Um... What?!?

Good morning Consumers, This is Please consume, the film newsletter that loves you more than Ben Affleck loves being from Boston. 

Honestly, I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to do an A24 week.

But with the release of Persilla, it was the perfect time to take a look at the films we love from this studio.

with so many hits to choose from this was a harder task that expected.

So without further ado here are our selections for A24 week!

 Swiss Army Man (2016)

Written by Caleb Madden

If you look through A24’s filmography you’ll find a lot of the best films of the last 12 years. It is honestly kind of insane just how many hits A24 has had! Most of that success can be attributed to letting directors really do what they want no matter how crazy or unsellable that vision may be. This freedom is what allowed for last year's Oscar sweep to happen for Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. 

 Today's movie just so happens to be the predecessor to the aforementioned Oscar Sweeper.

That’s right, we are talking Swiss Army Man!

Um… What?!?

Swiss Army Man is a movie in which Paul Dano rides the corpse of Daniel Radcliff like a jet ski that is powered by farts. Okay cool we can go home now. Really, though, that is the best synopsis you can give for this truly and deeply absurd movie. Basically a man who is stranded in the woods uses a dead body as a multipurpose survival tool. And it is as crazy as it sounds. 

However, it is also deeply profound. It is a movie that is about overcoming anxiety, fear, and embarrassment and living life to its fullest. It is a movie that is extremely middle school. Its main character is basically a middle school boy trapped in a man’s body. And all this movie wants to ask is why do we repress so much of our true selves. Why do we shun our deepest most vulnerable parts if it doesn’t help us make any connection.

Montage

Swiss Army Man is almost a musical. This film is scored by Andy Hull and Robert McDowell, two of the members of the Atlanta based indie rock band “Manchester Orchestra”.  In the prologue/opening scene, Hank (played by Paul Dano) starts singing/talking these random and flabbergasted phrases that the soundtrack and score then turn into a harmonious backing track. It sounds worse on paper than it does in the movie, trust me. And there are tons of moments just like this throughout the rest of the movie! 

 The music in this movie is SO central to its narrative that at times it really does feel like a musical. Not to mention that Hank has two of the most annoying/catchy songs stuck in his head through most of the movie. And it is this musical theme that fuels some of the peaks of this movie. The climax of the connection built between Manny and Hank is scored with a beautifully spacey and powerful song in which the main word sung is “montage” while a montage is happening. Amazing!

Fair Play

As I mentioned before, this film is asking a lot of powerful questions in a pretty silly way. But if you take a step back and look at it you can see all the pieces of Everything, Everywhere, All At Once right in this movie. To me that’s part of what makes this movie, and A24’s picking of this movie, so special. We need to have directors and creatives that feel like they can stretch their legs. Without Swiss Army Man there would be no Everything. I’m really thankful that A24 is willing to invest in people's crazy ideas so we can get wonderfully silly and deep movies like this. 

Writer’s Note: This scene has images of attempted suicide. Watch at your own discretion.

Editor’s Note: Geez Caleb, what’s with all the graphic content lately?

Today’s Scene