150. Spice World

It only took us eight years but we finally reached 150 episodes. How about that? To celebrate, we squeeze into matching Union Jack dresses and slam our bodies down and wind them all around to discuss Spice World (1997), the notoriously bad (but secretly good?) Spice Girls movie.

To elder millennials, this movie’s a big honking deal, folks, and we pull out all the stops to unpack exactly why that is. And to then marvel at how, of all the directions they could have gone with a Spice Girls movie, this is what they made. 

Bonus video: We name our favorite movies about bands, real or fictional. Watch it on our Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.

Next week: Our Oscars special, previewing the 2025 Academy Awards with a cavalcade of superstar guests 

Subscribe to our Patreon, Load Bearing Beams: Collector's Edition for $5 a month to get two extra episodes! patreon.com/loadbearingbeams 

Time stamps:

00:06:13 — Our personal histories with the Spice Girls

00:16:06 — History segment: What is “Cool Britannia”?; a brief history of the Spice Girls; how the Spice Girls made a movie 

00:44:12 — In-depth movie discussion

01:17:53 — Final thoughts and star ratings

Sources:

“How the ‘Spice World’ Movie Became a Deranged, Postmodern Masterpiece” by Sirin Kale | Vice, 2018 - https://bit.ly/41qK2nx 

“When the Spice Girls hit Cannes: the inside story of Spice World, 'the worst film ever made'” by Alice Vincent | The Telegraph, 2019 - https://bit.ly/3Qrjdua 

Roger Ebert’s half-star review of Spice World - https://bit.ly/4i0PKTB 

Artwork by Laci Roth.

Music by Rural Route Nine. Listen to their album The Joy of Averages on Spotify (https://bit.ly/48WBtUa), Apple Music (https://bit.ly/3Q6kOVC), or YouTube (https://bit.ly/3MbU6tC).

Songs by Rural Route Nine in this episode:

“Winston-Salem” - https://youtu.be/-acMutUf8IM

“Snake Drama” - https://youtu.be/xrzz8_2Mqkg

“The Bible Towers of Bluebonnet” - https://youtu.be/k7wlxTGGEIQ

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