American Ugly: Eddington’s Carnival Mirror
Still from Eddington, 2025
I am no movie buff. Between my goldfish memory and inability to discern the deeper meanings of things, I am not the person you want to be discussing the merits of films with. Sure, I like a lot of good shit. And there’s a bunch of nuance that I do catch and understand. But there’s also a ton that goes over my head. I appreciate film very much, especially the stuff that moves me deeply. But it’s not my thing.
So it’s always a shock when I manage to stay awake for a movie that goes past midnight, a sure sign that I thoroughly enjoyed it. On a recent weeknight, I braved a 9:50pm showing of Ari Aster’s new film Eddington. Despite all corners of my life pointing to me eventually dozing off—IVF medications, early doctor appointments, and general post-work malaise—not only did I stay awake, but was totally entertained and energized from start to finish.
What can I say about Eddington? Well, without giving too much away, it’s a shrewd and biting distillation of America—more precisely, Americans—in May of 2020. With the exception of healthcare workers, Aster is on a mission to search and destroy, boring into the very heart and essence of nearly every pandemic and protest archetype imaginable, mocking and scolding each one with carefully crafted brute accuracy.
The film is hilarious (it’s black comedy, after all!), especially with dream duo Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix playing off one another. But there’s an underlying uneasiness to the film, and I think this is Aster urging his audience to take a hard look at exactly what they’re laughing at: themselves—their beliefs, their biases, their growth, their inertia, who they were in 2020 versus who they are today in 2025, and why.
Watching Eddington is akin to staring at your reflection in a carnival mirror for two hours and twenty-five minutes; it's wacky, exaggerated, and distorted—and you are the source from which it springs. For all the movie's hyperbole, it rings disturbingly true. While so much has happened in the U.S. over the last five years, Eddington is a jocular, jolting reminder that nothing’s progressed; we’ve been running in place this whole fucking time. Donald Trump is back in office, police budgets have ballooned nationwide, groceries are at an all-time high, the net worth of America’s 1% is up nearly 50%, Medicaid has been decimated, and COVID-19 is here to stay.
Go watch Eddington and see yourself. See your foibles, your ugliness, your evolution. Be embarrassed. Sit with all of it, and, chances are—regardless of whether or not movies are your thing—you’ll love it as much as I did.