Hoard (2024)

The film starts in 1984, where we meet young Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) and her mother Cynthia (Hayley Squires) taking part in their favorite pastime: going through trash bins for discarded treasure. The two live alone together, completely surrounded by the towering piles of junk that they’ve collected over the years. Cynthia works nights and leaves Maria alone in the clutter, but it’s a life that Maria has grown accustomed to, a life that gets disrupted when Cynthia lands in the hospital and Maria ends up being looked after by a woman named Michelle (Samantha Spiro). Suddenly, it’s 1994, and a teenage Maria (Saura Lightfoot Leon) is now living with Michelle permanently, even calling her “mum.” Maria’s leaving secondary school, but she’s yet to really address the trauma of her childhood. She’s pushed to do so by the presence of Michael (Joseph Quinn), a former foster kid of Michelle’s who works as a garbageman and is about to get married, though he has a somewhat lecherous eye on Maria, especially when Saura shows up in a sweaty tank top and poking nips. There’s also a scene where Saura lifts up her dress to flash a homeless guy on some steps but we only get a view from behind, making the film more hoard-y than horny.