Eddington (2025)
It’s really easy to directly compare this to Beau is Afraid. Aster excels so much in creating these worlds that are just nauseatingly riddled with anxiety and claustrophobia. But I think what’s been accomplished here is really exceptional and with time may be looked at more fondly.
Something I’ve always been sad about with the current state of films is the absolute unwillingness to film period pieces set in this post information era we are in. It makes sense why, it’s boring. We live on the internet and on our phones. It’s difficult to create interesting cinema in a world where we brain rot in bed all day and most issues we argue about are secluded in online spaces. Things that will likely never actually affect us. Eddington is the perfect setting to demonstrate this and break that mold for writing about this weird time of discourse we are in. It’s in isolation where the national backdrop of race riots, police violence, and a pandemic have essentially never touched the community. There is virtually no reason for anyone to be concerned about these things. It’s only the technology that pushes the pressures of the nation onto this community, and the discourse and infighting that is caused distracts from the real antagonist in the movie. The Golden Magikarp that reaps all the benefit despite taking the most from the people.
Cross is an insanely tragic character who has completely lost control of his life. His wife is in complete psychosis due to the internet, and his community is growing to hate him due to events far outside of his jurisdiction and control. By the end. Sheriff Cross, who was once just an outspoken cop who seemingly did care for his towns best interests. Has lost all agency fighting battles he had no reason to be a part of. Now just a prop, a mouthpiece for the conspiracy theorists and tech moguls to further their gains. Despite the blame lying solely on them. Its so incredibly poignant to watch a character live like we are, completely powerless to these massive powers behind the scenes. Controlling our fears and pushing distractions onto us.
It’s such an over exaggerated and over the top look at our current lives. That it reminds me a lot of what spaghetti westerns might have looked like to someone from the 1890s. In 60 years it’s not crazy to think that this is what period pieces of our lives might look like. Completely over the top? Sure, but the sentiment of the era is there and easy to grasp. Were ANTIFA super soldiers air dropping into cities? No but there certainly were a lot of people who feared that.
I hope more filmmakers will explore this time and space as we get further away from it. It’s truly the Wild West of social engineering.
5/5