The latest effort from cult sci-fi duo Moorhead and Benson is among their best work yet, and nothing short of spectacular.
As 2022 draws to a close, you might find yourself wondering: what are the best movies you’ve seen this year? Or better yet: what are the best movies you haven’t seen yet? This, I often find, is the more intriguing question – and for many, there’s one sneaky little sci-fi flick that might just creep its way into your minds. Hot off the back of dropping the MCU’s first ‘fuck’ in Moon Knight earlier this year, directing duo Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson are back with another stellar low-fi genre flick in the form of Something in the Dirt, a film that continues the pair’s stellar directing record and rounds out what has been a truly excellent year of genre movies.
If I had a nickel for every sci-fi movie that came out this year about two people experiencing supernatural/alien phenomena and trying to capture it on film to gain fame and fortune, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice, right? In yet another strange example of purely coincidental parallel thought in the world of cinema, the movie that Something in the Dirt most closely resembles is none other than Jordan Peele’s Nope.
For both films follow the same vague outline: two people find themselves witness to apparent alien or supernatural goings-on and set out to document their findings. What’s more, both movies are keenly interested in the ethics of filmmaking and the various detrimental effects it can have on its participants. But where Peele chooses to make his movie dynamic and huge (something that absolutely works in its favour), Moorhead and Benson keep things small-scale. It’s a decision that’s perfectly in line with their work in the past: low-budget guerrilla-style filmmaking to produce intimate, spectacular results. To anyone familiar with the pair’s work, this will be the exact opposite of a surprise.
Shot over the course of a year in LA, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, and in writer/co-director Benson’s own apartment, it’s almost a miracle that Something in the Dirt comes together as well as it does. But what it does so well, as with all their previous films, is to pin virtually the entire movie on its protagonists. Played by Moorhead and Benson, our lead characters John and Levi are innately engaging thanks to the duo’s natural chemistry… but how much do we know about them? Can we trust them? Can we even believe anything they say? These questions are interrogated as the film goes on, both by the audience and the characters themselves until we wind up with one ruthless man who will clearly stop at nothing to get the movie made, and another who can’t help but get caught up in the idea of it all, who sees the danger in their endeavour but is convinced not to stop, and who is left as a tragic victim when all is said and done.
This dynamic is something that is fairly new for the duo. Much of their work in the past has revolved around two people working together to overcome a (often supernatural) obstacle. But here, the conflict comes not between the pair and the supernatural, but from within the pair itself. Not only is there an added edge of hostility to Levi and John’s friendship when suspicions start to creep in that draws the viewer even further into their inevitable conflict, but there’s an innate fascination with seeing Moorhead and Benson actively push themselves outside of their comfort zone like this. One of the most rewarding things about following the careers of new filmmaking talent is watching them evolve and grow – and with Something in the Dirt, Moorhead and Benson have taken their biggest leap yet.
What’s perhaps most impressive about the film is that it never feels cheap. Despite being made on a shoestring budget with a skeletal crew and only two real characters, it’s immediately involving and interesting. Though much of the film is a linear narrative, we’re treated to occasional snippets of Levi and John’s finished documentary, a decision that not only fleshes out the event itself, but also the characters we’ve been getting to know – and that isn’t something that stops at these snippets. Even when a scene is simply the two men talking on a rooftop while having a smoke, Benson’s script is so electric that not a line is wasted. We’re always learning about the characters, and it’s this that makes the movie work: what seems at first to be a totally open and honest friendship quickly sours, and it isn’t long before we’re left wondering if either of Levi and John will make it to the end of the film alive.
Of course, there are also the aforementioned supernatural goings-on – and these are stunning. While undeniably lo-fi, as is tradition for these two, there’s more than a little weirdness to the events that unfold in that apartment. There are moments of weirdness scattered throughout, from seemingly random earthquakes to illogical repeating patterns, inexplicable coincidences and downright captivating levitations. But if you’re expecting the movie to hold your hand and explain things to you, then you’d better check yourself. Something in the Dirt isn’t interested in telling you how the things happen – just that they do. Because they aren’t really the most important thing in the movie. What matters most are the characters that serve as a metaphor for the Hollywood system: a man whose selfish, Machiavellian attitude may end up being his downfall, and another whose wide-eyed optimism leaves him a victim of that very attitude.
Make no mistake, Something in the Dirt is not your ordinary sci-fi flick. What it is instead is pure Moorhead and Benson: an intimate genre movie more focused on men than their surroundings, but which has something much larger to say than its marketing might suggest. For genre fans and anyone who’s seen the pair’s previous work, it’s an absolute must-see. And if you haven’t seen any of their movies… well, you might want to think about changing that.
Something in the Dirt is available now on Blu-ray and digital.
Images courtesy of Lightbulb Film Distribution. All rights reserved.