Battle Of The B-Movies #7: The Stuff (1985) VS Street Trash (1987)

Street Trash is all over the fuckin' place. It has moments of utter brilliance. And those moments are just amazing. Artful. Strange. Ironic. Deeply funny. Christ- some of this out-dirties and out-classes John Waters. And that's saying something. Also... it's better than Meet the Feebles. So there's that. (That is always important.)

But, holy shit, when this movie is bad... it's fucking BAAAAAD. Being all over the fuckin' place as it is, most of it outright sucks. I don't understand how that is possible. I think it might have something to do with the low budget + oversized script + bloated running time + abundance of both FX demands and extremely ambitious camerawork. Its vignette structure does it no favors.

I as much as anyone here appreciate the responsibility of giving it its fair due... but consistency is vital. Larry Cohen is nothing if not consistent. And The Stuff may not reach the highest highs of Street Trash but it also stays well clear of going anywhere near as low. And, in case I didn't mention, there are some serious "fuck you, Street Trash" moments in that movie. That's how low it goes.

I voted for The Stuff. It's still one of Cohen's better films. Street Trash may remain a great anomaly as a format but it still packs in too much goddamn worthless, brainless stuff. (103 minutes... seriously, there's no excuse for that. This ain't fuckin' Dawn of the Dead Part 2.)

 

Street trash