Rogue Cinema - One Man's Trash (2003)

One Man's Trash (2003) - By Duane L. Martin
Posted on Friday, August 03 @ Mountain Daylight Time by Duane

One Man's Trash is a mockumentary style film about yard sales and the people who frequent them. The film focuses particularly on one specific yard sale put on by a young woman who's really into the whole yard sale thing. She's got all her details worked out down to the letter. She puts on her glitter so she'll sparkle at 8am, she has all her prices color coded, she's got her bartering banter down perfectly, and she's all ready to get out there and sell her treasures.

Bouncing around from person to person, we meet a variety of interesting and entertaining individuals who each have their own stories and their own reasons for hitting the "yard sale circuit" so to speak. One guy likes to collect small items that he keeps in his pockets. There's another guy who buys and sells stuff on Ebay and looks for stuff at yard sales that he can sell. There's a rich woman who has her driver bring her around to various sales so she can look for bargains, and a couple of women who have a crappy little two person band who hit garage sales all the time looking for whatever they can get. Also thrown into the mix is an obsessed cop who busts yard sales for putting up signs around the neighborhood.

This film, while only a mockumentary, will actually make you realize that there are probably people just like this out there in the world. People obsessed with yard sales and any opportunity they get to get someone else's trinkets at a discount price. The actors all came off like real people with genuine quirks and the whole thing has a very realistic vibe to it that sort of leaves you not knowing whether to laugh or cringe. One thing's for sure...it's kinda like a train wreck. Once you start watching, you won't be able to look away.

I really enjoyed this film on many levels, and I thought it was very well put together and nicely edited so that each individual or couple got plenty of screen time. The sound was consistently good and I was able to hear everyone clearly. The lighting was great, and there were no real technical problems I can think to mention. The acting on everyone's part was very natural and came off just superb on screen, while the storyline they had to work with was both witty and well written.

This film is a fun romp through the wonderful world of yard sales and the strange lot of folks that frequent them. I personally have never attended a yard sale, although I have to say, after seeing this film, it kinda makes me want to go check one out.

As for this film, you can check it out yourself online on it's MySpace page at http://www.myspace.com/onemanstrashthemovie and you can also check out director Alyssa Lobit's website at http://www.alyssalobit.com.