The Dead Don't Die (2019)

The single biggest question your likely to have at the end of  The Dead Don't Die, the new, extremely dry and fatalistic zombie comedy from veteran indie director Jim Jarmusch, is why make this movie? That's a question Rolling Stone asked him, his replay "I just wanted to do something silly." The hipster director has had a historically slanted perspective on genera types, he's made a psychedelic western with Johnny Depp (Dead Man) a Samurai/mobster cross (Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai) and even a vampire love story (The Only Lovers Left Alive). So while Jarmsuch is on record as not being much of a zombie fan, there is a certain odd logic in his making this movie.

The film boasts a large cast of recognizable names, many of them Jarmusch regulars, including Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Tilda Swenton, and Iggy Pop. Selena Gomez of all people is in this. The interplay of the various performers is the most interesting part of the movie, there is a very comfortable almost family feel radiating from the cast. There is some political humor, the reanimating of corpses comes about a side effect of the Earth being thrown off its axis as a result of "polar fracking", and Steve Buscemi's farmer Miller wears a "Make America White Again" hat.

When it comes to the zombies themselves the main joke of the film may be that Jarmusch really doesn't have anything new to say about zombies, he knows that, and that's why its funny. Being a comedy one really can't help but think a bit of Shaun of the Dead, but this is really more of a George Romero nod then anything. It's set in Pennsylvania, the opening scene is in a cemetery, the zombies are drawn to things they did in life, the social commentary has been done before, and that's Jarmusch's commentary on that. You follow various small groups, and most everybody dies, the film leans into its fatalism and gallows humor, there is a certain detachment and bland acceptance of doom, which the more I think about it the more I like it.

What is most distinctive about the film is its forth wall breaking, which I had heard about before and  wasn't sure how much I'd like, but I came to find it rather endearing. A meandering and winkingly lite apocalypse film The Dead Don't Die is likely an acquired taste. It's a zombie movie that comes across bemused by the fact that it is a zombie movie, and while it's seemingly structured as any other run of the mill zombie pic, in it's very low key way it manages to almost transcend what its parodying, and then doesn't because that's funnier. ***