A family struggling to make ends meet finds themselves evicted shortly after they receive word that Callie’s (played by Carrie Coon) estranged father dies. They inherit the late father’s creepy old farmhouse in the middle of Summerville, Oklahoma and, seeing as how they were just evicted, they immediately move in despite the poor condition of the house. Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) is smitten with fast food server, Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), and applies for a job there while his sister Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) reluctantly enrolls in summer school. In what is clearly just a gig in order to get a paycheck, Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd) phones in his responsibilities as teacher and puts movies on the TV for his students. After an apparent earthquake, Phoebe goes into Mr. Grooberson’s office and the two of them find out they share a common love for science. Phoebe and her classmate Podcast (Logan Kim) eventually find her grandfather’s ghostbusting equipment and everybody, in one way or another, gets wrapped up in the spiritual shenanigans.
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE is funny, witty and well written, it showcases autism in a positive light, has more heart than any of the previous films and creates a full sense of nostalgia for those who adore the originals while simultaneously hooking new audiences. With Frozen Empire on the horizon, it’s an incredibly fun watch.
Wolfhard may be best known as Mike on Stranger Things but he’s a real solid addition to the franchise. He’s the kind of actor who’s famous but no too famous to be distracting in a movie like this. Grace, on the other hand, is the standout. Comedies typically don’t get acting kudos but she absolutely deserves some shine here. Any young female actor could’ve played the role of Phoebe and been fine but Grace brought the character to the next level. She gives the audience somebody to actively root for.
Other than musical cues, there are easter eggs aplenty (Shandor’s Mine, the stacked books in the dirt farm house, the Crunch bar in the pocket, the Twinkie in the glovebox, etc.) — not to mention the nice little Baskin-Robbins nod to Rudd’s Ant-Man character — but director Jason Reitman finds a perfect balance between clever nods to the original films and pandering to the audience. There’s such a thing as overdoing it and a less disciplined filmmaker would’ve used every nostalgic trick possible out of consciousness. Instead, Reitman honors his dad (the original films’ director Ivan Reitman) and the late Harold Ramis without selling out to do so.
Afterlife is so fun that it redeems the Ghostbusters franchise. The original 1984 film is a comedy classic and might even be one of the best overall movies of its decade. Ghostbusters II had the tools and the talent but lacked something on story. It’s a solid sequel but is closer to “average” than it is “exceptional” like its predecessor. Then, in 2016 we got Paul Feig’s all-star cast — all at the top of their game, by the way — but we got a subpar finished product. Leslie Jones even said on Fly on the Wall that “the movie that we shot is not the movie that got released.” Afterlife puts the franchise back on track and it’s worth every minute of the watch.
JKG SCORE: 7.5
Untitled Film Project 