"Death of a Unicorn" - Review

Corporate lawyer Elliott (Paul Rudd, ever reliable) has recently been widowed and immerses himself in his work. He is invited to a corporate retreat at the Leopold Estate, owned by his bosses at a pharmaceutical giant, alongside his morose vaping daughter Ridley (Jenna Ortega, always welcome) so as to assess his potential as executor of their estates. Along the way, the pair hit a unicorn with their car. In trying to hide the body, father and daughter become wrapped up in their own strained-relationship, the ambitions of head of Elliott's boss Odell Leopold (Richard E Grant, hell yes) and an ever escalating unicorn problem on the property as vengeful parents seek their spawn.

This really should have worked when embracing the madness of its concept, and indeed there are parts of the satirical part which do (the unicorns showing more care for their spawn than the Leopold clan; Will Poulter who steals the show as their idiot son, snorting unicorn horn like cocaine and having visions of the future; and the plot essentially being capitalists brutalising and slicing up the remains of something wonderful in order to secure more profit); however its lack of focus means most things do not land as well as they should. The father-daughter relationship of Rudd and Ortega lacks the pathos and warmth it needs, and the humourous parts are too infrequent to make up for the lesser scares and tension building. It's fine as is, but could have been a lot worse. I prefer a swing and a miss than generically competent.

"Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" - Review

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) works as a television ghost whisperer, alongside her lover and producer (Justin Theroux). She gets called back home by her performance artist stepmother Delia (Catherine O'Hara, naturally stealing the show), for a family emergency - just in time to reconnect with her sullen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) and be drawn into the afterlife of notorious dickbag ghost "Betelgeuse" (Michael Keaton), who has his own problems with rampaging ex-wife Dolores (Monica Bellucci) on a double-murderous rampage, and a plan of his own to weasel out of it...

This is good clean fun, something of a return to form for Tim Burton. I laughed a lot more than I thought I would (Catherine O'Hara, perhaps unsurprisingly, stole the show and got most of them), and the whole affair has a rather cartoony, brightly patterned nonsense energy, complete with fanciful sets and that Goth-nostalgia he's known for. Honestly, it works. It's less "reverence for a classic" and more "fuck it, let's do another whackadoodle adventure". My screening was the full spectrum of viewers: a person who hadn't watched "Beetlejuice", a person who watched it 20 years ago (me) and vaguely remembers it, and a big fan of the first. All three of us had a good time, we laughed at different parts and at various parts, enjoyed some of the creativity on display (the claymation sequence is both fun, and a good way to not have Jeffrey Jones in your movie...), and the cast are having fun: Jenna Ortega fits well into the Burton-verse with her big eyes and Goth girl pout; Winona Ryder is always good, Beetlejuice is not overused; Burn Gorman gets some very "Corpse Bride" lines as a priest; Justin Theroux has a blast as a new age shitbag ex-husband; and Willem Dafoe is a bizarre but delightful addition as a movie-star turned cop. Bellucci is underused, and the plot takes a while to get going, laying a lot of groundwork and spinning a lot of plates.
It's a fun film, it doesn't have anything to say and is rather disposable, but it's not trying to be anything else. It's enjoyable, competently made, and does well with its lunatic bouncy energy.