‘Eddington’: Ari Aster Talks About Five Movies That Shaped His Wild New COVID-Era Western

Ari Aster’s newest film, Eddington, has little to do with the overt horror that defined the Hereditary and Midsommar writer-director’s early career. Instead, in Eddington, out July 18, Aster plunges his audience into the crazy-making days of May 2020, when COVID-19 raged, civil unrest exploded onto the streets, and the internet teemed with conspiracy theories.

Despite the modern setting, Eddington plays out not unlike a classic Hollywood Western. Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross, an anti-mask sheriff who goes to war with the mayor, Ted Garcia, played by Pedro Pascal. Ted is looking to develop their small New Mexican town, while Joe launches his own campaign to unseat him. There are old-school showdowns on tiny streets and gunfights—except all the while people are scrolling their phones and doing ill-advised deep dives on their computers. Joe’s wife, portrayed by Emma Stone, becomes obsessed with a cult-leader type figure (played by a long-haired Austin Butler.)

In making this satirical, deeply strange, sometimes almost hallucinatory movie, Aster looked to well-trod subgenres as reference points: The traditional western, as defined by the likes of John Ford and Howard Hawks, yes, but also revisionist westerns, movies about American conspiracies, and more.

Here, Aster tells GQ about five movies that served as inspiration for Eddington.

JFK (1991)

Directed by Oliver Stone

Subgenre: American Conspiracy

Kevin Costner, 1991.Courtesy of Warner Bros / Everett Collection