This was an iTunes rental on November 25th at the house in Chicago. My wife and I had finished watching 13TH and we needed a change of pace and this is what we came up with after going through different trailers. We ended up on this because the other trailers pretty much told you the plot of the movie. With Trash Fire, we weren't quite sure what we would get, so we went down the rabbit hole.
This picture, written and directed by Richard Bates, Jr., centers around Owen (the pretty boy from Entourage) the drunken, bulimic, epileptic slacker who has no means of income yet somehow has been dating Isabel (Angela Trimbur) for a few years despite the fact that they pretty much hate each other. The two are on the verge of breaking up when Isabel reveals that she's pregnant. Owen eventually has a change of heart and the two are going to move forward and become parents. Since Owen had a weird upbringing and has been estranged from his grandmother and sister (his folks were killed and sister horribly disfigured in a fire that was allegedly caused by Owen's negligence), Isabel decides that Owen should reconcile with the only family that he has in order to become a good parent(?). So the two drive out to Owen's grandmother's secluded home (never a good idea to isolate one's self) to make amends.
Turns out the Owens grandmother Violet (Fionnula Flanagan), is a religious nut job who disapproves of Owen, his relationship with Isabel and treats her granddaughter Pearl (AnnaLynne McCord) rather terribly. After the fire, Owen took off and left Pearl in the hands of Violet. Pearl is conscious of her looks and pretty much lives as a shut in with limited social skills. The more time Owen and Isabel stay there, more is revealed about the fire and Violet's big scheme. Pearl doesn't like Owen and Violet fighting and expresses her frustration about it. When we hit the denouement, the secret of the fire is revealed, Violet and Owen clash and Pearl violently punishes Owen and Violet for fighting (they were warned). Isabel's fate is left to Pearl (good thing she was nice to her in a previous scene) and it's probably not good.
I'll be honest, this was actually a pretty good film. The dynamic between was Owen and Isabel was almost on a romcom level and sometimes unbelievable (I get that Owen is good looking and all but is he really capable of of holding onto a fox like Isabel being so emotionally distant? Plus he's a jerk to her too considering what she puts up with) but it was interesting narrative to the film. There wasn't much onscreen interaction between Pearl and Violet to show how much they disliked each other until a scene where Violet sneaks into Pearl's room with a gun and as Violet points the pistol at her, Pearl, feigning sleep, whips around and levels a shot gun at Violet. Violet smiles and leaves the room. I got the feeling that this probably happens a lot. On a stay at home Friday night, this was an fun film to watch.
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