ROB SCHMITZ, HOST:
Summer, ideally, is about vacations, transformations, the end of one chapter, the start of another. But summer is also about just hanging out with friends at a party, popular neighborhood spot or just on your front porch. Think Ice Cube and Chris Tucker in "Friday"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FRIDAY")
ICE CUBE: (As Craig Jones) What you tell him?
CHRIS TUCKER: (As Smokey) I just told him we were smoking, man, and that we were just chilling.
ICE CUBE: (As Craig Jones) Man, you were smoking.
SCHMITZ: ...Or the teens trading conspiracy theories in Richard Linklater's high school classic "Dazed And Confused"...
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "DAZED AND CONFUSED")
RORY COCHRANE: (As Ron Slater) Man, you didn't know that? This country is founded - it was founded by people who were into aliens, man. George Washington...
SCHMITZ: ...All right, all right, all right - or the longtime friends partying it up in "Girls Trip."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GIRLS TRIP")
TIFFANY HADDISH: (As Dina) We're going to be staying up late, drinking, making memories that we can laugh about the rest of our lives because that is what a girls trip is for.
SCHMITZ: Yes, indeed. On this week's Cineplexity, we're talking about a specific type of film, often called the hangout movie. Joining us are Pop Culture Happy Hour's Stephen Thompson and ALL THINGS CONSIDERED producer Avery Keatley. Welcome to you both.
STEPHEN THOMPSON, BYLINE: Hey.
AVERY KEATLEY, BYLINE: Hey, Rob.
SCHMITZ: So when I was graciously invited to do this Cineplexity about hangout films, my first text to our editor was, what is a hangout film?
(LAUGHTER)
SCHMITZ: Stephen, we'll start with you.
THOMPSON: Well, I think it's as simple as it's a movie in which a number of characters are just kind of hanging out, right? I think the stakes are implied by the terminology. It's a group of people. Maybe they're having one wild weekend. Maybe they're trying to solve, you know, maybe some sort of plot-related problem over the course of one crazy night. But typically, the stakes are it's a group of people, and they're hanging out. And it's a great kind of framework for comedy. It's a great framework for just a fun hang, where you as a viewer feel like you're joining in on silly antics. And I - you know, so many movies are about the fate of the universe. It's nice to have a movie that's about the fate of a weekend.
SCHMITZ: Low-stakes film.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHMITZ: Avery, agree?
KEATLEY: Yeah, I think that's really true. And I think for me for a hangout movie to really work, the chemistry of the characters is really important. The characters, I think, have to be believable, and I think you have to want to spend time with them, right? So I think it's harder in a hangout movie to have characters that feel, like, either really unlikable or really tropey (ph) or are just doing things that kind of don't really add up.
SCHMITZ: Actually, this is a big ask for Hollywood.
(LAUGHTER)
SCHMITZ: I mean, it really does depend on amazing acting, amazing dialogue.
KEATLEY: Yeah. But I think the other thing is that, like, believable characters don't necessarily need to be realistic characters, right?
SCHMITZ: Sure.
KEATLEY: They don't have to be boring. And I'm thinking, in particular, of 2004's "Napoleon Dynamite."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE")
SANDY MARTIN: (As Grandma) How was school?
JON HEDER: (As Napoleon Dynamite) The worst day of my life, what do you think?
KEATLEY: Right?
SCHMITZ: Sure.
THOMPSON: Classic.
KEATLEY: Title character - high school loser with a bad perm and a really good ability at taste testing milk, played unforgettably by Jon Heder.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "NAPOLEON DYNAMITE")
HEDER: (As Napoleon Dynamite) This tastes like the cow got into an onion patch.
ELDEAN HOLLIDAY: (As FFA Judge No. 2) Correct.
HEDER: (As Napoleon Dynamite) Yes.
KEATLEY: He's awkward. He's weird. He puts tater tots in his pockets, and he performs one of the most iconic dance scenes in the last 25 years of films.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CANNED HEAT")
JAMIROQUAI: (Singing) Dance, nothing left for me to do but dance.
KEATLEY: But all of those things feel really in line with the character that's presented to us in the film. The biggest plot point is that he's trying to help his friend Pedro get elected as student body president, but for most of the film, we're just kind of following him around a quiet town as he's being a weird teenager.
SCHMITZ: Yeah, there's no plot to "Napoleon Dynamite," really.
KEATLEY: It's very little (laughter).
SCHMITZ: It's just - like, it's like an assortment of very funny sketches.
KEATLEY: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: So what are some of your other favorite films of this subgenre or genre or whatever we're calling it?
KEATLEY: Yeah. Some of my all-time favorite hangout movies are a series known as the "Before" trilogy by director Richard Linklater...
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
KEATLEY: ...Who, of course, we mentioned in the intro, director of "Dazed And Confused" as well. It stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. All of these films were shot about nine years apart, and they follow the main characters, Jesse and Celine, over the course of about 20 years of their love lives. The first film, "Before Sunrise," follows them around for one day in their early 20s in Vienna when they happen to get off a train together to just spend the day walking around the city.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEFORE SUNRISE")
ETHAN HAWKE: (As Jesse) So, listen, here's the deal. This is what we should do. You should get off the train with me here in Vienna and come check out the town.
JULIE DELPY: (As Celine) What?
HAWKE: (As Jesse) Come on. It'll be fun. Come on.
DELPY: (As Celine) What would we do?
HAWKE: (As Jesse) Um, I don't know. All I know is I have to catch an Austrian Airlines flight tomorrow morning at 9:30, and I don't really have enough money for a hotel, so I was just going to walk around. And it'd be a lot more fun if you came with me.
KEATLEY: So they meander around. They're taking in the sights. They're looking for things to do for free 'cause they have no money. And they're just kind of sharing their, like, still-forming ideas about life and love and what it means to kind of grow up.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEFORE SUNRISE")
DELPY: (As Celine) Loving someone and being loved means so much to me. I always make fun of it and stuff. But isn't everything we're doing in life a way to be loved a little more?
SCHMITZ: I mean, I sort of feel like I grew up with these three films.
KEATLEY: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: These three films are some of my favorite films.
THOMPSON: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: And I have a somewhat unconventional favorite of these three. I actually like "Before Midnight," which is the final...
KEATLEY: The final film.
THOMPSON: Oh, wow.
SCHMITZ: ...Of the trilogy.
KEATLEY: Devastating.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEFORE MIDNIGHT")
DELPY: (As Celine) No, I'm happy you have time to contemplate the universe and have existential problems because I don't. I barely have time to think. I work. I babysit. I work. I babysit.
HAWKE: (As Jesse) Would you hold on a second? I just have to tune up the string section.
THOMPSON: That one has a lot of fighting in it.
SCHMITZ: It does, but I feel like it captures marriage with kids so, so well. And I think it hit me at the time, I guess, as something that...
KEATLEY: Yeah.
SCHMITZ: ...Was just amazing. Stephen, let's turn to you. What are some of your favorite hangout films?
THOMPSON: Well, the first movie that jumped to my mind was "Booksmart" from 2019.
KEATLEY: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BOOKSMART")
KAITLYN DEVER: (As Amy) No. No way.
BEANIE FELDSTEIN: (As Molly) Amy, we only have one night left to have studied and partied in high school. Otherwise, we're just going to be the girls that missed out. We haven't done anything. We haven't broken any rules.
DEVER: (As Amy) OK.
THOMPSON: It's directed by Olivia Wilde. It's a really, really simple story. Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are just, like, two girls that are finishing high school. They've been following all the rules...
SCHMITZ: Right.
THOMPSON: ...All through high school, and they kind of realize, like, on the last day that they could have been partying the whole time and still gotten what they wanted.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BOOKSMART")
FELDSTEIN: (As Molly) We chose. We didn't party because we wanted to focus on school and get into good colleges.
DEVER: (As Amy) And it worked.
FELDSTEIN: (As Molly) But the irresponsible people who partied also got into those colleges. They did both.
SCHMITZ: They've just wasted so many years.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: Yeah. They just realized they could have been irresponsible jack***es.
(LAUGHTER)
THOMPSON: You know, and so basically, in one eventful weekend, they kind of decide, we're going to make up for lost time, and we're just going to, like, spend the weekend partying. And of course, like, that leads to a bunch of kind of plotty antics. But the film itself is really just a hangout between these two friends. Is there, like, a weird drug trip along the way? Of course there is, you know?
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
THOMPSON: And I just think that movie is so funny. The two leads are so appealing. And so, to me, that is a perfect hangout movie. It's not a movie about how they're trying to rob a bank, right?
KEATLEY: (Laughter).
THOMPSON: You know, they just want to have fun.
SCHMITZ: So I mean, we all watch movies for all sorts of reasons. What's the payoff of a hangout film when you watch it, like, compared to, like, when you watch, like, "The Godfather" or "Silence Of The Lambs" or something like that?
THOMPSON: I mean, I think part of it is just sometimes when I go to a movie, I don't need life and death stakes.
SCHMITZ: Right.
THOMPSON: You know, I think, you know, we talk sometimes about superhero fatigue and how there are so many movies about superheroes. And I think part of that fatigue isn't just the repetition of these plots, but the kind of repetition of these, like, the universe is going to end kind of stakes. Sometimes I just want to go to a movie and hang out with people who feel like my friends. The hangout movie is conducive to comedy. It's conducive to chemistry. And sometimes, you know, I want to just be along for a fun ride. For the same reason, I think, a lot of people listen to friends talking on podcasts - sometimes you just want to be along for a fun ride.
SCHMITZ: Avery, let's turn to you. What - why do you think this genre does really well for us?
KEATLEY: I think a lot of times we engage with plot-heavy movies to spend time with stories because stories help us understand ourselves, right? They help us understand our own lives. And I think what sets hangout movies apart for me is that we're spending time with characters, and we're getting a chance to understand those characters. So I don't think I would ever put tater tots in my pocket, but watching "Napoleon Dynamite"...
THOMPSON: Speak for yourself.
(LAUGHTER)
KEATLEY: ...Right? - I can understand a character who would think that was, like, a great idea, right?
SCHMITZ: Right.
KEATLEY: I don't know if I would get off a train with a stranger, but I - watching "Before Sunrise," I can understand why Celine made that decision. So I think it allows us the ability to imagine and empathize with characters just by spending time with them.
SCHMITZ: That was NPR's Avery Keatley and Stephen Thompson. Thank you both for hanging out with us.
KEATLEY: It's a pleasure.
THOMPSON: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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