Swiss Army Man (Netflix)
A film with, perhaps, the oddest premise of any I've watched this year. A castaway finds a corpse washed up on a beach, and uses the body (who he names Manny) as a boat, compass, harpoon gun... In the course of this, Manny appears to regain some vestiges of life, and as he has forgotten much of what he knew, Hank (the castaway) begins to teach him, and the two establish an oddly touching friendship.
It's a weird mixture of gross out humour, self discovery, and examination of what happens to fantasy when it meets the real world. That latter aspect put me in mind slightly of "Tomboy" (see reviews passim). It's a curious mixture of a film, but mostly well judged enough that it remains touching despite its gross out moments, and funnny despite its sentimentality. Worth checking out.
The Siege of Jadotville (Netflix)
Solid action film that loses its way slightly in trying to cram in a politicians vs ordinary soldiers subplot. The action is gripping, and well handled, but the politics feels a little rushed and simplistic. Jamie Dorman's accent seems to wander Ireland a little too. There's a slightly uncomfortable "white man's burden" feel to it as well (despite being set in Africa, the only non-white character with a large role is the awful dictator - otherwise, we see masses of faceless mercenaries, who are, for the most part, mown down without a second thought for them).
The Handmaiden (Prime)
I have no idea how I will do justice to this film in the short space I usually do these reviews in. On its surface, this is an intricate tale of con-artists plotting to trick a young Japanese woman out of her inheritance. It's also a film about sex and intimacy, contrasting the high minded (supposedly) consumption of vintage erotica by a club of upper class men with a more spontaneous, but societally unacceptable erotic relationship. It's also about a sort of deep, primal love, and the lengths to which that will drive people. All these threads are handled superbly, and put together in a beautifully photographed, wonderfully acted whole that is undoubtedly my main feature this week.
