[7]
A stand-off between a small New Mexico town’s ideologically opposed sheriff and mayor spirals violently out of control during the explosive summer of 2020 in this sardonic drama from writer/director Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar). Joaquin Phoenix stars as the sheriff of a three-person police department who are ill-equipped to handle the protests and rioting that spring up in the town after the murder of George Floyd. After fighting with the mayor (Pedro Pascal) over the town’s strict mask-wearing mandate, Phoenix declares he’s running against the mayor in the next election. But after the sheriff’s charges of rape against the mayor backfire on him, Phoenix’s character resorts to violence — a decision that will ultimately end the ambitions of both men, and reveal the controlling presence of a much more powerful third party playing both sides against each other for its own nefarious gains.
It’s hard not to compare Eddington to another film released the same year, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. They are the first two films to tackle the tumultuous events of 2020, a subject many viewers still aren’t ready to embrace in entertainment. While Anderson’s film is winning an abundance of critical acclaim, Aster’s has been widely panned or disregarded by the critical community. I think this is probably because Eddington lampoons both sides of America’s political divide, while One Battle After Another is much more one-sided, favoring (I dare say exalting) the revolutionary fringe of the Left. In my review for Anderson’s film, I reveal my distaste for films set in our politically divisive present day. But surprisingly, I enjoyed Eddington far more than One Battle After Another.
Even though both films operate as satire, the characters in Eddington are more grounded and relatable. Aster encourages viewers to identify with characters on all sides of the divide, humanizing ones who choose villainy and poking fun at the presumed heroes. Where One Battle After Another features alienating characters in a story designed to stoke the flames of division, Eddington (to my mind) has a nobler purpose: to help each of us, in whatever algorithmic silo we are in, hear and understand those with opposing viewpoints. Like Anderson, Aster has a lot to say: about how trauma handicaps an open mind, how cell phones and the internet have become weapons of division, and how our ideology takes a back seat to whoever makes us feel like we belong with them. One Battle After Another may win all the awards and attention, but I think Eddington is the more revealing, meaningful, emotionally engaging, socially responsible, and entertaining film.
With Emma Stone, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Cameron Mann, and Austin Butler.