I’ve always considered Ari Aster to be a “grief fetishist”.
Whether it’s the flaming father of Hereditary or a visceral murder-suicide cold open in Midsommar that I’ve yet to shake, Aster takes great pleasure in such instances. Then, with Beau Is Afraid, Aster leaned into a culture critique following a beta-male that had an incredible amount of pent-up frustration that all he needed to do was become intimate (additionally a much funnier film than his others).
With his latest film, Eddington, Aster borrows more culture critic tendencies. Joaquin Phoenix once again plays a man—this time much less afraid of himself and others—who is married to a woman (Emma Stone) who is both intertwined in a sexless marriage with him and on her spiritual journey of destiny. Yet in Eddington, Phoenix’s character is a much stronger encapsulation of the modern American psyche.
Eddington might be the first true modern American western. Set in the unprecedented year of 2020, the film follows Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), a quiet yet tough desert man who is adapting to the recent changes to his small town of Eddington, New Mexico. The COVID-19 pandemic is underway and presents challenges for the town, even though no such case has been reported in the town. One day, Cross makes a spontaneous decision to challenge the incumbent mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) as the mask mandate in Eddington becomes too much of an issue with his personal freedom. The film is unpredictable in the best ways. The second half–in true western fashion–spirals into an outrageously raw and violent spectacle that’s fueled by 2020 talking points.
In addition to Joaquin Phoenix, the cast is a star-studded ensemble that includes: Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler.
Ari Aster’s past films have a history of exploring buried family trauma and the search for answers. With Eddington, this idea is once again translated into each of the characters. 2020 was an all time year for conspiracy theories. Each character in Eddington has their own quest for answers in illusionary ideas because everything during this time was incredibly confusing and isolating especially given their unlocated pain in life.
I’m 24 years old, thus allowing me to see four different U.S. presidents in office. In 2012, during the general election cycle, my homeroom teacher would pass out electoral maps and have each of us cast a hypothetical vote for president. This would then spark discussion amongst a group of students who shared their reasons that ranged from “my parents are voting for him” to “he’s cool”. It was innocent.
Since then, American politics have changed for better or worse with Donald Trump coming along to throw his hat in the ring and rile up crowds across America that have morphed into this subpopulation—Aster may call it a cult if you asked him—of people that were looking for answers and escape from formal establishment politics. Trump’s ability to win two elections has essentially signaled that he won solely based on insult politics. Joaquin Phoenix’s character, Sheriff Joe Cross, decides to run for mayor against the incumbent Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). Cross’s no masks stand and red, white, and blue fare is all but parallel to what the right have won elections on since 2016.
This sort of “you don’t need to be corrected” and “facts don’t care about your feelings” diagnosis upon the American people is mostly what Aster is carving out with his newest film. I’ve seen many criticisms about how it doesn’t manage to take a side but I think that’s the wrong lens to look into. Sure, Pedro Pascal’s character is the exact kind of neoliberal that is fueled by empathy, virtue signaling, and filled by the pockets of big donors that the right and democratic socialists alike are trying to push away.
I don’t necessarily disagree with Aster’s position of society distancing more and more from each other. But much like the town of Eddington, before a rebellious outsider wanted to shake things up, there just felt to be more “looking after each other” beforehand. I find that Aster loves to push his audience, not just in the film’s gruesome final hour, but with his anxious quest to be the edgiest and transcendent visionary amongst his peers.
The film pushes boundaries for an A24 wide release feature—the final hour couldn’t be more tenacious, but I think Aster’s endgame is simple. A resident of Eddington claims that Phoenix’s character is the last decent person in the town after the sheriff purchased some groceries for him after being kicked out for not wearing a mask. The leading events in the film make this claim quickly untrue, but that’s the reality, we’re all searching for the last decent person in the world.
While Eddington is overflowing with built-up frustration and insanity, I left the theater wanting to be a better person, which yes, could be simpleminded, but it might be what we all need right now. Regardless of how you read the film or just how vapid Aster can be here, Eddington is a memorable risk taken.
