Katy Perry’s ‘Firework’ is perfect, but it took Aster trying hundreds of songs after not getting the rights to a Jay-Z track.

Leading the film is Joaquin Phoenix who plays Joe Cross in Eddington. He’s the sheriff of a dying town and the kind of man who’d rather watch everything burn than admit he’s lost control. With pandemic paranoia, far-right delusions, and a god complex brewing under his dusty hat, Joe is both terrifying and tragic.

What — beyond Aster’s evident desire to tweak both sides of the political spectrum — might be going on here? Look deeper and you’ll find the answer was hiding in plain sight. If Aster has a thesis in Eddington,

Superman” is still atop the hierarchy of power at the box office in its second weekend, flying above new wide releases “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” “Smurfs” and “Eddington.” The DC Studios universe-rebooter earned about $16.

Eddington's lacerating social satire about a town torn apart by pandemic paranoia takes a violent turn without losing the plot.

The first and maybe only true jump scare in Ari Aster’s “Eddington” comes right at the start. A barefoot old man trudges down the center of a road running through an empty Western town. He’s ranting and incoherently raving as he climbs a craggy hill silhouetted against a twilight sky. He gazes, or maybe glares, out at the town below.

Ari Aster's “Eddington,” appropriately enough, has been divisive. Since its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Aster’s film has one of the most polarizing releases of the year.

Ari Aster puts his signature bizarre touch on the spring of 2020, when pandemics, politics, posts and pings drove America around the bend.

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