Pop Culture Happy Hour

‘One Battle After Another’ is revolutionary — and revelatory

One Battle After Another earned 13 Oscar nominations - including best picture, best director and a lead actor nomination for Leonardo DiCaprio. In the action-thriller, DiCaprio plays a washed up ex-revolutionary searching for his missing daughter while raging against the machine. In this case, the machine is unabashedly racist, xenophobic, and corrupt. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the ensemble also includes Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor and Benicio del Toro. Today, we’re revisiting our episode about the film that originally aired in September 2025. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureAmazon supports NPR and pays to distribute some of our content.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

2026 Oscar Nominations

This year’s Oscars nominations are here, and we’re unpacking record-breaking nominations for Sinners, plus nominations for One Battle After Another and Hamnet. And as always, there’s an eclectic mix of heavy favorites, left-field surprises, and the dreaded snubs. We give a broad sense of this year’s major storylines, while also lamenting a few decisions we found baffling.Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhourLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Watch This: It Was Just An Accident

The Iranian film It Was Just an Accident enters Oscars season with the wind at its back. It won the top prize at Cannes, a raft of other awards and has landed on a lot of top ten lists. The movie bears out those accolades. Directed by Jafar Panahi, it’s a tense, volatile, often darkly funny movie about what happens when a former political prisoner runs into a man he’s almost convinced is the one who tortured him and other prisoners. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The Rip

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck share the screen again in new Netflix film, The Rip. Similar to the pulpy, midbudget cop movies we used to get, The Rip is about a team of cops who are trying to take a huge stash of money from a drug cartel. But that work is not only dangerous, but also complicated as they encounter more money than they expected. The cast also includes Steven Yeun, Teyana Taylor, and Kyle Chandler.Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopcultureLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple and What’s Making Us Happy

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple picks up where 28 Years Later left off – in a world of zombie-like infecteds and vigilantes that turn out to be a murderous cult. Ralph Fiennes returns as Dr. Kelson, who makes an unlikely friend in his medical refuge slash memorial site slash bone temple.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy