ISSUE #68
BEAM FROM THE BOOTH | GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY
[EDITED BY: GRIFFIN SHERIDAN & SPENCER EVERHART]
Hello and welcome back to an all-new installment of BEAM FROM THE BOOTH brought to you by GRAND RAPIDS FILM SOCIETY.
To begin, we’re so pleased to bring Beam back to your inboxes. Since our last installment, we’ve hosted a handful of really exciting screenings across multiple series. Thank you to everyone who came out to join us at these events this past month.
(Especially the hundreds of you who showed up for that very special screening of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre!)
But we all felt it in the air this week... autumn.
Yes — summer is coming to a close, and with it so too does the SUMMER OF SEQUELS series. We hosted our final screening in our tribute to the follow-up film last night with Martin Scorsese’s THE COLOR OF MONEY (1986). A big shout out to all who participated in our Summer of Sequels loyalty card program, and an even bigger shout out to Paige Adams, who attended all seven screenings in the series and won our raffle last night for a year’s worth of free GRFS events. We’ll see you at the movies, Paige!
However, as one thing ends, another begins: last night’s screening was just the kick-off to our September programming, which features a slew of really fun stuff. Check it out below!
COMING UP IN SEPTEMBER 2024
SEPTEMBER 16th - GIRLFRIENDS
A photographer is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
SEPTEMBER 21st - VULCANIZADORA
[GRAND RAPIDS PREMIERE]
Two friends take a trip through a Michigan forest, intent on carrying out a disturbing pact. When their plan fails, one confronts unsettling repercussions at home.
Join us for the hometown premiere screening of Joel Potrykus's latest film, presented in partnership with the Grand Rapids Film Festival!
SEPTEMBER 24th - FILM SOCIETY PITCH NIGHT
[FREE SOCIAL EVENT]
Local creators have the opportunity to pitch their future projects to other local filmmakers and potential supporters in a 15-minute presentation.
Spots are limited for both audience and presenters, so be sure to RSVP!
SEPTEMBER 30th - RUSHMORE
[SCREENING + SCHOOL SUPPLIES DRIVE]
When a beautiful first-grade teacher (Olivia Williams) arrives at a prep school, she soon attracts the attention of an ambitious teenager named Max (Jason Schwartzman), who quickly falls in love with her. Max turns to the father (Bill Murray) of two of his schoolmates for advice on how to woo the teacher. However, the situation soon gets complicated when Max's new friend becomes involved with her, setting the two pals against one another in a war for her attention.
As a celebration of back to school season, The Grand Rapids Film Society presents 'Rushmore'! As such, we are partnering with Campus Elementary to gather needed supplies to support them through the school year.
Supplies needed:
- Pencils - Glue stick - Pencil boxes - Dry erase markers and dry erasers - Notebooks - Folders - Crayons - Colored pencils - Markers - Scissors - Loose leaf paper
- Disinfecting wipes - Tissues
Anyone who comes with supplies will be eligible for $1 off popcorn! We’ll also be doing a giveaway where a lucky attendee can win a new Criterion Collection Blu-ray copy of the film!
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Tickets for all events— and more— are available now at GRFILM.ORG
Tell your friends. We hope to see you there!
TIM BURTON: THE MACABRE, THE ZANY, AND THE DECLINE
[BY: KYLE MACCIOMEI]
Congratulations to Tim Burton, who just this weekend celebrated the release of his 19th feature film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. The film’s $100 million opening performance and relatively warm critical response at the domestic box office is indicative of not only this individual film’s success but Tim Burton’s lasting ability to connect with the cultural consciousness. Burton, especially in his first decade of stellar output, used to represent a revolutionary and creative force in studio filmmaking. His undeniable influence on goth subculture (from Reagan-era infancy to Hot Topic marketing), artistic support of animated forms and aesthetics, and constant willingness to push on the edges against what was deemed acceptable by suburban America are all reasons to nominate him into the ‘Hall of Respected Auteurs’ of filmmaking.
His nomination, though, will have to contend with a substantial level of criticism, particularly regarding the latter half of his career. Burton’s original run of films from Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985) to Sleepy Hollow (1999) is near unimpeachable in terms of cinematic sensibilities. Unfortunately, everything from Planet of the Apes (2001) to Dumbo (2019) ranges across a wide spectrum of quality, and a depressing number of them lie in the corner of “not really worth your time.” In his career’s early days, Burton’s morbid eye was wholly unique and spoke to an entire generation of misfits. Now, he often feels like a poorly inspired pastiche of his former self.
With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, we have an opportunity to evaluate this Burton entry in the context of an artist who has likely burned most of his creative wax and is in the final stages of his career. Before we look into this much-anticipated Beetlejuice sequel, let’s look back at the three eras of Tim Burton’s filmography.
ERA 1: THE GEUSE IS LOOSE
Burton got his start as an animator for Disney, working on Fox and the Hound (1981) and Black Cauldron (1984), but seemed unable to draw anything even resembling the Disney house style. He even created a live action short, Frankenweenie (1984), which got him fired for misusing company funds to create something too dark and scary for their target audience. Luckily, Frankenweenie was viewed by then-rising comedic actor Paul Reubens who was looking for someone to direct the first film for his popular new character Pee-wee Herman.
Burton’s Frankenweenie showed Reuben the potential, and so the two paired up to create the 1985 classic Pee-wee's Big Adventure. His first feature is infused with all the cartoon zaniness that comes from watching too many Saturday morning cartoons growing up, and it’s crackling with a lively energy. Next, Burton synthesizes a comedic whirlwind of energy with more grotesque implications in Beetlejuice (1988). Building out a bureaucratic world for the afterlife with rules that feel as if they are meant to be broken, Beetlejuice serves as a template for the Burton style that attempts to depict the contradictions of idyllic suburbia with the ghoulish terrors lurking underneath. Finally, in 1989’s Batman, Burton’s style crosses over fully into the mainstream as the caped crusader, born from the world of comics and animated television, makes his silver screen debut in a Gotham City bathed in German Expressionism. This style will be doubled down on for the sequel three years later in Batman Returns (1992), leading to something far riskier for mainstream audiences but all the more rewarding for fans of this countercultural aesthetic. In-between, though, the partnership between Tim Burton and Johnny Depp is established with 1990’s Edward Scissorhands, which seeks to represent Burton’s childhood in Burbank, California.
In interviews, Burton has described his adolescent years in the Golden State as living in a place where the seasons never change, and the houses are all the same. Enter Depp’s performance as Edward Scissorhands, who feels entirely ill-equipped to navigate the unnerving complexities of social interactions and norms. The entire film feels like a project to explore Burton’s own youth, and it remains his most personal film. Edward’s hands are those of a confused soul who can craft both beauty and horror, and who is not quite sure where he fits within polite society. It’s not hard to understand where our director is coming from when you see his childhood Halloween costumes.
Burton, almost infamously, did not direct The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), but the film would not exist without his backing, and it also provides an excellent excuse to talk about his long-term collaboration with composer Danny Elfman. Elfman got his start as the leading vocalist and songwriter for the New Wave rock band Oingo Boingo before becoming one of the most prolific and respected film composers in Hollywood history. His darkly classical style mixed with the slightly bizarre made him a befitting companion for Burton’s cinematic needs.
This period ended with the releases of Ed Wood (1994), Mars Attacks (1996), and Sleepy Hollow (1999). Ed Wood is often considered Burton’s greatest work, a love letter to the Hollywood outsiders that came before him within the studio system. Mars Attacks is a rambunctious parody of 1950s science fiction alien invasion films (and serves as the perfect satirical parallel to Independence Day, released earlier that same year). Finally, Sleepy Hollow is a wonderful callback to Burton’s roots in the Disney canon as he attempts to retell the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. These first eight films are such an astounding accomplishment that many working directors would sell their soul to the devil for a chance to make one of them. But as we round out the 20th century for Burton, we enter into a new era that is far more mixed in successfully blending a refined gothic taste with entertainment for the masses.
ERA 2: GOLDEN TICKETS & DEMON BARBERS
Planet of the Apes (2001) is an ambitious blockbuster action event that doesn’t really connect because it is being pulled apart in too many strange directions at once. Part battle epic, part goofy science fiction, part romance — the film is most remembered for its silly twist ending that attempts to play on the original with a bit of ‘that little stinker’ energy that permeates Mars Attacks. This was followed by another epic with a tonal divergence in Big Fish (2003). Where Planet of the Apes is interested in the innate destruction of man through warfare and evolution, Big Fish is interested in the grand chasm that exists between father and son, and the many tall tales that are told which can either divide or reconcile them. It’s deeply sentimental, and it’s the perfect bold antidote to the failures of Planet of the Apes. These two films do a great job of representing Burton’s output for the years to come: a mixed bag of candy where, in one handful, you might grab some delightful German chocolate, and in another an expired bar that you grabbed at the Walgreens check out.
Speaking of candy, Burton would reunite with Depp again for Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) which pushes the limits of what audiences can tolerate with the pair’s bizarre energy. There’s a lot to love about Burton’s interpretation of Roald Dahl’s classic, from the It’s A Small World animatronic parody to the 40 real life squirrels they filmed for the Veruca Salt sequence, to Deep Roy playing 165 different Oompa Loompas. But this is an example of another studio remake of a beloved property that didn’t fully connect with audiences in ways that it might have intended — mostly due to Depp’s divisively intense performance as Willy Wonka.
Returning to form, Burton then — for the first time — directed an entirely animated feature film in 2005’s The Corpse Bride (almost a spiritual sequel to The Nightmare Before Christmas, with the chosen holiday this time being The Day of the Dead). This was followed up by Burton’s first adaptation of a Broadway musical, the very appropriately chosen Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007). A Sondheim classic, it’s another perfect match for Burton, Depp, and the gothic horror of a disgraced barber who starts slaying his clients and baking them into pies. The loudest complaints come from those who dislike how Burton took a tonally distant and cold Broadway show and made it even more distant and even more cold. Overall, while these five films are generally lesser works from a great director, they’re nothing to be ashamed of.
ERA 3: DUMBO IN DISNEYLAND
Up until now, Burton’s name still rings with a standard of quality (though somewhat more dull of a chime than it once was). It’s with 2010’s Alice in Wonderland that the quirky and stylish director becomes subsumed into a Disney machine that very well might have ruined him. The film is overwhelmed by its computer graphic imagery that is successful in communicating the Burton aesthetic through such a subdued and lifeless medium. Alice in Wonderland becoming a billion dollar movie, as it did, might just be the worst thing that ever happened to Burton since it reinforced his ties to the Walt Disney corporation as well as a realization that he doesn’t really need to imbue his stories with much creative energy or complexity to be successful.
This development is made even worse by what is possibly Burton’s worst film, Dark Shadows, two years later in 2012. His final collaboration with once-muse Johnny Depp, the movie lacks direction, purpose, or even a comprehensible script. The entire project feels like a vehicle for Depp to extravagantly attempt the classic dracula aesthetic while confoundedly having sex with nearly every female character that makes their way into a scene. It’s all the more interesting that this was followed up by Frankenweenie released the same year. Burton’s final stop-motion animated film is a return to that short film of the same name that got him his start just three decades prior, and it’s a loving sendup of the classic Frankenstein tale. Ultimately the bulk of it lacks anything new or exciting, though it does contain a burst of energy near the end that feels like the delightfully nasty energy sorely missing from this era of his career.
2014 brought us Big Eyes, which is Burton’s attempt at exploring the world of pop art in the 1960s and 70s through the lens of a con man, played by Christoph Waltz, who traps his talented wife (played passively by Amy Adams) into a secret life of painting her life’s work for him to simply steal and sell away. It feels almost like a side project for everyone involved, but the real life artwork of Margaret Keene speaks through the film and lifts the project up because of it. Unfortunately, just two years later in 2016 we get Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, adapted from a young adult novel about a group of peculiar children with strange powers who must fight against demonic forces of evil that are trying to hunt them down. The entire film feels like the work of a studio hand who is doing a poor imitation of Burton’s work, and it’s depressing to see Burton’s style so lifelessly tossed around on screen.
This brings us to...Dumbo (2019), which might have been his final film if the Netflix series Wednesday (2022) had not brought back some sense of excitement for him in the director’s chair. Dumbo feels just as lackluster as these previous projects, but there is a bit of a narrative twist. In the film, Michael Keeton plays the swindling amusement park owner V. A. Vandevere, who comes in to buy the circus Dumbo is at before enacting his ruthless control over the workers and their lovable elephant friend. The parallels to famous circus owner P. T. Barnum are obvious, but so too is the interpretation of Vandevere as a Walt Disney stand-in; an amusement park owner who built an entertainment empire, who now traps his creatives deep within his conglomeration as they are forced to play by his rules. Dumbo is Burton’s cry for help, creating a film for the very studio that he feels confined by. It’s also a terrible Disney live-action adaptation, and a true creative low point for Burton. There is a world where this was his final movie, a last gasp of his soul before being traded away to the Disney corporation that always stifled his ingenuity and gifted talents.
A NEW MUSE, A NEW ERA?
Clearly, in both Wednesday and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Burton feels that he has found a new muse in Jenna Ortega, the new-age Winona Ryder who loves Andrzej Żuławski’s Posession (1981) and seems like the perfect vehicle for Burton’s comeback. She is excellent in the new Beetlejuice sequel, as is everyone in the fantastic ensemble cast. Honestly, the biggest problem of this legacy sequel is that there are too many characters, along with too many plot threads that create an overstuffed final product that is bursting with new ideas and fantastical set pieces. While it’s not a return to that original eight movie run that has yet to be topped, it does feel like I can feel wicked delight again in Burton’s vision and style. I feel that same wicked delight in some of Burton’s earliest work, including his early short film Vincent that he made when he was still a young animator.
Not only do I hope you go and see Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in theaters, but I also hope we can all appreciate what comes next for our troubled auteur who never feels like he quite fits in. Burton is someone who belongs just on the edge of what is allowed within the studio system, and maybe he’ll play some more exciting tricks for us again before he finally calls it quits.
UPCOMING EVENTS
GIRLFRIENDS (Weill, 1978)
WHAT: A photographer is stuck with small-change shooting jobs and dreams of success. When her roommate decides to get married and leave, she feels hurt and has to learn how to deal with living alone.
WHEN: Monday, September 16th, 8:00pm
WHERE: Wealthy Theatre
VULCANIZADORA (Potrykus, 2024)
WHAT: GRAND RAPIDS PREMIERE! Two friends take a trip through a Michigan forest, intent on carrying out a disturbing pact. When their plan fails, one confronts unsettling repercussions at home.
Presented in partnership with the Grand Rapids Film Festival!
WHEN: Saturday, September 21st, 8:30pm
WHERE: Wealthy Theatre
RUSHMORE (Anderson, 1998)
WHAT: A screening of Wes Anderson’s prep school romantic comedy, AND a school supplies drive! All supplies are donated to Campus Elementary. Plus, folks who attend and donate supplies will receive $1 off popcorn!
WHEN: Monday, September 30th, 8:00pm
WHERE: Wealthy Theatre
And so we’ve arrived at the end of another BEAM FROM THE BOOTH! We appreciate you taking the time to read it and truly hope you’ll continue to do so. Be sure to SUBSCRIBE to get each issue in your inbox every week, and stay up-to-date on all things GRFS.
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Until then, friends...
