1.01 - Intro + The Break-Up | Girl Crush Podcast

Anne  0:00 
We're embarking on this journey. Okay.

Ally  0:04 
All right. I'm Ally.

Anne  0:06 
I'm Anne.

Ally  0:07 
And we are Girl Crush.

Anne  0:11 
Born from my decade of girl crush on Ally.

Ally  0:18 
That's perfect. Okay, so this all started. No, we need to talk about ourselves first.

Anne  0:26 
No, I don't want to talk about myself. I can't, I'll be weird. Very weird. Like when it's like one of those terrible office icebreaker games that totally gives you social anxiety. Yeah. Okay. So how did this start, Ally?

Ally  0:44 
So this started, when I came across a BuzzFeed article that I can't find anymore. I really wish I would have saved it. But it ranked some of Jen's movies. And I thought the list was terrible. And I sent it to an and I just commented about how I didn't agree with the list.  Do you remember the moment?

Anne  1:07 
Well, I'm a big Jen fan. We're both big Jen fans - watched Friends like more times than I can count. Some of the movies that she's in are my favorite movies.

Ally  1:18 
And we have a girl crush on her.

Anne  1:22 
I mean, she's perfect.

Ally  1:23 
She's perfect

Anne  1:23 
And I also agree that the list was trash.

Ally  1:28 
It was not good at all. And I wish I could remember more details about it. But all I remember is that only had like 15 movies. And I didn't agree with the ranking.

Anne  1:36 
And I think then we were like, well, how many movies has she actually been in?

Ally  1:39 
Exactly, so we looked it up.

Anne  1:40 
Yeah, this is an investigation.

Ally  1:42 
Yes. And she's been in 39 movies. So Anne proposed that we could make a better list.

Anne  1:53 
Yeah. So that kind of began our year of Jen.

Ally  1:56 
Yep. This was about a year ago that we that we found this list and actually started it. So we decided to watch every single Jennifer Aniston movie in the year 2019 and do our own ranking of them.

Anne  2:10 
Yeah. And so we originally had like standing Jen dates every week. But then I messed everything up and moved across country in June

Ally  2:20  
tragedy

Anne  2:21 
So then we just started doing virtual Jen dates, and it has been so very good for our friendship.

Ally  2:25  
Exactly.

Anne  2:26 
Look at us go.

Ally  2:26 
Yes. And now Anne's home for Christmas/New Years. So now is when we can actually start sharing our ranking of our own because we just finished every movie. So we originally were going to watch every movie and write our own BuzzFeed article with a ranking. But it escalated as we started this. We realized what a commitment it was, and we made this whole rating system which we'll go through in a second, and Kale, my husband, who's also the producer of the podcast, suggested that we need to do a podcast. We had told people we were doing the year of Jen and watching every movie, we were like posting on our Instagram stories and people were invested in like wanting to hear how the movies were doing. So it started becoming kind of popular with our friend group.

Anne  3:11 
One time I was at the gym, and I was like, in the shower, talking to a friend who was not in the same shower as me (she was in a different shower), but we were talking about it. She's like, "Oh, how's Jen going?" And I think I told her whatever, most recent movie we had watch. And she asked how it ranked, so I told her. And then in the locker room, a woman I do not know came up to me in a towel, and she was like, "Are you the one talking about your Jennifer Aniston movie ranking?" And she asked me about her favorite movie and where it ranked... people are very invested.

Ally  3:46 
Yeah, so we're hoping you guys will be as invested in this as we are. So I guess next we can go through our rating. So we've created a spreadsheet with all of the movies with a bunch of information, like what year they're released, what character she plays and where we streamed it or purchased it. So if we get a website, we'll put all that information on there. Um, but then we also came up with our own scoring system, because we as we started to watch, we realized it was going to be difficult just to say like how good of a movie it was, because there's a lot of good ones. So we needed a way to different differentiate everything a little bit more. So we have a few different categories in our rating system. The first one is Acting, and she can get a score of 1 to 10. So this is exactly what it sounds like - how strong her acting was in that movie.

Anne  4:36 
And then the next one is her Character. And I think we put a lot of moral pressure on this ranking, but that can also be on a scale of 1 to 10. And now that I'm thinking about it, we did really put it more on her portraying the character and  who that character was, vs. how maybe it was written or what it was supposed to be.

Ally  4:59 
Yeah, it kind of evolved. It's like how likable the character is, how much they develop, you know, things like that. The next one is Plot, which can also be scored from 1 to 10.

Anne  5:14 
Mm hmm. And then we have Would You Watch Again, which is pretty cutthroat, it's a 1 or a 5. And then if there's a couple that are in between, if we were split, so if Ally was like, "I would never watch that again," and I was like, "I would," we'd give it a 3. So there's a couple 3s, but it's pretty much all or nothing.

Ally  5:31 
We're pretty much in agreement on most of them. And then the bonus category is Hair, because we are very envious of Jennifer Aniston in general, and because she's like, perfect, and her hair is flawless. So for Hair, we didn't want to weight it as highly as the other categories, but we did want some bonus points in there. So it could either get a 1 or a 2.

Anne  5:53 
And in one instance, she got a 3 because it's so good.

Ally  5:56 
Yeah.

Anne  5:57 
But otherwise, we stuck to our rules.

Ally  6:00 
So then we add up all of those scores to get to a total score. And then we rank the movies based on what their total score is. So the total possible points each movie can get is 37. And to give you an idea, now that we've watched every movie, the lowest scored movie has 13.5 points, and the highest has 35. So there's actually a pretty big spread, which we weren't sure as we started watching, we didn't know if we were just biased, because we were loving every movie, and at first, they were getting scored pretty well...so we weren't sure if we were going to have that big of a spread, but then as we as we went on, there are some movies that didn't do as well. So we do have a pretty big spread.

Anne  6:38 
That's our scoring system. Yeah, how it works.

Ally  6:41 
And each episode we'll review a movie or a couple of movies just depending on how much we have to say about them or how interesting they were to us

Anne  6:55 
or how much Jen was in them. There's some movies she's in for like three minutes or not really at all, but we watched them if it's on her IMDb.

Ally  7:04 
Exactly. So in each episode, we'll go through what the movie is like, how it scored in each of our categories, and what its final ranking is. But we're not going to reveal it in number order. So we're not just going to go like this episode is the worst movie to the best or vice versa, because we think it'd be more interesting to jump around a little bit.

Anne  7:26 
And because we watched them randomly. We didn't watch them in any particular order, either. We did like random number generators, which got hard as it went because you kept getting the same number. But yeah, so we randomly watched it, and then we only scheduled a couple based on seasonality.

Ally  7:43 
Yeah, Office Christmas Party we saved for Christmas. There were some that we saved for if Scott & Kale were here, because then we figured we should watch a movie that they might be interested in too

Theme Music 7:54 

Ally  7:54 
Hi, and welcome to the Girl Crush Podcast. We're obsessed with Jennifer Aniston, so this season, we're watching all of her movies and ranking them. If you want to give us your own thoughts be sure to connect with us on Instagram @GirlCrush_Pod. And as always be sure to rate and review.

Anne  8:39 
So for today's episode, which is our first one, we'll be talking about The Break-Up. It was released in 2006, and Jen plays an art gallery employee named Brooke Meyers.

Ally  8:53 
Yep. And it used to be on Netflix, but it doesn't look like it's there anymore when we just checked. So you might have to actually rent this somewhere.

Anne  9:01 
Or buy it on DVD like I did. Because it's so good.

Ally  9:04  
Exactly.

Anne  9:05 
Okay, so the brief kind of overview before we ruin it for you is that Gary, played by Vince Vaughn, and Brooke, obviously played by Jennifer Aniston, they've been dating for two years, and they break up and neither of them is willing to move out of their apartment. And so it's kind of this battle back and forth for getting the other person to move out.

Ally  9:24 
Yep, exactly. So if you haven't seen the movie yet, now's the time to pause and go watch it and then come back because from here on out, there will be spoilers.

Anne  9:33 
So okay, so our ratings for this. So I guess we kind of went over our ratings earlier, but just as a refresher, we rate across Plot, Character, Acting, Hair, Would You Watch it Again. So this first one is plot and this is on a scale of 1 to 10 and so we gave the plot for The Break-Up an 8.5 out of 10, which is pretty high. So I guess now for some spoilers. So The Break-Up takes place in Chicago, which maybe that's why we're like a little partial to it. But Gary & Brooke meet at a Cubs game, great place to meet. And then we get this whole montage of their relationship leading up to present day where they live in a very unrealistically nice apartment or condo for an art gallery employee and a tour guide...

Ally  10:24 
Totally unrealistic

Anne  10:25 
Very unrealistic. It's huge.

Ally  10:28 
They could never afford that on those salaries

Anne  10:30 
For sure not. And so everything kind of escalates because Jennifer Aniston's character is frustrated with Vince Vaughn being a piece of trash, essentially - lazy, and

Ally  10:43  
classically feels under appreciated, you know, things like that

Anne  10:47 
Right, he can't count correctly, he sits on the couch and doesn't do anything. And so that leads up to the title of The Break-Up. So the plots thickens because they own this condo together, and neither of them want to move out. They're trying to get the other person to move out, they feel entitled to the space.

Ally  11:07 
And each of them then goes to the extreme to get the other to move out, even though you kind of find that they're secretly wanting to get back together. So they kind of go back and forth between sort of terrorizing each other, but then maybe wanting to get back together. And things like that.

Anne  11:22 
Yeah. And it's so frustrating to watch because they won't talk to each other, and neither of them seem to be very honest, and then they're just pissing each other off and then it escalates and goes too far, because Brooke finally tries to extend this olive branch and invites Gary to a concert and he doesn't show up.

Ally  11:43 
Even though he agrees that he will

Anne  11:45 
Yes. And so she feels let down and she feels like it's not worth her time. And so then she kind of breaks down and I think that's like the tipping point. She's like, completely over it.

Ally  11:56 
Yeah, she realizes, okay, I really can't count on him

Anne  11:59 
Like, he's not changing. Yeah. Yeah, like that.

Ally  12:03 
Um, so then after that, Brooke shows up to the condo with a potential art client. And she's like showing him some piece of art. So she brings home this client to, to show him something. And in the apartment is Gary who has prepared this dinner for her. And this now is his olive branch and his grand gesture of trying to get her back. But it's just too late for Brooke. She's just realized that ship has sailed basically.

Anne  12:42 
I think she feels bad. This is obviously like a misunderstood situation. She's trying to sell this big piece of art because someone's going to move out, so she's trying to get rid of it and then walks into that and then everyone feels awkward. But they end up selling that condo via their realtor friend, of course, played by Jason Bateman, who just plays Jason Bateman per usual. And then they move out, both of them move out. No one keeps the apartment.

Ally  13:14 
Yep. So then it kind of goes on. Jen goes out and travels the world, Gary's just working on his business. And they've gone their separate ways. So it implies that some time has passed, and in the last scene, they happen to bump into each other on the street and they kind of catch up a little bit, it's like, it's very friendly and just sort of small talk, a very quick catch up. And they just sort of wish each other well and then they keep going their separate ways. And the ending is just very wistful

Anne  13:38 
Yeah, I love the ending. I don't think that you love the ending.

Ally  13:52 
I have very torn thoughts about the ending. I have a love/hate relationship with the ending. Because I'm a sucker for happy ending. So my heart is like "but I want them to just get together and everything be good," but the realistic side of me appreciates the ending because I think it's actually a lot more realistic. And because I I think it shows that they've actually grown from the relationship even though everything they went through was super petty, but it shows that they both have grown and you get the feeling that they're both better off for it.

Anne  14:23 
But it is a happy ending.

Ally  14:24 
No, I totally get it.

Anne  14:25 
Right, but it's just not like a typical happy ending.

Ally  14:27 
Yes, exactly. That's why I'm torn about it. They are both better for it.

Anne  14:31 
Gary learns how to organize receipts and probably do laundry

Ally  14:36 
Right, yeah, he can function on his own. No, I totally agree. It is. It is more of a real life happy ending. It's just not your typical rom com happy ending.

Anne  14:44 
Yeah, I love this movie. It's one of my all time favorites. And I think I love it because of the way ends - that it's not like every other rom com and they just make their peace and I think they're both better for it. So I can watch this movie on repeat. I watched it frequently.

Ally  15:08  
And your favorite scene? One of your favorite scenes?

Anne  15:11  
Oh, yeah. Well at the beginning, I guess we totally left out Brooke's family. And particularly her brother and I don't remember the actor's name.

Ally  15:21 
I can't remember either.

Anne  15:22 
But there's this dinner scene at the beginning with both of their families. And her brother starts this family a cappella group at the table. And it's just, it's hilarious. I think the a cappella in general is just hilarious because it takes me back to our college days when we were in a cappella. But we were not the Tone Rangers.

Ally  15:48 
Yeah, it does bring us back to our days. That's actually how we met was joining the same a cappella group in college. So that's when we met, became best friends. And we were roommates in college, and then we were separate for a while after college in different towns, but then we both ended up in Chicago and were roommates again after that. So obviously, we're a little nostalgic for a cappella.

Anne  16:12 
Yeah, this movie just has it all. So what don't you like other than the ending?

Ally  16:19 
Uh, Gary's the worst

Anne  16:21 
Gary's the worst.

Ally  16:22 
But he's also hilarious. His character is funny to watch. But no, Gary's the worst. That's pretty much what I have to say about that.

Anne  16:30 
Yeah, Gary's a big manchild. And I think the only redeeming scene he's in in the entire movie is that dinner scene where he's trying to make it up to her. And I'm like, if you just did the dishes, you wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. So I hate him.

Ally  16:44 
I think you see more of Jen's characters growth during the time of the movie. And it's implied that Gary's character growth comes like after the movie. So obviously, we're on the side of Jen.

Anne  16:55 
That's true, he's like a little villainized throughout it, but he's just so dumb.

Ally  17:01 
He is really dumb.

Anne  17:01 
So dumb. One time I saw Vince Vaughn and by the Hancock Tower. I think he lives in Chicago, at least part time, or full time. And  my brother used to live over there, and I was just walking around. He's very tall. He was with I think, one of his children in this park that's backed by the Hancock Tower. I just saw him from afar, and I was like, that looks like Vince Vaughn. And it was

Okay, so, yeah, so that was a plot we gave it an 8.5 out of 10. Strong plot, it's unpredictable, hilarious, it hurts to watch

Ally  17:39 
Relatable, but it's like a dramatized version of reality. So you can you can get some joy in seeing, you know, seeing some pettiness that you would never actually do in real life. but you get to enjoy that.

Anne  17:48 
It's like a little cringe worthy, but worth it

Ally  17:52 
So next moving on to Character. So again, we rate this out of 10 points. And we gave Jen's character here a 7.5 out of 10. Note that this is separate from her acting. This is actually what what we think of the character.

Anne  18:06 
Yeah, and I think I think she's super strong the entire movie, and she's really smart, she's super put together. I think she gets very petty. And I think that's just a little off-putting, like the pettiness. Because I think otherwise, she seems like a very like mature person. So it seems a little out of out of character. But maybe she's just reached a tipping point.

Ally  18:30 
I totally agree.

Anne  18:30 
She's losing her mind. Right.

Ally  18:32 
But like I said before, you can kind of appreciate it

Anne  18:34 
Because it's like things you wish you could do what you would do, but just wouldn't do in real life.

Ally  18:38 
Yeah, I agree. She's super strong,  throughout most of the movie. And just seems like she's reached a point where she can't give any more. Like I said, I think we see a little bit more growth in her character than Gary's before, or I mean, during the time of the movie.

Anne  18:55 
Yeah, I think the extremes that she goes to are almost unnecessary. Maybe that's just because she's Jennifer Aniston. And I'm like, if she really wanted to make him jealous she doesn't need to go on a date, or get this weird...like, she could just like walk into the room and she's Jennifer Aniston.

Ally  19:14 
Exactly. Like everybody will want to be with her.

Anne  19:16 
Exactly. And I think she is so beautiful in this movie. She's perfect.

Ally  19:26 
I love it. Yeah, we'll get to that. We'll get to that with our hair rating.

Anne  19:29 
Oh, yeah. Um, I also think the other confusing thing in this movie though, is that she only has like one friend.

Ally  19:37 
Yeah, that is super weird.

Anne  19:38 
And he only really has one friend too, except for..

Ally  19:41 
They didn't take the time to give them a robust friend group. But they certainly would.

Anne  19:46 
His only other friend is his brother from SVU. Who also pretty much plays the same character as he does on SVU you know. I don't remember that actor's name either.

Ally  20:01 
I don't remember his name either.

Anne  20:02 
But yeah, I'm like, why's she calling this one friend, this poor woman with kids and a husband who's clearly happy, right? She's just trying to take care of everybody.

Ally  20:12 
Yep. Agreed.

Anne  20:13 
That's the one thing I'm like they could have done a little bit more. I guess they have their bowling team.

Ally  20:18 
That's true. But that seems different. That seems like more of an activity friend group than like, someone you like talk about your issues with.

Anne  20:26 
That's true. That's true. Well, and that girlfriend is on that bowling team. Yeah, so she's like a continuation of that. So that part, I think is not super believable. But um, I think she exhibits real behavior and is a real person and is very realistic. I think the pieces that take it over into the satire is the extremeness. And then also, like her working at the Art Gallery, and her boss is hilarious. And I wish my boss would pull out a check and tell me to write down a number...Alright, so we can move into Acting now.

Ally  21:09 
So for Acting again, on a scale of 1 to 10, we rated it a 9 out of 10

Anne  21:15 
Which is really high

Ally  21:16 
Yes, very high. You'll see as we start to get through our movies, we don't give out a ton in the nine range, I would say

Anne  21:25 
Mhmm, I think I think her acting is really solid and consistent. And her frustration is really real. But I think what really brought it from the eight to the nine range is when Gary stands up at the concert, and it pushes her over the edge. And she's crying on the bed at home. Which looked like real tears. That was like, that was good. We definitely judge anytime they're crying if it seems real or not.

Ally  21:49 
It's convincing

Anne  21:50 
And those seemed pretty convincing. Like Gary just walks away, digs his own grave. Dumb Gary.

Ally  21:58 
She's gonna be stronger for it though.

Anne  22:00 
Yeah, there was nothing I didn't like...

Ally  22:02 
Yeah, I don't think there were any things that we docked it for or anything like that.

Anne  22:07 
No.

Ally  22:08  
Yeah.

Anne  22:11 
And then her hair. So hair is like bonus points. And really, you're supposed to just get a 1 or a 2. But there's some cases that get 0. And there's this one case, which is this movie, that gets a 3...because we made the rule so we can break 'em. But really like her hair in this movie....

Ally  22:31  
It's perfection.

Anne  22:33 
It is perfection, and she wears it in like so many different styles.

Ally  22:36 
The beachy wave, the perfect beachy wave is what gets me... because how can you recreate that? You can't

Anne  22:41 
You can't

Ally  22:42  
If you've ever tried...I've tried

Anne  22:44 
Same

Ally  22:45 
There's no recreating the perfect beachy wave look.

Anne  22:49  
Yeah, and somehow she gets it like a little tight, it's like a crimp in the bowling scene. And then looser elsewhere on the movie. She has the ponytail. She just does it all

Ally  23:00 
This ponytail was the perfect amount of like, volume at the top.

Anne  23:04 
Yeah, yes. I would really love...this is gonna sound weird. I would really love...

Ally  23:11 
can't wait to hear

Anne  23:14 
...To hold her ponytail. To see how big her hair is! Yeah! Because...

Ally  23:21 
That's actually a really good question

Anne  23:22 
It lays so perfectly. I'm like it has to be, it has to be thin.

Ally  23:27 
I don't think it's very thick.

Anne  23:27  
It can't be very thick. Because when you see it in a ponytail, it doesn't look super thin.

Ally  23:34 
Yeah, but when she hasn't straightened I think you can tell it's kind of thin. Because it all kind of looks like, like I think if if I were to straighten her hair, I think you could do it in all one layer. You know what I mean? Whereas, like myself, I have to section off my hair and do like four or five.

Anne  23:50  
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ally  23:51 
I think hers would be one or two.

Anne  23:53 
I wanna know

Ally  23:54 
But maybe when... I don't want to break the glass for you...but she might have some sort of added hair in the ponytail, like it's not real.

Anne  24:04 
*Gasp* God I didn't even think about that. She's so authentic. I don't think she would do that.

Ally  24:10  
She would never

Anne  24:12 
Her ponytail's 100% Jennifer Aniston certified ponytail hair.

Ally  24:17 
If anyone has a way to give us this information...These are the behind the scenes facts that we want to know.

Anne  24:24 
Yeah, I don't want like a lock. That's weird. I just want to hold it for a second.

Ally  24:27 
Yeah, a thickness of the pony. Someone make a 3d replication, 3d printer of her ponytail.. and send it to us.

Anne  24:38 
Yeah. And she's no flyaways when her hair's in a ponytail.

Ally  24:42 
That's just unrealistic.

Anne  24:43 
That's the most unrealistic part of any movie she's in.

Ally  24:46 
That's because she has people there specifically to do that. Between everything and I'm sure they're like, spraying it.

Anne  24:55 
But it doesn't look like it has hairspray, like you can tell. It's just perfect... How does she do it? I heard on the news this morning... we were, we were leaving our hotel, and Scott calls me in the room because they said "Jennifer Aniston reveals the biggest hair tip." 

Ally  25:15 
Was it dumb?

Anne  25:17 
Yeah, well...

Ally  25:19 
Did it even come from her mouth?

Anne  25:20 
This I don't know. It was to use dry shampoo after a flight. I'm like old news. But this....

Ally  25:28 
Are you kidding me?

Anne  25:29 
The news anchor didn't even know what dry shampoo was? I don't know.

Ally  25:33 
Was it a man?

Anne  25:33 
Yeah, of course.

Ally  25:36 
Okay, she doesn't even need to use dry shampoo after a flight. Why would she need to!

Anne  25:42  
She has a shower on the plane.

Ally  25:45 
Her hairstylist is probably with her. That's who I want to talk to. I want to talk to her hairstylist. You get a lot of insider info from that person

Anne  25:55 
including the ponytail thickness.

Ally  25:57 
Yes. The ponytail thickness, you could hear... I wonder what small talk they have. You know?

Anne  26:01 
Mm hmm.

Ally  26:02 
I feel like they're probably friends.

Anne  26:05 
Oh, for sure. She's posted them on her new Instagram.

Ally  26:08 
You're so right. Like they go to each other's parties and stuff. Not just because it's the polite thing to do. But because they're actually friends.

Anne  26:13 
I would think so.

Ally  26:14 
Yeah, I think so too.

Anne  26:15 
But the hairstylist has to do her a favor before the party starts and do her hair.

Ally  26:18 
Well, obviously. And, Jennifer Aniston's like, my friendship is good enough payment for you.

Anne  26:23 
Yeah, I was gonna say that's like the admission price. Okay, so... hair tangent... our last category is Would You Watch it Again? So for this, you get a 1 or you get a 5...very rarely is there a 3.

Ally  26:43  
Yeah, we only do a 3 if we're split, if one of us says we would and one says we wouldn't then we get to3.

Anne  26:49 
And this obviously gets a 5.

Ally  26:50 
Yes. Because we would both watch it again.

Anne  26:52 
I own it

Ally  26:53 
Anne watches it all the time.

Anne  26:54 
I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Great movie.

Okay, so in review, plot gets an 8.5 out of 10. Character gets a 7.5 out of 10. Acting gets a 9 out of 10. Hair is a 3 out of 2, very rare, bonus points. Would You Watch Again gets a 5 out of 5. For a total score of 33.

Ally  27:18 
Which means that this movie, out of her 38 movies that we've watched, which is all of them, this movie is #3

Anne  27:27 
Which is good. I mean, obviously it's good. It's number 3... I thought it was gonna be higher.

Ally  27:34 
Really?

Anne  27:34 
Yeah.

Ally  27:35 
It was number 1 for a while.

Anne  27:37 
It was I think when we first watched it, it was in the first place.

Ally  27:40 
It was high up there. It's a great movie. I mean, classic rom com with a twist in the ending that actually makes you feel like they're both they both are doing well. Yeah, overall, a real winner. I'm guessing most of our listeners have already watched this movie.

Anne  28:01 
I would hope so.

Ally  28:03 
If not, they have now.

Anne  28:05 
True, can't listen unless you've watched it (that's not true). Um, yeah, I guess that's it for The Break-Up. So thanks for listening to our first episode of Girl Crush Podcast. Let us know your thoughts on today's movie or if you agree with our ranking. You can find us on Instagram @GirlCrush_Pod. And you can also email us at podcastgirlcrush@gmail.com. Tune in next time when we'll be talking about She's The One.