It is May 2020, the height of the Covid Pandemic and in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico a feud between the town’s Mayor and Sheriff threatens to destabilise the entire town and its citizens’ way of life. 

I will start my review by simply stating that Eddington is a superb movie. One that I was enthralled by as I watched and considered the myriad of storylines and what they meant in a larger context and one that I have thought about a lot since I saw it and contemplated what writer/director Ari Aster was trying to convey.  But I am also willing to accept that this is a film that will divide and I think there may be as many people who consider it a bore fest as those who consider it brilliant. And I wanted to say that upfront before I went any further. 

On the surface Eddington is very simply about the chaos and division that the Covid pandemic created. It starts simply. Town Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) dislikes having to wear masks and thinks that both himself and others who dislike wearing them should not have to. When he witnesses a resident being manhandled out of the local supermarket for not wearing one he decides enough is enough and decides to run for Mayor. This action however has many undertones. Joe does not like Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) who is the current incumbent because Ted previously had a relationship with Joe’s now wife Louise (Emma Stone) and there is a history there that has a very sore and open wound within it. 

From here the number of storylines layer upon each other as a homeless man stumbles across the town coming into contact with each of the major events. 

Louise’s mother Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell) who is currently living with the Cross’s is a conspiracy theorist and she slowly brings her daughter into this way of thinking. The mainstay of their new belief system is represented by Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler) who spouts theories of pedophile rings across the country. 

The Mayor’s son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka) gets involved in the Black Lives Matter movement, mostly in order to flirt with Sarah (Amelie Hoeferle) and his friend Brian (Cameron Mann) undermines him as his alignment differs to suit the outcome best for him. 

Terrorists target the town once the Mayor race gives it some notoriety, murders take place and all hell breaks loose. 

And incredibly importantly a new development of a data centre that will be called SolidGoldMagikarp is argued over. 

All of this increasingly chaotic and mad storytelling is delivered masterfully both in its writing and directing and in its cast’s performances. 

Ari Aster began his feature film career with two brilliant, but comparatively fairly straightforward horror movies in Hereditary and Midsommar. With his third film Beau Is Afraid he built a rather different horrorscape that was within the mind of its protagonist and Eddington is similar in that it manages to slowly build a picture of a horror but this time in every day, normal life. The difference however for me largely between Beau is Afraid and this film is that this one truly clicked into place in terms of its bigger meaning. 

Because you see, Eddington is simply a microcosm of everything Ari Aster believes divides not just Americans but entire Western Civilisation right now. Covid wandered into our lives (just like the homeless man does into Eddington) and it disrupted all of our societal norms. I implore you to look up the relevance to SolidGoldMagikarp, preferably once you have seen the film to understand what Aster is trying to say about how we as a society are able create problems and divisions simply by willing them into existence. If you speak about (or post about in this digital era) something enough then regardless of how real it actually is it will enter our sphere of consciousness and create a problem.

Simply put Aster is able to represent the horror of daily life through the divisions between us, the partisan nature of our belief systems, the hypocrisy of white knighting, the way people in power manipulate those subservient to them and the way in which people change their partisan opinions to suit outcomes that give them that power. 

The result is rather genius before we even get to talk about the perfection of the script and the wonderful performances on show. The scenes between Phoenix and Pascal bristle with disdain as much as they observe an incredibly dry wit. Whilst those with O’Connell, Stone and Butler are enough to make anyone mad with the cynicism on display from the people who crave fame via division. 

Eddington may be boring and meandering to some. But I found it deeply powerful and fascinating.