Burying the Ex

Summary

“So – do you love it or do you love it? Our apartment is now one hundred percent green.”

In 2014, Joe Dante directed the independently financed Burying the Ex starring three strong lead actors – Anton Yelchin, Ashley Greene, and Alexandra Daddario. The film’s financing had come together quickly and it was filmed just as quickly over twenty days of filming. The resulting film was a charming little comedy that does well under repeat viewings.

Max (Anton Yelchin) has a demanding girlfriend named Evelyn (Ashley Greene.) She hates his half-brother Travis (Oliver Cooper) who has no regard for invading their space to occasionally have sex at their apartment. Evelyn is a staunch vegan, has forced Max to purchase a hybrid vehicle, and has basically railroaded Max into accepting all the tenants of her lifestyle. She is also really beautiful so he stays with her. Max works at Bloody Mary’s Boo-tique specializing in horror supplies. He dreams of opening his own boutique called Max’s Scare Shack. His girlfriend shares none of his passions aside from an appetite for sex. At the boo-tique a package arrives with a demon genie that promises to grant one wish in an evil way. Max disregards it as normal schtick. After Max and his girlfriend hook up at the store, she makes him promise that they will be together forever. The demon genie accepts her wish. Evelyn moves into Max’s apartment. On a walk they stop into an ice cream store run by Olivia (Alexandra Daddario) that specializes in unique ice cream flavors that tie into nostalgia and horror references. Evelyn and Olivia immediately get off to a terrible start and argue about the contents of the ice cream. Max finds Olivia intriguing, but sticks with Evelyn. When Evelyn paints his entire apartment green and organizes everything, discarding all of his posters and memorabilia, he begins to see that he must end their relationship. When they meet up for him to end things, she is hit by a bus and killed. Right when he begins pursuing a new relationship with Olivia, also recently single, Evelyn comes back from the grave. Max finds himself juggling two women: one alive, and one a zombie.

Burying the Ex didn’t light the world on fire critically when it came out, but I think is actually pretty damn funny and enjoyable. I have rewatched it a couple times and I like it better each time. The humorous script written by Alan Trezza, based on a short film he wrote and directed, has a few moments that are overly cute or fanciful. If you have seen Vanilla Sky, which I like a lot, you may remember a scene where Penelope Cruz asks Tom Cruise if he would rather listen to Vicki Carr or Jeff Buckley. The scene pulls me out of the movie for a second because it is just a little overly cute and idealized. In Burying the Ex, there are some sequences like that, but I can’t help but enjoy any film where the villain is a hybrid car pushing, tofu eating, vegan. I think that the film sort of flies under the radar and finds a way of becoming more enjoyable the second time around. That partially is because the film itself is a little hard to predict on the first viewing considering it is a romantic comedy featuring  a zombie girlfriend in the love triangle. The second viewing it is easier to let the film roll and try to notice little Easter eggs. The film is jam packed with Easter eggs from Dante including loads of beautiful movie posters (Italian Pit and the Pendullum poster- neat) and allusions to Val Lewton and many other filmmakers. I think one of the reasons that I enjoyed the movie more than the critics at the time is that I have a genuine love for the movies that Max loves, so I could relate.

The three main leads in the film are all great. Anton Yelchin was a really talented and likable actor who passed away far too young. He is reliably charming as Max. Ashley Greene is very pretty and very funny in the role. I hope that she lands more film roles, because she nailed her part. Alexandra Daddario is really beautiful and well cast in the role of Olivia. In our interview, I enjoyed hearing Joe talk about how fond he was of the young actors in Burying the Ex and how highly he regarded Anton Yelchin. It comes across onscreen that everyone had fun making the film. Joe Dante draws good performances out of all involved. To top it all off, the film features one of my favorite songs by Phosphorescence. Great choice.

Overall – I think Burying the Ex deserved more love than it received.

Video

Burying the Ex raises from the ground onto Blu-ray with a good looking 1080p presentation featuring a MPEG-4 AVC encode in 2.39:1 aspect ratio. This film was shot digitally and features good fine detail. The film was shot by cinematographer who had worked mainly in television before Burying the Ex. This marks itself a little on the cinematography in the film, partially because much of the film takes place on just a few sets. Fans should be pleased with the way it looks. Digital film had made big strides since Joe shot The Hole.

Audio

Burying the Ex features an enjoyable DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround track. This film is largely dialogue driven and the score by Joseph LoDuca is only occasionally brought to the foreground, but when it is used it is wonderful. I think that this composer, who also worked on all the Evil Dead films, is a great match to the type of filmmaking Joe is known for. I hope they work together in the future. The track is clear and without issue.

 Supplements:

• None

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4.5/5

Supplements- 0/5

Overall – 4/5

Burying the Ex is a fun romantic comedy zombie film with three great lead actors. The film deserved to get a better reception by critics when it was released. Joe Dante stuffs the film full of Easter eggs and the film holds up well to repeat viewings. It is a shame that Anton Yelchin passed away at such a young age. The RLJ Entertainment Blu-ray features great video and audio, but unfortunately no special features. If you haven’t seen the film and are a fan of Joe Dante’s other films, I would recommend checking the film out for yourself.