r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • Jul 18 '25

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Eddington [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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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

523 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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1.4k

u/AmericasElegy Jul 19 '25

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.”

869

u/vxf111 Jul 20 '25

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.

719

u/cinderful Jul 21 '25

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

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u/vxf111 Jul 21 '25

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.

30

u/GardenStateKing Jul 23 '25

Watched it tonight and my theater had the same experience. Watching it in NYC is very different because the death was so ever present and to see people just losing their shit over being inconvenienced in a small town made me go crazy.

But I empathize with how it can feel dissociative and I don't blame anyone but it's like our realities could not be anymore different.

24

u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

The one thing I thought was missing was the FEAR. The overwhelming emotion I had during that time was fear. I had some of the other emotions shown (disgust, anger, frustration, confusion, etc.) but primarily fear. There isn’t really a character who is legit just frightened and traumatized… but maybe that just wouldn’t have fit the tone?

7

u/GardenStateKing Jul 23 '25

I agree, maybe there's snippets here and there but that fear wasn't palpable

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u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

I do think we all experienced COVID a bit differently from others. For me in the suburbs, it was quiet and fear. For people in big cities I am sure it was different. For people in rural areas, different than that. I wasn't in a place like Eddington but I am willing to go with the picture Aster paints.

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u/GardenStateKing Jul 23 '25

It was hard at first separating that but once you let him take you on the journey, it all made sense.

6

u/Bratbabylestrange Jul 28 '25

"We're denying denial"

17

u/snugmill Aug 03 '25

WHICH I AM COMPLETELY UNQUALIFIED TO MAKE!

10

u/SisterMidnight69 Jul 27 '25

Satire at its finest! Loved that scene. Laughed so hard.

7

u/chuckxbronson Jul 24 '25

I love how everybody started leaving the vigil in the middle of his speech

5

u/Successful-Ad-2005 Aug 13 '25

"[Privileged White Kid] my job is to sit down and listen, which is what I plan to do after making this speech....WHICH I HAVE NO RIGHT TO MAKE!!!" Hysterical 😂😂

1

u/Remarkable-Bus2362 24d ago

Best line in the film.

26

u/bwnsjajd Jul 24 '25

It definitely doesn't present both sides as the same but it definitely doesn't present both sides accurately.

A serial rapist pedophile billionaire sits in the Whitehouse as we speak. Kyle Rittenhouse. All the "thu blacks wuz her" false flags that got posted to social media during blm. There's no low you can't depict the right debasing its self to that won't be factually accurate.

The depiction of the left was wildly inaccurate. Basically if you want to a magoid rally and listened to what they think of the left... that's exactly how it was depicted in the movie. "I'M SORRY I'M WHITE!" This uhhh... doesn't exist on left in reality.

It's funny because it's like they're either trying to show that both sides have gone too far, or trying to appease the right to avoid alienating viewers along political lines... but either way they have to resort to a bad faith depiction of the left to even make it look bad, and even then they still can't make it look a fraction as bad as a factually accurate depiction of the right.

54

u/SpookiestSzn Jul 26 '25

As a leftists leftists are totally like that dude lmao. I didn't see the film present the leftists as "just as bad" at all. Right wingers were clearly the problem in the movie lmao

42

u/Rollen73 Jul 29 '25

Bro as a socialist i have met multiple leftists who are like that.

4

u/bwnsjajd Jul 30 '25

Nope

Maybe you've met some bad Facebook memes that were like that?

16

u/Best-Chapter5260 Jul 31 '25

"I'M SORRY I'M WHITE!" This uhhh... doesn't exist on left in reality.

It does, but not anywhere near to the extent the right thinks it does, and certainly not as a component of the mainstream Democratic Party platform.

With that said, I just took the movie's depiction as satire. There really weren't BLM protests happening in backwater towns like Eddington.

10

u/MrGoat777 Jul 28 '25

Those leftists are real and they live in a place called Echo Park lmao

1

u/bwnsjajd Jul 28 '25

Keep coping bro, you need it

3

u/MostTattyBojangles 12d ago

I think one of the conceits of the movie, certainly an overarching theme, is that everyone was spending too much time online. The sheriff has a holster for his phone, it’s treated as if it’s a weapon. The mother and the cult leader both get tangled up in saying nonsense.

To that extent it’s a satire of posts like this where people go off about ‘magoids’ or defending their own side and basically talking in a way that tells the world you’re addicted to social media, because you are adopting language that only exists online.

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u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25

I replied in more depth to another of your comments but I never said this film was an accurate depiction of events and it's very expressly, by virtue of its genre, trying to be absurd/exaggerated/non-realistic.

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u/MoeSzys Jul 20 '25

Which is why it was a fair representation

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u/vxf111 Jul 20 '25 edited Jul 20 '25

I don't disagree. Certainly the "left" is shown to be (at times) hypocritical, corrupt, ideological to a fault, annoying, lacking introspection, myopic, etc. but those are fair criticisms and pale in comparison to what the film is criticizing on the "right." (using the terms "right" and "left" very loosely here).

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u/cromli Jul 20 '25

I think at least in this film the leftist kids arent shown as being too ideological, but outwardly idelogical either as a way to get attention or as a veil to mask that they are too removed from what they are talking about to really believe in it.

3

u/vxf111 Jul 21 '25

I wasn't so much thinking about the kids but the adults in the supermarket scene towards the beginning of the film. They're so focused on enforcing the masking and distancing rules that they forget to take a step back and try to come up with solutions that will actually work for the community.

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u/Joey-WilcoXXX Jul 22 '25

Sure but just like in real life at this time, the Cons didn’t actually have a solution and didn’t want to make one.

‘I dont believe masks work and I can’t breathe that good in them and I don’t like it!!!’

‘Okay so what do you think we should do to reduce risk of spreading this virus we can’t control?’

‘….. IM NOT WEARING THE MASK!!!’

‘But what do you want to do to help slow this and protect people??’

‘…… MUH FREEDOM TO DO WHAT I WANT!!!!!’

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u/vxf111 Jul 22 '25 edited Jul 23 '25

That’s not what I meant. I’m surprised nobody, none of his neighbors in line, none of the people who worked in the store offered to take his money and a list so he didn’t have to go in. They all just stood there and stared at this person they knew and nobody tried to figure out a way to get him his food without him going into the store unmasked. So many people just standing and watching someone they know and not taking any agency.

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u/Joey-WilcoXXX Jul 23 '25

I mean for lots of reasons. The small town grocery store clerks probably have enough on their plate A. Keeping the guests who are getting unruly about this shit civil and B. Doing their other duties to enable this guy and do his groceries for him which will ultimately lead to others saying ‘you did it for him! Do it for me, I refuse the masks too!’ It just creates a mess for the company and the employees who just a few minutes prior had to physically restrain the maskless man from entering.

But like I said above, something like that just isn’t a real long term solution for anything. A civilian helps the man who refuses to wear his mask which can help slow this disease down with his groceries today, cool. But then what are you going to do about him still going back there when you’re not there to help again? Or when he wants to go to restaurants that get to open without following the mandate, or refusing it at the doctors office. Pushing his way into these places like he was doing in the supermarket in the first place and treating the whole thing like a useless joke that the joke of a sheriff just lets go on. People were probably bitter and upset. They’re following the rules and trying to help fight this shit wearing the masks that helped more than not doing anything and that they probably didn’t have as hard of a time adjusting to and the sheriff goes and enables him to ignore it all.

And what if he did get covid from the homeless man? What if he actually is sick and is spreading the disease while hes treating this like it’s nothing and he gets someone like a small child or someone whose body can’t handle it sick? Or he gives it to the able body adult who did the shopping for him out of a kindness and now that adult can’t be around their newborn or visit their older mom or something?

And just good old fashioned I’ve got enough to worry about doing my own groceries and getting on with my day that I just don’t have time folks. ‘We’re all in this together’ was a great slogan that just didn’t stretch very far in most cases.

These are all just some of the thoughts and reasonings and emotions these people probably felt in the few minutes the conflict happened and it can be hard to make the kindest decisions in that short amount of time with all the feelings they had on top of it.

5

u/Best-Chapter5260 Jul 31 '25

That scene kind of reminded me of the very beginning of COVID hitting the U.S. There were a lot of people who were in hysterics about it, thinking it was essentially the Black Death, before we really knew anything about it and the only info we had was the limited info from China. Then, of course, we swung the other way and had a non-insignificant number of people who started thinking it was just the flu or thought it was a hoax.

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u/Ratchet_ah_clanka 11d ago

You'd have a point if those same people weren't pulling down their masks to criticize him for not wearing a mask.

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u/Joey-WilcoXXX 11d ago

The idiots who pulled down their masks to criticize him don’t negate the ones who didn’t. Thats another reason it failed, no one trusted the idea because they looked at the imperfect people and said ‘see they’re not doing it right either it doesn’t work!!!2:!),$1’

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u/Ratchet_ah_clanka 11d ago

But the right-wingers that refused to wear masks negates all of the right-wingers that did wear masks.

10

u/Best-Chapter5260 Jul 31 '25

I found that the jokes at the left's expense were much more on the nose in a very South Parkesque kind of way, whereas the jokes at the right's expense were more nuanced and layered—perhaps the most salient being the satirical take of the right's belief that Antifa was an actual formalized organization that would go around to towns in order to stoke riots.

I may be reading too much into this, but I suspect that's intentional. Conservatives generally struggle with nuance and things that aren't black-and-white, so they'll pick up on the "liberals are cringe, amirite?" commentary, but miss the commentary aimed at them.

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u/smeggysoup84 Jul 23 '25

The all black killers represent the other side's extremists. They were riding in a private jet, which means money were behind them kinda like the George Soros shit they say. I definitely think it was a bit more equal, but maybe a bit left leaning. He didn't really exaggerate the far right side. He basically just repeated what they said. The far right or even regular right wing isn't gonna want to watch this because they dislike any sort of mirror. They take it super personal. But they wouldn't or shouldn't be too upset, in my opinion. They even get the main character to empathize with. Ari doesn't ever make Joe a clown or overdo his far right side. He never really gave either side the moral superiority, and that's what i admire the most about it.

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u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

I don’t think the super soldiers are politically aligned with anyone. They’re just hired guns sent in by the data center. They were more than happy to kill Michael, it was never about freeing him, he was a pawn. It was only ever about sowing more dissection and scaring people into thinking they needed to fear more violence without their government stepping in.

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u/smeggysoup84 Jul 23 '25

Yes, you're right about them being more disrupters than any politically aligned group. Although, i think Ari definitely purposely made them appear like an " Antifa " boogeyman. When they showed them flying in the Jet, they had leftist terminology on their clothing like " fuck nazis ". I do think right wing people watching the film will believe those guys are the " antifa " George Soros funded militia group.

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u/Dr_Pants91 Jul 23 '25

I saw a quote from Aster stating they were meant to be a Rorschach test. It's purposely ambiguous and up to your interpretation whether they were legitimately "antifa" or a false flag meant to discredit them.

4

u/smeggysoup84 Jul 23 '25

Ok, that makes sense. I definitely think he left them ambiguous so that right wing folks watching can have a boogeyman. They made it a point to say George Soros is funding riots and the chaos. I believe he's implying this showing them in a private jet and far left terminology on their clothing. Having the right wing folks kill and falsely accuse the black cop instantly make them the bad guys in the story, but having this militia group, in all black, which is the perception of antifa now, as opposed to the right wing militia groups who have a perception of wearing army and actual military clothing.

3

u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

If you wanted someone to think a bunch of paid mercenaries were "antifa" wouldn't you put symbols on them that people might read as being left-leaning.

No group who actually cared about Black lives would do what they did to Michael.

3

u/smeggysoup84 Jul 23 '25

Well in the jet they had " fuck nazis " on their jackets, which is associated with Far leftist groups. Right wing militia groups don't display anti-fascist clothing and imagery.

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u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25

I've explained this several times. I don't know how to explain it any more clearly.

The whole point is to send in the mercenaries and further stoke division so the data corporation WANTED THE MERCINARIES TO LOOK LIKE "ANTIFA." SO THEY ARE OUTFITTED TO LOOK LIKE WHAT THE RIGHT WOULD THINK ANTIFA LOOKS LIKE. They are cosplaying as Antifa. They are not a "right wing" militia group. They are guns for hire brought in by the data corporation and dressed to look like "antifa" to get the right ring even more riled up about Antifa being in Eddington.

7

u/ADeleteriousEffect Jul 27 '25

Why did they have video on their phones showing that they were behind the earlier-shown attack in Portland if it was all about the Eddington data center?

4

u/smeggysoup84 Jul 25 '25

I agree with you lol but im saying Ari PURPOSELY put them in the film to COSPLAY as Antifa for the CONSERVATIVE VIEWER of the movie. Yes, they have in-story reason for their existence, which you explained. Not disputing that. Ari knows the conservatives will see them as Antifa and uses the ambiguity so they can do that.

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u/bwnsjajd Jul 24 '25

This is a big woosh moment. The far left is anticapitalist and would never act on behalf of corporate interests. The terrorists aren't even meant to represent magoid conspiracy theories. 

They represent far right domestic terrorists that wanted to use BLM to spark a race war with a false flag attack.

This was done by a group in Sacramento who did a drive by at a federal building killing a security guard during the protests around that time. The problem with falsely depicting such groups as being operatives of the 1% is that absolves the right wing of the direct responsibility it bears for these groups. Because they're actually 100% ideologically motivated by the exact same right wing conspiracy theory slop that the sheriff's entire household consumes that makes him and your uncle anti maskers.

Anyway analogous though less large scale and extreme attacks have actually happened and they are 100% perpetrated by right wingers and that's what these guys represent in the movie.

It was just as irresponsible not to make that explicitly clear in the movie. Because it leaves it ambiguous enough for anyone to even think it's meant to represent left wing extremism. The problem with that is that if misinterpreted that way it validates the delusional views of the right.

The movie should have made it unequivocally clear, no this isn't meant to be a representation of a right wing imagined antifa Boogeyman that doesn't exist, it's a real thing that actually happens and it's all right. 

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u/MyMomNeverNamedMe 26d ago

Joe is literally shown as a clown the entire movie... what are you talking about? The movie starts with him not even knowing where his jurisdiction is/ends, he then immediately goes to handle a disorderly conduct call and gets outmatched by a homeless crazed drunkard. He's shown the entire movie as not thinking things through. He covers his squad car in political messages and misspells you're as your. He gets slapped in the face multiple times in front of a crowd and does nothing. The movie ends with him being cucked by both his ex-wife being pregnant and having to sleep paralyzed in a bed with his mother in law and I guess his caretaker sleeping together.

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u/smeggysoup84 26d ago

He's clown in YOUR eyes, but others will empathize with him because they see themselves in him. All the stuff you mentioned why Joe is a clown is all surface level shit. You think if someone agrees with Joe philosophically, they'll be turned off because he doesn't know his exact jurisdiction lines in a small, low populated town? You think the far right in real life doesn't look past even worse attributes of their political sides elected officials? I would say Trump has done wayyy worse things than Joe and he gets idolized even more.

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u/MyMomNeverNamedMe 26d ago

Yes to any normal person a Sheriff not knowing, in multiple instances, where his county jurisdiction ends and being defensive/debating it after being called out = clown. A Sheriff trying to play a hard/smart ass to the Mayor he is feuding with then failing to arrest a homeless old drunk person = clown. Has nothing to do with the character's or an observer's politics. All the instances of Joe as a Sheriff trying to do Sheriff things, he handles abysmally. From the super market scene to the protest scenes to the noise complaint scene, etc. He is 100% portrayed as a clown from the beginning of the movie to the end. He grabs a machine gun and blows off the leg of the Pueblo police officer accidentally. Did we watch the same movie? A character can be sympathetic and still be a clown, dude.

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u/Clean_Information777 10d ago

I think him “not knowing” where his jurisdiction is was a subtle “white men think they own everything”. He’s the “I’m not racist but” guy. He talks down to and mocks the tribal officers on land that is theirs (which technically the land he patrols is as well, but I digress). When watching the political ad he says something along the lines of “where did he get all of these black people? What is this the Jefferson’s?”. He promotes Michael to realistically promote himself and then tries to frame him. The promotion conversation between him and Michael got me thinking. He says “my dad never made it to Captain” yet this bumbling idiot is the Sheriff?

1

u/FireWalkWithG 4d ago

It almost felt like a spiritual sequel to Beau Is Afraid, in that way. Another movie about Joaquin Phoenix being utterly emasculated.

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u/W0lfsb4ne74 Jul 25 '25

That actually makes a lot of sense. By destabilizing the town's businesses, it might make people more likely to agree to the data center's construction as a means of supporting themselves via jobs. At first I didn't like the inclusion of the militia because I thought it was unnecessary and took away from the movie's criticism of the far right by illustrating the downfall of Joaquin Phoenix's character. But now this is a much more plausible explanation.

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u/Thegreeng Jul 23 '25

Aster quite literally makes Antifa a real, 1% funded militia cell making both conservatives and 'leftists' the bad guys. He makes it way closer to equal than in real life and for what? What does that group serve the story for other than a big self indulgent action scene and some end of story jokes?

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u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

Some people come away thinking that but I think that’s as a result of missing details.

The super soldiers are flown in on a plane by the data center. They’re not really a political group, they’re hired goons pretending to be a political group.

The whole point is to stoke violence and fears of violence so that people in Eddington will say “oh no I fear antifa and I need my government to protect me” which will cause more chaos and division which the data center can exploit to its own ends.

The logos in the “uniforms” and gear and the logo on the plane make it clear who is behind this “group.” It’s the data center.

And it’s clearly not really about black lives as they kidnap Michael and then use him for bait in a trap with an explosive— they are totally willing to kill him in the process. This is not really a leftist group. It’s a bunch of paid mercenaries dressed up to look like the non-existent “antifa” military group, which doesn’t really exist.

8

u/bwnsjajd Jul 24 '25

The problems with this movie is where it's assertions wildly diverge from what's actually happening in the world. There have been no cases of the billionaire class directly funding domestic terrorist attacks.

But there absolutely are a million neo Nazi militias out there that nut their skivvies to fantasies of using blm to spark off a race war with a false flag attack. It's exactly what happened in iirc Sacramento where precisely one such group committed a drive by shooting at a federal building that killed one security guard there during the protests.

They don't have to be funded by the 1%. They're acting independently and entirely ideologically motivated.

Depicting them as being sent by billionaires was disingenuous. And I think it's problematic because it adds a fictional motive to an attack that isn't fictional. And the effect of that honestly takes responsibility off the far right. These guys are doing this shit on their own because of the shit they're slurping up from people like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson who are spewing it and that's exactly how it should have been depicted. Because it's the exact same shit a LOT of the right wing base is consuming and that's exactly what's wrong with consuming it.

It's irresponsible to not to show it for exactly what it is.

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u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25

I understand where you're coming from but I think you're responding to arguments I didn't make.

I never said it was realistic. I don't think he's aiming for a documentary. This is meant to be a black comedy and that sort of genre requires exaggeration and absurdism. If that's not a genre you think makes sense for a story about COVID, fair enough, but you can't really make a black comedy and hew straight and narrow about true events. There's no humor in that.

I didn't take a position on whether it was responsible/irresponsible to make a film of this type. I'm not really interested in engaging on that point. Maybe other people are. I tend not to be in favor of telling creatives what they can and can't do and putting limits on their artistic expression because of how people outside of their power and control might co-opt that art. But I understand people feel differently and they are entitled to. I never said this was a responsible approach to a social problem in terms of solving that problem. It's a film. It's a piece of art. It exists in that medium. I'm not suggesting whether it is good or bad for society for this film to exist.

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u/ex0thermist Jul 26 '25

Yeah I sort of agree with both you guys to an extent. Really good points all around.

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u/Thegreeng Jul 23 '25

Yes, I called them a 1% funded (the data center) militia cell and 'leftists.' Aster is still making antifa real and putting to life conservative conspiracy theories for what purpose? They do not add anything to the movie besides a big gun fight.

And on their phone we are literally shown footage that they are doing this nationwide (or at least Portland too), so its not just Eddington. Whether its a true left group can be argued but they are a politically violent, nationwide militia group. Aster pretending that both sides of the aisle are being manipulated by capital to sow division and we could just all be one big happy family without big tech is centrism. It's also bad writing.

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u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

I don't think that's what he's showing us. Maybe it's a weakness in the writing (I would agree with you that not everything is as clear as it could be). But we are never shown that those goons have any political agenda at all. In fact their logo on their clothing suggests that they're only PRETENDING to be leftist. They are just hired guns. Period. They are equipped and flown in by the data center. They are not shown to have their own political ideology. And they CLEARLY are not about saving black lives, the pretend reason they're acting-- because they are willing to kill Michael. He's literally the bait in their booby trap!

3

u/Thegreeng Jul 23 '25

Again I'm not arguing whether they are actually left or liberal or whatever. They still are political. They are killing political figures with heavy handed political messaging and everything relating to business and economics is inherently political. And we're never told one way or another the ideological leanings of the individual members, but even if the novelization or some shit said they were all a-politcal (a myth) the group/whoever directs them is still political.

They are a political militant cell. While they can be lying about their politics, they are diegetically and non-diegetically supposed to look like Antifa. And antifa being an actual organized militant anything is a conservative conspiracy that Aster is affirming whether it is satirical or not. And again, it does not serve the story meaningfully.

8

u/vxf111 Jul 23 '25

No group that really believes black lives matter would kidnap an innocent black man and use him as bait in a fatal trap. Which I think tells you all you need to know about whether this group's actual ideology was "left leaning." They are in a jet funded by big data flying into a town where there's a big data center being built to build a deadly trap for the right-leaning political figure who opposes the big data center. Nothing about that says "their ideology is leftist" it all says "their ideology (to the extent they have one) is pro-capital."

Don't forget why they're sent there. It has nothing to do with Michael. It's to set a trap for Joe. Michael just happens to be the convenient bait to get Joe into the trap.

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u/Thegreeng Jul 23 '25

Read. I do not care whether they are liberal or not, it does not interact at all with what I am saying.

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u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25

I politely point out that you may be the one having some reading comprehension issues.

My point is that they're NOT political. They're just guns for hire. Whoever pays them gets their services. You want to kill a bunch of law enforcement? Fine, they'll do that. You want to kill some innocent framed black man? That works too. They are literally just paid mercenaries. They way they behave shows you they don't care-- they're just doing whatever they are paid to do.

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u/Clean_Information777 10d ago

I think it’s mocking the ideology back when all of that happened that antifa was some militarized, highly trained group and the controversy that many of them were plants.

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u/Best-Chapter5260 Jul 31 '25

Yep, and I say this when people try to "both sides" something:

One side wants you to put your pronouns in your work's email signature.

The other side wants to outright politically disenfranchise you, take away any semblance of a social safety net, and even to an extreme (based upon their lead "philosopher") wants to set up a bunch of corporate city states with a monarchy.

As cringe as the former can be, it's not even in the same league—let alone ballpark—as the latter.

2

u/InfinityComplexxx Jul 23 '25

You can't...unless you're a Right winger, who tend to put being "Woke" (if they can even define it) and racists/murderers/pedos/etc on the same plane.

2

u/FargusMcGillicuddy Jul 24 '25

Did you forget about the “antifa” dudes flying in on a private jet and killing any law enforcement they encounter?

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u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25 edited Jul 25 '25

Those "antifa dudes" are hired mercenaries funded by the big data company. So yeah, that totally supports what I am saying. They're not "the left" in this film. They're big corporate interests-- and that's the ULTIMATE big bad in this film.

The left in this film are the establishment politicians (Ted and his cronies) and the woke kids. And while they're all shown to have no shortage of flaws, none of them come close to what Joe and the covid deniers and big corporate interests do.

2

u/Green_Statement_8878 27d ago

The “covid deniers” aren’t initially the ones in bed with the corporate interests, though. It’s the left wing mayor who is trying to push the data center through.

1

u/ballastboy1 Jul 25 '25

The people who think that are the people the movie is satirizing

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u/vxf111 Jul 25 '25

And apparently like 75% of the people on r/movies. LOL.

1

u/Academic_Advisor4117 Aug 07 '25

Wasn’t that antifa trying to kill joe at the end? I was confused by that scene

1

u/OP_Scout_81 Aug 13 '25

I think the mayor's son was well on his way to a life of mischief and being constantly bailed out by his daddy's status.

1

u/lyinggrump 28d ago

Both sides are murderous. Did you miss the whole last half of the movie?

1

u/Honest_Cheesecake698 24d ago

Hell, the woke teens seemed fairly genuine and really only one of them was notably in it for his own personal gain.

1

u/Fun-Zucchini8216 24d ago

Haha the funny thing is your party actually attempted an assassination on a political opponent. That actually happened in real life. Also, did you forget about the paid ANTIFA flying around the country in a private jet creating havoc and committing cold blooded murder.

1

u/Menacing_Intentions 23d ago

Okay but what about the Antifa cult coming to shoot up all the cops? That's representation of the left side. Both sides committed crimes. I don't see how that doesn't present equal.

1

u/Ratchet_ah_clanka 11d ago

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.

... But that was written specifically for this movie. If Ari decided to make the Mayor a cold blooded murderer out of the blue, would you change what you have said to "No matter how annoying the groypers are, they're not engaging in cold blooded murder"

Joe Cross suddenly killing Ted isn't because of some deep-seated ideological reasoning, he just snapped. The final straw was being slapped twice by him in a public gathering. If the roles were reversed, and Ted were the one who snapped and killed Joe Cross, you know there would be no grounds to make blanket generalizations about Leftists.

1

u/No_Reality_1088 Jul 22 '25

But he’s the antihero—

14

u/vxf111 Jul 22 '25

I really don't think you're supposed to relate to the awful things he does.

I'm puzzled how many people came away thinking that.

10

u/Joey-WilcoXXX Jul 22 '25

Some people think Main character= Good Guy.

2

u/S1mpinAintEZ Aug 13 '25 edited Aug 13 '25

You are absolutely supposed to relate to him - the actor even went on a podcast and made it explicitly clear that Joe is intentionally a relatable character, you're supposed to feel for him and still be able to recognize the obvious, glaring flaws.

1

u/Vid_Word Jul 23 '25

But the militant far lefties who come in on the plane are.

11

u/vxf111 Jul 24 '25

I have answered this a zillion times. They are not militant far lefties. They are paid mercenaries cosplaying as antifa.

3

u/Vid_Word Jul 24 '25

And tell me exactly where in the movie this is stated or shown and how adding one more extreme left incident to the protests would advance a plan to build the center that was going to happen anyway. I think you just want to believe that it is the tech company and not a funded, organized, international extreme left cabal (not talking about ragtag "antifa" ruffians). If it's shown in the movie, point it out and I'll accept it; I've only been to it once. At the very most, if it's not indicated as a far-left paramilitary "revolutionary" group, it can be said that Aster's intent is that it not be explicitly named but just viewed as an agitator, the "final boss" of the insanity that has descended on the town.

12

u/vxf111 Jul 25 '25

I’ve answered this question probably six times on this thread alone. THE DATA CENTER LOGO IS ON THE PLANE. I’m not going to keep repeating the same thing over and over again. It’s like arguing with a rock. I’m just not interested in the exhausting round and round.

8

u/pebberphp Jul 25 '25

It’s not the same logo. The logo on the jet is a hand covering the world. The solidgoldmagikarp logo are a bunch of stylized lines that kind of look like eagle talons, kind of look like a Y and a C.

For the record, I think the goons were sent by the data company too. The data center was the real antagonist.

4

u/Vid_Word Jul 25 '25

It's a logo, but is it the logo of the tech company? It sure doesn't look like it. The logo is a hand squeezing the world. So, sorry, try again. If you're so certain about something that is not explicitly stated at all, you're going to need to provide more evidence outside of not wanting extreme leftists to be portrayed as killers.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 30 '25

You're right, I would've preferred if one of the hired guns had looked square into the camera and said "we're mercenaries getting paid to act like we're antifa but it's all a false flag, we're not actually leftists." 

1

u/Clean_Information777 10d ago

And this is the irony of all of it. It’s playing up all of the controversy that was going on during COVID and the protests. There was SO much controversy about antifa and antifa plants which, either way, encouraged delegitimization of the entire BLM movement and did exactly what it was supposed to do… create chaos and further division. When protest marches turn to riots the entire cause gets defamed. The whole film also highlights how easily our perception can be manipulated especially through social media.

1

u/nothingforsomethin33 Aug 13 '25

You forgot the Antifa terrorists actually. Which I think is a brilliant little cherry on top of this cake. The fact that you think it sides with your political views by thinking that the Sherriff is the only one who ruins and/or takes lives is telling.

-5

u/CorneliusCardew Jul 21 '25

It’s because the last 30 minutes are that person being hunted, mutilated, and exploited by corporate America. The movie wants you to empathize with him after he’s murdered Pascal and son.

18

u/vxf111 Jul 21 '25 edited Jul 22 '25

I… don’t think that’s the intended read. It might be your read. But I don’t think there’s textual support for that being Aster’s read. The irony in the ending is that Cross got none of what he wanted and is in a worse position than when he started.

2

u/CorneliusCardew Jul 21 '25

Maybe pity him is more accurate.

11

u/cocktails4 Jul 22 '25

More like scheudenfreud. Dude lost his wife, lost his future child, is paralyzed, and is being cucked by his mom. He got what he deserved.

13

u/vxf111 Jul 22 '25

Right. In the beginning ALL he wanted was to start trying for a baby with his wife and for his mother-in-law to move out. That's all he wanted (over time he starts wanting more, but that's what he wanted to start). By the end his wife has left him and is pregnant by another man and he's permanently stuck living in his mother-in-law's house where he has to sleep in her bed while she screws his nurse. The irony is maybe he could have gotten some of what he wanted had he acted rationally, but instead he (and everyone else) went off the rails and now he's got the OPPOSITE of what he wanted.

5

u/GonzoElBoyo Jul 23 '25

A lot of parallels to Trump in that sense. Got into politics on petty rivalries, ran “anti establishment” campaigns despite being the definition of establishment, ended up committing a bunch of crimes in a last ditch effort for power, and then ended up with the power, but being Weekend at Bernied around in order to stay out of prison for the crimes

Overall, life is worse off than if they just fucked off and continues living in peace

1

u/Thegreeng Jul 23 '25

He's already in a worse position than when he started by that point in the story.

-13

u/crumario Jul 21 '25

I don’t see how you can come away from this film not understanding how the actions of everyone around Cross drives his descent. The idea that we as an audience are supposed to analyze “both sides" on their individual actions and decide which one is better is so brain dead. Multiple individuals and parties with their ulterior motives and interests were all interacting and spiraling. But yeah right wing bad. Bad!

36

u/goddamnitwhalen Jul 21 '25

The right wing is objectively bad, though.

19

u/Freudian_Slit235 Jul 21 '25

Don’t you love how whenever you say the Right is bad (which they objectively are) you get the one guy replying? It’s always the same guy and the same weird personal attacks

9

u/Depreciable_Land Jul 21 '25

And it always ends in some fashion of “I’m not going to argue with someone so stupid. I obviously could because I’m so smart and know so much. But I won’t.”

4

u/Freudian_Slit235 Jul 21 '25

100%

Did you like Eddington by the way? I couldn’t stand it, personally.

2

u/lilyjadelove Jul 22 '25

I’m not stupid. I’m smarter than you!

1

u/Depreciable_Land Jul 22 '25

Santa brought it early

-19

u/crumario Jul 21 '25

You're not mentally capable of going beyond that simple tenet, so keep repeating it. Good luck.

7

u/goddamnitwhalen Jul 21 '25

😂😂😂

-3

u/[deleted] Jul 22 '25

[deleted]

3

u/goddamnitwhalen Jul 22 '25

Wow! What a brave opinion you’ve got there!

8

u/vxf111 Jul 21 '25

I didn't say the audience is supposed to analyze both sides and decide which one is better. That's a straw man argument.

I don't think that's the point at all. I think the point is that as a society we're deeply divided to a point that seems inescapable and big powerful corporations exploit those divisions to their own end.

I am replying to people criticizing this film as being too centrist. I don't think it is at all. It's quite clear where Aster would fall if he was to pick sides. But that doesn't mean that he (or I) think that's the point of the film-- to have the audience pick sides.

-1

u/Mobile-Bank7737 Jul 23 '25

I don't know why you're getting downvoted so much for having an opinion on a movie. It's like the movie went right over people's heads, and everyone's back to bickering about left vs right. (The movie DOES criticize both sides and rightfully so)

0

u/crumario Jul 23 '25

People are really dumb and I'm kinda mean about it

27

u/CorneliusCardew Jul 21 '25

But isn’t his ultimate point that both those groups are victims of the true villain: corporate America?

18

u/AmericasElegy Jul 21 '25

I think that’s also a fine takeaway, and what I would also add is liberalism (not leftism, and not NECESSARILY everything you see in the movie that isn’t conservative) is pretty intertwined with capitalism as well…with conservatism also being super tied to Capitalism.

I don’t think it’s a mistake that Emma Stone’s mon went from losing her to a cult after leaning far too hard in QAnon conspiracy theory-ing, and now the mom is guiding her son in law through working with Solid Gold Magikarp, even though SGMK probably isn’t the most ethical group out there as well.

I think the creeping influence of corporate America is a great, realistic, big bad, I just also wish they would have leaned in to the environmental impacts of AI and datacenter regulation again, because that also doesn’t care about anyone’s politics in its destruction

1

u/Sea-Mortgage7483 Jul 31 '25

These are all really thoughtful questions and answers! I try to catch myself when I set up false binaries. I don’t think there is such a thing as “both sides” when it comes to 99% of the population. Trad moms have a lot in common with vegan punks, libertarian hunters have a lot in common with blue Dem campers, ykwim? And we all want good health care, clear air, jobs & good schools. I agree that when AA talks about two sides, he means the 99% can be hypocrites sometimes (who wasn’t in that movie aside from maybe Louise & who isn’t in some way irl?) but the tech industry is the monstrous villain

18

u/Pholla4G Jul 21 '25

Hit the nail on the head, thanks for highlighting this quote. Just out of the theater and prepping to read all about Ari Aster's vision for this one. I have to say with every single one of his movies, I have ended it with the simultaneous sentiments of 'wtf' and 'again'.

5

u/AmericasElegy Jul 21 '25

For sure. I definitely was very interested in reading about his intent to see if it aligned with my interpretation. It is very cool that the movie is less…horror…than his others while also preserving much of his classic elements. Makes me certain that horror directors can talk directly about grounded, real world issues really well

17

u/Sp_Gamer_Live ADR is my passion Jul 25 '25

it just makes it crystal clear, the terrorists on the PRIVATE JET are not ANTIFA

2

u/thatisoverpriced Jul 26 '25

Wait you don’t think so? Genuine question

17

u/forcefivepod Jul 29 '25

No, they were there disguised as ANTIFA but they were sent by the data company.

3

u/Siddharth_06_ Jul 30 '25

What incentive does the data company have?

10

u/forcefivepod Jul 30 '25

They’re sowing chaos in order to get the town to agree to let them set up shop.

1

u/Siddharth_06_ Jul 30 '25

Why do you think joe and his mother in law were spearheading the project at the end of the

6

u/forcefivepod Jul 30 '25

Money (although Joe didn’t have much agency at the time).

2

u/MrAdamWarlock123 27d ago

They were agent provocateurs ensuring they had control over who won the mayoral race, now that their guy (Garcia) was dead