Eddington
This review contains spoilers
- So you're going through the movie and it's about a sheriff running for mayor, and then he starts killing people and it becomes an entirely different movie, with shootouts and a terrorist attack. And I kind of liked it, but the first half is better.
- With that said, even within the first half, it's just too long. Auteurs have this thing it seems where they have to make their movies way too long. You could seriously trim half an hour off of this and I probably would have really loved it. People don't love Harmony Korine, but I mention him because he's my favourite director and I'm using him to illustrate my point: he knows enough to not make Aggro Dr1ft and Baby Invasion 2 hour movies. I wish directors like Aster would learn that sometimes more isn't always better, and there is a more concise way to tell this story. Drop some redundant scenes and poor subplots.
- But with THAT said, I dig the social commentary. God, it feels both so long ago and just like yesterday that the pandemic happened. I have little interest in COVID-era movies. I hate that we are at a point where there are movies where we have to see people in masks--this is not a political statement, this is an aesthetic and possibly emotional one. I don't know if I'm just softening on that stance a little as time goes on, or Aster does a particularly good job, but I didn't mind so much.
I don't want many movies like this, but it does a good job exploring how we broke and the process of breaking. And shit, when it comes to this I'm a dirty lefty, but this works because Aster can make both sides look a little obnoxious. Which is totally how it happened, and we're all likely at least a little guilty, even if some of us stopped much earlier. People still argue about it today, so it's not as if this went away, but seeing Aster tackle it during the period in which it was still hot is interesting.
- With much better editing and less insistence on reaching auteur-level runtimes, this could be a great movie. It will never be Hereditary because I don't think Aster will ever reach that again, but I could have seen this being an 80/100.
- With that said, even within the first half, it's just too long. Auteurs have this thing it seems where they have to make their movies way too long. You could seriously trim half an hour off of this and I probably would have really loved it. People don't love Harmony Korine, but I mention him because he's my favourite director and I'm using him to illustrate my point: he knows enough to not make Aggro Dr1ft and Baby Invasion 2 hour movies. I wish directors like Aster would learn that sometimes more isn't always better, and there is a more concise way to tell this story. Drop some redundant scenes and poor subplots.
- But with THAT said, I dig the social commentary. God, it feels both so long ago and just like yesterday that the pandemic happened. I have little interest in COVID-era movies. I hate that we are at a point where there are movies where we have to see people in masks--this is not a political statement, this is an aesthetic and possibly emotional one. I don't know if I'm just softening on that stance a little as time goes on, or Aster does a particularly good job, but I didn't mind so much.
I don't want many movies like this, but it does a good job exploring how we broke and the process of breaking. And shit, when it comes to this I'm a dirty lefty, but this works because Aster can make both sides look a little obnoxious. Which is totally how it happened, and we're all likely at least a little guilty, even if some of us stopped much earlier. People still argue about it today, so it's not as if this went away, but seeing Aster tackle it during the period in which it was still hot is interesting.
- With much better editing and less insistence on reaching auteur-level runtimes, this could be a great movie. It will never be Hereditary because I don't think Aster will ever reach that again, but I could have seen this being an 80/100.
Mini Review: I generally kind of cringe at movies based around COVID, but there is something undeniably entertaining about the way Aster satirizes/explores 2020, a year which completely broke us. I dug the political stuff and the rivalry between Phoenix and Pascal. There's some Aster storytelling going on later, which only kind of works, and the movie is too long for what it is. Some subplots work better than others, but all in all, it's a solid flick.