Eddington: The Perils, Stalemates, and Traumas of the Pandemic, Unpacked

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A-

You want controversy? You want a debate? Eddington is for you, in the best way possible. The film, which played in competition at Cannes earlier this year, could be subtitled How the Fuck Did We Get Here?

American writer-director Ari Aster’s fourth feature plunges itself into the fractures that the restrictions of COVID-19 had on American society like a precision medical laser. The film is set in 2020 in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico (population 2,345) which abuts First Nations territory of the Pueblo and the town of Santa Lupe. They have their own police force, and the issue of jurisdiction is a constant source of friction.

Pandemic protocols are in place. But Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) is not interested in complying with them or enforcing them, claiming his asthma makes wearing a mask impossible, and supporting his fellow anti-maskers. What at first plays as a slightly comic bit of his personality becomes less so as his behaviour seems driven by something darker.

This puts him in opposition to the town’s progressively minded, mild-mannered mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). You see the temperamental difference between the two men in an early scene when they meet in the local supermarket, and Garcia tries to persuade Cross to put his mask on. Garcia’s pleas to his sheriff don’t rise to the level of confrontation.

Garcia, single father to a teenage son, is a local businessman who owns a bar in the town. He’s running for re-election and is aiming to boost the city by attracting new and modern businesses, notably a major AI data centre. He seems more refined and more affluent than his sheriff but isn’t ostentatious or showy.

Cross is married to Louise (Emma Stone), a quiet, somewhat depressed woman, who makes creepy-looking dolls she sells online. They live together in a small dark house, which feels smaller, darker, and more claustrophobic because of the presence of Louise’s mom, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) who has been living with them during COVID and is sleeping in their living room.

It’s not just her physical presence that makes it all feel too closed in. There is what looks to be a small shrine set up to her late husband, Louise’s father, with a candle constantly burning.

Dawn, who seems slightly unhinged, is constantly talking about conspiracy theories. Cross can’t grab a morning coffee without her following him around, and she’s brought her daughter into that world as well. That’s deepened in Louise when Dawn takes her to hear Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler), who is speaking in a nearby town.

Peak has built a following on his website, where he claims he was a victim of child sex trafficking, and is now speaking openly about pedophilia and other conspiracies. Handsome, sincere, soft-spoken, he’s become a kind of cult leader with a vague hint of menace. Louise, who is stuffing down a lifetime of unresolved issues, is more engaged by him than either her mom or her husband anticipated.

Aware that his wife is withdrawing, Cross is trying to get Louise to come out of her shell but can’t quite break through to her. With pressures building, Cross and Garcia tangle once again. This time Cross makes a split-second decision to run for mayor, upping the ante on the tension between the two.

Amid this, the George Floyd murder hits the news. A small group of high school seniors, led by a popular girl, are enlivened by the Black Lives Matter protests they see on TV, and stage their own protest, blocking a street in the largely white and Hispanic town. Some of the local businesses have windows smashed.

Of course, everyone is recording everything on their phones and posting on social media. Frustrations build. Competitions heighten. And as Cross and his deputies investigate a murder, the Pueblo tribal Sheriff Butterfly Jiminez (William Belleau) claims co-jurisdiction over the crime scene and is unimpressed by Cross’s investigation and unfazed by his objections.

Eddington is, in the grand scheme of things, an insignificant little village, out in the middle of nowhere. The stakes aren’t very high. But what begins as small disputes ripple out and start to affect everyone.

Ari Aster first made his name with Hereditary and Midsommar, films that paid homage to the horror movies of the late-1960s and early 70s and dealt with cults. An underlying theme with all of these is anxiety, and a feeling of being out of control or unable to control circumstances or apply any normal logic to the circumstances you find yourself in.

Beau is Afraid, Aster’s most recent film, was a jagged, surrealist study of a character’s anxiety and dislocation from reality as he tries to get to his mother’s house.

Eddington moves Aster out of the horror category into more dramatic territory but still informed by his preoccupations with anxiety and the way the unexamined or repressed emotions manifest in a time of stress.

So perhaps it’s not such a surprise that he was attracted to the way COVID with its restrictions and controversies destabilized a lot of people. There is an overarching sense in Eddington that the unexamined life is what sends people off into different camps projecting their discomfort outwards in aggressive ways. Creating divisions, raising suspicions, and pushing conspiracy theories forward, further spitting the society.

Aster has clearly thought deeply about what he sees happening, and there is little doubt in my mind that the movie is going to annoy a percentage of viewers, especially if they don’t stand back and look at the bigger picture he’s showing us.

Aster isn’t judging his characters or shoving answers at us. He presents the town of Eddington as a microcosm of society at a specific time and place and it’s up to us to decide what we’re going to take away.

Aster packs a lot into the film but never loses control of the material. In his most mainstream work to date, he once again shows his mettle as a serious filmmaker. The cast is uniformly strong. It’s early days, but Phoenix turns in another outstanding performance and could be considered when people start making their awards lists.

Eddington. Written and directed by Ari Aster. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell, Luke Grimes, and Micheal Ward. In theatres July 18.