The consensus on Trash is mixed, with praise clustering around the three young leads and the energy they bring to the crime story. Most critics who discuss the performances value the actors’ naturalness and camaraderie, while several find the journey through Rio vivid, brisk and engaging. The more approving reviews accept the sentimentality and unlikely plotting as part of an accessible adventure; Empire goes further, finding an unexpectedly gritty thriller whose leads and setting give it considerable force.
Reservations centre on strained coincidences, simplified politics and a sweetness that can weaken the sense of danger. The spread is wide: even some sympathetic reviews question the film’s depth, while the harshest see its treatment of poverty as shallow or exploitative. Slant Magazine offers the strongest rejection, arguing that the stylised violence and lurid imagery turn suffering into spectacle rather than engaging meaningfully with it.
