The world was a strange place five years ago. It still is, but that’s beside the point. Some say it might be too soon to immortalize the insanity that was living through the pandemic and all the wild stuff we, as a society, were doing and dealing with. Not Ari Aster, though. He said, watch me straight up show you absolutely batshit everything and everyone was by creating a satirical dark comedy Neo-western set in the epicenter of the worst people imaginable (that we all probably know examples of in real life). Also, let’s throw in some Soros-coded ANTIFA assassins, tech companies, hyper-violence, and people being extremely and detrimentally online. It goes as well as you might imagine an Ari Aster film would go.
This week, we’re chatting about “Eddington”, a sensational and scathing indictment of the times and a greatest hits of the ills of modern man. Boy, does this movie rip. It’s so good that it might piss you off and make you feel a little (or very) uneasy. We think that was the whole point, and we love it. Written and directed by Ari Aster, “Eddington” centers around a mayoral race in a small town called Eddington, New Mexico, during the first few months of the pandemic. It quickly descends into a labyrinth of madness, grifting, identity politics gone overboard, greed, and cowardice. Essentially, everyone is either being manipulated, manipulating others, or simply being bad human beings. It’s also funny. Like, laugh-out-loud ridiculous. Because it was an insane time, wasn’t it?
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone, all of whom give excellent and infuriating performances, this movie expertly dissects the rise of online political and conspiratorial manipulation, societal fear, greed, hyperbolic levels of virtue signaling, the faults of identity politics, and the divisions in our humanity. What starts as something familiar slowly evolves into a story of lies, betrayal, and violence. It’s wild. In this episode, we discuss the themes, characters, and performances of the movie, highlight what we love about the direction and script, share our favourite moments from the film, discuss the state of the world both now and then, and look back on how nuts that first year of the pandemic was. They say the best art causes you to look inward… and that might be why this movie got us yapping. It also might be why it had such a polarizing effect.
Later in the episode, we briefly talk about the new Chance The Rapper album, “Star Line”, the new “Alien: Earth” series on FX, the endearing and surprising “Sorry, Baby” from Eva Victor, and some other stuff we’ve been enjoying lately.
We’ll be back next week!
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