"Something in the Dirt" - Fantastic Fest 2022 Film Review
Something in the Dirt is the fifth collaboration between director duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson. They’ve built a following for their ability to weave compelling science fiction stories on a shoestring budget. They make up for their small financial means with grand questions about humanity, paranoia, and the greater picture of life.
In many ways, Something in the Dirt is a quintessential tale of living in Los Angeles. There’s an inherent desperation in the existence of most people living there. They’re scraping by with odd jobs, forming dangerous coping mechanisms, and buried deep down somewhere is the reason they moved to the city in the first place. For Levi (Benson) and John (Moorhead), an unexpected paranormal encounter in their apartment complex gives them a chance to rise above the obscurity they live in. No sooner do they experience a ghostly, glowing light do they begin planning the documentary they’re going to shoot, the tentative title for their film, and how much Netflix is going to pay them.
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Equal parts conspiracy theory mockumentary and bro-y hangout flick, Something in the Dirt transcends its own genre conventions. The film clearly arises from a desire to be creative during the lockdowns of the pandemic, but it never feels constricted by the confines of Levi’s empty, seemingly haunted apartment. Despite being born of the pandemic, there is only one reference to Covid and lockdown, yet the feelings of obsession, desperation, and loneliness are all too familiar. The same way we all went down rabbit holes and found new hobbies to make sense of that time of isolation, Levi and John rely on their paranormal project to give their lives a purpose.
Something in the Dirt intersperses home video, out-of-context images, and talking-head documentary footage to create an engrossing final product. It’s easy to understand how these characters fell so deeply into the conspiracy they created by attributing immense meaning to coincidences. The film is a very minimal critique of the ways humans try so desperately to make sense of the inexplicable – how anyone can make something out of nothing if they try hard enough.
Ultimately, Something in the Dirt touches on the themes of Moorhead and Benson’s previous works. They’re fascinated by existentialism, the idea of living in a simulation, and the power of perception. However, despite the film’s almost two-hour runtime, it never feels fleshed out. Levi and John spend most of the film swapping stories about something they once heard or something they read online about a tangentially related topic. There is something to be said about the authentic conversational nature of these scenes, but it does feel like the sorts of things teenagers would talk about while smoking pot in their parents’ basement. The longer the film goes on, the frustrating lack of answers, coupled with these circuitous and vague conversations, makes Something in the Dirt feel a little too drawn out.
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Comparisons to Under the Silver Lake are impossible to ignore. The two films are focused on men living in LA and trying to make sense of what is real, with a heavy dose of conspiracy theory baked in for good measure. There aren’t any good answers at the end of Something in the Dirt, in the same way that life lacks a neatly tied-up ending. It’s because of the stretched-out middle section that the lack of explanation hits particularly hard. Perhaps, had the film run closer to ninety minutes, the theme of the unknown wouldn’t have felt like an easy out and a way to avoid finding a meaningful end to the film.
Something in the Dirt does live up to its name. There is something here and it’s a truly fascinating something, but the film needs a little more clearing away of the dirt.
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