by Nathaniel R
Daniel Kwan in "Turn Down For What"
We made a hilarious discovery today. Daniels, the directing duo of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, have not updated their official website since 2016! That was the year of their film debut Swiss Army Man. The website very much sells them as music video guys which they, of course, were. Six years later, post the huge success of Everything Everywhere All At Once they are in the Oscar conversation, and have a first look deal with A24 and a multi-picture deal with Universal so they're hardly those "We Direct Music Videos" guys anymore. Time to update the site, maybe? Tick-tock...
Watching one of their most famous videos "Turn Down For What" (2014) today in 2022 is a special thrill, given how much of the unhinged action-scene chaos and bawdy humor of Everything Everywhere All At Once you can see in it...
Come to think of it both of those elements were readily evident in Swiss Army Man, too. If you've seen this video before it's a fun nostalgia moment and if you haven't, trust that you owe it to yourself. The duo wanted "to explore male sexuality in a really weird way" and that comes through so forcefully that it literally destroys apartment buildings. Kwan himself stars in the video, with the actress Sunita Mani (later of GLOW fame), as a man so possessed by his own body and thrusting, that he falls through multiple floors of a building, and smashes furniture and removes clothing with his dance moves. His penis has a mind of its own by video's end. Hilarious, inventive, and just a great short film from comically confrontational start to collapsed dusty finish.