Movie Review: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is one of the best times I have had at the movies in 2024. Director Tim Burton returns to a form we have not seen from him in over a decade to give us an entertaining, hilarious, and heartfelt film that features spectacular sets, costumes, performances, and practical effects.
Picking up 36 years after the original film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice introduces us to adult Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), a paranormal hunter with a successful TV show who is dating her seemingly caring producer Rory (Justin Theroux), whom she met at a trauma counseling retreat, and who has a broken relationship with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) following the death of Astrid’s father. Lydia finds out from her mother, Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara), that her father has died and that they will be having a funeral service for him and their old house in Winter River.
Meanwhile, Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) is grinding away at his house-haunting job in the afterlife. He is now a manager and has a crew of tall skeletal beings working for him and he is still in love with Lydia. Beetlejuice gets word that his ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci), a soul-sucking cult member who, back in the 1700s, chopped up with an axe after she poisoned him, has reassembled herself and is out to get his soul, and must avoid her at all costs. Beetlejuice and Lydia’s paths cross once again as the door to the afterlife opens unexpectedly to the Deetz’s.
Following a rough 2010s that saw Burton make some of his least successful films critically and financially, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a return to form for the director. The movie has everything we loved about Tim Burton movies in the 80s and 90s. The sets and costumes are detailed and imaginative. It blends live-action, animation, puppetry, claymation, and visual effects cleverly. It is equally hilarious, macabre, and sweet, and features strong themes about loneliness and the disconnection between parents and their, particularly mothers and daughters. And, most importantly, it’s fun! I had an absolute blast watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, something I haven’t been able to say about a Burton film in a long time. Burton’s energy working with these characters in this world again and being able to do things practically and on sets glows through the screen and grabs you. This is what made Burton’s best films great and what makes Beetlejuice Beetlejuice one of those great films.
The new additions to the cast, Ortega, Bellucci, Theroux, and a few others, are perfect compliments to the original cast and story. But, the trio of Keaton, Ryder, and O’Hara give the best performances in the film, not missing a beat since first taking on the roles back in 1988. O’Hara gets more to do with Delia here than she did in the first film and she runs with it. She’s a firecracker of comedic genius and a riot whenever on screen. Ryder is the heart and soul of the film, carrying most of the emotional weight and being on screen the most. She perfectly portrays the confused and haunted Lydia who desperately wants to leave Beetlejuice behind and move on in life with her daughter. And, of course, there’s Keaton as Beetlejuice and he gives an outstanding, energetic performance that shows Beetlejuice still as a vulgar, disgusting bio-exorcist while also showing him with his back against the wall. Seeing him and Ryder together on screen again as Beetlejuice and Lydia hit me right in the nostalgia feels and the final church scene, featuring a well-constructed musical number, is one of my favorite movie scenes in 2024.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is ultimately a film about being haunted by your past and reckoning with it to move forward. Beetlejuice is being haunted by his ex-wife and swooning over what he thinks could have happened with Lydia. Lydia is haunted by the memories of Beetlejuice and everything that happened at the house in Winter River, which has made her disconnected from society and people. And Astrid can’t get over the death of her father and it has put a strain on her relationship with Lydia. You can’t help but feel like Burton is also reckoning with his past as a filmmaker. Burton confronts past characters and worlds he has created not so he can leave that style creativity behind, but so he can find his groove again as a filmmaker and move on to create his next great project. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is Burton’s best film in years and one of my favorite movies of the year.
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