Trash Talking (2006)

Director: Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci and Ben Jones (as Paper Rad)

Screenplay: Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci and Ben Jones (as Paper Rad)

Cast: Screenplay: Jacob Ciocci, Jessica Ciocci and Ben Jones (as Paper Rad)

Abstract List Candidate

 

Your fourth dimensional shadow is crying 

If you want to access a time period accurately, you look at the pop culture, but there are factors worthy of consideration. That 1) you should consider that the most popular examples are not always the best representations, as they can obfuscate the technology and aesthetic of the era. There is also 2 there being cases which can confuse this idea, particularly when a) technology and aesthetics for a production can be behind the newest trends, and b) that nostalgia when it had became more prevalent drastically shifted how we contemplate this material, now you have to factor in works that deliberately replicate older eras with their resources.

Trash Talking is definitely of its period, just from the use of the software used to draw some of the characters, but you have to wade past the eighties references, from troll dolls and American cartoons from that time, and the fact some of the micro budgeted aesthetic, in its awkwardness, might have been as much intentional as it was what the production could access. What should be noted is that its "director", Paper Rad, was an art collective from between 2000 and 2008 which were multiple people, worked in multiple art formats, and even worked on music videos for the likes of The Gossip and Beck. With its main members being siblings Jacob and Jessica Ciocci, and Ben Jones, Trash Talking was originally a DVD release for the experimental music label Load Records.

With that in mind, it in itself comes in a fascinating moment just after YouTube appears in 2005, where art (that covered in magazines like Juxtapoz) was absorbing the post-postmodern pop culture influences, and DVD was still strong as a format. All the references to Garfield immediately evokes that Lasagna Cat, a famous web parody, was just about to arrive in 2007. This also immediately evokes the likes of Everything Is Terrible!, who started in 2000 but set up a website in 2007, who dig through the obscurities especially of VHS era pop culture for weird non-sequiturs. This project, a one hour or so audio-visual compilation, even evokes EiT in their use of licensed footage in peculiar ways, like the wedding between two mice puppets. In fact, the obsession with puppets in American culture in general is something to ponder as it is a reoccurring aspect of Trash Talking.

It is a home brewed compilation, a syringe of day-glo to the eyes whilst deliberately referencing pound (or dollar) store toys aesthetics right down to a montage of colouring book content. Made at home, I would not be surprise Paper Rad even used an old version of Microsoft Paint from this era on purpose, considering the collage of flash animation art to the rapid success of block colour backgrounds reminiscent to actual doodles I used to do on Microsoft Paint to kill time. Whether it was deliberate or not, in-between the psyche out montages there are two story based segments, ones where you can audibly hear the voice actors feel unconfident in their line readings, stumble or even (deliberately?) use "ums" and awkward phrase words, emphasising this sense of the creative process of Trash Talking. It also, frankly, means that your tastes will have to be prepared for this presentation. For myself, for disclosure, I initially came to this production out of curiosity, and I will be the first to admit it is far from great, and also is very indulgent, but with always a sympathy for these micro-budgeted productions, there is a bit of interest.

The work also has a clear sense of the absurd and awkwardness to its humour. This can be summed up in multiple segments, one built as "the one you have been waiting for", a build up only to show a CGI cat's backside as it defecates, or at the beginning when the mascot of a nineties Windows CD-Rom finds himself talking directly to at the camera to a viewer he eventually loses his temper at in curse filled annoyance. Much of the work is just entirely fixated with American pop culture from the eighties, which is quite frankly bizarre when witnessed here. The tangent in one plot segment alone gets weirder the more I think about it, which turns into a parody of the Muppet Babies with the characters added which abruptly appears, has baby Kermit the Frog learn what a rave is, only to abruptly end in a new scene in an entirely different context. As someone born in 1989, I saw the swash of eighties culture in my upbringing, but when I could develop solidified memories, the nineties culture and entertainment for children was what I was entrenched with, making the obsession with eighties culture and how long the nostalgia for it lasted into the 2010s really perplexing.

Trash Talking's structure as a result is difficult to detail as it is unpredictable and erratic, between a live action scene of two men playing a very atonal version of Alice in Chains' Man in a Box to Garfield watching Garfield. You can argue it is indulgent without point, a production which I would view as having times when it is both funny and also drags on with unintentional messiness. The main segment extrapolates this in its tale involving three flatmates, two humans and who looks like the humanoid older brother of Elmo from Sesame Street (red fur and no clothes). In a scenario that never really ends, it begins where a nuclear war has broken out, or the character of Alfie presumes is taking place, and the biggest concern is that they have run out of "sauce enablers" in the fridge. With the voice acting being shaking and the low budget animation feeling crude, the segment does feel like a nod to the type of YouTube animation that would appear and also evolve quickly into spectacular content. Yet...honestly, I found this segment, having seen Trash Talking charming for all this whilst admitting the issues at hand.

Some of the language I have used may come off harsh, but beyond this, we have a production that can be accused of indulgence and flaws but is at least around an hour long, and never ever drags a scene out for too long. Some of the jokes could have been ran with further, such as an obsession with troll dolls into a reference to a "Great Troll fire" in 1984, whilst others like an exact recreation of the Korova Milk Bar from A Clockwork Orange (1971)  seem random. Some of the montages are unnecessary, but there are so many that they never become a struggle to sit through, whilst one even becomes existential and weird as two pig-like humanoids (with subtitled text onscreen) talk of existential things of life.

The entire tone of nostalgia and pop culture is the blatant theme of the project, as whilst Trash Talking is deliberately placating to its generations' obsessions, it is also toying with them. The other dramatic segment about Mr. Maggiccaall is entirely about this subject. Done almost in video game sprite graphics, at least before the 16-bit era, it is about various groups searching for the next pop culture of the future. The jokes have dated - the two predictions are "Black Adam Sandler" and "Da Da Vinci Code", but it manages to have some dynamic weight as, between scanning all of Adam Sandler's back catalogue and converting it through into a "Russian Nintendo bootleg file", the comments on details like being too old to understand what kids are into now or ending up with a U2 iPod show that the creators were pondering through this ridiculous scenario about nostalgia. That it ends with people arguing, accidentally damaging the iPod, and a robot's heart running away devastated and sad pretty much sums up their conclusion on this idea. They never reach a conclusion, but in real life, many don not reach a conclusion too and they usually argue as well, thus leading to no ideas coming about or being discovered.

Definitely, the term "acquired taste" is needed to sum up Trash Talking, and it is not abstract, closer to deliberately weird and burning one's eyes with the colour palette. As an obscure cultural item it is definitely fascinating, in the sense that whilst I have raised issues, I admire this production's homemade qualities and the clear sense, when you realise its creators were an art group, of them effectively creating what could have been a video installation but providing it for the public to access if they found that original DVD release. The border between trying to be weird on purpose or a sincere eccentricity is blurred in this case, but particularly with some of the dialogue that transpires and the pace, Trash Talking has been winning me over with the kind of curious and entertaining ponderances of this culture.

 

Abstract Spectrum: Eccentric/Gaudy

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None