Pop Culture Happy Hour - One Night Only and What’s Making Us Happy

Episode Date: August 7, 2026

One Night Only is set in an alternate universe where premarital sex has been outlawed, except for one 12-hour window a year. The film stars Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner as two beautiful New Yorkers looking to have sex when the mandate is temporarily lifted. But does the film deliver on its sexy premise, or is it more chaste than it seems? Looking for other conversations about rom-coms? Try these episodes:‘Office Romance’ stars J.Lo as a CEO with a bad case of Brett Goldstein‘You, Me & Tuscany' has got us lost in the pasta sauceConnect with Pop Culture Happy Hour:Letterboxd / FacebookOur weekly newsletterSupport public media with NPR+ and enjoy perks for over 25 podcasts like this one. This show’s perks include bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.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

Before we get to the show, hey you, yes, you with the impeccable taste in podcasts. If Pop Culture Happy Hour has ever helped you win a group chat debate, find a hit series before everyone else, or pretend you saw that movie you definitely didn't see. We've all done it. Do us a solid and leave the show a review wherever you listen to podcasts. It helps more people find us. It helps us make the show better for you. And we thank you. I guess I just decided that I like Monica Barbara so much that in this performance, I was like,

I will just accept that somehow the American populace swallowed this hookline and sinker without question. One Night Only has been touted as a rom-com spin on the purge movie franchise, and that's a pretty accurate description. In an alternate universe, the government has outlawed pre-marital sex with the exception of one time out of the year. Scary, right? Actually, it's a perfect scenario for a New York City meetcute between a couple of hotties, played by Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner. They're trying to get laid or something like it.

On the night, the mandate is temporarily lifted. But the universe has other plans. I'm Linda Holmes. And I'm Aisha Harris. And joining us today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is the co-host of NPR's Daily Economics Podcast, The Indicator from Planet Money. Waylon Wong. Hey, Wailin.

Hi, Linda. Hi, how youcha? Great to have you here. I suspect we have a lot to talk about with this movie. So we'll just get right on into it. One Night Only Begins. three years into a nationwide chastity mandate imposed by the government. Basically, if you're unmarried, you're forbidden from having sex, save for one 12-hour window a year.

Now, naturally, on this night in question, the unwitted people of New York City are horny as hell. And then there's Allie and Owen, played by Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner. Allie's single, fed up with a dating scene, and vowing to be more intentional about finding someone special. Owens got a girlfriend, but she surprises him by admitting that tonight she wants to hook up with someone else. Allie and Owen are each on their own journeys tonight, but they meet, almost immediately share an awkward moment, and then keep bumping into each other. Are they fated to be mated? Well, they've only got 12 hours to figure that out. And yes, we will be discussing sex in this episode.

One Night Only is in theaters now. Waylon, were you on board for the Sex Purge movie? The Sex First movie, oh my gosh. I have to say this movie really surprised me on the upside. Like, I went in really anxious. I was worried that for such a high concept movie, that the premise was too high concept to be executed at any kind of level that would be acceptable. And I was worried that I would get really bogged down in thinking about the handmaid's tail.

Do you know what I mean? That I wouldn't be able to just give myself. over to the premise of the movie and enjoy it. But then I was so charmed. I don't know. I thought it was so funny. I thought it was pretty cute. I really like the two leads.

And it's not a horny movie. It's actually very wholesome. And that surprised me too in a good way. So I liked it. Yeah. I mean, I will say the one thing this movie has going for it is that unlike the Handmaid's Tale, everyone is suffering. Or at least like both men and women are suffering.

from the lack of sex. It's not just the women who are being quote unquote punished, I guess. So yeah, there's that. Okay. Okay. So Waylon, you were on board. Linda, look, I'm not going to pretend that we haven't talked about this. Just go for it, Linda. Tell us how we feel. So there's two things I would say about this. One is, if this had worked better for me as a romantic comedy, I would not care as much about what does it seem to be trying to say about sex. How does it do with its very high concept, as Whalen said. I am not against a high concept rom-com. I am a well-known lover of the movie while you were sleeping, which has maybe one of the more

ridiculous high concepts of all time. But to me, this movie did not need its high concept at all and doesn't do anything with it at all. The entire purpose of the sex purge element of this movie exists to set up a situation where all the single people are out trying to get someone to have sex with them. And I don't necessarily know that you need a biosurveillance authoritarian sex negative dystopia for that. You need like a bar and a Friday. You know what I mean?

And I don't know that they do anything interesting with this idea once they set it up. You know, the director Will Gluck, when kind of confronted about some of the weird things of the world building, like, I'm sorry, how is this supposed to have happened? And like, why is it that everybody seems to be getting their condoms 15 minutes before this? And my question was like, if you know that the sex window is starting at 7 o'clock on a given day and you're with the person that you want to have sex with, why are you on the subway? Why are you in a restaurant? Thank you. All of this stuff would not matter to me if it had worked. I am like Whalen. I am 1,000 percent willing to put all of that kind of stuff aside. If I, liked how it worked better as a romantic comedy. I think Monica Barbaro is really appealing in this. I think she's really cute in it. I sort of regret that she has to wear like the world's tiniest dress for like this whole movie, which always makes people look uncomfortable to me. You're always like hooking it up and down. Well, he's fully dressed in like comfortable clothes and she's in this incredibly short. We get at least one scene where he's topless for the ladies and the gays.

Yes, but he's like for the most part when they're running around. She's, in an incredibly short dress that is also very open in the front and cut down to her practically her belly button. But I think as a character, she has some charm and she has some appeal. I will say the male lead in this, and I don't know how much of it is writing and how much of it is performance. I just found completely devoid of any sort of appeal. I didn't understand why she enjoyed his company. I didn't understand why anybody would enjoy his company. I feel like doing an enemies to lovers story over the course of a few hours is very, very hard to do effectively. And it's not that it can't be done.

I'm sure there are people out there who are like, but Linda, you love X. And it's exactly like that. I'm sure. I'm sure. I don't think they manage it well here. So like, Aisha, you and I have talked about some about like the sexual politics of this movie, which I think are also quite weird. But I just didn't think it worked. I thought they kind of tacked on this kind of unnecessarily complicated premise when it could have just been a two horny people are out all night trying to have sex.

And keep running into each other. And you don't need any of this. You don't need the dystopia, which kind of lingers in the background. Like, we're not going to talk about that, I guess. I mean, to the dystopian part of that, you mentioned the biosurveillance authoritarian stuff that's going on here. Specifically, the government has basically contract you with these little biotech. tattoos, I guess, or sort of like... Yeah, it's like a wrist tattoo.

And you apparently get to pick the little picture you get. Yeah, which they talk about. I mean, there's so many things politically and historically that you can sort of like map onto this movie, which like I want to talk about that. This movie does not want to talk to about that. And I found myself while watching this movie imagining what this premise, which I think is actually quite interesting and I was fully on board for. And even on board for in a rom-com set. But I found myself imagining what would it be like if like Boots Riley, Gregoraki, Janix de Bravo, Rachel Bloom, like any number of people. A weirder person.

A weirder person had made this film. And perhaps more someone with a little bit more bite, a little bit more critique or commentary, had made this film. And look, you might say, Aisha, good cultural criticism isn't about judging something for what it's not or what you wish it could be. And to that I say, boo. Like, you're completely wrong. Like, I know people try to make this point. And sometimes I agree with you. But I think oftentimes what is conspicuously missing from whatever art that is, including this movie, like what a creator deliberately chooses to leave out, that says so much about what did wind up in the final product and the message that this movie is ultimately trying to convey.

What I came away from this was, like, this is a dystopian sex rom-com. with like no real bite, very little sex, but like with a lot of very obvious hangups about sex that are not ultimately resolved or they're resolved in a very regressive way. You see a little bit of resistance to this mandate. And there's a little bit of pushback from the Monica Barbaro character where she's like, I don't think she says Gilead, but she's like basically implying like this is authoritarian, this is awful. I don't think you can make a movie like this in the current climate we are in.

And also, to Linda's point, at least for me, not really how much. have the juice when it comes to the actual rom-com of it all. Like, I don't really think these two characters had any real chemistry. And I don't think the comedy was quite up to. There's moments that I chuckled. But, like, I don't know. I feel like this could have taken, like, two or three more passes. So, like, bump up the jokes here and there.

I'm going to step off my soapbox now. Waylon, I'm curious. Yeah, I mean, this movie definitely does not want to be satire. and in fact seems actively afraid of making any kind of pointed critique around the times we live in, sexual politics, the rollback of rights and bodily autonomy in society. I think that a lot of people's enjoyment of the movie will hinge not just on whether the central chemistry works, which for me it did, for you two, it did it, but also this sense of like, can you suspend your disbelief? and how much can you suspend your disbelief for?

And I liked a lot of the world building, actually, because there was a lot of, I think, small kind of subtle things that are happening that I really enjoyed. For example, you see ads on the subway for Duolingo and Red Bull that are geared towards the 12-hour window that single people have to have sex. And so all the marketing is about, you know, like do this for one night only. And Monica Barbara's character, her job is singing jingles for pharmaceutical ads that are all takeoffs of famous pop songs. That I enjoy. That was funny. I like that.

And some of these are sprung on you in a surprise way. And it's so funny. And so there is kind of an interesting capitalist kind of critique, the idea that people, of course, corporations would be cashing in on the idea of this mandate. That I enjoyed. But I do take your point that, like, this movie is. really not prepared to address the huge kind of elephants that it introduces into the room. And for me, I was able, again, to give myself over to the premise and just kind of accept that, okay, I guess all of American society would have been so complacent about the idea of not only

this extremely restrictive law that somehow got passed by Congress, but that you would accept it. You would accept having a biosensor placed on your wrist, you know, that you would just line up and get this done and that there wouldn't be just kind of riots in the street every day over this. I guess I just decided that I like Monica Barbara so much. In this performance, I was like, I will just accept that somehow the American populace swallowed this hookline and sinker without question. Yeah. Yeah. That's totally fair. That's totally fair. Linda, yeah. It is fair. There is one moment in this movie where I was like, this is really cute rom-com chemistry. And it happens when Monica Barbaro meets a different guy.

who you know is not going to be the guy. And he sits down at a piano with her and they start playing piano together. And I was like, this is cute and funny. And this guy to me has some charm. And you know the whole time, this is going to blow up in her face. It's going to turn out. Something is going to be wrong with him because obviously she's going to end up with the lead of the movie. Right.

But that was the moment where I was like, this feels like the beginning of people meeting in a romantic comedy. The problem I had was once you get past that point, it's like, okay, but she doesn't have as much chemistry with this guy as she had with the piano guy. So now I feel weird about it. And again, this is all stuff where if it had worked for me as a romantic comedy, I know myself well enough to know, I'd be like, doesn't make any sense. Has like a weirdly square approach to sex, to be honest, a weirdly, like, as I think Ayesha said, regressive kind of. approach to sex, honestly. I think you can read this movie as saying, like, you know, maybe the authoritarian sex negative government has a point, you know?

A character actually says that in this movie at one point. Yeah. And so it's like I would have overcome all of that stuff if I'd been more into it. And there's other things. Like, there's sort of an old people having sex is funny thing that I don't love. There's very weird stuff around queer people that feels very unresolved. resolved to me. Well, okay, can we talk about that for a second?

Because that's another part of this like world building aspect that didn't quite work for me because this movie has a actual queer fairy godmother who's played like Wintersa Swindell. She is Ali's roommate. She's just kind of there to be the queer person who gives her all the pep talks and the outfits to wear. A queer fairy godmother of color, right? Oh, yes, yes. We got to add that on there too.

Like she's checking all the boxes. And so she has like one moment in the movie where she kind of explains what I was already thinking in the back of my mind, which is like how do queer people factor into this? Because it seems like this is all geared toward like you're married and then you're going to start a family. And this idea that the only way to start a family is the quote unquote natural way. So we're already like in like, okay, very whatever territory. But then at one point she says like, oh, I'm not going out. Tonight is for the Straits. And she says something and I didn't quite catch this.

I was writing it down fast, so I might have misheard it. But she said something that sounded like, you know, we've been working around your rules for a minute. That's what she says. Something like Yeah, something like that. And so I was just like, and then they don't really talk about it after work. And it's like, that's interesting. Like let's hear or like tell me about that, right? Because it's a good thing to acknowledge because it's true, right? In the world. It's very true. But once you establish like the sensors and everything, it's like how does this not appeal to you? How do you not have the sensors? Do you have the censors? Or are we going to get into the most uncomfortable conversation about this movie that I really don't want to get into but found myself wanting to get into anyway, which is

what exactly is the definition of sex that is illegal? I thought about that too. Thank you. There are some posters that kind of jokingly suggest, but it's mostly positional, I would say, right? And there's not a lot of detail about like, what? exactly isn't legal and is that part of why this doesn't apply to it. Exactly. Why this friend feels it doesn't affect her. Right. And there's a lot of montages and moments where you see couples going at it and by going at it's like mostly making out. And I'm like, okay, I thought we were all sexually like we were waiting and now look, for play. Isn't that what you're doing the rest of the year? I don't know what's going on here. But like. Well, now we're back to why are you on the subway for me too. Oh, you're on the subway. Like anyway, I was looking. I was looking at. I was looking at. I was looking. I was like actively looking to see what kind of couples were being shown in these positions. And like for the most part, I only saw either what looked like woman, man, whatever. But then occasionally you'd see like maybe a thruple, but it'd be, of course, two women and one man. And I think I saw like one gay male couple like in the background.

But they were like sitting and eating. They weren't like making out the one I saw. I did see what appeared to be a pair of women making out on a dance floor. I saw that too. I think that was the only queer couple. that I got locked. Yeah, same. I think they're the only ones I saw.

Yeah. But like, again, what are they doing? Are they part of this? Are they not part of this? And if they are part of this, why does the friend say they're not part of this? Like, this is all valid. This is all more interesting to me than the story that they end up telling. And those are the people I kind of want to know about.

If this had been about, like, how does a queer couple navigate this very strange and not built for them? system, that might have caught my interest more. But like, again, if I believe that the great big world of straight couples typically is at midnight on New Year's Eve going five, four, three, two, one, kiss, I don't think they're at a restaurant when they're going to be able to have sex for the first time in a year. You know what I mean? They are exactly where they intend to be going five, four, three, two, one. Right. At least as much as they are at New Year's Eve, I feel.

Yeah, waiting for their sensors to glow green so they can, they get the signal. The movie is conservative in ways that you might not realize at first because of the way it's marketed as like the sex purge movie and you think it's going to be the sex romp. And actually, at its heart, it's extremely old-fashioned. Chase, chased, chaste. And I think that's really reinforced by the ending, which is probably to me the week as part of the movie for me. So I was left with like a tiny bit of, you know, cognitive dissonance, but not enough to dampen my overall enjoyment of this film. I want to see Monica Barbaro in a rom-com that I like better because I think she is built for that. I don't think he's so cute.

And what you mentioned about the business where she's like a jingle singer for her. for pharmaceuticals. I think they kind of go a little bit too far with that at the very end of the movie, but the early stuff about it is really funny. I laughed. I enjoyed it. She, I think, is super charming. And I will watch her next romantic comedy, which I hope will be just a little bit more up my alley,

maybe with a male lead who feels a little bit more rom-com to me. So sex purge too. And a little bit less like, doesn't he remind you of Channing Tatum? He does not. No, definitely not. Sorry, Callum Turner. He does not. A.k.a. Mr. Duleva.

Well, look, we're all rom-com fans here. So however we felt about this, it's coming from a place of love for the genre. And I also love dystopian movies. Just not this dystopian. Just not this dystopian movie. Yeah. But it sounds like your mileage made merry. Check it out.

And up next, we're going to be talking about what makes us happy this week. So we'll be right back. And now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week what's making us happy. Waylon, what's making you happy? Okay, I have been really enjoying this podcast from ESPN 30 for 30 called The Betrayal of Shohei Otani. Oh, Linda was just telling me about this. Are you listening to this too, Linda? Yes, yes.

I am not a baseball person like Linda. Sometimes I get FOMO reading Linda's social media posts. I'm like, I should get into baseball like Linda. But I'm really not a sports person. But this podcast has really sucked me in. This is a podcast by the investigative reporter at ESPN who covered the story of how baseball player Shohei Otani was swindled many, many millions of dollars by his interpreter who is gambling away all of this money. And it is so well done. And it's such a great peek into the investigative reporting process. And you hear incredible audio of the reporter's, interview with the interpreter. He actually gives her like a lot of time so you hear his voice talking about his story and then it's kind of like inverted because you realize like he duped her and he was lying. And then the fourth episode is a big interview with the bookie who's kind of this

scary guy who explains his operation in the most chilling matter of fact way ever. They learned a lot about money laundering. So it's very educational for me. I cannot wait to see how it all wraps up because I remember reading some news stories about this when it broke and when the investigation and then like the trial was happening and the sentencing. But I wasn't steeped in the detail. So now I'm getting really into the details. And it's just a really great crime story and it's very well produced. So that is the betrayal of Shohei Otani. This is a podcast from ESPN. Awesome. Thanks so much for that recommendation. And yeah, Linda was talking me about this recently. So sounds very fascinating. Linda, what is making you happy this week? Well, in addition to that podcast, which I also could have chosen because it is excellent. There is a movie on Netflix called The Last House. And it is a thriller, which stars Greta Lee and Wagner Mora as a couple with two children who one day they are just like in their house. It's in the wintertime. They're getting ready to go out.

And they realize they can't open their front door. Their front door is like sealed shut. And they're like, that's weird. And they go to the back door, back door sealed shut. And then they're like, maybe we have to climb out the door. window, you probably know where this is going. All the windows sealed shut. You can't break the glass. You're stuck in your house. And they realize at some point that this is affecting more people than just them. They don't know what's going on. But weirdly, they with their children essentially

decide we just have to live like this for however long this continues. So they settle into this routine of being stuck in the inside their house they can't see anyone they can't go outside so there obviously all of these risks of like running out of food and not having medicine that you need and things like that i think when you get to the very end of this movie and maybe there's a little bit of commonality between one night only and the last house in this regard when you get to the very end of the movie i think they blow it a little bit i think the landing is not quite stuck here but first of all greta lee vagnamora but That's a very good pair of leads.

But combined with this kind of sci-fi mystery horror stuff. And even though I didn't love the ending, it's a pretty effective locked inside the house thriller. It's pretty smart. It doesn't rely on everybody doing incredibly foolish things that nobody would ever do. So I do recommend it. It is on Netflix. Again, it's called The Last House, like, perfect for like an evening. at home. Just absolutely perfect. Awesome. Thank you so much, Linda. Well, ring the alarm because

this might be a PCH first for me, which is that I am going to talk about a video game that I have enjoyed playing recently. Yes, yes. So I recently started playing Tomodachi Life, living the dream, which is for the Nintendo Switch. Perhaps my millennials are saying, Tomogachi's back? What? No, it is not Tomogachi. I definitely, I definitely thought that that was. I thought, and I'm not a millennial. When you downloaded it, you thought it was Tomogachi. No, I knew before I downloaded, but when I heard it, I was like, Tomogachis are back.

Oh, man, I can't wait to, like, clean up my little alien poop and all that stuff. No, no, no, this is Tomodachi Life. It's the third iteration of Nintendo's Tomodachi Life series, which was released this spring. And I haven't played the earlier versions of Tomodachi Life, but I'm diving in now. It's very fun. So it's kind of like The Sims, but a lot more. more chaste, a lot more like Nintendo. It's like very kind of like, it's more kid friendly. It's definitely more kid friendly. You have a world, you have an island, actually. You get to name

the island and you create me's. That's M with two eyes. It's a little weird that they all have British accents. And then it's like everyone has a British accent. You can adjust their voices, but like they all kind of sound like some variation of like, hello. Hi. boss. Welcome. And like you're kind of playing God. Like they address you as like, hey boss, I'm hungry. It's, it's a little weird. But I'm enjoying it. It's fun. Have you ever played Animal Crossing? No. Is that what Animal Crossing was like, I've heard of it. No, not exactly. But it sounds like when you talk about like a sort of a world building thing, that's kind of a little bit more kid friendly, it's an island, you know, a little softer. It doesn't have all the stuff that you're talking about at all. But I just was, it made me wonder whether you'd enjoy Animal Crossing.

Yeah. I don't know, maybe. But yeah, I've enjoyed this. I've enjoyed making me's out of my friends. So like my husband and some of my close friends are all like me's and we're all falling for each. Like I, my character fell for my husband in the world. And it's just fun. And yeah. So like your husband could fall for one of your friends. That's also possible. It hasn't happened yet, but it's possible. I highly recommend if you're looking for something fun, a distraction. And so yeah, Tomidachi life, living the. dream. It's on Nintendo Switch. That's what's making me happy this week. That brings us to the end of our show, Waylon Wong, Linda Holmes. Thanks so much for being here, and I hope we never find ourselves in a Sex Burge scenario ever. Me too. Thanks. This is fun. This episode was produced by Mike Katzv, Haps of Fathema, Liz Metzger, and Lenin Sherburn, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, the name provides our theme music, and thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all next week. Thank you.