Something in the Dirt
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are back with another exercise in reality manipulation
After a couple of mainstream efforts – the dodgy Synchronic and their entry into the Marvel machine (they directed two episodes on Moon Knight) – the latest from indie cult directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead immediately feels more like their earlier exercises in reality manipulation. Casting themselves as the leads (as was the case with their best film, The Endless), the film sees a couple of washed-up LA residents attempt to document paranormal phenomenon and unravel a transdimensional conspiracy from the confines of a crummy apartment building. It’s a playful treatise on filmmaking’s allure of prestige, as well as the psychological effects of low-budget myth-making.
Thematically, Benson and Moorhead are returning to well-trodden but fertile ground, and any unwieldy plotting is absolved by the robust character work the pair have a knack for. Levi (Benson) feels out of place even in the crummy, bare apartment he finds himself in, probably more suited to drifting through California’s valleys; John (Moorhead) slowly reveals a pit of ugliness under his earnest if exhausted display of pleasantries. With a minuscule crew of a dozen people, every aspect of production feels in confident hands.
Some narrative techniques are reused from their earlier work, some are explored to more depth than before, and as symbols and clues are abstracted increasingly away from a concrete meaning, it’s possible to get lost in the twistiness of it all. But Benson and Moorhead have made an authentically LA film being lost in meaninglessness, and hopefully we will keep seeing films from them like this, no matter what popular fare they helm next.
Released 4 Nov by Lightbulb Film Distribution; certificate 15