Ryan
2004 · 13m · Canada
Directed by Chris Landreth
Genres: animation, biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
Animator Ryan Larkin, once highly influential, now lives with addiction and panhandles to survive. Filmmaker Chris Landreth uses computer-generated figures to interview Larkin and trace his fall from prominence.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects a documentary about a fallen artist to genuflect at the tragedy, but Landreth's CG interview subjects feel almost alien—like he's deliberately refusing the easy intimacy that would let us off the hook. It's a formal middle finger to the redemption arc.
A masterclass in how form becomes argument: the pixelated, fractured CGI figures aren't a gimmick but a genealogical statement—Landreth placing himself in the lineage of experimental animation while simultaneously interrogating the medium's relationship to its subject. The film knows exactly what it's doing.
The decision to animate Landreth himself into the frame as an equal—not omniscient narrator but another uncertain figure in the conversation—transforms what could have been extractive into something genuinely collaborative; it's the single choice that makes the whole ethical premise work.