Ty Watches "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice"

I have just returned home from seeing "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice". This is a movie that has been on my radar since it was announced. I love the original movie, and getting the band back together, as it were, only made me more excited for this movie. I am not the biggest fan of decades long sequels, but this is one exception that I will happily make. I enjoy, for the most part, the work that Tim Burton does, especially when it comes to weird ghost/goth type stuff. He has a good mind for stories like these. So, my expectations were pretty high going into this movie.

My expectations were met. This is a good example of how to make a sequel in the 2020's, without going over the top with fan lip service. Sure, most of the original cast is back to reprise their roles, but they do so much more and yet they were able to keep it light, goofy and damn near whimsical. The joy of the first "Beetlejuice" movie is how much fun it looked like everyone was having. That shows up in the sequel as well. The heavy hitters that come back are great. Catherine O'Hara, Winona Ryder and Michael Keaton reprise these famous roles and build on them. O'Hara is a delight as Delia Deetz. She is just as funny and oblivious as she was in the original. And there may be some "Schitt's Creek" Easter eggs in there for fans of that show. Ryder as Lydia Deetz is just as wacky and smart as before. She has a TV show now, but the sight of Beetlejuice makes her even more paranoid. And Keaton as Beetlejuice is one of the great movie characters of all time. He's gross and mean and manipulative. He is also funny, and damn if I don’t root for him from time to time in this movie, just like I did for the original. The newcomers are welcome surprises. Monica Belluci is terrifying and menacing as Beetlejuice's ex. She barely has any lines, but the story of her, as told by Beetlejuice, is quite funny and informative. Jenna Ortega is killing it as the new goth kid in movies and shows. She has the look and can really pull it off. She is also wonderful in this role. I have not yet watched "Wednesday", but I feel like she gets to build as Astrid, Lydia's daughter, a different type role in a movie like this. She has layers. Willem Defoe, as an actor who died on set, is hilarious. He has a catchphrase. He is always being handed coffee that he never drinks. He is clearly having the best time of any actor on set. He is one of my favorite working actors, and anytime he is in something I'm about to watch, it makes me smile. And then we have Justin Theorux. I'm always a little lukewarm on him, but he is starting to grow on me in roles like this. He is funny and douchey and just a cliche of a hanger on. But Theroux makes it work. My wife and I kept saying to each other that we thought he was the funniest one in the whole movie. Outside of the actors, the set was great. They kept the old time look. The effects look like they do in the original. There isn't a big time CGI budget for this movie. That made me like it even more. And the jokes and call backs went just far enough. They were never overkill. They were a nod to the fans. They did the right amount.

I loved this movie. I was smiling the whole time. There wasn't a scene that felt unnecessary. They used what they needed and they used it correctly. We also saw the movie on one of those new Ultramax screens, and that was cool too. I love this movie and I highly recommend it. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Genius of a Christopher Guest Movie

My wife and I have been watching "Schitt's Creek" the past couple weeks. We are taking it slower than other shows we have binged because we want to savor the show. We heard all the good reviews, my mother in law is a humongous fan, and we are in the midst of season three and the show is totally worth the hype, and more than lives up to it. It is an excellent show with tremendous acting and writing and likeable characters. It is truly a great TV show.

I am not here to review "Schitt's Creek" today. I will do that when we finish. In watching this show, my wife and I have been revisiting Christopher Guest's movies because Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are the stars of "Schitt's Creek", and they have been in all of Guest's movies. We plan on going through Guest's whole catalog in the next couple weeks. These movies have been our quarantine date night movies. Two weeks ago it was my pick, and I picked "This is Spinal Tap". Now, I know that Guest didn't direct this movie, Rob Reiner did, but "This is Spinal Tap" is where Michale McKean and Christopher Guest made their mark. They were writers and stars of this movie. Levy and O'Hara are not in this movie, but do our personal mission, we had to go to the beginning. And boy oh boy does "Spinal Tap" hold up. This is a perfect parody of an aging rock band. I watch this movie now, and all I see is the Metallica documentary, "Some Kind of Monster", but that was supposed to be a serious movie. "This is Spinal Tap" is a straight up comedy, and man does it hit a homerun. Guest, McKean and Shear play the main three guys in the band, and they are oblivious to their actual downfall. They think they are stars, even though they get poor reviews and shows get canceled at the drop of a hat. The on stage performance is just as ridiculous. "This is Spinal Tap" is the rock movie parody. I love a movie like "Walk Hard", but there would be no "Walk Hard" if not for "Spinal Tap".

This past Friday my wife had the pick, and she chose "A Mighty Wind". Two weeks, two musical parodies. "A Mighty Wind" is Guest at the top of his game. This one has all the people you have come to expect in one of his movies, and they are all tremendous. Guest, Shearer and McKean reunite, this time as the folk trio The Kingsman. They are so talented and so funny and so musical and it comes across great in both movies. Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara are in this movie, and they are the unequivocal stars. The movie hinges and rides on their story and relationship. It is crazy to watch this performance, then turn around and watch them on "Schitt's Creek". It is totally separate. But Levy is dynamite in "A Mighty Wind". He is Oscar worthy. He embodies the 60's folk singer, and where I would imagine one would have been in the early 2000's after going through what he did. O'Hara is almost equally as good. She loves him, but she has to move on. She needs to better herself. She needs to live a normal life. But she so desperately wants to be with him. It is opposite their dynamic in "Schitt's Creek". She is Levy's provider. He is lucky to be with her. It is not like that at all in "A Mighty Wind".

This all leads me to Christopher Guest. He is clearly a genius when it comes to making these "mockumentaries". He has a pitch perfect tone. The joke writing and improvising is perfect. The actors are professionals. Everyone seems to be having a great time making these movies. They are so much fun to watch. And that is why I think Guest is so great, but also underappreciated. He hasn't made a movie in awhile, with the last one being "Mascots" on Netflix I believe. I hope he decides to make more movies. I want to see these people work together again. It will be a bummer to not see Fred Willard in the movie, but Guest can still get most of the original crew back together at some point. I'm glad my wife and I started this new thing. I'm glad we added this to our date night. This week will be "Best in Show", and I am so stoked to revisit that one.

Bottom line, these movies are awesome, and Guest is a great actor, writer and director. He deserves all the accolades he has achieved and so much more. The dude is a genius. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The Advent Calendar of Great Holiday Movies: Day 22 "Home Alone"

The pre-Christmas Day season of Advent is upon us. Here at SeedSing we love the chocolaty goodness of getting a piece of candy once a day until we get to open our presents. As our gift to you we will present a great movie associated with the holiday season. Many will be awesome, some will be extra awesome. Enjoy.

Day 22: “Home Alone”

Opened Doors: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, Day 7, Day 8, Day 9, Day 10, Day 11, Day 12, Day 13, Day 14, Day 15, Day 16, Day 17, Day 18, Day 19, Day 20, Day 21

The final few days before Christmas can get quite hectic. Now imagine you are planning to take your whole family overseas for a fabulous holiday getaway. The normal hectic becomes an uncontrollable kind of hectic. You have to navigate through your massive suburban home, your spouse is not helping, and a few of your kids are being annoying jerks as you make sure everyone is packed and ready to go. Sounds dreadful, right? Well it becomes a whole lot worse when half way over the Atlantic Ocean you realize that one of your kids was left in your sprawling house all alone for Christmas.

Released in November of 1990, “Home Alone” came out of the gate and was instantly a holiday classic. It made a young Macaulay Culkin a star, Joe Pesci and Daniel Heard created the modern template for comedic bumbling criminals, and it made us all cry when the old man was reunited with his wife. The elaborate traps set by Kevin were ingenious and gruesome at the same time (what would really happen with those traps?) The entire Tom and Jerry nature of the back half of the film is glorious. Yet the most important thing we all learned from “Home Alone” is that a mother that forgets her child is really not that bad of mom.

Watch Catherine O’Hara’s performance as mother Kate McCallister in “Home Alone” and wonder why the excellent actress has not won an Academy Award yet. O’Hara takes a thankless role, one of a mother who leaves her young child home alone as she gallivants off to Paris, and makes the audience sympathize with her struggle to get back to her helpless child. Along the way Kate runs into many obstacles, but it is the angel like John Candy who reminds the distraught mom that kids are resilient, hell he left one in a mortuary one time so how bad could Kate’s son be? In the end Kate, alone herself, makes back by Christmas Day to be with her ingenious, and maybe psychotic, son. In the end Kevin had an adventure, learned a lesson, and Kate went from being the worst mom, moved heaven and earth, and become an adequate mom, With that a holiday classic film was brought into the pop culture.

The weekend before Christmas is one of most hectic times of the entire holiday season. The shopping malls are like a thunder dome, the airports are filled with self centered mobs, and our own homes devolve into chaos due to uncooperative spouses and children. Things tend to get forgotten. But if the thing forgotten is your genius, semi-psychopathic, child, the power of a mother’s love will always save the season. Also, a polka playing John Candy is always a welcome helper on the way back home.

RD

RD is the Head Editor for SeedSing. What is better than being home alone and stopping inept criminals for Christmas? Listen to Patton Oswalt destroy the terrible song “The Christmas Shoes”.

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