FOUR of us went to our local showing of Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die. Two absolutely hated it. The others adored it. Personally, I belong to the latter group. While the film stumbles through the end scenes, with a voice-over monologue that nearly ruins the experience, the premise and grim sense of humor keep it afloat.
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Bill Murray and Adam Driver delightfully play off of each other as the end of the world draws near. The two small town cops face an increasingly dangerous threat, maintaining the same deadpan delivery throughout. Driver declaring ‘zombies’ and ‘ghouls’ at the first sign of trouble is a highlight of 2019.
Much of the movie operates the same way. Taking its dark premise along with the audience’s zombie movie expectations, and reeling the characters’ reactions all the way in. Many times the punchline is that there was not much of a joke to begin with. The end result, while not everyone’s taste, is drop dead hilarious. As the end draws near, the absurdity of the situation ramps up exponentially, making the stark contrast with the level of reaction all the better. The Dead Don’t Die manages this style of comedy perfectly throughout its roughly hour and half (1h 43m) runtime.
Disappointingly, Jarmusch stumbles with the allegory he lays over top the film. What could have been a somewhat subtle nod to American capitalism and excess, gets beaten over your head with a two by four having no fewer than 20 rusty nails sticking out of it. It starts off okay, Steve Buscemi is wearing a MAGA hat, but it helps form a larger point later. Then when the hordes of zombies make their appearance, they make it excruciatingly clear they want their ‘phones’, ‘chardonnay’, ‘cable TV’… get the point? They repeat it so often and forcefully it almost loops all the way back around to funny again. Still, at this point in the film it only comes across as a minor grievance. Helping its cause, there are some legitimately interesting ongoing metaphors. You have the groups who recognize the oncoming danger but take no action, the young who realize straight away how they need to act to survive, the weird foreigner here for observation, and the MAGA hat wearing Steve Buscemi standing his ground to the bloody end.
However, none of this helps the film stick the landing. The final scenes noticeably lack the punch and uptick in tempo they were going for, and oh my goodness the closing monologue. If you happen to fall asleep through the first two thirds of the film don’t worry, The Dead Don’t Die makes sure to give you a full recap of all the points it wants to make. It attempts to play it off as further commentary with who presents it, but none of that changes the heavy handed conclusion. A promising piece of absurdist commentary gets kicked down the stairs at the very last second. Honestly, I don’t know which studio executive was confused and insisted on its inclusion, but it taints an otherwise pretty great film.
Overall, my thoughts can be summed up by the first thing I said walking out of the theater, “I actually unironically enjoyed the movie.”
