Ari Aster on the One Scene That Explains All of ‘Eddington’

[Editor’s note: The following interview contains major spoilers for “Eddington.”]

You’d be hard-pressed to find a hot-button issue in the American culture war that Ari Aster’s “Eddington” doesn’t take a swing at.

More from IndieWire

'I Still Know What You Did Last Summer' Has Slasher Fans Nostalgic for... Jack Black in Dreads?

China Just Started Using AI to Animate Film Adaptations - Is Labubu Next?

Arguably the first great film made about the COVID-19 pandemic, the film follows an eponymous small town in New Mexico that reaches a crossroads when citizens are divided by slick liberal mayor Ted Garcia’s (Pedro Pascal) enforcement of the state’s mask mandates. While half the town is eager to see the virus controlled, the other half is convinced that their smug neighbors are using a hoax of a pandemic to control and mistreat them. Right-wing sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) capitalizes on that sentiment by launching his own insurgent mayoral campaign, providing a spark that literally and figuratively sets the town on fire as neighbors continue to fight over Black Lives Matter protests, the role of law enforcement in society, and Big Tech’s gradual accumulation of power.

AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_2csadkalhb5fiv5vddbH1_ iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_4csadkalhb5fiv5vddbH1_ iframe

In a recent interview with IndieWire, Aster stressed that he saw the pandemic as an inflection point that merely accelerated an inevitable series of events. Our brains were already broken by technology and media polarization, 2020 just provided a lethal dose of social isolation that permanently destroyed the societal norms we had been living with for the past century.

When thinking about the film’s ending, Aster encouraged viewers to separate the signal from the noise. For all of the fiery drama that happens in the third act — including murder, terrorism, and full-frontal nudity from a paralyzed Joaquin Phoenix — the only act of lasting historical consequence is the data center from fictional solidgoldmagikarp corporation finally being built in Eddington. The finale offers a neat bookend, as the film opens on the site of the proposed data center. But it also illustrates just how pointless all of the characters’ suffering was. These people destroyed their marriages, friendships, businesses, and homes for the sake of politically divisive content they watched on their phones. But anybody looking at the town from the outside would only see another victory for a Big Tech company.

“I would say that the film begins and ends on a hyperscale data center being built. And if you asked me what the film is about, I might just tell you that it’s about a data center being built,” Aster said. “And all of these stories are really just data to be processed by this thing, to be turned into what? What is coming? The film is set during a crisis, and it’s about a bunch of people in crisis, but meanwhile there’s this other crisis incubating in a lab.”

Aster drove that point home with his aggressive portrayal of smartphones throughout the entire film. From excessive shots of characters doomscrolling to a brilliant shot in which the entire movie screen takes the form of a horizontal smartphone, “Eddington” is constantly painting the devices in our pockets as evil interlopers. As the characters mow through data while posting and consuming divisive slop, it becomes clear that their entire lives are being processed through their phones at the expense of their humanity.

AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_2msadkalhb5fiv5vddbH1_ iframe AdvertisementAdvertisement#_R_4msadkalhb5fiv5vddbH1_ iframe

“I was interested in not having those screens kind of blend in and become naturalized, but rather to have them stand out. And I guess one goal was to almost make you sick with it. It’s something that is pervasive, but not in an invisible way,” he said. “I didn’t try to make phones look cinematic, but I did try to make them sinister.”

An A24 release, “Eddington” is now playing in theaters.

Best of IndieWire

The 16 Best Slasher Movies Ever Made, from 'Candyman' to 'Psycho'

Martin Scorsese's Favorite Movies Include 'Eddington': 87 Films the Director Wants You to See

The Best Thrillers Streaming on Netflix in July, from 'Vertigo' and 'Rear Window' to 'Emily the Criminal'

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.