Aster’s new film is so jam-packed with ideas and observations about 2020 that they spill out of the screenplay, like the blood that eventually soaks the sands of Eddington, New Mexico. It’s not hard to figure out where Aster is going with the movie — the tone is pitch-black satire — but it’s the repetition of the material that becomes its stumbling block. I’ve seen at least one take that this reiteration is intentional, meant to imitate the experience of scrolling through social media and seeing the same faces flood your device with opinions. Even if that’s true, the film would have been better as a tighter, more targeted critique of our preoccupations during a bewildering era.
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