Stream It or Skip It: ‘Something in the Dirt’ on Hulu, a Movie That Feels as Crazy as Conspiracy Rabbit-Holes Are

In the 1960s, American historian Richard Hofstadter wrote about the “paranoid style” in American politics characterized by “heated exaggeration, suspiciousness, and conspiratorial fantasy.” Fast forward to the 2020s, and that style gets a contemporary update in Something in the Dirt, the latest film from indie directing duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. If you recognize their names from directing Marvel’s Moon Knight, expect the complete opposite of the coin here – this is about as far from mass entertainment as it gets. In a good way.

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: If anyone says they can fully explain Something in the Dirt to you, they’re probably lying. But the film starts with two neighbors, the itinerant worker Levi (Justin Benson) and apocalyptic evangelical John (Aaron Moorhead), discovering that items with quartz float in their Los Angeles apartment. The duo’s first instinct is to do what anyone experiencing such unexplained phenomenon do in contemporary times: film it. Levi and John begin shooting a documentary about the supposed supernatural occurrence, and their lens only widens as they begin to notice others like it all around town. The project quickly becomes all-consuming of their time and mind, leading to bickering and dissent over how to interpret what they see. Even when contemplating the cosmic, these two guys cannot escape the human impulses to snipe at one another selfishly.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Benson and Moorhead’s other lo-fi sci-fi indies are good blueprints for the intellectual level this is working on – films like Spring, The Endless, and Synchronic. But in terms of wholly cerebral genre fare, the films of Shane Carruth like Primer and Upstream Color feel like the closest comparisons.

Performance Worth Watching: It’s impossible to pick between Benson and Moorhead here because, as in front of the camera as behind, the two are in perfect sync. They’re perfectly pitched for the insanity of this story while still maintaining a toe planted in reality.

Memorable Dialogue: “Can I have a second beer to help me sleep?” asks a character at a particularly tense moment. This injection of humor in a dark moment is the perfect expression of this film’s oddball sensibilities that peek out at the most unexpected moments.

Sex and Skin: There’s something down in the dirt … but it’s not Benson and Moorehead’s minds. Nothing here.

Our Take: Benson and Moorhead accomplish something special here, playing the grandness of supernatural mysteries off of the pettiness of Sartre-esque human misery. Something in the Dirt balances an absurdist, mumblecore-like talky script inside the framework of genre fare. It’s the rare sci-fi where the main attraction is not the special effects (likely due to the DIY nature of this COVID-inspired project) but rather two guys bouncing crazy theories off each other’s eccentric personalities. It can be confusing to watch, especially when the structure of a cinematic Ouroboros eating itself becomes apparent. Still, it never loses intrigue as the filmmaking team boldly goes for it at every turn. The imagination and ambition are always there, even if the execution might not always be.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Something in the Dirt perfectly represents how the pandemic made us all lose our minds. It’s an insane movie for insane times. Contentment or comprehension is not guaranteed, but having some strong opinion is.

Marshall Shaffer is a New York-based freelance film journalist. In addition to Decider, his work has also appeared on Slashfilm, Slant, Little White Lies and many other outlets. Some day soon, everyone will realize how right he is about Spring Breakers.