Trash Fire

Movie Title-- Trash Fire

Release Year-- 2016

Running Time-- 1 Hour and 34 Minutes

Director-- Richard Bates Jr.

Cast-- Adrian Grenier, Angela Trimbur, Fionnula Flanagan, AnnaLynne McCord, Sally Kirkland, Matthew Gray Gubler, Ezra Buzzington, Molly McCook, Roy Santiago

Owen, a clinically depressed bulimic that suffers from seizures, is forced to try to make a connection with his psychotic grandmother and disfigured sister after learning his girlfriend is pregnant.

Owen (Grenier) is in a session with his therapist Florence (Kirkland) when he notices that she has fallen asleep. After waking her, he accosts her for falling asleep while he was pouring his heart out to her and when she tries to twist it so he will talk about how he feels about her sleeping, it angers him more and he storms out. Next he is at dinner in a restaurant with is girlfriend of three years, Isabel (Trimbur) and it appears to be a very tense dinner. Isabel tells him that she needs security and after he has nothing nice or reassuring to say back, she storms out of the restaurant.

Owen is then in the bathroom, throwing up his dinner before going home and finding the door locked. Without warning, Owen lays down in the floor and has a seizure and Isabel comes out into the hallway, begrudgingly taking care of him.

Later, after arguing with Owen, Isabel reveals she is pregnant, a revelation that catches Owen off guard. Isabel tells Owen she isn't going to keep the baby and runs off to bed. Throughout the night, Owen has terrible nightmares of his parents deaths and tells Isabel the next morning that he wants to be a father to her child to try to step out of his past and into a new future. She reminds him that family is important to her and says she will have the baby with him only if he takes her to visit his grandmother and sister whom he has nothing to do with and try to reconnect with them.

Although Owen doesn't want to visit his grandmother Violet (Flanagan), he decides to go for Isabel's sake and also to try to talk his sister Pearl (McCord) into coming away with them. The resulting weekend turns into a horrific time that will soon be their biggest regret.

I am going to give it to you straight folks...I HATED this film. The best things about this film are, the opening sequence right before the title screen, Adrian Grenier's beautiful blue eyes and Matthew Gray Gubler. I am a little bias though because I have been a fan of Gubler's for a long time and I will say, although I do count him as one of the best things about this film, he didn't have nearly enough screen time to really be counted as a third reason to like this film.

Owen is a very unlikable character. He is a huge jerk, he has no care or respect for anyone else other than himself and he is arrogant. I am not sure how a character that is a male bulimic (yes, I know they exist, they are just not quite as common as a female with bulimia) with clinical depression that suffers from seizures could be so conceited and self important. With that many health problems, you would think the character would just be happy to be alive.

And Isabel...PLEASE don't get me started. First and foremost...WHY is she still in a relationship with him? It is obvious they do not like each other, from the way they speak to each other to their very lackluster sexual encounters, these two characters are so bad for each other it hurts. I don't mean in a since of they are so bad for each other it turns out as a perfect match, I mean, bad for each other in murder/suicide kind of way. This couple is a couple that should have broken up a long time ago and stayed apart, for their own sanity.

Honestly, I could go on and on about this film but there is no point because it would all be negative. I was cruising through Netflix the other day and saw this on there and thinking it would be interesting; I now feel robbed because I invested over a hour and a half of time to this film that I will never get back. I will tell you, worst use of time ever. Don't suffer the same regret of time loss that I do, skip this one completely.

Until next time, Don't Forget the Popcorn!