Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024)

Jack and I liked this sequel to the 1998 fantasy dark comedy, with original cast members Winona Ryder, Michael Keaton, and Catherine O'Hara–playing the same roles but older–joined by Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci, among others. The excellent special effects have evolved in the passing decades.

Tim Burton once again directs from a screenplay by new writers Alfred Gough & Miles Millar (story by Gough & Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith).

I've been a big fan of composer Danny Elfman since the mid 80s and have several of his soundtracks in my music library. Yeah, I'm old. I went from vinyl to cassettes to CDs to mp3s and, although I am streaming this latest soundtrack on Apple Music as I write, I have a lot of digital files, including the 1998 Beetlejuice score, at my fingertips. Jack and I both loved the first movie and saw it separately years before we met. Classic songs from the new movie are also available on Apple Music, including a boys' choir singing Day-O.

The movie has Burton's signature dark look, shot by Haris Zambarloukos, partly in the original location of East Corinth, Vermont. Fun fact: I visited there briefly in 1970 and it's a whole story. Write me and I'll tell you about it.

Ryder was last blogged for The Dilemma, Keaton for Spider-Man: Homecoming, O'Hara for Elemental, Theroux for On the Basis of Sex, Bellucci for Spectre, Burton for Dumbo, Grahame-Smith for Dark Shadows (also a Burton joint), and Zambarloukos for Belfast.

Ortega, now 22, made a big splash as the title role in eight episodes of Wednesday but has been acting for twelve years, including playing young Jane in thirty episodes of Jane the Virgin. Gough & Millar co-created Wednesday and have a bunch of other credits, including screen story for Spider-Man 2 (2004).

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences aren't summoning many spirits with averages of 76 and 79%. We rented it on November 2.

UPDATE: Amy tells me that, after we both watched in it our respective homes, we agreed that "there were too many plotlines and it was overall too busy." Her memory is better than mine, so I am changing "really liked" to "liked," because I did enjoy the production values and the acting, especially Ryder's and O'Hara's.

Dìdi (2024)

I thoroughly enjoyed this story of Chris AKA Dìdi, a Taiwanese-American rising high school freshman in 2008 Fremont, California, learning some life lessons. Director/writer Sean Wang's feature debut won the Audience Award and U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award at Sundance. Izaac Wang is terrific in the title role, with Joan Chen as his patient mother, Zhang Li Hua as his critical grandmother, Shirley Chen as Didi's sister, Stephanie Hsu in a cameo in a YouTube video, and a cast of many first-time actors in Wang's semi-autobiographical story. Dìdi means younger brother in Mandarin.

Eighteen minutes of Giosuè Greco's score can be streamed on Apple Music. The movie was shot on location in Fremont last year.

Chen has done a lot since I wrote about her in Mao's Last Dancer and Hsu was last blogged for Joy Ride. Izaac Wang (no relation to the director), now 17, was in Good Boys and voiced a part in Raya and the Last Dragon, though I failed to mention him. 

Zhang is Sean Wang's real grandmother and appeared in his Oscar nominated documentary short Nai Nai & Wai Po (with his other grandmother). You can stream the 16½ minute short on Disney+, I think for free, and Wang has also directed a feature documentary. Chen played the younger version of Sandra Oh in Quiz Lady, and Greco has scored nine features, four of which have 2024 release dates.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are fraternally grateful for this movie, averaging 96 and 92%, respectively. I downloaded it with my subscription to Peacock to watch on October 27 on a cross-country plane trip. It's also available to rent on the usual platforms.

His Three Daughters (2023)

Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olsen are brilliant as estranged sisters dealing with their father's hospice in the New York apartment he shares with one (Lyonne in bright pumpkin colored hair). You may recognize the face of character actor Jay O. Sanders as the comatose father. Most reviewers have called it funny, but Jack and I would disagree. However, it is very moving.

Director/writer/editor Azazel Jacobs keeps up the momentum in the claustrophobic setting of (mostly) the apartment. 25 minutes of Rodrigo Amarante's soundtrack is available on Apple Music and elsewhere.

All three main actresses have done some great TV work besides features. Coon was fun in ten episodes of Fargo season 3 and all seventeen of The Gilded Age after I mentioned her in my post on Gone Girl. Lyonne was last blogged for United States vs. Billie Holiday and then she was wonderful in fifteen episodes of Russian Doll, ten of Poker Face, and more. And Olsen, most recently in these pages for Avengers: Infinity War, played the same Marvel character in nine of WandaVision. Jacobs was last blogged for French Exit. Sanders is, according to imdb, best known for The Day After Tomorrow (2004), Revolutionary Road, and others that I haven't seen. This is Amarante's second feature as composer.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics are all in the family with a 98% average and its audiences are showing up for Thanksgiving at 85. We watched it on Netflix on September 25.

Jackpot! (2024)

It's not very good, but this uneven action/sci-fi movie, about a dystopian future California where lottery winners can be hunted down for their murderers to legally claim the prizes, did give Jack and me some laughs. The huge cast is headed by Awkwafina as the winner and includes John Cena, Simu Liu, Becky Ann Baker, and Colson Baker AKA Machine Gun Kelly, as himself. 

I expected more from director Paul Feig, best known for Bridesmaids. Maybe we can blame the writer  Rob Yescombe? Theodore Shapiro's exciting score is streaming on Apple Music as I type.

Because The Fall Guy reopened the conversation about stunt people getting recognition from the Oscars and elsewhere, I need to point out that the stunt department on this one did a lot of great work.

Awkwafina was last blogged for Quiz Lady, Cena and Liu for Barbie, Becky Ann Baker for Holler, Feig for A Simple Favor, and Shapiro for The Eyes of Tammy Faye. Colson Baker/Kelly is a rapper who has acted in Beyond the Lights, The King of Staten Island, and more. This is Yescombes' second feature after several video games and shorts.

Rotten Tomatoes critics lost the ticket, averaging a rotten 31% and its audiences liked it only a little better at 51. We watched it on Prime Video with our subscription on October 2. If you go for it, keep the TV on for outtakes during the entire credits, followed by a scene.

Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

We were very entertained by this rom-com about a clever marketing professional helping NASA get public support for Apollo 11, the first moon landing, in 1969. Scarlett Johannson is delightful in that role as is Channing Tatum as her adversarial launch director. Woody Harrelson and Ray Romano are key in the enormous cast.

Greg Berlanti directs from a fleshed out screenplay by Rose Gilroy, with story credit given to Keenan Flynn & Bill Kirstein. I've read that the 2014 nonfiction book Marketing the Moon by David Meerman Scott and Richard Jurek had an influence. And a real public relations expert Julian Scheer did help sell the moon launch to a skeptical America.

Daniel Pemberton's 60s-influenced lively score is available to stream on Apple Music and elsewhere. Luscious photography, production design, and wardrobe are thanks to Dariusz Wolski, Shane Valentino, and Mary Zophres, respectively.

Johansson was last blogged for Asteroid City, Tatum for Logan Lucky, Harrelson for Zombieland: Double Tap, Romano for Somewhere in Queens, Pemberton for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Wolski for House of Gucci, and Zophres for Babylon.

Berlanti, who has directed three other features, is better known as the prolific TV producer of Dawson's Creek, Brothers & Sisters, The Flight Attendant, and dozens more. This is the first script for Gilroy, who happens to be the daughter of actress Rene Russo and writer Tony Gilroy. Flynn & Kirstein also make their feature debuts, and the latter is also a cinematographer, having shot Mean Girls and others. Valentino has a few nominations for his work on Nocturnal Animals and The Trial of the Chicago 7.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics aren't flying so high with a 65% avergae, but its audiences are soaring at 90. We rented it on August 30 on Apple TV but today it appears to be available only to buy for $19.99 there and on Prime Video. Give it time and it'll come down (see what I did there?).