Get obsessed with us. Four days a week, Pop Culture Happy Hour serves you recommendations and commentary on the buzziest movies, TV, music, books, videogames and more. Join arts journalists Linda Holmes, Glen Weldon, Stephen Thompson, and Aisha Harris - plus a rotating cast of guest pop culture aficionados. The Happy Hour team leaves room at the table for exploring a range of reactions and opinions on every bit of the pop universe. From lowbrow to highbrow to the stuff in between, they take it all with a shot of cheer.
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In the smart, twisty thriller-comedy Companion , three young couples gather at a swanky lake house for the weekend. One of the couples is not like the others – that's because the girlfriend (Sophie Thatcher) turns out to be a companion robot, built to satisfy the boyfriend's (Jack Quaid) every fantasy. Inevitably, things go wrong, which sets off a chain of twists and revelations that comes with a body count. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more a...
The excellent Netflix series Mo is about a man who figures out how to get by: how to find work as someone who can't work legally, how to navigate the asylum process as a Palestinian refugee in Texas, and how to care for the people he loves. The show's star and co-creator is the standup Mo Amer. The story dives into immigration, identity, and a family as they work to map out a secure future. Mo just returned for a second season, so in this encore episode, we revisit our conversation about the ser...
In the new Steven Soderbergh film Presence , a family moves into an old house, and weird stuff starts happening. But what's different about this haunted house story is that the movie told from the point of view of the ghost. We only get glimpses of the family, but gradually we start to piece together their brittle dynamic. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
The Max hospital drama The Pitt stars ER veteran Noah Wyle. It takes some elements that are common to the medical genre and mixes them with some very contemporary thinking about health care and an inventive structure. Each episode follows one hour in the ER over the course of a very long day – so the layout is less Grey's Anatomy and more 24 . Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Poli...
An FBI agent working in a lonely, secret office in the White House basement gets a phone call. A woman needs help, right away. That's the beginning of The Night Agent , a Netflix spy thriller series full of action and intrigue. Created by The Shield 's Shawn Ryan, the series follows Peter and Rose — the agent and the tech expert he's protecting — as they try to uncover a conspiracy that goes right to the heart of the government. The show just returned for a second season, so today we're revisiti...
This year's Oscar nominations are out, and if you liked Emilia Pérez , Anora , Wicked , The Brutalist , and A Complete Unknown , then you're in luck. As always, there's an eclectic mix of heavy favorites, left-field surprises, and the dreaded snubs. We give a broad sense of this year's major storylines, while also lamenting a few decisions we found baffling. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices N...
Keke Palmer is one of Hollywood's most charismatic leads, and SZA is one of the world's biggest pop stars. Now, they've teamed up for the raunchy buddy comedy One of Them Days . The movie is about two best friends in L.A., who endure a wild series of misadventures as they try to make rent over the course of one very eventful day. It's rowdy and profane, but it's also got something to say about gentrification, predatory businesses, and other factors that make it hard to survive and advance in Ame...
The new movie The Brutalist is earning a lot of Oscar buzz. Adrien Brody plays a fictional Hungarian architect who settles in America after his family is torn apart during World War II. It's a three-and-a-half-hour epic with much to say about assimilation, wealth, and the creative process. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Everything old is new again, it seems, and there's no reason that wouldn't apply to werewolves. We now have a chance to enjoy a new Wolf Man starring Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner. Directed by Leigh Whannell ( The Invisible Man ), it maintains that sometimes the monster is inside you all along. Plus, we take a minute to remember director David Lynch. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adch...
The Netflix series XO, Kitty is a spinoff of the hit YA book and movie franchise, To All the Boys I've Loved Before. The show follows the messy adventures of teenage matchmaker Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart), who moves across the globe to be with her long-distance boyfriend in Korea. The show is a mash-up of genres, including rom-coms, Korean dramas, and coming-of-age tales. XO, Kitty just returned for a second season, so in this encore episode, we're revisiting our conversation about the seri...
In Netflix's gritty, brutal Western series American Primeval , Betty Gilpin plays a woman determined to get herself and her son across the frontier. But along the way, they find themselves caught up in a brewing war between the federal government and a violent Mormon militia. A gruff guide (Taylor Kitsch) might be of some help, but the land is rife with violent factions with competing claims to the blood-soaked soil. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more a...
Some bands are The Beatles and some singers are Beyoncé: Smash after smash, their legend grows. And some artists aren't. For any one of a bunch of reasons — commercial, artistic and mysterious — some artists have one big hit song, but they don't have others. But what makes for a great one-hit wonder? Today we're debating: what is the best one-hit wonder of all time. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
In the new movie The Last Showgirl, a woman finds herself with few options as she approaches the end of her long career as a dancer in Las Vegas. The film marks a new chapter in the star-crossed acting career of Pamela Anderson. Directed by Gia Coppola, it tells a story about aging, parenthood, the underbelly of show business, and what happens when the world no longer buys what you're selling. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more about sponsor me...
In the past year, there have been a lot of movies that feature older women falling in love with much younger men. There's The Idea Of You , A Family Affair , Lonely Planet , and Babygirl , just to name a few. But why now? Today we're bringing you an episode of the NPR podcast It's Been A Minute . In this episode, host Brittany Luse sits down with New York Magazine features writer Rachel Handler to unpack what these films say about Hollywood's changing attitudes towards older women and why the ca...
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl is the latest film in the beloved stop-motion animation series. This time, clueless inventor Wallace and his long-suffering pooch Gromit are dealing with Wallace's latest invention, a robotic garden gnome. But when an old enemy gets involved, they must face down an army of evil robots and expose the criminal mastermind behind it all. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterbo...
The Pop Culture Happy Hour panel and guests Bob Mondo and Walter Chow recommend great films from 2024 that they didn't get a chance to cover previously. The discussion includes a tense neo-noir, an urgent Iranian political drama, a chaotic Romanian satire on modern life, and a subtle, powerful coming-of-age story.
Adapted from the Pulitzer prize-winner novel from Colson Whitehead, Nickel Boys tells the story of two Black boys who form an unshakeable bond at a segregated reform school in the Jim Crow South. It's quite ambitious and unlike other prestigious book to film adaptations you've probably seen — most of it unfolds in the first-person perspective. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Pri...
The Korean drama Squid Game became the most popular offering in Netflix's history by combining pitch-black satire of late-stage capitalism with bloody violence. In Season 2, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) winds up sucked back into the games, where he must fight for his life, try to destroy the system from the inside, and rally new players to his cause. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
As a new year arrives, it's only natural to have some goals in mind: What you want to achieve, what heights you want to hit. Today, we make pop culture resolutions for 2025, and look back on last year's goals and assess our progress with brutal honesty. Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Nobody can predict what the future holds, but that doesn't stop us from trying. Trying, that is, to predict what will happen in the world of pop culture in 2025. We do it every year, so we'll look back on our predictions for 2024 and see how things turned out. Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
A Complete Unknown isn't a traditional biopic. Instead of covering Bob Dylan's life story from birth to old age, it covers the period shortly after his arrival in New York City, as he first begins to fall in with the city's folk music scene. Timothée Chalamet plays Dylan — and does all his own singing. We see Dylan become a superstar, as well as his famous set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival —where he and his band plugged in for an electrified set that's often viewed as a cultural turning poin...
In the new movie Babygirl , Nicole Kidman plays a high-powered CEO who has an affair her mysterious intern (Harris Dickinson). Their affair gets complicated by the many power dynamics involved — not just in the office, but also in a sexual relationship defined by dominance and submission. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture . Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or make a gift at donate.npr.org . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.co...
Nosferatu is a Dracula story with a twist. It stars Lily Rose-Depp as a new bride stalked by an evil bloodsucking creature of the night who brings death and terror in its wake. A handful of stalwart men – including her husband, played by Nicholas Hoult – attempt to defend Rose-Depp's virtue and defeat the undead scourge. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy...
Some people hate jury duty, but in Clint Eastwood's new film Juror #2 , one guy's experience is worse than most. Nicholas Hoult plays a man assigned to serve on a jury who gradually realizes that the defendant might not be guilty. And he might just know who is. The film also stars Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, and Kiefer Sutherland. It's streaming now on Max. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/...
The new Peacock series Laid is a very dark rom-com. Stephanie Hsu plays a young woman who discovers that all of her exes have started to die under mysterious, sometimes freakish, circumstances. This causes her to conduct a kind of sexual audit of her life, and she sets out to warn everyone she's ever slept with that they are about to die. It's funnier than it sounds, and makes for a good holiday hangover binge. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Po...
It's been five years since Disney remade its animated classic The Lion King as a photorealistic blockbuster. This leads us to Mufasa: The Lion King, a new prequel telling the story of Mufasa's rise — as well as the origins of his rivalry with Scar. The film was directed by Barry Jenkins ( Moonligh t, If Beale Street Could Talk ) and features new songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture . Subscribe to NPR Plus at plus.npr.org or ma...
Watching a movie on a plane can be a great way to pass the time if you're traveling for the holidays – particularly if you're going a long way. But picking the right movie can be very tricky. Today, we're debating the best movies to watch on an airplane, and making recommendations, including Moana, Jackie Brown, The Holdovers , and The Lion in Winter . Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture . Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoi...
We first met the Garvey sisters two years ago when the Apple TV+ series Bad Sisters made its debut. The show follows four sisters in Ireland who are hell bent on murdering the husband of the fifth sister. Now, the series is in its second season, with more banter, wickedness and secrets. Today we're bringing you an episode of the NPR's podcast Consider This, where host Mary Louise Kelly caught up with creator and star Sharon Horgan to talk all about the new season. Learn more about sponsor messag...
Nobody ever said the housing market was easy. In the new Netflix ensemble dark comedy No Good Deed , a couple played by Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano, along with several other couples and families, get tangled up in the sale of a home that holds a secret. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The movie Queer stars Daniel Craig as you've never seen him: as a junkie prowling the streets, hooking up, shooting up and guzzling tequila. He meets a handsome young man (Drew Starkey) he longs to connect with, and they embark on a quest into the jungle in search of a drug that will unite them on a deep, spiritual level. Directed by Luca Guadagnino ( Challengers, Call Me By Your Name ), the film is based on a short novel by William S. Burroughs. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at le...
