The Dead Don't Die Review

The Dead Don't Die
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast Headliners: Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloe Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, some many others
Original Release Date: June 14th, 2019



Let this one be prefaced that this reviewer had not really heard of Jim Jarmusch before writing on this The Dead Don't Die. Apparently he has a distinct directorial style (more on that below) which only looking up surrounding information gave some recollection of a couple other works previously unknown here but recognizable within the scene. What's attractive about this film is its cast and premise: Bill Murray (Zombieland much?) and Adam Driver as small town cops amongst some many others in a comedy versus zombies?... that's great potential. It definitely lives up to some of that potential but one has to really know what kind of film it is to enjoy it(Shaun Of The Dead or Zombieland this is not).
In the anywhere town of Centerville USA policemen Chief Cliff Robertson(Bill Murray) and Officer Ronnie Peterson(Adam Driver) start by dealing with a chicken stealing situation between the unfriendly outdoorsman Hermit Bob(a great and seldom seen Tom Waits) and then even moreso paranoid unfriendly Farmer Miller(Steve Buscemi). One can quickly tell that this is a different kind of movie when the character's quickly break the 4th wall and see that the film's own theme song is playing on the radio. It definitely does not get less weird from there. 
What one has to realize that, especially in the first two thirds, this is more of a film about the weird wacky characters in this town than the zombie action. It does an intriguing job being a slow burning buildup to the horror that awaits(and there's definitely some scary bloody guts-filled action at times).  However this is often interspersed with very dry Wes Anderson-y shots and humor (apparently a trademark of director Jim Jarmusch). 
These characters range in quality and oddity. In addition to who's mentioned there's other unique locals in fellow down to Earth cop Officer Minnie Morrison(Chloe Sevigny), store owners of hardware in friendly Hank Thompson(Danny Glover) and pop horror culture/gas shy Bobby Wiggins(Caleb Landry Jones), and bizarre samurai sword using Scottish coroner Zelda Winston(Tilda Swinton).  There's several sets of youths more on the periphery including those in a troubled youth home trio of Stella(Maya Delmont), Olivia(Taliyah Whitaker), and Geronimo(Jahi Winston) or  the visiting teens of Zoe(Selena Gomez), Jack(Austin Butler), and Zach(Luka Sabbat). Others only show up for even less of moments but one has to appreciate the small momentary chuckles of more meta / 4th wall breaking elements like reporter Posie Juarez(Rosie Perez), “Wu-Ps” driver Dean(RZA), and of course the first unnamed zombie seen(Iggy Pop).
That's what this film is.... momentary chuckles and momentary standouts without leaving a lasting impression. The script is alright but surreal and meta as mentioned with some humor around simple repeating itself or “oh gee this small town isn't reacting that fearfully to the situation”. However there is some contrast between the idyllic and the gore which works alright. The zombies(and perhaps a bit of the film) have a more old school George Romero or even 1950s approach to them than most things recently. They're very “the moon turned evil one day and its cosmic rays raised the living dead” than a virus with them handled a bit comically shambling (And with some 1800s or earlier corpses amongst those raised) however with menace. This is also added to goofily with them being able to wield some human objects and even having some simple speech of what they want or last wanted in life.  Music by Jarmusch's own band SQURL helps add to the kooky goofy spooky ambience. However it also makes things very slow and at times cheesy.
Performance wise one would have high hopes of those involved and they deliver...in part. Bill Murray is about the most Bill Murray to ever Bill Murray in awhile with some dry sarcastic retorts although this time with a slightly more toughened angle but only to a small town extent. Adam Driver is some kind of amazing as ever. This further shows the actor's range here going for very subdued and purposefully dull with some nice quips. Sevigny's Minnie has some alright banter with them but nothing too impressive. Really of all the cast mentioned the only one that makes much of an impact is Swinton's Zelda. She's the most bizarre of anyone and carries both mysterious secrets and badassery with her katana sword. This leads to some of the film's other laughs when she's doing...what she's doing. Things really ramp up in both laughs and action excitement in the last 1/3 but as many things only to an extent.
As a whole this film is just about what it looks like at a glance. It's some bumbling townsfolk dealing with some stumbling zombies with some blood and chuckles along the way. If one understands its dry approach they may like it for the cast involved however one should really bear in mind its slow burn...and that it isn't much they haven't seen before. 7.7 out of 10