What If (2013)

I remember when What If came out an eternity ago and I really wanted to see it because I was in a post-Harry Potter Daniel Radcliffe crush period, but for a reason I don't recall I skipped it. The Radcliffe crush is over now, but I do have a crush on Adam Driver and Mackenzie Davis at the moment, and I really like Zoe Kazan, so I finally checked it out. 

The story follows Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe), a medical school dropout who is not very good at relationships and decides to put his love life on hold while everyone around him is finding the perfect partner. One night at a party though, he instantly bonds with Chantry (Zoe Kazan) and falls for her. Unfortunately, she already is in a serious relationship with Ben (Rafe Spall), and she just wants them to be friends.

My biggest fear going into What If was that it would be a predictable and clichéd romantic comedy that questions whether a man and a woman can be just friends, and, unfortunately, that's exactly how it was. A rather unoriginal and dull story.

The characters didn't work much better for me either. While Wallace and Chantry are both lovable in their awkwardness, they still are pretty shallow and one-dimensional, and there's something kind of unlikeable about them, especially about Chantry, and I couldn't really care for them. Same goes with the supporting characters, they are too plain, bland, and come off as cardboard and unlikeable and annoying.

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The cast, on the other hand, does a pretty good job and it's about What If's only saving grace. Despite they all are given very little to do, Daniel Radcliffe brings his dry humour to the film and plays Wallace in a way that it's not (too) annoying —he's not as good as he's in Swiss Army Man though—, Koe Kazan is so charming and sweet you can't help but fall in love with Chantry, even though I did not like the character at all, and they have nice chemistry. It's the supporting cast though that steals the show as Adam Driver and Mackenzie Davis easily give the funniest performances.

Ultimately, What If felt like a huge waste of potential to me.

Swiss Army Man (2016)

I first heard about Swiss Army Man when someone picked it for a Thursday Movie Picks post —I'm pretty sure it was Brittani from Rambling Film— and I added on my neverending watchlist because of the cast. 

The story follows Hank (Paul Dano), a man stranded on a deserted island who is about to kill himself as he's lost all hope. Suddenly, a dead body named Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) is washed up on the shores and, when Hank is about to try to hang himself again, the strangest thing happens, Manny starts farting. Hank soon learns that Manny can help him survive and find a way back and strikes up a friendship with him in the meantime.

What the fuck am I watching, was my first through as the plot to Swiss Army Man began to unfold. It's absurd, ridiculous and quite idiotic, to be completely honest, and yet it's creative and there's something incredibly fascinating about it. Maybe it's its uniqueness, its being so out of the box, so unusual, or maybe the fact that it's a heartwarming and humorous story of an unlikely friendship, or the social commentary the filmmakers are able to make with such a silly story as it deals with social norms, bullying as well as (self-)love, sex, death and the importance of being yourself.

It's the characters though that I loved the most about Swiss Army Man. They are brilliantly written and as a result, you truly care about them. It also helps that there's terrific chemistry between the two leads which makes the characters' relationship feel genuine, real. Paul Dano gives a great performance as Hank and delivers the character's feelings so effortlessly. It's Daniel Radcliffe who gives the standout performance though, arguably the best —as well as my favourite— of his career, as he is incredibly hilarious in the role of the corpse —the things he does with his body and face are unbelievable, not to mention how much life he manages to bring into a dead character, literally.

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The humour is juvenile and quite vulgar —there are so many fart and dick jokes it's impossible to keep count— but, surprisingly, it's never off-putting as they fit the weirdness of the film to perfection. It's the quite offensive and crude jokes that are the most effective and they will make you laugh out loud very often. I don't know what it is, but there's something about the jokes and the way they are delivered, that makes even fart jokes sound like poetry.