104 min | PG-13 | September 6, 2024 | Warner Bros. Pictures
Tim Burton returns to the property that made him Tim Burton. Michael Keaton is still Beetlejuice. Catherine O’Hara steals the film. The nostalgia is earned more often than not.
Three generations of the Deetz family return to Winter River after a death in the family. Lydia is now a famous psychic medium with a television show and a teenage daughter named Astrid who thinks her mother is a fraud. Beetlejuice is still lurking. His ex-wife Dolores is hunting him through the afterlife. A con man named Rory has attached himself to Lydia. Astrid accidentally opens a portal to the world of the dead. Tim Burton juggles multiple storylines with the manic energy that defined his best work and the discipline that has been absent from his worst.
Michael Keaton plays Beetlejuice with the same anarchic energy he brought to the role thirty-six years ago. He has not lost a step. The character is disgusting and hilarious and Keaton commits to both without reservation. Catherine O’Hara plays Delia with scene-stealing absurdity. She is the film’s secret weapon. Every line reading is a choice and every choice is correct. Winona Ryder plays Lydia with the melancholy the character has always carried. Jenna Ortega plays Astrid with intelligence and emotional honesty. Willem Dafoe plays an afterlife cop with physical comedy that is surprisingly delightful. Justin Theroux plays Rory with oily charm. Monica Bellucci plays Dolores and is underused.
Burton directs with a visual energy that feels like a homecoming. The practical effects and stop-motion animation are a deliberate rejection of CGI-dominated filmmaking. The afterlife bureaucracy is expanded with inventive production design. The miniature work is charming. The film looks and feels like a Tim Burton movie in ways that his recent work has not.
The film has too many subplots. The Dolores storyline goes nowhere satisfying. The Rory con-man plot is predictable. But the core relationship between Lydia and Astrid gives the film emotional weight and Burton delivers the chaos and creativity that made the original a classic. This is not a cash-grab sequel. It is a filmmaker remembering what he does best.