Ari Aster’s latest film, ‘Eddington’, is a teasingly audacious cosmic sociological Western thriller that gleefully tosses liberal art-house orthodoxy aside. Set in the desert city of Eddington, New Mexico, during the COVID summer of 2020, the film follows Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), who refuses to wear a face mask despite being asthmatic. His stance challenges conventional wisdom, but Phoenix plays him as a shambolic screw-up, making it unclear whether the film endorses his views.
The plot thickens after the George Floyd murder, when anti-racist youth protests emerge in Eddington. Aster portrays these activists as deluded narcissists, suggesting that moralistic self-righteousness has become an addiction in America. The film also skewers COVID protocols and radical-chic fervour, leading some to wonder if Aster has turned into a right-wing hipster auteur. However, the director’s real target is the pandemic era itself, which he views as the moment America lost its collective mind.
‘Eddington’ presents a fully scaled vision of a transformed society, touching on COVID’s impact, the rise of moral absolutism, conspiracy theories, gun culture, paranoia about pedophilia, and social media’s role in distorting reality. The film also addresses the ominous rise of big tech, embodied by a proposed data centre from a corporation called solidgoldmagikarp. Despite its heavy themes, the movie maintains a deadpan tone of trepidatious glee, showcasing an angry, sinister, and perhaps crazy new America.
