FisterRoboto

Okay guys. Here's the rotation I've worked up so far: Fister Cameron H tomspanks Taylor Anne Photo Cakebug Tranch I just went in order of who said they were in first. Since this week is shorter than usual, let's just go with a movie that's very well-known and easily accessible: Hedwig and the Angry Inch! Judas Priestly recommended it, and even though I watched it very recently, I feel like it's a good one to start with because it's fucking fantastic. Is this cool with everyone?

I checked in there, like, twice, and I kind of hated it. Also, fans of another podcast I really love just created a subreddit for it that they refer to often, and it drives me nuts. But at least one of those hosts always says, "I'm just assuming a great place where nothing terrible happens on a consistent basis." (with obvious heavy sarcasm)

Agreed on all counts. I'd like a mix of different types of movies, and I don't really care if they might be HDTGM movies in the future. I'm pretty sure you can count on one hand the number of musicals they've done so far, so I'm not particularly worried about stealing their thunder. And the way I'm looking at it is that I'm going to suggest stuff that I want to watch or that I want to share with you guys. It could be movies I've seen before and really love or movies that I haven't seen but have been meaning to. As long as you can consider it a musical, it's fair game. And yeah, I totally don't want anyone to feel pressure to pick a movie in order to join the discusison. This is REALLY supposed to be fun. So whatever is fun for you, fuckin' do it! If you like picking movies, pick movies. If you don't, just feel free to chat with us about the movies. Also, tomspanks asked earlier if animated movies count, and I think Cameron's response was to the other half of the question he asked . Animated movies definitely count! I'd rather not run through the Disney catalogue from start to finish, but a Beauty and the Beast here or a Fievel Goes West there won't kill us.

I was kind of thinking La La Land soon (because that's one of the things that really has me all excited about musicals), but I definitely don't want to exclude people that don't get to movies often. I think that's going to be an exception more than a rule. But since it's just hitting wide release this week, maybe we could do it in January to give others time to go see it (and also because Rogue One comes out this week and I don't expect everyone is gonna double feature it like I am). But I am thinking maybe we would pick the first movie this week and start the discussion next Monday, since that will be a minisode week. I'm going to give people time to respond to the thread and everything. Then I'll come up with the rotation, and we'll announce the first movie tomorrow. Does that sound cool? ETA: Just saw Cameron's post. If we decide to wait until it's available to rent, it's likely to be several months, so should we go that route, you and I can PM about it until we're sick of it, Taylor Anne

My main criteria is that the characters sing songs. That's about it. I'd like to see a variety of musicals, so I don't want it to be too restrictive. For example, I just watched The History of Future Folk. It probably only has 3-4 songs in it, but it's an entertaining movie that - in my mind - is still a musical, even if it doesn't go into full blown singing and dancing numbers. But I want this to be a game that's fun for everyone, so if there are questionable suggestions, I think we can all talk about them. Agreed.

I think that would be fun! I'm all for watching as many movies as possible, and if it overlaps with my other friends, I don't really care. I'm going to start up a thread for it so we can chat more about it.

We have plenty of musicals picked out for next year already (including a ton of non-US ones, which is really exciting), so I'm watching it now, and....HOLY SHIT GOMEZ ADDAMS IS IN THIS?!

Confession: I grew up watching musical movies and going to see live musicals at Casa Mañana in Fort Worth (back when it was still theater-in-the-round before they remodeled it in the early 00s and fucked it all up). But I've never actually seen West Side Story. I think my mom tried to show it to me when I was a kid, but I just wasn't interested, and I've never revisited it. I'm debating either watching it today or letting it sit until 2017, which my film nerd friends and I have already decided is going to be the Year of the Musical because we're going to try to watch as many musicals as possible.

Sorry, dude. You're 100% mistaken.

Uhhhhh...Did you miss the part where they're going to be BURDENS ON SOCIETY?

Okay. This is something that kind of stuck in my craw about her whole story. According to her avalanche of exposition in the opening scene, she failed out of beauty school and is now back in Rydell to "get my chemistry so I can mix my own cosmetics." In response, Michael says, "Makes sense." NO IT FUCKING DOESN'T. Like, maybe I'd buy that she was back to get her GED so she could go study Chemistry in college. But there's no way that a chemistry class in high school is going to be enough to teach her the shit she needs to know. I don't even really think that a college one would be super-applicable for making cosmetics, but I would at least be able to suspend disbelief a bit. Later, they go visit her in the high school chemistry lab, and it has this fucking ridiculous still setup. What school is she at that 1) has this kind of setup and 2) lets her fuck around with it with ZERO supervision? Side note: I rewatched the opening scene to be sure I had her quote right, and I just want to say that, "What are you going to be when you grow up?" "A burden on society" is a great fucking joke that actually made me laugh out loud.

#TeamFrenchy, y'all I'm with Taylor Anne on this one. She's my favorite character in the first one, and it's a shame they brought her back to high school for the sequel.

I always took the ending of the first Grease to be that Sandy was changing a bit for Danny, but she was also saying, "Dude, I'm willing to do this for you; now you need to get your shit together." Like, her change is mostly in appearance (although she also becomes more assertive), but his change is to stop being a douchebag that pretends like he's too cool for everything when he's around his friends. That's pretty much what "You're the One That I Want" is about. Anyway, I mostly bring that up as a way to come back to Grease 2. Maybe it's because of of how on display toxic masculinity is now, but I see Grease 2 as way more problematic than the first movie. Stephanie Zinone doesn't want just any guy; she wants a Cool Rider. She wants a "devil in skin-tight leather" who is "wild as the wind." Basically, she needs a "real" man. So when Michael comes along, he mousy, intellectual, and British (which, in 80s movies wasn't an uncommon way to label a character as effeminate). It's not just that he isn't cool; it's that he's not a "real" man. The first time we see the Cool Rider, he's riding a motorcycle and fighting dudes. His masculinity is on full display. He's a man's man. Meanwhile, the Pink Ladies are basically owned by the T-Birds now, as someone (possibly Cakebug Tranch) mentioned earlier. It's still a patriarchal system. But again, she doesn't want any of the T-Birds because they aren't "man" enough for her. Then the Cool Rider shows up, and the only way his masculinity could be more on display would be if he were beating down Craterface's gang with his giant penis while chugging whiskey. In the end, he reveals himself to be Michael, and it's not a "Oh hey! This guy is actually cool and we shouldn't judge a book by its cover" ending, which would make it somewhat redeemable. Instead, it's more like, "Oh, this guy is the biggest swingin' dick of us all, and now that we made him a T-Bird, Stephanie totally belongs to him." The big difference for me is that Sandy chooses Danny on her own terms in Grease. We see Danny as both the toxically masculine greaser, but also as the caring boyfriend, and Sandy says, "Look, you can't be one thing while we're alone and one while we're around everyone else." We see two sides of Michael, too, but we only ever see Stephanie into the overtly masculine side, and in the end, she still just ends up as someone else's property.

You son of a bitch. I came here to post this, and you beat me by five minutes I was worried they were just going have Charlize Theron sitting in her control room with a headpiece in like Timothy Olyphant in Live Free or Die Hard, but the last sequence shows her actually doing shit, so that's cool. So pumped!

Holy shit, you guys. Manchester by the Sea just kind of destroyed me. I was really looking forward to it, but I didn't expect it to be as amazing as it is. Michelle Williams should sweep all the Supporting Actress awards this season, and I'd be okay if Affleck did pretty well, too. This movie hit me as hard as the largely overrated Moonlight seems to have hit others.

Cakebug, you're dead on about the parallel structures. I was going to write a similar post when I had time, but you said most of what I had to say. It's like someone just decided to take all the elements of the first film, toss them in a hat, jumble them up, and then pull them back out. Then they wrote a movie with all of those elements without understanding what made the elements work in the first film.

This only works if they fight aliens.

Have we considered the possibility that he's actually a superhero and that this movie is an origin story? Maybe the helmet + goggles are what give him the flying motorcycle powers. Like, what if this is actually the story of the Cool Rider told through the eyes of his love interest? It's Spider-Man from Mary Jane's perspective. Or it's Superman from Lois Lane's perspective. This makes WAY more sense as a subversion of the superhero origin story than it does as the sequel to a romantic teen musical. Maybe this movie was just 20 years ahead of its time.

Oh shit! Next week's live shows have been announced, and I am soooo excited! It's not letting me attach the picture on my phone for some reason, but it's Highlander 2 and Escape from LA

I kind of want to go bowling now, guys.

Okay. Guys. The bowling scene. Can we talk about the bowling scene? Let's talk about the bowling scene. What bowling alley were these people at? People are straight up dancing ON THE LANES. I used to work at a bowling alley in high school, and the general manager would have probably shot someone on sight if they taken a full step past the foul line - much less if they were stomping and dancing in the middle of the fucking lane. On top of that, those lanes have so much oil that it would be physically impossible to dance on them. Lanes were originally oiled to protect the wood on the lanes themselves, which is still part of the reason. But they're also oiled now to make the bowler's hook more consistent. If you notice, balls don't really roll for most of the lane; they kind of slide until they build up traction further down the lane. When they catch traction is when they hook and curve back to the middle (that allows the ball to slide in between the 1 and 3 pins - or 1 and 2 if you're lefthanded - and slide through to the five, which creates a solid strike). The house lane pattern usually has less oil out towards the gutters and considerably more towards the middle. So, if some asshole is out in the middle of the lane dancing the fuck around, not only are they going to fall on their ass, they're probably going to get throw out because it's a really good way to fuck up either the oil pattern (which is easy to fix, but still takes some time) or the wood of the lane itself, which is not an easy fix and the alley will likely end up charging the dipshit who decided to be out in the middle of the lane. ON TOP OF ALL OF THAT, the people who are actually bowling during the musical number do this shit where they release the ball and then spin. Almost all of them spin the OPPOSITE way of their follow-through. There's no way anyone is hitting anything on these lanes. It's just a bunch of chucklefucks throwing balls and dinging up some fucking lanes. I will say, though, that the part where Adrian Zmed slides in while singing that ridiculously high note is pretty goddamn entertaining.

YOUR WORDS HURT PEOPLE, TAYLOR ANNE

I thought he said Fisher Stevens was the celebrity that most looked like him, and he dated Michelle Pfeiffer, so it meant Jason had a chance.

Barry Bostwick was the original Zuko. Zmed was in the revival in the 90s.

I know. One of my film fest friends was like, "Whoever works in their marketing should be fired for this." If you're going to go with F8, you should at least use it in the title