Your experiences during the Pandemic can make Ari Aster‘s “Eddington” a difficult watch.  While it is his most humorous movie to date, it was harder for me to sit through this than “Hereditary” or “Midsommar.”  The common theme linking all of Ari’s movies is they are “Not For Everyone.”  Your mileage on this one will depend on your personal experiences and how dark your sense of humor is.

The story takes place over a couple of days in late May of 2020 in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico.  Hysteria over Covid has peaked, and is adding fuel to an already existing rivalry between the local Sherriff, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and the Mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal).  Ted is an outward stickler for the current Covid policies.  Always wearing a mask, social distancing, and hording TP.  Joe thinks these policies are robbing him and others of their humanity and are ridiculous since there have been zero Covid cases in their county.  The root of their rivalry stems from an old rumored scandal between Ted and and Joe’s sickly wife Louise (Emma Stone).  Louise denies anything ever happened, but her overbearing, problematic mother, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) insists it happened and refuses to let the rumors die.

At first the movie feels like a routine character study on how the pandemic eroded away the façade of civility between members of a community.  But as the story unfolds, it slowly becomes more surreal.  The narrative begins to push the boundaries of reality, and begins to embrace some of the more crazy stories told during that era.  We meet Vernon (Austin Butler), an odd influencer who is either pedaling conspiracy theories or was actually hunted as a child at the Bohemian Grove.  A random crazy(?) man with a suspicious cough appears, intent on entering the local bar, legally or not.  Tiny protests/riots begin to pop up.  People suddenly begin to distrust Michael (Micheal Ward), the only black cop in town.  Eventually a well funded military group dressed in all black makes their way to Eddington as well. If Act 1 is a character study, Act 2 is a satire, and Act 3 is a madman’s fever dream.

Each individual aspect of this film is great.  The performances are all compelling.  The writing is sharp and clever, layering different types of humor into each interaction.  The cinematography is enjoyable, with a handful of unexpected shots/scenes.  The biggest problem is, when it comes down to it, this is just a 2.5 hour-long, live-action, South Park episode.  It follows the exact same plot structure, starting with a real world issue and rolling with it until the story ends with absurdity and death.  Maybe it’ll be a more enjoyable watch after another five years have passed?

Eddington
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