In-Review: August 2024
Pumpkin season has begun and reviews for the Fall Festival movies
Tim Burton has always been a director who has creeped me out. When I was younger, I remember being terrified of his short features and even Edward Scissorhands. So much so, that I couldn’t even go downstairs into my living room without being afraid of the VHS tape with the creepy Edward Scissorhands cover art. By the time, The Nightmare Before Christmas came out, that’s about when I started jiving with his particular style (funny enough he didn’t even direct that movie.)
Nowadays I find myself often going back to a few of his movies in particular. The Michael Keaton Batman movies ooze-style and Batman Returns has become a Christmas favorite. I have a soft spot for Big Fish, which I rewatched recently for the It’s the Pictures podcast. The movie features Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney as Edward Bloom— a man who has always told tall tales of his life to family and friends.
Maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised that Burton would return to one of his most famous creations, Beetlejuice. The macabre story of a recently deceased couple who desperately wants to remove some new tenants from their home has been beloved for decades, even inspiring a Broadway musical. It’s a fun, disjointed movie with performances from Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara, Winona Ryder, and Michael Keaton. Keaton’s Beetlejuice makes a huge impression on the audience despite only appearing in fourteen and a half minutes of the final film. I have to say I never really loved Beetlejuice and I feel that same way today. Often I find legacy sequels upsetting because I think the original movie is some untouchable classic that shouldn’t have a sequel— that doesn’t pertain to Beetlejuice. If I’m anticipating anything from Beetlejuice Beetlejuice it will be that Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, and Jenna Ortega have a lot of fun with the material and seeing the movie that reinspired Tim Burton as a director.
No paywall this month since I haven’t watched many movies in August. Stay tuned to the It’s the Pictures podcast where we’ll be recording an episode on director Tim Burton in honor of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opening in theaters. Remember that this newsletter exists because of your support and if you’d like to subscribe that’d go a long way to supporting this newsletter.
Here are the movies I caught up with in August:
I watched A Woman Under the Influence and Le Samourai because the stars of those movies (Gena Rowlands and Alain Delon) both passed away in August. Le Samourai is infinitely easier to watch given its shorter time commitment and subject matter. I found A Woman Under the Influence challenging despite an all-time great performance from Rowlands, but your mileage will vary on that one.
Disclaimer is an upcoming Apple TV+ series directed by Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men) and starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, and Sacha Baron Cohen. I’ve only watched the first episode, but the show will start airing on October 11th.
Links
One of my most anticipated movies of the Fall is Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door. Here are two reviews from Venice:
Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair “Almodóvar stares death right in the face, with strange and poignant results.”
Rafa Sales Ross for The Playlist “Still, there is something not quite right about this one Almodóvar film, a dramedy that emulates all that makes a story Almodovarian but bypasses its essence entirely.”
Hannah Strong for Little White Lies reviewed Brady Corbet’s epic, The Brutalist. The three-and-a-half-hour drama about a Jewish architect who arrives in post-war America and finds a hostile new world has been receiving raves.
More on The Brutalist as Liam Hess for Vogue asks if the movie is this year’s surprise Awards Season contender.
Glenn Kenny for RogerEbert.com took a look at a few movies opening in Venice including The Brutalist, The Order, I’m Still Here, and Babygirl.
Finally, fellow BOFCA member Audrey Fox wrote a review of Babygirl for Looper.