MOVIES VS. CAPITALISM: Dude, Where’s My Car? (w/ Devon Young)

On this week’s Movies vs. Capitalism, Rivka and Frank are joined by Devon Young, organizer and founder of the performance venue Little Secret LA, for a mind-altering conversation about the 2000s stoner comedy Dude, Where’s My Car?

A rough transcript of the episode is available here.

The group discusses the concept of “male amnesia” and how the film’s protagonists, Jesse and Chester, progress through their bizarre adventure as unbiased lumps of clay. While the film remains immensely offensive upon a rewatch, the group considers a thesis by queer theorist Jack Halberstam that dissects an on-screen kiss by Jesse and Chester and explores the characters’ latent heteroflexibility. Devon also regales Rivka and Frank with the story of the time she went on a date with the ’90s supermodel Fabio.

For next week’s movie, MVC will be watching Stanley Kubrick’s Cold War-era satire, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

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Devon and Little Secret are producing the Hot Labor Summer Tour, a series of live events featuring previous Lever podcast guests Chris Smalls and Steven Donziger that will explore the intersection of labor and climate organizing. The tour will stop in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and Denver, and will feature special guests and surprise performers.

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