We value Tim Burton’s affection for outsiders and his pleasure in handmade monsters. He can still make us laugh at something appalling, but crowded plotting and familiar Gothic decoration too often blunt the surprise.
Fi1m perspective
In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024), Delores drags a staple gun across a storeroom floor and reassembles herself limb by limb. Burton takes his time over the mechanics, letting the practical business of repair become the joke. We laughed despite ourselves at the care devoted to putting this body back together. That patient, gruesome silliness is a good reason to keep watching him, even when the rest of the film cannot sustain it.
Beetlejuice (1988) and Batman (1989) established the dark comedy and Gothic worlds, but Edward Scissorhands (1990) made the sympathy for the outsider central. Ed Wood (1994) took that affection into filmmaking itself, while Big Fish (2003) marked a more emotionally grounded phase. Later adaptations, including Alice in Wonderland (2010), brought the risk of repeating a recognisable look rather than finding something fresh. His recurring teams, including composer Danny Elfman, costume designer Colleen Atwood and editor Chris Lebenzon, have helped keep the films recognisably his.
Wednesday (2022) shows how easily the expected oddness can become routine. Burton is one of its directors, and cinematographers David Lanzenberg and P.J. Dillon give the school mystery a polish that rarely unsettles. Production designer Mark Scruton supplies suitable surroundings for supernatural intrigue, but the school is too orderly to surprise us. Jenna Ortega’s severe comic performance gives the programme more character than its setting does.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is more enjoyable when Burton concentrates on the performers and the rubber and latex. Catherine O’Hara’s Delia treats every encounter as an opportunity to hold forth, helped by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s sharp lines. Michael Keaton delivers the familiar patter at speed, and Burton uses him sparingly enough to leave us wishing for more. The trouble is the number of plots: before long, keeping track of what everyone wants becomes less rewarding than waiting for another practical effect.
For the affection that makes the oddness matter, start with Edward Scissorhands. Of the later work, Wednesday is the steadier evening, while Beetlejuice Beetlejuice needs more patience with its script. We would welcome a smaller Burton film that gave its best jokes room to develop.
Biography
Tim Burton is an American film director. He was born in Burbank, California, on 25 August 1958. He attended the California Institute of the Arts and began his career as an animator at Walt Disney Productions before directing his first feature, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985).
Burton directed Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Big Fish (2003), Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005), and Alice in Wonderland (2010). He directed four episodes of the Netflix series Wednesday (2022) and returned to direct Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024). He received the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.
