Eddington

Writer & Director: Ari Aster

Eddington’s Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), sees his small town changing. It’s May 2020 and the start of the COVID pandemic. The world is changing and Cross doesn’t like how it’s changing, so decides to run for Mayor, up against incumbent, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). But it’s a decision that does not go down well. His wife Louise (Emma Stone), who has her own dark past, is horrified. His attempts to become Mayor soon descends into the same madness that the world around him seems to be, from COVID uncertainty, to conspiracy theories. Eventually it leads to a dark turn of events that changes the lives of everyone involved.

Eddington is definitely not going to be for everyone. It’s long, complicated, cluttered and covers territory that some people will find too political. But it did work for me.

It’s a film of ideas, set during a time that is still both fresh in our minds, but also seemingly in a strange past. It explores the way society started to separate, as those who didn’t have faith in government policy or medical advice, conflicted with those that did. The rise of conspiracy theories plays in the background, as does darker material around child abuse, racism and the highjacking of agendas by the well meaning and those looking to take advantage of them. As the film progresses Joe’s life and society around him unravels.

Performances are strong. It is very much Phoenix’s film, but Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Micheal Ward, Luke Grimes and Deirdre O’Connell all add as part of a strong ensemble.

That said, it has problems, it’s too long and becomes increasingly ill disciplined as it descends into its own madness. But problems I could forgive.

Eddington will not be for everyone. It’s overly long and  confused at time. But even for its flaws, I found it compelling and intriguing as it shone a light in some dark areas of a time that’s still fresh in the memory, as well as asking hard questions about some new norms, it created. A film of big ideas that don’t all work. But enough of them did for me.