TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, N.M. — Past a petrified mastodon skull and display cases of glittering gypsum and halite, Ari Aster is gesturing to a room where, conjuring a bit of movie magic, he made Joaquin Phoenix fall through a roof, onto the bones of Geronimo.

Eddington, the latest film from Hereditary director Ari Aster, is a dark comedy about COVID-fueled chaos in a fictional New Mexico town. The film wades into hot-button topics regarding police brutality, the Black Lives Matter movement, AI investment, and mask mandates, among others. Eddington is now playing in theaters.

If you look up and revisit the list of names mentioned in the first paragraph, I think it’s fair to say that he is regularly successful in looking for filmmakers with unique vision. There are a lot of auteurs who have successfully made movies that are instantly identifiable via their special signatures and flairs.

Heredity” and “Midsommar” director Ari Aster takes on contemporary America in “Eddington,” in theaters Friday.