In case the completely normal, uneventful year 2020 was in the rearview mirror for moviegoers, director Ari Aster brings it back to the forefront with the pandemic-era “Eddington.” For Aster, who has primarily operated in the horror genre, “Eddington” is a bit of a switch-up.
His first three films — 2018 Sundance breakout hit “Hereditary” and the subsequent “Midsommar” and “Beau is Afraid” — and collaboration with distributor A24 has made Aster a bit of a brand name director among cinephiles, but his work has alienated general audiences. “Eddington” feels destined to be just as polarizing as his previous work as it opens barely healed wounds from the recent past.
Joaquin Phoenix (reuniting with Aster after “Beau is Afraid”) stars as Joe Cross, the sheriff of Eddington, New Mexico. As the movie begins, it’s summer 2020 and Cross is arguing over the appropriate use of a face mask. He’s in a grocery store one day, and an older gentleman is persistently asked to enter the store wearing a mask. Cross comes to his defense, and his anti-masking stance clashes with Mayor Ted Garcia’s (Pedro Pascal) support of the mandates, which leads Cross to launch a campaign for mayor. His wife, Louise (Emma Stone), is not thrilled with this rash decision.
The COVID-19 pandemic is really the only the star for the first half of the movie, as tensions rise throughout the town of Eddington. Once the news of George Floyd’s murder breaks, the town is in immediate upheaval against the police and Cross’s bid for mayor has already made him the target of Eddington’s younger residents.
Like a lot of Aster’s films, “Eddington” starts strong and draws the viewer in — just before the wheels come off and everything is upended. Aster and cinematographer Darius Khondji capture the town of Eddington as an apocalyptic wasteland, which most places certainly felt like during the first few months of the pandemic. Each argument about proper mask usage feels like a powder keg waiting to go off in the film, and once it shifts into the 2020 protests that captivated the world’s attention that summer, “Eddington” begins to derail. Unfortunately, with a runtime of two hours and 28 minutes, there’s still a lot of movie left.
“Eddington” has horrifying moments, but it isn’t a horror film. What Aster is trying to achieve isn’t always exactly clear because he doesn’t have anything new or insightful to communicate about the pandemic or racial division. But as a horror filmmaker, Aster is a born provocateur. He knows how to make an audience squirm through imagery, and “Eddington” is the first time he has been so upfront with his provocation. The issue is that it feels so empty, like he’s trying to rattle a hornets’ nest that finally just settled.
Aster is a director with too many ideas that often can’t be contained in one movie — when that happens, things feel wasted and unexplored. As Louise Cross, two-time Oscar Award-winner Stone is a curious choice, because it’s a thankless, unexplored role. She essentially falls into a web of conspiracy theories, becoming entranced by an online conspiracy theorist named Vernon (Austin Butler). Butler possesses a weird energy that makes him just right for the role of Vernon, but is also completely underutilized. To focus the movie a bit more, the Austin-Louise storyline could have been cut from the film, but radicalization seems like another 2020 topic Aster wanted to check off the list.
“Eddington” is a sharp production with a scattered screenplay. There have been plenty of movies set during the pandemic already, but filmmakers are going to compete to create the signature film that captures such a turbulent era. The hollow “Eddington” simply plays like a “NOW! That’s What I Call 2020” mix.
Matt Passantino is a contributor to CITY.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
