Multiplex Madness
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Director: Tim Burton
Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Justin Theroux
They've been threatening it for decades, dating back to a "Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian" pitch from the 90's, but we've finally plunged back into the world of Beetlejuice, one of the greatest dark comedies of all time. I don't know if I ever expected one to surface, mostly because, outside of Batman Returns, Tim Burton has never really been a "sequel guy." I know one thing about Beetlejuice, and it's that you don't dare make a Beetlejuice sequel without Tim Burton. It's one of the most personality-defining films any auteur has ever made in this history of cinema. So you gotta wait until that crazy little man thinks to himself "Okay, fine, I'll do it."
The second film, ceverly titled "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice," sees goth kid Winona Ryder now an adult, using her gifts of seeing the dead as the basis of a ghost hunting TV show. Her daughter, played by Jenna Ortega, is tricked into venturing into the afterlife, and Ryder is forced to turn to Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice for help finding her. This is the primary plotline, because this is a busy movie. There are about five plots happening simultaneously, and some of them get shortchanged (Monica Bellucci does very little in this movie). It is almost impossible to weave, but the charisma of Burton's imagination keeps the film's dead heart beating. The film was written by Smallville creators Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (who worked with Burton on Wednesday, also starring Jenna Ortega), and if there is one thing they've proven over the years, it's that plot-weaving is not their specialty. In fact, the last time they tried to resurrect a dead movie franchise, we wound up with The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, and I still haven't forgiven them. Their script is chaotic, but Beetlejuice is a chaotic character who desires to consume, not be sensible. The first film is a tad devil-may-care about pacing and storytelling as well, meaning this is a franchise that coasts on vibes. If you're here for the Beetlejuice vibes, the long-awated sequel does not disappoint. The movie is a macabre blast in a way that we haven't seen since the height of Burton's career, and if this movie does nothing else other than giving him a shot in the arm, I consider it a success.
The Front Room
⭐️
Genre: Thriller, Comedy
Director: Max Eggers, Sam Eggers
Starring: Brandy, Kathryn Hunter, Andrew Burnap, Neal Huff
In-laws, am I right? Brandy takes the lead as a pregnant woman who finds that overbearing, religiously abusive stepmother-in-law Kathryn Hunter has moved into her family's house. As time goes on, Hunter's behavior becomes worse, more malicious, and targeted, seemingly cursing the household and driving Brandy to the brink of madness. This dark comedy comes from the brothers of arthouse horror director Robert Eggers, and it would be swell to have such a dynasty of that caliber making movies. While I would not say that all the talent went to Robert in this family, what I will say is that as gloomy as his movies can get, I don't want to curl up and die while watching them. The good news is that Max and Sam seemed to have learned more than a couple tricks from their more successful brother. There are some interesting framing choices and aggressively effective sound design (the movie really pushes the sounds of the mother-in-law's crutches to make her feel like an overwhelming presence). But the honest to god truth is that sitting through this movie is an endurance test. What's frustrating is that this is by design, and I should give it props for doing it as well as it does, but the movie crosses a line in the tension comfort zone in where it becomes impossible to admire the craftwork on display because the story is so loathsome and unpleasant, increasing the desire to walk out of the movie as it breaks your spirit down. I fault no one for this. Everyone is here and doing their best. This is clearly the movie that the Eggers brothers want to make. Brandy is solid as the main foil. Kathryn Hunter was clearly cast due to her striking voice, allowing her to give billowing performance that contrasts the other actors. The failures of the film are of no fault of theirs, but the pervasiveness of the movie's mood is less enthralling or frightening than it is uncomfortable. The movie hammers you in the face with its tone of discomfort until you admit you're unsettled, but the unsettlement is just that you're numb with misery and don't understand why the movie won't stop. Because of that, the film's black comedy aspect is less amusing than it is joyless. I'm not sure I can call this a bad movie, because the movie feels like it's, in some backwards way, successful at its unconventional aspirations, bleeding the misery of its main character into the audience. There is something to be said about that. All I know is that I hated watching it and I want to burn the negative to ensure I'll never watch it again.
I'll Be Right There
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Director: Brendan Walsh
Starring: Edie Falco, Jeanie Berlin, Charlie Tahan, Kayli Carter, Michael Rapaport, Michael Beach, Sepideh Moafi, Bradley Whitford
Oh look, an indie dramedy about a midlife crisis. As someone who has just turned forty, I was probably put onto an automatic wait list for this movie. Edie Falco stars as a devoted mother of grown-up children, one engaged and pregnant and the other looking for direction. Falco has to juggle their problems and her own, as she faces an identity crisis of losing her children to their own lives while also figuring out her own future path. The film plays with simple truths and ideas that feel personal to the filmmakers, but the problem with this film is that it's a movie about contentment in mundanity that can't find an approach that isn't mundane in of itself. That's the word of the day: mundane. The film is mostly just mundane plot elements that are trying to be spiced up with screenplay wit, but the film's sense of humor is also mundane, mistaking calm and lighthearted snark for riotous, biting comedy. The film even tries to spice up its main character's mundanity by adding complications to her that she is newly exploring, such as being engaged to a man but having an affair with a younger woman. Her exploring a repressed bisexuality would be an adequate complication to the story, but the movie just can't work up any enthusiasm for it. It all just seems humdrum. It doesn't seem to matter much to her. The idea of being a lost soul in search of a future is present, but the movie doesn't really do anything of value with it. The film winds up just being a calm evening watch for indie nerds, though it might be a bit of a reach to say they will find it as charming as it thinks it is. It's decent enough, it's just mundane.
Red Rooms
⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Thriller
Director: Pascal Plante
Starring: Juliette Gariépe, Laurie Babin, Maxwell McCabe-Lokos
Anatomy of a Fall was just the beginning, the time for French courtroom dramas is now. Red Rooms is French-Canadian, to be more precise, while also not being entirely inside the court system. The film begins with a man on trial, accused of murdering three young girls on camera and distributing the footage on the dark web. But the film isn't set on him, instead centering on a young woman who is watching the trial as it unfolds, seemingly doing her own investigating at home. We are given limited details about her. She's a model, a fitness nut, and seemingly a terminally online hacker. What exactly fascinates her about this particular case is not made apparent, but she hits lengths of digging into it that are pretty extreme. But the movie is more about its theme than it is her character, both directly and indirectly taking a look at obsessive consumption of true crime media, with minor characters who make snap judgments and/or conspiracy theories, while the main character digs in with a neutral expression, growing more unhinged with the more knowledge she consumes. Juliette Garièpy gives a powerful performance in the role, expressing a lot through her limited expression. The movie's plotting seems a little lost in itself sometimes, drifting in multiple directions for seemingly little rhyme or reason. It could lose the audience in doing this, but instead it successfully hooks them in the desire of figuring out where all of this is going. It's easy to grow frustrated with how perplexing this movie presents itself, because the only people who know what's on the main character's mind are the filmmakers, and they aren't sharing. Those who get lost in the themes of obsession will find the film captivating.
The Thicket
⭐️⭐️1/2
Genre: Western
Director: Elliott Lester
Starring: Peter Dinklage, Juliette Lewis, Esmé Creed-Miles, Levon Hawke, Andrew Schulz, James Hatfield, Leslie Grace, Gbenga Akinnagbe
I don't think I've ever seen a Tubi original in a theater before. Hell, I don't think I've ever seen a Tubi original period. I know that they exist, but why would I seek them out? Tubi is like a 99 cent section in a video rental store, where you just wander through a pile of crap until you find something to waste a night on. If something is distributed directly through it...well, that's a bad sign. But the movie's actually pretty okay, if not terribly involving. The Thicket is a western featuring Peter Dinklage as a bounty hunter, who has been hired to track down the group of bandits who kidnapped a boy's sister for nefarious, vague purposes. The head bandit is Juliette Lewis, who is committed to her role, though it's a shame the role is mostly just rambling and mumbling. You know she's the bad guy because she likes black licorice. Who the fuck likes black licorice? Psychotics, that's who. She's not very compelling a villain, mostly because it's difficult to actually make out most of what she's saying, so if there's anything interesting about her, it gets lost in translation. Why does she want the girl? Why alive? I'm sure this was explained, but I just stopped trying to follow her dialogue after a while. I do feel like I'm being unfairly judgmental, because the film can be gripping and exciting in the best of moments, but it's also superficial. There are elements that are thrown in but utterly superfluous. Leslie Grace is an actress I quite like, but she adds nothing to the movie. Her role could have easily been junked, along with several other supporting characters who are present for the sake of being present. They all just group together to ride to a bitter conclusion, where several foul fates are met where my reaction as a viewer was "Great. Thanks for scowling this entire movie just for that." The Thicket is a movie that puts a lot into itself, but some of that effort would be best put to use on its characterization. If the round of characters ever found their hook, this movie would be a lot better than it is.
Movies Still Playing At My Theater
1992 ⭐️⭐️1/2
AfrAId ⭐️
Alien: Romulus ⭐️⭐️1/2
Blink Twice ⭐️⭐️1/2
Deadpool & Wolverine ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Despicable Me 4 ⭐️⭐️1/2
Inside Out 2 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
It Ends with Us ⭐️⭐️
Reagan ⭐️
Twisters ⭐️⭐️
New To Digital
Borderlands ⭐️⭐️
Longlegs ⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2
Skincare ⭐️⭐️1/2
Trap ⭐️⭐️
Coming Soon!
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