Death does not die of examination

Rosie Knight

This is a screening. The Dead Don & # 39; t Die opens June 14, 2019.

Like any good zombie movie, The Dead Don's Die takes place somewhere in Pennsylvania. If you do not immediately understand why, almost all of George Romero's iconic series, Dead, have been placed there, this movie might not be right for you. However, if you are a fan of Jim Jarmusch and / or Zombie Horror, you will probably be seduced by this pleasant-if-light zom-com.

The basic setup is as simple as two crumbling police officers, Ronnie (Adam Driver) and Cliff (Bill Murray) face an environmental crisis that seems to encroach on the dead … undead. In the era of The Walking Dead and the saturation of zombie pop culture, the gruesome comedy of The Dead Don & # 39; t Die may seem a little behind the cultural climate. But it's still a fun watch because Jarmusch and his friends clearly have fun exploring and making fun of the tropes that occupy a central place in our contemporary conversation.

Though it's about his latest film, The Dead Don's. Die is certainly closer to some earlier works of Jarmusch. It's a simple story that relies on an overall cast and that could be considered – apart from the resurgence of the dead – as a movie where nothing happens. Just like the zombies at the center of the movie, there are loads of things that go from one joke to the next, but that 's not a bad thing in reality. The directionless nature of the film actually works because the film is at its best as a piece of atmosphere, strangely and strangely with a comedy that oscillates between metahumor and a self-awareness that might rhyme some things.

With such a stacked cast As we expected the Jarmusch films, there are cameos from the author's catalog such as Iggy Pop and Eszter Balint, as well as regular collaborators like RZA – which are particularly interesting they're underutilized as "Wu-PS" broadcasters and Hollywood stars like Danny Glover and Steve Buscemi. One of the director's favorite muses, Tom Waits, plays the role of semi-narrator Hermit Bob. The forest wanderer seems to be the only person in town smart enough to stay away from the undead invasion and badume the role of the stern Walking Dead-esque voiceover that reminds us of how much life is futile and that we struggle to obtain it. After all, maybe the capitalist humans have always been the real zombies.

It is in this message that the movie is a little misplaced. The satire of Jarmusch sometimes resembles a ouroboros of references to pop culture eating slowly. At the height of its heyday, it is increasingly difficult to understand if the anticapitalist badogies on the nose are heavy enough to mock the once-striking but now exaggerated trope or because Jarmusch really hates the people who are at home. phone. All the time. It's a small flaw, but it's a shame; If it had been a little more decisive and about 15 minutes shorter, The Dead Don's Die would have been a little bite of zombie goodness.

This is not to say that it is not a good watch. It seems that the driver was forced to wield a machete and deliver (no) dead end prophecies about the end of the world. His sincere turn as deputy sheriff of the city is another riff on the worldwide success of the popular AMC zombie show, and it's hard to wonder if Jarmusch wrote the screenplay after viewing it excessively the television phenomenon too serious and thinking that he could do it. to be removed an ankle or two. Murray is very Driver's partner and the couple is joined for most of the film by Chloe Sevigny's Mindy, who feels a little lost but still has a lot of fun as a hysterical woman in the story.

For the most part an easy-to-watch horror comedy, it feels like The Dead Do not Die is probably going to be quite divisive. The zombie rhythm and the absence of a real conflict or a definitive resolution may mean that many mainstream movie fans might not get what they expect when they're in the dark. they are watching him. And hardcore fans of Jarmusch may be surprised at the simplicity and wide appeal of the film; it's undoubtedly his most accessible movie since he started his career in 1980. Despite this, The Dead Don's Die is a fun watch with solid performances, a fun scenario, a beautiful cinematography and a new visually interesting vision for the zombies and their. inevitable deaths, something difficult to achieve after more than 50 years of undead movies.