4/5 Stars
Plot: “The uneventful, aimless lives of a London electronics salesperson and his layabout roommate are disrupted by the zombie apocalypse.” -IMDB
Review: Perhaps you are a lot like me. You scroll through your favorite streaming service or take a chance on a new release playing at your local cineplex. You just want to laugh, get lost for a few hours, and relish someone else’s misfortune. When the credits roll, you find yourself disappointed. The movie was over-hyped, the funniest bits were all in the trailer, crude humor stands in for anything intelligent, and/or some combination of all three.
Hollywood, and the film industry, has a comedy problem. Rightfully so, there has been a public reckoning. For the first time in human history, marginalized groups, who often serve as punching bags at the hands of filmmakers, have a vehicle for their frustrations. Social media and blogs burn with demands for political correctness, seats at the table, and calls to pick on something else beyond the traditional lowest hanging fruit. In this wake, filmmakers have not been able to adjust. What was once funny has found a home on your television screen as scripted shows and left the theater barren.
Desperately in need of a good laugh and a reminder of the industry’s ability to create smart, adult comedies, I turned my attention to the Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg, British comedy, Shaun of the Dead. In less than two hours, they restored my faith.
On its face, this film is a traditional zombie story. People become ill and begin changing. They develop a taste for the flesh and blood of the living, and we turn our attention to a group of survivors. Reading the plotline, this film seems basic and uninteresting, but in the talented hands of director Edgar Wright it becomes something more.
Instead of skilled fighters and survivors, they place the fate of everyone we meet in this story in the less than capable hands of a man who is the very definition of mediocrity and his lazy friend. Instead of bravely being called to action, our heroes spend the opening scenes oblivious to the existence of zombies. Consumed by their own problems, the world is falling apart around them. This is the first great comedic choice in this film.
The second is the usage of the camera. What if, instead of a comedic direction that leaves the audience uninspired, what if the camera was also a prop, the frame was a sandbox, and the audience can take part? Can a zombie movie be a comedy film, and can the mashup deliver inspiring results? Here, the answer is a resounding yes.
Coupled with everything listed above, this film also uses sharp dialogue like a prizefighter. As we watch our main characters rise above their self-absorption to meet the moment, I laughed more than I expected or remember the first time I watched this movie. Those laughs also serve as a down payment on the film's more heartfelt moments. As selfishness morphs into saviorism, I found myself near tears and praying for an outcome I had no doubts would arrive.
In the end, this film made me miss the great comedic films of the past. Unlike those films from my youth, this film never punches down. It throws blows at the genre, comedy films and the audience conditioned by them, but never at anyone who does not deserve it.
Be good to each other,
Nathan
