Swiss Army Man

The Jury Prize for Best Directing caused more than a few controversies at this year's Sundance Film Festival with some audience members walking out, while others complained about the film's uncouth behavior. What might get lost in the mix is how impressively this unique and uncompromised debut feature can be seen through completely opposite lenses.

One way of responding to SWiSS ARMY MAN could be to contagiously laugh at the screwball actions of Hank (Paul Dano), a man stranded on a desert island with a dead body (Daniel Radcliffe). Another way would be to question Hank's reliability as a narrator and view this surreal, spiritual spiral as an existential journey into complete madness. Either way, Daniel Radcliffe's performance as a dead body is the kind of profound achievement you might expect from a Harold Pinter or Samuel Beckett play.

Swiss Army Man is not just the most infamous film at Sundance this year; It is the perfect Hollywood calling card for first time filmmakers Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinart, as well as being a completely neo-sincere film. Movie lovers should put aside all of its buzz and just experience it for themselves. Love it or hate it, it's one film from 2016 that most definitely will not be forgotten.

Review taken from 2016 Sundance Film Festival wrap up.

One of the most insanely creative and original film ever. Its often strange with crude humour about farting corpses and boners, but there certainly is a deeper meaning to it rather than being crudeness for the sake of it.

This film is truly a magical experience that dares to defy conventions. Its a thought provoking film that would make you question our conventions and need to be normal while exploring loneliness. With beautiful cinematography, powerful performances by Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, well paced with an excellent soundtrack this certainly is my favourite film of the year (so far).

Its certainly not everyone, it wouldn't be surprising if most people dismissed it saying 'What the hell'. Certainly recommended if you are into quirky, offbeat and creative films.

9/10

"If my best friend hides his farts from me then what else is he hiding from me, and why does that make me feel so alone?"

Never would I expect a farting talking corpse would've turn out to be a good movie. Even on paper, this idea sounds awful, but it's one of those things that manages to work out. I always hear people complain that movies just ain't that original anymore, with the endless reboots and the unnecessary squeals. And then you get something like this that's so different. Something so bizarre, weird and original that it's executed in a way that it actually works as a movie.

There's something deeply beautiful and very relatable about "Swiss Army Man" that I know a lot of people won't agree. It isn't for everybody. I mean, just look at the reviews for Sundance and the reports of walk outs during the movie. But then again, what do they know.

Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan bring a sweet and a very surreal study of the human condition that's done so uniquely. Making farts jokes seem so poetic.

This is Daniel Radcliffe at his best and while he's character may be dead, there's still heart within him. Paul Dano who really has been impressing me over the past years is really great in this. Radcliffe and Dano brought a sense of friendship and a real chemistry that after awhile it kinda over shadows the wackiness of whats going on. Some people may find the scenes between them too disturbing or creepy, and I can totally understand that. But it's something that's hard to explain really. Even if you try to put together why something like this worked, but it never fully clicks in your head as the correct answer. Well, what can I say. Movies make you feel something man.

Overall rating: I'm no gonna lie, I teared up a bit while watching this. Yes, a farting corpse movie actually made laugh, cry and think differently on things.

WOW.

If Cast Away met Weekend at Bernie's. That's all you need to know.

"You can't just say whatever comes into your head. That's bad talking." Hank (Paul Dano)

Swiss Army Man is not Weekend at Bernie's, despite the animated corpse, Manny (Daniel Radcliffe), nor is it Cast Away with its benign Tom Hanks character and soccer ball Wilson. Rather it is as imaginative and unsettling a fantasy as you will see in your recent memory. The corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) eventually talks (albeit perhaps in Manny's mind only), and as the above quote suggests, maybe too much.

Marooned on an island, Hank is suicidal to the degree that he tries multiple times. Life has not been agreeable especially in his now lost situation. Enter corpse Manny, whose initial introduction is a body still filled with flatulence. Okay stuff for pubescent boys in the audience who can identify with the humorous properties of farts.

However, as in all good allegory, this film is conscious about the figurative relevance of those bodily functions, even boners from a dead man. As you already figured out, this body carries the weight of allegorical implication, mostly confirming that even in the body's basic functions, there is life affirming activity, enough for a seriously homicidal like Hank.

Swiss Army Man has a bunch of utilitarian functions, like the titular renowned knife, to counter the absurdity of life so well documented in the detritus Hanks finds in his lost condition. Cheese Puffs become almost sacred to a hungry castaway and erections are publicly appreciated as evidence of life, especially among the dead.

Dano and Radcliffe are the modern buddy-film icons, clueless about the value of life at its simplest but smart enough to figure it out. The ubiquitous smart phone, with its waning power, has the brief power to engage even a corpse with images of lust and maybe love, fleeting as the images might be.

A foraging bear reminds me that Hank is not as vulnerable as Leo's in Revenant, yet dramatically showing the wit of the two buddies for saving themselves. Nature is always a danger, but survivable if buddies are willing to count on human nature to get them through.

Swiss Army Man is not as oblique as Samuel Beckett's absurd dramas but feels much longer; however, it is Beckett with a sense of humor. It has an accessible figurativeness to please even the most unwillingly interpretive audience.

See this film to help you understand that even the basest human activity is better than the void to which we are all called.