The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch)

pixelburp

Jarmusch has dabbled in many genres, and has finally gone full genre; honestly the plot looks pretty boilerplate - like, going back to its roots boilerplate - but Jarmusch and that pretty stellar cast will likely get most peoples attention...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs5ZOcU6Bnw

p to the e

It's funny that there's a kerfuffle going on over in the "Films that are pretentious" thread and this pops up. Nothing says pretension like Jim Jarmusch, Chloe Sevigny and a dash of Tilda Swinton. Although I did like the simplicity of Jarmusch's Paterson.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be; an homage or a piss take of the zombie flick. It doesn't look particularly funny or original.

pixelburp

Tilda Swinton doing an accent. I suppose at least this time she's not in old-man latex and wearing a pair of fake gonads

I do agree with the above, though horror comedies are an almost impossible beast to market: lean too far in either direction and you risk alienating the other audience (or indeed mis/over represent the half that was promoted). I wonder if the odd tone of the trailer is down to who cut it - I suspect it being a Jarmusch project it'll be more (dry) comedy than out & out horror.

Would be instructive to look at some old trailers for Sean of the Dead, or An American Werewolf in London, and see what kind of angle those promotions took

BuyersRemorse

pixelburp wrote: »

Tilda Swinton doing an accent.

You mean the one she was born with?

.......

I thought Tilda Swinton WAS scottish?

Anyway, it looks like its a comedy, dead pan Bill Murray and Iggy Pop with a small amount of make up.

Hard to see what the selling point is - it doesnt look that funny or that original.

pixelburp

BuyersRemorse wrote: »

You mean the one she was born with?

She's pulling a Scottish accent in the trailer, and any interviews I've heard, she speaks with an English accent (edited, wikipedia'ed her and she was born in London to English / Australian parents)

Mr E

New Red Band trailer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f28CzL6WUw

Fysh

I really enjoyed Only Lovers Left Alive and Paterson, so I'm down for this - enough that I'm not pushed seeing the trailer ahead of its release.

I'm not really interested in whether it's pretentious or not, just whether I enjoy it

sydthebeat

Is there only a limited release for this?

Its supposed be released here on the 12th but I'm only seeing Dublin showings??

Banjaxed82

sydthebeat wrote: »

Is there only a limited release for this?

Its supposed be released here on the 12th but I'm only seeing Dublin showings??

It's not nearly limited enough. Complete and utter aimless, plotless ****.

Don't waste your time.

johnny_ultimate

Given the film itself it's not particularly surprising it hasn't gotten a particularly wide release :pac: It's showing at Palás cinema in Galway over the weekend anyway...

Saw it today and it's a mixed bag, although that's perhaps too generous. If you're not a Jarmusch fan I wouldn't recommend it as it's a bad intro, and if you are a fan it's a minor work to say the very least. For zombie comedies, stick with One Cut of the Dead.

I do admire the idea of a star-studded zombie anti-comedy. It's insanely deadpan and sardonic even by Jim Jarmusch's recent standards. There are some (i.e. very few) lovely moments of oddball gags (Adam Driver pulling up in his automobile being a highlight) and rare stretches where the film's aggressively relaxed and indifferent tone hits the right chord. A few of the cast - Swinton in particular - are operating on the right wavelength, which means not giving a **** what wavelength everyone else is operating on and just doing their own deadpan thing.

But mostly this gives the impression of being rather underbaked in almost all key respects. There's some very overt social commentary that doesn't amount to anything at all - references to fracking, Trump's America and consumerism abound, but they're references that hang in the air awkwardly rather than amounting to biting satire. Visually it's half-assed, and most of the cast members are wasted in go-nowhere roles (Chloe Sevigny stands out in that regard, given she gets a lot more screentime than most others).

It's a strange shrug of a movie - very much by design, but to the point I struggled to get much out of it. As a goofball larf of a film it's not without some very occasional and specific pleasures... but given Paterson was very much Jarmusch on top form this definitely is a disappointment.

Fysh

Caught this tonight and had a lot of fun with it, possibly because I - seemingly like Jarmusch - can enjoy a zombie film while not being all that worried about respecting the canon or whether the idea is treated seriously.

Very little in this film is treated seriously, and there are some great gag moments along the way -

"Chardonnay!"

- and, as johnny_ultimate says above, Swinton steals every scene she's in.

It's not "The Zombie Version Of Only Lovers Left Alive" but, for me at least, that's kind of a relief as it turns out. OLLA is the better film, quite clearly, but The Dead Don't Die is an enjoyably silly zombie comedy, and for my money one of the better ones. It's not up to the standard of One Cut Of The Dead, but that's a tough bar to clear...

TerrorFirmer

Thought this was utter drivel, the opening act is solid enough and the deadpan style humour is immensely promising, but about halfway through it just shows all of its cards - it's half-baked nonsense that appears to think it's far, far more amusing, smart and entertaining than it actually is.

I think there was one or two moments, a few brief seconds, that did manage to land and invoke a mildly positive response (Adam Driver pulling up in the previously referenced micro-machine-car was genuinely amusing), but they're lost in a sea of utter nonsense - and the worst kind of nonsense, the kind that's devoid of any redeeming qualities and just painfully unravels as you first pray for it to improve, and eventually just to end.

In fairness to the cast, they do a good job, but everything else about the movie is entirely sub-par. For me it wasn't just a bad genre film, but a plain outright poor film by any yardstick imaginable that doesn't even come close to the 'so bad its good' bar either.

I think this is genuinely the worst misfire of a film I've seen in a very long time. At present, it's got an average rating of 6/10 on IMDB which all things considered is a respectable result for any film these days, so clearly it's resonating with some audiences.

dubstepper

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I think this is genuinely the worst misfire of a film I've seen in a very long time.

+100

Really aimless movie. Not interesting, not scary, not funny. I was actually just bored watching it. I hate stopping a film but it was hard not to with this.

It doesn't even go anywhere interesting or 'alternative' with the genre. Just shambling along from scene to scene. The cast do well enough with a poor script but that is it.

3/10

Skerries

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

(Adam Driver pulling up in the previously referenced micro-machine-car was genuinely amusing)

and if you listen very carefully that the sound it makes is actually a vehicle sound from Star Wars

conor222

Watched it over the weekend,
Similar to above, thought there might be something in it for the first half hour or so and then realised nothing was coming, it was an absolute waste of time. Don't bother. Not funny enough, not scary enough, irritatingly self aware without realizing its own shortcomings. Bleh

JP Liz V1

Driver for me was the film's only saving grace, not a comedy or a zombie flick