EDDINGTON

Eddington features strong performances from Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as writer and director Ari Aster takes audiences back to the height of the COVID-19 pandemic with his latest film, but with a lacking social bite and surprisingly grounded and not batshit crazy narrative, Aster’s latest film is narratively juggling too many ideas while having very little to say.

If there has been one filmmaker who has made a name for himself making divisive films, it is Ari Aster. Aster broke onto the scene back in 2018 with Hereditary, an uncomfortable beyond belief and terrifying horror film drenched in despair and trauma, and those underlying ideas have continued in his films since. Whether it be the incredibly bright yet deadly horror film Midsommar starring Florence Pugh or the odyssey faced by Joaquin Phoenix in Beau is Afraid, Aster has continued to challenge viewers with his auteur style, leaving them in awe of his films or questioning what they just watched… but not in a good way. Given his past resume, you know that his latest film which tackles the COVID pandemic in a small New Mexico town in the middle of 2020 is destined to be another divisive experience, though with a star studded cast featuring Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal and Austin Butler, it had the potential to be one of the wildest movies of the year. Unfortunately, Eddington feels too safe at times before becoming the wild Aster film that fans were expecting, though sadly it's too late and not even the strong performances of Phoenix and Pascal can make up for an unfocused first half.

Surprisingly, given Aster’s proclivity for boundary pushing narratives, Eddington is a rather tame film for the entire first half before becoming the wild Aster film audiences are expecting in the second half. Touching upon every hot topic issue that was present during the pandemic, ranging from the wearing of masks, police brutality, the extent of government’s powers, and the ugly side of society that felt empowered, the entirety of the film’s first act feels like you are doom scrolling social media, reminded of the dark days that we all survived. While there are some moments of dark humour laced throughout that generate some truly hilarious moments as Aster pokes fun at these events, the film is largely void of any critical commentary one way or another on these events, causing the film to feel safe… which is nothing something I thought I would ever use to describe Aster. And having just come out of the pandemic and having a few years of the world being back to its normal, it is not that entertaining or appealing to return to these darker days we are all trying to put behind us.

Once the conflict between Phoenix’s Joe Cross and Pascal’s Ted Garcia reaches a boiling point, going off like a firework accompanied by a smart use of Katie Perry’s “Firework”, the second half becomes an engaging pressure cooker. Many of the ideas introduced in the first half are tossed aside, letting the chaos of the story’s main events escalate into a climactic third act shootout that begins to remind viewers of the madness that normally accompanies an Aster film. It’s a stark change from the film’s first half, which I personally preferred as it offered a more focused narrative rather than the first act that felt like it was trying to cover too much, while also letting Aster play with a crazy and more startling narrative that found something more interesting to say then the entirety of the film’s first half. Sadly, Aster gets the better of himself and ends the film on an extended epilogue, which gets back to the doom scrolling unfocused narrative, that while it serves some just endings for the characters, dampens the madness of the film’s climactic moments.

Given the talented cast, it comes as no surprise that the performances from the entire cast are strong. Phoenix revels in the small mindedness and chaos of Joe Cross, completely transforming into this small town cop deciding to take a stand against his local mayor and let his personal problems overtake his common sense. Like all of his performances, Phoenix is a chameleon and loses himself in the character of Joe, which is the film’s strongest asset, as with Joe as the main character, you are guaranteed to be entranced for the entire film by his performance. Continuing to be in everything this year, Pascal is great as Ted Garcia, finding compassion in a politician trying to protect his town, navigate it safely through the pandemic, and be a father to his teenage son, while combatting whatever comes his way. It’s a smaller role, but Pascal excels in every scene and you are instantly reminded of how strong of an actor he is. The supporting cast of Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Michael Ward, Clifton Collins Jr., and Matt Gomez Hidaka make their characters pop off the screen with their performances, making the most of their smaller roles and playing into the madness that their characters find themselves grappling with. But sadly, Butler and Stone are barely used, squandering their talents. It truly felt like they were on set for a day or two given how little screen time they actually have, and Butler’s character all together could be cut from the film and it would have no effect on the overall story whatsoever.

As the film’s tagline states, hindsight is 2020, and Ari Aster may truly be onto something in Eddington. But, given the close proximity to the real life counterparts to events depicted in the film, maybe not enough time has passed for audiences to truly grasp what Aster has set out to do in his latest film… or it's overly ambitious without much to say. Whichever it is, Eddington is a departure from Aster’s previous films with its grounded nature and lack of over the top bizarreness that will have viewers buzzing afterwards, that is going to divide audiences. Some will say Aster has delivered a great examination of modern social issues and the pandemic, others will say it’s a hollow, lacklustre and unnecessarily drawn out rehashing of a period of our history that we would much rather move on from. The truth probably lies somewhere in between the two, and luckily with the cast being led by the excellent Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal, though it’s neglect of using Emma Stone and Austin Butler is almost criminal, Eddington features strong technical filmmaking from Ari Aster with just enough moments of uncomfortably hilarious dark comedy, an exciting shoot out and enough cringe inducing moments to make for an intriguing but messy film.