“What’s taking so long, man?” says Gus (David Binder), waiting on the living room sofa in the opening sequence of Jake Ryan’s Drain Flies. There is, evidently, no honour among thieves – for when Gus goes to look, he is obviously surprised to discover that the house is empty and that whoever had been keeping him waiting has long since scampered. Then there is a knock at the door, and as we hear Gus answering it and being arrested by a police officer, the camera instead moves to the kitchen sink and ends looking down on the drain, which is after all right where Gus is headed.
While we never find out the precise nature of Gus’ crime, it cannot have been too serious, as he is released on parole just three months later, and emerges determined to lead a boring life on the straight and narrow. The problem is his brother Charlie (Taylor Pope). For while he may meet Gus at the prison gate (not that he ever visited him inside) and may even help him immediately find employment delivering food by moped, Charlie is a junkie engaged in petty criminality of his own, and is eager to exaggerate and exploit his brother’s experiences in jail to terrorise his debtor Nick (Samuel Irens) into repaying what he owes. Even as Gus settles into his work and starts dating local barista Saskia (Ruth E Maku), Charlie becomes ever more erratic and aggressive, attracting the attention of Nick’s more professionally criminal uncle Kurt (George Chron) and Kurt’s enforcer Sampson (David Sayers).
Drain Flies is not just written and directed, but also produced, shot, edited and scored by the polyhyphenate Ryan, who transforms recognisable Oxford locations – the Missing Bean café and the Samaritans building on Magdalen Road, and even a(n anti-)climactic confrontation within the metacinematic space of the Ultimate Picture Palace – into places of petty crime and budding romance. The budget is low, but then so are the stakes, in a film where folk are so desperate in circling relatively small change that it seems increasingly inevitable that violence will be done and blood will be shed for very little reason. Only Gus and Saskia stand out, as good people unhappily caught up in the mess and madness of others, and keen to extract themselves from the escalating situation and return to normal life – although one other character will decide to quit while still ahead and alive.
Drain Flies is a tragedy, but also comes with elements of comedy, especially when a career thug in pursuit of an innocent ends up having to join in on a dance class to cover his presence there. It is a tale not just of two brothers, but of crime, punishment and the possibility of redemption – and everyone ends up where they belong. For like the critters of the title, all these characters have the wings to let them choose flight, but some seem unwilling to leave the sewer.
strap: That sinking feeling: in Jake Ryan’s Oxford-set independent romance/thriller, petty criminals struggle to soar above the sewer
© Anton Bitel
