A nostalgia-bait return to the witchy 90s comedy is as strange and messy as the first but there are warm seasonal pleasures to be had<\/p>\n
Much has changed in the universe, cosmic and otherwise, since the Owens witches last graced the big screen with their practical magic of sleeping draughts, midnight margaritas and generational love curses. For one, movies like the 1998 cult-ish classic Practical Magic<\/a> \u2013 a compellingly bizarre mashup of genres, aspirational 90s fashion and sisterly affection starring Sandra Bullock<\/a> and Nicole Kidman<\/a> in their movie-star primes as lovelorn sorceresses in Puritan-lite Massachusetts \u2013 largely stopped reaching theaters. For another, nostalgia cycles only intensified and tightened, our algorithms clogged with unsolicited sequels<\/a> and dupes for Bullock\u2019s impeccable vintage 90s Levi\u2019s.<\/p>\n Which makes Practical Magic 2, reuniting both Kidman and Bullock, and Stockard Channing<\/a> and Dianne Wiest<\/a> as their lovingly eccentric aunts, somewhat of an anomaly, at once a seeming inevitability and, as a matrilineal romance comedy (though decidedly not a romcom) starring two 60-year-old women<\/a>, an<\/a> oddity<\/a>. There\u2019s no circumventing nostalgia bait, but Practical Magic<\/a> remains so idiosyncratic in tone and, well, kookiness, that a sequel somewhat appeals.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/eb81f8d4a1478f5ffd85c38600de8d3153415339\/394_0_2143_1716\/master\/2143.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=42b6593578555dacbeb12a1ab2999944\" "\\"Practical")
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