Film Review: Eddington
Hindsight Is 2020
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Eddington. Please note that this is just one of the many movies I will have watched each year, and my initial grade for this film may change over time, for better or worse. To stay up to date on my thoughts about other movies and any potential changes in my opinion on this one, follow me on Letterboxd.
If you enjoy these reviews, I’d greatly appreciate it if you could share this newsletter with family and friends who might love receiving film reviews, classic movie lists, and Oscars projections straight to their inbox.
PLOT
Via Letterboxd: In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
REVIEW
Ari Aster is, to me, both a compelling and equally frustrating filmmaker. One thing I will always give credit to any director for, even when I’m not a huge fan of their work, is when they fully commit to telling the stories they want to tell, in exactly the way they want to tell them. Aster is absolutely that kind of director. His films often feel like the cinematic equivalent of watching someone else’s surreal, deeply personal dream; one that might unsettle you, confuse you, or leave you shaken, but never indifferent.
This is the same filmmaker who first drew eyes (and dropped jaws) with the disturbing 2011 short The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, then made a name for himself with the critically acclaimed horror hits Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019), and most recently delivered one of the most divisive films of the 2020s with Beau Is Afraid (2023).
Now, Aster turns his lens toward something far more grounded, though still no less disturbing, the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s surreal to even say that it’s been just five years since it began, and yet here we are, with Aster choosing 2020 as the setting for his latest feature, Eddington. The film frames the pandemic not as backdrop but as battleground, pitting a “law and order” sheriff against a mayor desperately trying to secure re-election amid chaos, fear, and a divided public response. It’s a political and psychological powder keg, and it comes with a stacked cast. Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, among others.
It’s also two-and-a-half hours long, so we’re talking near-epic runtime territory. And that alone suggests Aster isn’t interested in trimming his vision for accessibility’s sake.
I’ll admit, I walked into this one with a healthy dose of trepidation. My relationship with Aster’s work has always been complicated. I admire his commitment to the strange and the specific. I love that he doesn’t shy away from discomfort, ambiguity, or even total narrative collapse if it serves the emotional core of what he’s trying to do. But just as often, I find myself frustrated by his inability to stick the landing. I respected Hereditary and Midsommar more than I loved them, and Beau Is Afraid was just straight up not my cup of tea.
That said, the premise of Eddington intrigued me. Here was a chance for Aster to channel his signature dread into a moment in history that was already soaked in real-world horror, paranoia, and existential unease. A moment we all lived through. I was hoping this would be the film where his style and substance finally clicked for me in a way that felt more cohesive for me and perhaps give me his best film yet.
For a solid ninety of its 149 minute runtime, I genuinely thought Ari Aster had finally delivered his most accessible and sharpest film yet. In fact, I’d go so far as to argue that Eddington is his best-directed and best-looking film to date. You can see real growth in how he frames and moves the camera, how he reveals story beats with confidence, and how carefully he constructs each scene. The sound work is equally immaculate; so much so that, if the second half of the year doesn’t produce a surge of strong contenders, this might just earn a slot on my personal Best Sound ballot come year’s end.
More impressively, I found myself fully absorbed in the complexity of the writing. At its best, Eddington feels damn near genius in how it threads together so many of 2020’s cultural flashpoints. Aster engages with the pandemic, social justice protests, conspiracy theory rabbit holes, the great mask debate, and the toxicity and performative nature of social media, all while exploring the layered hypocrisies and contradictions that live in and around these issues. It was sharp, challenging, and felt like a film that was truly of a moment, without pandering to it.
One of the most unexpected aspects was how much I connected with Joaquin Phoenix’s character. On paper, he’s the kind of person I’d be repulsed by with his ignorant, reactionary, regressive politics. And yet, Aster threads a deeply human arc through the character. His heartbreak over his wife’s descent into cult-like fanaticism is portrayed with nuance and vulnerability. You feel his helplessness, his grief over losing someone he loves not to death, but to a set of ideas he can't reach or understand. It struck a chord with me, I've lived through a version of that, and it's a pain I wouldn’t wish even on some of my worst enemies.
But then comes the final hour.
That last act is where Eddington begins to unravel, succumbing to Aster’s worst inclinations as a storyteller. His inability to resist turning stories mean-spirited and nihilistic rears its head again. The film pivots from its grounded tension to full-blown chaos as the town spirals into chaos. Worse, Aster leans hard into the surreal and bizarre, something I’ve come to expect from him, but here, it feels particularly misguided. His choice to frame this descent through imagery and rhetoric that heavily echoes “antifa terrorists are causing riots” talking points felt tone-deaf at best, irresponsible at worst. What started as a thoughtful and timely look at a community fraying under pressure instead dissolves into yet another fever dream of existential dread and societal collapse, leaving me with the sinking feeling that Aster just wanted me to walk out feeling worse about life in general.
And that’s the real letdown because for 90 minutes, I was fully on board with the ambition and scope of Eddington. I thought, “Okay, maybe this is the one that really clicks.” But ultimately, Ari had to be Ari. And he reminded me, once again, why I struggle to vibe with his work the way others so passionately do. As he continues to build his filmography, I find myself less engaged, not because the ideas aren't there, but because the follow-through often feels like punishment for caring in the first place.
I still respect the hell out of Eddington’s first hour-and-a-half. There’s brilliance in there, buried under the eventual mess. But that final stretch? It drags the whole film down for me. I have to give it an initial grade of C+.
GRADING
