jfgibson73

The joke with Razzennest is that you are being shown a a surreal, experimental art film full of symbolism and meaning while listening to a commentary track analysis. The commentary is not optional; it is part of the actual movie. I thought the look of the movie was interesting; it mostly focuses on outdoorsy natural settings full of decrepit old buildings, dead grass, and bare trees. It alternates between that and blurry closeups of amorphous imagery, with the shots changing quickly. We don't get any actual story or characters, just a large variety of vague stuff. The voiceovers are played for comedy. They might have worked better for me if they had been more subtle instead of wildly over-the top. As it was, I just found it grating and lost interest quickly. I thought it was a good concept for a movie, but the way it was executed prevents me from recommending it.

As a fan of Ari Aster, I was glad that his latest movie was at least a linear narrative. His last one, Beau Is Afraid, felt to me like someone made a list of ideas they thought would be cool to film, and then just crammed them all in without shaping any of it into an actual story. I don't want a movie to give me the sense I'm watching someone's first draft. Eddington seems to be much more of a focused story--even though it covers a lot of topics, it's not all over the place. It addresses issues that are related, giving it coherence that you might not recognize until the final moments. I appreciate that, but I still wasn't really into it. I just didn't care much about the characters or their struggles. I thought that Eddington could have been a lot more effective if it was better paced, with a story revolving around more relateable people. Look at another movie from the summer of 2025, Weapons: It's also about a small town with some weird and mysterious problems, but I think most viewers are much more likely to want to watch the characters from that film. At this point, Ari has gone from someone whose every film I want to be sure to see to a director who might do something amazing again someday. I don't need to follow his every move anymore; I'm fine waiting to see if he ever pulls off another Midsommar.

For me, this movie does for Predator what Minus One did for Godzilla: it gave us an installment that isn't just the best of the franchise, but will go down as one of the great movies of its time. I say that because I think every aspect of this movie was well done, but especially the storytelling. There is more detail layered throughout this film than you could ever possibly pick up on in one viewing. Nothing is done without reason, and there are no wasted moments. Nothing is set up without getting paid off. The filmmakers have actually thought everything through, which just doesn't happen often enough (I would argue that almost every movie that bombs is because of bad writing). If you watch this movie and think that something wasn't explained, there is a reason that was given that you haven't noticed yet. There's lots of symbolism and moments that emphasize the theme, and all of those clever storytelling devices, but the bottom line is that it all makes sense, and it's exhilarating to watch. We don't get any moments that feel like we've already seen it a million times. The visual storytelling is unbelievable. It never slows down for a moment. It's a movie that just does everything right. I'm going to recommend it.