Better Than You Remember

Jack has feelings about horror movies (he doesn’t like them), which means he is the one guy on the planet who has never seen Scream . But…is Scream actually a horror movie, or is it more of a who-done-it-with-big-knives? Wes Craven’s clever metatextual hit majorly connected with audiences – the OG film made over one hundred million at the box office, reinvigorated the slasher genre, and spawned si...

Starring a stacked cast – Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Julia Roberts, Oliver Platt, and Billy Baldwin (remember, Billy was Very Hot in the 90s) Flatliners is about a group of medical students who begin to mess with the mortal coil by euthanizing and then zapping themselves back to life to find out what waits for us on the other side of existence. Turns out: bad shit is waiting. Each undergrad u...

Our A Perfect Murder episode got us ruminating on remakes. In this bonus bite, Jack and Rebecca each bring three re-do to the mic: a goodie, a baddie, and a....eh, it may not be pretty, but they get there. From The Magnificent Seven to Sabrina, we consider reboots that should have left the OG well enough alone, and which reimaginations added something new to the story. Get full access to Better Th...

When a director knows they shouldn’t remake a classic, or a classic doesn’t need a remake, but they want to remake it – what should they do? Andrew Davis’ 1998 A Perfect Murder is a loosey goosey reimaging of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 Dial M for Murder , swapping Gwyneth Paltrow for Grace Kelly and Michael Douglas for Ray Milland in the creeptastic story of a husband who hires a man to kill his wife...

Good things come in small packages - at least that is the hope of movie trailer editors. In this bonus episode, Jack and Rebecca queue up the trailer for The Pelican Brief , compare and contrast it with the vibe of Oliver Stone’s JFK , and give the inside scoop on why and how trailers can pack such a mighty (or puny) punch. Get full access to Better Than You Remember at betterthanyouremember.subst...

The Pelican Brief doesn’t sound all that thrilling: a young college student writes an academic paper theorizing about who is responsible for the murders of two Supreme Court Justices, implicating a dangerous business man. Research! Typing! Microfiche! But starring A-listers Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington and with director Alan J. Pakula ( All the President’s Men, The Parallax View ) adapting...

The patriarchy enjoys regular energy injections from cinema (see: the James Bond franchise, Roadhouse, My Fair Lady ). John Hughes gave it a big shot in the arm in 1985 with Weird Science . Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith star as uber losers Gary and Wyatt, who – with Playboy, Frankenstein , and bras as headwear – make a “perfect woman” they name Lisa (Kelly LeBrock). With the help of...

Han Solo and Indiana Jones were well established cinematic heroes when Witness was put into heavy VHS rotation at the Fons household. But in Peter Weir’s crime drama, Harrison Ford didn’t need a Millennium Falcon or a bullwhip to make a strong impression. As Philly detective John Book, assigned to protect Amish mother Rachel (Kelly McGillis) and her son who witnessed the murder of an undercover co...

When you were ten years old, if you weren't staying up late, eating Pizza Hut personal pan pizzas and watching The Hand That Rocks the Cradle on VHS at a sleepover with all your friends, what were you doing? In this trashy thriller, Claire (Annabella Sciorra) and her doofus husband Michael hire Peyton, (Rebecca De Mornay), the seemingly perfect nanny, to help them as they welcome a second child in...

Between the age of nine and twelve, Rebecca probably watched Sleeping With the Enemy – in the theater, at sleepovers, and on basic cable – at least a dozen times (Rebecca's mom had no idea she was shrugging off MPAA guidance and going back to this R rated well again and again). In this big-budget-but-honestly-it’s-really-a-Lifetime-Television-for-Women-joint, Julia Roberts plays Laura, the violent...

Do you cry more when you watch a sad movie alone, with someone you love, or in a movie theater with strangers? Until Harvard does a very specific behavioral study, we’ve got one data set: not only do we cry our goddamn eyes out watching Ordinary People , Rebecca can barely get through her retelling of this multi-Academy-Award-winning classic. Robert Redford’s directorial debut tells the story of t...

In this first episode, Rebecca and Jack introduce themselves (they're married!), and the impetus for the podcast, the significant and special link between memory and moviegoing, how there is no right way to talk about film, and what to expect with each episode. Get full access to Better Than You Remember at betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe