Livelihood
They're dead, but they're not taking it lying down.
In 1988, things weren’t going too well for glam-rocker Billy Jump (Steve Thomas). After falling out with his bandmates he locked himself in his dressing room and embarked on a drink and drug fuelled night of excess, ultimately electrocuting himself with his own guitar.
Jumping forward to the present, corporate zombie, Alexander (Scott Graham) dreams of the perfect life, so much so that he is unable to recognise just how far his reality is from the ideal. His wife hates him, his boss despises him and – while stuck in the office late one night – he finds himself making a sharp exit from the land of the living.
And finally we meet Vida (Michelle Trout), the mother-in-law from hell who manages not only to make life miserable for her daughter in law, Jean (Amy Smith) but also to keep Roger (Lewis Smith) – her son – from achieving anything. Eventually Jean takes matters into her own hands and Vida’s days, too, are numbered.
Then the dead start rising from their graves. But these aren’t your usual zombies and they aren’t hungry for either human flesh or brains. For the most part, these bewildered individuals attempt to return to their homes and their former lives. With Billy, Alexander and Vida we have three stories to carry us through to the end of the film. And what a film it is.
Although listed as a horror/comedy, this film is very much a comedy which happens to have zombies in it. It’s peppered with jokes – both visual and verbal – many of which are laugh out loud funny. But the film is much more than just a collection of jokes. Not only is both the plotting and characterisation is very strong indeed but the acting is also very solid throughout and really does bring these characters to life – or unlife, as the case may be.
Billy, the deadest of our dead heroes – and the most obviously decomposed – sees his unlife as an opportunity to resurrect his career and achieve the musical credibility that previously eluded him. However, in setting out to reform his band he discovers that not only has the world changed, but so have the people he once knew.
Forced to speak in the glammiest of glam falsettos just to make himself understood, Billy is a great character. He’s not always the most sympathetic character as he rediscovers both the world and starts trying to track down his his former bandmates, but you do get a very real sense of who he is and where he is coming from. There is a rich seam of comedy gold in these parts of the film that is thoroughly mined and growing likeability of the characters is such that when they do finally get on stage, you find yourself both cheering for them and laughing at the sheer absurdity of a zombie rock band.
Meanwhile Alexander, thoroughly rejected by his wife, tries to return to his old job only to discover that he has been replaced by a computer program.
Alexander’s story is probably the strongest of the three as he struggles to cope with a menial job, no home and starts to face up to just how awful his former life was. He becomes a genuinely sympathetic character and, as the film progresses, I really did find myself rooting for him.
Vida’s story is probably the weakest of the three. This is not to say that it doesn’t have it’s moments, and there are some very funny scenes here – especially when Roger leaves for a business trip. The problem is that the other two thirds of the film set the bar so high that this tale of warring women feels a little too reliant on caricature and gross-out humour.
Livelihood is the most original zombie film I’ve seen in a long time. Acknowledging, but then ignoring, pretty much all of the stereotypes that have come to define this genre, this film delivers a set of very funny stories about some very well rounded and genuinely interesting characters.
The fact that the film also manages to incorporate several very funny digs at consumerism, commercialism, exploitation and racism is a very definite bonus.
0 comments Tuesday 29 Apr 2008 | Paul Pritchard | Comedy, Horror
