American independent film icon Jim Jarmusch doesn’t look like he’s one for laughter.
His shock of white hair, all-black wardrobe, and black shades ooze cool, but laugh-lines can’t be found on his face. So, the announcement of his new film, ‘The Dead Don’t Die’, came with some surprise; a zombie-comedy featuring the best of his past collaborators, including Tilda Swinton, Iggy Pop, and Bill Murray. However, what should be a dream film is instead barely memorable.
‘The Dead Don’t Die’ starts with promise. Police officers Cliff (Bill Murray) and Ronnie (Adam Driver) arrive in the woods to warn a hostile Hermit Bob (Tom Waits) for stealing chickens. Restrained performances during odd interactions are a key feature of Jarmusch’s film. While not uproariously funny, Jarmusch’s deadpan comedy is enough to make audiences chuckle, and the same can be said for this introduction.
With the big cast of big names, it's obvious Jarmusch has higher ambitions for ‘The Dead Don’t Die’. But, problems arise when he aims for bigger laughs. The film’s mode of comedy involves unnecessary overstuffing: the zombie outbreak is caused by polar fracking shifting the earth’s axis; Tilda Swinton plays a Scottish-samurai-mortician. The glut fills the film with too many purposeless characters and storylines leading no where.
Groans arrive when Jarmusch tries his hand at meta-humour, starting with Adam Driver calling Sturgill Simpson’s theme song “the theme song”. Repetition of this and other gags wears viewers down, culminating in a scene where Bill Murray breaks character and calls Jarmusch “a dick”, but Murray’s disengagement throughout the film makes it tiring.
Detachment from the film’s events is common with most characters, with only Officer Mindy (Chloe Sevigny) displaying appropriate emotion to the encroaching zombie hordes and half-eaten bodies.
There are small bright spots of humour peeping through the slog. Jarmusch lands small visual gags, like Adam Driver unfolding himself from a smart car. The biggest laugh comes from a zombie Carol Kane rasping “chardonnay”. Jarmusch is at his best when mining simple pleasures, but ‘The Dead Don’t Die’ is a dead-end.
★★☆☆☆
