Better Place, A: Director’s Cut (Blu-ray Review)

• Reviewed by: Stephen Bjork
• Review Date: Jun 11, 2025
• Format: Blu-ray Disc
• 

Director

Vincent Pereira

Release Date(s)

1997 (May 27, 2025)

Studio(s)

View Askew Productions (Smodcastle Cinema/MVD Rewind Collection)

• Film/Program Grade: B-
• Video Grade: B+
• Audio Grade: B+
• Extras Grade: A-

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Review

When Kevin Smith and a group of friends including Scott Mosier and Vincent Pereira worked together to craft the ultra-low budget indie hit Clerks in 1994, they never could have envisioned that it would launch a small empire (very small, but still) under the aegis of View Askew Productions. While Smith has moved in and out of the world of commercial filmmaking, View Askew has been an independent production company at heart. So, when Pereira decided to write and direct his own ultra-low budget film A Better Place, it was under the View Askew banner, with both Smith and Mosier lending their names to the project as executive producers. While it has plenty of rough edges—to be fair, so did Clerks—it’s always deserved a better fate than it received back in 1997 (more on that in a moment).

Barrett (Robert DiPatri) has moved to a new town after the death of his father, and despite the hopes that he and his mother might have found a better place to live, he immediately struggles to fit in with his new classmates at the local high school. Yet it’s not really due to any lack of effort on his part as much as it’s the result of the typical teenage refusal to accept anyone that they perceive as being outsiders. When some of the school jocks try to bully him, Ryan (Eion Bailey) steps in to defend him. Ryan has a dark past of his own, so the two of them end up forming a tenuous friendship. That relationship becomes strained when Barrett branches out to befriend other students like Augustine (Carmen Llywelyn) and Eddie (Brian Lynch) leading to the misanthropic Ryan falling deeper and deeper into an existential despair. So, he decides that he needs to strike out at the system, making the world a better place for people like him and Barrett by any means necessary—with tragic results. A Better Place also stars Joseph Cassese, Bryan Sproat, Jason Lee, and Pereira (watch for fellow View Askew veterans Ethan Suplee and Scott Mosier in cameos, and Lee also makes a second incognito appearance as a different character).

A Better Place was originally shot in 1995, but after a lengthy post-production process it finally hit the festival circuit in 1997 in the hopes of securing a theatrical distribution deal that sadly never materialized. It didn’t become available to the general public until 2001, when Synapse released a DVD of a new cut of the film that included a remixed soundtrack. Yet in between those two points, something else occurred that brought new attention to the subject of high school violence: the Columbine massacre. That tragedy captured the popular imagination and reshaped the narrative surrounding school shootings, and it inevitably affected the perceptions of all movies, television, or books that were about similar subject matter. Unfortunately, much of that was based on bad reporting and sheer myth, from “she said yes” to misperceptions about what really drove Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold to commit mass murder. As a result, relatively nuanced films like A Better Place became easier to misinterpret in order to align them with the overly simplistic popular narratives.

One of those inaccurate narratives was that bullying had led to the Columbine killings (other scapegoats included goths, video games, homosexuality, and even Marilyn Manson). It’s easy to read A Better Place as also offering a simplistic message about bullying, but Pereira captured something subtler and far more real. Bullies do try to pick on Barrett, but he doesn’t back down from them (or much of anything else for that matter). He’s just smaller than they are, and that’s what sets off Ryan. Yet Ryan’s gross overreaction is also a form of bullying, meeting mere threats of violence with active brutality. And that’s what leads to the bullies conspiring against him, which leads to Ryan deciding to take far more decisive action. It’s a vicious cycle of violence where the starting point isn’t even the teenagers themselves, but rather bad parenting. Barrett and Ryan both bear scars the scars of familial dysfunction, but so do the bullies themselves. Instead of being a better place, this high school is a hellscape from which there’s no exit (a point that’s literalized in the film by having Ryan explain Jean-Paul Sartre to Barrett).

What sets A Better Place apart from other similar films is that Pereira clearly empathizes with outsider figures like Barrett and Ryan while still openly acknowledging their complicity in their own existential crises—he offers explanations for their behavior, not excuses. Yet even the bullies are treated relatively empathetically, showing how one of them has suffered cruel degradation at the hands of his father (in a genuinely shocking scene). That helps to establish the fact that the cycle of violence didn’t start with these teenagers, and it probably won’t end with them either, however much that Ryan may think that he can create a better world at the end of a gun. A Better Place is about the process of Othering, but while the students at this high school all share some blame in having ostracized Barrett, Ryan’s traumatic past has led to him Othering himself. He may feel that there’s no exit from this personal hell, but it’s still a hell that’s at least partly of his own making. That has tragic downstream consequences, including Barrett trying to find an exit of his own. Yet just like Joseph, Inèz, and Estelle in Sartre’s play, he’s denied even that momentary catharsis. For Barrett at least, there truly is no exit, and there’s no better place after all.

Cinematographer Ian Dudley shot A Better Place on 16mm film (in standard 16mm format) using an Arriflex 16SR1 camera with an Angénieux 10-100mm zoom lens, although select shots were filmed using Zeiss prime 5.6mm, 8mm, and 300mm lenses instead. While unmatted standard 16mm film has an aspect ratio of 1.37:1, Dudley protected for 1.66:1 as a compromise between the then-current home video aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and the (hopeful) possibility of theatrical distribution via 35mm blowups matted at 1.85:1. Yet when Pereira supervised the transfer for the non-anamorphic Synapse Films DVD, zooming out revealed too much information at the edges while matting to 1.66:1 looked too cramped, so he had the idea to try the 35mm still photography ratio of 1.50:1 instead, and it worked well enough that he’s stuck with it ever since. (Note that this version was derived from the camera negative while the Synapse disc was scanned from a low-con print, so there’s a bit more information on the bottom and sides of the image.)

For this new remaster, the original camera negative was scanned in native 3K on an Arriscan film scanner, with cleanup, grading, and other digital restoration work completed in a 2K pipeline. Scanning and restoration were done at OCN Digital Labs, under the supervision of Pereira. Note that the negatives are missing for Ryan’s flashbacks that were added for the Synapse DVD, so those scenes were scanned from first-generation print elements instead, but all other shots/scenes added for this version were derived from negative trims. There are some minor dialogue changes, as well as a few altered and/or added shots, trims, and a new dissolve. In addition to the editorial changes, a few digital fixes were made by Seth Martin in order to ameliorate continuity errors and minor technical issues, while Franny Lane worked on upscaling one shot. It’s all pretty much seamless (ironically enough, it’s the old changes from the Synapse version that still stand out).

Standard 16mm origination or not, everything looks sharp and nicely detailed aside from the shot at 9:00 that looks like it’s out of focus (although it was actually an issue with the camera’s shutter). Dudley shot most of the film on 50 ASA Kodak 7245 for daylight exteriors and 200 ASA 7293 for interiors, although the 7293 and some 500 ASA 7298 were also used for low-light exteriors, the and final scene was shot on 7248. The goal was to minimize grain as much as possible, only compromising with faster stocks when necessary. While the grain does vary a bit depending on the circumstances, it’s usually quite smooth and refined, providing proof positive that 16mm doesn’t have to look as raw and coarse as people expect it to.

There’s some minor debris and damage visible throughout the film, but most of it consists of fleeting single-frame marks, although one of the shot replacements at 14:15 does look a little rough, and the rounded edges of the film frame do creep into one shot at 79:08 (the latter was the result of an intentional shift in order to keep the blood fully visible at the bottom of the frame). The colors all look exactly like what you would expect from Kodak 16mm stock, with none of the red push to the flesh tones that plagues some OCN masters—in fact, the flesh tones here look nearly perfect. The whole project was a labor of love, and as a result, there’s little doubt that this is the best that A Better Place has ever looked. It’s a fantastic remaster.

Audio is offered in English 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, with optional English SDH subtitles. A Better Place was originally mixed in mono, but a 5.1 remix was created by Skywalker Sound for the Synapse DVD, and that’s the only mix included here (although Pereira has tweaked a bit more for this version). The score and songs are offered in full stereo, and while the surrounds are filled with ambient effects like birds and waves, and there are some directional effects panning across the soundstage whenever appropriate. Skywalker was also able to fix some defects in the original mix like the drone of an HVAC unit that threatened to overwhelm one scene, so it’s no great loss that the original mono mix hasn’t been included (and it wouldn’t match either the Synapse cut or this one anyway).

The MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray release of A Better Place is the first film in their new Smodcastle Cinemas label, which will focus on neglected View Askew productions like this one. The insert is reversible, featuring new artwork on one side and the original poster artwork on the other, and there’s a textured slipcover with the new artwork. Vincent Pereira is also offering various autographed swag editions via his Facebook page, including frame clippings, mini posters, reprints of the screenplay, and personalized letters. The disc is the same, so the following extras are included regardless of which version that you choose:

• Audio Commentary by Vincent Pereira & Cast and Crew
• Introduction by Vincent Pereira (HD – 2:03)
• 2001 Version of A Better Place: (SD – 85:19)
  • “Goof” Commentary
  • Introduction by Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier 1 (SD – 6:03)
  • Introduction by Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier 2 (SD – 4:36)
  • Introduction by Kevin Smith & Scott Mosier 3 (SD – 4:19)
• Deleted Scenes (SD – 16:29, 8 in all)
• Deleted Scenes with Commentary (SD – 16:29, 8 in all)
• Outtakes and Bloopers (SD – 1:38)
• Trailer (HD – 1:26)
• Play All Introductions (HD & SD – 17:01, 4 in all)
• Trailers:
  • Wrong Reasons (HD – 2:03)
  • Clerk (HD – 2:33)
  • Film Hawk (HD – 2:52)
  • Max Reload and the Nether Blasters (HD – 1:56)
  • Big Helium Dog (SD – 7:53)

There’s one new extra for this release: the film can be played with or without an optional Introduction by Vincent Pereira. Vincent offers a brief overview of the editorial changes and digital fixes in the director’s cut version, as well as a look at the scanning and restoration process. The rest of the extras are archival ones that have been ported over from the 2001 Synapse DVD.

The archival extras kick off with a group commentary featuring Pereira, Joseph Cassese, Brian Lynch, and Robert DiPatri. Pereira opens by calling himself the “Kubrick of low-budget filmmaking” because he’s never satisfied and he keeps doing things until he’s happy, mentioning the new 5.1 mix specifically, but this new director’s cut proves that those words were truer than he may have imagined at the time. (In further foreshadowing, they also joke about making digital fixes to the film.) Pereira also references his favorite filmmakers like Terrance Malick and Michael Cimino, noting some parallels to Badlands, but really focusing on what he calls Malick’s “location-based moodiness.” He acknowledges some of the flaws in A Better Place, admitting that he felt the need to over-explain things when he wrote the script, like how Ryan got his gun. He also provides loads of technical information about the making of the film, like the wheelchair dolly that he borrowed from the Robert Rodriguez school of low-budget filmmaking (although in reality, Rodriguez borrowed the idea from Raoul Coutard). Now, to be fair, Cassese, Lynch, and DiPatri do offer their own contributions, but A Better Place is Pereira’s baby, and it’s very much his commentary. It’s a great track that’s well worth a listen.

Since this new master for A Better Place was completed as the director’s cut only, the 2001 Version from the Synapse DVD has been included in order to preserve that cut of the film (the actual original festival cut has never been released on home video). It’s presented here in SD, framed at 1.50:1, with English 5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Digital audio. It also includes the “Goof” Commentary from that DVD, as well as three different Introductions for the film with Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier. The “Goof” Commentary features the same group of individuals after recording the main commentary, this time letting their hair down after having had a few drinks. Needless to say, it’s a matter of taste, but it’s still nice that it’s been included. As far as the Introductions go, it looks like Smith and Mosier had recorded three different introductions for the DVD, improvising a different tongue-in-cheek tack each time, and Synapse just decided to include all three. Yet amid all of their own goofing off, they do express some real admiration for the film. (Note that there’s a typo on the menu, or rather three of them, with Mosier credited as “Scoot” every time.)

There’s also a collection of eight Deleted Scenes that can be played with or without optional commentary by Pereira (a few of them are scene extensions). Interestingly enough, some of this material was in the festival cut of A Better Place but he deleted it when he first revised the film for the Synapse DVD. There are also a few moments that clarify minor gaps in the final cut (like why a few characters disappear completely partway through the story), but Pereira is straightforward about why they all had to be eliminated, and his reasoning makes sense.

The rest of the extras consist of the 2024 restoration trailer; a collection of other trailers including the extended promo for Big Helium Dog; a collection of all the various Introductions on the disc; and a reel of Outtakes and Bloopers. That’s pretty much everything from the Synapse DVD save for some comparisons of the original mono mix to the 5.1 Skywalker Sound remix, but they aren’t particularly relevant anymore (unless they’re still here as an Easter egg and I just missed them). While the original festival cut of A Better Place hasn’t been included here (or anywhere else for that matter), it’s great that the Synapse cut has been included as that’s the only version that’s been available on home video prior to this point (even VHS utilized the Synapse cut). It’s a great debut for the Smodcastle Cinema line, and it’s about damned time that A Better Place has made the leap to HD.

-Stephen Bjork

(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).