one of the best scenes in the film. And I agree. I feel like that's such a great full circle moment and such a great even. though those girls will probably be all different in the new future. This is a great way to pay it forward and to get back in touch, you know.

Starting point is 00:20:44 The Poe's article that Jenna Rink is reading at 13 years old, 30 Flirty and thriving features the apartment in which she later lives when she is 30 years old. See like I'm excited to watch this again to catch some details like this. If the cast wasn't

Starting point is 00:21:00 sure once things were funny enough they would ask Judy Greer because they all felt she was the funniest person on set. Although Lucy Wyman is played as a very petty teenager, Greer remarked on the Blu-ray release that she was more quote, like a geek at that age. Well, there you go. You get

Starting point is 00:21:16 to step into the mean girl's shoes and role play. The producers realized how funny Jennifer Garner was during her acceptance speech for winning an award at the 59th annual Golden Globes as Sidney Barstow in alias. That was huge. I remember that. They made a point of casting her for the role of Jenner Inc. That's fun.

Starting point is 00:21:33 And let's do Oh, Rick Springfield attended the premiere, his way of thanking the producers for playing one of his songs in the film. I feel like that's cool. Usually people just want to get paid in Jenna Rink's room on the day of her 13th birthday. There's a framed picture of Madonna 30 years later. And workoff is a guy, okay, that's just an observation about the movie. Let's go on to the spoilers. Let's go on to the spoilers.

Starting point is 00:21:54 Oh, and I was wondering, actually, too, when she gets the phone call and you hear the voice and the secretaries, you know, trying to hold off the call for her. and the guy's saying, like, put that bitch on the phone. Apparently, that is director Gary Winnick. So that's a fun little, uh, little came out. A little deep there. Camio. Uh, all right. Spoilers.

Starting point is 00:22:14 When Jener Wink wakes up, she is 30 years old and lost in her apartment. She quickly takes a look at some mail she received. One of the envelopes is from Sparkle magazine, which reshows her role as the mole at Poise magazine. I should have caught that. That's a great little insert. I had a great use of that thread during throughout the movie. Great handling of that to make us forget. Jennifer Garner's first scene was crashing Matt Flamhaf's wedding, one of the last scenes in the film.

Starting point is 00:22:40 Jenna Rink was supposed to get to the wedding by hitchhiking, but the writers wanted to do a scene with Jenna and an adult Chris Grandi, so they turned him into the cab driver. That's fun. That's better. Absolutely. Gary Winnick, and yeah, just, oh, God, little details like that even. Gary Winnick wanted to end the film with Matt Flamhaff and Jenna Rink's wedding, but the studio insisted on seeing that. live happily ever after. The color of the small doll house

Starting point is 00:23:06 that Matt builds for Jenna is the same color. It's the full size house in which they arrive at the film's ending. I didn't call it out, but I noticed it was distinctly pink. During the thriller dance scene, Richard Neeland hands Jenna rinks purse to a man so he can dance. The man is the same person Jenna is revealed to be having

Starting point is 00:23:22 an affair with. I knew that guy looked subconsciously familial. Last one. Oh no. Maybe there's a couple more good ones. When Jenna confronts Matt, as he is dressing for the wedding, a book with the title Times Arrow can be seen on the shelf beside her. The book is a novel by Martin Amos about a man who experiences his life in reverse. The book opens as he becomes conscious as a very old man near death and proceeds

Starting point is 00:23:47 backwards through his life, ending when he is a small child, like some Benjamin Button shit. All right? I've seen that movie, but you can't pull one over on me. Red flannel shirt Mark Ruffalo was wearing when he and Jenna were talking about the 13th birthday. the same shirt he wore in the film's ending when we see him and Jenna sitting outside the Pink Suburban House. Great detail. Young Matt Flam Half listens to burning down the house by talking heads. Later, he's got the T-shirt

Starting point is 00:24:11 and an alternative ending. Had different actress and actor as Jenna and Matt in their teens going outside Jenna's house and bouncing on a bouncing castle, revealing Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo as the adult Jenna and Matt wearing their wedding outfits. Interesting.

Starting point is 00:24:29 Interesting indeed. Well, I'm glad we got the ending that we did. And I'm glad that we watched this movie today. Likewise. And I'm glad we got to share this. We got to laugh together. We got to cry together.

Starting point is 00:24:40 We got to dance with somebody. I felt the heat with somebody. Love is a battlefield, friends. This is thriller. All the good stuff. Thank you. Leave us your thoughts on the movie. What's your favorite coming of age flick?

Starting point is 00:24:54 What's your favorite age swap body swap flick? What's your favorite timey, whimy flick? leave it in the comments and we'll catch you on the next one much love party people

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The Reel Rejects - 13 GOING ON 30 (2004) TOUCHED OUR HEARTS!! MOVIE REVIEW!! First Time Watching!

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