Swiss Army Man

Swiss Army Man (2016) - Directed and written by Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan.  Starring Paul Dano, Daniel Radcliffe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.

★★★★ 1/2

What seems at first almost an odd excuse for farting corpse jokes becomes something much deeper and stranger and sad, but with a weird joy to it. This could have been a disaster in execution but instead builds into something wonderful and strange.

I mean, what kind of movie opens with Dano's character, Hank, getting ready to commit suicide after he is shipwrecked but stops himself after finding Daniel Radcliffe's (as Manny) dead body on the beach?  Then they go on a nice little cross-country trip to reach civilization, have philosophical discussions about life and masturbation and fight a bear with fire farts.  It's so weird and funny, but all the odd body humor of farts and using Manny's body to chop firewood like he has a GI Joe Kung Ku Grip is all in service of a deepening friendship between Hank and Manny.  

And then...the movie shifts in it's last 20 minutes and something really weird happens.   I can only imagine that some people aren't going to be willing to go along with the movie that far (and boy, does the whole tone of the movie shift in retrospect at that point).  But I think if you're willing to along with it, the movie earns those moments and the change in the narrative and it's not a cheap surprise. (It would make an excellent double feature with another Paul Dano feature, Ruby Sparks, in how Dano deals with an...alternate reality?  Something that could be insane but works?)    This really is an excellent fable of a movie and I'm very much looking forward to whatever The Daniels come up with next as their follow up.