Digging for Fire

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2:15

Digging for Fire

R

Released Aug 21, 2015

1h 23m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

64%

Tomatometer

70 Reviews

41%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

A house sitter (Jake Johnson) becomes an amateur sleuth after finding a bone and a gun on the property.

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Critics Consensus

Digging for Fire finds director/co-writer Joe Swanberg working from a familiar palette, but in ways that suggest he's taking new and exciting strides as a filmmaker.

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Jason Bailey

Flavorwire

The size of that ensemble and Swanberg's particular way of sorta hazily drifting from one half-overheard conversation to the next gives the picture a Robert Altman vibe that's never really been present in his work before.

May 30, 2016

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Wesley Morris

Grantland

The movie has been dedicated to Paul Mazursky, the great radiologist of American social interplay who died last year. But Swanberg is still murmuring where Mazursky could speechify, gesticulate, and shout, sometimes in the same sequence.

Sep 11, 2015

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Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

Conversations drift and weave, as do the people having them. Narcissistic melancholy dukes it out with beer-and-pot-stoked merriment. There is longing. There is foolhardiness.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 27, 2015

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Don Shanahan

Every Movie Has a Lesson

Either it's fresh and interesting enough to keep you guessing or it's maddeningly lost and too unstructured for not really coming to a conclusion or making a point in the end.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 7, 2024

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Leo Brady

AMovieGuy.com

Digging for Fire is Swanberg's best film to date. I enjoyed finding what's buried beneath his style.

Rated: 2.5/4

Jan 31, 2021

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Filipe Freitas

Always Good Movies

The frivolous blend of ludicrous mystery and tepid romance offered in Digging For Fire got me quickly bored.

Rated: 2/5

Nov 2, 2020

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Tim M

Why is this listed as a Thriller? It's a snooze fest, nothing thrilling about it whatsoever

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

09/19/22

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Audience Member

A slight returning to the well for director Joe Swanberg in that this movie does a very similar thing to his movie Drinking Buddies. It addresses the subtle cracks in relationships that continue to expand over time. Unfortunately, by comparison Digging for Fire feels mundane and almost useless. It has a great ensemble cast but they have nothing to do and certainly very little that is interesting to say. It feels pretty manufactured despite its core messages being fairly resounding.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

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Audience Member

I liked the vibe and the cast, but it's not that cohesive of a movie and certainly not a "mystery/thriller" as it is listed here. It's more of a light indie comedy/drama.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Not sure why this scored so low on Rotten Tomatoes... feel like i saw a different movie to whoever scored it low? It's a great indie, was unpredictable, some funny bits, felt very real and honest. It's not trying to be anything. An intriguing story about a certain point in your life when you're young parents and trying to figure out your life - which I'm leading up to now, so maybe that's why i related and got so much from it. In a nut shell: About relationships yet about individuals; Fun yet serious; Comedic yet emotional; Adventurous yet down to earth.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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steve d

Nothing interesting going on and the entire cast has nothing to do. A completely forgettable film.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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camille l

Digging For Fire ressemble exactement à ce qu'on peut attendre d'une nouvelle collaboration entre Joe Swanberg et Jake Johnson. Totalement improvisé, parfois très nombriliste, avec des personnages insupportables qui se comportent comme des égoïstes geignards, Digging for Fire est pourtant une nouvelle preuve que ces deux hommes fonctionnent parfaitement ensemble. Cela ne raconte rien, mais c'est tout à fait passionnant, surtout grâce à des interprétations de grande classe comme Sam Rockwell, Mike Birbiglia et surtout Jake Johnson himself en très grande forme. Cela n'attirera pas de nouveaux fans pour Swanberg mais ne décevra pas les déjà présents.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Video: Getting the Scoop on Digging for Fire

Digging For Fire: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

A house sitter (Jake Johnson) becomes an amateur sleuth after finding a bone and a gun on the property.

Director: Joe Swanberg
Producer: Joe Swanberg, Jake Johnson, Alicia Van Couvering
Screenwriter: Joe Swanberg, Jake Johnson
Distributor: The Orchard
Production Co: Garrett Motion Pictures
Rating: R (Drug Use|Brief Graphic Nudity|Language|Some Sexual References)
Genre: Drama, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Aug 21, 2015, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Aug 25, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA): $119.4K
Runtime: 1h 23m

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