Eddington

Going into this film, either due to its marketing or the public perception that I’ve seen, I fully was expecting this to be Ari Aster’s commentary on left vs right politics, and the backdrop of Covid was used as the perfect breeding ground for this. To my surprise, and delight, this is simply only part of this epic.

This really feels like an epic, a real modern take on small town politics and sheriffs. The film is tackling really dense and heavy topics, however I don’t think the film is concerned with digging into the minutiae of said topics. It requires you to remove yourself from the issues being spoken about to assess what Aster is really commenting on, which is the way that algorithms have exploited the worst in people and how conversations on these issues has simply turned into virtue signalling and demonising the other side. Nobody is really listening to anybody anymore, conversation has turned into who is able to shout the loudest, right and wrong is lost and instead it’s been replaced by everybody thinking what they say is the truth.

I do perhaps think that levelling everybody on the same playing field is perhaps dangerous filmmaking. It’s interesting commentary but especially when the film does toe itself into sides of politics, I’m not sure how much that message is responsible. Sure, some people on the left are performative, but the equivalent on the other side is hatred.

I think Aster’s point is to strip down the issues presented in the film and look at how humanity is easting itself alive, and I really do love this but I do think there needs to be more there. There needs to be a level of nuance that is not here.

Framing this from the Sheriff’s point of view was extremely intelligent though, it’s confronting your preconceived notions of who this man is and it wants you to engage with him as a person. This is successfully done at the start of the film and I think Aster wonderfully gets across the downfall of this man and how others perhaps fall into pipelines so quick. At the core of this film it’s just about a man who fails to please his wife.

The film is wonderfully commentary on exploitation and how Covid really was this turning point for our society, the repercussions which still reverberate through the way we speak. The way we all point and shoot - or post - without thought and how damaging that is to people speaking with each other. (Love how this manifests metaphorically in the third act as well). It’s really not about left vs right, it’s about how nobody wins in a capitalist society, well expect the people who are above us