Film Review: Eddington

Welcome back to the blog readers. One film genre I have not really given much attention to is the Western genre. I say that because to me, they all feel the same. Nothing against them, but they have not really tickled my fancy like I would have liked. Hearing about this film definitely had me sitting up in the chair, but I was curious as to how it would wind up going. Would we have another winner for the director with this one? Stick around to find out.

Eddington was written and directed by Ari Aster. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone. In the film, set during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Mexico, the showdown between Eddington's liberal mayor and conservative sheriff in the upcoming election opens up a powder keg of political and social turmoil seen throughout the United States in that time.

I truthfully have not seen an Ari Aster film since the masterful Hereditary (2018), a film that I still get creeped out over seven years later (and still contest Toni Collette should have gotten an Oscar nomination for). A tonal shift is not something I expected from him, but the trailers sort of got me on board to see this film. And I was not overly impressed with what I saw as a whole. Yes, I got behind the performances of Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal and the script, but I (like others) find the story tonally inconsistent.

I want to start by talking about Joaquin Phoenix. There is not really much to say about Phoenix that has not already been said. He is an Academy Award-winning actor that has been in some of the most acclaimed films over the last 25 years (and Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)). But his role in this film of sheriff Joe Cross may just be his most emotionally complex role yet. I can understand maybe not believing the words he is saying (as he plays a conservative sheriff), but the power behind the words is never in question. Phoenix is at the point in his career now where he can masterfully take on a character and immerse himself in all of their intricacies. Joe Cross is no exception, since we see guilt, shame, anger, rage, and so much more.

Next up, I want to talk about the performance of Pedro Pascal. Back in the spring, you basically saw me wax poetic over Pascal's performance in the second season of The Last of Us (2023-), a show which garnered him another Emmy nomination. And you will probably see me waxing poetic about him again in the upcoming The Fantastic 4: First Steps (2025). But this film gave me a different side to him than I have seen. That side of him that I saw was one that was warm and inviting, but also contained a demon or two. This emotionally complex character of Ted Garcia is one that will stick with me for a good while, and his leveling up as an actor is going to get him an Oscar nomination one of these days.

And the final thing I want to talk about (in terms of the positives) is the script of this film. As you may recall, the COVID-19 pandemic was definitely a tumultuous time in our lives. We were all locked down, there was so much disinformation regarding face masks and social distancing, and there was a lot of political and social turmoil going on. I remember it all too well, as I was actually hospitalized with COVID when it first began. Ari Aster did a masterful job of bringing up the turmoil that was going on at the time. Racial divides were higher than they ever were, each side was blaming the other for anything and everything, and there was total chaos. It is almost like I was reliving the events of April and May 2020 all over again.

But I want to end by talking about the story of the film. I mentioned that I (and others) believe the story of this film to be tonally inconsistent, and I could not agree more. The first half of the film is basically your satirical black comedy about all of the stuff I mentioned in the previous paragraph, shrouded in the mystery of a politically-charged plot. The second half is what begins to lose me in a film like this. When a jaw-dropping moment happens around the halfway mark of the film, it goes from aforementioned satirical black comedy to psychological drama with guns and 'splosions. And this tone shift does not feel warranted or even earned, it honestly feels unnecessary and brings the entire film down to be a major disappointment for me. Yes, it had that much of an effect on me.

In conclusion, Eddington has the makings of a perfect black comedy film, but it wastes stellar lead performances by not being able to get out of its own way by being more ambitious than it needed to be. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.