I am not a fan of movies. I would much rather binge watch my favorite TV show for 8 hours straight on Netflix than sit down for 2 hours and watch a movie. I know, it doesn’t really make sense. So, when I discovered that movies were required for my Latin American studies class this semester I was not very happy. I expected to be forced to watch movies about the history of colonial rule in Mexico and Peru and Brazil and be uninterested the whole time. Well, I was wrong.
The first movie assigned for my class was Trash. According to IMDb, Trash is a action/drama/crime movie set in an extremely poor favela (shanty town) in Brazil where “three boys make a discovery in a garbage dump,” which they live amongst. The boys – Rafael, Gardo, and Rato – soon find themselves running from the corrupt police in pursuit of finding the truth and creating justice for a character named Jose Angelo. They use Angelo’s wallet to follow a mystery that leads them to prisons, corrupt businessmen, priests, sewers, and ultimately a cemetery with a mysterious little girl. It’s definitely an action movie but has flavors of crime and mystery sprinkled throughout.
Honestly, when I began watching the movie I did not have high hopes. The majority of the movie is in Portuguese with English subtitles and this really turned me off at first. I hate watching a movie and having to rely on subtitles, not audio and dialogue, for my understanding. However, if you watch Trash (which you should do), do not be afraid of the subtitles. There is English at points throughout the movie and it also relays heavily on the action scenes that don’t need much dialogue to get the point across.
The movie is more than just an action/drama/crime flick. There are lighthearted and touching moments where you fall in love with the three young boys and their struggle for a better life outside the extremely poor favela. It is also a commentary on social justice, police brutality, race relations, and inequality in Brazil. Although obviously a fictional story, Trash will open your eyes to the injustices faced by impoverished Brazilians. I am not being cliché at all when I say this – it will make you laugh and it will make you cry. I have fallen in love with this movie and it has done an amazing job at opening my eyes to the social and economic problems that Brazilians face everyday.
Trash is available on Netflix and received 7.2/10 stars on IMDb.
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