Trashy
2022 · 25m
Directed by Alyssa Standen
Genres: coming-of-age, crime, drama
Tones: contemplative, dark, melancholic
In Ohio, a rebellious teenager named Naomi navigates a conservative Catholic grandmother, the arrival of an estranged cousin, and a circle of new friends with edgier instincts. When an innocent night of debauchery turns into a sinister reckoning, the film traces the fallout of an unsupportive home environment colliding with teenage lightheadedness.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The setup screams Sundance-friendly trauma drama, but Standen refuses the expected catharsis—she lets the wreckage just sit there, unresolved and uncomfortable, which is genuinely rare in coming-of-age work.
Standen's compositional restraint and the film's formal commitment to melancholy place it in conversation with mid-period Gus Van Sant, a lineage of American indie cinema that trusts negative space and sustained discomfort.
The decision to keep the camera close on Naomi's face during the aftermath—capturing the specific texture of teenage shock without editorializing it—is what transforms what could be a standard cautionary tale into something that actually breathes.
Reviews
Trashy is an engrossing teenage crime drama that highlights the repercussions of having an unsupportive home environment and the disastrous consequences it leads to when coupled with the lightheadedness of teenage years. Dramatic, lesson-imparting and a visual treat, Trashy can be added to your list of must-watch!