Eddington (2025) - COVID Chaos Comes to Small Town - REVIEW
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Ari Aster just came up what might be the most uncomfortble movie expirience I have had in years with Eddington and honestly Im still trying to figure out if thats a good thing or not because it was not bad bad although its like I feel force to like it, this movie takes us back to May 2020 when everything went to absolute hell with COVID and throws us into this tiny New Mexico town where a sheriff and mayor are about to destroy each other over mask mandates. Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross, this sheriff who has asthma and refuses to wear masks while Pedro Pascal is Ted Garcia, the mayor trying to keep things together while also dealing with his own personal demons, Emma Stone shows up as Louise, Joes mentally unstable wife who makes creepy dolls and has serious trauma from her past that slowly gets revealed through the movie. The whole setup feels like watching your own 2020 experience but cranked up to eleven with all the paranoia, conspiracy theories and political division that made that year so miserable for everyone involved, Aster doesnt hold back from showing how social media turned everyone into either extreme liberals or right wing conspiracy theorists with no middle ground left anywhere. The movie does feel so accurate at capturing that specific anxiety of going to the grocery store during lockdown, having people yell at you for not wearing a mask properly or wearing one when you think its stupid, the whole thing brings back memories that make me angry just to revisit considering Im one of the very few on Earth that NEVER got any vaccine and it was my choice but was not easy, I was the one been yell at. The movie starts slow with Phoenix doing his usual intense but controlled performance as this guy who thinks he knows whats best for everyone while clearly having no idea what hes doing, his relationship with Emma Stone is bizarre and uncomfortable as she deals with her own mental health issues and gets involved with Austin Butlers character who runs some kind of cult or self help group for trauma victims.
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Phoenix absolutely carries this movie on his shoulders even when the script goes completely off the rails in the third act, his portrayal of Joe Cross feels like every middle aged guy who thought COVID was the perfect excuse to finally lose his mind and take control of his life through violence and manipulation. The way he handles the mask controversy at the beginning feels so real it made me cringe remembering all those videos of people fighting in stores over face coverings, Pedro Pascal does his best with Ted Garcia but the character feels underdeveloped compared to everything else going on around him. Emma Stones performance as Louise is disturbing but I not sure if to say its on a good way, she plays this fragile woman whos been dealing with childhood trauma and mental illness while trying to maintain some kind of normal relationship with her husband, her scenes with Austin Butler are creepy and effective even though Butler barely gets any screen time. The supporting cast includes Deirdre OConnell as Louises conspiracy theorist mother who spends all day watching YouTube videos about government coverups, Michael Ward as a black deputy caught between his job and the Black Lives Matter protests happening around town, and various teenagers who start their own BLM chapter without really understanding what theyre fighting for. Aster does an incredible job showing how everyone during 2020 became obsessed with being right about everything while at the same time having no idea what they were talking about, the teenagers especially feel like real kids who got caught up in social justice movements more for social media clout than actual conviction. The political stuff never feels preachy because Aster makes everyone look equally stupid and hypocritical, from the conspiracy theorist mother to the sheriff who thinks hes the only sane person left in town.
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The first half of Eddington works really well as this slow burn character study about people losing their minds during lockdown but then the movie takes this wild turn into action thriller territory that completely changes the tone and pacing. Its when Joe Cross decides to run for mayor against Ted Garcia and things escalate way beyond normal political rivalry into straight up murder and violence, the homeless guy who appears throughout the movie becomes a victim of Joes breaking point and then Ted Garcia and his son get killed too, its here where the movie either completely falls apart or becomes something totally different depending on how much you are willing to go along with Asters vision, personally I found the shift jarring and unnecessary even though the action sequences are so intense that kept me entertained. Close to the ending we get introduce to this mysterious terrorist who shows up in a private plane and starts killing everyone, here they completely lost me and made me feel we were on another movie without any notice, a movie about government conspiracies rather than the small town story we started with, its an actual WTF moment during the movie and why close to the end?. Phoenix does his best to sell the transformation from frustrated sheriff to unhinged killer but the script falls flat including him because there is just too much contrast with what had happen so far during the movie by the time I watch him run through the streets with a machine gun I was ok with the movie until that point, right there the movie falls straight to a 7 for me and if it wasnt for Pedro who I think was totally underdeveloped I think the internet is right at calling it a flat 6 across multiple score sites. The political commentary that worked so well in the first half gets lost in all the gunfire and explosions, what started as a smart satire about COVID times with the paranoia turns into this generic action movie about ANTIFA terrorists and government cover ups. Director Aster seems more interested creating such high schock jaw dropping moment to the audience with violence and nudity than following what was build up during the movie and a coherent story line, to me that is frustrating because those themes were relevant.
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I watch this movie over the weekend with my wife and we were both shocked at how they fucked up what could have been a very refreshing movie even if it was about hard times for everyone so I keep thinking about how this could have been a really great movie if they had trusted the initial concept instead of trying to turn it into some kind of action thriller hybrid. The stuff about social media radicalization and COVID paranoia hits hard because its still so fresh and printed in our minds, watching Phoenix slowly lose his grip on reality while everyone around him does the same thing felt belivable and relevant but its like at half of they movie they realize they were going too slow, like they were cooking and suddenly realize it has no spice so they throw in the entire spice bottle, yes I know slow burn character development isnt enough to carry a movie and even the conspiracy plot was relevant but the mysterious terrorists and government data centers that feels completely disconnected from everything else is was goes off rails. Emma Stones character disappears halfway through the movie right when her story was getting interesting, Pedro Pascal gets killed off just as we start understanding his motivations and the teenagers who seemed important early became irrelevant side characters. The movie is also way too long at almost two and a half hours, Im sure there could have been some scenes that could have been cut without losing anything important to the story. The technical aspects are all solid with great cinematography that really gets the desolate New Mexico landscape and good sound design that makes every gunshot feel shocking and real, but the technicals cant make up for a script that doesnt know what it wants to be.
I know I have been ranting on the latest movies reviews I had made but its just disappointment in many ways, probably because Im dearing at watching certain movies that are not my first choice or I just had to watch like "Supperman 2025". I cant deny that Eddington brought me back many memories, I cant say those were some of my worst times in life because it wasnt but its probably the world wide event with the most impact, it was a PANDEMIC World Wide, it captures something real about how 2020 felt for a lot of people even if it takes that feeling to ridiculous extremes and it had to because those were weird and extreme times, people fought over toilet paper. Some of the first scenes when Phoenix was trying to deal with mask requirements while dealing with his asthma felt really frustrating reminds me wearing glasses with mask too, the teenagers arguing about racism and privilege while clearly not understanding either completely and Emma Stones deteriorating mental health during lockdown was really sad and makes me think about those who really had a hard time at staying in one place under lockdown for so long because in some countries they were not that soft, you literally could get arrested if go out. Aster made an important movie that actually engages with the trauma and division that COVID brought to society world wide, most movies either ignore that period completely or treat it as background noise rather than exploting the experience that connects people in so many ways. Phoenix gives another very committed performance even when the script doesnt deserve it, he finds real humanity in this flawed character even as the script pushes him toward cartoonish villainy by the end. If youre willing to watch this long ass movie sometimes you are going to feel frustrated at it, it just doesnt tackles recent PANDEMIC events with more ambition, Eddington might be worth checking out, just dont expect it to provide easy answers or a movie that is easy to watch. I give it a 7 out of 10 for effort even though the execution left me wanting more.
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