Eddington

Screened at Festival Theaters, Palm Springs, California

Ari Aster's fourth film has arrived and I'm glad to see it isn't a horror film. Not because his first two, Hereditary and Midsommar were disappointments - they weren't at all - but because the execution was so impressive, I wanted to see what he could do with other film genres. I've yet to check out his last one, Beau Is Afraid, but once I saw the trailer for Eddington, I was more or less in.

The best way to describe it is a Coen Brothers film set in the world of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. It's not about the pandemic, and really it's not even about the politics and upheaval of that period of history. Both aspects are on display here heavily, so if you don't want to revisit that world, for which I of course would not blame you, I would wait maybe another five years. Instead, they are drivers for the main character, Sheriff Joe Cross, via another fantastic performance from Joaquin Phoenix who for some reason seems to have a real knack for playing unhinged characters. Here, he's a small town cop in fictional Eddington, New Mexico, and when his frustration with the pandemic boils up, from masks to mandates, much of it honorable and virtuous, he decides to run for mayor and replace the current office-holder, Ted Garcia, portrayed by Pedro Pascal.

Once his race for the role starts, his mind starts racing as well, faster and faster as paranoia, media and conspiracy theories take over for reason and the morality he displayed at the start of the film. This leads to the Coen Brothers-esque third act which reminded me a lot of No Country for Old Men (maybe it was just the desert, I'm not sure), capping off quite well what an overall entertaining tale this was, in tense and violent fashion.

Thankfully, despite the setting and time period covered, this wasn't political in the sense it takes any side. But it throws everything from the far left to the far right into it, and does a decent job of making sure everyone seeing this is looking in the mirror to see how they contributed (and still do) to what I think most people see as a moral breakdown of our shared common decency. While at the same time being thoroughly entertaining. And for THAT reason, I give this a strong recommendation.