Despite a small body of work, American director Ari Aster has established a name for himself as a talent to watch.
Eddington
Theatrical release poster
His debut Hereditary (2018) helped launch the term “elevated horror,” as a domestic tale of family grief segued into supernatural horror.
Midsommar (2019) helped Florence Pugh’s ascent to stardom and made us al very worried about attending Swedish folk festivals.
Beau Is Afraid (2023), sort of an update on The Odyssey, proved more difficult for audiences to parse, with the same star, Joaquin Phoenix,
Each of the above three films followed emotionally beleaguered (anti)heroes subjected to absurd trials amidst bursts of shocking violence.
With Eddington, his long, sprawling saga, Aster has upped the ante with his first film to premiere at the Cannes Film Fest–it’s in competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or prize.
A contemporary western, Eddington turns Aster’s usual preoccupations inside out. Instead of focusing on the psychological travails of a single protagonist, the scope is widened to a cross-section of racially diverse inhabitants in a fictional small town, sort of a microcosm of the state of America.
The tale is set in 2020, amid the pandemic and the wave of Black Lives Matter protests that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd.
We observe the daily doings of Sheriff Joe Cross (Phoenix), an impulsive asthmatic who’s so upset about the mandate requiring him to wear a mask that he decides to run for mayor against long-standing enemym, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal).
Meanwhile, Joe is losing his wife Louise (Emma Stone) to the presence of cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler). Louise is suffering from a mysterious trauma, doesn’t like to be touched and refers to herself in the third person when stressed. In her spare time, she makes creepy dolls that Joe pays his colleague to buy.
Rounding out his household is mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), who relishes berating everyone – her voice is heard off camera while Joe suffers in the foreground.
Ambitious to a fault, Aster makes use of an ever expanding and shifting cast to justify the excessive 146-minute runtime with well-observed comic details and visual payoffs.
These often riff on the deadpan reactions of the Black and Native American characters to Joe and his meathead deputy.
Aster’s view of the paranoid universes in our minds takes on a less sympathetic, more malign aspect when Joe wears a law enforcement badge and carries a rifle.
Digital culture is masterfully seeded as a radicalising force in a kaleidoscope of different directions.
The screenplay is as fluent in the language of identity politics as it is slogan-driven electioneering.
Eddington aims to skewer a range of political postures. A young white man hosting a vigil for a murdered Hispanic man notes, “My job now is to listen, which I’ll do right after I’ve made this speech which I have no right to make!!!”
The wider screen of a western and the broader scope of a state-of-the-nation are meant ti accommodate the overflowing ideas, which often struggle to be contained within Aster’ sprawling textm which claims a run time of 156 minutes!
Cinematographer Darius Khondji’s frames serve well comedy with a series of hypnotic images.
Micheal Ward stands out as the police officer justifying Joe’s comment that “a third of my department is Black!” (It’s a department of three.) His stoic demeanor is a study in micro-acting and when, after one injustice too many, it slips, it suddenly seems like Eddington is his film.
This sweeping effort shows that the Wild West still exists on the ground and online, with Aster showing a keen eye for the people that grow in isolated landscape.
Cast
Joaquin Phoenix
Pedro Pascal
Luke Grimes
Deirdre O’Connell
Micheal Ward
Austin Butler
Emma Stone
Credits:
Directed, written by Ari Aster
Produced by Lars Knudsen, Ari Aster, Ann RuarkCinematography Darius Khondji
Edited by Lucian Johnston
Music by Daniel Pemberton, Bobby Krlic
Production: A24, Square Peg, 828 Productions
Distributed by A24
Release dates: May 16, 2025 (Cannes); July 18, 2025 (US)
Running time: 149 minutes
Budget $25 million
Box office $13.1 million
Eddington (2025): Aster’s So-So Attempt at a Black Satire of Contemporary America
Midsommar (2019) helped Florence Pugh’s ascent to stardom and made us al very worried about attending Swedish folk festivals.
Beau Is Afraid (2023), sort of an update on The Odyssey, proved more difficult for audiences to parse, with the same star, Joaquin Phoenix,
Each of the above three films followed emotionally beleaguered (anti)heroes subjected to absurd trials amidst bursts of shocking violence.
With Eddington, his long, sprawling saga, Aster has upped the ante with his first film to premiere at the Cannes Film Fest–it’s in competition for the prestigious Palme d’Or prize.
A contemporary western, Eddington turns Aster’s usual preoccupations inside out. Instead of focusing on the psychological travails of a single protagonist, the scope is widened to a cross-section of racially diverse inhabitants in a fictional small town, sort of a microcosm of the state of America.
Meanwhile, Joe is losing his wife Louise (Emma Stone) to the presence of cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler). Louise is suffering from a mysterious trauma, doesn’t like to be touched and refers to herself in the third person when stressed. In her spare time, she makes creepy dolls that Joe pays his colleague to buy.
Rounding out his household is mother-in-law Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), who relishes berating everyone – her voice is heard off camera while Joe suffers in the foreground.
Digital culture is masterfully seeded as a radicalising force in a kaleidoscope of different directions.
The screenplay is as fluent in the language of identity politics as it is slogan-driven electioneering.
Eddington aims to skewer a range of political postures. A young white man hosting a vigil for a murdered Hispanic man notes, “My job now is to listen, which I’ll do right after I’ve made this speech which I have no right to make!!!”
Micheal Ward stands out as the police officer justifying Joe’s comment that “a third of my department is Black!” (It’s a department of three.) His stoic demeanor is a study in micro-acting and when, after one injustice too many, it slips, it suddenly seems like Eddington is his film.
This sweeping effort shows that the Wild West still exists on the ground and online, with Aster showing a keen eye for the people that grow in isolated landscape.
Cast
Joaquin Phoenix
Pedro Pascal
Luke Grimes
Deirdre O’Connell
Micheal Ward
Austin Butler
Emma Stone
Edited by Lucian Johnston
Music by Daniel Pemberton, Bobby Krlic
Production: A24, Square Peg, 828 Productions
Distributed by A24
Release dates: May 16, 2025 (Cannes); July 18, 2025 (US)
Running time: 149 minutes
Budget $25 million
Box office $13.1 million