Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Joker: Folie à Deux"

Joaquin Phoenix and Lady Gaga need to talk. (Warner Bros.)

I saw The Silence of the Lambs again at the Alamo Drafthouse two nights before I saw Joker: Folie à Deux, which reminded me of author Thomas Harris’s Silence sequel novel (and Ridley Scott’s film adaptation, after Silence director Jonathan Demme declined to return) Hannibal in the way it wants to punish those who loved 2019’s Joker.

I didn’t. But I liked Folie à Deux even less. And I’m still higher on it than my conversation-mates Joelle Monique and Glen Weldon!

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Megalopolis"

Adam Driver and Nathalie Emmanuel, above the fray. (Lionsgate)

Aisha, Glen, Bedatri and I recorded this dissection of Megalopolis a mere 12 hours after the screening ended, which we all acknowledged is not time enough to process an overstuffed epic that Coppola has been working on in some capacity for more than half his life. Fun conversation, though.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Rebel Ridge"

Don Johnson and Aaron Pierre can’t just get along. (Allyson Riggs / Netflix)

I had fun chopping up Jeremy Saulnier’s smart, human-scale revenge (and also cilvil asset forfeiture) thriller Rebel Ridge with old pal Glen Weldon and new pal Marc Rivers. I was never onboard with the Michael-B.-Jordan-as-Superman movement, but Aaron Pierre as Kal-El? I’m here for it.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Alien: Romulus"

Cailee Spaeny, stompin' bugs. (20h Century Studios)

It’s a reunion of the unforgettable Silver Streak episode of A Degree Absolute! as I join pals Glen Weldon and Ronald Young, Jr. to dissect the latest Alien on Pop Culture Happy Hour. None of us recognizes the occasion by using the phrase “hug ‘n’ munch,” even though it would have been utterly appropriate to do so. Dang!

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and What's Making Us Happy

Harrison Ford is superannuated and super angry in Dial of Destiny. (Disney/Lucasfilm)

I’m destiny-dialin’ on Pop Culture Happy Hour this week with Glen Weldon and Kristen Meinzer.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Asteroid City" and What's Making Us Happy

Jason Schwartzman and Tom Hanks in Wes Anderson’s latest. (Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features)

Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is one of my favorite films of the almost-half-concluded year, an entirely predictable result given his track record with me. I was chuffed to discuss it with Pal-For-Life Glen Weldon and The Indicator host Wailin Wong.

A Degree Absolute! episode forty-two: "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"

It's a Y2K-pop extravaganza as Chris and Glen emerge from their unplanned and unannounced hiatus to dissect 72-year-old Patty McG's brief-but-memorable guest appearance reprising the role of Number Six for (the final eight minutes of) the Season 12 Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes." Cowabunga!

The Simpsons, season 12, episode six — "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"

Written by John Swartzwelder

Directed by Mark Kirkland

Originally aired December 3, 2000

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Bullet Train"

Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Brad Pitt can’t just get along. (Scott Garfield/Sony Pictures)

Bullet Train, director David Leitch’s strangers-on-a-fast-train-fight thriller, is way less diverting and way more confusing than it oughta be. Letich and Chad Stahelski made John Wick together, and Stahelski stayed on for the subsequent Wicks while his old creative partner went off to make Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde, the hilariously double-ampersand-packin’ Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and now Bullet Train. Stahelski is fairing better, I reckon. Anyway, it was fun to talk Bullet Train with Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, and Mallory Yu.