Screen Savor: Tickled man

With Tickled (Magnolia), gay New Zealand pop culture reporter turned filmmaker David Farrier (along with co-director Dylan Reeve) has created a doc reminiscent of 2010's Catfish in the way that it brings to light how the internet can be a place of pleasure and pain, and how imaginary identities are created as easily are actual identities are destroyed.

Farrier, who has "made a career out of looking at the weird and bizarre side of life," became intrigued with a website featuring "Competitive Endurance Tickling," in which 18-25 year old athletes are recruited for large sums of money to be in videos in which they tickle each other. After inquiring about coverage, Farrier is shocked and dismayed by the homophobic reply he received from the company, Jane O'Brien Media. The response is all the more strange response since the sport itself seemed "gay"

Following an onslaught of negative and insulting email correspondence, Farrier digs into the mysterious company and the woman for which it is named. As the tickling wormhole deepens, he decides to make a doc on the subject. Of course he's met with resistance, alerted that legal action will be taken against him if he doesn't cease.

For a doc on a subject that inspires laughter (both in participants and viewers), there aren't many laughs to be found. Hostility, humiliation and hate-filled interactions become a daily ritual for Farrier. Undeterred, he conducts interviews with former participants (including TJ, who was also relentlessly hassled by Jane O'Brien's staff and lawyers), journalists Hal Karp and Deborah Scoblionkov, casting recruiters Dave Starr and Jason Schillaci, and myfriendsfeet.com founder Richard Ivey.

Multiple mysteries begin to unfold and Farrier tackles them with determination. When he finally comes face-to-face with David D'Amato, the mysterious bully behind the tickling fetish world's heavy curtain, it's one of the film's most heart-stopping moments. D'Amato, whose own stepmother hasn't had anything to do with him in years, is one of the scariest figures on film, all the more so because he's real and has really deep pockets.

Ultimately, Farrier realizes that the story is not about tickling, but about "power, control and harassment." If tickling is your fetish, and you don't want to have your bubble burst, you might want to skip this one. Otherwise, prepare for an eye-opening experience.

As peculiar cinematic trends go, the lonely/depressed/socially awkward white man, seen recently in the marvelous The Lobster and now in Swiss Army Man (A24), is a fitting one during these terrifying Trump times. When Swiss Army Man begins, we see various objects floating on the ocean, each one containing increasingly desperate messages to whoever might find them.

Painfully shy and emotionally stunted Hank (Paul Dano) has run away from his life and ended up stranded on a beach. He is dirty, has a scraggly beard and a ruddy complexion. We don't know how long he's been here, but it's long enough for him to attempt suicide by hanging. Just as he's about to go through with it, he discovers that a body has been washed ashore.

The body, a man in a suit and tie, belongs to ""Manny"" (Daniel Radcliffe) who, for all intents and purposes is dead. That comes as a disappointment to Hank who is frantic for companionship. Nevertheless, Hank makes the best of the situation, initially having one-sided conversations with the corpse. Things change when, as "Manny"'s body increasingly takes on the characteristics of the dead, he essentially becomes a gas bag. Using "Manny" flatulence to his advantage, in the first of several scenes in which Hank creates art from farts, Hank mounts "Manny" and uses him as a jet-ski.

This is the first example of "Manny" as a multi-purpose (or Swiss Army) tool for Hank. His gas comes in handy for flight, for starting fires and for becoming a sort of weaponry. His teeth work as a razor to shave Hank's beard. His arms and hands act as axes. Some of the fluids emitted by "Manny" are potable (at least to Hank) and his penis becomes a compass.

"Manny" is also a sounding board for the story of Hank's wretched life, from his mother's death when he was a boy to the abuse he suffered from his father. A lonely and teased kid, Hank grew up to be a barely functioning man who found it easier to use his phone to take pictures of a woman he saw daily on the bus rather than actually talking to her.

Surreal, utterly ridiculous and stinky, Swiss Army Man, the feature length debut by the Daniels (Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert) isn't going to look good on either Dano's or Radcliffe's resumés. Even at around 90 minutes it goes on way too long and the ending feels slapdash and haphazard.