Weekend film reviews: ‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ ‘The Front Room’

This is Press Play on 89.9 KCRW. I'm Marisa Lago, sitting in for Madeline Brandt.

Here's a quick logline. A protagonist who's escaping the sweltering heat wave finds refuge

in an air-conditioned movie theater. Will it have a happy ending? Let's find out. It's our

Weekly Film Reviews, and joining us this week are Katie Walsh, film reviewer for the Tribune

News Service and Los Angeles Times, and William Bibbiani, film critic for The Wrap and co-host

of the critically acclaimed Network. Thanks to you both for being here.

Ahoy, ahoy.

Thank you.

So first up, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice. I won't say it a third time. It stars Winona Ryder,

Jenna Ortega, and of course, Michael Keaton.

Ew. Who's Beetlejuice?

Don't ever say that name.

Beetlejuice.

No, Astrid! I am serious!

If you say the same three times, you will appear.

Beetlejuice.

The juice is loose.

Katie, I mean, that puts a smile on my face.

This is, of course, the sequel to the 1988 Tim Burton directed movie about a young girl

who can summon a mischievous ghost exorcist named Beetlejuice. Tim Burton's back in the

director's seat. Should the juice have been let loose again, Katie?

You know, it's so hard to sort of grapple with this question because I think Beetlejuice,

especially for a certain subset of people who grew up watching it and re-watching it as kids,

it holds such a special place in our hearts. And, you know, it has been 36,

six years since the original film came out. It's kind of amazing. They got everyone back

for the most part. But to me, the first one has such a, you know, singular sort of handcrafted

charm, especially with all of the practical effects. And this felt a little like mass

produced to me. It felt a little busy, chaotic. There's a lot of, you know, everyone's back,

Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder. You know, we love them and they have a really

fun,

wonderful chemistry as Lydia Dietz and Beetlejuice. But there's a lot of celebrities in this. Monica

Bellucci shows up as this ex-wife of Beetlejuice who's kind of glowering around. And Danny DeVito

makes a cameo. Willem Dafoe is in it. Jenna Ortega plays Lydia Dietz's daughter. It just,

it felt kind of busy and chaotic. And at the end of the day, like a little bit

generic, almost a little bit bland. I did have fun with it in moments.

I think it still maintains that kind of irreverent sort of naughty sense of humor. And, you know,

it has like a beautiful style and it still tries to maintain some of that like practical quality

while combining that with CGI. But I just felt it was a little like flimsy and disposable. I don't

know. It didn't quite work for me. I just sort of felt like it was like a mixed bag of recycled

material. Bibs, this is breaking my heart because I am one of those 80s babies who

absolutely adored this movie i mean what did you think did it hit the same for you as the first one

uh i don't think anything can possibly hit the same as the first one we take it for granted now

because it's been so popular for so long but when beetlejuice came out it was really weird

it is an odd motion picture it is the from the perspective of the ghosts in a haunted house

and it's a bureaucracy and it's a comedy and all of a sudden we're on saturn being chased by the

warns from dune so what we have here is basically hey remember beetlejuice and i say yes movie i do

remember beetlejuice and i think i remember it better than you because you contradict a lot of

stuff from the original movie and the movie's like no one's gonna care here's a bunch of random

stuff we assembled in a vague chronological order and i'm like that feels kind of like a movie

beetlejuice and beetlejuice is like kinda and that's where i'm at with it but it's still funny

sometimes i think willem dafoe is hilarious in it all right well

you

can take us uh a long way in some of these situations beetlejuice is out today okay next

up we have a very different movie the front room this is a psychological horror film from a24

about an expectant mother who has to help take care of her partner's crazy racist stepmom

she wants you to think it was me she wants to replace me i am her

oh no yeah

this is not how

being cooped up with a newborn and a mother-in-law can drive anyone crazy

so this stars brandy norwood in the lead role and british american actress theater director

katherine hunter as the stepmom it's an unusual pairing bibbs you saw this what do you think

uh i i think this is a really really wonderful film uh it's also spectacularly funny in a way

that is clearly 100

intentional they're selling it as kind of a dark psychological thriller and it's that too

but brandy and katherine hunter have a remarkable chemistry in which brandy gets to play uh the

straight person to katherine hunter camping it up like nobody's business like they're they have

these like extreme close-ups like in wayne's world of just katherine hunter's face just like

i got her now and it's so funny it is so sharp about uh the way that like earlier generations

have the ability to lord things over and manipulate younger generations whether that's

through a religious holier-than-thou attitude or through economic manipulation the reason she's

able to stay with them is if you if you let me stay with you i'll give you all this money and

of course it's the 21st century no one has any except the boomers right so

you

it's actually it's actually pretty smart about the difficult relationship people have with

relatives who are racist who are uh making life difficult but also finding a way to worm their

way into our lives it's dark it's it's wacky uh and i think it's quite great all right the front

room is also out today the streaming channel tubi has been in the movie production business

for a few years now and they're behind a new western called the thicket

bill stole my sister that feller told me you'd help there's a bounty on her ten thousand dollars

you work for me three ways on the bounty i say what i say what you ever shoot a man no i'm a

christian god knows how many this cutthroat has three against now two against you're a christian

all right this movie stars peter dinklage and juliet lewis and metallica's james hetfield in

his second movie and he's a Christian and he's a Christian and he's a Christian and he's a Christian

and he's a Christian and he's a Christian and he's a Christian and he's a Christian and he's a Christian

some unique actors there in what looks like a pretty violent old west setting katie what do

you think of this one yeah this is based on a book by joe r lansdale it's one of those hyper

stylized hyper violent westerns that to me felt like just a little dated in terms of like i don't

know it felt like it would have been kind of edgy maybe 10 years ago but it has a real you know sort

of like pushing the boundaries vibe to it i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't know i don't

um juliet lewis actually plays the character of cutthroat bill i have not read the book i was

trying to see if this character was actually a female character in the book i couldn't deduce

that from the reviews or anything so my feeling is that they gender swapped this character but i

can't confirm it but um you know it's a basic chase story uh cutthroat bill kidnaps this young

girl and then the brother who is played by levon hawk who is the son of ethan hawk and uma thurman

who's actually quite a good actor um he goes in pursuit of his sister and so it's um one group of

people it's um the the levon hawk character with the peter dinklage character um in pursuit of

cutthroat bill and the sister so it's i i don't think it has enough story to really justify uh

i think the film is trying to you know use the period setting the western genre to talk about

gender issues especially um whether it's like the exploitation of women or you know people who are

gender non-conforming i just don't know that the movie really like has um a clear idea on what it

wants to say about that but it's pretty high quality it's it looks good good actors i'm not

sure that i was all that impressed with it but it's

not bad it's it's kind of an interesting film yeah i mean bibbs what she said about a plot like

watching the trailer i i felt like that even i mean there is a similarity though here in the

setup to true grit a young person hiring someone to carry out justice for them i mean do you feel

like it does anything new or is it kind of similar to something like that well i would

argue that the western genre is one of the most tried and true genres that we have it's what

they're doing with this movie is attempting to make a film in the vein of true grit in

the vein of the searchers uh with a different visual aesthetic this is cold this is icy uh and

also uh as katie said with a different sort of emphasis on characters and their experiences uh

it's interesting that they have a character who is clearly gender non-conforming and who

doesn't have the the vocabulary in order to deal with that and is making their way in a time where

no one knows how to respond and now they have found themselves becoming quite the villain

and i think that's an interesting complicated conversation to have i think it's uh it is

unusual that the film doesn't really come down in any meaningful way about its take on that but i

also think it's good that we can have a film in which a character who is gender non-conforming

can just be treated as is uh and especially in a historical setting where you know conversations

like that couldn't be held uh it does as noble a job as possible and i do think juliet lewis is

absolutely astounding here so as a fan of westerns it is

only so

novel but it is quite good awesome the thicket is out today in limited release so limited it's

not even playing in la but it will be available on tubi at a later date next up we have a movie

that was finished last year but is just now being released his three daughters about three sisters

who have to take care of their ailing father the plan is we all will take turns watching over

you know she hasn't done a shift right oh yeah you don't find that strange once we get here she

steps back and she's like oh my god i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry i'm so sorry

from all responsibility your life is perfect you got your kid probably gonna pop out a bunch more

no nothing pops there's no popping that's not the way it is okay whatever it looks like popping to

me bibs the three daughters are played by carrie coon natasha leone and elizabeth olsen quite a

trio there what did you think i think this is a really wonderful acting showcase for everyone

involved um they play three sisters their father is dying and they all have very different

personalities they're kind of staggered they're kind of uh they didn't really grow up together

a lot of them

carrie coon is very controlling and passive-aggressive uh natasha leone is very easy

going but also very non-confrontational with her overbearing sisters and elizabeth olsen is a bit

more of the uh spacey maternal type uh and like half of this movie is just them not communicating

and yet we learn so much about them and the actors are so they have such strong interpretations of

this material and it really becomes both funny and sad at the same time and as the film progresses

and they

start trying to suss out what their relationship is will they have a relationship after their

father dies um i think they really make a meal out of this material it's a great acting showcase

for everybody and i really love the ending i think the ending made the piece but i don't

want to tell anyone what it is so katie the filmmaker azizel jacobs he has previous films

that are also these small intimate stories about family relationships and marriage i mean do you

feel like this is a good entry point if people haven't seen his earlier work

i think you could like get into this film you know even if you aren't familiar with azazel jacobs

i think that the film is really special and it gets to this idea about um family and relationships

and what everybody wants out of this process of the end of someone's life and um i actually am

the middle of of three sisters so this really hit home for me in a lot of ways and the person who

stands out the most for me in this film is azazel jacobs and i think that's a great entry point for

is Natasha Lyonne and her performance is just really authentic and gutting and just really

struck a chord with me so I think this is a really special film and people should definitely check it

out. His Three Daughters is out tomorrow in a handful of theaters and then it'll be on Netflix

starting September 20th. All right finally if you're listening to this while typing on your

keyboard we have a documentary that may speak to you Seeking Mavis Beacon. It's about a search for

the fictional character whose face and name adorns a program that teaches typing skills.

Is Mavis Beacon still alive? Is Mavis Beacon a real person? She's like one of the first

consumer facing AI assistants. She predates Siri, Alexa, Cortana and all of these servile fembots.

Remember that computer program that we used to learn in like elementary on that big ass computer?

Yeah yeah. So what they do to her? All right Katie I have a very vague memory of Mavis but clearly

her existence resonated with these filmmakers. Tell us a little bit about Mavis Beacon.

Yeah I was gonna say if you were of Beetlejuice original loving age you probably remember Mavis

Beacon. It was the typing program that I learned in a computer lab in elementary school where this

woman Mavis Beacon, this AI woman but you know based on an actual model's face taught you how

to type. And so this black female filmmaker Jasmine Jones and her collaborator Mavis Beacon

writer Olivia Michaela Ross they collaborate to on this film which is sort of a academic

exploration spiritual journey and actual investigation into trying to find who the

model was who represented Mavis Beacon for this software program that was written by three white

guys who made a lot of money because it became the most successful educational

software program in schools. So it's a really interesting documentary because they're

combining like these academic ideas and theories and also this investigation with their you know

coming at it from a place of real strong ethical questions about digital privacy and personal

privacy and like it does this woman want to be found and what does it mean that these

young black children were able to see a representation of a black person and technology

and what does it mean also for primarily the the AI helper bots that we interact with like Alexa

or Siri why are they always you know coded or represented as female. Bibbs what you think did

you agree that this documentary was necessary to unpack the story of a digital typing teacher?

I do I do.

This is actually I think my favorite documentary I've seen so far this year on the surface it's you know it's it's an investigation can we find this person and that's interesting and they talk about that but what they're really talking about throughout the film is the place that women and people of color have had in the world of computing and how Seeking Mavis Beacon gave a lot of people an entryway but also where are we now it's it's funny it's sad it's fascinating it's it's a very deeply rich experience.

And I recommend it to anybody.

Fascinating. Seeking Mavis Beacon will be at the New Art starting tomorrow. Well that was Katie Walsh film reviewer for the Tribune News Service and the Los Angeles Times and William Bibbiani film critic for The Wrap and co-host of the Critically Acclaimed Network. Thanks to you both.

Thank you.