The Dead Don't Die

Year:  2019
Director:  Jim Jarmusch
Screenplay:  Jim Jarmusch
Starring:  Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Chloë Sevigny, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Danny Glover, Caleb Landry Jones, Selena Gomez, RZA, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits
Running Time:  103 minutes
Genre:  Horror, comedy

The small American town of Centerville is experiencing a series of bizarre events:  It gets dark either far too late or far too early for the time of year, animals are behaving out of character or disappearing, and electronic equipment is behaving very erratically.  Things get much worse when the dead start to come out of the grave and feast on the flesh of the living. 

This marks the second time that acclaimed indie director Jim Jarmusch has entered horror territory, following acclaimed vampire movie Only Lovers Left Alive (2013).  This did not get the same positive reception on it's release.  The humour is very deadpan, police officers Bill Murray and Adam Driver seem to sleepwalk throughout the entire film even before the zombies appear, and is full of bizarre touches, such as Tilda Swinton as an eccentric, samurai sword wielding Scottish mortician (with a frankly extraordinary accent), and Murray and Driver's characters seem to be aware that they are characters in a film, and the film's theme song becomes a recurring in-joke throughout the film.  It's also full of references to other horror films.  This isn't really scary at all, and at times it is too self-consciously cool for it's own good, and the characters are too "hip" and quirky to really feel realistic.  it also hammers home it's political message a little too bluntly at times.  Personally though, I did find it consistently funny.  The zombies themselves are effectively designed, "bleeding" clouds of black ash, and drawn to the things that they loved when they were alive.  It boasts an impressive cast, who all seem to be having fun.

Bill Murray, Chloë Sevigny and Adam Driver face off against zombies in The Dead Don't Die

Get Out

Year of Release:  2017

Director:  Jordan Peele

Screenplay:  Jordan Peele 

Starring:  Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, LaKeith Stanfield, Lil Rey Howry, 

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Horror, thriller

This is possibly one of the most important horror films of the last thirty years.  Chris (Kaluuya) is a photographer who has a good relationship with his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Williams).  However, Chris is about to head up to the suburbs to meet Rose's parents for the first time, and is worried that she hasn't told them that he is black.  Rose's parents, Dean (Whitford) and Missy (Keener), seem pleasant enough, if a little too eager to prove that they are open-minded liberals, but Chris can't help but detect undercurrents of hostility.  To make things even more uncomfortable, the only people of colour around are the family's servants, Walter (Marcus Henderson) and Georgina (Betty Gabriel).  Are the Armitages clueless and insensitive, but essentially well-meaning?  Are they closet racists?  Are is there something stranger and even more sinister going on?

The film sets up a situation that is awkward enough, and all too relateable to many of us, that of meeting our significant other's parents and family for the first time.  To make matters more complex they are a mixed race couple.  Chris puts up with a lot of low-level awkwardness right form the start, which may just be well-meaning white liberals who don't really mean any harm, or could be much worse.  with every interaction you can see him having to decode the hidden subtexts.  However this is a horror film, and writer/director Jordan Peele (one half of comedy duo Key and Peele) obviously knows his horror onions, and the horror/thriller elements work well, particularly in the final third, where the horror elements really kick off, even if the satirical elements don't always gel as well. Horror films have always taken on the preoccupations and fears of the time and place that they were made, but racial issues have been noticeable by their absence.  This is a film of it's time and is important viewing.

  

Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out

        

X-Men: First Class

Year: 2011
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Screenplay: Ashley Edward Miller, Jack Stentz, Jane Goldman and Matthew Vaughn, from a story by Sheldon Turner and Bryan Singer, based on characters created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Chris Claremont
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Oliver Platt, Kevin Bacon
Running Time: 132 minutes
Genre: Science-fiction, superhero, action

Summary: Poland, 1944: Young Eric Lensherr (Bill Milner) is put in a concentration camp and, being forcibly sperated from his mother, Eric's pain, rage and fear cause the metal gates to buckle and distend. The event is witnessed by Nazi scientist Dr. Schmidt who tries to force Eric to demonstrate his powers, however when Eric is unable to Schmidt forces him to watch as he kills his mother, which triggers a devestating display of Eric's power.
New York, 1944: Young Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) is fully comfortable with his telepathic abilities. One night he meets a young shapeshifter named Raven (Morgan Lily), who in her natural form is a blue-skinned girl with golden eyes, stealing food from the kitchens. Charles befriends her.
1962: Eric (Fassbender) travels the globe, using his power to manipulate metal objects in his search to find and kill Schmidt.
Charles (McAvoy), studying at Oxford University, achieves success with his thesis on mutation, while Raven (Lawrence), who is now his foster sister, is working as a waitress.
CIA agent Moira McTaggart (Byrne) discovers that Sebastian Shaw (Bacon) is the leader of a team of mutants and is playing both the USA and the USSR against each other in his plan for domination. She approaches Charles and Raven who join the CIA's covert mutant operation along with Eric who has discovered that Shaw is in fact Schmidt. Soon Eric and Charles are recruiting mutants for their own team to combat Shaw's. However, Eric becomes increasingly resentful of the fact that they are helping a world that both hates and fears them.

Opinions: This is the fifth feature film based on the X-Men comic books. It's a prequel to the other films and showcases how the X-Men came to be as well as the souring of the initial frienship between Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) and Eric Lensherr (aka Magneto). Magneto was always one of the most interesting "villains" in comics because it's hard not to feel sympathy for him and his motivations. A survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, he sees history repeating itself in humanity's attitudes towards mutants. Michael Fassbender gives a superb performance as the complex and tormented Lensherr.
As Charles Xavier, James McAvoy has a less interesting character to work with. He is perfectly comfortable and in control of his ability right from the start and his main character development is showing him turning from a feckless and egotistical student to become a more responsible, if still somewhat egotistical, leader.
The rest of the large cast doesn't really have much of a chance to shine, and the message of racial tolerence and prejudice is hammered home quite heavily, even though the film's only two black characters in one case is killed after about five minutes of screentime and is never mentioned again, and in the other case almost immediately swops sides to join the villains.
Despite this the film is hugely entertaining and benefits from a complex plotline that puts a fantasy spin on real world recent history. The special effects are spectacular and director Matthew Vaughn keeps the action moving along well despite the daunting two hour plus run time.
While falling short of being a great film, this is still a very good one and should provide plenty to interest and entertain non-comic fans. Also the fact that this film in the first in a proposed trilogy makes for a very enticing prospect.
Fans will probably notice Hugh Jackman appearing in a brief cameo as Wolverine.



Caleb Landry Jones, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Nicholas Hoult, James McAvoy and Lucas Till in X-Men: First Class