Fried Barry
Director: Ryan Kruger
Writer: Ryan Kruger
Cast: Gary Green, Chanelle de Jager, Brett Williams
Part of: SLASH Filmfestival
Seen on: 19.9.2020
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Content Note: transmisia, misogyny

Plot:
Barry (Gary Green) is an addict, an abuser and an all-around unpleasant human being. The aliens who abduct him don’t care about that, though. They do their experiments and take over his body – and then return to earth to experience what human life has to offer: sex, drugs and violence.

Fried Barry did not work for me. It’s the kind of comedy that is filled to the brim with offensiveness that is disguised as humor and is probably super-proud of being “politically incorrect”. I did not care for it.

There are a couple of things that the film gets right. The visuals are often pretty great, especially when Barry is being examined by the aliens. Also, Gary Green has an incredible presence on screen and is an amazing choice for playing Barry. Plus, the film really has one perfect joke: alien-hijacked Barry is fucking with a woman – without moving or making any noise. She asks him to make a sound, and he starts whooping – a wonderfully absurd and really funny moment.

But the rest of the film and its humor falls flat. It’s the kind of film that thinks it’s being funny when it shows a trans/gender non-conforming sex worker offering their services to Barry which in turn leads to him harrassing them so much, they run away scared – in front of a truck, getting struck and killed. Then the film never spares them a thought again.

The film also features a mystical pregnancy which is a trope I hate anyway. And generally, the women in the film seem only there to get fucked and/or beaten. Although it is entirely possible that I missed a great female character because I did fall asleep for a good while, meaning that I only got a small part of the child abduction subplot that came out of nowhere and went nowhere, and probably missed some other stuff as well. But I did not care in the slightest – and that is likely all I need to say about the film and my impression of it.

Summarizing: Really, no.