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Summary
Eddington is Ari Aster’s most “normal” movie to date, until the end. Joaquin Phoenix is great, and there are some terrific moments, but the movie is too long, unfocused, and has some truly unlikeable characters.
Plot: Set in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico, during the pandemic, Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) struggles with the unravelling of his town and his hatred for the town’s mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal).
Review: I absolutely adored Ari Aster’s first two films, Hereditary and Midsommar. His third effort, Beau Is Afraid, was really damn good as well. That made it a no-brainer that I would see his next film, Eddington. Even when I heard mixed reviews about the end product, I wasn’t deterred – Aster’s work isn’t for everyone, but if you enjoy his brand of strange entertainment, then it’s definitely excellent.
Eddington has a lot of good points. Let’s start with the story – for about two-thirds of the movie, it’s compelling. Seeing the insanity of the pandemic and people’s somewhat extreme behaviour during it was jarring, mainly because, even though we’re only a few years past lockdowns and mandatory masking, it seems like a lifetime ago. It feels very real, and Aster does a bang-up job of capturing that moment of time. Plus, there are some genuinely hilarious moments, the best being a father’s reaction to his son vacuously spitting out left-wing truisms to him.
Joaquin Phoenix is excellent as always. I find, even if the movie is not that great, he usually is. He melts into every character so seamlessly, making the performance incredibly believable. Aster does some marvellous work with the camera, including elongated tracking shots that make you feel like you’re right there with the characters. There’s a prolonged action sequence at the end, which is both surreal and fantastic. Plus, this movie pulls no punches with the deaths – they’re brutal and sometimes, jarring.
That’s the good stuff. Now, let’s get to the problems. This movie couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. It started as a commentary on the breakdown of American culture during the pandemic, morphed into an insidious cover-up, then evolved into a bonkers, over-the-top, surreal action movie, before finally settling on a semi-tragic ending. If it had just stuck with the first and second themes, it would have been great, but it lost its narrative momentum around two-thirds through. It was also way, way too long, at almost two and a half hours and suffered from multiple ending spots that made it feel like the movie had overstayed its welcome.
Also, it had some truly terrible characters that you just wanted to see die. The left-wing young activists were infuriating, and I don’t feel like they got their just desserts. Pedro Pascal was an arrogant prick who you wanted to see thrown beneath a train. Worse was his son, a douchebag punk who you wish would have Drano poured down his throat. Emma Stone was also awful; I don’t get her appeal. She’s never impressed me in a movie, and this one is no different; her weirdo broken wing character served no purpose other than for Joaquin Phoenix to pine for her.
This is probably Aster’s most frustrating entry. There’s something really great here, and he seemed to be on the path to making it so at points. However, with the constantly shifting narratives, bloated runtime, and rage-inducing characters, it wasn’t as terrific as it could have been. Still, it’s worth a watch, at least once.