Digging for Fire

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2:15

Digging for Fire

R

2015

1h 23m

Drama

Mystery & Thriller

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

63%

Tomatometer

71 Reviews

40%

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

May 30, 2016

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.

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Wesley Morris

Grantland

Sep 11, 2015

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.

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Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

Aug 27, 2015

3/4

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.

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Matt Oakes

Silver Screen Riot

4 days ago

C+

'Digging for Fire' fits Swanberg like an Adidas tracksuit but all the digging involved results in less depth than one would hope.

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Don Shanahan

Every Movie Has a Lesson

Apr 7, 2024

2/5

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.

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Leo Brady

AMovieGuy.com

Jan 31, 2021

2.5/4

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

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John L

@RT04000951 Jul 13, 2026

Absolutely horrible film. With some great actors it was almost unbearable to watch.

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Jordan S.

@jswez Apr 14, 2026

Being a fan of Jake Johnson I saved this a couple years ago but it left before I could watch it so I was exited to see it was on another streaming service now. The plot sounded interesting and I was surprised to see how many talented actors kept popping up throughout. This is where the excitement disappeared. This movie had so much potential but fell flat in the end. Disappointing is an understatement.

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Thomas M P

@Bluevelvet Apr 4, 2026

This could have been a 1-hour TV program on a series. I liked all the actors and figured I'd watch it. Very predictable and slow. I like most movies to some degree, but this was not one of them.

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Downriver R

@Downriver Feb 18, 2026

With the amount of absolutely outstanding A list actors that are in this that I love watching [Sam Rockwell Sam Elliot] not even them could save this horrible written film. It's not the acting that makes this movie suck. I say even though great actors are in it I'd just go ahead and pass on this one. Felt like i was watching grass grow. Boring/ super slow/ no buildup/ doesn't get your attention at any point. So the main actor in this the funny guy from tag I forget his name. He just isn't very believable in this. Maybe they should of picked somebody different for the lead actor. And maybe if they change directors this could of been decent.

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Aaron S

@RT79746728 Sep 13, 2022

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.

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May 30, 2021

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.

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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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