Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

This review may contain spoilers!

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a sequel to the 1988 film, Beetlejuice, and reunites us with the Deetz family a couple of decades later. The death of Lydia's father prompts the reunion of three generations of Deetz in mourning and invites the return of an unsavoury Afterlife figure who has not moved on.

This felt like a complete send all the way back to the 80s. And not in a manner that left this film feeling outdated, but rather a complete love letter to a time when Tim Burton was riding high and knocking out some of his most memorable cinematic triumphs. This film is one of those incredibly tonal throwbacks, I felt like I was watching a film from another time polished with the scale of modern cinematic tech. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice takes the set-up from the first film and finds a neat comedic family angle to take us on the next adventure. We get to see a range of wild personalities in our living cast alone. Lydia is now using her otherworldly gifts for a psychic medium TV show, while also being manipulated by her toxic boyfriend: Rory. Lydia's father suddenly dying pushes her back into contact with her eccentric step-mother, Delia, and her estranged teen daughter, Astrid. The way this unusual family is pushed together, full of conflict and unresolved feelings makes for a great boiling pot. When Beetlejuice decides to pull Lydia back in and the same time Astrid finds a boyfriend, the plot really ramps up. I loved how this film had an engaging ticking time bomb that made it all feel quite urgent for the main cast. The Afterlife is even zanier, the novelty and clever gags are everywhere you look. The strength of this film is just how constantly funny it is, it really stands out as the sort of film that has considered comedic timing at every turn. Even the ultimate resolution to all the major conflicts are quite slapdash, spontaneous and fun. 

Tim Burton's style is woven all the way through this, and he has pulled out all the stops. The camera weaves and moves through alongside character performances, it is also well-utilised to punctuate all the visual gags scattered throughout. The special effects are impressive on a couple of levels. They look like the practically composed effects of the original film with only some polish to enhance how it all looks. The other component is the variety at hand; scenes like Delores stapling herself back together or the people being pulled into their cellphones really stood out for me as truly unique to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The score for the film has that fun tone that is classic of old school family movies, but it has that Halloween seasonal twang which only enriches it. The soundtrack is an entire knock out, with various covers of 'MacArthur Park' really making the whole thing come alive.

 

Michael Keaton, who played Beetlejuice, feels like he has returned home when it comes to this role; Keaton's presence as Beetlejuice is uncanny, and it might just be one of the best roles in his career. Winona Ryder, who played Lydia Deetz, has really found a natural pathway to ageing up this role to estranged motherhood; Ryder is still playing a fighter who has had a lot of fight taken out of her by loss and crappy men over her fictional years. Jenna Ortega, who played Astrid Deetz, is a bit more of a classic protagonist well suited to the wild adventures of a Burton film; Ortega leans into the aloof loner who can't connect with her Mum quite well. Justin Theroux, who played Rory, was absolutely hilarious as one of the sleaziest roles in the film; Theroux as the not so subtle manipulative boyfriend wound up being a great gag. Willem Dafoe, who played Wolf Jackson, looks like he might be having the most fun out of the whole cast; Dafoe toes the thin line between deceased actor and afterlife cop in what is one of the biggest scene stealers of the film. Monica Bellucci, who played Delores, is like the anti-Beetlejuice; an imposing Afterlife threat you have reason to be terrified of. Santiago Cabrera, who played Richard, is the surprising heart connection of the film; Cabrera comes as a feel good moment uniting two of the protagonists for the better. Danny DeVito, who played the Janitor, is more of a tremendous creature performance in this; DeVito's lumbering ghoul is a fun scene and a memorable introduction to Bellucci.

However, the best performance came from Catherine O'Hara, who played Delia Deetz. This character feels like a total acknowledgement of O'Hara's work as Delia in the first film, paired with her iconic reputation from Schitt's Creek. Delia is a high maintenance artist, who delights in dumping both her boasts of high living and her trauma on those around her. Delia feels like a character who rarely reaches out to those she loves, yet she is oddly present for those she loves. Over the years this is a role who has surprisingly morphed into someone with a lot of heart, with an eccentric exterior. O'Hara is quite simply the funniest performer in a host of hilarious performers, I could watch a whole film of Delia and her art career, I really could.

This film is something I really needed, a comedic adventure that really had you laughing from start to finish. But a film like that still is guided by a story, and the overarching plot was great, but it was bogged down by a lot of individual character narratives feeding into it. Across this film, you have an incredibly large amount of sub-plots of varying length, with varying focus and importance to the overall experience. What disappoints me is that these plots aren't all very well fleshed out, and worse, most of them end quite abruptly or without much resolution at all. Some feel almost purposeless in their journey and feed the film with plenty of laughs, only to not end in a fully realised narrative manner.

Arthur Conti, who played Jeremy, is a bit of an obvious bad guy twist performance; Conti also doesn't feel like the most experienced hand and delivers in the same tone across the movie. Burn Gorman, who played Father Damien, feels like a dry piece of wit that just doesn't really land; Gorman's whole role feels a bit too present in this when really it didn't need to be more than a background figure.

What a treat to see Tim Burton back on top form and better than ever. I would give Beetlejuice Beetlejuice an 8/10.

The Crow

This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Crow follows Eric, a young delinquent in a juvenile rehab who meets Shelly, a young woman he comes to fall in love with. These two have an incredible bond that is devastated when Shelly's dark past catches up to them. When the two young lovers are violently killed by hitmen, Eric makes a supernatural deal to return and seek justice.

 

This film is a bit of a rare breed, you truly don't get a lot of gothic blockbusters these days. I remember growing up and seeing blockbusters in the 2000s that went in on this sort of aesthetic and tone all the time. This film really carves out an aesthetic for itself that is very distinctive, right through from setting to costume design and the colour tone of the whole piece. I was also intrigued by the supernatural purgatory realm, it provided some mystery to the film as a whole.

 

The score for the feature is very grim, it has a haunting quality that rises and builds through the darker or more visceral scenes. However, the soundtrack might be the greatest strength of The Crow; there are some really emotive songs that give that tone of dark romance and shadowy avenger stalking the night. The music of the film revels in being a bit sombre and shadowy.

 

Danny Huston, who played Vincent Roeg, is quite good at hamming it up as the antagonist in these B action movies; Huston wielding power over characters his role is about to control was my favourite aspect of the performance from him.

 

However, the best performance came from Sami Bouajila, who played Kronos. From what I had seen in the trailers, I felt this kind of mystical guide figure would be a bit of a stereotypical figure, but I truly felt Bouajila broke past this. The way the role is written is nothing new, but I loved the steady indifference of the role. This is a character who doesn't really push Eric to succeed, he sits in pensive judgement. The way he delivers dialogue leaves you guessing too, you don't really know where he aligns or even if he is an innately moral figure. The scene in which he rages at Skarsgård for showing doubt and turning the tide of the scene into a moment in which he claims Eric's soul was the most thrilling moment in the feature.

 

The Crow doesn't start out strongly, in fact, the first act is probably a massive part of what kills the film for me. The nature of it boils down to an awkward young couple romance that goes on and on and on. I like a good romance storyline, but this was a sequence in which the characters stroked self-harm scars, made drawings they didn't want the other to see and spoke some of the worst romantic dialogue I have heard in a while. The dialogue throughout this film really needed to be looked at a little harder, the way the couple speaks like they are 13-year-olds who have discovered love for the first time is a hard watch. Our lead protagonists are built on a very shallow love connection to one another and because that is hard to buy into the rest of the film struggles to work. I found the antagonist a pretty odd figure in it all, he's seen eating souls, and we kinda get he's rich, but ultimately he's in the wings waiting for the final showdown most of the time. The whole film is quite rinse and repeat, Eric gets beaten up and heals from a fatal wound only to do it all again. The fight sequences and action beats weren't especially noteworthy, which is really the last thing the film had going for it. Watching Eric wade through goons until he finally got to Roeg isn't a particularly engaging plot at the best of times. The ultimate final confrontation is over pretty fast and quite underwhelming, leaving the film to spin out on a rapid montage closing that hurriedly ties up loose ends.

 

This film looks boring to watch, the shots are almost constant wides that show off a lot of blank space and bad green screen. I found some of the close up shots a little tough to watch, they were really pushing an overly romantic tone that was struggling to take root. The special effects in this are terrible, I did not much enjoy the constant obligatory flying crow in every transition shot.

 

Bill Skarsgård, who played Eric, might have found his worst role in years; the way Skarsgård opts to shift the role from awkward loner loverboy to grim action hero feels like a hard push. FKA twigs, who played Shelly, is a performer I hope not to have to watch in anything again soon; her delivery of dialogue was very exaggerated and over the top. Josette Simon, who played Sophia, really does not feel like much of a maternal role; this is a character that bounces through extremes of emotion in her performance in a way that doesn't work. Laura Birn, who played Marion, is awkwardly wedged into this as an antagonist for us to get through before we reach Huston; Birn's role rarely gets a moment to really stand apart or stand out. Jordan Bolger, who played Chance, has no reason for being in this film as much as he is; Bolger's role has a scene in which he gives Eric a gun and another where he dies and both might be the most awkward scenes in the feature. Dukagjin Podrimaj, who played Detective Milch, is really just here to be a glorified henchman figure; Podrimaj is inserted with some intrigue and then just collapses into a simple stunt scene.

I hope whoever wrote this film strongly considers never writing dialogue again. I would give The Crow a 4.5/10.

I Saw The TV Glow

This review may contain spoilers!

 

I Saw The TV Glow follows Owen, a young loner who befriends Maddy, a fellow outsider who is obsessed with a TV show: The Pink Opaque. As the pair come to bond with one another and fall deeper into their obsession with the show, a mirror is held up to their identities and very reality. 

I thought conceptually this film was very clever, it has an absolutely killer first half that rocks it with some of the very greats I have watched in 2024. The young teens searching for belonging and a sense of self angle, the oddball 80/90s setting and the way The Pink Opaque TV show is defined and developed. Even for the audience this little cult classic show feels so real, it makes me think of old freaky teen horror shows while also having moments that make me think of campy shows like Power Rangers and the like. What indie cinema does well is play around in the genre wheelhouse and do something very good or very unexpected. I Saw the TV Glow really has a strong start as a sort of coming of age narrative, analysing identity and placing our protagonists as loners on a journey of self-discovery through their relationship with one another.

This film is a visual joy a lot of the time, particularly the way lighting and cinematography blend together to make a breathtaking visual motif. The use of purples and pinks and blues to evoke otherness as fascinating or exciting; to invite us into something entirely new and compelling from the 'real world'. Even the harsh flickering greys of the TV upon Owen's father evokes a strong sense of horror and tyranny. I adored the soundtrack and found it made Owen's life feel more like a journey; the inclusion of LGBT+ musicians was extremely important to the intent of the film, too.

 

Ian Foreman, who played Young Owen, could've been the role I followed all film; Foreman played a sincerity and curiosity of his own life that I found really pulled me in during the first act. Helena Howard and Lindsey Jordan, who played Isabel and Tara respectively, really defined the campy leads of the fake TV show; Howard's performance when her role is captured and tortured is perhaps the most terrifying scene of the film. Danielle Deadwyler, who played Brenda, is a phenomenal dramatic actress and steals every scene she is in; Deadwyler balances between such love for her onscreen kid but also a sort of apprehension that adds another dimension to their relationship. 

However, the best performance came from Brigette Lundy-Paine, who played Maddy. I love how aloof and unphased this role is at times, we really understand how Owen finds them too cool to approach at times. Maddy is a role that seems entirely fearless and a lot more self-assured than the protagonist. But Lundy-Paine delivers a very guarded façade in those younger scenes; it is clear there is a lot more to their role beneath the surface. In a lot of ways, Maddy is a character who understands they find comfort in a different truth to their 'reality' and clings to Owen as a sort of hope that someone else understands. Seeing Lundy-Paine's last few desperate, tense scenes as they try to convince their true friend to see what they see is heartbreaking and an instance that sets this performance apart for me.

I love the inventiveness of indie cinema, that way it can be off the wall and very experimental. But there are some common flaws with an indie film too, small moments that make the script feel half-realised or that could push the film further if only there was the power behind it to get there. I actually felt like this film had a true heartfelt story going in the more grounded moments, the magic realism of the TV show and the ultimate TV show twist didn't really elevate anything about the story. In fact, the big twist when Maddy reunites with Owen feels both predictable and a bit cheesy, those moments in which the show feels 'too real' have a nice thematic and aesthetic meaning, but it makes the plot become unfocused, when it was doing just fine in scenes that had more of a basic dramatic grounding. I also thought the film ended extremely poorly, in a double whammy body horror shot closely followed by an extremely abrupt final shot that ended the whole thing in a dissatisfying way. I love a film that makes you guess, but this felt more like being a teacher who had their favourite student hand in eight questions of a ten question worksheet. The whole third act is about mortifying the audience, not in a scary way, but just driving home that everything is bleak and Owen is trapped. Which is very easy to get, but it would've been more assuring to be shown more of a direction for where that story grows. Owen had been faced with a hard choice and a hard life all film, a plot that gave us a sense of journey would've built to a more well-rounded conclusion. I also thought it was entirely amateur to have Justice Smith playing Owen from his early teens to the 40s/50s of his character; it looked bad, but it also pulled me right out of the film at two key transition points.

I also felt the film dragged along in scenes sometimes, the editing set a pace that slogged along but it wasn't as neat or tidy as I would've liked.

Justice Smith, who played Owen, has found some tough roles in the past, but he struggles to play a protagonist worth engaging with in this; Smith puts on a distinct voice that absolutely grated through every scene he was in. Fred Durst, who played Frank, is barely there as the hateful and harsh father figure; Durst is physically in this film but to say he does enough to play a character is a stretch.

Between Justice Smith in the leading role and the complete face-plant that was the second half, I don't know that I really got what I hoped for from this film. I would give I Saw The TV Glow a 5.5/10.