On the overnight bus from San Rafael back to Retiro on August 14, I started searching for the showtimes of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" (also known as "Beetlejuice 2") and was surprised to see the information below.
It was airing in Showcase Cinema North and Showcase Haedo at 7.45 pm. This can't be! I know that it's set to premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival on August 28, followed by a U.S. theatrical release starting September 6. Could it be that this new film has some special connection with Argentina, allowing it to have a limited screening in Buenos Aires long before the official release? The Google search results page showed that this film's runtime is 104 minutes, which matches the information on Wikipedia and Peliplat. After clicking the ticket purchase link, I landed on the corresponding cinema's website but was directed to the original 1988 "Beetlejuice," with a runtime of 92 minutes. Now I know for sure—this is a mistake on the theatre's part. If it's intentional, perhaps they're trying to cash in on those eager to see the new version.
However, as a huge admirer of Winona Ryder—the lead actress in this classic horror-comedy—I've actually never seen the 1988 original. So why not go with the flow and use this as an opportunity to catch up on it?
"Beetlejuice" marked a breakthrough for both its director Tim Burton and Ryder in their early careers. Burton established his signature quirky style, became known for his dark humor and macabre fascination with death, and eventually earned a reputation as a leading figure of Gothic cinema. Meanwhile, 16-year-old Ryder stunned the world with her extraordinary beauty. Though she performed a rather awkward dance at the end of the film, it proved that when a face as striking as hers is on screen, nothing else really matters. This attests to an Internet saying that "whatever a beauty does is justified."
As a heteronormative man, I've been utterly captivated by Ryder, and surely this fascination stems from some adolescent fantasy. In high school, I'd scour the library for every magazine featuring her on the cover or back, secretly cut out her photos, and then discreetly return the altered issues. Forgive me, alma mater, I'm confessing my sin now. She was so stunning that I didn't pay much attention to her acting skills, or watch her early films in full. Just as I watched "Beetlejuice" only because of the upcoming new version, I watched the original 1994 "Little Women" only because of Greta Gerwig's 2019 adaptation.
I eventually got to see Ryder in person. It was during the screening of "The Iceman" at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. Michael Shannon and Ryder played a murderous psychopath couple. At the press conference following the premiere, Shannon mentioned that working with Ryder is perhaps the deepest wish of every male actor worldwide. And although I'm not the type to chase celebrities, ask for autographs, or request photos with them, this time I couldn't resist wanting to meet her in person. In the end, it was a semi successful attempt.
In "Beetlejuice," Ryder plays a 16-year-old girl called Lydia, who, even with her gothic appearance, is still so beautiful that a recently deceased couple, played by Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, can't bring themselves to scare her. This kind-hearted couple dies in a car accident and can't live in the beautiful home they had spent great effort to renovate. They don't want Lydia's family, who has just newly moved in, to take advantage of their loss, so they decide to scare them away by appearing as terrifying ghosts. But it turns out the enchanting imp is so captivating that even ghosts don't want to harm her. As for the character Beetlejuice, played by Michael Keaton, he can be summoned by the living or the dead by simply calling out his name three times. I must admit that by the end of the film, I still didn't understand what purpose he served. It was almost impossible to know whether he'd go to a different level of the netherworld or the world of the living, and what he'd do there. From a scriptwriting perspective, I even suspect that Burton didn't really figure out what this guy was supposed to do—he just felt that such a silly, brainless, but lovable character was needed to fill his imaginative, darkly humorous world of death.
Is Burton trying to give "Beetlejuice" a more defined significance by taking a work that has long been cemented as a classic and remaking it himself? He has even blatantly made the title of his renewed version a repetition of the original title.
Before its premiere at this year's Venice Film Festival, there won't be much information about "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" available, but from the known synopsis, the plot seems quite simple and repetitive. Thirty-six years later, Lydia's parents die unexpectedly. She then takes over the house and lives in it with her daughter, who is as rebellious as she was back in the day. Like Lydia, her daughter discovers the town model that connects the worlds of the living and the dead, unleashing Beetlejuice once again.
"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" has even been renamed as "Strange Beetlejuice" for marketing purposes in some places in a clear attempt to ride the wave of popularity from the series "Stranger Things," in which Ryder also starred.
It's worth noting that "Stranger Things" has no other big-name stars except Ryder. And the harsh reality of time has also etched itself onto the face of this beauty—the goddess has inevitably aged, perhaps even faded from the limelight. Yet this equally whimsical series unexpectedly became a huge success, garnering impressive viewership and streaming numbers, with the final episode being made into a spectacular two-and-a-half-hour film.
Some media outlets have dug up old news about Ryder when she accepted her role in "Stranger Things." The goddess reportedly had one condition for joining the show: its schedule must absolutely not interfere with the potential filming of "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice." Looking back now, it seems that everything has gone according to her wishes. Or perhaps, Burton was waiting for Ryder's availability, and for her to transpose the inspirations drawn from "Stranger Things" to the new "Beetlejuice."
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