[rating=5.00]
Whatever else I might say about The Dead Don’t Die, it’s important to note that it is, if nothing else, intensely Jarmuschian. For many, this will be good news and provide more than enough reason to check out Jim Jarmusch’s zombie satire. After all, even a bad Jarmusch film is still a Jarmusch film and will manage to stand out amidst the rest of flock of high octane, explosion fueled nightmares that flood our theaters every summer.
And, to be clear, The Dead Don’t Die is a bad Jarmusch film.
It’s difficult to judge the auteur against the rest of his fellow filmmakers so we’re forced only to judge him by himself. As a director, he’s always broken the rules of film and followed his own narrative path, often leading to classic works that revel in their own shortcomings and delight in their capacity for raw performance. It doesn’t always work, but it’s usually interesting. Jarmusch is nothing if not a man with something to say.
The Dead Don’t Die, however, is a meandering work that often struggles to understand its own raison d’etre. Most of the time it feels as though Jarmusch was looking for an excuse to get his favorite people together and have a good time. I’ve no doubt that the making of the film was a blast as nearly everyone involved does appear to be having the time of their lives. The same cannot be said of the audience.
We’re long past the era where zombies are interesting; the sheer proliferation of undead content over the last decade has assured us that we have, for at least a generation, had our fill of the walking dead. Even twists on the genre and new takes seem, at this point, stale. So going into The Dead Don’t Die, we’re already up against a lot.
As the marketing of the film has revealed, so much of The Dead Don’t Die is reliant upon its expansive cast. Look! There’s Iggy Pop as a zombie! There’s Carol Kane! Oh man! RZA is a delivery driver for WuPS! That’s clever! Except, well, it’s not really. It’s a half-formed joke, at best, like so much of the film’s moments, for instance Iggy Pop stumbling around chanting “coffffeeeeeeee” or Tilda Swinton’s bizarre undertaker.
While the central cast of Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Chloe Sevigny are fun as the town’s police force trying to stop the rise of the dead, the film is packed with so much fluff and detached irony that you cannot help but wonder why you should care. Even when Jarmusch attempts to make larger political statements, the moments are so on the nose that it’s not biting so much as it is being continuously gummed by a toothless maniac.
But, yes, it’s still intensely Jarmuschian. Its existence in his oeuvre is almost enough to sell the premise, as flimsy as it is as a whole. But only for the biggest of Jarmusch’s fans. They’ll certainly find at least something to appreciate, if not outright enjoy, from this wobbly mess of a movie. Anyone else should probably find a better way to spend their 90 minutes.
The Dead Don’t Die is now playing in theaters everywhere
