Swiss Army Man review: A farting corpse is oddly profound

IT HAS plenty of fart jokes and features Daniel Radcliffe as a semi-reanimated corpse. But there’s a much deeper meaning to Swiss Army Man.

REVIEW

MORE popularly known as the “Daniel Radcliffe farting corpse movie,” Swiss Army Man may be one of the most inventive films to hit cinemas in a long time.

A completely original story by writers/directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (collectively credited as “DANIELS”), Swiss Army Man is the kind of film that you may struggle to explain to your friends because it’s unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Hank (Paul Dano), a castaway, is about to hang himself when he notices someone wash ashore. Hungry, alone and despondent, Hank’s initial euphoria turns to disappointment when he realises it’s a dead body that he eventually names Manny (Daniel Radcliffe).

Manny isn’t just any dead body. He’s a magical dead body. One whose flatulence abilities mean he can be ridden like a jet ski or used like a rocket pack, his fart stream so propulsive it defies gravity. And whose phallus has a compass-like capacity to find civilisation.

Marooned on what at first appears to be island, Hank and a semi-reanimated Manny develop a companionship as they search for a way home.

Robinson Crusoe man, and Wilson.

With Manny serving as somewhat of a blank slate for Hank and the DANIELS to ask the big philosophical questions (“Is life just looking for happiness?”), Swiss Army Man is ultimately a fairytale about loneliness and belonging.

Through flashbacks, we’re introduced to Hank in the real world, the world with rules, restrictions and social norms. That Hank is someone too crippled by social anxieties to talk to a girl on the bus, in total contrast to the more at ease one we see in the forest.

Even flatulence is explained as a way people are limited by social niceties.

Moments of real poignancy are peppered throughout. The heartbreak disguised as nonchalance as Hank tells Manny about how he and his father keep in touch with automated digital birthday cards is the kind of reminder of how we carry the burden of questionable parenting choices with us our whole lives.

Searching for something deeper.

It’s the DANIELS’ feature directorial debut, having previously worked on music videos for the likes of The Shins, Joywave and Foster the People. The pair’s best known video, DJ Snake + Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What”, is a precursor to the slightly anarchic spirit with which they’ve infused Swiss Army Man.

While it’s hard to make concrete comparisons, Swiss Army Man’s fantastical energy is, at times, not dissimilar to Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are or even Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild in some of its grand, uplifting sequences.

And don’t bother trying to figure out the plot or if there is a logical underpinning to Swiss Army Man. You have to let it wash over you and surrender to its enchantment.

Who knew a movie that devoted a lot of time to the bowel movements of the deceased could be so profound?

Rating: 4/5

Swiss Army Man is in cinemas from Thursday, July 14.

Continue the conversation on Twitter with @wenleima.

Just another Thursday night.