American Trash

American-Trash
American Trash

Set against the backdrop of Los Angeles, American Trash is characterized by a veteran’s grief and post-traumatic stress as he battles to remain sane in a world where people are indifferent to his plight and the reasons for his fight. This fight is twofold, one for the earth and the other for the one who was killed by his girlfriend.

The movie American Trash also marks the feature film directorial debut of Robert LaSardo and with Adrian Milne also co-wrote the screenplay, and starred in the film. An actor since 1987, LaSardo has starred in more than 200 films with his film roles including The Mule and Death Race alongside notable Clint Eastwood and Jason Statham, and multiple TV appearances on controversies NETFLIX series Nip Tuck or CSI Miami. While working with Mahal Empire, LaSardo has several including Night of the Tommy Knockers and Bloodthirst.

And I must also point out here that American Trash has Lorelei Linklater and Gigi Gustin as stars, with Tom Sizemore who is late and Costas Mandylor also appearing in the film.

LaSardo plays a tattoo artist named Milles who meets Melissa (Linklater) while cleaning the area near a sacred cave in the forest. While Melissa is in the woods, she listens to a tape of cult leader Charles Manson’s interview where he spoke about environmental issues. Their love blossoms quickly, but tragedy strikes when Melissa gets killed.

Then follows a series of emotional struggles for Milles, a man with a fractured soul burdened with guilt, anger, self-loathing, and dark thoughts. Milles lives in hell and has consistent regret-filled with grief while his sister Mandy (Gustin) and his therapist Tai (Rich R. Rendon) paint colors in his life. Nevertheless, he feels weak as a man, and the lack of police development regarding the case of Melissa’s murder gives him ambitions. The heartbreak that one cannot go on without feeling is awful how Melissa lost her life and ended up in a dumpster.

In one instance, he points a gun at a couple that manages to grate his patience by littering. In another, he almost kills a man for etching something on a rock. Milles is in a downward spiral, just like all his surroundings.

The ending is both surprising and predictable. Milles is the voice of that part of society that is still concerned about nature and his pain was made even worse by Melissa who focused on the issue. The message, which suggests that garbage should not be thrown in various places if looked at intimately, raises a more vexing query Are environmentalists on a wild goose chase in opposition to the sins and narcissism of society?

American Trash is an audacious first-time director’s work because it is concerned with the terrifying aspect of indifference, that is, the aspect when society and its structures give in to indifference. And that the rational-sounding voice in the film is that of Charles Manson’s interview, is probably the most unnerving proof of all.

Milles took shape as an argument to myself through many different people. Each character inhabiting the film intends to come up with a particular philosophy to contest Milles’ pessimism. I have always wondered how mankind and the universe can have such dual structures. I employed an incidental situation to understand the aim of humanity and its relevance while faced with a challenge.

The reason and context behind Milles’s sense of tragedy is essential for his character development. I did not want the flaws in his character to have any glorifying exaggeration so the audience would not lose touch with the character’s inherent weaknesses. I felt it was my duty to get into his head or better his soul’s for the PTSD element knowing I am a soldier myself as well.

For this movie, you had a great cast of actors including Sizemore and Mandylor from Saw as well as Linklater and Gustin. How was it for you to I had worked with Tom in many of the films in the past, and we have shared entire scenes, so I have even interacted with him a lot. So, I knew what his method and process were like.

It was simply a matter of orienting Tom to a place that was suited to the context and intensity so that the best of him could be preserved. I have always been aware he was gifted in a very special way. I was just in a position to worry as a friend, whether he would see the point of performing at his best.

When we began to look for actors, and we started auditioning actors, it was a bit of a clash for a certain period, over the material, the dialogue, the plot, every single thing. But because he was ready to trust me, there was some space to have fun with it, and now in hindsight, I can go, right on, he got it perfect. I worked so that Tom’s depiction of the character he is given reflects the particular world I created for him with tenderness and elegance. I miss him.

The character of Melissa is brought to life perfectly by Lorelei. This flower child, a hippy that I’ve always wanted to meet, was someone who was most likely living in the 60s. My screenplay was given to a friend who told me he felt he could find an actress who fit the description in her life. After talking to Lorelei for two hours on the phone and going through the details of the project, it dawned on me that the woman my friend had described is precisely how he described her, minus some Charles Manson ideas which I play around with in the movie.

Is that the character that she has imbibed herself with the name ‘Melissa’ without hesitation I will add that it is fictional. However, she does not mangle the role of a delightfully eccentric environmentalist who happens to admire the ecological views of Charles Manson. Lorelei has a certain vulnerability and naivete which is ideal for the screen. It’s her enigmatic presence that helps the film construct itself through the visual language of American Trash.

There is a certain aggression available with Costas, so I didn’t have to maneuver him much. I just sat back and let him do his thing. It was basically, this is the circumstance, Costas, this is your character, and this is mine. Let’s dig in deep. This process was made simpler because he has always been prepared. He did that in all the scenes oriented around him. He, too, is fairly relaxed and jovial, but with the cue “action” everything was focused on the world created.

Gigi is a natural in terms of her ability to inhabit the character space without overacting. What I needed to relieve the gloomy attitude of Milles was Gigi’s performance as Mandy and it is just terrific, perfect for what I wanted. Out of the few movies I have seen so far, I have to say that a tape recording of a Charles Manson interview stands out as the most unusual source for the main character of a movie. But what is so special about that interview that you deemed it appropriate to include it that way in the film?

I must say I’ve heard many Manson interviews, appropriate or not, and for whatever reason, he simply talks. Then I realized these thoughts belonged to a person confined in a situation that was not suggestive of a monster. It made me think when Manson described his efforts to destroy tractor machinery in the Mojave Desert to postpone the building projects, before the murders at the Cielo Drive. His environmental practices were not about death. It’s hard to believe that a man who speaks so often about saving air, trees, water, and animals, as he did in many interviews, could be a killer. I was able to catch his message without the bias of the ordinary listener and, furthermore, detect something that has been missed by many. A paradox seemed fitting in helping develop the structure of my story about a man who possessed the same duality.

I wanted to look at the social environmental history and the environmental problems more holistically. So, instead of just depicting how Los Angeles is ugly, which I do in a brief period, I wanted to bring out the positive aspects in that world, while pointing some blame at the people who walk through this oasis and poison it with their stupidity. That, and the trash on the ground, is just one effect of the disease that is a perverse understanding of nature and man.

My theme suggests it is we, who bear the responsibility in the way we interact with one another. In as much as we have challenges in our communities, we ought to summon our compassion within us. Be it an economic crisis, environmental crisis, or war. The calling upon man is to set things right through peaceful coexistence and respect for people and nature.

You have been in the movie industry since 1987 and acting in prestigious films and television series. Out of your myriad achievements in showbiz, how would you describe the experience of directing American Trash?

I acknowledge that I have been fortunate to collaborate with some exceedingly gifted individuals and on numerous films, substantial in the history of cinema, which I am genuinely grateful for. American Trash may not be for everyone. For me, it surpasses height or fame because it was created with the purpose of abandoning these, so that it may reach a person.

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