I really enjoyed this crazy Oscar-winning Oscar short (animated category). It played here at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va. My friend Jason Garnett, manager of the cinema, took a huge risk in bringing the shorts collection to this small city in Southwest Virginia. The film really reminded me of Naked Lunch. This is a Canadian film and Lunch's director David Cronenberg is also Canadian, so perhaps my reasoning is not far-off. Plus, both works deal with creativity and substance abuse. If "Ryan" has a fault, it is that the comedy and the dark central themes are at times an uneasy combination. But, the animation is absolutely remarkable. It makes for a surreal quality that makes feel as though they are looking at a Salvador Dali painting instead of watching a film. This is definitely not a film for children, but for adults, it is stark look into the dark world of drug abuse.
