Watched Eddington (2025), a western/satire comedy directed by Ari Aster. It is set in a small New Mexico town in March 2020. The story follows the asthmatic sheriff who opposes the mask mandate and is running for mayor against the liberal mayor who put in place all the current restrictions. This leads to great division in town. Conspiracy theories, activism, internet hysteria all overtake the small town. The film has it all: satire, psychological drama, the absurd. It’s a critique of both ends of the political spectrum. I really enjoyed this one. The cast is phenomenal. Joaquim Phoenix’s performance as the sheriff is stellar. Pedro Pascal as the mayor and Emma Stone as the sheriff’s wife were excellent. The absurd and satirical parts were very funny. The score was really good. The sceneries of New Mexico were beautiful. The switch to action/western was well executed. My only criticism of the film is that it wasn’t a horror movie. Ari Aster’s first 3 feature films were excellent horror movies 😂 8.6/10
Discussion
I saw it last night. Wow.
Forgot the hashtag 🤣
#nodereviews
Added to wishlist
Watchlist of course
I think you’ll enjoy this one
I had hard time with his first two albeit "Midsommer" was an improvement. But this one looks promising
You had troubles with Hereditary? That’s the masterpiece
Not trouble per se but it quickly became a typical horror. And the ending disappointed me dearly. But maybe that's genre's issue and not the director's. But I can see he's craftful. And anyway I wasn't choosing those movies but my partner so it was not an issue or blocker of any sort. It's good to see stuff outside of your personal taste. That being said I am very curious about the new movie for a number of reasons
I understand. Horror movies aren’t your cup of tea. What did your partner think of it?
Eddington is really worth it 🤝
I like horror movies. Just these didn't sat with me well but it might be that they were done so well that I expected more of them. So they fell victim to their own success. My partner liked them without any conditions
Interesting. What’s your favourite horror movie?
Tricky question. I am no longer scared during horror movies but I can be engaged with them
Years ago "Ring" (Japanese) scared the shit out of me and I was afraid to go to a toilet mid-movie [sic]. Also 1998's "Phantoms" made me scared but only to the half of the movie. I sort of miss this overwhelming dread that could come from movies
Recently I rather rank them by general engagement. In this case "It Follows" was one of my favourite relatively recent movies. "Barbarians" were cool too especially when the girl discovered the secret room and I was like DO NOT GO THERE. "Smile" was good too but generally too serious
(I also like "Halloween" but for most of the time it's a slasher and not a scary movie)
I need to explore more cosmic horror more. "Nothing Man" was an interesting position here with whole reality being gradually more and more fucked up
The one about the war veteran?
I think so. He was a detective looking into disappearance of his neighbour's daughter and then things started to get weird. They had those small touches. Like when he was in the camp and there was a frame with a Teddy bear on the first plane. And then next time it was gone. Now that's scary in a subtle way
Yeah jump scare isn’t scary. Although it doesn’t have to be scary for someone to like it. I find for scary movies, it’s always good to experiment it first at the movies. At home with the lights on or being distracted isn’t the same.
For me, like you already know, Hereditary (2018) is the masterpiece. The Witch (2015) and Suspiria (2018) are also up there. Midsommar (2019) too. Longlegs (2024) was surprisingly shocking as well. Blair Witch Project was a great one too.
The scariest part of "The Witch" were the conditions they live in. That was a true horror there!
"Longlegs" was more of a thriller to me and very stylish. Like a throwback to early 1990s. But the ending was a bit ass-pulled if I can be honest. Still had fun but c'mon. It was however the debut so I am more forgiving
"Blair Witch Project" I still haven't seen. No! Don't! Stop! Don't throw items at me!
To me, the best horror movies are psychological. There’s definitely an intersect with psychological thrillers.
In the Witch, being cast out of society was the real horror. It’s basically a death sentence.
🤣🤣🤣
Did you see most of these at the theatre or at home?
I go to cinema once a year at best since covid. But I have a nice setup at home so I don't feel at loss
I have a nice setup at home too. I try to go to the movies as much as possible
Other people ruin the experience. Eating popcorn and talking. I also like to decide when I go to a toilet. I mean I would never drink in cinema and it works too but I got comfy with my movie watching. I will probably go to see the newest Jurassic park
I like the art house cinema not too far from home. People that go there are usually mindful. At the bigger theatres I find it’s less of a problem (the people who ruin the experience). Maybe because I don’t usually go see the super popular thing. Gotta go to the bathroom right before 🤣
But! My friend! Your question triggered something. I saw the Spanish "[•REC]" in cinema and it was one of the scarier things I've seen
I’m telling you. Horror movies aren’t the same at home 🤣
You’re fully immersed at the movies
I might have seen this one but I’m not totally sure. I’ll download it
They made a franchise out of it but it's like with "Saw". You just can tell much more after the first one
I agree. Franchise usually ruin it. Except the ones that don’t take themselves too seriously then it’s fine. If not it’s usually copy/paste forever
But then I like "Halloween". Part 4 to 6 was so audaciously B-movie that one can only appreciate them
B movies are great because they don’t take themselves seriously like a lot of the shitty blockbusters
I really enjoyed the Terrifier series. Has a very B movie feel from the start. Not very scary but fun horror. Entertaining
Part 5 was exactly how I imagined a horror when I was 12. No shame. No nothing
I’ll have to look into those. I’ve only seen the first one. I think all the others are from different directors
Part 2 is Carpenter's. And he consulted on Blumhouse trilogy which is also of quality. "Halloween: Resurrection" has got to be the worst because it's not too funny and not really a Halloween movie. They could have put there any killer in lieu of Michael Myers
Ah sorry. And Rob Zombie's duology is also nice. His "Halloween 2" is the furthest deviation from the canon and it's nice. He was not afraid to experiment
I’ll download those. Curious about his remakes
Screenplay was written by John Carpenter and Debra Hill but it was directed by Rick Rosenthal. It was his feature film directorial debut Halloween II (1981). It’s worth to see in your opinion?
Hah. I was wrong. But apart from directing it's his movie. When he did "Halloween" he didn't have sequels in mind so this was sort of ordered job. It's okay and you need to see it for the purposes of 1-2-4-5-6 and 1-2-7-8 timelines
The interesting thing was that they don't ahow killings often and instead only an aftermath so Mike seems more like a ghost. And it's funny that the first move was not a slasher at all when it's considered to be one of genre generators
The setting and ambiance is greater than the killings. Definitely
Another one I really enjoy is Grave, international name is “Raw” (2017). First feature film of Julia Ducourneau. The subject matter is really original in this one
Added to the watchlist. From French language I can recommend "Vincent doit mourir" (Vincent Must Die). Raw image quality and lovely synths in the soundtrack. And again more of an introvert horror
Ooh, a couple in here I hadn't heard of (longlegs and suspiria). Midsommar stands out to me as the one that had most impact and hung with me longest.
Ari Aster is a master horror movie director
Need to watch Witch again. Was part distracted a year or so ago when I did. Heard too many rave about it, and while I liked it well enough it didn't meet my expectations completely (with the hype).
Have you seen Beau is afraid (2023)? I find it was less horror scary and more stressful scary. The world building in this one was amazing.
I have seen it yeah. The first part when riots start is such a social anxiety. Like when the guy fell on him in the bath tube and THEN SPIDER JOINED I was like "That's too much". Even the part where they steal his apartment keys. But then it switched to more surreal and meaningful story
You should start tagging your notes with a hashtag… I bet there’s a client in here somewhere
Use a more general hashtag like #reviewstr so that others can do the same and we’ll have a unified place for reviews
Ah for something more general ai see what you mean
nostr:note19c6lkasm02ym4qpw92xszu84f326vak7fp29835vxwxdxf59uqysyn0u9r
Add #reviewstr to it or something and a link to IMDb
This way we can easily filter for reviews like I do on Kinostr
I usually tag them with #nodereviews got too excited about this one and forgot
If you added another tag it woke be easier for people to contribute too. But it would need something else like an IMDb url. Or we could make a custom kind.
People would find it with the IMDb url?
No it would be just easier to know if it’s an actual review or a generic note that mentions the hashtag
But If we build a dedicated client url would help. But at that point we can make a custom kind I guess
