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Fifteen years have passed since the release of Shaun of the Dead and 10 years since Zombieland, with Bill Murray's fabulous cameo. It might seem strange that the opening film of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year is a zombie comedy. featuring none other than Bill Murray. Of course, Jim Jarmusch's The Dead Do not Die is not likely to be in the annals of Cannes as one of his best choices. A discreet tribute to 50s science-fiction movies, including Plan 9 From Outer Space, it stamps to the rhythm of a revived cannibal and contains no anti-consumerist satire that was not in George A Romero's zombie movies decades ago. But there's something really sad under his hijinks, and for an absurd death-apocalypse-apocalypse pastiche, it's really something.
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Murray plays Cliff, a tired but cheerful police officer who works with two young partners, Ronnie (Adam Driver) and Mindy (Chloë Sevigny). The three of them, wearing Buddy Holly sunglasses and matching uniforms, patrol the sleepy centerville downtown, a picturesque rural town populated by three characters and bearing a sign saying "A real nice place" . But that's not all. Hermit Bob (Tom Waits), very bearded, takes pots of pots to Cliff and Ronnie during his visit in the woods. Farmer Miller (Steve Buscemi) wears a "Keep America White Again" baseball cap, which is not grammatical. Nobody has a lot of time for Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Jones Landry), whose gas station is also a store selling souvenirs of pop culture – especially zombie memories. And everyone is wary of the new Scottish undertaker (Tilda Swinton) with long white hair and samurai sword.
This is just the beginning. In a few minutes, the animals disappear, the watches and the radios work badly and the night does not fall when it is supposed to do it. According to some reports, "polar fracking" may have overthrown the Earth. When corpses start to come out of the ground to nibble the local dinner staff, rather than their donuts, no one is too surprised.
It works best if you do not think of it as a zombie comedy, but as a zombie tragicomedy
Most of the humor in The Dead Don's Die consists of flashing references to other zombie movies and public figures of the actors: RZA of the Wu-Tang clan appears as a delivery boy who works for WuPS instead of UPS, for example. , and Rosie Perez is a presenter named Posie Juarez. As for the Iggy Pop zombie, well, it's more or less the same as the living Iggy Pop. This postmodernism without bounds (or undeadpan) irritates some viewers, but it has a purpose other than to arouse some twisted laughter. The problem seems to be that the characters – like all of us, perhaps – are trapped in roles that are beyond their control. This is an idea that has existed since the opening of the film. As credits await, Sturgill Simpson plays a country ballad entitled The Dead Do not Die. Shortly after, Cliff and Ronnie hear the song on the radio. Why is the melody so familiar, Cliff asks. "Well, because that's the theme song," says Ronnie.
As ridiculous as possible, even if the dead are not, his fatalism is touching and even profound. The characters are not just stuck in a zombie movie. At a certain level they know they're stuck in a zombie movie – and they can not do anything about it. Jarmusch, who wrote and directed the film, seems to believe that this is where our society is. At some point, when we want Cliff and Ronnie to develop an ingenious plan to defeat the hordes of voracious undead, they decide that they too could surrender. Given the alarming state of the world today, this desperation resonates darker than any number of jokes about American materialism.
Sevigny is heartbreaking as someone who, instead of being the tough policeman that one might expect, is too upset to keep fighting. And the funny subtitle of Murray's trademark gives way to a telling portrayal of a desperate and vulnerable old man. The Dead Do not Die probably works better if you do not think of it as a zombie comedy, but as a zombie tragicomedy. The message is not that the dead do not die: the message is that the living are dying, each of us.
★★★ ☆☆
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