“She’s back, she’s dead, and she thinks we’re still dating!” shouts Anton Yelchin with an irrepressible gleam in his eye about a half hour into Burying the Ex, a genial horror comedy now available to rent at Redbox kiosks. That moment pretty much sums up the plot and tone of the movie. No matter how lowbrow or silly the material gets, everyone seems to be having a good time in Ex, and no wonder: it’s the first feature in more than five years to be directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers), one of the most fun-loving filmmakers alive. Dante’s work, it’s often said, evokes live-action Looney Tunes, popping with sight gags and movie in-jokes and inspiring the feeling that anything is possible in the world of movies. Ex finds the director working with an ultralow budget and a somewhat familiar script, but his good-natured charm still shines through these setbacks.
Burying the Ex was shot cheaply over 20 days, and it often looks like it. The sets are often a little bare, and the cinematography leaves much to be desired. Yet in its overall slapdash charm, the film recalls the ingratiating comedies that the director made for Roger Corman (Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha) near the beginning of his career. It’s as though Dante, in looking at younger characters, was reminded of his own early adulthood and thought to make Ex into the sort of movie he would have directed then. Like Spike Lee’s recent Da Sweet Blood of Jesus, the movie represents a salute to 70s underground filmmaking, reminding audiences of how personal filmmakers can get when they work below the mainstream.
