3+1 Short Paragraphs: The Dead Don't Die

2019, Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive) -- download

Jarmusch is one those directors from the times when I was That Film Guy. Night on Earth, Dead Man and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai were weird, stylish, unique flicks made from the gut and from the soul. Only Lovers Left Alive picked that sensibility back up years later saying He Still Has It. The were movies so far from Hollywood, I could pretend I was a film snob (while eagerly anticipating whatever disaster movie was coming out in the same year) yet enjoy the fact that he had so many watchable people in them. Things haven't changed much -- they are weird and quirky, and this movie was jam packed with recognizable faces, and yet ... wut?

This is a zombie movie, and for the genre, the best thing that can be said about it, is that the love of Night of the Living Dead is there. Sure, zombies are very very played out, but a little love of its origins, along with Jarmusch's odd sensibilities said simpatico to me. I was hoping he would for the walking dead what he did for vampires.

With the happenstance of a not very well explained natural phenomena (fracking knocks the Earth off its axis), the dead waken and begin groaning, moaning, gnawing and being drawn to the previous actions of their lives. They begin eating the residents of this small midwest village. Mixed into this are cops Bill Murray, Adam Driver and Chloë Sevigny. And Scottish undertaker / samurai Tilda Swinton. And "hipster" traveler Selena Gomez. And Wu-PS (groooooan) driver RZA. And surprisingly friendly Republican ("Make America White Again") Steve Buscemi. And local news reporter Rosie Perez ("Posie Juarez"; groooooan) Adam Driver predicts that this is all going end badly. I didn't think he meant the movie.

Jarmusch always embraced the weird in his characters, and that is present here, and if that was the way he went, while chasing a classic zombie movie plot, it would have been quite fine. But... fourth wall breaking scenes, UFOs (???) and Tom Waits giving an over-arching heavy handed monologue lamely connecting zombies to consumerism (probably the biggest laugh in the movie) just had me wondering what the point was. Would it be too... hypocritical to have requested a bit of Producer Meddling? The only thing I can think of is that Jarmusch knows zombie movies are boring & nonsensical these days, so he made one of similar ilk ?