Eddington

Rating 8/10

Few filmmakers would dare confront the controversial politics and draconian atmosphere of the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ah, but writer and director Ari Aster gave us Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau Is Afraid. He has built a career on exploring the darker aspects of human nature. Here, he turns his eye toward one of the most divisive chapters in recent American life. With his latest, Aster reimagines the COVID era as a modern Western. It centers on the bitter standoff between a defiant lawman-turned-populist mayoral candidate and the town’s embattled incumbent, who is trying to enforce safety measures. The perspective doesn’t explicitly take sides. Both men and their respective ideologies are flawed and morally compromised.

Our story is set in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico, during the first lockdowns of May 2020. We follow the escalating tensions between two opposing local leaders. Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is a law enforcement officer who opposes mask mandates. They aggravate his asthma, he contends. On the other side is Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), an official torn between public health rhetoric and his lucrative ties to the tech giant SolidGoldMagikarp. Ted asserts his authority while making questionable backroom deals. Joe positions himself as a man of the people and announces his candidacy for mayor, challenging Ted in the upcoming election. Their rivalry affects their families and neighbors. Meanwhile, outside forces like viral conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter marches, and the incessant churn of online chatter make the town a pressure cooker.

If the idea of reliving that era sounds unappealing, Eddington might be an uncomfortable watch. No one is nostalgic for 2020, so it’s hard to imagine how a picture like this even got made. The screenplay leans into the chaos of that year: Protests unfolding in the streets, debates over mask mandates, social distancing rules, and the erosion of trust between citizens and their institutions. It’s tonally all over the place, satirical one moment and sincere the next. We relive the suffocating mood of that spring, when standing too close, coughing, or even touching a doorknob were major issues. In one scene, Ted leans toward his teenage son (Matt Gomez Hidaka), only to be met with Eric screaming back at him: “Six-foot rule!” It’s absurd, actually ridiculous, but this happened. That mix of the comic and the tragic is where Aster thrives.

Pascal’s Ted Garcia is a slippery figure, a charismatic citizen who is equal parts civic leader and opportunist. Phoenix, meanwhile, plays Joe like a man who bristles at the mere suggestion of being told what to do. He plants his stance before he draws his words. Phoenix gives one of the finest performances of his career, with a totally believable transformation in a character we initially find relatable. However sympathies for him start to crumble. His populism develops into something more disturbing. Neither man is let off the hook, though. The screenplay doesn’t editorialize with clearly defined villains. The film simply presents the choices people make and the consequences that follow.

Eddington isn’t easily categorized. It’s a political satire, dark comedy, and Western all rolled into one incendiary narrative. A heated argument is framed as a duel between two figures squared off in the bareen streets. The collapse of society plays out like theater, and the closest any film has come yet to honestly capturing the volatility of 2020. What’s clear is that the story is more concerned with human behavior under pressure than in promoting an ideological agenda.. He’s far more interested in what happens when systems break down, when public trust erodes, and when ordinary people become capable of something far worse than the virus itself.

07-17-25