Whether or not a film is criticized and technically deemed "good" or "bad", I tend to give all movies the benefit of the doubt. I always find at least one entertaining aspect in a film for me to be able to sit through it and feel like I'm not wasting my time. Jim Jarmusch's take on the zombie genre, The Dead Don't Die, is a gleaming exception to this stance of mine and I honestly could not believe that I managed to make it out of this alive (pun intended). This film is an absolutely horrible waste of potential in every way possible, from the story to the phenomenal cast. My stomach was starting to become physically upset by the end of this movie and I have not felt that way about a film in a very long time. Thank god that I had free movie passes because I genuinely would have been upset about spending $9 to see this.
The Dead Don't Die follows a zombie outbreak in the small town of Centerville, home to a huge cast of characters, including police chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray), officers Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver) and Mindy Morrison (Chloë Sevigny), farmer Frank (Steve Buscemi), and Hermit Bob (Tom Waits), among many others. As the zombies begin to rise up, the occupants of this small town must fight back and attempt to find out what caused the undead to re-animate in the first place. My many issues with this film can simply stem from the script. Especially for a supposedly satirical film such as this one, Jarmusch's script is one of the most lackluster pieces of filmmaking that I have ever seen. This entire film is full of exposition and very slow rising action as it seemed like there was not a logical place for the story to even go. I kept waiting this entire film for something, nay, ANYTHING, to happen that held any relevance. There was absolutely no plot because the majority of this film was spent switching between the different points of view of these characters and how they all handled the walking dead. Despite the main focus of the protagonists Cliff and Ronnie, there were several other subplots that did not go anywhere and ended with no resolution, such as the kids in the juvenile detention center. This movie could have easily been cut down by half an hour if so much time hadn't been wasted. All of these characters simply meandered around for almost two hours until they all ended up dead, given no character development whatsoever. Not only did I not remotely care about these characters, but I actually wanted them to die just so the film would end. The one saving grace that kept me from walking out of the theater were the performances from the cast. While they were nothing to rave about, Murray and Driver did nail their deadpan characters from the start and I'll give them that.
As for the humor throughout this film, I was anticipating a load of hilarious, dry comedy. As I have not seen any of Jarmusch's other films, I was not sure what to expect, but if this movie is any indication of his style than I am definitely not on board. The trailers for this film are complete false advertising as they try to capitalize on the prospect of Bill Murray acting in a high-action zombie comedy once more. The main problem that the humor in this film suffered from was indecisiveness. I knew I would be in for some dry humor and when it was utilized, it was hilarious! The full-circle gags and running jokes are what kept me the most entertained, but they were so few and far between that the script ended up reaching painfully hard for a laugh. However, the element of breaking the fourth wall being introduced is when everything went even more awry. The constant reminder of the titular song "The Dead Don't Die", sung by Sturgill Simpson, was an (almost) clever motif that popped up countless times throughout this movie. The acknowledgment of the theme song and the conversation between Cliff and Ronnie about reading various parts of the script was amusing dialogue at most, but did not fit the developed tone. This movie could not decide what it wanted to be, as that confusion led to me squirming in my chair with forced chuckles. Jarmusch had so much potential to deconstruct the many tropes of the zombie genre, but I suppose Zombieland did that about a decade ago, and much more successfully.
Along with the confusing fourth-wall-breaking, this film tries its absolute darnedest to be self-aware and intellectual, but the lack of a prominent theme led to a horrible conclusion. Even though a touch of conscious comedy was thrown in (Adam Driver's Star Wars keychain), it could not redeem this film's absence of focus. In a film directed by a cult filmmaker such as Jarmusch, I always try to see what the storyteller was trying to tell the audience. The not-so-subtle message about the environmental dangers of fracking was clearly evident throughout this film and it apparently also causes the undead to rise from their graves. As strange as it was, I could get behind this message, but Tom Waits' character Bob took the story in a whole other direction. His eavesdropping and narration throughout the movie touched on society's materialistic views and how our constant need for consumerist goods are killing us; also lazily seen in blatant shots of the undead holding their phones and grumbling "WiFi" like a horde of, well, zombies. I simply could not decipher what Jarmusch, at the core of this film, was trying to say and I don't think he did, either. But at that point in the film when your message is already too far gone, why not just say fuck it and throw in a UFO to abduct Tilda Swinton? Wait, that did happen. And the fact that so many unnecessary celebrity cameos also riddle this small town could never save this messy pile of garbage.
The Dead Don't Die is a massive disappointment. While I can not say that it was one of my most anticipated films of this year, I was still looking forward to seeing Bill Murray act again in a dry comedy with a great cast such as this one. What I got, however, was the worst waste of an hour and 45 minutes I could have ever imagined. And the icing on the cake is that the image of Adam Driver holding Selena Gomez's decapitated head is forever engrained in my brain.
My Rating: ★
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