SALON

Friday, Feb 25, 2005 11:39 PM UTC

“Ryan”

Seeing through a troubled "legend."

By

Topics:

“Ryan”
By Chris Landreth
A Copper Heart Entertainment & National Film Board of Canada Production
Length: 13:50 minutes

Watch “Ryan,” courtesy of Canada’s National Film Board

Oscar loves movies about the process of entertainment (from “Sunset Boulevard,” to “All About Eve” to “Chicago”), so the Academy may well adore Chris Landreth’s beautifully sad “Ryan,” an animated portrait of Canadian animator Ryan Larkin. In 1969, Larkin was himself an Oscar nominee (for the animated short “Walking”) but now he’s a Montreal panhandler struggling with substance abuse.

As an homage to Larkin, whom he describes as “a legend,” Landreth made a film that focuses on his amazing yet heartbreaking story. The film’s dark tale is haunted by strange partial X-rays of Landreth’s hand-painted, 3-D animations, which he calls “psychological realism.” So exact are Landreth’s images that, when paired with Landreth’s and Larkin’s voices, it’s difficult to believe that “Ryan” is not actually a live-action film.

And so exact is his troubled portrayal of Larkin that Landreth admits to having been nervous before he gave his subject a private screening of the film. “He said he thinks it’s a beautiful film, actually,” Landreth says. “And I really applaud him on his graciousness, because the film is not exactly flattering or glorifying. But Ryan is in many ways a humble guy, and really appreciated that someone did a film with some degree of honesty.”

– Kerry Lauerman

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • A missing poster hangs on a tree outside the Cleveland home of Amanda Berry Wednesday. Berry and two other women, Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus, made a daring escape this week after being held captive for more than a decade.
    Credit: AP/Tony Dejak

  • Elvis Rafael Rodriguez and Emir Yasser Yeje offer their best impression of  Eric B. & Rakim. On Thursday, New York prosecutors identified the pair as members of an international gang that robbed $45 million in a matter of hours by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and draining ATM machines around the world.
    Credit: AP

  • New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie walks to a podium during the groundbreaking ceremony for the Technology Enhanced Accelerated Learning Center at Essex County Newark Tech in Newark, N.J., Tuesday. Christie made less flattering headlines this week after undergoing a secret stomach surgery to curb his weight.
    Credit: AP/Julio Cortez

  • Workers stand outside the Tung Hai Sweater Ltd. factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday after a fire broke out in its 11-story building. Eight people were killed in the blaze.
    Credit: AP/Ismail Ferdous

  • Workers rescue a woman trapped for 17 days in the rubble of a garment factory building in Saver, Bangladesh, Friday. The building's collapse was the worst industrial disaster in the country's history, killing more than 1,000 people.
    Credit: AP

  • Former South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford gives his victory speech Tuesday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C., after winning back his old congressional seat in the state's first district.
    Credit: AP/Rainier Ehrhardt

  • Jodi Arias reacts in Maricopa Country Superior Court Wednesday after being found guilty of first-degree murder in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend, Travis Alexander. Arias has subsequently said she wants the death penalty, claiming she'd "prefer to die sooner than later."
    Credit: AP/The Arizona Republic/Rob Schumacher

  • Ariel Castro stands for his mug shot Thursday at the Cuyahoga County Corrections Center, where he is being held on $8 million bail. The former bus driver is accused of imprisoning three young women and beating them repeatedly over a period of 10 years.
    Credit: AP/Cuyahoga County

  • Charles Ramsey addresses the media Monday after helping rescue three women held captive in Cleveland for more than a decade. Ramsey's hero portraiture has been complicated by revelations of his own domestic violence record.
    Credit: AP/The Plain Dealer/Scott Shaw

  • Michael B. Donley, Secretary of the Air Force, testifies during a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday. The military branch was rocked this week after its chief sexual assault prevention officer was charged with sexual battery.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse