Popcorn Podcast

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I Am Woman

Popcorn Podcast

Leigh and Tim talk Helen Reddy biopic I Am Woman. Plus, there's a first look at Disney's Raya And The Last Dragon, John Carpenter resurrects The Thing, and The New Mutants brings superhero horror to the big screen.

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I AM WOMAN MOVIE REVIEW 

Leigh: This week we saw I Am Woman (streaming on Stan). It tells the story of Australian singer Helen Reddy, who wrote the iconic song ‘I Am Woman’. I’m sure you know it, Tim.

Tim: I do know it. And I know it a lot better now having seen the film.

Leigh: The song actually ended up becoming the anthem for the women's rights movement in the 1970s and ’80s.

Tim: And the movie is essentially about the obstacles and setbacks Helen encountered while trying to succeed in what was a very male-dominated music industry of the time. She was there to beat her own drum and become this big, big superstar.

Leigh: I’m surprised we hadn’t heard this story before? I mean, it’s a tale as old as time. A talented woman against the odds, who falls for a dirtbag who can't handle her success. But we haven't heard Helen's story. She is actually the first Australian woman to win a Grammy for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance.

Tim: She obviously was a trailblazer, especially as a homegrown talent making it big over in the US, which even to this day is often considered a pinnacle in someone's success story. If you make it big in the UK and the US, then you've made it. She was, like you said, the first one to really do that as an Australian female singer.

Leigh: There was one point in history too, where she had more hits in the charts than the Beatles – which is incredible. 

Tim: That's insane.

Leigh: How do we not know her story already?!

Tim: Will the real Helen Reddy please stand up! Personally, I felt a bit ashamed. I don't know if that's too harsh a word. But I really didn't know anything about Helen Reddy. I obviously knew the song, it's this iconic anthem, as you mentioned, but I didn't know her story. I didn't know her as a woman. To be honest, I didn't even know she was Australian. What if anything, did you know about her coming into this movie?

Leigh: I knew that she starred in Pete's Dragon. That amazing film. That's one of my favourite films.

Tim: That’s like a childhood favourite right next to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Oh, you've really taken me back Leigh.

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