Fried Barry Movie Review - An Outlandish Delight

A man walks alone at night in this acid trip incorporating drugs and alien abduction.

I think Nicolas Cage is the only other actor who can replace Gary Green in writer-director Ryan Kruger's trippy nightmare, Fried Barry. Not that Green needs any substitution when he confidently can run through the streets in his underwear. He gets into the skin of Barry, a foul-mouthed drug addict everyone would gladly avoid coming in contact with. Not his good friend at the bar though, who invites him over to his place to smoke. Barry accepts as he has nothing much to do apart from starting arguments with others, including his tolerant wife. And he has just done those tasks before arriving at the bar. High on drugs, he walks on the streets encompassed in red. Some viewers may connect this visual to the one in Mandy. Why, it too has a fight scene involving a chainsaw. What's more, both Mandy and Fried Barry progress like an absurd, hallucinatory dream.

Absurdity kicks in when the aliens abduct Barry. After a series of bizarre images, his body is taken over by one of them, and back on Earth, he walks as if a robot with a confused expression. His intellect processes events such as bickering, drinking, joking, puking, and yes, blowjob! Moving from one party to another, he is introduced to the wonders of LSD. A woman takes note of his fierce dance steps and takes him for sex. This is not the first time he would get laid. He gets a girl pregnant the second time. Hell, the baby is born within minutes after the act. As he continues roaming the city, he finds himself in various places ranging from an abandoned hideout where children are held captive to a mental asylum which unties him with an old friend.

Somewhere between this frenzy, Barry's wife finds him meandering and takes him to the house. This being the alien Barry, he starts feeding the baby, something original Barry would never have attempted. He even learns to behave like a perfect man by watching a movie. He kisses his wife on the neck and says, "I love you." "You are the only girl for me, honey," he impassively states in the bedroom. Ryan Kruger tries to depict that an ideal family man is the one who reacts as his woman desires. But then, in a supermarket, when Barry excitedly stares towards a woman (making lewd gestures) sitting at the counter, Kruger shows that the concept of an ideal, perfect man does not exist. In some ways, Barry's wife's forgiving nature after witnessing minor gestures of generosity from her husband sheds light on the big, clement heart every woman possesses. That or Fried Barry is poking fun at the "generous female" trope, exposing its idiocy. Because one thing most of the girls in Fried Barry do is go behind ruthless men asking for acceptance.

On the summary page of IMDb, it is written that Fried Barry is based on a short film going by the same name. This short had attained 57 official selections and 12 wins at festivals around the world. I don't know how the two compare, but I enjoyed every moment on the screen. There is charming ridiculousness attached to everything that happens here. Fried Barry never takes itself seriously. Both the film and the audience are in the same farcical mood. Often there will be a pairing of a white and a black dude (another jab on a genre convention?). It is hilarious. A fast forwarded scene is slowed down at the right moment (inside a bus) to produce a comical effect.

With Gareth Place's cinematography, Fried Barry blooms with colors popping out in the dark of night. Ryan Kruger crafts a psychedelic experience. Some shots offer a glimpse of Barry's joyous life before he submitted to abuse and narcotics. Fried Barry never details on this transition though I wish it had provided a peek to give human touches to Barry instead of presenting a "fried" version of him. It is not much of a complaint when, for the entirety, I was hooked to the screen. Still, a feature film should go for detailing over surface-level outlining. It is the hard drink that influences, not a soft drink.

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