Isaac Castor

Joe budden defends 2pac and plays tracks from his All Eyez on Me album after emanny says it didn’t age well and has skips via Joe budden patreon

Eddington (🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟) is the second film released in 2025 that I’m awarding the Five Star Treatment. I believe the risks Ari Aster takes in Eddington are the entire reason Cinema matters- it’s the reason art exists. This is the sort of immediate, impossibly relevant storytelling that needs to be told by an artist who does not care how his work is perceived commercially. Aster is opening the door for other filmmakers & artists around the world to run head-first into the societal free-fall we are all facing. In other words, Aster is waving his hands & screaming to the sky that there is no more time to waste. As a threshold matter, I could never give a boring film the Five Star Treatment. I do not care what that film’s message is or the point it’s trying to make: if a film lacks entertainment value, it immediately loses credibility. Eddington beats any & all “boring” allegations for a few reasons. I barely felt the film’s 2.5 hour run-time in large part because the plot is fragmented into a film that feels like thirds, with each third paced differently. We start with Sheriff Joe Cross’s (Joaquin Phoenix) announcement that he’ll be running for Mayor of Eddington against incumbent Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). The idea here being that Cross is fed-up with the new COVID mandates that implemented throughout Eddington and the hypocrisy that ensues with enforcing those mandates. The second third of the film pivots towards the town’s upheaval against the police & the growing distrust percolating throughout Eddington. The last third? I’m not positive I should give anything away there. But back to why Eddington beats the “boring” allegations. Aster drenches this segmented story in fantastic filmmaking & incredible performances. On the filmmaking side, Aster speaks through engaging, active camera work that provides commentary on this film’s characters, but most importantly, on the town of Eddington. The way in which Aster shoots Eddington brings Eddington to life in its own way. On the performance side, Aster pulls out the best of an incredible cast. This is the best performance Joaquin Phoenix has given since he won an Oscar. Phoenix is utterly outstanding & serves as an extension of Aster throughout this film, as Phoenix holds down nearly every frame in a 2.5 hour movie. Pascal is also tremendous- this is the best Pascal performance we’ve seen in last 18 months, without question. Together, the performances & the filmmaking combine with that fragmented story for an incredibly entertaining film. Yet the reason Eddington is receiving the Five Star Treatment isn’t just because it’s entertaining. Many films entertain, but they don’t warrant this praise. It’s the message & the overall point that Aster is sending that makes this an immediate classic. Aster’s premise behind this film, as he’s stated countless times while promoting this movie, is that we as a society no longer can agree on what’s real. That premise colors every choice made in this movie. The “we cannot agree on what’s real” premise is fueled by the fact that both sides of the isle, regardless of what you believe in, are slaves to social media. We believe what we see on the algorithms that are designed to manipulate us. Manipulation is a central theme of this film, but make no mistake that while Aster points out that both sides are susceptible to manipulation, he never fails to remind us that there are levels to susceptibility and levels to manipulation, which is where I think Aster takes his biggest risks. Sure, some of us bought into COVID vaccines and mandates more strongly than we should have or sooner than we might like to admit. But is that comparable to those who have been manipulated by social media to take up arms & engage in real violence? The War on Misinformation has already begun but it’s clear that while some of us are at greater risk of misinformation than others, we all suffer the consequences equally. And while some will disagree with the hypocrisies called out by Aster & some will take offense with Aster’s immediate retelling of the events of 2020, I think that’s the entire point of filmmaking & storytelling. I don’t know anyone else who is charging toward the most important, relevant issues facing us today like Aster just did. And it sort of makes a lot of the other movies we see being released today seem silly. There’s a war going on right now- a War of Misinformation- and we should all be talking about it, addressing it, and trying to fix it. Instead, we’re just feeding into it and making it worse. I give so much credit to Aster for drawing a line in the sand like this & doing it while still entertaining. This is a film that needed to be made & needed to be made now.