Swiss Army Man is the indie movie to see. Apparently, when this film premiered at Sundance Film Festival, everyone walked out. I heard this and it only worried me for a second, but I figured people who attend the Sundance film festival don't really get the significance of fart jokes. In this case, and believe me I genuinely considered whether or not the fart jokes were necessary, they actually make a point. The plot is supplemented by the dirty jokes but I'll get into that later. Otherwise, if you're up for some weird ass movie filled with dirty humor and the need to suspend your disbelief basically always, this is the movie for you.
The acting in this movie, despite how goofy it is, is phenomenal. For most of the movie it's just Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, and it takes a bit for Daniel Radcliffe to become as significant as Paul Dano. Dan Rad is a main character in presence but not in terms of contribution to the film until about halfway though. Paul Dano played his part really well; he was convincingly crazy and I would say that's probably the best I've seem him in. I generally think Paul Dano is an amazing actor and up until this movie I did not think the same about Daniel Radcliffe-- he has officially comvinced me of his actual acting talent, and I think there will be a time when Daniel Radcliffe out preforms his Harry Potter fame. He is truly amazing in this movie and I consider him the gem of this movie.
Daniel Radcliffe's character was an actual corpse. The point was that Paul Dano was teaching this character about humanity, like you would teach a mature baby about our society. And surprisingly, he was actually funny-- like really funny. Most of it was likely the writing, but Daniel Radcliffe's delivery definitely counted for something. The amount of care that was put into this character enhanced the movie from something childish and stupid to a meaningful and heart filled. He clearly cared about this character and I love Dan Rad all the more for it.
For most of the movie it is just Dan Rad and Paul Dano, and when the few supporting characters there are do come into the plot, they actually add just enough to the over plot. We aren't bogged down with any unnecessary backstory to make the audience overly familiar with the side characters. A perfect example of this is Hank's (Paul Dano) relationship with his family, and specifically, his father. Hank never explicitly tells Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) about his problems with his father, but the audience can insinuate through Hank's tone of voice and how he's acting that he doesn't have the best relationship with his dad. I am specifically pointing this out because in too many movies, the script forgets it's trying to tell an actual story and just excretes exposition, and it doesn't seem natural to what's happening in the story. Hank does tell Manny things about his dad, but only things relevant to what is happening in that moment. And when we need that established relationship later in the film, we have the perfect amount of information to understand why what happens is happening, and we can derive meaning from much more withe even the small amount of information we have. The Daniels fit in the secondary characters' exposition naturally and in appropriate amounts, which is an amazing achievement in today's age of stupid audiences who don't like to this about their movies.
Something I really I like about his movie is that the audience can't really tell if what is happening is real or not. There's all these really absurd situations wherein Hank learns about all the amazing things Manny can do. There's also a fair amount of scenes where Hank is trying to teach Manny something and the audience has to think about whether or not any of this is actually happening. I think this whole movie is made better by the fact that in the end, it is revealed that yes, all of these crazy events that have been happening have really been happening. As far as we know, Hank was not at all hallucinating with Manny, and I distinctly remember telling myself how great this movie could be if they just asserted that everything that happens in this movie is for real.
The humor in this movie is significant because it's used to comment on what is acceptable in our society. Sure, you can also watch this movie and say it's full of stupid fart jokes and penis jokes, but honestly it's more than that. Manny learns about etiquette from Hank's insecurities and how he doesn't fit into conventional society. Manny doesn't understand why you can't just fart in front of people, especially if it just something everyone naturally does. He doesn't understand the concept of being sensitive to people's feelings and experiences. But because of his infantile lack of understanding of the world we live in, Hank has to teach him, like a baby, about these mature concepts of not fitting and being an outcast and feeling like you're not good enough. This gives the writers a chance to flesh out these very common modern issues that everyone deals with in terms simple enough that a child could understand them. The overall point to this, is that when you have a character like Manny who doesn't understand these concepts, it gives the writers a chance to really exemplify how petty some of the internal struggles we deal with on a day-to-day basis really are. The character Manny paired with the dirty humor in this movie is a perfect combination to tell audiences stop worrying about your stupid self-indulgent problems and live your life because it could be a lot worse-- you could be a corpse in a suit floating in an ocean.
There was one part that I was confused by, but otherwise, the plot is exceptionally easy to follow. I was confused by the relationship that was established between the screensaver girl and Manny. Manny is supposed to believe that he knows that woman and they have some kind of relationship, but really Hank is only manufacturing that memory so that Manny will help him find her. It was lost on me that Manny actually believed he knew this woman in his past life and was in love with her, and because of this Hank has to break the news to Manny that, no he actually doesn't know this woman. But other than that one aspect, this astoundingly weird movie is pretty easy to follow what's going on scene-by-scene.
Parallelism played a big part in this movie. Specifically with the characters clothes there's a lot of playing with their relationship through the visual aspects of their clothes. Hank begins the film wearing red toned clothes, and Manny begins wearing blue toned clothes. As the movie goes on they switch articles of clothing based on what the characters are going through. Not only that, but there is parallelism in the way Manny and Hank take care of each other. Manny is brought back to life because of Hanks hope and his love, and there's a point in the movie where there is basically the same shot but of Manny helping Hank. Parallelism is so well executed that it allows audiences to understand what is happening to the characters even if we don't pick that element out specifically.
Swiss Army Man was filled with beautiful shots, and ti's not just because it was shot in an already beautiful setting. In the beginning, when Hank first finds the dead body there are a lot of stationery shots. For the most part, the camera is set in one spot watching these two characters interact. As Manny becomes more lively, the intricacy of the shots increase. They mix fantastical, uplifting elements within a plot that is otherwise stressful and grim.
This movie is absurd and ridiculous, and it knows it. I love this movie because it owns what it is. Swiss Army Man doesn't skirt around the dirty jokes, it tell you them straight up, without any consideration, just like a reanimated corpse who doesn't remember anything would do. In all of its ridiculousness, once the setting returns to a civilized environment, the movie still asserts that unbelievable things still happen even in the real world and you're damn right everything that happened in the woods really happened. It embraces the irrational and the nonsense while also being a great, well executed, beautiful, thoughtful gem of a movie. If the fart jokes and the penis jokes are going to offend you don't seen this movie; there's a lot of that. But if you are willing to accept this movie and whatever happens in it for everything that it is, you will have the time of your life. It's fun, it's meaningful and it doesn't really care what you have to say about it. This movie exists outside of the realm of public opinion. It's its own thing and I think this is one of the best movies I've seen all year.
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