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.

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.

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.

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