Beginning its life in 2018 as a 20-minute short of the same name (directed this time by Leena Pendharkar), Scrap is writer-director-lead Vivian Kerr’s latest project. Kerr stars as Beth, a young single mother trying to balance parenthood, job-hunting, and basic self-care.
Recently having been made redundant from her cushy job, she now lives in her admittedly flashy car whilst her daughter is looked after by her brother Ben (Anthony Rapp) and his wife Stacy (Lana Parrilla) – all of whom are entirely unaware of Beth’s predicament, whose pride keeps her from asking for help.
Whilst we watch Beth attempt to traverse her situation, we’re introduced to Stacy’s heartbreak as she contemplates another round of IVF after previous unsuccessful rounds. And as Beth self-sabotages herself through reckless decisions, we feel Stacy’s frustration towards Beth’s problems as well as her own, looking after her sister-in-law’s daughter whilst unable to have a child of her own.
But the film doesn’t feel judgemental towards her; Kerr’s writing carries within itself a deep empathy, not wanting to punish Beth, but to bring a forgiveness and understanding towards her messy jam.
The sisters-in-law lead parallel lives of sorts, each woman having what the other seeks; Beth being a mother desperate to find a job and Stacy having a successful law career, yearning to become a mother. Their plights are difficult to watch, with the subtle humiliations Beth faces of having cards declined and her car towed, and the despair Stacy faces of being unable to conceive.
And amidst the exploration of the socioeconomic struggles of upper/middle-class Los Angeles suburbia, we see Ben and Beth attempt to mend their estranged sibling relationship. Rapp and Kerr have genuine chemistry as dysfunctional siblings, their irritation and familial love towards one another driving their performances forward.
But despite this, far from being a gloomy mood-sapper, Scrap offers rays of hope to all of its characters, realistic and satisfying resolutions to their issues. A warm lightheartedness gradually cuts through the misery, making this an ultimately pleasing indie drama.
Rebel Ridge follows the story of Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), an ex-Marine who is on his way to post bail for his cousin. Along the way he is stopped by two police officers who end up taking the cash he planned to use to bail out his cousin, as they believe it to be drug money. This puts Terry in a bind as he needed to get that money to the courthouse that day. When he is denied the ability to bail out his cousin, Terry attempts to file a police report against the officers who took his money. The chief of police (Don Johnson) for the small town gets involved and things escalate causing Terry to do whatever it takes to get his cousin out.
Director/writer Jeremy Saulnier has put together one hell of a movie here. With Saulnier directing and writing the script, his vision is really brought to life on screen. The combination of great camera work, stellar action sequences and great performances from the cast all work flawlessly because of Saulnier. He is able to make the story move and feel like a slow burn but constantly leaves you on the edge of your seat waiting to see what is going to happen next. Aside from a few moments where the story does start to lag a bit, Saulnier ramps the tension up and things start to move once again.
While this isn’t a straight up action movie, the scenes that do involve some action are done incredibly well. These scenes are tightly shot, and you can really feel the intensity of the action. The choreography used for the hand-to-hand combat is some of the best seen on screen in quite some time. It all looks completely authentic and at the same time feels like something you would see in a summer blockbuster. Even though there are only a handful of action sequences they all stand out and really make you feel every hit and every gun shot.
The performances from the cast are all top notch. Aaron Pierre gives a star making performance as Terry. He has so much charisma and the way he carries himself playing this character really makes you root for him. This is one of the best star making performances we’ve seen in quite a while. Don Johnson works well as the antagonist and makes for a great foe to go up against Pierre. One of the biggest surprises is the character of Summer, played by AnnaSophia Robb. Her character is given a large portion of the second half of the movie and Robb puts in a fantastic performance. She and Pierre work extremely well together and they make for an unlikely pair that shares a good amount of chemistry.
In the end, Rebel Ridge is a tense and all-around fantastic movie. Jeremy Saulnier has once again put together another great story. From the beautiful cinematography to the well written script, it all comes together so well. Aaron Pierre has given the performance of his career, so far, and the rest of the cast does a great job supporting his performance.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – Another Review. By Daniel Rester.
It’s been 36 years since Tim Burton broke out onto the scene with his sophomore film Beetlejuice (1988). The cult classic features one of Michael Keaton’s most memorable turns, and it was a big stepping stone for Winona Ryder’s career as well. Now the three reunite, along with Catherine O’Hara, for a legacy sequel that some have been asking for for years.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, finds Lydia Deetz (Ryder) as the host of a television show called Ghost House. She is dating her television producer Rory (Justin Theroux) and has an estranged daughter named Astrid (Jenna Ortega). The three are called back to Winter River by Lydia’s stepmother, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), after a tragic accident.
Meanwhile, the loony ghost Betelgeuse (Keaton) still wants to marry Lydia. A big problem stands in his way though: his vengeful ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) is back as a soul-sucking ghost. Lydia also falls for a mysterious kid named Jeremy (Arthur Conti), who throws a wrench into everything as well.
The plot of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is flimsy and messy as it struggles with focusing on two villains with two separate goals. It also can’t decide if Lydia or Astrid is the main character. The original film also felt chaotic at times, but this sequel feels even more disjointed with its many ideas and situations. Some of the callbacks to the original film feel forced and unnecessary too.
Despite being jumbled, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice still has a lot of horror comedy charm thanks to a game cast and crew. Burton channels his early days as he directs with visionary touches. He is greatly aided by production designer Mark Scruton, costume designer Colleen Atwood, and an army of makeup artists in bringing this gothic and cartoony world to life.
Most of the effects in the film look tangible and carefully crafted in an old-school way, with miniature models even coming into play for a few scenes. Burton gives the film a retro Halloween vibe without having to resort to using much CGI for the many ghoulish characters and environments. His oddball, hand-crafted visuals are very welcome in a day and age where most other big-budget films look the same.
The cast is mostly delightful. Keaton effortlessly steps back into his iconic role, turning on his gravelly voice and wild antics at every turn. Ryder and Ortega have a believable mother-daughter rapport, while Theroux and especially O’Hara provide plenty of laughs as their selfish characters. Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and Danny Devito are entertaining in small roles, but their characters could have been removed and it probably would have helped with the film’s bloat.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a daffy legacy sequel that should please most fans of the original, though it isn’t nearly as great as the 1988 film. The plot is completely cluttered, but Burton’s meticulous craftsmanship and the wonderful cast make it worthwhile. Even after 36 years, the juice is still loose!
Writer-director Jeremy Saulnier’s latest project, Rebel Ridge, feels like a callback to the post-Vietnam films where veterans would take on corrupt systems. First Blood (1982) especially comes to mind as Saulnier focuses more on tense situations and character psychology than a death count. People tend to forget that John Rambo wasn’t shown as an absolute killing machine until Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985).
The Rambo fill-in in Rebel Ridge is Terry Richmond (Aaron Pierre), a former Marine on his way to post bail for his cousin. Terry is quickly detained by two police officers, who steal his money under the guise of it being a civil forfeiture. In an attempt to get his bail money back, Terry seeks assistance from a courthouse employee named Summer (AnnaSophia Robb). The two soon uncover a scandal involving local chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson) and his small-town officers.
Pierre, who replaced John Boyega on the project, proves he has star quality. With his piercing eyes, intimidating figure, and low but commanding voice, he has quite the presence. It’s not surprising that he was tapped to voice a younger Mufasa in the upcoming prequel to The Lion King (2019). With both Rebel Ridge and the Disney film under his belt, Pierre is having a breakout year with 2024.
Saulnier guides his lead actor and the others with his usual deft hand. The director of Blue Ruin (2014) and Green Room (2016) knows how to slowly crank up tension while providing minimal easy releases. He keeps the audience anticipating action scenes in Rebel Ridge, which builds suspense but also admittedly makes things drag in the middle. When the action does come, though, it is potent and believable in that Michael Mann sorta way. The climax is especially impressive and gives the film a boost right when it needs it.
Cinematographer David Gallego and music composers Brooke Blair and Will Blaire help Saulnier establish a grounded feel and throbbing rhythm from scene to scene. Saulnier as a director does sterling work at staging action and getting fine performances from his actors here. His writing and editing (this being his first time as his own editor) could have been more compact though as the film is 131 minutes but feels like it’s 150.
Johnson, Robb, and Emory Cohen all turn in solid work, but this is really Pierre’s show. Saulnier keeps his focus on the adroit and muscular actor for nearly the entire runtime, and Pierre uses every second wisely. Rebel Ridge is a smart action thriller in the First Blood mode and is elevated by Pierre’s terrific central performance.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: The BRWC Review. By Christopher Patterson.
The Biggest Disappointment in a While, or, in other words, An Impressive Waste of A Thing Called Effort and Time In Just About Everything But The Custom Design and Effects
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a film I am surprised was made. I remember when I was a kid hearing it was being made, and now it’s here. It’s here. I don’t know, but just saying that feels like the world is moving right now just on impact of that statement. They did it. They made a sequel. Then comes the other part. The almost harder part. Was it actually good, though? Or whatever. Burton films, after the 90s, really are hit or miss, and this film, sadly, only adds to that. It has Burton’s visual effects at, nearly, their best; I’ll give him that, but as a whole, the writing, especially, is not just terrible but shockingly purly putrid and just dreadful since you see what they attempted and how they failed so horribly at the term…. Umm… Ahaha… Remembered it: succeeding. Here it is, a review of Beetlejuice’s long-awaited sequel. “Beware ye who enter here” (Dante), or just don’t even enter since, being for real, the film isn’t worth even all this buildup. And that’s just sad.
To start, let’s get into the story. So, to shorten it by a lot, probably twenty-six pages to be exact from how convoluted this film’s plot is, (I feel bad for anyone who had to write a summary of this film to be honest since..um…) this is a family film. While the original was also a family film, and its heart was directly placed there, right with the spectacular visuals, it was also a bit more spread out in its thematic purpose. Here, though, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is pretty blunt and also somewhat scattered into a million pieces with its plot. So we see Lydia, now old and a fake seer of ghosts for the public for some reason, with someone who is using her, and her daughter also hates her alot. She’s also lost her previous husband, which has affected her daughter, and her dad’s dead and her stepmom and her are still arguing a lot but now her Astrid, for like one scene, says something around the lines of Lydia being a grownup and not an annoying goth anymore which… I mean, that’s called growing up but okay. Also, Delores, Beetlejuice wife, is out to kill him and a detective is also out on this case. Almost forgot, Astrid has this guy she hangs out with who turns out to be dead and super crazy and tries to replace her life with his and also Astrid’s father is in the dead world and they met up with him trying to help her also Emily dies and now she has to come to terms with that and a couple dozen other things I forgot to mention. Oh yeah, Lydia, from what I can recall, makes a promise to Beetlejuice to help save Astrid.
Caught all that? To be frank, it does try to spread out and be organized. It just fails horribly. But, nonetheless, from this, one thing is clear: this is a family matter. You can see the outline here though. While this is not bad on its own, it’s moreover how it’s all written.
While I usually praise Burton’s films writing for not being usually the worst thing ever, but here it really is just the worst thing about the film and makes you roll your eyes. This plot outline is convoluted and yet also kind of generic and feels brainstormed in two minutes, to be frank. For instance, wouldn’t it be more interesting if it was a story that didn’t copy the original film sort of like most sequels, remakes, or reboots that take forever and how about doing something actually unique without trying too much at once? Like what if you took the mother and daughter relationship and just made that the whole film and not even have Beetlejuice in it so you could hone in on that. Or if you wanted Beetlejuice, do something actually unique and I don’t know, simple yet explosive and not what the original film felt as though it purposefully avoided: too much at once.
The biggest issue, frankly, with this sequel is that it has no restraint. What made Burton’s opus work so well was that not all the cards were shown. The Neitherworld, when we saw it, was forbidding, and yes, a bit funny, but still creepy. That was the power of it.
Flanderization is when a work is a sole characteristic of a character and becomes their whole personality, or, in this case, when a sequel takes one aspect of what made the original film work and makes it the entire sequel. Then you get a pretty terrible film. Bingo. If I had to give my favorite example, it’s how, again, the Neitherworld seemed so mysterious and so very interesting with all these questions from the first film you could have and how this film almost tore that up by either making answers, which ruins everything, or by expanding the world to a point it feels less mysterious.
To be frank, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a mediocre film. Though, as a sequel, to be more specific, it is a garbage and utterly dog water sequel. On its own, it has a solid, if albeit all over the place, entirely too much at once, and not focused, plot that comes together averagely. Well…until the horrible ending, but what really keeps it down is its heart and balance (in two ways).
Firstly, the ending, spoiler alert, ends with Lydia married to Beetlejuice. Could it be a dream? Yes. But still, on its own, this moment ruins the entire film for me. It makes the wholesome marriage and getting on with your life theme seem spit at for a quick joke when you know a sequel if it ever comes will be long later and probably not by Burton himself. In a way, this ending is a rejection of the first film.
In some ways, this film sticks out more than the original film with its heart, specifically, just being out there. And while I can see this, the simple issue is that the first film was constrained and never was too blunt and unsubtle. Yes, it could be over the top and all, but it was about how death can hurt people and moving on and enjoying life. Our leads died horribly and now are stuck, seemingly, in a house forever, and some family just takes their house. Yet, though all of that, Burton was able to show, in my eyes, how despite life feeling pointless sometimes and we all die, yes, enjoy life on your own terms and be happy for the sake of it. And that felt so good. This shined even better with the parental relationship the Maitland’s had with Lydia and how they saved her from being married to Beetlejuice. It was a creative playground bursting with a heart in the right place. Now, in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Lydia, if we take it not as a dream, is married to Beetlejuice.
And also back to Lydia marrying Beetlejuice; if you know anything about this franchise, you know why this is such a terrible choice. Rather than giving her agency and respecting Lydia, and due to the age gap, the ending feels like a slap in the face to all that and says it doesn’t care at all. Which just ruins absolutely everything. Like a house itself, or in this case the entire film, just exploding and getting caught on fire and celebrating at that.
By comparison, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels derivative of the original plot rather than showing the cycle of family issues it seemingly intends to with Lydia, like her mother-in-law before, struggling to be a mother to her daughter. But it feels lazy. Lydia is like 40 now and still feels like the writers aren’t really trying; moreover, it feels like the writing is 80-year-olds who haven’t seen real parental relationships.
The humor, this time around, is less laugh out loud funny and more rolling your eyes oh my god. It’s simply humor for audiences who grew up on Beetlejuice when it came out. When it came out, oh, just 36 years ago. Not for those who were born, I don’t know, later. And it shows hard. Even Ortega’s dialogue feels written by a 95-year-old and lacking any closeness to the word known as.. Umm.. “realism.”.
The major, and I do mean major, savior of this trash fire is Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. It really is a film where he carries practically every scene on his own for the entire runtime. But even his character can’t be saved from the film, kind of ruining him. Thanks to things like phones existing and this taking place probably now, the film feels highly unrealistic or cringe if I had another additional word to describe it. Like how can Beetlejuice’s friends just walk around town and nobody gives much thought, even if it’s Halloween, and couldn’t someone, I don’t know, show the world that ghosts exist now with, I don’t know, a phone? In other words, the mystique feels broken now.
Before, it worked since everything was more simple. Beetlejuice never left the house, making it feel more contained and possibly scarier. There was nowhere really to go, and nobody except our cast of our characters noticed the supernatural. Now, the whole town knows. And the entire social media world. In turn, it feels like Burton is raising the stakes, but in reality he just makes Beetlejuice less of a scary villain and more like an eye-rolling, really cringe-worthy one. Where before it felt managed, where he was terrifying but also humorous. Now he’s just cringe like a old person trying to be cool to the new generation or showing the new generation how it was done in your time but instead coming off as so cringe.
Another issue I have is not having the Maitfields even mentioned much. And they are now really only used as a quick reminder they are not here since they passed on just in time for when we get the sequel. I heard its due to age and probably having to recast and ok, but also Michael Keaton’s Beeltejuice looks nearly thirty-six years older, so…..
The one thing I will give this film is the set and custom design is truly wicked. Like, the world feels like the world from thirty-six years ago, just thirty-six years later, and more money.
Though, if the poor writing stood out so much, it would have to be with Jenna Ortega’s character Astrid. Astrid’s character is probably the worst-written character out of everyone. She is the new Lydia only just without any of the personality, humor, and wittiness to keep a scene even halfway interesting. In other words, the Lydia wannabe. This is not due to Ortega, though, who does an immaculate job with what she’s given, but due to just the truly awful writing presented every five seconds she is on screen that makes each scene with her more boring than the last and more eye rolling.
VERDICT
Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a film that feels thirty-six years too late, and it’s simply too atrocious writing is a prime example of that.
