Swiss Army Man

SWISS ARMY MAN (15)

D: Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan

A24/Tadmor/Astrakan/Cold Iron/Blackbird/Prettybird (Eval Rimmon, Lauren Mann, Lawrence Inglee, Jonathan Wang, Miranda Bailey & Amanda Marshall)

US 2016

97 mins

Comedy/Drama

W: Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan

DP: Larkin Seiple

Ed: Matthew Hannam

Mus: Andy Hull & Robert McDowell

Paul Dano (Hank Marshall), Daniel Radcliffe (Manny), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Sarah Johnson)

 When a film opens with one character riding the ocean waves on a corpse like a jetski, using flatulence as propulsion, you know that it's going to be a very strange film.

Hank Marshall (Paul Dano) has been stranded on a desert island for an unspecified amount of time when the corpse of a man washes ashore. Hank discovers that the cadaver has a number of uses, before it seemingly comes back to life and a friendship blossoms between the two men and they both become obsessed with a picture of a woman on an iPhone as they piece their lives together with various junk they find strewn about.

It's left quite ambiguous as to whether Manny is truly sentient or if the friendship is all part of Hank's increasing mania and the humour throughout the film is very dark.

It won't be everyone's cup of tea, and Harry Potter fans hoping to see a similar character portrayed by Daniel Radcliffe are certainly in for a shock.

6/10