“Eddington is a film about a bunch of people who know that something is wrong,” says writer-director Ari Aster. “It’s just that nobody can agree on what that thing is.”

Aster joins this week to unpack his controversial, COVID-era western: his time back home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, writing through lockdown (7:00), the works of Robert Altman (14:00) and Oliver Stone (17:00) that served as sources of inspiration, and how Beau Is Afraid (2:30) cleared the path to Eddington. Aster also shares his early adventures in moviegoing: including Brian De Palma’s Carrie (23:30), Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover (23:40), Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (23:50), and David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (24:50).

On the back-half, we talk about how he found his voice in film school (29:00), his divisive AFI senior thesis film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (31:00), the seven years, post-college, that it took to breakthrough with Hereditary (34:00), followed by his breakdown on Midsommar (38:00), and his ‘novelistic’ approach to screenwriting (41:00). To close, we read from Paul Schrader’s infamous Facebook post (47:00) on how AI will change moviemaking (49:00) and a Nietzsche quote that Ari says helps explain this moment in American life (50:00).

For more episodes, visit talkeasypod.com or our new YouTube page. Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at mail@talkeasypod.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Director Ari Aster (‘Eddington’) Has Made an American Western for 2025

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Director Ari Aster (‘Eddington’) Has Made an American Western for 2025