Pop Culture Happy Hour - 2024 Pop Culture Favorites

Episode Date: December 11, 2024

We check out a lot of things in a given year: Lots of movies, TV shows, and music. Today, we are highlighting some of the best pop culture moments we enjoyed the most in 2024.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.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Hey, it's Stephen Thompson. Before we start the show, we are closing in on the end of another year, and our team is looking back at all the great conversations we've been able to bring you in 2024 because of your support. We dove into the sleeper hits, the shows you shouldn't sleep on, the sequels, the prequels, our favorite binge watches. We stayed up all night to catch you up on the Oscars and the Emmys and debated the best fictional bands and the pop culture hills will die on. And it's all because listeners like you step up to support our work either by giving to your local station or by joining NPR Plus. NPR Plus has grown a lot this year. And we want to say an extra special thank you to those supporters right now.

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world of public radio. Join us on the Plus side today at plus.npr.org. Thank you. We check out a lot of things in a given year, lots of movies, TV shows, and music. It's safe to say we keep busy. And at the end of the year, we get together to talk about some of the things we enjoyed the most wherever we found them. I'm Linda Holmes, and today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we're talking about our favorite things from 2024. joining me today are my co-hosts Stephen Thompson. Hey, Stephen. Hey, buddy. Aisha Harris. Hey, Aisha. You all are some of my favorite things, just so you know. Oh, wonderful. Run back at you, bud. And Glenn Weldon, you want to tell us the same thing, how much you love us? I'm telling you with my eyes. That's true. He is. I can see it. I can absolutely see it. And, you know, I feel the same way, obviously. We've had the opportunity to discuss many things this year.

I feel like this brought back some memories of some of the shows we've done and some of the amazing things that we've managed to talk about amongst ourselves and with our panelists. Preparing for this always puts me in that mindset of how did that come out in 2024. Argyle was this year? Oh, God, it was. Okay. We should mention before we get started, some of the things we're going to recommend today are produced by Amazon. So we wanted to note that Amazon, as you may have heard, supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. So we are not, however, starting with something from Amazon.

We are starting, perhaps inevitably, with Brat. Given that this is Stevens' pick, I want to point out that it's Brat and not a Brot. There we go. See, I saw what you did. You know, Bratworth is often one of my 12 favorite things in any given year, no matter how long it's been since I've left the great state of Wisconsin. Yeah, I wanted to talk about Charlie X, CX's Brat, which is clearly one of the pop cultural stories of the year. but I'm also going to drill down to a specific moment that made me extraordinarily happy and that really felt substantial. For those who are somehow not familiar with Brat or Brat Summer or Brat Green or Brat's.

Or Brat's. Charlie X-CX, a fantastic, really innovative electropop star, she reached this real culmination of her popularity in 2024 with this collection of songs that are kind of celebrating. of being messy, combined with these hyper-pop arrangements that are extremely loud and almost abrasively catchy, but also just really pleasurable to listen to whether you're at a party or on the beach or in the car, all the ways that we enjoyed summer. You could enjoy Brat. But I wanted to talk about a specific song on Brat called Girl So Confusing. The lyrics to the song are about Charlie X, X, X's relationship with another pop star. And that pop star in the original release of Girl So Confusing was unnamed.

And immediately Charlie X-CX fans who were digesting brat were speculating who is that pop star. And a lot of people figured out pretty quickly that she was talking about Lord. So the song, there's a lot of stuff in there about like, I can't tell if you're my friend. I want to hang out and then you cancel. It's kind of about one of these relationships where you're constantly trying to figure out what the status of the relationship is. But the only different is that it's the relationship between these two pop stars. And just a little while later, Charlie X-CX drops a remix of Girl So Confusing, and it's called Girl So Confusing Featuring Lord.

Let's hear a little bit of it. And it completely reinvents the song. Unlike so many songs about conflict, and there were many. of those in 2024. This was a big year for pop star grievances. It was so refreshing to hear this song recast in such a deeply empathetic light to kind of reassess this relationship by communicating and bringing in this other person's perspective. It was so, I think, useful for a lot of people just to be reminded that you're walking through the world, carrying grievances about other people, and we all do. But every single person out there is living their own.

own life and has this incredibly complex inner life that we can't know about. This song managed to retain everything that was cool and mysterious and appealing about it while also suddenly becoming much deeper. And that was a process that played out with Brat all year long. She released these dynamite remixes, brought in different guests, allowed these songs to morph into new and different things. And it was just one of my favorite pop cultural stories of 2024, a record I loved that kept a Yeah. I mean, look, girl's so confusing, girl so relatable. And the fact that this album is both a banger but also super personal, it's so hard to walk that line. And a lot of pop stars can either make super personal in music that doesn't necessarily like you don't want to dance to it or you make like

the most fluffiest thing ever. And it's a great confection. And finding that balance, I think, has really made this such a great year for Charlie. And I love this song. I love this album. It's the year of Brat. That's just what it is. And I'm glad you chose this. Thank you. She had a good year.

All right. Thank you, Stephen. That is Charlie X-CX's remix of Girl So Confusing featuring Lord. Aisha, your first pick is also one of the biggest pop music stories of the year. And we should warn people, it contains some, I will say, very vulgar language. Yes. What did you pick? Okay.

This pick made me want to go and look up and see if there's evidence. of Dali Parton ever having dropped a curse word. And she has here and there, but when she does, it's very rare. And I, for one, haven't found evidence of her dropping the F-bomb. But if she did, I'd imagine it would sound like this. Sounds like crowds of angels. A million tiny angels. It just needed a children's chorus.

Look, this is, of course, Sabrina Carpenter on the number one Hot 100 Billboard hit, Please, Please, Please, from her album short and sweet. I have been obsessed with Sabrina Carpenter not having known who she was a year ago. But this line on Please, Please, Please, and the way that Sabrina Carpenter says, It's just lodged in my brain. What I love about the way she says this is that this, this is that this. this line sort of just encapsulates how unique she is as a pop star of her caliber and who has reached these heights because her entire short and sweet album is just like double entendre,

very snarky, just like so much of Sabrina Carpenter's work is very relatable and that she's talking about men and boyfriends, but in a way that's like, on please, please, please, don't embarrass me. Like, I know you're going to, but don't do this. Like, it's so specific and yet so many people have dealt with that. You go out with your significant other and you're like, why'd you have to say that? Or just like, you shrivel up and you're like, oh, this is embarrassing. Or you've been that person who's just been the one who's embarrassing. Much more the case for me. So what I love about it, specifically this line is the way she delivers it. She is given the side eye. She's like, don't, don't, don't do this. And if you

watch the video, the music video stars her now then boyfriend. They have, recently broken up, according to a source who shared the info with People magazine. But it stars her then-boyfriend, the movie star Barry Keoghan. If you've seen him in anything, whether it's Sawburn, you know, he's just like the ultimate, you can tell he's going to be a problem person. Like, he has that look. He's just a swaggering guy who's, you know, he's very hot, but he's going to be a problem. And the music video uses that to its advantage. And when you see her say this line, please don't embarrass me. It just works so well. So for me, this is just a standout moment that also says, you know, we can be fun, we can be specific, and we can be very just expressive

in the way we deliver our lines. And I love that Sabrina Carpenter is one of those pop stars this year who has really honed in on like, we're going to act like I'm actually acting out these words. I'm not just saying these words. She really speaks to the advantages of the Disney Channel slash Nickelodeon, those kind of entertainment machines or factories that start kids out really young, put them as actors on TV shows, as Sabrina Carpenter was, as Olivia Rodriguez was, as Myli Cyrus was, as a lot, Ariana Grande. A lot of our pop stars nowadays are trained for this from childhood.

And obviously, that has disadvantages, but one of the advantages that it gives somebody like a Sabrina Carlin, And a lot of the people I just named is they're very funny. She has comic timing and it comes through in her phrasing, especially in this basically perfect song. Yes. All right. So that is Sabrina Carpenter's please, please, please. We are going to take a very quick break.

And when we come back, we're going to have a bunch more picks. So don't go away. Welcome back. We are going to get right into our next pick. Specifically, I'm going to get into my first pick. You know, we talk sometimes on this show about we appreciate smaller movies, we appreciate offbeat movies. I was thinking about the fact that I also want better big movies.

And that is one of the reasons why I was a big fan of The Fall Guy, starring Ryan Gosling, directed by David Leach, who used to be a stunt man himself. Emily Blunt is also in it. And it's kind of an action rom-com, which is something that I always really love. It is technically speaking based on the 80s TV series with Lee Majors, but only in the sense that he's a stuntman who does cool stuff, and that's about it. Really, it's about this guy who has suffered an injury, so he's been kind of out of the game, his girlfriend, who he was dating

when she was a camera operator on a movie that he did previously. They got together, but then he got injured. He kind of faded away from her. She is now directing a blockbuster movie, and he comes in as one of the stunt guys. really the reason why I love this movie is just that it is so funny and good-hearted and the action sequences are so much fun. I just watched this movie with a big goofy grin on my face the entire time. There are a couple of sequences that I just think are so just like weird and funny and fun. There's also a great little kind of meta joke about split screen conversations where, of course, Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are having.

a split-screen conversation. So split-screen, right? Do you think that it's like nostalgic, super cool? Or do you think it's a gimmick? Um, I think it could be super cool. Mm-hmm. She's sitting there sort of thoughtfully with her chin and her hand, as you would in any romantic comedy,

except that she has a big, like, rubber creature. And it's just the kind of completely unnecessary but really delightful touch that I love. This is the kind of movie that I could watch, you know, 10 of them a year. And I just, I loved it. I really, really loved it. And it's made with such deep affection. It's made with affection for the craft of stunt work. It's made with affection for its own characters. This feels like an action movie that also, like, feels real.

A lot of stunt work in this movie. Yeah. So it's great to see that throwback because it does make it feel more like tactile in that way. So that is the fall guy. It is streaming now. You can find it on Peacock. All right, Glenn, you also. chose a movie. What did you pick? Yeah, I'm going to be living up to my reputation as the Captain Bringdown of Pop Culture Happy Hour. We got kind of a whiplash here, going from a fun, light, breezy, crowd pleaser, to a film that is dark and disturbing. But I loved.

That is, I saw the TV glow, which is a film by Jane Schoenbrun. I'm talking about the final scene here, which I think is harrowing. So that means I've got to spoil the movie, so be warned. In this film, Justice Smith plays this kid who comes to realize that they don't belong where they are. they're trapped in this false reality, and they don't belong in the body that they are in. So it is a very queer film, it is a trans allegory, very specifically. And over the course of this movie,

they are given the ability to escape, to realize their true self and self-actualized, but the thing that I love about this movie is that we soon come to realize that they're the hero that refuses the call that never crosses the threshold, that they just stay in their sad little village. And in the last scene, they have this moment of realization and defiance.

They're in this sad little party room at this fun center arcade that they work at, and they have this moment. What happens in that moment is that everything around them freezes. But what's actually happened is that that moment of truth has shattered the fake reality around them. They're a glitch in the matrix, right? Because that's what a moment of truth like that does. It has the power to let you break free. because this is a movie about human beings, of course what happens most of the time is that

when we come to a moment like that, we could address it, but most of the time we just push it down. And that's exactly what happens to the Justice Smith character. They push it down, and the world starts up again around them, and the film ends in a really harrowing way with them just going around this sad little fun center, apologizing to everyone. I'm sorry about before.

You're watching a person apologizing for who they are, for merely existing. That is harrowing, but what keeps this film from being so depressing that you just want to lie on the floor is that throughout the film, somebody has been planting messages, clues for this character to find. This chalk message on the street of this suburban cul-de-sac that just says, there's still time. We're not watching the hero who will never take the journey. We're just watching the hero in the throes of refusing the call. There is still time. One day they will make this journey.

One day they will find themselves. And at such a perfect moment, if it had it. If it had a perfect little moment of uplift there at the end, it would feel completely false to the film that preceded. It would feel wrong. I mean, I was on the episode where we covered this film, and I was the critic who was like, I don't know how I feel about this. But I will say those last like 10 minutes of that film were to me some of the best of this entire year. It's a moment that like you can't burn out of your brain in the best way possible. And the hope that it is offering feels timely because it's not this kind of hope that descends from on high.

It's not something that gets bestowed upon you. The film is telling you, if you want this, you got to work for it. You have to take the journey. You've got to cross the damn threshold. The real world is waiting for you, but you got to make the effort. And that's why this movie just left me feeling inspired. Yeah. Awesome.

Thank you very much, Glenn Weldon. That is the harrowing final scene of I Saw the TV Glow. Stephen Thompson, what is your second pick? Well, I'm going to go with one of my favorite movies of 2024 challengers, a fantastic sports movie, weird, love triangle, a story that kept me guessing and yet still gave me a lot of the excitement that I've experienced when I watch sports. It manages to check so many boxes, and I wanted to talk specifically about the way Luca Guadonino directs this film. and I'm going to use a phrase that Linda Holmes used when we talked about challengers on this show back in the spring.

I was trying to get at the heart of one of the things that I really appreciated about this film. And I was talking about the way the different characters in this film are shot, specifically the Love Triangle among these characters played by Mike Weist, Josh O'Connor, and Zendaya. And this film has this lusty way of looking at all of them. And Linda, you used the phrase pansexually shot to describe this film. I remember on the show using like 600 words, and you came in there with two that summed up exactly what I was trying to say. There are many shots in this film of the tennis ball's perspective, and it's one of the things that people remember from the film. One of the other things that stand out most about the way this film is shot is the number of shots there are of thighs dripping with sweat.

Yes, yes. thigh muscles, and I'm not purely speaking about this from kind of a lustiness standpoint, so much as this film loves looking at everybody's thighs and the way they are dripping with sweat. And it's part of what gives this film the tension. It gives you a rush. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross gives you a rush. The tennis action is shot in a way that is viscerally exciting. The way these relationships in this film are constantly putting you on edge and trying to figure out where these people are coming from and where they might be going next. Even just the results of the big match at the end, you're left guessing until the final second of the film.

I so appreciated everything this film was trying to do. I think Zendaya, this is probably Zendaya's best performance. I think she is magnificent in this film. I dug this movie from start to finish really was. kind of edge of the seat. And I still just have individual images from this film kind of stuck in my head. Yeah, I came to this film late after the culture had kind of churned it up and spat it back out. So I was thinking, this can't possibly live up to everything I've heard about it and the memes and everything. And it did. It totally did. I was a big fan of this movie, too,

and all of its extraordinarily sexy shooting. That is true. All right. So that is Challenger's. It is streaming on Prime Video. We like this one too. Also streaming on Prime Video. This is the show Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which I absolutely loved, starring Donald Glover and Maya Erskine. It is essentially an adaptation of the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie, which I think is mostly remembered as a chapter in the story of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie more than as an actual movie. But all that remains is the idea. of these married spies. In this case, they are strangers who are brought together to go undercover

as a couple and act as spies and do various missions and things like that. And they are kind of forced to live together. It's kind of in many ways a classic romance trope. But they play it in a way that is so cool. I love how cool this show is. It's cool like cat burglar movies in the 60s. We're cool. It's like that. It's gloriously art directed, and it's really beautifully acted. So this is a scene in the first episode where they have been brought together into this house, and they are getting to know each other, and they're not sharing a room, and he comes into her room to say good night,

and he, for whatever reason, doesn't have a shirt on, and this conversation ensues. I was warm. downstairs. That's why I had no shirt. It's colder up here. The heat rises. You probably turn the air on. I didn't.

But I was warm. I was working. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Okay. Hi. So awkward. Well, and the thing is, like, the way that that all starts is he comes in and she says you lost your shirt. And so by the time they're having that conversation, like, he's now justifying why he doesn't

have a shirt on. And you know that he doesn't have a shirt on because he looks really good without a shirt. and they kind of like each other. But like he doesn't want to say he came in here without a shirt on to impress you. And it's a really, really fun thing. This series also unfolds with a lot of wonderful guest stars. I recommend this show so much. I was so pleased to have it sort of do well and get a lot of kind of good notices.

I really admire both of these actors and the work that they do in it. But also, it's just so good looking. It's just delicious. It's delicious. I loved this show. Probably we'll be watching it again very soon. So that is Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which you can find on Prime Video. Aisha, we're going to go to your next pick. I haven't seen this one.

Tell me about this one. Well, this is, for me at least, one of the most bewildering and also moving things I've witnessed this year on TV or movies in general. It's Gerard Carmichael reality show. It's streaming on Max. And look, if you're familiar with Gerard Carmichael, you remember him. I think his breakout was, of course, Rathaniel, which was a stand-up special where he wasn't standing up. He was sitting down, and it was more like a therapy session than it was actually comedy, but it had humorous moments. But that was where he came out publicly for the first time as gay.

And he also really dug deep into his family and the fact that his father had an entire other family that he didn't know about for years. growing up and siblings that he didn't know about. Gerard Carmichael reality show picks up after. So basically this is like a full-length documentary series that shows him navigating his life after Rathaniel. This show is him trying to repair his relationship with his parents and other things, but like that's kind of one of the central things. And this was such a weird roller coaster of a ride because with Rathal,

he had so much goodwill because it was just him on stage. you know, pouring his heart out in a very therapeutic way. And here now he decides, I'm going to bring my family into this on camera. Whether they want to or not. Yeah. Exactly. And he's a lot more confrontational now. He's a lot more prickly. And what I loved about seeing this, even though a lot of the times I was cringing and felt, should we be seeing this? Why are you doing this in front of a camera? But I also think, you know, there's something important to be said about seeing someone confront their family members in ways that I think we are often told we shouldn't be. And one of those moments really comes out very clearly when he takes a road trip with his

dad, Joe. And he starts pelting him with questions about why he did what he did, having a secret affair and having an entire different family, whether or not he felt it's at any remorse. And then they have this exchange, like in front of a campfire. What are you doing this? What's like, I don't... I mean, that's, that's, then, this is now. It's not then, stop saying, it's also now. I thought this truth was going to be about you and I and bonding.

Let's stop talking about my past and move on forward. That is almost always the response when people are confronted with their wrongdoings or with anything they might have done that might have hurt someone else. seeing someone at least be confronted with it on screen in real time, there's just something so magnetic about it, empowering, and for all of like the uncomfortableness. And again, I don't think any therapist would recommend that you do all this in front of cameras to be shown on, you know, prestige TV. I still think there is value in seeing this. And I hope that it might help others who might be in similar situations, feel comfortable enough to have those conversations with their family.

I think that's why I was so drawn to this. And I think more people should watch it, even though it is very uncomfortable to watch over the course of several episodes. I'm still thinking about it, you know, all these months later. And it's just really, really powerful. I'm so glad you picked this, because I was almost going to, because this is a stage of a lot of people's coming out process, where once the relief is done and you're out to everyone, then you start to remember every slight that has happened to you over the course of your life, and you start to roll up your sleeves and you go, well, let's talk. And inevitably, as you say, people will say, well, why are we talking about, not my mistakes,

why are we talking about the past, they will say. You always think this is another stage of the coming up process where you think there's going to be accountability, there's not accountability, so you have to kind of make your own peace with it. And the way he's doing it in this house of mirrors where there's just layers and layers and layers of, like, him cheating on his boyfriend and then having people film him cheating on his boyfriend. And you realize that every conversation everybody's having is miced, right? So they had to strap it to a mic back before they had this heart to heart. These were choices, conscious choices made. There's craft services tables.

There's a craft services table just off screen. Yeah, it's a fascinating, often frustrating, but always fascinating. show. Yeah. All right. That is Gerard Carmichael reality show streaming on Max. Thank you very much, Aisha. So if that is about reckoning with your past, we are going to flip over to Stephen, who brought a pick about reckoning with your future possibly. Tell me about this one, Thompson. Well, I haven't seen, you know, I certainly haven't seen every movie that came out in 2024. I haven't even seen all the awards contenders that are coming out in 2024, but my favorite movie of the year so far, an absolutely exquisite film called My Old Ass. And this film, which is like 90 minutes long, written and directed by Megan Park,

who is very much somebody I will be watching going forward. It stars Maisie Stella as an 18-year-old who takes mushrooms with her friends and she's out in the woods and she encounters herself, but in her late 30s, played by Aubrey Plaza, and is understandably skeptical, and they have this conversation. Your teeth. Those aren't my teeth. What about my teeth? There's a gap in your teeth.

I don't have a gap in my teeth. Yeah, dude. Wear your retainer. And your hair. It's so dry and it's dark. Take it easy. You've bangs. Yes.

I love this scene so, so much. One, because it feels real. But what I love so much, about the line where your retainer. First of all, it's just, it's exactly what an older version of yourself

would say to you. It's what an older sibling would say to you. You know, just as I would tell the younger version of myself to wear earplugs at concerts, this is a good piece of advice, but you know what else

this particular moment does? It speaks to what I love the most about this film, which is its economy. They could have easily spent 40 minutes of runtime coming up with lore for how,

how she encounters her older self. Oh, there's this portal and every time there's a full moon, this happens. It doesn't need any of that. It just happens. You didn't have to explain it. I just love this film. Where your retainer. Where are your retainer. And also where your retainer. Absolutely. Thank you very much, Stephen Thompson. That is my old ass currently streaming on Prime Video. I'm sure you can find it. Glenn, we are going to you next. Tell me about this. Okay, I'm talking about the film Problemista, but more specifically, I'm talking about the light on Tilda Swinton's iPhone in the film, Problemista. Problemista is a film written and directed by Julio Torres. It's about a young man played by Torres who becomes the assistant to an art critic played by Swinton. Swinton's character,

and this is a mess. She's a monster of a very specific East Coast art world type. And this This film is about, you know, two generations of people together. It is told from the point of view of Torres' generation. But in several scenes, we just notice that the light on Swinton's iPhone is on and it stays on. And the important thing, the reason I'm talking about it here at the end of the year is that no one ever comments on it once. It's just there. It is just a tiny character beat that is treated as part of the scenery, as like part of the production design, right? And, you know, she's become attached to this one specific kind of software, in her case,

file maker pro, she says. And so that's it. These are small observations. These are not broad, overplayed cliches. There's nothing hack about these observations. They're actually new. And that's why this film. And that moment and that light on Tilda Swinton's iPhone is so great.

All right. Thank you very much, Glenn Weldon. That was The Light on Tilda Swinton's iPhone in Problemista. Well, I am delighted that Netflix decided to do a fresh adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel, The Talent of Mr. Ripley. As you may know, if you have seen the film adaptation, you have seen Matt Damon as Tom Ripley. And by the way, this movie is over 20 years old, but we love you. So we're going to warn you. We are going to talk about what happens to Tom Ripley and the people who are foolish enough to be his friends.

This casts Andrew Scott, who is old. and very different as Tom Ripley, a more sort of experienced con artist version of Tom as opposed to the kind of sweet, young, doomed sociopath, Tom. As you will know, if you have seen the movie or read the book, Tom Ripley ends up eventually murdering his friend Dickie. And the scene that I want to talk about that is the focus of my love for this Netflix series adaptation,

is the one where Tom and Dickie go out on the boat, and they have this little conversation. You're taking this better than I thought you would. Why wouldn't I? I don't know. Maybe because all I've offered you is my friendship and respect and asked for nothing in return. That's the issue.

What else would it be? Do you want me to say it? Yeah, Dickie doesn't know that he's doomed, but we all know. But we do. He's quite doomed. And shortly thereafter, Tom kills Dickie, as he must, in the boat.

What follows is an 18-minute sequence approximately with no dialogue. It is just Andrew Scott trying to figure out what to do with the body and the boat. It seems like, you know, it could be very easy. You attach something to the body, throw it out over into the water, and, you know, you're all done. It gets very complicated trying to get rid of this body. There is a sequence that I think is Bugs Bunny-like. Yeah. where the boat kind of gets away because he has in a very kind of slap-sticky moment

ended up falling out of the boat and then the boat is running with nobody in it. It's so funny and I kept giggling and it's so terrible. This is also to me one of the most haunting performances of the year from Andrew Scott. It's always so great. And yet it's also so funny. And this episode, when I watched this episode, I said, that's going to be one of my very favorite episodes of anything that I see this year. I saw it thought that the minute that I watched it, I loved it, one of my favorite shows of the year.

This is so gorgeously filmed in black and white. It is so cold and his eyes. Oh my God, his eyes and this just look like shark's eyes. Little black marbles, beady. The eyes. Little black marbles, beady as hell. It's just such a great testament to the power of adaptation. It won me over very, very quickly.

So that is Ripley. It is streaming on Netflix. Glenn, you are also going to talk about a performer that I really loved this year. Speaking of people who don't always need dialogue to do the things that they do, talk to me about this pick. Yeah, but when she gets it, she knocks it out of the park. This is the great Catherine Hunter. She's having a moment this year. She's been around for a long time as a theater actor and director.

She's getting more and more screenwork now. I first noticed her in Joel Cohen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, where she played The Witches as kind of a contortionist. She also played Cyril's mother in Andor. She was hilarious on that. She was the brothel keeper in poor things. This year she had a couple where she just nailed it. First, she played the tiny, creepy, racist mom Solange in the front room. It must be my Norman's Belinda.

It's lovely to meet you, Solange. And say you were expecting. And the best is that days of miracles have come and go. No, Salon. I snag. I snagher. Duh. You know, if you listen to this show, you know that George,

And Cruciola and I talked about how much we loved this movie and how unexpected it was for both of us. It is your basic, like, Brandy Norwood is this pregnant woman who moves in with her mother-in-law and her kind of useless husband. And she ends up having to kind of defend herself. I think Brandy Norwood's quite good in it. But the reason to see this is this absolutely off the charts, crazy, good Catherine Hunter performance. It's everything. It's the physicality. It's the way she talks.

It's the face. The voice. Again, it's Bugs Bunny level kind of slapstick, but also she's scary. Oh, my gosh. Anyway, talk about the rest of it. She also plays a small-time London mob boss named Lenny in the Netflix series Black Dubs, which we just talked about on the show early in the week. It's not a big role.

She just doesn't do much than sit in various restaurant booths in a track suit and be intimidating. That's all she needs to do. but she nails it. Because he didn't deal with him when I asked you. And now he's a problem. He is a problem for everyone. And everyone knows that I'm the prick who sent the prick to kill the prick, and you didn't. She has quickly become an actor that you just seek out because that voice, that physicality, that whole approach are unlike anyone else.

This is idiosyncratic. This is only her. She never just punches in and punches out. She leaves her mark. She changes the thing around her and makes it better. It is Hunter season. Absolutely. Thank you very much.

much, Glenn, for all of this. Aisha, you are bringing us home with your final pick. Oh, my goodness. Tell us all about it. All right. Well, this is a very specific scene in the movie Evil Does Not Exist. This was written and directed by Riliuske Hamaguchi, whose last film was Drive My Car. Love that film. This is also a really great film, although the ending is very confounding. Months later, I still have no idea what happened. In Evil Does Not Exist, there are multiple storylines. It's set in a small Japanese mountain town, and all these storylines kind of converge, including one about a widower who's living with his daughter. But the central plot sort of revolves around this big developer who plans to turn the village into a glamping site to attract tourists. And of course,

the villagers are all wary of this proposal. Around 35 minutes into the movie, Hamaguchi drops us in on a community meeting that's being led by the company's talent, agent representatives. Multiple residents are expressing their concerns about the site. There's tension, but it's like a very matter-of-fact tension. I kind of liken it to watching C-SPAN, except it manages to be the most riveting thing you could watch. It just draws you in. And what I loved about this scene is the way that it really proves that sometimes the least flashy and the simplest scenes can still hold so much drama. Like as soon as I saw that scene, And when I realized how long it was going on, but it didn't feel like it was going on for long, I was just like, oh, this is one of the best crafted scenes of the year.

Like, it does it so well. It places the villagers into context. And the movie overall is like a really fascinating study of the most basic, the thing that affects us all, which is like real estate. A small change can change the climate. It changes the inhabitants in different ways, but ways that can have huge consequences. and I just really, really loved it. So that is evil does not exist. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel, but also available on VOD.

Y'all, we did it. It's another year. We did it. So much weird stuff, so much good stuff, so much crowd-pleasing stuff. Yeah. So much I haven't gotten to. It's stuff I haven't gotten to, which is my most exciting part. Yeah, absolutely.

I think it's a good mix, which is what we always go for. some stuff you probably know about and maybe some stuff that you didn't know about. And in the case of Catherine Hunter in the front room, something that maybe you don't know about and you should know about. And you might regret knowing about, but that's okay because it's in the fun way. All right. Well, we want to know about your favorite things from the year. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCHH. That brings us to the end of our show.

Stephen Thompson, Glenn Weldon, Aisha Harris. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. This episode is produced by Mike Katzif. and edited by Jessica Reedy. Hello, come in, provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all tomorrow.