Eddington

You know you have a masterpiece on your hands when you have a couple two rows behind you bitching about whether or not to walk out throughout the course of the third act and whining about how “boring” the movie is. A truly enthralling movie that captures the hysteria and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the hands of a director like Adam McKay, this could’ve delved into a preachy morality tale a la Don’t Look Up, but Ari Aster doesn’t do that. What we have instead is a cynical and blunt satire where the left wing (white leftists in particular) is completely performative and self-serving, the elected democrats are corrupt and the right wing is completely unhinged and psychotic. But don’t take this to mean that Aster is fence-sitting here. This is ostensibly a left-leaning perspective, as the right is portrayed in a far more critical light. It’s as if something in America completely snapped during the pandemic and never reverted, where everyone is frightened and no one wants to listen to or communicate with each other. Overall, Ari Aster has captured the true absurdities of the pandemic underpinning both sides of the aisle. Easily his best movie.