It
is hard for a proud geek like Max to stick with his relationship with an intense
environmental activist like Evelyn. At least when she dies tragically young you
would expect her to do the green thing and decompose into compost.
Unfortunately, she will rise from her grave, reanimated by a nasty case of
supernatural codependency. Of all people, Max ought to be reasonably well
prepared for a relationship with a zombie, but she is just as jealous and
overbearing as she was in life. This leads to problems in Joe Dante’s Burying the Ex (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Max
works in a costume shop, chafing under his boss’s rule. He dreams of opening
his own shop, but Ashley is not one to encourage such foolishness. When he
agrees to cohabitate with her, Max finally realizes what an insufferable piece
of work she is. He is even ready to break-up with her, but a city bus does the
dirty work for him—permanently, or so he thinks. Thanks to a satanic idol and
Evelyn’s intense commitment, she claws her way out of the ground, expecting to
pick up where they left off.
Of
course, this is awkward for Max. After all, she is kind of pale-looking and
just generally creepy to be around. To be fair, he moped over her for a long
time, but he only just started pursuing a new, healthier relationship with Olivia,
a fellow geek malt shop owner. Right, Evelyn probably won’t like that.
This
is a Joe Dante film, which means Dick Miller is in the house. Happily, he is
still doing his thing and stealing his scene when he pops up late in the third
act as an incredibly unhelpful policeman. Of course, we know he will be money.
Essentially, Anton Yelchin falls back the same dweebish nice guy shtick he used
in films like Odd Thomas, 5 to 7, and
Broken Horses (listed in declining
order of entertainment value), but it works relatively well in the context of Ex. In fact, he develops some believably
appealing cult-movie loving chemistry with Alexandra Daddario. Dead or alive, a
little of Twilight’s Ashely Greene’s
Evelyn goes on long way, but she certainly helps the audience feel for poor
Max.
Compared
to Dante’s best work, Ex looks somewhat
restrained. However, his many nods to geek culture (including Fruit Brute
cereal, Hollywood Forever cemetery screenings, a Val Lewton double feature at
the New Bev, and generous helpings of Ed Wood’s Plan 9) are a lot of fun. Although not nearly as richly executed, Ex could be a nice lite beer chaser to
Dante’s true classic Matinee.
