The Trashers: Everything We Know So Far About The David Harbour-Led Drama

With a name like "The Trashers" you know you can't afford not to see this film absolutely filled with light beer. Coming straight from the mind of Sundance award-winning director Cooper Raiff, the man behind "Shithouse" and the upcoming "Cha Cha Real Smooth" (which stars your favorite Architectural Digest YouTube sensation Dakota Johnson), the David Harbour-led story is a violent hockey drama based on a true story, which is a delightful combination of words. So throw on some skates, get belligerently drunk, and maybe even steal a garbage truck, because we're taking a deep dive into Raiff's next film and it sounds like a real doozy.

But before we dive into all of that glorious trash (and by trash I mean the plot? I guess?) we've got to make a pit stop to talk about how hyped Raiff is to make this movie. In an interview with Deadline, Raiff lovingly refers to it as the movie that made him feel like a real director:

It's the first movie that I just get to focus on directing, and it's the first movie where I feel confident as a director. I think with both of my first movies, I was looking at it as, "Oh, I'm doing all the things, and it feels homemade, and it doesn't even feel like I'm a director. It just feels like I'm making it with everyone, and everyone is co-director." With "Trashers," I really feel like it's a movie movie.

Which is honestly so sweet and endearing! It's nice to watch someone early in their career find their footing. And while "The Trashers" sounds like it's the total opposite of Raiff's two previous films, both of which have serious hearts of gold, the director himself doesn't really see it like that:

What's on the page is so exciting, and so deeply emotional because it's just a lot more opportunity to tee things up and to keep people really on their toes and gritting their teeth. People who know me are like, "Oh my god, this is what you've been waiting to make." I think people who maybe watched "Shithouse" and "Cha Cha" are like, "A violent hockey movie? Why are you making that?" But it's this very specific, good feeling that I'm always after. This movie is an angry movie, but it's coming from a really, really authentic, organic, smart place.

And that film he's been waiting to make has a wild backstory. "The Trashers" tells the story of the Connecticut-based minor league hockey team the Danbury Trashers. The team was purchased in 2004 by Jimmy Galante, a man who is consistently described as a "local garbage magnate" who also happened to have mafia ties. After buying the team, he gifted it to his 17-year-old son A.J., and you can probably use your brain to fill in the blanks for this crazy story (or just wait for the movie). 

It's clear that Raiff really connected with A.J.'s circumstances while making the movie and how crazy it can feel to suddenly be in charge of so many people. As he explains in the Deadline interview: 

It's about this 18-year-old who's handed all of these things and just goes balls to the wall with it, and that's how I feel as a filmmaker ... He's just trying his best and there's moments where he really feels like he was born to do this, and moments where he feels so entirely out of his element that it's devastating and it rocks him. Then, there's this father-son element that I very much relate to, and my kind of way in was the big feelings of your last high school game, and how devastating that is. There's that element in the movie, and it's kind of the most relatable thing in the world to me.

Of course, we have to talk about the David Harbour of it all. Hot off of enough seasons of "Stranger Things" that it's becoming hard to keep track of them all, Harbour will be starring as the trash smart mafia-connected Jimmy Galante, because I guess he's fully been typecast as a dad now. Don't get me wrong, it will be delightful to watch him pull off this wealthy weird father figure, he just really seems to radiate that pure, unadulterated dad energy. And good for him.

If you're looking for a rowdy, heartfelt good time, add "The Trashers" to the top of your watchlist. And it's probably a bad idea to steal a garbage truck. Forget I told you to do that.