Send Help and What’s Making Us Happy

In the new comic horror film Send Help, Rachel McAdams finds out the answer to the age-old hypothetical, “what if you were stranded on a desert island?” — except she’s stuck there with her terrible boss (Dylan O’Brien). The dynamic between them shifts and shifts again as they try to survive long enough to be rescued. Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/ Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus at plus.npr.org/happyhour https://plus.npr.org/happy See pcm.adswizz.com https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This message comes from iXL, a learning platform for helping kids build confidence and get up to speed fast. One subscription covers math, science, and reading for all children in a household. Receive 20% off at ixl.com/NPR.

• 0:21Linda Holmes?

  What if you were stranded on a desert island is a hypothetical that has launched countless conversations. But what if that desert island were just you and your terrible boss? Could you make peace? Could you coexist? Would you end up turning on each other? In the new comic horror movie, Send Help, that's exactly what a frustrated woman, played by Rachel McAdams, is about to find out. I'm Linda Holmes, and today we're talking about Send Help on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Joining me today is Ronald Young Jr. He's the host of the film and television review podcast, Leaving the Theater. Hello, Ronald.

• 0:58Speaker 02

  Hello, Linda. I have a joke about Linda's because the character's name is Linda, but I won't do it. So hello, Linda. I'll just leave it there.

• 1:04Linda Holmes?

  Okay, okay. I got it. I got it. Also with us is Kristin Meinzler. She co-hosts The Nightly, a bedtime podcast for pop culture lovers. Hello, Kristin. Hey, Linda. So the premise here is pretty simple. Rachel McAdams plays Linda Little, no relation, a dorky and unappreciated office worker who's just gotten a new boss, Bradley. Played by Dylan O'Brien, Bradley is the spoiled sexist son of the old boss who had promised Linda a promotion and then died, leaving his awful kid in charge. Bradley nixes her promotion, but he brings her along on an overseas business trip to Thailand with a few of his bros because he can't do the work without her. The plane goes down, and Linda and Bradley end up the

• 1:49Linda Holmes?

  only two inhabitants of a very much deserted island. Fortunately for Linda, she's something of an amateur survivalist who's long dreamed of being a contestant on Survivor. So she's ready to make fire and collect water. Bradley, not so much. The dynamic between them shifts and shifts again as they try to survive long enough to be rescued.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  We've been here, what, two weeks now?

• 2:14Speaker 03

  How have they not found us yet?

• 2:16Speaker 04

  I don't know. I mean, I'm sure it'll be soon. Anyway, you know what the most important thing is for human survival? The number one thing. Positive attitude.

• 2:28Linda Holmes?

  The movie is directed by Sam Raimi, well-known for both the Tobey Maguire era of Spider-Man and other movies like The Evil Dead and Drag Me to Hell. It's in theaters now. Kristin, I'm gonna start with you. How did you feel about Send Help?

• 2:43Speaker 05

  All right, let's just say this upfront. This movie is corny, it's gross, it's heavy-handed, it lacks any subtlety whatsoever, and I absolutely loved it. It felt like it was custom-made for me as somebody who loves revenge, as somebody who loves over-the-top comical violence. I love underdogs getting what's theirs. I love punching up. And I laughed, screamed, squealed, cheered, and was delighted through this entire movie. I loved it. I really enjoyed it. Just don't take it too seriously. Enjoy it for what it's trying to be. That's what I have to say about it. Have fun with it.

• 3:20Linda Holmes?

  I think that's a fair caution. Ronald, how about you? We were sitting near each other. I did not hear you giggling as much as I was giggling. What did you think of this movie?

• 3:28Speaker 02

  Kristin, I don't like that you hedged your bet by saying, "Don't take it too seriously", because I walked into this movie and I was ready to take it seriously. And maybe that's the problem that I had.

• 3:36Speaker 05

  No, Ron, did you not see the trailers? You can't take this seriously, Ron.

• 3:39Speaker 02

  See, that's the thing. So I walked into this movie, I really liked the premise. And I like the premise because it's a premise I've seen before but not explored as deeply. For instance, if you've seen Triangle of Sadness, you've seen the idea where the value of a person changes when the electricity goes out. So if the electricity goes out and you're able to catch a fish, build a tent, all of that, all of a sudden, your value goes up, even though your net worth may be lower than the people who you're on the island with. And in this case, I thought they were going to truly explore that premise and really come to a head to say, "Hey, you thought you were this person, and it turns out you're not this person." And they don't quite go into that. They stay in this very surface-level dynamics between the two of them. And I think at some point, Sam Raimi got carried

• 4:23Speaker 02

  Away with the gore, which I know was intended to be fun. But for me, I think I sat in there being like, I'm ready for a serious discussion about wealth and value here. And it didn't quite happen. And for me, that felt like a failure of the movie. Also, I feel like there's a reveal that I felt like was botched, which we're not going to talk about, obviously. But I felt like parts of that were over foreshadowed, if you will, in this film in a way that I think would have benefited if they held back a little bit more.

• 4:48Linda Holmes?

  Uh huh.

• 4:49Speaker 05

  It's Sam Raimi, though, Ron. It's Sam Raimi.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  That's not an excuse. I love Sam Raimi and I understand. You know what's funny? If Sam Raimi sees an eye, you know he's going to poke it out. It's very Raimi, but it just takes me out of the movie sometimes.

• 5:03Speaker 05

  I'm just saying, this is not Kathryn Bigelow. Don't expect Kathryn Bigelow in a Sam Raimi movie.

• 5:08Linda Holmes?

  That is true. That is true. And, you know, as someone who typically does not, one of the things that I have often said about my taste for horror and gore and things like that is, I don't like eyeball stuff. And it is true that this movie has some eyeball stuff. You know, not as much as some, but it definitely has some eyeball stuff. I had such a good time. I thought it was so fun because I prefer horror comedy to horror horror. Many times, not always, but much of the time. I really liked the fact that because both of these people are untrustworthy, you learn quickly that neither one of them should be taken at face value.

• 5:49Linda Holmes?

  And throughout the movie, that meant that I really did not always know what they were saying that was genuine and what they were saying that was a manipulation of the situation or each other. And I really liked that because there was no point in this movie where I thought, I know where this is going to end up. Like, I know what the final resolution is going to be. Because it seems to me like genuinely.

• 6:16Linda Holmes?

  Sometimes, particularly like at the beginning, it's clear that like she's sort of quiet and somewhat meek. He's a swaggering jerk. But like, once they get to the island, as Ronald said, it sort of starts to feel a little different and the dynamic between them shifts and who has power shifts. And I did not really know where we were gonna end up. I had such a good time at this. I just was giggling and there is some stuff that is so bloody. There are parts of the plane crash sequence that very much tickled the same reaction in me as my beloved fight or flight, which I've been talking about for the last year. Just

• 6:59Linda Holmes?

  because it's such silly slapsticky super gore, which is just, gosh, boy, did I not use to think of myself as somebody who liked that kind of thing. But I had a super, super good time.

• 7:09Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah. Because it's more cartoonish than actually like this could happen to me. It just feels so over the top. That plane crash scene in particular, where people are like, give me your life vest. Give me this. Give me your seat. And things are flying around and things go all the way to 11 and then they don't stop there. It goes to 25. It just keeps going and going and going. Like, oh, my God, I thought this scene would be over with by now.

• 7:33Linda Holmes?

  That is true.

• 7:33Speaker 05

  And I think that's part of what, for a lot of us, makes it palatable, because it doesn't feel like, oh, this would happen to anybody I know. It's just a cartoon almost. And on that note, I have to say also, some of the gross outness is just, I don't want to give any spoilers here, but there are gross out scenes in this movie I've never seen in a movie before. For example, there's a point where Rachel McAdams.

• 7:56Speaker 02

  CPR scene?

• 7:57Speaker 05

  Oh, yes, that's exactly. Yes. So Rachel McAdams' character, Linda Little, is saving her boss's life, administering CPR. I'm not going to give more details, but I was screaming.

• 8:08Linda Holmes?

  It's really gross.

• 8:09Speaker 05

  With delight. I was screaming like, I can't believe they're doing this. I cannot believe they're doing this.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  I laughed at that scene. I thought that was very funny. That's the thing. I don't want to get it twisted to say like, I didn't laugh out loud or get the fun parts of that. I just also felt like with a film like this, especially With what they were establishing in the first fifteen to twenty minutes of the film, I expected them to examine that more throughout the rest of the movie when it really just became, even if you cut that off and just say, these two people don't like each other, don't give me much backstory and they just wake up on the island. I don't know that much changes, but if you're gonna give me that much of it, I really wanted them to dig into it and confront it more. But I think it was too late for me by the time I figured out that this movie was not going to do that.

• 8:56Speaker 02

  And I think had I known that earlier in the film, I probably would have enjoyed it as much as y'all. But I think for me, it was like, we not gonna dig into this thing? We're not? Okay, okay.

• 9:06Linda Holmes?

  I think I would disagree with that. I think they do explore it in the sense that, you know, there's certainly a sense that he, as a spoiled, rich kid, has a very hard time adjusting to not being the swagger person in every situation. I thought it was very smart. They have him in the plane crash injure his leg so that he's even a little bit helpless in the first part of their time on the island, even more than he otherwise would be. And so he has a very hard time adjusting to that. But I think I really like this Rachel McAdams performance. I love the fact that, yes, she was in The Notebook and she's been in a lot of these kind of like weepies

• 9:49Linda Holmes?

  and stuff like that, but she's also really funny in Game Night and stuff like that. And I thought she was very funny in this. And I thought that the way that she, it's kind of like, one of the things I think they play for comedy is that it's rather ridiculous how many things she can do on the island. You know, it's kind of like Gilligan's Island that it's like, well, how would they possibly have done this? Right? What she can do with like weaving fronds and stuff like that.

• 10:19Speaker 03

  Love the backpack. You make that today?

• 10:21Linda Holmes?

  Yeah, what do you think?

• 10:23Speaker 03

  Isn't that cute? Hmm. Super cute.

• 10:26Linda Holmes?

  And I thought that was played very much for comedy. And I thought it was funny. And I think like throughout the movie, I'm kind of looking at her and thinking, how far is she gonna go down this kind of I'm the person who knows how to handle the island? Like, where is that gonna take her mentally? I basically enjoyed where she ended up. I liked it.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  I think for me, if you demonstrate someone as capable in the office scenes, and I think that's the part we know. We know that she's capable and very good at her job. And we know that everyone gets use from that. Then they take her to the island and she becomes still very capable and good at her job. And I think for me, because there's no journey of either of these characters as to what that means, both on the island and off the island. They point out the fact that he is helpless and useless, but he's also helpless and useless in the office as well. And I feel like if you're gonna-

• 11:22Linda Holmes?

  But he has power over her. He has power over her.

• 11:24Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 11:25Linda Holmes?

  That's what he loses.

• 11:26Speaker 02

  But that's what I'm saying. But for them to dive into, well, what does this actually mean? Like, except for the fact that he says, I could do this without you. She leaves, she comes back. Then they run that play again later in the movie. I could do this without you. And both time proven to be false, but there's no actual follow up or development of the characters beyond that point for me.

• 11:46Speaker 05

  But isn't there some fun in seeing that back and forth? The anger, the frustration, the I can do it on my own, the what will happen this time if I can't do it on my own? At what point will I turn on you? Because I would rather have you dead than be keeping me alive, even though if I have you dead, that means both of us are dead.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  That's interesting.

• 12:07Speaker 05

  To me, it was the toying with each other, like a cat that just is batting around a mouse that it found in the garage, you know? And then the mouse fighting back, right? To me, that was a lot of the fun.

• 12:19Linda Holmes?

  Yeah.

• 12:19Speaker 05

  Not necessarily, is this going to be a deep, meaningful, psychological, reflective look at their inner lives and their dynamics? I was fine with it just being like, this is the dynamic. This is- Them pushing back and forth against the dynamic. And then also them in certain ways, kind of going against themselves and what they thought their own dynamics were. Like, for example, Rachel McAdams' character in the beginning of the movie and throughout the movie. She's really into those can do self-help mantras, having them hanging up in her cubicle. All you have to do is have a positive attitude. All you have to do is believe. And it's like, no, you have to upend the systems.

• 12:58Speaker 05

  Believing isn't enough. Believing isn't being. Sometimes you need to burn down the systems in order to get ahead. It's not good enough to be competent and positive.

• 13:07Speaker 02

  Okay, to that point, I think if that would have happened on the island. Because at some point, we have to say that the struggle between the two of them is that she is happy with this, what is happening now? And does not necessarily want to leave. He certainly wants to leave. And I feel like outside of them just presenting those two perspectives between the two of them. They don't actually crack those open and say what the, because I like that. I like what you just said. Because I didn't even think about the motivational posters and all that. In that case, let's burn the system down. But I think part of this is also me saying, like, if you're going to make a movie that is upending the system in this way. And it ends up kind of just being like a fun romp about two people on an island who like don't get along. I feel like there's more to be said here and I want them to bring that out and have fun.

• 13:51Linda Holmes?

  Where I agree with Kristen is that I think part of what's happening with her is that she has now found outside of that system of the office and professional work. And this like very patriarchal system where she's surrounded by like men who insult her and pass off her work as their own. Outside of that system, she finds this new environment where she's very much freed up because of the skills that she has. And because of the capacity that she has to be self-reliant. She has a kind of power that she did not have in her other life. Because you're absolutely right. I think one of the things that I thought was funny in this is that you see that like

• 14:34Linda Holmes?

  a helpless, useless guy like Bradley can get by in an office setting where his father

• 14:42Linda Holmes?

  Leaves him the business. He cannot get by, like, all of that social kind of capital and financial capital is not present in this entirely other environment. So I think part of what happened here is maybe that Kristin and I both felt like that was adequately made clear in the movie, and you did not. And I think those things are both perfectly valid. The other thing I want to mention that I liked very much is that fairly early in the movie, she finds a knife. And she comes back and says, you know, it washed up on the shore, so now we have a knife. And the minute you see that knife, this is Chekhov's knife, you're sitting there thinking, like, one of these people is going to wind up chasing the other one around with this

• 15:27Linda Holmes?

  knife at some point, if not both of them at different points. And that knife kind of comes back and back and back, and it keeps kind of taking a role in the story. And I felt like they did a good job of keeping that sort of, I kept kind of looking at it, thinking about, and I think one of you alluded to this earlier, like, how are they going to get to the point where they're doing that? Because you would think they're both better off not alone. So how are they going to get to the point where there's this level of hostility between them that one of them is going to chase the other one around with a knife? And of course, naturally, yes, eventually, you're going to get to that point. And that's made pretty clear in the trailer.

• 16:09Linda Holmes?

  But I liked the fact that I really couldn't figure out quite how they were going to get there, given what they were signaling. And I liked the fact that that journey was not completely clear to me until it happened.

• 16:21Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 16:22Linda Holmes?

  All right. Well, I personally think that if you like to see somebody spite and punish her terrible boss, you might enjoy Send Help. Tell us what you think about the movie. Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh, and on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/NPRPopCulture. We'll have a link in our episode description. Up next, what's making us happy this week?

• 16:48Speaker 00

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• 18:05Linda Holmes?

  Now it's time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What's making us happy this week? Kristin, let's start with you. What is making you happy this week?

• 18:13Speaker 05

  What's making me happy this week is My So-Called Life, the 1990s TV drama about a teenage girl and her family, starring Claire Danes and Jared Leto before they were famous.

• 18:25Linda Holmes?

  Yes.

• 18:25Speaker 05

  I've been rewatching the show with Greta Johnson, host of the Happy to Be Here podcast.

• 18:30Linda Holmes?

  Oh, sure.

• 18:31Speaker 05

  For her TV club, which is every Friday. And Ron has been a guest on the show with great insights. He's a first-time watcher of My So-Called Life. Never watched it. And I have to say, it's been so fun rewatching the show, so gratifying to see the outstanding writing and acting, a lot of which still really holds up. It's been cringey to see how some topics were handled very earnestly, but very badly at the time. And it's fascinating just to think about what's different from the 1990s versus what's the same all these years later, watching the show. It really is like a time capsule. In some ways, it's the best TV writing ever. In some ways, it's the cringiest. I highly recommend watching it.

• 19:17Speaker 05

  You can stream all 19 episodes of The show, it's only one season on Hulu. It's not a huge commitment. So what's making me happy is my so-called life, that 90s TV classic, which you can stream on Hulu.

• 19:29Linda Holmes?

  All right. Sounds great. I'm a big fan of that show and perhaps I will revisit it at some point. Thank you very much. Kristin, Ronald, what is making you happy this week?

• 19:39Speaker 02

  I watched the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is the new Game of Thrones spinoff on HBO or HBO Max or whatever that service is now called these days. And I loved it. I felt like this was what I wanted, basically what they've started with this show. And it is a story of a hedge knight, Sir Duncan the Tall, and he is essentially going on a quest. And I don't know much more than that. All I know is I've seen one episode and it is funny. It is lighthearted. It is still set in the Seven Kingdoms that we know in Westeros or whatever it is called. But all I know is it is the familiar world of Game of Thrones,

• 20:20Speaker 02

  set up against a person who is having this much smaller story within the greater story that is Game of Thrones. And so far, it's funny. Like I said, it's light. I'm having a good time. I'm anticipating what is to come next. And I think this is the type of Game of Thrones spinoff that I wanted to see because I'm not necessarily concerned about the lore of the show as much as I am interested in this particular character, him, his friends and their journey. I don't need anything else than that. And that's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, available on HBO.

• 20:52Linda Holmes?

  All right. Thank you very much, Ronald. And by the way, we had an episode about this show earlier this week. So you can find that in our podcast feed if you want to hear more about this one. Okay. What is making me happy this week is the return of Shrinking.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  Good choice.

• 21:07Linda Holmes?

  And it is one of my favorite shows. It is on Apple TV. It is back for its third season. This show is about a couple of therapists and therapists who work in an office together. Jason Segel, Harrison Ford, Jessica Williams, and their various friends and neighbors and family. This is a show that to me is one of the Kindest shows that I watch, it's very generous toward pretty much every character on it. It's also very, very funny. There are just some absolute like comedy assassins on this show. Michael Urie and Ted McGinley, who is so funny. I've been watching Ted McGinley

• 21:48Linda Holmes?

  since I was a child, right? When he was on Happy Days. And of course, he was on Married with Children and a bunch of other things. And I think the show has also been such a showcase for Harrison Ford, who has always been really funny, but for a long time was doing like stuff that wasn't that funny. He was doing a lot of like dad action stuff. He's a hilarious actor, even though his storyline has involved his character having Parkinson's, and that's been very difficult and very challenging for him, increasingly so. And in fact, this season has an appearance by Michael J. Fox, who has not been on television in a while, but comes and guests in this season as another patient. And the way that they are able to mix things that

• 22:33Linda Holmes?

  I find really moving and things that I find really funny is just my favorite thing. Shrinking Apple TV back for season three. That is what is making me happy this week. And one last thing before we go, we are pulling back the curtain and letting Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus supporters sit in virtually on a live episode taping. You'll get to see how the show is made and experience this episode before everyone else. And we'll be talking about something Oscars related, which is of course, one of our favorite topics. It's all happening over Zoom on Friday, February 13 at 3 PM Eastern, noon Pacific. If you're not a Plus supporter yet, go to plus.npr.org/happy. Again, that's plus.npr.org/happy. If

• 23:17Linda Holmes?

  you're already a Plus supporter, thank you. And scroll back in your feed to January 22 to learn how to register for the taping. That brings us to the end of our show. Ronald Young Jr., Kristin Minz, our thank you so much for being here. I would happily be stranded on a deserted island with either one of you.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  I would be of no use to you, Linda. Thank you.

• 23:38Linda Holmes?

  Thank you so much, both of you. This episode was produced by Carly Rubin, Kayla Latimore, and Mike Cassiff, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello Come In provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all next week.

• 23:58Speaker 00

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