Review by
Ren Zelen
Directed by: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Starring: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead have been making
low-budget features for a decade. From their first feature
Resolution to the unique romance of
Spring
to the time-bending
The Endless
and their bigger-budget
Synchronic, they’ve never failed to challenge, intrigue, entertain and amuse.
Something in the Dirt, their fifth feature, feels like their most intimate film. Covid
restrictions have made it rather a home-grown effort, Benson and
Moorhead getting back to basics, directing, writing, producing, editing
and starring. The film was shot with a skeleton crew, some segments
captured with only Benson, Moorhead, and frequent collaborator
David Lawson Jr. on set.
The resultant film seems close to a black comedy, satirizing our
pandemic-era aimlessness and the conspiracy fantasies and QAnon paranoia
it has engendered. The uncertainty, unpredictability, and anxiety that
the pandemic has produced in the benighted parts of the population has
led to an explosion of superstition, gullibility, and the need for look
for answers in the most unlikely or ridiculous of places.
Benson and Moorhead set their story in a small, dilapidated, half-empty
apartment block in a corner of contemporary L.A. The place feels grim,
claustrophobic, pre-apocalyptic. Choppers constantly fly overhead, fires
burn on the mountainside between the roof tops, electricity hums
endlessly in meters and gauges, smoke rises in the sky.
When new resident Levi Danube (Benson) comes across neighbour John
Davies (Moorhead) relaxing in the tiny, dingy courtyard, they converse
politely for several minutes before either man acknowledges what looks
like a large bloodstain on Levi’s shirt. John shrugs, "L.A. is just like
Halloween… just like, all of the time."
John informs Levi that the apartment he’s moved into has been empty for
a decade. Levi admits that he has no furniture, which prompts John to
offer to lend him some items left over by his ex.
While they move furniture into the empty apartment Levi admits he has a
casual job as a bartender and has failed at all of the many money-making
ventures he has tried in his life. He has no plans, except to perhaps
move on from L.A, where he might shake off the bad luck he thinks he’s
been having.
John confides that he was abandoned by his gay lover and now earns a
meagre living by charging electric scooters, mostly because he’s donated
all his savings to the odd Evangelical church of which he’s a member.
Both these characters are living hand to mouth on the fringes of
society. They drift through life making few real connections, but they
listen to a lot of podcasts and read a lot of Reddit and TED Talks. Levi
takes "energy supplements" he buys on the internet; John has a copy of
'Atlas Shrugged' and other eccentric books on his bookshelf.
When they observe a pulsating light coming from Levi’s closet and a
quartz crystal ashtray begins levitating on its own, we might wonder if
it’s just a hallucination brought on by something more potent than
nicotine in the cigarettes they both chain smoke, but the phenomenon
keeps happening.
Their first thought when they witness this strange, seemingly
supernatural event, is how they can monetize it. The most likely way is
to invest in cameras and make a documentary which they can sell to
various outlets, maybe even Netflix?
This is an opportunity to finally validate their existence and make some
real money. However, their ineptitude and tendency to fly off on wild
tangents begin to hamper their endeavours. Levi and John find a mutual
connection in their shared susceptibility to conspiracy theories, wild
ideas about numerology, symbology, mass simulations, and mind control.
In trying to pin down the phenomenon they’re witnessing they consider
charged energy fields, geometric magnetism, ancient aliens, a
Pythagorean Cult tied to a shape they see all over L.A. and a city
architect with an occult purpose in his design of Los Angeles itself.
As their theories become more outlandish and incoherent, their
camaraderie and their mutual goal begins to break down. Tied together in
creating their much-edited, semi-recreated documentary, this odd couple
seem fated to mess up yet another opportunity. Their arguments persist
even while the phenomenon continues to manifest around them, so
distracted are they by their personal sniping they have even ceased to
notice the miracle in their midst.
Something in the Dirt tells its story partly within a
documentary format. Benson and Moorhead mix in real footage with their
narrative along with stock footage clips to illustrate some of their
points. Eventually, the line between what is actual and what is
fictional, or a reenactment becomes blurred. It turns out to be a good
way of underlining the way the public now consumes its media and how
willingly people will believe what they think they see, never checking
whether they are actually being fed facts or fictions. We are living in
scary times when fake news is so readily accepted and images are so
easily faked.
Benson and Moorhead have a reputation for making unique films on
shoe-string budgets and being extremely hands-on with their work. Both
were involved in the editing; Moorhead took responsibility for the
cinematography and Benson wrote the script. Their longtime friendship
helps make their acting performances come across as very natural; there
is instant rapport, so much so that at times the dialogue feels
improvised.
Hopes are high for their next project - they are slated to be
contributing to the Moon Knight series, and I for one will be looking
forward to what intriguing and challenging topic will inspire their next
feature.
Something in the Dirt is on
UK/ROI VOD now.
