'Goodrich' Reviews: "It's a refreshing, down-to-earth film for Keaton"

         On October 18, 2024, Ketchup Entertainment released 'Goodrich', which has earned a mixed reception from critics, currently holding at 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, "Andy Goodrich's (Michael Keaton) life is upended when his wife and mother of their nine-year-old twins enters a 90-day rehab program, leaving him on his own with their young kids. Thrust into the world of modern parenthood, Goodrich leans on his daughter from his first marriage, Grace (Mila Kunis), as he ultimately evolves into the father Grace never had." But what did the critics say?

       Roger Moore of Movie Nation says, "There’s no heavy lifting in “Goodrich,” the Michael Keaton/Mila Kunis dramedy about a workaholic second-time-around dad forced to reconnect with his kids, including the one old enough to be pregnant. The jokes about trying, after 60, to learn to be a dad, are easy to reach to the point of cute and mostly low-hanging fruit. The formula in play is another “I did my best” parent facing a sometimes comic, sometimes sad reckoning. At its most somber, it reaches for “Kramer vs. Kramer.” In lighter moments, one can wonder if all involved could have just turned this into a sequel to one of Keaton’s earliest hits, “Mister Mom.” The edgiest thing about it is its rating, “R,” for profanity. It would have reached a wider audience as a PG-13. But this it’s well-acted and it plays. More or less. Writer-director Hallie Meyers-Shyer was an actress before getting that first writing-directing (Reese Witherspoon’s “Home Again”), but is still most famously the daughter of writer-director couple Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer, who remade “The Parent Trap” and “Father of the Bride” before divorcing. She doesn’t embarrass herself and give Hollywood “nepo babies” a bad name here any more than she makes her name with this slight, derivative star vehicle."

        Shawn Van Horn of Collider notes, "Written and directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyer, and co-starring Mila Kunis, Goodrich doesn't deal with superheroes or the supernatural. It's a refreshing, down-to-earth film for Keaton, with him playing an aging man who is going through a coming-of-age story in the last act of his life. It's a simple, cozy dramedy, one you've watched before with beats you can see coming a mile away, and while it's not going to go down as one of Keaton's best, him giving his best takes it from being another paint-by-numbers film to something sweet and worth seeing if you want to see a feel-good story to counter the likes of Joker: Folie à Deux and Terrifer 3 at the cinemas."

       Alexander Harrison of Screen Rant writes, "Keaton's performance is the heart of this success. He somehow conveys his character's self-examination as a layer underneath each scene, to the extent that in each interaction outside a work setting, Andy appears to be discovering how to behave. It's like he was dropped into this movie right when we were, snapped out of whatever illusion kept him running for so long and having to learn what's really been going on with the people around him for the first time."

Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash

'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' Reviews: "Burton has thrown everything at the wall and then carefully sculpted what has slithered down into a rollicking yet disciplined supernatural caper with a heart"

         On September 6, 2024, Warner Bros. Pictures releases 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice', which has earned predominantly positive reviews from critics. In the sequel to 'Beetlejuice', "After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by 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 brewing in both realms, it's only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice's name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem." The ensemble cast includes Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe, Catherine O'Hara, Monica Bellucci, and Justin Theroux. But what did the critics say?

        Marshall Shaffer of The Playlist praises the film, stating, "It’s unmistakably a return to joy for a legendary director, and that goes a long way in making this film stand out in a sea of ill-conceived sequels." Concluding, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” stacks each scene with so much talent that it’s easy to miss that the film often operates on three disparate plot tracks: Delores’ pursuit of Monica, Lydia’s attempt to wrangle multiple generations of the Deetz family, and Astrid’s dalliance with her fellow teenage Dostoyevsky devotee Jeremy (Arthur Conti). The experience proves so overstimulating with both horror and comedy that few moments arise to reflect upon the film’s construction. If the characters ever feel like they hit a wall, Burton swoops in with a new ingeniously envisioned element of the afterlife (such as the “Soul Train”) to amuse."

        Jonathan Romney of Screen International says, "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice may not be that fresh or substantial – it’s basically comfort food for long-term Burton fans -- but it’ll be hard for viewers to repress a pleased smile, or graveyard rictus." Adding, "Among the top-flight cast, Ryder and O’Hara excel. The latter amplifies her original Delia to further levels of narcisstic neuroses, while Ryder’s anxious, vulnerable Lydia sensitively confronts the question of what happens to goth kids when they get older and face mundane mortal reality. Stepping into Ryder’s shoes as this film’s troubled teen, Ortega contributes a likeable no-nonsense candour. Willem Dafoe – donning yet more prosthetic make-up after Poor Things – has a nicely broad role as an afterlife cop, while a much-loved Burton associate from way back contributes the gruff cameo that kick-starts the whole story. "

Photo by Bruno Guerrero on Unsplash

      Stephanie Zacharek of TIME Magazine notes, "This sequel to Burton’s 1988 cracked pop masterpiece Beetlejuice doesn’t strive for greatness, or even your garden-variety over-the-top fantastical vision. Instead, Burton has just allowed himself to be silly and have fun." Continuing, "There’s a lot of plot windup before Beetlejuice, the “trickster demon,” as Lydia describes him, shows up. But when he does, it’s like greeting a decrepit, kvetching old friend, the kind you keep around just for entertainment value. Michael Keaton clearly adores this character; once again, he pours pure love into Beetlejuice’s maniacal, depraved soul. His sooty eyes speak of centuries’ worth of sleepless nights, the mark of an opportunistic fiend who lives for dreaming up new ways of tormenting hapless humans. His five o’clock shadow looks to be left over from the 5th century, and his hair is artfully uncombed, as if his hairdressing secret were a fork and an electrical socket. He has a dirty mind but a somewhat tame tongue. (The film is rated PG-13.) He’s still pissed off that his marriage to the then-teenage Lydia was thwarted some three decades ago; he carps that she’s been ignoring him all this time. Worse yet, he’s also being hounded by an ex-wife—more on her later. As he describes their blissful wedding day—in florid subtitled Italian, no less—we see it play out in grainy-gorgeous, low-budget black-and-white: “The ceremony was traditional: we drank each other’s blood, bit the heads off chickens, sacrificed a goat.” Good times!"

        Sophie Monks Kaufman of indieWire writes, "Burton has thrown everything at the wall and then carefully sculpted what has slithered down into a rollicking yet disciplined supernatural caper with a heart."