Swiss Army Man

How has this flown under the mainstream radar?

Directors: Daniel Kwan
                  Daniel Scheinert
Writers: Daniel Scheinert
               Mary Elizabeth Winstead

This is such a good film and it's just as quotable as Face / Off. I really can't believe how under the radar this actually is, especially considering it has Daniel Radcliffe in it I mean...who doesn't want to see Harry Potter talking about sex and farting and spouting philosophy about shit? I'm honestly kind of amazed that this isn't really talked about all that much. Why? Let's get into it.

Like I said, this is extremely quotable, some of these I could use on my friends when I'm talking to them and they won't even realise. Unless they read this...I mean...I've got a grand total of about 3 people I speak to regularly with the occasional people dropping in and out of my life...I'm popular I promise. Quotable movie. Stop getting sidetracked by the number of people that love you. My favourite quotes came from Manny (Daniel Radcliffe). Like, he's a corpse who has no recollection of life...alive I guess is the way to put it? He's having a conversation with Hank (Paul Dano) about sex and says Quote: "Remember when you put that cork in my butt? Did that count as sex?" Can't lie, this line made me laugh a little. Another line from the corpse - Quote: "What if I say something stupid? I'd just wanna die." This wasn't as funny as the first line but it's still funny. My final favourite quote, again from Radcliffe, comes at a time when Hank dresses as a woman to jog Manny's memory. Manny starts singing and Hank asks why Manny replies with Quote: "I'm singing a song so you don't overthink things." Again, this made me giggle a little. I think it's mostly down to how deadpan Radcliffe's performance is as this corpse who is coming back to life through the act of love. He obviously can't use his body language or face much to perform along with the lines he's given and I loved the way he said things.

The way this is shot is really beautiful too, it's very bright and warm and makes you want to go out and look at the world and how gorgeous it is. Even the shots at night are bright...for night time shots at least you know? There's also shots representing Manny falling further and further into a dark abyss which, given that he was talking about how his friend had lied to him and that he couldn't trust him, looks as if he's seeing life for what it really is. Considering how naive he is, y'know, with not knowing shit about how to function as a living being, it looks as if he's seeing the fact that his friend lied to him as something much worse than what it is. I mean...yeah claiming that the woman you're stalking is the wife of the corpse you're now best friends with is a bit much. Far fetched, but a bit much. Maybe this could be a way to see how children see things, overexaggerated and easily distrustful of something that's already hurt them but so easily willing to trust again because kids are just so chill about everything. I dunno, that's what I got from this, I could be way off.

Regardless as to how good this is, it's not without it's one little piece of bullshit. The phone. The phone that is the central thing aside from these characters friendship. Hank is on this deserted island long enough to grow a big bushy beard and hair long enough to reach his shoulders which I'm guessing is about 2 or 3 months, depending on how fast his hair grows. When we first see this phone it's got 10% battery left like...I get that you can make a battery last a few days if you don't use it but shit, what fuckin' phone are you using buddy? Christ, and the amount of times this is used and its life is so well sustained like...where can I get one of these so I'm not having to charge my phone every night. My God, it's some weird bullshit but because it's an important piece of the plot it doesn't die. Wouldn't it make more sense for the phone to die and that's why Hank has to dress up like the woman on the lock screen? I know it's predictable but it would have been more realistic. Then again this film has a corpse that comes back to life through the power of love and chooses when to die and when to come back to life so I guess any sense of realism is out the window.

Also, while I was looking for the film online I found a promotional site where you can play with Manny's corpse which I love, I played it before I watched it and it's just a fun thing to do to waste your time. Kind of like minesweeper. I'll leave a link here for it - swissarmyman.com

So this is a pretty good, very underrated film. It's both touching, lovely and funny. Please go and watch this film, even if you're so die-hard Daniel Radcliffe is Harry Potter, please look at this and look at him growing as an actor. He's so good in this and the chemistry with Paul Dano is so good. You really do believe the friendship between the two guys and you can believe the love thank Hank feels for Manny, both in the romantic sense and friendship sense. Actually, that's something I hadn't mentioned. There's a subtle romance that's played up like a roleplay between Manny and "Sarah" which was Hank in an impressive drag outfit considering they're stuck in a forest. Towards the end of the film it gives off a kind of Titanic feel, where Hank takes Manny's name in order to escape his previous life, unlike Rose, he backtracks on his own decision and tries to prove that Manny is an alive corpse. It's really sweet to see.

Ok so that's what I thought about this, and this time I didn't leave anything out. Pretty good film, go check it out.

This is just my opinion and if you disagree then that's great, I'm open to discussion and I'm always interested to hear how you feel about this film. This is also a critique which is considered "Fair Use" under the Copyright Act 1976. If you like this film then go and support its creators by buying the DVD or Bluray.