Tom Jolliffe reviews Shane Ryan’s Guerrilla, Paper Kids and American Virus…
Independent American film-maker Shane Ryan, has tended to court a degree of controversy throughout his career. He’s directed a number of features, and shorts. A common strand running through them is a recurring theme of isolation, of being an outsider, and the dark corners that can lead to. His style is involving without being intrusive. That being said, his most high-profile films remains a trilogy titled Amateur Pornstar Killer. The title says it all. The films were shot for next to nothing, but they were picked up and released. In fact on auction sites, out of print copies of the DVD sell for figures vastly higher than the budgets to shoot them. They’ve been called glorified snuff, trash, but on the other side of the coin they’ve found themselves (and indeed Ryan as a film-maker) part of University Film course curriculum. They’ve screened at special screenings all over the world. Maybe that says more about modern society than it does about Ryan’s film-making, at least as far as the APK trilogy.
It’s his more considered, emotionally resonant works which are more interesting. My Name Is ‘A’ By Anonymous was a fictional depiction of the infamous teen killer Alyssa Bustamante. It’s unrestrained (in every conceivable sense). It drags here and there as it shows the mundanity of being a kid with nothing better to do, and the increasing dark curiosities that must be satisfied. However, as much as it’s hard to watch there’s an emotional intensity and raw beauty to the imagery, whilst it doesn’t seek to judge one way or the other. It’s been reviled in corners of the film community (corners of which didn’t exist pre-internet) and labelled as a cheap cash-in on a sensitive and harrowing real life case. Of course a Hollywood production could portray any event they like without recrimination, as long as it has a big name actor in. For an Indie director like Ryan, it’s merely cashing in on pain, but as he would probably testify, he’s made nothing on it whilst going through a cavalcade of distribution problems. It’s out there in various forms from specialist VHS copies, to DVD (in various territories) to watered down and retitled VOD versions. In the end, like a lot of indie work which gets any attention, it’s probably distributed most by pirates.
That aside he’s had several films stuck in permanent post hell, as well as the odd diversion into acting parts in an Albert Pyun film, and Samurai Cop 2, among others. Despite having some degree of infamy for an indie director (more so in the states), he still struggles to get films made because in the end he’s left funding them himself. He embodies the classical notion of the struggling artist. Those who toiled with empty pockets, and not fully appreciated whilst existing in the mortal realm alongside their work.
Struggles aside he’s got three short films recently completed which I have watched. Here are the verdicts: Firstly…
Guerrilla
Despite being just over 10 minutes long, this film probably represents Ryan’s most lavishly budgeted film. It’s a silent film showing the aftermath of an apocalyptic event in an alternate 1989. A virus following nuclear attack turns the townsfolk into blood crazed lunatics. The film evokes the time period brilliantly. The hero, a young boy (Mars Mohamed, who I thought was a girl for the majority of the film) immune to the virus, wanders the wastelands armed with a Nintendo Power glove and a samurai sword and deals with the infected he comes up against.
This is less a rounded film, and more a prologue to a potentially more elaborate feature. It’s atmospheric, setting up the world both before and after the event. The innocence of youth as Mars and his friends enjoy being young. Then the aftermath when only survival and isolation exists. The fact it plays out silent means a lot rests on the predominantly young cast. Quite how Ryan does it, I don’t know, but he’s worked a lot with young casts and in most cases these kids aren’t actors. He gets very raw, honest and engaging performances from these kids. It’s an impressive feat. At the same time, he has the dedication to shoot hours upon hours of footage and sift through it to find those moments. I don’t envision Ryan as a one, two take kind of guy.
Guerrilla as well as having more thoughtful and introspective moments, also has a few added layers of exploitation on top. There’s blood and gore and it’s all done in the most delightfully crude Romero (R.I.P George) and Tom Savini-esque ways imaginable. Increasingly rare a way of shooting film gore these days sadly, with the rise in CGI.
The film looks gorgeous. Largely shot handheld, for a number of reasons I would guess. One of course is the fluidity and ease of simply shooting (and Ryan shoots himself), but it’s also a way of manipulating the camera. To both hold back and move in as required, without intruding on the actor, becoming almost choreographically (in the most instinctive way possible) unified between cast and director. It allows for the young cast member on screen at any given time to become distant from the notion they’re being filmed. When they reach that point of immersion, then Ryan can get in closer for a raw honesty and a genuine moment. It’s not the Philosopher’s Stone with 10 year olds woodenly being forced to recite dialogue and prodded into “acting.” “Raise an eyebrow Daniel…okay…now look surprised.” It doesn’t work like that here. Here, it’s honest. Ryan also shows the dedication to capture as many beautiful (and natural) moments as possible. From bonfires, to fireworks displays, to dusk, dawn, eye catching locations and more. If it looks good in frame, he’ll capture it. It expands the world, it captures the eye and it also makes the film look more expensive than it was.
The music is also fantastic. It doesn’t just pay homage to 80’s synth music, it genuinely sounds like it. There’s often a difference. Homages are great, but they’re always coming from perhaps too modern a sentiment. The music really does evoke old synth scores from films like Rocky IV, Transformers The Movie, Kickboxer and The Terminator (to name a few).
Here’s hoping that there is an expanded follow-up. Next up…
Paper Kids
Paper Kids follows some elements of Guerilla. It’s near silent, resting on imagery and performance. This time it steps away from fantasy and grindhouse and fully delves into something more timely and evocative. The film is youth in revolt. It’s young kids, driven by boredom, isolation, abuse and frustration into a variety of outcomes. What initially to some may seem like a collection of kids just wandering around doing nothing (which is half the point) slowly evolves into something more telling.
Once again, Ryan brings together a collection of kids, ranging from around 10, up to probably young adult. It plays out almost like documentary at times. The film is tough viewing. Ryan pulls no punches. Never has, probably never will. Despite the hideousness of some of what happens on-screen, it’s a yin to a yang. That being the beautiful photography. It’s raw but again, like his other works, there’s an ability to capture certain moments at the right time and to take youngsters who aren’t trained actors and make them deliver honesty. It does tread over a little to exploitation in a slightly jarring tonal shift two thirds in, before pulling back to the more reflective nature of the opening in the films denouement.
It’s a haunting and powerful piece, which I believe was originally envisioned as a feature (Titled God Got Ill). However as a short and sharp piece about forgotten youth in America, it works brilliantly.
Finally…
American Virus
This is full on exploitation piece. It’s a straight up gore fest, shot as part of a horror anthology. The film co-conceived by its lead actress Kathryn Eastwood (Daughter of Clint), is 5 minutes of unrelenting homage to grindhouse. It’s a love letter to B movie directors like Romero, Pyun and more. And like Ryan’s other works, it doesn’t do things by half.
A gang lead by Eastwood decide to unleash a zombie virus on L.A. However things don’t go as expected when they contract it. Gore, full on pace and pulsating music make this pretty effective in what it sets out to do. There’s not much you can do in a five minute short in terms of depth and development, so an impact is essential, and this has it, whilst the three leads, Eastwood, Ryan (working behind and in front of the camera here) and Tommie Vegas are suitably intense.
Rounding off a triple bill of shorts that are diverse but all equally unflinching, whether they deal in fantasy, horror or social reflection.
Tom Jolliffe
