Still by Kyle Edward Ball Skinarink
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Still by Kyle Edward Ball Skinarink
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This week we peeked into the Sundance Film Festival, watched another “screenlife” horror movie, and followed our favorite pop culture icons.
Here’s what NPR’s pop culture happy hour team was watching — and what you should watch this weekend.
Unholy by Sam Smith and Kim Petras
YouTube
It’s a song I should have defended three months ago, because it topped the Billboard charts then. I was very slow to understand, partly because it’s from an artist who has always irked me: Sam Smith. Sam Smith came up with a series of really boring songs, had a huge hit with a song called “Stay With Me” that bored me insanely, and won an Oscar for a James Bond movie that also bored me insanely. So imagine my surprise when I listen to the radio and hear an absolute blast called “Unholy”.
Sam Smith, like many people, has evolved as a pop star in interesting ways. The song is a collaboration between Sam Smith and German pop singer Kim Petras. He eventually achieved some huge milestones as he topped the Billboard charts. Sam Smith is openly non-binary. Kim Petras is openly trans. They were the first openly non-binary and openly trans solo artist to reach number one on the Billboard charts. And what I like about this song is that it’s just kind of rules. It’s weird and surprising. The video is just one giant queer fantasy, and it was so nice to see a singer who I personally categorized as someone who was just a boring contemporary pop singer and watch this artist evolve into something that just couldn’t be further from that could be, while still having that big, bouncy, booming voice that made them a major pop star in the first place.
—Stephen Thompson
Skinarink
YouTube
I went to look Skinarink in theatres. If you’ve been on Twitter and in movie circles, you’ve probably heard of this movie, which is, shall I say, an experimental horror movie. This is the first feature film directed by Kyle Edward Ball. He had a YouTube channel where he accepted submissions of nightmares and then filmed recreations of them. This film Skinarink is actually a giant version of one of them. I think there is a quote from him where he says there is a dream, or rather a nightmare, that he had as a child and thought many others had too: you are a child. , you are in a house, your parents are gone, and something is wrong there.
Skinarink doesn’t really have a plot, but it’s actually like seeing the movie through the eyes of a child in this haunted, dark house. Doors and windows disappear. There are things that show up. You hear voices, and it’s a very visceral experience. Using the word “happy” is a freedom, because it really scared me and scared me in the dark because, I think, the first time in maybe over a decade. So it was a bit alarming. But what makes me happy is that it’s really experimental. It’s weird and it’s different. I went to see him in an AMC, which is crazy to me. To have a movie like that in theaters that survives only through word of mouth is great. It’s also very polarizing. I loved it, but my roommates I saw it with thought it was the most boring movie ever. If you’re really into it, and it sounds like something terrifying, and you like the experimental horror energy that comes with it, give it a try. Skinarink.
— Reanna Cruz
Don’t listen-your-music
A Peloton rider at home in California in April 2020.
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
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Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
In January, I took on the challenge of taking a Peloton class every day. One of the things I’ve done is take this program called Discover Your Power Zones. It is this very specific program that is taught by these very specific instructors who are not necessarily the instructors I normally follow. I usually take Sam, the former monk, or Christine, the hug (Christine teaches the Discover Your Power Zones classes, but either way, it’s a little different). It’s more “gym bro” guys who teach these Discover Your Power Zones classes.
I realized that it’s a great opportunity to hear music that I don’t like, and I want to clarify what I mean: in our world where everything is self-organized, how many times have I personally heard music that I don’t like? Like it? I’m about to name bands that people like, and I’m not saying they’re not good – I’m saying they’re not my thing.
I don’t listen to Rage Against the Machine much, not because they’re bad, but that’s not my thing. One of the guys who teaches these classes likes to ride the bike for Rage Against the Machine. Do I listen to headphones a lot? No. Maybe the right expression isn’t the bands I don’t like – it’s the bands I don’t listen to. So this is a chance to discover what it feels like to be suddenly exposed to a bunch of music that doesn’t belong to you on playlists that don’t belong to you.
When you’re on the program, they tell you, “Take this class next.” So you’re not like, I’m going to take that Broadway class, I’m going to take that Prince class, or I’m going to take that ’80s class. You’re just going to take the next class in the program, and if it’s Rage Against the Machine and Helmet, then that’s what you’re going to listen to. There’s something to be said for listening to music that makes you think, “I don’t know, man.” It’s not my thing.’ But I’m happy with those kind of coincidental moments that I’m experiencing now.
— Linda Holmes
More recommendations from the Pop Culture Happy Hour newsletter
by Linda Holmes
Dan Kois wrote an intelligent and thoughtful article on Slate about authors (like himself) whose books have been influenced by the strike at HarperCollins.
The show’s boyfriend, Jesse Thorn, interviewed an up-and-coming actor named tom henk in Bullseye this week.
If you can’t get enough of it M3GANmania, don’t miss out on Brittany Luse It’s been a minutetalk about the movie.
I was going to mention this a few weeks ago, but NPR’s Chloe Veltman had a really interesting story about it firefighting in television and film — a subject that is likely to remain topical.
NPR’s Teresa Xie adapted the Happy Hour segment of the pop culture “What’s Making Us Happy” into a digital page. If you like these suggestions, please consider Subscribe to our newsletter for weekly recommendations. And listen to Pop Culture Happy Hour on Apple podcast and Spotify.
Not all news on the site reflects the site’s point of view, but we automatically transmit and translate this news through programmatic technology on the site and not from a human editor.
