Jason Wallach is at it again with another wonderful review of the Synapse Blu-ray release of Street Trash!
“Oh-oh-oh who are the people in your neighborhood??”
Deep in the bowery of New York City there’s a society of hobos who are dominated by an ex-Vietnam War veteran named Bronson who is more than prone to the occasional flashback and who has a knife made from a human femur. Then you have Bill the cop investigating murders that are leading him to Bronson. At the heart of it all are two runaway brothers, Fred & Kevin, who reside in a car tire hut in an auto junkyard. Banal enough for you? Relax, because writer Roy Frumkes and director Jim Muro couldn’t leave well enough alone! You see, Ed the liquor store owner just excavated a very old crate from his cellar containing some very old booze called Tenafly Viper and its gone BAD!! In fact, it’s so bad that when swallowed causes these bums to melt and explode in colorful albeit gruesome and hilarious ways! And the best part about Tenafly Viper? It’s only a dollar a bottle!
How could this movie get any more bizarre? Well, there’s Nick Duran (played by Tony Darrow) – the Don who’s pissed at the doorman of his restaurant for letting his drunken girlfriend walk off with Fred as mentioned above. How does that tie into any of this? See the film, I cannot explain it. Street Trash is so insane and irreverent that it includes a scene wherein the bums play keep away with another bums penis… once Bronson pulls it off anyhow. The film is a cult classic, I read about it as a kid in Fangoria Magazine, saw the trailer for it on E! when Greg Kinear hosted it (back in the day) and then I hunted it down on VHS and couldn’t believe my eyes and ears. Street Trash is a masterpiece of all things inane and insipid! If you like films that think outside the box (and I mean waaaay outside) then this film is definitively for you. It’s gross, funny and will have you asking “what the fuck??” many, many times throughout its duration.
The Synapse blu-ray release offers up a beautiful restored transfer of this exploitation / trash classic. It’s simply never looked or sounded this good! It’s got extras too… I highly recommend watching the ‘making of’ segment, the Meltdown Memoirs. It’s informative and interesting and hilarious containing current interviews as well as archived material for a truly comprehensive behind-the-scenes look at this deeply bizarre and wonderful film. It started people’s careers… like James Lorinz (Frankenhooker) as the hysterically deadpan and antagonistic doorman and X-Men film director Bryan Singer who intimates that he got to drive to the set with a box full of dildos in the back seat of his car. I have not sampled the audio commentary as of yet, I was far too anxious to see the film again. AND – it includes a Tenafly Viper label sticker so that you can make your very own bottle of it! That’s just too cool for words. Street Trash is, to put it simply, the 8th wonder of the world!