Wise men say, only fools rush in. Well you know what? Listen to the wise men because love at first sight is bulllllshit! We watched Fools Rush In guys, the 1997 rom comedy starring Matthew Perry and Salma Hayek! HBO had this on hard rotation when we were in middle school and we couldn't help rooting for the unlikely couple of fiesty, artsy "I have five brothers don't mess with me" Isabel, and melba toast WASP Alexa Whitman. This is not your average romantic comedy. We got outta wed lock pregnancy, Mexican/American cultural differences, a tiny dog named Cujo, and some really unflattering suits on Matthew Perry! We'll talk about why we can't stop watching this movie, even 20+ years later, what makes a cool girl cool, and try to determine what Isabel actually saw in Alex Whitman. Was it his baggy clothes? His job as a field manager for really horrible clubs? Who knows!
We're doing another movie with Cher, guys! 1990 brought us Mermaids, based on the book Mermaids, and starring 80s/90s darling Winona Ryder, baby Christina Ricci in her first film, Bob Hoskins and the woman that makes everything better, CHER. This bildungsroman (fancy word time) or coming of age story about two kids getting towed around the country by their commitment phobic single mom, really stuck with us as kids, mainly because the VHS cover featured Cher dressed like a mermaid in a bathtub, but also for a particular sex scene in a lil ole belltower! Look, this movie has some problems (underage sex, drunk 7 year olds) but all in all it's a keeper! The clothes are great, the cars are great, and Winona is a nutter but we love her! We'll chat about nuns, what we think of the lead male hottie character, and try to think of our fake names on the fly. Sal Val!
Harriet the Spy was Nickelodeon's first movie in 1996! Starring Michele Trachtenberg and Rosie O'Donnell and based on a book from the 1960s, Harriet the Spy made us want to buy black and white composition books, record everything in them that we saw, all whilst eating tomato and mayonnaise sandwiches! This is a "time to grow up movie" for the middle schooler sect and we ate it up with a spoon! This movie has a lot of spunk and is super creative and has some wise words of wisdom from the live in nanny aka sage Ole Golly about friendship, telling the truth, and to always be yourself, no matter what the consequences. We'll talk about the golden age of television in the early to mid 90s when Nickelodeon was unstoppable, our own run ins with bullying, and how much we love that Harriet character even when she's cutting off people's braids and ruining their science projects!