Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
Review
Pop Culture Happy Hour
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AISHA HARRIS, HOST:
If you saw "A Quiet Place" and its sequel, you probably recall the franchise's basic concept. In a postapocalyptic world, aliens kill anyone who makes a sound, forcing humans into a near-silent existence. The new prequel, "A Quiet Place: Day One," takes us back to the very beginning. This time around, though, we're seeing it all through the eyes of a woman played by the excellent Lupita Nyong'o. I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about "A Quiet Place: Day One" on POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR.
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HARRIS: Joining me today is Kristen Meinzer. She co-hosts the "Daily Fail," a podcast that does comedic close readings of the tabloids. Welcome back, Kristen.
KRISTEN MEINZER: Thanks for having me back.
HARRIS: Great to have you. And also with us is Chris Klimek. He's a writer and host of the Smithsonian Magazine podcast "There's More to That." Hi, Chris. Welcome back to you, too.
CHRIS KLIMEK: Talk under the rain, Aisha.
HARRIS: Oh, sorry, sorry (laughter).
KLIMEK: I can't. I can't talk under the rain. I'm dead.
HARRIS: Oh, man. "A Quiet Place: Day One" stars Lupita Nyong'o as Sam, a terminally ill cancer patient living resentfully in hospice care. During an excursion into Manhattan, disaster suddenly strikes. Gigantic alien creatures descend upon the city, decimating much of the population. The monsters, though, are blind. They pounce on their human prey at even the slightest of sounds. As the city is being evacuated, Sam tries to keep quiet and survive along with her cat, Frodo. Eventually, she meets Eric. He's played by Joseph Quinn, who you might recognize from "Stranger Things." And Eric doesn't have any family nearby, so naturally, he's terrified. Together, they face aliens and the respective existential crises. "A Quiet Place: Day One" is in theaters now. Kristen, I want to start with you. How did you feel about this film?
MEINZER: I really enjoyed it. Lupita Nyong'o is so fantastic in this. She barely says a word, and yet she expresses a million things on her face, from that resentment that you mentioned to moments of genuine comedy to gratitude, fear, obviously. She's just fantastic in it. I do just want to, you know, give the caveat, though, that this is not, in my opinion, quite the same as the other "Quiet Place" movies. In my opinion, it's not as scary. It's more of a character study.
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEINZER: I feel like the other "Quiet Place" movies have a lot more moving parts. We're dealing with babies who could cry, children, a family that speaks American Sign Language, other tribes of people who don't. And...
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEINZER: ...By the time this movie comes along, you know, we've probably seen the other two movies, so it's not quite as scary. There aren't as many moving parts. But I still felt like it was great storytelling. The entire theater was silent the entire time, which I just loved. Just - you know, you could tell everybody in the audience was so into it. Nobody even whispered the whole time. It's as if we felt we had to hold our breaths as well. It was a lot of fun. And as always with the "Quiet Place" movies, nice and economical - only an hour and 40 minutes, roughly, and I love...
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEINZER: ...A movie that doesn't try to be three hours when it doesn't need to be three hours.
HARRIS: Oh, my goodness. Amen to that. Also, great point about the moving parts aspect of it, 'cause you would think - this movie is set in New York City - there'd be a lot more going on. Like, where are all the dogs? We all know if you've been to New York, there's lots of dogs - not a single dog. There was a cat. We'll get to the cat. But Chris...
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: ...How did this movie work for you?
KLIMEK: Also a paucity of corpses. I guess maybe that...
HARRIS: Yeah.
KLIMEK: ...Was part of the PG-13 of it all, as we don't want to just look at, you know, piles and piles of bodies clogging the streets. Yeah, I like this a lot. I think this is a good model of how to do a movie like this, and that although it does have, as you say, not as many kind of suspense-generating set pieces as the other movies, it looks like it was made pretty economically. And when you don't spend $200 million on a movie, you can get away with stuff, like having your main character be a cancer patient who is stuck in Manhattan on a field trip from hospice care, which is one of the things that made this feel really different. This almost felt like a short story that I would have been happy to find in some sci-fi collection or something. It's like, I can't believe that this is a movie.
HARRIS: A field trip to a puppet show, by the way - like, marionettes.
MEINZER: A very disturbing puppet show (laughter).
KLIMEK: Yes. I'm going to say that that is down to the Michael Sarnoski of it all. He is the writer and director of this film. He made a very strange movie a couple of years ago with Nicolas Cage called "Pig" that was sort of like the hybrid of "John Wick" and "Fight Club" and "Big Night" that you never knew you wanted to see. And, you know, even very early in this film where we're watching Lupita and her fellow cancer patients go to this puppet show and then find themselves a little more delighted by what they're witnessing onstage, this could be a little short film. We could end this before the aliens show up, and I wouldn't hate this.
HARRIS: Yeah.
KLIMEK: And this movie does have those idiosyncratic moments, where you do have kind of a distinct voice emerging from all the very familiar genre stuff, which, to be clear, I am here for, you know? I don't know if I...
HARRIS: Yeah.
KLIMEK: ...Needed two more "Quiet Place" movies, but I will always show up for another alien invasion movie.
HARRIS: Yeah. I think I'm pretty pro on this movie. I was surprised - well, somewhat surprised - because I went into it feeling as though I'm only OK with this within my soul and being because Lupita is involved. She's really kind of establishing herself as this, like, horror maven. And between this and, of course, "Us" and "Little Monsters," I think, like, she's really great in these character roles where she is playing someone who's, like, trying to keep it together on the outside, but is falling apart slowly on the inside. And I want to posit something - maybe it's a little radical, or a lot of people might disagree with me, but I feel as though, while, yes, like, I don't think anything is going to really be able to duplicate the thrill of seeing "A Quiet Place" for the first time in the theater the way, you know, I did with, like, a huge enthusiastic crowd at South by Southwest in 2018 - it was, like, electric.
Nothing's going to replace that. But I also think there's things about that movie that feel a little contrived in ways. And not to say that "Day One" isn't contrived in many ways, but this felt deeper to me or more - like, just different enough than what I think "A Quiet Place" was kind of dealing with. "A Quiet Place" is, like, everything is kind of motivated by the loss of their son, the idea that there's a new life coming into the world. And I'm like, OK, we've been there, done that. But to have this movie where someone is dying, and then a more immediate, urgent obstacle is put in her place, and she's like, OK, how do I reconcile with the fact that, like, I already knew I'm going to die, but now I might die in a way that I - like, in an even worse way? I feel like that was really what drove this movie for me and made it feel a little bit more profound than the other two movies.
MEINZER: I think it's an interesting question the movie poses, the idea of dying on one's own terms when one already knows that death is happening. Death is happening to our main character. We know it's only a matter of time. People don't stay in hospice for decades. You know, hospice is...
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEINZER: ... End-of-life care. But the idea of why would one fight to survive if they're already dying, and what would they get out of it? What is Lupita's motivation for that? And that is revealed throughout the movie. And it's really fascinating to watch. I agree with you on that point, Aisha.
KLIMEK: Yeah, I think I do too. And, like, so I have a little more, like, takey (ph) take here, too, which is when revisiting "A Quiet Place" 2018 the other day - and I don't recall if this occurred to me initially. I felt like that's almost kind of, like, I think it's supposed to be - Millbrook is upstate New York somewhere.
HARRIS: Yeah, I think it's supposed to be outside of New York City.
KLIMEK: OK. So I was possibly inferring this, but I was like, you know, this feels like kind of a very red-state-coded movie in a way because it's, like, you can't count on the government. You can't count on anybody else. It's just your own immediate family, and it takes a...
HARRIS: Absolutely.
KLIMEK: ...Super capable, well-armed man to protect the - you know, the nuclear family.
HARRIS: Yeah.
KLIMEK: Emily Blunt is literally barefoot and pregnant for most of that film.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Yes.
KLIMEK: You know, so, I mean, basically, I could see why that movie was a huge hit in 2018 because it doesn't throw that stuff in your face, but it has appeal all across these United States, we can say, right? And in a way, well, now we're back in Sodom and Gomorrah. It's New York City. It's Manhattan. You know, it's, like, this is sort of the blue-state answer to this where, forget it, we don't have any survivalists here, so, you know, the best you can do is loot some pharmacies and hope you can find some topical fentanyl to (laughter) kill your pain for a few more hours. That's my hot-hot take.
HARRIS: I actually feel as though that is more commonly a hot take, but maybe that's not just me.
KLIMEK: That's - I'm sure.
HARRIS: The way you describe it, though - it's exactly that. And I don't think for Krasinski, that was at all intentional, but that is definitely the way it - like, if you think about it hard enough. I mean - yeah.
KLIMEK: I don't think it was intentional, but I don't think it hurt the movie commercially.
HARRIS: Exactly. Well, can we talk about the cat because, you know, you know how we say...
MEINZER: Yes.
HARRIS: ...In movies, like, the cliche of, well, New York City - it was like another character in the film? I mean, the cat, Frodo, was basically...
KLIMEK: Right.
HARRIS: ...Another character in the film.
KLIMEK: I want to say New York City was definitely another character in this film, which was shot in London.
HARRIS: (Laughter) I mean, what do we make of this cat who is her security blanket? I think she calls it at one point a service animal.
MEINZER: Yeah.
HARRIS: And this cat is, like - what? - Thomasina - like, has literally nine to 10 to maybe even 15 lives. It somehow survives being drowned in water. What do we make of this cat?
MEINZER: I said this before we hit record. I think the cat is the true villain of this movie. This cat is trouble. The cat is even more dangerous than the aliens in lots of ways. It's leading the humans to the aliens. It's running off and abandoning its No. 1 human whenever it just feels like it and enticing Lupita to chase it, enticing her friend to chase it. It's making noise when it shouldn't.
HARRIS: Really? I feel like it was a very quiet cat for - considering, like...
KLIMEK: Yeah.
MEINZER: The first incident with the cat where it's making noise in the puppet theater...
HARRIS: Oh, yeah.
MEINZER: ...I was like, shut up, cat. Come on. Cut it out. Oh, God. Now - and now it's running off again. And I just wanted to tell the humans, stop chasing this cat. It'll come back to you eventually. Ugh, the cat made me so mad (laughter).
KLIMEK: Anyone who has listened to this show for a long time will know that "Alien" is one of the sacred texts to me. And my friend Harley has long maintained that Jones, the cat in "Alien," is in cahoots with the xenomorph. It's just stalking the human prey, driving them into corners they can't get out of. I was thinking about "I Am Legend."
HARRIS: Oh, my God, I was totally going to bring that up.
KLIMEK: Yeah.
HARRIS: Yes.
KLIMEK: I mean, I think about a lot with urban-set apocalyptic blockbusters like this because I think "I Am Legend" is, like, a perfect movie for about an hour. And then it kind of - like, once we learn that Will Smith is not the only human survivor in this world, it loses something in my view. But the heartbreaking...
HARRIS: Yeah.
KLIMEK: ...Scene from that movie is when he has to kill his dog. His dog has been infected with the zombie plague, and he knows he has just a few seconds before it's going to try to rip his throat out. And, you know, just being more of a dog person than a cat person, I never doubted that dog's allegiance, the way that, like you, Kristen, I never trusted Frodo the cat.
HARRIS: Look, I am very much a dog lover, but I also feel in the same way as the cat is here, the dog in "I Am Legend" feels just like such an easy, like, emotional tug at the heartstrings. It leans too heavily on that. It's very - like, we're just like, we're going to remind you of "Old Yeller," and it's going to be great you're going to cry, and you're going to feel things. And the cat, it's a beautiful cat. It's a black-and-white cat. It's got expressive - an expressive face. I'm not sure how many of the shots were, like, a real cat versus CGI. Who knows? It seemed like it was real in most scenes. But, like, I don't know. I felt like I got plenty of energy and emotion and story out of the relationship between Sam and Eric, that I didn't also need the cat, at least not in every single shot.
And again, how does this cat keep living? Like, spoiler alert, the cat lives. In case you're worried about those things, just like we have the website, Does the Dog Die? - we also have - you know, the cat is fine. We can say that. But, my goodness, that cat. I guess my final question for you both is, you know, where do we go from here because we live in this era? There's now been three movies. If we had to live in a universe where there's another "A Quiet Place," where would you want to see it go?
MEINZER: Maybe in the far future would be interesting. You know, spoiler - in the last "Quiet Place" movie that came out, we realize how you can destroy the aliens by plugging a hearing aid into an amp, and that upsets the aliens, right? And you can blow their ears out.
HARRIS: Also, they don't like water.
MEINZER: Yeah, both of...
HARRIS: Yeah.
MEINZER: ...Those things. But it would be interesting, maybe, to be in the far future and see do aliens still exist? You know, they're always laying eggs, apparently. Even in this movie, we see they seem to have a bunch of eggs laid in a skyscraper or something. Will they come back? Will they evolve? How has human life evolved now that there are only a few people left on Earth, but the few people who are left on Earth now know about this secret? Or does not everybody know the secret of how to fight the aliens? And in the far-off future, are the humans the real monsters because that's really what happens in postapocalyptic movies...
KLIMEK: Yes.
MEINZER: ...Right? The real threat is always the humans.
KLIMEK: I don't know that I want to see the "Prometheus" to the "Alien" that is "A Quiet Place" because, you know, getting the answers that you thought you wanted is never as satisfying as you hope it will be. I think this film is sort of unique, again, in that it's centered around, you know, Lupita's character, this hospice patient, an unusual heroine for us to root for. The "Day One" is what we usually see in alien invasion movies. You know, it was more unique and original for us to see how, you know, 18 months later or whatever it was in the first film - you know, how people are getting along. But I personally - like, I think I would show up for, you know, fairly endless variations on this. You know, make it a different environment and a different character. I mean, if you can come up with another spin that's that distinct, then I will keep showing up. But as far as, like, having the origins of the creatures explained or anything - yeah, don't care, don't care, don't care.
HARRIS: Oh, God. I mean, that's one thing that I appreciate about this film, is that they don't try to tell you what's happening, sometimes to its detriment. I did wonder how, in the first sort of big action sequence in the movie, when they first ascend, she gets knocked out, then wakes up, and then all of a sudden, somehow, everyone knows that you have to be quiet. I don't know how much time has passed, but it seems like it's only been a few hours, and I'm like, how did we already figure out that the thing (laughter) that attracts them is sound? Especially in New York City, how would we know this? But I think if I - I think in order to keep this going in a way that feels fresh and interesting, we need to go global. So we need to see this in a different country, not - preferably not, like, a Western country. I would love to see it in somewhere like Asia or Africa, just someplace where the lifestyle and the culture is completely different from what we've...
KLIMEK: Right.
HARRIS: ...Seen in either of these three movies. And just, like, new blood...
KLIMEK: Yeah.
HARRIS: ...And maybe further, further in the future, as Kristen said. Let's just mash it up.
KLIMEK: Yeah.
HARRIS: Michael Sarnoski, if you're listening and you don't want to make another "Pig," and you want to make another franchise, let's - call us.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Well, we want to know what you think about "A Quiet Place: Day One." Find us on Facebook at facebook.com/pchh. That brings us to the end of our show. Kristen Meinzer, Chris Klimek, thanks so much for being here. This was fun. And - shh. (Whispering) Yeah, thank you very much for being here.
MEINZER: (Whispering) Thank you. It's been really great. Thanks.
KLIMEK: (Whispering) Thank you, Aisha. Thank you, Kristen.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: This episode was produced by Liz Metzger and Rommel Wood and edited by Jessica Reedy and Mike Katzif. Hello Come In provides our theme music. And thank you for listening to POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR from NPR. I'm Aisha Harris, and we'll see you all tomorrow.
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