Harry Potter and The Riddler Fight A Bear
Swiss Army Man was praised upon release in 2016. Daniel Radcliffe and Paul Dano costar in a crazy story focusing on Hank's (Dano's) journey back to civilization and his internal journey to normalcy. This tale's magnitude is lessened by the constantly forced jokes in order to make up for a slow-at-times pace.
Yeah, I laughed occasionally (mostly on my first viewing back in '16 when I was a 15-year-old who would laugh at any fart joke) but I didn’t need to have the constant masturbation jokes. A lot of the jokes, in my opinion, got stale fast. I understand that the jokes help the audience understand that Hank is a very awkward man trying to figure out life and reconnect with his family, but they get repetitive. One minute, they're conversing about how much they mean to each other. The next, they're fighting a bear with farts and fire.
I wasn’t too fond of the ending, but I don’t know if there is a proper way to “end” that story. If I were in charge rather than The Daniels, I would’ve made the overall film more ambiguous, but I think that might’ve given the film a different feeling. We don't necessarily see if Hank makes amends with his family/father, or if he is ever given the chance to explain himself to the people who find him at the end of the story.
Some films pride themselves on being as bizarre as they can be. I just finished watching Divinity (2023), now THAT is an incredible movie. Not incredible like how The Godfather is, but incredible just because of the sheer unusualness of the film. Radcliffe had stated once the Potter franchise stopped filming that he didn't want to be remembered as just Harry Potter for the rest of his life and that he would try anything for art. He's always tried to be experimental as evidenced by this 2019 interview:
His credits have certainly improved since filming the 8th HP, but playing an upbeat farting corpse trapped in the forest maybe wasn't the best move.
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