The political trickery of 'Eddington'

JOAQUIN Phoenix reunites with writer-director Ari Aster for this satirical Neo-Western about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on a fictional New Mexico town.

Aster established himself as a visionary director with the terrifying horror film Hereditary in 2018, following that up with the similarly excellent Midsommar a year later.

More recently his career movements have been less certain; with 2023’s surreal effort Beau is Afraid provoking a mixed response from critics and audiences alike.

This latest effort is yet another bold exercise in cinematic risk-taking and while it manages to be a slow-burning, unpredictable ride, it does not prove to be the most enjoyable two and a half hours you’re ever likely to experience in a cinema.

Set in the small New Mexico town of Eddington in the middle of 2020, tensions are beginning to boil over between two opposing forces.

In accordance with state law, Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) has imposed mask mandates, to reduce the risk of Covid-19 spreading in the town. Sherriff Joe Cross (Phoenix) opposes these measures, arguing they violate personal freedoms and pointing to the fact that no Covid cases have been reported in Eddington.

It becomes clear that there is bad blood between the sheriff and the mayor involving Joe’s wife Louise (Emma Stone), whom Ted used to be involved with.

Wanting to get back at Ted, Joe decides to run for mayor against him in the upcoming election. His improvised campaign, of which Louise strongly disapproves, consists largely of partisan political sound bites and conspiracy theories.

Just as Joe’s ill-advised campaign gets going, problems in the town only grow.

News of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis sees the young people in Eddington take to the streets in anti-racism protests, while Joe’s home life starts to disintegrate.

The mounting pressure leads the embattled sheriff to a swift and violent breaking point.

Aster undoubtedly has a unique style of filmmaking but his movies can be an acquired taste. He excels at creating oppressive, unsettling atmospheres in his films but he has been known to struggle with third acts, perhaps leaning too much into self-indulgent excess and neglecting what might be better for the narrative rather than for himself.

For all the spine-chilling scares in Hereditary, the ending did feel a bit silly.

Eddington is a film demonstrating that Aster hasn’t really learned his lesson and the result is an overlong and often unpleasant experience, one that doesn’t offer the audience enough narrative satisfaction in order to justify its strange choices with regard to characterisation and jarring shifts in tone.

In the first hour of the film, we are treated to a story that attempts to satirise both sides of America’s political divide in the pandemic years, in which Aster appears to be poking fun at both ends of the spectrum without really taking a side.

This first act is a genuine struggle to sit through and just feels like a pointless exercise in reopening old wounds.

Towards the hour mark the film changes tack, becoming a violent revenge thriller featuring police corruption.

There is even a subplot dealing with institutional abuse and a cult leader played by Austin Butler, which feels like something from a different film entirely. Most of this simply does not hang together particularly well.

The film is at its best when focussing on the hypocrisies and idiosyncrasies of Phoenix’s egocentric sheriff character but it isn’t enough to save this overextended and overreaching film. While it has its moments, Eddington is ultimately a repellent and unfocussed examination of recent history.

RATING: **

Matthew McCaul