SWISS ARMY MAN (8 out of 10) Written and Directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert aka “Daniels;” Starring Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead; Running time 95 minutes; Rated R for “language and sexual material;” In semi-wide release July 1, 2016.
This is the movie everyone at Sundance just called “the farting corpse movie.” And yet it’s so much more than that. It is disgusting and juvenile in all the ways you expect a movie with a farting corpse to be. But it is at the same time beautiful and life-affirming in all the unexpected ways a movie with a farting corpse simply should not be.
Our story opens with Hank (Paul Dano) stranded on a tiny island. Despondent, having given up hope of being rescued, and being utterly bored, he decides to hang himself. And then he spots a corpse on the beach. Rushing to see if the man is still alive, the only signs of life is some tooting from his nether regions. As the tide comes in, Hank notices the body, whom he names “Manny” is able to propel himself around the water with his flatus like a motorboat. Mounting Manny like a jetski, he rides him across the ocean and lands on a beach somewhere in the Pacific Northwest.
As Hank carries Manny into the woods to search for civilization, Manny starts to “wake up” and begin talking. But, with no memory of his past life or anything, Hank has to teach him about everything– like why farting in public is impolite and why people hold in their farts. Through conversations like this and about love, life, death, loneliness, we get an amazing absurdist deconstruction of modern life. It’s like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead where one of them is actually a corpse– brought to you by the filthy/satirical mind of Mike Judge.
Directors and writers the Daniels here do an amazing job, and their background doing music videos is evident. They bring in music to the narrative in a way that is organic and beautiful. And just as so many of the set pieces are built out of trash and other things people left in the woods, so too is much of the music generated, errr…. organically in this environment.
One minor “spoiler” that will actually help you enjoy the movie: this is all real. It’s all happening. There is no twist ending. This is not a dream or a hallucination. It is real, and instead of expending your brain cells wondering if there’s a twist ending or not, just listen and enjoy the dialogue and the journey.
Superbly acted, imaginative, funny, heartfelt, and meaningful, you won’t want to miss Swiss Army Man. Unless, of course, you have a problem about a movie starring a farting corpse.
8 out of 10