6/24/1999. 95 min. (independent film festival screening)

Released on DVD/Video 2002

Drama.

aka: "Nobody’s Children."

Code: TR 6/1999

PLOT

"Coming of age drama set amongst the poverty-stricken trailer parks of the deep South. In a spiraling tale of violence, hatred, love and loyalty, two teenage friends-- Sonny James and Anthony DeMarie—realize that the only way for each of them to escape their miserable futures is by forever sacrificing the other." (Trash web site.)

CREDITS

Writer/Director: Mark Anthony Galluzzo

CAST

Jaime Pressly as C.J. Callum

Jeremy Sisto as Sonny James

Eric Michael Cole as Anthony DeMarie

Daniel Joseph as Chris Naylor

Grace Zabriskie as Mrs. DeMarie

Jonathan Banks as Judge Cullum

Charles Venturi as Ray Hanna

Marisa Ryan as Alex Staley

Brian Krause as Will Fowler

Veronica Cartwright as Principal Evans

BAD GUY

Accidentally shoots a boy.

CHARACTER

Judge Callum is the father of C.J., Anthony’s girlfriend. He is a controlling parent, and objects to C.J. going with a poor boy. Uses gun to ‘defend’ home and family with dire results. C.J. reports he abandoned his family after Bobby’s birth, unable to handle his Down’s syndrome. Later showed up well-off, had their mother declared unfit, and took his children.

COMMENTS

Premiered at the Egyptian Theater, Hollywood, in the American Cinematheque’s Independent Screen series.

At the premiere, Mark Anthony Galluzzo thanked JB and Veronica Cartwright for taking a chance on an independent film, and joked that their reward had been to take them to the Florida swamps. In an email message he said, "We're all big fans of J.Banks as well. Truly a great guy on and off the set." (5/7/1999)

Fairly standard coming of age story, with good sense of place. Unfortunately, the boys aren’t very sympathetic characters.

COSTUME

Khakis, polo shirt.

CRITICS

"Jonathan Banks, as CJ's protective father, and Grace Zabriskie and Veronica Cartwright, in minor roles, are momentarily reassuring presences. But it's not hard to pick up on this project's sternly dramatic arc, which starts and ends violently and rarely lightens up in its sympathetic portrayal of all-too-human 'Trash.'" David Hunter, Hollywood Reporter, June 2000.

"The tension is ratcheted up a few notches when Anthony falls for a judge's daughter who goes slumming in search of some fun and is surprised by Anthony's depths. Needless to say, her hawkish father (JB) regards him as trailer trash. That and a few other running animosities in their class-conscious Deep South community, with its more than casual traditions of violence, keep this above-average indie ticking." Jay Carr, The Boston Globe, September 13, 1999.

LINES

(When interrogating daughter about her night out.) "Are you lying?"

LOCATION

Filmed in Gainesville and Ocala, Florida in the fall of 1996.

SCREEN TIME

Five scenes.