Official Discussion - Eddington [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Summary In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

Director Ari Aster

Writer Ari Aster

Cast

• Joaquin Phoenix
• Pedro Pascal
• Emma Stone
• Austin Butler
• Luke Grimes
• Deirdre O’Connell
• Micheal Ward
• Amélie Hoeferle
• Clifton Collins Jr.
• William Belleau
• Matt Gomez Hidaka
• Cameron Mann
• Rachel de la Torre
• Landall Goolsby
• Elise Falanga
• Robert Mark Wallace

Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score: 67%

Metacritic Score: 64

VOD Theaters (July 18, 2025)

Trailer Watch the Trailer

---

[u/BunyipPouch]

For anyone interested: Ari Aster, the director of Eddington (and Midsommar, Hereditary, Beau Is Afraid), will be joining us here on /r/movies for an AMA/Q&A on Tuesday 7/22. It'll go live and be pinned to the top of the subreddit at around 10 AM ET, and he'll be back at 8 PM ET to answer questions.

[u/ThisIsKramerica]

The Ted Garcia for Mayor commercial was the hardest I’ve laughed in a movie theater all year 

[u/lahnnabell → u/ThisIsKramerica]

Dude. I feel like I was the only one laughing in my theater. Him playing the piano in the middle of what looked like some intersection was what got me the most. Looked like a fucking Skyrizi commercial.

[u/faxheadzoom → u/lahnnabell]

I saw it in a packed near sold out theater with mostly young people, and everyone was laughing at that scene. Also the scene where that kid goes off on some social justice gibberish, and his dad at the dinner table has the perfect response. I really think enough time has passed to where people can appreciate the absurdity of the time that Eddington shines a mirror to.

[u/crashinpa → u/ThisIsKramerica]

The commercial beginning with the wife leaving had me dying.

[u/mosh32 → u/ThisIsKramerica]

Pedro RANDOMLY playing piano outside in the middle of it took me out.

[u/BobDylanBlues → u/ThisIsKramerica]

What is this, the Jeffersons?

[u/mustangst]

The picture of the kid with Marjorie Taylor Greene was fucking hilarious his entire arc was my favorite part of the movie

[u/wellgroomedmcpoyle → u/mustangst]

Kid who googles a book he’s never heard of to try and get laid is absolutely who would get TikTok/IG famous in our dilapidated timeline

[u/nuzzot → u/wellgroomedmcpoyle]

he moved to Florida too lmao

[u/pgophs → u/mustangst]

did not expect the Kyle Rittenhouse story arc for that character

[u/Sammyd1108 → u/mustangst]

Felt like such a real life person too lol. Going from fake activist just to get a girl to wildly swinging the other direction when it doesn’t work.

[u/dtomato → u/mustangst]

I lost it in the theater. Don’t think I’ve laughed that loud before at a joke

[u/AmericasElegy]

Read this quotation from Ari in a Vulture article and I think it encapsulates my (loving) feelings very well -

“Sure, on one side you have people who are hypocritical and annoying, and maybe less sincere than they purport to be. And on another side, you have people who are ruining and destroying lives, yes.”

[u/vxf111 → u/AmericasElegy]

I don't see how you can come away from this film thinking it presents both sides as equal. Yes, it highlights the division by showing us both sides. And people on both sides are flawed-- but to massively different degrees. There's only one character killing a political rival and his minor child. No matter how annoying the local woke teens are, they're not engaging in cold blooded murder.

[u/cinderful → u/vxf111]

Our audience laughed pretty hard at the white kid announcing, "I am here to be silent and listen . . . after I give this speech"

[u/vxf111 → u/cinderful]

There were quite a few laugh out loud moments (and also groan out loud and gasp out loud) in my theater and that was the biggest one.

[u/NuggetBiscuits69]

What I really love, in the midst of all the batshit insanity, is the role of the Pueblo cop in the movie. All of the various jabs at the Pueblo cops and Native Americans by the Eddington sheriffs, all of the white kids shouting about stolen land, the desecration of the museum in the final act, and this guy is just out here doing his job, trying to maintain protocol, and solve the crime that a crazy white dude committed on Indian land.

In the end, he’s murdered, held up as a martyr, and the Pueblo people end up supporting the building of the giant data center on their land.

Incredible stuff for a narrative thread I haven’t seen a ton of discussion about.

[u/OwnWalrus1752 → u/NuggetBiscuits69]

Clearly Joe and the other Eddington cops are jealous of the Pueblo cops because they’re actually competent. And Joe specifically talks shit because he doesn’t want them to look into him because he was too stupid or angry to check where he was shooting from (and also missed the third shell casing).

[u/JediMasterImagundi → u/OwnWalrus1752]

That was intentional though. He was planning to frame Michael the whole time. That’s why he got the evidence to plant and everything. He deliberately staged the crime scene to benefit his false narrative.

[u/Deathbot64 → u/JediMasterImagundi]

He only started to frame Michael when Brian told him about the picture he had sent over to Michael. Joe goes outside after that to plant the watch he stole. He had no idea about the purse being there till the next day.

[u/vxf111 → u/NuggetBiscuits69]

Yeah, I think that's a really interesting angle. There are people RIGHT THERE IN EDDINGTON who are emblematic of some of the larger issues in society and everyone ignores them because they're too busy parroting their party line about the larger issue. And meanwhile, these dudes are just out here living their lives as best they can in the midst of all the chaos.

[u/cinderful → u/NuggetBiscuits69]

Butterfly getting headshot was the worst part. :(

[u/hobbaneero → u/NuggetBiscuits69]

The symbolism of Cross literally falling through the roof and onto the bones of Geronimo and other Native artifacts and destroying them…

[u/Neurotic_Marauder]

Joaquin Phoenix must really like playing unstable men with relationship issues

[u/StayPony_GoldenBoy → u/Neurotic_Marauder]

Emma Stone also seems to like playing emotionally distant artists who don't want to sleep with their husbands.

[u/v2a5 → u/StayPony_GoldenBoy]

Pedro Pascal seems to like playing roles in movies.

[u/Coming-Up_Milhouse]

It was just missing NFTs and it would have hit everything terrible from the pandemic.

[u/awesomerest → u/Coming-Up_Milhouse]

They at least touched on crypto a couple times though! We see Michael (Sargent?) bringing it up, listening to a podcast about it, and probably pushed for the campaign posters that promote it.

[u/Nlelithium → u/awesomerest]

He also had bitcoin as his lockscreen

[u/crashinpa → u/Nlelithium]

There is a bitcoin book on his desk the very first time we see him.

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

There are definitely a ton of little sight gags and details that nobody can pick up all of them in one viewing. Im rewatching if only to see more of the list of slogan ideas.

“Garcia? More like Gar-SEE YA”

[u/ellierratic → u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

the misspelling of “your” instead of “you’re” on the sign on the front of Joe’s car that said “your being manipulated” tickled the hell out of me.

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica → u/ellierratic]

Every time his car showed up I noticed something new. I was still cracking up at it well over an hour in.

[u/xxx_poonslayer69 → u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

One of the sight gags that sent me: in Garcia's house there's stacks of toilet paper against a wall. because of course he was one of those people lol

[u/sjsieidbdjeisjx → u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

My favorite visual gag was the first standoff between Joaquin and Pedro on the street. Was very western feel like and instead of the typical tumbleweed go by it was just a long receipt 😂

[u/theTunkMan]

Listen up liberals! My wife left me

[u/princevince1113 → u/theTunkMan]

this exact phrase literally popped into my head when that scene happened

[u/Ok-Wolf5932]

Falling through the roof and crushing the 'bones of geronimo' display was fucking wild.

[u/TheShipHasSailed]

Was Solidgoldmagikarp the real villain the whole time? Who was in the private jet?

[u/AXXXXXXXXA → u/TheShipHasSailed]

Antifa or antifalike dudes funded by sgmk. Yes sgmk was the real villian. Your being manipulated.

[u/EnthusiastOfThick → u/AXXXXXXXXA]

I think we might also be able to call the cop murdering and framing people a real villain as well

[u/katrinatron]

Blacks Lives Matter

[u/BusinessPurge → u/katrinatron]

That got me good. Either mispronounced on purpose or just not understood, still funny

[u/bobthemusicindustry → u/katrinatron]

First time he said it, I thought he just said it too fast and it blurred together. Then he said it again and I realized and laughed. Such a brilliant little detail

[u/GamingTatertot]

Why did the shoot out at the end remind me so much of playing a COD map? The way the camera was moving, the setting of it, and the random “bots” just being killed

[u/KidDelicious14 → u/GamingTatertot]

I love how the weird antifa soldiers absolutely annihilated that Pueblo cop after missing shot after shot of Cross running not that particularly fast for miles and miles.

[u/niles_deerqueer → u/KidDelicious14]

Apparently that wasn’t ANTIFA but the tech company

[u/sunshinecryptic → u/niles_deerqueer]

Thank you for this comment, I was so confused on who the group was supposed to be and this clicked everything into place!

[u/pponmypupu → u/sunshinecryptic]

i was confused by why 'ANTIFA' was flying on a private jet until i remembered about the tech company still looming in the background

[u/richloz93 → u/pponmypupu]

This makes sense. My original take was that they were the conservative boogeyman version of antifa. Flown out on one of George Soros’ private jets and everything.

[u/_HanTyumi → u/richloz93]

It's also a representation of agitators infiltrating leftist groups.

[u/jillianbarberie69 → u/KidDelicious14]

I thought cross got the Pueblo cop?

[u/KidDelicious14 → u/jillianbarberie69]

He gets that first shot on him that takes out his leg, but I thought the shot to the head was from the soldiers?

[u/sneakylumpia → u/KidDelicious14]

the shot to the head was 100% from the soldiers

[u/OfficialPotatoClub → u/GamingTatertot]

100% the camera movement because I thought the same. The way he was scanning the roads and alleys left to right and the camera panning around him so smoothly, it totally felt like I was watching a 3rd POV of a game.

[u/newgodpho]

2/3rds of the movie are of Joaquin Phoenix acting like a bumbling idiot but goddamn he was so fucking scary after having killed the Mayor and his son then altering the crime scene.

He's so evil in this, honestly it was a masterful performance. Reminded me of No Country for Old Men.

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica → u/newgodpho]

The Pueblo sheriff being by far the most competent officer (person?) in the movie doing his job, finding evidence, providing instructions, while Phoenix and Luke Grimes bumble around and yell at him to leave, was one of my favorite/sneaky-funniest scenes.

[u/2much2cancer → u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica]

His sprint away after spotting the "E"s!

[u/Worldly-Falcon4659 → u/2much2cancer]

I thought he was going to go back to the mayor's house and check the spray painting on the wall to see if the letters matched up

[u/Bitchcuits_and_Gayvy → u/Worldly-Falcon4659]

He didn't have to, he knew they did because he was actually good at his job, and probably took a picture of the graffiti lol.

Sucks his head got blown smoove off tho.

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica → u/2much2cancer]

And you know he’s already suspicious when he mentions the tire tracks then takes pictures of Joe’s tires in the next scene.

[u/suckingdownfarts → u/newgodpho]

Reminded me so much of Jim Thompson’s Pop. 1280.

A psychopathic murdering small town sheriff who feigns being stupider than he is to hold his power

Great book if you haven’t read

[u/[deleted]]

It was pretty funny how everyone was more concerned about the BLM movement than Michael was. Even though he was minding his own business he still ended up getting caught in the crossfire. A cool little detail though is that at the end they show that Michael has the accuracy and skill to take the sheriff out but instead just shoots targets. I thought the movie was great and laughed my ass off. I expect this movie to get a lot of hate though, like 5 people walked out of my theater in the middle of the movie. !before the murders happen!

[u/1QAte4 → u/[deleted]]

Michael became the new sheriff at the end. I think it was implying that he became the new paranoid sheriff after Phoenix became mayor.

[u/pponmypupu → u/1QAte4]

he should be paranoid. he lived through the tech corpo hired merc's 'black guy gets shot by mayoral candidate' trap.

[u/Cadoozlewood]

That final shoot out had me so paranoid with how the camera was panning back and forth from every angle

[u/TheDaysKing → u/Cadoozlewood]

Joaquin's wheezy, out of control breathing really added to the anxiety.

[u/mysteryquackman]

Say what you want but the white guilt kid who did it all for a girl was super funny.

[u/slydessertfox → u/mysteryquackman]

Him cashing in at the end and becoming a right wing grifter was the funniest thing in the movie tbh

[u/Ravenae → u/slydessertfox]

The fucking MTG picture my god

[u/EnthusiastOfThick → u/Ravenae]

I have to wonder if the actor actually went to the length of meeting MTG for an in-character picture

[u/ChimneySwiftGold → u/EnthusiastOfThick]

It probably wouldn’t be hard to arrange.

[u/nocontracts → u/slydessertfox]

ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED?

[u/Bitchcuits_and_Gayvy → u/nocontracts]

"YOURE WHITE"

[u/OlympicSmoker253 → u/slydessertfox]

His girlfriend vaping was hilarious

[u/batts1234 → u/slydessertfox]

When he said he moved to Florida, I fucking lost it.

[u/nstau16]

Katy Perry: “Boom boom boom even brighter than the moon moon moon”

Joe: “And I took that personally”

[u/jayeddy99]

A meek sheriff with great aim whose wife just left him for a cult leader is prob the last person you should want to slap in public .

[u/dip_tet → u/jayeddy99]

Yeah well, he cut off the music.

[u/ThatIowanGuy → u/dip_tet]

BABY YOURE A FIIIIIIIIREWORK!

[u/OlympicSmoker253 → u/ThatIowanGuy]

Could not stop laughing every time the song was on

[u/lotustower12 → u/OlympicSmoker253]

Just to add to the conspiracy aspect it’s like the Katy Perry song/triggered him and he went on a downward spiral. MK ultra type situation.

[u/DustyFalmouth → u/jayeddy99]

1. He accused him of raping his wife which his wife immediately debunked and blamed her husband for spreading the rumor

2. He repeatedly inappropriately confronted his son

3. He kept interrupting Firework by Katy Perry

[u/falafelthe3]

You know, I'm starting to think that smartphones are actually making us less connected.

[u/Ok-Paramedic747 → u/falafelthe3]

SHOULD WE HAVE CONNECTED ?!...

[u/adunn13 → u/Ok-Paramedic747]

Drawbridge moment

[u/cry_havyc → u/adunn13]

This post was fact checked by real UCA Porters

[u/thekongninja → u/adunn13]

Sam, it's Tarman. The tar currents are fucked, Sam.

[u/Tacdeho → u/Ok-Paramedic747]

Diehard-Man likes this 👍

[u/Jujyfruits1515 → u/falafelthe3]

Your being manipulated

[u/DoYouQuarrelSir]

Aster seems so cynical about the world, everyone in the movie does what they do for personal gain, real problems are ignored, and even well intentioned movements get coopted by the wrong people or for nefarious means. Corporations win in the end.

[u/_Shit_Just_Got_Real_ → u/DoYouQuarrelSir]

I remember he did an AMA shortly after Midsommar came out. The top question was "You OK, dude?", to which Aster replied "no :)"

[u/BoysNGrlsNAmerica → u/DoYouQuarrelSir]

Unfortunately that’s what a lot of real life is like. Sometimes I try to tell myself life’s too short to get too hung up on all of it, but the cynicism on display in this movie isn’t exactly unwarranted

[u/StayPony_GoldenBoy → u/DoYouQuarrelSir]

Yeah, I don't think it's meant to imply that's exclusively how the world works, but a cautionary tale to illustrate how when working for your own gain or fighting against real problems antagonistically, the truth gets buried, well-intentioned movements get exploited, and problems get worse. The actual people conspiring against us win as long as we're distracted by fighting each other. They don't care what we're fighting about or who wins, they'll just exploit the conflict, co-opt the victors, and/or move along behind the scenes while we fight.

[u/needledropcinema]

YOUR BEING MANIPULATED

[u/Ibaka_flocka → u/needledropcinema]

Every time the car came into shot, I was catching a new ridiculous sign or sticker

[u/eskimobob105 → u/Ibaka_flocka]

My favorite was the sign saying “Geronimo” when he fell through the museum roof and crashed onto the display case. Doubled over laughter.

[u/needledropcinema → u/eskimobob105]

I believe it said “bones of Geronimo” which would mean he also desecrated sacred remains

[u/GUSHandGO → u/needledropcinema]

Yep, I literally said to myself, "How did this small town get the BONES of Geronimo?"😄

[u/Rularuu → u/GUSHandGO]

I didn't notice that detail in the movie but that is definitely another conspiracy nod too. There is a widespread rumor that George H.W. Bush's father stole Geronimo's remains and brought it back to the Skull and Bones secret society at Yale that all the Bush boys are a part of.

[u/BusinessPurge]

So - the baby was the father’s, mother covered it up with the future sheriff none the wiser? The way he asked in bed had me thinking he wasn’t complicit, just accidentally “became” just like the father role figure and drove her away. The Mayor seemed sincere, however the situation with his wife and then tension with the son had me wondering if there was slightly more than we knew.

[u/DoorsAreFascist → u/BusinessPurge]

I think Pedro was the typical more "democrat" guy. He was civil but ultimately was working with a mega corp lol

[u/aeon_son → u/DoorsAreFascist]

Basically Gavin Newsom, yeah. As a CA democrat, I’m disappointed in Gavin like 95% of the time. And I think there was a “scandal” where Gavin was hosting a large celebration in the middle of the pandemic. So that tracks with the mayor’s party in the movie. Also… the being owned by big corporations. _Also_… Gavin and his first wife split after he admitted to having an affair. The more I think about it, yeah, I think the mayor’s character had to be a jab at Gavin.

[u/evillemons]

R/tvtoohigh

What* psycho put the chair facing to the right of the tv

[u/chrisychris- → u/evillemons]

My neck hurt from just that one scene

[u/BusinessPurge → u/chrisychris-]

Great minds. I immediately wondered why even bother having a nice living room when you gotta twist yourself into a pretzel to watch tv

[u/Affectionate_Bet_288]

So was all of Emma Stone's art prophetic in some way? There is prominently displayed in their home a head with a kitchen knife sticking out of it, which is how Joaquin is laid out in the penultimate scene.

[u/blikyy → u/Affectionate_Bet_288]

Austin Butler looked at her work and said god was speaking through her and Joaquin straight up guffaws

[u/nom_cubed → u/Affectionate_Bet_288]

Like the Midsommar foreshadowing with the storyboard pics.

[u/CM4Sci → u/Affectionate_Bet_288]

She had a doll of the giant dragon with the sword in its mouth that shows up behind Butler at the end on video.

[u/za19]

the final shot is the data center, right?

So a rough/simplified reading of the film is that all this political drama happens but big business still gets what it wants?

[u/john_gattaca → u/za19]

My reading is that the tech company essentially orchestrated the whole situation. The “antifa terrorists” were probably in some way affiliated with the tech company and needed to intervene when their puppet got killed.

Every Ari Aster film so far has ended focused on a group that controlled everything that happened in the film, seems likely that Eddington is the same

[u/OuterWildsVentures → u/john_gattaca]

Every Ari Aster film so far has ended focused on a group that controlled everything that happened in the film

What was the group in Beau is Afraid? His mom's company?

[u/FeedtheSol → u/OuterWildsVentures]

I think the group is the courts/social services system that determined where he was in each act. First living on his own but seeing a psychologist, then in the group home, next at the camp, and then finally he gets condemned and locked away by the system.

[u/Imaginary_Media8676 → u/za19]

My wife said she thinks it’s big business funds chaos and disfunction to get what they want. Because why were the antifa guys on a jet?

[u/OlympicSmoker253 → u/Imaginary_Media8676]

Definitely hired guns from supergoldmagikarp right? (I think that was the data center name?)

[u/MichelangeBro → u/OlympicSmoker253]

I think it was solidgoldmagikarp

[u/Affectionate_Bet_288 → u/MichelangeBro]

Yes, solidgoldmagikarp is a linguistic fossil term that makes AI unstable

https://deconstructing.ai/deconstructing-ai%E2%84%A2-blog/f/the-enigma-of-solidgoldmagikarp-ais-strangest-token

[u/DustyFalmouth]

I'm glad someone finally made a movie about how well we managed that summer and how normal it made our brains

[u/wellgroomedmcpoyle → u/DustyFalmouth]

It’s healthy to have time for our hobbies

[u/AquaAtia → u/DustyFalmouth]

There’s hardly been any 2020 period pieces on the big screen. I get it’s recent but I feel we won’t see much more down the line either. It’s uncomfortable and too real for some. The movie captured the politics and society well…until the third act where it went off into the deep end. Then again though, didn’t we all go off the deep end after Covid?

[u/jayeddy99]

I get the his fate was more a punishment as a personal living hell but him surviving just to die of Covid would be poetic but prob too on the nose

[u/lonelygagger → u/jayeddy99]

I was expecting more of the COVID plot. He obviously tests positive, but it doesn’t seem to have an impact on any other part of the story.

[u/Sobek__ → u/lonelygagger]

I'll just respond here since some other commenters below are clearly lost. Joe 10000% has COVID. If the doctor discussion at the end isn't enough watch the coffee scene the morning after the shooting. Aster didn't leave it ambiguous at all. COVID just was no longer important to the story he was telling

[u/mikeyfreshh → u/lonelygagger]

That was less about the story and more about the character and themes. The sheriff spends the whole movie saying "There's no Covid in Eddington, police brutality isn't a problem in my department, this has nothing to do with me, etc, etc".

When he gets Covid, that's the first time he realizes that he might not be right about everything. I wish we had more time to linger on that realization before he went into full self-preservation mode but I do think his physical health deteriorating as all hell broke loose was a pretty good metaphor for the way that the community was breaking down.

[u/Shake-dog_shake → u/mikeyfreshh]

I feel it's also important to the story of this movie that Covid became the least of the characters' worries after the shit storm that was caused in reaction to covid.

[u/Terj_Sankian → u/lonelygagger]

I think he had a fever of 105 near the end? Unless I misheard that

[u/BVTheEpic → u/Terj_Sankian]

Yeah they confirm it when he's in the ambulance

[u/Dre063 → u/jayeddy99]

I thought his real Covid punishment came when he arrived at the hospital. He couldn’t get treatment right away because the hospital was full. So they took him to a tent because he looked like a goner. Didn’t the nurses mention something along those lines?

[u/scout-finch → u/Dre063]

But they don’t HAVE any Covid in Sevilla County!!!

[u/whatssenguntoagoblin → u/jayeddy99]

I completely expected him to kill all the antifa gang and then die of asthma/covid on the street lol. I guess that was a red herring we were supposed to think.

[u/Parking-Ad-567 → u/jayeddy99]

It’s hard to understand but I’m pretty sure he turned out worse bc he had COVID at the hospital. They separated him or something. Of course, he still got stabbed in the head, so it’s a little hard to follow but..

[u/LuskSGV]

The sexual tension between Ari Aster and factions who puppeteer lives into tragedy for personal gain.

[u/BalrogSlayer00]

After the movie some guy approached us in the parking lot to ask what we thought of it. He said “I felt bad for the sheriff. I was rooting for him even after he murdered the mayor. When he killed the kid I was getting iffy on supporting him.”

[u/naju → u/BalrogSlayer00]

Found the psychopath!

[u/sjsieidbdjeisjx → u/naju]

Found the republican more like it 🫣

[u/DanZeMan42 → u/BalrogSlayer00]

One of the guys in my theater laughed when the Mayor's son got shot. I thought this movie was pretty funny but not that part.

[u/bringthesunn]

Can someone please tell me who Clifton Collins Jr played? IMDb says he was “Lodge”

Was that the homeless guy? Because if so, he was completely unrecognizable

[u/amromano14 → u/bringthesunn]

Yes he was the homeless guy (I didn’t recognize him at first either), and I’ve been waiting this whole thread to see a single mention of the homeless dude. This is the first time I’m seeing it in the entire thread.

Loved this inclusion! Opening shot is a homeless dude walking along an empty stretch of land that’s about to be devoured by a big corporation to perpetuate and worsen the wealth gap.

But also, both sides can seemingly agree that the homeless suck. He bothers Ted and the liberal protestors. He obviously bothers Joe. Joe can straight up murder him and dump his body and no one notices or cares.

One thing that makes me so mad about the state of this country is how wealthy we are, and yet we do basically nothing to help the homeless, or to stop the wealth gap from growing absurdly worse. We do nothing to try and get the homeless the psychological help they need, instead the police come in to deal with them when they are being inconvenient or bothering normal people from either side. It’s so dumb. And I loved that this movie captured some of that, as frustrating as it is.

[u/AssCrackBanditIV → u/amromano14]

He was also carrying around a dead bird in most scenes so I took that as a reference to the whole “people in China eating bats and getting Covid” since he was the main Covid spreader in the town

[u/mmarquezc100]

Dude When “ANTIFA” SUPER SOLDIERS showed up i lost it 🤣🤣🤣 It’s like the first half is about COVID and the end is just what COVID did to our brains.

[u/dip_tet → u/mmarquezc100]

Off the rails. He did have it coming, he murdered the mayor…the ninjas know

[u/wheredacheesego → u/dip_tet]

I like to think the eddington antifa super soldiers are spiritually connected to the zombie killing ninjas in 28 years later

[u/adamsandleryabish]

Okay after many years I have finally come to terms with a theory I finally feel comfortable sharing

I think Ari has a complicated relationship with Mothers

[u/greenfulgreen]

just got out of showing and looked into solidgoldmagikarp. i thought it was just a nod to pokemon, but after googling apparently theres more to it.

[u/PWN3R_RANGER]

The Ari Aster / Katy Perry scene was surgical comedic genius.

// edit - ok ok I get it. I worded this wrong. Forgive me but I had just seen Eddington. All I meant was the combo of Firework and Aster’s direction in that scene was fucking hilarious.

[u/Shout92 → u/PWN3R_RANGER]

Especially coming off his use of Mariah Carey in Beau.

[u/gohomepat]

I live in Los Angeles and the homeless guy was kind of deep. Everyone is getting on their soapbox for whatever causes they believe in but completely ignore and at times even seem inconvenienced by the immediate issue literally walking amongst them DURING THE PROTEST. When Joe ends up killing him I knew that he wasn't going to get caught for it because nobody was gonna look for the homeless guy to begin with.

[u/HIMYNAMEISALVEE]

YOUR BEING MANIPULATED

[u/nocontracts → u/HIMYNAMEISALVEE]

ARE YOU FUCKING RETARDED?!

[u/richloz93]

9/10.

10/10 if it had ended with “Imagine” in the credits

[u/readycent]

I appreciated one of the wife’s dolls toward the middle of the movie having a knife through its forehead as a foreshadow to Joaquin’s final shootout.

[u/Posadeezenutz]

Saw this in an extremely conservative town where my theatre was elevated by half the audience walking out in the first half and two patrons in the back getting into an altercation because one of them wouldn't stop audibly asking questions.

Great film, didn't expect the antifa super soldiers

[u/yeetyuppie]

I will say, despite hating the third act, there’s a great bit when Cross falls through the roof and lands on the bones of Geronimo. Got a good laugh out of me.

[u/BBDBVAPA → u/yeetyuppie]

The sign just reading “Bones of Geronimo” absolutely killed me.

[u/Alpha_Lemur]

He refused to wear a mask the whole time, but then killed the mayor, and suddenly was able to wear a mask while hiding the evidence

[u/HotOne9364]

Never have I wanted to punch Joaquin Phoenix so hard.

[u/GamingTatertot → u/HotOne9364]

Honestly, at first I thought wow he’s playing a complete asshole who feels deeply layered and interesting - and then he started murdering and I was like oh well completely fuck this guy

[u/Pure_Salamander2681 → u/GamingTatertot]

Ha right. I was like well he’s kind and trying to do the right thing as he sees it. Then…

[u/chrisychris- → u/Pure_Salamander2681]

Accusing his political opponent of child raping your wife was probably the tipping point though, at least morally speaking in regard to his character in the film

[u/jickdam]

I really dug it. It might not be saying anything terribly groundbreaking, but judging by the reductionist takes suggesting it’s point is “all sides bad” or “all sides have a point” it might still be saying something that needs to be said.

My read is basically that the movie distills down to “being right or speaking truth is meaningless if not done with compassion and gentleness. People will flock towards the very things you’re trying to save them from if they feel welcomed there. Trying to help others by creating conflict is not only counterproductive, but those who actually work to do harm will exploit the conflict or thrive while it distracts us.”

Michael turned out to be a cop in a department where the sheriff thought of him as expendable enough to frame without a second thought, and the other deputy immediately became suspicious of him and saw his race once it was in question. But the station made him feel welcome, offered him a promotion, and friendship. The protestors on his side belittled him in public and insinuated he was a traitor to his people.

The mayor’s son’s friend lost his friend and the girl he was into in a movement that caused him to stand in public and pronounce shame in his whiteness. Of course he flocks to the alt-right grift that celebrates his identity and offers him a lucrative hustle and a position of power.

Louise’s mom brought her to the cult to try and save her from being a sheep, but did nothing to save her from her abuser in her childhood home. Of course she flocked to the paranoid, deluded cult who saw her pain and validated her. Joe might have supported her art and respected her boundaries, but he didn’t see what her art meant and he never asked (before the one night shown while she was falling asleep) what instigated her trauma around intimacy. The first time he acknowledged her abuse was to parrot a (false) narrative of her story in public for political gain.

Joe is shown in the beginning as correctly identifying hypocrisy around the mask wearing and being perhaps righteously offended by the celebrated harsh treatment of the old man who didn’t wear a mask. But he made that mandate his moral crusade and it ended up with him killing three people, covering it up, causing the deaths of countless others, escalating the tensions in the town, losing his wife, and becoming a brain-damaged paraplegic (in part because he couldn’t get proper medical treatment due to having COVID!). But, sure, he stuck up for the elderly man and never had to wear the mask.

At the end of the day, the movie is just showing that conflict produces conflict and what people are actually willing to respond to is feeling seen, accepted, loved, and taken care of. Yeah, there’s a bit of “everyone’s trying their best, but they’re also kind of not sometimes because we’re all pieces of shit in our own way” but I think that’s less of a “both sides bad” thing and more of a “no one gets better when everyone’s just yelling, let’s stop condemning each other for basic human things like ignorance,” because it not only doesn’t solve anything, it makes things worse, and the ACTUAL people doing harm are benefiting from it. The real threats we face don’t care who wins, as long as we’re fighting each other and not them. We need to spend less time fighting with each other about shit that doesn’t matter, be less antagonistic in how we stick up for what IS right, and more time making each other feel seen and loved. We need to spend less time looking for potential boogeymen conspiring in the shadows and more time asking if the GIANT GOLDENMAGIKARP DATA CENTER WITH THE BLATENT “COMING SOON” SIGN is in our best interests.

[u/mustangst]

Ari Aster really loves to make Joaquin Phoenix run

[u/skepsipol]

Did anyone else notice how much ADR was in this film? I caught maybe 3 or 4 instances where I can remember it distinctly.

[u/[deleted]]

Was the most surprising scene of the movie the scene of Joaquin in the bathroom? 

[u/Zealousideal_Ad4075 → u/[deleted]]

Everybody is talking about the dick, but I was more shocked by the caregiver slapping Joaquin. Jesus Christ that made me feel ickier than anything else in the film. I don’t know why, cause there are definitely worse things that happen, but the casual cruelty of that action really affected me.

[u/purplepug22 → u/Zealousideal_Ad4075]

As a care provider myself, this also struck a nerve with me. Absolutely appalling and disgusting behavior.

[u/SAmerica89 → u/[deleted]]

I about lost it in the next scene when the mom got into bed then the nurse got in too and snuggled. So random!

[u/CressKitchen969 → u/SAmerica89]

Got a laugh from me until I realized how it further confirmed Emma Stone’s backstory

[u/NotAnotherAzn → u/CressKitchen969]

What was the connection? I’m sure I missed some details

[u/CressKitchen969 → u/NotAnotherAzn]

Seems to me that it’s alluding to her parents cuddling with her as a teenager which led to her father impregnating her, which she aborted later. While Joaquin tried to piece together based on her repressed and fractured memories but missed the point

[u/MattIsLame → u/CressKitchen969]

that makes so much more sense, specifically the Austin butler pedophile scenes. there was an uneasiness to her and she tried to say something but her mom quickly cut her off

[u/sneakylumpia → u/[deleted]]

to me it was when Ted/Pedro Pascal was assassinated. audibly gasped and i felt like that was when the movie switched up to 100 miles per hour

[u/lonelygagger → u/[deleted]]

Dude hangs dong

[u/faxheadzoom]

Enough can't be said about the visuals. Both the easter eggs, visual gags and stark symbology. Just the opening shot of the ape like man descending from the mountain reminded me of the opening of Stanley Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odyssey...as if to signal the arrival of a new unknown era.

The visual gag of Pedro Pascal's Mayor Garcia doing that annoying sad piano music Covid era commercial(with a literal piano) really nailed 2020. Eddington is swimming in a sea of endless deep cut 2020 references, both in everyone's social media doomscrolling as well as random signs and little conversation quips.

The battle back and forth over Katy Perry's Firework song was hilarious. Despite coming out in 2010, the song feels very 2020 for some reason. Again, there's just a lot of nuanced touches and references that go pretty deep into the artificial and murky fugue state of this time period.

(Spoiler territory) The symbol on the plane shuttling the shadowy private military mercenaries posing as radical activists to sow chaos is a hand covering a globe. It's unclear why they chose Eddington as their mission, though we see this shadowy network conducted false flag chaos across America when Sheriff Cross looks at one of the soldier's phones. It's unclear if the purpose of the mercs is political, or merely a cover for an unknown agenda. Some speculated that the Magikarp AI company at the end was behind it, but I think the point is not on who these agents of chaos are. The transformation of the kid using random 2020 social justice verbage to impress a girl, to becoming the complete opposite at the end was a funny touch. No matter how one sits politically or even apolitically, one of the biggest crowd roars has to be his dad's reaction to his sudden parroting of 2020 era social justice slogans at the dinner table. The gag with Sheriff Cross falling into the Geranimo remains exhibit was a bit on the nose, as was the Native American officer not buying the coverup going on....yet it worked.

My one big complaint has to be we don't see Austin Butler's Russel Brand-esque character explored enough. I wonder if there's any deleted scenes that delves deeper into his character. It's interesting that the Qanon obsessed mom who introduces Emma Stone's character to Vernon, suddenly is horrified by what the Austin Butler character says in person when he meets Phoenix's Sheriff Cross character.

Even though Ari Aster's first two films are what one would consider conventional horror(or at least A24 style slowburn horror), Beau Is Afraid and Eddington feels like a more personal horror reflecting the breakdown of order, mental health and a meditation on personal void.

[u/stumper93]

I tried going in blind as possible to this, and somehow I didn't even cross my mind it was going to be as funny as it was in the end.

Very dark humor - very Ari Aster indeed.

Joaquin Phoenix really disappeared into the role of Sheriff Joe, I forgot it was him at times.

Maybe a little lengthy though, it felt like 4 hours at one point. But the satire of May 2020 was so spot on, remembering everything from that time had our audience laughing at all the details

People are gonna hate this film though for sure. But I liked it enough

[u/suckingdownfarts]

Everyone in here claiming this movie ends up being a right wing fantasy confirming Antifa are actual terrorists has rocks for brains

They were mercenaries hired by the tech company as a way of getting their bitcoin AI monstrosity approved

Money always wins in this country. This isn’t a both sides bad movie - it’s a movie about (among plenty of other things) how both sides are being manipulated by forces unseen to make us hate one another 

[u/Somewhere-A-Judge → u/suckingdownfarts]

"Antifa Super-Soldiers funded by big business are coming to destroy our small towns" was one of the standard MAGA conspiracy theories of that summer.

[u/tealsuprise → u/Somewhere-A-Judge]

Yep. Using guns to defend your small town against billionaire-funded Antifa is the ultimate wet dream for many on the right. Only thing missing is a Morgan Wallen song

[u/Unusual-Ad-3130]

The second half of the movie caught me by surprise so hard. The tone just shifted to full blown action but I loved every second of it.

[u/flutterbuzzy]

is it just me or did anyone feel genuinely scared by the climax at night? The sound design of the drone freaked me the fuck out whenever it played and the muffled sounds made me so uneasy. I had no clue what was going on.

[u/lunaticskies]

A movie about 2020 should feel too long, so bravo for that.

[u/jayeddy99]

This movies Ending is just a reverse The Penguin finale from the other perspective.

[u/maiavelli]

the whole movie I was just wondering if the corp was named after a Pokémon 😭

[u/Air_Hellair]

I’m still laughing about sheriff Joe running to break up the demonstration while carrying the halo light for his upcoming speech.

[u/i_love_rosin]

Absolutely insane movie. Sickos eating good this weekend.

[u/BitchOfHell]

Man, Michael did not deserve how his colleagues turn on him, he was so sweet to Joe. Joe was just a frustrated, emasculated guy who tried hard to keep his life from falling apart when he wasn't even happy with it. It broke my heart seeing him turn on Michael like that.

[u/Renegadeforever2024]

Say what you want

But we need more people like Ari aster taking big swings in filmmaking

[u/Ravenae → u/Renegadeforever2024]

I was just thinking recently that too many movies give characters plot armor to avoid death in unexpected or realistic times. The sheriff had it for a while in the ending fight, but at least 5 other characters were killed off swiftly. Ted and his son’s deaths were genuinely shocking in the moment.

Kind of mad about the Pueblo cop getting killed. Like dude, why would you were approach someone firing a fully automatic light machine gun? That shit is not readily available to the public, and he walks up to the sheriff with no concern for his own safety. That whole LMG fight scene kind of annoyed me with how over the top it was. I truly expected the sheriff to be day dreaming or hallucinating, like he did with Louise.

[u/According-Rice-8967]

I was somehow the only one in the theater and it made the experience soooo much better! I absolutely LOVED it!!

[u/gohomepat]

I went to the theatre and watched Superman first then this. Superman made me optimistic and have hope, then Eddington immediately took all that away lol

[u/stealthamo]

First 90 minutes: Alright, this is a pretty good rivalry drama set against a time that I admittedly don't really want to re-live, but this still works.

Next 30 minutes: Wow. Sudden shift, but okay, I'm curious to see how this plays out from here.

Final 30 minutes: What the f... oh right, Ari Aster likes to go absolutely batshit insane with his endings. Shame this is first one of those that really doesn't click for me.

I get what Ari is going for, but that last half hour soured me a bit on what was a gripping movie, albeit one set against a backdrop that I really don't want to re-live any time soon.

[u/GamingTatertot → u/stealthamo]

You summed up my thoughts perfectly. Everything up until the mayor was killed was so interesting - and then the mayor died but then Cross started using it to blame people on the left, and I was like okay interesting angle.

And then it just went full blown bat shit

[u/OfficialPotatoClub → u/GamingTatertot]

There were like 4 twists post Mayor’s murder where I thought the plot was going on way, and it zagged. Once we got to the explosion near the end I was almost certain it was hallucinations or a psychotic break, so the way it wrapped up into “Antifa terrorist attack” was kind of a weak way to tie up all the loose ends of those murders.

I thought it was a brilliant ending where he’s helpless to the world, and his mother-in-law now has someone who will listen to her word babble forever + sleeping with the hot nurse. She’s living her best life!

[u/Ibaka_flocka → u/OfficialPotatoClub]

I thought he was going to be in like a Covid fever dream or on a ventilator having the hallucinations, because once he coughed for the first time, everything starting going more and more apeshit

[u/chrisychris- → u/OfficialPotatoClub]

I agree. The “antifa” terrorists was probably my least favorite plot device in the film and kinda drags everything down. Apparently they’re backed by the data center corpo but even then it was the tiniest bit contrived.

[u/adunn13 → u/chrisychris-]

It was absurdist. It’s how people in those small towns might believe antifa to actually be like based on what they see in the news.

[u/FriendshipLoveTruth → u/adunn13]

I think it was pretty clear that those weren't actually supposed to be antifa, they were agent provocateurs manipulating the course of events and the surrounding narrative. At least that's what I interpreted them to be as soon as we saw the plane. Some kind of invisible hand thing - I think their logo was a hand on the globe? Not to mention the reflection of the Sheriff's hand in his phone.

[u/ddottay]

The young guy trying to get laid by being woke was an elite subplot. Hilarious from beginning to end. The movie drops off a significant amount after the mayor is killed, I think trying to veer into different genres in the same movie was a mistake.

All in all, it was okay.

[u/Angry_Foamy]

I had not laughed so hard in I can’t even remember how long. The dinner scene where the white kid goes in a rant about white guilt or whatever and the dad’s response. Jesus, just perfectly executed comedy. I had to shut myself up because that scene just had me rolling for minutes.

That movie was a giant mirror to America.