What Dreams May Come: Deep Thoughts About the Cosmology of a Painted Afterlife, Misogynistic Romance Tropes, and 90s Era Casual Racism

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Thought is real. Physical is the illusion. Ironic, huh ?

The thoughts are deeper (and potentially more upsetting, so mind the CWs) than usual on this week's episode of Deep Thoughts About Stupid Shit, where Emily shares her film analysis of the 1998 cult classic What Dreams May Come. Based on the novel by Richard Matheson (who had some truly fucked up views of women, romance, and gender dynamics), director Vincent Ward and leads Robin Williams, Cuba Gooding, Jr., and Annabella Sciorra make a concerted effort to elevate the source material beyond its misogynistic roots, giving us a visually stunning examination of the afterlife and a compassionate look at the difficulty of loving someone with mental health challenges. But the trope that Williams' Chris and Sciorra's Annie are soul mates keeps their romance from being something to emulate, erases Annie's agency, and recreates Matheson's misogynistic belief that women are nothing without their men.

Additionally, although casting Gooding as Chris's deceased mentor may have seemed progressive for the 90s, finding out that the actual mentor was cosplaying as Max Von Sydow, a white German actor, while Chris's daughter took on the form of Rosalind Chao because of a casually racist comment Chris once made about the beauty of Asian women, feels rather less worthy of nostalgia from the vantage point of 2026. That said, while Matheson's view of women is foul, the romance and imagination of the afterlife he envisioned and Ward put on the screen is nothing short of captivating and thought-provoking--and this film offers an lovely and compassionate take on how to support someone when there is nothing you can do to make things better.

Your brain may be nothing but meat, but it's meat that's craving some stimulation in the form of a delightful podcast conversation between your favorite Guy sisters! So take a listen!

Content warning: Discussions of child death, suicide, and depression. Take care with this one, y'all.

Tags:

deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romance, pop culture, women, mental health, psychology, cult classic, cultural commentary, film analysis, movies, movie reviews, feminism, film, nostalgia, 80s and 90s movies, robin williams, cuba gooding jr, richard matheson, annabella sciorra, rosalind chao

This episode was edited by

Please give us a review and/or a rating! It really does help. In fact, email a screenshot of your review and your address to [e-mail], and we'll send you a Deep Thoughts About Stupid Sh*t sticker to say thanks. ~Tracie & Emily

We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.

We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.

We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com

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