Skylight Books Podcast Series

As a music genre, plunderphonics is somewhat misunderstood. While the genre is based on samples, much like hip-hop, it isn't just music made from other music. It utilizes samples to push the boundaries of copyright -- what is fair use, what is public domain, who truly owns a piece of music? Matthew Blackwell's new book for 33 1/3's GENRE series,  Plunderphonics , traces the genre back to the quote...

The BTTM guys are running their mouths about THE RUNNING MAN. Allan, Tyler, and Justin dig into the recent Edgar Wright-directed film and the same-named 1987 Arnold Schwarzenegger star vehicle, which are both adapted -- to different degrees -- from the novel by Stephen King (under his Richard Bachman alias). It's a boisterous discussion among three guys whose reactions range from ambivalent to und...

Ambient Music, as a genre, is one that is meant to be experienced consciously or unconsciously. It can be focused upon or ignored. It can feed your soul, brighten your day, or just counterpoint the din of the everyday. Dusty Henry, in his new book for 33 1/3's GENRE series, focuses upon  20TH CENTURY AMBIENT . The book looks at early and unexpected influences like Erik Satie and Blind Willie Johns...

Ocean waves, ocean waves. One of the best-loved movies of the fall has been Paul Thomas Anderson's ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. The Better Than the Movie crew is joined by Rene Franco, the head of Skylight's Rabbit Hole Reading Club , to discuss the flick and also the novel which provided some inspiration, Thomas Pynchon's kooky and kaleidoscopic  Vineland .  Hosted by Justin Remer, Allan Traylor, an...

Mwahahaha! The Better Than the Movie crew have gathered again to celebrate R.L. Stine's GOOSEBUMPS horror series for young readers. Rather than just talk ABOUT the books, as they did on the last Halloween special, they talk THROUGH a book. Justin reads a GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS title (a kind of CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE sub-series from the late 1990s) while everyone provides color commentary as t...

In Angel City, alchemy is everything. Red City is the new fantasy novel from Marie Lu (Legend, Stars and Smoke). Bookseller Keila Cone-Uemura talks to Lu about the difference between writing for an adult audience and for a YA audience. During this wide-ranging talk, they discuss the inspiration that Lu pulled from her own life and from the city of Los Angeles. They also touch on the unexpected inf...

In advance of the screening of Johnny Mnemonic in Black & White that the BTTM crew is hosting for the American Cinematheque's Friend of the Fest 2025, Allan and Justin get together to discuss the film and the William Gibson short story that inspired it.   If you're going to be in Los Angeles on Tuesday, August 26, 2025, why not come to our movie screening at the Los Feliz 3 theater? Tickets av...

Abashed the devil stood, and felt how awful goodness is. The Crow (1994) is a one-of-a-kind film, borne out of tragedy and thought to be cursed. Critic and culture writer Alisha Mughal takes a look at the film, its graphic novel origins, its beautiful but doomed star Brandon Lee, and much more in her new book for the Pop Classics series, It Can't Rain All the Time: The Crow . Alisha joins Skylight...

Author and comedian Sophia Benoit ( Well, This Is Exhausting ) joins the Better Than the Movie crew to discuss a modern children's book classic, HOLES by Louis Sachar, and its 2003 live-action Disney adaptation, which was scripted by Sachar himself, directed by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), and starred an insanely talented ensemble cast headed by Megalopolis co-stars Shia LaBeouf and Jon Voigt. Bot...

Don't drink? Don't smoke? What do you do? THE VINYL DIARIES follows Pete Crighton's journey from a closeted goody two shoes to a blissfully self-possessed lover of queer community, queer joy, and queer sex, while keeping track of the key pop music that resonated along the way. For this episode, Pete Crighton ( The B-52s' Cosmic Thing ) discusses releasing a memoir as a first-time writer, processin...

This is so unexpected, we didn't even have a speech prepared. Author Veronica Litt joins us to talk about her new book in ECW Press's Pop Classics series,  Ugh! As If! , on Amy Heckerling's classic film comedy Clueless. This is the 30th Anniversary of Clueless's theatrical release, and the book is both a warm, conversational appreciation and clear-eyed dissection of what the movie gets wonderfully...

The Old Man WAS Still Alive! Film writer and physical media enthusiast Conor Holt returns to Better Than the Movie to discuss a pair of classics: John Huston's film The Dead (1987), adapted from the short story by James Joyce, which first appeared in  Dubliners (1914). Spoiler alert: Everyone loved them both. But between the film and the story, which did they think was better? Hosted by Allan Tray...

From BITCHES BREW to "Feels So Good" and beyond, author Matthew Reed Baker delves into the funky, smooth, and transcendent records that resulted from the merging of jazz with R&B, pop, rock, and much much more in the 1970s. Miles Davis, Weather Report, Chuck Mangione, Herbie Hancock, Joni Mitchell, and Steely Dan are just some of the acts that are discussed in 1970s Jazz Fusion , a welcome new...

Abe is Bae? The wonderful Emily VanKoughnett (Los Angeles Review of Books; LIT ANGELES ) returns to Better Than the Movie with a classy pick: Kobo Abe's existential psychological thriller The Woman in the Dunes. The novel, from 1962, was made a few years later into an Oscar-nominated film adapted by Abe and directed by the inimitable Hiroshi Teshigahara. Both are considered top-tier classics... bu...

Award-winning graphic novelist and illustrator Sina Grace ( Superman: The Harvests of Youth ) joins host Tyler Austin to discuss his new book,  West Hollywood Monster Squad . A ragtag crew must make their way across West Hollywood after some unexpected pink snow begins creating giant monsters in their midst. It's a sweet, funny "turbo gay" story for our time. Sina and Tyler discuss themes of the s...

Happy Opening Day! Baseball is back, and BTTM is back with another baseball-themed book adaptation. Bookseller and writer Jonah Lipton joins the crew to discuss Bernard Malamud's 1952 novel THE NATURAL, and its 1984 film adaptation starring Robert Redford. Famously the book is downbeat and cynical, reflecting postwar disillusionment, while the movie is upbeat and heroic, reflecting Reagan-era opti...

Film journalist and critic Marya E. Gates talks with Justin about her new book,  Cinema Her Way: Visionary Female Directors In Their Own Words . The book is a stylishly illustrated collection of interviews with 19 film directors, including Gillian Armstrong, Jane Campion, Mira Nair, Mary Lambert, and Katt Shea. Another great chat for our cinephile listeners! Hosted and produced by Justin Remer.  R...

Come to... Pod-dy? We're straining for puns over here, but we've got a fun remote-recorded episode today, featuring the return of author and podcaster Garon Cockrell ( Demonic and Other Tales ). It's a follow-up to last year's Nightbreed episode, in which Tyler voiced his dislike for body horror. For being such a good sport, we reward him with more Clive Barker: the 1987 film Hellraiser, directed...

We're podcasting... Yeah yeah yay-yo! Justin speaks with Leah Kardos, the author of the new 33 1/3 book on Kate Bush's Hounds of Love . Together, they discuss the impact of the album and Kate Bush's undersung influence as a record producer. Leah also talks about the process of finding the structure and narrative for her book. There's music nerd stuff in there too, but it's GOOD, smart music nerd s...

An episode so good, it'll make you wish you had three ears. Buzzy Cohen ( Baby Got Facts: Totally '90s Trivia ) returns for another delightful episode, breaking down Philip K. Dick's short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" and the 1990 film adaptation directed by Paul Verhoeven, with a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon & Ronald Shusett and Gary Goldman. Reality, virtual reality, false memo...

Like the proverbial Christmas miracle, the BTTM crew is back just in the (Saint) nick of time for a holiday-themed final episode of 2024. At the behest of Natalie Freeman and Allison Woodnutt (who you may remember from last year's A HAUNTING IN VENICE episode), Justin, Allan, and Tyler braved the cold to wave down THE POLAR EXPRESS, an illustrated children's book by Chris Van Allsburg (JUMANJI) an...

It's America, dude, learn the rules! Chris Andersen (Your Favorite Bad Movie Podcast) joins the BTTM crew to discuss the 2001 adaptation of the Daniel Clowes graphic novel GHOST WORLD , directed by Terry Zwigoff (Crumb, Bad Santa). They discuss how one can grow up relating to a disaffected teen girl played by Thora Birch and find themselves an alienated physical-media-obsessed adult, played by Ste...

Ace interviewer Elodie Saint-Louis sits down with Lili Anolik to discuss Anolik's new book Didion & Babitz . Anolik talks about the complicated relationship between authors Joan Didion and Eve Babitz, their unique perspectives on the Feminist Movement, and how they were each consumed by and motivated each other. Anolik also tells the fascinating story of how she discovered the complexity of th...

What Price Vincent? Writer and improviser Mark Rennie (The Big Gay Movie Spreadsheet, Eat Pray Dunk) returns for a second appearance on BTTM, just in time for Spooky Season. Under discussion is the Edgar Allan Poe classic "The Masque of the Red Death," adapted to film by director Roger Corman and star Vincent Price in 1964.  Allan and Justin chat with Mark about horror in general, about Vincent Pr...

THIS... IS... JEOP-BUZZY! Jeopardy! champion Buzzy Cohen ( Baby Got Facts: Totally 90s Trivia ) drops in to talk about John Cheever's small slice of suburban surrealism, "The Swimmer." Burt Lancaster headlines the 1968 film adaptation, scripted by Eleanor Perry (Diary of a Mad Housewife) and directed by Frank Perry (Mommie Dearest). This is Better Than the Movie's first short story discussion, so...