Eddington

2020. I can’t believe it’s only been five years. Yet, somehow, we’re still in it. It’s a year that’s stretched into a lifetime, while also feeling like a distant, half-forgotten memory that will never leave me, no matter how hard I try. At the height of the crisis, the lockdowns and the BLM protests, Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) and incumbent mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) wage a war over who will be the new mayor of Eddington, NM. They differ on how to handle policies like wearing masks indoors, or how to handle people who can’t (or won’t) mask up when shopping for groceries.

Sheriff Cross falls into a rabbit hole of internet conspiracy theories and uses his platform to perpetuate some of them. He doesn’t even believe in half of them. Some of them just sound good on a microphone or on camera to anger up his supporters against his opponent. His wife, Louise (Emma Stone), on the other hand, is a True Believer in these internet conspiracies. She’s gone all the way down the rabbit hole, and there’s no way out for her other than down, down, down as far as she can go.

Across the country, protests and riots in response to the murder of George Floyd are seeing widespread panic, and those protests have made their way to Eddington, NM. Eddington, in its own way, serves as a metaphor for the madness and mayhem that gripped the United States (and the world) during that tumultuous year. The town becomes a lightning rod for activity, from protests to assassinations to political upheaval. Eddington has got it all.

Where Eddington succeeds, and when the film is at its most interesting, it’s a fairly standard power struggle play between two men who are at odds with each other, as the world around them is on fire. When the film attempts to satirize “both sides” of the political divide, it becomes significantly less interesting. Satire should be wielded like a scalpul: Deep, but precise. Blunt, clumsy satire without a clear picture in mind plays out like an angry, rambling tirade in which no message emerges. What is Eddington trying to say about COVID, lockdowns, and BLM protests? That everyone’s an idiot? That you’re stupid to be involved?

At its worst, Eddington feels like a bad South Park episode, where it was written in a rush to weigh in on a topical event, and the gags don’t quite land, and the story isn’t really more than a series of events related to relevant headlines. But while South Park has a valid excuse of being produced in a very short, two-week window, Ari Aster had five years to say something interesting about COVID-era small-town America. Instead, we’re left with a silly cartoon filled with a lot of words that never really says anything.

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray
Eddington emerges from lockdown Blu-ray in a single-disc release with a slipcase that opens to the side. The interior case is decorated with screenshots from the movie, and a sleeve opposite the disc contains postcards of the fictional town of Eddington, NM.

Eddington was shot digitally by legendary cinematographer Darius Khondji (Se7en) in 4K and is presented in 1080p HD for this Blu-ray release. The film wears a lot of genre hats, and pulling this off visually is no small feat. It’s, at once, a noir, a neo-western and a paranoid political thriller, and the visual cues of each genre are represented through its filmmaking process. The southwestern aesthetic, with its brown and tan scenic landscapes, and its turquoise architectural accents. The noir shadows, large and looming, are almost threatening like monsters in the evening. And the whip-panning mayhem as the walls begin to close in on the sheriff. None of these techniques is at odds with the others; they all live harmoniously and complement each other as a cohesive whole.

I had a whole rant prepared for how A24 releases come equipped with a Dolby Atmos mix when a 5.1 option would do, if not even be preferable. But by the end, Eddington had won me over and convinced me that its Dolby Atmos mix wasn’t an arbitrary decision. Both rear and height channels see a lot of activity, some of which is beautifully subtle and engaging. Faraway gunfire echoes through the tops and the satellite speakers, while the impact of the bullet varies depending on its location relative to the camera and the viewer. The subwoofer is similarly used in fun, clever ways, particularly a loud boom when a car strikes a pedestrian, or a political party with Katy Perry’s “Firework” blaring inside a house, muffled and thumping.

Like a grocery store’s toilet paper selection in early 2020, special features for Eddington are pretty bare. Aside from the postcards within the case, the sole feature on the disc is a making-of featurette.

• Made in Eddington (HD 33:23) – Making-of featurette, including interviews with the cast and crew

Eddington is a showcase for Ari Aster as a filmmaker at both his best and his worst. The technical skill involved in making Eddington is top-notch, and there are incredible sequences of sustained brilliance. But as a narrative whole, the film is a mess. Its message - if it even has one - is muddled to the point of incoherence, and its ethos is cynically lazy. Understandably, movies like this are polarizing, and Aster is a polarizing filmmaker. His films aren’t for everyone. To that end, Eddington is Worth a Look.