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So we cover a lot of movies around here, many of which we adore. But look, we are but mere mortals and some really good stuff is inevitably gonn pass us by. Which is why we're taking a beat now to spotlight some favorites we just couldn't get to before. I'm Aisha Harris. And joining me today to recommend some great movies we missed on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is my co host, Linda Holmes. Hey, Linda.
C
Hello, Aisha.
B
Hello. Also with us is NPR film critic Bob Mondello. Welcome back, Bob.
D
Great to be here.
B
Great to have you. And rounding out the panel is Walter Chow. He's a writer, critic and film instructor at the University of Colorado. Welcome back to you too, Walter.
E
Thanks so much for having me.
B
Yeah, it's great to have you all here. Let's get right into it. Linda, you're gonna kick us off with your pick, which I have not seen yet, but I've been hearing about it for a very long time now. I'm very curious to hear more about this. So tell us what it is.
C
All right. So I chose Tuner, which I saw at the Toronto International Film Festival. And what I found in my notes when I looked back at this movie is the comment, I saw things at the film festival that were more ambitious than this. I don't know that I saw anything at the film festival that that I found more entertaining than this. It is a crime drama directed by Daniel Rohr, who was the director of the documentary Navalny, which won the Oscar
B
a couple years ago.
C
And it's about a kid played by Leo Woodall and his name is Nikki. And he has hypersensitive hearing and it makes it very difficult for him to move through the world cause he's very sensitive to loud noises and things. But that exquisite ability to hear has made him a good piano tuner. And he works for a guy named Harry, who is played by Dustin Hoffman, who has a piano tuning business and goes around to different places and tunes pianos. So he's basically the apprentice to Harry, Harry's wife, played by Tova Feldshaw. They're kind of his surrogate parents and he loves and adores them. And one thing leads to another. Harry forgets the combination to his safe. And through all of this, Nicky realizes that in addition to tuning pianos, he. He can crack safes because of his exquisite hearing. It turns out those skills are connected. So he sort of gradually slides into this life of what he continue he considers to be kind of pretty victimless crimes. Mostly because he wants to help this couple that he loves and adores who need help. Naturally, he gets in way over his head. At the same time, he has met a woman played by Havana Rose Liu, who is a musician at a conservatory at a music school. And while he's tuning a piano there, they meet. They become interested in each other. Part of it is a crime drama. There's a lot of heist stuff. There's a lot of running around and trying, you know, not to get caught doing different things. But it's also really fundamentally a drama about this guy and his close relationship with this couple that he loves and his effort to get into this relationship with this woman. And what I really liked about it is that balance of elements. But also it has a couple of filmmaking pieces that I really responded to. It has a very jazzy piano soundtrack that I enjoyed a lot.
B
I love a jazzy piano.
C
And if you think about watching a guy crack safes, the worry is it's gonna be a lot of sitting there with a guy crouched down by a safe with his hand up to his ear. And what exactly are you gonna be watching? Right.
B
Yeah.
C
There's a lot of really cool, well executed macro photography where they kind of go inside the safes and they go also inside P. And I think they do a great job of making it a lot more visually interesting than it could have been. I very much enjoyed all these insert shots of the lock being picked, essentially. But I enjoyed it so much. I really liked the performances. I really like Woodle in this. I really like Havana Rose Liu in this. And of course, Dustin Hoffman and Tova Felchief playing your loving surrogate parents. That's just a good idea. And so I just found this whole movie to be really satisfying and entertaining, and I was really glad to see it because, as you know, festival movies can be heavy.
B
Yeah.
C
And parts of it are a little bit heavy. But mostly it's an entertaining movie, and I very much enjoyed it.
E
You know, I really love movies about people who are good at their jobs. They show details of people, of them doing their jobs. This movie reminded me a lot of Thief, those safe breaking sequences, right. Where you have this. This person is really good at it. Or even Rafifi, which is Another sort of safecracking thing, you know, it's all about plans. It's about a person who's really good at what they do. It reminded me a lot of Shoot the Piano, the Francois Truffaut film, where, you know, it's like they're just. You're just really good at one thing. And really, it's sort of a caper. That's not a caper. It's more of an interpersonal drama. Yeah, really satisfying. Watch.
D
I think, yeah, this may be a me thing, but as a person who's worked for 40 years in radio, the representation of audio in this picture is really interesting. And I. I thought it was very cleverly done. A really smart movie. It really was. And Woodle is amazing. He's great. He's just such an appealing guy. Is he famous from something?
C
He's been in a few things. He was in the recent Bridget Jones movie that they did where he's like her young boyfriend. He's done a handful of things. This is my favorite thing I've seen him in.
B
Yeah, look, I'm the only one here who hasn't seen this yet, but I'm definitely putting this on my list because you have convinced me. I need to check this out. It's right up my alley. And look, ambition, it can be fine, it can be admirable, but execution is, to me, often even more important. So that's Tuner, which is in theaters now and on vod. So we're going to go from, you know, crime, caper, heist movie, but interpersonal relationships, to just maximum, maximum everything, violence, messages and all these things. My pick is the Furious, and I love this movie. If you are a fan of martial arts films like the Raid, you will enjoy this movie. And I had such a blast seeing this. So this is directed by Kenji Tanigaki, who's this veteran stunt and fight choreographer. He's worked with Donnie Yen, including on Blade two. So he knows his stuff, he knows what he's doing. And this is a movie. It's a Hong Kong action film, but it's kind of a very multicultural, multi international film. It's set somewhere in Southeast Asia. They don't specify, but it stars Xien Miao as Wang Wei, a mysterious mute, handyman and single father to a young girl named Rainey, who's played by Yang in you. And Rainey is kidnapped by traffickers very early into the movie. And of course, yes, and Wang goes after her and eventually teams up with Navin, played by Joe Taslim. You might Recognize Jose Taslim if you've seen the Raid, as I've already mentioned, but also fast and Furious 6 or the recent Mortal Kombat movies. This movie is bonkers. The fight sequences, which are were choreographed by Kensuke Sonomura. They are just so exquisite. They are so intricate. They are so sometimes balletic and beautifully choreographed. They up the ante like Wang, the lead of the film, and he does an entire sequence jumping onto a moving truck that's filled with garbage, but also his kidnapped daughter in an abandoned warehouse as well. And it's jumping all over the place. He's running through the streets in flip flops. In flip flops. And I was wondering, how are they still on his feet? He's been doing everything. He's been jumping.
C
He's been.
B
They're still on. And then eventually he takes them off. And I was like, oh, wow, this is wild. I was yelling. I was like. When things happened. Walter, I know you've seen this movie. You've seen this movie more than I have four or five times.
E
I've seen it four times. I'm gonna go in for another dip.
D
Wow.
E
I love this movie so much. It speaks so much to, you know, the first time watches of some movies just sort of linger with you. And this is one of those. With me, the first time I saw it, it just felt like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. You know, this fits just like an old terry cloth robe. For me, something about this is really comfortable. There's scenes where he builds, like, pyramids out of the bodies of his vanquished. He's climbing up the bodies as he's stacking them on top of each other because they keep coming. It is indescribable as a kind of piece of moving art in a way. You know, on the one hand, it's horribly violent and, you know, it's hard to recommend it to grandma, but on my hand, I look at it like, you know, this is beautiful in a way. The choreography is so meticulous. It has to be. And the. The imagination. How do we film a fight sequence now after we've seen 10 gazillion fight sequences over the course of, you know, how do we make it new and interesting and innovative? How do we make the stakes appropriately high? You mentioned the Raid, and you know, this generation of fight choreographers that are redefining what it is to look at fights. You know, John Woo did this for the last generation, Right. And it just lifts you. And I've been needing a lot of, like, lifting of late. And so I just keep finding myself, you know, kind of wandering back into screenings of this film saying, you know, I gotta just go watch the Furious again. It's just exactly what I needed right at this moment to watch. Just everything is so witty, visually witty and inventive. You know, from the flip, the detail of the flip flops to the, the call outs to the big boss with the blocks of ice or walking on glass, To Die Hard, of all things. You know, they're call outs to the entire history of great action cinema culminating to this point. It's really plays like a history lesson of action films, if you're so inclined. Or it's just, you know, it's just one of those movies that I always rail against when people say turn off your brain and watch it. Well, this is one of those movies
B
you could do that, you know, absolutely do that.
E
Just get lost in it.
B
It's really great. The only thing I will say is like, thankfully, our producer Liz Metzger warned me ahead of time before I saw it. But like, I do warn people that the actors appear to also be speaking in English. But like it doesn't always sync up well. So it's giving that like, you know, that adds to the charm, I think. But it's also a little disorienting because it's like we're clearly not in a place where you would expect people to be speaking English. But like most characters are speaking English and also like most of the text is written in like the police station emblem is in English. I'm like, okay, sure. Clearly they had international audiences in mind. Although I always would prefer no dubbing. But again, it also adds to the charm in a way. It feels like watching an old school movie, like action movie in that way.
E
I would also offer the trigger warning that it is about child trafficking and some children are harmed during the course of the film. So if that is your major red line, then I would say handle with care. But boy, the people that deserve to get what they get get it.
B
And I. Yeah, yes, they do.
C
You know, I haven't seen this one, but people who have seen action movies with me know that sometimes when something really ridiculous happens, then when it finally you get to the end of whatever the stunt is, I will literally sit there in the theater and go, yay. And it seems like a yay kind of movie, so.
E
Exactly.
C
Perhaps I'll give it a shot.
B
Well, that is the Furious and that is in theaters now. And again, please try and go see this at the theater because it is that communal experience that you we love heartbreak. Feels good in a place like this. Blah blah blah. All right, after the break, we've got some more recommendations, so stick around.
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NPR all right, we are back and Bob, it is your turn. Tell us your pick.
D
Well, I have been spending a goodly portion of this month watching films that have some association with pride. A lot of films aimed at teenagers, as it turns out, that are being given a sort of a queer angle in one way or the other. And of them, the one that I just sort of fell over for is she's the he. There are two guys in high school, they're best friends, they really want the girls to notice them and so they come up with this harebrained plan. Well, their plan is that they're going to pretend to be trans and why that would work I'm not sure. I think you have to be a 17 year old who's a little warped by hormones to think of that in the first place. But it's a plan and they go for it big time. Now, the interesting thing about this movie is that it is produced by behind the Scenes. In it, everybody on screen practically is queer and most of them are trans or non binary. And Siobhan McCarthy, who made the film, has made it in the most interesting way possible. If you think that, for instance, the whole bathroom scare thing makes sense, you're gonna be challenged really quickly in this when the entire football team decides to dress up in women's clothing emulating these two guys to get into the girl's locker room.
A
Right.
D
I mean, it's silly, it allows for boisterous laughter, but at the same time it points up how ridiculous this would be in real life, that this sort of thing would be unlikely to happen. And the whole film is like that. The stars playing Alex. And Ethan, a wonderful, really sharp trans comic, plays Alex. His name is Nico Carney. His read on toxic masculinity is so funny. I mean, it's just, it's delightful to watch him. And Misha Osherevich is sweetly affecting as Ethan discovers her true self. And it's a wonderful performance. But what's interesting is that all of these theoretically CIS male characters are also being played by trans and non binary performers. And it pops. For me, I thought the whole thing popped. It's really funny and it's fun to watch. It's just fun.
C
Yeah. You know, Bob, it's amazing to me because this sounds when you set it up, I have not seen it like the worst, most transphobic 80s teenage comedy. And that's what I find fascinating about your description, is that it jumps off of this premise that is so similar to what's been done so unkindly and from such a small minded place. And it's fascinating to hear that it's so different from that.
D
Yeah. I think their whole idea is to make a film for the trans community that shows up all of these crazy notions in a way that is effective. And I think they've really done it. I was very impressed.
E
You know, I think what Bob's really hitting on that I love is that it's very light. You know, you don't feel as though you're getting pounded with a message. It is true. You don't feel like there's a soapbox. And it reminded me a lot of a film like 500 Days of Summer, you know, where it's very light hearted and there's a lot of magical realism, I think that goes through there. You know, graphics appear on screen, kind of float around squigglies, and they're taking very serious topics, and they're treating them intelligently but lightly.
B
Yeah.
E
Not as though the topics are light, but in a way that, you know, the audience that most needs to see it potentially will see it. And, you know, there's so much joy in it as well. And I think so often whenever we see depictions of. Of the LGBTQ community, it's through their pain. And that's. That's similar to how, you know, many mainstream depictions of minorities are in films is like, even if we're just sidekick characters, we're the ones that are suffering for the whatever. And you see a different side of it. You know, there's certainly pain in the film, but there's also a lot of joy and there's a lot of friendship and what acceptance might look like from someone who's having difficulty accepting, you know, that their buddy is suddenly trans. Suddenly trans. And from people who are just like, of course you're trans. I knew it from the very first day. You know, there's a whole spectrum of acceptance in this, and that's kind of lovely, too. It's something that we all need to see, I think, especially people who are resistant to the very idea, you know, to your point, Bob, are able to see an example of someone who is resistant to the idea, who loves their friend more than they love their ideology.
D
It's as if American Pie meets, I don't know, Some Like It Hot meets Heartstopper. Right.
B
Some Like It Hot was definitely something that was on my mind as well. Just the Jack Lemmon king sort of realizing that maybe he actually enjoys dressing as a woman. And obviously, that was 60 plus years ago. So it's like the way we interpret that movie is very different, but there is that sense that that movie is not judging its characters. I'm so glad that you picked this, Bob. It's very fun.
D
I think it's really special.
B
Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's. She's the he. And yes, it's in some theaters now and will be available on VOD June 30th. So seek it out. Go find it. And finally, Walter, we're gonna end with you, and you're gonna tell us what we have missed or what maybe a lot of people have missed.
E
Oh, man. It's this really amazing folk horror film. I've really been getting into folk horror in the last few years. And this is a new one, though. It just had just landed on Shudder. It made the festival circuit last year and the year before under a title of Vitaviven is its original title. It means wise woman. And it now could. Now it's called Heresy, and it's streaming on shudder. It is a Dutch production, but they translated their entire screenplay into Saxon, and they have everybody speaking in Saxon throughout the course of it, just to be more period precise. It's about a small village during the Middle Ages in which a woman, a young wife played by Annika Sluders, is incapable of conceiving. And that's just anathema to their village. You know, that's not. Okay, here's something wrong with you. That's the kind of environment that we're in. This really deeply superst. This very fundamentalistly religious film. And it opens with just these dark images of a village, you know, at night. And these prayers that you can hear coming from all of the houses. These furtive prayers against whatever it is that's out of the. In the wilderness. Everyone's terrified all the time. I would be. I'm scared going camping. I'm scared walking in my car at night. I'll be honest. And so there's this real terror that seeps into every frame of this and eventually is lured the young wife into the woods where she meets, indeed, the creatures of the wood, creatures taken from. From Dutch folklore. The practical effects, the monster work, the. Everything about this movie is gorgeous, meticulous, fascinating to look at. There is one moment of extreme gore that's also very beautiful in a way. It's like a couple of moments during this film of just this real beauty, this real poetry about a woman fighting her power and finding her voice in these primordial beliefs and. And pagan rituals, if you will. I love it. It is beautiful. You are steeped into this time and this place. It feels dirty and cold and miserable for a lot of it. It just looks great and it moves great. I've become very evangelical for this film. I want to tell everybody about it. I want to show it to everybody. It's one of those movies that, you know, man, I know you don't like gore and everything, but this is so beautiful. And there's only this little bit of gore. Just suffer it or turn away for that moment, but actually don't look at it. It is sculptural.
C
When you tell me there's sculptural gore, Walter, I start to get worried.
E
It's like those episodes of Hannibal, right, where you're like, oh, no, I know.
C
I get it.
E
It's awful. And also. So there's that kind of awful, awesome thing that's going on here, but overall, just the entire vibe of it is absolutely for me.
B
Yeah. Well, when you say practical effects, I'm in, because I love a good practical effect and it sounds gorgeous.
E
It's just a beautiful, beautiful little poem.
B
Awesome. Well, thank you, Walter. And that's heresy. It's streaming on Shudder and amc. And it was really, really fun to talk to you all about all of these movies. That brings us to the end of our show. Bob Mondello, Walter Chow and Linda Holmes, thanks so much for being here and recommending some really great films that people should go and check out.
E
What a joy. Thanks for having us.
D
Great fun.
B
Yeah.
C
Thank you.
B
And this episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katsif and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello. Come in. Provides our theme music. And thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. I'm Aisha Harris. We'll see you all next time.
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Date: June 25, 2026
Hosts: Aisha Harris, Linda Holmes, Bob Mondello, Walter Chow
Episode Theme:
A lively episode where the panel highlights outstanding movies from the past year that hadn’t been covered previously on the show. The conversation blends critical appreciation, personal enthusiasm, and practical recommendations—spotlighting hidden gems, with a focus on different genres, themes, and cinematic craftsmanship.
(Discussion starts at 01:16)
“It has a very jazzy piano soundtrack that I enjoyed a lot.” (03:34, Linda Holmes)
“I saw things at the film festival that were more ambitious than this. I don't know that I saw anything at the film festival that I found more entertaining than this.” (01:24, Linda Holmes)
(Discussion starts at 05:46)
“He does an entire sequence jumping onto a moving truck that's filled with garbage, but also his kidnapped daughter in an abandoned warehouse as well... He's running through the streets in flip flops. In flip flops!” (07:59, Aisha Harris)
“It is indescribable as a kind of piece of moving art in a way. On the one hand, it's horribly violent... On my hand, I look at it like, you know, this is beautiful in a way.” (08:29, Walter Chow)
(Discussion starts at 13:52)
“The whole bathroom scare thing makes sense, you’re gonna be challenged really quickly… The entire football team decides to dress up in women’s clothing… to get into the girl’s locker room. It’s silly, it allows for boisterous laughter, but at the same time it points up how ridiculous this would be in real life.” (15:02, Bob Mondello)
“There's so much joy in it as well. And I think so often whenever we see depictions of the LGBTQ community, it's through their pain… you see a different side of it.” (17:18, Walter Chow)
“It’s as if American Pie meets… Some Like It Hot meets Heartstopper.” (18:22, Bob Mondello)
(Discussion starts at 19:13)
“It's like those episodes of Hannibal, right, where you're like, oh, no, I know… It's awful. And also. So there's that kind of awful, awesome thing that's going on here, but overall, just the entire vibe of it is absolutely for me.” (21:42, Walter Chow)
On “Tuner”:
On “The Furious”:
On “She’s the He”:
On “Heresy”:
The conversation is upbeat, opinionated, and peppered with infectious enthusiasm for overlooked films. The panel offers not only a sense of what makes these movies special, but also why they matter—for craft, genre innovation, and cultural conversation. Listeners emerge with a diverse watchlist, spanning crime drama, action spectacle, queer teen comedy, and folk horror—each with a strong advocate’s endorsement.
Summary Prepared for Pop Culture Happy Hour, NPR – “Great Movies We Missed” episode (June 25, 2026).