The Dead Don't Die (2019)

Jim Jarmusch's latest is a zombie movie unlike any other. It's not a horror movie. It's a comedy, an unconventional one at that. It breaks the fourth wall. It has a huge cast of familiar Jarmusch faces in bit parts. The humor is kind of awkward, off kilter. Bill Murray and Adam Driver are perfect for the dry, slow-paced, often deadpan jokes. I'm starting to like Adam Driver more in his comedic work. There are a lot of seemingly irrelevant characters. Surely there is something Jarmusch is trying to say about the outcasts of Centerville, a small American town (village?) with a cast of lonely characters. I'm not quite sure what. The movie takes a wonky turn at the end. It wouldn't have been how I ended it, but I'm not entirely unsatisfied cause it's appropriately bonkers.

The Florida Project (2017)

The Florida Project is a touching story about the innocence of childhood. The kids are highly entertaining as they just try to be kids. They're authentic and honest. Willem Dafoe acts as a father figure to young Moonee as well as to her mother Haley. He protects these kids. The movie is empathetic towards this little seen population living adjacent to the happiest place on Earth. The juxtaposition of their poverty and the riches of Disney World and its millions of annual visitors that never see this nearby population is devastating. These kids manage to entertain themselves in the shadow of kid wonderland. The brilliance of this movie is its perspective. The audience sees from the perspective of young Moonee. She cannot comprehend everything around her. But we can make a pretty good guess. The director need not spell everything out as you would for a 6-year-old. And the purple! It is beautifully filmed on film. Save for the final scene filmed on iPhone without Disney's permission. That's real filmmaking.

Get Out (2017)

Jordan Peele, in his first solo project post-Key and Peele, holds up a mirror to liberal, middle class, suburban white society. Many reviewers have praised the film for capturing the modern zeitgeist of today, but they miss the point. And that is this: sixty years ago, Martin Luther King was saying the same thing (that the problem was and is moderate whites), and still the same holds true in 2017. Liberals may pat themselves on the back for electing Obama, but how much progress have we really made? Peele is simultaneously funny, scary, stylish, entertaining, clever and incisive. He astutely recognizes that horror is the perfect genre to represent the African-American experience. I don't typically watch horror movies, but this one is worth it.