Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2009) dir. Ol Parker | Showgays: A Movie Musical Podcast

0:00 quick little note before the episode starts this episode was actually another fan request uh Nicole who requested Camelot the year before wanted to have us do Mama May here we go again for her birthday and it was very I would say serendipitous just like the Serendipity exhibited in this um cinematic Masterpiece known as Mamma Mia here we go again um that things you know work out the way they do and it just so happened that we weren't gonna do this movie and it was also a movie that Nicole requested for her birthday in May so he could go Nicole into all the listeners finally you've been waiting for a year to hear about what we all thought about Mama me here we go again after teasing you for so long so here you go enjoy the show

0:47 [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you I've been cheated by you no this one oh I didn't see that sorry I was doing my dramatic you know how the song Mamma Mia came to be just like it was a movie okay but as share okay is it do you hear the blue no yeah do you hear the see

1:34 can't even it's classic Abba where you don't actually know the words but it's classic writing English lyrics yeah yeah can you hear the drums when I know I remember long ago another Starry Night Like This in the Fire Light Fernando you are harming to yourself and softly strumming your guitar I could hear the distance drums and sounds of bugle calls were coming from afar great there was something great [Music] I mean I think Chad Michael's job is safe but I appreciate it yeah the contributions they keep booking me on these chicken

2:21 [ __ ] gigs um RJ how are you this week wow there's a loaded question apparently no I didn't think it was I just was I feel like I usually go with Molly okay I decided to switch it up your tone sounds so pointed right I don't know why you would insinuate that RJ well you know what let's say this we're recording this at the end of April this episode will come out mid-may no mid-may because maim is end of April so this is mid-may okay [Music] uh I'm very excited to see who RJ is and what rjs this episode comes out what does that mean just you know my company just being like you know some personal

3:08 changes are coming personal changes are coming you never know what's gonna happen next and uh keep that resume up to date girlies lots of restructuring happening my brother I won't say just for privacy where he worked but he worked for like a big company and literally got hired there out of college and he is seven years older than me you could say it's the Trump organization yeah so he did he did over the tomorrow's station no um but so he's probably works there for like almost 20 years at this point because it's you know maybe 15. but you know like he's working for a long long time yeah and then like for various reasons wasn't super happy so he switched he he went and got a job somewhere else and then we were chatting about it then my sister-in-law who works for the same company they met there um yes I was saying that they're going

3:54 to do some restructuring there too so they've like made a joke of like maybe soon neither of them will work for this company even though they've both worked their their entire adult lives yeah so the economy ever let's make an economics podcast actually well I have some economic tea later on this this movie I mean this movie the story the story of this movie yeah are you gonna weigh in on the real estate um investment of this this in on a Greek Islands I'm gonna weigh in on the fact that they had to shoot in Croatia because Greece's economy was so well geopolitical I mean we're we're covering all the babies wow oh we're all things considered yeah truly that would be a great name for a podcast and we should definitely do that

4:41 yeah amazing uh how about you Molly how's how's it good I I found an apartment in San Diego so I'm gonna be moving there May 14th so it'll just be when this releases you can be listening to this episode I might be listening to this in my new apartment Studio One uh one bad great just because I wanted a place that was really close to work and so that was that was the that was available I'm gonna walk to work every day I'm just gonna be oh my God truly yes it's the dreams you're not gonna roller skate to work oh my God maybe I should get some roller skates listeners right in with what roller skates you think I should buy to go to work every day I mean the kids that I work with would die they would love it they sure yeah um yeah and this is Mother's Day episode right happy Mother's Day all the mothers

5:27 out there with all my heart God bless you absolutely are you going to release the episodes of our mother the mama mini mama so maybe they'll be like little Snippets before this app or something I don't know but I'm sure Rita would be you could you could seamlessly interweave it within this episode like what Mommy here we go we'll say something and then it'll just be like it'll make it sound like they're in the room with us yeah yeah I'm not gonna do that but great it's an idea I would like you to spend the next month of your life making that into an audio Masterpiece please that would require me starting to edit it more than more than three hours before the day it's due

6:12 and honestly at this point in my life it's impressive that I still complete it by the time it's due [Music] this week you have the challenge of summarizing the plot of Mamma Mia colon here we go again I feel like you can do this RJ in a minute or less and I I will be shocked if you're not able to do it but there's no pictures this is a simple a simple story at a time there's a lot there's a lot there's a lot of complexity there so much Nuance okay and your time starts no five years after the non-wedding of sophine Skye Sophie reopens to a hotel after her mother Donna's death and rebrands it the casabella Don and her honor she feels alone in her Endeavor

6:57 without Donna a sky is away in New York with a potential new job and her dad's Bill and Harry are away with their careers her aunts Rosie and Tanya and her biological father Sam all do their best to research Sophie she's good enough to do this but Sophie is weighed down by her mom's Legacy of doing this all on her own which we see a younger Donna in flashbacks that show the events that led to Donna starting the hotel in kalakari and her eventual conception of Sophie despite a massive storm ruining the grand reopening plans Harry Bill Skye and the local fishermen come as surrogate guest to fill the party and lift both Sophie Spirits which eventually leads to the surprise arrival of her grandmother Ruby attempting to rekindle a relationship with her family and ends up rekindling a lost love along the way Sophie discovers she's pregnant and feels emotionally connected to her mother who found her purpose in kalakari while she gave birth to her and Sophie feels fulfilled with a life and Community she has right on the minute

7:43 amazing I I did the thing where I slowed down in the beginning yeah and then I was like oh I felt the urgency yes but this was this was very succinct well done but I do want to raise a point of order yes please is Sam Sophie's biological father I thought the whole point was that we don't know oh that's the whole point is that the whole point is that we don't know he is he's on the island because he married Donna or like yes they her partner later in life or whatever so like he's there as like he's like her stepfather in the sense of like having been in a relationship with her mother recently yeah but he's I think that that's the whole joke because at the end they say something about like oh like I have really nice ears Well he kind of has these blue eyes like talking with the grandson as if to say like we all still joke about who's who's really we really don't know who it is I think I

8:29 was just misremembering the because he's the one that she gets back with yeah that I kind of mistook that as I think there was a um like a nod or something that is like it's he's the he's the one but I thought that isn't there even maybe a nod that it's actually hairy I thought maybe there was something in the first movie well I mean we can analyze this movie because we see the actual time frame that's true so we can really get out your appeal phase calendars [Laughter] and also I would like another point of order um you did not say this so this is not about what you said but Sophie and Skye are not married they're not married yeah

9:16 that's right I didn't say yeah he said after the non-wedding yeah I just want to remind the listeners that they did not and at no point they have gotten married since the time I saw them a quick Corrections Corner also while we're talking about pronunciation that Rita told me that it's terpsichori I think trips Hickory that's the Muse uh from Xanadu so apologies to all of our so uh apologies to the Greeks once again it's a Greek heavy year you just we love it love it we love Grace not Greece is not the word with the c not an S sorry yes [Music] okay well I'm gonna start because I am the I am the god forsaken reason that we watched this film today so I'm gonna

10:02 talk about my relationship to this movie now 2018 this movie comes out I will not get into the specifics of the movie quite yet but 2018 this movie comes out and I was like well RJ and I have um AMC plus what is it called is it AMC plus a list I thought maybe this is uh no I think I think MoviePass has just ended okay okay um so we went we had you know you get movies for free so I was like well we'll go see it and we were so close to an AMC we lived like a block and a half away practically so we went to go see it in a packed theater wow of middle-aged women and gay men is this Orlando this is Orlando yeah

10:47 this is Orlando big Orlando culture um and it was one of the top five movie-going experiences of my entire life Wow a raucous crowd raucous crowd singing along but like not over not super loud but like just an Ever laughing at every joke hearing people cry at the end like I mean the audience was tens tens tens across board yeah it was amazing and I walked out of the movie and I said first of all this is better than the original and second it might be one of the greatest movies ever made and after what I I I'll save what I thought and you know that's the power of communal experience after a re-watch but theater is supposed to be communal oh

11:35 yeah and that helps I gotta say it helps and it helped that Nicole Kidman really saved theater and brought us all thanks Nicole thanks so that's what I wanted to say about my relationships movie uh yeah I liked it when I first saw it it was great um RJ you will also have something I had the same story I'll just add the caveat that we re-watched Mamma Mia before coming in before watching the movie in theaters so at that time it would have been my second time watching Mamma Mia because we had previously watched it just like by ourselves I was thinking like for showcase I was like no that was no that was for this era so yeah we had just watched it um and then like you know same background as before family loves Abba so it was nice to see all the b-sides let's say get it's you

12:22 know they're due gets it's due yeah Molly um shocking no one I had never watched it before I wrote down I resent that you made me watch this and nothing could be less appropriate to celebrate my mother in particular um you know I so I had avoided it due to not liking Abba or Mamma Mia or anything about it I will I don't want to hear I don't want to hear your initial take I don't want to hear it yeah takes I had not watched it before this great great what had you heard about it besides like us talking about it what was your general consensus of the pop culture is that what I heard from pop culture was better than the first one and basically like making more fun of itself or like having having more fun

13:08 with the whole concept which I was sort of like got but also was like I feel like the first one wasn't taking itself all that seriously so I don't I can't imagine it's a huge deviation um so I heard that and then just that Cher was in it people just talk about Cher being impressed yeah yeah we could spend a whole 30 minutes of this episode just so it shares five minutes in this movie truly okay so mama here we go again is directed by all Parker and written by old Parker old Parker um is probably most famous in America at least for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel movies okay a Sweden that I don't I think he's British sounds like a Swedish name yeah was there a reason why um felita Lloyd is not the director

13:54 anymore from the first they didn't ask her to do it I don't do it but they still wanted to do it okay um the okay the story is by Katherine Johnson Richard Curtis and old Parker uh it's based on shockingly Mamma Mia it's produced by Judy Kramer and Gary getzman it stars Christine baransky as tenure uh Pierce Brosnan as uh Sam Dominic Cooper is Skye Colin Firth is Harry Andy Garcia is uh senor uh uh first name Fernando Lily James plays a young Donna Amanda Seyfried plays Sophie still in scars scarsgard is Bill Julie Walters is Rosie Cher is Ruby

14:43 and Meryl Streep is Dana stacked it's a huge cast list quickly just I'm gonna confirm that old Parker is his full name is Oliver Parker he is English also was married to tanaway Newton for those who are fancy Plus World oh okay um they just split up in 2022. cinematographies by Robert Yeoman it is edited by Peter Lambert the music is by ABBA production companies are Play Tone Little Star Productions legendary pictures and perfect world pictures it is distributed by Universal Studios another Universal added to the bracket to the bracket um it was released in the United States on July 20th 2018 exactly 10 years to the week that the first one was released

15:29 uh it's running time is 114 minutes its budget was 75 million dollars and its box office is 402.3 million dollars that's insane needed it now there's shockingly not a lot of historical data about this film I hate to tell you so here's the fun little tidbits that I found the role of Ruby which is the grandmother was written for share um and her the guy who asked her because she was originally I don't know talking about it but she was offered Rosie or no she was offered Tanya in the original original movie oh okay and she turned it down in the 10 years that had passed her friend who uh in the 10 years had become

16:16 the head of Universal Pictures was like you have to do this movie and then allegedly he hung up immediately after telling her she had to do it so she had no time to respond no um I don't think that's how it works I don't say it works but I also love that level of friendship I love that level of friendship that's very funny also this was her first musical since burlesque this is her first movie since burlesque she's not okay did you all do burlesque for the first season we did yes I did too bad that I won't be able to watch it I'll never I'll never I'll never see it now but you'll happily redo it okay happily we might you know it might win the award for best Revival next Revival in the showies you never know um you've had people vote in the Discord sorry I'm so sorry yes you should we should we should have people vote

17:02 um she apparently chose what is his name I'm so sorry uh Andy Garcia to play Fernando she got to select him and the whole lineup of men Andy Garcia who was born in 1956 and in this movie they make a reference to having met each other in 1959. yes he would have been three years old when he felt well speaking of three years old Cher is three years older than Meryl Streep so we're doing really well in all um fronts of making sense yeah uh potential third movie is in development apparently oh and apparently Julie Walters is retired which I didn't know yeah she became a Dame during the making of This film by the way but

17:48 um she said she has said that the only movie that would get her to come out of retirement is if they make a third one because it's so wild which tells me honestly more about the making of the film yeah absolutely absolutely because I will say whether or not you think these films are great or bad you cannot look at the screen and be like these people are not having the time of their [ __ ] yes um a very different vibe from the Les Mis experience I feel like um Meryl Streep and and Lily James are ninth cousins three times removed okay white people we have to talk about this we are keeping these kinds of Records we don't need to know this stuff well you know what I mean what does that even literally what does that mean I mean I tried to look up a cousin chart and all

18:35 the cousin charts I found don't even extend that so like what does that that means nothing um it was not filmed like in Greece like I said it was filmed in Croatia um each film okay this is a this is one that I wrote down and then I was like I don't know if I believe this because there's no Source right on IMDb they don't have to Source anything each frame of the film contains at least one element that is Greek blue so specifically that like blue right on the flag yeah I mean I can't think of an example off top of my head that would disprove it yeah there wasn't like I guess we'll have to watch it again there was there was definitely a scene in which they shot day for night and I think that whole scene was that color because yeah they just overlaid that just a filter yeah yeah and then Bill's twin at the

19:21 beginning of the film bill has a twin accepting an award on his behalf it's a reference to his line in the original film you're not going to tell me you have a twin sister are you meaning like Bill said that to Sophie oh he had multiple children which now I'm saying so then maybe he's not the father that lowers his I don't know oh that's awesome I do think that there is a thing it's a more Twisted families but I think it's usually even higher probability but that's yeah yeah because I usually think it's like oh you tend to really small bags in a cycle or like that kind of thing so anyway what what did you like if like if if the woman you're feeling tend to like release multiple eggs within a cycle like that fraternal twins

20:11 I thought she said plagues I heard um I'd take a kid for a walk today because uh seven years old oh my God the kids aren't all right the kids aren't always all right it was more of that I'm bored and what would happen if I said this thing okay well top five movies the week this movie came out let's talk about them number five Incredibles two which we saw which we saw in theaters with our AMC with our amca list number four actually no we did not see that with AMC a list we saw that at the Cinemark at Universal oh that's right the listeners are dying to know the listeners love it they're plotting their Wikipedia yeah um uh articles you can update the yeah

20:58 you can always update the music movie musical Wikipedia page with just our banter about what we were doing surrounding the film because we are that famous and this is now historical records you don't need to know yeah number four that week was Ant-Man and the WASP which we did watch over there which we did let's see with the amca list number three was Hotel Transylvania 3 summer vacation let me skip this one number two was Mamma Mia here we go again and number one was The Equalizer two the two equalizer oh um that's all I have so we can go straight into the movie great Dive Right In [Music] I want everyone to know that there is there is one note and it's not even really like a note it's like a a reminder for us to talk about for a

21:44 talking point for the discussion but there are no notes for this discussion what research would I possibly have done I mean like I did some research on Abba for the first one but I was like I truly don't even know where to start to try to do research there was no phantasmagoria article written about Mommy here we go again you could look up the dictionary entry for Joy maybe that would be a great time kid today because they didn't want to follow a rule and I was like do you think that I'm making this up and she goes I think that you don't know how to have any fun because you're a grown-up like read me that's that's right today's mini challenge winner before I talk about this movie before RJ talks about this movie okay I have to

22:29 hear what Molly's General take on this film is at this moment right now because I have been for 24 hours anxious 24 years extreme pins and needles 31 years I have lived my life and this movie's only been out for five of those years and yet still all 31 years have led to this moment I thought it was better than the first one but I also dislike both movies so much but even better than the first one doesn't bump it up into uh like a good experience yeah it's not over 50 for me so I wanna I wanna it's a certified Splat still it's still it's like a 40 Splat I'm gonna say so you I want to be

23:16 very clear right now you think Zombies 3 is better than this film I would die on that Hill absolutely is is a Marvel of Cinema and this is we might also be having some personal changes economic restructuring yeah I'm glad that they have fun Amanda seifred killing it in every scene every season I felt like especially because they set you up with this like fake out that like almost no one from the first movie is going to be in this one I was like thank you Amanda for showing up and carrying this whole movie on your back and being like I'll come back I'm doing it I'm here 100 um so I enjoyed that but like

24:03 I don't like Abba I don't know what to tell you there's nothing there's no way to solve for that problem for me I you know we have a beautiful climax in which many people come on these boats to hurt new hotel and they sing dancing queen which is the song that makes me feel distant from Humanity because I don't understand what people look at it and this friends is called neurodivergence diagnosing me with things not because I I don't understand why people like Dancing Queen is um is it I've dug in but in the last one but is it like the lyrics is it the melody is it because I I do I gave you a look that was definitely him being like are you

24:48 about to armchair diagnos Molly right now um because I do I can listen to Abba and be like yeah there is kind of like a hollowness to the lyrics it's very surface level and The Melodies aren't intricate you know they're very simple Melodies so it doesn't feel like yeah but so are folk song but we're not mad our folk songs exist I think it's that they're like there's no like bass line almost in disco music it's all very like up here yes and I love that I love vapid pop music in general but like I want like in my music you know what I mean Kesha's coming back by the way allegedly okay she may be dropping an album I love summer love Kesha love all the early 2000s Divas absolutely

25:33 I just I feel like there's like nothing to like really get down to in disco music it's so very like I don't know yeah yeah because I don't it's not that I think music has to be substantial in like a um content way you know what I mean nonsense lyrics are fine I read an article one time I think about the guy who was like the producer behind the Backstreet Boys where there was also like a Swedish pop tournament person and this like philosophy of put words together that sound good and not that actually makes sense that's why like I want it that way it's like if you try to break it down it's like what is the song about I don't have I don't have any issue with that it's like I think it's the actual not even The Melody of the music but like the production of like how the

26:20 music is layered together that just doesn't there's like a missing there's like it feels like there's a missing it feels like there's a missing element yeah no I get that do you get that yeah because I can listen to you yes I can listen to disco music and Abba and be like yeah it feels like there is something not that it's flat but it's yeah there's something underneath that's missing there's like a base listeners send me if anybody knows of like a hip-hop remix of ABBA because I wonder if I would like that um yeah is there a yeah is there a Jay-Z is there a drake Abba mashup that we're not just just missing I mean with AI audio you

27:08 can do anything nowadays honestly that's true we'll say all of that into chat gbt or music GPT or whatever and they'll give you and they'll give you the Disco with them um great how do you how do you will you accept that Adam sure that's her that's her truth yeah um you posted it on your as a truth on Truth social that was nice because I knew that truth social is kind of on this like delay where movies that came out in 2018 is like very relevant right now yeah it makes sense and like there's no bigger right-wing film than mama here we go truly yeah if you want to talk about nationalism honey honey yeah you want to

27:54 talk about America First maybe it's Mommy here you go yeah um how did you feel how Molly I'm just fascinated by this experience of watching this film how did you feel about uh Lily James's performance yeah yeah you know I I really I did appreciate her performance and I feel like the thing with Lily James for me is she almost seems like too perfect of an actress of like you can just Slaughter in anywhere she's gonna do a good job she you know what I mean she's such a like almost like a neutral person to me of like I don't really have strong feelings about her she could do comedy pretty well she do drama find she's like she's attractive she's Charming blah blah it's

28:42 almost like it's almost like I can't think of anyone else to put in this movie so I'm gonna put Lily James in it it's like kind of she's like my shoes in my head there's like a blank canvas like there's a blank canvas yes so I didn't expect much out of the fact that she was in it but I I kind of ended up liking the summer romp that she was on like she brought me around to just enjoying seeing her having a good time because I did feel like I didn't watch the first Mama again think oh I just want to dive deeper into like what was that summer like you know what I like I didn't feel like I'm missing information I need to see this thing but I was like maybe a third of the way through I was like yeah but this would be like a vacation movie starring Willie James that's cool I'm happy to see her having a good time Adam Grace great it

29:30 was kind of it was nice to see her kind of in interpret because I don't know if it's like Laden in the screenplay or like given the direction but it was nice to see her interpret like what was done what what's like Donna's Personnel because in the first movie Donna is so like frantic she doesn't want the marriage to happen like she doesn't want to lose that control with her daughter that it was fun to see like a why people love dogs so much yeah like not under that pressure yeah it's fair then I have one last question yeah how did you feel about the young actress that plays young Christine baransky um I didn't think about her at all

30:16 I don't I truly I feel like we have watched different films oh my God this is the this is the one this is my This Is My Line in the Sand okay okay I'm not gonna spoil who my MVP is but it is this girl so um I would just consider revisiting this film oh my God Christino maybe it'll be every every May well I'm just kidding um okay so maybe we re-watch a Mamma Mia and you don't know again I am so I I don't want to admit it but it's true it is called here we go again if you could say that as many times as you want you know yeah um so what I think is fascinating about this movie is that it is both a sequel and a prequel drawing on the great

31:02 inspiration of The Godfather Part Two a cinematic Triumph right a a peer a fellow Triumph yes uh something that everyone agrees is good um except for those who don't um so I thought that was interesting because I had never like thought about it in my mind but I do I think that is cool that they like tried to do two things at one time while also being like so yeah we only really need Meryl for a week of filming and share share can come in for a day and I didn't look up any information about why Meryl Streep is not in this movie because I thought it would be in your production background so did you find information about that there was one vulture article that was like an oral history of of mamia too which was just like a lot of what picking up what people have answered in

31:48 like press junkets and whatever and it seemed like Meryl never really wanted to do a sequel because she didn't want and but if it did it shouldn't Center on her character she was like I can I would do it but I I don't think it should be about Donna it's just like the purity of the art for her that she was like it was such a perfect first performance that I just can't um that she was truly like I'm not doing it I'm not doing it so like if you want to figure out a different way to do it I could maybe do like a thing but she drew the line on the sand that like I won't I won't be like the central character yeah so from the very beginning it was already like okay how would we do a sequel this is her only sequel in her entire filmography yeah wow because it doesn't seem like a lot of the films she's been in have uh the only one the only one I

32:35 can think of is like Series of Unfortunate Events but she well she also I mean Technically she's in a sequel of the book but they combined three books into one yeah yeah so I feel like I could see a Devil Wears Prada sequel one day right sure you don't think so I think it's too far now I don't think it would be the same cast I think I mean at this point they're probably just gonna remake the film because that's what everybody that's people just do that now at its height possibly like yeah they could have done one it's the kind of movie that I could imagine a sequel happening for maybe it's more what I'm trying to say but I would I would love to see like a many years down the line Davenport's Prada where did everybody go movie although I mean Technically she's in Mary Poppins returns which is like

33:20 um obviously in the original I think it's like she doesn't she doesn't want to sequel her own friendship performance yes yes her men yeah too bad they didn't get her in the Avengers um yeah they're really messed up they really missed out so I let's talk about this movie um let's talk about the prequel aspect of this film first okay because I do think uh other things are not fun about this film yeah well the grief the grief and the second half it's so grief sick I can't it's a really a piece about grief is really what this movie is it's like buried child it's about me too here we go I guess I would say this is Meryl's

34:06 second most important role in which she chooses a child right after Sophie's Choice wow wretched she really tried to reach a joke but she didn't didn't um we should have made a pro-life joke when we were talking about nationalism sorry yeah oh yeah what if this ends up being truth social's most uh highly regarded films yeah what if what if my god um let's start with the beginning of the film so the beginning of the film uh they're graduating from I don't know Oxford came here who knows who knows and who cares yeah um because that's famously not the point of this movie uh and so they sing this song she is Valedictorian she is Valedictorian wait

34:52 didn't you tell me when we watched the first Mamma Mia that like the fact that Sophie had English friends was going to be explained somehow by the this movie I feel like it wasn't I don't think I said that I feel like I feel like there were so many questions I had for the first movie that YouTuber [Laughter] every question I think it answered everything in fact um it gave you a timeline of events I don't know what to tell you Paris at least we'll have Paris um okay so they sing it uh she sings a song at graduation from whatever called when I kissed the teacher [Music]

36:00 how do you feel about students kissing teachers it's not like problematic because it's from the perspective of the student right so like the creepy thing is if it's in Reverse is it a consensual kiss it's even about like it yeah I don't know anyway uh yeah since you should guess that's my stance hard take um so we move on I just wanted to I don't want to see it in my commentary we're gonna play that we're gonna play a clip from the song okay so taking out the actual lyrics because like it didn't seem like the the point was not like literally she had had an affair with the teacher but like was like me kind of upset yeah I enjoy

36:47 frivolity in a classroom yes um I thought that was a nice setup for the movie I I thought it was a little muddied in that like at first when she gets introduced to give the speech the teacher does this little like punctual as always so and so is going to give the speech and it got this Vibe of like everybody even the teachers appreciate her like being a little bit of a rebel but then by the end of the number they seems like genuinely upset at her and I was like okay so like what are you trying to say about yeah is she like a Class Clown but in like a way that everyone can Vibe with or is she like actually kind of a problem yeah I think it's that everyone is Charmed by Donna I think Donna has an effort and I do like this honestly I will say this this thing about Lily James's portrayal of a young what she's really doing is like a young Meryl Streep impression which is yeah crazy

37:34 um and she does have her own cousin her oh ninth cousin three times remove Thrice removed um I like that like she has that like happy go lucky like Devil May care but not in like a there's still something so light about it if that makes sense like it's not like she's like she's not like Reckless yeah she's I mean she one could say it's Reckless but if you don't get the sense that people are like hurt by Donna's decisions or anything like that because they're people who are reckless in that way of not caring the consequences for other people other choices exactly and I don't think that that's at all what they're telling you about her yeah the closest they come to is like Rosie has a crush on Bill and then she still goes off and like has sex with Bill but it's never

38:19 related to yeah and you get the impression that like had she said anything done would be like okay then yeah I don't want him right but it is I mean it is fascinating like knowing this Donna even from graduation she truly is like my mom doesn't care I truly am an individual like I am like my own person so like now that I don't even have school anymore it's truly like just pure Independence to do whatever you want that like there's no one that can be that can be negatively affected by any of the the frivolity that she had yeah they honestly didn't dive as far into her relationship with her mom as I expected them to do in this movie also based on the fact that Cher is like the only thing that people talked about at all so that should be in more of the movie

39:05 um but I thought it was interesting that like so she says something about how her mom won't react well to foreign romances because she had had one and then it pays off the end with Danny Garcia but like I I was watching this being like I feel like what your mom is mad about is that you like went to Oxford and then like immediately went and got knocked up and then like lived on a Greek island for your whole life and it doesn't seem like you maybe did the best you could have done with the education that you were given based on that's true she's like she's like I'm singing eight days eight shows a week in Vegas to put you yeah to pay for Oxford I also still don't understand like how much of a girl group is like were they trying to be musicians or is this just a fun thing like us having a podcast where it's like the thing I do with my friends

39:51 yes but we're not like our life's goal is to like be professional podcasters you know is that the deal or were they like trying to be a real group well I thought you were that's why you got on true socialists to really expand our to promote yeah that's where everybody says the podcast Market is hottest it's true yeah well it's right right wing media baby yeah I'm sure tiger is going to be joining us um he did call me the SeaWorld a couple times while we were making arrangements so we were like waffling on it but we decided to go ahead with it yeah it's too big of a guess we just we just felt you know it was his frivolity just like Don yeah ultimate we love his his double maker

40:36 the idea that also we get we get Tucker Carlson to watch the pro shot of Legally blah myself into some Tucker at tea time you know what I mean yeah it does feel like this was just like a thing that they did because yeah even after they're like sorry what oh backtracked on the conversation yes the

41:23 Donna Donna and the dynamos does not it does not seem like they were ever trying to serious seriously pursue a girl group right yeah I don't think so but I like that they're I like their little friendship I like their friendship I do wish that we knew what they ended up doing like Rosie and Tom yeah because it felt like no they are such side care I kind of like that they are like the epitome of like you know nothing about them other than like one trait Rosie loves to eat cake and Tanya has a be still beating legit vagina she is a beating vagina funny how they interpreted the background is because you would think that like we would find out why Rosie is so you know down to earth while

42:08 Tanya is very like she looked like she could be high society but it on the this movie it was like no that was already who they were before College like yeah they've been themselves they were it's like Scooby-Doo yeah Tanya's had the same haircut her whole life to know this the same characteristic same haircut yeah because you know how everyone famously has the exact same haircut every person yeah yeah it just makes sense um did you tell the truth did you after you graduated college did you want to go back to Rome go on like a whirlwind European tour and just leave all your cares behind I hate traveling Oh this is another

42:56 thing that I feel Separates Me from the rest of humanity uh but really just like all of the millennial generation because that's like supposed to be the things you like are supposed to not want to buy a house and to travel the world or whatever yeah uh I find it logistically stressful I find it expensive I find that it's difficult to like you find travel expensive Molly I know um I know many people have you know millions of dollars to pull from for traveling and that's just not my circumstance but that's just that's just a weird thing about me um and what about your trust fund I just I know I know that trust says no you can't spend it on a summer in Greece I mean doesn't exist [Laughter]

43:43 um I had a kid cry to me today because she was like I keep losing at this game and I was like yeah and then she was like and then this like other staff person kept telling me just like I can't you can't skip turds and I was like yo you can't skip turns like you're trying to tell me the story like you're a victim but like I'm sorry I'm not gonna make you feel better okay anyway S I didn't want to do it yeah that's that's the attitude I come I come up with every problem a kid has I tell them stop telling me about this I'm not interested uh did I want to go no I don't enjoy traveling I didn't want to do that and I also feel like it's always people always talk about traveling it's like expanding your horizons and stuff like that and I feel like that's true to some extent but it's like very difficult to actually make deep enough connections with people

44:28 if you're like hopping around to like have a meaningful experience so I I'm always like a little distrustful of the idea of like oh I'm like so much more cultured because I like win around for a few weeks it's like but like how many conversations did you have with people from other countries through that experience I feel like you have to like actually move somewhere and like spend a good amount of time or you're gonna have real relationships with people so anyway uh no I didn't did I want to not have to figure out how to get a job for a little bit uh because that part was scary sure but I didn't want to uh procrastinate on that via doing a whirlwind Around the World trip sorry I feel like RJ and I did do this by way of moving to Disney World interesting

45:14 I wouldn't even say we moved to Orlando really I would say we moved to Disney World and then just were like well I felt like the the like expanding like experiences I think of when uh Adam one I took Adam to the Grand Canyon for the first time he had a genuine reaction of like I never knew I I my eyes could see something like this and I think like that's the part of like travel like traveling to have new experiences like the physical activity being a literal location my world view is bigger now because I'm seeing something completely there's like there's never a reason to travel or it's not like I also saw the Grand Canyon and I was like wow it really is very beautiful like I understand why this is a big thing that people want to go see so I'm not against all travel I just think that it is over

46:00 as like a concept of just like like travel is an inherent good yeah no questions about like where you're going how long you're going for what do you actually know about the place you're going to like I think there should be some questions of like what is worthwhile travel and what's not worthwhile travel I guess yeah the time when we went to monster Michelle in France was truly the most stressful time because we just when we got the we only planned as far as like the train to the area once again touch of the train we just knew that like there's a bus that you catch and then you get to the monster Michelle and literally when we got there I was like I don't know if this bus is going to come I'm just trusting this and I had you know we didn't buy for data so like I just trust that this number on this piece in the French just literally just trusting a

46:46 sign that's on this post that it'll happen trusting that there was no you know strikes going on it previously never strikes in France yeah never so like I am a person who like I need to know the logistics of the travel in order to actually enjoy it I'm not a person to be like let me just fly to wherever and then have no plan like the closest thing I did that too was when my family and I went to Venice for a day because it was like a like a tour like so we were in Venice for like a couple hours yeah and I was like I'm gonna just get lost and like just leave them because I know by 7 PM I need to be back into a place so it's like on Venice is like a very touristy City yeah I feel like it's not a place you're gonna get too lost in yeah I will also say in the like bringing it back to the movie that part of what I enjoyed about the Lily

47:31 James thing is that a skill I have acquired as an adult because I find travel so stressful as a real person that I've learned how to separate travel movies from real travel experiences and just be like I know it'll be fine for this character because I'm watching a movie and I'm not gonna stress about the logistics of like you missed your boat or whatever because otherwise it's a nightmare for me to watch anything with travel like almost 100 of my nightmares are about travel mishaps it's about like packing a suitcase last minute and like running late for things and whatever that is where all of my anxiety lives absolutely her arriving to the hotel in France with no one there I would be like well I'm sleeping on the street I guess I'm gonna die now I literally never see my family again yeah so ironic I mean that's a beautiful thank you Segway absolutely thank you Segway thank

48:17 you Segway um this movie while you would think well I mean we know that Donna is attached to Greece but this movie doesn't start in Greece because this movie has to start in Paris in order for them to sing Waterloo and it makes sense here's the thing I've been to Paris okay okay let me say yeah if my sister Leslie was listening she would be so mad that I brought it up again but your only time your only time in abroad Adams only only time I've ever brought up Paris um even when we've landed at Paris when the train was not working and we had no idea

49:05 yeah yeah that was even that was yeah trout sucks you're right Molly it's stressful don't do it sound off if you're a millennial who hates travel I want to start a little a little pause my famous let's make our own Discord this is so funny that RJ is agreeing with you because he makes fun of me for being a very stressed flyer I know I do yeah I'm an extremely anxious flyer you're not anxious about like crashing or like the logistics of I mean there's like I don't like turbulence but I think that's like human nature too many I don't like striking around in a box in the sky but I just like I get very if I'm not like early there was one time that I can't believe this is what we're talking about on this podcast but there was one time where we were flying to New York from Orlando

49:50 in the we had gotten an email from the airline that said your flight has been delayed by two hours but it was a direct flight so it was fine so we were like well we have all this time we'll just lay around at home a little bit it's not gonna be a big deal and then all of a sudden they emailed and it was like an hour and they were like oh just kidding your flight's back if they originally scheduled time and there was no way for us to have made it to the airport in time we tried awful we sped to the airport we were like flying 90 down the road we paid parking at the Airport valet so that we could like park it as quickly as possible and run in and then we I am I'm I have started to cry as we are running through the airport yeah we get one more email that says just kidding

50:36 it's back to being gone by two hours that should be illegal and I I could he collapsed I literally collapsed on the ground and started to weep yeah do do you remember the time that I went to the wrong Airport in Chicago I was flying to see my family I was flying out actually to Boston my it was my dad's 60th birthday I think so we were flying to surprise him he didn't know that my sister and I were both going to come in on his birthday and so I was texting my brother and he was trying to like respond to me under the table because he like didn't yeah my dad wasn't supposed to know that I was coming I was supposed to go to O'Hare and I went to Midway and I like I like went up to the security line and the guy like looked at my ticket and was

51:22 like well you're at the wrong Airport yeah but I made it crazy this is why we're all airport dads on this podcast I got in a cab and I was like I gotta get to the airport and he was like I'm on it and he got me there in time wow yeah graduation weekend for loyola's graduation my sister Diana was living in Virginia and so she flew into Chicago so my Mom and Leslie had driven over from Indiana they picked me up and then we were gonna go pick my sister up from the airport so we're having a good time my sister's playing alone my sister's never flown alone before it was her first time but well it was fine we're gonna go pick her up and we get to O'Hare and um we're driving through the like pickup

52:07 area or whatever and I'm on the phone with Diana and she was like I don't see you and I was like yeah but what what gate what do you stand like what's the number because there's like what terminal are you at and she was like I'm by door four and I was like no what terminal are you at and she was like it just says four there's like one I see one two three four and I was like there are no doors that have numbers here at O'Hare and she said but I'm not at O'Hare and I handed the phone to my other sister Leslie immediately because I was like I'm not no this is my graduation weekend I don't have to deal with it does should she go to Midway so so she had flown into Midway and my mom thought she flew into O'Hare and so we were out of here I thought for a

52:54 second because you said there were like four doors that it was like she flew into South bed like it was like not even in the right City no thank God she was at Midway but we were gonna stay in Evanston so Mom was like Diana I need you to take a cab to Evanston from Midway and my sister had never taken a cab alone before and she was like I don't know it was a really we still make fun of my mother for this because she messed up so bad yeah um anyway this is all fun so they're in Paris and you know how Paris cafes famously have a lot of space inside of them you know they never put the cafe tables next to each other there's tons and the other thing Paris loves and I'm sure you remember this too from when you've been is they love a

53:40 themed restaurant they're really in the themed restaurants yeah not Elegance or beauty or um strikes um so at this Diner Harry and Donna are break into a song called Waterloo by Abba yeah their Eurovision winning song Waterloo the V the song that started it all put them on the map yeah and there's something about how stupid it was when this movie when this when this happened in the movie the first time I saw it and I realized what this was doing once it like once you realize that it's not only is it themed but it's Napoleon themed it

54:25 has to be for the Waterloo joke to make sense I was like you know what and I do agree the first movie is not super serious but the first movie would have never done this like this is like a step too far I feel like for the first film I think it's a little too self-aware too little wink wink nod nod to the audience because I think the first one is still trying to be like we're do we're like updating the Greek comedy in like this fun way where we have the Greek chorus hahaha I don't even thought that hard about it but yeah I mean I think they're trying to make the ABBA songs make sense in a plot and not trying to work a plot around ABBA songs yeah and they really try to ground it on the like given circumstances of the story so that there's no other option but to sing

55:11 at this heightened moment right and I mean I will say if I was at this um Napoleon themed French restaurant I think I would be led to be singing Waterloo I mean what other song what other song about Napoleon are you gonna sing in Napoleon theme that's right you know what I'm saying so I guess that makes sense in that regard I do I think it is funny I I don't love when movie musicals or jukebox musicals do the thing where they structure plot around the songs that they want to put in yeah that being said I think this and Fernando are two of the funniest things this movie could have ever done because they are so [ __ ] Bonkers I mean look name a better uh stat piece about compulsory heterosexuality right you know what I mean yeah it's not a topic that we've we've seen enough

55:58 musical treatment on and the idea of having them sing Waterloo for Harry it's for Harry to be talking about uh his first and let's assume probably only time being with a woman yeah uh it's just it's really great it's genuinely very smart and yeah Waterloo is also my favorite ABBA song so I really enjoyed this one yeah yeah it's so fun also it's like so big it's very like there's some Busby Berkeley elements to it like it's like it is Busby it's very fun I like all the like dancers the like just random chorus people I just like there's like so many little like Tableau just like cut shots of like them moving around I just think it's feeding the

56:44 grapes yeah it's just all silly it's just very silly [Music] couldn't escape [Music] Sigma I also want to shout out the actor who plays Harry Young Harry's um who also plays his name also Harry but he's on fleabag yes he's on fleabag he's the he's the

57:30 boyfriend that she the overly sexy always overly sensitive boyfriend she's always breaking up with and gosh if this guy does not do a perfect job of playing a man that you would not fall in love with it's yeah he's so good at that you know what it is it's like giving like young Hugh Grant like when you know kind of that like Yahoo Grant who does not have the charm to pull who does not have the charm to pull it off what it's just like oh I see what you're trying to do but it's it just kind of you feel sorry for him like he's probably like extremely charismatic in real life you know what I mean like he's very handsome I'm sure that he's like he's like such a great people person in real life but he's so good at playing he's so good character yeah yeah because he's not afraid to like look dumb and like silly yeah he's perfectly

58:16 likable which is like yeah what is so nice what there is no villain in this movie I mean there's really no villain well there's that storm um nature documentary honestly yeah yeah um in a lot of ways this is twister you're right so I think it's important to remember that um yeah I like that like they don't make any of like Sam is obviously supposed to be the great guy but Bill's also like fun I just like it's all it's all just like it's like it it's the you know making rash decisions in your 20s like you you see someone for one thing and then they turn out to be another thing and it's just part of like top hat it's top hat sure in there's no villain in Top Hat okay

59:02 just circumstance it's a sitcom oh yeah the villain is the villain is not communicating yeah yeah the villain is our circumstances say that um so I I just like Waterloo I think it's great little number in the middle of this film so then we meet she goes to Greece she has sex with Harry sorry we do need to make that clear that's the only way that this one this this the prequel makes sense I feel like people understand that that's what has to happen unprotected it has to be unprotected three times yeah absolutely or you know there's a nine I protected three times oh with three different yeah

59:56 um so then she goes she tries to get to Greece uh not like real she just says like she just feels that she needs to go she just thinks she has to go to Greece yeah yeah and that's all you're given yeah the way her character is I also believe that she's a girl who was like somebody said grease to me once and I've thought about it ever since so I got I gotta just go just to see what it's like hard grease is the word so yes yeah because this is probably 1978 when this when this story is set sure wow don't they talk about at 70 something in the first movie I feel like they do name the summer they I think they I think you're right I think they do um it doesn't the timeline really doesn't

1:00:42 um take hold water when you like start to glance at it a little bit but it's fine it's not what we're here for so that's not what I care about when I watch a movie musical um so she meets bill they go sailboating because Bill is the the greatest salesman sailored yeah the greatest sailor in Europe and um they have a little they don't have a trist not yet their twist is later uh they end up on calcarei um where she stumbles upon a horse in a house what is this movie I'm trying to explain it as if it would make sense for me to explain it and it really doesn't it's Vibes movies vibes should we just I mean should we just

1:01:28 love Sam let's should we just talk about the three men sure the actors the young men the young men yes okay I was so hot for bill when I saw it in theaters I love the three I think Bill is the house I I would not which is funny because the of the older the older ones he's the least hot Stone yeah who do you think is the hottest of the older ones because I would say Colin Perth for sure in the first one I would say it's Pierce brosn but in this one I would say it's Colin first oh okay because there's something about the way he saw the way Colin first got salt and peppery in the 10 years between I was like oh my God a gentleman a gentleman caller uh yeah I think I wouldn't I don't blame I don't blame young Donna for you know celebrating I celebrate

1:02:15 yeah seeing this beautiful man on this beautiful boat I would be like yeah maybe this you know what I had that feeling and it's right here I mean I would never get on a boat with a man I just met that's an insane thing to do but um then the other thing I like about the prequel and then that's kind of all I really want to talk about is uh the friends come and visit Greece and this is where they go to because they're gonna perform at the at the bar we need the origin story we need the origin story of how they wrote the song Mamma Mia because in this because in the world of the show they are writing Visa

1:03:01 well this is weird because we don't know yeah I thought it was bold that like to the B-side thing that you said earlier RJ I was nervous going into this that I thought so they used up most of the famous songs already absolutely um and so that was both they were just like do you know what we're just gonna do them again we can't do it again but I would say in this one I do think they're better placed because I think in Mamma Mia the original they're so early that then you're like when they did I have a dream I was like oh yeah it fits a lot better for like I'm looking at the hotel and I'm thinking about what it could be rather than or even like Pierce Brosnan song when he does the SOS reprise does it count as a reprice okay that I could not handle them trying to use it in like this true to like let me think about myself sorrow

1:03:55 um but I did like the the origin story of mom yeah like that yeah she's singing from heartache hottie does feel good at a place like this yeah it's true this movie doesn't I mean she is spent so much of this movie being Lily James's character young Donna yeah the character named young Donna it's been so much of this movie being so light effervescent bubbly fluffy just like whatever but that is not the only thing they give her character to do she does have this like you know whatever this moment of sadness about Sam kind of like breaking her heart a little bit and then we do actually get this really cool I I think like what the reason we're doing this from for Mother's Day obviously is the like the Sophie coming into the world of

1:04:40 it all um well anything else we want to talk about the prequel the men anybody um I mean Sam is fine I I believe that they fell in love because they showed me them being in love but there's something really remarkable about the actual like events between them uh [Music] yeah yeah it's just there she's on vacation she falls in love Yeah that's what happens I mean I really do think the prequel aspect of the movie would not have worked if they didn't have someone as game as Lily James yeah yeah which is so funny because she was so not this in Downton Abbey like she was

1:05:27 frumpy yeah she was like very what yes I'm down Abby yes yes she's like the hot young cousin that's like coming in and having adventures and stuff she is she is the young cousin it wasn't like she was not I don't think her character is supposed to be hot when she first enters the show it felt very much like oh we have to take care of her like we gotta take care of this one she was like she was like yes so maybe she was like young but she wasn't frumpy she wasn't like a maid character yeah or something yeah she wasn't like yeah she wasn't Edith because it's famously the one who they're like God why are you so hideous she's like okay and then she gets to marry like a count or whatever and she gets like the biggest title of all of them I don't know I know what happens at

1:06:12 the end of the show I refuse to watch the movies I've I enjoyed Downton Abbey when it was first on but like girl you do not you do not think I'm gonna watch all of this content do you it doesn't sustain itself for that amount of time yeah why did you stop at the rape of the end of yeah yeah that was like it was really tough to watch we saw we saw him get him and then we were like okay yeah or he dies we don't know does he kill him we don't know did he do it um but the rapist does die so I guess that's good I don't know what are we doing it should have been like three seasons and done really yeah yeah yeah um okay enough about that I would I do want to say my last part is that I do I have to say and I'm going to say it again later when we get to MVP but the Young

1:06:58 the young girl yeah tell us about it this young girl who played Christine baransi's character Tanya Tanya Jessica Keenan Nguyen plays young Tanya and I just this is this is remarkable casting this is Brilliance this is this is someone who has studied Christine Baranski uh through multiple forms of media through many years and really gets what makes Christine branski tick and I just think it's a an indelible performance to be quite honest she's a Broadway girly she was in Heather's the musical she was a Heather she was a Heather Heather C oh wait wait try there Heather Chandler which one oh she was Heather oh that's is that Rose McGowan no okay

1:07:45 um no I don't know what her name is in the 80s movie but she's the she's the main one but now that you say that and I've seen like video clips of them recording the original cast album I totally agree yeah yeah moving on to the sequel part two of them um Amanda Seyfried Amanda Seyfried star and actress star and actress absolutely that is correct that's absolutely correct thank you which I do think I like does she have a do people just think star no because I think people regard her as a great a good actress right yeah I was a great actress but I just think that's your job every time you know what I mean and in a way that's generally more interesting to me than the way that

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