Video on Demand — September 2016
Video pick of the month
Swiss Army Man
The first feature by Daniels — the directing team of Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert — incited love it or hate it reactions after its premiere at Sundance this year. Journalists were eager to reduce the film to its outlandish premise — “Cast Away meets Weekend at Bernie’s,” wrote Variety’s Peter Debruge. (When asked, the Daniels counter with a more apt description: “Tree of Life meets Dumb and Dumber.”)
But the farts are just an introduction to an extraordinarily inventive and heartfelt film with a big wild story about survival in the woods, friendship, loneliness, how we name our feelings, how we know ourselves, shyness, bear attacks, the sublime joy of junk food, the meaning of masturbation, and much, much more. Paul Dano stars as Hank, who finds and befriends a dead body named Manny, played by Daniel Radcliffe. And Mary Elizabeth Winstead is Sarah, the beautiful woman whose backstory with Hank is relayed through videos on Hank’s cellphone. (Alicia Van Couvering)
