Culture
Now Playing: ‘Eddington’ is a surreal but unsatisfying look at America in 2020
By: Gordon Briggs
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We all remember the dark days of 2020.
When COVID-19 swept across the globe, it brought death, lockdowns, mask mandates, and protests. All of which unfolded during a contentious presidential election.
The idea of a biological infection attacking our bodies and a cultural infection attacking our minds could produce some truly fascinating movies.
Unfortunately, Eddington is not one of them.
Specifically, it’s a film that fires off at so many different targets that the finished product doesn’t have the impact you wanted it to.
First, there is the premise. Set in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico, during the 2020 pandemic, we follow a personal dispute between the local sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and the mayor (Pedro Pascal) that sets off an escalating conflict that pits neighbor against neighbor.
As far as acting and visuals go, the film is quite attractive. Joaquin Phoenix brings 110 percent to his role as an unhappy sheriff who turns to politics to escape his unsatisfying home life. Plus, the way cinematographer Darious Khondji photographs sun-scorched local landscapes deliberately evokes the classic Hollywood western.
Also, I liked how members of the community seemed to be living in different realities. For example, the film repeatedly shows its characters watching social media that broadcasts all sorts of conspiracy theories about the pandemic. Unfortunately, Director Ari Aster doesn’t just stop there; his film keeps adding more and more targets. The movie goes on to cover mask mandates, ANTIFA, Big Tech, BLM, borders, riots, conspiracy theories, cults, “wokeness,” social activism, race, police brutality, social media, and all that is in the first half of this 2-hours-and-30-minutes long movie. There’s even a subplot involving Phoenix’s wife (Emma Stone) getting involved with a charismatic cult leader (Austin Butler). Those scenes feel like they belong in an entirely different movie.
True to the style of the man who made films like Heredity and Beau is Afraid, the movie goes into increasingly outlandish and surreal territory. That choice is fine if you are making a psychological horror film, but Eddington‘s references to real-life events kept me from truly buying what was happening. The events Eddington is comedically mocking were real and not allegorical. Specifically, Aster’s surrealist aesthetic is well mounted, but should it be unpacking the nuances of race in America with the same loopy nonchalance with which it mocks conspiracies and ingests Hydroxychloroquine?
When the film was done, its central premise seemed to be “Man, America can be really crazy sometimes.” I didn’t need this film to tell me that. Rating: ★ ★ 1/2