MOVIE REVIEW: EDDINGTON

 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, N.M.

Director: Ari Aster

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, Emma Stone

Release Date: July 18, 2025

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Western

Rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, language, and graphic nudity.

Runtime: 2h 25m

Review:

Ari Aster's Eddington is aggressively overstuffed as he tries to capture the general insanity of the summer of 2020 through the lens of the fictional town with Joaquin Phoenix doing the majority of the heavy lifting onscreen.  The film is a measured, slow burn as we watch real world external events and the story threads thrown onscreen move toward their unavoidable intersection.  Aster takes his time setting the table with the assorted collection of characters that inhabit the town, establishing them more as types than anything else.  Joaquin Phoenix's mask adverse Sheriff, Joe Cross, is a sad sack of a man when we meet him, finding some sliver of empowerment by taking up the cause of personal freedom that leads him to run for mayor against Pedro Pascal's Ted Garcia, Eddington's incumbent mayor.  Phoenix plays the character as a lonely, emasculated man that's in a position of power but totally inept until he grabs hold of his cause.  His wife Louise serves as little comfort as she has issues with physical contact leaving both isolated even when they are together, a recurring theme that serves as an undercurrent to the entire film.  Emma Stone looks appropriately disheveled and bizarre with one moment giving off some strong Carrie vibes as her character falls under the influence of Austin Butler's cult leader.  There's some fertile ground that's left untended with their relationship as both Stone and Butler are underutilized with both popping on and off screen far too quickly.   Louise's conspiracy obsessed mother played effectively by Deirdre O'Connell gets more screentime with an air of sly calculation amid all the insanity she traffics in.  Pedro Pascal's character is more straightforward and less nuanced as he serves a performative counter point to Phoenix's Cross.  He's given precious little time to really flesh the character out which leaves him coming off far more one dimensional than Cross.  Likewise, a subplot involving local BLM protest and a love triangle involving Cameron Mann, Matt Gomez Hidaka and Amélie Hoeferle feels undercooked, serving as little more than a plot device for the final and rather brutal finale which drags out into an unnecessarily long epilogue that leaves more questions than answers.  In the end, perhaps that point Aster is trying to achieve with Eddington serving as a rumination on the isolation that led to the increased insanity of that moment in time with no end in sight.  

B-