Credits

Director: James Bickert, Randy Hill Starring: Angela Benjamin, Akasha Sjolin, Jeffrey Charlton, Thomas Alan Beckett Screenplay: James Bickert, Randy Hill Country: USA

Once starting the actual movie, we get the usual intro by Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma and creator of the Toxic Avenger. He's got a black eye, which raises the question: Who could possibly have any reason to hurt Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma and creator of the Toxic Avenger?

Anyway, Dumpster Baby begins with a basehead giving birth. She doesn't want the kid, so makes her smoke buddy deal with it. The friend tries to sell the baby for drugs, but when that doesn't work, she dumps the baby (hence the title). A business man getting head from a Kiwi hooker hears the baby crying in the dumpster, and tries to rescue the child. He ends up getting knifed, and thrown in a taxi like he's just imbibed too much. The hooker also puts the baby in the boot of the cab, and the film continues to follow the child's journey into and out of the lives of many different people. Kind of like 20 Bucks, but with a crack baby instead of a $20 note. Or even Forest Gump with a slightly less handicapped version of Tom Hanks.

Dumpster Baby is an odd, odd film. It starts with promise, but eventually it gets bogged down in bad sound. The film is very dialogue heavy, and it became really hard to pay attention and follow the story threads when it was hard to understand everyone. The acting skills on display are across the board, and that also makes some of the stories hard to watch. The baby, which no one ever thinks to feed, is played mainly by a bundle, and becomes virtually irrelevant most of the time.

The film has some artistic visuals, and a very specific nod to Der Todesking, which should give you some idea what the filmmakers were trying to do. I'd say the works of David Lynch and Troma's own Combat Shock (AKA American Nightmare) were also influences. The film takes place in a surreal world where a cloaked gunman walking down an alley while firing his piece doesn't even turn heads, and I won't even pretend I understand what the movie was ultimately about.

The only specific extra is a commentary with writer/directors James Bickert and Randy Hill, cinematographer Bill Burton, and the AD, who chimes in occasionally. It's not a particularly helpful track in terms of explaining some of Dumpster Baby's strangest points. The guys joke a lot, but I didn't find it funny, but that may just be because I didn't like the film. Far more bizarre than anything found in the actually movie, is that these guys compliment the sound! What audio track were they listening to?