[1] The film stars Babz Chula as Angie, a woman who deals marijuana out of her home in the Vancouver neighbourhood of Kitsilano, and Tom Scholte as David, a young university student with whom she has a sexual relationship.
[2] The cast also includes Benjamin Ratner as Tony, David's roommate who has just moved to the city from Port Alberni and is feeling lonely and isolated as he tries to establish himself, and Nancy Sivak as Nancy, a depressed shopaholic woman who lives in Angie's basement apartment, as well as Vincent Gale, Frida Betrani, Abby J. Arnold, Rondel Reynoldson, Brendan Beiser, John Henry Canavan, Rob Carpenter, Fulvio Cecere, Marya Delver, Kathleen Duborg, Marcy Goldberg, George Gordon, Rebecca Harker and Micki Maunsell in supporting roles.
[7] Emanuel Levy of Variety reviewed the film favourably, writing that "Sweeney appears to work in the serio-comic and psychological mode of John Cassavetes and Mike Leigh, a 1991 master class with the famed Brit director having reportedly influenced his own aesthetic sensibility.
"[1] Katherine Monk of Southam News rated the film three stars, writing that "combined with Bruce Sweeney's economical and intuitive camera work, Dirty takes a relatively simple composition and turns it into a surreal, dark and somewhat disturbing picture of contemporary life.
"[8] Rick Groen of The Globe and Mail rated it two stars, writing that "Dirty tries to develop the ills of this fun bunch into a stark picture of misery's twin pillars, obsession and depression.