Billy Elliot director Stephen Daldry's latest film focused around the younger generation is most certainly not the feel good movie you may have been expecting. After either hearing about Trash or even seeing the films front cover one may be expecting a feel good romp but Trash's greatest success and also in some ways its greatest weakness is the fact that it's not afraid to go dark, real dark making it an uneasy mix between family adventure and dead set violent thriller.
A huge step up from Daldry's last big screen adventure (although that's not a grand achievement), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Trash see's the long serving British thespian head to Brazil to direct this effort, a film that in a wide serving way mixes elements of The Goonies, Stand By Me and other children on a mission movies into a quite complicated and often downright bleak story written for the screen by famed writer/director Richard Curtis, creator of Love Actually.
Flirting the line between a feel good tale of struggling young Brazilian kids who may just have a chance at a better shot at life than a struggle to make ends meet at the local city garbage dump and a genuine life or death good vs evil tale of political corruption mixed with some torture and murder, Trash isn't afraid to show the darker side to this party locale. From memory I can't recall a film that was so quick to show violence towards children, one particular scene involving an unbuckled backseat passenger in a speeding cop car is easily one of the more uncomfortable scenes you'll witness this year and it sets Trash apart from any of its counterparts for better or worse.
At the centre of this sometimes uneasy film in both tone and subject are 3 child performances that really make Trash a film worth tracking down. With no previous before camera acting experience, Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis and Gabriel Weinstein excel in their respective roles and create a trio of young lads that we can root for. Surrounded by industry veteran Martin Sheen in the token 'white saviour" role and the always impressive Rooney Mara, these boys are the stars of the show that are only matched by Brazil itself as the films biggest wins.
Trash suffers from some form of identity crisis that stops it from ever reaching a great height, clearly backed up the films weak cinematic box office haul and somewhat muted critical reception and if the film had backed itself in as either a pure adventure or a jet black thriller it may've had more chance to really breakout. With some great young performers outshining there experienced co-stars and with Brazil as alive as ever, Trash is still worth your time even though like the dump the boys live in, you'll have to wade through the garbage for your rewards.
3 non-cleanly swimming spots out of 5
A huge step up from Daldry's last big screen adventure (although that's not a grand achievement), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Trash see's the long serving British thespian head to Brazil to direct this effort, a film that in a wide serving way mixes elements of The Goonies, Stand By Me and other children on a mission movies into a quite complicated and often downright bleak story written for the screen by famed writer/director Richard Curtis, creator of Love Actually.
Flirting the line between a feel good tale of struggling young Brazilian kids who may just have a chance at a better shot at life than a struggle to make ends meet at the local city garbage dump and a genuine life or death good vs evil tale of political corruption mixed with some torture and murder, Trash isn't afraid to show the darker side to this party locale. From memory I can't recall a film that was so quick to show violence towards children, one particular scene involving an unbuckled backseat passenger in a speeding cop car is easily one of the more uncomfortable scenes you'll witness this year and it sets Trash apart from any of its counterparts for better or worse.
At the centre of this sometimes uneasy film in both tone and subject are 3 child performances that really make Trash a film worth tracking down. With no previous before camera acting experience, Rickson Tevez, Eduardo Luis and Gabriel Weinstein excel in their respective roles and create a trio of young lads that we can root for. Surrounded by industry veteran Martin Sheen in the token 'white saviour" role and the always impressive Rooney Mara, these boys are the stars of the show that are only matched by Brazil itself as the films biggest wins.
Trash suffers from some form of identity crisis that stops it from ever reaching a great height, clearly backed up the films weak cinematic box office haul and somewhat muted critical reception and if the film had backed itself in as either a pure adventure or a jet black thriller it may've had more chance to really breakout. With some great young performers outshining there experienced co-stars and with Brazil as alive as ever, Trash is still worth your time even though like the dump the boys live in, you'll have to wade through the garbage for your rewards.
3 non-cleanly swimming spots out of 5