Drop And What's Making Us Happy

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Okay, so say you're out living your life and suddenly out of nowhere you get a random airdropped message on your phone from a complete stranger. You'd probably just ignore it and disable further contact. right? Well, most of us are not characters in the bonkers thriller Drop. This movie is about a woman whose first date goes off the rails when she starts getting increasingly alarming airdrops from someone nearby.

And this potentially romantic dinner turns into a life or death situation real quick. I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about Drop on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is the co-host of Slate's Icy YMI podcast and former PCHH producer, Candice Lim. Welcome back, Candice. This is great. It's great to have you here. Oh, I'm so glad to see you. Hello. Hello. Hello.

We also have one of our other producers here on Pop Culture Happy Hour, Liz Metzger. Hello, Liz. Welcome back. Hello. Happy to be here. Producer city, like Roku city. Such a fun movie to actually be talking to you both about. This is going to be a ride, just like the movie. So in Drop, Megan Fahey plays Violet, a single mom going on her first date with a guy she met online named Henry.

He's played by Brandon Sklenart. Sorry I'm late. Oh, it's not fine. I mean, it is fine. It's not a problem. Sorry, I got a drink because I was nervous. It clearly hasn't helped. Yeah, I had a couple in the car on the way over. Also, it didn't help. The date seems to be going well until she accepts an airdrop request on her phone. Then the messages keep coming and they keep getting weirder and darker and ultimately more personal.

They become impossible to ignore, and now she's beholden to the demands of the mysterious messenger. And that mysterious messenger could be anyone else in this restaurant at this moment. Another patron, the piano player, maybe even Henry. And we should also mention the movie touches on domestic abuse. We'll get to that in a bit.

Drop is directed by Christopher Landon, who previously directed Happy Death Day and its sequel. It's in theaters now. Now, I do also have to like preface this by saying that. At the top of the show, I called it airdropping because that's what we're all familiar with. Technically, in the movie, they call it digidrop because I'm sure Apple doesn't want to be associated. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course.

trade marks, whatever. But anyway, that's what it is. Liz, I'm going to start with you. What did you make of this? Very weird movie. You know, there's a lot of reasons I like Drop. One, I was able to see it at South by Southwest, which was the premiere. So I'm already like caught up a little bit in the audience. For a movie like this, that helps.

Am I also sitting next to Aisha Harris? Yes. Yes. We were there. These are things that help me like a movie. And this is a great movie to watch with a big audience because it is a movie. You are sitting there going. Oh, no, she didn't do that. No, the child and the child with the cute little colored glasses. I had such a fun time and I really do try not to get like. too invested into like how everyone else is reacting but it is a movie that is silly and fun and playing with like

tropes of what it's like to be in a very contained thriller. You have the very quirky... Server Jeffrey Self is so good as server on his first day. Server Matt. Yes. Yes. You have the super, super nice bartender who's going to ask you a ton of questions about your kid. There's just so many fun little characters.

In this very small world of the restaurant, though we do go a little bit outside of that. Yeah. The thing is, I like Megan Fahey. Me too. I like Megan Fahey in everything she does. Yes. It is a fun movie. I actually have no complaints. Here I am. I'm having a great time. I will be the drop defender. You are. I was a trap defender. I love it. Had a great time. No notes.

I am so glad you shouted out Jeffrey Self as the waiter because he was by far my favorite part of this movie. He's one of those actors who's like, I'm in this role. I'm going to make the most of this. I'm going to go big. I'm going to give huge expressive faces. He has great timing.

Did the message get into you? Did you accept? Were you dropped in? Were you dropped in? Oh, no. So here's the deal. I was getting Megan vibes from this movie Walking In. And the thing is, my most anticipated film of the year is the sequel to Megan. So to me, I was like, oh, this is going to be like a horror. There's going to be like thrilling elements. It's going to really hit that.

zone and I do think this is not really a horror movie it's more of a thriller but that's kind of one example of how like I maybe had higher expectations for this that were not met for example I think the movie this is most like is Carry On on Netflix, which was my favorite movie of last year. It's the one where Jason Bateman basically like.

is telling Taron Egerton what to do because he's a TSA agent. He's like, if you don't do this, then your girlfriend's going to die, which is kind of similar premise here of like, someone is dropping a bunch of memes and I'll give credit there. The meme usage. Very good. I like the knockoff meme. Yes. I like the ones that I could tell. I was like, you could not get that.

But we got close. But we got really close. Exactly. And they really brought it in. They brought in Kombucha Girl. They brought in the distracted boyfriend meme. Like, they were within their memeology bag. And... I can't help but ask like guys how conceivable is this plot because I'm not gonna lie the second I get that first meme I'm going airplane mode but the thing is you can't do that in this

in this type of context because she has a son she has a son we don't have sons the thing I love between this and Carry On is like these are both movies that use very similar storytelling elements which is they gamify the plot They kind of lead you almost like a robot in a video game in a maze of like you get this instruction. Oh, you made the wrong choice. There's this A, B kind of binary here. And I like that. And even though I have to say, Liz, holding your hand while I say this.

I did not love it as much as you. I agree that like my audience did kind of add this like fourth element to it of just the reactions were so fun. It felt so big. Even though I did love this in a theater, this will go very hard on Peacock. Yes. So it's okay to wait. Hard on Peacock, assuming that you have at least one or two other people in the room with you and you can both go full in on just like, what?

is happening I would also say for those of you who are listening and who have not seen it yet you should absolutely not watch the trailer because it gives away worst spoilery trailers i've seen in a long time i think i lean more with you candace i did enjoy this movie it was silly

It did give me trap fives. It grazed. I don't think it went far enough as trap. Sure. It was nonsensical, but not as nonsensical as trap. And I needed it to be, it like lived too much in the middle gray area of being like, just not absurd enough.

For me, I kept thinking about this movie that came out in 2012 called Compliance. It's this fascinating movie that stars Ann Dowd as the manager of a small town fast food restaurant who receives a call from someone who's impersonating a law enforcement officer. This person claims that they've like received a complaint that one of her employees has stolen money from a customer. And so he starts getting her to interrogate them. And it leads into this like.

Over the phone, over the course of the time, she does these really horrific and unethical and possibly illegal things to her employees because she thinks she's like helping the company. And this is actually inspired by a series of real-life phone scams that happen. This is kind of what this movie is. Drop is about someone who has something dangling in front of her and is being told, you have to do this or else.

Dot, dot, dot, dot. Granted, like, there are real threats in this movie as we come to see. But the extreme lengths she winds up going to, this to me felt like the brainwashed version of Compliance, where it's like, we're not really interested in this idea of like... compliance and what it means to like be beholden to something you don't know where it's coming from it's just like this is just going to be fun silly and go to the extremes of everything even the restaurant they go to is like

This uber fancy Chicago sky high restaurant with floor to ceiling windows. That's actually a big part of the plot is like they're like sitting by the window and like they might move. They might not. Who knows? It's kind of silly. Overall, I think this is the type of movie that definitely benefits from seeing with an audience. I don't know if it hits well otherwise.

I think one of the reasons that it is not like trap is because. There is like emotional weight. It's a feature. I wouldn't say it deterred me from this film, but there is like a lot of emotional weight when you cast Megan Fahey. Like she's not just going to be doing broad comedy.

She is like going to give you the most beautiful tears you've ever seen. She's going to look at the camera and you're going to look and you're going to be like, oh, gosh, what are we doing to her? Yeah. And a lot of her story is very much. Like her backstory and what's happening in the restaurant, they're all interconnected of why she feels like she has to make these decisions.

And why she feels like she has to do anything it takes. Like, it can never be a true comedy. Which is fine. But it does mean you can't be, like, full kooky kooky. There is quite a bit of, like, emotional weight. just in her beautiful doe eyes, but also in the premise of the film. Yeah. I found it interesting that Megan Fahey's character did not use the technology against the assassin.

Because this is one of those movies that I think appeals to me, maybe our generation, because it's so digitally savvy, right? It's like the meme culture, the language, the airdropping of it all, even explaining that to someone who is not within like a certain... Time like age range is wild. But I thought it was interesting how.

Obviously, Megan Fahey, she was damsel in distress. She's being told by this anonymous digital villain to do all these things. And instead of using that digital toolkit against the assailant, which I feel like is something Carry On kind of did. She goes full action mode. And I was kind of like, okay, first off, I didn't know you had that within you, Pilates queen. It kind of made me wonder, am I a little over this?

women with these really heavy backstories in movies like this where the premise is like goofy and wild but the thing is they kind of use things like the fact that she was a survivor of domestic abuse that's a huge part of her backstory the fact that this is her first date in so long and she's so worried about like leaving her son alone I think using that but then also trying to like basically say

Look at her. She has to sacrifice her desire as a woman for her protective instinct as a mother. I was kind of like, ah, like, could we go one more? Could we go one more? Yeah. I think that was kind of what kept me back was that domestic abuse. backstory because it didn't seem necessary to me it's like your child alone feels like enough that you would be concerned like I don't understand like why

you also had to have this very traumatic backstory. It felt a little like... an attempt to make this meatier than it needed to be and that's I think where you're saying Liz like when you have that it's hard to go full trap like you can't go full trap you know And in Trap, also, you know, the pop star in that uses the technology against him. That was missing. I don't know. I just needed a little more kook and a little less tragic backstory. I completely agree. I think the thing is...

There is a wanting to show that this experience is very much touching of the idea of like you are trapped in a relationship. In this, it's a digital relationship with this airdropper. That she is like, I want to protect my child. Again, I say it's a feature. It's not a bug. I understand that that's what they're trying to do. It does add more heft. Do I need more heft in a movie like this? No. Yeah. But I am fine to have it. What do you guys think of like...

the lighting in this film because they did something kind of interesting where they were using spotlights and it felt very theory and they were doing like digital projections of the text, which I did like. I loved that. But then they were also putting the security camera footage on the walls of the bathroom and I was like, okay. There's something a little bit like a black box theater about this, very small, very contained, that I did enjoy. Small cast, small cast.

Look, I loved the look of this film. And again, that restaurant design was like... It looks expensive. That's hard. It looks expensive. Apparently they built this set, basically, and built a fully functioning restaurant. It did seem to play as though we were in a play in a way. It's like, oh, people are actually ordering and whatever. And I will say the music also is very like signaling cues, like very dramatic anytime.

Yeah. Very sonic. The whole thing feels like you're watching a trailer sometimes where it's like, you know, like the trailer kind of emphasizes everything. I mean, the thing is like... I love the premise of this movie, and I love the way that we got into the premise pretty immediately.

The drops started happening quite up front in act one. It's a well-paced movie. Well-paced movie. Yes. In and out. If there's any value to take away from a film like this, which like, hey, maybe you're Liz and you love it. You watch it five times. Good for you. Maybe you're like me and you're kind of like, we had a good time. We walk out. Yeah. I do think maybe this is kind of the direction that some of these smaller films that get made by bigger studios can go of like, hey, this.

premise may be wild the film might be flimsy but if you have a good Megan Fahey we can do something today this is like to me a solid B minus C plus movie that like totally is Absolutely enjoyable with friends. We need those. We need them. The cinema needs to be filled and support movies that are economical to a certain extent, that are...

They're not wasting my time. They look good. We do need those. We do. I mean, Megan Fahey, to me, big star, but not necessarily a huge heavy hitter in everyone's household. Like, I like seeing movies that are just... not just the same A-listers I see in everything. I don't know. I guess, look. Candice and I are not as fully drop-pilled as Liz, but I think we all agree that we need more movies like this. It's a good time. I'm glad Drop exists.

I'm glad Drop exists. Obviously, we are into Drop. Tell us what you think about Drop. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com slash pchh and on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com slash nprpopculture. We'll have a link in our episode description to that. And up next, we're going to be talking about what's making us happy this week. Imagine, if you will, a show from NPR that's not like NPR.

a show that focuses not on the important but the stupid, which features stories about people smuggling animals in their pants and competent criminals in ridiculous science studies. And call it Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me because the good names were taken. Listen to NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Oh, hey there. I'm Brittany Luce. And I don't know, maybe this is a little out of pocket to say, but...

I think you should listen to my podcast. It's called It's Been a Minute and I love it. And I think you will too. Over the past couple of months, over 100,000 new listeners started tuning in. Find out why. Listen to the It's Been a Minute podcast from NPR today.

Want to know what's happening in the world? Listen to the State of the World podcast. Every weekday, we bring you important stories from around the globe. In just a few minutes, you might hear how democracy is holding up in South Korea or meet Indian monkeys. That have turned to crime. We don't go around the world. We're already there. Listen to the State of the World podcast from NPR. Psychologist Dolly Chug studies the lengths we will go to protect the way we see ourselves.

We care about whether we're seen as a good person, whether others see us as a good person and whether we feel like good people. Ideas about our self-image. That's on the TED Radio Hour podcast from NPR.

And now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us happy? Candice, hit it. So my happy this week is the new album from Two Hollis. Two Hollis, I would say, makes tinnitus core music. And what I mean by that is that background. He used to be an alt musician, started doing EDM.

And to Hollis's whole story is that he got Ableton when he was really young, started using Reddit and like YouTube to figure out how to use it and make music. So I guess this is kind of like. the next evolution of bedroom pop, bedroom EDM. But he has his new album out. It's called Star. He worked on it with Jonah Abraham, who produced some of Playboy Cardi's music.

So I guess if you're looking for something to kind of tide you over, post-Brat, pre-summer, this album is very Lindsay Lohan beach club vibe, but for people who still have to clock into their job on Monday. And for me, the standout song that I'm loving right now is Nice off the album. Let's hear a little bit of it. Candice, I am at a Las Vegas pool party right now this is the vibe and i have to say i i'm kind of into it and so

That's what's making me happy. The song Nice off the new To Hollis album. This is my drop. This is my drop. Thank you, Candice. Liz, what is making you happy? Okay. What has taken over my life? is I have got into... A classic game. This is like if I was saying I got into checkers or if I got into Yahtzee. I've started to play Mahjong with my friends. I know. I specifically play Richie Mahjong. There's a lot of different types of Mahjong, so don't come for me.

It's so fun to play a game with your friends in person and to learn it together so you can all be bad. It is fun to get skunked online playing people and all we like message back is emojis or like reactions. I love a trick-taking game. I love gin rummy. Yes, same. And I really love little tiles that look like little custards. So this is such a fun game.

To play with your friends. So all we would need is one more person and we could all play. If you have three friends who want to play until morning and tonight. I really think we should all be playing Mahjong, Richie Mahjong. Not going to lie. I love a complicated rule and I refuse to do the scoring. That's outside my pay grade. Highly recommend getting into Mahjong. I love it. I'm a big board gamer, you know, card gamer, and I have still not yet played Mahjong ever.

So next retreat, you'll see me with the tiles. Click, click, click, click, click, click. I'm going to hold you to that, Liz, please, please. All right. Well, what is making me happy is, well, what makes me sad is that I don't live in New York anymore. Don't get me wrong. I love living on the West Coast, but because I don't live in New York anymore, I don't get to go see.

Broadway, live theater, as much. Off of that, I am loving New York Mag's recent Yesteryear issue, which features interviews with an array of Broadway legends about their definitive roles. with really, really great photo shoots by Mark Seliger. You've got... Barbara Streisand talking about her role in Funny Girl. Andre DeShields discussing his role as The Wiz in the original production. Joel Grey talking about Cabaret. Liza talking about Liza with a Z. And you get these like...

Like, Babs revealing she reuses her tea bags because she remembers what it's like to be poor. They're not all just happy stories. A lot of them have complicated feelings about those performances. Exactly. Delicious. Yes. So yeah, I highly recommend checking this out if you are at all a theater lover, a lover of live performance. The photos are great. The interviews are fun. And that is...

New York Magazine's yesteryear issue. The official headline is like, good God, it was fun, which is just a quote. But go find that. Highly worth it. It made me smile. It made me very happy. And this Sunday in our podcast feed, we'll have another monthly mailbox bonus episode for our Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters. Glenn and I will be talking all about a topic that is very near and dear to my heart because I have a lot of thoughts. He had a lot of thoughts.

about movie theater etiquette. Yes, we get a little spicy. We get a little spicy. Sign up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org slash happy and we'll also have a link to that in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show. Candice Lim, Liz Metzger, thanks so much for dropping in and talking about drop.

Anytime. This was so fun. Thank you. This episode was produced by Hafsa Fatima and Liz Metzger. Liz, hey! And edited by Mike Katzen. Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy, and Hello, Come In provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next week. On the Wild Card Podcast, author John Green fights to be optimistic. I keep learning again and again that hope...

is the right response to the human condition. And I have to learn this over and over again because despair is an incredibly powerful force in my life. I'm Rachel Martin. Join us for NPR's Wildcard Podcast. the show where cards control the conversation. Hey, it's A. Martinez. Even as the host of a news show, it can be hard to keep up with the headlines. That is why we make the Up First podcast.

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