Ari Aster actually wanted to start his directorial career with a contemporary western. But even after five years, he did not get the necessary financing together. So he, almost as Plan B, “Hereditary – The Legacy” – not only wrote the history of horror films, but also immediately drove up the film starts dream rating of 5 stars. This was followed by the increasingly larger productions “Midsommar” with Florence Pugh and “Beau is Afraid” with Joaquin Phoenix – and so Aster has reached one point in his career just seven years after his feature film debut, where he can find the once unreachable budget much easier.
However, a lot has happened in the world. That is why Aster completely revised his script at the time-and moved the plot in the middle of the trials and tribulations of Covid pandemic: “Eddington“Is a dark black corona western grotesque, which for a long time does not exaggerate the real madness of the Lockdown months before it almost bangs“ Rambo ”in a completely crazy finale. Aster really puts everything on the grain that comes up with it in 2020. That is why “Eddington” has become (too) proud for two and a half hours – and will really offend everyone in one way or another.
The feud between Sheriff Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted (Pedro Pascal) plunges the whole city into chaos.
Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) is a sheriff of the new Mexican town of Eddington, but like so many these days he also painted his snout full: Lockdown, social distancing-and then his conspiracy theories are still praying up and down-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O'Connell) with him and his depressive wife Louise (Emma Stone). The masking also makes Joe particularly difficult because of his asthma – and when the mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), which is about to re -election, therefore downloads him, he sets a straight into the catastrophe leading chain reaction:
Joe explains from sheer anger that he will compete even in the next mayor election. This is followed by an election campaign characterized by wild slogans-and in the middle of the mainly of white kids, Black-Lives-Matter protests organized, while an Antifa Terror Group, which is obviously operating under false flag, is even flown into with the luxury private jet into the so far stubborn eddington …
Yes, that also means we all!
“Eddington” roughly falls into three parts. It starts with an incredibly carefully observed corona satire-either Ari Aster soaked up everything around him very well, or he researched very extensively online, which could certainly not have been too good for intellectual and mental health: the extent of the conspiracy theories, which is spread here through the mystery or directly by the beastly mother-in-law Cow skin. And Louise has not even joined the tour end of the Pädophils secretary preacher Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler). This is all incredibly grotesque, but if you think about the individual things more precisely, none of them seem particularly unlikely.
The director of “Beau Is Afraid” had just expected more overwhelming. But that does not mean that “Eddington” does not provoke, on the contrary: because the punch lines never run along any long -time lines of discussion, but really everyone can get away their fat, regardless of whether Big Money or Black Lives Matt, everyone would really get stuck in their throat at some point. Aster seems to be less about who did something wrong at the time or what absurd flowers the covid reactions have driven than to show that an entire nation has lost its mind at this moment (and apparently no longer found it again).
“Fargo” as a collective covid fever dream
The caustic brilliance of Radu Judes, masterful Corona billing “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”, which was awarded the golden bear, does not quite achieve “Eddington”, but it is still entertaining to observe what is going together under the supposedly peaceful small town. This is especially true when Joaquin Phoenix (“Napoleon”) and Pedro Pascal (“The Last of Us”) meet directly, and in the most intense scene in the film, a not even hard but precisely so deprecating slap in the face in order to let the barrel finally overflow. This is followed by a small town murder grotesque in the briefly on the spot, the start of which comes out of nowhere and which then culmely flows into a final in which Ari Aster returns to the madness of his earlier films when he switches from the rapotent “Fargo”-directly into the ultra-brutal “The Wild Bunch” mode.
Conclusion: “Eddington” is a cross-genre psychogotesque-“Fargo” with a bloody final like on crack meets a very closely observed, with everything and every ruthlessly billing covid-19-farce! After the completely crazy psycho (sen) trip “Beau is afraid”, Ari Aster screwed the mad screw back a little for the first time in his career, but “Eddington” is still a dark black small town western satire, in which the director has at best spent a bit with the somewhat stretched running time of 145 minutes.
We saw “Eddington” at the Cannes Film Festival 2025, where he celebrated its world premiere in the official competition.