Pod Insights Pop Culture Happy Hour Obsession and What’s Making Us Happy About this episode The new film Obsession has a familiar setup: A guy makes a wish, wish comes true, and things go bad. But what sets this twisted little movie apart is how bad things go, and the astonishing, terrifying performance of its lead actress, Inde Navarrette. Written and directed by Curry Barker, the film follows a schlubby music store employee (Michael Johnston) who’s in love with his coworker (Navarrette) and makes a wish on a cheap magic gag gift for her to love him. That love soon proves to be the kind that’s jealous, all-consuming and comes with a body count.
Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at https://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture/letterboxd.com/nprpopculture http://letterboxd.com/nprpopculture
Listen to our episode about Margo’s Got Money Troubles https://www.npr.org/2026/04/28/nx-s1-5798708/margos-got-money-troubles-is-a-smart-adaptation-well-worth-your-time
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
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 This message comes from Rosetta Stone, offering an alternative approach to language learning. Without relying on traditional memorization, the platform guides users to intuitively think in a second language. More information at rosettastone.com.
0:19 Speaker 01 The setup of the new film Obsession is a familiar one, but hear me out. Yes, guy makes a wish, wish comes true, things go bad. But what sets this twisted little movie apart is just how bad things go and how much of that badness is rooted not in special effects, but in the astonishing, terrifying performance of its lead actress, who is playing a woman so desperately in love that she becomes a danger to, well, pretty much everything. I'm Glen Weldon. Joining me today on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour is Jordan Cruciola. She's a writer and producer and the host of the podcast Feeling Seen on Maximum Fun. Hey, Jordan.
0:53 Speaker 02 So glad to be back on our summer kickoff horror run that we're on right now.
0:57 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's a theme. Also with us is Monica Castillo, film critic for the AV Club. Welcome back, Monica.
1:03 Speaker 03 So thrilled to be here for this one and many more spooky scary movies.
1:07 Speaker 02 We're running it back with this trio.
1:09 Speaker 01 The gang's all here. All right, let's do this. So if you are a comedy nerd, you've probably had Curry Barker come across your feet at some point in the past few years. He's part of a comedy duo that made viral sketches on TikTok and YouTube. Obsession is the first theatrical feature he's written and directed. And while it's creepy as hell, he's also brought his serious comedy chops to the mix. Obsession stars Michael Johnston as Bear, a schlubby music store employee who's in love with his coworker Nikki, played by Indy Navarrete. He can't summon the courage to confess his feelings, so he makes a wish on a cheap magic gag gift, called a one wish willow, for her to fall in love with him. Nikki does fall in love with him, but that love soon proves to be the kind that is jealous and all consuming
1:54 Speaker 01 and that comes with a body count. Obsession is in theaters now. Jordan, kick us off. What'd you think?
2:01 Speaker 02 Really, really liked this one. Really impressed by it. I understand it was a pretty modestly budgeted movie. And Looks excellent. It's a beautiful looking nighttime horror movie. These people must not have slept in the night for a couple of weeks on end making this. There's just so much about this movie that really fantastically skewers the tropes of like the longing rom com behavior best friend guy.
2:31 Speaker 01 Right.
2:31 Speaker 02 And like the sort of dream sassy, not quite manic pixie dream girl, but sort of like vision of this boy from right next to her who's been longing for her. And it just, it sends up so many tropes that I have talked about ad nauseam about the things in movies that conditioned women to expect less and accept bare minimum. He made a really good movie that on the surface is just gonna make you so upset. Like I'll watch this again in three to five years. But if you wanna like really engage with like a meta textual read on like how narrative indoctrination got us to this point in pop culture, it can also be that. So it's working on a lot of levels. And like you said,
3:16 Speaker 01 Certainly true.
3:16 Speaker 02 Indy Navarrete, oh my god.
3:20 Speaker 01 Yeah, we'll talk more about her. Uh, but first Monica, big picture thoughts. What'd you make of this?
3:25 Speaker 03 Three to five years, I've already revisited this twice. I loved it so much.
3:28 Speaker 02 Oh, god. Oh, that's a lot.
3:30 Speaker 03 I really enjoyed it. I was also really surprised because I, I wasn't familiar with Curry Barker's stuff heading into it.
3:35 Speaker 02 Me neither.
3:36 Speaker 03 And so this is my first sort of like jumping into the deep end of his work. And wow, I was just so impressed, just the way that he uses shadows and darkness. But also there's a lot of color and lighting going on. So you're not totally lost in the dark and it doesn't look like mud on screen. But it's beautiful and tragic and sad and god, is it so emotional? But not in a, oh, this is trauma kind of way. This is, you know, just a unleash of just very raw emotions. I was so, so impressed with Indy. I know we're gonna get to her in a bit, but wow, this is her show all the way. She owns this movie. She rocks. I'm so, so thrilled for her and I can't wait to see what she does next. In addition to Curry.
4:17 Speaker 01 Absolutely. I mean, this thing starts off. It hits some very familiar narrative beats. The Tales from the Dark Side, The Twilight Zone, a tidy little morality play. So you expect it to hit those beats. It does take its time, I think it's fair to say, in the early going. It's doing that for a reason. It wants you to invest in these characters. It wants these characters to register. So you're there and you're nodding along and you're thinking this has to happen and this has to happen and this has to happen. I know the arc of this, but then there starts to be these little moments of weirdness, of just idiosyncrasy, of little bits of texture that set it apart, that signal to you, okay, we're not just going to hit the beats. We reserve the right to find these little pockets of individuality, I guess.
4:59 Speaker 01 And then they start piling up those moments and it's stuff you haven't seen before. We call them tropes, but like it's making fun of romantic tropes. It's also creating horror tropes. Right now they're horror triggers because they haven't been done to death. Like there's a scene where she carries a flower pot. It's so creepy.
5:17 Speaker 02 One of the most unsettling deployments of a flower pot you could possibly come across.
5:21 Speaker 01 It's so weird because it that's new. And you know how like whenever you see anybody in a horror film do the upside down crab walking from The Exorcist?
5:29 Speaker 02 Right.
5:30 Speaker 01 It's creepy as hell. It's always creepy as hell.
5:31 Speaker 02 It's unnatural.
5:32 Speaker 01 But your brain automatically slots it into this kind of pre-existing groove that The Exorcist carved. And you're like, okay, this movie is carving some new slots.
5:44 Speaker 02 There's like cousins to that thing that happened that are really effective.
5:48 Speaker 01 Yeah, and I don't want to, we're going to talk about Indy Neveletta, but like you have to give over so much of your pet project, your vision, to give one actor to have this entire movie rest on her shoulders. Like this movie doesn't work without this bravura, absolutely fearless performance. Let's talk about Indy Neveletta here as Nikki.
6:11 Speaker 02 Interesting jumping off is like the one thing I have heard Gary Barker say, I didn't even see it out, it just popped up in front of me, was he initially wrote her as just like a pure little sweet girl that like you couldn't deny how sweet and wonderful she was. And the way he said it was, and the reason why I don't want to read anymore is because he was like, you know, just a girl that any guy could fall in love with.
6:32 Speaker 02 But what Indy brought to the part was this sassiness, was this edge, this sharpness. Because when I was watching it, I was like, oh, she is like, she's like slightly heckling guys. She's giving as good as she gets, like, she's giving money to the unhoused person. But like, the moment she had me was when she looks at the bartender, she's like, oh yeah, close it out, babe. I was like, okay, this girl's a nuclear bomb. And that he saw that and he embraced it so smart to work with this actor and collaborate her, to let her just turn into the hurricane that she becomes in this movie. It was just an absolute breaks off, but does not go to a point, I feel like of cartoonish or caricature. Right.
7:11 Speaker 02 There is agony inside every wild decision that Indy makes, that Nikki makes, as the movie builds and builds and builds. And the amount of just like horror inside the performance and the way that the movie tips us off to horror that is going on behind the scenes within Nikki, I thought was really smartly deployed. I mean, put her on the cover of Andy Fair, new, now, next. Like, this girl has arrived.
7:40 Speaker 03 I really agree with Jordan's assessment of like the collaboration between Indy Nivarete and Harry Barker, because I think there's a level of trust that an actor has to put in her director.
7:50 Speaker 02 There must have been like, we are mind melding on this.
7:53 Speaker 03 You have to, I mean, because she goes in some really dark places and as well as some really just strange, wild places in terms of just like the intensity of her performances. I've seen it twice, so I've seen the, an audience react to it a few times now. And one of the parts that's, that gets most people to jump is actually when she's still, she's laying next to Bear in bed and she screams at him at the top of her lungs to stay, to just keep him in bed.
8:23 Speaker 02 I was wondering if you were gonna say that part. If there's a second of this movie, like, some really graphically horrific things happen in this movie.
8:31 Speaker 03 Oh, yeah, plenty.
8:31 Speaker 02 But like, the thing that has pierced my nightmares is that scream.
8:35 Speaker 03 Her eyes are closed, she's completely, it looks like she could be asleep, but she just, he's barely. Inching away from her about to leave the bed and she just yells that stay out of the octaves I didn't know possible and then it like everybody winces in the theater like oh my god now you're scared for bear now things are really looking uncertain then it just crescendos from there like she not only holds that intensity she keeps building on it I'm just so impressed I mean you do get that sense of who her character was beforehand you know like you were saying Jordan like the sort of soft gentle person but also you know a sass and like the jokes but also the care and the tenderness and vulnerability you get a sense of her relationship with bear
9:20 Speaker 03 beforehand her dynamics in the group ahead of that and that's all within just a few minutes of meeting her
9:27 Speaker 02 That rolls so quick it's really efficient how they handle that establishing
9:30 Speaker 03 And when things change it is a marked difference her body language changes the way she holds her head is different I also really love Curry Barker does a lot of like backlighting with her once she kind of falls under the spell and you don't see her face and you don't see any part of her it's just her body is just her outline and she carries herself in such a different way that you already know like oh this is not the Nikki that we met at the beginning of the movie
9:54 Speaker 02 This is not the Nikki that we saw five seconds ago
9:57 Speaker 03 But it is a way to show that bear has fallen for this idea of her
10:03 Speaker 01 Exactly
10:03 Speaker 03 It's not really her fullness it's not who she is it is the idea of her and he settles for that and he for a while there it looks like things might be okay but then clearly things go horribly awry
10:16 Speaker 01 Yeah and both director and actor are fully in control of this stuff that's happening is funny and horrifying but there is as you both touched on there is tragedy here I mean the last time we got together talked about Hocum talked about how you know horror works on a metaphorical level takes metaphors makes them literal here we're hitting on issues of consent at kind of an oblique angle but we are definitely steering right into toxic relationships and mental illness and it doesn't feel cheap or exploitative because those moments you're talking about where we see them suffering and It's horrifying in a way that has nothing to do with blood and guts and violence. It has everything to do with sudden horrifying empathy, right?
10:59 Speaker 01 Like, and it's both director and really the actor who really bring that home.
11:04 Speaker 02 Michael Johnston, I hated Bear, God, so much. And I'm inclined to hate Bear. I probably dislike Bear more than like the average Bear. But I was still afraid for him. Like, what he was doing was like, there was that, um, oh, I'm just a passenger in my own story. Energy the entire time where, my God, ladies and gentlemen, the amount of opportunities that Barry's given to step up and just be honest and just like be somebody in that moment who will take responsibility for their feelings.
11:39 Speaker 03 Be a grown up?
11:40 Speaker 02 Yeah, it was just like, by the fourth time, I looked at my friend who went to this with me and I just went, I am going to explode. I like whispered it in his ear. What the performance resulted in is such a perfect foil for what Nikki is doing. This little ensemble does a very good job of not competing with each other for their very distinct character attributes because best friend collaborator Cooper Tomlinson, he's a really big personality. And he kind of like, he sort of steals the space whenever he's on screen and that kind of guy is exactly who would steal the space. Whenever he's in a
12:15 Speaker 03 He's a ham.
12:15 Speaker 02 He's a ham, he's a ham. You could feel like he maybe peaked in high school a little bit and like, it felt like something that a young person had to make. Because it felt like somebody who was of the age and like social experience of the ensemble that was on screen too. And I really appreciate that the digital pipeline of all these guys who are having all this success, Curry Barker, Kane Parsons, the Filippo brothers, like that they are getting pulled out from a new pipeline, even if the kind of result of that pipeline is a bunch of people who look the same as the people who came before the new pipeline. I appreciate at least that young people are given the, being given the chance repeatedly, we can handle budgets. We can handle crews. We know what we're doing. You can't talk down to us and tell us that we don't know how because your studio sanctioned notion of what a professional filmmaker looks like is
13:01 Speaker 02 Stuck at like this strange level of experience that's like impossible for people to get and just like runs people out of the industry before they're allowed to have this kind of success.
13:09 Speaker 01 Yeah, I mean, this is, it's a really good point, Jordan, because, I mean, the pipeline used to be you go to film school, you spend a few years as a P A running coffee or schlepping a van around L A.
13:19 Speaker 03 Yeah.
13:19 Speaker 01 Now, it can be, uh, be funny, be smart, stand out on your own, get noticed, get an opportunity, knock it out of the park like this guy did. Imagine if the world is a meritocracy for, for a moment. Imagine if that happens. And I'm, I'm encouraged.
13:35 Speaker 03 I don't know about this industry just yet. But it's nice when it happens. It's nice when it happens.
13:40 Speaker 02 So much of Shiva Baby is the youthful energy of Senate and Seligman collaborating together, and they got that right out of N Y U. And there's something to be said for, yeah, when you have your eye on the ball of a certain kind of emotionally racked experience of like, hey, I'm, I'm right in this phase of my life, so let me tell you all about it in this really fun way. We should give opportunities to that younger generational perspective to do so before they've like processed it and they're looking back and they're like reflecting on their time 10, 15 years ago. This movie feels so immediately of like a heartbreak or a longing. That's why it's such a brick to the face, as one could say.
14:18 Speaker 01 I'm not sure I have the right take on this, so check me on this, but I think this movie is really smart about its premise, which is a guy wishes a woman loved him. Now, he wishes she loved him more than anyone in the world, but he's still just making a wish, right? And it is a wish that removes consent, but he doesn't know that because he lives in our world where wishes don't work, wishes don't do anything. It is not a moral transgression to wish something. The script knows that, so it builds in for him those moments you mentioned of actual, really acute moral failure where he could. This script gives him so many opportunities to tell Nikki how he feels in the real world before the wish happens.
14:59 Speaker 03 Yes.
14:59 Speaker 01 He doesn't do it.
15:00 Speaker 03 Painfully so.
15:01 Speaker 01 He could realize what he's done and decide to end it, but he doesn't. He bargains. He normalizes in those moments where he destroys everything.
15:13 Speaker 03 Right.
15:13 Speaker 01 I think what's really fascinating about this, it's not the he transgresses so he gets his comeuppance. That's not the classic horror infrastructure here. It's he fails to take accountability for what is essentially an accident. That's the thing. That's the moral transgression. And I think that's much chewier. It's much more interesting.
15:32 Speaker 02 That's a good point.
15:33 Speaker 03 Yeah, and I think Cooper Tomlinson has a really great moment where he kind of calls out Michael Johnston's character for continuing this sort of sham relationship that develops. And he's like, you know, things aren't going right and you're, it kind of looks like you're taking advantage of her. And he's actually having the conversation that it's really uncomfortable and like we probably don't see enough of in media. So it's actually kind of surprising that there is another voice that's kind of, you know, at least calling him out for the fact that he is writing this cocktails of the wish, even though he's freaked out by it, doesn't fully agree with it. But hey, at the moment, it kind of benefits him and it works for him. So he's going to enjoy that.
16:16 Speaker 02 There's that moment that I think the first teaser maybe that was put out for the movie is Bear in the car calling the hotline for One Wish Willow. And he's like, can you take it back? I'd like, I want to change my wish. And they're just like, yeah, hi, like, how may I help you? Bear's struggling with what he has done and he's trying to enumerate it clumsily. And the guy says to him, just because you chose this for her doesn't make it less real. And that, I don't know, that line just hit me so hard. Like, the bigness of it and the small preciseness of it was just so good.
16:59 Speaker 02 And that notion of like, hey, man, just because you made, like, you could just hear like a buddy telling that to him too, and like, in like, over a beer being like, hey, dude, bro, just because like, you picked this for her, like, doesn't make it fake or something like that. Like, that, like, notion of that socialized encouragement.
17:16 Speaker 03 Right.
17:16 Speaker 02 Of how you can coax someone or coerce someone towards something and tell yourself you're still a good person the entire time. And getting to that, what Glenn said about, like, the inability to just take responsibility and the number of opportunities that he has to do. So like, that one line, I was like, that was fire. Like, Curry Barker slayed it right there.
17:39 Speaker 01 Really, the stuff about the wish and the gimmickry of the wish is some of the funniest parts in this movie.
17:44 Speaker 02 Oh, it's so good.
17:45 Speaker 01 That is where you can see the chops from his comedy troupe kind of kicking in. Like, if you're a comedy nerd like me, you've been seeing this guy around for a long time. I feel this kind of parasocial pride, where I feel like, you know.
17:58 Speaker 02 I told the director this the other day, I was like, I'm just so happy for you as like, as a millennial woman, I'm just like, I feel so proud of you. I get this, I get this.
18:06 Speaker 01 My indie band has just gone mainstream and I'm not mad at it. I'm like, yes, more people should be listening to this band.
18:13 Speaker 03 Well deserved.
18:14 Speaker 01 Well, I mean, I, you know, I think we agree. This movie hits on writing, it hits on directing, and it has at its center an unforgettable horror performance, no, scratch that, an unforgettable performance, period, that is really worth checking out. So you got your weekend planned. Up next, what is making us happy this week?
18:34 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is designed to make language learning intuitive. It mimics how people naturally acquire speech as children, helping users read, write, and think in a second language. More at rosettastone.com.
18:55 Speaker 00 This message is from Synchrony Bank, who wants to remind you to stay flexible. Not the yoga bending circus performing kind of flexible, financially flexible, like with their high-yield savings account. Stay flexible at synchrony.com/NPR. Member FDIC.
19:11 Speaker 04 This message comes from Dell. Shop now during the Dell Top Tech Event and find award-winning tech like the Dell XPS 13 Laptop with long-lasting battery life and impressive performance powered by Intel Core processors. Visit dell.com/deals.
19:28 Speaker 01 Now it is time for our favorite segment of this week and every week. What is making us happy this week? Monica, what is making you happy this week?
19:35 Speaker 03 So about a year ago, I embarked on this really long project to finally get around to reading Robert Caro's The Power Broker. And I am so happy to report that about a year later, I finally finished The Power Broker.
19:49 Speaker 01 It's the way that works.
19:50 Speaker 03 Believe the hype. It's actually really good. It's also helped me appreciate a little bit more of my city's history. But it also has opened the door to, you know, bigger conversations about how policy affects day-to-day life and especially as, you know, midterm elections are ramping up. Paying attention to the local elections is just as important as it is the broader, bigger picture. So I've also appreciated following the Instagram account Segregation by Design, which has a lot of videos kind of explaining Robert Moses's approach to public policy and what he did throughout the city. So if you're not into reading an over 1,000-page book and don't want to carry it around, there are little shorter videos. Learn a little bit about, you know,
20:33 Speaker 03 that whole side of the story of both New York City history, but also, you know, the effect of urban renewal throughout, you know, cities across the country.
20:40 Speaker 01 That's great. That is Robert Caro's The Power Broker, a book that has also been sitting on my virtual bedside. For, I'm gonna go for a decade now.
20:49 Speaker 02 Is this thing like the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica?
20:52 Speaker 03 It's definitely a doorstop.
20:53 Speaker 01 Thank you very much. Uh, Jordan, what is making you happy this week?
20:58 Speaker 02 Well, what is making me happy this week? I'm really enjoying Margo's Got Money Troubles on Apple TV as I sit in anticipation for the return of Silo, season three on Apple TV. I am a sucker for Elle Fanning. I am so happy to see Michelle Pfeiffer. And I just found the ways in which it handles these very like today and yet timeless emotional slings and arrows of this young woman. And there's just been so many moments where I, somebody who has not created an OnlyFans account to supplement income for the, the child that I have as a single mother, not being in that scenario, I still find myself really feeling like, wow, this really is like, this is for everyone.
21:41 Speaker 02 You don't have to have created an OnlyFans account to understand the struggles that Margot has and the light and joy that she finds in all these things. And the, the way like, when you know that like a friendship isn't going to be the same going forward as it was in your past and like the heartbreak and the loss of that. So yeah, I just think it's doing so, and Greg Kinnear has made me cry like three times. Greg Kinnear, the most everyman that has ever everyman, a blessing that he is for like a 40 minute dramedy that watching every episode, I feel like it's packing in so much and I'm just really loving it and it's making me very happy.
22:14 Speaker 01 Thank you very much. That is Margo's Got Money Troubles on Apple TV and we've got a terrific episode about that very show, which you can find a link to in our episode description. What's making me happy this week? Legends is a British series on Netflix that's kind of, what if the Brits did The Wire or Task? It's about a-
22:35 Speaker 02 I've been wondering what this is. I've seen it pop up on my display. Okay.
22:38 Speaker 01 Yeah, it's about a small task force of customs officials who go undercover to infiltrate and bring down some drug gangs in the UK in the early 90s. And the title Legends refers to the false identities that they have to adopt to go undercover. And it's about the physical and emotional costs. Of living undercover, you know, and doing bad things. And there is a really healthy British cynicism that keeps course correcting every time you think it's about to slop over into some of the kind of pat moralization that many American cop shows do. It reminds you of The Wire because it's very clear that the thing driving all of these anti-drug efforts is politicians like
23:21 Speaker 01 Margaret Thatcher, who want to score points and improve their reelection chances. And Steve Coogan plays the guy training the recruits and he kind of runs the ship. And this is one of those roles where he's playing it straight. And he's also playing a tough guy.
23:35 Speaker 02 Okay.
23:35 Speaker 03 You sold me on Steve Coogan.
23:37 Speaker 02 Is this a period piece then, set in the era of Maggie?
23:40 Speaker 01 It's a Maggie. It's set in the early 90s. Yeah. And it's really, it's suspenseful. It moves along. That is Legends on Netflix. And that is what is making me happy this week. And that brings us to the end of our show. Jordan Crucio and Monica Stiel, thanks for being here. We'll have you back the next time. There is a really great little indie horror.
23:59 Speaker 02 I look forward to it every time.
24:00 Speaker 03 Oh, yes. Let's keep this going.
24:02 Speaker 01 Great to have you. And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus is a great way to support our show in public radio and you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org slash happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Mike Katsev and edited by our showrunner Jessica Reedy and Hello Kim provides our theme music. Thank you all for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I am Glen Weldon and we will see you all next week.
24:30 Speaker 00 Stay tuned for the following announcements and messages from our sponsors. This message comes from Sony Pictures Classics, proudly presenting the acclaimed new crime thriller, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. The Daily Beast raves, a perfect crime film. John Turturro gives a career best performance. Also starring Giancarlo Esposito, Tatiana Maslany, Will Price, and Steve Buscemi. See the film that the LA Times calls instantly classic. Opens only in theaters October 23 in New York and Los Angeles. Nationwide, October 30.
25:02 Speaker 04 This message comes from Google Workspace with Gemini. Ever notice how every new AI tool asks you to explain your business to it all over again? Google Workspace with Gemini skips that. You get Google's AI built right into the premium versions of Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and more. No new tools, no extra logins, just one subscription that gives you personalized AI right inside your actual workflow. Try Google Workspace with Gemini at g o o dot g l e slash Workspace with Gemini.
Previous Shrek Next Nemesis Page updated October 30, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated