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American Trash Review
Image Credit: Robert LaSardo
Loading...American Trash Review
Robert LaSardo– Milles
Lorelei Linklater– Melissa
Gigi Gustin– Mandy
Costas Mandylor– Detective Anderson
Tom Sizemore– Detective Kelly
Richard R. Rendon– Tai
Elissa Dowling– Linda
Lance Carver– Jared
Mark Thompson– Charles
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Robert LaSardo
Screenplay by Robert LaSardo and Adrian Milnes (revisions by), based on a story by Robert LaSardo
Distributed by Deep C Digital
Not Rated
Runtime– 115 minutes
American Trash is currently available on multiple Video On Demand platforms, including Amazon (check it out on Amazon here)
American Trash, directed by and starring Robert LaSardo (LaSardo also co-wrote the screenplay with Adrian Milnes) and now available on various Video On Demand platforms, is a striking, heartfelt character piece about a damaged man trying to navigate a harsh world that doesn’t care about him or, really, anyone. Featuring a terrific lead performance by LaSardo, American Trash is a movie that will likely move you and challenge you, and it will definitely make you think. Is American Trash a movie that, when it’s over, openly embraces a kind of hopelessness, or is there another message to be understood?
LaSardo stars as Milles, a tattoo artist and veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder who goes out to the woods and picks up garbage to relax, especially around a cave that has special meaning to people who see Charles Manson as a kind of philosopher. The cave is one of the very few places in the world where Milles can find any sort of personal peace. One day, while cleaning up the area, Milles meets Melissa (Lorelei Linklater), a free spirit hippie that likes to listen to audio recordings of Manson. Milles and Melissa immediately hit it off, and over a short period of time they develop a deep relationship. Milles loves Melissa, and Melissa loves Milles. This relationship gives Milles a newfound sense of purpose. Milles’s therapist, Tai (Rich R. Rendon), notices that Milles seems to be in a better space now that Melissa is in his life. Is her presence the breakthrough that Milles needs to keep going? Is Melissa the answer to all of Milles’s problems?
Before Milles can achieve something that looks like enduring hope for life and the world (or close enough to it), Melissa is raped and murdered by two random psychopaths and left in a trash bin (we see these psychopaths attacking a mannequin outside of Melissa’s apartment right before they abduct her and kill her). This tragic event then sends Milles into a slow, downward spiral that he tries to fight as best as he can. With the help of Tai, Melissa’s sweet and understanding sister Mandy (Gigi Gustin), and a host of other friends (people that Melissa knew and worked with), Milles tries to keep it together. He tries to remember all of the good times that he had with Melissa, tries to remember and experience through daydreams and moments of meditation Melissa’s vibrant life force, and he tries to honor her memory by continuing to pick up trash in the woods. It’s one of the things that Melissa did to actively make the world a less terrible place. Milles figures that he can do it, too.
And so time passes, and Milles starts to lose control. He goes to see Detective Anderson (Costas Mandylor) to find out if the police know anything about who killed Melissa and the cops haven’t made any progress. Milles doesn’t understand how that is possible, but Detective Anderson tries to get Milles to understand that murder investigations take time. Milles doesn’t want to hear that, though. He can’t hear it. He can’t bear the thought that the police don’t know who killed the love of his life, or that they don’t have the same sense of urgency about finding the killers. Milles also can’t bear that Melissa’s parents despise him (he meets them for the first time at her funeral and it doesn’t go well at all), and that the world in general seems to be falling apart. Random street crime. Police abuse. Ongoing environmental destruction. A general lack of caring and awareness from his fellow human beings. This can’t be the world that he lives in, can it? Is this the world people in general want to live in?
That last quarter of the movie is harrowing and emotionally relentless. I won’t say what happens specifically, but I will say that the choices Milles makes are devastating. They’re truthful and real, but they are a bit of a gut punch. You root for Milles to be find happiness and peace, only for it all to fall apart in front of you.
And then there’s the ending. I wasn’t prepared for it.
American Trash is not an easy movie. Watching a character lose everything (and I mean everything) right in front of you can be a difficult experience. You want that character to make different decisions, to make decisions that might help him see good in the world and not destroy himself. But he doesn’t, and you can’t help him. You have to watch it all play out. You also have to watch a character dealing with PTSD also have to deal with overwhelming grief at the same time. That’s just too much for any one person to manage.
The whole “Charles Manson as a philosopher” aspect of the plot might turn people off, as Manson is generally considered an evil person (and he was, as he was convicted of murder and died in prison). How can one find affirmation in the musings of a, for the lack of a better designation, bad guy? I don’t think I fully grasp this aspect of the movie. I want to say that there’s some sort of subtext about hippie culture, “the 1960’s not working out” (think George A. Romero talking to Dennis Hopper on the set of Land of the Dead), and how human beings have a long way to go before they can be considered worthwhile creatures. I could be wrong about that, though. I think I understand the sort of basic “environmental message” of the movie more. People are not taking care of the planet, and that’s frustrating. I could be wrong about that, too. I’m sure it will all lead to fascinating discussions, though, about what the movie is “really saying” or “really talking about.”
LaSardo gives nothing short of a phenomenal performance as Milles. He’s in just about every scene of the movie and he carries the proceedings expertly. Milles starts out with a sort of melancholy that is clearly a horrendous burden to deal with, and you see that in the first few minutes of the movie. Milles’s demeanor changes when Melissa comes into his life. That melancholy is still there, but it isn’t overwhelming him. It almost seems like he’s just starting to manage it as well as his PTSD in a positive way. And then Milles’s life goes to absolute shit when Melissa is taken from him, and we have to see Milles slowly lose grasp of everything. It’s fascinating to watch LaSardo instill Milles with a menace that grows and grows as the movie progresses once Melissa is killed. It’s just a series of little moments where Milles loses focus around his friends. It’s like he’s shutting down and there might not be a way for him to stop and turn back. It’s just devastating to watch. Milles is easily one of LaSardo’s best career performances. There isn’t one untrue moment from him. It’s amazing and heartbreaking at the same time. LaSardo also shows that he’s a top notch director, knocking it out of the park with his first movie as a director. American Trash is nothing short of a major calling card to show everyone that LaSardo is the total package: writer, director, and actor.
Lorelei Linklater does a great job as Melissa. Melissa is a free spirit and someone who loves life. She cares about the Earth and about her fellow man, and it’s a revelation when she finds a kindred spirit in Milles. They clearly belong together. When her light is snuffed out because of a random encounter with two wacked out killers, it’s hard to deal with. It’s deeply unfair to both Milles and the world at large. That kind of thing shouldn’t happen. Linklater radiates joy as Melissa, and she has easy chemistry with LaSardo (you totally buy them as a couple).
Gigi Gustin is tremendous as Mandy, Melissa’s sister. She has the same sort of sweetness and love of life as Melissa, but she seems to come to both as an expression of grief for the loss of her sister. They were close, but you get the sense from what Mandy tells Milles that they could have been closer. Mandy takes up Melissa’s interest in the environment and uses her trash collecting time as an ongoing tribute to her sister’s memory. Mandy also tries to strike up a friendship with Milles, but she isn’t wholly successful. Mandy’s revulsion/disinterest in Manson’s philosophy is a major point of difference between the two. Gustin is such a positive presence in the movie as Mandy that you wish Milles could have found a way to connect in a better way with her.
Rich R. Rendon as Tai the therapist is exactly the sort of therapist and friend you want to have backing you up. Tai never once fails to support his friend Milles. I mean, yeah, you kind of wish he acted as more of a “voice of reason” in that one scene towards the end, but no one is perfect (he didn’t know that Milles was going to do what he ends up doing). Rendon is so damn mellow as Tai. It almost seems like Tai is the guy Milles could have morphed into if Melissa didn’t get murdered. If only that could have happened.
The great Tom Sizemore, in one of his last movie performances, pops in as a police detective that has to deliver the horrible news to Mandy that Melissa has been found raped and murdered. Sizemore makes Detective Kelly a prime example of what empathy is supposed to look like. Detective Kelly is, without question, a good guy. And Costas Mandylor does a nice job as Detective Anderson, the cop that Milles deals with directly. Anderson isn’t as outwardly empathetic as Kelly, but he isn’t a uncaring monster, either. You could almost call Anderson a realist (he knows, through experience, that solving a murder isn’t easy, and that there’s a chance that Melissa’s murder may go unsolved. Anderson isn’t going to quit, though).
Mark Thompson gives an enigmatic performance as Charles, the barefoot guy that Milles talks to every now and then. Who is Charles? Is he a real person? Is he a figment of Milles’s imagination? I think this will be another discussion point for this movie.
The rest of the cast is fantastic (check out the full cast list here), but the movie belongs to LaSardo. I can’t stress enough how good he is as Milles, and how the movie wouldn’t be the same without him.
American Trash is a difficult but rewarding movie watching experience. It will challenge you, it will make you think, and it will move you. It’s absolutely something that you need to see. Track it down and check it out.
See American Trash. See it, see it, goddamn see it! American Trash is currently available on various Video On Demand platforms including Amazon (check it out here).
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: 9
Explosions: A few. Briefly.
Nudity?: None.
Doobage: A panic attack. A montage of civil unrest. Rock touching. Trash collecting in the woods. Face touching. A bracelet. Meditation. Book reading. Kissing. Plant watering. Talking. Mannequin beating. Kidnapping. A crystal store. Nap taking. Multiple nightmares. Dead body identification. A funeral. A real lack compassion. A sidewalk memorial. An almost public break down. A very tight restaurant booth. A knife on the table. Multiple war flashbacks. Multiple hallucinations. A hike into the woods. Literal tree hugging. Breathing. Hand holding. A walk alone in the woods. Potential police inaction. A lack of justice in the world. More trash collecting. A lack of awareness of the environment. Face spitting. Gun to the chin. Talk of non-violence. More trash collecting. Attempted public graffiti. Strangulation. A clandestine recording. Lying. A final breakdown. A final confrontation. More hallucinations.
Kim Richards? None.
Gratuitous: A Charles Manson quote. A Jimi Hendrix poster. A Charles Manson video. Robert LaSardo out in the woods collecting trash. “Kill all the cell phones!” Pet jellyfish. A weekly planner. Robert LaSardo wielding a shotgun. Robert LaSardo riding a bike. Random street crime. Los Angeles. Tom Sizemore as a cop. Tom Sizemore with what appears to be a kind of Mohawk. Robert LaSardo talking about hell. A conversation about how awful social media is. 100 proof alcohol. Costas Mandylor as a cop. Costas Mandylor wearing some sort of scarf. “I want you to know that I appreciate your service.” A lack of environmental understanding. Robert LaSardo saying life is precious. “Love is the cure.” A guy named Jesus. “When you take a life, you owe a life.” The beach.
Best lines: “I know who that is. Do you?” “So, you just come here and, uh, pick up trash?” “That’s a nice bracelet you have there.” “Sometimes I stare at the ocean.” “Thank you, God, for Melissa.” “Tell me about the nightmares since last session.” “I’m here to help you. I’m not here to judge you.” “Someone pick up their phone! Please!” “Can someone just please tell me what happened to my sister?” “Are you Alvin and Kathleen Maddox?” “Are you saying you dated our daughter?” “Where are you going? I just need to walk.” “We’re all connected. Every one of us.” “I’m not your fucking buddy!” “Well, at least we’re going to get free drinks now.” “Who is that speaking? Charles Manson. Do you mind turning it off?” “Do you feel that? I feel my hand against the tree.” “It doesn’t have to be about darkness.” “Hey. Where did you serve? How did you know that?” “Don’t breathe too deep, my man. This stuff will cause you to see things you might not be ready to face.” “Don’t get wrapped up in hate, man. It will blind you, and complicate your journey.” “I can’t believe how much crap is on the coastline.” “Is this your property?” “Sir? Please don’t ignore me.” “Yeah. Take a fucking shower and get a fucking job.” “Don’t play with ignorance. It won’t save you.” “Can you please give me the knife?” “With respect, brother, do you think it will make any difference? What we do, at this point? Los Angeles is gonna burn. And I think it’s a blessing.” “Please give me a reason to shoot you dead.” “You believe in God? Yeah. Let’s wait and see if God saves you. Your friend isn’t going to. He just ran away.” “What happened?” “What about Manson?” “You know they’re coming for you, right? Yeah. I figured they would.”
