TRASH (1970) * ½

Trash was the second part of director Paul Morrissey’s trilogy of low budget underground films produced by Andy Warhol.  It looks and feels cheap and amateurish in just about every way.  I guess if it wasn’t for the nudity, rampant drug use, and use of trans actresses it would’ve been promptly forgotten.

Joe Dallesandro stars as a junkie who gets high so often that he can’t get it up for his lover (Holly Woodlawn).  Most of the movie is devoted to interchangeable scenes of Dallesandro shooting up, trying, and failing to get it on with different women.  Trust me when I tell you that this is all less than riveting stuff.

Things start to look up in the third act though.  It’s here where things turn into a deranged soap opera as Holly catches Joe cheating on her with her very pregnant sister.  I also enjoyed the ending where Holly and Joe try to fake a pregnancy in order to collect welfare.  There’s also a scene in which Holly fucks herself with a beer bottle that has to be seen to be believed.  

It’s a shame that the first hour is so damned dull because the last half hour is pretty bonkers.  You can almost imagine John Waters was taking notes while watching Trash when he was preparing Pink Flamingos.  Whether or not you can get that far will depend on your willingness to sit through long, boring scenes of heroin-induced erectile dysfunction.