Why Don't You Just Die

WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE:

 It doesn't really matter what your film was inspired by as long as it's inspiring on it's own terms.  And Russian director Kirill Sokolov's Why Don't You Just Die (2018) manages to do just that, lifting the manic energy of a Sam Raimi / Coen Brothers joint with the non-linear gratuitous violence of a Tarantino epic.  That it can't quite maintain the momentum of its first 30-minutes is a minor quibble when a film has this big a head of steam to work with.

Talked into murdering his girlfriend's father, Matvey (Aleksandr Kuznetov) instead 
finds himself chained to a bathroom pipe while the domestic situation goes from bad to worse.  His arrival kicks off a chain of events involving a double-cross between dirty cops and a briefcase full of cash.  As the players try to figure out each other's motivations, Matvey winds up just trying to survive the day.

A cinematic show-off in every respect, Why Don't You Just Die revels in gratuitous violence.  But Sokolov's take is a comic one, dodging the bodily consequences like a Looney Tunes short while characters beat each other well past the point of any possible survival.  The opening fight scene is cut together with joyful excess (think the Nicolas Cage / John Goodman wrestling match in Raising Arizona) before the film settles down to lay out a plot to excuse all the shenanigans.  When the story drifts away from Matvey and his situation one's attention wanes, but it's still a fun and nasty ride worth taking.

Arrow Video's Blu-ray serves as one hell of an introduction for what is most certainly a first viewing for audiences outside the festival circuit.  Not only does the feature film look great, but so do the four short films from Sokolov included as extras, along with behind-the-scenes footage, an interview with critic Kim Newman, storyboards, trailers and collector's booklet.

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