Something in the Dirt
An apartment unoccupied for a decade, Levi Danube has rented it unseen having sold his own place prior to relocating outside the city; making friends with long-term resident John Daniels, former maths teacher turned photographer who describes himself as “the building ambassador,” Levi enlists him in observing strange phenomena he has witnessed, apparently originating from a glass sculpture which floats in the air and refracts light to create geometric patterns.
The hot city air filled with the buzz of electricity and smoke rising over the Hollywood Hills as helicopters hover above, on the same wavelength and with few obligations to occupy their time the two men seek to solve the cosmic puzzle they have discovered, overlaying its geometry on the architecture of the city and their lives to try and comprehend the mystery which will form the basis of the documentary they call Something in the Light.
Written by Justin Benson who stars as Levi and co-directed with his creative partner Aaron Moorehead who stars as John, Something in the Dirt sees them not so much fall into a rabbit hole of new age mysticism and conspiracy theories as a whole warren, accepting as fact what only moments before was supposition and building their elaborate delusions on top of foundations of fantasy, their bodies saturated in electromagnetic radiation which they hope to split in the prism of their investigation into the fundamental truths of the universe.
The duo’s last feature Synchronic having seen them working with talent familiar to a wider audience, Something in the Dirt is a return to their twisted roots grown in strange soil, a minimalist production which serves as a peephole camera into a dazzling world of wonder as they seek the numinous in the mundane, the pair having used the hemispherical glass object as an ashtray before realising its power.
An uneasy balance of scepticism and self-interest at the intersection of science and the supposed magic of quartz deposits, recurring numbers and tesseracts glimpsed in chiaroscuro, do John and Levi see patterns because they have a propensity for either analysis or credulity, because their experiences have primed them to do so, or are they just seeking meaning in coincidences to banish the disappointment which shadows their lives?
The fifth feature from Benson and Moorehead illuminated like the promise of an unpolished diamond glittering in the darkness, the human need to capture and comprehend it is conveyed with sympathy and bitter humour as John and Levi dig for that elusive Something in the Dirt which will leave their hands raw as they come to know each other’s deceits and use them as ammunition, their lofty ambition at risk of crashing down to Earth.
Something in the Dirt will be in UK Cinemas from 4th November and then on Digital Download from 28th November and Blu-ray from 5th December
