Movie Reviews
Film Review: We Are Zombies
At the beginning of 2019’s “Zombieland: Double Tap,” the film’s fourth-wall breaking narration strikes a tone that’s both wry and earnest: “You have a lot of choices when it comes to zombie entertainment,” it observes. It’s a comment that would seem positively bizarre just 20-odd years ago, before numerous artists in film, comics, television and more sought to resurrect their fond childhood memories of George A. Romero films, Italian horror rip-offs and gonzo splatter comedies, causing the zombie to become as much of a cultural mainstay as vampires, ghosts and werewolves.
Now that we’re well past the zombie revival phenomenon, we’ve entered a sort of post- post-modern phase when it comes to the living dead. It’s no longer novel to make a ribald zombie comedy, and the most predominant metaphors and allegories concerning the creature have been nearly done to death. Unless the zombie lays dormant for a while, there may not be much new to say about or with them.
Yet pushing the envelope in the arts and entertainment isn’t paramount; if it were, we wouldn’t have sequels and remakes and reboots and the like. What counts for a lot is sincerity, and that’s a quality that the film collective known as RKSS has in abundance. RKSS — Quebeckers individually known as François Simard, Anouk Whissell, and Yoann-Karl Whissell — first burst onto the scene with 2015’s “Turbo Kid,” a feature that showcased their geek culture bonafides as well as their penchant for combining the wholesome with the gruesome.
Their follow-up, “Summer of ’84,” took an impressive turn into genuinely dark territory, indicating that they may be adding some compelling maturity to their work going forward. Their first feature since then, “We Are Zombies,” pumps the brakes on that idea. But no matter; even though the film is, with its adult protagonists, ironically more juvenile than their first two films about children were, it’s still a charming zom-com romp.
Based on the comic series “The Zombies That Ate the World” by Jerry Frissen, “We Are Zombies” sees RKSS (who have jumped back on writing duties here for the first time since “Turbo Kid”) employ their clever economy when it comes to world building, explaining with just a short opening credits montage the idea that the dead have started coming back to life, but instead of turning into ravenous flesh-eating ghouls, they simply wander (or sit) around, taking up space.
They are, in effect, a new minority population, and although they’re given basic rights (including being referred to as the “Living Impaired”), humans are becoming perturbed by their growing numbers. To try and address that, officially licensed groups offering “retirement services” offer to take rotting loved ones off people’s hands. Seeing as how living corpses can fetch a good price on the black market, some enterprising people choose to hack into official systems and pose as retirement servicemen, and this is exactly what Freddy (Derek Johns), Karl (Alexandre Nachi), and Karl’s half-sister Maggie (Megan Peta Hill) do.
Unfortunately, this misfit trio finds their get-rich-quick grift beset on many sides, namely by the actual servicemen they’re stealing zombie pickups from: Stanley (Patrick Abellard) and Rocco (Marc-André Boulanger), who work for the Coleman corporation. Hannity (Benz Antoine), a former military man and current Coleman head honcho, refuses to pay Stanley and Rocco until they repay the company their debts, eventually leading the doofus duo to kidnap Karl and Maggie’s sweet old grandmother (Clare Coulter) as collateral until the black market trio can scrounge up some money.
In order to do that, Karl uses a connection to get a job from an avant-garde artist/musician (Stéphane Demers), who wants them to literally dig up a celebrity Living Impaired to have as his date. Meanwhile, Hannity is making waves at Coleman, insisting that the Living Impaired population is growing too large, and begins planning to unleash an experimental chemical which will turn the LI into ravenous zombies and lead to, he hopes, the elimination of all the undead.
The comic book origins of “We Are Zombies” are present in all of this world building, and it isn’t too hard to see how a series (be it comic, film, or TV) could be spun off from it. Yet RKSS aren’t so craven as to position the film as part one of several. Instead, the movie is firmly focused on being a Coen Brothers-esque caper, as our so-called heroes make as many mistakes as they have victories.
Unlike the work of the Coens, there isn’t a ton of satiric bite to be found here; the slacker-humor dialogue is only edgy if you’re still a teenager, and some of the script’s attempts to be politically incorrect feel more feeble than sharp. Still, the idea that zombies and humans are both highly foolish (with humans edging out zombies in stupidity) is potent enough to lend the film a nice undercurrent of misanthropy.
Where “We Are Zombies” really shines is in its display of RKSS’ mix of ribald humor, violence, and open-hearted charm. Many of the hallmarks of the directing trio’s work can be seen in the film: nerd culture being openly celebrated, a badass blonde girl (who’s verbally referred to as such), a penchant for set-ups and pay-offs, the slick cinematography of Jean-Philippe Bernier (as well as his synthwave music, along with Jean-Nicolas Leupi, under the name of Le Matos), and so on.
There aren’t any standout performances as with RKSS’ previous films, but the ensemble as a whole works really well together, especially when tasked with selling various romantic couplings that are a little half-baked (which the script comments on, to its credit). More than anything, the movie feels genuinely personal, an increasingly rare thing in a media landscape saturated with zombie entertainment: it’s no coincidence that Karl, Freddy and Maggie are essentially the three filmmakers’ alter egos. To paraphrase “Zombieland: Double Tap,” you have a lot of choices when it comes to new zombie movies, and if you choose “We Are Zombies,” you’re at least likely to have a good time.
Soundsphere Rating: Three and a Half Stars
Desert Warrior, 2026.
Directed by Rupert Wyatt.
Starring Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley, Ghassan Massoud, Sharlto Copley, Sami Bouajila, Lamis Ammar, Géza Röhrig, Numan Acar, Nabil Elouahabi, Hakeem Jomah, Ramsey Faragallah, Saïd Boumazoughe, and Soheil Bostani.
SYNOPSIS:
An honorable and mysterious rogue, known as Hanzala, makes himself an enemy of the Emperor Kisra after he helps a fugitive king and princess in the desert.
With aspirations of being a historical epic harkening back to the sword and sandal blockbusters of yesteryear, Rupert Wyatt’s seventeenth-century Arabia tale is about as generic and epically dull as one would expect from a film plainly titled Desert Warrior. Yes, there appear to be real locations here, and there are some admittedly sweeping shots of various tribes storming into battle on horseback and camels, but it’s all in service of a mess that is both miscast and questionable as the work of a filmmaking team of mostly white creatives.
The story of Emperor Kisraa (Ben Kingsley, a distracting presence even with only one or two scenes) rounding up women from other tribes to be his concubines, which inevitably became the catalyst for a revolution led by Princess Hind (Aiysha Hart), uniting all the divided clans and strategizing battle plans for flanking and poisoning, is undeniably ripe for cinematic treatment. The problem is that what’s here from Rupert Wyatt (and screenwriters Erica Beeney, Gary Ross, and David Self) is less than nothing in the primary creative process; no one seems to have a connection to Arabic heritage or culture, but they have made a flat-out boring film that is often narratively incoherent.
Following the death of her father and escaping the clutches of oppression, the honorable Princess Hind joins forces with a troubled, nameless bandit played by Anthony Mackie (he totally belongs here…), who seems to be here solely to give the movie some star power boost without running the risk of white savior accusations. Whatever the case may be, it’s jarring, but not quite as disorienting as how little screen time he has despite being billed as the lead and how little characterization he has. It is, however, equally disorienting as some of the other names that show up along the way.
As for the other factions, Princess Hind talks to them one by one, giving the film an adventure feel that fails to capitalize on using beautiful scenery in striking or visually poignant ways at almost every turn; the leaders of these tribes also often have no character. There also isn’t much of an understanding of why these tribes are at odds with one another. This movie is filled with dialogue that consistently and shockingly amounts to vague nothingness. Nevertheless, each tribe doesn’t take much convincing to begin with, meaning that not only is the film repetitive, but it’s also lifeless when characters are in conversation.
That Desert Warrior does occasionally spring to life, and a bloated 2+ running time is a small miracle. This is typically accomplished through the occasional fight scene between factions that also serves to demonstrate Princess Hind coming into her own as a warrior. When the tribes are united in a massive-scale battle, and that plan is unfolding step by step, one certainly sees why someone would want to tell this story and pull it off with such spectacle. However, this film is as dry as the desert itself.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
‘4’, the opening track on Richard D James’ (Aphex Twin) self titled 1996 album is a piece of music that beautifully balances the chaotic with the serene, the oppressive and the freeing. It’s a trick that James has pulled off multiple times throughout his career and it is a huge part of what makes him such an iconic and influential artist. Many people have laid the “next Aphex Twin” label on musicians who do things slightly different and when you actually hear their music you realise that, once again, the label is flawed and applied with a lazy attitude. Why mention this? Well, it turns out we’ve been looking for James’ heir apparent in the wrong artform. We’ve so zoned in on music that we’ve not noticed that another Celtic son of Cornwall is rewriting an art form with that highwire balancing act between chaos and beauty. That artist is writer, director and composer Mark Jenkin who over his last two feature films has announced himself as an idiosyncratic voice who is creating his very own language within the world of cinema. Jenkin’s films are often centred around coastal towns or islands and whilst they are experimental or even unsettling, there is always a big heart at the centre of the narrative. A heart that cares about family, tradition, culture, and the pull of ‘home’. Even during the horror of 2022’s brilliant Enys Men you were anchored by the vulnerability and determination of its main protagonist.
This month sees the release of Jenkin’s latest feature film, Rose of Nevada, which is set in a fractured and diminished Cornish coastal town. One day the fishing boat of the film’s title arrives back in harbour after being missing for thirty years. The boat is unoccupied. And frankly that is all the information you are going to get because to discuss any more plot would be unfair on you and disrespectful to Jenkin and the team behind the film. You the viewer should be the one who decides what it is about because thematically there are so many wonderful threads to pull on. This writer’s opinions on what it is about have ranged from a theme of sacrifice for the good of a community to the conflict within when part of you wants to run away from your roots whilst the other half longs to stay and be a lifelong part of its tapestry. Is it about Brexit? Could be. Is it about our own relationships with time and our curation of memory? Could be. Is it about both the positives and negatives of nostalgia? Could be. As a side note, anyone in their mid-40s, like me, who came of age in the 1990s will certainly find moments of warm recognition. Is the film about ghosts and how they haunt families? Could be…I think you get the point.
The elements that make the film so well balanced between chaos and calm are many. It is there in the differing performances between the brilliant two lead actors George MacKay and Callum Turner. It is there in the sound design which fluctuates from being unbearably harsh and metallic, to lulling and warm. It is there in the editing where short, sharp close ups on seemingly unimportant factors are counterbalanced with shots that are held for just that little bit too long. For a film set around the sea, it is apt that it can make you feel like you’re rolling on a stomach churning storm one minute, or a calming low tide the next. Dialogue can be front and centre or blurred and buried under static. One shot is bathed in harsh sunlight whilst the next can be drowned in interior shadows.
Rose of Nevada is Mark Jenkin’s most ambitious film to date yet he has not lost a single iota of innovation, singularity of vision or his gift for telling the most human of stories. It is a film that will tell you different things each time you see it and whilst there are moments that can confuse or beguile, there is so much empathy and love that it can leave you crying tears of emotional understanding. It is chaotic. It is beautiful. It is life……
Rose of Nevada is released on the 24th April.
Mark Jenkin Instagram | Threads
Released through the BFI – Instagram | Facebook
Review by Simon Tucker
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