“Miraculously rises above the fray” – Review: Eddington

Ari Aster began his career with two supernatural horror films, exciting audiences as one of the bright new voices in horror. With Eddington and the preceding Beau is Afraid, Aster has expanded his definition of horror, bringing in surrealist elements and sociopolitical commentaries. Yet a through-line between all of his films has been examining the fraught and often terrifying nature of human relationships. Whether they are familial, romantic, or now in Eddington a grander societal relationship, Aster has never been afraid of holding up a mirror to the ugly part of human interaction.

His turn away from supernatural horror has been disappointing in some sense, yet Aster has embraced more experimental dimensions to his storytelling as a tradeoff. While this has created sloppier films, with each movie diminishing in quality from Hereditary, his work never fails to surprise. Eddington is perhaps his sloppiest work to date, yet one of his more piercing and fascinating ones at the same time.

For such an overtly political film, Eddington manages to feel strangely apolitical at times. Perhaps it is because Aster manages to ride the line of making a politically-neutral work. Set in 2020 in the heat of the COVID-19 pandemic in a small New Mexico town, the central conflict of the film ignites when Joaquin Phoenix‘s mask-resistant sheriff decides to challenge the liberal incumbent mayor (Pedro Pascal) for his seat.

Because this is Aster, the story doesn’t simply become a story of local politics. Instead, Aster manages to dig into the absurdity of so many political battles, highlighting the ridiculousness of left-wing battles over rhetoric as well as the chronically-online, science-denying tendencies of the modern conservative movement. The script and direction is quite masterful with the comedic timing of certain moments, letting the modern political discourse speak for itself in its inherent silliness. Everything from Black Lives Matter, Antifa, virtue signaling, Big Tech, social media and fake news, and much more is covered in this movie.

Eddington has plenty of warts, though. It has plotlines that lead nowhere, it’s overambitious in its thematic content, and it perhaps too gleefully embraces the A24 tropes of atypical plot resolution. And because the movie is so political in content, it will likely cause dichotomous reactions from those who don’t want to see themselves in this movie, or those who do see themselves and don’t like it. Leftists and conservatives alike will likely find reasons to say this film is ignorant and destructive to modern political discourse.

But the mess is easy to ignore in this case. The performances in this are pitch perfect. Phoenix, on his second film in a row with Aster, has become a vehicle for Aster’s musings on man’s chaotic nature. His character is very likable for someone who does some despicable things throughout the runtime. To the movie’s credit, there are no characters that aren’t without major flaws. Pascal’s mayor embraces all of the leftist talking points of social justice, but he has a banal corruption to him that’s visible throughout the film.

At times, one wishes Aster could show more restraint. The tightness of Hereditary demonstrates what Aster can achieve when his crazed vision aligns with a refined and tight script. Eddington, though, gleefully goes off the ropes in a way that only Aster has achieved of late. There are so many bizarre tangents in Eddington that one can’t help but admire it. Austin Butler’s character feels totally redundant, yet his weird scenes are some of the most strangely engrossing ones of the movie.

It’s not a perfect movie. But movies like Eddington bring hope that maverick filmmaking is still alive and well. For all of its less refined qualities, Eddington feels like one of the most accurately political films of the day. Its agenda miraculously manages to rise above the modern political fray and say something about our times without feeling preachy. Maybe only this version of Aster could do that.

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