Swiss Army Man
Movie critique
The depressing, yet hilarious and misunderstood masterpiece that is Swiss Army Man.
Movie: Swiss Army Man
Release date: June 30 of 2016
Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
This eccentric and surreal film created by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (The Daniels) starts with Hank (Paul Dano) trying to hang himself on a desert island, when suddenly a pale corpse arrives on the shore. Hank stops his meticulously planned suicide to find out if the man who’s lying on the sand (Daniel Radcliffe) is alive, but when Hank gets close enough he realizes that the man is indeed dead, or maybe he isn’t. After a disappointing first impression Hank leaves the lifeless body behind him to continue with his own death, but just as the belt touches his neck, the corpse starts moving and releasing gas, a lot of gas. Hank is impressed, gets down from the suicidal base and runs to the corpse as the body rushes to the waves, Hank is able to get on top of him and uses his body and the gas coming out of it as a jet ski to escape from the island. The title of the movie shows on the screen as the music gets louder and they gain speed towards their unexpected adventure.
From this point the movie does nothing but get better. The Daniels shows us from a very melancholic perspective that Hank is really depressed, but at the same time they never give us a chance to feel sad, because just as we are connecting with this aura of sadness something completely epic happens, let me explain what I’m saying: there is a point when Hank and the corpse are lying on the ground, Hank is feeling sad and he’s singing a song that goes like “Crazy, I’m fucking crazy and I’m gonna die” and then a few moments later the corpse starts throwing water out of his mount like a waterfall. But that’s not it because during the same sequence, the corpse starts talking! And we finally have a name to put on that pale face, Manny.
Once Manny is fully awake, we realize that he doesn’t remember a thing about the world and that he’s not able to move anything but his lips to speak. Here’s where the magic begins. Hank build a bunch of scenarios to explain to Manny what is life. In a series of quick scenes explains everything, from death to movies, from love to depression, and the more Hank talks the more Manny wishes to be alive. Manny gets excited to the point that an erection appears on his pants, but not any erection, this one was different, it was leading them the way back home!
The Daniels gave us an amazing and satirical story about finding the meaning of life although it might seem like there’s nothing to live for, you will always try to find something worth living, maybe love, maybe friendship or maybe a dead guy who saved you multiple times (your new best friend). Likewise we cannot let aside the amazing soundtrack created just for this film, the songs are basically another character, for instance, an interesting detail is that the songs always begin from the voice of a character, which gives the movie this cool feeling of continuity. Talking about characters, Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe show a perfect connection on screen, because Manny does not move, he doesn’t even smile in the hole film but you can feel all the emotions coming out of him through Hank, because Hank does a great job interpreting Manny’s emotions therefore completing each other’s characters creating an amazing chemistry between the two.
Kwan and Scheinert wrote and directed a masterpiece not only because of the music or the raw performance by the actors but also because the screenplay is immaculate and we are able to understand each of the emotions that they try to expose. You can tell me that I’m crazy, that I’m fucking crazy, but to me this is one of the greatest movies of this century from start to end. Therefore, if you don’t agree with me, you have to agree that at least it is one of the most original stories ever made and that’s enough to catch your attention.
Written by: Damian Luna
Edited and revised by: Matthew Aguila & Carlos Hermosillo