Fried Barry (Fantasia Fest 2020)

Folks?
This is a weird one, so strap in.

Fried Barry is the feature debut of Ryan Krueger, and follows the story of Barry (Gary Green), a heroin-addicted and abusive man in South Africa who is abducted and possessed by an alien, who proceeds to take Barry’s body on a spin ’round Cape Town. What seemed to start out as a character study quickly becomes a high-concept “road movie” on feet, gleefully attempting to overload your senses as you’re dragged along for the journey just as Barry himself is.

Indeed, it’s a visual and aural assault, and while they can get a bit overwhelming (on purpose though it may be) I did quite like the visuals in this movie – there’s a great neon glow to a lot of the shots, and “Barry” doing club drugs is as stimulating as it surely must be for the alien inside.

Take a ride with Barry

I also did laugh several times at this movie, which has a wonderful absurdist bent to it, but of course your results may vary depending on your tolerance for fish-out-of-water jokes. There’s also plenty of sex and violence to keep your attention on screen, if the vibrant colors and fast pace weren’t enough – though typically it’s paired with comedy as well, in varying shades of effectiveness.

While the movie isn’t perfect, it has a lot of fun moments and the visuals are worth the price of admission. Without giving away too much, let’s just say one scene in particular put me in mind of XTRO and you know I love me some XTRO.

The movie clips right along and at only an hour and thirty-nine minutes, doesn’t overstay its welcome -so take the trip and let Fried Barry fry you. You’ll remember this one for a while.