Writer/Director Ari Aster looks at the moment everything collapsed in American circa 2020 in the searing Eddington.
Everyone plays the fool sometimes. So, the song says. It feels almost a cosmic certainty in the filmic worlds created by writer, director and provocateur Ari Aster. It is no less in the filmmaker’s newest film Eddington which has been described as a Modern Western but is more the darkest of comedies and a spiritual cousin to the work of Joel and Ethan Coen. The kaleidoscopic look at the boiling point of a New Mexico town at the height of COVID-19 in the middle of 2020.
The film’s primary focus is on the town’s Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) and their disagreements on how to handle the pandemic and masking policies. This is just the surface of a decade long dispute between the two men and their ideologies. Slights, bruised egos, jilted lovers, mother-in-law’s, teenagers, the Black Lives Matter movement, Atifa, Data centers, corporate appropriation of land, AI, Indigenous lands and an Election all play a part in this ever-increasing petty fight between the two men. A fight that can only go one way when an unstoppable force collides with an unmovable object.
Eddington isn’t a simple take down of one side or another of political ideologies. In Aster’s film everyone is wrong and is taken down. No one is left untouched. Aster’s story sees not just when the line was made but when it fractured into a crack and that crack turned into a into a divide so large there was no way back. Eddington isn’t about blame or solutions but rather an account of how quickly apathy for a person or group can quickly lead down a dark rabbit hole of violence.
The film is a wealth of electric performances headed by Joaquin Phoenix as the Sheriff who quickly loses grip on a situation, he had no handle on. Phoenix continues his streak of portraits of broken troubled human beings giving new shades to the collection. Pedro Pascal continues to shine with varied performances. His mayor is in contrast to his work as the lovable (if there is such a thing) Finance Bro would be suitor in The Materialists. Both actors are sharply attuned to the critical and empathetic pictures of two very different but also similar men.
The supporting cast are as good as Phoenix and Pascal with Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, Amélie Hoeferl, Cameron Mann, and Matt Gomez Hidaka doing exemplary work. Though it’s an unrecognizable Clifton Collins Jr. that steals the show as the troubled unhoused man that walks the streets of Eddington. The entire cast understands the tricky tone that Aster is working with and should be commended as there are tonal shifts that would not work without their wonderfully modulated performances.
The behind-the-scenes credits are as stellar are in front of the camera with Aster working with legendary French cinematographer Darius Khondji aka The Prince of Darkness (as David Fincher has dubbed him). The result of this collaboration is a Neo-Noir flavored Western that’s every bit the visual stunner you expect it to be with always an eye on story and character. Coupled with long time Editor Lucian Johnston’s acute edited and Daniel Pemberton’s tense score, Eddington’s robust 149-minute run time seems half that.
One can see people throwing out big platitudes about Eddington. It is the kind of film that provokes that kind of response. It is too early to tell where Eddington will place not just in Aster’s career but in the history of film as a whole. Rather one should sit with Eddington giving it the time it’s due. Allowing the overwhelming experience to take its grip and come to terms with its final moments. We are still in fact processing 2020 and COVID why shouldn’t we do the same for one of the first major works of film to try to wrangle a choke hold onto that turbulence and violent time.
Writer/Director Ari Aster looks at the moment everything collapsed in American circa 2020 in the searing Eddington.
Everyone plays the fool sometimes. So, the song says. It feels almost a cosmic certainty in the filmic worlds created by writer, director and provocateur Ari Aster. It is no less in the filmmaker’s newest film Eddington which has been described as a Modern Western but is more the darkest of comedies and a spiritual cousin to the work of Joel and Ethan Coen. The kaleidoscopic look at the boiling point of a New Mexico town at the height of COVID-19 in the middle of 2020.
The film’s primary focus is on the town’s Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) and their disagreements on how to handle the pandemic and masking policies. This is just the surface of a decade long dispute between the two men and their ideologies. Slights, bruised egos, jilted lovers, mother-in-law’s, teenagers, the Black Lives Matter movement, Atifa, Data centers, corporate appropriation of land, AI, Indigenous lands and an Election all play a part in this ever-increasing petty fight between the two men. A fight that can only go one way when an unstoppable force collides with an unmovable object.
Eddington isn’t a simple take down of one side or another of political ideologies. In Aster’s film everyone is wrong and is taken down. No one is left untouched. Aster’s story sees not just when the line was made but when it fractured into a crack and that crack turned into a into a divide so large there was no way back. Eddington isn’t about blame or solutions but rather an account of how quickly apathy for a person or group can quickly lead down a dark rabbit hole of violence.
The film is a wealth of electric performances headed by Joaquin Phoenix as the Sheriff who quickly loses grip on a situation, he had no handle on. Phoenix continues his streak of portraits of broken troubled human beings giving new shades to the collection. Pedro Pascal continues to shine with varied performances. His mayor is in contrast to his work as the lovable (if there is such a thing) Finance Bro would be suitor in The Materialists. Both actors are sharply attuned to the critical and empathetic pictures of two very different but also similar men.
The supporting cast are as good as Phoenix and Pascal with Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, Amélie Hoeferl, Cameron Mann, and Matt Gomez Hidaka doing exemplary work. Though it’s an unrecognizable Clifton Collins Jr. that steals the show as the troubled unhoused man that walks the streets of Eddington. The entire cast understands the tricky tone that Aster is working with and should be commended as there are tonal shifts that would not work without their wonderfully modulated performances.
The behind-the-scenes credits are as stellar are in front of the camera with Aster working with legendary French cinematographer Darius Khondji aka The Prince of Darkness (as David Fincher has dubbed him). The result of this collaboration is a Neo-Noir flavored Western that’s every bit the visual stunner you expect it to be with always an eye on story and character. Coupled with long time Editor Lucian Johnston’s acute edited and Daniel Pemberton’s tense score, Eddington’s robust 149-minute run time seems half that.
One can see people throwing out big platitudes about Eddington. It is the kind of film that provokes that kind of response. It is too early to tell where Eddington will place not just in Aster’s career but in the history of film as a whole. Rather one should sit with Eddington giving it the time it’s due. Allowing the overwhelming experience to take its grip and come to terms with its final moments. We are still in fact processing 2020 and COVID why shouldn’t we do the same for one of the first major works of film to try to wrangle a choke hold onto that turbulence and violent time.
Eddington is in theaters July 18th
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