I saw this the other day now that it's on DVD. I really enjoyed it. Clearly a spiritual successor of both Taxi Driver and the King of Comedy. I'm surprised at the mixed reviews I saw on Rotten Tomatoes. Maybe some are turned off by the dark tone, but I felt artistically and in terms of acting that it was heads and shoulders over the bulk of Marvel Studios films. Terry Gilliam was once interviewed and critiqued Spielberg for always ending on a positive note, even when the story is filled with tragedy and failure like the Holocaust. But maybe that's what critics expect.
For years I've thought that DC had one advantage over Marvel in that they were, at times, willing to take more artistic risks. Nolan's films being the biggest successes to this point, and though I didn't like the end product, Zach Snyder also had his own way for awhile. I chalk this up as another success on that front, that could only have happened with a studio willing to let someone do something completely different. Disney isn't going to allow that. Even Deadpool will probably be PG-13 when he returns. But I'm happy that we as fans get the best of both worlds in this regard.
The movie and character felt authentic to me, and I can see how so many movie-goers would empathize with Arthur's situation. With people who are social misfits of this sort, you can usually trace their dysfunction back to a childhood filled with abuse and/or neglect. They explored this phenomenon in the recent season of Castle Rock and HBO's Watchmen, so it's a pretty common, tragic story that is told in lots of different ways. But they did it very well here.
The ending was interesting, too. How did he get arrested, and how much of the story we saw was just a figment of his imagination? Did he just kill his mother and the clown and fantasize about the rest? And what happened with the woman down the hall? I do enjoy movies that leave some of it up to your own imagination.
Love Beetlejuice. He's as bad as can. He knows he's the best.