A good movie

Even if this movie didn’t make much waves when it was released, another collaboration between Ari Aster and Joaquin Phoenix was pretty much a must-see in my book. Well, even though it turned out to be an easier watch than ‘Beau Is Afraid’ (which was such an intense but also cringe-inducing movie), it was still indescribable and, well, rather unsellable, I’m afraid. First of all, it was taking place during the lockdown back in May 2020 during the Covid pandemic and, while it was just about 5 years ago, the whole thing felt like watching something surreal. Too soon? In fact, I think it was the opposite. If the movie would have been released during the pandemic or just after it, it would have had much more impact. Still, it was quite fascinating how this pandemic had exacerbated the dark side in some of us, as they were claiming their right for ‘freedom’ which was (and still is) in fact their right to be as selfish as they want, which did result in such a polarized society, a phenomenon actually still going on nowadays. I also liked how all the characters were constantly checking their social media apps and how it increased their sometimes rather extreme and even far-fetched views. At the center of this other dark tale by Aster, you had once again Joaquin Phoenix who was once again just so spellbinding to behold. Sure, Joe Cross was basically some rather pathetic MAGA conspiracy theorist and he did some really f*cked-up shit in this movie and, yet, it was quite incredible how Phoenix still managed to humanize him somehow. Unfortunately, it was probably the only character who was actually probably developed and the rest of the cast, which was pretty awesome, turned out to be pretty wasted after all. Especially with Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone, their characters seemed to be quite intriguing but, unfortunately, we spent just not enough time with them after all. In fact, there were too many characters involved. Concerning the randomness of this tale which is one of Aster’s trademarks, I was gasping so many times wondering what the hell just happened. So, it worked really well but only until the 3rd act though.  Indeed, out of nowhere, some Antifa terrorists started to attack Eddington suddenly becoming the ‘bag guys’ while they were never involved in this story at all. Obviously, we never get to learn these completely random dudes and their inclusion did feel like some rather sloppy writing. Anyway, to conclude, even if not everything did work, it turned out to be another really original effort from Ari Aster and I think it is definitely worth a look, at least, if you are interested in this director’s work.