Spice World -- So I Really, Really Wanna Wanna Forget I Watched This Movie

Note: Ang & Crabs would like to thank the thousands who sent condolences upon the death of Josephine, or beloved Cliche-O-Tron. It is wonderful to know that so many are with us in our time of sadness.

Facts: Flashback to the go-go 90s. The U.S. was just basking in the glory of the First Gulf War (the less said about the Second Gulf War, the better). The stock market was inflating itself to new, untenable heights. So indeed, the sewage pump had been expertly primed to usher forth a British import the likes of which America had never seen. No, we're not talking about Austin Powers. And we're certainly not talking about The Beatles, because they were actually, you know, good. No, we're talking about five sassy British lasses, the biggest female singing group of all time. Yes, the Spice Girls. (They really were the biggest all-girl group, we're not making this up.) You remember them, don't you? Well, you will by the end of this post. Cue cast: The Sporty One, the Poshy One, the Wingy Baby One, the Frightful One, and Cheeky One. And also some other people, such as surprise guests stars Elton John, Elvis Costello, Roger Moore, Alan Cumming, and George Wendt. With an all-star cast like that, what could possibly go wrong? (Ha.)

Plot summary: The girls spend several days tooling around London in their double-decker Union Jack bus with their uptight manager Clifford. They bumble from location to location on some sort of publicity tour. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, an evil tabloid mogul is plotting to break up the group by sowing dissension in some convoluted plot to sell more papers. Meanwhile, the girls have some random pregnant friend who pops up every now and again to remind the girls of what's really important in life. And for the intellectual types out there, a minor subplot about a pretentious documentary film crew making a movie about the Spice Girls. A movie about people making a movie about a movie. So meta?

Key moments of interest:
Cue an ass-kicking (girl power!) rehearsal.
Heavily pregnant Penny reveals that her worthless loser of a boyfriend has left her and promptly nominated all five Spice Girls as godparents. (Would you leave your children with the Spice Girls?)
A film crew with nothing better to do reveals plans to film the Spice Girls.
The director's ambition: to reveal the emotion behind the Spice Girls. Uh, good luck with that.
At a totally 90s party, we learn that the girls are multi-layered. (Ginger is actually a member of Mensa, and Posh likes more than fashion.)
For some reason, their manager's boss is Alan Moore. Who is evil. We know this because he has a lair, and he strokes animals in said lair. (Insert dirty joke here.)
Tabloid mogul is complaining about lagging newspaper staff, and decides to break up the group. He hires some random paparazzi guy to harass them.
Inside the Union Jack Spicemobile, the girls have forgotten their plans to be more well-rounded, and are doing stereotypical things. (Sporty is exercising, Baby is in a swing, blah blah.)
Meatloaf is driving the bus. ("I love those girls, and I'd do anything for them, but I won't do that.")
They meet Elton John. God save the queen. Nothing happens. Elton leaves promptly to cash his paycheck for appearing in this movie.
The girls are determined to be incredible dancers as well as singers (!) and are put through their paces by a demented gay dance instructor.
They meet some aliens. In the woods. The less said, the better.
Two lucky Spice Girls fans go on a date with the Spice Girls. But the dream turns to disaster when a well-thought-out plan to steal a speedboat goes awry, and both fans are dumped in the Thames. The movie, unfortunately, survives.
Paparazzi Guy gets this all on film, and Clifford is incensed to see this incident in the tabloids.
A tearful and emotional confrontation: more to the girls than meets the eye. You know, like transformers.
Clifford gets drunk and has a totally random and useless one night stand with his assistant. We saw this tangent coming from a mile away.
The two aspiring movie producers pitch their idea to Clifford, with a plot that hilariously follows the plot of the REAL movie. (A nod to intellectualism if we've ever seen one.)
Another stroke of genius: the girls take pregnant Penny, soon-to-be Mother of the Year, clubbing, where she promptly goes into labor.
Meatloaf rushes them to the hospital, and the girls become labor coaches. Wearing the same hideous outfits from before. (Seriously, Scary wears the ugliest clothes.)
In the hospital, they hear two young girls excited about their plans to see the Spice Girls in concert. This rekindles their love of...cough...music.
Posh drives at breakneck speed through the streets of London, driving over the Tower Bridge just in time, and they arrive at the concert hall with moments to spare.
Their prima donna manager is moments away from hanging himself, so it's perfect timing. (That is, if you want to see him live.)
Then there's a long concert scene. It's really boring.

Snarky movie discussion:
The theme of today's discussion is Spice World as an agent of the revitalization of feminism in the 20th century.
Crabs: Some might argue that the masculinity implicit in the 80s via the dominance of 1. the Cold War, and 2. trickle-down Reaganomics perhaps blunted the razor-edge of 1970s-era feminism. I've heard this point argued ad nauseum. Would you agree therefore the emergence of the Spice Girls and subsequent "Girl Power" movement during the 90s was an obvious antecedent of the previous decade?
Ang: I would argue that the Spice Girls are direct descendants of artists such as Chrissy Hynde and Joan Jett. This may seem antithetical given the latter artists' "tougher" facade. However, as we see in the movie, each Spice Girl has an inner strength which she uses to forge her way in a post-9/11 world. Even though 9/11 hasn't happened yet. I posit that the Spice Girls in fact represent a softer kind of feminism, which, in light of the aforementioned 80s backlash, is a subversive technique to bring feminism to a new generation.
Crabs: At several points throughout the movie, we see Ginger Spice struggling to gain recognition for her intellectual achievements despite her prevalent hooker boots and legless pants. However, despite her best efforts, she is able to gain very little traction in regards to this issue. Does this imply the glass ceiling is still firmly in place in the music industry and therefore by extension in society at large?
Ang: I'm glad you asked this. I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but my latest dissertation, entitled "The Spice Girls: A Post-Modern View of Feminism for a New Generation post-2001," discusses this very point at length. If you wish to read the entire publication, you can contract my alma mater, the Provincial University of Manitoba.
Crabs: Go Fighting Caribous!
Ang: Yes, yes. To whit, my thesis is as follows: Ginger Spice's at times "slutty" attire is in fact a disguise for her considerable intellectual prowess. Much as the Islamic world has embraced the burka, Ginger's continued reliance on skimpy clothing choices in fact masks her intelligence so that she is able to covertly subvert the status quo.
Crabs: The Spice Girls themselves, while being clever caricatures of personality stereotypes, also serve to reinforce the established British class system, with its minute yet relevant distinctions, so the continued presence of these class paradigms in 90s pop music clearly indicates the failure of Thatcher-esque egalitarianism. Please comment on this.
Ang: Are you suggesting that the girls are somehow a representation of Tony Blair-era Labour politics?
Crabs: The connection between pop music and politics is clearly documented throughout history; therefore, my answer would be a definitive yes. So my follow-up question to you is: if Tony Blair were a Spice Girl, which one would he be? And why?
Ang: Such a rich question. It is my assertion that Tony Blair would in fact be Sporty Spice, a clear peon to the working man, so to speak. As we see throughout the movie, Sporty is continually compelled to act in a prescribed manner (i.e. that of a tomboy) despite her obvious interests in clothes and other "girly" pursuits. This indicates that though she struggles to overcome her working class roots, she has as yet been unsuccessful. Much in the way that Tony Blair continually strives to better the lives of working class Britons, yet always comes up short.
Crabs: The Spice Girls recently launched a comeback tour, to great fanfare. So one could say that the Spice Girls have thus become Spice Women. What do you think this says about the "Girl Power" movement as an evolutionary force in contemporary society?
Ang: As you are undoubtedly aware, though the above-mentioned comeback tour was launched with great expectation, it did not do as well as one might have hoped. To me, this indicates that the "Girl Power" movement, as you call it, has been diluted over the years, and that the mere mention of such a ideology is more powerful than the ideology itself, much in the way that the image of the Spice Girls is more compelling than they are at this point in history.

Well, that's all for now. Ang and Crabs are off to re-plumb the depths of this classic using their newly-acquired Criterion edition of Spice World.

Rating: three sticks in the eye (and a pair of leopard-print hot pants).