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This message comes from

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Discover, accepted at 99%

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maybe it's time to

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card. You'd probably

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just ignore it and disable further

0:32

contact, right? Well, most of us

0:35

are not characters in the bonkers

0:37

thriller Drop. This movie is about

0:39

a woman whose first date goes

0:41

off the rails when she starts

0:44

getting increasingly alarming airdrops from someone

0:46

nearby. And this potentially romantic dinner

0:48

turns into a life-or-death situation real

0:50

quick. I'm Myisha Harris, and today

0:53

we're talking about drop on Popqujur

0:55

Happy Hour from NPR. Join me

0:57

today is the co-host of Slates

0:59

ICY and my podcast and former

1:02

PCHH producer Candace Limb, welcome back,

1:04

Candace. This is great, it's great

1:06

to have you here. Oh, I'm

1:08

so glad to see you, hello.

1:10

Hello, hello. We also have one

1:12

of our other producers here on

1:14

Pop Culture Happy Hour, Liz Metzger,

1:16

hello, Liz, welcome back. Hello, happy

1:18

to be here, producer city, like

1:20

Rokoo City. Such a fun movie

1:22

to actually be talking to you

1:25

both about. This is going to

1:27

be a ride, just like the movie.

1:29

So in drop, Megan Faye plays Violet,

1:31

a single mom going on her first

1:34

date with a guy she met online

1:36

named Henry. He's played by Brendan Sclenar.

1:38

Sorry I'm late. I'm late. I

1:40

mean, it is fine. It's not

1:42

a problem. Sorry, I got a

1:44

drink because I was nervous. It

1:47

clearly hasn't helped. The date seems

1:49

to be going well until she accepts

1:51

an airdrop request on her phone. Then

1:53

the messages keep coming and they keep

1:56

getting weirder and darker and ultimately more

1:58

personal. They become impossible. to ignore and

2:00

now she's beholden to the demands of

2:02

the mysterious messenger. And that mysterious messenger

2:05

could be anyone else in this restaurant

2:07

at this moment, another patron, the piano

2:09

player, maybe even Henry. And we should

2:11

also mention the movie touches on domestic

2:13

abuse. We'll get to that in a

2:16

bit. Job is directed by Chris Furlanden

2:18

who previously directed Happy Death Day and

2:20

its sequel. It's in theaters now. Now

2:22

I do also have to like preface

2:24

this by saying that... At the top

2:26

of the show, I called it air

2:29

dropping because that's what we're all familiar

2:31

with. Technically in the movie, they call

2:33

it digit drop because I'm sure Apple

2:35

doesn't want to be associated. Yeah, yeah,

2:37

yeah, yeah, of course. Trademarks, whatever. But

2:39

anyway, that's what it is. Liz, I'm

2:42

going to start with you. What did

2:44

you make of this? Very weird movie.

2:46

You know, there's a lot of reasons

2:48

I like drop. One, I was able

2:50

to see it at South by Southwest,

2:53

which was the premiere. So I'm already

2:55

like caught up a little bit in

2:57

the audience for a movie like this

2:59

that helps. Am I also sitting next

3:01

to Aisha Harris? Yes. Yes. We were

3:03

there. These are things that help me

3:06

like a movie. Yeah. And this is

3:08

a great movie to watch with a

3:10

big audience because it is a movie.

3:12

You are sitting there going. Oh no,

3:14

she didn't do that. No, the child

3:16

and the child with the cute little

3:19

colored glasses. I had such a fun

3:21

time and I really do try not

3:23

to get like too invested into like

3:25

how everyone else is reacting. But it

3:27

is a movie that is silly and

3:30

fun and playing with like tropes of

3:32

what it's like to be in a

3:34

very contained thriller. You have the very

3:36

quirky server. Jeffrey Self is so good

3:38

as server on his first day. Server

3:40

mat. Yes. Yes. You have the super

3:43

super nice bartender who's going to ask

3:45

you a ton of questions about your

3:47

kid. There's just so many fun little

3:49

characters in this. this very small world

3:51

of the restaurant that we do go

3:53

a little bit outside of that. Yeah.

3:56

The thing is I like Megan Faye.

3:58

Me too. I like Megan Faye. in

4:00

everything she does. Yes. It is a

4:02

fun movie. I actually have no complaints.

4:04

Here I am, I'm having a great

4:06

time. I will be the drop defender.

4:08

You are. I was a trap defender.

4:10

Oh. M. Knight's trap, had a great

4:12

time. No notes. I am so glad

4:14

you shouted out Jeffrey Self as the

4:16

waiter because he was by far my

4:18

favorite part of this movie. He's one

4:20

of those actors who's like, I'm in

4:22

this role, I'm going to make the

4:24

most of this. I'm going to go

4:26

big. I'm going to give huge expressive

4:28

faces. He has great timing. Shout out

4:30

to him. Candice. Did the message get

4:33

into you? Did you accept were you

4:35

dropped in? Were you dropped in? No,

4:37

so here's the deal I was getting

4:39

Megan vibes from this movie walking in

4:42

and the thing is my most anticipated

4:44

film of the year is the sequel

4:46

to Megan And so to me I

4:48

was like oh, this is gonna be

4:51

like a horror. There's gonna be like

4:53

thrilling elements. It's gonna really hit that

4:55

zone and I do think this is

4:58

not really a horror movie. It's more

5:00

of a thriller maybe had higher expectations

5:02

for this that were not met.

5:04

For example, I think the movie

5:06

this is most like is Carry-On

5:09

on Netflix, which was my favorite

5:11

movie of last year. It's the

5:13

one where Jason Bateman basically, like,

5:15

is telling Tierra and Edderton what

5:17

to do, because he's a TSA

5:20

agent, he's like, if you don't

5:22

do this, then your girlfriend's gonna

5:24

die, which is kind of similar

5:26

premise here of like, someone is

5:28

dropping a bunch of memes, and I'll

5:31

give credit there. The meme usage, very

5:33

good. But we got close. But we

5:35

got really close. Exactly. And they really

5:37

brought it in. They brought in Cambucha

5:39

Girl. They brought in the distracted boyfriend

5:42

meme. Like they were within their mammology

5:44

bag. And despite all of that, I

5:46

can't help but ask like, guys, how

5:48

conceivable is this plot? Because I'm not

5:50

going to lie. The second I get

5:53

that first meme, I'm going airplane mode.

5:55

But the thing is, you can't do

5:57

that in this in this type of

5:59

context because... Do you have this? We

6:01

don't have sons? The thing I love

6:03

between this and Kerryon is like, these

6:06

are both movies that use very similar

6:08

storytelling elements, which is they gamify the

6:10

plot. They kind of lead you almost

6:12

like a robot in a video game

6:14

in a maze of like, you get

6:16

this instruction. Uh-oh, you meet the wrong

6:19

choice. There's this A-B kind of binary

6:21

here, and I like that. And even

6:23

though I have to say Liz holding

6:25

your hand while I say this, I

6:27

did not love it as much as

6:30

much as you. big and I will say

6:32

even though I did love this in a

6:34

theater this will go very hard on peacock

6:36

so it's okay to wait. Hard on peacock

6:38

assuming that you have at least one or

6:40

two other people in the room with you and

6:42

you can both go full in on just like

6:44

what is happening? I would also say for

6:46

those of you who are listening and who

6:49

have not seen it yet you should absolutely

6:51

not watch the trailer because it gives away

6:53

so much one of the worst spoilary

6:56

trailers I've seen in a long time.

6:58

I lean more with you Candace, I

7:00

did enjoy this movie. It was silly.

7:02

It did give me trap fives. The

7:04

grace. I don't think it went far

7:06

enough as traps. Sure. It was nonsensical,

7:08

but not as nonsensical as trap, and

7:10

I needed it to be, it lived

7:12

too much in the middle gray area

7:14

of being like just. not absurd enough.

7:16

For me, I kept thinking about this

7:18

movie that came out in 2012 called

7:21

Compliance. It's a fascinating movie that stars

7:23

and out as the manager of a

7:25

small town fast food restaurant who receives

7:27

a call from someone who's impersonating a

7:29

law enforcement officer. This person claims that

7:32

they've received a complaint that one of

7:34

her employees has stolen money from a

7:36

customer. And so he starts getting her

7:38

to interrogate them and it leads into

7:41

this like... over the phone over the course of

7:43

the time she does these really horrific

7:45

and unethical and possibly illegal things to

7:48

her employees because she thinks she's like

7:50

helping the company and this is actually

7:52

like inspired by a series of real-life

7:54

phone scams that happen this is kind

7:57

of what this movie is like drop is

7:59

about someone who like has something dangling

8:01

in front of her and is being

8:03

told like you have to do this

8:05

or else dot dot dot dot. Granted

8:07

like there are real threats in this

8:09

movie as we come to see yeah

8:12

but the extreme lengths she winds up

8:14

going to this to me felt like

8:16

the brainwatt version of compliance where it's

8:18

like we're not really interested in this

8:20

idea of like compliance and what it

8:22

means to like be beholden to something

8:25

you don't know where it's coming from

8:27

it's just like this Uber, fancy Chicago,

8:29

sky-high restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows. That's actually

8:31

a big part of the plot is

8:33

like hurt, they're like sitting by the

8:35

window and like they might move, they

8:37

might not, who knows? It's kind of

8:40

silly, but overall I think this is

8:42

the type of movie that definitely benefits

8:44

from seeing with an audience. I don't

8:46

know if it hits well otherwise. I

8:48

think one of the reasons that it

8:50

is not like... trap is because there

8:52

is like emotional weight. It's a feature.

8:55

I wouldn't say it deterred me from

8:57

this film, but there is like a

8:59

lot of emotional weight when you cast

9:01

Megan Fahey. Like she's not just gonna

9:03

be doing broad comedy. She is like

9:05

gonna give you the most beautiful tears

9:07

you've ever seen. She's gonna look at

9:10

the camera and you're gonna look and

9:12

you're gonna be like, oh gosh, what

9:14

are we doing to her? Yeah. And

9:16

a lot of her story is very

9:18

much... like her backstory and what's happening

9:20

in the restaurant, they're all interconnected of

9:22

why she feels like she has to

9:25

make these decisions and why she feels

9:27

like she has to do anything it

9:29

takes. Like it can never be a

9:31

true comedy, which is fine. But it

9:33

does mean you can't be like full

9:35

kooky kooky. There is quite a bit

9:37

of like emotional weight just in her

9:40

beautiful doe eyes, but also in the

9:42

premise of the film. Yeah. I found

9:44

it interesting that Megan Fayy's character did

9:46

not use the technology against the assailant

9:48

because this is one of those movies

9:50

that I think appeals to me, maybe

9:52

our generation, because it's so digitally savvy,

9:55

right? It's like the meme culture, the

9:57

language, the air dropping of it all,

9:59

even explaining that to... someone who is

10:01

not within like a certain time, like

10:03

age range is wild, but I thought

10:05

it was interesting how kind of in

10:07

the third act. Obviously Megan Fahey, she

10:10

was damsel in distress, she's being told

10:12

by this anonymous digital villain to like

10:14

do all these things. And instead of

10:16

using that digital like toolkit against the

10:19

assailant, which I feel like is something

10:21

carry-on kind of did, she goes full

10:23

action mode. And I was kind of

10:25

like, okay, first off, I didn't know

10:28

you had that within you Pilates Queen.

10:30

It kind of made me wonder, am

10:32

I a little over this trope of

10:34

like... women with these really heavy back

10:37

stories in movies like this where the

10:39

premise is like goofy and wild but

10:41

the thing is they kind of used

10:43

things like the fact that she was

10:45

a survivor of domestic abuse that's a

10:48

huge part of her backstory the fact

10:50

that this is her first date in

10:52

so long and she's so worried about

10:54

like leaving her son alone I think

10:57

using that but then also trying to

10:59

like basically say look at her she

11:01

has to sacrifice her desire as a

11:03

woman for her protective instinct as a

11:06

mother I was kind of like ah

11:08

like could we go one more could

11:10

we go one more? Yeah. I think

11:12

that was kind of what kept me

11:14

back was that domestic abuse backstory because

11:17

it didn't seem necessary to me. It's

11:19

like your child alone feels like enough

11:21

that you would be concerned. Like I

11:23

don't understand like why you also had

11:26

to have this very traumatic backstory. It

11:28

felt a little like an attempt to

11:30

make this meteor than it. needed to

11:32

be. And that's, I think, where you're

11:35

saying, Liz, like, when you have that,

11:37

it's hard to go full trap. Like,

11:39

you can't go full trap, you know.

11:41

And in-trap, also, you know, the pop

11:44

star in that uses the technology against

11:46

him. That was missing. I don't know.

11:48

I just needed a little more, a

11:50

little more cooke and a little less

11:52

tragic backstory. Yeah. I completely agree. I

11:55

think the thing is. There is a

11:57

wanting to show that this experience is

11:59

very much touching of the idea of

12:01

like you are trapped in a relationship.

12:04

In this, it's a digital relationship with

12:06

this area. dropper that she is like

12:08

I want to protect my child again

12:10

I say it's a future it's not

12:13

a bug yeah I understand that that's

12:15

what they're trying to do it it

12:17

does add more heft do I need

12:19

more heft in a movie like this

12:22

no yeah but I am fine to

12:24

have it what you guys think of

12:26

like the lighting in this film because

12:28

they did something kind of interesting where

12:30

they were using spotlights and it felt

12:33

very theory and they were doing like

12:35

digital projections of the text which I

12:37

did like I love but then they

12:39

were also putting the security camera footage

12:42

on the walls of the bathroom and

12:44

I was like okay there's something a

12:46

little bit like a black box theater

12:48

about this very small very contained that

12:51

I did enjoy small cast look I

12:53

loved the look of this film and

12:55

again that restaurant design was like it

12:57

looks expensive this set basically and built

13:00

a fully functioning restaurant. It did seem

13:02

to play as though we were in

13:04

a play in a way. It's like,

13:06

oh, people are actually ordering and whatever.

13:08

And I will say the music also

13:11

is very like signaling cues like very

13:13

dramatic anytime like. Yeah, very sonic. The

13:15

whole thing feels like you're watching a

13:17

trailer sometimes where it's like, you know,

13:20

like the trailer kind of emphasizes everything.

13:22

I mean, the thing is like, I

13:24

love the premise of this movie and

13:26

I love the way that we got

13:29

into the premise of this movie and

13:31

I love the way that we got

13:33

into the premise pretty immediately. The drop

13:35

started happening quite up front in act

13:38

one. It's a well-paced movie. Well-paced movie,

13:40

yes, in and out. If there's any

13:42

value that. I think maybe this is

13:44

kind of the direction that some of

13:46

these smaller films that get made by

13:49

bigger studios can go of like, hey,

13:51

this premise, maybe wild, the film might

13:53

be flimsy, but if you have a

13:55

good Megan Fahey, we can do something

13:58

today. This is like to me a

14:00

solid B minus C plus movie that

14:02

like is absolutely enjoyable with friends. We

14:04

need those. We need them. The cinema

14:07

needs to be. build and support movies

14:09

that are economical to a certain extent

14:11

that are they're not wasting my time

14:13

they look good. We do need those

14:16

we do. I mean Megan Fahey to

14:18

me big star but not as like

14:20

a huge heavy hitter in everyone's household

14:22

like I like seeing movies that are

14:24

just not just the same a-listers I

14:27

see in everything. I don't know I

14:29

guess look Candace and I are not

14:31

as fully drop-pilled as Liz, but I

14:33

think we all agree that we need

14:36

more movies like this. It's a good

14:38

time. I'm glad drop exists. I'm glad

14:40

drop exists. I'm glad drop exists. Obviously,

14:42

we are in to drop. Tell us

14:45

what you think about drop. Find us

14:47

on Facebook at facebook.com. And up next,

14:49

we're going to be talking about what's

14:51

making us happy this week. Expensive,

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Company and affiliates, price and coverage

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match limited by state law, not

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available in all states. And

16:30

now it's time for our favorite segment

16:32

of this week and every week what's

16:34

making us happy. Candice. Hit us. So

16:36

my happy this week is the new

16:38

album from Two Hollis. Two Hollis, I

16:40

would say, makes Tenitis Core music. And

16:42

what I mean by that is that

16:44

background, he used to be an alt

16:47

musician, started doing EDM, and Two Hollis'

16:49

whole stories that he got Ableton when

16:51

he was really young, started using Reddit

16:53

and like YouTube to figure out how

16:55

to use it and make music. So

16:57

I guess this is kind of like

16:59

the next evolution of bedroom pop.

17:01

bedroom EDM, but he has

17:04

his new album out. It's

17:06

called Star. He worked on

17:08

it with Jonah Abraham, who

17:10

produced some of Playboy Cardi's

17:12

music. So I guess if

17:14

you're looking for something to

17:16

kind of tide you over

17:18

post-brat. pre-summer. This album is

17:20

very Lindsay Lohan, each love

17:22

vibe, but for people who

17:25

still have to clock into

17:27

their job on Monday. And

17:29

for me, the standout song

17:31

that I'm loving right now

17:34

is Nice off the album.

17:36

Let's hear a little bit

17:39

of it. Oh my god,

17:41

Candace, I am at a

17:43

Las Vegas pool party right now.

17:46

This is the vibe. And I have

17:48

to say, I'm kind of into

17:50

it. And so that's what's making

17:52

me happy. The song, nice off

17:54

the new two, Hallis album. This

17:56

is my drop. This is my

17:58

drop. Thank you. Liz, what is

18:01

making you happy? Okay, what has

18:03

taken over my life is I

18:05

have got into a classic game.

18:07

This is like if I was

18:09

saying I got into checkers or

18:11

if I got into Yatsi, I've

18:13

started to play majong with my

18:15

friends. I know. I specifically play

18:17

Reechimajang. There's a lot of different

18:19

types of majang, so don't come

18:21

for me. It's so fun to

18:23

play a game with your friends

18:25

in person and to learn it

18:28

together so you can all be

18:30

bad. It is fun to get

18:32

skunked online playing people and all

18:34

we like message back as emogies

18:36

or like reactions. love a trick-taking

18:38

game. I love Jim Rummy, and

18:40

I really love little tiles that

18:42

look like little custards. So this

18:44

is such a fun game to

18:46

play with your friends. So all

18:48

we would need is one more

18:50

person, and we could all play.

18:52

If you have three friends who

18:55

want to play until morning and

18:57

tonight, I really think we should

18:59

all be playing majong, Ruchy majang.

19:01

Not gonna lie, I love a

19:03

complicated rule, and I refuse to

19:05

do the scoring. That's outside my

19:07

pay grade. But, highly recommend getting

19:09

into Maajong. I love it. I'm

19:11

a big board gamer, you know,

19:13

card gamer, and I have still

19:15

not yet played Majong ever. So...

19:17

Next Ruchri. You'll see me with

19:19

the tiles. Click, click, click, click,

19:21

click, click, click. I'm going to

19:24

hold you to that means, please,

19:26

please. All right. I don't live

19:28

in New York anymore. Don't get

19:30

me wrong, I love living on

19:32

the West Coast, but because I

19:34

don't live in New York anymore,

19:36

I don't get to go see

19:38

Broadway, live theater as much. Off

19:40

of that, I am loving New

19:42

York Mags' recent yesteryear issue, which

19:44

features interviews with an array of

19:46

Broadway legends about their definitive roles

19:48

with really, really great photo shoots

19:51

by Mark Seliger. You've got, Barbara

19:53

Streisen, talking about her role in

19:55

Funny Girl. Shields discussing his role

19:57

as the whiz in the original

19:59

production. Joel Gray talking about Cabaret,

20:01

Liza talking about Liza with Z.

20:03

And you get these like... Great

20:05

little tidbits like Babs revealing she

20:07

reuses her tea bags because she

20:09

remembers what it's like to be

20:11

poor. They're not all just happy

20:13

stories. A lot of them have

20:15

complicated feelings about those performances. Exactly.

20:18

Yes. So yeah, I highly recommend

20:20

checking this out if you were

20:22

at all with theater lover, a

20:24

lover of live performance. The photos

20:26

are great, the interviews are fun,

20:28

and that is New York magazines,

20:30

yesteryear issue, the... official headline is

20:32

like, good God, it was fun,

20:34

which is just a quote. But

20:36

go find that. Highly worth it.

20:38

It made me smile. It made

20:40

me very happy. And this Sunday

20:42

in our podcast feed, we'll have

20:45

another monthly mailbox bonus episode for

20:47

our pop culture Happy Hour Plus

20:49

supporters. Glenn and I will be

20:51

talking all about a topic that

20:53

is very near and dear to

20:55

my heart because i have a

20:57

lot of thoughts he had a

20:59

lot of thoughts about movie theater

21:01

etiquette yes we get a little

21:03

spicy we get a little spicy

21:05

sign up for pop culture happy

21:07

hour plus at plus dot npr.org/happy

21:09

and we'll also have a link

21:11

to that in our episode description

21:14

that brings us to the end

21:16

of our show Kansas limb Liz

21:18

Metzger thanks so much for dropping

21:20

in and talks about drop anytime

21:22

this was so produced by Haps

21:24

of Fathema and Liz Metzger, Liz,

21:26

hey, and edited by Mike Katzen.

21:28

Our supervising producer is Jessica Reedy

21:30

and hello, come in, provides our

21:32

theme music. Thanks for listening to

21:34

Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

21:36

I'm Aisha Harris and we'll see

21:38

you all next week. This message

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