Does A24's Swiss Army Man Trailer Sink Or Swim?
Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 11:31AM When the raucous survival film Swiss Army Man set Sundance aflame this January – aided in no small part from some infamously inflammatory methane – the only tidbit more shocking than hearing secondhand strands from its preposterous plot was the news that indie dynamo distributer A24 picked up its check to jet ski it across cinemas nationwide. Prompting walkouts that don’t sound too dissimilar from recently announced Tribeca juror and enfant terrible Sebastian Silva’s 2015 submission Nasty Baby, Swiss Army Man was immediately accused of churlish, childish, and undeniably crass crimes against good taste – what else would one expect from a buddy film about Paul Dano enduring starvation and isolation on a desert isle thanks to the multipronged malleability of Daniel Radcliffe’s flatulent, tumescent corpse? Certainly not a Directing Award, which the film’s directors Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinhart scooped up nonetheless; together, they go by the monicker Daniels…please make us proud.
Well, the trailer landed this week and it’s a doozy. Alternating between the bracing and bizarro, its Robinson Crusoe by way of Weekend At Bernie’s vision is sure to split audiences, test their endurance, and leave them wondering if it belongs with the sublime or subpar. Feast your eyes; clutch your stomach.
A few stray thoughts…
- Surely I can’t be the only one clamoring for a Moonrise Kingdom beachside boogie with those two dudes amongst the sand and rocks. I have plenty of quibbles with both of their heavily mannered works the past few years but that almost makes it more enticing.
- On that same point, their chemistry makes me long for their buddy cop film. Let's call it Love & Mercy.
- While Radcliffe’s face is sort of frozen in that I’m A Conflicted Man! way that featured heavily in the post-puberty Potter films, at least MacGyvering him into a karate chop trebuchet, bulletproof vest, and eternal spring puts it to good use.
- I know it’s the tongue-in-cheek inspirational tune, but the combination of fun house imagery and unconventional companionship warms my heart.
- If a Paul Dano screams in the woods with no living soul around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
Gotta say, I’m kind of into it. The slapdash inventiveness, bold visuals, and blowing up of the rote genre volleyball hooked me. Does this look like a page one wash or does the audacity strike a chord with you?
Reader Comments (18)
The trailer actually does make me want to go see it. A friend of mine saw it in Sundance and he named it his favorite film in a long while. The word of mouth on it, good and bad, does have my interest piqued.
Speaking of trailers, the Rogue One: A Star Wars Story trailer dropped. I don't want to make final judgment before seeing the movie, but, to me at least, Felicity Jones is seeming like a Mia Wasikowska in Alice in Wonderland x1000 level mistake just on her character biography and her delivery of two lines of dialogue. Unless Jones is actually better in the final product, this will probably wind up joining my "See, THIS is why Katie Jarvis really should be used more!" club alongside the Action Alice franchise and Carey Mulligan's 2015.
Now, as far as this one goes? Weird. I might check it out because of that (interesting bad is better than auteur wheel-spinning or...whatever the crap Batman v Superman was), but I don't know how I'll react.
Interesting, Jones looks far more interesting to me in that trailer than the entirety of Theory of Everything.
Hard pass on Swiss Army Man though.
I want Daniel Radcliffe to stop wasting his time with dreck like this - a movie career is a precious thing and he is wasting it. Does he want to become a younger version of Nicholas Cage?
He needs to snap out of this eccentric phase and get real, or it will be over quicker than you can say Mark Hamill.
I'm still not sold on Felicity Jones, (her talent seems at the medium level), but with Rian Johnson directing this does look pretty damn good.
LadyEdith - to emulate Nicolas Cage, he'll need to intersperse the constant dreck with a performance for the ages every 7 years (1995, 2002, 2009 for the record).
I'm not sure that Radcliffe is approaching his first just yet.
Which reminds me - it's 2016, does Nicolas Cage have an amazing performance lined up this year?
kermit: Radcliffe is supposedly about to play Lee Atwater in a 70s set college movie Young Americans. If that becomes enough of an acclaimed signature, I'd expect a reprisal in a decade or two.
I just checked over Radcliffe's IMDB page and he is beyond my good advice, his career is basically toast. There doesn't seem to be one Nic Cage redeeming role coming up, it looks like very B list stuff. (Lee Atwater - yuck)
Which saddens me because I like the guy. :(
As for Jones in that Rogue One trailer, it seems we have to wait for til the full trailer, or perhaps a second trailer comes out to see a second Felicity Jones facial expression.
No it looks like a arty version of "Weekend at Bernies"
LadyEdith: I think that yuck reaction is supposed to be the angle Radcliffe's taking with playing young Lee Atwater. Hate the real person I'm playing so much that it gets me all the way to, at least, an Oscar nom.
I would argue that at least he is choosing interesting projects. Not necessarily great movies (though I have much love for Kill Your Darlings), but at least they aren't always conventional. Horns was really strange, but a part of me really enjoyed it. What If was an enjoyable, but awkward romantic comedy. I like that his projects are unconventional
Brian: The director of Kill Your Darlings is currently lined up to be doing that movie where he's playing Lee Atwater.
I want to fuckin' see this.
After last year with Youth and Love & Mercy, Dano finally became a good actor. For his sake alone, I hope this is decent.
Is it a live action cartoon? From the trailer I would guess they are both mentally challenged?
I wasn't interested until I saw the trailer. I think it takes guts to do a movie like this.
It's got Paul Dano, so I'm immediately sold.
"If a Paul Dano screams in the woods with no living soul around to hear it, does it still make a sound?"
You basically just described Paul Dano's career.