Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Tim Burton's Ghost Train Lives Up to Its Promises [critique]

Funny and fast-paced, the sequel to the 1988 classic sees Tim Burton return to his mischief and bad wit.

Tim Burton in Search of Himself, episode… uh, how many already? We stopped counting. Since the end of his golden age, at the turn of the century (somewhere between Sleepy Hollow And Big Fish), Tim Burton is desperately trying to regain the energy and excitement of his early days. He has continued to expand his fan club (the box of Wednesday on Netflix recently proved it), to be greeted like a superstar at each of his public appearances, he knows, deep down, that he is only a shadow of himself. He says so, moreover, when complaining in an interview about his 2010s spent largely shooting live adaptations of Disney classics. Tim Burton is therefore searching for himself with theoretical films (Big Eyes), madeleines taking him back to his childhood (Dark Shadows) and even self-remakes (Frankenweenie).

Miracle! He found himself. We're not going to try to make you believe that we witnessed the comeback of the filmmaker ofEd Wood and of Batman, the challengelet's not exaggerate, but, the time to Beetlejuice Beetlejuicewe rediscover him as inventive, funny, light, happy and relaxed in the midst of his freaks and some of his favorite actors. So that was the secret: it was enough to confront Beetlejuice (his second film, a calling card that opened the doors of Gotham to him), imagining a sequel, 36 years later.

Beetlejuice has the advantage of not being too overwhelming a reference: we are not talking here about an unattainable masterpiece, but about a crazy little classic, full of admirable plastic inventions, certainly, of dazzling tinkering, of singular ideas (the use of Harry Belafonte's music) and of an anthological performance of Michael Keatonbut also a bit televisual and crazy around the edges. Not a work bordering on miracles, then: a treat first and foremost driven by the love of a job well done and the desire to entertain the gallery.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is exactly of this nature. Of course, as with all late sequels and others legacyquelsit is about ensuring the fan service and to measure the time that has passed since the first opus. Burton projects himself here into the figure of Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), an old hand at supernatural TV shows who has forgotten the uncontrollable brat she was in her youth and has started to manufacture mainstream fear by the kilometer. Any resemblance to a filmmaker haunted by his past would not be a coincidence…

But Burton is not here to annoy the world with his psychoanalysis. If the film has things to say (on the institution of marriage and toxic spouses, mainly), it will be at full speed, without turning back. The main thing is to shake the Burtonian shaker, filled with delirious creatures, gently morbid gags, sets compiling the obsessions of the master of the place (expressionism, B series, a pinch of Mario Bava, etc.). It is Beetlejuice revived by Wednesday (the dialogues written by the two showrunners of the Netflix series are often funny), Tim Burton at the height of his self-referential art, with a big smile on his face and tapping his feet – a disco-soul mood has replaced Belafonte in the soundtrack, and the film does not disappoint in terms of wild musical sequences, which is no small thing.

How Wednesday's Series Brought Beetlejuice 2 Back to Life

What is also striking, finally, is the absolute love shown here for the actors, tenderly watched over, filmed with attention: Keaton, of course, who seems to have come straight from 1988, but also Winona Ryder, very touching as the eternal borderline goth, Jenna Ortegaworthy heir to Winona, or Willem Dafoe as a ham actor who will ham it up for eternity – only Justin Theroux disappoints a little in comic relief not so funny. Monica Bellucci, the director's new muse and lover, is very well served as the vengeful and soul-devouring wife, especially in a nice rebirth sequence where she patches up her dismembered body herself, before going to kick her old demonic husband's ass. Patched up, patched up, back from limbo to stretch his legs: a good snapshot of Tim Burton 2024.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuiceby Tim Burton, with Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Michael Keaton… In theaters September 11.