Eddington: Dismally Disappointing

Rating: 3.2/10

Eddington falls short in its attempt to satirize a difficult time while telling an interesting story of a small-town election, despite stellar casting and a great idea.

Highlights: 

• Interesting score

• Great cast

• Ideal setting

Lowlights: 

• Overcomplicated and confusing

• Too long

• Underdeveloped characters

A black comedy neo-Western directed by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal sounds like an incredible film. Eddington could have been this -- punchy in its satirization of the politics of 2020, indulgent in its callbacks to the westerns of the 1950s, the chemistry between the two leads popping off the screen -- but it fell flat, failing spectacularly to accomplish anything that a good movie should want to accomplish. Everything leading up to the actual film was fantastic: excellent cast, interesting storyline, intriguing marketing by red-hot production company A24. But the experience of watching Eddington was nothing short of terrible. The first hour dragged on miserably with a pointless plot and backstory-less characters. The rest of the film (which did not need to be 149 minutes, by the way) pivoted abruptly to unveil the violent and quickly paced spiral of Joe Cross (Phoenix), which was far more interesting, but also quite confusing. Eddington felt like two mildly successful stories forcibly smashed together. I would've liked the film to actually develop the relationship and mayoral race between Cross and Ted Garcia (Pascal) rather than launching into such a frenzy. I'm not sure what this film was supposed to be about -- it seems to me to most clearly tell a story of Cross' descent into madness, but why should we care about that? The comedic positioning of the political dynamics that throbbed in the early summer of 2020 was certainly a risk that could have succeeded, but felt awkward and inauthentic. A film that tackles the Covid-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, and general extreme angst of this period is simply not welcome only five years after these events we all remember.

Did you watch the movie? Do you want more? Check out Midsommar, another of Aster's films, and one that better suits his creative strengths.

Watch the trailer!