Pop Culture Happy Hour - Summer Guide And What's Making Us Happy

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

There was Barbenheimer Summer, then Brat Summer, what will this year bring? Maybe it's the season of actually good superhero movies, like The Fantastic Four and Superman. We've got a guide to the movies and TV we're most excited about this summer, including M3gan 2.0, Pixar's Elio, and Mission: Impossible. Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. 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

Big action, beloved heroes, abject terror, the company of good pals. The summer of 2025 really is set to have something for everybody. But how do you figure out which spectacles are worth a trip to the theater? Which shows are worth your time? That's why we're here. I'm Stephen Thompson. And I'm Linda Holmes. Today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, we offer up a guide to some of the TV and movies.

We're eager to join you in checking out this summer. Joining us today are our co-hosts, Aisha Harris. Hello, Aisha. Hello, Linda. And Glenn Weldon, hello, Glenn. Summer Breeze makes me feel gross. Nice. Good to see, everybody.

We are just going to dive into some of the picks that we have. Glenn, your first pick came as an absolute shock to me. Never saw it coming. Tell me what you chose as one of your things you're excited about this summer. Being ruthlessly, punishingly on brand. My two picks are the two. big superhero films coming out this summer. Superman, July 11th, Fantastic

Four, First Steps, July 25th. I am uniting them by theme. I'm going to talk about them both at once because they're both movies that may or may not work, but if they do work, they're going to work for exactly the same reason. I realize I need to get a temperature check from y'all because I'm excited about, for example, the new

Superman film from James Gunn. It stars David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan, and it's Lois Lane, Nicholas Holt as Lex Luthor. That drops July 11th. My social are excited about this, but mine is a very nerdy bubble, and I have no idea it occurs to me what normals like y'all are feeling like this. So just give me a temperature check. Or normals. Okay. I should have looked aggrieved at the word normals.

Well, compared to me. Sure. I'm happy for you, Glenn. I'm notionally open to it. I have definitely checked out of a lot of superhero movies, particularly in the last few years as Marvel has seemed to lose its way. I have not typically dug as deeply into the DC universe. The sort of later period Superman movies that were kind of going for that Zach Snydery, grim and gritty thing is not my wavelength. But looking at the trailer for this, I'm into it. I'm ready to love a superhero movie. again. It's just been a few years. Glenn, I think you will understand when I say that as a person of my precise generation, I never really recovered from the silver airbed in Superman, too. I love those two first movies with Christopher Reeve, but I also was, as I think you know, a passionate fan of Lois and Clark on television, the one that was in the 90s. Oh, I forgot about Lois and Clark. So I do consider myself a bit of a Superman person, but as Stephen alluded to, the recent takes on Superman have not really been to my taste.

So I'm actually very psyched, and I know that you were very psyched at the sight of the dog. Yes. And I felt exactly the same way. I was very excited to see the dog. All right. Y'all have proved my thesis. Okay. A little bit of context.

It's going to be quick like a bunny. In 2005, Batman begins, comes out. The Christopher Nolan film, it's dark and gritty and striper kind of, well, not realism because a guy's dressed up in a bat suit. But groundedness. Critical commercial hit, launched a hugely successful franchise. The very next year, Superman Returns, comes out in 2006. It underperformed because a lot of people said it was too beholden to that 1978 Richard Donner film to have its own identity. It did have its own tone, though, which was kind of lofty and nostalgic and kind of wistful.

People are too mean to that movie, I think. I think so, too. But the lesson Hollywood, or at least Writers, took away from those two films back to back like that was exactly the wrong one, which is there's only one way to do superhero films now. that's dark and gritty and grounded. And I got to say, when James Gunn was tapped to essentially reboot the DC Cinematic Universe with this new Superman film, I wasn't particularly jazzed because I like the first two Guardians of the Galaxy movies that he did pretty well. I hated the third one. And his The Suicide Squad film, that is doing what the boys is doing, what everybody's doing now, which is glib violence,

which I just find adolescent and cynical. And cynical guys is a word you can't get within a hundred miles of Superman. or it all collapses. But when I saw the trailer, which is filled with color and brightness and action, what it's specifically doing is it's embracing all the comic book stuff, which leaned so hard into high fantasy, sci-fi whimsy, Superman had crypto, a superpower dog in a cape because, of course, you did. There were robots at the Fortress of Solitude.

I was one of the legions of folks who reacted very strongly and positively to the site of crypto. In the trailer, I love crypto. We should be specific. Don't excise that quote from that. Yeah, exactly. Crypto with a K, I'm assuming. I love crypto, the super dog. Put it that way.

So you're excited about Superman. What I find fascinating about the double-barreled nature of this is that like Superman, the Fantastic Four, is something that has been tried a number of times not that long ago. So, yes, this is Fantastic Four First Steps you're talking about. It comes out July 25th. Pedro, Pasoacal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn, Eben Moss. backrack. I think this one might work though, and if it does, it's going to do it for exactly the same reason that the Superman film

coming out just a couple of weeks before it will work, might work, is it's not afraid of its comic book roots. It's not apologizing for it or minimizing it. And specifically, it's going back to the very thing that always set the Fantastic Four apart, which was a kind of visual and narrative

aesthetic of retro future. That is key. The promise of the future that we believed in back when the space age dawned, which was jetpacks and flying cars and monorails and household robots and everything clean and bright and mid-century modern. And some of us have been out here saying from our soapboxes for years that this is how you make the fantastic four movie work. It's a period piece. It has to be part of a past that never existed.

It has to be an idealized version. I'm wrapping up here. But superhero films have always had a love, hate, very weird relationship with the comics they come from. They've always believed that you cannot deliver exactly what's on the comic book page because that will never break through to a mainstream movie audience. I don't know if that's true. I really don't, but we are going to know the answer to that by the end of this summer because these two films are going to put that to the test. I am interested to see how these go too, Glenn.

They're coming out close together. The first one is July 11th, that's Superman. And the second one is July 25th for Fantastic Four First Steps. So I dig it, man. We're going to see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. I'm over here. Bart Simpson at Camp Krusty, just rocking back and forth saying crypto is coming.

Crypto is coming. Crypto is coming. Absolutely. Again, Crypto the Dog. All right. Thank you very much, Glenn. Stephen, you also went with a genre piece, but it is a slightly different genre. What is your first pick?

In contrast to Glenn's dreams of a retro-futuristic space age Jetson-style future world, I'm going with the future as a world of torment. So the present. So the present. I am going with Megan 2.0, or as we always pronounce this film, Mithrigan. Mithrigan came out in January of 2022, was totally kind of buried among the January doldrums, ended up being one of my favorite films of that year.

Say what you will about AI, and Lord knows I do, but AI has really revitalized the killer doll movie. The first Megan movie found like really clever beats and clever ways to comment on humanity's relationship with technology, in addition to this very memeable world in which this killer doll does these viral dances and plays Martika's toy soldiers on the piano and all these, like, clever little hits of menace. I really hope they don't overdo that in this one, I have to say. Like, I hope it's not all like, let's watch her dance 14 times because now we know how

much people like it. I mean, just as you don't want to overstate your excitement about something based on the trailer, you don't want to necessarily assume that the trailer is going to take on the exact tone of the film. The trailer that I saw really leans to it. They're playing, oops, I did it again over the course of the thing. And in this film, you know, like the technology for Megan has been stolen. And so you basically have, you know, robot on robot warfare. Does it look like it takes the Megan concept and apply bloat to it? Absolutely. It's a sequel. But at the same time, I did laugh at one of the jokes in the trailer. I hope that this is a franchise that understands that it's not just about the

fact that the doll does weird-looking dances. It is about the fact that the doll represents humanity's desire to kind of use AI as a replacement for human connection. And like I said, I loved the first Megan. I also loved companion, which was another January dumping ground horror movie this year. Right. So right now, I'm just kind of coasting on the killer doll renaissance that AI has brought into the world. And I'm all in.

And I really just hope that the filmmakers lean into the ideas associated with it. Because that's what I've really loved about this franchise so far. Yeah. We've come a long way since like, what was it, Talking Tina? Bride of Chucky. Yeah, bride of Chucky. Like all of us. But before that, yes, my name is Taki Tina and I'm going to kill you.

I liked Megan. I thought it was very helpful. fully creepy. I don't care as much about robot on robot violence as I do robot on person violence. But we'll see how it goes. We'll see how it goes. And again, that one is coming out even sooner than the Superman and the Fantastic Four movies. That one is June 27th of 2025. Good pick. Happy to see it. My first pick is also probably no surprise to most people. It is not a small movie. It is Mission Impossible. Final Reckoning. It is the eighth Tom Cruise-led Mission Impossible movie. They certainly want you to think it's the last one. That's not legally binding on anybody, I don't think. So we shall see what happens. I've always found the plots of these impossible to follow and impossible to care about. They don't matter. Yeah. I don't remember plot. I remember set pieces. I remember the train sequence of- And the car with Haley Atwell.

Yes, yes. Running a lot on tall buildings. Yeah. It's like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, motorcycle. But on that basis, I really, really do enjoy them. And I'm very excited to sit down and see this one at a gigantic screen. How are you guys feeling about having another one of these approaching? Yeah, my butt's already in the seat. Let's go. Let's do it. I'm there too because I rewatch these back to back over the pandemic just to kind of like, you know, get into this universe before the next one came out.

And they don't make more sense. But you do notice they're doing some subtle things with having the Ethan Hunt character kind of reckon with growing older, which means that Tom Cruise, the actor slash producer, is reckoning with growing older in a way that seems, it makes these films a little chewier than you expect them to be every time. I do find myself slightly troubled by the scuttling of repeated brunettes for replacement brunettes. But very bond in that way. Yes. That is sort of the way of these. I wish they would not do that. But I did like Haley Atwell in the last one.

So, you know, I have high hopes for her. Maybe she'll make it. I fear the day when Tom Cruise no longer can do any of this stuff. Because, like, what is he going to do? He seems like he'd be so fragile. He's going to be so sad. He's going to be so fragile. I will be into it for the entire two and a half hours that I'm sitting in that seat, thoroughly entertained.

And I will walk out of this. the theater and be like, I remember something about a plane. Yeah, that's my design. Like 10 minutes after the movie's over, it's already going to be blah, blah, blah, motorcycle. That is true. Even of ones of these that I have seen several times. So that one is May 23rd, Mission Impossible, the final reckoning.

Aisha, you are finally ready to serve up a pick. And you, oh my goodness, television, what? I know. Did you know that that exists in the summertime? What? So my pick is actually even sooner than Mission Impossible. This will be streaming on Macs starting May 15th. And that is Duster. I'm kind of surprised that I picked this, but I was very curious by the logline and by the involvement here. We've got JJ Abrams and showrunner Latoya Morgan, who are executive producing the show. And it's set in the 1970s. The logline is a black female FBI agent who's played by Rachel Hilsson, recruits a getaway driver, played by Josh Holloway from Lost, lots of other shows. This black female agent recruits him to help take down the crime family that he works for. And I am very curious to see, you know, it's the 1970s, it's her being sort of the outsider in this world.

I'm very curious to see how they work with that. I'm also just very excited to see Keith David, who is involved. I feel like I've been seeing him around a little bit recently. He's working. He is a working actor, and I love that for him. My God, his voice is just smacked. Beautiful. He is so good in everything he touches. Everything. Everything. I don't know too much else about it, but that's also why I'm so curious. And I think it would be really interesting to see how they play with this idea of, like, a black woman in the 70s in the FBI, the FBI, which was known for doing really, really horrible things to black radicalists and black radicalists. and black civil rights leaders.

So that is Duster, which begins streaming on Max on May 15th. Glenn, you're a sci-fi fan. Like, J.J. Abrams, does that spark your interest at all? Yeah, sure. Always. I'm always curious. And, of course, as any J.J. Abrams fan knows, if you spend any of your time wondering, what's Greg Grunberg up to?

You'll have your answer. Well, and the interesting thing is J.J. Abrams is now so associated with various sci-fi franchises. but for a lot of people, their affection for him goes back to alias, which was, of course, a spy show. And so to me, this makes a lot of sense in this context. I will also say the synopsis that Max provides for this show does include the phrase goes from dangerous to wildly stupidly dangerous. And I'm like, oh, yes. I'm in.

Okay. Yes. Give me wild stupidity. Wildly stupidly dangerous sounds like something I am definitely present for. Yes. And again, that is Duster. It is streaming on Max, starting on May 15th. Stephen, you have one more pick. We are going back to the movie theaters.

Tell me about this pick. Well, I'm going back to a well that I come back to often when we talk about summer projects we're excited about. I'm going to the Pixar Well. And specifically, I'm going to the movie Elio. It comes out June 20th. It's about a boy who's obsessed with outer space, wants to be abducted. A sequel to Call Me by Your Name. Yes.

Exactly. Dreams of going to outer space. He dreams of being abducted by aliens and he gets his wish. That's sort of the plot of the film. What drew me immediately to I'm going to be first in line to put my butt in that seat are the directors of this film. There are three of them. There's Madeline Sharfian, Domi Shee, who worked on Turning Red.

Yeah. And there's Adrian Molina who worked on Coco. Now, if I were to rank... my favorite Pixar movies, which I always keep meaning to do. Definitely top 10, probably top five, I would put Turning Red and Coco. And kind of the combination of those two films is where all that Pixar Magic lives, right? It's deeply insightful character beats crossed with, you know, tear-jurking sentimentality that doesn't get cloying or hopefully doesn't get cloying. And so to me, I look at these directors' sensibilities combining, and I am,

100% in. This film looks adorable. It's about the friendship between a boy and an alien, but what I'm really interested in is what these directors are bringing to this story. All right. So that is Elio. It is coming on June 20th. Thank you very much, Stephen. My second and final pick. I believe the soonest of these things to drop. It will be streaming on May 1st on Prime Video. We should note that Amazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content. I am talking, of course, about another simple favor. The movie A Simple Favor, which came out in 2018, featured Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick in a kind of clash of women kind of circling each other in a way that was sort of a thriller and it's sort of a comedy and it's sort of a movie about

who people really are. But it keeps kind of going back to this comic tone that I very much appreciated it. It was directed as this is by Paul Feig, who was somebody that I really admire, particularly for his work in comedies with women. My expectations for this movie are relatively tame because what I really loved about the first movie was A, the performances, and B, this interesting kind of tonal thing they were doing where Blake Lively was very much like Fem Fatal type and Anna Kendrick was kind of. of perky YouTube mom type. I loved the styling of it. Visual kind of aesthetic of the movie I really loved. All I really want is to get more of the things that I enjoyed about the first one.

I don't know that I needed another one. I don't know that I would look at this story and say, I need to know more about what happens after this ends. Aisha, I know that you have already seen another simple favor. And you basically have told me that it is very much more of what the first one was. Yeah, just set in Capri, which is a beautiful place. Don't get me wrong. It looks gorgeous. It's gorgeous. The only thing I will say about this movie that I have already seen is gowns. Beautiful, beautiful, Blake Lively. Yes. I got you. No, seriously, the outfits are like chef's kiss. Like, loved it. Yes. And that was that was, that was It's true of the first ones, too. There is some suit and tie work with Blake lively in the first one that is really sublime. So I'm excited. Again, that is another simple favor. Streaming on Prime Video on May 1st. We have one more pick. And of course, it is coming from our great pal, Aisha Harris. Yes, yes. Well, I think I've been kind of missing out on a specific genre lately. I've been craving it. I don't know why. Maybe I just want to return to my youth. But I've missed the like, hey, we're hanging out and we're in our 20s and we're irresponsible and we like don't know what to do about life kind of shows.

Hang out. Exactly. I was ever a friend's person, but, you know, living single or more recently something like new girl or, I mean, they're in their 30s, I think. But like happy endings, like that kind of show. We're all friends and we hang out. You're understood. You're among friends. Exactly.

Exactly. So I am very curious about and looking forward to the new TV show, adults, which is going to be premiering on FX. on May 28th and then streaming the next day on Hulu. This is from some creators I'm not too familiar with Ben Croningold and Rebecca Shaw, but the executive producers of this give me hope and give me, you know, we don't know their involvement, but gives me hope that they've given their stamp of approval anyway. You've got Nick Kroll and Stephanie Robinson. Stephanie Robinson, you probably know from Atlanta, what we do in the shadows.

So I'm in. This could be fun. And the basic premise of this show is that there are five friends living together. So, like, it's not even just like they all live in the same city. They live together in one of their childhood homes. So giving very Gen Z slash millennial, like, we can't afford. We can't even afford to live together in our own place. The log line here that Apex is giving us is like, whether they're trying to get ahead

at work, navigating the health care system, hosting a dinner party or dating in the age of find my friends, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, oh, okay, these are all catchwords. I'm curious, healthcare dinner party. I'm in. And the cast includes some, I think, for people who are very online or of a certain age, they'll probably be familiar with them. The one name that popped out for me is Owen Thiel. He is someone who's appeared in theater camp and like one episode of Hacks.

So I was like, ooh, this could be fun. Like, yes. So yeah, I'm excited for this. FX tends to have things that I enjoy or at least admire. And so I'm looking forward to adults. Like, I just kind of want to see what the perspective is right now of being like a 20-something now and hoping to get some insight from TV. I guess I could also talk to actual 20-somethings, but you know. Oh, no, no, no.

You want to watch this instead. I don't recommend that. So, yes, that is adults, and it's premiering on FX May 28th. And then it will be streaming on Hulu. Yeah, it sounds like a good hang. I am not familiar with any of these actors, so it's going to be a clean slate for me. I'll check it out. Yeah.

Very good. Again, adults is premiering on FX on May 28th and then streaming on Hulu. Well, we want to know what you are looking forward to watching this summer. Find us at Facebook.com slash PCH. Up next, what's making us happy this week. Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us happy this week? Glenn Weldon, what is making you happy this week?

Bruce Valanche is a veteran writer of television. He is also, not for nothing, an elder stakesqueer of Con. comedy. His IMDB page is longer than a CBS receipt. He's written for every award show Under the Sun. A lot of 70s variety shows when they were doing that. And in his new book, which is called It Seemed like a Bad Idea at the time, the worst TV shows in history and other things I wrote. He looks back over his career and dishes about his experience of what it's like being in the writers room for things like the Star Wars Holiday Special. Oh, God. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour. Donnie and Marie, the Paul Lind, Halloween. special Roblo dancing to Proud Mary with Snow White at the Oscars. Oh my God. He's a legend. He's exactly what you want him to be, right?

He's funny. He's self-deprecating. He's schmoozy and gossipy. He's also very clear right about what he's doing or did. He provides context that I think is, context I had never thought about, you know, a lot of folks online will pull up something like the Brady Bunch Reddy Hour and like, who wanted this? Turns out everybody wanted this. That's why it was made. It was broadcasting, right?

there was no niche entertainment. That was monoculture. There were a variety shows because you wanted to offer people a variety of things, and you're offering it to everybody. You are trying to give absolutely everybody a little something that they like. That is, it seemed like a bad idea at the time by Bruce Valanche. Thank you for that, Glenn. Aisha Harris, what is making you happy this week?

Well, I don't love the name of this band called What. But I do very much enjoy their music. They are an indie pop group from Brooklyn, and they recently released a new album that I have just been devouring. It's called Two Lives. Yeah, they are the type of indie pop group from Brooklyn that does like very dreamy, synthy, bedroom pop, very wistful. Very summary.

95% of the time, I don't know what they're saying, but the melody just like it takes over. And I love just all the instrumentation and the music. It just makes me happy. One of my favorite songs off of this new album is called Rose. Let's hear a little bit of that. Also very Stephen Thompsonian, I will say. Yes.

I was going to say. Yes, Stephen, you've heard of wet, right? Yeah, oh, yeah. Aisha, the Venn diagram of Aisha's tastes and mine, it overlaps. Yes, yes, yes. So it's sugar to me. I love it. So that is the band Wet.

And their album is called Two Lives. All right. Thank you very much. Aisha Harris, the band What, playing second base. Stephen Thompson. What is making you happy this week? Well, if I'd had a third pick in our summer preview, I would have gone music. I would have talked about one of my favorite bands right now, a Canadian group called The Beaches. Talk about Aisha Core. Talk about your summer jams. Talk about trotted out for your Pride Month celebrations. The album doesn't come out until August 29th, their new record. But the singles, that have dropped already have been fantastic. And I just hope the beaches spend the entire summer of 2025, just dropping one banger at a time in the lead-up to the release of this album. The single that is currently catching on and will be soundtracking, I am sure, many pride parties, is called Last Girls at the Party. Let's hear a little bit of it.

That vent diagram. It's a circle. Yeah, the Venn diagram for Aisha CORE is big. May this song replace closing time. in all party and bar playlists going forward to the end of time. This song is a jam. It's big fun. Everything this band has put out is so infused with light and joy and just hooks on top of hooks, on top of hooks.

They're super charming. I'm really excited about this record. And like I said, I wish it were coming out at the beginning of the summer so we could all just crank it all summer long. But it's coming out August 29th. It's The Beaches and the album is called No Hard Feelings. Thank you, Stephen. What is making me happy this week? Every once in a while, I go digging deep into documentaries about film itself. And one of the ones that I was watching this week is a documentary called Room 237, which I have seen before, but I was watching it again. It is about the many odd fan theories that exist about the movie The Shining. Do I believe all of these theories, including the guy who believes that this movie was made as a slide? way for Kubrick to acknowledge that he helped fake the moon landing. Not really. I do not think that that is true, I will say. But I think what I like about it is they kind of leave room for an

explanation of how people can find anything if they spend enough time looking. I just like the way that this documentary dives into that kind of superanalysis. overanalysis and where it takes people. That documentary is called Room 237. I rented it on streaming. You can rent it. You can find it. It's out there.

And it is one of my favorite documentaries about film. That is what is making me happy this week. If you want links for what we recommended, plus some additional recommendations, sign up for our newsletter at npr.org slash pop culture newsletter. That brings us to the end of our show. Stephen Thompson, Aisha Harris, Glenn Weldon.

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. This episode is produced by Liz Metzger and edited by Jessica Reedy and Mike Katzif. Hello, Come In, provides our theme music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all next week.