‘Eddington’ Review

If ‘Eddington’, the latest drama from horror maestro Ari Aster, feels like a movie designed to be divisive, it’s because its time was so divisive, as this film takes place during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico.

‘Eddington’ is a challenging watch, and not just because of its subject matter, bringing to vivid life a time and place none of us are eager to return to, reliving the debates on mask wearing, on what it means to support your community. There is nary a likable character, and the range of thematic material covers such hot button issues as public health, government malfeasance, racism, mental health crises, conspiracy theories and corporate exploitation. In short, if there’s a subject that makes you slightly uncomfortable to think about, it’s probably in this film.

And yet ‘Eddington’ is a shocking triumph in filmmaking, handling heavy topics without becoming overly heavy itself, deftly addressing the wide range of societal ills that continue to haunt us while delivering a thrilling, thought provoking, and absolutely batshit entertainment.

Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe Cross, the Sheriff of Eddington who is growing weary of mask mandates and what he sees as government fear mongering. Pedro Pascal is the current Mayor, Ted Garcia, who enforces the government regulations all while trying to push forward the construction for a new datacenter for Big Tech on public land. With Mayor Garcia’s term coming up, Cross decides to rekindle an old, mysterious grudge and stand up for his community by challenging him in the mayoral election.

While the dueling campaigns for Mayor serve as the primary plot structure of ‘Eddington’, the film’s real interests lie in all of the minor details that make up the day to day life of Eddington’s residents. Minor, that is, until they blow up into something much bigger.

Over his career, Ari Aster has perfected a form of anxious filmmaking, squeezing each frame, each performance, each camera movement for maximum discomfort, making you want to escape inside of yourself rather than watch the action on screen. This talent has benefitted him greatly in the horror genre, and is equally well suited to the confounding world of ‘Eddington’ as he perfectly captures the fears and frustrations from early in the pandemic. Isolated and afraid, society felt like a raw nerve, a balloon of pent up rage just waiting for something to cause it to pop. For some people, it was retreating into conspiracy thought, perceiving government overreach that caused an explosion. For others, it was George Floyd’s murder. Whatever the cause, everybody just got angrier and angrier until confrontation was inevitable.

And as has become his trademark, Ari Aster pays off ninety minutes of thematic exploration and slow, formal build up with a final hour that is chaotic and disorienting, over the top while still pursuing the thematic questions introduced earlier.

The worst version of this movie is a ponderous, self serious, and moralizing contemplation on how COVID changed us. But perhaps the biggest surprise of ‘Eddington’ is just how entertaining the story is; the film moves with an exhilarating energy from one scene to the next, leaving me constantly unsure of what’s going to happen but happy to be along for the ride. Beyond its dramatic and thriller elements, ‘Eddington’ also delivers humor, causing me to laugh out loud several times as Aster depicts characters as moral chameleons, willing to say or do anything just so they get their way. It’s cynical and sharp, hilarious without shying away from the tragedy that this is how our current world operates.

In its humor, if ‘Eddington’ lampoons anybody it’s not the individuals who earnestly hold their beliefs, however controversial those beliefs may be. It’s those who seek power, prestige and influence at all costs, exploiting others’ pain and genuine fears, seizing whichever ideology gets them what they want in a given moment, be it a mayoral election, a highly profitable data center, or simply getting laid.

In the lead role, Joaquin Phoenix gives one of his best performances, as he foregoes his recent run of being weird and off-putting to still be weird and off-putting but in a more believable way. His Sheriff Cross feels like exactly the type of person who would be radicalized by the pandemic, and Phoenix plays him for humor, sadness, and infinite frustration. Throughout the film, Aster depicts characters retreating into their phones, distorting their views on reality. Sheriff Cross’s wife Louise (Emma Stone) and mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) delve deeper and deeper into conspiracy thought, embracing a new version of reality that reflects and validates their own emotional turmoil. As online life has compromised the discourse between and within groups, Sheriff Cross tries to take on his version of the real world even as ‘Eddington’ pulls off its biggest filmmaking trick, with action onscreen warping our perception of what’s really happening, adding a meta-commentary on how fragile our communal understanding of reality truly is.

There will be plenty of think-pieces written about ‘Eddington’, by both those who love and those who hate it, and there will be myriad interpretations of what does and does not happen in this film.

More than anything else I’ve seen this year, ‘Eddington’ is the film most likely to be evaluated differently as I continue to think about it. Do I become even more confident that it’s a masterful take on such a meaningful time in American life? Or do all of the competing themes and story choices collapse in on itself, rendering any messaging inane rather than insightful?

I can’t say for sure how I’ll feel about this movie in six months, but the fact that it has provoked so much thought while remaining a funny and engaging story is the kind of ambitious achievement worth celebrating. With ‘Eddington’, Ari Aster has taken his challenging, technically gifted approach to filmmaking and burst into uncharted territory, delivering a Great American Film that speaks to a significant moment in time, wide eyed and curious even as we the audience may want to look away.

Eddington
Rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, language, and graphic nudity.
Running Time: 2 hours and 28 minutes

Director Ari Aster
Writers Ari Aster
Stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, Emma Stone
Rating R
Running Time 148 Minutes
Genres Comedy, Drama, Western