Dive into the heart of Jackson, Mississippi, with us as we unravel the complex tapestry of "The Help," examining its portrayal of the Civil Rights Movement and the powerful performances that brought this story to life. Katy and I explore the delicate balance of humor and drama in the film, as well as the critical 'white savior' trope it manages to both engage with and sidestep. As we dissect the layered ending, we question whether the comedic elements, exemplified by the infamous pie scene, cast too light a shadow over the grim reality of racism during the era.
Join us for an insightful conversation that also spans the wider scope of racial narratives in cinema, such as our take on "42" and Chadwick Boseman's portrayal of Jackie Robinson. We pay homage to Octavia Spencer’s Oscar triumph, and consider the film's place within the IMDB top 250. Our chat wraps up with a teasing glimpse into our next episode, where we'll introduce Katie to the beloved "The Iron Giant." The ratings are in, and "The Help" leaves us with a mix of high marks and poignant reflections, all before inviting you, our listeners, to suggest your movie picks for future episodes.
Dive into the heart of Jackson, Mississippi, with us as we unravel the complex tapestry of "The Help," examining its portrayal of the Civil Rights Movement and the powerful performances that brought this story to life. Katy and I explore the delicate balance of humor and drama in the film, as well as the critical 'white savior' trope it manages to both engage with and sidestep. As we dissect the layered ending, we question whether the comedic elements, exemplified by the infamous pie scene, cast too light a shadow over the grim reality of racism during the era.
Join us for an insightful conversation that also spans the wider scope of racial narratives in cinema, such as our take on "42" and Chadwick Boseman's portrayal of Jackie Robinson. We pay homage to Octavia Spencer’s Oscar triumph, and consider the film's place within the IMDB top 250. Our chat wraps up with a teasing glimpse into our next episode, where we'll introduce Katie to the beloved "The Iron Giant." The ratings are in, and "The Help" leaves us with a mix of high marks and poignant reflections, all before inviting you, our listeners, to suggest your movie picks for future episodes.
One's a movie buff, one watches movies, just enough Together. Fun will be had by all. This is Nady and Katie at the Movies.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to a brand new episode of Nady and Katie at the Movies. I am your host, nathan aka Nady, of course, and with me, as always on this movie journey, is a good friend, katie, that's me.
Speaker 3:Hi, katie, how are you? I'm great I'm cooking up dinner while we chat. And small plug for Trader Joe's fried rice. It is like easy, delicious, great base. I always add broccoli and eggs and chicken, so short is plug. If you have Trader Joe's nearby, hit it up, which reminds me of what we watched speaking of fried rice.
Speaker 2:What I was going to say. Trader Joe's, you should become a sponsor of the show. That was a really good plug, but we are going to talk about a movie that has something to do with cooking a little bit. We had to replace our original final episode for February with this movie we're about to talk about, and that is the Help. And before we can get into any of our thoughts about this movie, we've got to go over the synopsis. An inspiring author during the Civil Rights Movement who decides to write a book detailing the African American maid's point of view on the white families for which they work and the hardship they go through on a daily basis.
Speaker 2:The Help stars Viola Davis, emma Stone, octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard, who is the daughter of Ron Howard, the famous director, and she's also directed a few episodes of the Mandalorian, which are probably sometimes some of the best episodes. She's a pretty good director, but that's besides the point. She plays a horrible character in this movie. So let's get right into it. Katie, have you ever seen the Help before, and what did you think of it?
Speaker 3:I had seen the Help before, but it had been a long time. I definitely hadn't seen it recently and I had forgotten what a star-studded cast this was Like incredible. The cast that was in it, In fact, was it Leslie Jordan in it? Not at the beginning.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:From the great state of Tennessee. He was a very small kind of cameo cute part, but I will say it was kind of funny watching. I said this in our last episode but watching Emma Stone from Poor Things, watching her, this was kind of her breakout role, if I remember, and so watching her is very dorky, weirdo was totally. It was very, very interesting seeing her play. I mean it shows you what a good actress she is, to be honest, to show how diverse doll she is. I'm assuming you've seen it before. Did you feel the same way seeing it then as you do now?
Speaker 2:Well, I had seen this movie before. I liked it so much that apparently I went out and bought it on Blu-ray, so I didn't even have to stream it. I own it and I watched it and I loved it all over again. This movie just does a really good job to show the time period that's being covered, the horrible things that these African-American maids had to go through on a daily basis, and I just thought it was a phenomenal movie, acting well fleshed out characters. I liked how there was a lot of humor mixed in with the drama, so it wasn't just like a dramatic film the whole entire time and there was nothing to be inspired by. I was curious on your thoughts on this. I know there are a lot of films out there about the African-Americans experience and there always tends to need to be a white character in it. Do you think that some people might consider this a white savior film?
Speaker 3:100%. This would be by many considered a white savior film because Emma Stone's character it wasn't for her who wrote the book and shine the light on it and actually was a listening ear Then supposedly these women would never be how their voice is heard. But I would argue against that. I actually disagree. I personally do not think this is a white savior book or movie sorry, or both Rather. Because when you get to the end you don't spoil the exact ending, but in the end she wins and she gets something that she wants. She gets to go on and be a writer and they do open up people's eyes in their hometown of Jackson, mississippi, to some of these injustices, but it doesn't necessarily make things better for the African-American people living there. It probably makes it temporarily worse. So I don't know. I didn't feel like she was necessarily a savior. She didn't save them and I think that the characters I think Minnie is one of them like the two main maids played by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer, they for me were the strongest characters and I did not feel this sense of white savior.
Speaker 3:My only knock from the racial standpoint might be that it almost made light of something that's such a heavy topic. I was thinking there's a very memorable scene. Even people that haven't seen the movie know the scene where Minnie makes a pie like a chocolate chest pie. She puts her own crap in it and then she like gives it to this really mean the main villain girl, but like that's funny and you're laughing. But if you think about this as a real story and real life, jackson Mississippi, like she would have been arrested, possibly hung for that, so it's like it's not funny. So I do think there was a little bit of that kind of made light of some of those things and I don't know I think I'll get into it later, but I don't know that she necessarily was trying to make this a a piece about the black culture. I think it was more so just a piece about what it's like in Mississippi. So any critiques I have of the racial dynamic, I would almost say well, she wasn't going for that.
Speaker 2:Well, and it's funny you say that because I literally just said that one of my likes is the humor mixed with the dramatic moments, and I would say that would be one of those moments, because it did try to bring some levity to a topic that's very, very heavy. And I've never read the book that this movie is based on. I also heard about articles that Viola Davis actually came back years later saying how she kind of regrets doing this movie, and I don't know if it's because of those reasons that you gave. I never really delve into the reasons why she didn't like making this movie. I don't know if it was because of Emma Stone's character being considered a white savior or something like that. I don't know.
Speaker 2:All I know is I remember seeing this and I remember watching it again and it got me at the exact same parts. The emotions got me. I ended up crying at the end of the movie, just like I did probably the first time I watched it, which is probably why I bought it on Blu-ray, because this is just a very well-acted movie and if you've listened to the show before, if it's a well-acted movie, I'm going to give it high praise. And that's what this movie was, and my only dislike and this is kind of like a joke dislike, the only dislike is that the movie made me cry. Did you have any other dislikes?
Speaker 2:I know you mentioned about kind of like two of them. Were there any other ones that you had?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean to go into some of the likes. I definitely, I really liked the Jackson Mississippi culture. I think they did a good job of like representing it and I think they did not shy away from the evils of what was going on in that time. They definitely hit some of those topics, but not in a way that you and I sometimes feel like it's a little too heavy-handed. It did not feel extremely heavy-handed. It definitely made you very, very so much care about everyone involved in the story. I thought the character, like you said, acting was incredible, but also the characters themselves. From the story standpoint, the characters were so dynamic.
Speaker 3:I appreciated that there were times where the maids were maybe making choices that were not good. Like you know, one of them stole from one of the women. But then you also see how horribly they're treated, the irony of the fact that they're not allowed to use the white bathrooms but they're allowed to like kits all over and take care of and raise the children. Like that, just so. It doesn't make sense. But then also even you saw one scene there's a girl who's kind of like left out, she's like ostracized because she's not from around there and she's a white girl. But you see, even many the maids see that like, hey, we have it really horrible. But it doesn't mean that the lives of every white person are PGKin perfect either. Not dealing with the same stressors, of course. But it's not all a cakewalk, I don't know, I just I feel like there was a humanness. It was kind of a female film for me of like you got to see two different races say, hey, wait, sometimes women deal with the same thing, no matter what race we are.
Speaker 2:I just think it was a very well done movie, like all the way around, and so did you know that the director knows the author Like?
Speaker 3:they're like besties.
Speaker 2:No, I didn't know that. See little two.
Speaker 3:And they're also besties with Octavia Spencer, who she has not said anything about disliking the movie. You were right that Biola Davis has come out and been like I regret filming that. I don't know if that's kind of this new, newer culture we're a part of, but if it's not extremely condemning. Octavia Spencer still really stands by this movie, but she's also friends with the people that made it. Do you feel like this is a movie that people should watch, or are there other better movies that would have fit maybe in a? You know, if we had just been intentionally picking a Black History Month movie, what would you say would be your top choice?
Speaker 2:Well, I think some people will. You know, we live in a world where everyone gets offended by something. I think some people might get offended that we picked a movie called the Help about maids and servants and things like that, when there are other films out there, like I mentioned, glory, which is about this during the Civil War, a very, very good movie with Denzel Washington, morgan Freeman, matthew Broderick Just that movie is fantastic. And then you have movies called like 42 about Jackie Robinson. Chadwick Boseman plays him in that.
Speaker 2:I started watching that and I already was like they kind of did the white savior thing with Jackie Robinson, because Harrison Ford's in it and he plays the coach who basically hires Jackie Robinson and does it because he wants to show people that he's different and that kind of stuff. So that movie right there already kind of set itself up as a white savior film. And so I'm sure there are a lot of movies out there and you know, if you're listening and you have movies that you would like to recommend to people or to us that probably do a better job of highlighting and not so much showing just the depressing parts of the African American history than by all means. But this is, this is the movie that was on the IMDB top 250 movies of all time list, so this is the one we we picked, and it's a movie that Katie and I both enjoy, so yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, and it got. It was nominated for a lot of awards, and so I mean, I think Octavia Spencer got a Oscar, if I'm not mistaken. So at the very least it was, you know, allowing black voices to be heard and in the awards category. But golly, nathan, I think I just can't. I don't have a ton of negative to say other than I didn't like the ending. It doesn't really wrap up nicely, but neither did the real life Mississippi, jack from Mississippi at that time. Let's move on from the hell. Good, good movie. Are we going to have such luck with our next one?
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know. Let's take a listen to what we're going to be watching. Next episode, the first episode in March.
Speaker 1:Two nights ago, a Seccom radar detected an unidentified object entering Earth's atmosphere. Some assumed it was a large meteor or a downed satellite. This is no meteor, gentlemen. This is something much more dangerous. So I guess you're not going to hurt me huh, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 1:This is the greatest discovery since television or something. Hey, big metal guy, I got food here for you, my only giant robot. I am now the luckiest kid in America. The Zines, the Zines, all systems go Blast off. Hey there, scout. Get Manzley, I work for the government. Why would you tell your mom about a giant robot, mom? Little privacy, sorry. What are you talking about? Where's the giant? For some reason, the army is in our front yard. Mr Manzley, we must stop it at all costs. Go to Cogren, repeat Cogren, we've got to help him. Hogarth, no, we've got to hide. Hey, stop, there's a kid in his hand. You can't protect him. Hogarth Run. Warner Brothers Family Entertainment presents Hogarth, the story of a young boy Look out for the boss. And a giant from another world you can fly. Who became a hero on this one? You can fly the Iron Giant.
Speaker 2:The Iron Giant, which I don't know. If you know this, katie, I don't know if you've ever seen the Iron Giant. Have you ever seen the Iron Giant before?
Speaker 3:I'm not going to lie, I've never even heard of this.
Speaker 2:Holy schnikes, I can't wait. Well, maybe I'll wait till you watch it and then I'll give you the secret tidbit on the Iron Giant episode. Yeah, that's what I'll do. So that's what we'll be watching next time. It is on our 250 movies of all time and it's a great film. So that's what we'll be watching. But before we end this episode, we got to rate the help. So, Katie, what would you give the help? One out of six stars.
Speaker 3:It did make me laugh and cry, but because maybe there's some flaws in what the movie could have been. The author didn't really do much research at all. The movie is just literally based on her version of the self and her maid that she had when she was growing up. So I do feel like it didn't have Carrie quite the same weight it could have. So it can't give it as good of a score. I mean it's still a dang good movie, so five.
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to give it a pretty dang good score. I'm going to give it a perfect six out of six. It entertained me. The acting was fantastic. The story wasn't pelling. It made me cry at the end. That little girl, darn it, that little girl. Every time. It was just a fantastic movie and I highly recommend it. Watch it, even if you don't own it on Blu-ray, like I do Watch it it's on Hulu. Katie, do you have anything to end this episode with?
Speaker 3:You is smart, you is kind and you is important.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to Nadie and Katie at the Movies. Feel free to leave us a review so people can find the show. Follow us on all our social media platforms and if there's a movie that you want us to watch, feel free to contact us at nadieandkadyatgmailcom. Thanks for listening and have a great day.