Review: "BLINK TWICE" is Incredible; 2024's Best Film, Thus Far...

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 39 of 2024 (No. 1983) by Leroy Douresseaux

Blink Twice (2024)

Running time:  103 minutes (1 hour, 43 minutes)

MPA – R for strong violent content, sexual assault, drug use and language throughout, and some sexual references.

DIRECTORS:  Zöe Kravitz

WRITERS:  Zöe Kravitz and E.T. Feigenbaum

PRODUCERS:  Zöe Kravitz, Bruce Cohen, Garret Levitz, Tiffany Persons, and Channing Tatum

CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Adam Newport-Berra (D.o.P.)

EDITOR: Kathryn J. Schubert

COMPOSER:  Chanda Dancy

MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring:  Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Alia Shawkat, Christian Slater, Simon Rex, Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment, Liz Caribel, Levon Hawke, Trew Mullen, Geena Davis, and Kyle MacLachlan

SUMMARY OF THE REVIEW:

Blink Twice is a both an incredible psychological thriller and mesmerizing mystery thriller and is sort of a spiritual sibling of Jordan Peele's “Get Out”

Naomi Ackie and Channing Tatum gives stellar performances that really sell this film's frequent weirdness

This is a stunning directorial debut on the part of Zöe Kravitz, and thus far, it is the best film released in 2024

Blink Twice is a 2024 psychological thriller and mystery film from director Zöe Kravitz.  The film focuses on a cocktail waitress who accepts a tech billionaire's offer to vacation on his private island, after which, she begins to question her reality of the situation.

Blink Twice introduces Frida (Naomi Ackie), a cocktail waitress.  She is working an exclusive event with her roommate and best friend and roommate, Jess (Alia Shawkat).  The event's V.I.P. is billionaire tech mogul, Slater King (Channing Tatum), who recently stepped down as CEO of King Tech amid a public apology for some bad behavior on his part in the past.  Frida and Slater quickly strike up a friendship, and he invites her and Jess to join him and his friends to holiday at his private island.

Arriving at the island, Slater's assistant, Stacy (Geena Davis), confiscates the everyone's phone.  Also on the island for some fun are Slater's friends and business partners:  Vic (Christian Slater), Cody (Simon Rex), Tom (Haley Joel Osment), and Lucas (Levon Hawke).  In addition to Frida and Jess, there are three female guests:  Sarah (Adria Arjona), Camilla (Liz Caribel), and Heather (Trew Mullen).  The women are treated to lavish rooms, gift bags with perfume, gourmet meals, and a luxurious, carefree holiday experience.

But something is wrong.  Frida has a hard time keeping track of time, and she begins to question her perception of reality.  Also, there is a strange maid who is saying something to her that she can't quite make out.  When one of the women disappears, Frida is forced to confront this luxurious holiday, the kind she always wanted... as troubling as this dream vacay has turned out to be.

After director Steven Soderbergh made his feature film debut with sex, lies, and videotape (1989), some may have wondered if his rousing success with it (winning the Palme d'Or at Cannes 1989 and earning a “Best Original Screenplay” nomination) was “beginner's luck” or perhaps, a fluke.  For several years, the film did seem like a fluke, but by the time Soderbergh won a “Best Director” Oscar 12 years later, one could say that sex, lies, and videotape was not a fluke, but was a calling card.

I'd like to believe that Blink Twice will also be a calling card for its young first-time director Zoe Kravitz.  Right now, it is the best new film to debut in 2024, and I wouldn't be surprised if I am calling it the “Best Picture of the Year 2024” deep into the 2024-25 movie awards season.  Blink Twice is an astounding debut, a mystery thriller and psychological terror that recalls Alfred Hitchcock and David Lynch.  And no, I would not be embarrassed to reference Lynch's legendary Blue Velvet (1986), of which I am not a big fan, when discussing Blink Twice.  I am also calling Blink Twice a spiritual sibling of Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) and a distant relative of Alex Garland's Men (2022).  Blink Twice even has a element similar to one found in the underrated horror thriller, You're Next (2011).

Kathryn J. Schubert's film editing for Blink Twice is superb, and I think that should be mentioned.  Of course, I think Schubert has superb material with which to work.  Kravitz has an eye for storytelling which finds pleasure in accepting that altered states of reality are a norm for many of us, especially when we obtain something we always wanted in a way that seems to be too good to be true.  Dressing her film in Biblical themes, “Me Too” politics, gender dynamics, and sexual gamesmanship, Kravitz takes the screenplay she wrote with E.T. Feigenbaum and grapples with the modern battle of the sexes.

Behind the pulpy entertainment and popcorn horror thrills of this psychological thriller is a movie that does a deep dive into the modern psyche.  Kravitz isn't afraid to examine the social hierarchies and assumed and presumed privileges.  It is refreshing that Kravitz so boldly answers any questions her film asks with a resounding, “Because he can.”

Actress Naomi Ackie is the perfect choice to be this film's lead.  Her face, with its wide mouth and big expressive eyes, is an artist's canvas.  Whatever her director needs in terms of emotion and action, Ackie can deliver.  Also, I must say that Channing Tatum shocks me in Blink Twice.  I never thought that he was really a good actor.  However, he gives Slater King so many layers that there are moments when I feel sympathy for him.  Tatum makes King innocent, childish, childlike, and monstrous, and he can do all of that in the span of a minute.

Wow.  I'm still stunned.  I've wanted to see Blink Twice since it was first announced last year under the title, “Pussy Island,” but I never thought I'd get this nearly perfect film, a film so good that its flaws seem like artistic choices rather than mistakes.  I heartily recommend this to movie fans looking for great films in a time when the various movie factories seem determined to only deliver entertainment that dare not make a statement lest “middle America” take offense.  Blink Twice is both – tremendous cinematic art and delightfully good entertainment.

10 of 10

Saturday, August 24, 2024

The text is copyright © 2024 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this site for syndication rights and fees.

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Negromancer News Bits and Bites from June 1st to 8th, 2019 - Update #23

Support Leroy on Patreon:

COMICS - From Newsarama:  Apparently (X-Men:) "Dark Phoenix" was being rewritten daily during its production.

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MOVIES - From MovieWeb:  Sigourney Weaver says that she will appear in Jason Reitman's upcoming "Ghostbusters 3" film.

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COMICS-FILM - From TheWrap:  "X-Men: Dark Phoenix" apparently does not have a post-credits scene.  When the credits role, the movie is over.

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MOVIES - From Collider:  Producer Jason Blum and actress Jamie Lee Curtis tease a sequel to last year's hit, "Halloween" (2018).

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TELEVISION - From TheWrap:  NBC is developing a TV series based on Dan Brown's novel, "The Last Symbol."  Entitled "Langdon," the series will focus on Robert Langdon, the character best known as the lead in Brown's worldwide bestselling novel, "The Da Vinci Code."

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MOVIES - From THR:  Brigette Lundy-Paine and Samara Weaving will play the onscreen children of Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, respectively.

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TERMINATOR - From CBR:  James Cameron said that he would return to the "Terminator" franchise (for "Terminator: Dark Fate") on one condition.  Arnold Schwarzenegger had to also return.

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BLM/STREAMING - From YahooNews:  Regarding the Central Park Five and Netflix's "When They See Us," former prosecutor Linda Fairstein is discovering that God don't sleep.

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SPORTS - From NFL:  NFL announces new social grants recipients.

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TELEVISION - From YahooEntertainment:  Mindy Kaling says she was a diversity hire at "The Office."

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MOVIES - From Variety:  Woody Allen will begin shooting his 51st film this summer in Spain.  Amazson shelved Allen's last film, "A Rainy Day in New York," and ended its deal with im.

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TELEVISION - From Variety:  There was word that writers for Fox's TV series, "Empire," were working on ideas to bring disgraced actor, Jussie Smollett, back to the series.  However, series co-creator Lee Daniels says Smollett will not return.

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SCIENCE - From ScienceMag:  What cats do with their time.

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STREAMING -  From Deadline: Joe and Anthony Russo ("Avengers: Infinity War" and "Endgame") will executive produce an animated series based on the tabletop trading card game, "Magic: The Gathering" for Netflix.

From ShadowsandAct:  Octavia Spencer credits NBA superstar LeBron James with making sure she got paid right for her Netflix limited series about Madam C.J. Walker.

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OSCARS - From Deadline:  Actor Wes Studi and directors David Lynch and Lina Wertmuller will receive Honorary Oscars and actress Geena Davis (The Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award).  They are the winners of the 11th Annual Governors Awards as voted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Board of Governors.

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MOVIES - From Deadline:   Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight") is in talks to direct a biopic about Alvin Ailey, one of the most important and influential choreographers of the 20th century.

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BOX OFFICE - From BoxOfficeMojo:  The winner of the 5/31 to 6/2/2019 weekend box office is "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" with an estimated take of 49 million dollars.

From Deadline:  "Godzilla: King of Monsters" trending lower than expected, here and abroad.

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ANIMATION - From THR:  Japan's Studio Ghibli ("Princess Mononoke," "My Neighbor Totoro") announces plans to open in theme park in 2022.

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TECH - From TechRader:  5G and film: how will the tech change how we consume movies?

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MOVIES - From WMagazine:  Summer Movies: An Official Guide to the Non-Blockbusters, From Plus One to Ready or Not

OBITS:

From Deadline:  New Orleans singer, songwriter, and pianist, Dr. John, has died at the age of 71, Thursday, June 6, 2019.  A six-time Grammy Award winner, Dr. John was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011.  His best known single was the 1973 hit, "Right Place, Wrong Time."

From NOLA:  Celebrated chef and civil rights activist, Leah Chase, has died at the age of 96, Saturday, June 1, 2019.  Known as the queen or matriarch of New Orleans Creole cuisine, Chase career spanned seven decades, she fed everyone from ordinary people to the famous, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and James Baldwin.

From RollingStone:  Former Harlem drug kingpin, Frank Lucas, has died at the age of 88, Thursday, May 30, 2019.  Lucas was immortalized in Ridley Scott's 2007 crime film, "American Gangster," with Denzel Washington playing Lucas.  Lucas claimed he imported heroin from Southeast Asia in the coffins of U.S. soldiers killed in Vietnam in the 1970s, a gambit known as the "Golden Triangle."

Oscar-Winning "Thelma & Louise" Rolls Back into Theaters in August 2016

‘Let’s Keep Going!’ - 25 Years Later, ‘THELMA & LOUISE’ Ride Back Into Cinemas Nationwide on August 21 and 24 Only

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis Star in Ridley Scott’s Oscar®-Winning 1991 Outlaw Adventure, Which Also Introduced Movie Audiences to Brad Pitt

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Twenty-five years ago, in one of the greatest road movies of all time, Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon rode to everlasting fame as two women who embark on a crime spree across the American southwest in “Thelma & Louise” – and on August 21 and 24, 2016, they’re journeying back to more than 500 movie theaters across the country.

    .@FathomEvents News: Tickets on sale to celebrate #ThelmaAndLouise25 anniversary in cinemas nationwide this August

For two days only at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. local time, audiences can take the wild ride with Thelma (Geena Davis) and Louise (Susan Sarandon) all over again in a special “Thelma & Louise 25th Anniversary” celebration, presented by Fathom Events, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Park Circus. This special two-day-only event also includes an exclusive all-new introduction from movie critic Ben Lyons.

Tickets for the “Thelma & Louise 25th Anniversary” can be purchased online beginning Friday, July 22nd, by visiting www.FathomEvents.com or at participating theater box offices. Fans throughout the U.S. will be able to enjoy this event in more than 500 select movie theaters through Fathom’s Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations, visit the Fathom Events website. (Note that theaters and participants are subject to change.)

Directed by action master Ridley Scott (The Martian, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator) from an Oscar-winning screenplay by Callie Khouri, “Thelma & Louise” is an exhilarating, full-throttle adventure hailed as one of the best road movies of all time! Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis star as accidental outlaws on a desperate flight across the Southwest after a tragic incident at a roadside bar. With a determined detective (Harvey Keitel) on their trail, a sweet-talking hitchhiker (Brad Pitt) in their path and a string of crimes in their wake, their journey alternates between hilarious, high-speed thrill ride and empowering personal odyssey...even as the law closes in.

“There’s never been an on-screen pair quite like Thelma and Louise, and there’s never been a movie as fearless, exciting and provocative. ‘Thelma & Louise’ is as stunning, powerful and downright entertaining as it was when it was released 25 years ago,” Fathom Events Vice President of Studio Relations Tom Lucas said.

Originally released on May 24, 1991, “Thelma & Louise” received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Director (Ridley Scott); Best Actress in a Leading Role for both Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis; Best Cinematography (Adrian Biddle); and Best Editing (Thom Noble), with Callie Khouri winning an Oscar for her memorable screenplay.

Movie fans also have the chance to win the Ultimate Road Trip adventure by posting a selfie with “Thelma & Louise” using the hashtag #ThelmaAndLouise25. Visit the “selfie-standee” in select movie theaters, and read the full contest details at FathomEvents.com/event/thelma-and-louise/more-info/sweepstakes.


About Fathom Events
Fathom Events is recognized as the leading domestic distributor of event cinema, and ranks as one of the largest overall distributors of content to movie theaters. Owned by AMC Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: AMC), Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK) and Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) (known collectively as AC JV, LLC), Fathom Events offers a variety of one-of-a-kind entertainment events that include live, high-definition performances of the Metropolitan Opera, dance and theatre productions such as the Bolshoi Ballet and National Theatre Live’s Hamlet, sporting events like FS1 Presents USA v Mexico, concerts with Roger Waters and One Direction, the TCM Presents classic film series and faith-based events such as The Drop Box and Four Blood Moons. Fathom Events takes audiences behind the scenes and offers unique extras including audience Q&As, backstage footage and interviews with cast and crew, creating the ultimate VIP experience. Fathom Events’ live digital broadcast network (“DBN”) is the largest cinema broadcast network in North America, bringing live and pre-recorded events to 885 locations and 1,348 screens in 181 Designated Market Areas® (including all of the top 50). For more information, visit www.fathomevents.com.

About Park Circus Ltd
With offices in UK, USA and France, Park Circus is an impassioned and dynamic international film sales and distribution company with years of experience helping audiences around the world experience classic films back on the big screen. Park Circus represents a number of high profile studios and independent producers, including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Releasing International, Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Pictures, ITV Studios, Miramax, Samuel Goldwyn Films, The Cohen Film Collection, Exclusive Media, STUDIOCANAL, Revolution Studios, Renown Pictures, Woodfall Films, Icon Film Distribution, Channel Four Television Corporation, and Walt Disney Studios Motions Pictures. Park Circus was the pioneer in making classic films available for Digital Cinema with 1,400 classic films now available for theatrical distribution in this format. Park Circus Limited is part of the Arts Alliance Limited group of companies.

About Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is a leading entertainment company focused on the production and global distribution of film and television content across all platforms. The company owns one of the world’s deepest libraries of premium film and television content. In addition, MGM has investments in domestic and international television channels. For more information, visit www.mgm.com.

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"Annedroids" Gets Second Season on Amazon Prime

Second Season of Amazon Original Kids Series Annedroids is Now Available for Amazon Prime Members in the US and UK

From creator J.J. Johnson (Dino Dan), the new season of the Emmy-nominated live-action adventure features the voice of Geena Davis (Grey’s Anatomy)

Children’s series celebrates STEM curriculum through Anne and her friends and inspires children—through trial and error—to identify problems, ask questions, and experiment

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced that the second season of its Emmy-nominated original kids series Annedroids is now available for Amazon Prime members in the US and UK. Created by Emmy Award-winning producer/director J.J. Johnson (Dino Dan) and Sinking Ship Entertainment (Odd Squad), the new season features the voice of Geena Davis (Grey’s Anatomy) and is aimed at children aged six through 11. Annedroids is a live-action adventure series about Anne, a young female scientist, her human friends and the android assistants she’s created, and the amazing scientific discoveries they make while undertaking the biggest experiment of them all: growing up. The series spotlights, through trial and error, how science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) can inspire children to do great things.

    “Anne continues to be a remarkable role model, for boys and girls alike. While her big ideas and desire to learn may lead her to make mistakes, through trial and error, she’s constantly making unusual connections and innovating.”
The second season of Annedroids finds Anne (Addison Holley, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood) and friends back in the junkyard for more experiments, taking their adventures to the next level. As Nick (Jadiel Dowlin) and Shania (Adrianna Di Liello, Stage Fright) return to school after spending their summer in the junkyard, Anne finds new ways to stay in touch using Pidgely, a pigeon with a broken wing she equips with a rocket suit. Pal (voiced by Millie Davis, Orphan Black) ventures outside the junkyard and expresses a desire to be a real kid. Also this season, a mysterious robotics scientist offers Anne the opportunity of a lifetime, forcing Anne to make some tough decisions about her friends, family and future. Along the way, the kids use DNA to track a lost dog, confront dinosaurs in nightmares, and send the androids to space.

“After seeing such a positive response from our customers, we’re thrilled to debut another season of Annedroids,” said Tara Sorensen, Head of Kids Programming at Amazon Studios. “Anne continues to be a remarkable role model, for boys and girls alike. While her big ideas and desire to learn may lead her to make mistakes, through trial and error, she’s constantly making unusual connections and innovating.”

“There’s a reason Common Sense Media ranked Anne from Annedroids as one of their top 10 best role models for kids: she loves knowledge, fosters curiosity in her friends and delights at solving problems,” said J.J. Johnson, series Creator and Executive Producer. “In season two, Anne will have a lot of new problems to solve including intruders to the junkyard, broken pigeons, escaped dinosaurs and how to get an android into space. Or as Anne would say ‘just another day in the junkyard.’”

Annedroids recently received a Daytime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Directing in a Children’s or Pre-School Children’s Series as well as the Grand Prize for Best Production, All Categories at the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence. Additionally, the series received the IPST Education Award at The Goethe Institut Science Film Festival 2014, a Parents’ Choice Foundation’s Silver Honor, and three Young Artist Awards. Common Sense Media also named Anne’s character a top 10 best role model in children’s TV.

Prime members can now watch episodes from the first and second seasons of Annedroids as often as they would like ad-free with the Amazon Video app for TVs, connected devices and mobile devices, or online at amazon.com/annedroids, at no additional cost to their membership. Customers who are not already Prime members can sign up for a free trial at amazon.com/prime. Additionally, a free Annedroids app with two full episodes and six games is downloadable exclusively for Fire devices at the Amazon App Store. Annedroids is also available as part of Amazon FreeTime Unlimited, the all-you-can-eat subscription service designed from the ground up for kids. FreeTime Unlimited is available exclusively on Amazon devices including Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets, and a year-long subscription is included with every Fire HD Kids Edition.


About Amazon Instant Video
Amazon Instant Video offers Amazon Prime members instant access to stream tens of thousands of movies and TV episodes, including award-winning Amazon Original Series, available at no additional cost. New release movies and current TV shows are available for rent or purchase.

Prime members can enjoy binge-worthy TV shows including Amazon Original Series airing now such as the multi-Golden Globe-winning series Transparent, the hour-long drama Bosch, based on Michael Connelly’s best-selling books, the Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman comedy, Mozart in the Jungle, and the comedy created by and starring Rob Delaney and Sharon Horgan, Catastrophe, in addition to HBO favorites like The Sopranos, True Blood and Girls, and popular primetime series including 24, Downton Abbey, Extant, Falling Skies, Grimm, Hannibal, Justified, Orphan Black, Teen Wolf, The Americans, and Under the Dome. Prime members also have access to an exclusive collection of kids shows now airing including Amazon Original Series’ Annedroids, Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and the Annecy, Annie and multi-Emmy Award-winning Tumble Leaf, as well as popular shows from Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. including SpongeBob SquarePants, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, and Blue’s Clues. In addition to tens of thousands of titles to instantly stream, the Amazon Prime membership (www.amazon.com/prime) includes more than one million songs, more than a thousand playlists and hundreds of stations through Prime Music, unlimited Free Two-Day Shipping on millions of items, early access to select Lightning Deals, unlimited photo storage with Amazon Photos, and access to borrow from more than 800,000 books for Kindle owners–all for $99 a year.

Customers can watch movies and TV shows with the Amazon Video app. The Amazon Video app is available on hundreds of devices including Amazon Fire TV, Fire TV Stick, Roku, smart TVs and Blu-ray players from Samsung, Sony, LG, and Panasonic, the Xbox, PlayStation, and Wii game consoles, as well as on mobile devices like Fire tablets, Fire phone, iPhone, iPad, and Android tablets and phones. Customers can also watch online at Amazon.com/AIV.

Comprehensive cast and crew information, including bios and filmographies, is available on Amazon's IMDb (www.imdb.com), the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content.

About Amazon
Amazon.com opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire phone, Fire tablets, Fire TV, and Amazon Echo are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

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Review: "Beetle Juice" Never Loses its Juice (Happy B'day, Michael Keaton)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 226 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Beetle Juice (1988)
Running time: 92 minutes (1 hour, 32 minutes)
MPAA – PG
DIRECTOR: Tim Burton
WRITERS: Michael McDowell and Warren Skaaren; from a story by Larry Wilson and Michael McDowell
PRODUCERS: Michael Bender, Richard Hashimoto, and Larry Wilson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Thomas Ackerman
EDITOR: Jane Kurson
COMPOSER: Danny Elfman
Academy Award winner

COMEDY/FANTASY with elements of horror

Starring: Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jeffrey Jones, Catherine O’Hara, Glenn Shadix, Annie McEnroe, Rachel Mittelman, Patrice Martinex, Dick Cavett, and Sylvia Sidney

One of my very personal favorite films and the film that made me a Tim Burton fan is Beetle Juice, the story of a young couple whose accidental deaths starts them on a journey of wildly bizarre exploits filled with uncanny events, tricky people, and fantastic creatures. Adam (Alec Baldwin) and Barbara Maitland’s (Geena Davis) premature deaths in a car accident leaves them ghosts in their New England home. Getting used to death is one thing, but the Maitlands face an even bigger challenge. Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and Delia (Catherine O’Hara), a pretentious New York couple, have bought the Maitlands’ home and Delia is determined to transform the old-fashioned abode into a postmodern art show place.

Adam and Barbara befriend the couple’s daughter, Lydia (Winona Ryder), who is not only fascinated with all things morbid and macabre, but she can see the Maitlands. However, Adam and Barbara turn to Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton), a “bio-exorcist,” a mischievous spirit who claims he can exorcise the living, to chase Charles, Barbara, and their obnoxious friends from their house. But Betelgeuse has own evil agenda behind his guise of helping the undead young couple reclaim their home.

The concept was tailored made for director Tim Burton’s unique visual style, and he certainly molded the film with his “twisted” imagination and skewered vision, as he and his co-conspirators pack the film with clever ideas, fantastical objects and locations, and kooky gags. Beetle Juice was the last time Burton seemed to really let loose and have fun on a truly wacky filmed.

Still, some of the credit should go to the art director and set decorators, costume designers, SFX people, and make up artists, as the combination of these artists and craftsman created a film that gloriously combines pulp fiction nonsense, pop art, and modern art into one of the few films that looks and feels like a cool Looney Tunes cartoon. Also, Danny Elfman’s score for the movie is one of the great film scores of the last two decades of the 20th century.

When I first saw this film, I didn’t care for Michael Keaton’s performance as the title villain; at the time, his manic energy seemed forced and phony. Sixteen years later, it seems just right; go figure. The rest of the cast gives inspired performances that fit the film’s darkly comic tone, making Beetle Juice a unique film treat. It’s not a great film, (the third act seems rushed and… damaged), but I like it.

7 of 10
A-

NOTES:
1989 Academy Awards: 1 win: “Best Makeup” (Ve Neill, Steve LaPorte, and Robert Short)

1989 BAFTA Awards: 2 nominations: “Best Make Up Artist” (Ve Neill, Steve LaPorte, and Robert Short) and “Best Special Effects” (Peter Kuran, Alan Munro, Robert Short, and Ted Rae)

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