Yes, I’m serious. I think you should Netflix the Spice Girls movie. I think it will not be a waste of your time. It will NOT, as one reviewer said, be “less exciting than watching a brick for an hour.” I am prepared to tell you that Spice World might change your life.

First, there’s Meatloaf. He plays the bus driver for the Girls. At one point he interjects the lyrics for “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” into a speech he gives. That’s the same scene where the Spice Girls meet aliens in the woods and one of them tries to grope Mel B. That’s Scary Spice. I dressed up like her for Halloween. Anyway.

The plot’s like this. Being Las Chicas Picantes, as they translate their name while speaking to their international fans, is hard work. Newspaper moguls plant spies in the Girls’ toilets trying to sabotage their reputation before their biggest show ever. Even the aliens want tickets. Unlucky for them, tickets are already sold out by the time they get to Earth.

There’s a lot of hullabaloo about whether the Spice Girls deserve to be alive. Are they good feminists or bad? Good musicians or bad? Fun or ear-shatteringly irritating? My opinion at this point should be clear. This movie makes me laugh really hard. It makes me sing loud with my sisters. We rented it so many times that Blockbuster gave it to us.

The Spice Girls are back, and it’s time for all of us to re-embrace Girl Power. If my opinion’s not good enough for you, hear this: Elvis Costello appears in this movie. So does Elton John, but that’s a given. Elton, Elvis, Meatloaf, the aliens and I are proud citizens of Spice World. Why aren’t you yet?

(1997)