The Dead Don't Die (2019) **

 

At this point, we've had every kind of zombie movie imaginable: slow zombies, fast zombies, zombies that are truly dead, zombies that are actually living, zombie romance, sympathetic zombies, and definitely plenty of zombie comedies. I'm not sure we needed another zombie movie, let alone a comedy, but we got one, courtesy of writer/director Jim Jarmusch ("Down By Law").

The film follows a couple of small-town cops (Bill Murray and Adam Driver) on the day of a zombie apocalypse. Is it good? I'm reminded of a Beavis and Butthead scene where Beavis turns to Butthead during a music video and asks, “Is this good?” Butthead thinks for a second and replies, “Well, it's loud.” With “The Dead Don't Die,” Jarmusch assembles an amazing A-list cast that, in addition to Murray and Driver, includes Chloe Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Tilda Swinton, Tom Waits, Danny Glover, Iggy Pop, and more recognizable names than I care to list. So much talent, in service of such an inconsequential film. This is the second zombie comedy I am aware of Bill Murray being in, and this one is not nearly as entertaining as "Zombieland."  The film has funny moments, but quite often what we get is cleverness masquerading as humor. Still, it's good the movie is at least somewhat funny, as the nihilistic plot fails to make us care about any of the characters or their fates.

I'm not even sure why Jim Jarmusch made the film. He admits in an interview that he doesn't like zombie movies. Maybe zombies are simply so popular that he felt compelled to make his contribution to a genre that just keeps coming back around. One thing we have learned from zombie stories is that you have to kill the head. If you kill the head, you kill the zombie. What Jim Jarmusch teaches us here is that, when it comes to the zombie genre itself, even if you remove the brains and the heart, it refuses to die.

2 stars out of 5

Let's Start A Cult (2024) ***1/2

 

Cults seem to be having a moment. Netflix is full of documentaries about this or that cult, and depending on how you look at it, some would say that cultish thinking has gone mainstream.

In “Let's Start a Cult,” Stavros Halkias plays Chip, a schlubby incompetent so despised by the other members of the cult he is in that they all decide to exclude him when they commit ritual suicide. Despondent over missing the big event, Chip tries to fit back into regular life, but after the certainty and meaning of cult life, regular family life and a regular job just don't cut it for Chip. With a partner, he sets about trying to form his own cult.

Written by Halkias and Wes Haney, who star, and Ben Kitnick, who directs, the film started out as a short. It was a fun project by 3 friends, who then fleshed it out into a feature film on a shoestring budget. The movie manages to take the serious subject of suicide cults and make it funny while actually touching on some realistic points about cults. Chip is impatient to get to the part where they all “cross over” together, but his mentor (Haney) walks him through the steps. First, they find vulnerable, broken people. Then they feed those people's egos and give them the sense of family that they have been missing. Only then can they start introducing the supernatural beliefs that will define the cult.

We seem to have a need for a fat comedian in pop culture. I guess everything is just inherently funnier when a fat person is doing it. We once had Seth Rogen, but then he lost weight, so we had Jonah Hill, who then went on to trim down himself. Right now, we are lucky enough to have the delightful Harvey Guillen (from the “What We Do In the Shadows” TV show), but, you know, he could go on diet any day. Fortunately, we have Stavros Halkias waiting in the wings!

3.5 stars out of 5