I had pretty much decided never to watch Swiss Army Man (2016), but then directing team The Daniels made that new Michelle Yeoh movie, so we went ahead.
It starts with Paul Dano starving on a deserted island. Then he sees someone wash up on shore - at last the loneliness is over. But no, it’s Daniel Radcliffe and he’s dead. Dano goes back to trying to kill himself as the body washes back out to sea. He notices that the farts from the decomposing corpse are sort of propelling it around the surf and gets an idea. He climbs on board, lowers Radcliffe’s pants, and rides him to the mainland like a fart-propelled jet ski.
On the mainland, he still can’t find civilization. He also can’t bring himself to abandon Radcliffe. Aside from “companionship”, the body turns out to be very useful - it’s stomach is full of clean drinking water. It’s dick operates as a compass. And finally, it learns to speak.
The talking corpse doesn’t remember anything about life, and Dano tries to teach him. Before long, he is telling him all about his sad, lonely life in the big city, and the woman he saw everyday on the bus, but never spoke to. The discussions turn to role playing, and Gillian’s Island style reproductions of his life.
This is a pretty disgusting movie - the farts are maybe the least disgusting. It’s also kind of funny, and kind of pathetic. The ending is kind of ambiguous - was Dano just mad? And how mad? As usual, ordinary humanity is the most disturbing part.
We were left bemused, and hopeful that Everything Everywhere All at Once would be a little less gross.
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