From Omeleto.
A workaholic neglects his garbage.
YOU ARE TRASH is used with permission from Andy Koeger and Dan Frantz. Learn more at https://cooladults.com.
Phillip is a workaholic, living alone and working from home. Constantly busy, he orders in often and neglects his chores. It’s convenient and lets him keep working, but he accumulates a lot of waste in the form of takeout containers, used wrappers, bags, packets, cans and more. Soon his trash is everywhere in the apartment.
In an attempt to clean up to impress a prospective date, Phillip gathers and then throws out his trash. But he soon discovers that it’s not easy to escape his slovenly habits or the sheer amount of waste he’s created.
Directed and written by Andy Koeger and Dan Frantz, this quirky horror short begins much like a comedy, tracking the daily life and habits of a workaholic millennial too absorbed in working, scrolling and hooking up to notice the sheer amount of waste he’s created from his lifestyle of convenience. Entertaining and intriguing, the storytelling lays down the groundwork with a brisk energy, before pivoting into something creepier, freakier and altogether more inventive.
Actor Phillip Garcia plays a kind of modern everyman, attached to his screens, whether it’s the one that he works on or the one on his phone, where he scrolls social media and calls his romantic interest. He’s played with a matter-of-factness and a sense of distraction, and his multitasking finds him working, calling or scrolling while eating or snacking.
He’s too busy to throw anything away properly, letting it build up, and the visual style of the film plays up the surrealism of near-hoarder levels of waste. The main character is only motivated to clean up when a hook-up is on the horizon, a process that is almost just as gross as the trash itself. Yet even as he cleans, he still absentmindedly litters in his own home — a carelessness that seems to set off a supernatural act of revenge and pivots the film into its final, suspenseful concluding section.
Outlandish, dark and funny, YOU ARE TRASH! earns its horror bona fides, building up tension and surprise as Phillip is confronted with the consequences of his actions, his mindless consumption and his carelessness in taking care of it. It becomes a cautionary tale in a time of more mindful sustainability, and a clever parable that brings to life just how much waste one person can produce, imagining it as a monster of our own making.
