Eddington, Bugonia, and Beau is Afraid, with Travis Mateer

About this episode

Thomas Millary and Travis Mateer discuss the films Eddington, Beau Is Afraid, and Bugonia, exploring their political and cultural implications.

After many requests Thomas is joined by Travis Mateer to cover Eddington, Ari Aster's 2025 neo-Western political satire and early-Covid period piece. We break down the film's portrayal of technology, social media, conspiracy theories, Covid, Wokeness, and data collection, situating its messaging within the context of the cultural transitions and inter-elite warfare of the last half decade. While many have called the film meta-political or omni-political, comments from Aster and a careful reading of Eddington reveal the clear ideological agenda of this very sophisticated psyop. To further understand Aster's worldview, we also explore Beau Is Afraid, his incredibly unpleasant 2023 epic surrealistic horror tragicomedy, which gives fascinating insights into some of the ethnic and religious roots of Hollywood's fixation on the archetype of the devouring mother. Finally, we discuss Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos' 2025 dark comedy thriller, which similarly to Eddington, is a film that pretends to take conspiratorial concerns seriously while bolstering the same old elite ideologies. Travis's blog - https://zoomchron.com/ If you enjoy Psyop Cinema, check out the research anthology series…

People in this episode

Host: Thomas Millary

Guest: Travis Mateer

Topics covered

• film analysis
• political satire
• technology
• social media
• conspiracy theories
• cultural transitions
• Hollywood

Keywords

• Eddington
• Beau Is Afraid
• Bugonia
• Ari Aster
• Yorgos Lanthimos
• political satire
• conspiracy theories
• Hollywood
• cultural transitions
• data collection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Cultural Engineering Studies, Zoomchron, Decoding Culture

Books & works: Eddington, Beau Is Afraid, Bugonia

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