Welcome to the House of Crouse. SPOILER ALERT! This week we have a show that reveals many secrets, so if you haven’t watched the fourth season of Orange is the New Black, please be careful and listen for our special Spoiler Alert Horn during the Samira Wiley interview. She talks about playing the prison drama’s much loved character Poussey Washington. Joining her is Danieils, a directing collective comprised of Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan. They talk about making Swiss Army Man, a movie about a farting corpse, and how it was a deeply personal experience for them. Stop by the House of Crouse, sit a spell. You’ll like it.
Swiss Army Man, the story of a marooned man and his dead buddy’s journey back to civilization is a tale of friendship and what it means to be alive, really and truly alive. The easy thing would be to describe the new Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Dano two-hander as Cast Away meets Weekend at Bernie’s but that doesn’t grab the poetic essence of what the film is trying to achieve.
“We make our movies for ourselves and we wanted to surprise ourselves into learning something and feeling something,” says Dan Kwan, the film’s co-director and co-writer.
Kwan is half of Daniels, his directing collective with partner Daniel Scheinert. The duo came up with the idea for Swiss Army Man after directing a series of innovative, internet-breaking music videos like DJ Snake and Lil’ Jon’s Turn Down for What (35 million views and counting).
“We’ve been working together since 2009 and kind of discovered this movie as much as we wrote it,” says Scheinert. “We have very different filmmaking processes but very similar tastes. As we work together certain stories started to reveal themselves.
“It’s kind of autobiographical about the two of us. That’s a joke answer but it is also kind of true. Certain jokes would make us both laugh. Somewhere in that stew of us becoming friends a movie about two guys becoming friends came out. The signature image of a man riding a corpse’s farts across the ocean came out somewhere in there. The relationships with all the crew that made this movie also inspired the movie. We met our DP and our production designer and wrote a movie that played to their strengths.”
With a premise Monty Python might have rejected as too silly Swiss Army Man uses the relationship between its characters to shed light on everything from stifled machismo and loyalty to unrequited love and the need for compassion.
“The overall meta joke was, let’s make a farting corpse movie but let’s make the most personal movie we can,” says Kwan. “If people are connecting to it they’re connecting to us pouring a lot of ourselves into it.”
“Dan keeps saying this movie breeds a strange kind of empathy,” adds Scheinert. “One of the goals was to tell the most unlikely love story. We knew Farting Corpse and Daniel Radcliffe would be viral. Cool, but if we can make you really care about that farting corpse, what a cool achievement. If we can do that, what can’t you care about? You can walk out of the theatre and it will be real hard for you to find someone you can’t empathize with once you have just fallen in love with a farting corpse.”
Reviews have ranged from rapturous (“Hilarious, deranged, and always alive with possibility.”) to rotten (“ridiculously infantile”) but Daniels are unfazed by the reaction. “Even some of the bad reviews were sweet and complimentary,” says Scheinert. Mostly they just want people to see the film.
“I hope people go to a theatre and watch it with strangers because even if they hate it they’ll have a really memorable experience,” says Scheinert. “I hate it when people say it’s not a movie for everyone because I kind of feel it is a movie for everyone. You have permission to dislike this and you won’t be bored if even if dislike it.”
“Swiss Army Man,” a new film starring Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe, will exceed your expectations. No matter how odd you think a movie about a lovesick, stranded man and his dead friend will be, “Swiss Army Man” is odder. It’s “Hope and Crosby On the Road to Self Awareness,” and it is weirder than you imagine it will be, but also wonderful and rather sweet in its own strange way.
The surreal saga begins with Hank (Dano) marooned on a Pacific island. On the verge of suicide, he has lost hope until he sees a man wash up on shore. “Don’t be dead,” he says, rushing to examine the body. It’s Manny (Radcliffe), and he is dead… or, perhaps more rightly, deadish. Manny’s body may be lifeless but it’s not useless. His flatulence lights fires, his erections sub in for a compass, he becomes a gun, a fountain and even a showerhead. “You’re a miracle,” says Hank, “or I’m just hallucinating from eating starfish.” As they journey toward civilisation the two men dig deep finding reasons to keep one another reasons to stay alive.
This story of a hopeless man and his dead buddy is a tale of friendship and what it means to be alive, really and truly alive. Unconventional and even occasionally off-putting, the easy thing would be to describe it as “Cast Away” meets “Weekend at Bernie’s” but that doesn’t grab the poetic essence of what the film is trying to achieve. Using a premise Monty Python might have rejected as too silly, “Swiss Army Man” uses the relationship between its characters to shed light on everything from stifled machismo and loyalty to unrequited love and the need for compassion. It’s a big order for a film that so whole-heartedly embraces its own eccentricity and it won’t be for everyone but adventurous viewers may enjoy the sheer audacity of it.
As for Daniel Radcliffe fans, if you can accept the idea of Harry Potter’s body being used as a jet ski, propelled through the water by the power of his own flatulence, then this movie will be for you. If not, perhaps stick to “Prisoner of Azkaban.”
Richard sits in on CHUM-FM’s “Roger & Marilyn Show” to talk about summer movies. Find out about “The Shallows” which is described as Blake Lively’s “Castaway” meets “Jaws,” “Finding Dory” with Ellen DeGeneres, the flatulent corpse humour of “Swiss Army Man” and “Ghostbusters,” the most hated trailer ever in YouTube history. (Starts at 19:01)
Welcome to the House of Crouse. SPOILER ALERT! This week we have a show that reveals many secrets, so if you haven’t watched the fourth season of Orange is the New Black, please be careful and listen for our special Spoiler Alert Horn during the Samira Wiley interview. She talks about playing the prison drama’s much loved character Poussey Washington. Joining her is Danieils, a directing collective comprised of Daniel Scheinert and Dan Kwan. They talk about making Swiss Army Man, a movie about a farting corpse, and how it was a deeply personal experience for them. Stop by the House of Crouse, sit a spell. You’ll like it.
