Eddington- Movie Review
Ari Aster is a mad man. He might also be a genius, albeit a menacing, cunning and primal one. From his short film The Strange Thing About The Johnsons, to even weirder stuff like Beau Is Afraid, his main topic is fear and if not fear, the general uncertainty of all things. It’s a world where object permanence itself seems like a suggestion. Eddington gets into this, though it does expand on Aster’s range and ultimately ends up being one of the most thrilling watches of the year. It’s a film so haunting and unorthodox that I can’t still can’t quite say if I even liked it or not.
Our introduction to Eddington, New Mexico is a homeless man wandering the street, right next to the sign for the new Solidgoldmagikarp data center that will be built nearby. It’s 2020. The Covid Era. When, looking back, insanity was possibly at it’s highest, as the 2010s, a decade of relative frolic, vibes and angst drew to a screeching close. It was the end of the world as we knew it and the beginning of a new world, a crazier, less stable world. And it wasn’t just collective, but individual. Even now, 3-4 years afterwards, Covid’s impacts are still being felt in all areas of life, whether it be the social aspects, the job market, inflation or the entertainment industry.
Our lead is Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), a good hearted but dumb cop in Eddinton. Joe hates wearing the masks and finds it dehumanizing. He doesn’t get what all the fuss is about. It doesn’t help that his mother in law, a conspiracy nut, has moved in with them. His wife Louise (Emma Stone) is a damaged but gentle woman who seems the most level headed of the group. It’s at this point that you see this situation has the potential to go south….
The mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), seems like a good guy, though a bit corporate minded. But he clashes with Joe over the mask mandate and it leads to some genuine bad blood, which leads Joe to announce his own mayoral campaign. Around this time, the Black Lives Matter movement kicks off, which amplifies the tension in the town between civilians, the police and their relationship with the rule of law. And this is when Joe Cross begins to get really radicalized…..
To say this is a non political film would be incorrect. This is one of the most starkly political films I have ever seen. But it’s hard to tell, if any, what message there might be behind it. The delusions and idiosyncracies of both Left and Right are laid bare in a way that is jarring and unfamiliar, a way that makes us feel like there’s no way we lived through that. But we did and that’s what makes it all the more stranger.
At some point, the film takes a massive tonal shift. I can’t spoil when or why, but when you see it, you’ll know and this ramps up the game completely. Suddenly, this movie feels very real and very scary. You don’t know where it will go and what it’s trying to do to you. It’s remarkable in a sense. But also extremely unsettling. I’m not sure if I can ever watch this movie again. And maybe that’s okay. Because it is an impressive work.
The performances are subtle, very understated, but undoubtedly sturdy. Phoenix as Cross especially puts on a brilliant performance. Emma Stone is good, though she doesn’t have as much to do as I wish she did. The same could be said of Pedro Pascal but he feels different in the way he affects the film. An unspoken star is Deirdre O’Connel in the role of Louise’s mother Dawn. (Fun fact: she was also in Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, which I wrote about last). Finally, I guess I’ll say that Austin Butler’s small role as Vernon Jefferson Peaks was pretty rad. It felt meaningful and left a presence that hung over the entire film.
This whole movie is absurdly stressful. I’m not sure what Aster was trying to say here, but the story he tells and the way he tells it, are compelling. It’s a much tighter narrative that Beau Is Afraid, much more grounded and real. This one does feel like it’s making some social commentary, though it’s hard to tell how clear cut that commentary is. There’s an undercurrent of rampant violence and unwellness from this film at the start. The sick feeling that accompanied the pandemic, followed in ACT III with what I can only describe as a complete breakdown of sanity. People were stir crazy, I was stir crazy and no one knew what the hell was going on so it was easy to believe anything. This film understands that.
I won’t spoil much more, but I think Eddington is worth a watch, even if it’s just the one. It’s dense, complex, full of great actors playing smartly written characters, all tied together with Aster’s signature brand of insanity. You’d be hard pressed to find a movie that’s quite this head spinning this year. But I’ll warn you, what you see may not seem real….and some of it definitely wasn’t.
