1999: The Podcast #087 – The Story of Us/In Memory of Rob Reiner (1947-2025) – with Nitish Pahwa
In honor of the late Rob Reiner we are looking at The Story of Us, the 74th highest-grossing movie of the year, finishing just ahead of earlier entry Blast from the Past. Opening #2 behind Fight Club on October 15th and going on to gross $59 million worldwide on a $50 million dollar budget.
Starring Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Reiner himself, Rita Wilson, Julie Hagerty, Paul Reiser, and Tim Matheson, The Story of Us is one of Reiner’s worst-reviewed movies, who, after an unbelievable run of movies in the late 80s and early 90s started running into trouble in the late 90s and early 2000s with the likes of this, Rumor Has It, and the aggressively sentimental and fluffy The Bucket List.
Is The Story of Us as bad as critics said? Or does it belong alongside When Harry Met Sally, Reiner’s romcom masterpiece that it goes so far out its way to evoke?
We welcome Slate’s Nitish Pahwa to discuss marriage, casting, bad writing, unnecessary monologues, and the greatness of Rob Reiner.
Nitish is on Bluesky @nitishpahwa.com
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