Trash Mountain

DramaComedy

★ Shortlisted by Ariane, dani, Jdubs, MarcLevyTO, Mitch Allen

Programme: Centrepiece
Year: 2026
Runtime: 90 min
Country: United States of America
Language: English
Premiere: World Premiere

A twenty something gay man travels from Chicago to his home in rural Missouri following the death of his father — an obsessive hoarder who has left a house full of items, some valuable and some not so, to pick through.

From the TIFF programme

After the death of their hoarder father in rural Missouri, two siblings (Caleb Hearon and Zooey Deschanel) reunite to sort through the baggage — both literal and emotional — in Kris Rey’s poignant and funny exploration of love and grief.

A dead hoarder’s houseful of holdings yields hope for a young man’s self-reckoning in this funny, wise film from director Kris Rey (It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home). Featuring winsome performances from Caleb Hearon (The Devil Wears Prada 2), Zooey Deschanel (500 Days of Summer), and Oscar nominee Jackie Weaver (TIFF ’12’s Silver Linings Playbook), Trash Mountain is a homecoming story for anyone who dreads coming home.

After fleeing his rural Missouri roots years ago, Gavin (Hearon) found his community in Chicago, where he emcees a drag show. When his sister Abbi (Deschanel) calls to inform him of their reclusive father’s death, Gavin heads back to help sort through the old man’s mountainous personal effects and return to civilization ASAP. But death proves complicated: turns out they can’t process the paperwork without Dad’s social security card, which could be anywhere in his heaps of seemingly random possessions.

Meanwhile, Grandma Helen (Weaver) is loudly performing the grief neither Gavin nor Abbi have the energy for, and the local cutie (Jaboukie Young-White) Gavin hooks up with just won’t stop being cute. The longer Gavin stays in Missouri, the greater the danger that he might make peace with his home, his family, and himself.

Written by Hearon and Ruby Caster (Bleeding Love), Trash Mountain overflows with irreverence and tenderness. Growing up gay in a conservative region, Gavin’s wicked wit has always been his go-to survival technique, but he’s now confronted with a situation in which everyone is disarmingly supportive. This is a moving comedy about the difficulty of offering forgiveness and accepting love.

PETER KUPLOWSKY