My original intent when watching Josie and the Pussycats was to do a second entry in my “That’s So 2000’s” series. However, after rewatching this movie, I found it to be ahead of its time and painfully relevant today. So, it’s deserving of its own full deep dive, that’s much more than “remember this movie?”.

It is important, I think, to know that this movie and I go way back (back to 2001, to be exact). I remember renting this movie from Blockbuster and watching it on repeat until the VHS had to go back. I loved the music. I loved the costumes. And I thought Alan Cumming and Parker Posey were the funniest people on the planet. Then, somewhere along the way, my brain buried this movie. I forgot it existed. Until, that is, several years ago where it burst its way back into my mind. Since then, I think about it often. Because, as I said above, it was ahead of its time, which you wouldn’t think could be applied to a movie based on an Archie Comic. And, yet, here we are.

Josie and the Pussycats provides such good commentary on capitalism, propaganda, and the United States government’s supposed involvement in such. Again, you’re thinking, ‘Kristen, this is a 2000s movie based on an Archie Comic?’ and to that I say “I know”. But, you have to stay with me.

Let’s start with the basics: the band in the opening of the film. The band’s name is DuJour, which is a French term that translates to “of the day”. The band is “of the day”. They are of the time. They are of the moment. And one thing about moments is that they quickly change. With the band’s name, the movie tells us they are expendable. Then the movie quite literally tells us that the band is expendable when their agent, Wyatt Frame (played by Alan Cumming), and the pilot of the private plane abandon the vehicle midair, without notifying the band on board. Then, the record label, having not yet released a statement, about the death of their most popular and lucrative band, have a DuJour remembrance gift set ready to sell in stores. To me, that doesn’t feel too far off from where we are now, in this stage of capitalism.

Now, why does the record label kill off their currently most profitable band? The members of DuJour have discovered that their music is being used for subliminal messaging. Beneath their music, they hear a strange background track. They bring this up to their manager while on their plane. Realizing the jig is up, the manager makes the decision that this band has run its course, and it’s time to find another. One that doesn’t ask as many questions. As the film progresses, we learn that this is the M.O. of the music industry: to influence the youth of America to buy items they do not need, to like bands they otherwise wouldn’t. Working in collaboration with this? The United States government, along with plenty of other countries and three letter organizations. As Eugene Levy himself states in the educational video:

You see, for years the government has been wisely coercing teenagers to buy products they normally wouldn’t want, just to get their money. Fact! Kids don’t have bills to pay. Fact! They don’t pay taxes. But! They do babysit and hold minimum wage jobs that earn them wads of cash as substantial as, well, my body of work. But kids today aren’t dumb. They’re not gonna buy just anything. That’s why the government has been planting small subliminal advertising suggestions in today’s rock music.

Beyond this topic, there’s even larger commentary on race in the music industry, although it is the least touched on. Valerie, played by Rosario Dawson, repeatedly faces digs from the management. All small, but neither of the other two women are subject to this. Valerie is intentionally not given an invitation to the party that the head of the record label, Fiona (played by Parker Posey) is throwing. Yes, this is in part to create a divide between the three best friends, but I do not think that it should be overlooked that the one not given the invitation is the one woman of color. Following up that, Valerie is watching an episode of MTV: Behind the Music, a show that the music label has admitted to creating in order to control the narrative. The episode playing is about “The Chief, Captain, and Tennille”. The episode reveals that The Chief, a black man, is the one who was exiled from The Captain and Tennille. That’s really where the commentary on that ends. I do wish it had kept going.

Something important to note about Josie and the Pussycats is that it is very self-aware. Everything is very intentional, which makes the fact that in every shot of the movie, there is some form of advertisement that much better. DuJour’s plane in the beginning is the most jarring, with Target ads covering the walls, while ads for Bounce laundry sheets, Coca-Cola, Cheer Detergent and Ivory Dish Soap fill the spots in between. As you watch the movie from there, you get used to the ads. They become part of the set design. They become part of life.

MTV allowing themselves to be used in full capacity in this film is absolutely crazy to me. In my mind, this is exactly what MTV does and has the power to do, especially at that time. MTV was the top of the entertainment world and the purveyors of pop culture. It was almost like the network laughing in the faces of their viewers. TRL is used in this film. Carson Daly, in the film, admits to being a key player in the brainwashing of the youth of America. Hello? Where is the fictional divide?

Finally, when everybody has been all but caught manipulating the narrative, the United States government changes tune from ‘we’re in on this with you’ to ‘you’re on your own’, when Josie reveals the mind control that has occurred. As Agent Kelly tells Fiona in the end:

“Somebody’s got to take the fall. Besides, we’ve found subliminal messaging works better in movies.”