Richard Burgin on his first time out has directed and written a complex psychological journey that explodes in a well-earned climax that is as disturbing as it is enlightening.
Fang is the story of a young man named Billy played beautifully by Dylan LaRay who faces challenges from autism and a clinging mother who is in her decline, reeling from the curse of Parkinson's and a lifetime of self-delusion.
Billy and his mother, played frighteningly well by Lynn Lowry occupy an apartment together. Billy goes out every day to a warehouse job. That's his only physical escape. Yet, every night inside his room, another escape, he's busy creating fantasies in drawings of aliens in the far-off future with a complex history that he can recite with the elegance and sense of authority of a history professor from Harvard. It's impressive as it is heartbreaking.
Something is happening to Billy's world. Changes come in the form of the progression of his mother's disease and the entrance into the family dynamics of a live-in home health care worker whom Billy becomes attracted to emotionally and physically. Her name is Myra and she's played with great authenticity by Jess Paul.
It's through a combination of financial, psychological, and emotional drain that one night when a rat makes its way into the apartment, and Billy tries to trap it and gets bitten by this creature, that Billy's world begins to veer out of control. Gradually, Biily begins to believe he may be transforming into a rat. Patches of thick hair begin to grow on his arms, or do they? We're never really sure if it's real or something borne of Billy's delusions.
Richard Burgin has given us a lot to chew on for a small independent film. He has done it with the maturity and expertise of a writer and director who has much more experience than Burgin has because this creation FANG comes from something deep inside his being and he has conjured it up for us, and it appears before our eyes as a terrifying, yet, compelling dream with the help of a stunning performance by Dylan LaRay.
Fang is the story of a young man named Billy played beautifully by Dylan LaRay who faces challenges from autism and a clinging mother who is in her decline, reeling from the curse of Parkinson's and a lifetime of self-delusion.
Billy and his mother, played frighteningly well by Lynn Lowry occupy an apartment together. Billy goes out every day to a warehouse job. That's his only physical escape. Yet, every night inside his room, another escape, he's busy creating fantasies in drawings of aliens in the far-off future with a complex history that he can recite with the elegance and sense of authority of a history professor from Harvard. It's impressive as it is heartbreaking.
Something is happening to Billy's world. Changes come in the form of the progression of his mother's disease and the entrance into the family dynamics of a live-in home health care worker whom Billy becomes attracted to emotionally and physically. Her name is Myra and she's played with great authenticity by Jess Paul.
It's through a combination of financial, psychological, and emotional drain that one night when a rat makes its way into the apartment, and Billy tries to trap it and gets bitten by this creature, that Billy's world begins to veer out of control. Gradually, Biily begins to believe he may be transforming into a rat. Patches of thick hair begin to grow on his arms, or do they? We're never really sure if it's real or something borne of Billy's delusions.
Richard Burgin has given us a lot to chew on for a small independent film. He has done it with the maturity and expertise of a writer and director who has much more experience than Burgin has because this creation FANG comes from something deep inside his being and he has conjured it up for us, and it appears before our eyes as a terrifying, yet, compelling dream with the help of a stunning performance by Dylan LaRay.
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