ADVERTISEMENT Ari Aster may have made a name for himself with lauded horror offerings like Hereditary and Midsommar but his latest film may be his most terrifying: a COVID pandemic-set dark comedy that doubles up as a counterfeit satire. And while that may seem like too much of a stretch for the filmmaker, Aster – for all his faults – may be the perfect candidate to express the bracing horror of a time whose reverberations are still felt five years on.
Set in the titular New Mexico town in May 2020, we meet Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix). He’s the town’s soft-spoken and asthmatic sheriff who’s got a lot on his mind.
His mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) has been living in his house for weeks and has gone conspiracy theory loopy. There’s his wife Louise (Emma Stone), who’s busy getting swoony over a cult-like internet guru Vernon (Austin Butler) when she’s not busy nursing past traumas – an unspoken one of which appears to be linked to Eddington’s smooth-talking mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal).
Then there’s the COVID-19 to contend with…
Frustrated by the commitment to mask mandates and social distancing, Joe decides to present himself to the local election, vowing to unseat Ted – who is clearly in the pocket of big tech. But even if Joe launches his campaign with good intentions, seeking to restore a sense of good old-fashioned community and decency, he soon finds himself out of his depth when it comes to dealing with civil unrest in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests and a comically small bunch of eager teenagers lighting their social justice torches. These include staunchly liberal white youth Sarah (Amélie Hoeferle), who starts a relationship with Ted’s insufferable son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka) – much to the chagrin of ‘woke’ curious Brian (Cameron Mann).
The powderkeg is set. The fuse has been lit.
Congratulations on getting this far in this review, because as you can tell, there’s a lot to unpack.
Eddington deals with lockdown paranoia, government distrust, the pitfalls of doomscrolling, the rabbit hole of online conspiracy theories, white privilege, big tech, truther madness and social justice extremism… It’s exhausting.
Except it isn’t, because for all its themes, Aster’s anti-Western isn’t interested in saying anything to deep; Eddington is first and foremost a tragicomic snapshot of a time that truly messed with everyone’s brains, no matter on which side of the political spectrum you might be on. It’s a theatre-of-the-absurd portrait of a microcosm that comes to represent a broader and broken America.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t overstuffed and scattershot, especially for anyone in the market for a more pointed satire. However, the movie plods along as an entertaining, anti-escapist hellscape that’s undoubtedly Aster’s funniest film to date.
At the centre of this picture is the downward spiral of Joe, a doting husband and an earnest citizen. And while not a COVID denialist, he’s in denial about a lot of things. He is the typical tragic fool, who exemplifies how the road to (blood-soaked) hell is paved with good intentions. Phoenix is excellent, as is Darius Khondji’s cinematography and Aster’s meticulous peppering of well-observed pandemic details and visual payoffs.
From QAnon-style stickers with grammatical errors to social media progressives lecturing those who have far more skin in the game (literally), a lot of this feels uncomfortably identifiable. And no side is spared, as everyone looks unhinged by the end thanks to Aster taking equal shots at both the antivaxxer MAGA crowd and misguided uber-liberals.
While many will justly assert that Aster has nothing vital to say here and that his film only shallowly depicts a sense of hopelessness through surface satire, Eddington is a fake satire.
“FAKE SATIRE!”
It parodies, certainly, but is significantly more focused on offering a sly yet biting missile aimed at a lie we’ve all been sold: that digital culture and social media would lead to the progress of interconnectedness. It is actually a radicalising force which distorts reality and successfully divides.
We knew that already?
Well sometimes (read: often), it’s worth reiterating.
To no surprise, Eddington will polarise.
The neat trick is that the film is stronger for it, as varied audience responses will mirror that aforementioned sense of division. Granted, it could have worked better as a taut 90-minute showdown between Phoenix and an ultimately underused Pedro Pascal – but then again, all films can be accused of underusing the internet’s favourite, cinematically ubiquitous mustachioed daddy – but the way it delivers its brand of bleakness could lead it to becoming a cult film down the line.
An imperfect, definitely overlong but never dull cult film that isn’t billed as a horror movie… But it truly is.
Eddington is out in cinemas now.
