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 The comedy marked the opening salvo of the Cannes Film Festival,
where it will compete for the top Palme D'Or prize alongside the
latest offerings from Quentin Tarantino and Pedro Almodovar as
well as a clutch of movies by newcomer, young directors.
Set in a non-descript small town where the inhabitants start
succumbing to a zombie apocalypse, "The Dead Don't Die" takes
aim at climate change deniers, U.S. politics and a
materialistic, smartphone-addicted world all at once.
Bill Murray, a long-time collaborator of the "Broken Flowers"
filmmaker, Adam Driver and Chloe Sevigny star as cops fighting
off the growing army of undead, with pop star Selena Gomez and
actress Tilda Swinton also among the stellar line-up.
A darling of U.S. art house filmmaking and a Cannes veteran,
Jarmusch nonetheless came up against the French festival's tough
crowd, drawing a mixed bag of reviews with some lamenting a
sluggish pace despite some spot-on jokes.
Laden with witty film references - including nods to George
Romero's cult 1968 zombie-fest "Night Of The Living Dead" - the
film plays with the artifice of movie-making, with self-aware
moments where actors discuss its plotline.
Some critics took issue with the more self-indulgent moments,
however.
"Jarmusch's movie is in danger of succumbing to a zombie-ism of
its own: a narcotic torpor of self-aware coolness," the
Guardian's Peter Bradshaw wrote, describing the film as a "droll
if directionless riff."
Others said Jarmusch had done little to refresh a much-exploited
genre, even if gags like Iggy Pop's coffee-guzzling zombie and a
horde of undead stalking the streets in search of a Wi-Fi
connection raised chuckles.
"The problem with the opening film at Cannes is that you expect
something really special," Marta Balaga, a critic at movie news
agency Cineuropa, told Reuters. "People were laughing at moments
and people wanted to love it."
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TAKING AIM AT TRUMP'S AMERICA
With the undead clawing their way out of their graves when excess
fracking causes the world to turn off kilter, "The Dead Don't Die"
needles climate change deniers, but also takes a swipe at an
apathetic society unable to get its act together.
Its well-meaning cops display little by way of a game-plan
throughout to combat the increasingly hairy zombie invasion.
In more pointed moments, it takes direct aim at U.S. President
Donald Trump. Steve Buscemi - playing an inhabitant of fictional
Centerville determined to keep trespassers at bay - dons a "Keep
America White Again" cap, echoing Trump's "Make America Great Again"
campaign motto.
The film takes its place in a 72nd Cannes movie selection described
by festival organizers as both "political and romantic".
Earlier on Tuesday, Cannes jury president Alejando Gonzalez Inarritu
of Mexico - the first Latin American film director to head up the
panel - criticized Trump's plans for a Mexican border wall,
describing it as "dangerous" and "cruel".
"These guys are ruling with rage and anger and lies and writing
fiction and making people believe those are really things and
facts," Inarritu told a news conference, referring to Trump's
immigration policies.
(Additional reporting by Hanna Rantala; Editing by Tom Brown)
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