Absurdist Comedies

Swiss Army Man

Greener Grass

As I scroll through the weeks of posts that came before this one, I noticed that it had been a minute since I’d done a night of funny movies. Most recently there was Modern Times, which was funny, but its humor was packed in with some rather scathing political and social commentary. Then there were movies like Darkman and ELVIS, which were also funny, without intending to be. But it’s been many weeks since I’ve specifically sought out funny films, and I, for one, think we’re due for some more laughs, more lolz, and more ludicrousness. This week I wanted to dip a toe into some absurdist comedy—a subgenre of comedic films where the sensibilities are insanely exaggerated, over the top, and rarely rooted in reality. Many comedic films could be classified as absurdist, the 90s and early 2000s alone seemingly only produced absurd comedies, but some are more deserving of the title than others. Spoofs that parody established genres of film like Scary Movie and Airplane, or basically any movie starring Leslie Nielsen, are certainly absurd. But true absurdist comedies typically invent their own weird, incomprehensible premises and worlds, like in tonight’s two films. I didn’t exactly tee-hee as much as I’d hoped I would, but both films were certainly gross and weird which, if done right, can make me very happy. I started with the 2016 dark comedy Swiss Army Man, a film by the odd genius directing duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (who go by Daniels) that made one of my favorite films of the year—Everything Everywhere All At Once. I did not have much interest in Swiss Army Man until I watched Everything Everywhere, then I knew that I had to see it. Swiss Army Man follows Hank (Paul Dano): a man who’s been stranded alone on a deserted island for a long time. Hank has run out of options and rations and decides to hang himself, until he sees a body suddenly wash up on the beach. Hank frees himself from his noose and sprints over to the body excitedly, shaking it and speaking to it despite the body’s very dead state. The dead body, Manny, is played by the always-committed Daniel Radcliffe, and proves to be far more capable than most dead bodies. Manny is motionless, but he is not worthless. His body creaks and moans and gurgles until suddenly, he’s farting—with a force and sense of direction that can be utilized. Hank, on the brink of insanity and desperation and death, does what any human being would do in this situation, and rides Manny’s body like a farting jetski, to the nearest place of shelter. Hank uses Manny’s body to do all sorts of things, none of which you can imagine. Eventually Manny begins to speak and listen and learn from Hank, all about life and what it consists of. It’s in these life lessons that some of the most bonkers and bewildering moments occur, because life is nothing if not bonkers and bewildering. And if my description of this film is sounding strange, just know that Swiss Army Man is even stranger to experience. It makes you think about life, about what’s important, and what you really want out of it. It plays with the formalities and expectations of whatever we consider to be proper in society, and completely turns it on its head. What I loved about Everything Everywhere and what I loved about Swiss Army Man was its balance of realism and absurdity, how the most boring, tedious, or mundane aspects of life could be stretched and overemphasized and appreciated and made into pure magic when observed through the right perspective. Were it by any other filmmaker, I’d be gobsmacked at the fact that this movie—riddled with farts and boners and poop jokes—could make me feel every emotion, including gratitude. But because this is a Daniels film, I was not at all surprised at this movie’s ability to make me laugh, cry, and rethink my entire existence. Daniels, Daniel, and Dano—these are all solid dudes. Dudes who can deliver hilarity and humanity in the same breath, dudes who can make me weep and roll my eyes at the same time. Swiss Army Man wasn’t quite the same emotional experience that Everything Everywhere was, but it was just as silly and just as existential. This is the kind of film that I know is not for everyone, at times it wasn’t even for me, but it is the kind of film that, no matter how bizarrely the story is told, the story is true and visceral and necessary. Having just lost my job, I was in need of some humor, and in need of another perspective, and Swiss Army Man certainly delivered that. Swiss Army Man laughs and marvels at the capabilities and limitations of the human body, and I gotta give Daniel Radcliffe a lot of credit, because he gave his most dedicated and entertaining performance since Now You See Me 2. In fact, Daniel Radcliffe deserves more credit, in general, because he’s had the most random and amazing post-Harry Potter career of any of his fellow Hogwarts alumna—including Emma Watson’s attempt to be anything but Hermione in The Bling Ring (and everything else…). Overall, Swiss Army Man was weird as fuck but I enjoyed it thoroughly, I just wish the same could be said for the next film that I watched: the 2019 surrealist comedy Greener Grass. There were plenty of surrealist and absurdist comedies to choose from, but Greener Grass stood out to me because of its excellent cast (D’Arcy Carden, Beck Bennett, Neil Casey, Jim Cummings, Dot-Marie Jones, [Zola director} Janicza Bravo, and other familiar faces), and the female director-writer duo at the helm, and I went in as open-minded as possible—despite my pickiness in this genre. If Swiss Army Man was hard to put into words, Greener Grass is downright impossible to summarize, but I’ll do my best. Picture a Stepford Wives meets Don’t Worry Darling aesthetic, where suburban people live and work and go to school. Everything is persistently pastel and colorful, with the quirkiest, cutest costuming imaginable. Everything is seemingly clean and monochromatic symmetrical and pleasant, until someone opens their mouth and someone is murdered. Most residents have braces and very odd habits and behaviors, exemplified by a moment that occurs at the very beginning of the film: when one protagonist Jill (Jocelyn DeBoer) happily gives her baby to her friend, the other protagonist Lisa (Dawn Luebbe). That is just one instance of absurdity in this showcase of insanity, some instances proving to be funnier than others. I found the majority of this movie to be funny, not the laugh out loud kind of funny, but the kind of funny that makes you breathe out your nose a little bit louder than normal. I wish the commitment to comedy was given the same attention to detail that went into making its world seem surreal, but I found that Greener Grass never properly found its sense of humor. Some of the weirdness was accepted by other characters, other weirdness was gawked at, and while that’s all fine and good and somewhat expected for an absurdist comedy, I’m not sure if Greener Grass was convinced of its own comedic sensibilities or the direction (or lack thereof) that it went in. Some of the best comedic moments were unspoken, where everything was said in glances and passive aggressive glares. The rest of the good moments came solely from former AT&T commercial star and SNL alumni Beck Bennett, the perfect milquetoast white bread man to deliver this kind of parody of suburbia. To its credit, Greener Grass did what Swiss Army Man did and mocked the very rigid expectations of adult social life. But most of it was just a stream of conscious parade of weirdos, where you never quite knew what was happening or why it was happening. If it were funnier, or scarier, or just a little bit more connected, I think Greener Grass would be phenomenal—it just didn’t quite hit the mark. As I learned with my last attempt to watch surrealistic cinema, only certain sects of strange are satisfying to me. But never stop recommending me weird movies, dear reader, and never feel too weird about yourself—Daniel Radcliffe certainly doesn’t.