Fried Barry: A Mindless, Drug-Fueled Extraterrestrial Debauch
Fried Barry marks the feature film debut of writer/director Ryan Kruger. All style and no substance, this gonzo fish-out-of-water debauch manages to be lightly amusing, but it’s a far cry from the cult classic it desperately wants to be.
Aliens take over the body of a drug addict and take it for a joyride through Cape Town.
The latest in the short-film-expanded-to-feature craze is Ryan Kruger’s Fried Barry. A self-professed “thing,” Kruger’s expansion is just about as vague and affectless as its label. He takes a directionless three-minute short that plays like an aborted Chris Cunningham Aphex Twin video (imagine a boring Rubber Johnny on heroin) and needlessly inflates it into an equally directionless feature that’s full of more influences than it is actual ideas. The film is essentially Bad Boy Bubby meets MANDY meets Under The Skin directed in the style of Chris Cunningham, but it can also be succinctly summed up as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial on heroin.
Unlike the myriad of films Kruger shamelessly pulls from, Fried Barry makes the mistake of skimping where it counts: with character. The whole journey would be far more impactful if we could connect with Barry or the alien that inhabits him. Both are pretty wooden and lacking in substantive characteristics. All we really know about Barry is he’s an odd, Bad Boy Bubby-esque heroin junkie, and a definite contender for worst father/husband of the year. Pretty much immediately, he’s abducted — in one of the most dazzling and inspired moments of the film — and occupied by an alien who returns to Earth in Barry’s body. The alien Barry undulates between bug-eyed catatonia and highly animated, drug-addled frenzy in silence, and while he’s a bit more personable than human Barry, he’s just as flighty about his own fatherly duties.
The ride isn’t without its midnight-movie charms, but the whole hedonistic odyssey that unfolds would have benefited from a tighter script. It feels very improvisational in a we’re-making-it-up-as-we-go-along kind of way, bouncing from situation to situation without a clear through line and padding the runtime with hollow monologues. There’s not really much of a narrative, and it’s hard to say what we’re meant to take away for it. Unlike films like Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum, there’s little pleasure in Fried Barry’s Cape Town shenanigans, and it’s harder to revel in the debauchery when we’re kept so firmly at arm’s length.
Kruger’s “thing” is really more of an exercise in style than anything else. Some of it is inspired and fresh; most of it feels recycled or stolen. There are notes of Oliver Stone, David Lynch, Jonathan Glazer, Rolf de Heer, Chris Cunningham, Panos Cosmatos, Steven Spielberg, John Carpenter, Gaspar Noe, and more. These are all great filmmakers to reference and pull from, but Kruger’s vision here feels sloppy and slapdash. Stylistically, he’s more like an imitator than an innovator — but at least he has a pretty good (albeit sick) sense of humor). Gary Green’s committed performance as the titular Barry stands as a definite highlight, as does Haezer’s lovely synth-wave score.
Overall, Fried Barry makes for a decent one-time watch. Although so might be quick to champion it as an “instant cult classic,” it doesn’t really seem like a film we’d want to really revisit anytime soon. On paper, it looks like a real winner — we love all the influences it pulls from, for instance — but it gets a bit fried in its execution.
Recommendation: If you’re OK with an experience that doesn’t amount to much and appreciate cool images and bizarre-o WTF moments, definitely give Fried Barry a watch on Shudder.
Rating: 2.5 alien abductions outta 5.
What do you think? We want to know. Share your thoughts and feelings in the comments section below, and as always, remember to viddy well!