Eddington

For sheer audacious vision and pyrotechnic filmmaking Ari Aster takes some beating, especially with his latest opus, which emerges as an apocalyptic Western set in the barren wastes of New Mexico in the wake of the pandemic.

His thesis is that the restrictions imposed have driven much of the population to the edge of insanity (that may explain the ructions in politics) and gives rise to extremists of all shades but notably middle-class white kids.

The director of Midsummer and Hereditary knows how to pull and play with his audiences’ expectations so despite the lengthy running time the narrative barely lags in the force of its propulsion.

The starry cast sees Joaquin Phoenix as an asthmatic sheriff who refuses to wear a face mask, emerging as a shambolic figure, attracting trouble like demented magnet.

Gun culture, social media and what Aster’s perceives as America’s loss of collective stability are stirred into the mix as Phoenix’s sheriff opts to challenge for election the town’s mayor (played by a grinning Pedro Pascal). It turns out that the two men have history: two decades earlier the current Mayor had slept with the sheriff’s wife (Emma Stone) and she became pregnant and also precariously vulnerable.

When Austin Butler puts in an appearance as the leader of a strange cult devoted to the victims of child sexual abuse the sheriff’s wife decides to abandon the homestead and leaves the sheriff devastated (and nobody does wounded masculinity better than Phoenix).

Yet there’s so much more to come with an all guns blazing finale and associated carnage that despatches many of the characters in various bloody and gory ways.

The truly admirable aspect of Eddington is the way Aster constantly pulls the rug from under expectations with a mix of dark thriller, Western, gore fest, and political satire all vying for a share of the action.

It’s a bonkers ride on high velocity, definitely madcap, knowingly humorous, and somehow irresistibly watchable.

Reviewed on: 16 May 2025