You might think it's crazy to be stuck buying a barebones new release DVD of one of 2020's best films. 720x480, still, in the age of 3840x2160? Madness! Well, let me reassure you, dear reader, this is no DVD... it's a DVD-R! That's right, one of those
M.O.D. video discs that's not even allowed to use the traditional DVD logo on its packaging. Whomp, whomp. But, yes, alright. Something's still better than nothing. I'm taking it.
She Dies Tomorrow is a literal must-have film; and considering how many other new films are simply being planted in various streaming service's walled gardens and left to rot these days, I guess I am still grateful to have an official, packaged release for my shelf, even if it is in SD. I mean, it isn't like we're not still stuck with even worse editions of our other favorites.
If you're not familiar with this one, though, and you're reading me
saying things like "one of 2020's best films," "literal must-have" and
calling it a favorite, maybe don't give it a blind-buy just yet. First
of all, I would not consider this a horror film, but it's being marketed
as such. The Indiewire quote on the front of the box calls this a
"gripping apocalyptic thriller," and while I know what they mean, I
don't think I could come up with more misleading marketing copy without
overtly lying. This film never once, for a split second even attempts
to be thrilling. If there's anything remotely scary about it, it's a
sense of morose existential dread. The closest film I can come up with
to it, I guess, would be
Lars von Trier's
Melancholia?
Except even that film had its characters facing the ostensible threat
of an on-coming planetary collision. No such danger exists here. And
that's not a criticism, at least anymore than saying
Schindler's List
doesn't have any big belly laughs in it - it's just not that kind of
movie. I've heard a lot of frustrated comments from people expecting
the next
Babadook or
Midsommar (ugh, thank you for not being another
Midsommar),
in entirely the wrong disposition to respond to a darkly witty drama
whose strengths lie in subtle, sympathetic observations of human
behavior.
I'm going to give you the quite concise, official description of
She Dies Tomorrow
right from the back of the box, because I watched this with someone who
wound up feeling frustrated because they assumed this film was leading
up to some kind of big reveal. This is definitely a "journey not the
destination" story, and I think being on the same page as the
storytellers (because I'd read a bit about the film before diving in)
really freed me up to engage with it right from the start. So here it
is:
"After waking up convinced that she is going to die
tomorrow, Amy’s carefully mended life begins to unravel. As her
delusions of certain death become contagious to those around her, Amy
and her friends’ lives spiral out of control in a tantalizing descent
into madness."
See, because this film is being presented as a
sort of elevated horror film, you can get stuck watching this film
thinking all the dialogue and character work is some sort of slow burn
building up to a big shock. Like, at the end, aliens will be revealed.
Or even an ominous presence left vague, like
It Comes At Night or (lol)
Bird Box. But the whole point this time is that there's nothing out there; this film's just about what people
think is
going to happen. And that's not a spoiler. The film tries to tell us
that early and repeatedly. It's right there in the two-sentence pitch
that's also on
the official film's webpage and
everywhere else they can sow it. They did their bit to let us know.
Writer/ director
Amy Seimetz apparently agreed to star in the recent
Pet Sematary remake to finance this film. Who would've guessed in 2019 that something good would've come of that? But here we are!
Kate Lyn Sheil, of
Kate Plays Christine and Seimetz's excellent first film,
Sun Don't Shine stars alongside the always wonderful
Jane Adams (
Happiness,
Twin Peaks) as two friends who go on distinctly individual journeys during what they believe to be their last day on Earth. This film swings easily from cutting to sympathetic and back as the film alternatively watches maudlin Kate self-indulgently replay the same
Mozart record over and over and Jane overrun her sister-in-law's birthday party with her disengaged preoccupations to them finding joy and peace in the perfect ways to spend their final hours. And we're treated to more and more perspectives and possibilities as everyone they come into contact with also become perfectly convinced that they will die tomorrow. Fortunately, it's both too clever and sweet to become depressing, helped immeasurably by the cast, which also includes
Josh Lucas,
Jorge/
Jump Tomorrow's
Tunde Adebimpe (boy, there's someone I haven't thought about in years! But apparently he was in the last
Spider-Man flick), horror director
Adam Wingard and a refreshingly non-violent
Michelle Rodriguez.
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2020 Neon DVD-R.
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This film is left open at 1.78:1, but seeing as how the Neon Film Company seems to be releasing this directly through an MOD service themselves, I'm going to assume all matters of presentation are correct. Like, if it was meant to be matted to 1.85:1, they'd have no one to blame but themselves. And like I said in the intro, I've seen far worse DVDs. This is not interlaced, pan & scan, censored, or troubled in any of the ways many of the films still stuck on old discs are. And it was shot on digital, so film grain's not really an issue, though there are certainly some grain effect going on that could be clearer in HD. Many scenes I'd say have an intentionally soft look to it. But this disc is soft above and beyond that. A single-layered standard def disc crushing the film down to 4GB is gonna do that. Some scenes pass fairly well, but others drift from gentle to murky.
The audio is unavoidably lossy, but at least it's a nice, clear 5.1 mix, and they did include optional English HoH subtitles. And they even threw in the trailer, which MOD DVD-R's don't typically bother with.
So it's something. Something's better than nothing. But it's not enough to keep us from requesting this title from Criterion, now is it?
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