(2014)
***1/2
Zach’s girlfriend Beth tragically dies from a snakebite
while hiking in the woods. The funeral
is very sad, and Zach is having trouble coping with the change, especially
since his own family is too self-absorbed and ignorant as to how Zach is
suffering. He forms a friendship with
Beth’s parents, but then becomes befuddled when they suddenly shut him
out. Zach goes to investigate and finds
that Beth may not be dead after all.
Most of Romero’s zombie films aren’t about zombies. Life
About Beth follows this precedent, in that even though Zach’s girlfriend is
now a zombie, and other zombies pop up all over the town, this is not a movie
about zombies. This is about a fragile guy,
Zach, who’s having trouble getting over his girlfriend. He was passionately in love with her, and
this movie explores Zach’s tortured process of learning to let Beth go, and how
the return of zombie Beth makes letting go even tougher.
Zach’s struggle seems genuine, but his supporting cast of
weird family members are modern day updates from a John Hughes movie – one-dimensional exaggerations
of people that don’t support Zach. It
has a few darkly funny moments, but nothing hilarious. The actors are great, and the cast is
surprisingly well known: John C. Reilly, Anna Kendrick, Molly Shannon, Paul
Reiser, Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan. Worth
a look if you want a horror film that isn’t really a horror film.
5 comments:
Wow, that's quite a cast! Although I haven't seen Warm Bodies, this sounds like the same concept, but turned on its head.
Definitely similar to warm bodies, but with the zombie apocalypse put more in the background.
I really liked warm bodies, never heard of this one. Good find.
interesting, but prefer more zombies and less emo. the cast does sound great.
I saw a clip of this when Aubrey Plaza was on The Daily Show. It seemed like Silver Linings Playbood dysfunction levels and I wasn't sure if I was into it. But the trailers looked enticing. But of course they're supposed to.
My point: Nice review Trevor. I guess I was hoping you would save this for me but you couldn't.
Post a Comment