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Rebecca Fons

@rfonzie

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Head of Cinema at the @barbicancentre, big project enthusiast. Always on the lookout for @milkinmovies and co-host of @betterthanyourememberpodcast.

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Flatliners: Death, God, And What Are Movies Even For, Man?

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 unlocks their deepest shames or sorrows, all of which begin to haunt them in the land of the living. Now, on a college campus that is inexplicably and entirely under construction - awash with barricades, flashing lights, and plastic sheeting - the quintet have to figure out how to slough off the ghosts of their past before they drive them nuts or quite literally kill them. Young Rebecca was no stranger to slasher, splatter, and stalker movies, but something about Flatliners really spooked her because it wasn’t about Freddy and Jason, but about death itself, regret, and atonement. Real Dickensian type stuff. In this episode, Rebecca and Jack get metaphysical and theological (you’re welcome, Joel Schumacher) and hotly debate if movies – yes, ALL movies – are messaging to viewers that they should live a more saintly life.

Click the link in bio to listen and subscribe! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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17 days ago

September 2026: I like everything about it. by @rfonzie

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18 days ago

Bonus content alert!

Introducing The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - side convos around the best, worst, and “oh brother” bits and pieces that intersect with a recent @betterthanyourememberpodcast episode.

A Perfect Murder got us ruminating on remakes, and in this GBU, Jack and Rebecca each bring three re-dos 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.

Listen and subscribe through the link in our bio! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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a month ago

One year anniversary at the @barbicancentre! This place - the building itself and the work we do in it - is massive and magical and I am full to the brim with gratitude for all the colleagues who have welcomed and supported me so warmly. Bonus love to @jackcnewell who has gone on this adventure without a moment’s hesitation. ❤️ 🇬🇧 🎞️ by @rfonzie

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a month ago

A Perfect Murder: Sex, Lies, and Remakes

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. The film didn’t light the world on fire, but it lives in Rebecca’s memory relatively fondly (Paltrow wears some great turtlenecks, Douglas is convincingly oppressive, and a mumbling Viggo Mortensen plays Paltrow’s lover and hired hitman!). Did audiences need to have seen Hitch’s original to appreciate A Perfect Murder? Or is it better for audiences to have no standard to hold Davis’ work against? We give the film a go with multi-million-dollar-film-budget questions in mind: when a film remake doesn’t land (ahem, Gus Van Sant’s Psycho), is it because of audiences affinity for the original? Can a remake succeed only when divorced from its source material? Jack and Rebecca get into the not-so-way-back machine and talk through A Perfect Murder’s imperfections, and consider how small changes in a reimagining can make you appreciate the source material all the more.

Click the link in bio to listen and subscribe! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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a month ago

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? In 1998, Gwyneth Paltrow donned a plethora of turtlenecks, Michael Douglas slicked back his hair, and a much beloved 1954 film was loosey-goose-ily remade. In our next episode of @betterthanyourememberpodcast, Jack and Rebecca get into the not-so-way-back machine to consider cinematic reimaginings, remakes, reboots and redos.

Tune in tomorrow to listen, and subscribe via the link in our bio! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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a month ago

Note written by me, found by @jackcnewell, context unknown! #obligations taken in London, United Kingdom by @rfonzie

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a month ago

August 2026: don’t close the door! by @rfonzie

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2 months ago

Bonus content alert!

Welcome to @betterthanyourememberpodcast’s Trailer Park, where we explore movie trailers and bite size memories.

First up: exactly how many times did the editors of The Pelican Brief trailer watch JFK? Jack and Rebecca queue up the Pakula + Roberts + Washington marketing pitch and 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.

Listen and subscribe via the link in our bio! #betterthanyourememberpodcast #thepelicanbrief #movietrailers by @rfonzie

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2 months ago

The Pelican Brief: The Hazards of Being the Teacher’s Pet
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 Mr. Airport-Read-John-Grisham’s bestseller, the film became a box office smash, and a teenage Rebecca found herself briefly (!!) obsessed with a movie about a scholarly essay. While there aren’t any actual pelicans in the cast, this 1994 legal thriller brings ensemble heat: Stanley Tucci, Sam Shepard, John Heard, Tony Goldwyn, John Lithgow. Rebecca and Jack interrogate if the film works as a thriller (our math maths at 70% cumbersome legal dialogue to 30% action sequences), review the refreshingly platonic chemistry between Roberts and Washington, and how while it ain’t as taut and atmospheric as Pakula’s paranoia classics of the 1970s, The Pelican Brief must have done something special with all those floppy disks to keep Rebecca coming back for countless rewatches in the 1990s.

Click the link in bio to listen and subscribe! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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2 months ago

July 2026: wonderful and strange loops courtesy the wily universe; good omens; birthday. by @rfonzie

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3 months ago

Weird Science: This One’s Gonna Hurt
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 Lisa, Gary and Wyatt stick up for themselves, gain confidence, and get girlfriends, evolving from boys to…somewhat older boys. Along the way they engage in some nonchalant racism, frequent homophobia, and rampant misogyny.

Weird Science was a big one for Rebecca, who watched it when it played perpetually on basic cable. It was also big for everybody (except for Jack, apparently, who somehow missed the film entirely). Rebecca and Jack steel themselves for this specimen that has not aged well, interrogating a film that scrutinizes bodies as a plot point, and how it may have negatively impacted the self image of young cinephiles across the land.

Is there someone to blame for that damage (it isn’t Lisa, she’s amazing), or is Weird Science a film we should simply chalk up to a sign of the times?

Click the link in bio to listen and subscribe! #betterthanyourememberpodcast by @rfonzie

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3 months ago