Episode 4 - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: This is Why You Always Do a Background Check

Episode 4 - The Hand That Rocks the Cradle: This is Why You Always Do a Background Check

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 into their picture perfect home. Unbeknownst to them - but so obvious to their handyman Solomon (a show stealing Ernie Hudson, and yes we’ll attempt to unpack the power dynamics around that relationship) and Claire's bestie Marlene (a fabulous, cigarette smoking, red lipstick wearing Julianne Moore) - Peyton is a tragically barren and psychotically vengeful killer. Why doesn’t Claire do a background check on Peyton, what’s with the multiple references to H.M.S. Pinafore, why were the 1990s teeming with movies about threats to American domesticity, and why did preteen girls have a tendency to gravitate toward them? Grab a slice while we work it out. Get full access to Better Than You Remember at betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe [https://betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 3 - Sleeping With the Enemy: Symphonie Fantastique and Other Relationship Red Flags

Between the age of nine and twelve, Rebecca probably watched Sleeping With the Enemy [https://letterboxd.com/film/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 violently abused wife of Martin (Patrick Bergin) who cleverly fakes her own death and moves to Cedar Falls, Iowa to start a new life, where she also quickly falls for the college drama teacher Ben (Ken Anderson). When Martin – a man whose evil (and mustache) knows no bounds – learns his wife still draws breath, he comes to Iowa to “take what’s his,” and a deadly showdown transpires. Sleeping With the Enemy, while not well received (its current standing is 24% on Rotten Tomatoes [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/sleeping_with_the_enemy]), was a financial win. Why did Rebecca – and young women, primarily – make this film a box office smash? Did watching Julia Roberts get hit, and then hit back, make them feel empowered? Thirty years later, is it just us, or does that new boyfriend Ben seem less thoughtful and more like a love bombing stage five clinger? Jack and Rebecca cue up Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HgqPpjIH5c] and consider if that 24% is fair or foul. Content consideration: this episode includes adult language and themes of abuse and violence. Get full access to Better Than You Remember at betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe [https://betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 2 - Ordinary People: Let's Have a Good Cry

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 [https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ordinary_people], Rebecca can barely get through her retelling of this multi-Academy-Award-winning classic. Robert Redford’s [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford] directorial debut tells the story of the Jarretts – father Calvin (Donald Sutherland), mother Beth (Mary Tyler Moore), and son Conrad (Timothy Hutton) – trapped in their own silos of grief a year after their eldest son Bucky died in a boating accident, and months since Conrad attempted suicide. When Conrad starts to visit psychiatrist Dr. Berger (Judd Hirsch, donning excellent sweaters) to confront his pain, it’s best that you have a box of Kleenex nearby – even the hardest of hearts doesn’t stand a chance as the healing begins. Jack and Rebecca compose themselves and consider the significance of survivor’s guilt, whose story Ordinary People is telling, and decide that yes, the boat likely is a metaphor. Content consideration: this episode includes adult language and themes of depression, death, and suicide. Get full access to Better Than You Remember at betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe [https://betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 1 - Memory & Moviegoing

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 [https://betterthanyouremember.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]