In Ari Aster’s latest provocative, mind-boggling movie, the internet is the real enemy amongst all the chaos. Some thoughts on Eddington: Warning! Heavy spoilers for Eddington and some key spoilers for Beau Is Afraid, Hereditary and Midsommar. Ari Aster has always been interested in cults. Whether it’s the naked worshippers of Paimon in Hereditary, the ... Eddington | Internet is the real enemy in Ari Aster’s latest
In Ari Aster’s latest provocative, mind-boggling movie, the internet is the real enemy amongst all the chaos. Some thoughts on Eddington:
Warning! Heavy spoilers for Eddington and some key spoilers for Beau Is Afraid, Hereditary and Midsommar.
Ari Aster has always been interested in cults. Whether it’s the naked worshippers of Paimon in Hereditary, the people of Hårga (also often naked) in Midsommar or even the manipulation committed by Beau’s mother in Beau Is Afraid, Aster has more or less traumatised his audiences with the loss of individuality under bigger influences.
His latest, Eddington, is no different. Sure, there are no penis monsters or old people jumping off cliffs to their deaths, but Eddington is just as shocking and disturbing as Aster’s previous works, perhaps even more so. And it, too, is concerned with cult-like behaviour.
Taking place in the fictional town of Eddington, the film transports us back to May 2020 as COVID-19 is raging all around us and the murder of George Floyd leading to riots all over the world. Eddington’s sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) loudly opposes the mask mandate enforced by the current Mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) and the two eventually clash in multiple ways but Eddington is about so much more than just a Mayoral race.
Over the course of two and a half hours, Aster points out all the ways we allow the internet to manipulate us. Or at least how it’s a platform we rarely question and allows for the circulation of lies and extremist views and how those can be used to further your own agenda.
In a chilling comparison to our own reality, everyone is constantly online and on their phones in Eddington. The scrolling never stops and everyone has something to say, or more accurately, something to post. It seems that all our characters are obsessed with creating an image of themselves online that may or may not be the truth.
For one, Pascal’s Ted presents himself as a great father, a selfless leader in his campaign materials, but in reality, his relationship with his son is strained and frustrated. Joe, meanwhile, realises he can find his supporters online, posting his promise to run for Mayor online before thinking about it much or sharing his plans with anyone else. In fact, Joe keeps telling his deputies to post things before he starts thinking about them too much, especially when he outrightly lies. We’ve all been there but the not-so-flattering selfie is far from lying about your wife’s sexual abuse.
Then there’s the real cult leader, Vernon (Austin Butler) who also uses the internet to spread his views and attract more supporters, including Joe’s wife Louise (Emma Stone). Louise is hinted to have been sexually abused in the past. “I’m getting better,” she whispers to her husband after rejecting his sexual advances. But she’s quick to fall under the spell of Vernon, who uses the internet to spread his preaching about sexual predators hiding in plain sight.
But Eddington’s most damning storyline is a surprising one.
Teenager Brian (Cameron Mann) becomes involved with the Black Lives Matter protests, just to charm Sarah, a girl he fancies but with very little real interest in the movement. He posts supportive posts on his Instagram to appear as a version of himself that Sarah might find attractive, but by the end of the film, he has changed his tune completely.
Major spoilers follow for the ending of Eddington! Turn away now if you’d rather stay in the dark about what happens.
A group of extremists – implied to have been paid to descend upon Eddington to cause further chaos and political divide – chase Joe and eventually, one of them manages to strike a knife right into Joe’s head, leading to severe brain damage that will leave him disabled for life.
However, thanks to Brian, Joe doesn’t die as the teenager shoots the extremist. Seeing an opportunity within the tragedy, Brian immediately plays into his new role as a right-wing hero. Who cares about values when success and fame is right in front of you?
A year later, Brian has become a popular conservative influencer. His social media posts now tout his new values because that’s what will aid his personal gain the most. As Brian demonstrates, anyone can be anything on the Internet and it’s never been as easy to change who you are or how you’re seen when our lives are so heavily lived on social media.
At times, Eddington is almost overwhelmingly packed with the different views that the internet houses. “It was important to get as many voices in the cacophony and represent as many corners of the internet as possible—to make a coherent story about the incoherent miasma we are living in,” Aster told WIRED.
The Internet might be the weapon in Eddington, but the real cult here is America. Eddington puts America itself under a microscope and forces the country to look itself in the eye. America has always been somewhat divided in the middle between its two main political parties, but it’s never been more obvious or violent as it is now and certainly was in 2020. Aster continues to shock, just as he did with his three previous features, but Eddington shouldn’t be dismissed as empty provocation. It’s rather smart in what it’s saying and how it says it.
Eddington isn’t so much about politics – although that’s certainly part of it – but about the effect the internet has had on us. We’ve never been more paranoid or at least that paranoia hasn’t been able to spread quite as easily as it does now. The internet doesn’t discriminate or filter opinions; everyone is welcome to say and do whatever they want and while that certainly has some pros, it almost certainly has more cons.
Eddington is now in cinemas.
