EDDINGTON Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Ari Aster
Stars: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Deidre O’Connell, Luke Grimes, Michael Ward, Clifton Collins jr, William Belleau, Matt Gomez Hidaka, Cameron Mann.
Ari Aster is better known for his horror films including Hereditary and Midsommar, but his latest film is a bit of a change of territory.
Eddington is a dark, sprawling and ambitious contemporary western, set in the fictitious small New Mexico town of Eddington in 2020 during the COVID epidemic. The town itself becomes something of a microcosm of America at the time, and Aster serves up a rather frightening vision of where the country is headed. Aster explores themes of the mask mandates and social distancing, as well as corruption, power, small town politics, indigenous land rights, social justice, governmental overreach, BLM protests, gun control, pedophilia. It makes for a heady and volatile mix, and some elements and subplots are more potent than others. He effectively taps into the audience’s concerns about the COVID pandemic and governmental control.
Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is running for mayor in an upcoming election, and he is taking on the incumbent progressive mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal, who seems to be very busy these days), who runs a local bar. There is already tension between the pair as Joe believes that Ted took advantage of his wife when she was still a vulnerable teenager. Joe doesn’t agree with mask mandates, which brings him into conflict with others in the town. He believes the mandate violates freedom of choice. His marriage to Louise (Emma Stone) is rocky and the couple air their differences. Garcia wants to allow a high tech data centre to be built in the town, which he hopes will bring in jobs and money. But before long the town becomes powder keg and represents a microcosm of the turbulent political state of the US itself.
Aster’s direction is muscular, and he gives us a couple of strong set pieces, but the film is tonally uneven and a little indulgent as Aster crams in too many ideas. Cinematographer Darius Khondji, replacing Aster’s regular cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski, does a good job capturing the rugged terrain and he gives us a strong sense of place.
Phoenix brings his usual intensity and a world weary quality to his performance as Cross, who grows increasingly unhinged as the township falls into anarchy. Emma Stone plays Cross’ unhappy wife Louise, and she brings a vulnerability to her performance, while Diedre O’Connell is strong as Dawn, his mother-in-law who buys into a lot of crazy conspiracy theories. The impressive cast also includes Austin Butler (from Elvis, etc) as Vernon Jefferson Peak, the charismatic leader of a religious cult. Luke Grimes (from the tv series Yellowstone, etc) plays one of Joe’s officers; Michael Ward plays Michael, a sheriff’s trainee, and Clifton Collins jr has a small but important role as a vagrant.
While not completely successful, Eddington is more accessible than Aster’s previous film Beau Is Afraid. But with a generous running time of 148 minutes the film feels a little bloated.
★★★☆
