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3:56

Joining us today are co-hosts Glenn Weldon and Aisha

3:58

Harris. Hey, Glenn. relatable

6:01

and dispensed with this exactly right

6:03

phrasing. I think she is such

6:05

an interesting artist. I think it's

6:08

fascinating the way her sound is

6:10

able to pull from a lot

6:12

of different influences, but what really

6:14

hammers home how fun this record

6:16

is, is these

6:19

little bits of just

6:21

sparkling humor. And that

6:23

moment in that song is my favorite

6:25

example. Amazing. That is by far one

6:27

of my favorite songs off the album.

6:30

It just is giving that sort of

6:32

like Avril Lavigne vibe that I remember

6:34

when I was around her age

6:36

being really into. And I think there's just this

6:39

real kind of, you know, like you were

6:41

saying, Stephen, there's this real kind of like, the

6:43

influences are there in part because not

6:45

that it's a universal experience, but it's a very

6:48

relatable experience for a lot of

6:50

people, regardless of what generation you're

6:52

coming from of like wanting, just

6:55

having so much anger

6:58

at someone you previously loved or cared

7:00

about, but also wanting to exact revenge.

7:03

It's just so fun. Yeah, I agree. I

7:05

like it. It's also very, very easy to

7:07

like chair dance to so I

7:10

need one of those every year from

7:12

Stephen. So that's Olivia Rodrigo song Get

7:14

Him Back. Aisha, I'm going to go

7:16

to you next. I love that. I almost forgot about

7:18

this. And I'm so glad that you picked it. Tell

7:20

me about it. Okay,

7:23

so this was a fantastic year

7:25

for musical theater kid energy. Whether

7:27

we're talking about Schmigadoon season two,

7:29

I'm Just Ken and Barbie, Only Murders

7:31

in the Building season three, and of

7:34

course the Charming Mockumentary theater camp. But

7:36

one ruled above them all

7:39

in terms of charm, exuberance,

7:41

and meme-ability. And that is

7:43

this moment. You

7:51

are all of us. One of us

7:53

is here alone. All these people in

7:55

a bigger house. House of Master. The

7:57

life is strong. Be true to you. You

8:00

can't go wrong. Oh, yeah. So

8:03

that is Ariana DeBertz, who

8:06

opened this year's BAFTA

8:08

Awards with the most

8:10

over-the-top, ridiculous

8:13

musical number that actually starts with

8:15

a cover of Sisters Are Doing It

8:18

For Themselves. And in that

8:20

scene, she's dancing. There are chairs. There's

8:22

a lot of action going on. But

8:24

then she breaks down into a rap

8:26

with lyrics that she co-wrote. And

8:30

it's hard to write a song

8:32

where you just have to name people and

8:34

name check people and also make it rhyme and

8:36

also make it sort of make sense. So

8:38

you're already starting at a high place there.

8:41

You have a high bar to clear. And

8:43

then after having danced with chairs,

8:46

she's going to be a little out of breath. And

8:48

that's part of what makes this so

8:51

fantastic, because she is still hitting every

8:53

lyric, it seems like. She doesn't miss

8:55

the cue. She's not behind. So points

8:57

to her. She deserves all the awards.

8:59

She is just doing the most. And

9:01

on top of that, the lyrics are

9:03

cringe. We just heard, of course, Angela

9:05

Bassett did the thing. I can hear that. Viola

9:08

Davis, my one king. Also, Jamie

9:10

Lee, you were all of us? Sure.

9:12

Sure. She is. Yes, she is.

9:15

But yeah, it's just I really loved

9:17

the fact that this was so, it

9:21

took the internet by storm. It made me

9:23

love Ariana DeBose even more, which I didn't

9:25

think was possible. Musical theater, Kid Energy,

9:27

love it. And love Ariana DeBose.

9:30

And she followed that up. The

9:32

equally important thing is she did this. People

9:35

accused her of cringe, of try hard.

9:37

She reacted to those accusations in exactly

9:39

the way that completely diffuses those accusations

9:41

by just doubling down, by just embracing

9:44

it. Oh, yeah. By just saying, yes,

9:46

of course. And a loving

9:48

the meme that arose from it. This

9:50

is how you diffuse accusations of cringe

9:52

by just going full bore. She even

9:54

turned it into merch. Yeah. The

9:56

proceeds went towards trans and

9:59

queer non-profits. a group, so

10:01

it all came out for the good, right?

10:03

Yep. That is my 2023 definition

10:06

of indefatigable. All right,

10:09

so that is Angela Bassett doing the

10:11

thing. Glenn, I'm going to go to

10:13

you for your first pick. Sure. I

10:15

worry that the HBO series Succession, which

10:18

ended this year, has vanished

10:20

from the culture of conversation so quickly. I mean,

10:22

that's to be expected. It's a show that ends.

10:24

But man, I worry this thing's going to get

10:26

memory-hauled, and I'm glad it's going to pop up at a lot of

10:28

best of lists at the end

10:30

of the year. But I think just attention must be

10:32

paid. We have talked incessantly about the acting, the Jeremy

10:34

Strong of it all. But have

10:37

we talked enough about the line-by-line writing of the

10:39

show, which I just miss

10:41

like a pang? The

10:43

dialogue in Succession is used to

10:46

delineate and define character and feed

10:48

the plot. It is not there simply to feed

10:50

the plot. It's a vibe. You

10:53

spend time with these characters just to kind of feel

10:55

who they are. Matthew McFadian

10:57

plays Tom Womsganz, and

10:59

he is a real worm,

11:01

a striver, and someone who's

11:03

married into money on the show. And

11:06

he has immediately assumed this kind

11:08

of insular, imperious,

11:11

debaggy-ness of the very, very rich, right? He took

11:13

to it like a prick to water. And equally

11:15

importantly, the show shows him lording it over everyone

11:18

he can. And the brilliant thing about

11:20

the show, of course, is that unfortunately for him, the

11:22

only one he can really lording it over is

11:24

Cousin Greg, played by Nicholas Braun.

11:26

And in this scene,

11:28

Tom tells Greg that the date

11:30

that Greg brought to the event

11:33

does not belong at the event, and that

11:35

everyone is laughing at her behind

11:38

her back. Why? Why?

11:41

Because she's brought a

11:43

ludicrously capacious bag. What?

11:45

What's even in there? Huh? Flat

11:48

shoes for the subway? Her lunch pail?

11:50

I mean, Greg, it's monstrous. It's gargantuan.

11:53

You could take it camping. You could slide it

11:55

across the floor after a bank job. Well, whatever.

12:00

Perfect is that. It is

12:02

showing us that he's a snide-snearing jerk, but it's not

12:04

simply doing that. It's also showing us that he could

12:06

bring a lot of startling

12:09

specificity, and it's so perfect that, of course,

12:11

he would pick something completely random because he

12:13

needs to pick something. He needs to win

12:15

over Greg in that moment, so he's gonna

12:18

pick a thing and then just build and

12:20

build and build on it so insufferably

12:23

and so hilariously. I'm gonna miss this show. I

12:25

think that sequence is also a really good example of

12:28

how that show is sometimes able to play with the

12:30

difference between being rich and

12:32

being deeply wealthy because the

12:34

bag that she has brought is,

12:36

I believe it's a Burberry. It's

12:39

a perfectly fancy bag. It's

12:42

just not appropriate. And it is big.

12:45

It is a big bag that she's carrying

12:48

around at an inside event, and it looks

12:50

a little ludicrously

12:52

capacious, you know, despite

12:54

the fact that she's probably very

12:56

proud of that bag because not everybody

12:59

has Roy money. This

13:01

is it. He's like the roving eye of

13:04

Sauron, right? He's finding the thing. Yes, I'm

13:06

very glad you chose this.

13:09

It's interesting that you are worried about it

13:11

disappearing. I feel like it's going to be

13:13

kind of like the wire, in a way, in that it's

13:15

gonna be taught in screenwriting schools for

13:18

sure. And I think the memes,

13:21

I just can't see them going away

13:23

anytime soon, especially the theme song, but

13:25

maybe that's just me. I

13:28

hope Succession lives with very long and

13:31

fruitful afterlife. As do I, the great.

13:33

I think they did a good job bringing

13:35

it in for landing too. So that is

13:37

Succession. We have a couple episodes

13:39

that we've done about Succession, including one we did

13:42

about the finale, so you can find those in

13:44

our feed. My first pick,

13:46

I was a little bit of a

13:48

late comer to Amazon Free V's

13:50

show, Jury Duty, for

13:52

which the setup is, it's a faux

13:55

reality show, but everybody's an actor except

13:57

one guy, and it's about All these people

13:59

who have jury duty. So this one

14:01

regular guy, Ronald is surrounded by, you

14:03

know, a bunch of people who are

14:05

acting ridiculous for his benefit because they're

14:08

all actors and it's all set up.

14:10

and it's a fake trial, know that

14:12

stuff. And among the jurors, they put

14:14

one. Ringer. Who.

14:17

Is the actor James. Marsden

14:19

playing himself and

14:21

he has so

14:24

much fun! Playing.

14:26

This kind of jerk version

14:28

of himself. Hi Bright Yellow

14:30

Clements. Of his

14:32

I'd like to see a. Sonnet.

14:37

Us all with the new Jim Carrey there. Are

14:40

there was not a good movie? Is

14:42

it funny Years? This was the icing

14:44

his action is designed. There's a bunch

14:46

of other says. He starts quizzing Ronald

14:49

about. Ronald later tells him that he

14:51

was Sonic the Hedgehog like. After having

14:53

this conversation he watches the Sonic movie

14:55

and Mars and it's like with his

14:57

you buy it or rent. For

15:00

as you get out that his eye on

15:02

that to pay off. I love this because

15:04

I am a sucker for a couple of

15:06

different things in this set up. One is

15:08

actors. Playing funny versions of themselves and.

15:11

I'm also a sucker for James

15:13

Marsden, who is my pick from

15:15

under appreciated Hollywood's. Like

15:18

wonderful star. So I love

15:20

him. I. Love this whole kind of

15:22

set up. This show is so have warmly

15:24

funny. it doesn't come off in nearly as.

15:27

Mean. As it could have given that

15:29

set up it doesn't come off like everybody's

15:31

laughing at What A Jerky as they just

15:33

all really like him and he's so sweet.

15:35

Could reveal at the end where he finds

15:38

out what's been going on is. Wonderful! The

15:40

that's a jury duty from Amazon

15:42

Freebie and we should note that

15:44

Amazon supports and pr and pays

15:46

to distribute some. And Pr content? That's

15:48

my first pic. v shows lightning and

15:50

bottle you can't really do a jury

15:52

duty to or a because the sort

15:55

of would be locked out with this

15:57

miles guy murmur looked out discarded this

15:59

could have gone the

18:00

movie Megan, where the doll has,

18:02

of course, as this sort of

18:04

doll does, gone out of control,

18:06

and the creator of the doll

18:08

confronts the doll. And this

18:11

is happening. Megan?

18:16

Hey, what

18:19

are you doing? What

18:21

Megan is doing is sitting at the

18:23

piano, playing the

18:25

1989 hit Toy Soldiers

18:28

by Martika. And

18:30

this is this film's version of that

18:32

thing NPR does, where like you'll listen

18:34

to a story about elephants, and

18:36

then they'll play like Baby Elephant Walk

18:39

by Henry Mancini. And the listener's like,

18:41

Ooh, I see what they do. So

18:43

you don't just have a creepy killer

18:45

doll movie. They managed to explore the

18:47

concept more than just that the doll's

18:50

out of control. There's commentary in

18:52

this film about parenting,

18:54

about hypervigilance, about allowing

18:57

technology to raise your children,

18:59

where it's not just a

19:01

creepy movie or a scary

19:03

movie. It's also a funny

19:05

movie told with a certain

19:07

amount of wit and verve.

19:10

It is a rare horror franchise kickoff

19:13

where I'm like, I'm just ready. I'll

19:15

walk into Megan 2 tomorrow. Same, same.

19:17

There's a universe out there where it's

19:20

just another, it's kind of a take on

19:22

Chucky, but it's so much more than that. It's

19:25

so subversive. It's so funny. And the Mary

19:27

Janes, Mary Janes, kind of love the Mary

19:29

Janes. Yeah, I always respect

19:31

when they go back to something that

19:33

like you say, Glenn, Chucky's been done

19:36

the Twilight Zone episode with the ventriloquist

19:38

dummy has been done. Takitina has been

19:40

done this whole genre. And yet this

19:42

felt so fresh. I completely agree. That's

19:45

a great pick, Steven. So that is

19:48

from the movie Megan, also rendered

19:50

as M3-gan. And we all

19:52

I think liked that movie. And that

19:55

is Steven's second pick. Aisha, what is your

19:57

second pick? Well, you know, sometimes the internet

19:59

can... actually bring forth wonderful

20:02

things. And my next pick actually

20:04

kind of came forth because of

20:07

the internet. So juvenile, amazing rapper

20:09

from the south, 90s, early

20:12

aughts, back that ass up, classic.

20:15

One day on Twitter, someone was like, yo,

20:17

we need an NPR tiny desk for juvenile.

20:19

He's like, WTF is a tiny desk.

20:21

And then it turned into a snowball effect and

20:23

he said a number of likes he wanted. I

20:25

think it was 10,000. Something

20:28

like that. Give me this many likes

20:30

and I'll do a tiny desk. And lo

20:32

and behold, we got a juvenile tiny desk.

20:35

And rarely have I had a smile on my face

20:37

for 20 plus minutes straight like

20:39

I did while watching this tiny desk. I

20:41

have so many moments I could have chosen.

20:44

He went through so many classics, 400 degrees,

20:46

bling, bling, slow motion, of course, back that

20:48

ass up. But I want to share a

20:50

clip of a slower song when he's getting

20:52

a little bit moodier. He

20:54

has a moment where he sings Rodeo and he brings

20:57

on the Amores, a duo, and

20:59

they sing this beautiful ode to

21:01

exotic dancers. I

21:16

just love it. Like the original version of the

21:18

song is fine. I don't think it's that

21:20

memorable. But when you bring in an

21:22

actual band, you have the horns in

21:24

the background and then you have their

21:26

beautiful melodies. I love it.

21:28

And it just shows how, you know,

21:31

tiny desk, it really does a

21:33

great job. Again, I know this is NPR, so

21:35

we're kind of self-promoting, but whatever. And,

21:37

you know, I just got a shout out our colleague and

21:39

producer, Bobby Carter, who put this together.

21:42

Also, the entire tiny desk team. It

21:45

was just great. It made me so happy. So

21:47

juvenile tiny desk. I've watched it

21:49

so many times. It is one of

21:51

my heartbreaks of 2023 that

21:53

I was out of town when

21:55

juvenile played the tiny desk and I missed

21:58

it. And I was talking to. about

22:00

how much I was how sad I was

22:02

to be missing it and several of them

22:04

helpfully texted me during it to be like

22:06

Hey, guess what John Batiste is here and

22:08

I thought they were making it up What

22:11

I love about this performance is he didn't

22:13

know what a tiny desk was Everyone

22:16

told him what a tiny desk was he just

22:18

he kind of deigned to do one but then

22:20

he like Expended full effort

22:22

to make it the best tiny desk

22:24

He could possibly make it and to

22:26

make it this massive celebration of New

22:29

Orleans in a way That is just

22:31

wonderful to behold agreed. Absolutely. Love it.

22:33

I watched it You know a number

22:35

of times myself that is the juvenile

22:37

tiny desk. You can of course find

22:39

it at NPR org That

22:42

is Ayesha's second pick Glenn. What is your

22:45

second pick? Well every summer the podcast

22:47

lost culture East is which is hosted by

22:49

Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang hand

22:51

out the lost culture East is culture awards

22:53

and These categories like

22:56

the podcast Like exist

22:58

in a quantum state that is both

23:00

dumb and smart and they range from

23:02

like best snack Kindest greeting

23:05

the water award for necessary thing the

23:08

Muna Award for hottest queer Bridget

23:11

Jones Award for best fake British accent

23:13

the slouching toward Bethlehem Award for cheekest

23:16

book to hold Best

23:19

religion so they change every year and the

23:21

award ceremony is fun. I certainly

23:23

hope to attend it someday It's usually held in the outdoor

23:25

space of Lincoln Center, but the podcast

23:27

episodes in which they announce the nominees I

23:29

just look forward to every year because they never

23:32

disappoint It is my favorite thing

23:34

because they read out these very silly very

23:36

dumb smart categories and nominees with

23:39

this gravid self-importance

23:41

Hollywood congratulating itself

23:44

in the category of scariest

23:46

moment in history the nominees

23:48

are hereditary little

23:51

diva head come off The

23:57

big bang jump scare when

23:59

you see mama you of

26:00

my girlfriend's normal bed. That

26:03

is Jessica Williams and

26:05

Harrison Ford enthusiastically throwing

26:08

themselves into singing. Sugar

26:10

Ray. Sugar Ray. I

26:13

mean, the obvious pick is to have it be something

26:15

like really super current and like maybe

26:17

with lots of swearing or something like

26:19

that. That's sort of the obvious like wouldn't

26:21

that be funny move. This is

26:24

so randomly funny and I

26:26

laughed so hard the first time I saw

26:28

this. The other thing I

26:30

love about this clip is that everybody in

26:32

this cast has great chemistry with everybody else.

26:35

But this relationship between these two

26:37

people gets its own tone and attention

26:40

and great moments

26:43

and particularly as somebody who

26:45

loves Harrison Ford like in Working Girl as

26:47

much as I do. Yeah.

26:50

Seeing this like really charming

26:52

funny performance from Harrison Ford,

26:55

it made me so, so very happy. I

26:57

mean, I think the show that definitely grew on me, I feel as

26:59

though once you get about four or five

27:02

episodes in, they really start to click. And

27:05

I do feel like that moment is very, it's kind

27:07

of up there with Push and Barbie by

27:09

Matchbox Funny. Yep. I

27:12

was just going to make that exact same point.

27:14

It was a really good year for perfectly chosen

27:16

song drops. Yeah, I love it. So

27:18

again, that's shrinking. You can find all of

27:20

the episodes on Apple TV. That

27:23

is my second pick. We are on

27:25

to the third round. Steven Thompson, what

27:27

is your third and final pick? Well,

27:30

it was a really, really big year

27:32

for country music. There was a lot

27:34

of country music crossover into

27:36

like the Billboard top 200. Country

27:39

songs were able to kind

27:41

of dominate the musical conversation in ways

27:43

that they haven't in a long time.

27:46

But two roads converged thematically in a

27:48

lot of those country songs. There were

27:51

a lot of country songs that headed

27:53

in the direction of kind

27:56

of cultural grievance. Jason Aldean's Try That

27:58

in a Small Town. Oliver

28:00

Anthony's, Richmond North of Richmond.

28:03

Probably the biggest song of the year was

28:05

by Morgan Wallen, who is sort

28:08

of a cultural lightning rod of a certain

28:10

sort. Then when the

28:12

Country Music Awards handed out Song of

28:14

the Year, this is what happened.

28:17

Fast Car, Tracy Kaplan.

28:22

The original version of Fast Car was released in

28:24

1988. It

28:27

is a 35-year-old song. She

28:29

became in that moment the first black woman to

28:31

write a song that won Song of the Year

28:33

at the Country Music Awards. The song

28:36

was of course covered by Luke Combs with

28:38

such a breath of fresh air in

28:40

country music. I've spoken on

28:43

this show. I've written extensively on the

28:45

website about my appreciation of the phenomenon

28:47

of this song and how it represents,

28:50

first of all, it's arguably

28:52

maybe my favorite song of all time. But

28:55

also, having that song revisited

28:57

in 2023 on country

28:59

radio and being omnipresent on country

29:01

radio was just such a reminder of

29:03

what country music can be and what

29:06

it can do and whose

29:08

voices it can magnify and elevate. It

29:10

was a really beautiful and inspiring

29:13

phenomenon. There's certainly

29:15

been an argument about having that

29:18

song covered by Luke Combs.

29:20

I just am glad to hear it again.

29:23

I'm glad to have new generations discovering it.

29:25

And I'm glad to see Room Being Made

29:28

for Tracy Chapman winning a Country Music Award.

29:30

What a world. Yeah. And

29:32

she's getting paid because she wrote that song. And

29:35

she's getting paid. I can

29:37

think of few musicians I would more

29:39

like to see getting lavishly paid than

29:41

Tracy Chapman. Yeah. Yeah. I

29:44

agree with you. To me, that song is a classic. It

29:46

is a pliable song that I can imagine

29:49

being done in lots and lots of different

29:51

ways. It's a beautiful piece. And like you,

29:53

Steven, I want to see the best for

29:55

her for sure. All right. So that is

29:57

Steven's third pick, Tracy

29:59

Chapman. winning Song of the Year at

30:01

the Country Music Awards. Glenn, what

30:03

is your third and final pick? Yeah,

30:06

well I've talked about Dungeons and Drag Queens

30:08

a couple times this year on this show.

30:10

It is a four episode series of a

30:13

show called Dimension 20 where you

30:15

just watch performers play D&D on the streaming

30:17

service or whatever it is, dropout. This

30:19

is a miniseries that features the Drag Queen's

30:22

Jujabi Alaska Monet exchange by the Drag Queen.

30:24

And there's no gimmick to it, really.

30:26

They're just creating characters who go on an

30:28

adventure led by the DM, Brennan

30:31

Lee Mulligan, the Dungeon Master. I'm me.

30:34

This is Drag Queen's and D&D.

30:36

So this is Peanut Butter and Chocolate,

30:38

the show. The Queens are brand

30:41

new to D&D and Mulligan is so

30:43

eager and they are so

30:45

game. They approach it in their kind

30:47

of jaded Drag Queen way at the

30:49

beginning, but then you watch them

30:52

over the course of four episodes, discover the

30:54

joy, getting more and more into it, more

30:56

passionate, more enthralled by what a great job

30:58

Mulligan is doing because it is so easy

31:01

to get distracted by the Queens because these

31:03

are some big personalities. This is some big

31:05

hair, but as someone who plays D&D, it

31:07

is just astonishing to see how well Mulligan herds

31:09

these cats and creates an

31:12

adventure that works over the course of

31:14

just four episodes. In this clip, Jujabi's

31:16

character, she plays a fairy, by

31:18

which I mean pixie, named Twyla.

31:21

Twyla has been laboring under the delusion

31:23

that she has the spell invisibility that

31:26

she can cast on herself, but

31:28

this is the moment when she learns that

31:30

she has never had the spell invisibility. Why

31:33

is this entire time thought she

31:35

has invisibility? Which

31:37

explains a lot of broad behavior. I can

31:39

see you. You can see me

31:41

doing all the things that I've done. We can see

31:44

you the whole time, Mary. Yeah,

31:47

come back to a roommate meeting in a giant mushroom. That's

31:50

it. Perfect. Keep it on. That's exactly

31:52

the vibe of the show. It is

31:54

about discovery. It's about friends having fun,

31:57

and it's about some drag queens being hilarious. That's

32:00

my pick in the spirit of discovering Dungeons and

32:02

Dragons by the way if I'd had a fourth

32:04

pick I would talk about how great that Dungeons

32:06

and Dragons movie is absolutely We

32:09

are pro Dungeons and Dragons and drag

32:11

queen. So that is Glenn's third pick

32:13

dungeons and drag queens I

32:15

am gonna have to I think seek that out Aisha

32:18

your third pick is something that I have not

32:20

gotten to see yet. Tell me about it Yes

32:23

So all dirt roads taste of

32:25

salt is the remarkable feature

32:27

debut of Raven Jackson and

32:30

this are these it's really hard to

32:32

describe in part because it's such a Sensorial

32:35

tactile kind of film.

32:37

There's not really a plot and there's

32:40

very little dialogue. It's just a lot

32:42

of emotions memories moments

32:44

that are felt but often left unsaid

32:46

aloud and But the

32:48

basic thread of this film is that it follows

32:51

the memories of Mac who is a black woman

32:53

living in rural, Mississippi With

32:55

her family and in adolescence, she's played by

32:57

Kaylee Nicole Johnson and as a young adult

33:00

She's played by Charlene McClure now There

33:03

is a scene in this film

33:05

that has stuck with me since I first

33:07

saw it at Sundance earlier this year And

33:10

I actually have not seen it since but as

33:12

soon as the movie ended I wrote it down

33:14

in my notes I was like, this is definitely

33:17

in contention for one of my favorite things of the

33:19

year Already and we were only

33:21

like three weeks into the year and this

33:23

moment involves an intense reunion between Mac

33:27

when she's a little bit older and

33:29

her like childhood love crush wood He's

33:31

played by Reginald Helms jr. And

33:33

they haven't seen each other in a while. They

33:36

exchange a few words They're outside, you know,

33:38

you know, she asked about his kids and

33:40

there's just these long this long look at

33:42

her. There are no words Just

33:45

hands close up on hands and embrace

33:48

and I wrote exactly in my notes

33:50

longest embrace of all time It

33:53

feels like it because the scene goes on

33:55

for several minutes where they are just hugging

33:57

and there are sometimes close-ups There's no

33:59

music underneath to underscore it. Eventually

34:02

they let go of each other and he

34:04

leaves. And it is

34:06

just, it's an entire movie

34:08

in itself in that one scene

34:10

and it just booed me so much

34:13

in the way that it really fits into the rest

34:15

of this movie and how it's there's

34:17

so much emphasis on hands and moments when

34:19

she's like fishing with her father as a

34:21

young girl or tapping her mom's toes. Like

34:24

it's just a beautiful movie and that that

34:26

reunion scene especially is just like what hooked

34:28

me in. You might not find it

34:30

at your multiplex but hopefully once it lands on

34:32

streaming you should definitely seek

34:34

it out. This is All Dirt Road's Taste

34:36

of Salt directed by Raven Jackson. Oh and

34:39

it's also I should note executive produced by

34:41

Barry Jenkins so there's definitely also some

34:44

like the little moonlight vibes in

34:46

there. So yeah definitely definitely

34:48

seek that out. I am

34:50

very excited to seek that out when I

34:52

get the chance. So that is All Dirt

34:54

Road's Taste of Salt and

34:56

that is Aisha's final pick. My

34:59

final pick is the

35:01

film Past Lives. This was

35:03

also a feature debut for

35:06

writer and director Celine Song and

35:09

it is about a woman named Nora

35:11

who is played by Greta Lee who

35:13

you might know from like Russian Doll

35:15

or even The Morning Show if you

35:17

watch that. She plays Stella in The

35:19

Morning Show. She's a wonderful wonderful actor.

35:21

I am so fond of her work and

35:24

she is married to Arthur who is played

35:26

by John McGarrow who is another one of those

35:28

guys you know from a million different things first

35:31

cow etc. and she was

35:33

growing up in Seoul and when her family

35:35

left Seoul and came to Canada and then

35:37

she came to the United States she

35:40

had this kind of attachment off

35:42

and on long distance with this boy that

35:44

she knew as a little girl and they

35:46

were they had been kind of friends and

35:48

like maybe special friends but they were so young

35:51

but eventually she meets Arthur and

35:53

marries him and she settles down

35:56

in New York with Arthur and then there

35:58

is this opportunity for this

36:00

guy, Heisong, who is played by

36:03

Teo Yoo, to come to New

36:06

York and visit. Now, the

36:08

setup here, which is basically old boyfriend

36:10

comes to town and, you

36:12

know, potentially disrupts your marriage, sounds

36:15

a little bit pat. And my favorite thing about

36:17

this film is that it is not that story

36:19

at all. There's never really

36:21

a sense that she's considering leaving

36:23

her husband. That's not really the

36:25

question. The question is, how does

36:27

her relationship with her husband live

36:30

beside her feelings of loss,

36:33

her connections to certain parts

36:35

of her identity? And

36:38

it's sort of about how do you kind

36:40

of accept that all these things are part

36:43

of your life? So this

36:45

is a scene that's kind of toward the end of

36:47

the movie. And Nora's

36:49

husband, Arthur, is sitting with

36:52

Heisong, and they start to

36:54

talk about this concept of Inyun, which

36:57

people will say means soulmates. And it doesn't

36:59

really mean soulmates exactly based on what I

37:01

understand. But it does have to do with

37:03

like people who are kind of connected

37:05

through the threads of their lives

37:07

in a particular kind of way. Do you

37:10

know what Inyun? Yeah,

37:13

Nora told me about it when we first met. You

37:20

and me. Yeah,

37:23

yeah, you and I are Inyun

37:25

too. What I love about

37:27

this is that it is so generous to all

37:30

of the characters. There is

37:32

no bad person in

37:34

this film. There is nobody who's

37:36

doing anything wrong. I love

37:39

this movie. And I and I love, you

37:41

know, that ending in this little conversation about

37:43

Inyun. When did this movie is

37:46

gonna destroy me? It's gonna just

37:48

gently destroy you. Awesome. It's not

37:50

bleak. Sad, but it's only

37:52

sad in the way that like life is life.

37:54

You know, right? Yeah, bleak is not a word

37:56

I would use to describe it. Not at all.

37:58

I am going to be pushing hard for it.

38:00

throughout our coverage of awards season because I

38:03

think it's incredibly brilliant. That

38:05

is past lives and that is

38:07

my final pick and we have come to the end of our

38:09

12 favorite things of the

38:11

year. We want to know about your

38:13

favorite things from the year. Find us

38:16

at facebook.com/PCHH. That brings us to the

38:18

end of our show. Stephen Thompson, Glenn

38:20

Weldon, Aisha Harris, thanks to all of you for

38:22

being here you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

38:24

This episode is produced by Hufsa Fasema

38:26

and Ramel Wood and edited by Jessica

38:28

Reidy. Hello, come in provides our theme

38:30

music. I'm Linda Holmes and we'll see

38:32

you all tomorrow. This

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this year. Hollywood actors have gone on

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