It is said that the opening films of a film festival are the exact mirror of the society of the moment with its needs, its fears, its dreams. And every year the Venice Film Festival is proof of this. If in recent years the opening of the Venetian film festival have been dramatic, dark, psychologically intense films such as “Comandante” by Edoardo De Angelis in 2023, “Noise White” by Noah Baumbach in 2022 or “Madres paralelas” by Pedro Almodóvar in 2021, this year Venice 81 wanted to start the dance with a completely different spirit: lightness and a bit of healthy madness.

In fact, the 2024 edition of the festival was opened by Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” – sequel to the 1988 cult film – a film that managed to drag the press and audiences present at the preview at the Venice Lido into a crazy, fun and exciting universe, doing exactly what cinema was created for: entertaining, making people dream and, above all, leaving a mark.

“Bettlejuice Beetlejuice” takes up the ghost story created by Tim Burton 36 years ago, when a very young Winona Ryder, then seventeen, showed everyone her talent alongside icons such as Michael Keaton, Alec Baldwin, Geena Davis, Catherine O’Hara. Today, many of these actors are back in the cast of the second chapter of the film from Michael Keaton to Catherine O’Hara to Winona Ryder to which have been added the new entries Jenna Ortega, Willelm Dafoe, Monica Bellucci whose character, perhaps, is the only disappointment of the film.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: the plot

The film picks up where the first film left off more than 35 years ago: three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River after an unexpected tragedy. Still obsessed with Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid, discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble lurking in both worlds, it’s only a matter of time before someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his own version of chaos.

A “crazy” and fascinating film that confirms the genius of Tim Burton

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is Tim Burton’s Manifesto film and there is no doubt about it. It is a sequel that succeeds in the difficult task of not only living up to the original film but also modernizing a cult without distorting it, without making it lose its identity and without falling into an excessive “nostalgia effect”. The new film in the “Beetlejuice” saga, in fact, pays homage to its predecessor but renews itself by adapting to the new generation it tells, to contemporary society, to today’s times while maintaining all its crazy, whimsical, out of the ordinary spirit that made it a classic 36 years ago and still does.

It is obvious that the magic of the first film is unrepeatable but this sequel holds up well. After all, in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” there is all of Tim Burton, there is his vision of the world, of cinema, there is that desire to go beyond the ordinary and bring fantastic worlds to the screen, there is his choice not to resort to the latest special effects but to remain faithful to a way of making fantasy cinema from another time. And then there is coherence in every stylistic, writing and musical choice. The only flaw in the film is the character of Monica Bellucci who adds nothing to the story and who perhaps we could have done without.

For the rest, behind the lightness of this film, behind the splatter scenes, there is a deeper story of family ties, of three generations of women who in their diversity always support each other, there is the desire to explain death and, in doing so, to find a meaning to life. There is music, there is theatricality, there is the brilliant madness of a director unique in his genre who, like few others, has the ability to transmit to each of the people sitting in the theater an incredible desire to live as well as to fantasize. And after years in which the Venice Film Festival seemed to be dominated by an excess of drama and “negativity”, now finally we go back to smiling, to having fun, to dream and get excited. And perhaps Tim Burton was the only one who could do all this.

Rating: 7.5