Diggers has a very 1970s feel, said Michael Phillips in the Chicago Tribune. People drive Oldsmobile Vista Cruisers and drink Schlitz beer, read The Hite Report, talk about Watergate. But most of all, Diggers resembles a certain sort of 1970s film, 'œthe genial ensemble piece more interested in character and atmosphere than in driving home a story.' Contemporary audiences, though, may not know what to make of this laid-back film about clam diggers on Long Island. Diggers summons its gritty setting so vividly you can smell it, said Ty Burr in The Boston Globe. The film 'œis acrid with all sorts of fumes: oil and bilge water, bog-funk and fish guts, the smoldering tinder of class resentment.' Most noticeable, though, is the whiff of marijuana, smoked copiously by four men who've been friends since childhood. Their lazy conversations let the actors stretch out and show off, said Paige Wiser in the Chicago Sun-Times. Josh Hamilton has created 'œone of the great cinematic stoners'”right up there with Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski and Brad Pitt in True Romance. Ron Eldard shows off a handsome set of sideburns, and Ken Marino (who also wrote the script) plays a hot-headed father of five. Though 'œthis is a guy's movie,' Maura Tierney, Lauren Ambrose, and Sarah Paulson all steal scenes as the feisty women in their lives.
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