When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression. That was one of the slogans of the Great Awokening, aimed at white people who weren’t willing to subject themselves dutifully to ideological reeducation. It came to my mind watching Ari Aster’s Eddington, the first major cinematic attempt to reckon with what happened in America in 2020. The movie has been met with friendly reviews from right-leaning writers and hostility or angst from some liberal critics — all despite telling a story in which a New Mexico sheriff running for mayor on an anti-mask platform goes on a killing spree while his wife spirals off into a QAnon-style cult.
Why have some conservatives been warm to this not exactly MAGA-friendly story, while some liberals have been hostile? Well, let’s repurpose the woke slogan: When you’re accustomed to caricature, evenhandedness feels like bias. In other words, even though Eddington offers a harsh portrayal of certain aspects of right-wing America, the fact that it offers a similarly critical view of various liberal shibboleths means that it ends up being received, by people accustomed to reflexive Hollywood liberalism, as a right-leaning film.
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