The Pitch:
There aren't enough zombie love stories.
Zombie comedies are nearly as prevalent as serious
zombie movies at this point. This is the Sundance take on the subgenre. I often
talk about what the typical Sundance movie looks like (drama movie with comedy
stars, coming of age, fairly bleak). That's really the definition of a
specific, prevalent kind of Sundance movie. There's also the Sundance movie
that's a comedy, normally with an edge, that's an excuse for a bunch of comedy
actors who all have the same friends to make something that won't get noted to
death by a studio. That's what Life After Beth is.
I appreciate the slow build to the bigger
punchlines. It starts as an off-kilter drama before revealing the
"alive" Beth. Aubrey Plaza is able to disguise her sarcasm as
sincerity, which makes the performance funny in an uncomfortable way. By the
end, she finally gets to go as big as possible. I like how the movie goes to
the mundane for laughs, and I got a real kick out of the scene when Dane
DeHaan's character realizes he's stereotyping by assuming the Haitian maid
caused this to happen. I love the cast, pretty much from top to bottom. If
Plaza and Anna Kendrick just want to keep getting each other jobs in each
other's movies, I'm fine with that. John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon have a lot
of fun rationalizing the return of their daughter.
The big problem with the movie is that it never
quite justifies why it needed to be more than a Funny or Die sketch.
Other than the occasional good bit (like a dead Beth falling from the cliff
with an oven strapped to her), the latter half of the movie has trouble finding
new jokes to make. Dane DeHaan is probably not the right lead for this. He's a
little too intense. When things move to the absurd, he has trouble moving along
with it. And he's not really being the straight man either. I'd much rather see
someone like a Thomas Middleditch in the role.
Verdict: Weakly Recommend
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