Magnolia Pictures "Diggers" is a dramedy about 1970's Long Island cadre of buddies, each navigating their tenuous futures working as third generation clam diggers, directed by Katherine Dieckmann.
The film stars and was written by Ken Marino, who plays Lozo, the manically funny and tortured guy whose pressures are high as his wife becomes pregnant with their sixth child. "It's my super seed, I'm cursed," he says to his wife Julie, played beautifully by Sarah Paulson.
Gina and Hunt
Townie pals Ken Marino, Josh Hamilton, Ron Eldard and Paul Rudd lives are intertwined like seaweed caught on a washed up buoy. Paul Rudd shines in this film; normally he plays a wise ass or sardonic side player in films. Marino scripts a great lead for him that lets us see there is a whole lot of this actor's repertoire we haven't been able to enjoy until now.
If you have seen "The Lords of Flatbush", "Diner", "Mystic Pizza," or even "Field of Dreams," there are similar themes from those films you will feel watching "Diggers."
Marino's tale of working-class people living semi-desperate lives in a small American town where escape and self medication seems to be the only option is very well done and blessedly short and sweet- he tells his tale in 90 minutes.
The time is the Bicentennial, the inertia years for America in 1976, and four friends in their 30s haven't much of a real future. The setting is the south shore of Long Island, and the only skill set they possess is digging clams.
South Shore corporation has muscled in on their clam beds, and this combined with the unexpected death of Rudd's character Hunt's dad gets the cast of characters thinking it may be time to bet on themselves in one way or another.
Rudd's Hunt is a third-generation digger who loves his sister Gina, played wonderfully by Maura Tierney who reads "The Hite Report" while flipping bacon in a diner. Hunt's lothario pal ER, played by Ron Eldard, aids Gina in getting her groove on again at 36, the purported sexual peak age for women.
Hunt misses his dead mother, and mourns the missed opportunities to connect in a loving way with his now dead father. His restlessness is alleviated by his artistic outlet of a running photo journal recording of his bleak surroundings in their scenic frame with his black and white Polaroid shots. Without words he shows us where his head is at.
Josh Hamilton plays the likable drug entrepreneur Cons, who rants about South Shore, quantum physics and what elements we are all made of - marble or wood.
This film was written and filmed perfectly to show their lifelong friendship, greeting each other by giving each other the finger instead of a secret handshake.
Writer, actor and producer Ken Marino plays Lozo, a passionate father who yells, swears and fumes but underneath is a big pile of Mozzarella Marinara-he adores his family and wife. Lozo's scenes with his exhausted wife Julie are excellent. "Diggers" should make this guy a star in a big way, he is a monster talent.
The film keeps its focus on Hunt's alienation and the lure of the big city, embodied in the physical form by a summer holiday siren Lauren Ambrose, who's electric attraction is bait for Hunt, but the snap of the line and her casual superficiality about their thing wakes him up to what it is he really needs and wants in his life at 34.
Technically, production designer Rochelle Berliner, set decorator Chryss Hionis and the entire art department have done a great job. Realistic dinner plates, cars, lamps, and even workplace posters and commercials on the correct televisions for the times take you right back. The costume designer Catherine George gets major props for her spot on costuming. Hair and makeup perfectly complement her work. The soundtrack is awesome too, a must own.
Make no mistake, like the classic "Diner" and "Field of Dreams"; this is an emotional and funny guy's film. "Diggers" soars in the brevity and tightness of the script, and brilliance in the casting that illustrates the power of old friendships that anchor us in life.
Limited release USA April 27. MPAA: Rated R
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