From podcast to leading man

Caleb Hearon built a following online and through his podcast So True, then took supporting roles in three films this year. Trash Mountain is his first time carrying one.

Funnier than expected, and sadder

Hearon co-wrote the script with Ruby Caster, and the laughs land. The shock is the emotional weight underneath them.

“Brace yourself, because Hearon is going to make you cry.”

A call changes everything

Gavin is thriving in Chicago, doing stand-up at a drag club with a tight crew of friends. Then his sister Abbi calls to say their dad has died.

Back to rural Missouri

He sleeps in his nephew's bed, gets bossed around by his religious grandmother, and helps Abbi dig through a house stacked floor to ceiling with junk.

Hunting one small card

The job is not just cleaning house. They have to find their father's lost Social Security card for estate paperwork, a needle in an enormous haystack.

“looking for a virgin in a whore house”

Jokes stop working

Gavin deflects with punchlines and Grindr hookups, but his dad's belongings surface feelings he cannot laugh off. A one-night stand with Jerome turns into something real.

The ensemble is stacked

Zooey Deschanel ditches her bubbly New Girl register for acid humor that matches Hearon's. Jacki Weaver's grandmother is the one who forces both siblings to feel something.

The schtick gets stripped away

Hearon moves from quick reads into fury, hurt, and grief, with electric chemistry opposite Jaboukie Young-White. The final act left the reviewer crying, and still crying after.

A town that is both things

Rey shows the Confederate and Trump flags on a passing pickup, but also Jerome, who loves the place, gruff and kind Trish, and rolling plains at golden hour. Wonderful and flawed at once.

“This is a place that's wonderful and flawed all at once.”