Hocus Pocus 2 (2022)
Is Hocus Pocus 2 a retroactively redemptive origin story like Cruella? A tale of witchcraft-as-female-empowerment gone wrong like The Craft? A Fish out of Temporal Water yarn like Just Visiting? At various points, it seems to launch in all these directions without the discipline to stick to any of them for long.
The first 20 minutes or so are a holding pattern until the Sanderson sisters return — and once they do, their joie de vivre is thoroughly infectious. Their reappearance kicks off with a reworked cover of Elton John’s “The Bitch is Back,” which calls to mind Coming 2 America‘s similar use of En Vogue’s “Whatta Man.” The difference? Bette Midler, unlike Eddie Murphy in that sequel, isn’t about to phone it in.
In fact, the entire movie exists as an excuse for Midler to chomp through every inch of scenery — and Hocus Pocus 2 gives her plenty of juicy sets in which to do it. A particularly stylized forest looks like something out of The Night of the Hunter or The Company of Wolves: expressionistic, artificial-looking, but not CGI-fake.
As Winifred, Midler bosses and bullies her sisters in slapstick fashion — like the Three Stooges in drag (and I mean that as a compliment). The script is uneven, but it reliably follows the Rule of Funny. Why would the witches know a Blondie song by heart? Maybe because they are witches. Conversely, they don’t know what a cellphone is, which doesn’t stop them from instinctively mugging at one when a character points it at them. Another clever use of modern technology comes when Kathy Najimy’s Mary rides a pair of Roombas like skates beside her more traditional broom-riding sisters.
Why does the supposedly clever Winifred waste time entering a Sanderson Sisters lookalike contest, even though the trio is on the clock? Who cares? The sequence that results is hilarious — and who’s going to complain about Bette Midler tearing through “One Way or Another”?
What makes her performance especially impressive is how deftly she handles the film’s late turn toward pathos. When required to show vulnerability, Midler delivers in spades, revealing a surprising emotional core beneath all the cackling and camp. Her performance genuinely redeems the character — and does so far more convincingly (and far less moronically) than Cruella ever managed.
In the end, Midler doesn’t steal the show. Hocus Pocus 2 is her show from the start.
Works Cited
Hocus Pocus 2. Directed by Anne Fletcher, performances by Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy Najimy, Disney+, 2022.
Coming 2 America. Directed by Craig Brewer, performances by Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall, Amazon Studios, 2021.
Cruella. Directed by Craig Gillespie, performances by Emma Stone and Emma Thompson, Disney, 2021.
The Craft. Directed by Andrew Fleming, performances by Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, and Neve Campbell, Columbia Pictures, 1996.
Just Visiting. Directed by Jean-Marie Poiré, performances by Jean Reno and Christina Applegate, Buena Vista Pictures, 2001.
The Company of Wolves. Directed by Neil Jordan, performances by Angela Lansbury and Sarah Patterson, ITC Entertainment, 1984.
Related
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP0AgIkgF_8&pp=ygUVaG9jdXMgcG9jdXMgMiB0cmFpbGVy
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