Aug 3, 2025 07:37 PM
(This post was last modified: Aug 3, 2025 09:44 PM by C C.)
And the takeaway is that it was really not a pro-traditionalist movie. Also, "Eddington" didn't come close to even making what it cost. She must be referring to conservative critics, instead of audience numbers: "Eddington is the must-see COVID masterpiece".
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After Party with Emily Jashinsky
https://youtu.be/dqLMCawtDno
-- VIDEO EXCERPTS --
EJ: So, Spencer, conservatives are loving this film (Eddington). Obviously, so much of what we just discussed in terms of sex and gender exploded during the COVID years, and it's exploring some classic American western themes against the backdrop of the pandemic. I actually have not seen it yet. I'm very excited to see it, but tell us kind of what you took away from the movie in that broader context of where the culture is going.
SPENCER KLAVAN: Well, exactly as you say, this is a COVID retrospective, and we haven't really had that many of those. In fact, I think people are really happy to forget about those deranged years for the most part, especially the time frame of this movie, which is May 2020. So, it's the George Floyd explosion and the summer of love that ensued.
[...] It's not a right-wing movie by any stretch of the imagination. There's plenty of criticism of right-wing conspiracy theories. You might even say that the right-wing character in it played by Joaquin Phoenix ends up being kind of the villain, if there is one.
But it portrays accurately the fact that this was a moment of national derangement, and the primary source of that derangement was the reaction to COVID. And then the sort of knock-on effect of the George Floyd mania.
[...] My own take about this moment is that this was our first national confrontation with the inescapability of death, in quite some time. We live in this very comfortable, hyper-technological society, and we had fooled ourselves into thinking that there we were progressing toward a moment where all risk would be eliminated.
And that was the philosophy that drove the COVID reaction. Here's this fatal thing -- it's unacceptable that anyone should die of it. Therefore, we have to shut down our entire lives to keep any person from dying of this disease.
And the first truth of all religion is you ain't going to get there in this life [utopia]. That we actually live in this fallen world and there are terrible things that happen. And to be confronted with that and with the impotence of our best technology, our best central planning, our best bureaucratic norms, etc: The fact that we still couldn't stop COVID from happening.
In fact, we made its effects worse, in many cases [...] And yes, there were some right-wingers who also then went insane in reaction to the crazy leftist response. But fundamentally, this was a kind of psychotic break trigger.
[...] EJ: I wonder what your thoughts are on how 2024 seemed to be the moment when a lot of people in elite spaces caught up with the culture itself, and realized that there was this vibe shift happening under their noses that the public -- not even the Republican public, but the public more broadly -- was really starting to reject this buildup of Peak Woke, and say no. ... Where everyone was pining for the slapstick comedies of yesteryear [Naked Gun (2025)) ... But is Hollywood picking up on that message?
[...] SK: This is a normal people's revolution ... Back in 2020, I think I wrote a piece called "The Party of Normal People". And it was basically just saying: Look, the future doesn't actually belong to these crazy Wokesters. It doesn't even belong to guys like me who write right-wing takes online, because we're also too brained for the internet.
It belongs to people that want to live in the normal world of basic realities. Like, there are men and there are women. They're the same species, but they have many differences. We want to keep deaths to a minimum, but we still want to live life, even in the midst of our problems [like COVID]...
What "Eddington" and "Naked Gun" reboot say about Hollywood rejecting 'Peak Woke'
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/dqLMCawtDno
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After Party with Emily Jashinsky
https://youtu.be/dqLMCawtDno
-- VIDEO EXCERPTS --
EJ: So, Spencer, conservatives are loving this film (Eddington). Obviously, so much of what we just discussed in terms of sex and gender exploded during the COVID years, and it's exploring some classic American western themes against the backdrop of the pandemic. I actually have not seen it yet. I'm very excited to see it, but tell us kind of what you took away from the movie in that broader context of where the culture is going.
SPENCER KLAVAN: Well, exactly as you say, this is a COVID retrospective, and we haven't really had that many of those. In fact, I think people are really happy to forget about those deranged years for the most part, especially the time frame of this movie, which is May 2020. So, it's the George Floyd explosion and the summer of love that ensued.
[...] It's not a right-wing movie by any stretch of the imagination. There's plenty of criticism of right-wing conspiracy theories. You might even say that the right-wing character in it played by Joaquin Phoenix ends up being kind of the villain, if there is one.
But it portrays accurately the fact that this was a moment of national derangement, and the primary source of that derangement was the reaction to COVID. And then the sort of knock-on effect of the George Floyd mania.
[...] My own take about this moment is that this was our first national confrontation with the inescapability of death, in quite some time. We live in this very comfortable, hyper-technological society, and we had fooled ourselves into thinking that there we were progressing toward a moment where all risk would be eliminated.
And that was the philosophy that drove the COVID reaction. Here's this fatal thing -- it's unacceptable that anyone should die of it. Therefore, we have to shut down our entire lives to keep any person from dying of this disease.
And the first truth of all religion is you ain't going to get there in this life [utopia]. That we actually live in this fallen world and there are terrible things that happen. And to be confronted with that and with the impotence of our best technology, our best central planning, our best bureaucratic norms, etc: The fact that we still couldn't stop COVID from happening.
In fact, we made its effects worse, in many cases [...] And yes, there were some right-wingers who also then went insane in reaction to the crazy leftist response. But fundamentally, this was a kind of psychotic break trigger.
[...] EJ: I wonder what your thoughts are on how 2024 seemed to be the moment when a lot of people in elite spaces caught up with the culture itself, and realized that there was this vibe shift happening under their noses that the public -- not even the Republican public, but the public more broadly -- was really starting to reject this buildup of Peak Woke, and say no. ... Where everyone was pining for the slapstick comedies of yesteryear [Naked Gun (2025)) ... But is Hollywood picking up on that message?
[...] SK: This is a normal people's revolution ... Back in 2020, I think I wrote a piece called "The Party of Normal People". And it was basically just saying: Look, the future doesn't actually belong to these crazy Wokesters. It doesn't even belong to guys like me who write right-wing takes online, because we're also too brained for the internet.
It belongs to people that want to live in the normal world of basic realities. Like, there are men and there are women. They're the same species, but they have many differences. We want to keep deaths to a minimum, but we still want to live life, even in the midst of our problems [like COVID]...
What "Eddington" and "Naked Gun" reboot say about Hollywood rejecting 'Peak Woke'