Culture Blues

Film: Zombieland

If, in 2003, you watched Spike TV's The Joe Schmo Show and marveled at the evident brilliance of the people behind this meta-reality show, as well as their ability to simultaneously participate in and expertly subvert a genre, then the arrival of Zombieland is cause for jubilation. Written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, the creators of that seminal TV show, this is a movie that successfully taps into comedy, horror, drama and action with no facet feeling like an afterthought.

Zombieland will be of special interest to people who have grown up with all the conventions of zombie tales entrenched in their psyche. People who are beyond being scared by a simple zombie outbreak and are more interested in how they would fare, and who they would become, in the event of a full on zombie apocalypse.

The story follows four very different survivors as they traverse the newly minted wasteland. Jesse Eisenberg (The Squid and the Whale) is in full Michael Cera mode as the socially maladjusted narrator who has had a surprisingly easy time transitioning to life in zombieland. To be fair to Eisenberg, he was mining Michael Cera territory before Cera became a star on Arrested Development. Emma Stone (Superbad), as the object of his affection, will make you believe that a man could be happy with only one girl left in the world. Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) displays dramatic and comedic acting abilities well beyond her thirteen years. And Woody Harrelson (you know) shines as the confident and violent Tallahassee, who is a much more well rounded character than you would expect from the promotion. The actors all create fully realized, impossible not to like characters.

Much of the comedy is derived from how these characters react to extraordinary situations. But they’d be able to get laughs even in more mundane circumstances, much like Shaun of the Dead. Zombieland scores all over the place with humorous sight gags, montages, and extremely sharp, perfectly delivered dialogue. Everything is precise and well planned, and it results in an absolutely pitch perfect sense of humor.

First time director Ruben Fleischer knocks one out of the park with Zombieland. It consistently surprises in big and little ways with the places it goes and the places it doesn't go. Visually, it's a beautiful movie able to make a world abandoned by humans and filled with chaos appealing. Herein lies Zombieland's greatest trick. Conveying the sense that there is a great deal of comfort in the isolation and nihilism that surviving a zombie apocalypse affords you. But it isn't much fun if you don't have people to share it with.