The peaceful town of Centerville finds itself battling a zombie horde as the dead start rising from their graves.
Writer/director Jim Jarmusch, who made a name for himself with “Stranger Than Paradise” way back in 1984, once again serves up an intelligent independent film made on a tight budget. Starring Jarmusch regulars Bill Murray, Adam Driver, and Tilda Swinton, “The Dead Don’t Die” represents an unabashed homage to George A. Romero’s 1968 classic, “Night of the Living Dead.”
Many of the elements will ring true to audiences familiar with the zombie genre, though some may find the pacing decidedly tedious along with the one-hour forty-five-minute runtime. Without a doubt, the cast constitutes the very best thing about this unhurried narrative. The actors make the most of their scenes, allowing discriminating audiences to savor each individual performance elicited by familiar faces.
Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Selena Gomez, Carol Kane, Caleb Landry Jones, Chloë Sevigny, Austin Butler, RZA and Rosie Perez (as Posie Juarez, news anchor) comprise the all-star supporting cast of memorable characters meticulously drawn. Deadpan humor abounds in a movie world too-often filled with inane absurdity or cheap slapstick. Best of all, Hermit Bob, played by a droll Tom Waits, nearly steals the whole show. While at first appearing to be a goofy lunatic living in the woods, Bob subsequently reveals the wisdom of the ages – and for our time as well.
Zombie movies generally depict the unintended consequences of humans screwing up something – often in the form of disease carriers, radiation, releases of harmful pathogens or other types of scientific accidents. In this case, fracking at the north and south polar ice caps has shifted the earth off its axis. The unexpected development mysteriously causes dead bodies to transform into zombies – the undead – that rise from their graves and wreak havoc.
Murray is the chief of police in the fictitious, dinky three-cop heartland town of Centerville. Adam Driver plays his eerily prescient deputy, who drives a convertible Smart car of all things. He not only correctly diagnoses the cause of the mysterious events but also the remedy – separating the zombie head from the body. Both Murray and Driver play well off each other as they slowly begin to realize the gravity of the emerging situation. “Things will not end well,” Driver says more than once.
As the zombies animate, they inexorably thirst for the material things they loved in life – from smartphones to video games. Or, in the case of Iggy Pop and Sara Driver as coffee zombies, seeking the caffeinated hot beverage with at least as much gusto as they do human flesh, bloody organs and dismembered appendages.
Inside jokes, running gags and self-referential humor make up for the leisurely tempo in this black comedy. Inevitably, “The Dead Don’t Die” does expire – intended as an obvious metaphor for humanity’s current situation, given the social and economic structure that encourages unrepentant consumerism while simultaneously threatening ecosystems, perhaps beyond repair. Jarmusch competently tells a timely story that never makes the mistake of taking itself too seriously.
In theaters Friday, June 14th
