Eddington, now on HBO Max, is 2025’s most misunderstood movie

If any 2025 movie will be viewed in the future as a classic that was misunderstood in its time, it’s surely Ari Aster’s Eddington, now streaming on HBO Max. A neo-Western crossed with a political satire from the director of Hereditaryand Midsommar, set during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020, Eddington is a thorny, provocative film that pours salt in some of the rawest wounds of recent memory. It seems designed to make viewers uncomfortable, regardless of their political alignment. Its critical reception was confused, bordering on hostile, and it bombed at the box office. But it’s only getting better and more trenchant, almost by the day.