Something in the Dirt

Something in the Dirt follows Levi, a struggling bartender with a troubled past, and John, his lonely neighbor in a run-down Los Angeles apartment building. The two men see a crystal ashtray float and decide to film the event in hopes of making money and giving their lives a purpose. Their search leads through strange marks, old tapes, city history, and wild theories about hidden forces. The film uses dark jokes, smoky rooms, and a tense, confusing mood as the friendship slowly breaks down.

The clearest woke element is the leads’ sexual identity. John is gay and has an ex-husband, while Levi says that he has never felt attracted to anyone, which presents him as asexual. The film returns to these details in talks about dating, marriage, church, and the end of the world, but the identities do not drive the mystery or turn into an activist message. The unusual evangelical Armageddon church creates a small religious tension, but it mainly shows John’s strange ideas and isolation. Most of the movie stays focused on loneliness, paranoia, friendship, and the need to find meaning.