Glenn Weldon

Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

I'm Glenn Weldon, and we'll see you all next time.

Listen, it could happen.

Mm-hmm.

It might seem like a quiet story, but the movie packs a serious punch of top-notch talent.

The artist is played by Ian McKellen, the assistant by Michaela Cole, and the film is directed by Steven Soderbergh.

I'm Glenn Weldon.

Came down pro, solidly pro.

I haven't seen any reviews, but I know this thing is going to get called by some folks stagey.

And you can kind of see it, I guess, because it is, what is it?

It's two characters trading dialogue in a series of rooms.

And that gets compounded by the fact that the dialogue is about fine art, which feels, you know, as a subject, kind of rarefied and erudite and, can I say...

Can I say tote baggy?

It's a little tote baggy.

And I feel like we can say that.

The calls are coming from inside the house.

But I am so glad this is a film and not a stage production because I worry that on stage you might miss a lot of, most of, if not all of what Cole is bringing because she's bringing it in the close-ups.

She is the real power.

in this pair of characters.

And that's odd because it seems like it's going to be McKellen at first because his character is pontificating and bloviating and it's really formative and very funny, but it soon becomes clear how much his character...