The Dead Don't Die

The American-Swedish movie The Dead Don't Die proves all the good titles for zombie horror movies are probably exhausted. This movie is Jarmusch's attempt at a zombie horror, although he failed. It was an attempt where the most positive thing was that popular actors and singers wanted to be in it because Jim Jarmusch was involved and, unfortunately, that is all the movie has to offer. (18/09/2019)

The Dead Don't Die is my second encounter with Jim Jarmusch after Coffee and Cigarettes, and I have to say that I didn't find the director to my liking in this case either. From the start, the atmosphere of a small, sleepy town in the middle of nowhere is built up quite decently, and to the sounds of the country hit “The Dead Don't Die”, we are introduced to the various inhabitants, with everything slowly but surely leading up to the terrifying invasion of the undead. I thought the film would be laced with floor-to-ceiling black humour, but I found most of the jokes and morbid innuendo dull – the scene that amused me the most was the first zombie attack and the Chardonnay-loving woman beyond the grave. Even the slight allusion to Adam Driver's involvement in Star Wars and the fact that he was driving a Smart Car didn't help matters much. Of all the characters, I was most taken with the mysterious Tilda Swinton, though the ending of her line was very bizarre. I'm sorry, but the (obviously present) charm of Jarmusch's latest effort missed me by a large margin. (09/07/2019)

The Dead Don’t Die is a slow, hipster zombie satire based on repetition of the same jokes and situations which constantly makes fun of the fact that it is a slow, hipster satire based on repetition of the same jokes and situations. It sometimes works very well, sometimes not so much. In the context of Jim Jarmusch’s earlier genre deconstructions, the film is inspiring (not only are genre conventions exaggerated, but are also commented upon by the actors, who step out of their roles and express their opinions on the screenplay) thanks to a cast that has superbly mastered deadpan humor and numerous references to (Romero’s) zombie horror movies and other old films (a headstone with the name Samuel Fuller inscribed on it) and it is fairly entertaining throughout its running time. The film is neither a summer hit nor the peak of Jarmusch’s filmography (it is sloppy especially visually and in the interconnection/variation of individual motifs), where The Dead is found in the paradoxical position of a film that is simultaneously his least and most serious work (the planet is in a state of decay and in order for it to regain its balance, humans will have to get out of the way), but I rather imagine it is not the absolute failure that the responses from Cannes warned against. 75% (27/06/2019)

Jarmusch wrote the characters to fit his iconic cast, letting them make off-base comments and humorously react to what we know from zombie movies. Accompanied by mystical guitar riffs such as those used in Dead Man, but at a slightly brisker pace, with the forester Tom Waits observing the end of the world from a distance, a pure zombie role for Iggy Pop, who washes down the freshly bitten off bloody guts of a housekeeper with coffee from her coffee machine, not forgetting the passion and broad knowledge of young genre geeks. There is nice buddy chemistry between the cop duo of Murray and Driver, who represent two generations of Jarmuschian dramedy heroes. A pleasant chill-out movie with surprisingly full-fledged gore, The Dead Don’t Die is not groundbreaking in any respect, but still offers a refreshing take on well-used tropes. For the stalwart Jarmusch fans who once pursed their lips at the “commercialism” of Night on Earth, it will be another on of Jim’s “breaks”. I’m not sure, though, if it’s going to earn anything for Universal in the multiplexes - the body count is abundant and the CGI high-quality, but the popcorn-devouring youth might still find the whole movie overly traditional and not dynamic enough, while Jarmusch fans just don’t go to multiplexes. [Cannes] (15/05/2019)

I don't really seek out zombie movie – in fact I tend to avoid them – but in this case the director's name was enough to guarantee me that it would be something more than just a mere killing spree. Fortunately, I wasn't wrong and in the end I quite enjoyed this cruelly parodic statement about the bleak state of the contemporary world, where almost all people constantly succumb tor consumerist cravings like some kind of gluttonous zombies. I was amazed at how masterfully Jim Jarmusch managed to touch so many raw nerves at the end. (75%) (10/02/2023)