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What's making us happy: What to watch, read and listen to this weekend

Alexander Skarsgård stars as Amleth and Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga in director Robert Eggers' Viking epic The Northman. Aidan Monaghan/© 2021 Focus Features, LLC hide caption

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Aidan Monaghan/© 2021 Focus Features, LLC

What's Making Us Happy: Recommendations From 'Pop Culture Happy Hour'

What's making us happy: What to watch, read and listen to this weekend

Each week, the guests and hosts on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour share what's bringing them joy. This week: the trailer for The Northman, the novel The School for Good Mothers and more.

Our 2022 Pop Culture Resolutions
Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Our 2022 Pop Culture Resolutions

It's the end of 2021, and the cusp of a new year — which means we're looking back, and we're looking ahead. It's time to see how we did sticking to our pop culture resolutions we made a year ago. And it's time to make some new ones for 2022.

Our 2022 Pop Culture Resolutions

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Our 2022 Pop Culture Predictions
Nora Carol Photography/Getty Images

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Our 2022 Pop Culture Predictions

If there's one thing we can tell you about 2021, it's that we didn't see it coming. And we might not see 2022 coming either, but we're going to try — by making some pop culture predictions for next year. And on top of that, we'll look at last year's predictions and see how things turned out.

Our 2022 Pop Culture Predictions

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Maggie Gyllenhaal explores the difficulty of motherhood in her directorial debut

Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, offers a unique depiction of motherhood. Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images hide caption

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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Movie Interviews

Maggie Gyllenhaal explores the difficulty of motherhood in her directorial debut

The new movie The Lost Daughter shows a side of motherhood that Hollywood doesn't often depict.

Maggie Gyllenhaal explores the difficulty of motherhood in her directorial debut

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'Don't Look Up' is an environmental satire that squanders its resources

Cate Blanchett, Tyler Perry, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jennifer Lawrence in Don't Look Up. Niko Tavernise/Netlfix hide caption

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Niko Tavernise/Netlfix

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

'Don't Look Up' is an environmental satire that squanders its resources

The new Netflix film Don't Look Up has a crazy Academy Awards pedigree. Writer-director Adam McKay won an Oscar for The Big Short and the Oscar-studded cast includes Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as scientists who discover that a massive comet is hurtling toward Earth. The only problem: They can't get the media's attention (represented here by Cate Blanchett and Tyler Perry) or get the president (played by Meryl Streep) to care. But with all these stars in the mix, did Don't Look Up miss the mark?

'Don't Look Up' is an environmental satire that squanders its resources

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Kids need to see themselves reflected in media. Here are some recommendations

A page from the book The Me I Choose to Be by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley with photography by Regis and Kahran Bethencourt. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers hide caption

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Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Arts & Life

Kids need to see themselves reflected in media. Here are some recommendations

We asked children's media experts to recommend their favorite new books, TV shows and video games with characters and storylines representing the diversity of the U.S.

Kids need to see themselves reflected in media. Here are some recommendations

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The holiday movie machine

Vanessa Hudgens, Vanessa Hudgens, and Vanessa Hudgens starring in The Princess Switch 3: Romancing the Star. Mark Mainz/NETFLIX © 2021/Mark Mainz/NETFLIX © 2021 hide caption

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Mark Mainz/NETFLIX © 2021/Mark Mainz/NETFLIX © 2021

It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders

The holiday movie machine

Do holiday movies actually make money for networks like Hallmark and Netflix? How many Vanessa Hudgens characters is too many Vanessa Hudgens characters? Sam is joined by Pop Culture Happy Hour co-host Linda Holmes and author Kat Chow to discuss the best and worst 2021 holiday movies on TV and talk about the business behind them.

The holiday movie machine

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This 'Macbeth' adaptation distills Shakespeare's tragedy to its furious essence

Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand play Shakespeare's famously murderous couple in The Tragedy of Macbeth. Apple TV+ hide caption

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Apple TV+

Review

Movie Reviews

This 'Macbeth' adaptation distills Shakespeare's tragedy to its furious essence

Fresh Air

Director Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth is a bewitching piece of craftsmanship, featuring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as the murderous power couple.

This 'Macbeth' adaptation distills Shakespeare's tragedy to its furious essence

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The best movies and TV of 2021, picked by NPR critics
Eric Liebowitz/FX; Warner Bros; Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu; Noh Juhan/Netflix; Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures; Niko Tavernise/© 2020 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation; A24; Marvel Studios; Kirsty Griffin/Netflix

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

The best movies and TV of 2021, picked by NPR critics

This past year was a tumultuous one for both the film and TV industries. With that in mind, here's our critics' guide to all the movies and television shows they loved this year.

Should you enter 'The Matrix Resurrections'?

Carrie-Anne Moss and Keanu Reeves return as Trinity and Neo in The Matrix Resurrections. Warner Bros. hide caption

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Warner Bros.

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Should you enter 'The Matrix Resurrections'?

When The Matrix opened in 1999, it thrilled audiences with its strangely cerebral mix of stylized violence, existential crisis, and tight, black leather. The new movie The Matrix: Resurrections continues the story. Directed by Lana Wachowski, the film takes us back inside the simulation that the machines are using to keep humanity docile as they harvest our energy. Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss return as Neo and Trinity, who, alongside an array of new characters, attempt to, once again, lead an uprising to let us all live authentic lives.

Should you enter 'The Matrix Resurrections'?

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Sci-Fi Movie Club: 'Contact'

Much of the movie 'Contact' was filmed at the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Erin Slonaker/Moment Editorial/Getty Images hide caption

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Erin Slonaker/Moment Editorial/Getty Images

Short Wave

Sci-Fi Movie Club: 'Contact'

Today we're throwing back to one of our favorite Science Movie Club episodes: 'Contact' featuring Jodie Foster. It was a real crowd pleaser, especially among extraterrestrials and Carl Sagan fans, and features the work of beloved Short Wave alumni and sci-fi aficionados Maddie Sofia and Viet Le.

Sci-Fi Movie Club: 'Contact'

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Happy Science Fiction Week, Earthlings!

This artist concept shows NASA Dawn spacecraft arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres. Dawn travels through space using a technology called ion propulsion, with ions glowing with blue light are accelerated out of an engine, giving the spacecraft thrust. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

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NASA/JPL-Caltech

Short Wave

Happy Science Fiction Week, Earthlings!

It's Science Fiction Week on Short Wave, earthlings! So strap on your zero gravity suits and polish your light sabers because we're about to get nerdy ... starting with today's episode. It's one of our science fiction myth busting favorites from earlier this year.

Happy Science Fiction Week, Earthlings!

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Bradley Cooper is Guillermo del Toro's monster in 'Nightmare Alley'

Cate Blanchett and Bradley Cooper in Nightmare Alley. Kerry Hayes/Searchlight Pictures hide caption

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Kerry Hayes/Searchlight Pictures

Review

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Bradley Cooper is Guillermo del Toro's monster in 'Nightmare Alley'

Nightmare Alley is a stylish neo-noir that's as seedy as its title sounds. The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and is inspired by the book and 1947 movie adaptation of the same name. It stars Bradley Cooper as Stan, an ambitious 1940s drifter who joins a traveling carnival and learns to develop his own mentalist act. An encounter with a mysterious psychologist, played by Cate Blanchett, leads to a fateful and destructive turn of events.

Bradley Cooper is Guillermo del Toro's monster in 'Nightmare Alley'

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Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly and Bono gamble big for superstardom in 'Sing 2'

In Sing 2, a troupe of singing animals take a big gamble on hitting it big in a Vegas-like resort. Illumination hide caption

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Illumination

Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly and Bono gamble big for superstardom in 'Sing 2'

In a sequel to the 2016 hit animated film, koala-bear mogul Buster Moon and his talented troupe try to land a dream booking, by promising to enlist a reclusive superstar.

Scarlett Johansson, Tori Kelly and Bono gamble big for superstardom in 'Sing 2'

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