Episode 9 — The Auto-Tracking Edition

Despite all of us feeling, at one time or another, that Blockbuster Video was the “Death Star” of video chains, as Nathan Rabin described it, we’re left feeling oddly wistful about the days of clamshell boxes and “Be Kind, Rewind.” But is our nostalgia misplaced? In this week’s podcast, we kick off with a reminiscence of the VHS era and the way it influenced our film education. Then, contributor Sam Adams joins Tasha Robinson and Genevieve Koski for a discussion of the Bechdel test, a metric that’s become an increasingly popular way to determine gender bias in film. In order to pass the Bechdel test, a film must feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. But for such a simple rule, it’s full of gaps and exceptions, and cases where it’s misapplied. Our panelists have different ideas about when it’s useful and when it isn’t. This week, we also introduce a new and filthy game called “Nude Review,” in which contestants are given descriptions from the user reviews at the Celebrity Nude Database and asked which perfectly oval-shaped buttcheeks belong to what movie. Then Tasha and Nathan Rabin duke it out in our quick-fire recommendation face-off, 30 Seconds To Sell.