Something In the Dirt review: The Endless’ directors deconstruct themselves

It may be clear when a movie was made as a COVID-19 project. A number of well-known filmmakers have recently released movies about cabin fever and isolation.But the new SF feature is something in the dirt One of my quarantine projects, but I still feel like I’m home. moon knight When synchro Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead. (Especially since its main setting is Moorhead’s real-life apartment.) It’s the first Cosmic Dread-centric head trip they’ve written and directed while playing a key role in front of the camera. Not: in 2018 endlessthey play brothers who confront an apocalyptic cult centered around a time loop.

In their latest film, the two play next-door neighbors in a crumbling Los Angeles apartment. Levi Danube (Benson), an aging bartender with a sketchy past and long hair like the surfer brothers, is the new tenant. He soon meets John Daniels (Moorhead). John Daniels (Moorhead) is a bespectacled churchgoer who lives at an amateur photography gig, has a side job working for an electronic charging scooter company, and a check from his ex-husband. They’re a kind of burnout, first united by the relative affordability of a building with planes screaming incessantly overhead, then something else entirely when you witness a supernatural anomaly in Levi’s apartment. is connected by

First, the stone used in the ashtray begins to move naturally, refracting light like air and causing it to levitate. Other phenomena soon follow: mysterious heat sources, musical resonances, localized earthquakes, and objects that appear to emerge from thin air. These events are, as Levi and John think, the ticket to bigger and better things. Style and temperament mismatches aside, they hope to team up to film the event and sell the footage as a documentary to Netflix.

The result more or less follows the story beat of a found-footage film, complete with fake behind-the-scenes setups and interview cutaways that foreshadow sinister events. The lack of jerky handheld footage in most of the film.just like netflix archive 81, a horror series directed by Benson and Moorehead in two of its eight episodes, the footage is more of a story device than a rigid style to follow. Levi and John are mostly shown from a conventional camera perspective observing the action. Ultimately, it is revealed as a step-by-step reenactment that Levi and John create for the final documentary.

The way the film doesn’t disclose their reenactments upfront deliberately adds a layer of disbelief on top of an already complex meta-cinematic premise. Unlike the die-hard camera users of horror movies and the more typical thrillers of the found-footage format, these guys don’t have the discipline or focus to keep shooting all the time.

John and Levi spend most of the film presenting theories enriched by podcasts you just listened to and bits of trivia that fell through the Wikipedia hole. They explore topics ranging from alien contact, to worrying levels of radiation, to a cult devoted to Pythagoras and his triangle theorem. All of their ideas are great, easy to digest and create a fun hangout atmosphere.

However, after a while it becomes clear that most of these events were never meant to be additive. (Probably none. They find a pattern to rope into their own personal histories that ultimately lead them to believe in conspiracy theories and the paranormal: to give themselves meaning. See what you want to see

the obvious touchstone of something in the dirt The spread of real-world conspiracy theories and the rise of fascism in America today. When people want to believe something, they find a way to believe it. Lack of evidence becomes evidence itself, a sign of a cover-up, or a sign that there is so little to see that only the very observant and knowledgeable few can notice. We choose our reality and people tend to choose what suits them.

Photo: XYZ Film

The way Benson and Moorhead explore found footage films is important here. Because the apparent amateurism of the form is key to veneering its authenticity. This subtlety is evident in conventional cinema, suggesting manipulation and the ability to trick the audience.However, the crappy lighting and shaky camera suggest a messy, unfiltered reality in which little effort is made to smooth out the edges in an attempt to control what we see. blair witch project Even if it’s built around a vaguely human-shaped stick arrangement and a man standing in the corner, there’s something terrifying about it.

something in the dirt Like “Something in the Light,” even beyond the meta prosperity of Levi and John brainstorming documentary titles, it shows an undercurrent of mischief. The film’s plot and composition make the viewer question its form and what is shown through its reenactment, and in the process show how easily and indiscriminately we can project meaning to fit the story we want. The film is full of cutaways to images that illustrate the full and ridiculous range of Levi’s and John’s talking points, and how persuasive the arguments are within the framework built to support them. It shows what can be powerful.

The problem is something in the dirtbut deconstructing the idea of ​​documentary truthfulness is that it’s not so revelatory in a format we already know to be fake. Even found footage — watching involves recognizing subtleties and investing or rejecting emotions anyway.

the overall effect of something in the dirt It’s a bit like looking at the version of the usual suspect It reveals a major twist about reality and storytelling halfway through the film. You can come up with almost any theory about what you’re doing and still spin a story that fits the pieces together. something in the dirt It goes a long way in demonstrating that one can spot any pattern if one looks closely.

The film is sometimes really clever in the way it explores the construction of illusions. But this process deflates because it pushes the audience away and disconnects them from their investment and belief in the story. Compared to a movie that does the same thing with a straight face, lake mangoa multimedia detective work Noroi: Curse, Online alienation represented by Let’s all go to the World Exposition — Something in the Dirt Not very achievable and not very fun.

something in the dirt opens in theaters on November 4th and will be available on VOD on November 20th.