SOMETHING IN THE DIRT (January 2022)

   

SOMETHING IN THE DIRT

(January 2022)

“Well, a lot of things are still mysteries. You just don’t expect to witness one on a sh!tty afternoon in your cheap apartment.”

Yes, another Moorhead & Benson Film crash lands ‘round these parts…

“I mean, what’s crazier? Believing every single coincidence you ever see or just ignoring them all?”

In Something in the Dirt, Levi (Justin Benson) has just moved into his “cheap” L.A. apartment, when some strange phenomena start, drawing in neighbor John (Aaron Moorhead), and resulting in both deciding to make a documentary to get everything on record and hopefully, find an explanation along the way. (And maybe, make some scratch too, if they can sell the doc to, oh, say, Netflix?)

“Well, why can’t it be a group like the Freemasons or the Moose Lodge or… what’s the one that’s on Discovery Channel all the time? It’s the Rose Croutons.”

“‘The Rose Croutons’? The Rosicrucians?”

Moorhead and Benson’s latest--which, from a certain perspective, is essentially their attempt to make The X-Files today--is a fascinating exploration of how people impose their own meanings onto everything that surrounds them, and how, in trying to solve the mysteries that face us, our own imperfections and obsessions tend to obscure and tarnish what should otherwise be the purity of the unknown and the unexplained.

“Stop being paranoid. It’s weird.”

Parting Shot: The duo’s past ¡Qué horror! mentions can be found here, and here, and here, and here.

(Something in the Dirt OS courtesy of impawards.com.)

SYNCHRONIC (September 2019)

SYNCHRONIC
(September 2019)

“You drop the needle on the song you wanna play, but they’re all always there. These tracks are like time. Synchronic is the needle.”
 
The excellently adventurous Messrs. Benson and Moorhead are back* with the compellingly absorbing Synchronic.
In it, Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan play best friends and paramedic partners whose job brings them into the orbit of the latest designer drug to hit Louisiana, the titular “Synchronic.”
Originally “… meant to be a DMT-like drug,” Synchronic turns out to be something else altogether.
 
I’ve loved these guys’ feature work since their co-directorial debut, Resolution, on to Spring, and their contribution to V/H/S: Viral, “Bonestorm,” through till The Endless.
And now, we can add Synchronic to that list.
 
There isn’t much to say beyond that, except I suppose, to note to prospective viewers that, while Synchronic comes highly recommended, this doesn’t have the usual horror stylings of their past work.
While there are traces of horror here, it’s decidedly more muted and subtle than their previous films.
 
Okay.
That’s all you’ll get here.
Go on.
Check it out.
 
“The clock just… keeps tickin’ down and the lower that number gets, you realize how f*ckin’ amazing now is. The present is a miracle, bruh.”

* Actually, they're even more back with Something in the Dirt, which just screened last month at Sundance, so you can also look to Synchronic for a sweet Benson/Moorhead fix whilst we wait for Something in the Dirt to be unleashed upon us...

  
(Synchronic OS courtesy of impawards.com.)