Showing @ Cineworld, Edinburgh, Thu 26 Jun & Filmhouse, Edinburgh, Fri 27 Jun
Jeff Baena / USA / 2014 / 91 mins
Recent years have seen a trend for love stories involving zombies, werewolves and vampires. Audiences of a certain age will credit the rebirth of the genre to Joss Whedon’s seminal Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sadly its successors have too often been watered-down remixes, but writer-director Jeff Baena’s follow-up to his script for I Heart Huckabees has stepped into the gap, demonstrating that it’s still possible to make a supernatural romance with intelligence and humour, as well as genuine sensitivity and fully developed characters.
Zach’s (Dane DeHaan) girlfriend Beth (Parks and Recreation’s Aubrey Plaza in the role she was surely born to play) has just died as the film begins. But it’s not long before she reappears, initially seeming almost as good as new. But the heart is a good liar, and when Beth’s resurrection turns out to herald a larger zombie apocalypse, Zach must learn to let go.
With a fresh and inventive story, a punchy script full of laugh-out-loud moments, an evocative original score from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and a supporting cast including Cheryl Hines, Molly Shannon, Paul Reiser and John C. Reilly as the young couple’s parents, Life After Beth seems destined for success. Indeed, the press screening is enough to wake even festival-jaded journalists from the dead, and you really can’t say fairer than that.