The Dead Don't Die - Review

Release Date: June 14, 2019​​​​​​​​

Doesn't  Hit the Mark

Jim Jarmusch has always made movies with name actors; it just so happened that his latest film had the perfect balance for mainstream attention. With a track record that shows poor performance at the box office, the only thing on this director's mind is telling his own stories. The Dead Don't Die is his latest film in which he is credited as the sole screenwriter. It's a dry humor movie about the zombie apocalypse because somehow people are still making movies about zombies. 

The Dead Don't Die is a comedy that underdelivers on the jokes. It tries out some meta humor and throws in deadpan performances but it isn't sufficient. I could feel the audience wanting to laugh at anything remotely funny, but the film never delivers. For a comedy movie, not having the audience laugh enough is a huge red flag. This isn't even a criticism of the humor style itself as many of the jokes landed with a lot of the audience. 

Another area that was lacking was the action. The film takes its time to set up how individual characters will deal with the zombie outbreak. It holds everyone back 

though as only a few of those people get to revel in the onslaught. The movie sets itself up for many of these sequences, most of them just end up with a mass of bodies slowly piling on top of an actor.

There are a couple of standout performances in the film. Adam Driver and Tilda Swinton do a great job in their respective roles. Driver delivers every deadpan line perfectly for maximum comedic effect. Swinton, on the other hand, is perfectly at home playing an eccentric character so alien to a normal person, you wonder if she is one. Everyone else is serviceable and doesn't really stand out.

Production quality also deserves a shoutout, especially for the lighting. There were a couple of scenes that utilized a handful of colors to light actors in scenes. There were also a couple of vehicle tracking shots which were elevated above the car that were framed nicely. 

Overall, The Dead Don't Die doesn't quite hit the mark. It's thinly veiled political story aspects have no real effect on the characters and could have been taken out. Its narrative doesn't know if it wants to be an ensemble piece or if it actually has main characters. The whole "message" of the movie was a dig at humanity and how we are gluttonous for superficial items, all delivered from a hobo. It's a humorous movie but lacks anything compelling in its third act.

4/10
I had to fight the urge to fall asleep