A clever social critique
About gentrification, Reagan era greed, rich people, social work/social problems etc. in the 1980's disguised within a ''horror comedy''.
shareThe country folk die, so the rich people come in and replace their house with urban art. Ironically, the emo daughter identifies more with the dead country folk than with her urban parents.
shareExcept that Adam and Barbara weren't country people, they were city slickers playing at being country people. Remember the scene of Adam rushing in and out of the country store in a New York minute, before the old coot on the bench outside could finish his initial rant?
At heart, "Beetlejuice" is a personal drama about people building loving relationships under difficult circumstances, but yeah, there's a bit of social commentary too. City vs. country, yuppie scum, the difficulties of blended families, whiny goth kids, etc. A good film and a clever film, enjoyable on many levels.
I agree with them being city slickers. Right.
I love Beetlejuice. It's in my top 10 or 15 favorite films for me.
Adam/Barbara: "We're very unhappy."
Their case worker: "What did you expect? You're dead."
Hahahah.
I love the afterlife portrayal in this movie. So wonderful and dreamy.
Uhm.. It's their fucking store though.
https://beetlejuice.fandom.com/wiki/Maitland_Hardware
They had a staycation and Adam needed som parts for his model.
Are you too broke to pay attention?
You know, I never noticed that Adam and Barbara owned that store!
However, if I said they were city slickers it's because they still behaved like city slickers, even if they'd settled down there and bought a business, witness the rushing in and out of the store before the old guy had finished his first paragraph (or sentence). Country people stop and chat when they run into each other, there seems to be an unofficial obligation to spend 15-20 minutes chatting about nothing when running into an acquaintance. The old guy was doing that, Adam and Barbara were so fresh from the city that they had no idea that they were expected to stop and talk.
No one is ever in a rush in a small town? Everyone is always super polite? No exceptions what so ever?
And while I do agree that they're city people, I wouldn't call them city slickers. I think it's also a bit of a joke. "Look what happens when you run around like that".
Okay, we agree they're basically city people who've made a partial adjustment to small-town life at best, I certainly don't insist on the term "city slickers".
Except maybe for Delia.