Highly Recommended
A film that effortlessly and instantly slides its way into the cult classics lists with its deadpan sense of humour, riffs on iconic zombie flicks, and meta-textual conversations with the audience.
“This isn’t going to end well,” cop Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) repeatedly reminds us. He’s right, of course, introducing us to the self-aware approach indie filmmaker Jim Jarmusch takes in THE DEAD DON’T DIE. Yet when films are as a fun as this, it’s all about the journey and not the final destination.
Over the last four decades, Jarmusch has crafted his 16 or so features at his own pace. From the pondering of Permanent Vacation (1980) to the poetry of Paterson (2016), Jarmusch has continued to examine the United States through the eyes of outsiders. So it’s no surprise that his deadpan zombie movie quietly holds a mirror up to contemporary America.
Police officers Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray) and Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) have noticed that something is wrong in Centerville. It’s not just the otherworldly mortician Zelda (Tilda Swinton) or backwoodsman Hermit Bob’s (Tom Waits) penchant for stealing chickens either. As the Earth’s axis has shifted due to polar fracking, the daylight is out of whack and the dead aren’t staying where they are supposed to be.
The tone is set early on when, following the credits featuring Sturgill Simpson’s “The Dead Don’t Die,” Murray’s character comments that the song sounds familiar when it comes on the radio. “Because it’s the theme song,” deadpans Driver’s Ronnie, signalling that nothing in this film is to be taken too seriously. It’s not a style that will appeal to everyone, but one that should be familiar to Jarmusch fans.
Like Dawn of the Dead and its followers, THE DEAD DON’T DIE tackles consumerism and politics in typical Jarmusch fashion. The undead are drawn to things they knew in life: Iggy Pop and filmmaker Sara Driver are as ravenous for coffee as they are for flesh. Even before the zombie attacks, Farmer Miller (Steve Buscemi) dons a red “Keep America White Again” cap. It’s not subtle, but it’s not wrong either.
Backed by a stellar cast, a veritable who’s who of indie cinema, everyone is both playing to and against type. The sword-wielding Swinton is every bit the alien the memes want her to be, walking (and talking) at right angles. Driver carries around a Star Wars keyring on his Smart Car keys, and his reason for knowing the outcome is just as meta. It’s weird, but it’s designed to embrace anybody who identifies as such.
It all ends exactly as Driver predicts, and if any criticism could be levelled it’s that it wraps up far too quickly. In a perfect universe, there would be TV series following the adventures of Murray and Driver, with Waits acting as the Log Lady of Centerville. It’s Jarmusch’s pocket of strange, and we’re just visiting it for a while. Or as Waits puts it, “What a fucked-up world.”
2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Jim Jarmusch | WRITER: Jim Jarmusch| CAST: Bill Murray Adam Driver Tilda Swinton Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Rosie Perez, Iggy Pop, Sara Driver, RZA, Carol Kane, Selena Gomez, Tom Waits | DISTRIBUTOR: Universal Pictures, Sydney Film Festival | RUNNING TIME: 103 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 14-19 June 2019 (SFF), 24 October 2019 (AUS)
