Ari Aster's 'EDDINGTON' - Review Thread
- Rotten Tomatoes: 64% (11 Reviews)
- Metacritic:
Reviews:
There’s no question that in “Eddington” Art Aster makes himself a scalding provocateur, the same way Todd Field did in “Tár” when he staged the confrontation at Julliard between Cate Blanchett’s Lydia and the BIPOC student who questioned her devotion to dead-white-male composers. Yet as much as nailing down the precise point-of-view of “Eddington” is bound to be the subject of numerous incendiary debates, I’d argue that this is very much not a case of Aster becoming some young A24-approved version of David Mamet. What he captures in “Eddington” is an entire society — left, right, and middle — spinning out of control, as it spins away from any sense of collective values.
Stemming from a collective sickness to the same degree that “Beau Is Afraid” was born from some very personal trauma, “Eddington” — the tagline for which reads: “Hindsight is 2020” — only wields its what’s the opposite of nostalgia? specificity as a means to an end. It might set the scene with a little “remember how it felt to wait in line outside the pharmacy?” fun, but Aster’s bleakly funny and brilliantly plotted assessment of how fucked we’ve become since then soon leverages those fun memories into a far more probing story about the difficulties of sharing a town between people who live in separate realities.
Eddington is what you might call a big swing, a film that’s more serious than it first seems, seeing Covid as the Big Bang that landed us right where we are now. It’s about the elephant in the room: the emergent likes of QAnon, 4Chan and the Proud Boys, things that did more damage than Covid ever did, leaving a raw, still-festering wound. Without ceremony or mercy, Eddington rips the Band-Aid off, and not everyone is going to want to look at, or think about, what’s there underneath it.
And by way of creative catharsis – listen, no one was thrilled about 2020 – “Eddington” finds greater charge enacting American carnage than just winking about, but that should come with little surprise. Aster has always had a knack for confrontation, while Phoenix works best as an open-nerve. That the duo should prove so adept tapping into a vein of neurotic action is one of the many brutal surprises in a social satire as blunt and broad as America itself.
BBC (4/5):
If Beau is Afraid seemed to be about Aster's own fears and neuroses, Eddington is about the more general fears and neuroses of the US in the year 2020. The writer-director puts everything into his blackly comic modern western – Covid-19 and online conspiracy theories, Black Lives Matter and white privilege, cult leaders and cryptocurrency – even if he can't quite work out how to weave all of those subjects together. The film would probably have been better if it had been more focused (and shorter), but Aster's deranged vision makes most directors seem timid in comparison.
The Independent (4/5):
This is Aster’s funniest film to date, and makes use of an ever expanding and shifting cast to dot the 150-minute runtime with well-observed comic details and visual payoffs.
Without question, the pandemic profoundly transformed an America that was already descending into tribal factions and widespread animosity. But Eddington lacks a clear perspective on that ever-present tragedy, settling instead for cynical observations and a fatal amount of smug self-satisfaction.
Collider (8/10):
Eddington may feel like a step back for Ari Aster in regards to his striking visuals and talent for creating nightmarish viewing experiences. But, if anything, it’s showing that Aster can take these nightmares and show how they can operate in reality.
Written & Directed by Ari Aster:
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Phoenix) and mayor (Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Cast:
- Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, Eddington's sheriff
- Pedro Pascal as Ted Garcia, the town's mayor who is running for reelection
- Emma Stone as Louise Cross, Joe's wife
- Austin Butler as Vernon Jefferson Peak
- Luke Grimes as Guy, an officer at the Eddington sheriff's office
- Deirdre O'Connell as Dawn, Louise's mother
- Micheal Ward as Michael, a young sheriff's trainee
- Clifton Collins Jr. as Lodge
- William Belleau as Officer Butterfly Jimenez
- Cameron Mann as Brian
- Matt Gomez Hidaka as Eric Garcia
- Amélie Hoeferle as Sarah
- Landall Goolsby as Will
- Elise Falanga as Nicolette
- Robert Mark Wallace as Warren