Once again a gimmick, but it was the first that came to mind. Hell in the Pacific. I don’t think we ever learn Lee Marvin’s name and I know we never learn Toshero Mufine’s name in the film. And as for a conversation taking place, if that necessitates communication, no it doesn’t.
Ingmar Bergman’s **Persona ** completely fails.
Jason Segel and Justin Timberlake have that weird conversation about sharks. I don’t know if it adds up to a minute of screen time, but I’d say it’s significant because Segel is specifically setting up Timberlake to look like an idiot in front of Cameron Diaz.
Another gimmick, but mildly qualifies. In Enemy Mine We think that the two characters (Dennis Quaid, and Louis Gosset Jr.) are male until Gosset Jr.'s character from another planet gives birth to a baby. So despite most of the film having the two talking, if giving birth is limited to women, that is a fail for that point.
Okay, then rephrase it as ‘Is at least one of those conversations about something other than women?’ Thus, if male characters have 7 conversation scenes, 5 are about women, 2 are about other things, then the move still passes the test.
Probably going to be my closest to non-gimmick. Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison with Deborah Kerr and Robert Mitchum. He’s a Marine corporal and she is a nun. They are the only characters we ever learn their names. They are the only ones to converse.
The aliens in Enemy Mine are hermaphrodites. I’m not sure what that means for either version of the test.
The 1939 version or 2008? In the 2008 version, Edie’s baby is male. I don’t think there’s any male in the original. They even made sure the pets were female.
I’d like to see a version of this in which everyone who worked on it, not just the cast, was female.
No, they can talk about women. They can even talk mostly about women. All they have to do to pass the test is have at least one minute of conversation on any subject other than women.
Trying to stay away from rom-coms:
Sucker Punch, maybe?
I’ll give credit for ‘a substantial conversation’ even if it’s less than 60 seconds.
I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing has two named male characters, but they appear only once each, in separate scenes.
In Frances Ha, the two male roommates have conversations not about Frances.
What about Gravity? Clooney talks to Houston, but whom he’s talking to doesn’t have a name. There is the Indian astronaut, but he only says a few words before getting smoked.
Clueless?
I’m pretty sure the father and ex-stepbrother talk to each other, although I don’t remember what they talk about so it may have been just Cher and/or the ex-wife.
Bridesmaids was on TV last night, and I don’t think it would pass the RBT. There are several male characters, but IIRC the only time any of them speak to each other is the jewelry store owner telling the security guard to get back to work and maybe a couple of words between the John Ham character and Rhodes the cop when the former comes to pick up Kristen Wiig after her car accident.
Does The Descent have any male characters at all? IIRC, there are references to a (possibly unfaithful with one of the other characters? It’s been a while) husband of one of the characters, but I don’t remember if we even see him, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t talk to another guy.
I feel like it should get bonus points for being a straight-up horror movie, rather than a romcom or drama.
Castaway?
Right - good catch.
How about Funny Ha Ha?
I’m thinking Nicole Holofcener movies would fail.
In Walking and Talking, it’s possible that Liev Schrieber and Randall Batinkoff had a scene together; I don’t remember. But I’m pretty sure that Jennifer Aniston and Julia Louis-Dreyfus were in every scene of Friends with Money and Enough Said, respectively.
Of course, I could be misremembering all of this.
Question: If two male characters and a female character all participate in a conversation about, say, architecture, does that count? Or does it have to be two (or more) men without any women?