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: "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!

Best in Show: Round House's "Topdog / Underdog," reviewed.

Ro Boddie and Yao Dogbe as Lincoln and Booth. (Margot Schulman)

My review of Round House’s Topdog/Underdog, a sublime production of the 2001 psychodrama that made Suzan-Lori Parks the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama, is up at the Washington Post. A couple of months back I had a day where I went directly from interviewing Ms. Parks for this Smithsonian piece into a Pop Culture Happy Hour recording session wherein we discussed Doug Liman’s Jake Gyllenhaal-headlined remake of Road House. Like Dalton, Road House ‘89’s inexplicably famous “cooler,” I contain multitudes.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Ferrari"

Two-hander* PCHH episodes are somewhat rare, but I was glad to be able to take part in one with pal Linda Holmes about Michael Mann’s new biopic Ferrari. That it was just the two of us allowed for some discussion of how the movie fits into the 80-year-old auteur’s filmography that we might not have gotten to with a larger panel.

Other critics who on the whole love Mann’s work as much as I do have taken more from this picture than I did. As you’ll hear, I found it to be surprisingly staid and conventional, coming from the guy who’s only other biopic was Ali, 22 years ago, and whose prior feature — almost nine years ago! — was Blackhat, a little-seen thriller that was at least as exciting as it was disjointed. In my City Paper review, I called Ferrari “a sensible sedan of a movie,” which I think fits. Good movie, but I don’t think it’s even as exceptional as Ali, never mind Heat or The Insider or Thief. As always, I’m open to revising my opinion upward upon a second viewing.

*I still don’t get why two-actor plays are called “two-handers” instead of “four-handers.”

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "Creed III" and What's Making Us Happy

Director/star Michael B. Jordan confers with Jonathan Majors on the set of Creed III. (Eli Ade/MGM)

I was glad to join Aisha Harris and Shamira Ibrahim — and to reunite with Gene Demby from the Creed II episode of PCHH back in 2018 — for this hard-hitting dissection of the disappointing-to-me Creed III.

My review of the film is here, and the Smithsonian piece I plugged in the Happy segment is here.

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "Plane" and What's Making Us Happy

Gerry B. and Mikey C. get serious in Plane, a movie.

I heard that if you go to see Plane on Broadway, stars Gerard “Leonidas, King of Sparta” Butler and Mike “Luke Cage, Hero For Hire” Colter trade roles every night.

Pals Linda Holmes, Ronald Young, Jr. and I had a sublimely fun conversation about this somewhat fun passengers-in-trouble flick.

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN" and What's Making Us Happy

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in another Martin McDonagh joint. (Fox Searchlight)

I was happy to join Bedatri D. Choudhury and host Stephen Thompson on Pop Culture Happy Hour to talk The Banshees of Inisherin, playright-turned-filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s latest feature. I was one of the few defenders of his prior film the highly divisive Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri five years ago, but I was mostly here as a stan for McDonagh’s plays, which are what Inisherin recalls far more than any of his prior movies. My reviews of some of his plays seem to have blinked out of existence, but I reviewed Constellation’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore in 2015, and Keegan’s The Lonesome West and Forum’s The Pillowman, both in 2016. When we got to the What’s Making Me Happy segment, I had several good candidates, but I chose — defaulted, really — the most Irish of them. Because McDonagh.

I went with the Most Irish of my Happy candidates on today's INISHERIN-themed @pchh, but: QT's CINEMA SPECULATION, Bechdel's THE SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH, & on @criterionchannl BLACULA & THE FAN*.

*scenes wherein Lauren Bacall rasps her way through Broadway rehearsals only pic.twitter.com/UHO8blcQ7D

— Chris Klimek (@ctklimek) November 4, 2022