Trash & Treasures

Look, sometimes a movie survives for 35 years because it's very pretty and we all love Tim Curry, and it's okay to admit that. This film has GLITTER and EIGHT THOUSAND CUTS and TANGERINE DREAM and oooooh boy that script, huh?

Content Warning for discussion of sexual assault, misogyny, and body horror

Shannon's Twitter: https://twitter.com/mx_dapper

The ARGonauts Podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/argonauts-podcast

1:00 Background and Cuts

12:00 BIG D IS HERE

16:00 This is a Fairy Tale, Not a Legend

23:00 Fae Stuff

27:30 Ending Rundown

32:30 The Ridley Cuts Thing

38:00 Fanfic Check

43:00 Who Could This Still Be For

50:00 Final Thoughts

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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80s and early 90s vampire fiction responded to the wealth porn aestheticism of Anne Rice by getting as punk and filthy as possible, with varying results (look we're not even going to humor the claim that this is anything but very obviously a response to the Vampire Chroincles). In this case....well. Is it possible to be more misogynistic than an Anne Rice book?

Turns out the answer is yes, when your book is written by a then-closeted trans man still Working Through Some Shit. There is, as the academics say, a lot to unpack here.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of sexual assault, forced pregnancy, anti-choice rhetoric, uterine horror, rape apologism, misogyny, pedophilia, incest, drug use, and body horror. This one is A LOT, so take care

1:00 That Closeted Trans Dude Feel

8:30 Drinks

12:30 Prologue

21:00 Small Realisms

24:00 Fuck You, Steve

28:00 "Secret Bone Dance"

39:00 OC DONOT STEAL

41:00 Death By Baby

49:00 The Failure of Nothing

54:00 College Course Storytime

57:00 Abjection of Sexuality

69:00 Switched at Birth Fantasy

71:00 This, That, and the Other

75:00 The Danger of a Moral Center Character

79:00 Death to the Old Vampire

81:00 Should You Read This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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It's been a rough theme, so we decided to close out on something fluffy: sure, this is the epitome of "we want the gays to have rights but we don't want them to be TOO gay about it, except maybe in a funny way," but it's also sweet and sometimes wicked sharp satire. Plus, it's a movie about gay men written by a gay man, making it the first movie this year where the author's identity matches up to the identity story they're trying to tell.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of homophobia and fatphobia

Move it Football Head (A Hey Arnold Retrospective): https://moveitfootballhead.wordpress.com/

Ross’ Twitter: https://twitter.com/terriblepunname

The Mary Kay Letourneau Scandal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Kay_Letourneau

2:00 Production

6:00 The Tom Hanks Incident

16:00 Don't Tell the Straights

22:00 Magnum Love(ish) Interest

24:00 Oh, Joan

29:00 Extremely Legal Teacher Boning

35:00 THINK of the CHILDREN

41:00 "Dance Party" is Code For "We Have No Ending"

44:00 Fuzzy but Toothless

50:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

The biggest movie to deal with transness in the 90s---well....it thinks it's talking about drag, except for the part where all of its leads are full-timers. The charming Alexis Sara rejoins us to talk about drag politics, the movie's "naturalistic" racism, and that damned "all homophobes are just in the closet" trope. Remember, trans people are people too: specifically, they are sexless fairy godmothers who will descend to solve cis peoples' problems.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of transphobia, racism, spousal abuse, homophobia, police brutality, and sexual harassment

Visit Alexis on Twitter @TransComics or on Patreon

1:00 Production History

5:00 Drag Politics

11:00 "Little Latin Boy in a Dress"

20:00 The TRANS NARRATIVE THOUGH

26:00 "Hilarious" Police Brutality

32:00 Small Town Subplots

37:30 What Tone Are You Even Going For

43:00 Sexless Fairy Godmothers

46:00 Vida is a Lesbian

52:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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This one is so bad Dorothy and Vrai couldn't ask anyone else to be involved. It would've been cruel. Yes, marvel at the go-to example of the lesbian phase movie, complete with the myth of "lesbian bed death." It's a real shame this isn't the podcast with the booze. For bonus points, this is quite the snapshot of a pre-9/11 America (oh yes, you bet this is a "New York is the center of the universe' movie).

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of homophobia and gold star bullshit.

1:00 Background Info

6:00 Critical Reception

11:00 90s New Yorker Problems

17:00 The Newspaper Ad

22:00 Politics of the Closet

31:00 "Lesbian Bed Death"

39:00 Successfully Got That Dick

45:00 A Terminal Lack of Gay in the Queer RomCom

52:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

Happy Pride Month, listeners! As usual, we're kicking off a special four-episode run dipping our toes into queer film history. This year's theme? Movies about queer identity made for the consumption of straight, cis audiences.

It's only natural that we'd start with a doozy: 1993's Philadelphia, the first mass-market (but not the first by a long shot) work to discuss the AIDS crisis. It won a fuckton of awards, spawned another movie and a lawsuit, and--as is becoming a theme here--criminally underutilizes Antonio Banderas. Intersectionality? What's that?

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of homophobia, hate crimes, racism, terminal illness and death

1:00 The Crew and Legal Fuckery Too

12:00 The Oscars Snafu

19:00 Our Real Protagonist

27:00 Bad Legal Drama

32:00 Another Day, Another Thankless Banderas Role

41:00 Tolerance Politics Blow

48:00 Wait, Did Anyone Learn Anything

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

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If you grew up in the 90s, chances are good you crossed paths with Lurlene McDaniel, the queen of teen lit tragedy porn. While starting from a genuinely good place, wanting to help sick kids feel seen after her young son was diagnosed with diabetes, her career mostly involved biting off waaaaaaaay more than she could chew and fitting just about every debilitating physical illness under the sun into a very pat and very Christian formula. And along the way her books grew a predominant audience of able-bodied middle school goths with a voyeuristic interest in death (trust us, we know).

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of misogyny, racism, homophobia, chronic illness, and the death of children

1:00 Personal History

3:00 Drinks

5:00 YA History

11:00 Responsibility Hats

19:00 Cancer Camp

24:00 The Evil Fiancee

28:00 Marley

37:00 Voyeurism

43:00 BOYS AND BABIES

53:00 Saint Sandy

59:00 That Gay Subtext

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

Sometimes the sequel IS better.

We're joined by film critic Ross Dickerhoof to talk Magic Mike XXL, the only film in the Mikeverse that Vrai has seen. Sure, it might not have the Deep Social Commentary of the original, but it also doesn't seem like it hates its audience nearly as much, and we're here for that. Let's fight toxic masculinity with Backstreet Boys.

Move it Football Head (A Hey Arnold Retrospective): https://moveitfootballhead.wordpress.com/

Ross' Twitter: twitter.com/TerriblePunName

1:00 We Picked the Better Movie

9:00 Symbolic Pool Party

14:00 In Conclusion, Fuck Mike

17:00 The Best House

20:00 Fix Fic

25:00 Actually Likes Women

28:00 Screens of Masculinity

33:00 The Big Show

38:00 Wine Mom Hell

43:00 Well, That Was Abrupt

46:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

Since April is Parkinson's Awareness Month, we wanted to close it out by celebrating one of our favorite Michael J Fox movies: The Frighteners, Fox's last stunt-heavy project. It's also the movie Peter Jackson used as a proof-of-concept for the talents of New Zealand's film-making scene. Which. Well, we know how that turned out...

Soak in the joy of watching him run an exorcism protection racket and making the main character of this movie waaaaaaay more charming than he has any right to be. And then Jeffrey Combs walks in from a different movie entirely and it's AWESOME.

Plus, Roger Ebert hated it. What more do you need?

CONTENT WARNING for brief discussion of sexual abuse.

The Michael J Fox Foundation: https://www.michaeljfox.org/get-involved/donation2.php?pg=22&smcid=ap-a1b1R000006X7hI&gclid=CjwKCAjwwZrmBRA7EiwA4iMzBHARFJNNPS1FDKgtwkzXkmTqmCGRqGcNb_e1EoWKZFGO0uO1P5SPYBoCZt4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Lindsay Ellis' Hobbit Trilogy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTRUQ-RKfUs

1:00 Michael J Fox!

7:00 Production Fuckery

16:30 The Exorcism Con

22:30 Friendly Local Murder Suspect

25:30 MILTON DAMMERS EVERYBODY

29:30 Prison Escape Shenanigans

37:00 A ROADMAP OF PAIN

40:00 When You Ouija Your Dead Boyfriend

47:00 Get It to the Church on Time

54:00 Should You Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!

We wanted to bring you a snapshot of what stoner movies looked like in the pre-9/11 world, and this time it was Shawn's turn to recommend a movie that he watched a long time ago and sort-of kind-of remembered being pretty funny and harmless. Time makes fools of us all.

Listen, there are fun weed movies. And then there's this.

CONTENT WARNING for discussion of racism, sexism, transphobia, homophobia, and Andy Dick

The Most Agonizing Rap: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ck_tHYhdE

A Palette Cleanser: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltMeuPkWRs

1:00 Weed Movies of Yore

6:30 Wall of Shame

9:00 The Weed Hangover

13:00 Shenanigans One (Feat. Racism and Terrifying Weed Dog)

20:00 Break for Strip Club Transphobia

24:00 Shenanigans Two (Feat. White Rap and Fabio)

28:30 Brent Spiner, Llama Farmer

33:00 Anyway, Cults

38:30 The Holodeck Theory

41:00 The Final Countdown

44:00 Why Did People Watch This

Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale

Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!