Review
JAMIE EAST AT THE MOVIES
The Dead Don’t Die review: A cast to die for but this zombie comedy is deadly dull
SOMETIMES you see a cast list for a film and one or two people stick out like a sore thumb.
It might be that all the money gets spent on one flagpole actor, and that’s fine.
Other times it’s a passion project for something awfully worthy and stars fall over themselves to bequeath their usual millions and slum it in the name of the craft.
Huge star ensembles are a weirder beast and they tell you one of three things. Either the budget is stupidly big, the director is revered or the script is impossible to ignore.
The Dead Don’t Die thinks it’s the latter two, but in reality it’s just the reputation of acclaimed director Jim Jarmusch.
He has been one of the biggest champions of independent cinema for the best part of 30 years. When Jim starts calling, the stars come knocking — and check out the talent involved in this odd zombie/climate-change flick.
'RELIES ON ARRAY OF STARS'
Adam Driver, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Iggy Pop, Selena Gomez etc, etc. They are a talented bunch and it is fun spending time in their company — but this was a bit too niche and cool-for-school for my liking in the end.
We are in the sleepy American town of Centreville as a very slow and ambling Zombie invasion begins to take over the world as a result of polar fracking.
We follow the story through Murray, Driver and Sevigny, who make up the local law enforcement.
They have to deal with the strange events and inhabitants that slowly emerge throughout the never- ending day (one of the side effects of this apocalypse is that the Earth has been knocked off its axis, meaning it is sunny at midnight).
That, to be honest, is kind of it as far as plot goes.
Mostly it relies on that array of stars to impress the viewer — and if you are not impressed, then you just don’t get it.
I got it. I was not impressed.
That zombies have arrived to feast on the flesh of all mankind and no one really utters any surprise is just one of the slightly cloying ways you really need to jump on board with the hipster style of the film.
Every conversation is filled with unnatural pauses and the script feels like it has passed through Google Translate a couple of times.
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You understand the language but not the intonation. Its references to consumerism and politics work well enough.
And though ridiculous, the fourth-wall breaking (characters slowly realise they are starring in a movie) gives it enough edge to keep you watching.
But this was far too self-referential for my liking.
It goes to show that even a packed cast cannot carry a movie unaided, though Tilda Swinton’s Scottish undertaker comes close.
The Dead Don't Die (15)
★★★☆☆
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