The Dead Don’t Die has a lot of features that would attract an audience: Bill Murray, zombies, a star studded cast and Jim Jarmusch. If you’re into independent films, chances are that you have at least seen a handful of Jarmusch’s films. I’ve seen Coffee and Cigarettes (I remember the mood more than the movie); Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai; Broken Flowers; and Only Lovers Left Alive, which maybe my favorite of the lot and feels connected to this film because of the connection to the supernatural.
In the interest of full disclosure, I missed most of the opening scene that appears before the opening credits, but it didn’t bother me like it normally does. The movie’s structure is kind of like a zombie: kind of laid back then slow going when it initially rises until it gathers up steam as more people join the fray. I enjoyed The Dead Don’t Die, but I was surrounded by people howling with laughter so it may be better than even I think it is. I’ve watched too many movies so the elements that my fellow viewers found hilarious aren’t fresh to me, but still enjoyable.
Ever since George Romero invented this type of zombie film, it was a critique of American society, especially our consumerism and jingoism, and it wasn’t too subtle then. Jarmusch decides to strip whatever subtlety the genre did possess and get completely literal right down to breaking the fourth wall. Basically he made a comedy from his cri de coeur about the death of civilization, and he doesn’t have faith that we’ll get it. (He isn’t wrong.) The Dead Don’t Die is set in an American nondescript town except for the people within its boundaries. The world is ending, and they aren’t even a little prepared on how to handle it though they know exactly what the problem is, which probably makes this movie the most realistic take on the zombie apocalypse to date in movies or television.
Like his vampire film, Jarmusch’s zombies don’t completely conform to what we expect from the undead. Instead of gore, when injured, puffs of smoke waft out. They talk, but they don’t moan, “brainnnnns,” but whatever word encapsulates what interested them while they were alive. The first one cracked me up because I think most of us have actually sounded like that when we say that word on a regular day. The Dead Don’t Die’s point is clear: we’re zombies, and you can’t kill what is already dead. It is kind of like The Sixth Sense—we just don’t know it. What made us dead? Blind consumerism, believing what we’re told, politely accepting what should be intolerable, believing that driving a ridiculous car can save us; refusing to take action quicker. There are only a few that escape oblivion according to Jarmusch’s tale, and they are on the margins of society and ran afoul of the law, symbolized by our main characters played by Murray and Adam Driver, the law enforcement officers of this town, who are affable and ordinary except for their resumes outside of this film.
The cast’s resume and personas actually comes into play during The Dead Don’t Die-a slight teasing of the actor’s fame outside of the indie world. It felt like good-natured ribbing as if Jarmusch was the mother reminding the kid that comes home that they still have to throw out the garbage, but good job on your success at Disney. Anyone even remotely familiar with Driver will think of Girls or the Star Wars franchise, which is referenced. Tilda Swinton’s role seemed to be simultaneously a wink at her controversial role as The Ancient One in Doctor Strange and her real life persona as a person who doesn’t completely belong to this world. The character and Swinton are Scottish. Normally introducing too many sci fi elements annoys me (Looper), and even though Jarmusch’s ploy wasn’t original (Freaks of Nature), I thought it was amusing and perfect considering that it was directed at Swinton.
The only discernible problem of The Dead Don’t Die is the problem as Jarmusch sees it. I don’t disagree with Jarmusch’s cri de couer, but it reminds me of the problem of satire as laid out by Malcolm Gladwell and Larry Wilmore on Wilmore’s podcast, Black on the Air’s July 20, 2017 episode. Please pardon my reductive summary, but Wilmore says that the function of satire is to show, but Gladwell thinks that it actually endears people to the object of ridicule when they should be repelled. Wilmore completely disagrees that satire’s function is to advocate or repel. It feels as if they know better than I about the function of satire, but you do have to consume Jarmusch’s movie in order for him to attempt to communicate his message to us; however he wants us to unplug from consuming. If I were a zombie, I’d probably moan, “Movies,” then head to my favorite local theater then moan, “Church,” head over there and toggle between the two until I evaporated. Since Thoreau, humans have extolled the simple life away from civilization while ignoring the fact that this world outside of civilization is also dependent on civilization’s crumbs. There is no such thing as opting out except for Swinton’s character’s ultimate destination.
Does Jarmusch realize that he is part of the problem? Maybe a little, but instead of truly wrestling with it, he resorts to jokes about his profession, which I loved, but shows that ultimately his imagination has failed him, and ends on a heavy-handed moralistic explanation of what we just watched unfold. I think that he somewhat concedes his blindspot when he doesn’t show how three characters escape the zombie apocalypse. If there are human beings, there are problems. I don’t think that there is anyway to escape it, and while he knows it, he can’t quite bring himself to embracing bleakness in The Dead Don’t Die.
If I had to critique The Dead Don’t Die, it would be Chloe Sevigny’s character. If there was a zombie apocalypse, I would die, and I don’t have a problem with that, but her character felt more like a throwback of stereotypes about why women shouldn’t be in law enforcement without a proper counterbalance. Both male cops are incompetent, but they at least they try. I think that we needed at least one more female cop to balance it out or make one of the male cops just as undone as she was. It was the only moment that felt gendered in a negative way. Also I didn’t get why everyone called one character Frodo so please feel free to explain it to me.
The Dead Don’t Die can be seen in theaters or at home, but because I had real butter popcorn, it probably improved my reception of the film. I don’t consider it a must see film unless you are compelled to see every zombie film or a fan of Jarmusch’s films or anyone in the cast. It is a’right. It was a must see film for me, but when I watched it, I didn’t get too invested in it. It feels as if it will float away on the wind.
