The Dead Don't Die surprised audiences the wrong way in 2019, delivering a bone-dry art movie instead of the star-studded horror comedy people expected. Director Jim Jarmusch's film faced criticism five years ago but is now a streaming hit on Max, defying expectations. The movie serves as an allegory for apathy in the face of impending realities like climate catastrophe. The zombie comedy is the furthest thing you can imagine from something like Zombieland, but is great in its own weird way.

It's been five years since one of the most acclaimed American directors released a film, perhaps because it was an anomaly in his career and one of his worst-reviewed movies. That would be Jim Jarmusch with the 2019 film, The Dead Don't Die. The movie stands out from most of Jarmusch's work as a slightly bigger project with special effects and $3 million of marketing, not to mention its young megastars like Selena Gomez,...