Dir/Wri: Ari Aster | Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Michael Ward, Clifton Collins Jr., William Belleau, Amélie Hoeferle, Cameron Mann, Matt Gomez Hidaka | US 149′
Eddington, a dark neo-western comedy from Ari Aster, extracts all the deranged madness from the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown and coughs it up like putrid pus exploding onto the screen for two and a half hours.
The film, that rambles on incoherently with a few laugh out loud moments, seems to represent the nation’s collective trauma during that bizarre time. There are some topical themes at play: white supremacy, Black Lives Matter, the sanctimonious liberalism that has spread like a disease throughout the world, and the disinformation that sees young and old seize upon any old social media soundbite and regurgitate it endlessly without the faintest grasp of the issues at play. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but not every opinion counts.
Joaquin Phoenix is Joe Cross an asthmatic sheriff who refuses to wear a mask in a small enclave in New Mexico where the residents, bereft of their cosy community, resort to the skewed psychosis of social media and rally in protests despite the curfews. The result is a complete meltdown that sees friend turn to enemy and families in crisis. Joaquin certainly deserves an Oscar for his outlandish performance – a decent family forced to live with his neurotic mother in law, who finally loses it in the film’s extraordinary ending.
Pitted against Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), a mayor seeking re-election. Joe has multiple reasons for disliking the mayor. Ted is working to allow a massive artificial intelligence data centre to bring wealth and jobs to the region. Many locals are opposed on the grounds of stretched resources, but Joe has personal issues involving his wife (Emma Stone) to reject the mayor and the project.
So this is a film with really laudable ideas and corrosive set pieces that worked on the drawing board but fails abysmally in the execution. You’ve got to see it to believe it. And it’s certainly worth a watch. @MeredithTaylor
CANNES FILM FESTIVAL | IN COMPETITION.