Beetle Juice

My husband and I watched this movie yesterday. We had high hopes based on the positive reviews as well as our enjoyment of some of Richard Linklater’s prior films, especially Boyhood, the Before trilogy, and a Scanner Darkly. Unfortunately, we were disappointed on every level. The story and acting both reflected a self-consciousness that was distracting and off-putting. The creative team may have had fun conceiving and executing this project, but rather than getting pulled in by a clever and entertaining story, we were left with the sense that they wanted us, the viewers, to be impressed with their cleverness and cool. It felt like being in the presence of a person that not only thinks they are the smartest person in the room, but are determined to let us know how smart they are. The film’s subject appears to be that we need to actively endeavor to be the people we want to be, but that ostensible message rang hollow due to the self regard which permeated both the storytelling and performances. In the end, this felt like more of an exercise in style with very little substance, which in part may reflect a shift in focus due to the creative team’s decision to take a real person and story and embroider fictional subplots onto it that felt hollow and thin emotionally.