Folks, I won’t lie… this is probably the strangest film that
I’ve ever reviewed in the six-plus years that I’ve been writing film reviews
and believe me I’ve seen plenty of weird films in that time. For those who
haven’t heard of this film, here’s the basic premise. This is a film about a
man stuck on an island who gets into all sorts of adventures with the help of a
‘magical’ farting corpse as he tries to get back home. If that premise weirded
any of you out, then don’t worry because that wouldn’t have been an uncommon
response. When the film premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival this past
January, it did result in a few walk-outs by people who were clearly turned off
by the film’s odd premise and its large amount of body humor. However, as
strange as it may sound, Swiss Army Man is
a film that’s actually worth checking out. Written and directed by the duo of
Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, who are collectively known as ‘Daniels’ (with
their new film coincidentally also starring a ‘Daniel’, Daniel Radcliffe) and
have been mostly known for directing music videos for bands like Tenacious D
and Foster the People, this is certainly a strange film to get into. But if you’re
able to get past all of the farting, discussions about masturbation, and boners
that serve as compasses (don’t ask…), this actually turns out to be an
extremely charming film that actually carries a lot of emotion and character
depth… and yes, we’re still talking about the ‘farting corpse’ film.
As the film begins, a man named Hank (Paul Dano) finds
himself stranded on a desert island. Having become very despondent as a result
of him being unable to get any help, he plans on taking his own life. However,
before he is able to hang himself, he ends up spotting a dead body that washes
up on the beach nearby. To Hank’s surprise, the corpse continually farts and is
actually able to move through the water as a result. Hank manages to use that
to his advantage and gets back to the mainland by riding the body across the
ocean ‘like a jet-ski’. However, even when he does get back to the mainland, he
still has quite a long way to go before he reaches civilization. So he begins
to travel through the forest while carrying the corpse, whom he names Manny
(Daniel Radcliffe), along the way. During their trek, Hank learns that Manny is
somehow still able to speak and even has a few ‘magical’ powers, including
being able to act somewhat like a compass by means of his erections (again, don’t
ask…) and being capable of being used like a multi-purpose tool for hunting and
survival purposes. Utilizing these abilities to the fullest, Hank and Manny set
out on the long trek home getting into all sorts of interesting scenarios.
Along the way, Manny slowly but surely starts to regain traces of his humanity
and the most unlikely of friendships develops between the two.
So yeah… this film is very, very weird. Over the course of 97
minutes, we as an audience follow Hank and Manny as they travel through the
forest, with Hank utilizing Manny’s various talents to help him get back home.
What follows is an adventure full of farts, spontaneous boners, sexual
innuendo, and the crazy ways in which Manny is used like a Swiss Army Knife,
which explains the title of the film. And yet the great thing about this film
is that it is clearly aware of how ridiculous it is. As a result, it just rolls
with it and the film ends up being one of the funniest films of the year as it
is full of hilarious moments, especially in scenes where Hank tries to explain various
aspects of life (e.g. pooping, sex, masturbation, etc.) to Manny. All of this
is paired well with some very nice forest cinematography and a killer
soundtrack made primarily of acapella tunes, including an epic montage tune,
that’s literally called ‘Montage’, that was featured in the trailer and a
hilarious rendition of the theme from Jurassic
Park. But even with all of the film’s humor based off of its bizarre nature
in mind, it actually does manage to be a pretty charming film on its own
merits. Amidst all of the farting and other various bodily functions, there are
actually a lot of strong themes in this film, namely in regards to friendship,
love, and appreciating life as a whole. As a result, the duo of Hank and Manny
end up becoming a very endearing duo.
Obviously Hank and Manny are the only ‘major’ characters in
the entire film. There are a few supporting characters that appear at the end,
most notably Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a woman on Hank’s phone who Manny ends
up falling in love with (the details surrounding the connection between the
three I won’t spoil here but they’re interesting to say the least), but Paul
Dano and Daniel Radcliffe are basically on their own for most of the film and
both are absolutely fantastic. They work off of each other very well, which in
turn provides the film with a lot of its humor. Dano plays the ‘straight man’
in the situation… at least, as much as he can due to the fact that he’s working
off of a ‘corpse’. And yes, sometimes the film does imply that he may just be
hallucinating all of this. Regardless, Dano is excellent and the arc that Hank
goes through in the film is quite fascinating, with him basically becoming a ‘redemptive
soul’ who gains a new lease on life after the incident that stranded him on
that island in the first place. As for Daniel Radcliffe, he of course spends
most of the film just lying around as a farting corpse. But as the film goes
on, we slowly begin to see Manny regain his humanity and it’s another
fascinating arc to witness. Going back to the film’s use of humor for a moment,
a good chunk of it comes from the fact that Manny can sometimes be rather unfiltered
when he speaks, which of course leads to some very, very awkward conversations
between the two.
Swiss Army Man is
certainly one of the most original films to come out in recent years. It’s also
obviously one of the weirdest in recent memory but it’s aware of that and if
you’re able to get past the fact that this film mainly revolves around a
magical farting corpse that is used like a machine gun, axe, and other various
tools, then I have the feeling that you’ll probably be genuinely surprised by
this film. Because amidst all of the arguably very crude humor involving bodily
functions, the film is actually very deep in regards to its themes of
friendship and life and as a result, has quite a lot of emotional depth. The
duo of Hank and Manny (who are portrayed excellent by Paul Dano and Daniel
Radcliffe, respectively) is a strange one for sure but the two of them end up
becoming very endearing protagonists as we follow them on their weird
adventure. This film serves as the directorial debut for the duo of ‘Daniels’
Scheinert and Kwan and as a result, the two music-video directors make quite an
excellent first impression, completely unfazed by how people might respond to a
film about a magical farting corpse. With that said, it’s obvious that this
film won’t appeal to everyone; it did, after all, instigate a few walk-outs at
its world premiere at Sundance. But as stated earlier, if you’re able to get
past all of the farts, boners, and talk of masturbation, then you’ll find a
well-written, well-directed, and well-acted film that’s strangely beautiful in
its own unique way.
Rating: 5/5!
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