AlmostAGhost

I can't think of one legit possible explanation for that

Yea, I liked the music too, the main song was good and some of the other rock stuff sounded cool. (Though that brief clip of Jett auditioning by singing "Sweet Emotion" was TERRIBLE. Unsure if that was the point? But she got the gig based off of it so I don't know.)

There was a lot of odd product placement in the movie too. Here's Joan Jett being a savage rock star (ie. playing a video game by herself in the corner).

I don't have a sister, but this is weird right? Who slow dances with their sister like they're about to make out?

Here's Trent Reznor (in the background)

Also I got super distracted about trying to read the one club basement's walls Now if you looks close at about 1 o'clock coming out of Jett's head, it says "THE GLOVE". I couldn't get a full picture of that part, but someone had written "SMELL THE GLOVE" there. Which if you don't know is Michael McKean's other band's album:

I was compelled to take a bunch of screen shots though! First, I'd like a movie about a band called Watermelons

I thought Joan Jett was the best part tbh. It seems she got ripped a lot for her casting/performance, but I enjoyed her here. Should she be carrying a big movie? Nah, but I liked her. Everyone else was too mundane.

I've never been a poll worker, but I have done election protection, where I monitored polling locations, making sure the lines aren't crazy or people who show up and not on the list get it figured it out or voters aren't discouraged and turned away or whatnot. That's really satisfying too! (Depends on the state rules, so unsure if this is a requirement, but I did this in my capacity of having a law degree.)

Joan Jett?! Hell yea

I always thought of this as a mainstream movie, but Paul & Amy talking about it as an indie really made me appreciate it a lot more. I don't think it's quite great enough for the list, but it's definitely closer than I initially thought. (Kind of an inverse Mean Girls, which I kind of anticipated possibly making the list, but I also think falls just short.) But I think Stand has definitely had the influence and sort of become iconic in the way of some old classics have that I might say yes in the end. Like, I was shown To Kill A Mockingbird in school. I was also shown Stand and Deliver. That must mean something.

I think for this movie they shot 2 minutes and 22 seconds of stock footage and just keep reusing it all as montages, slow-mo moments, flashbacks, and patterns.

I love the decision-making most of all. I mean, to make the voice of Audrey II a sassy soul singer? Genius. I don't know if that's the way it is in the Broadway version but wherever that choice was made, it's great. There's decisions like that all through the movie that maybe seem super crazy, but end up working.

Paul & Amy are obsessed with 2004's teenage clique comedy Mean Girls! They approach the film as a work of anthropology, praise Amanda Seyfried's performance, and ask how this pre-social media movie became so heavily GIF'd. Plus: Mark Waters talks about how it feels to have directed a modern sleepover classic. This is the first episode of our first miniseries of Season 2, Back To School; next week's film is Stand and Deliver!

Yea, I guess we can stop with that. This here is just a little extra discussion thread with a smaller group of Unspooled fans than the 'talk about every movie ever' FB group. I really like Mean Girls a lot, it pretty fun. I could nitpick a few things here and there, but I generally think it's very high quality. I voted no though, because I have a very high bar for this Unspooled List of Greatness. As much I'd love for Tina Fey to be on there... My guess is this will become a little clearer as we go, as they develop what they're doing. Right now I think it's pretty basic. "Is the movie great enough to send to aliens?" seems to be where they're at with it right now at the start haha. But I do think voting/deciding may also be better served if we vote after discussing the other School movies. If we watch these other 6 notable School movies and Mean Girls blows them all away... I may want to change my vote.

Thought I'd move the discussion from the 'upcoming episode' thread What are your favorites from this genre we should check out? I think it is not totally clear if these have to be school-based or just coming-of-age films in general? I googled last night some lists of best coming-of-age films and a lot didn't seem to quite fit this upcoming set of movies, so I'm not sure what the boundaries are exactly. I guess we could ask Paul or Amy. I'm throwing my hat in the ring for Rushmore though, my favorite movie ever

1960 version is on Amazon Prime 1986 version is on HBO (and Pluto TV with ads)

still not here?

Geezus what were we in 2001? And I wonder that now, in 2020

Here's a note from Paul, fyi: "We wanted to focus on school films and school films and coming of age go hand in hand. So it's a bit loose. I will say that Wes Anderson could be its own miniseries. So anything that might seem like a glaring omission might be due to a plan to eventually incorporate it under another umbrella."

Yea. I saw each phase, and that first left me baffled too. I think when I went, it was before the album was released, so maybe slightly more interesting than your show, but still kind of strange. She's better when she lets loose though (part of what I didn't like about the Byrne tour she did). The first time I saw her about 10 years ago, was in a small packed tent and she like crowd-surfed and tore the whole place up. It was unbelievable and totally punk. She's outgrown that now, but I'm a fan now forever. I also think she's the best guitarist going today.

Yea, I saw one of those. She went through three phases of the Masseduction tour. First was by herself on guitar and a taped backing, playing the album straight through; it was pointless and I don't know why she went that way. But then later in the same year, she went back around with a band and played it like a real dynamic rock show. That was much more satisfying, of course. Thrilling stuff, even. That first part was just a short phase is my only real defense of it. As best I can tell, she was just using it to introduce people to her new album and less of a performance? Fans don't need that. (After that, she did the short run doing the album as a piano/lounge act; surprisingly effective and awesome.)