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Trash (1970 film)
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Wikipedia article
'Trash' is a 1970 American drama film directed and written by Paul Morrissey and starring Joe Dallesandro, Holly Woodlawn and Jane Forth. Dallesandro had previously starred in several other Andy Warhol/Paul Morrissey films such as 'The Loves of Ondine', 'Lonesome Cowboys', 'San Diego Surf', and 'Flesh'.
Woodlawn made her screen debut in this film; director George Cukor famously instigated a write-in campaign to have her nominated for an Academy Award, but this did not materialize. Jane Forth, a 17-year-old model, also makes her debut in this film. She would shortly afterwards appear on the cover of 'Look' magazine. The film also features other Warhol superstars such as Andrea Feldman and Geri Miller. The film features graphic scenes of intravenous drug use, sex, and frontal nudity.
Plot
Joe Smith, a heroin addict, is on a quest to score more drugs. Joe has problematic relationship with his on-off, sexually frustrated girlfriend, Holly Sandiago.
During the course of the day, Joe overdoses in front of an upper-class couple, attempts to fool welfare into approving his methadone treatment by having Holly fake a pregnancy, and frustrates the women in his life with his drug-induced impotence.
Cast
*Joe Dallesandro as Joe
*Holly Woodlawn as Holly
*Jane Forth as Jane
*Michael Sklar as Welfare Investigator
*Geri Miller as Go-Go Dancer
*Andrea Feldman as Rich Girl
*Johnny Putnam as Boy From Yonkers
*Bruce Pecheur as Jane's Husband
*Diane Podlewski as Holly's Sister
*Sissy Spacek as 'a girl who sits at the bar' (uncredited, but edited out of the final film)
Reception
Roger Ebert of the 'Chicago Sun-Times' gave the film two-and-a-half stars out of four and wrote that it was "aware of its own ludicrousness ... The humor grows out of the incongruity of the actors, the situation, the movie, the audience. 'Trash' passes right through pornography and emerges on the other side." Vincent Canby of 'The New York Times' called the film "true-blue movie-making, almost epic, funny and vivid, though a bit rotten at the core," concluding, "'Trash' is alive, but like the people in it, it continually parodies itself, and thus it represents a kind of dead end in filmmaking."Canby, Vincent (October 6, 1970). "Film: Andy Warhol's 'Trash' Arrives". 'The New York Times'. 57. 'Variety' wrote that the film was "the most comprehensible, least annoying and possibly most commercial of a long line of quasi-porno features from 'Chelsea Girls' to 'Lonesome Cowboys.'"Film Reviews: Trash". 'Variety'. September 30, 1970. 20. Gene Siskel of the 'Chicago Tribune' gave the film three stars out of four and wrote, "The Warhol-Morrissey world is a strange one, but in many ways, especially if taken in infrequent doses, a far more real world than the formula Hollywood drama or comedy. The actors are solidly in touch with their madness and can improvise with wit."Siskel, Gene (March 1, 1971). "Trash". 'Chicago Tribune'. Section 2, p. 13. Kevin Kelly of 'The Boston Globe' slammed the film as "worthless excess of an amateur rank beneath consideration."Kelly, Kevin (October 18, 1970). "Warhol's 'Trash' precisely that". 'The Boston Globe'. A-17. Kevin Thomas of the 'Los Angeles Times' wrote, "What Morrissey did in his first film 'Flesh' and now in this sometimes uproariously funny, sometimes desperately sad new work is to draw upon the far-out scene of the Warhol superstars and utilize the same basic setups of extended dialogs between two or three people."Thomas, Kevin (December 25, 1970). "'Trash' an Urban Odyssey". 'Los Angeles Times'. Part IV, p. 27. Stanley Kauffmann of The New Republic wrote- "Trash is disgusting, not for what it is on screen but for what it is in the minds of the people who made it".
See also
* List of American films of 1970
References
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