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Jim Jarmusch’s The Dead Don’t Die

This one is a load of fun, folks. Jim Jarmusch is back in the horror genre with The Dead Don’t Die, a zombie comedy with a clear political message. I don’t say a political edge, because it’s more like a sledgehammer than a scalpel. As his excellent vampire film, Only Lovers Left Alive, Jarmusch is deploying his star studded cast to play with horror tropes to investigate the problems of contemporary life and diagnose some of society’s ills.

Story-wise, you have seen this one before. A small Pennsylvania town suddenly finds itself over-run with zombies. The rise of the dead begins slowly until the swarming hordes are undeniable and too much to withstand. Ok, check… However, this is an ensemble piece that feels a bit more Wes Anderson in the script and performances than like George Romero. Particular standouts are Bill Murray as an aging cop and Adam Driver as his deputy and Tom Waits playing a hermit that serves quite well as a narrator. Tilda Swinton gives a great performance in a brilliant Scottish brogue, but she honestly feels like she belongs in a different movie, but also that’s kind of the joke.

There is an interesting cycle running in horror these days, with films like Jordan Peele’s Get Out doing some paint-by-numbers horror as a vehicle to engage in social commentary. However recent efforts from African American directors in genre film along these lines (think Peele, Spike Lee and Boots Riley) are far more layered and subtext. Jarmusch has an agenda (climate change) and he leaves no room for missing the point. This sadly is a little tiresome, but his subpoints have a bit more grace. The inclusion of a Trump supporting Steve Buscemi character serves to suggest that MAGA-hating constant outrage may be an entertaining distraction from solving real problems. Driver’s deadpan resignation to the hopelessness of the situation is also telling of a society that sees all the catastrophic climate change projections but simply surrenders to inevitability. Finally, consumer level stop gaps, such as driving a Prius or Smartcar, seem to be indicted as analgesics to real systemic change. This sledgehammer approach is a bit exhausting after experiencing the deftness of Peele, Riley and Lee.

These interesting sub-points to the argument are the real gold of the film. However it wallows in over-preaching the main points and gets a bit distracted with meta-cinema in-jokes and bashing the old zombie cliche metaphor of consumerism run mad over the audience’s head.

Conclusion

Though a bit of a failure didactically, it is very entertaining and full of laugh out loud moments. Overall, The Dead Don’t Die is a lot of fun, despite its messaging feeling like Al Gore droning in the back of your mind while watching.