31 Days of Halloween: Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

2024, Tim Burton (Big Eyes) -- cinema

Seriously, those are the lyrics for the song "MacArthur Park" ?!?!

Someone left the cake out in the rain
I don't think that I can take it
'Cause it took so long to bake it
And I'll never have that recipe again
Oh, no.

Well, that's just dumb.

Non sequitur!

We are still Tim Burton fans. We have seen more of his post-Planet of the Apes movies than Kent has, but not all. We have A Nightmare Before Xmas Xmas tree ornaments and when I went to Vegas we went to the Tim Burton exhibit at the Neon Graveyard. But still, I am not a huge Burton fan, just a solid admirer. That said, the original Beetlejuice did stand up to history, and the new one did generate enough hand-clapping interest, that we wanted to revisit the world in the theatre. 

Totally worth "the cinema experience" even if midway through the movie, the couple behind us decided to have an out-loud conversation with each other, I think prompted by her taking a phone call; but eventually they just left so all good.

Does the movie have a plot? It has things going on, all via the catalyst that Lydia's dad has died and the family is returning to Winter River for the funeral, and to close the house down. Sad that nobody still lives there, but people have moved on, including the Maitlands. Lydia (Winona Ryder, Stranger Things) is the host of a popular ghost-focused interview show (with a set modelled after the attic) and Delia (Catherine O'Hara, Schitts Creek) has actually succeeded at becoming a world famous artist, and actually succeeded at becoming weirder and actually succeeded at ... becoming a decent person?? Lydia is somewhat estranged with her teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega, Wednesday) and really not into the whole gothy ghost thing that is her mother's schtick -- she doesn't even really truly believe her mother can see ghosts.

So, the things going on. Lydia is seeing Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton,  The Flash) again, visions of him appearing out of nowhere and interrupting her TV show taping, and interrupting real life. Beetlejuice seems to have established himself as a haunter along with a cadre of shrunken-head office workers. His ex (Monica Bellucci, The Matrix Revolutions) re-assembles her dismembered body parts and goes on a soul-sucking rampage to find him. Dead actor Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse) fancies himself a detective and is trying to "solve the case". Delia is all about the spectacle of funereal rites for her late husband, but also genuinely seems to miss him. Astrid is fed up with them all, and finds a nice boy to crush on in town, except he turns out to be a ghost who wants to steal her place in the land of the living. All of this jumbles into Beetlejuice taking the opportunity to con Lydia into marrying him again.

Of note, a backstory for Beetlejuice?!?! I never thought he was ever a human, but the way they played it out... <chef's kiss> BTW, was that giallo?

The crux of this movie is running around the amusement park of an afterlife. This is where the fun is to be had, as the movie revisits what we already knew, but also adds in enough additional world building to keep distracting us from the lack luster stories being told. And I was distracted enough to be utterly delighted and don't care an iota. I had a ball.

Admittedly, it was somewhat jarring to see Jenna Ortega non-gothy, after having just rewatched Wednesday but I did really like her not-archetype character. Lydia as an adult is just grand, having matured and gained some opinions, faults and is not just a teen archetype dragged along by the plot. But the belle of the ball for this movie, and I cannot overstate my amazement, was Delia. OMG Delia! Sure, the world now has more fondness for Catherine O'Hara going over the top than ever before but the balance she portrays, between the extreme artist personality and the stabilizing foundation for this odd little family is just grand. They could do a third movie just about her and I would be happy. Beetlejuice is ... Beetlejuice and Keaton just seems to pick up like it hasn't been 30 years, albeit dialing down the perve-factor a lot. Not entirely; he still has 17 year old Lydia's picture on his desk. 

If there was anything I did not like about the movie was that they felt they had to do a possessed musical number, as if Beetlejuice is a one-trick-pony. And fuck, did it go on and on and on and ON. Still, what a weird weird weird song to choose -- should have gone with the original 60s Richard Harris version.

Finally, I surprised myself being fine with the nod to Lydia's dad via a upper-torso shark food corpse wandering around the afterlife, burbling words from some organ. We knew Jeffrey Jones wouldn't be back, but I was happy his character got to make an appearance sans-Jones.

Not finally! You forgot to mention the delight of seeing the return of pushy real estate agent Jane Butterfield by way of HER DAUGHTER also named Jane, the girl we see in the back seat of Jane Sr's car in the first movie. Do women often to the naming-their-child-after-themselves bit or was that a nod to her narcissistic personality?