Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 102: The Good Girl featuring Melissa Louise
87 Plays1 month ago
Melissa Louise, the artist behind emoseal.com, is surprising everyone, including themselves, with The Good Girl (2002). Miguel Arteta directs Jennifer Aniston and a young Jake Guyllenhaal in this romantic drama/comedy that’s written by Mike White. We’ve also got White, Zooey Deschenal, John C. Reily, Deborah Rush and Tim Blake Nelson all fliting about as smalltown yokels bearing witness, in one way or another, to Aniston and Gyllenhaal’s budding affair and its dire consequences. Well-received at the time, but sort of forgotten about, it weaves a strange tale on an episode full of surprises not just in plot. Will it hold up, or has time lost the shine on this one? There’s only one way to know, tune in!
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:27
Speaker
that you would, that you could, and you know that you should, yes you know that you should.
Introduction & Host Banter
00:00:40
Speaker
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to your favorite bad movie podcast. The only podcast that's brave enough to ask a question, if this movie's so bad, why do you like it so much?
00:00:51
Speaker
We're your hosts. My name is Chris Anderson, and I'm going to go ahead and say that I'm the corny of the show. Okay. um I'm the proselytizer.
00:01:02
Speaker
I've got a be a bit of a weak chin. i think that suits me. Okay. but Greg, you're you're friendly and everybody loves you. You've got to be the fill.
00:01:14
Speaker
Okay. Sure. Yeah, I know. I'll take that. I like that. Yeah, I like that. Thank you. And Anna, you're obviously suffering from depression. You'd like to write and you're ah devilishly handsome. So you're clearly the Holden of the show.
00:01:32
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you. I did. When I was 22 years old, I had a lot in common with old Holden. I don't doubt it.
Guest Introduction: Melissa Louise
00:01:42
Speaker
And, of course, we wouldn't have a show without our very special guest, who turned out to be a very different special guest from our original special guest.
00:01:50
Speaker
But she stepped up to the plate, so she certainly must be the good girl of the show, except she's a grown woman. It's Melissa Louise. Hello.
00:02:01
Speaker
Hello. I'm great. Wow. i So fast to be called a good girl today. Thank you. You've earned it. We listeners just to... Show how the sausage is made. um We had a guest lined up for this show. And normally like a week before every record, I send somebody an email and that says, you know, hey, we'll see you next week. Right. And then I don't hear back. So then like two days before the record.
00:02:29
Speaker
You know, and I've already done all the research. I've already watched The Good Girl, unfortunately. Yeah. And then, you know, still no word back from a second reply. I go to like Facebook Messenger and I try on there. Still nothing.
00:02:46
Speaker
But luckily I had posted that I had watched The Good Girl. And so people we were talking about it. And Melissa, you replied that you were obsessed with this movie when you were a teen.
00:02:56
Speaker
i was. i was. i was i was also, and suppose still am a moody writer, so I was gripped in many directions by this movie as as a 14 or 15 year old. I was trying to figure that out because, well, ah we'll get into when I talk about knowing the movie and all that, but yeah, it definitely... a Yeah, i'm I'm excited to hear about your background.
Movie Summary: 'The Good Girl'
00:03:21
Speaker
ah But listeners, if you haven't seen this week's movie, The Good Girl, here's just a short summary of the film to hold in your mind.
00:03:38
Speaker
Justine is a depressed 30-year-old woman who has an affair with her even more depressed 22-year-old co-worker at her department store job. Goes pretty poorly for the young man, but Justine comes out more or less okay.
00:03:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Totally fine.
00:04:03
Speaker
Really surprisingly unscathed by the whole thing, actually. Yeah, yeah. Happy ending for old Justine. Yep. Melissa, do you remember when you first encountered the good girl? Yeah. So I was sort of trying to figure out if I was 14 or 15. So it would have depended on when the DVD came out and when my parents found that DVD at Walmart and decided to buy it.
00:04:26
Speaker
Okay. love to just like, it's my my dad and my former stepmom. We're on a ah different stepmom in this era of life, um as happened.
Melissa's First Experience with the Film
00:04:34
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But um they used to just buy DVDs.
00:04:37
Speaker
They would just go and they'd be like, this one looks good. Let's buy it and watch them. And then if they didn't like them, it would just go in a pile. And I'd be like, I'll take that and see what that one's like. So this one, I think they watched it. They didn't like it very much. And I was like, well, I must have seen Donnie Darko by this point. So I was like, I know that fellow and I love him very much. I'll watch that film.
00:05:00
Speaker
um But the DVD case presents it as like a comedy. Like yeah the way that the comments and the everything on there is like, this is such a funny movie, this funny romantic comedy. And I was like,
00:05:13
Speaker
okay, cool, whatever, I'll put that on. so the first time I watched it, my analogy is that you go to take a drink of your water and then you find out it's a Coke.
00:05:25
Speaker
So even you like Coke, you're very like, what just happened to me? It was basically how I felt watching it the first time, but then like I was, as said, a moody writer. I'd watched Johnny Darko already. I was ready for for some feelings and all that kind of stuff, so i was like,
00:05:41
Speaker
I'm going to watch it again. And then after I watched it again, I was like, yeah. Yeah, I love it.
00:05:49
Speaker
Okay. i I must admit, i was at the completely wrong point in my life. you i was I was pinpoint targeted very much.
00:06:02
Speaker
and As someone, as a man pushing the age of 45, seeing a 30-year-old woman be like, God, I'm so old. I should yeah have sex with this awful
00:06:21
Speaker
Anna, had you seen this one before? no i had not. Uh... But like I like i said, i did I both could kind of relate to Holden and also definitely ah was very attracted to gentlemen like that at the time and still remember what that's like.
00:06:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like seeing a high school crush all over again. Yeah. Yeah. I can appreciate that. How about you, Greg? Had you seen The Good Girl before? Yeah. I saw The Good Girl in the theater, actually. Wow. What a weird place to see it.
00:07:03
Speaker
Right? ah So what it was was a roommate of mine was really, really into it and would not stop talking about it. And eventually was like, you got to see the good girl. And eventually, like, I was curious enough at that point and also knew that it would help our conversation kind of move on if I knew what he was talking about. You know what mean? Yeah. Like, let's just put this one to bed. Yeah. Let's get this out of the way.
00:07:27
Speaker
um And also, and this is something that I hadn't really thought about until about halfway through this movie. ah One of the other reasons that I went is because I had seen Chuck and Buck, which is also written by Mike White. Has anybody yeah here seen anything else by Mike White, written by Mike White?
00:07:45
Speaker
ah White Lotus. Okay. Yeah. in ah Chris, what have you seen? ah School of Rock and
Debate: Film Genre Exploration
00:07:52
Speaker
Chuck and Buck. as I forget about School of Rock. I forget that he wrote School of Rock. But with Chuck and Buck, I was a very like, ooh.
00:07:59
Speaker
ah And then I was like, well, let's see what this guy does with just normalcy. Let's see what he does with that. And both times I feel like I went in with low expectations and came out thinking, yeah, it's pretty good.
00:08:12
Speaker
if So I'm a little confused. Still a little confused as what it's doing on this podcast per se. Yeah, an odd choice.
00:08:23
Speaker
I mean, i think there's a lot to dislike about this movie. Sure. I think it's fair that you could describe it as bad. I think you could say that you disliked it, but if when I think of it as being a bad movie, I don't think of it as being a bad movie in the way that a bad movie is a bad movie, if that makes sense.
00:08:40
Speaker
I think, I understand. I think yeah we definitely need to... open our third eye to this one. know what I mean? We need first of all, question our assumptions about genre. You know what I mean?
00:08:55
Speaker
Because I think if you approach this as a genre film, because I think it definitely is sort of ah like a post-millennial indie character study was sort of a genre that I think this fits in.
00:09:11
Speaker
Right, especially at the time. yes Yes. ah And if you you judge it within the context, because so much of how we understand bad movies, I feel, is because we understand them through the lens of genre.
00:09:27
Speaker
Sure. I mean, that's why so many of them are genre films. Right. ah So I think if I knew more about this genre, I would be able to appreciate it that way better. But this was a genre that I never particularly cared about. Sure.
00:09:43
Speaker
Sure. You know. ah I would kind of agree with you there, yeah. And yet somehow I still find it interesting. I mean, that's fair. I mean, there is things to unpack it. There is also reasons why it would be someone's favorite bad movie in this genre. ah I think specifically that it um it gender flips the idea of a manic pixie dream girl into yeah a depressive pixie dream boy.
00:10:14
Speaker
Yeah, you like you really, my brain did the, i you
Discussion: 'Depressive Pixie Dream Boy' Trope
00:10:18
Speaker
said that and i was like, yes. And then, um yeah, watching this ah again, not only being older, but with that comment in mind of him being the manic trick manic pixie dream boy, i was like, oh my god. like It's just, you you literally did nail that. And then it's it's getting to see the fallout of what that kind of person is actually like when pushed to the brain because normally the movie ends at no she's just quirky and fun and that's great forever and it's like sometimes those people have the crash and it is not fun actually and as both the person who has that crash and has experienced other people with that crash it's not always fun actually
00:10:59
Speaker
one yeah as as romantic as it feels it's also gonna feel real bad a lot of the time mostly so bad
00:11:09
Speaker
ah Well, do you guys want to hear about the context that I found about the good girl? I sure do All right, then I'm going to play that bumper.
00:11:32
Speaker
I wish I had some context About the background of the film Script director, actors on set What was going on on screen I wanna hear some details Gossips tend to all that shit Can't imagine all the time
00:12:00
Speaker
So the good girl came out on August 7th, 2002.
Filmmakers: Arteta, Greenfield, White
00:12:06
Speaker
Your director was Miguel Arteta. have one tagline.
00:12:12
Speaker
It's her last best chance. Is she going to take it? That's the worst tagline. What does that mean? last chance have affair?
00:12:25
Speaker
With a clearly vulnerable mentally child. Also damn your last best chance happens at 30. I'm old. question yeah with a clearly vulnerable like mentally ill child yeah practically also damn your last best chances happens at thirty no so old ah So, uh, while the good girl was directed by Miguel Arteta, I think it's best understood as a work made by three longtime collaborators.
00:13:03
Speaker
And those are, your director, Miguel Arteta, uh, producer, Matthew Greenfield and screenwriter, Mike white. the three of them met while they were all attending Wesleyan university in the late eighties.
00:13:16
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Uh, all in Connecticut of all places. Uh, It was there that Arteta and Greenfield would have their first screen credits together.
00:13:28
Speaker
Matthew Greenfield was one of the cinematographers on Arteta's Student Academy Award winning film, Every Day is a Beautiful Day. Oh, the Student Academy Award. that's fun concept. Just look out later. That's a fun, a good concept. I like it.
00:13:45
Speaker
Yeah, it's great stuff. Good stuff for the Academy to be doing. Keep it up. Arteta would parlay that success into getting a second assistant camera job with Jonathan Demme and impressing Jonathan Demme.
00:14:02
Speaker
Demme would then help Arteta get into the American Film Institute Conservatory where he got his MFA. Okay. So a man of letters behind the camera here, Dennis.
00:14:13
Speaker
After graduating, he reunited with Matthew Greenfield for his feature length film debut, Star Maps, a low budget drama about an 18 year old Mexican guy that dreams of being a star in Hollywood, but works for his father as a gay hustler.
00:14:31
Speaker
Wow. i was Okay. Yeah. And I think Mike White has a small role in it. Uh, It was made on a budget of 90 grand and, was picked up by Fox searchlight pictures for $2.5 million dollars for the distribution rights.
00:14:50
Speaker
Nice. So nice little learner for these guys. Uh, the boys were moving up in the world. Arteta then started to do some work in TV for a couple years and before he teamed up with Greenfield again to make a movie written by and starring their old friend Mike White. And that movie's Chuck and Buck, ah which is, if anyone at home hasn't seen it, a sort of homoerotic dark comedy about a dude who's stalked by his childhood friend who he used to have sex with.
00:15:21
Speaker
Mm-hmm. Chuck and Buck would go on to win the John Cassavetes Award
'The Good Girl' as 'Madame Bovary' Adaptation
00:15:26
Speaker
for best film made for under $500,000 at the 16th annual Independent Spirit Awards.
00:15:33
Speaker
So even though it would only go on to make a little bit over a million dollars in profits, it did also serve as a calling card film for all three men as they continued their careers. Mike White is now probably the most famous of the three.
00:15:48
Speaker
He would go on to write movies like School of Rock and Nacho Libre, as well as creating the hit HBO show, The White Lotus. He also appeared on a season of Survivor.
00:16:01
Speaker
The Great Race, too, I think. Yeah, The Amazing Race. Yeah. yeah and He seems to be kind of a strange guy. I think he had some sort of scandal at some point. ah I don't know.
00:16:13
Speaker
ok Mike White, we've got a big question mark by your name. I had previously seen him, um, i had previously seen him um in I had seen a short film by this director, by Miguel Arteta, from 2006, written by Miranda July, oh and starring John C. Reilly, Mike White, and Miranda July. They're the only three people in it, but it's called Are You the Favorite Person of Anybody. It's on YouTube. It's great. It's four minutes. It's just really, really good. um So that was an interesting thing to see.
00:16:56
Speaker
Check it out, listeners. You've got your assignment. ah Now, ah Matthew Greenfield is probably the most successful out of the three.
00:17:08
Speaker
He's now the president of Fox Searchlight Pictures. Oh, wow. oh No big deal. yeah really Really moved up in the world. Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:20
Speaker
uh arteta has been able to get nice steady work and make a career out of mostly directing for television he directed episodes of new girl american horror story ugly betty succession a whole lot of stuff just a show here show there and he he also keeps his hand in the movies he'll make a movie every now and then he made one more movie with mike white i didn't write down its name ah But before they all moved on to these illustrious careers, they did team up one more time to make The Good Girl.
00:17:51
Speaker
That was their sort of last big project together before they sort of largely went their separate ways, it looks like. So Mike White adapted Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary, but transposed it to modern small town Texas.
00:18:09
Speaker
Listeners, get excited. We're going to hear more about that later. Yes. Madame Bovary, not small town Texas. I know very little about small town Texas. Matthew Greenfield drummed up the $8 million dollars budget and Miguel Arteta took the director's chair.
00:18:29
Speaker
Audiences and critics all largely enjoyed The Good Girl. It was well-reviewed and turned a profit. And then shortly after that, pretty much every human being on Earth forgot it ever existed.
00:18:41
Speaker
Yep. Not me. just
00:18:50
Speaker
Other romantic comedies of 2002. If we were to go to call this a romantic comedy, I didn't see it when I made this list, but I'd say most similarly in this same lane, you've got secretary.
00:19:04
Speaker
Oh, sure. mean, the closest. Yeah. Yeah. Opposite end of the spectrum. You got sweet home, Alabama. Yeah. yeah Also seen that one.
00:19:18
Speaker
Also two weeks notice, I believe with Hugh Grant and old Sandy B. think that's Sandy. Sure. yeah Sure. You got Made in Manhattan with J-Lo and Ralph Fiennes.
00:19:33
Speaker
That's a classic. That chemistry must be off the charts. Yes. so Those two bouncing off each other. That's an odd, such an interesting combination of people.
00:19:49
Speaker
It's like a high level game of tennis.
00:19:54
Speaker
You've also got, of course, I think probably the most beloved of these. I
Comparing 2002 Romantic Comedies
00:20:00
Speaker
haven't seen it. My Big Fat Greek Wedding. Oh, okay. It's all right.
00:20:05
Speaker
It's kind of like if if Little Italy were, well, it's not as bad as Little Italy. It was made by Greek people. So so that's a big difference, I think. Yeah.
00:20:19
Speaker
If Little Italy somehow felt authentic, it might be more like my yeah big fat Greek wedding. Yeah, exactly. That would help actually a lot, I feel like.
00:20:30
Speaker
Well, enough about Little Italy, enough about my big fat Greek wedding. Let's talk about this good girl. You guys want to talk about the plot? Yeah. Yeah. I am ready.
00:20:41
Speaker
All right, let's hit it.
00:21:00
Speaker
We open with some very classy white on black credits.
00:21:25
Speaker
we opened with some very classy white-on black credits before we cut to the retail rodeo, a medium-sized box store in small-town Texas. Truly what these coastal elites would think of as an American head.
00:21:44
Speaker
Reminded me a lot of where I grew up. That's fair. and It didn't seem like that inaccurate a portrayal. no it felt it felt pretty honest. And we even had a grocery store, not in my town, but the next one over that had the circular... ah The circular conveyor belts, if anyone noticed those. Oh.
00:22:02
Speaker
Oh, no, I missed that. Yeah, the conveyor belts are not belts. They're just circles that rotate around. So you put it on one side of the circle and it just rotates. I kind of like that. Yeah. i It's fun.
00:22:14
Speaker
Yeah. Sounds playful. So we see Justine, played by Jennifer Aniston. And she narrates about how her life is not great.
00:22:27
Speaker
The narration's very reminiscent of Badlands or True Romance or Natural Born Killers. That sort of disaffected female narrator.
00:22:44
Speaker
falses She's doing an accent. She also puts on a bit of the Texas pan for you. ah We see a few of her co-workers going about their day.
00:22:57
Speaker
ah The most interesting co-worker amongst them is Holden, a sullen 22-year-old played by Jake Gyllenhaal in full Donnie Darko mode.
00:23:09
Speaker
He's so cute. know. I know. It unfortunately still works on me he's got He's got the little fangs. my god, I know.
00:23:26
Speaker
Chris is so disappointed. He needed sad lamp or something. He does. But you gotta be the person who gives him the sad lamp.
00:23:41
Speaker
I was that person. I was my own version of that person for too long. Okay. So after work, she heads home to find her husband, Phil, getting high and watching cartoons with his coworker, Bubba. Not just any cartoons. He's watching Happy Tree Friends, which immediately, like, if nothing else dates this movie, seeing that pop up on the screen, I was like, oh, no.
00:24:06
Speaker
Oh, not that. Yeah, everybody's favorite mid-aughts flash animation gore. Yeah, we were all so cool and edgy when we watched Happy Tree Friends. The cute things, but they're disgusting. Yeah. Well, she yells at them for getting paint on her couch. They're both house painters by trade.
00:24:31
Speaker
And then ah she treats them like garbage because she hates her life and she's taking it out on him. The next day at work, she decides to introduce herself to Holden.
00:24:43
Speaker
Turns out that he's named for the character in Catcher in the Rye, which is the book that he's always reading. Justine either doesn't know or just ignores the fact that this is a book mostly associated with high school students and lone judgment. And she's intrigued.
00:25:01
Speaker
Then she has lunch with her older co-worker, Gwen. where we learn that Justine is fertile. And so they're checking to see if Phil's sperm is okay, because she does want to get pregnant.
00:25:15
Speaker
When she gets home, she once again finds Phil stoned on the couch, talking to Bubba about science fiction house paints he would like to invent. Sounds Like paint looks a different color from a different angle. Yeah.
00:25:26
Speaker
Invisible paint. Which I think exists. I think that one exists, the different angles. At least like in car paint. Yeah, cars for sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I should paint my house. You should. You should confuse everyone. Chris's house is green or blue? It's the one with that ice cream paint. Is it or is it blue?
00:25:50
Speaker
And I wonder if I could get a grant to do that. i lost i'll see You can try. what ah what it was Where do you get a grant from? We'll solve the mystery first then we'll get the paint next.
00:26:04
Speaker
Yeah. So the next day at work, the indignities continue. Such is the nature of work. ah She does get to talk more with Holden, and things do get a little flirty.
00:26:19
Speaker
She ends up giving him a ride home and learns that he still lives with his parents, and his parents both call him by his slave name, Tom. His turn. I forgot that part, and he said that, and wanted to die Yeah, that part's pretty rough. It a little rough. That part's That was...
00:26:38
Speaker
he Well, i you'd have probably, if you were to find out Holden's politics in 2002, I think that would break your spell
00:26:53
Speaker
Man, come on. That is not a voter. ah That doesn't mean he's April. I mean, that's true, but he's he's more about direct action. its You know what? That's true.
00:27:09
Speaker
Can't argue. He is about it. ah They go to his room and Justine tells him, I saw in your eyes that you hate the world. I hate it too.
00:27:21
Speaker
You know what I mean? And then they call it a night.
00:27:29
Speaker
We then get some more narration from Justine over a montage of her eye fucking her depressive pixie dream boy. The next thing we know it's Halloween. Justine drives Holden home again. And they talk a little bit more about how she's in a funk.
00:27:48
Speaker
Holden always confuses depression for horniness because they're his only two emotions. So he goes in for a smooch.
00:27:57
Speaker
Justine pulls away saying she doesn't want to hurt anybody. That night she goes home to Phil and picks a fight with him about how their TV is busted.
00:28:09
Speaker
Justine, boy, she's just got a lot of problems. yeah She sure does. This is one of the parts where I wrote down like her narration because me as a 14-year-old hearing that you have unlived lives in your veins.
00:28:21
Speaker
was like, yeah, I do. i do have those just. She's 30 years old She's got to calm down a little. Again, the the tagline being like, this is this this thing right here is the last best chance.
00:28:35
Speaker
This, this boy being mad at her that she doesn't want to make out when they're sad. That's it. That's the unlived life that she is very upset that she's not reaching out for. It's like, no, no.
00:28:48
Speaker
She's looking for the exact opposite of Phil. ah Like Phil is upbeat and Phil is no, nothing in internal. yeah And yeah.
00:28:59
Speaker
and uncommunicative and Holden is always saying how he feels and he's very depressed so he must be very smart because Phil's very dumb turns out Holden's also very dumb he's so dumb oh boy he's 22 he's very dumb yes it's not entirely his fault that he's this dumb but he is that dumb he
00:29:23
Speaker
ah So the next day at work, Corny, the security guard, who was our second Corny in a week. Oh, wow. We had a character on last week's episode, Dickstown. Oh, that's right. That's right. And Corny also had a nickname. His first name was Corny, and he had a middle name like Rusty. Yeah.
00:29:39
Speaker
It was really weird. He was like Corny Rusty Jr. Oh, boy.
00:29:44
Speaker
Weird movie. Yeah. Anyway, back to the good girls. to dita The next day at work, Corny gives Justine a note from Holden. Corny is a security guard at the retail rodeo. And he's Mike White as well. Yes.
00:30:01
Speaker
And he's ah he's a religious guy. Very Christian. Yeah, but none he's not entirely a bad guy. It is just sort of that awkwardness of having a conversation. He's not good. He's bad guy. Is he a bad guy?
00:30:15
Speaker
The first conversation that they show them having that first day that she's at work is he's like, oh, you should come to Bible study. And she's like trying to politely decline. And she's like, you know what? Well, you know, I have my own beliefs. And he's like, well, you can have those beliefs while you burn in hell. Just kidding.
00:30:28
Speaker
That's not a good guy. That's not good guy. He's not kidding. He's not kidding. I thought he was kidding. I thought he was kidding. I didn't have that bad. No, I think i think generally, I think everyone in this is a pretty good person except for the good girl. I think that's sort of the point of the whole thing. So...
00:30:50
Speaker
so Anyway, Corny gives Justine a note from Holden. She rushes to the bathroom to read it, and it confesses his love for her and begs her to meet him at the Chuck E. Cheese at 5.
00:31:04
Speaker
That killed me. That killed me so much this time. Meet me at the Chuck E. Cheese if you want to do this thing. Yeah, that was pretty good. It's because it's one of the few landmarks that he knows. Yeah. He remembers the Chuck E. Cheese.
00:31:22
Speaker
Unfortunately, Gwen, the older co-worker at the cosmetics counter, starts violently vomiting. She ate some bad, freshly picked blackberries.
00:31:33
Speaker
Their boss tells Justine to drive Gwen to the hospital. So she drops Gwen off at the front door before peeling out to go meet up with Holden. And luckily he hasn't left there yet by the time that she got there. And the two of them drive to a nearby motel where she plunks down $45 on her credit card for a room where the two of them can make whoopee.
00:31:54
Speaker
m Once their affair has been consummated, Justine starts crying, obviously wracked with guilt over how she's treating poor Phil. No, that's not it. It's actually that Justine doesn't want to return to her normal life. Yeah. Yeah. She doesn't want to go home. No, no, no. This is where she wants to be. No, she just wants to stay in this hotel room having sex with a 22-year-old that's obsessed with her. I get it.
00:32:18
Speaker
Meanwhile, phy is fixing the TV. I know. yeah Yes.
00:32:26
Speaker
She does go home and she tells Phil that she was with Gwen the whole time. The next day at work, the bad news is Gwen is in the hospital. The good news is Holden is there at work, so he and Justine go and fuck in the stock room.
00:32:41
Speaker
We get another montage of Justine narrating while Phil fixes their bedroom TV and Holden gives her some of his writing. It turns out a lot of his work is semi-autobiographical and involves him committing suicide at the end.
00:32:57
Speaker
The two of them go to a hotel for a little canoodling. But then on their way out, Justine sees ah Phil and Bubba's work truck parked outside.
00:33:09
Speaker
She instantly starts freaking out and drops Holden off before rushing over to the hospital to visit Gwen and establish an alibi. But when she arrives, Corny is just leaving.
00:33:19
Speaker
He tells her that Gwen is dead. Real shock. R.I.P. Gwen. Ah!
00:33:27
Speaker
Gwen played, of course, by Deborah Rush, latest member of the Two Timers Club. She had a minor role in She-Devil.
00:33:39
Speaker
And of course, Jennifer Aniston, also the latest member. Yes, yes. Right. Check out our episode about picture-perfect Aniston heads. If you tuned into this just because you were searching Jennifer Aniston podcast, we've got another one for you.
00:33:55
Speaker
Yeah, good news. I also didn't like that one very much. I was never that big in Aniston head, and I know was also never that big a Gyllenhaal head, so that also didn't help me with this movie. Sure, probably not at all. in there Yeah, nothing for me to sink my teeth into. I came in on the back foot. I was ready to dislike it, I feel like.
00:34:18
Speaker
ah yeah Anyway, Gwen is dead. Alright, Gwen. Yes. Justine heads home shell-shocked.
00:34:30
Speaker
Luckily, Phil seems to know nothing about the affair. The next day at work, the boss offers everyone a day of mourning for Gwen, and they all take him up on it.
00:34:40
Speaker
The boss was almost in the two-timers club, except he was also in Volcano. So only sort of push the little side. Every time you do this, I'm just like, yeah, so he was in Dante's Inferno. And then I have to think for a moment. it's like, he said volcano. i said Dante's Inferno.
00:34:57
Speaker
it So they all take him up on the offer for a day off. Holden wants to take this opportunity to go skinny dipping. He wants to be like Adam and Eve out there in the pure innocence because he hasn't eaten the fruit of knowledge yet. This kid is dumb. Yeah. Yeah.
00:35:16
Speaker
Justine keeps on thinking about death, which sort of ruins the mood for her. They run away from the rain and then they make out in her car. She tries to talk to him about their future together, but the only plan that he can cobble together is using their relationship to prove to his parents that he's normal now, and then they'll pay him to write a book. then
00:35:42
Speaker
This is when Justine begins to put together that maybe she and Holden don't really have an actual, real, literal future together. And now she's going to need a, you know, life vest from her life raft from her sinking ship of a marriage.
00:35:57
Speaker
So she goes home. Bubba and Phil are getting wasted together again. And Bubba covers for her in a sort of weird, awkward way. She was like, you were hanging out with Gwen all day at the hospital, weren't you? And she's like, yeah I sure was. so Not a bad good like no good impression. Yeah.
00:36:21
Speaker
I didn't even practice that. But yeah, she's like, oh, yes, yes. And it's clear now that Bubba was the one that saw her at the hotel. So the next day at work,
00:36:33
Speaker
Cheryl gets moved to the cosmetics counter with Justine, which is great because now we have more Cheryl in the book. Cheryl, definitely the breakout character played by a young Zooey Deschanel without any bangs. No bangs.
00:36:47
Speaker
Crazy. No optimism. Yeah. Yeah. a cynical bangless. It's almost like she's the other. She's her sister. The other one. Bones. Yeah. so like Those are your two options in that family. Yeah. Yeah. And at first she's like, maybe I'm more of a boy.
00:37:11
Speaker
Siri, how do I become a boy? i like
00:37:17
Speaker
ah So, yeah, Cheryl's there. So that's great. Over lunch break, Justine tells Holden that she thinks things are moving too fast.
00:37:27
Speaker
She's worried about getting caught, perhaps because she's already gotten caught. Doubling down on reinvesting in her marriage that night, Justine tells Phil that they're going to start attending Bible study at Corny's church, and Phil reluctantly agrees.
00:37:44
Speaker
The next night, while Phil gets dressed for Bible study, Bubba takes advantage of that rare moment alone with Justine and overtly tells her that he wants her to meet him at his place tomorrow so they can talk about how he knows about her affair.
00:38:00
Speaker
And then she's off to Bible study with Phil.
00:38:04
Speaker
Unfortunately, there's a roadblock from us getting a delightful Bible study scene with a wacky preacher character.
00:38:13
Speaker
There's a desk clerk from the hotel and he's in the Bible study. Justine sees her. She tells Phil that they have to leave. Phil's like, well, I'm never coming back to this this. This was a really stupid way for me end my evening, Justine. I'm going to honest with you. I with Phil on this one. Yeah.
00:38:30
Speaker
Yeah. The next day, Justine tells Holden that she can't sleep with him today. She has to do something after work. And then she does that thing, which is go to Bubba's house.
00:38:43
Speaker
where Bubba tells her that he always admired Phil and dreamed of finding a good woman like Justine. And when he saw Justine drive to the hotel with Holden the other day, it shattered his whole worldview.
00:38:56
Speaker
And the only way that the world can make sense again is if Justine has sex with him. And if she doesn't, he's going to tell Phil. Justine reluctantly agrees, and while Bubba humps away at her, she idly glances out the window and sees Holden watching them.
00:39:15
Speaker
This was a weird scene for me. Yeah. Weird reaction to being blackmailed in the sex. Him yelling his dog the whole time, His dog named Bits. Yes. Horrible. Horrible, horrible.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah, very impactful scene.
00:39:34
Speaker
Distinctly unpleasant. Uh... So then ah Bubba, I'm assuming, comes and then she leaves and he follows her out and we get to see his dick after the dog rips his blanket off. And then the movie continues. Thanks, Bits.
00:39:50
Speaker
yeah Hey, at least we got to see a Dick. Just one. I always champion male full frontal nudity. We've not had a lot of it in cinema. Let's get more male full frontal nudity. This is the movie for you. I love Kuz so much.
00:40:07
Speaker
So.
00:40:12
Speaker
The next day, Holden doesn't show up for work, but Justine finds him drunk in her car. She doesn't have time for this. She has to meet Phil at the fertility clinic.
00:40:25
Speaker
So she kicks him out. And then she does meet Phil. And for some reason, Bubba is also at the fraternity fertility clinic. It's pretty hilarious. These two are thick as thieves, you know? yeah Bubba and Phil. Phil and Bubba.
00:40:38
Speaker
So while Phil goes to give a sperm sample, Bubba asks how he stacks up in comparison to Phil sexually. But before Justine can respond to that, a nurse comes back and says, Phil needs help jacking off.
00:40:53
Speaker
For some reason, they don't even have any porno in this jack off clinic. That seems weird to me. yeah Seems weird. Maybe he's refused it. It's wrong. I only want to think about my wonderful wife, Justine. Maybe. Maybe.
00:41:07
Speaker
So she goes back to the bathroom where Phil asks if he can grab her boob while he jacks off and she reluctantly agrees.
00:41:16
Speaker
The next day at work, Justine has some grumpy guts and Cheryl says, maybe you're pregnant. Much to consider. Who knows if she could it's going to turn out that she's pregnant. No, who could say no no evidence. place It turns out, I guess we'll see.
00:41:34
Speaker
um When she leaves work, Holden is waiting for her drunk again. He calls her a hooker while they drive around, and she sees the same roadside blackberry stand that poisoned Gwen.
00:41:49
Speaker
ah she She buys him a basket of poisonous blackberries to munch on and then knocks them out of his hand after he's eaten about half of it. Yeah. So this sticks in my head. Every time I see a roadside fruit stand, I'm like, I cannot.
00:42:05
Speaker
I'll die. I'll die puking and it'll be terrible. But like I remember the scene and I was like, oh, I think he like, I don't even remember if he eats one. He eats almost all of them. He's almost done. And then she's like, never mind. Actually, I'm like, girl, it's too late.
00:42:21
Speaker
If this is you might want to pump. You should. have You might want to pump those guts. Yeah. It's like it's time to go to the hospital or you got to. No, you did it. yeah You got to get out in front. of Yeah. No, you you committed and it's too late now.
00:42:35
Speaker
but He's fine, though. He's totally fine. Yeah, it it doesn't come well. Maybe in the end the blackberries didn't kill Gwen. Who knows? But I also i like at this part, too, because he's drunk and upset, and she says to him, I mean, I'm depressed, but you're really depressed.
00:42:52
Speaker
That is the difference between the two of them. There it is. Yes. I had written down that this is so when the situational depressive meets the guy with brain problems. Yeah. yeah Absolutely.
00:43:08
Speaker
So the next day, Justine sneaks over to Holden's house and tells his parents that she thinks he should be institutionalized. Honestly, not the worst thing for him.
00:43:20
Speaker
Yes! it's It's terrible. it's terrible thing for her to do. She says he's delusional.
00:43:28
Speaker
Yeah. She also does lie about it. But the kid does need some help. He needs help and support. I don't know if a mental institution is what it is, but he needs more than what his family is. It's probably not going to be that great for him.
00:43:44
Speaker
Maybe just some rehab. It seems like he's fallen off the ladder again. He definitely would be yeah consulting a professional would be a good way to go. For sure. But i think something. Yeah. But then she goes home and Phil catches her taking a pregnancy test.
00:44:01
Speaker
He wants to be there for this. And indeed, it turns out Justine is pregnant. And now Phil knows about it. That was Chekhov's grumpy guts two scenes ago. Mm-hmm.
00:44:15
Speaker
ha Phil is very happy. Justine is not. That night at Holden's place, Holden answers a phone call that was meant to be a return call from a mental institution.
00:44:28
Speaker
He hangs up and now he knows his parents are planning on institutionalizing him.
00:44:34
Speaker
The next day at work, we learn that Holden has used his keys. Somebody made this kid a key holder for some reason. Yeah. And he stole $15,000 from the safe.
00:44:47
Speaker
Corny interrogates Justine in front of the boss. Mentions that he knows that they've been fucking in the storeroom. Turns out that pretty much the whole store is pieced together that they have been having. Yeah. When they, when they, mean it was pretty obvious. Yeah. And she's, they're like, she's doing very poorly hiding things. So yeah they're in the hotel together. The first time she's like, I have a secret. You gave me, you didn't have a secret.
00:45:12
Speaker
You never for a second had a secret. Everyone, but you was very aware. Yeah. Justine denies her involvement in the the robbery, though. And when she leaves for the day, Holden is waiting for her in the parking lot, wearing a bucket hat and aliens.
00:45:33
Speaker
She quickly drives off with him before they're spotted together.
00:45:39
Speaker
He's got the money, and he also took the store's gun for good measure. Always a good idea. Mm-hmm. And he wants her to meet him at the hotel tomorrow at noon. He's like, now that I got a gun, I can make money.
00:45:51
Speaker
Cool. She's going to mull it over. She's not quite sure. But first, she goes home where Phil has organized a little sort of pre-baby shower, a little pregnancy announcement party with Bubba and Bubba's new lady friend, Flo Berta.
00:46:09
Speaker
Seems like Bubba really is back onto the road to normalcy and healing that he said having sex with Justine would cause. His salvation. Yeah. Good for you, good for you, Bubba.
00:46:23
Speaker
Unfortunately, the party is interrupted by Phil getting a phone call from the fertility clinic saying that his swimmers aren't swimming. Aww. Yeah.
00:46:35
Speaker
Everyone says that they probably made a mistake and because Justine's obviously pregnant. So... So obviously there have been mistake. Everyone's very normal faces through this entire interaction. That poor woman who's been invited for the first time to this house. And the first thing that happens is like, yes, it's totally. Yep. No, that's the only explanation for sure. I want to leave.
00:47:01
Speaker
Flo Berta. The next day, Justine packs her bags and hops into her car. And when she gets to the crossroads where she must decide whether she wants to go to work or a hotel, we get some more narration as she imagines where each path could lead.
00:47:22
Speaker
Then she drives to work. She tells her boss that Holden is holding up in a nearby hotel with the money and a gun. You've done a good thing. You're a good girl.
00:47:35
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:39
Speaker
a good title drop. know. Yeah, they really, they kept on getting close. They kept on teasing. This is a good payoff.
00:47:51
Speaker
When she gets home that night, she sees on the news that her actions have predictably led to her lover shooting himself in the head in a cheap hotel room while surrounded by cops.
00:48:04
Speaker
And then somehow the movie continues. he The next day, Bubba swings by Retail Rodeo to tell her that he saw Phil opening the credit card bill last night, and he knew about her hotel visits. It was Chekhov's credit card, listeners. You saw the Chekhov's grumpy guts, but did you notice I dropped the Chekhov credit card in there?
00:48:27
Speaker
Yeah, good work. This film weaves a rich tapestry. She rushes home and he confronts her.
00:48:40
Speaker
She admits to having an affair, but says it was with Corny for some reason. i let you do yeah She doesn't want to say. yeah And that's who he says. yeah and then Probably don't want to admit it's that that guy that stole all that money then killed himself. You might be like, wait a minute, did you have anything to do with that? yeah is These two things unrelated?
00:49:02
Speaker
Yeah, was he waiting for you in that hotel room? Did you set him up to die? yeah that That would be an awkward conversation. Sure would. So instead she says ah it was corny.
00:49:16
Speaker
And that also Phil is definitely the father of the baby. This is also where she says, he says, do you love me at all? And she says, you're the only man alive i love. Yeah. That's another one of those in my head forever. yep You're the only one alive i love. Yes, totally.
00:49:36
Speaker
so there's that. He says that he really wants to get stoned. I just got to escape, you know. ever feel like that? And she's like, yo okay, maybe me and Phil aren't so different.
00:49:49
Speaker
They can start rebuilding their marriage.
00:49:55
Speaker
And then we get another my montage. Some narration. Corny got his ass beat by Phil. And the two of them, they have a baby.
00:50:05
Speaker
And everything's okay. Yeah. Hooray! The end. The end, or is it? No, it is.
00:50:18
Speaker
They should make a good girl, too. Her daughter falls in love with a creep. Oh, no. She has to do that. don't date that creep. Yeah, exactly. It's the the classic story of you get older and you understand what was wrong with that boy and why no one was around him. No matter how much you tell your daughter or your friend, they don't believe you.
00:50:39
Speaker
yeah Yes. Yeah, that's the thing is they'll never never believe you when you try and tell them about this guy. No. You can see this guy a mile away and they'll never believe
00:50:53
Speaker
Well, final thoughts. Five star ratings on our unique watchability and weirdness scale. Greg, why don't you kick us off? All right. So ah I felt like so because this is written by Mike White, I feel like he's always being a little shocking or there's always a dark underbelly to what he is kind of writing or doing. There's always something in it where are just like, what ah And so I feel like this movie is kind of and I haven't had a full chance to completely coalesce everything I'm thinking here, but it it seems to me like it's a sort of subversion of a classic kind of tale that you would typically see in which there would be a man who had nothing really good about him, who didn't really like himself and had someone come into their life and then they were made a better person and everything was fine. Whereas this, it's like she's kind of the only one who's stuck in this small town who's being dishonest. The rest of them may be escaping or may be rude sometimes, but they are all at least seem to be genuine people who found a way through their life, and she kind of refuses to do that.
00:52:05
Speaker
And she meets the only really truly honest person there, the person who's the most honest and that kind of she ends up being his downfall. ah And so to me, I kind of saw it as like a send up or ah ah a castigation of this kind of typical style of film, basically.
00:52:22
Speaker
So like when you said that this was a genre, I thought that this was kind of trying to subvert the genre and say it's kind of a stupid genre. And I liked the small town aspects of it. It felt very real to me when I saw that it was 25 minutes to get to the hospital. My first thought was because the hospital was in another town.
00:52:40
Speaker
I don't know if that's true or not, but I mean, like it has that kind of lived in quality to it where it's like it makes sense that it takes 25 minutes to get to the hospital because yeah sometimes it does when you're out in the middle of nowhere.
00:52:54
Speaker
And I appreciated that even though it was a small town, everybody in the small town was not portrayed as being stupid or like mean. They were just like kind of normal people who kind of found their way through it. I think for watchability, i was to say three and a half. I think I'm going to say four. i think I think this is genuinely a pretty good movie. I could understand why you might not like it. I don't know if everything has aged fantastically. And because Mike White can be shocking at times, sometimes people who pedal in shock can...
00:53:24
Speaker
Sometimes it doesn't always age as smoothly or as nicely as you would like it to because it's meant to surprise at the time and then later it's like, wow, this is really kind of... I don't know if it's discussion of mental health is that fantastic, but ah I think the point of it was more about her and how she's terrible for him than anything else. And I kind of like that. It's called the good girl because she's definitely the worst character in the film.
00:53:48
Speaker
oh um And as weirdness, it's a little weird. it says It's Mike White. So I'm going to do like one and a half, but I think it's pretty mundane, generally kind of dealing with your normal kind of occurrences of things.
00:54:01
Speaker
Understandable. What about you, Anna? Yeah, I'd give it about a four for watchability. um i agree with you, Greg, that ah that she's the she's the worst person.
00:54:16
Speaker
And ah that's interesting because, you know, when I was looking at the Letterboxd reviews, a lot of people can pick up on the fact that that Holden is oh a bunch of red flags. But I didn't really see anybody pointing out that she is Yeah. yeah. You know what I You never get involved with someone who is you know, even if she weren't married, the fact that she's that she's so bored with her life, you know, you don't want someone needing that from you. Like, that's not. That's not healthy. You're never going to find that because your problem isn't that you're bored with life. It's that you don't like yourself. yeah
00:55:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah So I thought that was ah an interesting exploration of that. And weirdness, I would say, also about a a one. there's some There's a little bit of, like, quirkiness, but not not weirdness, really. Mm-hmm.
00:55:25
Speaker
That's fair. Uh, I gave it two stars for watchability. I never, like I said, I never cared much for Aniston and Gyllenhaal. And this didn't really change that for me.
00:55:35
Speaker
ah I think a character study needs really compelling performances. And I don't think any of these performances were that great. Uh, and it mostly to me just felt like a coworker telling you a story about their shitty cousin.
00:55:52
Speaker
I just didn't care. ah I gave it one star for weirdness just for Aniston sort of playing against type. She was one of America's biggest TV stars to star in this sort of little indie dramedy and also get her boobs out in it. I think it's kind of weird. But other than that, I would say this is not particularly weird.
00:56:13
Speaker
Melissa, in terms of watchability and weirdness, what did you think about The Good Girl? ah Yeah, I have to agree on the the weirdness. I'm probably going to mostly agree here on on a lot of things. It's not particularly weird. One star is probably about right. like Outside of like my exact experience of expecting it to be one thing and then it was something else, ah that it's it is what it is. it's not It's not exceptionally weird once you understand what it's going to be.
00:56:38
Speaker
um It held up a lot better than I thought it would for how like sentimental I am about it. And from being 14-year-old girl who liked this movie, I was i was so worried i was going to watch this and just be like, this is embarrassing for me. This is embarrassing for me that this is so important to me at that time. So it again, I'm never going to unravel it from the sentimentality. But I i think I would still keep it around a 4 for watchability. i would watch it again. i I wonder if I would really show it to anybody, though. i don't know if I want to be like, here's one of my favorite movies. Maybe not.
00:57:16
Speaker
one Not on a first date. Oh, no. Because you don't want to be like, i related a lot to Justine. Like, as we've established.
00:57:27
Speaker
That's not good. Don't do that.
00:57:32
Speaker
but Yeah. The problem for your malaise is not destroying the lines of people around you. I'm the smart one and I hate everybody and truly it is them who is stupid. and No, that's a bad path to be going down. Yeah.
00:57:48
Speaker
yeah Again, like you're you're a full adult lady. i wish you had figured this out a lot sooner before you did everything that you've done. Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
Well, I guess that's a lot of takes. And I think I'm going to take a break so that my wife can handle our next segment. Because my wife read a book.
00:58:36
Speaker
I read a book once, it related to this movie. It had a lot of pages, but it was pretty groovy. There's more than one source of information, if you care to take a look.
00:58:52
Speaker
And if you need resource, then you can be like me. Because I read a book. Because I read a book.
00:59:08
Speaker
you
00:59:12
Speaker
All right. This is our second movie this year ah to be inspired by an important 19th century French novel. How about that? A French novel about adultery, specifically. Check out our episode on Zandily, very loosely based on Emile Zola's Thérèse Racane.
00:59:33
Speaker
Madame Bovary is about 10 years older than that novel. It was Flaubert's debut novel. yeah Like Therese Rican, Madame Bovary was accused of obscenity at the time, ah but Flaubert was actually tried for it in January 1857. He was acquitted, and ah that acquittal kind of probably helped the book become a bestseller.
01:00:00
Speaker
Give me just one minute, i need to turn off my phone. No problem. Free speech King Flaubert. Hell yeah. Shout out to Flaubert.
01:00:11
Speaker
so Is that why she's Flauberta?
01:00:16
Speaker
I hadn't really thought about that. I hadn't until just now either, but i'm I'm going to give him credit for being so smart and so creative. And that's why she's named that.
01:00:28
Speaker
Good catch. Anna, did you hear that? I did. And, you know, i think you're definitely right. Because there's a couple of other names in there. Like, actually, Holden's last name, Werther, that is Sorrows of Young Werther, the Goethe.
01:00:49
Speaker
novel which like that actually well the plot of this movie is actually kind of closer to sorrows of young werther than it is to madame bovary okay um but they're both like sentimental novels uh well that's not true anyway Anyway.
01:01:12
Speaker
So I reread Madame Bovary after watching The Good Girl because I was kind of confused about how one was based on the other. ah Because the the plots don't have that much in common besides the adultery. um Most notably, Bovary has two lovers and ah eats arsenic at the end. Okay. Yeah.
01:01:38
Speaker
Should have been Justine. Yeah,
01:01:44
Speaker
yeah it's kind of, it is kind of an inverse in that way, but I can, I think I can see, i think I can see where the inspiration is coming from. It's, it's not an adaptation of the plot so much as i think he did. he I think he borrowed kind of the premise.
01:02:03
Speaker
um And then, but mostly, ah was inspired by kind of Flaubert's style and tone. You know, Flaubert was famously a a realist. He was reacting to romanticism and wanted to make his prose very realist and also...
01:02:24
Speaker
um ah very It's very accessible. You know, I didn't read in French, but I did read, you know, the free e-book I found is was an 1886 translation by, of all people, Karl Marx's youngest daughter,
01:02:42
Speaker
illinois or um it's the But it was the first translation into English, and it's really like it's really a lot more accessible than a lot of novels of that period I've read. like you know When I would have to look up a word, it was usually a fashion term. you know Makes sense. And that's not that's not that big a deal. Yeah.
01:03:05
Speaker
So, and the tone, I would say, is realistic, um but also slightly mocking ah both the novel and, you know, the movie. I think sometimes its characters are ridiculous. Yeah, yeah, not, um and, oh, yes, I wrote down here, both the novel and the movie believe that realism requires someone die by suicide at the end.
01:03:33
Speaker
Mm-hmm. So I won't go over the whole plot of Madame Bovary, because like I said, it's not that... ah But I'll cover like about the about the first third. ah ah Charles Bovary, the Phil equivalent, he's a doctor, ah but he's not a very good one.
01:03:54
Speaker
he... so he he He first marries an older widow that his mom picks out for him. um And when he's out setting a ah like a gentleman farmer's broken leg, he meets that farmer's daughter, who is Emma Bovary, Justine. okay um Then his first wife unceremoniously drops dead.
01:04:20
Speaker
And he waits a he waits ah a bit, a a respectable amount, and marries Emma Justine and sets up shop in a country town full of quirky characters. The novel equivalent to the retail rodeo. Okay. Okay.
01:04:38
Speaker
The characters, you know, they don't map one to one, but they have the same function ah in the novel. They, you know, they're they're small town, they're nosy, um they they're kind of repressed.
01:04:56
Speaker
Mm-hmm. ah there is you know There's a ah Madame LeFrancois, the innkeeper. There's the curé, the local clergyman. ah The draper, my Monsieur Leroux, who's also a loan shark.
01:05:11
Speaker
um And there's ah the most ridiculous character Monsieur Hommé, who's the pharmacist. He's like a classic, dumb, smart guy.
01:05:24
Speaker
Yes. Who has a lot of really good. he He has so he has a lot of really good monologues, actually. And he has um his sons are named Napoleon and Franklin after Benjamin Franklin.
01:05:38
Speaker
Like he's that kind of guy. i So there is no Cheryl equivalent in the novel ah because Madame Bovary, Madame Bovary has no friends. She is honestly, she is more bored and lonely than Justine, ah even when she has a daughter. But because of her social class, she does not interact with the child like at all.
01:06:03
Speaker
um you could You could totally forget that the kid was in this novel. You know, she just comes up at the and you're like, oh, that's right. um So, you know, she meets ah the Holden equivalent, who is the ah the local notary's 20-year-old clerk, Leon. I think he's he's about her age, maybe a little younger. I'm not sure exactly how old she is. Yeah.
01:06:30
Speaker
But I'm just i'm going to just read here a little bit from their first meeting, because I think it's a good illustration, actually, of ah kind of the tone that the good girl is echoing, and a good illustration of how how I do really think that the characters of Justine and Holden are really inspired by...
01:06:57
Speaker
by Emma and Leon's relationship specifically. ah My wife doesn't care about writing, says Charles, though she's been advised to take exercise. She prefers always sitting in a room reading.
01:07:10
Speaker
Like me, replied Leon. And indeed, what is better than to sit by one's fireside in the evening with a book while the wind beats against the window and the lamp is burning?
01:07:21
Speaker
"'What indeed?' she said, fixing her large black eyes wide open upon him. "'One thinks of nothing,' he continued. "'The hours slip by. Motionless, we traverse countries we fancy we see, and your thought, blending with the fiction, playing with the details, follows the outline of the adventures.
01:07:40
Speaker
It mingles with the characters, and it seems as if it were yourself palpitating beneath their costumes.' That is true. That is true, she said. it ever happened to you, Leon went on, to come across some vague idea of one's own in a book, some dim image that comes back to you from afar, and as the completest expression of your own slightest sentiment?
01:08:04
Speaker
I have experienced it, she replied. Wow. yes Yeah, that's what they'd be like. Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, it's a pretty good book. Okay.
01:08:18
Speaker
Well, thank you for sharing that, my dog. Is that the conclusion? That's my conclusion. Yes. Ending on a high note. Let's play a game, you guys. Who wants to play?
01:08:31
Speaker
There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work in film. I do. Yeah. One of my favorites. Yeah.
01:08:52
Speaker
Makeup!
01:09:18
Speaker
I tell you folks, that's what's up. There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work in film.
01:09:28
Speaker
There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work in film.
01:09:40
Speaker
That's right. There's a lot of different jobs if you want to work in film. I'm going to ask you about nine of them. but I'm going to do is I'm going to give you guys a description of a job and not ah three names that appeared in the credits of the good girl.
01:09:57
Speaker
I want you to let me know which person had that job. This is a buzz-in game. You'll buzz in by saying your own name. And if your opponent gets it wrong, you'll have the chance to steal. Is everybody feeling ready?
01:10:11
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Terrified. All right. Question number one. Don't be. Hands on buzzers. Question number one. This person will load the camera, maintain a log of footage shot, and most excitingly, they get to work the little clapper.
01:10:31
Speaker
It's second assistant camera. was second assistant camera Kelly Croteen? Charmaine Booze or Thomas Grambuglia?
01:10:44
Speaker
Greg. Greg? Kelly Croteen.
01:10:50
Speaker
You're correct, Greg. Coming out swinging. wow You just go with your guts. He's hot tonight. Question number two. This person helps the director select music for their film that works with the overall aesthetic and the budget.
01:11:08
Speaker
It's the music consultant. Was the music consultant Slobodan Gajic, Joey Walronker, or Peter Afterman?
01:11:23
Speaker
Anna. Anna? Peter Afterman! You're correct, my dove. Awesome. What's that second name again?
01:11:36
Speaker
Joey Waronker. Oh, I love that. No, that was... yeah yeah That's a good one. I figured out a new way to do it this week, and I think it's it's yielding results. Question number three.
01:11:50
Speaker
ah Somebody has to take a Hollywood set and fill it with all the kinds of bits and bobs and bric-a-brac necessary to make it look like a proper lived-in space. That's the set decorator.
01:12:03
Speaker
Was your set decorator Tom Bango, Susan M. Schweiler, or J.C. Rapaport? Greg.
01:12:15
Speaker
Greg? J.C. Rapaport. Greg.
01:12:20
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. It wasn't JC Ravaport. Anna, Melissa, can you steal? Yeah, what was that first one again? The first one was Tom Bango. Tom Bango? Wow.
01:12:35
Speaker
I'm sorry. That was Susan M. Schweiler. Anna gets to the point. Question number four. When you're building movie sets, you need somebody to paint them.
01:12:47
Speaker
And you need somebody in charge of the guys that are doing the painting. It's the lead painter. m Is the lead painter Christy Rickey?
01:13:00
Speaker
Rangel Mata? Or Susan Brudney?
01:13:07
Speaker
Anna. Anna? Rangel Mata?
01:13:13
Speaker
You got it, my dove. You're coming out into a commanding lead. lot of great names. lot of great names in the good girl. It's true. They really got together a great crew.
01:13:24
Speaker
They did. Question number five. Plenty of game left to play. Editing the sound on a movie is a big job. You'll need an assistant sound editor to help your sound editor.
01:13:38
Speaker
Who was this assistant sound editor? Was it Philip von Alvensleben?
01:13:46
Speaker
Francie Agajanian or Aaron Prine? like Greg. Greg? greg Philip von Alvensleben? What was the first one?
01:13:59
Speaker
Philip von Alvensleben. ah Philip von Alvensleben.
01:14:06
Speaker
I'm sorry. It wasn't Philip von Alvensleben. Hannah or Melissa, do you need reminder of the other two? Yes, please. Yes. Was it, and this was the assistant sound editor, was it Francie Agajanian
01:14:23
Speaker
or Erin Pryne?
01:14:28
Speaker
Melissa. Anna. see Melissa, you're going to go Erin Pryne? Francie. Oh, Francie?
01:14:38
Speaker
No, I'm sorry. That was Pryne.
01:14:45
Speaker
Question number six. Sometimes your sound editor actually needs two assistants. Who else was the assistant sound editor?
01:14:57
Speaker
Lana Warnock, Macy Veneer, or Rodney Petrikas?
01:15:05
Speaker
Greg. Anna?
01:15:10
Speaker
Lana Warnock? You're on fire, my heart. Whoa.
01:15:17
Speaker
Question number seven. You can buy a lot of props in the store, but some props you just have to make. You're going prop maker. Was the prop maker Derek Krimel, Enrique Chidiak, or Gabor Zitanyi?
01:15:40
Speaker
Greg. Greg? Is it David Krimel? Derek Crimmel? Derek Crimmel? That's correct. It was Derek Crimmel.
01:15:52
Speaker
Question number eight. Ms. Aniston needs someone to help manage her day-to-day so she can focus up on being a great big shining star. It's Assistant Ms. Aniston.
01:16:07
Speaker
What's that? Shell Waldrop? Jim Planet? or Ozzy Arayu?
01:16:17
Speaker
Greg. Greg? Ozzy Arayu.
01:16:22
Speaker
There it is. You've got it Greg. Yep. All right, Melissa, you got one last chance to get one on the board. Oh, Lord. we believe in you. I knew I would be here. I knew I would be here. It's gym class all over again.
01:16:36
Speaker
um With all the people and equipment needed to make a movie, somebody has to drive it all around. Sometimes that person goes uncredited.
01:16:48
Speaker
It's driver uncredited.
01:16:52
Speaker
Was the uncredited driver on this one Mark Bugsy Albertson? Charlie Ping? Or Robert Depew?
01:17:05
Speaker
Melissa. Bugsy. I just want it to be Bugsy. Mark Bugsy Albertson? Yes. Nobody got to have fun driving. What were the options again?
01:17:21
Speaker
Charlie Ping or Robert Depew? Greg. Greg? Robert Depew.
01:17:30
Speaker
no that to say it you do It was Charlie Ping as the uncredited driver. Anna, you're the big winner this week. Six big points.
01:17:43
Speaker
Congratulations. And only two of them for not saying anything. So there you go
01:17:52
Speaker
Another great strategy, my love. Speaking of greatness, it's time for the Batty Awards.
01:18:06
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards. Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:18:17
Speaker
Now you're messing with the Batty Awards.
01:18:22
Speaker
Congratulations to all the nominees.
01:18:29
Speaker
That's right. Congratulations to all our nominees. It's the Batty Awards. Greg, can you give us a baddie award? You bet I can. I've been trying to figure out how to word this for maximum impact, and I don't think I figured it out, but this is what I'm going to say.
01:18:45
Speaker
So not that long ago, I gave a baddie award because vaginal juices had come up twice. They come up twice in a row. And I really hope that we were going to get vaginal juices on that third film. We did not.
01:18:59
Speaker
But in this film, we certainly got some semen and sperm. So I'm going to say that for these four weeks, genital fluids have been a real baddie. So way to go, genital fluids.
01:19:12
Speaker
You've gotten into everything. Oh, no. Congratulations. Sexual fluids. That's right. It's finally your day in the sun. That's right. You're the real baddie.
01:19:27
Speaker
Anna, do you have a baddie award? Oh, i'm well, I have i haveve two. i have one is, ah hey, this person was on Supernatural. Hang on. son.
01:19:47
Speaker
Thank you. This goes to the nurse in the fertility clinic played by an actress named ah Amy or Amy Garcia. She was in a season four episode where she played a secretary in a police station named Nancy. And then a bunch of demons trapped them in the police station. and Anyway, it was a one-episode role, but it was actually a pretty major role in that one episode.
01:20:16
Speaker
So I remembered her from it. And she was also had a ah major recurring role on the TV show Lucifer. Oh, okay. Can I ask you a quick question, Anna?
01:20:27
Speaker
Sure. Do you just remember these people, are you always like searching to see if anyone's been in Supernatural? Um... I sometimes i remember and sometimes I search those one whos searching. Okay. Okay. She didn't. i Yeah. Cause she wasn't in it very much. I appreciate that you do that though. Every time. so thank you. Yes.
01:20:49
Speaker
But the second batty award I will give out uh, Just of repeating, ah Jennifer Aniston won a Teen Choice Award for this movie.
01:21:04
Speaker
Yeah! This is our first Teen Choice Award winning movie. I tell you what, teens will love this movie. i'm Jennifer Aniston won Best Actress. ah It was nominated for Breakout Actor for Gyllenhaal.
01:21:21
Speaker
Best Lip Lock for the two of them. And Best Liar for her. Okay, so someone did see the red flags. Yes. The team saw through her, it out. Turns out they knew the whole time.
01:21:39
Speaker
Thank god God the kids are all right. I'm going to give my Batty Award to the caterer, Andre Devontier, who in the course of my research, I found out has over 300 catering credits.
01:21:54
Speaker
Wow. This guy has. Okay, I'm just going to scroll through and just start saying random things that. All right. 500 days of summer. Legally Blondes, which I guess is a sequel to Legally Blonde.
01:22:08
Speaker
ah let's see Bobby Z no that's not anything this is okay okay we're Alpha Dog which I think starred Justin Timberlake it did yeah Bewitched the Bewitched movie 12 episodes of Carnival ah Hard Candy boy Team America World Police Nice.
01:22:36
Speaker
ah Soccer Dog, European Cup. Badass. The movie about the making of Sweet Sweetback's badass song. The Even Stevens movie.
01:22:48
Speaker
The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, the movie. Red Dragon, The Scorpion King. Dotcom for Murder.
01:22:59
Speaker
I'm pretty sure he did several episodes of Hell's Kitchen. If you're wondering who makes the food that they eat. i love the concept of people making food for the participants of Hell's Kitchen.
01:23:14
Speaker
Orgasmo. Election. My dog Skip. Wow.
01:23:21
Speaker
The perfect game. So, you know, just the one episode of Star Trek Voyager. Just a guy that's been in Hollywood working.
01:23:32
Speaker
Can you imagine the stories? I was just excited that they did 12 episodes of Carnival because I was hoping, was that the entire run? But it's just half of the entire run. So it's probably a full season. But I like the idea that they're like, let's get that guy again. Let's get him back. He was good.
01:23:48
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. He made those really good empanadas. but Melissa, do you have a Batty Award? I mean, we're about to find out if I understand the concept. um One of my favorite things is, you know, they have two different eulogies in this movie. And the first one is for Gwen. And she gets a very sweet, we're all sad, we're all going to miss her. And he plays, um the manager plays on the radio for everyone you'll all be seeing in all the old familiar places. And then at the end, you get another one for Holden.
01:24:19
Speaker
And that one has one of my favorite lines, which is, you know, him not really knowing what to say about him because he's very angry with him for stealing and and being an embarrassment. he says, um we can all learn a lesson from him, which is don't steal and don't be disturbed.
01:24:35
Speaker
And is is the last thing that anyone says about him. And then he plays ah Who's Sorry Now for Holden. That is his eulogy song. And that just delights me.
01:24:49
Speaker
Wow. You were a delightful guest, Melissa. Thank you so much. Yes, thank you. For stepping up to the plate. Thank you so much. Well, first of all, we definitely have to have you back so you can choose an actual your favorite bad movie. Yes. right.
Guest Social Media & Current Projects
01:25:04
Speaker
But before you go, please tell people where to find you. Tell people what you've got going on Whatever you want to plug, go for it. Oh, boy. um You can find me on the internet if you type in emo seal anywhere.
01:25:18
Speaker
I'll come up. EmoSeal.com will show you my art. ah On Blue Sky, you will also see my art. On Instagram, guess what? You're going to see my art. Every year, i ah I kind of challenge myself to try to make something every week, which is very creatively called Make-A-Thing.
01:25:34
Speaker
ah so i just try to do anything anything whether it's a drawing or sewing or it's been like repairing stuff or just something creative every week like i find that having the peer pressure of i need to post this and people will see it and people will they won't know people will know if i don't post it that helps me like stay actively creative um that's the plan with the podcast
01:25:59
Speaker
So any anything like that that keeps me going. ah But yeah, that's that's pretty much it. that's ah's It's very hot where I am. I'm trying not to die. That's what I got going on. All right, listeners.
01:26:10
Speaker
Track down
Next Week's Preview & Podcast Promotion
01:26:11
Speaker
emo seal on whatever your preferred platform or social media is. And the listeners, come back next week when we're going to have returning guest Justin Reamer to talk about Brian Trenchard Smith's stunt rock.
01:26:26
Speaker
I'm very excited. I'm a big leprechaun in space fan. So I'm excited to see what else Brian Trenchard spring to the table. All right. And ah while you got your phone in your hand, please give us those five stars. Please find us on Instagram or blue sky. Please come join our discord where we're watching movies.
01:26:46
Speaker
Please subscribe to our sub stack where we've been posting writing. And please, as always be good. And
Conclusion & Farewells
01:26:56
Speaker
goodbye.
01:26:58
Speaker
Goodbye. Bye.