Directorial duo Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, AKA “The Daniels” started their careers by making short films and music videos. In 2016, they released their first full-length movie Swiss Army Man. The film follows Hank, who has been stranded on an island and has given up hope of ever getting home. A talking corpse named Manny washes up on shore, except he has no memory of life before he died. Hank and Manny go on a journey to get him to remember his life and get home.
This movie is weird and does not skip out on sharing personal, uncomfortable details about the characters. But it’s also a story of self-acceptance and friendship. When I first watched it in early 2022, I absolutely loved it! After finishing the movie, I watched all the behind-the-scenes videos on this movie and I really loved seeing how everything almost was practical effects, meaning no CGI or visual effects. I think practical effects in movies are very creative and impressive to see. (Such as in the Mission Impossible movies, knowing that the stunts are all real makes the film so much cooler.)
Their more commonly known movie is Everything, Everywhere, All At Once. This movie dominated the 2023 Academy Awards, winning seven Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture. This is all for good reason too, the movie is amazing. It’s colorful, full of action, funny, and touching. The costumes and sets in both of these movies are so amazing, cool, and colorful. The plot is honestly too hard to describe without it being super long, but it involves the multiverse, powers, and acceptance of one another. I actually just recommend going into both of these movies blind.
They do have one more movie called The Death of Dick Long, this movie breaks their normal pattern of strange sets, costumes, and music, but definitely still lives up to their typical weird dialogue and story. I wasn’t the biggest fan of this one, but lots of other people really liked it.
I’m really glad to see The Daniels getting the love they deserve with Everything, Everywhere. They started their movie careers strong and it’s amazing to see how far they’ve gotten in just three movies. Their unique way of storytelling and the meanings of their films resonate with a lot of people, including myself. I am so excited to see what they will create in the future! I love many directors, but I think The Daniels definitely sticks out as my favorite.