Something in the Dirt
XYZ Films | Release Date: November 4, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
76
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The PlaylistJason BaileyJan 26, 2022
Their latest fusion of science fiction, character drama, dark comedy, and overwhelming paranoia, Something in the Dirt, feels like their most personal film – and not just because they wear so many hats, directing and writing and producing and editing and starring. Read full review
90
Little White LiesAnton BitelNov 5, 2022
All the mad metaphysics come rooted in character. Read full review
90
SlashfilmChris EvangelistaJan 26, 2022
Once again, Benson and Moorhead prove that they can produce a stellar, original film with a tiny fraction of the budget of bigger Hollywood filmmakers. The movie landscape is a far better, weird, and beautiful place with them in it. Read full review
83
ColliderMarco Vito OddoNov 4, 2022
Benson and Moorhead have always been able to make the most of small budgets and confined spaces. Nevertheless, Something in the Dirt is the most minimalist project they ever created. Yet Something in the Dirt might be their most ambitious movie, as they dedicate two hours to an intimate study of meaning as the main motor of human life. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyJoshua RothkopfJan 26, 2022
Doubling down on COVID-era listlessness and QAnon paranoia, the impressively fidgety, crammed-to-bursting Something in the Dirt ends up with something like: Please let my life make sense. It's an understandable wish in an uncertain moment. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesNoel MurrayNov 3, 2022
For the first 90 minutes or so, there’s remarkable vibrancy and spontaneity to this picture, as its creators and stars seem to be coming up with their story on the spot, with the cameras rolling. They seem inspired and excited. The mood is infectious. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhil HoadNov 1, 2022
Something in the Dirt is so high on its own conceptual supply that it doesn’t invest quite enough in the pair’s deteriorating relationship, and consequently starts to drag. But it wrings a mini-cosmos out of next to nothing, its delicately transcendent visuals – courtesy of Moorhead’s photography background – constantly signposting some higher truth just around the next corner. Read full review
80
EmpireJames DyerOct 31, 2022
While not quite on a level with The Endless, this is another pocket lint sci-fi from the current masters of such. A welcome sign that Benson and Moorhead haven’t gone fully respectable just yet. Read full review
80
Film ThreatNorman GidneyJan 26, 2022
Benson and Moorhead have crafted yet another lo-fi sci-fi masterpiece. Read full review
80
Time OutPhil de SemlyenJan 26, 2022
Dreamweavers, visionaries, plus actors… filmmaking pair Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead’s latest DIY sci-fi bubbles with mad ideas and eerie pre-apocalyptic vibes. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 26, 2022
The bargain Benson and Moorhead make with audiences goes something like this: If we buy in, then we can participate in what often feels more like an elevated form of play than some attempt to compete with slick, studio product. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerNov 2, 2022
Something in the Dirt doesn't hide its answers, because there may not be any answers. It's the danger of obsessing over the mutability of facts that is its true and fascinating subject. In an era of post-reality politics, Something in the Dirt may be a quiet wake-up call. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyNov 4, 2022
Something in the Dirt has the gritty DIY-vibe of the no-budget world from which it sprang, and is both thought-provoking and crazy-making, just like the mood it presents. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineWilliam RepassOct 31, 2022
The film’s sheer fun and invention counterbalance its main characters’ abject failure in their search for meaning and success. Read full review
75
The Film StageMichael FrankJan 27, 2022
A genre film committed and receptive to the melted minds of its characters and the equally melted minds of its audience Read full review
73
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiNov 4, 2022
Benson and Moorhead direct and shoot their film smartly, but their performances are what ground it and give it shape. It’s Benson’s moping alienation and Moorhead’s desperate need to believe in something — no matter how nonsensical, even if he knows he’s making it up himself — that resonate. Read full review
72
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJan 26, 2022
Half mock-doc, half sci-fi two-hander, all bone-dry L.A. satire, Something in the Dirt takes a bemused look at those all too happy to exploit phenomena and each other—with the typical small-scale charm of an Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson project. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Roxana HadadiNov 11, 2022
Something in the Dirt deftly bounces between the oddness of its central story, the silliness of its documentary framing, and the resentments that eventually develop between its main characters, all buried inside what is essentially a hangout movie. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneK. Austin CollinsNov 7, 2022
Ultimately, Something in the Dirt doesn’t quite convince as a genuine mystery — and it doesn’t seem to be meant to. Having fun with the artifice of it all — the loose “documentary” format, the well-played and visibly signaled “clues” scattered throughout — seems far more to the point. Read full review
70
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisNov 3, 2022
Overlong and overwritten, “Dirt” nevertheless unfolds with an enjoyably comic quirkiness, a tale of two doofuses who sought meaning in symbols and found comfort in friendship. Read full review
70
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrFeb 28, 2022
Ultimately, Something in the Dirt disappoints for a multitude of reasons, not least of which is the optimism that slowly dissipates as things progress. To call this an ambitious misfire is being polite, as the investment required going in never fully collates with the level of satisfaction audiences expect coming out. Read full review
67
IndieWireCarlos AguilarJan 26, 2022
Something in the Dirt functions as a disturbing and acerbically comedic riddle of a movie where finding the answers is a secondary, mostly unfruitful goal. What we are after is understanding the personal voids that push some of us to look for them in the first place. Read full review
65
PolygonSteven Nguyen ScaifeNov 9, 2022
The film is genuinely clever at times in the way it explores the construction of illusions. But the process is deflating, because it also pushes the audience away, cutting them out of any investment or belief in the narrative. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 31, 2022
What Benson and Moorhead have conjured up here is their oddest, most esoteric dramedy yet, a tale quirky and weird, more serious than silly and certainly worth a look just to pick through the torrent of references herein. You’ve just got to be on their wavelength to get anything more than passing pleasure out of it. Read full review
60
Screen RantNadir SamaraNov 11, 2022
Something in The Dirt is a wild ride that will take one to the limits of reality and test one's patience. Read full review
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