OPINION: Reverse nostalgia

Do you guys remember COVID? I’m sure you do, it was a pretty big deal.

In what was a moment of unique collective disruption (and to others collective trauma), the world shut down. And in a way, the world never really turned back on. Not like it used to.

What’s been interesting about our recovery into the ‘20s is an increase in nostalgia. On the movies side, we’ve had no shortage of legacy sequels and remakes, plus a growth of ‘80s nostalgia which has been gestating since the ‘10s with throwbacks like “Stranger Things” and “It.”

Maybe looking back is more comfortable to think about than ever. I don’t claim to speak for others, but I think everyone would want to think about their younger selves, perhaps when our world wasn’t so tough.

If there’s a time worth forgetting, the pandemic is one of them. No one probably wants to remember cloth masks (even in the cold), six feet apart and stray coughing as warning signs. No one probably wants to feel that gripping isolation again.

How will history see the blip in time represented by the pandemic? Perhaps with whatever the opposite of nostalgia is.

“Eddington,” a new western movie which takes place in May of 2020, is the reverse nostalgia. It’s a portrait of a world which was splitting at the seams due to necessary isolation. If the world was already falling apart before, then the pandemic was a funeral.

Ari Aster, the director of horror movies “Hereditary” and “Midsommar,” infuses “Eddington” with an energy of seething dread. More Coen brothers than Tarantino, this western is an oddball in its own genre, possibly as the genre which appeals to nostalgia the most.

Not many westerns will let you hear “Facebook” and “Photoshop,” but the modernity of the movie doesn’t detract from a uniquely western trait; standoffs, specifically between the local politicians in the rural New Mexico town of Eddington, are plentiful.

“Eddington” showcases the battle between a right-wing sheriff and liberal mayor. It’s worth mentioning the politics because at the core of “Eddington” is a discussion of political division. This is the only western where you watch a city council meeting on Zoom, but it’s important for establishing banality so it can be flipped.

The sheriff of Eddington, Joe Cross played by Joaquin Phoenix, doesn’t wear masks. He shares no respect to the mandate passed down and refuses to enforce it. When the mayor of Eddington, Ted Garcia played by Pedro Pascal, publicly shames him for his views, Cross decides to run against him for mayor. This town ain’t big enough for the both of them.

In the middle of this standoff, a background feature emerges. It should be pretty important to Eddington, it’s a tech company (named ironically tech-bro-y Solidgoldmagikarp) looking to build a data center on the shared land between the Pueblo tribe and greater Seville County. It’s pretty important with the town’s rural vibe.

But, it hardly matters as Cross becomes consumed with pushing a freedom of choice agenda. This is later expanded in the context of May 2020 offering a turning point to social justice with the murder of George Floyd. Yes indeed, this is reverse nostalgia.

What’s notable in “Eddington” is the choice for showcasing how we consume information. Conversations were limited, so we watched the news (our flavor of choice with Fox News or CNN). We scrolled through Facebook and Instagram, being gently surprised when someone we knew was being more politically-active online than they ever were in-person.

The sheriff’s department, including one Black deputy, has to find a way to manage growing racial injustice protests (commented as absurd to the mostly-white town which hasn’t seen any racial injustice in recent memory). All the while, Cross is dealing with an increasingly unhappy home life where his wife and mother-in-law are dropping down conspiracy rabbit holes.

By the halfway point of “Eddington,” it’s clear something bad is going to happen. It’s a growing, growling beast of increasing tension. When things do go bad, it’s disappointing and shocking, but it’s also impossible to say we didn’t see it coming.

Law enforcement always carries a gun, no matter where they are. It’s notable to see Cross in a grocery store with an instinct to place his hand on his holster. It’s what he was taught to do by his former-sheriff father and what he was trained to do. He arrives home with the belt still slung over his waist, wearing it until he goes to sleep.

It’s a level of power which is a rule of our world. If that gun is fired, it must be for our protection. A bullet can travel between 600 to 2,000 miles per hour, depending on how it’s fired. You can’t stop how it travels. You just hope it won’t hit anything vital.