Plus: 'SNL' does the Tiny Desk, 'Monkey Man,' and 'Physical: 100'

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when we all prepared for the path of totality. It was the week when Conan O'Brien suggested time may heal at least some wounds. And it was the week when ties were in the news. Let's get to it. Ripley and the beauty of black and white I was happy that I didn't know a lot about the Netflix series Ripley before I watched it. I had heard, vaguely, that there was a new adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, which has been adapted before, perhaps most famously in 1999's film of the same name. But I'd forgotten that the lead character, Tom Ripley, would be played by Andrew Scott, whom I have loved in everything from Fleabag (so sexy!) to Black Mirror (so creepy!). And I hadn't heard it was in black and white. It's a brilliant idea, really, particularly because that 1999 film adaptation, directed by Anthony Minghella, is so beloved. And it's beloved in part because of its rich, luscious, sunshine-drenched color palette. Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow as Dickie and Marge gleam gloriously on the Italian beach. The jazz club where Tom comes on stage for that fevered rendition of "Tu Vuo' Fa L'Americano" -- the moment in which Tom becomes briefly, perfectly happy, and thus the moment that probably sets the rest of the tragedy in motion -- glows with red and blue light. And even when Dickie finds himself in that little boat with Tom, he begins the scene reclining, with the sun shining on his face and warming his ankles, which are exposed by his rolled-up cuffs. Perhaps not for that reason, but still to its great benefit, Ripley pulls hard in the opposite direction. This is chilled noir filmmaking, where deep shadows land in cheekbone hollows and light is carved into blocks by bars and blinds. Scott's eyes don't just look dark; they look like onyx marbles. It fits, because this version of Tom is not the kid who never meant to end up in a terrible situation and might have lived a perfectly normal life if not for his collision with Dickie's father, who believes Tom to be something he's not. This version of Tom is pure con artist from the opening frames, running small-time scams to rip people off for a little bit of money at a time, much of it specifically by pretending to be someone he's not. Maurizio Lombardi/Netflix Stephen Zaillian, the screenwriter and director, and Robert Elswit, the director of photography, are both Oscar winners. Zaillian won for writing Schindler's List; Elswit won for the cinematography on There Will Be Blood. (Elswit also was the cinematographer for Michael Clayton, which makes perhaps the most direct comparison not to the particular look of Ripley, but to its impeccable tension and dread.) They collaborate here and create a meticulously built piece of filmmaking that references classic noir and Hitchcock as well as Italian cinema greats, and just looking at it shot by shot is a profound pleasure. I read a comment the other day that said there's no reason to make anything in black and white now that color exists. Nothing, this comment alleged, has ever been better in black and white than it would have been in color -- black and white was used by necessity, and to use it by choice is an affectation. But this, of course, is extraordinarily silly. Black and white photography, perhaps because it's become so rare in television and film, positions a piece relative to particular immovable cultural artifacts. If The Talented Mr. Ripley makes you think of Hitchcock's splashy mid century Technicolor, Ripley will perhaps invoke Psycho instead. It asks different things of the viewer, too. For people accustomed to watching in color, it shifts the focus of the visuals away from color to shapes and light. But more fundamentally, the fact that an "advancement" is more rigorously representative of reality does not make it artistically superior. Yes, the real world is in color for most people. But the real world also takes place in real time, and that doesn't make editing a regrettable compromise. Reality is full of the boring and the mediocre; fiction is not meant to precisely copy it. Color photography can be done well or badly, thoughtfully or thoughtlessly. Black and white is the same. There is an interplay between light and architecture in Ripley, for instance, that would not be nearly as effective in color. Also, this is a story with some awful violence, and a scene of violence that does without the red blood that has been used and overused to the point of numbness is not any less brutal. It just moves the focus to other things -- in this case, very often, that's the logistics of handling dead bodies and murder scenes. In the very first scene you'll see in Ripley, Tom is moving a body down a flight of stairs. Were the scene in color, it might be overwhelmed by the sight of blood. In black and white, it is dominated by a thump-thump-thump, and by the sickening slackness of the body's uncontrolled limbs. Color would not enhance the dark corners of the story; it would in fact distract from them. Newsletter continues after sponsor message Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More We Recommend I absolutely adore Physical: 100, the South Korean competition show that recently dropped its second season on Netflix. It features 100 athletic people of all different kinds (Sumo wrestlers! Soldiers! Runners! Crossfitters! Firefighters!) competing to determine a single winner and thus one "best physique" (though it's pretty clear they all know there's no such thing). They push heavy things, they run, they wrestle each other -- and they all cheer each other on, always. I don't think I've ever seen a moment of poor sportsmanship (though there are some healthy egos), and it's fascinating to see different athletes excel in different things. After all, you might be the biggest guy with the biggest muscles, but that doesn't mean you're going to do well on the treadmill. And no matter how fast you are, you will be challenged by the event with my personal favorite name of this second season: "Infinite Squats." If you have not already seen it, please do treat yourself to the Saturday Night Live Tiny Desk sketch, about which I will only say: In our old building, I did have a desk in the same room as the TDC stage, and ... I mean, I never stepped in and requested an end to the ruckus, but it's not like I never wanted to. NPR asked you about your favorite Stephen King novels, and our own Beth Novey shared your responses. It's a good list, to which I would only add: read the short stories, too. Nightmares & Dreamscapes is a fantastic book, as is Skeleton Crew. The latter contains what I might argue is one of King's most darkly funny tales, "Survivor Type." What We Did This Week Blair Caldwell/Parkwood Entertainment / Courtesy of the artist Five years ago, we talked on PCHH about what a huge year for film 1999 seemed to be in retrospect. Now, with it 25 years in the past, we shared that episode again. Aisha and Stephen sat down with the great Brittany Luse and the great Sidney Madden to talk about -- of course -- Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter. It is always such a profound pleasure when I get to sit down with the other hosts of PCHH to talk about something we all really, really liked. That's what happened when Glen, Aisha and I met up this week to dive deeply into the fabulous new Ripley on Netflix. Glen welcomed a table full of favorite panelists -- Bedatri D. Choudhury, Priya Krishna and Andrew Limbong -- to talk about Dev Patel's Monkey Man. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Andrew: Seeing Jeff Rosenstock in concert, and returning to the mosh pit Priya: Real Americans by Rachel Khong Bedatri: The Featherstone Male Voice Choir featured in the Ffern campaign Glen: Remembering Joe Flaherty, and revisiting his work on SCTV Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? 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