Florida's Film, Television and the Arts Magazine
Eddington - Movie Review by Lisa Blanck
I’ve attended literally decades of press screenings for films and this is the first time that the members of the press were ever told to let the movie simmer before submitting a comment. That really sums up Eddington, the new film from Ari Asher. It takes a long time to digest. A stew that has different elements bubble up to the top, every time it's stirred.
Billed as a ‘western’ by some, but, to me, the only thing that makes it resemble one is that there’s a small-town sheriff and it takes place in New Mexico. Other than that, it’s positively David Lynchian. It’s got everything but the dwarf. Sex, violence, scandal, incest, insanity, murder, secrets, etc. etc.
In a nutshell, and, with a runtime of 148 minutes, it’s a HUGE nut, Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), the small-town sheriff, decides to run for Mayor of Eddington, NM. His opponent is the current Mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). They’re opponents politically, ethically and morally. They have a shared past, but you know I won’t spill those beans.
The action takes place a few months following the COVID-19 country-wide lockdown. Now, Eddington itself is a town in its death throes. Mayor Garcia appears to be a good guy. He’s trying to care for a town that is filled with good ol’ boys, some future-less teens and a whole bunch of crazies. He’s trying to keep the town healthy by vigorously encouraging mask use to ‘slow the spread’. Joe Cross, on the other hand, is a Sheriff who doesn’t want his rights ‘infringed’. He’ll double-dog-dare anyone who wants to force him, or his deputies, to mask up. That includes any and every public facility, office and private residence. He insists that “no one has Covid in our town”, while it’s apparent that simply is a lie, one that may prove fatal. Meanwhile, most of the town openly supports the Government’s health mandate.
Cross is married to Louise (Emma Stone), who suffers from a great deal of anxiety. Louise doesn’t want her husband to touch her, is uninterested in having a family with Joe. Her mother, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), recently came to visit and now can’t leave because of the lockdown. Dawn is completely enmeshed in every single cult and conspiracy theory out there, insisting on infusing that sickness into the home. Louise’s dad was the former town Sheriff, and his candlelit, oversize professional photograph resides in a place of honor; an altar smack dab in the middle of their living room. Occasionally, the family addresses comments to the altar.
And, since it’s 2020, the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, is stirred into the pot. His death sparks a nationwide protest and though Eddington, NM is primarily white, with just a single black officer and a handful of Hispanics, including the Mayor, the town takes up the ‘no justice, no peace’ protest. It starts as a flicker, then the heat is turned up, becoming literally a raging inferno. Eddington manifests as a microcosm of 2020's crazy town.
In writing Eddington, Aster weaves in multiple snippets of the reality of that lost year. The growth of health conspiracy nuts who promote the use of hydroxychloroquine. The boom of the use of AI in social media. The growth of cults who take advantage of the enforced isolation of the populace, such as the one lead by Vernon (Austin Butler).
In the background of the action is a corporation, a data center, being constructed adjacent to the small town. Some see it as a boon, the thing that will save the town from eradication. Others see it as a threat. Onscreen, Aster flashes a website, SolidGoldMagiKarp, which is supposed to disseminate information on the project. The word itself is a GPT token, a word that makes no sense in and of itself. My research showed that the word itself 'leads to erratic behavior in any of the modeling systems' that use it. I wanted to source it to give you a better understanding, but it’s way beyond my ken, sorry. All I can grasp is that it’s some sort of glitch, causing a break in GPT’s reality.
Could it, and the data center, also be the source for the mayhem that erupts in Eddington? Only Aster knows.
Childless Louise has spent her life making the weirdest artwork. Paintings and hand-held figures of big-headed, lumpy misshapen humans. Some have long, projectile-like noses. These images have taken over the Cross home, inhabiting every crawlspace and wall. They’re even on the Sheriff’s office desk.
Social media plays a huge role in what happens in the town of Eddington. The Sheriff announces his intention to run for Mayor in a social media rant, without informing his wife, decorating his official vehicle with signage that says things like “your (sic) being manipulated” and “don’t turn Eddington NM into Facebook NM”. Sheriff Cross is seen frequently with his cellphone in his hand, obsessing over videos of his wedding as well as the number of hits his posts receive. Later in the film he makes another rant on social media, leading to even more serious consequences for the entire town.
So many people here in need of serious psychotherapy. And that beat goes on.
Eddington is spicy and dark. See it with a friend, to mull over the plots and subplots. Major kudos to Phoenix, who manages to hold on to the strings of a plot gone almost wild: give corruptible people a taste of power and their addiction to power becomes insatiable.
