Today's international film pick is both the first film ever shot in Saudi Arabia and the first ever film made by a Saudi woman, director Haifaa al-Mansour's Wadjda. We talk about the film's symbolism and imagery, its genius use of American pop culture, and the big feelings we felt watching this story of a young girl fighting to express herself in a place that wants her to stay quiet.

Read the Hollywood Reporter article we referenced, and this great review from Bitch Media.

Join us all summer for the international films we've been meaning to see! And follow on Instagram for more content and our Summer Book Club picks!

We're back with another international film pick, this time with the Japanese classic My Neighbor Totoro! We discuss our previous experience with Miyazaki films, how we feel this movie compares and contrasts with American children's cinema, and how to claim Catbus plushies as a tax write-off.

Join us all summer for the international films we've been meaning to see! And follow on Instagram for more content and our Summer Book Club picks!

We're kicking off our Summer International Film Festival with a visit to a whimsical, fantasy version of Paris with our friend Amélie. We discuss our cultural awareness of the 2001 film prior to us watching it just this past week, our thoughts on the aesthetics, themes, and storytelling of the movie, and even get in a few jabs at Emily in Paris, as one does. 

Join us all summer for the international films we've been meaning to see! And follow on Instagram for more content and our Summer Book Club picks!

We saw the Bob's Burgers movie! And we're gonna tawk abowt it!

We dive into our initial thoughts on the movie, favorite moments, and the nods and in-jokes of the series we noticed. Then we get into some interesting (and some not so interesting) fan theories about the show. To top it off, we reveal the characters BuzzFeed says we are, but BuzzFeed is incorrect.

Follow us on Instagram and stay tuned for our Summer International Film Series!

Butts, Butts, Butts!

This week we're talking about how Bob's Burgers explores the experiences of puberty through Tina's stories, and how we as adult viewers decompress about our own adolescent experiences through this show and other media, like Pen15, Mean Girls, and My Big Fat Greek Wedding (no, it's not puberty, but it is coming-of-age!).

We also look a little bit into the ways Bob's Burgers explores and expresses gender and sexuality through a few characters, and talk about how the show can do better at portraying people of marginalized genders.

Mashable article about the show's portrayal of its only Black trans character, Marshmallow.

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This week we look at how Bob's Burgers explores the classic coming of age story through each of the Belcher kids. We also get literary with a dive into the episode "The Gayle Tales," discussing the show's and the characters' relationships with literature.

Blog post on the four stages of coming of age. Article on the literary-ness of Bob's Burgers.

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In anticipation of the new movie coming out at the end of this month, we're discussing our favorite animated family, the Belchers of Bob's Burgers! This week we give a rundown of all the different topics we want to dive into. From the show's literary sensibilities, to its explorations of adolescence and coming-of-age stories, to the interesting meta-commentary on fandoms and fan theories. 

We also talk about our favorite guest stars on the show, and which Belchers we personally identify with most. Grab a stool at the counter and join us for Bob's Burgers!

Check out this list of notable guest stars.

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It's Rhonda's Birthday Bonus, and we are talking Superheroes, Sorceresses, Space Wizards, and other powerful women in fantasy media! 

We explore the relationship between power (like literal superpower/magic/the Force/etc.) and femininity in the narratives of some of our favorite fantasy and sci-fi heroines, from Alina in Shadow and Bone, to Katniss in The Hunger Games, to Diana in the Wonder Woman films, to Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and more. 

How does media portray these powerful women and their relationship with femininity? And what does this portrayal say about how our society views powerful women?

Works cited: 

The Violence Binary [Video Essay] by Wit and Folly

The Violent Woman: Femininity, Narrative, and Violence in Contemporary American Cinema by Hilary Neroni

Works discussed:

Black Widow, Avengers Age of Ultron, and Avengers Endgame

Game of Thrones 

The Hunger Games

Jupiter Ascending

Shadow and Bone trilogy

Star Wars Episodes VII, VIII, and IX

The Twilight Saga

WandaVision

The Wheel of Time

The Winternight Trilogy

The Witcher

Wonder Woman and WW84

Follow us on Instagram and come back next week for our May topic, which we totally know what it's going to be and have definitely planned...

Our New Girl series wraps up with a look at the show's predecessors and contemporaries in women-centered sitcoms. We look at favorites from I Love Lucy, to Murphy Brown, to The Mindy Project, to Insecure, and how each of these shares common threads with New Girl. 

We also discuss the "quirky" persona of Zooey Deschanel that prevailed in the late 2000s/early 2010s. We talk about how this public perception informed our reading of the Jess Day character, and how it may have (read: definitely did) lead to unfair public judgement of Deschanel and her work.

Follow us on Instagram! And come back next week for Rhonda's Birthday Bonus!

Theory: New Girl is actually a show about breakups. 

This week we dive in to all the relationships, breakups, and make-ups that the storylines of New Girl were often built around. We mostly focus on Jess + Nick and Cece + Schmidt, plus the other relationships of all four characters, and Erin pulls out her marriage and family therapist education to look at these relationships from a psychological standpoint. 

We also wonder if Jess and Nick were intended to be end game from the beginning, and if Liz Meriwether would ever want to be a guest on our show.

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