‘We need to free each other’s hearts...’
Ari Aster burst onto the scene with Hereditary and Midsommar, but then Beau is Afraid was a headscratcher to say the least, and now, the divisive filmmaker has returned with another strange one…
Against the backdrop of the global pandemic in May 2020, the local sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and the mayor (Pedro Pascal) of the small town of Eddington begin a bitter feud. The starry cast is rounded out by Emma Stone, Austin Butler and Yellowstone alumnus, Luke Grimes.
The first thing to consider here is do we need a film that takes place during what was an utterly bleak and depressing time in humanity that only led to even more troubled times in the aftermath? Seeing people arguing about wearing masks and staying two metres apart brought back how exhausting and punitive that era was in a way that I found quietly anxiety inducing. The second thing to consider is whether audience fatigue is already starting to set in with state-of-the-nation cinematic essays reckoning with life in a post-Trump election win, post-COVID world. Obviously, art is a reflection of the times, and it could be argued that creatives in all mediums have a duty to hold a mirror up to society and expose the dark underbelly of what lurks beneath, however, personally, I go to the movies to escape all that shit. I don’t mind it as subtext (something like The Long Walk, for example, handled it beautifully), but making a film that directly addresses the current shit show in which we find ourselves is perhaps a fool’s errand.
Eddington is a scathing takedown of a world fuelled by misinformation, mutual distrust and the fracturing of modern society. My issue with it is that’s all it is. Despite an excellent central performance from Phoenix, and a solid turn from Pascal who wisely goes small, perhaps as a way to try and combat his growing oversaturation in the market, these characters only ever feel like cyphers or symbols for something bigger – pawns in Aster’s cosmic chess game – rather than real people with lives and hopes and dreams.
As with Beau is Afraid, Eddington has moments of aesthetic brilliance and other moments of searing satirical ingenuity, but it is ultimately hollow. This is the man that directed Hereditary. I want him to make me feel something again.
