From Coast to Coast: Ryan O'Nan Brings THE BROOKLYN BROTHERS to the Santa Barbara Film Festival

by Terry Keefe

As Sundance draws to a close this week, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival revs up its annual star-studded event, which includes the U.S. premiere of The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best, one of the surprise hits of the most recent Toronto Film Festival. Brooklyn Brothers was written and directed by Ryan O’Nan, who also stars in the film and who has been having what could be modestly described as a “breakout year.” O’Nan composed much of the music for Brooklyn Brothers, which centers around a fictional two-man band comprised of O’Nan and Michael Weston (“Six Feet Under”). At Toronto, Rhino Records fell under the spell of the tunes so much that they offered the pair a recording contract, under the fictional Brooklyn Brothers moniker. O’Nan has also just completed starring roles in Freelancers, opposite Robert De Niro and Forest Whitaker; The Frozen Ground, with Nicolas Cage and John Cusack; and The Iceman, which O’Nan is currently shooting in Louisiana with Michael Shannon, James Franco, and Winona Ryder.

O’Nan himself spent a number of years as a struggling musician, after which he opted to focus on acting, so he clearly had more than a little autobiographical material to draw from in creating his role of Alex in Brooklyn Brothers. A broken-down guitar player, Alex only starts to find his groove again when he embarks on an impromptu tour with Weston’s Jim, who specializes in playing children’s musical instruments, such as the plastic ones manufactured by Fischer-Price.

Ryan O'Nan and Michael Weston in BROOKLYN BROTHERS.

 “I really wanted the story to be about two guys who are the opposite halves of what make up an artist,” elaborates O’Nan on how he structured the two lead characters. “One half has a certain amount of talent, but also has a lot of self-doubt. The other half is completely fearless and pushes relentlessly into the unknown, despite whatever factors kind of come up against him. And I split that into two people and made them the Brooklyn Brothers. They’re lost without each other, basically.”

 A character in the film describes the sound of the Brooklyn Brothers as “The Shins meets Sesame Street,” and their use of the children’s instruments also serves as an apt metaphor for the career struggles of O’Nan’s Jim. “This is a story about a guy who’s learning what it means to be a man, and kind of leave the land of childhood,” says O’Nan. “And the question is, ‘Can he bring his childhood dreams into his adult life?’ The actual instruments he uses to do that are these children’s instruments.” O’Nan and Weston just cut the Brooklyn Brothers album for Rhino this past month in Los Angeles, although an actual recording contract wasn’t one of O’Nan’s goals when he started shooting Brooklyn Brothers. “It’s a dream come true that we actually got signed as a band, but totally unexpected. I stopped playing music as a career a long time ago, and focused on the medium of film, but it’s totally come back around in a beautiful way,” he explains.

Ryan O'Nan in THE RED ROBIN. Photo by Meg Urbani.

O’Nan most recently wrapped the lead role in The Red Robin, where he plays the adopted adult son of a famed, dying psychiatrist, portrayed by Judd Hirsch (“Damages, “Taxi”), who did some mysterious work for the U.S. government during the Cold War. At an impromptu family reunion, O’Nan’s character makes the accusation that his father adopted his large family for the purposes of dark mental experimentation. Explains O’Nan about what attracted him to the Michael Z. Wechsler-directed psychological thriller, “I’m the oldest of five kids and we went through a lot together. I’m fascinated by the idea of siblings and how they come together, how they survive together, and that’s what the story was about. And, I’ve also been a huge fan of Judd Hirsch since I was a kid. Working with him was such an amazing experience.”

 As to whether he can attribute his myriad successes of the past year to anything in particular, O’Nan replies, “You know what? My biggest philosophy is that the harder you work, the luckier you get, and I’ve tried to live my entire life by that philosophy. I just love making things. I’m incredibly lucky to be in this industry, where you’re constantly meeting new people, and you’re getting to work with people who you respect. I just feel so, so lucky. I really do.”


 The Brooklyn Brothers Beat the Best screens at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival on January 27th at 2 PM; January 29th at 4:30 PM, and February 2 at 1 PM. More information on the Santa Barbara International Film Festival can be found at www.sbiff.org.