Fails the Bechdel test
Extract
2009. Directed by Mike Judge, written by Mike Judge.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
2 / 3
Fails
-
Yes
1. At least two women
6 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
Women do talk to each other. -
No
3. About something besides a man
Every conversation between women that our parser found mentions a man.
Second opinion
Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.
The film
Joel, the owner of an extract manufacturing plant, constantly finds himself in precarious situations that steadily worsen by the minute. First, his soon-to-be floor manager acquires a serious injury in a machine malfunctioning accident that subsequently endangers the wellbeing of his company. Second, his personal life doesn't fare much better when he takes the advice of his bartending friend Dean during a drug-induced brainstorming session on how to test his wife's faithfulness. Finally, compounding these catastrophes is new employee Cindy, who happens to be a scam artist intent on milking the company for all its worth. Now, Joel must attempt to piece his company and his marriage back together all while trying to figure out what he's really after in life.
- Released
- 04 Sep 2009
- Genres
- Comedy, Crime, Romance
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 6.1 / 10
- Metascore
- 61 / 100
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- Joel 336 lines, man
- Dean 96 lines, man
- Suzie 69 lines, woman
- Brad 44 lines, man
- Brian 44 lines, man
- Cindy 43 lines, woman
- Nathan 43 lines, man
- Step 40 lines, man
- Mary 23 lines, woman
- Willie 21 lines, man
Full cast, 24 people
- Jason Bateman as Joel
- Mila Kunis as Cindy
- Kristen Wiig as Suzie
- Ben Affleck as Dean
- J.K. Simmons as Brian
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Step
- Dustin Milligan as Brad
- David Koechner as Nathan
- Beth Grant as Mary
- T.J. Miller as Rory
- Javier Gutiérrez as Hector
- Lidia Porto as Gabriella
- Gene Simmons as Joe Adler
- Matt Schulze as Willie
- Lamberto Gutierrez as Victor
- Brent Briscoe as Phil
- Hal Sparks as Guitar Salesman #1
- Nick Thune as Guitar Salesman #2
- Tom Virtue as Guitar Customer
- Christopher Rocha as Pawn Shop Guy
- Jenny O'Hara as Joel's Secretary
- Gary Cole as Bar Patron (uncredited)
- Mike Judge as Jim (uncredited)
- Marilyn Monrovia as Lawyer (uncredited)
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 2 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 86
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 to 4 | 7 | 16 |
| 5 to 6 | 0 | 29 |
| 7 to 8 | 7 | 9 |
| 9 to 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 to 12 | 6 | 19 |
| 13 to 14 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 to 16 | 1 | 9 |
| 17 to 18 | 1 | 27 |
| 19 to 20 | 1 | 0 |
| 21 to 22 | 0 | 19 |
| 23 to 24 | 4 | 36 |
| 25 to 26 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 to 28 | 1 | 3 |
| 29 to 30 | 7 | 39 |
| 31 to 32 | 0 | 44 |
| 33 to 34 | 1 | 11 |
| 35 to 36 | 2 | 22 |
| 37 to 38 | 3 | 13 |
| 39 to 40 | 0 | 15 |
| 41 to 42 | 2 | 3 |
| 43 to 44 | 7 | 6 |
| 45 to 46 | 10 | 5 |
| 47 to 48 | 0 | 17 |
| 49 to 50 | 0 | 0 |
| 51 to 52 | 1 | 66 |
| 53 to 54 | 5 | 3 |
| 55 to 56 | 0 | 54 |
| 57 to 58 | 5 | 6 |
| 59 to 60 | 0 | 5 |
| 61 to 62 | 7 | 26 |
| 63 to 64 | 0 | 6 |
| 65 to 66 | 4 | 15 |
| 67 to 68 | 1 | 13 |
| 69 to 70 | 0 | 6 |
| 71 to 72 | 22 | 20 |
| 73 to 74 | 0 | 20 |
| 75 to 76 | 7 | 6 |
| 77 to 78 | 14 | 26 |
| 79 to 80 | 2 | 4 |
| 81 to 82 | 0 | 29 |
| 83 to 84 | 1 | 7 |
| 85 to 86 | 12 | 13 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 17 are women's.
141 lines from women, 668 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit B: who's in it
6 women and 17 men in the cast. 5 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who gets heard
The first woman speaks at line 10 of 821.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 82 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 14% of the words (1,765), men 86% (10,499). Women have 17% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit D: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
2
Two men
40
Exhibit E: behind the camera
2 of the 9 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 25% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Mike Judge (man)
- Written by
- Mike Judge (man)
- Produced by
- Michael Rotenberg (man), John Altschuler (man)
- Shot by
- Tim Suhrstedt (man)
- Edited by
- Julia Wong (woman)
- Music by
- George S. Clinton (man)
- Production design by
- Maher Ahmad (man)
- Costumes by
- Alix Friedberg (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Production
2 women, 4 men, 1 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
1 women, 0 men, 3 not listed
-
Art
0 women, 3 men
-
Camera
0 women, 1 men
-
Other crew
0 women, 1 men
-
Directing
0 women, 1 men
-
Editing
1 women, 0 men
-
Sound
0 women, 1 men
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit F: how old the stars were
Women: 40 on average. Men: 38 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Mila Kunis 26, Kristen Wiig 36, Beth Grant 59
Men
Dustin Milligan 24, T.J. Miller 28, Ben Affleck 37, Clifton Collins Jr. 39, Jason Bateman 40, David Koechner 47, J.K. Simmons 54
Exhibit G: the money
It made 1.4 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $8 million
- Box office
- $10.8 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 86 scenes and 821 lines of dialogue. How the test works
