Chapter 1: What should I watch and listen to this summer?
Thanks for watching.
It's getting warm outside, the sun is shining, and that means it's time for the three Ps, pollen, popsicles, and the Pop Culture Happy Hour guide to what you should be watching and listening to this summer. Sure, we've got a superhero for you, but we've also got blockbuster directors, interesting auteurs, and one film we truly, honestly believed we might never get to see.
I'm Linda Holmes, and today we've got a guide to what we're looking forward to this summer on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today are my co-hosts, Stephen Thompson. Hello, Stephen.
Hey, buddy.
And Glenn Weldon. Hello, Glenn.
Hey, it's summertime. The living is easy. The pizza is cheesy. My favorite Jefferson is wheezy. Hey, Linda.
Very good. Very good. And Aisha Harris. Hello, Aisha. I'm sorry that you have to follow that.
Oh, it's okay, Linda. I'm just happy to be here and not happy about the pollen because I do apologize if I sound a little... Making you wheezy.
I think I felt that I needed to involve the pollen just because it's so omnipresent in everyone's lives.
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Chapter 2: What makes Steven Spielberg's Disclosure Day a must-see film?
supposedly loosely based on this humorous New Yorker article that came out years ago by Ian Frazier about Wile E. Coyote hiring a lawyer, played by Will Forte, to represent him in a lawsuit against Acme, the company that, if you've grown up watching Looney Tunes, you know their stuff is all over the various weapons and... Traps and... Gadgets and devices.
Gadgets and devices that Wile E. Coyote is trying to use to capture the roadrunner, and he's always failing. Feels like right for comedy, right? It feels fun. It feels a new way into this very old franchise. You've also got John Cena in this movie. And look, John Cena, I'm never going to be sad about seeing in a movie. Excited for that.
The thing that is most intriguing to me, though, out of all of this is the fact that the screenplay is by Sammy Birch. Now, Sammy Birch co-wrote the Todd Haynes film May-December, which is probably one of my favorite movies of the last several years. It's just got that humor, that campiness level, that bite to it that I'm hoping we will see in a movie like this. So that seems very promising.
Now, the reason, Linda, that you mentioned that we were all afraid that we were not going to see this is because this movie is a few years old now. It was infamously shelved by Warner Brothers Discovery after it was finished because the company wanted to write off its $30 million budget. That was a big thing. Warner, you know, we all know how they work these days.
It's funny because the teaser trailer, which came out on April 15th, Tax Day, the teaser trailer features Wile E. Coyote holding up a sign that says, Happy Tax Day. And then if you blink and you miss it, someone else had to point it out to me.
But it flips over very quickly, the sign, and then it says, Check your write-offs, which is like, we're going to get you, Warner Brothers, for dropping this film. So Warner Brothers is no longer behind this. It's been picked up by another company, a distributor. And so When it does come out, it will be in theaters August 28th. I am intrigued. I'm seated.
I want to see Wile E. Coyote go head-to-head with Acme, that darn company that makes ineffective products.
Yeah, this has been an extremely online cause celeb for years now. So this is vindication. That's always good to see. It also means there's a lot more expectations for this film now than there ever would have been. For sure.
Yes. And like, if that had been the story of the emoji movie, I would be clamoring to see the emoji movie. And so if this is actually good, wow, so much the better.
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Chapter 3: Why is Spider-Man: Brand New Day generating excitement?
Yeah, I'm psyched. I love a music movie. Again, that is Power Ballad and it is coming on June 5th. Aisha, you actually have the next pick. Tell me about I Love Boosters.
I Love Boosters. Well, I don't know much about it, but this really comes down to the pedigree who is behind this and who is behind this is Bay Area legend Boots Riley, who's Sorry to Bother You, is a fantastic film that I think if you somehow still have not seen this movie, go see it. It is bonkers weird. It's very timely. Even though it came out in 2018, it still feels very, very timely.
It's about unions and about working class and all those things. And I Love Boosters, what little I know about it is that it's a fashion heist movie. So you've already got me there. I love heists. I love those types of movies. And then the cast. Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylor Page, Lakeith Stanfield, who also starred in Sorry to Bother You, Will Poulter, Demi Moore, Don Cheadle.
Do I need to say anything more? To me, this is a dream cast. I have no idea how all these pieces are going to fit together, how all these actors are going to interact with each other. But I trust Boots Riley. He is one of those filmmakers who has very, very sharp and critical sensibilities while also being able to have fun.
and never feeling like it's this didactic sort of like, we need to get everyone to come together and fight the power. That's there, but it's always fun, and it's always weird, and you never know where he's going with what he's doing. And so that is why I am just super psyched for this, and I cannot wait to just immerse myself in this movie.
Aisha, you just said the key words there, which is like Boots Riley's music and movies can be didactic, but they are also weird. And I think that combination really, really works for him. I mean, Sorry to Bother You goes in directions that... I did not see it going. He's just super, super audacious. But there's also in a lot of his work is this undercurrent of playfulness and joy and silliness.
And I'm right there with you with this one.
You know a Bruce Bradley project because it's uniquely him. Sorry to bother you, and I'm a Virgo. They have these moments of pure idiosyncratic singular weirdness, as you mentioned, Stephen. They also tend to be, you know, a little shapeless, a little chaotic in a way that feels fully intentional. That's the aesthetic, but you're either along for the ride or you very much aren't.
I mostly am, and I'm here for big swings, and this guy is all big swings.
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Chapter 4: What is the premise of Coyote vs. Acme?
So please go find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode is produced by Mike Kasif and Hufsa Fathima and edited by our showrunner, 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 will see you all next time.