As a fan of Nate Bargatze, I had already planned to catch his new 2026 movie The Breadwinner when it arrived in theaters. As a Swiftie, it was an added bonus when I learned that one of Taylor Swift's most recent hits, "Opalite," would be featured in the film. I was expecting that to pop up at some point in the movie, but what I didn't see coming was a nod to Mandy Moore's pop-music roots. See, I'm also someone who's...well...let's just say old enough to be nostalgic about '90s pop music, so I absolutely adored the needle-drop that paid homage to Bargatze's co-star in the movie.
Mandy Moore plays aspiring business woman, wife and mother, Katie Wilcox in The Breadwinner, and while she's absent for chunks of the film, due to her efforts to get her budding business off the ground, her character's presence is felt through her husband's desperate efforts to captain the family's ship while she's away. Moore's presence is also felt at one point in the film when "Candy" starts to play in the background of the screen, and I'm not gonna lie, I grinned with deep appreciation for Moore's sugary hit, as the movie not only tipped its cap to Mandy Moore's pop music, but I also like to think it was a nod to Moore's decades as an artist in the entertainment industry.
While Moore is likely better known for her acting roles throughout her career, she got her big break was a teen in 1999 with "Candy," a single that would launch a promising pop music career during the era of iconic solo artists like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. As she was releasing albums in the aughts, Moore was also establishing herself as a rising star in film, appearing in Dr. Doolittle 2 (2001) and The Princess Diaries (2001), and then taking the starring role in the book-to-screen adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' A Walk To Remember.
In more recent years, she's well known for playing Pearson family matriarch in the drama series, This Is Us, and voicing Rapunzel in Tangled (and reprising the voice for shorts and other Rapunzel appearances).
If you remember "Candy" and its music video, you're probably of the right age to remember the song showing up in Center Stage. The 2000 ballet movie, which served as Zoe Saldana's feature debut, includes Moore's song during the scene where Amanda Schull's character Jody visits a modern dance studio to take a break from training. Moore's song, "I Wanna Be With You" is also featured in that movie.
Back to The Breadwinner, critics and audiences weren't in agreement about the movie, as its Rotten Tomatoes critics score is currently at a rotten 21%, while the audience score sits at 86%. I think I'm somewhere in between on the film, as the story was just ok to me, but there were some good laughs (including a cute nod to Nate Bargatze's book Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind), and I loved the cast, which -- in addition to Bargatze and Moore -- includes Colin Jost, Kumail Nanjiani, Will Forte and Severance's Zach Cherry.
Whether you catch it in theaters or decide to wait for streaming, definitely keep an ear out for "Candy." It's still a bop!
