 Juanita! Welcome back to Life, Lessons, and Film, and today we'll be making sense of life through Juanita. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. I like it. Interesting. So let's back story. Yeah. We watched it because we were trying to watch something that we wouldn't review. I don't remember why it was. Yeah. We just wanted to relax. Yeah, just to relax. We definitely weren't expecting it to be something that we would like as much as we liked. Yeah. Although when we did see the trailer, it was so cute. You know, she's like a mom. Yeah, she's breaking the fourth wall, talking to the camera. Can you believe what my life is like? Yeah, it was funny. And I can relate to a lot of things as well that she did like the daydreaming. I do that all the time. Well, not as much now. No need. Yeah, because I have you. And the killer of daydreams. He's the killer of daydreams. She's daydreaming all the time because she doesn't have the life that she wants. You know, and she doesn't have, she's not married. I don't know where the dad is. Nobody talks about that. She's living in her house. Her old, her adult kids are still living with her. One, the daughter has her own kid. And so she then, she has Juanita babysit, which I believe Juanita, as much as she's a grandmother and loves the kid, the grand kid, is resentful all that. And I remember there's that scene where in the beginning she's like, the daughter's like, I'm going out with friends. I need it. I deserve it. Meanwhile, she doesn't have a job, by the way. Juanita has a job. And her daughter's like, no, I need it. I need to take a break. And you know, and she's like, no. Juanita's like, no, I want to take a break. I've had a tough week before. That's my one day off. And she's like, yeah, but you get the whole house to yourself. But I'm like, yeah, the whole house to yourself, but then you're taking care of a kid. That doesn't quite work. That's kind of a manipulative language, isn't it? One million percent. Yeah. So yeah, Juanita's kind of stuck in this rut where she's taking care of so many people, but no one's really taking care of her. And she finally reaches the breaking point. Yeah. And she says, you know what? My daydreams aren't even doing it for me. People who escape with the daydreams, you know, have kind of erotic nights with Blair Underwood. Yeah. And then even Blair, even her daydreams, he started to ask things over, like ask for money from her. So he's like, you know what? I got to just get myself out of this situation. Yeah. It takes a bus to Butte. Yeah. And Boote. Boote, yeah. And then, yeah, it makes kind of a new fresh start for herself. It comes across a very small town, goes to a diner, kind of convinces the owner of the diner to maybe freshen up the look and the menu and everything, forms a relationship with them and has some adventures. Yeah. And her life turns out not so bad. Yeah, not so bad. Not so bad. Yeah. I liked it. I liked that. Isn't it even kind of, you could say daydream is even kind of like dissociating in a way. It's kind of where you're kind of taking yourself out of a situation that clearly you need to escape from. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I mean, if you're going to take it that deep. Yeah. And yeah, I guess the fact that Claire Underwood starts asking her for money in the daydream. Yeah. I think that she's her escape. Yeah. That's, I feel for her, that's kind of like, okay, breaking point. Yeah. The daydreams don't even work anymore. I need to get out of here. Yeah. I can't even escape through my daydreams. I need to physically remove myself from this situation. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of like a film way, a movie way of showing when someone finally has enough and the things that they would use to cope and get by in them themselves aren't doing it anymore. Don't work anymore. And then they really need to make a change, you know? Yeah. I have a cool way to do it, right? Yeah, it is a cool. It's a funny way to do it. Yeah. Because that does happen, right? Yeah. Yeah. You know, at first you get this idea in your mind. You're like, that's it. I'm sick of this. I'm going to do something for myself for once. But then, you know, the fear comes in. Exactly. Yeah. Of course, inevitably, you know, she asked her friend who was really sweet to her and like, you know what? I can see that, you know, so she gives her some money. She's like, don't even worry about just, you know, find something that you're looking for. Yeah. I liked the friend. I thought the friend was so great. I'm like, there are friends out there. There are people. There are people who aren't that good of friends, honestly, because she, I mean, I think the friend has been supportive throughout, you know, always talking to one another because make no mistake. Juanita's terrible situation is because of her too. If you have people in a bad relationship, it's not just the one person, the good, sweet person, that's, I mean, or the bad people that are at fault. It's you too for staying in that bad situation. Takes you to Foxtrot. Exactly. Takes you to Foxtrot. But yeah, so the friend throughout has been trying to get her to kick the kids out and to have Juanita stop enabling the kids because she really does do that. And so the kids have that comfort zone of knowing that mom will fix everything. Mom is always going to like, if I mess up, mom's going to be here. She's going to take care of me. I stay at her place. I don't have to pay rent. I had, she, you know, buys the food, all these things. So that is enabling the fact that she's allowing her adult kids and then now she has to take care of her grandkids. And so yeah, Juanita needs, you know, like, she also needed to kind of get herself straight. So her friend has been supportive, always trying to kind of like, come on, Juanita, can't you see what you're doing right now? These kids are taking advantage of you. These kids are adults. They now have to be independent. You know, but I was, I just thought that was really nice to have a friend like that, you know, like that kind of support system. I thought that was so heartwarming, especially because, you know, it's like a new chapter. And you're like, sometimes people are like a little bit jelly bells. You know, if you're not the best friend, you're like, oh, I want to go and do this. And, but I'm not doing it when he does doing it. I'm not going to give her money. Hopefully she won't be able to go. She completely, she's like, you need to do this for yourself. Here you go. Here's money. Here's my stash that I've been putting away. Which is kind of, I would say, an argument for doing what Juanita did. Everyone should be doing that finding where they need to find that inner peace because it's hard to be a good friend to other people until you have that inner peace. And I think a friend had it to a degree. Oh, maybe she felt like she could also, you know, go for it because I wish I could be doing that. That's so courageous of you. But as long as you have a little bit of that inner peace, then you can actually support your other friends when they want to pursue something. But if you don't, then you're just going to be at peace all the time. But I think that her friend, Juanita's friend is quite, like Juanita's friend is very, you know, she's independent. She seems very self-actualized as far as I'm concerned. She has her own business. You know, she's independent and I'm sure if she does have kids, she's, you know, like they're out of the house and they're doing their own thing. And as she encourages Juanita to do. And so yeah, you're right. People in that situation, because she's confident in herself, everything, she's managing her life and, you know, she's making the kinds of moves that she wants to. Yeah, I think people like that do tend to be better companions. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's because it's just easier. Yeah. Yeah. Because the things that you do to push forward don't remind them of the things that they aren't doing to push forward, right? Yeah. So not only I think you should pursue what makes you happy and fulfilled and safe and all that kind of stuff for yourself, but so you can be a better person to others around you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Honestly. Yeah. Honestly. You know, like the whole movie is centered around Juanita being, you know, people are taking advantage of poor Juanita, but I'm like, but Juanita means, it's not just the people, the kids that are taking advantage. Juanita, you know, is at fault here too. For taking it, right? For taking it. She is enabling, you know, you know, she's that mom who's like, oh no, I have to protect my kids. Her mentality is kind of like, I have to keep nurturing my kids until they get a job, until they get an apartment and move out. And so until they do that, until I know that they're going to be okay, I have to keep taking care of them. And in your mind, as that kind of person, you're thinking taking care is going to have them be comfortable enough to pursue these things that you're hoping that they're eventually going to pursue. What I'm realizing is that that kind of outlook actually makes the person who you're trying to make independent less independent because they don't have to be, because you give them everything they need. As much as I wish I did not have to admit it, sometimes I need a kick in the caboose. Everyone needs a kick in the caboose sometimes. Yeah. You know, when she does eventually leave, things work out. The daughter gets a job, you know, something that she didn't need to get it before because mom was paying for food and rent. So yeah, Juanita, you are also problematic here as sweet and cute as you are. She's such a sweet, like, she just looks like a mom, you know, though. You just want to cuddle her. Yeah. But honestly, very surprised with how much we actually liked the movie. It was funny. It was fun. It was just fun. I like the characters. I like that the regulars at the diner, you know, they go there because it's probably the only place around and it's their hangout spot and they kind of, you know, they say that. Like, yeah, I like that you're all about, like, French cuisine, but now that someone's bringing it up, if you want to know my opinion, I'd actually prefer some other things as well, you know, just baking an eggs or something, you know, that would be nice. And, you know, maybe the owner of the chef who Juanita ends a certain relationship with, maybe he's to try to, I don't know, compensate or whatever, but maybe he feels some kind of self-esteem issues. And he goes easy. Battles with alcoholism. So that's why he wants to compensate by making his restaurant very fancy in French and all these things that places around there wouldn't serve. You know, sometimes you get the idea of like, all successful blah, blah, blah, do this. Yeah, chef. He wants to be taken seriously. He's taken seriously. He's taken seriously. Everything has to be in French. The whole menu has to be in French. Yeah. Because of course he has this vision, right? Like, obviously I think he was thinking, it's the outskirts of wherever they are and people might travel from all the way from New York to this special French restaurant. I think that's probably the idea. But it's like... Sometimes you have to just accept where you are and the situation. I think there's a bit of like, you're kind of a rusty spoon situation where you're at and that's okay. You know? Be a rusty spoon. It means you can build a community and if you like living here, then just accept that most of your clientele will just be the people that live around here. So be just that rock in the community where people can go for their breakfast and they know what they're gonna get. Yeah, because when he does do that, adjust his menu, people start coming in, you know? Again, it's full all the time. People are quite happy. Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. Adjust your vision, I guess. Yeah. And it's okay. It's okay to do that. Yeah. The thing that was also interesting to me was that she left. And of the view that if you want to deal with something, you have to deal with it instead of run away from it. Yeah. So really she did run away from that situation from her kids and all that stuff. Instead of kind of dealing with it and saying, just get out of my house. She just escaped. Yeah. But I feel like to be fair, sometimes it is really hard to make a change when you're still living in that situation. Space, yeah. Yeah, in that space. And so sometimes as much as running away physically doesn't necessarily make a difference. It's a start because then you can remove yourself from that situation and go somewhere where you can think clearly. Yeah. Analyze the thing that you were trying to get out of and find a way to resolve it. So there is that. Yeah. At the end of the day, I think the movie wasn't really trying to go super deep. So obviously there are lots of things which... Yeah. They kind of maybe don't go into as much as they could or should. But they flavored a nice story about kind of recapturing your zest for life and being true to yourself and what you need. And they just sprinkled it with a lot of good stuff. Yeah. A lot of good situations, details, characters, people. A lot of sweet things. Yeah. But that's what we thought of one, some of the things that we conjured up from it. What do you guys think about that? Or if you've seen it, what are some of the stuff that you got from it? Yeah, I just know. Yeah. But until next time, that's a wrap.