Trash

"Why do you have to be unconscious?" asks Holly (played by Holly Woodlawn) while fingering the unresponsive crotch of her passed-out junkie boyfriend, Joe (Joe Dallesandro). Joe passes through a series of flaccid sexual encounters until, on account of his drug habit, he hits rock bottom as Holly is forced out of frustration to consummate with one of his discarded beer bottles. A radical and infinitely more compassionate departure from producer Andy Warhol's art-as-commodity (or commodification) discourse, director Paul Morrissey set out to make a reactionary antidrug film (originally titled Drug Trash), but the film instead turned into a sweaty, cinema-verité black comedy about the pitfalls of, to use a popular catch phrase of the time, "dropping out" of society and, inevitably, losing all hope of human intimacy. In this case, dropping out is not so much an escape as it is a further complicity: rather than an exercise in free will, one form of mindless consumer addiction has simply exchanged with another. As a time capsule, societal criticism, and cult oddity all in one, grab this from the trash heap of film history on your way out of a burning building. --Christopher Chase Amazon.com

Trash

"Trash" is the second of Paul Morrissey's loose trilogy (bookended by Flesh and Heat). Joe Dallesandro plays a Village junkie who lacks the ability to satisfy women due to his drug habit. He shacks up with his girlfriend, Holly, in a rundown apartment without heat but outfitted with scrap salvaged from dumpsters.

In one hilarious scene, Holly feels they deserve welfare, though Joe's addiction presents obstacles. A weaselly welfare officer comes to visit their dive; Holly greets him as Miss Santiago and feigns pregnancy. Joe, dazed and somewhat confused and wearing only a blanket, is Mr Smith. Holly Woodlawn is pitch perfect in this scene as the shoe-obsessed welfare officer tries to trade a positive welfare report for her trashy silver pumps. (In a rare moment, Dallesandro himself seems to slip from character; he smiles briefly at the absurdity of Holly's pronouncements before recovering himself.)

In another scene, Joe does drugs with a shrill, squawking Andrea Feldman. Later on, he breaks into a suburban home in search of valuables to sell in order to support his habit. He doesn't find anything except the glorious Jane Forth who, in her boredom, actually longs to be attacked by this pill zombie!

These characters are wonderfully outrageous at times; you can't help but like them despite the desperation and the squalor. Yet by leading us to believe that they ultimately have no future, director Morrissey seriously deglams the junkie lifestyle. September 14, 2008

Proverbial Van Down by the River

Despite the gracious full frontal male nudity which is shocking now days, this film is boring! Even though D'Allesandro (the random hung naked guy of many Morissey / Warhol films) is every inch (literally) gorgeous (despite crawling around looking like a homeless man), nothing prevents the crawling creeping restless boredom of this film. (If that was the intent of this film, well then-well done.) If nothing else it serves as a prompting for a liberal's worst nightmare awakening: that hippies and alt. culture are hated for some good reasons. It serves well too as a proverbial "van down by the river": it will deeply motivate you to do something with your life and never end up like this. Nancy Reagan should've thought of this film when she was telling kids to just say no. July 7, 2004

TRASH,TRASH,TRASH!!

The movie is really trash. The movie starts out showing Joe Dallesandro's [rear] and Geri Miller go-go dancing naked. Later on in the movie we meet Holly Woodlawn a trash collector who is a transvestite and a former prostitute. More graphic nudity and sex come up when Jane Forth and her husband come in the story. An all right beginning,middle, and end but the story is terrible. February 24, 2002

Exploring the junky side of the moon

This film deals with drugs, very precisely heroin. We are in the post hippy period when drugs became an addiction after having been a life style. The drug addict is reduced in his sexuality, in his thinking and in his social life. He only survives in a hostile environment. But that was in 1970. The environment of the drug addict is either looking for easy kicks by flirting with drugs (high-school students for example), or for sexual kicks among young middle class couples or people who try to use the uninhibited life of the drug addict to have physical contacts with them or to beef up their own boring and fading relations, or for some advantage they can get from them in exchange of some welfare money (social workers for example). This leads to the sad conclusion that drug addicts who look for a certain liberation in a trip beyond limits find themselves entirely trapped in a fake world where alienation is demultiplied by their addiction. The film is of course also a piece of art by the fact that it refuses any kind of special effects or heavy production and the pictures only speak because they are plain, simple, and yet tremendously worked on by the simple technique of the camera, physical acting and voices. The expressivity of the film comes from those simple elements and the realistic revealing dialogue that goes along with it. The feeling we get is that of a totally poignant fatality that pens up the drug addict in a fully lost battle for survival. There seems to be only death at the end of the road.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU February 7, 2002

Visual Heroin

As a fan of cult cinema and gay underground films, I admit, my expectations for this DVD were pretty slim. I knew Dallesandro would be a visual feast, if not a genuine screen presence. Other than that, I can't say that I expected this film to impress me.

Well, it didn't. I've waded through John Waters' early efforts with more mirth than this sad film could hope to inspire. Laughing at this film is like empathizing with the upper-crust couple that Joe has the misfortune of encountering: hollow yucks at squalor and cheap thrills for the terminally jaded.

There IS a story here, of sorts, but Morrissey is determined to ignore it in favor of "moody" shots of Joe looking thoughtful, or just strung-out. The acting has the same over the top quality as that of Waters' 70's films, but the dialogue simply doesn't have the same insanely humorous spark.

There are a few moments that will have even non-fans sitting up in their recliners, though. For me, the scene where Holly gives a nice upstate boy a shot of heroin in the butt was a classic. And though the way she strips him and slavers over his naked body could be described as grotesque, it's also fascinating.

The best that I can say for this film is that it has a strong visual allure, whether it's one of Joe's many nude scenes, or a profile shot of Holly, all overbite and eye makeup. If you're a fan of Warhol or Morrissey, I'm sure you have a deeper appreciation for "Trash." If you're just an interested viewer, like myself, you may find my comments here to be of some use before considering a purchase.

-Mic June 3, 2000

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