They say curiosity killed the cat. In the new film DIGGING FOR FIRE, curiosity most definitely killed somebody… but who? Jake Johnson and Rosemarie DeWitt lead an all star cast in this dark new indie from Joe Swanberg. While house-sitting for a client, Lee and Tim find a bone and a gun in the backyard, sparking a mystery that must be solved. 
Johnson plays gym teacher Tim and husband to Dewitt’s yoga instructor Lee. While the film appears to tackle the mystery aspect at full force, the screenplay veers off onto the topics of marriage, parenting, and losing one’s identity. As Tim and Lee part ways for the weekend, Tim throws an intimate get together at the house, encouraging his guests to participate in his sleuthing. Lee drops their son Jude (played adorably by Swanberg’s real life son) off with her parents to visit with friends and explore some alone time. As their days and nights progress, the two weave in and out of age and stage realizations and reveal subtle personality quirks that are all too relatable. 
While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Swanberg‘s Happy Christmas last year, Digging for Fire feels more like Drinking Buddies in it’s organic camera work and down to earth quality. Jake Johnson is always funny as hell and this is no exception. His every-man approachability combined with his genuine comic timing is a real win. Rosemarie DeWitt has the same “making the audience feel at ease” way about her. Their chemistry with one another and the entire rest of the cast including, Judith Light, Sam Elliott, Melanie Lynskey, Mike Birbiglia, Jenny Slate, Anna Kendrick, Brie Larson, Orlando Bloom, Ron Livingston, and Sam Rockwell (to name a few) is refreshing and fun to watch. I am really digging, no pun intended, the screenplay pairing of Johnson and Swanberg. This is clearly a great team.
DIGGING FOR FIRE opens in theaters and VOD today
10,000 Saints follows three screwed up young people and their equally screwed up parents in the age of CBGB’s, yuppies and the tinderbox of gentrification that exploded into the Tompkins Square Park Riots in New York’s East Village in the 1980s. This film is essentially the story of how small life connections become the ties that bind a group of estranged friends and family. It’s quite extraordinary and a brilliant translation of Eleanor Henderson‘s New York Times best-selling novel. After the loss of his best friend Teddy, Jude is sent to live his absentee father, Les. Reconnecting with Les’ girlfriend’s daughter, Eliza and straight edge punk singer and brother of Teddy, Johnny, the three embark on a path that was thrust upon them. 
Books and films and a very successful television series, the enigma of the world’s greatest detective once again leaps off the pages and onto the big screen in a new and refreshing take on the master of mystery. Mr. Holmes gives us the story of Sherlock, post Watson, decades after his retirement, residing in the beautiful Welsh countryside. Frustrated with the public’s misconception of him, Holmes gathers his own pen and ink to illustrate his final case and the moments that lead him to his present.
Not a hair out of place, Bill Condon‘s directorial adaptation of the novel, “A Slight Trick of the Mind” is pure brilliance. The script is witty, openly poking fun at assumed literary cannon. Mr. Holmes is magically bright and haunting all at once. With a surrounding of everyone’s dreams in London and Wales, how can one go wrong alone visually. The music is a lovely addition and the costumes are exquisite. 
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