Director Ari Aster ’s "Eddington," which has inspired more heated discussion than it ticket sales, drops us unpleasantly back into an America at the peak of COVID-19 hysteria.
Our putative protagonist is Joe Cross, well-intentioned but beleaguered sheriff of the small desert outpost of Eddington, New Mexico.
Aster's previous films resolve with satanic forces claiming victory over well-meaning innocents just trying to grapple coherently with temptation and strife.
Already burdened with a psychologically fragile wife (Emma Stone) and a live-in, conspiracy-obsessed mother-in-law (Deirdre O'Connell), Cross must now keep the peace for a populace bitterly divided over masks, social distancing, and business closures, while facing down BLM riots. His downtime doomscrolling (remember the black squares on Instagram?) offers no relief.
Cross himself is COVID-skeptical, to the say the least, which puts him at odds with Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), the kind of slimy, fake, media-savvy politico who could give California Governor Gavin Newsom (D) a run for his money.
Watching the first half of this movie in 2025 is enjoyably cathartic. Even the audience at the screening I saw — in an art-house theater in liberal Chicago — cringed at the movie's virtue-signaling adults and their brainwashed teens. The biggest laugh came when a father, having just been subjected to a rant from his son about "white abolition," blurts out, “Are you f***ing re****ed? YOU’RE white!”
I doubt I have to remind anyone that only a few years ago, these reactions would have been very different.
From our vantage point in 2025, Cross seems to be the most levelheaded man in town, a flawed but decent public servant trying to make sense of a world gone mad. Finally, we think, a belated but nonetheless welcome jab at the liberal delusions that held sway in our country for the last decade.
That's when Aster pulls the rug out from under us. Our hero makes a series of choices that progress from foolhardy to downright evil, choices he ends up paying for in the most grotesque way possible. We, in turn, are punished for daring to identify with Cross. It's as if Aster wants to leave us not merely disillusioned but utterly humiliated.
Pascal's ostensible villain also falls away to reveal a much more formidable nemesis: the powerful corporation behind the development of Eddington's much-contested "SolidGoldMagikarp Data Center." These shadowy Big Tech overlords seem to validate every paranoid imagining of the online fringes, right and left: jetting in hooded, well-trained shock troops to carry out false-flag "Antifa" attacks and thwart populist dissent, distracting a divided and confused public from the very real threat they represent.
RELATED: 'Eddington': Portrait of COVID-era craziness wrings laughs from peak wokeness
Now … some critics may believe that this is the main message of the film. That the struggle is Them vs. Us. The real villains are the faceless "Eyes Wide Shut" cabal of world controllers who send out their minions to subvert the will of the people. “Smart viewers understand this,” the critics will say.
Well, I’m a smart viewer, and I don’t care about that. Maybe it is Them vs. Us in real life, but in Hollywood, and to Ari Aster, and to the audience in the theater on both sides of the aisle, the message of "Eddington" is clear: You can't win.
Aster's previous films, "Beau Is Afraid," "Midsommar," and "Hereditary," all resolve with satanic forces claiming victory over well-meaning innocents just trying to grapple coherently with temptation and strife. No one is held accountable for the perpetration of this violence; there is no justice or righteous retribution.
"Eddington" turns out to be just another variation of this story, this time using COVID instead of the supernatural to torture its characters. The question we should ask is who benefits from this nihilistic message?
Certainly not the audience. Joe Cross and the people of Eddington may be stuck where they are, helpless before the whims of their sadistic creator, but there's nothing keeping us in town. None of us would want to live in Aster World; maybe it's time we admitted it's not even a nice place to visit.
Goodbye, “new and improved” Yellow Brick Road? Not so fast.
Yes, the proposed “Wizard of Oz” remake from wokester Kenya Barris appears to be stalled, possibly for good. The project announcement came all the way back in 2022, when woke still ruled Hollywood.
If Hollywood’s imagination drain continues, in 30 years they’ll make a movie about the movie about the movie ...
But now, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton promise a “new” “Wizard of Oz” series that reimagines the saga from a young adult perspective.
The series will use “the Yellow Brick Road as a metaphor for the challenges and choices facing young adults today.” As Keanu Reeves might say, “Whoa!”
Maybe if we click our heels three times, this project will go the way of the Wicked Witch of the West ...
Sometimes, even Hollywood types make total sense.
Take Chris Columbus. The “Home Alone” director shot the first two “Harry Potter” films in that insanely successful series. Now, HBO Max is prepping a new “Potter” series that will bring the beloved books to life.
Again.
Didn’t the films do just that in epic fashion? Was anyone dissatisfied with the finished product? It’s all pretty confusing to Columbus (and to anyone who doesn’t understand Hollywood’s lust for intellectual property).
“I looked online, and there are photographs of Nick Frost as Hagrid with the new Harry Potter,” Columbus said. “And he’s wearing the exact same costume that we designed for Hagrid. Part of me was like, ‘What’s the point?’ I thought everything [on the HBO show], the costumes and everything, was going to be different. It’s more of the same.”
He’s right. And it doesn’t matter. The streamer wouldn’t risk all that cash — a reported $100 million per episode — if it didn’t have faith it’ll draw a crowd.
Heck, they might as well start a third Harry Potter adaptation as soon as this one wraps ...
Sick of reboots, sequels, and prequels? How about a movie about the making of a movie? It sounds pretty darn meta, but this one actually might work.
Why?
The film is “I Play Rocky,” and it recalls Sylvester Stallone’s battle to both write and star in the movie that would change his career. A young Stallone was a virtual nobody in Hollywood when he wrote a script about a down-on-his-luck boxer who got a chance at being the champ.
The studio loved the script but clamored for a “star” to play the main character. Stallone dug in his heels, insisting he was the right person to play Rocky Balboa. “Yo!”
It’s as inspiring as the actual film, and director Peter Farrelly previously gave us the Oscar-winning “Green Book.”
If Hollywood’s imagination drain continues, in 30 years they’ll make a movie about the movie about the movie ...
Ask any indie filmmaker what they crave more than anything else, and the answer is clear.
Money. As in, “Can I have some more, please?”
Indie filmmakers make do with less, cutting corners wherever possible and finding new ways to stretch their limited budgets.
So when indie auteur Chloe Zhao got the keys to a Marvel project, she probably pinched herself. Endless Mouse House cash!
It turns out that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Zhao’s “Eternals” flopped, at least by superhero standards, and she retreated to more familiar terrain with the upcoming indie drama “Hamnet.” That film is a fictional look at the death of William Shakespeare’s son and how it inspired the creation of “Hamlet.”
Too much cash wasn’t the elixir Zhao expected.
“‘Eternals’ had, like, an unlimited amount of money and resources. And here we have one street corner that we can afford, to [stand in for] Stratford. ... ‘Eternals’ didn’t have a lot of limitations, and that is actually quite dangerous. Because we only have that street corner [in ‘Hamnet’], suddenly everything has meaning.”
Here’s betting she’ll miss that MCU-size personal trailer ...
“It girl” actress Sydney Sweeney enraged the left by flaunting her good “genes” in an American Eagle ad. The commercial roiled the usual suspects, who dubbed her a Nazi for trying to peddle jeans with her iconic curves.
Conservatives rallied to her side, understanding that sex sells and Sweeney did nothing wrong. One group that refused to have the starlet’s back?
Feminists.
RELATED: Sydney Sweeney is rebuilding Americana — one Bronco at a time
Why didn’t they support her against the woke mob? Doesn’t she have the “agency” to make her own creative choices?
Their silence got even louder when a certain comedian came to her defense. Matt Rife, known for his rough-and-tumble crowd work, isn’t a feminist by any definition. Glamour magazine slammed his comedy brand as misogynist.
Yet it was Rife who defended Sweeney on a related subject. The actress recently teamed with Dr. Squatch for a bathwater soap product dubbed “Bathwater Bliss.”
“I keep seeing people mad at Sydney Sweeney for noooothing. She’s learning that the internet is full of absolute garbage losers who will twist anything you say into a c**ty misinterpretation. People are awful.”
People can be awful. And feminists can be hypocrites all day long.
Now, that’s funny!
Jimmy Kimmel, soon to inherit Stephen Colbert’s throne as king of clapter, is standing tall for free speech.
Crime in DC? What crime? Union Station remains a utopian vision of progress, just don’t mind the junkies waving dirty needles in your face.
Yes, the late-night clown who said nothing about the Twitter Files, cancel culture, Scary Poppins, sensitivity readers, and more is spittin’ mad about one First Amendment issue: Colbert’s dismissal from “The Late Show.”
Yes, despite no evidence to back it up, Kimmel says Trump got the far-left Colbert fired:
If Joe Biden had used his muscle to get Sean Hannity kicked off the air, you may be surprised to learn that I would not support that. I would, in fact, support Sean Hannity in that situation, because I thought one of the founding principles of this country was free speech. But people don’t seem to care about protecting it unless you agree with them.
Give Kimmel a little credit. It doesn’t appear he teared up while pushing this horse manure ...
The Force is female!
So sayeth “Star Wars” overlord Kathleen Kennedy, both via T-shirt proclamations and via the product she peddles.
How did that work out again? Don’t ask.
Well, someone at Disney is asking. The Mouse House is scrambling to win back young male audience members, according to a new report.
Leadership at Walt Disney Studios has been pressing Hollywood creatives in recent months, multiple sources tell Variety, for movies that will bring young men back to the brand in a meaningful way. “Young men” is defined here by sources as ages 13-28, aka Gen Z.
Yes, the same company that took male-centric brands like “Star Wars” and the Marvel Cinematic Universe and woked them into oblivion wonders why young men aren’t keen on Disney fare.
Here’s a free tip. Make a “Star Wars” spin-off featuring twin sisters whose mothers are space witches. You could call it “The Acolyte,” and the story could brim with female empowerment. The boys will come running before you can say, “It’s a small world after all!”
RELATED: Colbert gets canceled — by CBS, not conservatives
Look! Another installment of Comedians Against Comedy!
This time, it’s the mind behind “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Phil Rosenthal created the smash show with star Ray Romano that ran for nine seasons on CBS.
Rosenthal went on to create “Somebody Feed Phil,” an unconventional cooking show airing on Netflix. He spoke to Fox News about comedy and cancel culture, and he shared a curious take on the toxic trend.
“I think it’s good to be sensitive. It doesn’t mean you can’t be funny; it just means you don’t do jokes at other people’s expense, maybe, no matter who they are, unless you’re punching above your class, right? You want to punch up, not down.”
Rosenthal’s brand of humor is generally light and inoffensive. Nothing wrong with that. Still, putting up silly rules for others to follow, especially the absurd “punching down” nonsense, suggests he’s trying to pull the ladder up for his successors.
Or he’s afraid of being canceled for not being woke enough. Either way, it’s the opposite of funny ...
It takes a special something to anchor an MSNBC (MSNOW?) show, and Lawrence O’Donnell has the goods.
O’Donnell, hoping to scare people about a less crime-ridden D.C. under President Donald Trump, turned to a movie that’s more than 85 years old to hammer home his point.
Crime in D.C.? What crime? Union Station remains a utopian vision of progress, just don’t mind the junkies waving dirty needles in your face. At any rate, said O'Donnell, how dare Trump’s crime-busting sully the memory of:
The iconic Amtrak railroad station through whose glass doors Jimmy Stewart first saw the Capitol Dome when he arrived in Washington. In Frank Capra’s classic film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” there were no soldiers in the shot when Jimmy Stewart’s character, the newly appointed Senator Jefferson Smith, arrived at Union Station. And there have never been troops at Union Station.
Denying reality to own President Donald Trump? Nobody does it better than O’Donnell ...
Embattled star Blake Lively has landed a new gig. And no, it’s not a legal thriller or MeToo drama.
The “It Ends with Us” starlet’s new film is an action rom-com called “The Survival List.” She’ll play a reality TV show producer who gets stranded on an island and learns the survivalist who anchored the show in question is a fraud.
We’ll have to see if Lively can bring the action and rom-com thrills, but we can expect everyone on the set will be wearing GoPro cameras as much as possible to avoid future litigation.
If you’re old enough, you remember Clark Griswold — Chevy Chase’s bumbling but optimistic dad in “National Lampoon’s Vacation” — dragging his family across the country to reach Wally World. After a trail of disasters, Clark got his family to the gates, only to find the theme park closed. Undeterred, he improvised, fought back (in his slapstick way), and refused to give up on his promise to deliver joy.
Fast-forward to today. Warning: This article includes spoilers.
'Nobody 2' isn’t really about bullets and bloodshed. It’s about fathers who refuse to quit.
In “Nobody 2,” we meet Hutch (Bob Odenkirk), a far cry from Clark Griswold. Think “Vacation” meets “John Wick.” Hutch is a quiet father under siege by a world that won’t leave him alone. He struggles to shield his family not only from criminals but also from the toll the fight takes on his time and soul.
So Hutch does what Clark did: He plans a family trip, hoping to reclaim some peace. Instead, everything explodes — literally. A sadistic crime boss, a brutal syndicate, and one gut-wrenching moment when a security guard strikes his daughter. Hutch erupts, not for revenge, but to protect the people he loves most.
That arc — from Clark’s comedy of errors to Hutch’s bloody brawls — tells us something about our culture. In 1983, dads were goofs trying to make memories. In 2025, they’re embattled guardians. The father who simply wants to provide and protect finds himself waging war against a culture that derides family, treats children as disposable or designable, and mocks traditional marriage as oppressive.
The threats aren’t just cinematic. Fathers fight mountains of bills, debt, and cultural poison pumped daily into their children’s minds — DEI’s racial grievance, the LGBTQ+ lobby’s sex radicalism, and a constant drumbeat that undermines fatherhood itself.
Men are told they’re helpless. But they’re not. A father’s job is to lead his family toward the good life, armed with truth and love.
Hutch is called a “nobody” because that’s how the world sees him — the quiet everyman doing his duty, not chasing glory. But that’s exactly what makes him extraordinary. He embodies what fathers have always wanted: the best for their children and the enduring love of their wives.
The emotional heart of the film comes when Hutch tells his father, “I just want my son to be a better man than I am.” That is fatherhood distilled. We know our limits, we know our failures, and we want our sons to rise higher.
RELATED: The new ‘Karate Kid’ just kicked grievance culture in the teeth
And here’s the twist feminists won’t like. The final villain — a shriveled old woman who embodies bitter family-hatred — isn’t defeated by Hutch. She’s finished off by his wife, Becca (Connie Nielsen). Far from sidelined, she stands as his partner, the helper he needs to secure a future for their children.
It’s all metaphor, maybe allegory. “Nobody 2” isn’t really about bullets and bloodshed. It’s about fathers who refuse to quit. Men who insist that their families are worth everything. Husbands who know their sons can and must be better men.
The Griswolds made us laugh four decades ago. Hutch forces us to face what’s at stake today for fathers.
I had a lot riding on "The Naked Gun" — not just the $20.49 I shelled out for the ticket, but the fact that my friends Dan Gregor and Doug Mand co-wrote and co-produced the 2025 reboot.
I was in a tough spot: If their take on the Leslie Nielsen and ZAZ team comedy classic sucked, how was I going to ask them for my money back?
Venmo, probably.
Neeson’s action-hero physicality also delivers. Watch for the 'bodycam' scene, where he gives a performance that I can only describe as 'The Grey' but with IBS.
In my book, "That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore," I provide a postmortem on the death of comedy — but also a hopeful look forward to comedy’s rebirth. It’s been three years since "That Joke" debuted, and in that time I’ve seen the end of cancel culture, the shifting of the Overton window back to its original factory settings, and a comedy resurrection thanks to online “content creators,” podcasters, and stand-up comics.
For good and ill, the three often go together. Think of all the comic turned creator turned podcasters you follow. On the bright side, it’s never been easier for comedians to produce their work without having to answer to gatekeepers, but on the downside, there is the temptation to chase the algorithm, as Marc Maron put it recently on Howie Mandel’s podcast, to the detriment of the art.
The one genre that hasn’t seemed anywhere near a revival is the feature-length comedy. So Gregor and Doug — as well as director Akiva Schaffer and the rest of "The Naked Gun" 2025 team — were already fighting an uphill battle.
To make matters worse, they’re doing a reboot in a time when aren’t we all just tired of reboots? And, man, of all the reboots to reboot, you go ahead and reboot "The Naked Gun" to boot? That sounds impossible to pull off!
So I drove into Manhattan to witness the impossible on the big screen at the AMC theater in Times Square. Now that I think of it, if the movie sucked, I’d have to tack on tolls and the cost of parking to my refund.
Gregor, the Long Island boy and NYU grad, had invited friends in the New York area to the watch party. Doug, the Philly kid and NYU alum, was doing his watch party in Philadelphia, where I imagine there was a higher chance of post-"Naked Gun" rioting.
The three of us met at NYU through improv. We performed on the same improv and sketch comedy team, the Wicked Wicked Hammerkatz, before graduating to the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater.
One of the reasons the Hammerkatz got a run at the UCB was because Gregor was able to pack the audience with his friends and family from Long Island. So walking into theater 17 for the 7 p.m. screening of "The Naked Gun" was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me: seeing the faces of the friends who had been supporting our comedy — throughout our various levels of success — for more than 20 years.
I had planned to sit alone — that’s why I picked a seat away from the crew — but Gregor had a seat for me right next to him. Son of a b***h. A great seat, sure, but do you understand what kind of pressure that put on me?
In the past, when I haven’t enjoyed a friend’s performance, I would use a line I stole from Matt Besser, one of the founding members of the UCB Theater: “It looked like you were having fun up there.”
I didn’t want to have to use that line. And I didn’t. Because for the next hour and 25 minutes (and some change, if you stay for the credits), I was laughing out loud. At points, tears in my eyes.
There are so many jokes in "The Naked Gun" reboot that as you’re laughing, you’re missing new ones. It’s a brilliant design, really, to make sure audiences have to come back for another viewing to catch what they missed the first time around.
I want to talk about my favorite gags from the movie, but I don’t want to spoil them, and, well, there really is no way I can do them justice. "The Naked Gun" nails visual comedy, plays on words, and the straightest delivery of the stupidest (sometimes crudest) lines. It’s a hell of an homage to the originals.
I know original co-creator David Zucker had his reservations — this is his baby, after all — but he should be happy to see this one all grown up.
RELATED: 'Naked Gun' creator David Zucker offers 'Crash' course in comedy
No, Liam Neeson is no Leslie Nielsen. He's Liam Neeson. And he's played up his gruff, grizzled persona for laughs before.
In the early 2010s HBO series "Life’s Too Short," the "Taken" star briefly appears as himself, menacing Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant into doing some hilariously rigid "improvisational comedy" with him. It’s a brilliant performance, but it made me wonder if Neeson could ever carry a whole comedy.
I wonder no more. "The Naked Gun" performs a kind of alchemy by which it turns an incredibly intense figure like Neeson into a font of laughs.
In an interview with IndieWire, Gregor says, “The basic task was, ‘What’s the stupidest thing we can get Liam Neeson to say?’”
Neeson’s action-hero physicality also delivers. Watch for the “bodycam” scene, where he gives a performance that I can only describe as "The Grey" but with IBS. (Busta Rhymes is also great in the scene. Yes, Busta Rhymes is in the movie too.)
Neeson’s chemistry with Pamela Anderson is so good that it’s obvious why they’re dating. Going into the theater, I stupidly didn’t even know she was in the movie. And yet there she is. Having pulled off the rare feat of aging gracefully in public, Anderson is elegant and magnetic — which makes the stupidest things Gregor and Doug get her to say and do that much funnier.
Danny Huston is brilliant as the villain, and his evil plot is the type of storyline that could be its own spinoff — it could work as another comedy spoof or a drama.
And if you’re wondering if "The Naked Gun" is “woke,” let’s just say if you think you can guess the punch lines from the setups, you’re going to be happily disappointed.
My boys did the impossible. See "The Naked Gun" once and you’ll want to see it twice. No refunds.
Cheating is not an innovative Democrat strategy. It is the same old playbook.
Though very entertaining, Netflix’s hit show remains uncomfortable with its Addams Family roots.
Making original films for young men isn’t that hard, but you have to quit pushing gay race communism and appeal to masculine virtue.
Sex and the City feminism sees living like a bad man as the key to empowering women to live the good life.
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