Eddington

Hindsight is 2020

Here we have a neo-western flavored satire focusing on the conflict and hysteria generated by COVID-19. Assuming our society has managed to not totally disintegrate in the near future, I suspect we’ll be seeing more movies like this which explore the particular era of American history we’re living through.

Though some may disagree, I think Ari Aster is one of the best directors who could tackle this subject matter. Most of this guy’s movies feature toxic relationships, protagonists who are insecure and self-defeating, malevolent factions controlling the film’s narrative behind the scenes, etc. And while he is known for shocking audiences with his unique brand of horror thanks to Hereditary and Midsommar, his films usually have an unmistakable, P.T. Anderson-like edge of absurdism that makes some of what transpires as funny as it is dramatic. This quality became a lot more pronounced with his previous project, Beau Is Afraid. With Eddington, he takes that up another notch. Aster is giddily tap-dancing on that line between serious and humorous.

The story centers around the titular small town. It’s 2020, the lockdown is in effect and Eddington, New Mexico becomes a microcosm of all the issues we remember from the pandemic, real and imagined. We follow Sheriff Joe Cross, an awkward yet righteously indignant man, and his rivalry with Eddington’s charismatic Mayor, Ted Garcia. Angered by Garcia’s civic advocacy for COVID safety procedures and his own personal grievances with the man, Cross launches his own mayoral campaign in the hopes of steering the town in the right direction. Disaster/hilarity ensues.

Like most Ari Aster films, this was a lot. And like most of his films, it's one that will probably be a bit more palatable on rewatch. That said, I do have some thoughts.

It could have been very easy to do the obvious thing with the aforementioned premise, which is to be a little preachy about the sheer level of dysfunction that Americans experienced during the pandemic. Sure, right-wing Joe Cross is exceedingly in the wrong compared to left-wing Ted Garcia, who is, at worst, a typical politician. But the characters are all pretty grey, regardless of their actions or political leanings: even Cross, the far-right cop who abuses his authority, his fanatical and unstable wife, the cult leader his wife is obsessing over, or his conspiracy-obsessed mother-in-law; liberals and conservatives in Eddington are all seen adding to the chaos of the moment.

I think Aster's messaging is symbolic, for the most part. He avoids being too partial to one side or the other by tethering the narrative around the POV of someone like Joe Cross. We are shown a person who was probably a naive but normal guy for most of his life, whose sudden radicalization might have less to do with politics and more to do with a midlife crisis brought on by years of impotent rage, sexual frustration and other petty resentments; his first scene sees him sitting in his police cruiser and watching a YouTube video about how to gently convince one's spouse to have a baby. The way in which Aster makes us both despise and empathize with this selfish goofball at the same time is pretty damn good writing.

This is where the western trappings come in, I think. The way the film looks and sounds for the first half of the movie certainly has the framing of an old school western. Sheriff Cross is the righteous lawman standing up to the corrupt mayor who threatens the small town, like Mayor Garcia who has partnered with a somewhat shady tech corporation called SolidGoldMagikarp to open a large data center in Eddington. This framing isn't just there to be cute. It's how Cross views this situation. In his mind, he's the last good man bravely upholding justice in a world gone mad.

That all goes out the window as soon as Ari Aster starts pulling his Ari Aster shit, shifting gears into a ludicrously horrific thriller. We see the dark possibilities of one of those small rural communities reduced to a ghost town by businesses closing and residents leaving in the wake of COVID. The sort of crazy, nightmare scenario that can happen in a remote area at a time when the threat of a deadly virus is rapidly outpaced by the threat of mental illness. A time when society and reality are no longer cooperating.

To delve into it anymore would be getting into spoilers, so I'll just say that it's a movie that's sure to be divisive, but that divisiveness doesn't take away from its off-the-wall entertainment factor. In fact, it adds to it. Especially if you can look at it with a critical eye, separate from the endless political theater we are subjected to in real life. Still think it warrants a second viewing, but overall I enjoyed it and what it seemed to be going for.

Bits and pieces:

* This is the first Ari Aster movie I’ve seen in theater.

* I feel like Joel and Ethan Coen are probably a big influence on Ari Aster. Beau Is Afraid reminded me a LOT of Barton Fink and A Serious Man. Now we have Eddington, which felt like Fargo or No Country for Old Men meets Don’t Look Up. I was also strongly reminded of the Martin McDonagh film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

* Joaquin Phoenix is well-cast for these Aster film heroes who are painfully neurotic and insecure; they get the most out of Phoenix's big eyes and soft voice. While I wish the film had a bit more for Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler to do, they all were believable in their roles and made the most of their screentime.

* Deirdre O’Connell plays Joe’s mother-in-law, Dawn. The last thing I saw her appear in was The Penguin. Anyone who has seen both may notice a few amusing parallels between Dawn and her character from that show.

* Last actor bit: I did not recognize Clifton Collins, Jr. at all as Lodge, the local homeless man suffering from COVID.

* A lot of funny little details to Joe's campaign car — a police cruiser covered in dopey political ads. One of the slogans reads: "YOUR BEING MANIPULATED."

* Likewise, Ted Garcia's re-election campaign commercial is hilariously cliche and soppy.

* Joe has asthma and uses it as an excuse for why he can't wear a face-mask. This was especially rich to me, a lifelong asthmatic who worked in retail during the pandemic and never had a problem wearing a mask.

* While the film isn't overtly left-wing, it was hard not to look at the last five to six minutes of it as a scathing indictment of the far-right and what the COVID era did to many of them. Or made them do to themselves.

I don't see it being quite as well acclaimed as Ari Aster's previous films — due to its subject matter, its vague impartiality in relation to that and its mildly scatter-brained plot — but I feel it might be one of his more interesting ones. It mixes the real and unreal in an engrossing way. 3 and a half out of 5 pesky pandemics.

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