I’ll be the first to admit that I did not want a ‘Beetlejuice’ sequel. I loved the film when it first came out in the 80s. It was weird and out of the box for that era. I saw the film again two years ago on a streaming site and I was so sad that I felt the film did not age well. The pacing was off, the story a little disjointed, and with only the Day-O (Banana song) sequence to be the only sequence to have kept its charm. 36 years since the last film, a sequel seemed like a cash grab. I couldn’t imagine what they could do with the movie to make it feel fresh and new, aside from the fact that I haven’t really liked anything Tim Burton has done since ‘Big Fish.’
To my utter surprise, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ is a wild, crazy ride that is whimsical and left-of-center while somehow finding a grounded emotional core that keeps it from being just mindless fun. This is the best that Tim Burton has done in the past decade because he returned to old school aesthetics. Gone are the bright CGI effects that dominated his style like in ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.’ He opts for puppetry, low-tech green screen effects, and practical sets that gives the film a charm that matches toe-for-toe with the hilarity of the film’s tone.
Set 36 years after the events of the first film, ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’ follows Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a widow who works as a television host for a show about haunted houses. Her gift for seeing ghosts has given her a job but it has also created a rift between her and her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). When her father dies, Lydia takes her stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara) and her boyfriend and her show’s producer, Rory (Justin Theroux) to fetch Astrid and to return to Winter River to bury Lydia’s father and to pack up their old house where the events of the first film happened. Throughout this period, she is suffering from visitations from Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton), who is still in the afterlife, and still trying to get married to Lydia so he can return to the mortal plane.
At the core of this film is the complex relationship of Lydia, Delia, and Astrid. Astrid doesn’t believe in the supernatural and is angry at her mom for being a medium on tv. Astrid thinks her mom is faking it because, if she could see ghosts, she wonders why she’s never seen or talked to her dead father. Delia, on the other hand, walks on eggshells around Lydia. They never had the best relationship even since the first film and now she doesn’t know how to be a stepmom to Lydia, when she obviously doesn’t approve of Rory.
Things take a turn for the worst Rory, in a foolish attempt to help Lydia exorcise her past trauma summons Beetlejuice, everything turns chaotic, and Lydia must face her past if she wants to save her daughter.
Interestingly enough, ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ takes its time with its story, re-establishing us to the characters while introducing us to the new ones. It takes a whole hour before the multiple storylines come together. There’s a storyline involving Monica Belluci as Delores, the first wife of Beetlejuice, which is completely unnecessary to the whole plot and can be removed but everything else comes wonderfully together after the one-hour mark and we see Lydia and Delia and Astrid all grow from this crazy adventure.
The film is not afraid to be silly while tackling, albeit in a whimsical manner, topics like grief and complex family dynamics. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and allows all of its actors to have fun – including Willem Dafoe, for his hilarious take on a former B movie actor turned detective in the afterlife – that the effect is infectious. It leans on the 80s and 90s for its aesthetic and music and it manages audience expectations quite well that if you surrender to crazy antics, you’ll have a lot of fun.
I didn’t want this sequel but I’m very surprised at how much fun I had while watching it. It’s great to see Keaton and Ryder and O’ Hara having a ball.
My Rating:
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now showing! Check showtimes and buy tickets here.
