Josie and the Pussycats w. Rax King and Niko Stratis

Hello, you. Welcome to You Are Good at Feelings podcast about movies. Today we are talking about Josie and the Pussycats. We are talking about it with the incomparable Rax King I, and one of your hosts today, Alex Steed. I will soon be joined by today's special guest host, Nico Stratus. There is, by the way, an extended cut of this very episode available over on Patreon and Apple Podcast subscriptions. Thanks to everyone who supports us over there. You get those bonus episodes, you get those extended cuts, and you help us make the show possible. You are good as a feelings podcast about movies. Here's what that means. We talk about movies with regard to how they make us think about who and how we are in the world. How do they make us feel? Why do they make us feel that way? We are not film critics, though we do speak critically about movies here and there. We might not approach these movies in the same way that you approach movies, but we are here to talk about our feelings into use movies as a means of doing exactly that. Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 musical comedy film. It's written by Henry Elfant in Deborah Kaplan. The film is based on both the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Of course, we've got Rachel Lee Cook, we've got Tara Reid, we've got Rosario Dawson, Juniors Barking in the background. We have Alan Cumming Parker Posey in many other great folks you will surely recognize. Rax King is a writer, of course. One of my favorites out there just doing anything. Rax is the best. Author of Tacky, which is an essay collection. We referenced that in this conversation today. And Sloppy, Colin, or Doing It All Wrong, another essay collection that came out last year. We love Rax. Love Rax. You'll love Rax if you don't love Rax already. But Rax is the best. Our guest host today, Nico Stratis, of course, the author of The Dad Rock That Made Me A Woman, author of the newsletter, Anxiety Shark, my co-host over at the OC again, does so many things. Many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many things. And we love Nico for all of those things. How are you doing? What's going on in your world? How are you feeling? I got so much lovely feedback about our grief episode with Alex Alexander. I shared it all with Alex. All the bits I could get into one place. And, you know, she was like, that rules. It's real. Oh my God. This is all so lovely. I know that this was all that stuff that we discussed was, I think, one of the first times, if not the first time that Alex has spoken about all that in a public forum. And so it was meaningful that we got to do it all together. And somebody else over on Blue Sky shared the episode and said this, which I thought was really lovely. It was, this is a beautiful episode that is as much about love as it is grief. And I thought that that was really meaningful. So I'm sure it was Alex. Alex knows how you all feel. And we are grateful that we get to do this with you. Heatin' up out there. You know, I was reporting to y'all from when Los Angeles was directly and largely under siege in June. And it's not to say that the forces have not gone away, but the intensity seems to be shifting sort of city to city, state to state. And, yeah, as I've seen other people say, let whatever city is under siege at the moment be a indication of what is coming to your city. And that's what we're saying in Los Angeles. And that's what was being said in Chicago. That's what's being said all over the place. So, scary times. But as I always say, we act as a means of staving off dread. We sort of get involved. We get to know our community. And we figure out what people are doing. And we get out there and we do it. That's what we're gonna get up to. We are gonna face this. It's either we face it alone and afraid or together and afraid but empowered. And that's how we do. And I love all of y'all who are dealing with it, who are in the face of it, who are being daunted by it, who are being interrupted by it, who are acting in the face of it. I still hear from y'all, weekly, occasionally daily, going like, here's what I'm doing. Here's what I'm up to. We just did this meal train. Like, we are here's video from the street. Here's me after a protest from all over the place, not just the US. And that's awesome. We're in this together. So, you're not alone. There's community. Engage it is like the rabbi said about my friend gave passing. I talked about it last week. We don't get through these things via grief alone. We get through them with community. And that is how we're doing right now. And that's how we're gonna continue to do. Whatever it is that you do, however you engage, however you're feeling right now, don't forget that you, my friend, are good. 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If you haven't done that already, there are many, many ways to do that. But if you're just looking for one to figure out where to go next, that's a good one. Link in the show notes. Okay, that's it for this introduction to this episode of You Are Good at Feelings by Cast of Mubbies. We appreciate you. I appreciate you. Thanks for being here. You're in for a treat with this episode with Movie Rules. Hello, Nico Stratis. Hi. Hi. Hello, Alex. I have to remember, because this isn't the normal show I do with you. And I know that the way that introductions happen on this is different. There's a decorum. It's sacred. What we know right now in the year 2026, question mark, is that decorum is key and is held to a high standard and is used everywhere all the time. Hello, Alex Steed. We're decorum-pelled over here. Yeah. If there's one word we could use to describe ourselves, it's decorum. A word I barely understand. What a... No. Okay. I'm trying to keep my mouth shut because y'all haven't told people I'm here yet. Let's just bring Rax in. We are off to the races. There's races and we have gotten ourselves there. Ladies, I left my ADHD drugs on a plane and so I'm a mess. So thanks for bearing with me. Well, that plane is focused on where it's going. Rax, who are you and how do you do? Hi. This is Rax King speaking now and I did not leave my ADHD medicine on a plane. I'm focused. I'm locked in. Yeah. I left mine in my blood. Yeah, same. That's where it goes. That's where the speed's been going for the past 20 years, but not this month, evidently. I am so excited because Nico and I were just talking right beforehand, Rax. And I can't remember... Oh, you know how this came up? I'm remembering why you're here talking about this in particular. You guys have a chat without me. That's fine. We have a little chat. I try to keep chit chat to a minimum. My general rule is that if Rax isn't around, I talk less. Yeah, that's so true. Yes, that's right. Yeah. We got right into how excited we are about this movie generally, which we are so excited. I said a thing that I thought was controversial and evidently it's not, which is this is a better movie of the genre than Wayne's World. And remembering now that we are talking about this movie because I was live posting about seeing She's All That for the first time and just really understanding the Rachel Lee Cook of it all while I was watching that movie for the first time. Sure. I love her so much. Does she listen to this podcast? Is she single and does she like Jewish girls? That's why I'm here. I bet Rachel Lee Cook loves Jewish girls. We have important questions being asked already. Rachel Lee Cook, call in. Yeah, it's not live, but do that. Yeah, call anyways. Do you like Jewish girls or should we ask questions? And you let me know that, that you love Rachel Lee Cook and I asked your feelings on Josie and the Pussycats maybe and we're here now. And they're all positive. All my feelings about that movie are just strictly positive. I love it so much. I love that it's getting kind of a critical revisiting, but I also hate that that's happening because I look at critics as fundamentally untrustworthy people who did not like this movie when it came out. I don't know. Y'all are a bunch of turncoats. I can't trust you. Yeah, we hate you. Yeah, except my friends as usual. Except the specific critics that I'm friends with. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's an exemption for the ones I like. Yeah, but it's a great movie. There's six seats on the on the airplane to greatness reserved for all my friends that are active critics. You know, critique the well-paying job that everybody has right now. Yeah, it's you y'all have been riding that gravy train for far too long. The critics salary gravy train of permanent freelancing gigs and chasing down invoices. I've had just about enough of y'all sitting high on the hog while the rest of us watch Josie and the Pussycats against you. Yeah, against you. I said it. Against you. This is an act of rebellion. It is. Yeah. What is everybody's relationship? And let's start with you, our glorious guest, Rox King. Oh, to the movie? Yeah, with Josie and the Pussycats. You know, I'm I'm so bad at promoting my work. It's just now occurring to me that there's an essay in my first book about this movie that I easily could have sent the two of you at any time. I read it. You did. Okay. So we're aware that that. Okay. I know that. Yeah, I read it also on a plane. I watched this movie on a plane. I read your read that essay on a plane once. And you left your medicine on a plane. A lot is happening on planes, but nothing fun. It's a big day for that plane. Yeah. So I mean, in that essay and right now, I'll say I've always loved that movie. I think the first time I saw it, it was definitely a blockbuster rental. And for those who are, you know, inexcusably young, the way it would work at blockbuster videos was you didn't know if you were going to like the movie. You pretty much had to decide based on what the cover looked like, the way that expression says never to do. And the cover of Josie and the Pussycats is three beautiful punk rock women just like about to scold me is what that cover looks like. And it affected me deeply. They donned you into renting them. They literally, I was like nine years old, maybe I was young, but that's that's what that experience was, even if I didn't have the words for it yet. Beautiful. Nika. I don't remember actually. It's been so long since because this movie came out in the year 2001, which is a very long time ago. I didn't see it when it first came out, not to spoil my own book, but I'm trans. And in 2001, I was not living as I am right now. That's the last page of the book. Yes, for the end of my book. Oops. So I didn't see this movie when it first came out. And it was one of those things that like friends would talk about. And I would be like, I would sort of like discount it because I was in a bad place in my life where I like hated fun and good times, but I also had like a real crush on Rachel Lee Cook. So I did eventually like much like Raxx go on a blockbuster. I went to the video store in Whitehorse in the Yukon where I grew up, which was not a blockbuster. And it was like, you know, when you went to the video store and the movie you wanted to see was out, so you're just sort of rolling the dice on whatever's left. And I remember Josie and the Pussycats being there. And I was like, whatever, I'll get this. And then I watched it. And I just remember watching it like multiple times over the span of like the rental period I had and then taking it back. Like the DVD just had like a burn like in the middle of it, just from like repeated viewings. And it was one of those movies that like I would get really defensive about when people would talk about it because they would be like, Oh yeah, remember that shitty Josie and the Pussycats movie? And I'd be like, no, it is such a smart and funny and clever movie with incredible music. You know, like I know the music has been sort of like the re-entry point back into it because the music in this movie is so incredible. But I just like, I had such fondness for it because it is so, it feels like a movie of a dying breed where it has something to say, but also never takes itself seriously throughout regardless of it is this perfect blend of like, we are trying to make a comment on something and we are never going to get overly self serious in the process of doing it. And I haven't seen it in so long when I watched it last night and every like every second of this movie, I was like, this is maybe the greatest movie I've ever seen in my entire life. Really? Yeah. It truly is. Every second, you're like, this is great. Like this has no right to exist. It has three montages. It has at least three montages. It might have more. I stopped counting it three. Three is the minimum number of montages any movie ought to have to be considered for like any kind of award, any award. There's a McDonald's shower. Yes, there is a McDonald's shower. There's a little stuffed bull terrier with the Target brand, you know, mark around its eye like Target used to have. Brands I do not give a fuck about. But in this movie, they're just, they're the most beautiful set dressing, everything's so bright and all those primary colors. And everything is shot like a music video. Oh, yes, absolutely. Terorite in the McDonald's shower, getting out into a scene that is like from a horror movie is absolutely delightful. That legit scared me when I first saw it. I was like, oh my god, this movie is about, there's a murderer in the house. And that's what the rest of this movie is about to be. Again, I was like 10 years old. Can we retroactively give Terorite an Oscar for this movie? I agree. Because she's so fucking good at it. For greatest performance of all time. Yeah, I think so. She should get a lifetime achievement award for her role as Malady and Josie and the Pussycats. I also had such a fondness for them as a lifelong Archie Comics reader. Same. Yeah, I did read Archie Comics and I think I talk about this in my essay. You know, Archie Comics is interesting because it's the most boring thing ever committed to paper. It's so fucking boring. It's like waiting for your anesthesia to kick in reading Archie Comics. But you do it anyway. It's gripping at the same time that it's crazy, stupid, boring. And so I, you know, I came into this movie already with a crush on Josie and the Pussycats, all three of them. And also with this association with Archie Comics where it's like, oh, this movie is about to be this very pure, sanitized, christian-y experience. And I got to hand it to him. It really is none of those things. It's such a horny movie. Yeah, totally. Right out the gate kicks off with not being that. Yeah, with the anal sex song. Backdoor lover. Hey, the first song's about anal. My only complaint from comic to film. And I said this with Glish, my partner, one of my watching last night and I will say it now in front of God and everyone is that they changed Allen M from the beefcake with a neckerchief in the comic books into a lanky folk guy, which is fine. But Allen M in the comics is a beefcake bub who's got like, he's got the biggest torso known to man and he's got very, he's got spindly little legs and he's got a nice little neckerchief. He looks like the guy who is ready to go with speed racer can't make the race. And we love him for it. And they changed Allen M for the movie. And that's my one and only complaint. Yeah, Allen M in the comic looks like Fred from Scooby Doo. Yeah, I was thinking that too. He's supposed to be like a big macho like guy in charge. And that's part of what's appealing about his relationship with Josie is he's just a dumb ass fucking himbo who sucks, but he loves this woman and her music and whatnot. Like it's it's appealing that way. Yeah. When he's a little like skinny folk music torpus does nothing for me, does nothing for me. A guy who looks like he's buying shoes on Laos like not once does he wear a silk scarf in this movie, unfortunately, but that's okay. I'll let it go. I'll let it go. Yeah, I missed this entirely because I was too old when this came up. I think I was too old and I was the I was the subject of your nickel back critics essay racks. I was too old. I was too cool. I thought I knew better. And this is one of the many deep texts that I missed because I was avoiding things that I thought that I was cooler than. This is this is so it's so fucking good. And it's so smart for something that is so joyful. These are usually things that are not brought together, but it's kind of it's doing both, which I appreciate. I'm going to call it smart. I'm also going to call it stupid. It is stupid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like that movie is equal parts, so fucking smart and so fucking stupid, which makes it more smart. I have had it just about up to here. I love to go to the movies. I go to the movies like once, twice a week. And it's a lot of movies out there now that are just smart, qua smart. They're smart. They want me to know they're smart. It's very like, you know, hey, look how fucking postmodern I am. And I enjoy a movie like Josie and the Pussycats, which is not afraid to get to smart by being very, very stupid. Yeah, absolutely. Totally. Dare to be stupid, I think should be our like 2026 credo. I'm doing it. I like the idea that it's just a lack of gumption that's preventing people from being stupid. Like they just think don't have the chutzpah to be stupid. Pull up your bootstraps and get dumb as fuck. But I will say, this is a thought I had watching this movie was if you made this movie 20 years later and it was successful, we would be subject to a like, remember like after Barbie came out and they're like, we're making a hungry, hungry hippos movie. And like, that is not the point of the Barbie movie. You're missing the point. And they would miss the same point with Josie and the Pussycats when suddenly we would get like, you know, like the Cabot Twins movie or we would get who was the member. There was like a fashion icon in the pages of Archie. What was her name again? Oh, what was her name? I can see her. I don't remember. Right. And she would have like a splash page and it would be like, these are her looks for the season or whatever. I can't for her for the life of me, cannot think of it now. But like we would have been subject to the Riverdale. Is it Katie Keane? Yeah, it was Katie Keane. Was Katie Keane? We would have been subject to like the cinematic universe. And I'm so glad we didn't get that because it does run sort of antithetical to the theme of this movie, which is like, you know, they will brand everything in order to like sort of get you to buy into a sort of fascist version of America where everybody is nice and pleasant and doesn't rock the boat or spike their hair. And I'm glad we just got sort of a one and done because Josie and the Pussycats also kind of existed outside of the realm of like they were in the same universe, but rarely did the two me like occasionally they would meet, but pretty rarely. Yeah, that's true. Josie and the Pussycats was always like a sidebar. Yeah. Expedition and the main drama of Archie Comics was stupid ass redheaded Archie and his struggle between whether he wanted a brunette or a blonde. That was all of Archie Comics. Josie and the Pussycats plots were so much better. Yeah, totally. Hey, y'all, Dijon means friendship. Dijon means family. Dijon means buckle your seat. Dijon means crash positions. Dijon means crash positions is like maybe the best line of dialogue ever devised. Oh my God. Can I say justice for Breckenmeier? Because like when we turned this on last night, we were like Breckenmeier is in this like the more fuckable Seth Green. Yeah. Yeah. Justice for Seth Green a little bit. Right across from the regular fuckable Seth Green. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I always get Seth Green and what's his name? Tom Green mixed up. Very different fellows. And Breckenmeier's wife, I believe is one of the writers of this movie. No. Wow. I believe so. I could be wrong, but I believe his wife is Deborah Kaplan, maybe? Oh, she's one of the directors and writers. There's two directors slash writers. You know what year they married in? 2001. The year this movie came out. Wow. What a huge year. Oh, it was probably this movie. Yeah. This movie really brought one couple together and tore one couple apart. Was the other one the Twin Towers? Was it not? The other one is Tara Reed and Carson Daly. Tara Reed and Carson. Yeah, it wasn't it wasn't Twin Towers. Who divorced like two months after this movie came out. Oh, I mean, fair enough. I would divorce Tom Green if I was Tara Reed and this movie had just come out and I just looked so beautiful in it. I could do better than Tom Green. I just want to be clear. Was it Carson Daly? Yeah, Carson Daly. Sorry. Fuck, God damn it. And I love that it was just so seamlessly Tom Green. Tom Green was Drew Barrymore at this time, I believe. Yes. I got stuck on Tom Green. I just couldn't get off Tom Green. That was Drew Barrymore's problem too. All right. So we have D'Jor there in a plane. D'Jor means focus. They're accompanied by their label rep manager, et cetera, Wyatt Frame. The label has mega records, of course. They, Wyatt escapes the plane while dealing with their overall boy bandishness, which is just sniping at each other, beating each other up, feeling bad that other people are being recognized. Well, he also escapes because they have discovered something extra on their track, Backdoor Lover, that has catapulted them to worldwide fame. A beautiful little tune about just anal fucking, just sucking and fucking. The choreography of, is it Donald Faison, Breckinmeyer, Seth Green, and the fourth guy who does not have a Wikipedia page. And the other guy. And the other guy. And they're dancing. And when they hit the Backdoor Lover part, when they're dancing in the airport, like very Backstreet Boys coated, they're leaning on each other as they sing the chorus of Backdoor Lover. It is incredible choreography. It is so well done. Just a lovely opening. And then yeah, what does he say? Put the pedal to the metal, to the pilot, a reference to the song American Pie. No, it's, it's the Chevy to the levy. Yeah, Chevy to the levy. Yeah. And as we were watching this, I made a Jim Crouchy reference, which is another person who died in a plane crash, but it was not. The he references the Don McLean song about other famous musicians who died in a plane crash, which is now suspect. Now that we know what was going on behind the scenes in this movie, which is the subliminal messaging. Yeah. But we don't know yet. We're just, you know, there's subliminal messaging or something. There's something. Yeah, they notice something. They notice something on the track. It's worth investigating. Alrighty, I'm sidetracked from getting into the plot. Rex, did you say that Aliyah was supposed to be in this movie? Nico did. Yeah. Oh, Nico did. Nico. Nico said that. Any more info on that? Is that just? Well, so for the role of Josie, they thought of maybe, I believe, hold on, let me go to my notes. Now that we're, there was going to be either Maggie Gyllenhaal, which can't see it. Different vibe. And Zoe Deschanel, who I could see it kind of. I could see it kind of. I don't like it. I'm glad they went with Rachel Leacock. Of course. The only choice now that we know. For Valerie, it was initially going to be Lisa left. I love as that would have been cool. Wow. That would have been pretty cool. Bring in energy. Then it was almost Aliyah, who also died in a plane crash. Yep. Wow. Which they joke about a lot in this movie. I will say, it's like, this is how freckle companies get rid of people that are difficult. And the last person there was potentially going to be the role of Valerie. The base player for Josie and the pussycats was Beyonce, who a year later would appear as Foxy Cleopatra. And the Austin Powers gold member movie, but they said so apparently when they interviewed them, because they needed Valerie as the base player to be this very sort of specific character, but wanted her to be funny too. And they noted that Beyonce was quiet and shy. And Aliyah was serious and thoughtful. They were like, these two women cannot crack jokes, except I'm thinking about it now. I can't think of Valerie like making jokes. She's kind of fun. No, she's not terribly funny in the movie. She doesn't. She's not Rosario Dawson does not get a lot of opportunities to stretch her comedy shops. No, it's a thankless role, which is too bad because I find I find Rosario Dawson funny and stuff. But like she, you know, she was raised in a squat in Manhattan. Rosario Dawson was? I didn't, but it tracks. Yeah. Rosario Dawson was. Yeah. The star of clerks two. Yeah. And clerks three. Yeah. The star of clerks two and clerks three. The star of kids. And rent. I always forget rent was a real movie. Yeah. So yeah, they the plane goes down. It basically goes down right behind Riverdale, apparently, and Wyatt lands in Riverdale. Yes. Where we do also open in the movie with them singing with Josie in the book with the pussycats. Let's be clear. Singing their song. I love this scene where the song is huge. And again, it's our real kind of first montage. It's a title montage. And then the camera pulls back and we realize they're playing in a bowling alley. I think this is beautiful and extremely clever. And they're bringing the enthusiasm of a stadium show to the bowling alley. When I first saw this movie, again, little 10 year old rax does not know dick about shit. And I didn't. Yeah, I said it. And, you know, that camera moment happens and we realize they're not playing to thousands of adoring fans. They're just playing in a bowling alley. And at the time I was like, whoa, cool, they're playing in a bowling. I didn't understand that that was supposed to kind of be a burn on the pussycat. So I was like, oh, that's so sick. I love bowling. Yeah, good call. Yeah, I was right. I'd go to that fucking bowling alley where they're like, hey, we got a punk rock band that's playing on a side stage, but you can still roll. I would be like, okay, I'm there. Yeah, that sounds really sick. Actually, they should have just kept doing that. Yeah, I would go there today. Yeah, I would leave this podcast right now in the middle of recording it and go to a bowling alley to see a show. I can't. You know how sometimes a lord drop is so specific and correct to what you know of a person, but just like the thing that you just said being specific to the author of tacky is so perfect. I can't even believe it. And sloppy. And sloppy. Excuse me. So yeah, he's in Wyatt's in Riverdale. He's looking for someone. He's looking for a band to replace Dujor. When Dujor goes down, we get all of these interstitial. Who is the MTV news host? Serena Altschul. Serena Altschul. Yeah, later MTV news host, if you're me. A functioning media environment still exists. It still exists. And we get the picture of Dujor, where it says Dujor 2000 to 2001. And that's the funniest. That's one of the funniest psych gags in this entire movie. Yeah. A movie that is rich with psych gags. Like every time I watch it, I pick up a new one. It is nonstop psych gags. Who are the pussycats? Tell us who they are, what their personalities are, anybody who wants to cover it. Josie, frontman, melody, dumbass, Valerie, honest, I mean, base, but like personality wise, I don't know. Suspicious of everything. Yeah. One criticism is she does not have a personality. It's a thankless role. Although, although I don't know if this is the case in the comic and in the cartoon, but like making your drummer as dumb as Melanie is is so on brand. In the comics, all her speech balloons, she is given musical notes every time she speaks to let you know that she's an idiot who speaks in a sing songy voice. Yeah, that's right. This is fantastic. She's a beautiful idiot who speaks like a song and can also beat the shit out of anybody that crosses their path. And Tara Reid pulls it off. She really does. Hunk, if you love pussy. Tara Reid, the only member of the pussycats in the movie who did not have to, they are right away was like, you know, who's a perfect melody? Tara Reid on the strength of American pie. Then rightly so. She's off her only on this movie. It's really a perfectly acted role. Oh, she's incredible in this movie. Yeah, I think she's incredible. She looks perfect too. She just has like the perfect looking face to be a sweet tempered dumbass. Yeah, I'm sorry, Tara Reid. That sounds really insulting. I know. I just mean that you're pretty in a very specific way. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She plays this role to a tee. Everybody like, I will say that they are really close to their comic counterparts of what I remember. Now, I have not read an Archie comic in quite some time, but I do remember, you know, Melody is the beautiful idiot. Valerie's a little bit more like stern and discerning. And Josie is sort of like the wide-eyed, like, what if everything works out tomorrow? I don't know what I'm doing kind of person, which is like, you know, their roles in the movie as well. Yeah. Around this time, this is, I mean, the Alan storyline I could honestly give a shit about, but like around this time, we meet Alan M. Put some respect on that last initial. We meet Alan M. Who Josie apparently is constantly waiting for him to announce his evident feelings for her. Yeah. And she can fix his car. Yes. And he is constantly saying things that could easily be read as his feelings for her, but is about something else. And it's that classic tension. It's the gossip girl tension, waiting for someone to say a thing, and then they say a thing that means something else. And he's very supportive of her career, very supportive of her, of her, not her career, but her work. They're very encouraging of each other. They're in the same place artistically right now, which is like bowling alleys and maybe getting asked to play almost a half hour at some club. Yeah. And all while this is happening, again, what's his name? Wyatt. Wyatt. Yeah. Wyatt is looking for a band. There's only three men in this movie, so it's easy to figure out which one you're talking about. Wyatt's looking for a band and ultimately discovers Josie. Discovers them by literally like driving his car up to where they are standing and they're holding their instruments. And he looks at the camera with this look of just oozing creepery on his face. And that's how he discovers Josie. Excuse me, the pussycat. And holds a blank, like a jewel case, an empty jewel case up in front of his face as they walk in front of the car. He has nearly struck them. He's like, I can see it. Well, well, two construction guys are carrying a sign behind them that says number one band in the world. Right. Yeah. That's the only way that he can determine whether a band is worth signing is if he happens to almost run into them with his car and he has an empty jewel case to hold in front of his face through which to look so he can decide what the band's cover is going to look like. Wyatt played by Alan Cummin, by the way, which we have not mentioned, but as an incredible choice for this role, he plays it so perfectly. Perfect choice for this role. Because it's such a campy role and he's just so good at that. Yeah. I did want to ask, yeah, how would you all describe his performance? What are some adjectives for describing what he brings to this role? Oily. Did you say delicious? Yeah. You said oily at the same time. And I feel like if someone was like, okay, we have this thing for you. It's delicious and oily. You would be like, okay, tell me more. And I'm afraid. Yeah. I would eat it immediately and I would regret it after. And I think that's a pretty good way to describe the vibe of Alan Cummings performance here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I will eat it. Where's the bathroom? Yeah. I do like that he has styled how Wes Anderson will eventually look. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's a proto Wes Anderson. Yeah. He has kind of a bob and is always wearing a suit. Is this not, is Bottle Rocket out at this point in time? Yeah. Ten and Boms is in the theater at the same time this came out. Okay. Sure. So Wes Anderson goes to see this movie and is like, wait a minute. Where has this look been my whole life? Where will I put all these dollars into this look? All while this is happening. Yes. Meanwhile, we meet the, it's so perfect that it's played by Parker Posey. It's so perfect that Fiona is played by Parker Posey who herself is like the lady counterpart to Alan Cumming in real life. There's like something about just like their roles in the culture that's like hard to pin down, but you know exactly what it is. They're both very puckish. They're both very mischievous. Yeah. Yeah. It's absolutely perfect counterparts for each other. She is the CEO of Mega Records. She is having a hilarious meeting with various government representatives and she's like laying out why as a major distribution hub for music, a service that they can offer and that they do offer is that they can insert subliminal messages into the music to influence and sway people's behavior and very specific spending decisions. Yes. We go into the bunker where we learn that jerkin means cool. Yeah. They're focus grouping. I can't believe how many times I say jerkin in this movie. They say the word jerkin so much and all obviously all I can ever think about is jerkin off. Every time they say it and they say it like 40 times. So I've spent most of this movie thinking about just the phrase jerkin off, not doing it, not even thinking about doing it. Just they put it in my head so many times. I think we should bring back jerkin means cool. Yeah. Sure. I'll do that. We're really enough in the year. We can make this happen. I think we can bring back jerkin means cool. Yeah. You've got Canada. I've got the East Coast. Alex will do the West Coast. It's perfect. We're the Triforce of Jerkin. Can somebody describe the video that they use to explain to the government officials because this is maybe my favorite part of them. The Eugene Levy instructional video. I don't know why it's Eugene Levy. When they get a Canadian guy to be there, like let's do a patriotism video. Right. Yeah. The most ass kicking country in the world is how he canadianly describes America. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The least like impressive sounding anybody has ever said, sounded when they said ass kicking. Yeah. He doesn't sound right saying ass kicking. It's so funny. Yeah. It's like someone's uncle saying something's cool. Yeah. Or jerkin as the case may be. Yeah. We also learned that because this mission is so important to national security, national vibrancy, et cetera, that musicians who catch on to the plan and occasionally a musician will catch on to the plan. They're killed. Musicians who catch on are killed by way of playing crashes, overdoses, scandals, et cetera. And they say, hilariously, we even made a TV show about it and the TV show is behind the music. Yeah. Yeah. That's another reference I didn't get when I was 10. I legitimately believed that behind the music was invented for Josie and the pussycats. And then when I saw it at some point, I was like, wow, they really made the Josie and the pussycat show. Yeah. Ass backwards. When they get babyface to pretend that he was in God, what was the band that he was in the behind the music video for in this movie? Oh, he was in Captain Intoneal. He was in Captain Intoneal. That's right. That was babyface. It was the chief, the Captain Intoneal. Babyface is the chief. Yeah. He's perfect, too. Yeah. I wish I got that in writing. It's so funny. It's so perfect. The thing that I did like again as the resident, one of the resident olds in the situation is like when behind the music was on, it was a common refrain for some reason that I don't understand. And they capture in this movie for a lot of people, especially older people, to point out that they really liked the one about Leaf Garrett. And like, this has a line nod to that in the movie. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So weird. Wait, why? I don't know. I think it was like because it was like for there, it was like one musician from their era, because like a lot of the music was about like people who like in the past 10 years had flamed out. Yeah. But then occasionally they were like, you know what, there is a tragic story of a child star, which we love so much. We have also met the Cabot twins, Alex and Alexandra, one played by Missy Pyle. Oh my God, I forgot about this entirely. Two killer performances. Yeah. And Alexandra played by Paolo Costanzo and they are because if you've read Archie comics, you know about the Cabots. They are like an omnipresent force. They are sort of like the team rocket for anybody that knows about the shit about Pokemon, which I barely do, but they're kind of the team rocket of the Archie comics world. They are. They have great hair and they're bitchy. Yeah. Alexandra always had that sort of skunk scrape, which they give to Missy Pyle in this. It's like hard to tell because of her hair color, but like they are just like rich shitheads in the comics. And in this, he is their manager, which I don't know if it was the case in the comics. They don't remember. I don't think so. But I love that they're just sort of there to be other shitty rich people who have no real bearing on the plot whatsoever. Yeah. They say it explicitly at one point. Someone's like, Alexandra, why are you here? And she says I'm here because I was in the comic book. I was in the comics. They love to do that shit. I'm sad that like Paolo Costanzo wasn't in more movies because every time he is on screen in anything, I am delighted for some reason. Oh, he's so good. Although he did a lot of television and he did play Joey Tribbiani's nephew and the friend spinoff Joey. He sure did. I show everyone loves and remembers. Yeah. I show everyone's into it. He was in road trip, which I really, I enjoyed him and speaking of Tom Green, I enjoyed him and road. Another Breckenmeyer vehicle. Oh my God. They were all doing it together all the time. Breckenmeyer star of road trip, I believe, and Tom Green. Yeah, exactly. The Tom Green. Bringing it all back. Six degrees of green. Valerie and Melody begin to hear the messages or they're able to indicate the messages and they will hold on. Yeah. Okay. We're not there yet. Okay. Please take me to where we are. Okay. So once he's like signed Josie and the pussy cats, they changed the name. Well, they changed the name because first is the pussy cats and then they go outside and they see in time square, there's the big thing. This is Josie and, and this is the first moment where Josie is like, wait, what is, or Valerie is like, wait, what is happening? Cause she realizes that this thing has become something, you know, beyond what they wanted, which is that now the focus is on her. Cause at first they're sort of dazzled with like, they go on the Motorola private plane and they're, you know, sort of being taken care of and there's all these nice things. And suddenly they're rich and famous. We get a great montage where suddenly become these famous people. And one of the great Tara Reed moments in this movie is she's walking down the street and a fan walks up and notices her and points and screams and Tara Reed points and screams at the other person that runs away. It's so funny. It's so good. But there is this whole thing of like, you know, they're becoming the sort of overnight success. Like I believe we've discovered it's been like a week or something from like when they got discovered to when they're the sort of the biggest band in the world, which is this exaggerated, you know, this is how a band blows up overnight. And Josie specifically is blowing up too. That's the focus is on her tension, right? The focus is on her. And in this week when they're blowing up and getting really famous and their song is topping the charts, the attention is kind of getting funneled towards Josie. And that's part of what makes Valerie smell a rat. Yeah, she's suspicious right away. And then we learned that Josie is also getting the sub like getting her own subliminal message that is like convincing her that she is the head. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But like she's going to be a solo or whatever. And like Alan M gets a, he knows he's got like a gig coming up that's like, he gets to play his folk songs at a bar, which one solo folky can come play by the pool tables. No, that's not going to happen. He definitely got his ass kicked that night. They didn't show it on screen, but he definitely for sure. Yeah. And he's sort of being edged out by Wyatt. And there's also at the same time you see occasionally a shadowy figure watching the pussycats from afar. And we don't reveal who that is until the very end of the movie, but you know, they're sort of being watched by somebody. You get a sense of like something's going on here because we still kind of don't fully know the extent of, you know, the devious plans of Wyatt and Fiona. And then it all sort of builds to Valerie and Melody showing up to TRL and Ares Spears comes out and pretends to be Carson Daly. Yeah, very poorly. Also, I mean, not even notwithstanding the slight difference in their races, he just could not do a Carson Daly impression. And he was trying. He's trying. And then Carson Daly emerges and Carson Daly and Ares Spears are the hit men hired to kill Valerie and Melody. To murder them with baseball bats. Yeah. Right. In a fake TRL studio where the words TRL are spelled with like masking tape on like a black sort of like speaker cover. And then the stands are cardboard standings of famous people. Right. Yeah. The audience is like cardboard cutouts of Matt Damon and shit. And like a young Johnny Depp. It's worth noting that Melody initially falls for it. Yeah. Yeah. Melody, the beautiful idea falls for it. And also like her and Carson Daly have a little moment with each other when they're like, when each of them is dodging their respective attackers where Ares Spears runs through a list of people he can do good impressions of, including a Bill Cosby one, which is a joke that would not be put in a movie in 2026. And Melody and Carson Daly have a sort of like meta conversation about because they're like, oh, maybe in another life we could have because at the time they were dating. And then yeah, this movie, I think they were engaged. And then this movie comes out and then two months later, they are, they split up, but they were together when they made this movie. And there's sort of a meta commentary on the two of them, which is funny. And then when she, when she leaves after she knocks him off the bleachers, which is like not that high off the ground. No, he's fine. She like touches a cardboard standee of Matt Damon and says something like, oh, you'd be nice or something like that. And then yeah, I love what they're doing here. And also there is the somebody's trying to kill them thing and Melody is in the shower singing, if you're happy and you know what, collect your hands. And every time she claps her hands, she drops the washcloth and has to duck down to pick it up. And there's like the mysterious figure is moving through. And then when she emerges from the shower, she sees the words written in lipstick on her shower mirror, which says, beware of the music, which is just like also a clunky threat. I had to read it a couple of times and be like, wait, if you can do an art project in a mirror, you can write a note that has like more sentences. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think you needed a few more sentences. Yeah. I think you could have really taken your time with that mirror note like writing on paper, maybe you just leave it in there. I don't know. She's only a quarter of the way through the song in her McDonald's shower. Yeah. She's going to be in there a minute. Everything is branded, we should say for people that haven't seen the movie, which, why are you listening to this? If you haven't seen the movie, go see the movie. Many people do. I know. I mean, I do that sometimes with rewatch podcasts, but everywhere they go, they're branded, including when they go to the aquarium and Josie and Alan, they turn to run away from Paparazzo and fans and whatnot. And they hide in a private aquarium room and you see that there's a giant Evian loco in the aquarium. Right. So good. Carolyn only watched one part of this movie on the plan, just like over my shoulder. And she looked at that exact moment and started laughing out loud on the plan at the Evian site gag. It's so funny. So we're working toward this concert that they have this like 20,000, 30,000 person concert where they're going to play their hit single. Everybody in classic form that probably felt stupid when this movie came out or like far fetched. People have to buy an additional piece of hardware to enjoy this concert. Like they have to buy. How could that ever happen? Right? They have to buy Josie ears, which is the most 2026 thing ever. Yeah. They have to buy Josie ears. They're like, some of the band members are catching on Parker Posey's character ultimately is like, but we sold so many of the ears. We can't possibly cancel the concert. Which I think unironically is a reason that a concert wouldn't get canceled now if it really should be. It's really true. He sold so many of the ears. People should bring back. You have to have special ears. We live in the Josie and the pussy cats world. Like everything's fucking branded. If I get on the subway, there's just like McDonald's Evian shit staring me in the face. Truly, really do. It is the demolition man thing of one corporation and controls the whole world in a stock of L. What is the way that it ultimately becomes revealed to them? Like what is actually happening? Yeah, I want this one because Josie's wearing a really good outfit when all this happens. And I want to be like, you know, putting it in the context of she's wearing a leopard print laser with no shirt under it and leopard print professional bitch pants and like spike heels. And she's walking around listening to her own song on a CD that Wyatt said, like, I need you to listen to this and give me your notes or whatever. And as she listens to her own song, oh, whoa, she's also becoming a huge asshole. And so she, in a way that, you know, she's not really acting like the Josie we've come to know, but she is very insulting and belittling towards both Valerie and Melody and Valerie is like, oh, I knew that, you know, you were just in this for fame or whatever. And Melody is just like Dom and Sad. And Josie continues listening to the CD player, her little portable CD player as she goes out on a walk. And then like the, I don't know what it is, the messages on her CD freak her out or something. And she starts running and then trips and drops the CD player and like breaks the CD and the spell is broken. And that leads her inexplicably to like go to where they recorded the song. And there's this giant machine that we really haven't talked about that was involved in the recording process and Wyatt was very protective of the machine. He was like, nobody touch it. So nobody did. But Josie is like, oh, the secret's in the machine. And she's like, I don't know, monkeying with it. And it comes out that the subliminal messages are being recorded by Mr. Moviephone, which is a very old fashioned sentence. Oh God. Yeah. Yeah. The reveal that the voice is Mr. Moviephone, which comes earlier in the movie when all the world leaders are there is so funny because like God kids ask your grandparents about Mr. Moviephone. Oh, not grandparents. Ask your beautiful 20 year old older sisters. I wish. Yeah, Moviephone. That was the guy you'd like, you'd call this hotline back before you could just buy tickets online. And the voice of Mr. Moviephone would tell you like what showings were available in your area. And he just, can any of you do the voice? I don't think I can do the voice of Mr. Moviephone. I was like, welcome to Moviephone. Like he was such a specific man. Yeah, we did not have Moviephone where I grew up. So I only knew it as a reference from that episode of Seinfeld when Kramer sets up his own Moviephone line. Miranda, can we put a Moviephone clip in here? That would be fantastic. Hello, and welcome to Moviephone. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, press one. Thank you, Ken Lane. The band does kind of the classic thing where they're like, we're not going to play by your rules. Right. We're going to go out there and we're going to do it. By the way, a couple of the things that are supposed to happen is this concert is supposed to stream on the internet, which was extremely cutting edge at the time. Yeah, still kind of is. And they haven't perfected the technology in the 20 years since. No, they haven't. It's true. But to talk about like how this movie is just real now, it's like they're going to use entertainment to stream it to the internet and use that entertainment as a way to socially engineer people's behavior is the truth. Like that is how it works now still. We still live that way. We live that way much worse and much more like the movie, which was intended to be like a ludicrous satire. Yeah. Yeah. AI Jesus is like becoming some people's partners on the internet now and telling them to do crazy things at home. Things are worse than they predicted that they were. Yeah. Yeah. What do you hope, yeah, the world, the capitalist enterprises of Joe's and the pussycats turned out to be. It's yeah. It seems great because you could possibly break the system. So she, you know, they realize the thing we're going to go out and do it. But the Viona's response is and we'll eventually learn that again, like real CEOs isn't even driven by greed. It's driven by like weird ego insecurity stuff. Yeah. She they just try to kill the band. Again, they keep trying to murder the band and she's like, Alan coming, you murder the band. Right. They have a pre-recorded MTV news headline about their death. Yeah. And I want to go back to something that we didn't talk about because it's a minor detail, but I think it's important to go back to it, which is that when we first meet Fion, when the band first meets Fiona, it is at a party for the band where they are sort of celebrating, Josie and the pussycats becoming this new sensation. And Fiona enters to a sort of like elevator muzak version of their hit single. And then at one point, Rax will remember the line maybe better than me because my memory is kind of shot. But at one point she takes them off into her bedroom to be like, let's go be girl. Like what's the line? Let's go be girls. Oh, I've got it. Okay. Let's hear it. I got her ready to go. I'm so glad this party is coming up after all. She says, enough spectacle. Let's go be girls. I immediately texted Nico. Yeah, just that. Then just, you know, me to you. I don't know. Some low effort shit like that. It's so funny. It's such it was such a good line. Let's go be girls. I was like wishing that I could screen crop it and like immediately turn this into something I will just use forever. I tried to screen grab so much of this movie and it was not happening in the play and unfortunately, but so these lines are perfect. She takes them into her like reverse Austin Powers bedroom. And this is where it is first. It's my girly room. Yeah. And it's like, she's always doing like the street edge thing with her arms too. She's ed. She does not break. She let it be known that Fiona does not break edge this entire movie. You know, nobody does. No one in this movie has ever drunk her on drugs and that's true. It feels notable to me. That is great. This is the first straight edge pop. Someone call the members of Fugazi and let them know we did it. We did it. If I could call any of the members of Fugazi, I would do it all the time. Y'all would never see me again. Who's your first phone call? I got to save Ian for last because I got the most to say to him. It's, you know, it goes in ascending order. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. I can see this, but in her in her private room, where they go be girls is where you discover that gas, she might have a minor speech impediment. Yeah. Yeah. Also an eating disorder and an eating disorder that she likes to bring to other people. It is her villain origin story is that kids were mean to her because of her minor speech impediment and her eating disorder, which I guess are spirals out of the kids are mean to me, which not an uncommon thing for kids in high schools, especially at this time, I will say. Yeah. Truly. Kids are mean. People are terrible. Life is chaos by Coca Cola. I just wanted to go back to that because I feel like it's important to sort of set the table for Fiona and her villainry. Right. Oh, sure. Absolutely. Which is that, like you said, Alex, her whole motivation is not power or fame or it's not power or money. It is largely ego driven and it is this sort of spiteful, vengeful, ego driven mania, which where could that possibly be reflected in the socio economic climate we find ourselves in 2026? Not to make everything political. An ego maniacal billionaire with a taste for blood. That's so far fetched. What a fanciful world this was. Thank God we never ended up there. So guess what happens? Dijon reappears. It's Dijon. The reappearance of Dijon. I love that the only one we get to see is the other guy. The other guy. Yeah. Do they not have the other guys? Because these guys are just wrapped in full head to toe gas. I assume that's what it was. Yeah. Yeah. We only see Les because the four members of Dujon are DJ, Travis, Marco and Les. And Les is the other guy played by Alexander Martin. A name who again has no blue link on Wikipedia at all, which tells you everything you need to know about his acting career. That guy's out there living his best life. Yes. And they explain the deal. They explain that this isn't just a record company. This isn't just greedy people. There's a whole thing. There's a whole conspiracy. They tried to kill us. They're trying to kill you. That's what's happening. They're using this machine. The mega sound 8000. This is the machine that racks records earlier in order to get these messages out. And then Fiona has a wicked witch of the West meltdown that is followed by her and Ellen coming kind of had simultaneous meltdowns where it is revealed that the ultra cool versions of themselves are weird projections slash costumes that they've laid on top of the versions of themselves that are a little grotesque, I guess, as it's as it's presented in the movie, like with regard to their idea about who they are, but very normal, but very normal. It's like these are very extremely normal. Like at one point, Alan coming, you know, he's revealing and oh, I'm not cool and blah, blah, blah, I, you know, was made fun of in high school and he unbuttons his blazer and like a little tiny pop belly kind of puffs out, you know, it's been the littlest belly, the teeniest, tiniest little belly. Not even. And he's like, I've been holding that in for the past 10, 15 years, whatever it is. And I'm like, why? It's so tiny. It's a teeny, tiny little belly. With what? Your blazer? Like it's just blazer made of spanks. I don't know. I was like, that is not how you hold that in, sir. Oh my God. This is also discovered, by the way, after the fight that breaks out when it's first, because it's first the concert is going to be just Josie on her own because we've gotten, we've eliminated the need for Valerie and Melody. And then they have their big coming together moment and then they get into a big fight where there's a sort of dodge and move sort of thing where Fiona ends up destroying the big machine, the subliminal machine. And, you know, the plan is sort of found out and then the guards show up and it plays the messages. Like it plays the subliminal messages out loud and it's basically just like Fiona's, it says Fiona's jerkin, which is a funny callback to, they're trying to make jerkin. Fiona is totally jerkin. So it sort of reveals this like, this is what this machine was doing all this time. We find out also, by the way, that the, that Dijor, when they crash landed, they crash landed in the parking lot to a Metallica concert. And I thank God every day that I knew the lyrics to enter sand. And then Fiona and Wyatt are taken away. But after he reveals that, yeah, he was an albino. So he wipes a bit of his makeup off to reveal that he was wearing makeup and he's wearing a wig. And he's speaking with a fake accent. He's like, he reveals that he secretly has a real American accent and went to school with Fiona when they were both, you know, social outcasts. Yeah. So also what's been happening that doesn't really matter until this moment is the United States government is so bought in on this. We keep seeing this character who's a representative from the Pentagon who represents that relationship. And this again feels so real after the contractor, you know, slips up and it reveals what the government's up to or could reveal what the government's up to. The government uses them as distractions from what the government is actually doing, arrests them, and then reveals that they were going to do this anyway because they've since done their own pivot to video. Yeah, he says subliminal messaging works much better in movies than in songs. And then, and I have a t-shirt of this, the action pauses and the text appears on the screen that says, Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever. Join the army. Incredible site. Where is that t-shirt? I should have worn it today. It's so funny. It's so good. Finally, we get the concert. Thank God. And there's nothing in this movie is plausible, so it doesn't matter. But in an extremely implausible situation, Allyn M is at the back of the stadium. It was like, Hey, yeah, I want to come up and they crowd serve him in, which is great. Yeah, because that was so important. What if crowd serving was good? Yeah, that guy. I don't know who that actor is. Do we know who Allyn M is? Because he's a joy to watch. Gabriel Mann is his name. I love his just wispy face. But he's in a couple of born movies. Porn movies? Born movies. Oh, I was going to like him so much better. He was born. And he reveals his feelings, gets up on stage. I love the various responses. Melody is like, this is the craziest thing I've ever seen that this is finally happening. And Valerie lets it happen for like 10 seconds before reminding him that we are in a rock and roll band and it is happening right now. And you should get off the stage and go dance over there. Yeah, they do a thing I really liked with the music, which is a, okay, so just to set this up as well, when they start playing, they're unsure now that the subliminal part is out of the music. Will anybody still like them? And they have this sort of at first, Josie's like, I'm going to take my ears off and takes them off and everybody in the audience takes their ears off. And then she kind of puts them back on and they do it too. And then she kind of like gets them to just sort of appreciate the music for the music, not the subliminal messaging. And there's that moment of like, will people still like them even though the songs are fucking incredible. Yeah, it would be so funny if they didn't though, it would be so funny if the end of this movie was everyone just like, oh, God, the vocals of Kay Hanley. Oh, disgusting. And then they start playing and everybody's super into it. And then when they're doing the moment where they're kissing, they cut the guitar in vocals and it's just the bass line and the drums and the song, even though Valerie is clearly not playing when she goes over to tell them, okay, guys, we need to finish up the bass, like the bass never stops, but they do. I appreciate it. Cause so often when stuff is dubbed in movies, which is all the time, they kind of forget to like, don't play the parts that somebody's clearly not playing with bands. And I appreciate that they're like, okay, right now it would only, you would only hear the bass and the drums because she is smooching, not playing attention to detail like that is why this movie deserves a bunch of Oscars. Yeah, a band of three people, none of whom could play an instrument when they made this movie, which is Rachel Lee Cook was surprised she got this role because she was like, I cannot sing or play guitar, but it's Kay Hanley's voice from Letters to Cleo. Yeah, it really is. I DM'd her yesterday. Me too. Oh, did she respond to you? Should he respond to me? No, it's so funny. Should I have done that? Yeah, you should have and she wouldn't respond to you either. She follows me on Blue Sky. Yeah, me too. That's why I thought I could do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also DM'd her yesterday. That's so funny. Oh God, that's embarrassing. She's like, why is everyone DMing me about Josie and the Pussycats today? She does get asked about it like every five years and we're on a five year anniversary. So I think that like she's probably expecting the onslaught. I will also shout out the backing vocals are done by Rosario D'Ascentera Reed and Rachel Lee Cook, but also Candidate Biff Naked. Oh, Biff Naked. Shout out. Really? Candidate has a heavy hand in this movie, I will say. And the songs are written by like Adam Schlesinger, Adam Duritz, Kay Hanley. Like the songs are written by incredible songwriters too. RIP, Adam Schlesinger, man. Yeah. I mean, like just one of the greatest like songwriters of a generation. Absolutely. Yeah. That's it. Moment of silence, I guess. Yeah, moment of silence. Pour one out for Adam Schlesinger, Fountains of Wain. And then it's kind of it, you know, like everybody loves Josie and the Pussycats and then we're out. Right? Josie and the Pussycats is the best movie ever. Join the army. It's my take. It's beautiful. And then over the credits we get to Josie and the Pussycats theme song. Finally. I typically don't necessarily need a bloopers reel. Yeah. This is the best bloopers reel I've ever seen. Yeah. Because you get this song. Really good bloopers. You get all of these very funny people being very funny. You get a lot of Missy Pyle being Missy Pyle and I was a huge fan of these bloopers. Yeah. Me too. It looks so fun. It looks like they had so much fun with the exception of Terri Reid, who is probably thinking about a divorce lawyer. But it seems like it was a great time. Boy, she looks miserable in her few bloopers. Yeah. There's one where she's like in her little intro reel, she's playing with a lizard. And her blooper is her, you know, she's having fun with the lizard and then the shot ends and she just gets this disgusted with her face and like throws the lizard back in his enclosure or whatever. And I'm like, really, Terri Reid? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, what a beautiful, what a beautiful job. Is there anything anyone wants to add about this fine film? Go by the soundtrack. Incredible soundtrack. Great tracks. Most of which are the Josie and the Pussycat songs as written by other people, some of whom we mentioned, and also the two DeJurah songs. The But One. DeJurah Around the World and Backdoor Lover, the two hit singles from DeJurah 2000 to 2001. 2000 to 2001. All right. Well, I have a question for you too. We know, I'm pretty positive this is a fatherless universe. So we know that there are no fathers in the Josie and the Pussycat universe, which is part of the reason. You see no one, Fox and Josie and the Pussycats? I don't know. People fucking this world. Yeah, I don't know. They want to. Not any of the ones we saw of fucking like Alan M and Josie do not. We see no fucking. They just rub smooth fronts. Jesus Christ. God, I'm going to have to scroll. Rachel Lee Cook doesn't have a smooth front, you son of a bitch. Yeah, how dare you? Rachel Lee Cook is sexual and beautiful and my wife. Before. OK, even before we even get to the question, I do want to ask, what is it about Rachel Lee Cook? What is it ever? I don't know. She has those big doe eyes and that really like quiet voice. I don't know. That's like that's my type forever. That has been since that movie. That works. She's like a deer with headlights. Yeah. Not staring directly into them, but staring them into the eyes of the world. Right. She's a deer in headlights, but not the afraid kind somehow. Yeah. Well, we know there are no bucks in this movie. Who in your view is the daddy of Josie and the Pussycats? There's no specific or correct way to answer this question. It is a it is a Rorschach. Nico, who is the daddy of Josie and the Pussycats? I have two ideas on this and I'm going to go with the fun answer, which is Melody as played by Tara Reid, because they think that she's ultimately the heart of the movie and is the one trying to steer them towards a good and a wholesome and a whole place. Regardless of whether or not she's like very sure of how to get there. She just knows that's where they're supposed to be. And I think for that reason, Melody is the daddy of this. She's a beautiful idiot steering towards freedom. Great. What is your other response? That's a Pete Seeger line. Well, I had a very different take on the question. Who is your second daddy? Yeah, wait, yeah. Who is the second? Oh, Valerie. That makes more sense. That makes like immediate sense. She has a very stern fatherly energy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go with, you know, again, some we all bring whatever we want to this question. I'm going to go with why it in this case, because he's extremely manipulative. He's a bad daddy. You're going bad daddy. He's bad daddy in this case, extremely manipulative. Daddy's starting Alan coming. Is acting as if he is certain and knows everything and is biting and cutting, especially but he's just the meanest shit about Alan. When in fact, he is just covering, he's uncomfortable from sucking that gut in. He's covering all those insecurities and he's getting his shit all over everybody. And that yeah, what who does that remind me of? But many, many dads. Rex, how do you want to interpret this question? Who is your answer? Who's your daddy and what does he do? Instead of explaining myself up front, I'm just going to say the thing that occurred to me and you all will see that I misunderstood the question. I think that the daddy of Josie and the pussycats is Philip Seymour Hoffman's character from Boogie Nights. I love it. I see him as like a spiritual father to that movie, just him unto himself. I love that. That's perfect answer. As that character. Oh my God, I love it. I'm going to take it. It's wonderful. We believe there's a shared universe between Boogie Nights and Josie and the pussycats. There's no reason to believe it's not true. Yes. All the fucking happens in Boogie Nights and all the music happens in Josie and the pussycats. So sorry to Mark Wahlberg and his song Feel My Heat from Boogie Nights. The heat will rock you, Rex. That would have been better by Josie and the pussycats. Oh my God. And he and it will roll you. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Come on. Well, this was beautiful. We did it. We did it. We did it. I'm so proud of us. Me too. Me too. Thanks for being here, Rex. Thanks for having me, guys. Love this movie. Thanks for co-hosting Nico. Was that what I did? I guess so. You're welcome and thank you. Thank you. You're welcome and good night. All right, everybody. That's it for this week's episode of You Are Good at Feelings Podcasts about movies. Thank you so much to Rex King. Thanks to Nico Stratus. Thanks to Miranda Zickler, our producer and editor. We love you, Miranda. Thanks to Fresh Lashley. Provides the beats to make our episode so sweet. Thank you to y'all for being here. Thanks to everyone who supports us on Patreon and Apple Podcast subscriptions. Get those bonus episodes. You get those extended cuts. I think that's it for now, right? That's it. All right, y'all. Until next time. Don't forget that you, my friend, are good.