Eddington (2025) & My Apparent Aversion to "COVID Cinema"
Back in July, my friend Alex made me aware of an upcoming movie being distributed by A24 called Eddington. The only context I was given for the film was that it was directed by Ari Aster--the mind behind what some would call the freakiest movies of the last decade, including Midsommar (2019) and Hereditary (2018). After looking further into the movie’s concept, I wasn’t convinced that I truly wanted to see it--at least perhaps not in theaters.
The movie is set right at the nascent stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in a New Mexico town called Eddington. The current mayor of Eddington, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), is running for reelection in the coming season on a tech-friendly platform that would help to finance a proposed datacenter project directly outside of Eddington. Not agreeing with Ted’s implementation of a lockdown protocol in Eddington (and also due to a variety of personal reasons that would include spoilers), the town sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), decides to run against Garcia in the mayoral race on a platform of what he calls “personal freedom.”
That very basic description does very little justice to what Aster achieves with his latest self-produced fever dream, but to explain further would bloat this review and very likely delve into spoiler territory, so I will leave it at that. If this review should have any impact on you, it should push you to watch Eddington yourself and make your own judgement about its quality.
Anyway, let me get this out of the way: I did not personally enjoy Eddington. I liked parts of Eddington because they were funny or clever or made me have interesting thoughts, but as a whole, I found the film lacking in likeability. However, this does not mean that I think Eddington is a bad film. I think the social commentary that Aster provides through the viewpoint of Joaquin Phoenix’s character does a lot to humanize both sides of a recent conflict that is likely still divisive to many, and brings some levity to a period of time that many (myself included) look back on with a sort of disdain.
I think Eddington is at its peak when Aster uses its characters to exaggerate and satirize a period of time that few look back on fondly. It presents a host of unique viewpoints that I’d personally never even considered about the pandemic era, and it does so in an entertaining and sometimes completely insane way that makes its 149 minute runtime feel less like a slog and more like a rollercoaster where the viewer is just along for the ride. The film’s strengths can best be summed up by one of the slogans that Joe Cross uses in his mayoral campaign:
Eddington takes no sides in its satire and that is where it really becomes something that deserves discussion. Because Aster doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to dissecting both ends of the American political spectrum, there’s a lot to be found for any viewer, regardless of political orientation.
In writing this review, I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t like Eddington because I thought I wasn’t going to like it. I heard that the guy who made Beau is Afraid was directing a political commentary/comedy film set in the middle of 2020 and I immediately wrote it off as something I would hate. Under closer inspection, however, I’ve found a host of reasons to enjoy Eddington that far outweigh the fact that I was in seventh grade and got a D in algebra the same year that the movie is set.
Verdict:
7/10
Go watch Eddington so I have more people to talk to about it.
The movie is set right at the nascent stage of the COVID-19 pandemic in a New Mexico town called Eddington. The current mayor of Eddington, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal), is running for reelection in the coming season on a tech-friendly platform that would help to finance a proposed datacenter project directly outside of Eddington. Not agreeing with Ted’s implementation of a lockdown protocol in Eddington (and also due to a variety of personal reasons that would include spoilers), the town sheriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), decides to run against Garcia in the mayoral race on a platform of what he calls “personal freedom.”
That very basic description does very little justice to what Aster achieves with his latest self-produced fever dream, but to explain further would bloat this review and very likely delve into spoiler territory, so I will leave it at that. If this review should have any impact on you, it should push you to watch Eddington yourself and make your own judgement about its quality.
Anyway, let me get this out of the way: I did not personally enjoy Eddington. I liked parts of Eddington because they were funny or clever or made me have interesting thoughts, but as a whole, I found the film lacking in likeability. However, this does not mean that I think Eddington is a bad film. I think the social commentary that Aster provides through the viewpoint of Joaquin Phoenix’s character does a lot to humanize both sides of a recent conflict that is likely still divisive to many, and brings some levity to a period of time that many (myself included) look back on with a sort of disdain.
I think Eddington is at its peak when Aster uses its characters to exaggerate and satirize a period of time that few look back on fondly. It presents a host of unique viewpoints that I’d personally never even considered about the pandemic era, and it does so in an entertaining and sometimes completely insane way that makes its 149 minute runtime feel less like a slog and more like a rollercoaster where the viewer is just along for the ride. The film’s strengths can best be summed up by one of the slogans that Joe Cross uses in his mayoral campaign:
Eddington takes no sides in its satire and that is where it really becomes something that deserves discussion. Because Aster doesn’t pull his punches when it comes to dissecting both ends of the American political spectrum, there’s a lot to be found for any viewer, regardless of political orientation.
In writing this review, I’ve come to the conclusion that I didn’t like Eddington because I thought I wasn’t going to like it. I heard that the guy who made Beau is Afraid was directing a political commentary/comedy film set in the middle of 2020 and I immediately wrote it off as something I would hate. Under closer inspection, however, I’ve found a host of reasons to enjoy Eddington that far outweigh the fact that I was in seventh grade and got a D in algebra the same year that the movie is set.
Verdict:
7/10
Go watch Eddington so I have more people to talk to about it.
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