Chante JVR

⭐⭐⭐

Set in May 2020, Eddington unfolds in a small New Mexico town at the crossroads of a global pandemic and social upheaval. A standoff between Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), an anti-mask firebrand, and the tech-forward Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) becomes the fuse that ignites a culture war, pitting neighbour against neighbour, fuelled by political tension, conspiracy, and the echo chambers of social media.

What Works:

🤠Darius Khondji’s cinematography work elevates the film, turning scenes of everyday paranoia into evocative modern western imagery.
🤠Joaquin Phoenix portrays Sheriff Cross with palpable disillusionment and volatility, especially in the protest scenes that crackle with intensity.
🤠Ari Aster tackles the fractures of pandemic-era America head-on, pulling no punches in depicting misinformation, polarization, and identity politics. The tone is audacious and unrelenting.

What Doesn’t Work:

🔥Despite its ambition, the film veers into abstraction. Surreal symbolism and tonal shifts make the central message feel disjointed rather than incisively pointed.
🔥Although the film incisively lampoons modern anxieties, many characters, especially secondary players, remain underwritten, leaving their conflicts feeling more conceptual than affecting.

Bottom Line:

Eddington is an audacious, often unsettling mirror held up to our era. A Western-styled black comedy drenched in pandemic paranoia and societal breakdown. It doesn’t always hit its targets cleanly and tries to fit too much into its ridiculously long runtime, but what it lacks in coherence, it makes up for in nerve, I suppose. A stylistic and intellectual thrill, albeit a jagged one.