Pop Culture Happy Hour

In Death of a Unicorn, Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega star as dad and daughter facing off against some angry-as-hell horned beasts. Like so many creature features, it poses a direct question amid all the chaos and carnage: Who's the real monster here? The film also stars Will Poulter, Richard E. Grant, and Téa Leoni.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new Netflix series The Residence, a dead body shows up in an awkward location: the White House. A sprawling list of suspects try to outsmart a brilliant detective played by Uzo Aduba. She's joined by a cast that includes Giancarlo Esposito, Ken Marino, Randall Park, Kylie Minogue, and many others.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Apple TV+ series Dope Thief is a great high-stakes crime thriller to stream now. It stars Brian Tyree Henry as a man running a risky con: Robbing small-time drug dealers by posing as a DEA agent. His luck runs out, however, when he and his buddy-in-crime (Wagner Moura) mess with the wrong house.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In season two of Severance (streaming on Apple TV+), we got a blowout finale with answers to mysteries and even more layers of weirdness. The show stars Adam Scott as an employee of a sinister corporation called Lumon. He has undergone a process called severance, which separates your work self and home self.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney's first fully animated feature film back in 1937. Now, it's getting a hi-tech "reimagining" complete with new songs, seven CGI-rendered dwarfs, and live-action leads. Rachel Zegler stars as Snow White, while Gal Gadot plays the Evil Queen with a magic mirror and terrible intentions.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the gleefully grisly action movie Novocaine, Jack Quaid plays a sweet, nerdy guy who does not experience physical pain. He falls for a woman (Amber Midthunder) who's determined to get him to leave his safe, risk-averse life behind. That happens in a big and very bloody way when she gets kidnapped by bank robbers, and he sets out to rescue her.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Anora recently cleaned up at this year's Oscars, winning five awards, including best picture. Directed by Sean Baker, the movie follows an enterprising sex worker (Mikey Madison), who links up with a very rich and very immature young man (Mark Eydelshteyn). Their transactional encounter turns into a quickie Vegas wedding. But her new in-laws are Russian oligarchs, and they'll do everything in their power to put an end to this whirlwind romance. Anora is now streaming on Hulu, so now's your time to catch up with the movie if you missed it in theaters.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In the new movie Opus, Ayo Edebiri plays a journalist who attends a press event at the compound of a reclusive pop star (John Malkovich) who'd been in hiding for decades. And then, things get weird and questions arise.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The cool, stylish new Steven Soderbergh film Black Bag is about a group of British spies who discover there's a traitor in their midst. It stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett. He's a lie detector expert; she's one of his chief suspects. The thing is: They're married.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

You should watch the surreal new movie On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. It opens with a Zambian woman finding her uncle's body on the road. His death brings the family together from near and far, but also resurfaces old wounds — wounds the elders would much rather ignore. It's a powerful story about the silence that keeps families from breaking, but only in superficial ways, and with devastating consequences.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Lady Gaga has kept busy as a singer and actor, but it's been five years since she's released a full-blown pop album. Now, she's back with Mayhem, which has already produced three hits — including the chart-topping Bruno Mars duet "Die With A Smile." It's got bangers, it's got ballads, it's Lady Gaga through and through. To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Live television is all about high risk, high reward. Whether it's musical performances, awards ceremonies, sports events, or comedy shows, there's an electric charge to watching something as it's happening. Today, we're debating the greatest moments of live television in pop culture - including a viral news blooper, John Travolta's "Adele Dazeem" flub at the Oscars, Kanye stating "George Bush doesn't care about Black people", and The Beatles making their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Mickey 17 is writer-director Bong Joon Ho's follow-up to the Oscar-winning film Parasite. In the sharply satirical sci-fi film, Robert Pattinson is a manual laborer on a spaceship who just keeps dying. But then he gets reprinted – his memories get downloaded into a new body. What could go wrong? The film also stars Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, and Naomi Ackie.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

What is it about a show that turns you into a bitter-ender, that keeps you dutifully watching every last episode, long after the train has jumped the tracks? Even when you know it's not good, but, for you anyway, it's just good enough to muddle through, all the way to the finale? Today, we're revisiting our conversation about terrible but bingeable TV showsLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Perhaps you've heard that Saturday Night Live is celebrating its 50th anniversary — they've mentioned it once or twice. From Lazy Sunday to Domingo to a ton of iconic musical performances, SNL's had a long and fascinating relationship with music. Today, we're talking about some of our favorite SNL musical moments.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's Oscars was a big night for Sean Baker's Anora, including wins for best picture and director. The film's star Mikey Madison scored one of the night's few upsets, winning best actress. Adrien Brody, Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaña also took home acting wins. We also recap the hilarious bits from host Conan O'Brien, the long and discursive speeches, and show stopping musical numbers.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This year's Oscar nominees include Wicked, The Substance, Emilia Perez, and Conclave. And we watched all the nominated movies so you don't have to. We're making some bold predictions for who will win, plus vouching for who should take home those shiny gold statues.To access bonus episodes and sponsor-free listening for Pop Culture Happy Hour, subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+ at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

In Hulu's twisty drama series Paradise, Sterling K. Brown plays a Secret Service agent caught up in a web of intrigue after the president of the United States (James Marsden) is assassinated, with no suspect in sight. But at the end of the first episode, we learn this show is about way more than the murder of the head of state. Paradise was created by Dan Fogelman, who created the hit show This Is Us.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Netflix series Zero Day begins with a terrifying moment in which everything in the United States goes briefly offline. Thousands of people die, and even after everything is restored, a widespread panic leads to a government investigation of who did it. With a cast headed by Robert De Niro and Angela Bassett, the show hopes to be a paranoid political thriller for our times.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The standard line for awards season goes: "It's an honor just to be nominated." But when it comes to the Oscars, there's quite a long list of great performers who have never received this honor. Today, we're talking about some of our favorites who should have at least one Oscar on their mantle — including Pam Grier, John Goodman, Oscar Isaac, and Regina Hall.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy