Eddington: A Brilliant Sociopolitical Dissection of 2020
Eddington is one of the boldest, most provocative and best films of 2025.
One of the first scenes of Ari Aster’s brilliant Eddington shows sheriff Joe Cross (played brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix) walk into a convenience store without a mask on. After having a very public argument with the towns mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) he buys groceries and walks out of the store. He gives these groceries to a man who tried entering the building without a mask before he went in, handing them off to him. The man proceeds to praise Cross for his noble action and takes a picture with him. When Cross sits in his car, he sees a picture the man took of him on Facebook stating ‘one decent guy left in Eddington’ with a sense of elation and a sweeping score to ascend the moment, Joe Cross leaves the place feeling like a superhero, a figure the people need in this moment.
This moment, in context of the pandemic and the intentions of the right wing during this time plays different in the political context we are in. It’s uncomfortable and the film forces you to sit in the discomfort. This is what makes Eddington easily the most transgressive and off putting film I’ve seen in theatres this year - and I really loved it. If you don’t want to be reminded of the 2020 Pandemic in any way and believe it’s too soon to reflect on it- Eddington is going to be a miserable time in the theatre. I believe it is a fascinating dissection, forcing us in the point of view of a deeply troubled man with a savior complex.
Joe Cross is the protagonist of this film and this is the type of man that exacerbated the riled tensions of the pandemic. A man who refused to do the right thing because he believed it was an agenda. He wanted to be a free agent, even if that individualistic liberty cost the safety of the people he was sworn in to protect. Phoenix is incredible in the role, helping us actually heavily sympathize with a character we don’t want to. The framing of the film is one of the most challenging aspects of the film and it was a bold choice for Aster to make the protagonist of the film the man we would villainize. It’s a juxtaposition that will off put some audiences seeing the film.
There’s a subplot involving the son of the Ted Garcia, Eric. It explores Eric going out and hanging out with friends in groups even though there is a strict no gathering regulation in the town. What we discover is that this group of friends are actually very politically savy. They believe in Covid, they believe in the Black Lives Matter movement and want to change the political system. Eric’s best friend Brian at first doesn’t care about any of this- looking for a good time and that’s it. This is until he develops a crush on a girl that is a progressive activist and starts to change his thought process and speech just to impress her.
These kids start to get in Joe Cross’ way, taking him as the enemy since in many ways he is. However, the film paints this kids as out of their element in some ways. I believe the films simple jabs at these kids who are discussing themes of radical change without truly understanding the implications of what they are even talking about will certainly ignite rage in some of the audience seeing this movie. The framing of these teenagers at times feels like commentary you would see on the Ben Shapiro show, about some advocates screaming in your face and not really doing anything but cause distress in a town. These moments however, play into an overall broader concept of the movie at large. This films first half plays like a conservatives dream. The unassuming town sheriff runs for town mayor to get the town back to its more conservative values and to stop the progressives from stealing the core values of the town at large. This movie is satirically riffing on this idea however, showing just how shallow Cross is as an individual, how he is just as much if not more emotionally compromised than the protestors that have been framed as the issue in his own head.
One of my favorite details of this film is on Cross’ sheriff vehicle there is a sign that states “Your Being Manipulated” which is of course an illiterate slogan. It’s little things like that early on that shows that Aster is not giving this character a break, he is the punchline of the film. It reminds me of the sitcom Married with Children. While Al Bundy is the main character of that show and we see the show mostly through his point of view, he’s a loser, manipulator and sexist and the show consistently laughs at him for having a terrible worldview. Ari Aster is doing the same type of humor here as well and I think it’s ultimately effective.
This movie takes a dark turn in the second act that I won’t spoil here, but after that this movie becomes a much grimmer film. Showing that yes, some of the stuff that happened in the 2020 pandemic in retrospect was funny but ultimately it was a very tragic time that showed the true colors of several people in our community. It unmasked a lot of political tension (no pun intended) we are still seeing the ramifications of to this day. A lot of people have accused Aster of making a centrist film, where he just throws his hands up in the air and states “we are all corrupt and evil!”, without providing how he believes we could change the system. I do agree that Aster’s worldview in the film is a nihilistic one and that being a conclusion you could make after watching this two and a half hour film might be infuriating, but I think saying this is a centrist dissection of the film is not the right lens to see the film through.
I believe Aster’s film is a film dissecting everyone’s super ego. How easy it is for the American public to take something tragic like a global pandemic and even a civil rights protest and make it about us vs making it about the true pain these events can bring on an entire community. This is presented through some of the characters in the film shifting their ideology just due to how much monetary gain they will have being on a certain side of the aisle, not due to any moral values or principals. This film is an interesting dissection not only of the Ben Shapiro type protagonist, but the characters in the film that take the direction of someone like Tulsi Gabbard or Dave Rubin- commentators in the space that used to have a progressive mindset until they were offered more power on the opposing side. This movie is all about the power imbalances and how towns and the people of that town can shape and fold depending on their own self interests. The movie should make you uncomfortable and it should make you feel self reflective no matter what side of the political aisle you are. This film is showing the dangers of an unchecked libertarian mindset and it is a broad satire of the so called ‘free thinkers’ in this country who have made their bed with right wing ideologies. However, it also challenges it’s audience to do self reflection in yourself. It is not saying that political activism and fighting for a better life is a bad thing, it is just asking if your values are with the cause or if your selfishness is getting in the way of your own ideologies.
Eddington is a technically immaculate film. Really wonderfully realized town, I love the production design of the film. This movie screams rural New Mexico and I have a soft spot about movies that have well established rural roots regardless, so this film had me engaged from the start. I think the way Aster is able to bring tension and dread in every scene is so well established. He’s one of our best directors right now because he knows exactly what he is selling to his audience and the way he wants to make them feel. He captures the anxiety of a situation better than any other director I’ve seen making movies just by where he places the camera and framing what we see in frame and what we can only imagine what is going on outside of it. My only real gripes with the film is I thought Cross’ wife (played by Emma Stone) and the cult leader she takes interest in (played by Austin Butler) were under served in the story and could have been fleshed out a little more. In that regard, there’s so many ideas being presented in this movie being thrown at you at once that it can’t help but feel exhausting at times, but I believe that’s the intent. This does leave some ideas of the film feeling under cooked where I think they could have been even more compelling.
Overall, Eddington is a very daring film and one that will have walk outs by people of all sorts of different ideologies. What Ari Aster has made here is a compelling conversation piece that stems perfectly into the hellscape that is political tensions in the 2020’s. If you are going to the movies for escapism this is not the right film to go see. You have to sit in your discomfort, in the same way you do with Ari Aster’s last film Beau is Afraid. While that film takes a deep turn into surrealism, Eddington is the most grounded approach that Ari Aster has done yet. There’s no supernatural elements in this film but somehow it’s equally as terrifying as his previous three films. This is because sometimes, the truth is stranger than fiction- which is perfectly distilled in this harrowing piece of film making I won’t soon forget. I know some people think Ari Aster has fallen off as a director, but I’ve loved all four of his films so far and appreciate the ambitions of a man telling stories no one else would.
