Eddington: A Review

EDDINGTON

For the first hour, hour and a half of Eddington, we got a sharp satire of the madness that was the 2020 Summer of Love. The blend of COVID-19 hysteria and the "racial reckoning" post-George Floyd deserves to be mocked and ridiculed. However, as Eddington continues, it starts dragging. It then goes beyond dragging and turns into a dull, chaotic convoluted mess. 

It is late May 2020. Sevilla County, New Mexico Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) may be asthmatic, but he does not care for the COVID-19 restrictions going on about him. The compulsory mask wearing plays havoc with his breathing. Sheriff Cross is also cross about how his fellow Eddington residents are slipping into paranoia and anger. Grocery store patrons chase others out if they walk in maskless. The store itself maintains strict social distancing and patron limits.

For Eddington Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), every restriction is worth it if it saves just ONE life! He is running for reelection and thinks that he will stay in office. The only major problem that Garcia faces is his son, Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka). He pretty much skirts the restrictions, even if they would save just ONE life! Eric is also deeply attracted to Sarah Allen (Amelie Hoeferle). She is using her white privilege to speak up and speak out against all the oppression going on in America. Sarah will fight for the racial reckoning, the stolen land, the oppression of all non-whites in Eddington. 

That there is no racial strife in Eddington is irrelevant. Social justice waits for no one. She also is the object of desire for many a young man. There is Eric. There is his frenemy Brian (Cameron Mann), who soon learns the language of the Woke. One man who is not enamored of our Commie revolutionary is Michael Cooke (Micheal Ward). He is her ex, but he is also one of the two deputies.

Joe and Ted have more than differences on COVID responses. They share a woman, Louise Bodkin (Emma Stone). Louise is Joe's wife now. However, long ago she and Ted had a relationship. How far that relationship went is a matter of debate. Joe, frustrated at how things are, almost on the spur of the moment, opts to run for Mayor. 

That one decision leads to a cascade of chaos and murder. Louise's already fragile mental help is not helped by any of this. Accusations of rape, of racism, jealous young men, angry middle-aged men all manage to get people killed. The situation in little Eddington, already on edge due to a controversial data collection facility proposed, explode. Throw in online conspiracy theorist Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler) and nosy Native American detective Butterfly Jimenez (William Belleau) and not everyone will survive the literal Battle of Eddington, New Mexico.

Eddington is a film that starts out well. Director/screenwriter Ari Aster build up, slowly but steadily, a good satire on COVID reactions. Looking at the events of 2020 with some distance, we can see that things were at times bordering on the hysterical. The film opens with Detective Butterfly driving up to Sheriff Cross and reprimanding him for not wearing a mask. This leads to a brief argument about borderlines. What is mandatory in the Native American area may not be required in neighboring Sevilla County. The Black Lives Matter protesters are also brought in for ridicule. Sarah is an insufferable self-righteous scold. She at one point berates Deputy Michael Cooke for working for the Sheriff's Department. He should be with the George Floyd protesters, made up primarily of high schoolers. Why should he be with them? 

Simple. Michael Cooke is black. Why should his fellow Deputy Guy (Luke Grimes) take a knee? The craziness, the self-righteousness and at times total lunacy of the Summer of Love is captured well in the film. At one point, Brian tells his parents about how they should essentially be anti-white. They, curiously enough, are not sympathetic.

Eddington, however, is not some right-wing screed. Joe Cross is not shown in the best light either. Wavering, at times foolish, inconsiderate and at times bonkers, Cross is shown as sane only because everyone else seems to outdo him.

The film is quite well-acted. I flat out did not recognize Austin Butler in his small role of Vernon Peak, the online nutjob who spins eccentric conspiracies mixed with vague pseudo-Christianity. Emma Stone's role is small. However, her performance of Louise is good, this woman barely hanging on to sanity slipping outside of it due to Joe's wild accusations against Ted.

For as ubiquitous as Pedro Pascal has been, he did quite well here too as the wimpy, shady Mayor Ted. He is weak as a leader and father. He also shows himself as a totally insincere person. The fake election ad is hilarious in its total insincerity. Hidaka too left a strong impression as Eric, the arrogant scion who screws family and friends over. 

Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross blends the character's commitment to his ideals with his growing paranoia. The film really centers around his character. Phoenix makes Cross a figure of righteousness and frustration.

It is, however, once we get a shocking twist in Eddington that the film falls apart for me. Without giving too much away, I could not help thinking of Charlie Kirk at a certain point. It comes out of nowhere, and throwing Eric into things makes things worse. Had there been a genuine mystery about Ted and Eric, Eddington might have worked better. That was not what happened. 

The final, bloody end to Eddington also troubled me. I was troubled by the graphic nature of it all. I was troubled by the end results of what happened to some people. I also thought that it made the film much longer and a little bit more illogical. There were already points of logic that bothered me. I do not think that official sheriff department vehicles would have been permitted to be used for Joe's political campaign. The sheriff department's truck was full of Joe Cross banners and stickers. This is already dubious. That one of the signs read "Your Being Manipulated" when it should be "You're" just gets at me to no end.

Length is a big issue with Eddington. At nearly two and a half hours, you start feeling it. I wanted the film to end. It just seemed to be going all over the place, desperate to find a conclusion. It settled on a very weak and bizarre one.  

Eddington came close to being one of the better films of the year. Unfortunately, it soon disintegrated. A mix of excessive length and wild leaps of logic sunk what had been a good film. 

Half a decade after a collective collapse of worldwide sanity, we still seek out a good satire on the 2020 Summer of Love. Eddington is not it. It is a start, but not what we need. 

DECISION: D-