Sundance 2016 – Trash Fire

In 2013, I was exposed to one of the most messed up, traumatizing movies I have ever seen.  The Richard Bates Jr. directed Excision is a vile and horrifying movie that takes suburban America ideals and flips them on their head.  This movie shocked me at the time and still shocks me today, especially the ending, which disturbed me for long after the screening.

Well Bates Jr. is back with Trash Fire, another look at the dark side of suburban America, and it’s a pretty bizarre and deranged family drama.

Owen (Adrian Grenier) and Isabel’s (Angela Trimbur) relationship is in a very rocky spot.  Unfortunately for both of them, Isabel is pregnant and thinks Owen won’t be a good father.  To prove to her he can handle his new father role, he must reconnect with his only living relatives; his extremely religious grandmother (Fionnula Flanagan) and his sister Pearl (AnnaLynne McCord), who was severely burned in a fire, and bury any and all issues they have.  However, that task isn’t as simple as Owen and Isabel hope, and the couple are in for a horrifying trip that changes their lives.

For parts of Trash Fire, it reminded me of old school David Lynch.  This is a slow burning film that shows the side of religion and America ideals that is dark and twisted.  This movie is one constant build up, which works for most of the movie, but I feel at points it lingered and was stagnant rather than building character, story, or suspense.  Some parts I felt were thrown into the movie just for shock value, and with little shock to them.  However, the final scene of the movie is the scene that I was waiting for the whole movie.  It is when everything comes to a head and what happens is just awesome and put a huge smile on face which caused me to question my morals.

AnnaLynn McCord is creepy good at Pearl.  The only other thing I’ve seen her in is Excision and she was good there too, but other than that, her acting choices didn’t fit my taste.  She should continue doing these horror movies and leave the 90210 acting gigs.  Adrian Grenier and Angela Trimbur were solid in their parts.  And Fionnula Flanagan hams it up as the grandmother, but is a blast to watch.

I liked most of Trash Fire.  Though I wish some of the scenes moved the story along more and I wish it was more disturbing and scarier, I liked the world we were put in, the build up, and the ending.  This demented midnight entry is far from trash.

MY RATING – 2.5/4

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