AFI Dallas movie review: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead

by Mike Orren

Like many who've written about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead on the InterWebs, I was originally drawn to it by the title alone, an obvious riff on Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. I caught the film last night in a sold-out AMC Northpark house at the AFI Dallas International Film Festival. (The film screens again on Sunday at The Magnolia, with only rush line seats available.)

The film follows the (mis)adventures of Julian (Jake Hoffman), an out-of-work film director who lives in a back room of his father's doctors office, but who still manages to bring home a different beautiful woman every night -- so we're clearly in the fantasy genre. He tries to hide his nocturnal activity from ex-girlfriend, Anna (Devon Aoki), for whom he still carries a torch even as he can't admit aloud that he loves her.

Julian's father finds him a gig directing a variation on Hamlet for a sexy, iconoclastic Romanian impresario named Theo Horace (John Ventimiglia, unrecognizable to those who know him best as The Sopranos Artie Bucco). Theo, who also plays Horatio in the play, turns out to be a real master vampire who has been trying for millennia -- via playwrights like Shakespeare, W.S. Gilbert, and Stoppard -- to draw out the real Hamlet, once his apprentice, into a final confrontation. (Hamlet had cured his vampirism by drinking from the Holy Grail so that he could kill Theo in revenge for Ophelia's suicide in avoidance of being turned into a vampire by Theo.) This new play, written by Theo, lays out the whole story, but requires a human director to introduce it. Of course, Julian doesn't realize what he's gotten himself into until he's brought Anna and his best pal Vince (Kris Lemche) into the cast and seen a lot of real bloodshed. Oh, and there's some sort of mysterious Rosacrucean society sticking their noses into the whole thing because they'd like to get their fingers on the Holy Grail.

I realize this all sounds pretty far down the rabbit hole, as you're occasionally looking at a play-within-a-play-within-a-play-within-a-movie. But Undead isn't complex or highly referential to Shakespeare like Stoppard's play. You can easily enjoy it if you've long forgotten your high school Cliffs Notes and never read Stoppard. Conversely, if you're expecting wordplay and philosophy akin to Stoppard, you'll be disappointed. This isn't slapstick, but it is a reworking of elements of a lot of formula films.

So while the film isn't referential to its source material, it is indeed very referential-- intentionally so. It's not like it is an homage to any one film, but writer/director Jordan Galland's influences are as obvious as a vampire's fangs at feeding time. Julian and Vince's relationship reminds me of Swingers. The knowing winks to conventions of theater and acting mixed with a play-within-a-movie cast largely made of nonactors (and terrible actors) hearken to Waiting for Guffman. Ralph Macchio's turn as a Billy Mays pitchman-cum-mobster has shades of The Freshman and, appropriately, My Cousin Vinnie. As Julian wheels an incapacitated hypochondriac Sikh patient of his father's through a chase scene, you'll catch a flash of Weekend at Bernie's. And the whole film permeates myriad conventions of 1980's comedy-adventures, which makes it feel comfortingly familiar, despite its far-out storyline.

For a low-budget indie film there's a lot of pedigree and a lot to like. Galland is an award-winning music video and shorts director; his pal Sean Lennon chipped in the score; Jake Hoffman is Dustin Hoffman's son. Bijou Phillips appears in a spot-on uncredited cameo. This may be a young group, but there's clearly immense talent on display.

Hoffman is likable and believable in the role of a young director adrift and struggling to find something (or someone) to really care about. Ventimiglia's vampire manages to be lusty, menacing and hilarious -- often all in the same moment. The titular R&G hit their notes as a perfectly awful pair; one a wannabe highbrow thespian, the other playing Shakespeare as filtered through Dude, Where's My Car?.

There's a poor man's Terry Gilliam sequence (illustrated by the director himself) that does a clever and funny job of providing a lot of the exposition midway through the film. Intermediate title screens with plays on words that echo the title and a title sequence reminiscent of late 70's comedy-mystery romps like Murder by Death help maintain the aura of fun.

Special effects are low-budget without being distractingly so -- if anything, it was a reminder of what a crutch effects have come to be these days. The movie was shot on the RED digital camera, looking as visually polished as any studio effort. And from top to bottom, there's a palpable air that the cast is having a blast making the film (something confirmed in the post-film Q&A).

That's not to say that Undead is faultless. Beyond the couple main characters, everyone's pretty one-dimensional. And there are several characters that, although amusing, seem extraneous and thrown in with the kitchen sink. Sure, the hypochondriac Sikh is funny, but he feels like part of a different movie. (This may be partially due to budget constraints, as I would have found him more believable if Julian's dad ever had even one other patient in his waiting room.) A pair of cops, one of whom is played by Jeremy Sisto, pick up the most Stoppard-esque dialog in yet another R&G riff, but feel tacked-on too. There are a few moments late in the film where it feels like rules are getting added to the world of the film on the fly in order to tie things together. The resolution, which takes place around the performance of the play-within-a-movie has an appropriately manic pace, but is rushed to the point of confusion, finally needing one character to double back and announce "Yes -- We're doing X which makes Y happen to you just like you did Y to others." (Sorry to be obtuse, but it's hard to talk about the ending without spoilers.)

But these are small problems with a movie this clever and fun. Galland and company have put together one of the more enjoyable comedies I've seen in the last couple years, one that hints at great things to come.