Did you ever work a soul-crushing service job that sometimes sent you to the bathroom crying? Then we have the episode for you! Andrew Bujalski’s SUPPORT THE GIRLS (2018) is a lovely and loving film which follows a restaurant manager and her all-female staff as they try to make it through the day. We talk about its authentic approach to solidarity, the dynamic ensemble of characters, our own hellish work experiences, and the significance of the film’s male writer-director.

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) dir. Martin Scorsese

“Grip” by Joy Castro (from Island of Bones)

We’re tackling religious upbringing this week with Laurel Parmet’s THE STARLING GIRL (2023), a phenomenal film about a teenage girl’s coming-of-age in her Christian fundamentalist community—and we’re having necessary conversations about modesty culture (and the violence it inflicts), predatory relationships, and the work of protecting each other whilst living within systems that thrive precisely by not protecting our livelihoods.

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

Holiday Country by Inci Atrek

The Dream of a Common Language by Adrienne Rich

Interview with Laurel Parmet

It’s finally time to talk about a teen comedy! Marin’s pick this week is Natalie Morales’s PLAN B (2021), which follows two South Dakotan teens as they try to obtain basic reproductive healthcare and endure lots of bullshit along the way. But the movie is also a funny and tender depiction of friendship and growing into yourself. We discuss its smart and empathetic use of humor, why its romantic subplots work, the logistics of its South Dakota geography, and the possibilities—and limitations—of art as an agent for political change. (Audio note: apologies for the muffled sound at parts—we recorded this episode while wearing masks in an attempt to avoid illness!)

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

Forever… by Judy Blume

Long Live the Tribes of Fatherless Girls: A Memoir by T Kira Madden

Courtesy of Maggie, we are finally talking about a movie from this decade: Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, THE LOST DAUGHTER (2021), which is also an adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel. We marvel at Olivia Colman’s face acting. We use the word “boundless” a lot. We remember the ways our girlhood-selves terrorized our mothers. We have a lot to say about mothering, art-making, and terrible men who are, nevertheless, alluring. Thankfully, this movie has a lot to say, too.

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

A Life of One’s Own: Nine Women Writers Begin Again by Joanna Biggs

Women, Race, & Class by Angela Y. Davis

The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante

Transforming Girls: The Work of Nineteenth-Century Adolescence by Julie Pfeiffer

Flash Count Diary: Menopause and the Vindication of Natural Life by Darcey Steinke

Letterboxd review by @ducournau

NANCY DREW (2007) was one of Marin’s favorite movies as a child. Does it hold up? Not really! But Maggie hypothesizes why it makes sense that Young Marin would be smitten with this movie. We also talk about the movie’s depictions of danger, perfection, and violent /clueless/entitled men/boys—all of which leads us to wonder: are we over-thinking this PG movie?

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

Tasting the Sky: A Palestinian Childhood by Ibtisam Barakat

“‘Nancy Drew’ Revisited” by Barbara S. Wertheimer and Carol Sands, Language Arts

Incorrect Logline: Warner Bros.

Early into this episode, Marin likens watching Baz Luhrmann’s ROMEO + JULIET (1997) for the first time to “seeing God,” so, yeah, we loved this. We discuss the film’s tenderness towards its characters and its refreshing portraits of girlhood and masculinity, particularly via the gaze of the camera itself. While Maggie’s prowess as a high school literature teacher is on full display, Marin connects the film to not one but TWO teen dramas. Also, we introduce a new closing segment!

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

“Elizabethan Street Fighting” by Shakespeare Unlimited podcast, ep. 24

“The Female Gaze” by Alexis Loftis, Sartorial Magazine

“Jenny Han Explains How Pop Music is Central to The Summer I Turned Pretty” by Malia Mendez,

Los Angeles Times

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The Summer I Turned Pretty, season 2, episode 2

Dawson’s Creek, season 3, episode 14

Welcome to the very first episode of Tell Me I’m Sorry! We’re so thankful you’re here as we discuss the underrated 90s GEM of a film, EVER AFTER (1998). Maggie shares her lifelong love of Drew Barrymore (which she proves via a reading from her teenage diary), Marin laments her young self’s lack of appreciation for the film, and we talk about how this re-telling of Cinderella diverges from other versions of the fairytale to give us characters, friendships, and romance worth rooting for.

Email your own musings and questions to tellmeimsorry@gmail.com

Follow us:

The podcast’s Instagram: @tellmeimsorry

Maggie’s Instagram: @_saint_margaret_

Marin’s Letterboxd: @marinharrington

Secondary texts referenced:

Wildflower by Drew Barrymore

“Cinderella” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love by bell hooks

“Cinderella; or, The Little Glass Slipper” by Charles Perrault

Archetypal Patterns in Women’s Fiction by Annis Pratt

Melanie Lynskey interview on Fresh Air

Incorrect Logline: Letterboxd

In this short intro episode, Maggie and Marin introduce themselves, the structure of each episode, and the inspiration for the show’s title! We also touch on the supposed feuds between Millennials and Gen Z-ers on the internet. (Spoiler: Maggie is a Millennial and Marin is a Gen Z-er and neither of us understand any of this nonsense.)