Get your flailing arms ready for some juicy juicy mangoes as we cover Bend It Like Beckham.

Stats

Released: March 2003
Writer and Director: Gurinder Chadha
Budget: GBP3,500,159
Worldwide Gross: $76,583,333
Cast: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Archie Panjabi

Breakdown and Analysis

  • A nice, light, layered cultural film. A succinct simple story should not need beyond 90 minutes.
  • Football is huge in Africa. This movie was very big. Oti watched it a year after Arsenal had a good run.
  • Oti affirms bend it like beckham is a known phrase in the football world. The director mentioned how this was used as a metaphor on how women approach things in a roundabout way to achieve their goals.
  • There are cultural parallels you can draw of your parents having expectations of you, your life mapped out and do everything to get you there. If you have ambitions that go against that, you risk being disowned by them. Love is conditional. It is not free flowing. In a brown family, your love is only allocated to you if you live the prescribed path.
  • Something as trivial as a child canoodling at a bus stop is enough to call off the sibling’s wedding.
  • We were able to relate a lot of the sentiments in the movie. It was as if our parents were keeping tabs on your friends so that they can bring up their successes at the most inconvenient of times. The amount of times we have been compared to other kids. Why can’t you be like so and so?
  • A lot of what Jess’ mum says is about how they will be perceived. You are no longer an entity of your own feeling or volition, you merely exist as a pawn. In the strategic chess of your mum, aunties and friends. Fuck what you do in private.
  • It was interesting seeing the dynamic between Jess and Pinkie. It was typical for Pinkie as she was the oldest. As much as Pinkie was the closest in age, she couldn’t understand why Jess wasn’t towing the line. Siblings will be loyal until their asses are on the chopping block.
  • Indian Weddings are super vibrant, the food is amazing and everyone is dancing.
  • Jess wasn’t a great character to centre this story around. She wasn’t just naive, she seemed to use it as a crutch. Jules was such a generous and whole hearted friend. She brought Jess into the fold. They did everything together and allowed Jess the comfort in discovering who she is. But at every opportunity, Jess was trying to stick her tongue down his Rhys Meyers.
  • This isn’t the movie where you deep dive and look for layers, because they weren’t there.
  • Jess was very useless. The decisions, or lack of, and the sense of control she relinquishes and wonders why things go wrong. Reminiscent of Bella from Twilight. She definitely could have been more like Chihiro from Spirited Away. Until the end of this movie Jess is still the same Jess from the beginning.
  • We have Jess following her dreams and she is conflicted about not wanting to hurt her parents. Jess took up all the emotional space in a room.
  • In many cases for dads, they are just glad their daughter is not hanging around with dicks. Figuratively and literally. Both dads have loving relationships with Jess and Jules.
  • We are used to watching different stories but for this film to come out in 2002, it was new to the stories that were being told. A lot of how we feel governs how we operate. It’s not only academic things that can bring wealth in life.

Unrelated but vital points

  • In Archie we trust.
  • Merch idea: The unexpected boners are what gets you. Clits before dicks. Bend for beckham.
  • KT and Oti the last born of their kind.
  • Language lessons. Swahili (Mzungu). Tongan (Palangi).
  • According to snooty snoot Oti, this movie is barely Bollywood.
  • Money Heist India Casting was noted to have Shah Rukh Khan as El Professor. KT would be most welcome.
  • KT does not care for Bride and Prejudice. She only acknowledges the BBC Mini Series.
  • Tongans doing Bollywood dances is not cultural appropriation if you do it with a smile.
  • Master of None and Little America perfectly capture being an immigrant and also the child of an immigrant.
  • People that look like their address is residential pussy: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Jude Law, Luke Evans.

For Your Reference

Oti

[imdb style=”gray”]tt1442462[/imdb]

KT

[imdb style=”gray”]tt4635276[/imdb][imdb style=”gray”]tt8000674[/imdb]