Comedian Caleb Hearon has brought his most personal work yet to the screen with “Trash Mountain”, a grief dramedy that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, in which he plays a young gay Chicago man forced home to rural Missouri after the death of his hoarder father. Co-written with Ruby Caster and directed by Kris Rey, the film pairs Hearon with Zooey Deschanel as his half-sister Abbi and Jacki Weaver as their grandmother, as the three sort through a lifetime of clutter — and of unresolved family feeling.
The project grew directly from Hearon’s own experience: the unexpected death of his father sent him searching for a way to process the loss, and he began writing the material long before it became a film. According to reports from the festival, he resisted leaning too heavily on comedy even in scenes built around grief. “No. If anything, I’m eager to prove that I’m not just a clown,” Hearon told a Toronto audience after the premiere — a different register for the star of an HBO Max comedy special and the upcoming Devil Wears Prada sequel.
A scrappy 18-day shoot
The production came together quickly and cheaply, shooting for just 18 days in rural Illinois during the winter under the spartan conditions of low-budget independent filmmaking. Hearon reportedly joked that he warned Deschanel everyone would be working for next to nothing in the cold — a pitch that worked. Reviews at the festival praised the result: one critic called it a deeply personal, vulnerable comedy about family and grief, in which Hearon — playing Gavin as a Chicago drag show host returning to a drab, semi-conservative Missouri town — displays unexpected range. As described in this interview with Deschanel, one man’s rubbish becomes keepsakes the siblings must decide to hold on to or leave behind.
Deschanel’s return to indie roots
For Deschanel, known for “New Girl” and “(500) Days of Summer”, the film marks a return to the character-driven indie work of her early career. She said the script left her deeply moved and made her want to get back to roles she rarely gets offered anymore, even bringing one of her late grandfather’s scarves as a prop. In the film, she and Hearon play siblings who must find a crucial document among their father’s possessions and, along the way, reckon with their relationship. “Trash Mountain” arrives in a busy season for cinema, from Nolan’s Odyssey back in IMAX to a record-breaking run for Drishyam 3 — but few autumn films will be as quietly personal.
