How a Dolly Parton duet became the 'unhinged' heart of 'Oh, Hi!'
NEW YORK − As Sophie Brooks was trying to get funding for her new movie, “Oh, Hi!,” she made a playlist to give potential producers the film's vibe.
That playlist was emblazoned with a picture of Kathy Bates holding a knife in Stephen King’s 1990 thriller “Misery,” about a murderous ex-nurse named Annie Wilkes who holds her favorite author (James Caan) hostage.
That image was apropos for the twisted rom-com “Oh, Hi!” (in theaters now), which follows a young woman named Iris (Molly Gordon) who handcuffs her new beau, Isaac (Logan Lerman), to the bed during a remote romantic getaway after he says they’re not exclusive.
To be clear, Annie and Iris are “very different degrees of crazy,” Brooks says in a sit-down with her longtime friend Gordon, who co-conceived the story. Rather, this movie is “a little wish fulfillment. If a girl could lean into her most unhinged, intrusive thoughts, would you end up tying a man to a bed to convince him to love you?”
Gordon rewatched “Misery” before “Oh, Hi!" premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January and was reminded that there are nearly no movies “where women get to be that bold and free and funny,” she says. “It sucks that there still aren’t that many of those types of roles for women, but Sophie wanted to give me the space to get to be wild.”
Molly Gordon, Sophie Brooks break down the 'Oh, Hi!' soundtrack
One of the unexpected pleasures of “Oh, Hi!” is its eclectic soundtrack, which features memorable needle drops from Clairo, Julia Jacklin and Marie Owens.
Blake Mills’ woozy “Breakthrough Moon” underscores an early bondage sequence as Iris handcuffs Isaac to the bed for a night of passion. (“It’s hard to find a song for a sex scene that’s the perfect level of sexiness without being too over the top,” Gordon says.) And then there’s Molly Burch’s lilting “Made of Glass,” which perfectly captures Iris’ state of mind with lyrics about looking for something special and no longer wanting to waste time in unfulfilling relationships. (“Her music really speaks to the modern-day female experience,” Brooks says.)
For millennials, a nostalgic highlight is sure to be Mario’s 2004 R&B hit “Let Me Love You.” Iris dances to the song while Isaac is chained to the bedposts in a desperately misguided attempt to win him over.
On the set, “it was actually choreographed to a different song, but it wasn’t as funny as it could be,” Brooks recalls. “Let Me Love You” was added “really late in the game, right before Sundance. Our music supervisor, Jillian Ennis, suggested it. As soon as we put it in, we were like, ‘OK, thank God, this is working.’ It was so organic and really fun.”
How Dolly Parton's 'Islands in the Stream' became a 'siren song'
The most recognizable song is undoubtedly “Islands in the Stream,” the smooth 1983 duet between Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. Iris and Isaac harmonize on the dulcet chart-topper as they drive through upstate New York at the start of the film.
Initially, “we considered a Lana Del Rey song, but we really loved the idea of it being a duet,” Brooks says. “Also, Dolly Parton is such an incredible feminist icon and really plays with femininity and desire and ambition in a way that I really relate to. It just felt right.”
Gordon notes that it’s a song that couples often will sing at karaoke together. “We wanted to kind of make fun of the annoyance of new love, like, we’re going to sing ‘Islands in the Stream’ together!” she says with a laugh. “But also, how exciting it is when you have someone to do that with.”
The song reappears later in the movie during a dream sequence as Isaac imagines walking outside his mountaintop prison and finding Iris crooning it to him.
“It becomes this almost haunting thing for him and turns into this siren song,” Gordon says. That moment was always in the script from the get-go: “That’s just what happens when you work with your best friend. Sophie was like: ‘I want you to be able to show all the parts of yourself that you haven’t gotten to as an artist. You’re going to dance silly because you’re an insane person, and then you’re going to sing, too.’”
Gordon was admittedly anxious about covering such an iconic tune, which she recorded at the legendary Sound City Studios in Los Angeles.
“I had been naughty,” Gordon says. “I had just done a movie in England and was smoking cigarettes stupidly, and I feel like I had this rasp. I was scared because I didn’t have a voice that day, but I think it actually makes the song have a cooler vibe because I have a very annoying voice a lot of the time. And we only had an hour to record, so it was like, I don’t have time to be nervous!”
Ultimately, “it was very pinch-me.”