Beetlejuice - A film for the (October) holiday

In honor of Our Winona's almost-Halloween birthday (October 29) we watched this almost-spooky movie which also stars Geena Davis, Alec Baldwin, and Michael Keaton (as the title character).

NOTE: We watched the film over the weekend, but delayed posting until today, as Noni begins a very special year. On October 28, she attained the age of 42, which we know is the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. And now she begins her year of 43, the delicious vanilla liqueur from Spain.

In this classic film from director Tim Burton, young couple Adam and Barbara Maitland (Baldwin and Davis) are tragically killed in a freak car accident in the midst of renovating their lovely old New England home. They return to their house as ghosts and attempt to scare out the Deetz family, who has moved in and made some truly horrifying changes to the charming abode. After a failed attempt to scare the Deetz's by wearing some designer sheets with holes cut out for their eyes, the Maitlands recruit renegade ghost and "bio-exterminator" Betelgeuse to help them haunt the house. They are aided and abetted by the Deetz's teenage-goth daughter Lydia, convincingly played by Ryder.

This is a fun-for-the-whole family movie - really not scary, with some good sight gags, and a bit of satire. Made during Ryder's heyday this is a truly classic 80s film, with a definite "Laura Ashley" vibe throughout and Our Noni in a quintessentially brooding role.

Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls

Girl, Interrupted

Based on Susanna Kaysen's memoir of her time spent as a patient in a mental institution, this film stars Our Winona in the title role. She plays well with co-stars Angelina Jolie (as fellow patient Lisa Rowe); Whoopi Goldberg (as-to-good-to-be-true nurse Valerie Owens); and a very young Elizabeth Moss - of Mad Men Fame - as Polly "Torch" Clark.

After combining a bottle of aspirin with a bottle of vodka Kasen reluctantly commits herself to Claymoore Hospital. Questions about her medications go unanswered, and the patients begin their own black market for trading drugs they want for those they don't. Each of the patients on the women's ward battles her own demons, and they can sometimes be cruel to each other. However, their fierce protection of each other is also evident. In one sadly funny scene the patients all go in to town for ice cream as a good-bye send off to one of their own. There they encounter Barbara Gilcrest (Mary Kay Place) the wife of a professor Susanna slept with. When Gilcrest confronts Kasen her cohorts go all out in playing up their mental illnesses in order to scare Gilcrest off.

The tumult inside of Claymoore Hospital parallels what is going on historically during the late 1960s as Susanna's boyfriend, Toby, flees to Canada after getting his draft notice and news of Civil Rights  struggles continue. Sex, drugs, and rock and roll are all part of the backdrop.

Final Verdict: Four Croquet Balls