The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch, 2019)

[Shrew]

A hipster, deadpan war movie focused in the small delights of life does sound very interesting indeed

[Lost Highway]

I keep wondering why zombie movies HAVE to come with social or political subtexts or high concepts when it fail so often to live up to it. Why can't they simply be mindless horrific and/or funny entertainment ?

Most zombie movies don’t have an overt social or political subtext. My favourite zombie movie of the last few years, Train to Busan, is just an exciting genre exercise. Most of the zombie movies I mentioned earlier in the thread, aren’t terribly political.

[tenia]

I should have phrased it differently and got lost in translation : I wonder why some are still trying to make zombie movies with subtexts while the utmost majority fail to live up.
I did like Busan, though it felt a bit overlong.

[Lost Highway]

I should have phrased it differently and got lost in translation : I wonder why some are still trying to make zombie movies with subtexts while the utmost majority fail to live up.
I did like Busan, though it felt a bit overlong.

From the trailer and reviews it looks like Jarmush has made the type of zombie movie a non-genre auteur not that well versed in the genre and possibly feeling above it would make. Jarmush made an overfamiliar looking zombie comedy, thinking because Romero’s zombie movies reflected something about the politics of their era, he had to make a trite satire on Trump’s America. Because of the way Romero’s influential films have been interpreted, its become a bit of a cliche to think that all zombie movies have a strong political subtext.

[kubelkind]

Wonder if the "zombie-movies-with political-subtexts" genre starts not with Romero but with Jacques Tourneur's 1943 "I Walked With A Zombie", which can be easily read as a critique of colonialism. Looks like Bertrand Bonello's forthcoming "Zombi Child" may be more along those lines.

[Lost Highway]

Wonder if the "zombie-movies-with political-subtexts" genre starts not with Romero but with Jacques Tourneur's 1943 "I Walked With A Zombie", which can be easily read as a critique of colonialism. Looks like Bertrand Bonello's forthcoming "Zombi Child" may be more along those lines.

Beautiful as the film is, it wasn’t nearly as influential on the genre as the Romero films were (the Val Lewton approach in general was). The Romero zombie as a brain dead, man eating ghoul in whose wake comes the apocalypse is a distinctly different monster from the far more benign zombies of Haitian folklore which populated the screen before.

[BenoitRouilly]

an asshole farmer (Steve Buscemi sporting a “Make America White Again” hat

This description from the other review makes that sound a little better:

At the diner, Steve Buscemi shows up as a farmer in a cap that reads “Keep America White Again,” and the fact that he’s buddies with the guy seated next to him at the counter, played by Danny Glover, is one of Jarmusch’s feel-good corkscrew liberal jokes.

The scene continues, Buscemi when offered more coffee says "it's too black for me."
silence. He looks over at Glover and says "I meant this coffee is too strong for me", and leaves.
Glover says "take care Frank [Buscemi]"

I'm not a fan of the zombie genre. But this one is definitely an ironic zombie movie, full of references and attention drawn to its making...
I didn't understand why a reporter asked at the press conference whether Bill Murray read all the script. It is in fact a joke pulled from the film itself.

[Finch]

AA Dowd of the AV Club gives it a C.

For someone of Jarmusch's calibre, this is a dud. Fingers crossed he rebounds with the next one.

[solaris72]

Wonder if the "zombie-movies-with political-subtexts" genre starts not with Romero but with Jacques Tourneur's 1943 "I Walked With A Zombie", which can be easily read as a critique of colonialism. Looks like Bertrand Bonello's forthcoming "Zombi Child" may be more along those lines.

Tourneur's definitely qualifies, as does The Last Man on Earth if it counts (in any event, Romero cited it as an inspiration). One could even go as far back as Gance's J'Accuse (though the rising of the dead happens in a vision there).

Beautiful as the film is, it wasn’t nearly as influential on the genre as the Romero films were (the Val Lewton approach in general was). The Romero zombie as a brain dead, man eating ghoul in whose wake comes the apocalypse is a distinctly different monster from the far more benign zombies of Haitian folklore which populated the screen before.

True, if we're strictly tracking influence, nothing beats Romero's.

[kubelkind]

Yeah, I wasn't really thinking of influence or popularity, just the genesis of the idea of the zombie picture as a political allegory. Its been many years since I saw Night Of The Living Dead (which is something I need to rectify soon 'cos its great) but would I be correct in remembering that the word "zombie" is never mentioned in it?

[knives]

Correct. For Romero I believe it was only ever mentioned in Dawn.

[Murdoch]

A hipster, deadpan war movie focused in the small delights of life does sound very interesting indeed

Not to go off-topic but I really miss Hark! A Vagrant

[Finch]

Slant says the film is good for the first hour or so until it runs out of steam.

[Finch]

a half star out of four from Walter Chaw

Maybe the problem with The Dead Don't Die is that it's the first Jim Jarmusch film to feel elderly and shouty. It's the aging hippie ranting about how disengaged this new generation is, using modern examples in bad faith and tedious as a consequence almost immediately. It's the patronizing old guy who doesn't realize that everything he's saying was already said more eloquently by the very things he's attacking in his arch, superior way--the dude telling the woman about this book he's read and ignoring her constant protestations that she's the author of said book. Oh man, is it bad.

[Monterey Jack]

Correct. For Romero I believe it was only ever mentioned in Dawn.

Dennis Hopper has the line, "Zombies, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, they creep me out." in Land Of The Dead.

[mfunk9786]

a half star out of four from Walter Chaw

Maybe the problem with The Dead Don't Die is that it's the first Jim Jarmusch film to feel elderly and shouty. It's the aging hippie ranting about how disengaged this new generation is, using modern examples in bad faith and tedious as a consequence almost immediately. It's the patronizing old guy who doesn't realize that everything he's saying was already said more eloquently by the very things he's attacking in his arch, superior way--the dude telling the woman about this book he's read and ignoring her constant protestations that she's the author of said book. Oh man, is it bad.

Jarmusch wouldn't be the first boomer liberal with his brain broken by the news cycle since 2016, but it's very disappointing to hear that someone who made a film as gentle and human as Paterson followed it up with something like this. Especially when filmmakers like Spike Lee and Paul Schrader (among others) were stirred to do some of their best work.

[Murdoch]

This is not a good movie and by far the worst I've seen from Jarmusch. The script is embarrassingly lazy, relying on some tired running gags and at times the film does little more than show off its cast (e.g. the camera lingering twice on zombie Iggy Pop for no other reason than to say "Look, it's Iggy Pop!"). There are a few meta jokes about the film's script that feel pulled straight from a Mel Brooks movie and there's a lazy Trump reference thrown in for good measure. There's nothing particularly insightful or creative here, just a by-the-numbers zombie movie with a bloated cast and some bad jokes.

That said, I found myself enjoying it about halfway through once my expectations had sufficiently plunged. Then Jarmusch commenced his finger wagging at the end and my interest again dropped to zero.

[RIP Film]

Haven’t seen it, but based on reactions i’m beginning to wonder how meta this movie is. As if the all-star cast and dopey script/pacing, waiting for the laugh moments, is some sort of commentary on the state of entertainment... Watching celebrities screw around while the world burns. At the very least it sounds interesting even as a detour for Jarmusch, who i’m willing to give the benefit of a doubt until I see it for myself.

[Lost Highway]

Haven’t seen it, but based on reactions i’m beginning to wonder how meta this movie is. As if the all-star cast and dopey script/pacing, waiting for the laugh moments, is some sort of commentary on the state of entertainment... Watching celebrities screw around while the world burns. At the very least it sounds interesting even as a detour for Jarmusch, who i’m willing to give the benefit of a doubt until I see it for myself.

The criticisms of the film may not be valid because it’s flaws are on purpose due to some assumed meta aspect and everybody has been too dumb to understand that. Did I get that right ?

[RIP Film]

Haven’t seen it, but based on reactions i’m beginning to wonder how meta this movie is. As if the all-star cast and dopey script/pacing, waiting for the laugh moments, is some sort of commentary on the state of entertainment... Watching celebrities screw around while the world burns. At the very least it sounds interesting even as a detour for Jarmusch, who i’m willing to give the benefit of a doubt until I see it for myself.

The criticisms of the film may not be valid because it’s flaws are on purpose due to some assumed meta aspect and everybody has been too dumb to understand that. Did I get that right ?

I’ll let you know when I see it this weekend. Jarmusch doesn’t make bad movies in my experience, and I put no stock in modern film criticism whatsoever.

[Lost Highway]

Considering I thought Broken Flowers was one of the worst films I saw that year, we are not going to see eye to eye on that one.

[Murdoch]

I liked Broken Flowers well enough. I can't think of a Jarmusch movie besides this that I actively disliked actually. I would be interested in reading a defense of The Dead Don't Die since I think some aspects of it, like Driver's unwaiverable pessimism in the face of the apocalypse, were interesting. And I will say that audience I saw it with thought it was hysterical.

[DarkImbecile]

Matt Zoller Seitz' review on RogerEbert.com seems to counter many of the common negative criticisms. I'll be curious to see it with my expectations substantially lowered and a generally mixed-leaning-positive outlook on Jarmusch's filmography as a whole.

[Cde.]

The film is amusing at first, but more so for some stylistic tricks Jarmusch has learnt from Twin Peaks season 3. The jokes grow thin once Jarmusch repeats the few of them he has ad nauseum. The shrug that is this film's message is felt even in the laziness of its conception.

[Finch]

Jarmusch speaks to Vulture.

How and why was this such a difficult shoot?

It took us a very long time to finance it, and we never got the complete budget that we said the film would require. Focus Features were great to us. They gave us total autonomy in every way and totally trusted us, but they were not able to give us what we said the full budget would be. So we went over budget, and in the end, it was exactly the budget we said it would be. And we had very limited time due to the actors’ schedules and the weather. It rained every day. I’ve always tried to use limitations, to look at them as strengths. All the driving shots with people in car interiors are all on a stage — which makes it slightly artificial, which I like. I got walking pneumonia halfway through and had to keep shooting 15 hours a day with blankets and coats, and it was 95 [degrees], you know? I broke my toe; I had to keep working. It was like the Book of Job.

(...) the hat that Steve Buscemi’s character wears, which has a slogan, “Keep America White Again.” That’s a little out of my normal … I’m not really into being didactic. But at the same time, [by showing] this kind of racist sloganeering, we’re reflecting something that is concerning. I didn’t want to hide from it.

Jordan Cronk's positive review of the film at Reverse Shot