Ari Aster’s ‘Eddington’ Tackles Life in the Internet Age
▼ Summary
– Ari Aster wrote his new film *Eddington* during the summer of 2020, drawing inspiration from his agitating experience with social media.
– The film, set during the pandemic and BLM movement, explores how social media fractures society, leading to violent clashes between differing realities.
– Aster researched by collecting real social media content and creating fake accounts to simulate different algorithmic feeds for authenticity.
– The movie blends political commentary and carnage, reimagining the western genre as a thriller about technological progress.
– Aster argues the tech revolution, especially smartphones, has dehumanized society by isolating people in conflicting realities.
Ari Aster’s upcoming film Eddington dives deep into the chaos of modern digital life, blending the tension of a western with the unsettling realities of social media’s grip on society. Set against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement, the movie examines how online platforms fracture shared reality, pushing people into isolated ideological bubbles that inevitably clash.
The director, known for psychological horror hits like Hereditary and Midsommar, didn’t just observe this phenomenon, he immersed himself in it. During the summer of 2020, Aster deliberately curated his social media feeds, creating multiple accounts to study how algorithms shape individual worldviews. “I wanted to capture the way these platforms feed us completely different versions of reality,” he explains. This research directly influenced the film’s visual language, with scenes often cutting to characters’ phones, revealing the memes, conspiracy theories, and political rhetoric driving their actions.
Starring Joaquin Phoenix as a small-town sheriff turned populist politician and Pedro Pascal as his corrupt opponent, Eddington oscillates between eerie social commentary and explosive violence. Aster reimagines the western genre, using its familiar tropes to explore the new frontier of digital alienation. The film suggests that smartphones haven’t just changed how we communicate, they’ve rewired how we perceive truth itself.
One particularly jarring scene depicts a teenager rejecting his racial identity at the dinner table, leaving his parents baffled. Moments like these highlight the generational and ideological rifts widened by online echo chambers. “We’re living in parallel universes, shouting past each other,” Aster observes, arguing that technology has accelerated societal fragmentation in ways we’re only beginning to comprehend.
While the director stops short of calling Eddington a cautionary tale, his portrayal of a world where shared reality disintegrates feels uncomfortably familiar. The film doesn’t offer easy answers, but it forces viewers to confront how deeply the internet has reshaped human connection, and what happens when those connections snap.
Set for release on July 18, Eddington promises to be as unsettling as it is timely, blending Aster’s signature tension with a sharp critique of the digital age. Whether audiences leave the theater horrified or introspective, one thing’s certain: they’ll think twice before their next scroll.
(Source: Wired)
