Movie Review

History comes in a distant second in archaeology drama The Dig

When archaeologists appear in movies, it’s almost always as part of some treasure-hunting adventure. From Indiana Jones to Lara Croft to The Mummy, the story tends to forgo the actual process of finding ancient relics and focus instead on the danger that characters must go through in order to get them.

A very different type of archaeologist is at the center of The Dig. In 1939, Basil Brown (Ralph Fiennes) is hired by Edith Pretty (Carey Mulligan) to excavate mounds on her English country estate, Sutton Hoo. Both suspect they were some kind of long-forgotten burial sites, but neither has any clue what they will actually find there.

When the initial finds of Brown’s dig place the site as much older than anticipated, it attracts the interest of other archaeologists, including one from the British Museum. As more and more people come, Brown struggles to maintain his control over the site, with Pretty, who’s going through health issues, not always available to make sure the right thing is done.

Directed by Simon Stone and adapted by Moira Buffini from the novel by John Preston, the film is relatively straightforward for its first half. What small tensions there are result from Pretty being part of the upper class and Brown being a lower class. Pretty respects Brown’s skills, but also puts a very fine line between his work for her and anything more personal.

In the second half, though, the film makes an abrupt shift with the arrival of Stuart and Peggy Piggott (Ben Chaplin and Lily James), who are called upon to help with the dig. They bring in their own particular issues that are completely separate from those of Brown or Pretty, and this dividing of focus makes little sense narratively or emotionally.

Up until that point, the working relationship between Brown and Pretty made for a solid if unspectacular story. But the out-of-nowhere addition of the Piggotts’ anxieties takes the attention almost completely away from Brown, Pretty, and the dig itself, almost as if another movie was plopped down in the one that was previously happening. Add in the threat of World War II that hangs in the background, and suddenly there’s too much going on for any of the stories to be fulfilling.

Both Mulligan, coming off a stunner of a role in Promising Young Woman, and Fiennes are good, but only in the typical way that British actors playing this type of role are respectable. Neither does anything particularly egregious, but neither is all that memorable, either. James’ character garners a lot of attention, making her performance notable for that fact alone.

In the end, the history being uncovered in The Dig comes in a distant second to the soap opera-esque arc of two late-coming characters. It’s an odd way to tell a complete story, and one that denies its two main characters the emotional release that they deserved.

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The Dig debuts on Netflix on January 29.

Ralph Fiennes in The Dig.

Ralph Fiennes in The Dig

Photo by Larry Horricks/Netflix

Ralph Fiennes in The Dig.

Vinyl Record News

Dallas record store chain Josey Records spins new location in Garland

Josey Records

Josey Records

Vinyl at Josey Records

Dallas music maker Josey Records has extended its reach east: The record store chain, whose empire includes one of the largest single independent record stores in the U.S., has opened a location in Garland, at 1005 Northwest Hwy., at the intersection of Centerville Road, where it's selling its trademark assortment of vinyl records, CDs, cassettes, turntables, music posters, new releases, and music accessories.

This is the sixth location and the third in the Dallas area, joining the original in Farmers Branch which owners Waric Cameron and Luke Sardello opened in November 2014. They've since opened locations in Plano, Tulsa, Kansas City, and Vidalia, Missouri.

The original location is a giant place with 16,000 square feet devoted to vinyl, 45s, CDs, turntables, and T-shirts. They do a good job showcasing new releases and collector vinyl — they made CultureMap's list of 5 best places in Dallas to buy vinyl records — and are known to host album release and listening parties such as a recent blockbuster celebrating Linkin Park.

They made headlines in June 2020 when they acquired the vast musical inventory of Bill’s Records following the death of owner Bill Wisener; Cameron and Sardello both worked at Bill’s, and knew the sprawling collection first-hand.

"It has taken us years to even start going through it, but in last two years, we've made some headway," Cameron says. "Bill's has its own audience, so we created a specific Instagram account, just for Bill's Records merchandise called @billsrecordsvault."

They chose Garland because they saw it as an area that was under-served.

"There are very few record stores in that area of northeast Dallas, Casa View, Garland, Rockwall, Mesquite," Cameron says. "We have customers who live over there, so it seemed like a good place for a store."

The storefront they're in was most recently The Music Store, which sold and rented musical instruments and accessories; but coincidentally, it's next to an address that was once RPM Records, a hip record store from the '90s.

The Garland store follows the same model as their others: selling new and used records and merchandise, and buying used goods, as well.

"One thing that's cool is that each location takes on its own identity," he says. "We buy used CDs, vinyl records, cassettes — we're a used resale business — and what we buy from our customers dictates what that store becomes. For example, our Plano store has a lot of classic rock. So we're looking forward to seeing what Garland gravitates to."

Garland does have one thing that the other locations do not.

"Right now, Garland has this incredible collection of jazz," Cameron says. "We bought a great collection of jazz records — someone called and wanted to sell it. We get that a lot, we buy major collections from all over the U.S., we even make house calls. So we saved it for the Garland store."

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