Trash Fire Review

Tragedy redux------Adrian Grenier and Angela Trimbur as a couple going through a very weird crisis in Trash Fire
                      Richard Bates Jr's Trash Fire is just about the most screwed up romantic comedy you will ever see a film constantly subverting the expectations you have. From the first scene, which starts with Owen (Adrian Grenier) venting to his therapist and then ends with, well, see for yourself, you know this is no When Harry Met Sally or The Ugly Truth. This is a dark, disturbing film about people who are even more dark and disturbing. Somehow, though, Bates Jr is such a talented writer-director that he gets you to root for these miserably drawn characters.

                        The film (which Bates Jr has stated is only somewhat autobiographical,) follows Owen and girlfriend Isabel (Angela Trimbur,) who have had a very on again-off again relationship over the years but always manage to work it out. Owen's therapist (Sally Kirkland) isn't exactly helpful at trying to get them to solve their problems and things get weird when Owen reveals why he's been so detached all these years. All I'll say is that it involves his sister (AnnaLynne McCord) and grandmother (Fionulla Flanagan.) This is the kind of film that is much better not knowing what happens next because like I said, it is constantly going in directions you would never guess.

                            Grenier is amazing as Owen, taking a completely unlikable prick and turning him into someone you can't take your eyes off of. In the hands of a lesser actor, Owen would have had the audience running out of the theater. With Grenier, Owen is someone worth investing in and following. Trimbur provides a good foil to Owen through Isabel. She's likable only by standing next to Owen. Isabel is not any sort of a good person but you feel bad for her because she's stuck with such a dopey, cruel boyfriend.

                               As the sister and grandmother, McCord and Flanagan do an excellent job at doing what they need to. They take the way their characters are written and bring even more life to them, imbuing them with a sense of purpose and meaning that couldn't have been easy to find, seeing as these characters aren't exactly written as bright sunny people, either. Kirkland also provides some brief, but well earned comic relief.

                                Bates Jr has already proven himself to be a one of a kind filmmaker with Excision and Suburban Gothic and proves it again  here. This is an extremely stylish film but its style never sacrifices the substance. We are invested in these characters, believing who they are and wanting to see where their journeys take them. However, Bates Jr also shoots and writes the film with such flair that anyone the least bit interested in filmmaking will have a blast trying to pick out each subtle shot, shift in tone, character decision, ETC. Just like Quentin Tarantino before him, Bates Jr ends up laying out all the pieces for you by the end and it's fun to dissect how these things that you saw prior to the end were part of a bigger whole.

                                   Trash Fire may not be for everyone and it certainly will leave even the most uneasily shocked viewer with a sense of "what did I watch" but Bates Jr has written and directed a stylish, subversive, extremely well done horror film that should appeal to those looking for something a lot different.
(4 and 1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is Rated R for some disturbing violence/behavior, strong sexuality, nudity and language.)

Masterminds Review

World's dumbest criminals?-----Kristen Wiig and Zach Galifinakis as security guards who decide to rob their company in Masterminds
                             If you enjoy the idea of Kate McKinnon farting on Zach Galifinakis or of Galifinakis pooping himself in a pool that then turns completely brown, you may enjoy Masterminds more than I. For me, I found it the sort of dumb comedy that think it's a whole lot smarter and funnier than it actually is. In fact, I found it sort of horrible. Not once did I laugh, not once did I find anything interesting and many times did I cringe at the sheer idea of this cast having to deliver the material this film provides them. Then again, the film is directed by Jared Hess, a man who has specialized in making films (Don Verdeen, Gentlemen Broncos, Nacho Libre) that seem specifically designed to annoy me over the years. This latest effort from him may be the final nail in the coffin but it's not for a lack of the cast trying. Throw writers Chris Bowman and Hubbel Palmer, director and story writer for the unbearable Sundance-y Humble Pie to take down what could have been a pretty funny script from the extremely talented Emily Spivey and you got yourself one huge, steaming mess of a so-called comedy.

                                 What's even more is the fact that this true life story could have made an interesting thriller or drama or...comedy but Hess, Bowman, Palmer and Spivey do absolutely nothing with it. The story follows David Ghantt (Galifinakis,) a vehicle driver and security personnel for Loomis-Fargo who lusts after his equally strange co-worker Kelly (Kristen Wiig) while being tortured by Jandice (McKinnon,) his creepy fiancee. When Kelly proposes to David that they rob Loomis-Fargo, an idea she comes up with courtesy of master thief Stephen (Owen Wilson, who's way too nice to convincingly play any sort of master criminal,) David immediately jumps on the chance and ends up having to flee to Mexico in one of those comedy disguises that makes you wonder who thought it was funny. If that's not bad enough, he has to change disguises again (ha, ha.)

                                      However, things get way too complicated and Stephen hires a hitman (Jason Sudekis, the one half-way decent part of the film) to take down David. This results in one of the most unpleasant films I have seen all year, one that gets the displeasure of hating its characters even more than another thoroughly unpleasant 2016 comedy, The Bronze. This movie asks the audience to root for David and Kelly while absolutely taking anything potentially likable about them and throwing it out the window. This makes the film not only a sad and offensive attempt at manipulating its audience but also a complete cop-out when it tries to pull one last desperate attempt at the end. Spoiler alert! This is when it shows what has happened to the real life people and tries to go "see...they're good, smart people" after having just gone "ha, ha, ha...look at how stupid these people are." Say what you will about something like Pain and Gain but at least it was consistent in its meanness. Masterminds is uneven in what it wants us to think, which just makes it uncomfortable to sit through.

                                             If I took the likes of Galifinakis, Wiig, Wilson, McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Jon Daly (Jones and Daly play two FBI agents hot on David's trail,) Sudekis, Ken Marino and Mary Elizabeth Ellis, I could have made a significantly funnier film than Masterminds. It's hard to imagine someone screwing up this bad with such an incredible cast but leave it to Hess. He's been taking great casts and wasting them in these awful comedies for years now. It seems appropriate that a lot of these people are or were on Saturday Night Live and Spivey is a longtime SNL writer (she left last year after 14 years there) because all this film feels like is a really bad sketch stretched to an unbearable length.
(1/2 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, some language and violence.)