Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Eszter Balint, Danny Glover, Maya Delmont, Taliyah Whitaker, Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Kevin McCormick, Sid O’Connell, Caleb Landry Jones, RZA, Larry Fessenden, Rosie Perez, Jodie Markell, Carol Kane, Rosal Colon, Tilda Swinton, Sara Driver, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez, Austin Butler, Luka Sabbat, Sturgill Simpson.
The Zombie overkill has reached, and past, its climax in recent times, and yet, occasionally, through the backdoor sneaks in another reason to enjoy the genre, and in The Dead Don’t Die it is also one to reflect upon the cinematic therapy that throws its vast independent might in the subtexts and clinical observations of its writer and director, Jim Jarmusch.
The issue with the genre itself is one of excess, and that of over-indulgence, it seems to no longer require a carefully driven nuanced examination, or indeed as in the original and gorgeously satirised George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and its subsequent sequels, showed the reflection upon modern consumerism, race relations, instead it has become a battle of wits, a fight to the death against the decay that we see in the fall of our civilisation.
If satire still holds a place in the world of film, if it can hold more than a mirror up to our over hyped sense of self and importance, then it must be done with style, precision, and perhaps with a splash of off camera humour, that will make the journey meaningful. In The Dead Don’t Die, what the viewer is offered is that list of unspoken rules, the guide to decent cinema that solicits the voyeur to concentrate for the reward that will inevitably come, the payoff that is both as silky as a spider’s web glistening, tempting, unseen until you step directly in its path, and dangerous, the invitation to reside in a mind that cannot be contained, or tamed.
You should never try to tame a mind at the best of times, but one such as Jim Jarmusch, one who knowingly approaches filmmaking with arguably a sadistically enthused wit and clinical vision, should be left to work in absolute peace, and it shows in his latest offering, one beset with the challenge of knowing, the irony of foreshadowing, and the ability to blend the absurd with the coolly delivered to make a film that is undeniably pleasing.
With terrific performances from Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton and Chloe Sevigny adding tremendous depth to the overall charm of the film, The Dead Don’t Die adds more to the zombie genre than others have managed to exercise their right to do in some years. Delightfully introspective and challenging, Jim Jarmusch brings out the best in a genre that refuses to die.
Ian D. Hall