Episode Transcript & Breakdown
Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two movies about the best in their field coming out of retirement. It's John Wick versus Stick It.
John Wick
John Wick is a former hitman grieving the loss of his true love. When his home is broken into, robbed, and his dog killed, he is forced to return to action to exact revenge.
This movie came out in 2014 and has an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. I cannot believe it came out seven years ago. It feels like I just saw this in theaters.
Keanu Reeves plays John Wick and this is the perfect role for him. It brought him back into the spotlight as being just an all-around good guy. I only hear wonderful things about Keanu. And I shouldn't be surprised, since even Sandra Bullock had a crush on him. I spoke about his many charitable acts in The Matrix episode, but I just want to reiterate that he is always looking out for other people wherever he can, especially below-the-line crew members — the people that aren't the face, the actor, the director, the writer. The people that are making it all happen behind the scenes. The stunt people.
And that's why he is involved in this John Wick trilogy. He had such a good relationship with the stunt people on The Matrix and they wanted to utilize him for this series of movies that basically revitalized his career. So that is some good karma right there.
I saw John Wick in theaters just as something to do. I went with friends, back when that was allowed, we could have fun, I could see movies. And I was really impressed by it as an action movie that does pack a punch. It doesn't actually have that much story, but it's still affecting. A lot of that success is due to its directors who are two stunt people — perhaps the profession I'm most fascinated by. Chad Stahelski and David Leitch co-directed and co-produced it. They also directed Atomic Blonde, which I love. Chad was Keanu Reeves' stunt double in the Matrix movies. These guys believe in practical effects, real action instead of green screen, and that makes all the difference.
Keanu Reeves talks about how the stunts and fights are built out around what the actors can do, that there's so much training. Zoe Bell touched on this in the Strong Female Leads episode — something I had never thought about until she said it and haven't stopped thinking about whenever I watch an action movie: the stunt double needs to capture the physicality of the actor, the specific way that people move, how they do things. By figuring out exactly what Keanu Reeves can do and carrying that through, it makes for an excellent flow to the movie, something really natural that feels real.
Even the subtitles in this movie — there's a lot of people speaking Russian, so there are built-in subtitles — have a choreographed movement to them, the way they enter and exit the screen. Every element of this film was really thought out by two people who know what they're doing.
Bridget Moynahan plays John Wick's wife — yes, of course, Bridget of classic film Coyote Ugly. She sees the best of him. She doesn't know who he was before, his assassin life. Bridget elected not to read the whole screenplay as it might have colored her view of John Wick outside of her marriage to the character. We mostly see Bridget in a specific clip that John keeps on his cell phone — a video he took of them on the beach where he's filming her and talking about how beautiful she is and then he turns the camera around and films them kissing. She's sick, she dies, so he just watches this clip all the time.
The thought of John Wick selfie-filming him and his wife kissing is the least believable part of this movie. I believe every other element except for this man deciding to take a video of his wife while saying how beautiful she is and then turning the camera around to catch them kissing. Don't buy it.
Most important element of this film: the dog. The beagle puppy. The beagle puppy is given to John Wick by Bridget Moynahan after she dies because she knew she was dying — she arranged for the dog to be delivered to him. In her life she always wore a daisy necklace that John had given her. So the dog has a matching daisy collar and of course he calls her Daisy. He sees Daisy as a link to the woman he loved so much.
He's clearly not been an animal person before — he's always been out for himself until he met his wife. But I love the moment where he's had the dog sleep on the floor on a blanket. He's not a monster. Dog sleeps on the floor, he sleeps in the bed. He wakes up to the dog kissing him. And the next night he looks at the dog who's laying on the blanket and he's like, all right, you can sleep in the bed. And the dog gets in the bed with him.
Seeing a beagle puppy kiss Keanu Reeves is so special. Forget about rom-coms. I want a genre of movies, a series of films, where hot guys love puppies and kittens. Imagine Chris Hemsworth with a kitten just lightly licking his beard. Imagine Paul Rudd touching his forehead to the forehead of one of those really wrinkly dogs. I'm going to make these movies.
In the trivia, it says they covered his face with bacon grease. I want men covered in bacon grease on their faces getting little kisses from baby animals. Baby chicks — bring some baby chicks in there. This needs to happen. It's a billion-dollar idea.
Now we've got to talk about the sad part. Usually if an animal is killed in a movie, it will knock the movie down a few pegs for me. I can't handle it. It really often feels unnecessary or emotionally manipulative. But as awful as it is to see Daisy the beagle puppy splayed out, to watch Keanu hold her lifeless body — it's an important part of the film. Seeing Keanu wake up from being knocked out and the bad guys who have broken in have put the corpse of his beagle puppy next to him is gut-wrenching. And then for him to take Daisy's collar and put it next to his wife's daisy necklace on his bedside table. It's so upsetting.
We see the importance of what Daisy did for him. At the very end of the film, John breaks into a vet's office to basically patch himself up and he steals a dog — don't steal dogs — but he takes a dog with him because he has been opened up to that love again. This movie did something differently, and the reason the death of Daisy was earned or justified is that I felt the death was properly honored. It meant something to the viewer and to John Wick throughout the film. It wasn't just something to move us from point A to point B. It really continued to have an impact.
The person who orchestrates the killing of John Wick's dog is Alfie Allen — maybe the only person who had a very famous song about them and then later became famous. He was great on Game of Thrones and he's really good in this as a jerk. He has a very punchable face and that's why he was cast. When he first meets John Wick, he doesn't even know who John is. He just sees him in a gas station with a really cool car. He wants the car and is mad when John doesn't capitulate. So later he and his goons break into John's home, beat him senseless, kill his dog, and take his car.
It turns out Alfie is the son of a Russian mob boss played by Michael Nyqvist. His name is Viggo, he's head of everything. And he's like, oh my God, why did you kill John Wick's dog days after his wife died? You idiot. And then he punches his son so hard that his son barfs. Why do all movies have barf? I'm so sick of it. I'm just trying to live. Everybody's barfing.
So this is the plot — the actual what's happening. But then we get the action, the action of John Wick going on an all-out rampage to kill Alfie and anyone who gets in his way. Stellar fight sequences. Keanu does a lot of his own stunts. I think that's why this is a movie that should be watched at least once — even if you don't think you're a big action movie person, there's a beauty in how well choreographed the movie is and the interesting settings the fights take place in. In addition to the usual action movie fare of rainy alleys and dark warehouses, we have this insane dance club slash bathhouse sequence. Why is there a bathhouse in a club? Imagine how steamy it is.
Important to note that one of Viggo's henchmen is Dean Winters, aka Mayhem from the Allstate commercials, aka Dummy from 30 Rock, aka Brian from SVU. What a career that man has. Adrianne Palicki plays an assassin named Miss Perkins who comes after John — he gets a bounty put on his head by Viggo, who's just trying to protect his son. She has some amazing fight scenes with John. Unsurprisingly — this being the Tasteless podcast — I was a little frustrated by how many men we watch fight, but Adrianne's scenes almost make up for it. I also appreciate that the guys that made this made Atomic Blonde, so I don't think I can really come down on them too hard for that here.
Stick It
After a run-in with the law, Haley is forced to return to the world from which she fled years ago. Enrolled in an elite gymnastics program run by the legendary Burt Vickerman, Haley's rebellious attitude slowly gives way to a team spirit.
Haley is played by Missy Peregrym. Her as Haley — Missy as Haley — is one of the best performances ever. It's so good. She's so perfect. Her facial expressions, the ponytail that I'm immensely jealous of. There's a Jim Carrey delivery to her — there's voiceover and she's always a little bit snarky. At one point she's talking about how if you're in gymnastics you better like falling because you're going to fall a lot, and she says something along the lines of, good thing I didn't like falling. I loved it. Very Jim Carrey funny.
There's a lot of physical comedy from her — she's jumping around — and I don't get to see this sort of comedy from women as often as from men. I think she's allowed to exist in this space where what a movie typically wants a teen girl to be hasn't been applied to her as rigorously, in a way that makes her so much more real. She's just goofy.
Stick It is really something special. They sort of played around with gender, with expectation. Just allowed this person to be a person. Haley is annoying at first — she's an angry teenager — but you get to know her. She's a goof. She's super goofy. She is really passionate about what she's passionate about, she loves her friends. I think this is such a great character, and it's shocking to me that we didn't get sequels, a series.
By the way, Jessica Bendinger wrote and directed this movie. She also wrote Bring It On, one of my all-time favorite movies.
Stick It, the world of it, this character, this rebel — it's so fun. I put it on and thought, I wonder if this is going to hold up. Within 15 minutes I was so in. I cried at multiple points. It's a feel-good movie, it's a funny movie.
We open up with kids doing BMX. Someone has their head covered by a hood and they do some sick tricks, and then they take their hood off and it's Haley and you're like, oh my God, a girl. Here's the thing — in a movie, if the girl has a sweatband on her wrist, even though I am maybe the opposite of athletic, whatever girl in the movie has a sweatband on her wrist, I know they're going to be my new role model.
This role was written well, for sure. I like the story, the intensity, the goofiness. But it wouldn't have worked with an actor who isn't as charismatic as Missy is. Missy is the heart and soul of this movie. As the viewer grows to understand her and care for her, it makes the emotional moments later on more striking. Seeing the worst of her — the impetuousness, the attitude, the rudeness — you learn quickly that it's her armor, how she has protected herself when she was so emotionally raw. And seeing her begin to trust people again, trust the other women she's practicing with, is all the more meaningful.
I rewatched this at 10 a.m. on a Saturday. Cried multiple times. There is a scene where Haley is on a balance beam and she's flipped upside down and one tear drops onto the balance beam, and the way Jeff Bridges looks at her with such compassion.
Let's talk Jeff. Jeff Bridges — as I said a couple of weeks ago in the True Grit versus Seed of Chucky episode — this is his best role. It's the truth. In what other movie can you watch Jeff Bridges jump on a trampoline? His mentor relationship with Haley is really fascinating. At one point he calls her Miss Rebel Without Applause. Get it? I thought that was so good.
Jeff Bridges as her coach, Burt Vickerman — he runs this gymnastics academy where she has been sent instead of juvie. He tells her nobody cares what she does. That is a hard dose of reality and one of the elements of this movie I appreciated, one of the elements that felt real. Haley, like all of us, wants someone to care. Wants someone to look out for what's best for her, as her parents clearly aren't interested.
She does that thing of — okay, when I was a kid, I would tell my parents, I'm running away from home. And I'd go outside — my dad had a truck with a cap on the bed — and I would climb in, really dramatically, I'd pack up all my stuff, I'd go outside, I'd climb in and then I'd hide there and wait. I'd lay there and get more and more bored and wait because I'd think, oh my God, my parents are going to come flying out of the house so worried about me. Where could I have gone? And after what felt like hours but was probably 15 minutes, I would go back inside because I'd be so bored and no one would have even noticed. Or probably they did notice and they knew exactly where I was and they were letting me sulk out there. But there was no reaction and it did not satisfy my need to make a point.
That's Haley in this movie. She's like, guess what Jeff Bridges, I'm going to walk away. And Jeff tells her the most hurtful thing he could tell her, which is: okay, bye. What do I care? And she doesn't know what to do with that. But he grows to care for her. He appreciates her determination, the way she encourages the other girls to have confidence in themselves. He sees that and he grows fond of her. Also, Jeff Bridges is very hot in this movie.
Some of the other gymnasts at this academy: we have Joanne, who's the mean one, played by Vanessa Lengies — very by the book, teacher's pet, clashes with the freewheeling Haley. Nikki SooHoo is Wei Wei, who loves modern music and wishes she could incorporate it into her routines — she's intrigued by Haley. As is Mina, played by Maddy Curley. These two girls welcome Haley and her jokes into the fold pretty quickly and become closer with her as the film goes on. Maddy is a real gymnast herself — she wrote, produced, and stars in Chalk It Up, another gymnastics movie. Haley's rival, Trisha — a girl she left behind when she walked out of a competition — is played by Tarah Paige, who is also a world-class gymnast and stuntwoman.
John Patrick Amedori and Kellan Lutz play Haley's BMX buddies. John just so happens to have been the young romantic interest of Emma Caulfield in Timer, another of my all-time favorite movies. In this movie he and Kellan are best buds. They come to visit Haley when she's at the gymnastics school. They try to break her out, and eventually take her and some of the other gymnasts to the mall for a fun field trip. While there, the guys and the girls put on dresses and do gymnastics moves and flips throughout the mall. And it's not even played as a joke, like, ha ha, men in dresses. It's like, look at this group of people having a really good time.
John and Joanne are kind of flirting. And John says to Joanne — by the way, John's character's name is Poot, I'm not saying that — he says, you're going to have to wear a tux, because he's wearing a dress. And she kind of looks at him and he goes, we can both wear dresses. Very matter of fact. And later, when he's flirting with Joanne again and Kellan Lutz points out that she's not very nice — she's the mean girl — it hurts her feelings. And John says, who cares what he thinks about you? He's gay. And again, it's not for laughs. It's just like, look, he's not into you. I am. So who cares about him? He can go elsewhere. Also, both of these men look very good in dresses. Full-on prom dresses.
Kellan, by the way — Emmett Cullen in the Twilight series, but also one of the young actors along with Malin Akerman in The Comeback of Lisa Kudrow. What I love about these two guys is yeah, they want Haley's attention, but there's not a shoehorned romantic plot with Haley herself.
Like Birds of Prey, this movie feels like another example of the female gaze versus male gaze. And I think it's so funny — I went to the Letterboxd for this movie and I knew what I would find.
There's a scene where Haley lowers herself into an ice bath wearing a sports bra and you just see her abs, which are out of this world. If you go to Letterboxd for Stick It and look at the top reviews: Lucy says, holds the bronze medal in my movies-that-made-me-gay list. Marion says, this movie invented not only cinema but also lesbians. Indy says, shout out to Stick It for inventing abs and being gay.
There's something about this movie that struck a chord with women. It was a different view. Khaos says, I can't believe they let the lead be so sporty butch and not have a male love interest. And her guy friend whom I thought the plot was going to set her up with ended up being gay. We're so blessed. Yes — this movie really subverts expectations. It portrays Haley not as this object of desire, although obviously she's gorgeous, but as this really strong, talented human being. I appreciate that. This movie was written and directed by a woman. And so there are all these interesting elements — the way these women come together.
In gymnastics there are a lot of rules — a lot of old-school rules, a lot of stupid rules. You could do 18 flips, but if you land and your toes aren't pointed enough, you lose points. Ridiculous little things that really have nothing to do with the incredible skill on display. One of the girls from Haley's gymnastics school, when they're at this big competition, lands a trick perfectly and everyone is blown away. She gets points deducted because you could see her bra strap. And Jeff Bridges is like, what are you talking about? You can see her bra straps? She just flipped through the air.
Then Haley goes up next. She's standing at one end, getting ready to start her run and vault. Before starting her run, she reaches under her shirt, pulls out both bra straps, makes them very visible, struts down the mat — and scratches. Meaning she touches the vault. Once you touch it, you're in your trick. She touches it, removes her hand, gets all zeros.
And slowly, every other girl does the same thing.
I started crying. Because they knew that Mina should win. Mina did an incredible move. So because they all scratched, she won by default — she was the only one that scored any points. And the women get together and they say, oh my God, we've been under the thumb of these judges. We can control the outcome. We can choose who should win.
Yeah, the girls are catty. Joanne is catty. But when they come together to enact this plan, I love that they immediately know who the best girl is. They're like, yeah, this person's best at this, Wei Wei should win beam, this person should win this. Obviously they've seen them perform, they're incredible. They cheer them on. When the person winning — who is not from Jeff Bridges' gymnastics school — is performing, him and Missy are high-fiving, just proud of this girl for doing her routines so incredibly.
We get to see people do what they're good at, what they love, as a showcase instead of a competition. Wei Wei doing her moves on the beam is such a great moment of just letting go and doing what she wants to do. There's some really good editing — a moment where we see all these people doing their routines at once in this really cool kaleidoscope pattern. The soundtrack is incredible. This movie has fun opening credits. It has everything.
It's only on DVD. It's not on Blu-ray, which makes me furious. But I highly recommend renting it. Or just buying it. Just own a movie, you freaks.
Shared Themes
Our protagonist in each film has given up their career, given up what they excelled at, retired from the game. But both are forced out of retirement through surprising circumstances when someone else forces their hand.
John Wick has the misfortune of being at the gas station at the same time as Alfie Allen. John has fully escaped his past as an assassin. He lives a beautiful life in a beautiful home until his wife gets sick. But this day, with the dog his dead wife gifted to him, he comes upon Alfie, the son of John's former boss. Alfie sees John's nice car and wants it. When he tries to intimidate John, John holds his ground — he still has that element of his former life. But then Alfie breaks in, steals his car, kills his dog, setting off a journey of bloodshed.
When John has the last thing in this world he loves taken from him, he has nothing to lose. He rejoins the world he had worked so hard to escape. He calls up his old contacts, breaks the concrete in his weird shed, gets out his weapons and his gold coins, and re-emerges as the boogeyman the rest of the underworld thought they were safe from. To accomplish his goals, he must be the best, so he has to lean into this persona he thought he had shed — making you wonder if he had ever really, or could ever really, escape that part of himself.
In Stick It, Haley was a gymnast at the Olympics, one of the best in the world, known for her raw talent. Then she walked out and became a pariah to the rest of the gymnastics world. As she says, when you walk out on Worlds as part of Team USA, it's not personal — it's national. In her quest to feel in control of her own life again, after years of being obedient to the whims of her coach, she gets caught up in some BMX-versus-skateboard show-offing and has to go before a judge for the property damage she causes riding her bike through a glass door. Instead of juvie, the judge sends her to an intense gymnastics training center where she must relearn the skills she had put behind her.
Faced with the possibility of regaining what had once been such a large part of her life, Haley is torn but can't help but become invested in the outcome of her performance. She wants to be good. She wants other people to respect her.
It's not just a surprise that John Wick and Haley picked back up where they had left off — it's a big deal to others in their field, because John and Haley are the best. Fables used to warn others. People that are whispered about. Both had a good reason for leaving what they were so enmeshed with — assassinating and gymnastics — reasons that others in their field didn't understand, especially because they were at the top of their game.
John clearly wanted to be with his wife. We don't know how he got into the business of assassinations, but we know he wanted to keep his wife safe and clearly did whatever he needed to do to be allowed to leave the criminal world with no bad blood. Mob boss Viggo refers to John not just as a boogeyman, but as the person you send to kill the boogeyman. He is revered, and those who know him understand how dangerous he is. Viggo speaks with awe of the task he gave John to earn his freedom and how it was impossible, but John did it. So Viggo sets a price on John's head to protect his son. He gathers all the guards and forces he can to try to stave off John's attack. He protects Alfie — it's his kid. But when all the guards are killed, all he can do when John comes for Alfie is thank him for giving his son a quick death. He knew in his heart of hearts this would be how it ended. Others in the field fear and respect John, so their surprise when he left turns to confusion and terror when he comes back. No one wants to be up against this man.
In Stick It, right before she was about to take her turn as part of Team USA, Haley discovered that her mother was cheating on her father with Haley's coach. So Haley walked out, abandoning the competition and her teammates. No one knew this backstory besides her and her awful parents, so everyone believed she was just a failure, that she choked, that she left her team, that she didn't care about them or their success. She was so shocked by what she had discovered and she couldn't go on representing her coach, the man who destroyed her parents' marriage and her family.
When she is forced to return to gymnastics, the other girls are mean at first, but they do recognize her talent and they whisper about it. Everyone knows her name and they watch her begin to regain her abilities quickly as she is an undeniable natural. People talk about her. They don't want her fate to happen to them, but they are also jealous of her skill — she is so good and so sure of herself in a world where these women are in need of structure. She is a trailblazer.
John and Haley are topics of conversation, people you'd hope to never face off against, but whom you can't help but respect if you do. Our two characters have been seen as larger than life, but as we watch them, we gain respect for them because they stick by their convictions. John is always polite and Haley is always rebellious — and neither compromises who they are.
That's what makes a good fable — someone whose code you know.
In John Wick, John is feared by those who know him, but he's also friendly with many because they know he will not come after them without reason. He doesn't have ego about what he does. It's only the death of his love that leads him to a state bad enough to re-engage with this world. And even then he's careful about how he approaches it. He doesn't want any unnecessary bloodshed, he's trying to achieve a goal. Where appropriate, he allows people to escape.
In Stick It, Haley is known for her punk rock approach ever since she went off the rails. In the beginning of her gymnastics career, she did exactly as she was told. That aspect of the sport made her uncomfortable with the activity and with herself. So when she rejoins, she's careful to remain true to who she has become, who she has allowed herself to be, while also respecting the people around her. And they see that and there's something about it that draws them to her. Missy Peregrym's charisma is off the charts, but there is something about her where you know she's not going to talk about you behind your back. She is honest, she is clear, she is loyal. You see that about her. It's clear who she is and you can take it or leave it.
What Stick It Does Better
I love John Wick. I think it's a great action movie. But let's talk about a few things I think Stick It excelled in — reasons, if you're only going to watch one movie tonight, to watch Stick It instead of John Wick.
The world of John Wick is just as regimented as the world of gymnastics, but everyone breaks those rules besides John himself, whereas Haley's rebellious streak allows her more freedom in making the right choices.
John works within the systems of the underworld he was once part of. He doesn't stray from the rules set out for him in this first movie, even as other assassins break the rules when offered enough money. The story of John Wick is about him and his life, but it's also an interesting world-building tale of this organization of assassins, of the code that they have built, of the laws that they live by. At the Continental, the hotel where John goes to get his murder business done — a hotel for assassins — certain rules must be followed, and John is very careful. Other people like Miss Perkins are willing to go against their code to kill him, and Viggo doesn't care how it gets done and will pay more if the assassin must break the code. That puts John at a disadvantage.
I like that he has a code. But it seems odd that in this world of murder, of betrayal, when all he wants is vengeance for the last thing he loves in this world being taken from him — he is so tied to doing things the right way. It makes his approach almost clinical. It's odd that he's able to take his emotion out enough that he still needs to — I gotta give my little gold coin. I can't do business in this room. I can't. It's self-preservation, yes, and I enjoy this world being built. But in Stick It, Haley rebels against people she feels are trying to control her, against the system she believes is unfair, and she exploits that system, using it against the judges.
She had always followed the rules before, but she is broken out of that mindset and has realized people are more important than rules. She regrets being obedient to a man she didn't respect who didn't respect her. With Jeff Bridges, she finally is able to gain respect as a person and not a perfect little robot doing as she's told. And this is an important part of her journey of self-discovery and it's what allows her to look out for others and not just herself. She's so at peace with who she is. She's willing to break rules that she doesn't think are fair.
John returns to old relationships as he reverts to who he was when he worked for the Russian mob — becoming that man he had been. While Haley is figuring out who she is and making new friends based on that evolution. John is killing those he used to work for, but he's still following a certain set of rules and expectations, regressing to the John Wick before Bridget Moynahan. While Haley is something new, something stronger, as she overcomes the hurt she felt at the last competition, comes to terms with it, and moves beyond it.
Because of their different approaches, John and Haley garner different outcomes. John is avenging his dog and the memory of his wife, but he is unconcerned with anyone outside his family. At the end of the day, he gets his revenge, he gets a new puppy, and a new sense of hope in some small way. But everything else remains the same.
Haley takes her anger, takes her grit and her ability to lead and influence others, and she uses it to change what's wrong about the environment she was broken down in. She makes things better for everyone, not just herself.
John Wick is not passionate about murder — obviously, that's fine, that's good. But even though he's avenging his loved ones, he's not super concerned with other people. He didn't kill Miss Perkins — he leaves her in the care of another hotel guest, but then she kills that guy. John left this life because he wanted peace with his family, but he doesn't really care what happens to other people still engaged in this world. He plays within the rules — the gold coins, the hotel — but anything else happening is not his concern. Whether people follow the rules, whoever fills the spot that the Russian mob leader leaves when Viggo is killed, who's going to take that over? Whatever comes next is not something John cares about because he doesn't want to be part of this world.
Haley is selfish at first. She has bad parents. She went through something awful and she's a teenager. She's only looking out for herself. At one point when she first comes to the academy, Jeff Bridges makes the other girls run and says they're going to have to keep running until Haley joins them. She refuses. So they lock her out of the house. Rightly so.
But as Haley becomes re-engaged in this world, as she befriends the other gymnasts and supports them in their routines, she realizes that there is passion here, that these people aren't dumb for loving this, that they don't deserve to have their incredible skills negated by ridiculous rules from a million years ago. So instead of trying to win a gold medal for herself, she works to change the system they are a part of.
They realize they can finally have control over what's happening. The girls scratch — purposefully get themselves out after selecting who's best at what — and they allow that girl to perform her routine to the fullest, and she wins. The judges can't say this person with the worst routine wins because she moved her arm to the right side when she landed. These dumb little technicalities. Finally these girls who have been following highly regimented sets of rules — they have choice. They have freedom. And they choose to support one another. They choose to uplift one another. They choose to say, I know this other girl is talented, and we need to watch her, and we need to respect that talent.
One of the other girls, Trisha — the girl Haley had walked out on — refuses to play along and competes her hardest instead of scratching. And Haley realizes, look, we've still made our point. We have shown this crowd that we do still have control and that the judging is absurd. Haley is looking out for other people, not just herself. That's why she ends this movie in a state of peace. She has evolved. She is happy with who she is and who she's becoming. She's building a better life for herself.
And John Wick — yeah, he has the dog. I'm really happy that he got a new dog. But are you just — you went and killed all these people? What are you going to do? You're just going to go back home and sit in your nice house? What's your plan? I mean, of course there's John Wick 2 and 3. But we're talking about 1.
I hope you will give Stick It a try. I love it. I really do. I think Missy Peregrym is one of the best casting moments of all time. One of the best sets of abs of all time.
Hit me up at @tastelesspod on social media if you want to talk about Missy Peregrym being severely underrated, or how many times you cried while watching Stick It.