The new film The Batman slaps both a definite article and a seriously

emo haircut on the Caped Crusader. This time it's Robert Pattinson who broods and butt

kicks to clean up the streets of Gotham. He's facing off against Paul Dano's riddler, who

in this incarnation is a sadistic serial killer leading clues that point to a dark secret

lurking in Gotham's seamy underbelly. A secret that somehow involves a gangster played

by John Turtaro and under a lot of padding and a lot of prosthetics, Colin Farrell's

Penguin. But if you're not bad fans, Bruce gets help from not yet Commissioner Gordon

played by Jeffrey Wright as well as Zoe Kravitz's Catwoman. I'm Glenn Weldon and today

we're talking about THE Batman on pop culture happy hour from NPR.

Here with me is the host of NPR's Book of the Day podcast and a reporter for the culture

desk Andrew Limbong. Hey Andrew. Yeah, what's up? Welcome back. Also with us is Daisy

Rosario. She's an executive producer at Stitcher where she works with shows like The Sporkful

Hey Daisy. Hey, Glenn. Hey, hey. So let's get to it as THE Batman opens. Bruce Wayne's

been clomping around Gotham in a bulletproof bat suit for two years trying to clean up

the streets. He's befriended Jim Gordon and knocked plenty of heads together, but he's

stymied when some of the city's most prominent citizens start getting murdered. The killer

leaves notes addressed to Batman riddles that draw him into a mystery that just might point

back to his own family. There are plenty of action set pieces, elaborate fight scenes

and car chases involving a new muscle car, Batman Hill, which is pretty cool. But director

Matt Reeves and his co-writer Peter Craig are leaning into the world's greatest detective

facet of the Batman character. This is really the first Batman film to function chiefly

as a mystery story complete with red herrings that complicate and some might say over complicate.

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