Something in the Dirt was reviewed out of the Sundance Film festival, where it made its world premiere.
A cross between Unsolved Mysteries and a stoner movie, Something in the Dirt is another genre-bending success for filmmaking duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. Through great performances, a haunting score, a sharp script, and some clever visuals, it tells a funny, heartfelt, but also cuckoo-bananas story about two dudes trying to get rich by messing with forces they probably should have left alone, while providing some poignant commentary on the nature of being a sci-fi writer or filmmaker today.
Something in the Dirt follows Levi Danube (Benson), a man moving into a new temporary no-lease apartment in the Hollywood Hills before moving away from Los Angeles for good, with a traumatic past and not much optimism for the future. Without much of a plan, or even furniture, he befriends his neighbor John Davies (Moorhead), a gay divorcee whose bookshelf comprises entirely of Sun Tzu's The Art of War and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. When they witness strange phenomena in Levi's apartment, the two realize they can document what's happening and gain riches and fame because, hey, this is L.A., where dreams can become reality.
From then, the film is presented as a mockumentary, almost like a lost episode of a show like Unsolved Mysteries, complete with stock footage to illustrate the dialogue, talking heads teasing the tragic events that awaited the characters, and reenactments for how it all went down — but reenacted by the documentary subjects themselves. Benson and Moorhead don't go for parody in replicating those shows and the stories they tell, but rather use the visual language the audience may be familiar with to tell a story about the promise of fame and discovering a secret truth larger than yourself, and communicate who these characters are while they're at it.
For instance, the way the camera is placed tells us about how the two neighbors see each other; John may shoot Levi out of focus or in wide shots that place something else front and center, while Levi may shoot John in close-ups that pay close attention to his latest monologue about the mysteries of life. This is aided by a hauntingly beautiful and ethereal score by Jimmy Lavalle, who employs synth and even a theremin to create a sound that's clearly recognizable, yet completely out of this world, and perfectly captures the paranoia the characters start to feel.
The longer they spent documenting the strange, impossible occurrences in the apartment, the more Levi and John embark on a downward spiral of occult research that involves everything from geometric magnetism and numerology to theories about ancient aliens, the Brotherhood of Pythagoreans, and the origin of the city of Los Angeles itself. Benson and Moorhead are known to be very DIY filmmakers and that comes through here, co-directing, co-writing, co-editing, and co-starring in the film, all pretty seamlessly.
Despite taking place mostly in two locations — the characters' apartments — Something in the Dirt never gets boring, and the banter between the characters doesn’t get repetitive. The longtime friendship between the actors helps make their performances believable, as even though these characters barely know each other, there is instant palpable chemistry between them, as their rapport becomes that of the happy-go-lucky protagonists of a stoner movie, just two dudes hanging out, chain smoking like there’s no tomorrow while they try to solve mysteries and get rich while they're at it. But beneath their cheerful exterior is a darkness that is brought to life with nuance by the two stars, as the search for truth uncovers some truths they wish would have never seen the light.
Something in the Dirt is another genre-bending winner for Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.
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The film is also a love letter to Los Angeles itself. Where many movies focus on the "where dreams go to die" aspect of the city and the hardships one goes through to make it there, Something in the Dirt also sees the small beauties of living in the City of Angels, from seeing coyotes just wandering around the Hollywood Hills, to its grand vistas and sunsets, to the small ways residents compromise in finding a positive side to a crappy situation, like listening to airplanes fly over your house 24/7 and interpret it as a good thing because you're a short Uber ride to the airport.
Though mostly just fictional, Something in the Dirt does create an interesting mythology for itself, with each new possible answer giving way to more theories that interconnect to form a web of conspiracies resulting in a National Treasure-like alternate history that is as fascinating to watch as it is hilariously bonkers. And yet, the film also acts as an interrogation of mythology-heavy movies that create a believable fictional world with connections to our own, and whether sci-fi writers and filmmakers bear any responsibility when they create fictional worlds that become reality in the audience's minds. In these paranoid times, when everyone can make up an answer to every question imaginable with just one Reddit thread or Google search, and what could otherwise be considered just a harmless and ludicrous film theory can grow like wildfire to start an actual movement, should sci-fi writers be mindful of how their words can carry harmful meaning? Though the film offers no clear answers, it does bring up fascinating ideas of the way we, as audiences, interpret these stories, especially since it does offer a solid mythology with ties to our real world's origins.
