Transcript: Special Episode - STEEL MAGNOLIAS!

We had so much to say in our special episode all about Steel Magnolias, the transcript needed its own post! So here it is:

Nikki: Welcome Salina.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: This is very exciting. And welcome everyone else.

Salina: Welcome.

Nikki: You have to say, hey, y'all.

Salina: Sorry. I'm sorry. I'm so excited. Hey, y'all.

Nikki: We have a very special episode this week.

Salina: The most special, the most probably the most this is a mic drop, walk away moment.

Nikki: Are you telling me you're in the podcast after?

Salina: I'm not, but like, I would feel satisfied. Like I'd had a meal.

Nikki: This one in some ways you said it in the last episode - like this is like the ultimate. This is what we started out to do. This does feel like the one where if we were brainstorming the podcast three years ago or whatever, this would have been what we would have wanted to cover. Should we tell them what we want to cover today?

Salina: That would probably be helpful. Yeah.

Nikki: We're finally going to deep dive into Steel Magnolias. It felt like it deserved its own episode, a whole solid episode.

Nikki: So as a reminder, last week we covered the designing women two parter the first day of the last decade of the entire 20th century.

Nikki: We called that one babies Cars and Dolly Parton.

Nikki: But we had two really big references that fall right in the wheelhouse of a podcast about the south and southern representation on TV.

Nikki: Dolly Parton, our queen, an angel on earth and Steel Magnolias.

Nikki: We got both of those references in one episode.

Nikki: So it felt like let's do totally separate episodes on those.

Nikki: So we're going to focus on Steel Magnolias with this episode and then this week's extra sugar is going to be Dolly Parton.

Nikki: I'm calling it a deep dive on Dolly.

Salina: Love it.

Nikki: That's where we are.

Nikki: That's this week.

Salina: Wonderful.

Salina: Well, before we get into the actual move and all the things there are to cover there, I thought we could just loosen up a little, do a little warm up, if you will.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Are you ready for this?

Salina: All right.

Nikki: Is this going to take any energy from me?

Nikki: Because I got to hold on to my energy.

Salina: I don't think so.

Salina: I think it's just a question.

Nikki: Oh, I like questions.

Salina: But before you answer, I think I can take a guess.

Salina: But my question is who is your favorite still Magnolia's character?

Nikki: Oh, gosh.

Salina: Here's my guess while you're thinking.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: Oh, do you know?

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So I think you love them all.

Salina: I think that's what you would say.

Salina: But if you had to pick, if you had to make a selection, you're going to say Truvi.

Salina: I'm wrong.

Salina: Oh, my God, I'm wrong.

Nikki: Let me tell you this.

Nikki: I think my answer would change on different viewings.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I think you might catch me say one character, Truvi, is definitely a top.

Salina: Sure.

Nikki: The other character that I really love a lot is Sally Field's character.

Nikki: And I think Melin reminds me of Sally Field in general, reminds me of my mom.

Nikki: There's something about they both have brown demeanors.

Nikki: There's something about the way they're sort of a little bit low key, but also I don't know.

Nikki: And so this time, watching it in particular, I was struck by how much she reminds me of my mother.

Nikki: And I think there's a little bit of a tug to that that makes me feel like, oh, that's mom.

Nikki: And I've thought that throughout the years watching this movie.

Nikki: So I think you asked me that today.

Nikki: That's my answer today.

Nikki: I also really love Truvi.

Nikki: Annel probably never really makes my list, just to be honest.

Nikki: But I think every other character on.

Salina: Different days, probably almost, maybe not Annele.

Salina: And it's not that I don't love that character.

Salina: I do.

Salina: There's just a couple of things over the course of the movie where it's a little cringey for me.

Salina: Do you want to take a shot at Mine Weezer?

Salina: It's a tie between Clary and Weezer.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: But yeah, she's amazing.

Nikki: They're both amazing.

Salina: Well, a twist on that question, maybe.

Salina: I think it just depends on who you are.

Salina: Who do you identify the most with Weezer?

Salina: Is it really?

Nikki: I don't think so.

Nikki: I don't think so.

Salina: She seems a little salty for you.

Nikki: That's such a good question.

Nikki: And this is the perfect time for me to think about who it would be.

Nikki: I think probably there have been times because of where we are in life that it's been Shelby, because just sort of taking those big steps in her life that she's taking over the course of the movie, from getting married to having a baby.

Nikki: Obviously, I don't identify with the health issues at all, so I don't understand that part of life at all.

Nikki: But I think some of the things she says about wanting a family and some of the things I kind of could identify with her, probably.

Nikki: Okay, but then also weezerouch.

Salina: Well, I think anytime you have these ensemble casts anyway, it's kind of like all these pieces are a part of a person.

Salina: Right.

Salina: And I think that's what makes something so strong is because then you can really maybe identify at least a hair with everyone.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Do you want to take a guess with who I can most identify with?

Nikki: Spud.

Salina: Some weeks, yes.

Salina: Casey does call me EOR from time to time.

Nikki: I almost see you as a Truvie.

Salina: Almost.

Salina: Really?

Salina: What a high compliment.

Salina: So mine's weezer.

Salina: When Weezer rounds the corner early on in the movie and says, this is it.

Salina: I found it.

Salina: I'm in h***.

Nikki: It's not like her bag falling off her shoulder.

Nikki: That's you on a Monday.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So all I could think was, good God, it's me.

Salina: And I just really feel like that's kind of who, even if that's not who I'm portraying to people on the outside.

Salina: Because I don't know.

Salina: I don't try and show that side of myself immediately to someone, because that's a lot.

Salina: But that's who my insides have always been.

Salina: I mean, possibly even when I was like five years old, I could always just kind of identify with Lisa.

Salina: I was like, I get this lady.

Salina: I get this.

Nikki: She makes sense to me.

Salina: Yeah, she's making some solid arguments.

Salina: She also has more money than God.

Nikki: Okay.

Nikki: Just been in a really bad mood for 40 years.

Salina: I mean, haven't we all?

Salina: Closing in on it.

Salina: So what I wanted to do past that was start off with some basics because I think we do need to do a little scene setting.

Salina: I mean, maybe not everyone listening to this, for one, has seen it turn this off and go watch it for sure.

Salina: But number two, right, if you haven't watched it in a while, this might be a little bit of a refresh for you so we can start off from a similar place.

Salina: First of all, we're not going to be holding back on spoilers.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: This is a deep dive.

Salina: This is a celebration of a 33 year old movie.

Salina: So in fact, I'm going to be spoiling it in about 25 seconds or so.

Salina: So you've been warned.

Salina: Still Magnolias is about this is our synopsis.

Salina: We're going to start off like any Designing Women episode except make it Still Magnolias.

Salina: It's about a group of Southern women whose friendship helps them cope through the trials and tribulations of life and death in a small Louisiana parish.

Salina: And don't fret, Nikki, I did look across about three different synopsis that I.

Nikki: Didn'T care for to make this one.

Salina: I was like, it had to be perfect.

Salina: Wrong.

Salina: Wrong.

Salina: Although I will say because I think depending on who you talk to, they might think it's Shelby's movie or they think it's Melin's movie or they think it's a Nell's movie.

Salina: So I think there's probably an argument.

Nikki: For all someone thinks it's a Nell's movie.

Salina: Oh, we're going to get there.

Salina: Oh, gosh, actually, yeah, IMDb does.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So the movie premiered on November 15, as you told us in episode 13.

Salina: Now that I've said a number.

Salina: November 15, 1989.

Salina: Starring Sally Field, Shirley McClain Olympia Dukakis These were all Academy Award winners at the time as well as Dolly Parton, Darryl Hannah and then breakout star Julia Roberts, who would go on to win an Academy Award herself in 2001.

Salina: Supporting cast included tom Scarrett, Dylan McDermott not to be confused with Dermot Mulroney, Sam Shepard and Kevin J.

Salina: O'Connor.

Salina: That was off the cuff.

Nikki: Thank you.

Salina: Pop culture did real good.

Salina: It was directed by Herbert Ross, who will just talk about a little bit more in the trivia section.

Salina: It's important, I think, to understanding the background of the movie, but the screenplay was written by Robert Harling, who we have talked about a little bit, but I feel like this is pretty well known.

Salina: But for those who don't know, Still Magnolias is a film adaptation of Harling's 1987 play of the same name.

Salina: It is based in part on his sister, Susan Harling Robinson, who died in 1985 of complications from type one diabetes.

Salina: In my research, I realized that he has actually written three of my all time favorite movies and the most rewatched movies of my entire life.

Nikki: That's good to know.

Nikki: Tell me more.

Salina: It blew my mind when I saw it just because, I mean, I think, you know, what a movie person I am.

Salina: It's like such an integral part of my life.

Salina: And so it was these two movies, as well as Still Magnolia's, I was just like, what is happening?

Salina: Soap dish and the First Wives Club.

Salina: These are two additional movies that I have just seen a trillion times.

Nikki: I don't know.

Nikki: Soap Dish.

Salina: Nikki, get out your movie list, okay?

Salina: Because it's going on there.

Salina: So while Nikki puts us on her movie list because it is her turn this next time.

Salina: Despite an initial limited release, still Magnolia debuted at number four at the box office, and it stayed in the top ten for 16 weeks, grossing more than 83.7 million domestically, or a little over 200 million today.

Salina: That is a really darn impressive dramedy.

Salina: That doesn't happen every day.

Salina: I don't even know if that would happen today, honestly.

Salina: The landscape is just so incredibly different.

Salina: If it's not a franchise, it just doesn't see those kinds of numbers anymore unless it's some sort of really weird phenomenon.

Salina: So this was a unique moment.

Salina: So critical reception was somewhat mixed.

Salina: It had a 68% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics.

Salina: That is 68% of 34 critics.

Salina: Reviews are positive.

Salina: I always have to go back and look at that because that is just a little bit of a brain breaker for me.

Salina: And then 89% audience score.

Nikki: So it means 30 some odd percent of critics were wrong.

Salina: That's right.

Nikki: Not what I'm hearing.

Salina: That's what I think you're hearing.

Nikki: A third of critics just have bad taste.

Salina: And I didn't look at all.

Salina: Okay?

Salina: I really just looked at Roger Ebert's.

Salina: I can't help but hearken back to when we first started covering Designing Women.

Salina: I think it was at the end of season one.

Salina: We talked a little bit about the critical reception and how when you looked across all of it was all men being like, what's all these women?

Salina: Why is it all these women talking about their periods?

Salina: I mean, it wasn't exactly that, but kind of.

Salina: So I can't help but wonder if some of that is in the sauce.

Salina: Julia roberts won a golden globe for best supporting actress.

Salina: She and Sally Phil were also nominated for an Academy Award that season for Best Supporting and Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress respectively.

Salina: It was Robert's third movie and it was her first nomination.

Salina: So the movie won.

Salina: Favorite drama?

Salina: Motion picture at the People's Choice Awards.

Salina: This is going off pure memory, so I apologize if I get this wrong, but funnily enough, with things that we've discussed already this season.

Salina: I think it tied with Batman that year.

Nikki: What a good year.

Salina: Batman, man.

Salina: We just didn't know what was coming.

Nikki: It's true.

Salina: Anybody want a Marvel movie?

Salina: So I'm going to stop here briefly before we dive in.

Salina: Because again, that was just scene setting.

Salina: Nikki, don't feel like you have to, but if you had any initial reactions or anything that's just out there for you already, I want to give you an opportunity to jump in.

Nikki: Well, I'm afraid to say too much because I don't know what else you have.

Nikki: But I think the writer basing the story on his sister is once you know that, I feel like it adds a layer to your view of the movie because you said it's based in part on his story with his sister.

Nikki: It sounds like Shelby's story tracks pretty closely with his sister's story, like wanting to have a baby even though doctors told her she shouldn't.

Nikki: I read some things or I've read things over the years where he says that.

Salina: His mother.

Nikki: So this dynamic between Melin and Shelby is always a little bit tense.

Nikki: And it sounds like his mother's interaction with his sister about this particular topic were intense as well.

Nikki: And he was a little bit afraid that when his mom saw it, she was just going to feel some sort of negative way because it hurts to see that played out in front of you.

Nikki: But he thinks actually it was really cathartic for her.

Nikki: And again, I think in some watches because I've seen this movie so many times, my opinion of things changes dynamically with it along with my life context.

Nikki: And there are times I watch Melin where I'm like, she's such a pain in the b***.

Nikki: Like Shelby just wants to live her life.

Nikki: And then now mom had on I watch it and I'm like, she's just trying to protect her baby.

Nikki: And it's just like all these varying layers.

Nikki: So that's the thing of all the stuff you just talked about, the writer's perspective and where it was coming from blows my mind every time.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I'm just going to also give a full disclosure here that I talked to my mom about this movie yesterday and full on sobbed talking to her.

Salina: And I was like, god, I hope this gets some of it out.

Salina: Because I don't mind crying here as much as I mind the fact that you can't understand what I'm saying any longer.

Salina: But I was recounting some of the things my mom didn't know.

Salina: It was based on the play, which blows my mind.

Salina: But I was walking her through once I learned that some of the factoids that we'll go through today and just I couldn't even get through it.

Salina: And I was just like, and when.

Nikki: You can't talk, it's kind of the worst kind of crying.

Salina: Well, and so I don't know how good that would be for an audio medium.

Nikki: The other thing I'll say about at some point, I probably owe it to myself to watch the play in some sort of way.

Nikki: But I have to tell you, the scenes, I don't care for plays.

Nikki: And the scene setting, honestly, of this movie is part of what makes it what it is to me.

Nikki: Because even though we don't live in Louisiana, the things they show feel Southern to me.

Nikki: They feel like life experience.

Nikki: And so the scene setting is so important.

Nikki: And so I play set in a beauty parlor the entire time.

Nikki: Hard for me to imagine.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: So that would be hard for me to give up from the movie.

Salina: I understand that.

Salina: I do.

Nikki: So apparently it was a good play.

Salina: People loved it.

Salina: I think that is definitely accurate.

Salina: And we'll talk about that as well.

Salina: So, just in terms of general thoughts, I think I'm already getting a little bit of a glimpse of maybe some of the things that you're talking about.

Salina: And it's funny, as you were kind of giving your opening to things, it had me thinking a little bit about what I wasn't able to articulate as I was going through this.

Salina: But yet the way that you feel about this movie, because it's been a part of our lives for so long, it really does change over time.

Salina: And you may identify with a particular storyline or something, just depending on where you are in your life.

Salina: And I think that's really something.

Salina: But what other general thoughts did you have that you want to share?

Nikki: Well, you know something, when I was watching it this year, because this is I mean, I've probably watched it, I watch it every year around Easter.

Nikki: Let me say that first.

Nikki: This is my Easter movie.

Nikki: I have holiday movies, and it's not the holidays till I watch it.

Nikki: This is my Easter movie and it's not Easter until I've watched this movie.

Nikki: So it perfectly coincided I know it perfectly coincided with Easter this year, but every time I watch it, like you said, I notice new things.

Nikki: But one thing that strikes me, and we've been doing this podcast for a few years now, looking at an 80s TV show now ninety s, and we point out all these things that are really dated in the storyline.

Nikki: This movie holds up really well given that it's 33 years old.

Nikki: We have a section, I think, later in the show where we're going to talk about some 80s things and some dated things.

Nikki: So there are definitely things that stick out as old.

Nikki: But by and large, there are no off color sayings.

Nikki: There's nothing really offensive in the movie that doesn't hold up.

Nikki: There's not a ton that dates.

Nikki: It like there's not a ton of pop culture references.

Nikki: There's not a ton of things that are of that time that's really rare to come across a movie made in the late eighty s that I don't watch and say, like, this is an 80s movie.

Nikki: It's starting to look a little old, but it feels relevant to me.

Salina: And I think some of that might be that small town vibe, right?

Salina: Small towns are always a little slower.

Salina: And I don't mean that in a bad way at all.

Salina: It's not as quick pace as even being in the suburbs.

Salina: And I think when you are dealing with those basic tenets of life, life, death and weddings and having babies, those things march on, no matter what iPhone version you have in your hand now.

Salina: Okay, I don't know if this sounds weird, but I'll just say it.

Salina: Watching this movie makes me feel very proud to be a woman.

Salina: Their strength, their intuition, and their bond in this movie is so beautiful.

Salina: And it's beautiful in real life, too.

Salina: And you already mentioned that complicated relationship between Shelby and Melin.

Salina: And I would just say it captures that complicated and sacred relationship between mother and daughter, and it captures also that relationship between best friends.

Salina: In some cases.

Salina: It can be both for people, right?

Salina: And in both situations, whether it be your best friend, your mom, or both, you may aggravate the crap out of each other sometimes, but we love each other all the time.

Nikki: And it's cool that it's almost intergenerational in some ways.

Nikki: I think it was really genius to put Melin at a certain age.

Nikki: Then you have Weezer and Clary at a certain age.

Nikki: You have Shelby at a certain age, who kind of I think she and Annele are probably about the same age, with Shelby maybe airing a little younger, living two totally different life experiences, but all of these differences and they still sort of come together in that universal experience of being a woman and walking through life together.

Nikki: And yeah, I agree with you.

Nikki: I think that's it's genius.

Nikki: It's just genius.

Salina: It's genius.

Nikki: Can I tell you, there are some sign, some scenes that make me cry, like, no matter how many times I've seen them, no matter what, I know is coming.

Nikki: So when I was watching this for this episode, I had to split it up over two days.

Nikki: And I watched it in the morning before my daughter came down, and I was watching it one morning when she came down the stairs, and it was the part where Shelby collapses on the floor and Jackson comes home to the baby crying.

Nikki: And I was in full on, and she didn't have any of the context, so she was like, what is happening in this movie?

Salina: And I was like, she's on the ground because she's going to die.

Nikki: She's looking at me like I'm a crazy person.

Nikki: That scene will make me cry every freaking time.

Salina: Every time.

Salina: When Melin runs out of cry and.

Nikki: When Melin runs out of the hospital to go get Jack Jr.

Nikki: Something about that entire scene when she runs out of the hospital.

Nikki: She gets in the car.

Nikki: They have their panning, the scenic view.

Nikki: He toddles across the little pathway to her.

Nikki: You see the aunt, she's all rumpled, and you can tell they just woke up in the morning.

Salina: Well, I think it's because you can sort of capture in that moment, too, this idea that she's like, that's her piece of Shelby left in the world.

Nikki: Which is what Shelby told her.

Nikki: Shelby told her that's why she wanted a baby, because that was her piece of immortality.

Nikki: And so Sally Field's character gets to experience that.

Nikki: Finally, she gets to see what Shelby said all along.

Salina: Let me ask you something.

Salina: Do we start a Still Magnolia's podcast and not bring in Kleenex?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So that's happening.

Nikki: Yeah, that part.

Nikki: And then, of course, Melin's breakdown at the funeral.

Nikki: It is broken so beautifully with humor.

Nikki: But I've been to enough funerals that I know what that feeling feels like.

Nikki: And I cannot fathom that being your baby.

Nikki: It's just too much.

Salina: It is too much.

Nikki: Too much.

Salina: It is Steel Magnolias.

Salina: Am I right?

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: The other thing I wanted to say, too, is, like, watching this movie puts me in my fills about the women I love the most in my life.

Nikki: Don't go too far down that path.

Salina: I know the ones I just feel like I can't live without and the ones who have held me up or got me through.

Salina: It's really hard not to think about your own mom.

Salina: Love you, mom.

Salina: It's just impossible not to and think about just that.

Salina: There's no even when just pushed you off, there's no other relationship like it.

Salina: You know why?

Salina: Because you were a part of them.

Nikki: Because she was there when you came in.

Salina: Crazy.

Salina: So, on reflection, I was also thinking in this time around, especially with the kind of deep dives that we've done into Designing Women, how amazing it is that Hollywood bankrolled an all female movie in 1989.

Salina: I wonder if the studios were taking note of The Golden Girls, the Designing Women's, the Murphy Browns, and realizing that, well, maybe these women have some.

Nikki: Maybe there are women in the world.

Salina: I also thought a lot about how this is one of my favorite movies and possibly one of the best movies ever, and I think I've built a case for it.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: But I want to see what you thought.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: In case you want to argue that this is a horrible movie.

Nikki: I refuse to argue that.

Nikki: The other thing, though, that I didn't mention in general thoughts, but may be relevant here, is that I think I watched this movie probably for the first time in the realm of fried green tomatoes and beaches.

Nikki: Like, I kind of lump all these together.

Nikki: And so I'm curious as you go into this, I'm kind of keeping space in my mind for other movies like that.

Salina: Yes.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: Go ahead.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: It's so funny because what you're saying is in my memories section, too, and it's definitely about Fried Green Tomatoes.

Salina: The first thing that I thought about a lot on rewatch and watching it through this kind of critical lens, which I haven't done before, is just how unbelievable the writing is.

Salina: It is the most quotable thing I have ever seen.

Salina: I started to write down all of my favorite lines and then I had to stop because I realized it would just be me reenacting the movie.

Nikki: I limited mine to Truvies quotes because she has a handful that I just they're tops for me, but I also for myself, it's tough.

Salina: I wrote some down for the Southern section and then I had a couple that were just so like if it really struck me and this time through and it wasn't what I was thinking of.

Salina: It was hard.

Salina: It was hard.

Salina: That's what I'm saying.

Salina: I don't know if another movie takes the viewer as successfully through all of the emotions but somehow still feels balanced on the other end.

Salina: It is genuinely one of the saddest, funniest and most thoughtful movies I've ever seen.

Salina: I think a lot of people get swept up in the big stuff that happens.

Salina: But I want to make an argument that Still Magnolias is also a million small moments.

Salina: Like the spud Truby stuff well, like that too.

Salina: Which are, like, kind of like these diverting plotlines.

Salina: But I'm thinking, like, similar to how a great comic hones in on these things that we think or do but we don't tell anybody about but everybody kind of knows.

Salina: And then you're like, I do tie my shoes that way.

Salina: How did you know?

Salina: But when they're heading into the chapel for the wedding and the interaction between Melin and her son is so funny to me.

Nikki: Steps on her foot.

Salina: He steps on her foot.

Salina: And it's like some mixture of like, I love you, but also you're really getting on my nerves, like, these last three years.

Salina: And then they sit down and he farts.

Nikki: Oh, I'm not sure I've ever noticed that.

Salina: You hear, like, a little noise and he goes, Sorry, I thought that was.

Nikki: Him apologizing for stepping on her foot.

Salina: That's when they're walking oh, my.

Salina: Then they're sitting down.

Nikki: I've never noticed that.

Salina: Yeah, he like, a little toot squeezes out teenage boys.

Salina: Exactly.

Salina: And it's just like this perfect capture of all of that is so and you get a lot of that in the movie before it goes to all these emotional tones.

Salina: So that's my case.

Salina: It's just like it captures the big, it captures the small.

Salina: The writing is so good.

Salina: It's so quotable, it's so emotional, but, like, balanced.

Nikki: That's my argument for making it one of the best movies.

Salina: Yes, but I do and I didn't even go into all the good, like, such a good cast and all of that.

Salina: But those are all of my reasons why I think it's tops for me.

Salina: How do you feel about the end of this movie after the funeral scene?

Salina: So everything in the closing Easter scene.

Nikki: I'm worried that this is a leading question that's going to walk me into the wrong answer, but I'll say it's fine for me.

Nikki: Now, what I will tell you is I think it's a little bit odd that Annel wanted to name her baby Shelby, whether it was a boy or a girl.

Nikki: And the fact that she said it at the post funeral, like, gathering at the house, this isn't, like, great timing to me.

Nikki: So this idea of Annele after that is just sort of awkward to me.

Nikki: That she's going into labor when poor Melin is still trying to grieve.

Nikki: But the feel and this is what I'm talking about what I love about the movie is the feel of everything feels like Easter in my childhood.

Nikki: It just feels like Easter egg hunts and our cute little Easter outfits and our baskets.

Salina: And I like little jackets outfits very much the same as last weekend taught me.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: And there is literally a pitcher that Melin is pouring out of that we've talked about before.

Nikki: It's the blue pitcher with the white lid.

Nikki: She's pouring sweet tea out.

Nikki: My mom has that picture.

Nikki: To this day, my mom has that picture.

Nikki: That's our sweet tea picture.

Nikki: So everything about that final bit of the movie feels like my life memory.

Nikki: And then I feel like it brings the whole story full circle.

Salina: Okay.

Nikki: I really like it.

Salina: So I've got zero problem with it.

Salina: I will say that the funeral scene is such an iconic, I don't know, eight minutes of cinema that most of the time I don't even think about the imp part.

Salina: Really.

Nikki: I'm glad they didn't end with the funeral.

Nikki: Let me just say that.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: So what I read at some point that I just never really thought about before is like, that was added on for the movie.

Salina: The funeral was no, the funeral was definitely part of the Easter part.

Salina: The Easter part.

Salina: So that whole part is pretty much tacked on.

Salina: And I think some people read it as feeling tacked on.

Salina: And I do think I can see that.

Salina: And I think some people saw it as a little trite, like, similar to what you were saying in episode 13.

Salina: Like life coming into the world on one side and going out of the world so perfectly on the other side.

Salina: Like, yes, that's happening all the time.

Salina: But I think that was some people's reading of that scene.

Salina: And so I just was wondering if that had ever been something that you had thought about.

Salina: It was not something I thought about.

Nikki: It's funny because I don't think you can end the movie without closing Annele.

Nikki: So this goes to that argument of whose movie is it?

Nikki: I don't think of it as Annel's movie, but I.

Nikki: Think we've talked about her pregnancy enough.

Nikki: And she said she was going to name her baby Shelby, that it just would feel awkward to end the movie without her delivering a baby.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: So I appreciate and I want to know how Melin is carrying on sometime after losing her daughter.

Nikki: I want to see that play out.

Nikki: And I want to know that her friends are still there, that there's still a community and there's still a network even after the hard part of life ended.

Nikki: Do you know what I mean?

Nikki: Or one of the hard parts of life ended.

Salina: Yeah, I mean, I think it's okay to end on a hopeful note.

Nikki: It also bookends.

Nikki: So you start with these very scenic views and you see Annele walking through the streets, and then you book end with these very scenic views with Annele headed toward the hospital for another major life event.

Nikki: It's a nice bookend to me.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Am I arguing those people who think it's tacked on?

Nikki: Because that's what I'm doing right now.

Salina: Because I thought, like, at first I think they had me swayed at first.

Salina: And the more I thought about it, the more I was like, no, because if it ended at a funeral scene, even if you get like that cathartic moment with Weezer where you get to laugh and you feel like you're coming down a little bit, I don't think that's enough decompression from the so does the play 30 minutes that you've cried.

Salina: I actually don't know how the play ends.

Salina: I just know the Easter thing is specifically because of the movie.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Between all of those hospital scenes, like Melin doing the exercises with Shelby, melin sitting there and reading to her from.

Salina: Cosmo, it's 30 minutes of straight crying.

Nikki: Watching the men cry, watching them sign the paperwork to end her life, to Melin running to the baby and then to the funeral.

Nikki: It is truly like a huge build up, an emotional build up.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Those people are so stupid.

Nikki: It's not.

Salina: Hold back now.

Salina: How dare you talk about my mother that way?

Salina: So stray observations.

Nikki: Stray observations.

Salina: I'm going to get back to whether my first stray observation we've kind of already circled around, but is there an argument that this is Annele's movie?

Salina: So I hadn't thought about it that way until I saw that really interesting IMDb synopsis that's like just the way it's written.

Salina: It's like, centered on Annele.

Salina: Like, Annele comes into town and what.

Salina: Anyways, so I'm going to say some points that I think could be an argument for it is one, she goes through potentially the most amount of transition in the movie.

Salina: She moves to town.

Salina: She's been through a really weird relationship.

Salina: We don't know exactly what's happened there.

Salina: She goes through a reawakening spiritually.

Salina: She finds Jesus again, maybe for the first time.

Salina: I'm not really sure.

Salina: And then she starts a new relationship and she's having a baby by the end.

Salina: She's also the bookend for the entire movie.

Salina: She is our entree into this world and into this group.

Salina: And she is having the major event at the end.

Salina: I'm not saying it's her movie.

Salina: I'm just saying there is a part of me that's like, okay, IMDb, you.

Nikki: Wrote it that way.

Nikki: That is so funny.

Nikki: That never would have this is a Shelby movie.

Nikki: This is about Shelby and Melin.

Nikki: Everybody else is just supporting characters.

Nikki: Truly.

Nikki: I mean, Shelby experiences the biggest life transition, she dies.

Salina: That's true.

Nikki: Melin experiences the second biggest life transition, she loses a child.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: Everybody else is supporting them.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: A transition may have not been the right word.

Nikki: I know what you mean.

Nikki: The most character development or the most character development thing.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: But I don't know because I don't think Shelby changed.

Nikki: No, I don't think so.

Salina: And I don't think Melin really changed.

Salina: We wouldn't know unless we I think Melin did okay.

Nikki: I think when Shelby passed away, she changed.

Nikki: So she has that moment at the funeral.

Nikki: She says she's right.

Nikki: It is a brown football helmet.

Nikki: And then she says, going to run to Jack Jr.

Nikki: That whole thing about him being like her connection to the world, I think she changed in realizing, holy crap, my child was teaching me something this whole time.

Nikki: She knew what she was talking about.

Nikki: She knew this is what life is all about.

Nikki: And that's what she was.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: I think there was an element of change.

Nikki: It's just so strange.

Nikki: And I came in hot on the Annele thing, but not as much as.

Salina: Annele, though, because Annel goes are like a wild child face.

Salina: We don't get to see it.

Nikki: But she's such a supporting character.

Salina: I know.

Salina: Until I see the news laid out.

Nikki: Drunk on the street, I haven't seen the Wild Child.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: I don't know.

Nikki: That's so fascinating that in all my years of watching this movie, I never would have put this as an Annele movie.

Salina: Right.

Salina: Also, I think the crushing argument is that Robert Harling wrote it about his sister.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: You should have seen me when I read that synopsis the first time.

Salina: I was like, what the what?

Salina: Anyways, but then I was like, well, we have to talk about it now.

Salina: Okay.

Salina: So this is another stray for me.

Salina: This has always bothered me early on.

Salina: Clary says Annele is too young for a past because she's all of 18.

Salina: Sure.

Salina: Me, too.

Nikki: Can't be more than 19.

Salina: I looked it up.

Salina: She would have been 28 when the movie was filmed.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: It seemed to me that Shelby was a little bit younger than even Annele.

Nikki: Like, Shelby, in my mind, just graduated college.

Nikki: Annele's a woman who's lived some things.

Salina: So drum and weezer.

Salina: This is something else I've got to ask you about.

Salina: I already have my answer, but I'm.

Nikki: Still going to ask.

Salina: Were they like hot for each other.

Nikki: Drum and weezer.

Nikki: Oh, gosh.

Salina: You all should have seen the shock in her a**.

Salina: She was not expecting that.

Nikki: I was not prepared for that because I see him as a little brother to her big sister, and he's, like, poking her like a little brother pokes his big sister.

Nikki: Not poking that way.

Salina: No.

Salina: When you went to brother and sister, I left.

Salina: So I will just say I've always thought the answer was yes.

Salina: I've always thought they kind of had a thing for each other.

Nikki: What?

Salina: Yeah, it's like an immature flirting.

Salina: They're just old and flirting.

Salina: Like, all that reads like flirting to me.

Nikki: Drum feels like a very immature grown man and is a very, very easy target because she gets so angry.

Nikki: So he will do anything to irritate her because she gives him the reaction he wants.

Salina: Yes, he's an easy target.

Nikki: I am not owning any of this.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Salina: Well, except for the fact that he's married you're consenting adults.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: Gross EW.

Salina: I didn't say I agreed with it.

Salina: I just said they've always read like there's some chemistry there.

Salina: Okay, so what's observations do you have, if any or anything else that you want to discuss before we move on to memories?

Salina: Let me put it that way.

Nikki: Nothing else to discuss before we move on to memories.

Salina: So I don't really have a ton of memories to share because most of it's just like me watching this movie and crying.

Salina: But I will say that I totally identify with what you were saying earlier, where you have these moments where absolutely you're going to cry.

Salina: For me, it is at that moment where Shelby falls and then on out.

Salina: But there's a little Pavlov's dogs going on for me, too, whereas almost sometimes the minute that music music starts, it's like, I know what's coming, and I'm already there.

Salina: So I don't remember the first time I saw it, but given I was talking to my mom yesterday and then realizing, oh, yeah, we're related, she was like, when did that come out?

Salina: I was like and I told her, and she was like, when did it come out on video?

Salina: I was like, Mom, I don't know.

Salina: But she, like, starts googling it and she found it.

Nikki: Oh, when?

Salina: So it was released June of 90, I think, is what she said.

Nikki: Good Lord, that's fast.

Salina: Is it?

Nikki: It came out in November of 89.

Salina: Oh, that would be really fast.

Salina: Now I don't now I don't trust it.

Salina: Anyways, it doesn't matter.

Salina: I would have seen it.

Nikki: Trust put verify working on it time.

Salina: Because, yeah, it used to take, like, a year for me to come out.

Salina: Maybe it was closer to the holidays or something.

Salina: Anyways, she thinks that I probably saw it for the first time when I was, like, 6.

Nikki: June 19, 1990.

Salina: Oh, look at that.

Salina: Sorry, mom.

Salina: I didn't mean to leave you.

Nikki: That is so fast.

Salina: That is really fast.

Salina: Anyways, but that was just what we did.

Salina: We rented movies.

Salina: We watched movies.

Salina: She was like, there's no way I didn't rent that.

Salina: She was like, I love that movie so much.

Salina: And she was like, you definitely would have seen it.

Salina: And the funny thing is, I remember watching it back to back with Fried Green Tomatoes once Fried Green Tomatoes came out.

Nikki: When I think about this movie, my earliest memories are somewhere in that Beaches Fried Green Tomatoes category.

Nikki: Like when I was old enough to process each one of these movies and the emotional value.

Nikki: So probably like middle school is probably the first time.

Nikki: But like I said, I've watched it.

Nikki: I'm like you.

Nikki: I've watched it so many times, it's hard to tie a specific memory to it because I just watch it.

Nikki: It's just a movie I watch.

Salina: Well, I do have one other memory of it, which is before I watched it, in preparation for this episode.

Salina: The last time I watched it was.

Nikki: With you and your home for the 30th anniversary, probably.

Nikki: We went to the movie theater they were showing it.

Salina: Had to.

Salina: How do you see it?

Nikki: I also when I cry in movies, I don't want other people to know I'm crying.

Nikki: Like, when I was a kid, they used to make fun of me because I would cry at everything.

Nikki: I just am a crier.

Nikki: So I used to be really embarrassed.

Nikki: So I remember going to see it even then.

Nikki: I was like, Suck it back in.

Nikki: Suck it back in.

Nikki: Don't cry.

Nikki: Please don't cry.

Nikki: Please don't cry.

Nikki: Even in front of my mom.

Nikki: Like, I just don't want to be that weepy.

Nikki: And she weirdly, doesn't cry.

Nikki: Weirdly, doesn't cry.

Nikki: And I'm like, how are you not crying right now?

Salina: My mom cries for all of us.

Salina: My mom jugga definitely see how she acted.

Salina: I mean, just like it just flips right off.

Nikki: It's a shame that I didn't become an actor because I can pretty much cry on demand.

Salina: That's all you have to be able to do.

Nikki: I have, like, a handful of memories I can draw on every time that will make me cry.

Nikki: Whether it's this movie, other movies I've seen, I've got them, I just tap in and immediately go, but this movie just every freaking time makes me cry.

Nikki: And it's hard to remember a life not watching this movie.

Nikki: I don't remember not having seen Steel Magnolia.

Nikki: I've seen it more than I've not seen it, if that makes sense.

Salina: Well, it's been for most of our conscious life, right?

Nikki: Exactly.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: I mean, most of our memories aren't before age four.

Nikki: Yeah.

Salina: So I think that makes sense.

Salina: I thought we could talk a little bit about favorite parts.

Nikki: Too many to name.

Salina: Who is what?

Nikki: I'm with too many to name.

Salina: Oh, okay.

Salina: All right.

Salina: Well, moving on.

Nikki: I'm just kidding.

Nikki: I love the wedding scene.

Nikki: I love all of it.

Nikki: Like the reception, the dance circle.

Nikki: Normally, like a dance circle is going to turn me off, but those people doing almost like the line dancing of sorts.

Nikki: I love it.

Nikki: I love the whole thing.

Salina: Yeah.

Nikki: I think it's delightful.

Nikki: I've said already, I love the scene setting parts.

Nikki: Annele walking through the small town in the beginning, the Christmas festival.

Nikki: I just really like the celebration of small town.

Nikki: How it feels confined, but also, like, warm and welcoming.

Nikki: Like a warm blanket.

Salina: I think this was the most I'd ever paid attention to the first part before they actually get to Truvies.

Salina: And when she is walking through the town and how beautiful those houses are.

Nikki: Gorgeous.

Salina: Goodness.

Nikki: And there's stuff like there's the little baseball team crossing the street and just it's all very small town.

Nikki: Yeah.

Nikki: And then the last thing I'll say that I really, really like about it is like we talked about a minute ago, quotes.

Nikki: Do we have a whole section for quotes?

Salina: No.

Nikki: Okay, good, because I put them right here.

Nikki: One of my favorites is when Dolly says, any good shoe?

Nikki: I wear a size six, but a seven feels so good, I buy a size eight.

Nikki: They're eight and a half.

Nikki: Perfect.

Nikki: I love that.

Salina: It's great.

Nikki: Of course, she'll be saying three minutes of wonderful.

Nikki: Like she'd rather have three minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.

Nikki: What a wonderful who writes that?

Nikki: I may love the part where Annele decorates the porch and then she says, Hide that cord so it don't look tacky.

Nikki: Because if that's the thing and then, of course, Clary is saying, if you don't have anything nice to say, come sit by me.

Salina: I don't think of anyone else that you.

Nikki: I love the lines.

Nikki: They're so great.

Salina: Yeah, they're just all good.

Salina: So, my first every scene with Tom Scarrett.

Nikki: Oh, he's very funny.

Salina: Yeah.

Salina: Bonus if it includes Weezer.

Salina: So, honestly, I like seeing the two of them together.

Salina: Not like that.

Nikki: I think you've just invented a relationship to make yourself feel better.

Nikki: Feel something.

Salina: I just need to feel something.

Salina: So the iconic Armadillo cake scene where she cuts off the tell and hands it to Drum and he says, ain't nothing like a good piece of a**.

Salina: Who.

Salina: Nikki doesn't think there's any flirting going on here.

Salina: That's okay.

Salina: It's weird flirting, but some people flirt weird.

Nikki: I don't think it's flirting.

Nikki: It's just showing her like, you can't bother me, but what?

Nikki: I don't care.

Nikki: I'm going to eat it anyway.

Salina: It's interesting that some of the criticism of the movie I read was that the male characters weren't fully formed.

Salina: So, first of all, insert about eight cuss words here, okay?

Salina: I don't want to hear about a not fully formed male character.

Salina: But also, I felt all the men in this movie were great, with the.

Nikki: One exception being Truvy's son.

Nikki: He also felt very tacked on to me.

Nikki: And random.

Salina: You know who he's always reminded me of?

Salina: Who?

Salina: Like a young Val Kilmer.

Nikki: Oh, I could see that.

Nikki: I could see that.

Salina: I think when I was really little, I thought it was him.

Salina: Well, I was like, probably six.

Salina: And I was like, Is that Val Kilmer?

Nikki: You know what's so funny about that is like, the brothers, they don't have very much of a role in the movie, but they feel as fully formed as they need.

Nikki: Like at the end, at the funeral, when the dad gives one of the sons a hug.

Nikki: I don't know how to explain it because it's not going to sound articulate, but I remember thinking, like, this is full circle for him when you see.

Salina: A sea change because it's the kid that farted in the pew.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Suddenly, and I don't blame him.

Salina: Sorry.

Salina: But when he's at the one year old's birthday party and he's like, this boring s***, it's me.

Salina: One year old birthday party.

Salina: And so I was like, dude, I see you.

Salina: But also you see all of that or the jokes, even when Shelby's about to go to surgery.

Salina: And then it's real.

Salina: It's real.

Salina: After that, it's hit the skids.

Nikki: And he's still so young.

Salina: Some growth.

Salina: Well, apparently one of those is probably Robert.

Salina: Yeah, that was occurring much younger.

Salina: Right?

Salina: Because by this point, he's out living in New York.

Salina: But yeah, I think that's fair.

Salina: Another favorite for me is really every Little Moment with Clary and Weezer.

Salina: I think they're the cutest.

Salina: I mean, they're so mean to each other, but I love it when they're.

Nikki: Buying pork and beans, you know, when.

Salina: They'Re flirting with each other.

Salina: I just want to be their best friend.

Nikki: Yeah, but no room for you.

Salina: They've got each other.

Salina: No, there isn't.

Salina: I'm not cool enough, not cool enough, or rich enough.

Nikki: They're complete enough without you.

Salina: Thank you.

Salina: Nick, when do we get to your dream so I can crap all over it?

Salina: But also when Weezer forces Clary to walk her home after the wedding and he's like, you block away.

Salina: Definitely.

Salina: I don't know.

Salina: I was telling her earlier about how, like, a good comedian knows how to hone in on these things.

Salina: These are like conversations I feel like I've had with my friends where they're like me.

Salina: Like, literally the other weekend, I had to call my friend from the parking garage at the works and be like, please come park my car.

Salina: I like, rolled down the window riding by them.

Salina: And I was like, help me.

Salina: Or them in the locker room together after the game, and all those football players are running around half naked.