The Sather

(082825) Eddington is a shockingly thoughtful fictional exploration of the issues related to what America went through during the difficult COVID years. This disturbing anti-Western depicts civilization fragmenting and breaking down in almost every way. It explores how the over reliance on social media (which started before COVID and the rise of Trump) has encouraged the development of often outrageous conspiracy theories and exasperated disagreements into extreme warring factions, all of which has had an isolating effect on society. In its own way, this film is as apocalyptic as Mad Max or 28 Years Later. It is also perhaps the most compelling quasi-Western since the Jane Campion film, The Power of the Dog, Like that film, Eddington is just as dramatic and darkly funny. And unlike most traditional Westerns, the film is morally ambiguous with hardly anyone to root for. Everyone is shades of gray and it is unlikely that anything resembling truth or justice will ultimately triumph.

The film stars Joaquín Phoenix who is one of the most accomplished and fearless actors in American cinema. Here he plays Joe Cross, a jaded sheriff who is a violent and not particularly sane protagonist who basically thinks the world has failed him. The film also features Emma (Poor Things) Stone as Louise, his disconnected, long suffering neurotic wife. Pedro (Gladiator 2  and Fantastic Four: First Steps) Pascal rounds out the upper-tier cast as mayor Ted Garcia, a corrupt and opportunistic small town official. While Stone, Phoenix and Pascal give compelling, memorable performances most of the rest of the cast are just okay. Deirdre O Connell is serviceable as Dawn, Louise’s gullible mom who falls for a religious grifter. However, rising star Austin Butler (Elvis and The Bike Riders ), plays Vernon Jefferson Peak and brings an unexpected level of charisma to his role.

Eddington takes place in 2020 in a fictional town in New Mexico in the middle of a COVID-19 lockdown. The director knows the terrain firsthand because he used to live in New Mexico-but I am sure this version is intentionally exaggerated. The mayor and sheriff clash over the arising Covid issue, but we assume this is just the latest chapter in their long running resentment of each other. They seem to despise each other on a very base level but hide it behind well worn passive/aggressive verbal jousting and political maneuvering. The mayor insists that everyone in town wear a mask in public, but Sheriff Cross spends all of his time mask less. Cross doesn't like the mask mandate and does little to enforce it because he does not consider it a “here problem". Meanwhile at home his wife, who makes evil-looking dolls, is particularly susceptible to COVID and masks up, but his asthma condition makes masks dangerous for him. All of which causes more tension between them, hastening their marriage disintegration as they drift further apart and separate.

The mayor/sheriff conflict pays out in many subplots that funnel back into their main confrontation. At home the mayor is also the ex-boyfriend of Louise (Emma Stone), Sheriff Cross’s estranged wife. Politically the sheriff disapproves of the Mayor Garcia's support of a corrupt construction plan that will use up the town’s natural resources without giving the people much back. As the pressure between them mounts Cross has an epiphany of sorts, and decides to take on the system head-on by running for mayor. He speaks with revolutionary zeal and even encourages citizens to arm themselves with guns in case there is a violent showdown. He is perceived by many as being an anti-establishment candidate in some ways similar to the current president.

An unexpected murder takes place, and Cross begins to investigate, but he tries to deflect the investigation for his own reasons. But this puts him at cross purposes with a Native American police officer who is actually trying to solve the crime. The film clearly mocks the extreme ignorance of racial bias when the Native American police officer tries to join the murder investigation. A Caucasian stereotypes him by asking why he isn’t “looking into alcoholic domestic cases at one of the casinos” Also In one scene, a police officer claims that “blacks hate Hispanics because they think they are fake minorities that are taking their food coupons.”
The film includes a classic clip of Henry Fonda in one of his most celebrated roles, playing the title character in Young Mr. Lincoln. This serves to remind us just how far the fictional depiction of society and perhaps modern society has strayed from the country’s original ideals.

Eddington was released by perhaps my favorite studio: A24. They put out a variety of films, and except for the excellent On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (which I hope to review soon) this is perhaps their finest film of the year. They have also released all the other movies made by this Eddington’s director: Ari Aster. This includes Hereditary (2018), which I see as a modern horror masterpiece, the effective folk horror film Midsommar (2019), and the interesting but overlong Beau is Afraid (2023) which also starred Joaquin Phoenix who is also one of the director Aster’s main collaborators.

This is an ambitious film that deals intelligently with recent and current social issues. At times, it strains to say something significant or almost falls in its own exaggerated sense of self-importance, but for the most part, it is successful and thought-provoking. But the film might have been even more successful and timely if it had been released right after COVID.