I didn't like Ari Aster's black comedy starring Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix — but not for the reasons most people are hating it

Tom's Guide

6 days ago

Ari Aster's "Eddington" has been making noise at film festivals for a while now, but it only came out in U.S. theaters this past weekend. So on opening night, I headed to my local theater to watch Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal face off in this dark comedy set in the early days of COVID-19.
Fast forward two and a half hours and I walked out of my theater deeply disappointed.
That's not a unique reaction to seeing this movie. "Eddington" is currently at 67% "fresh" according to critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 64% "hot" by audiences. People are either loving this movie, or they're hating it, and there are plenty of people on both sides of the divide.
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Ironically, that's pretty fitting given the subject matter of Ari Aster's modern Western. The film's main purpose is to hold up a mirror to the divisiveness of America that kicked into high gear in 2020 and is still pervasive today.
If it had held to that purpose, I'd probably be writing a different, more positive review. Here's a bit more about what "Eddington" is about and why I'd wait until it hits HBO Max to watch it.
"Eddington" is set in a New Mexico town of the same name, during May 2020, as COVID-19 makes its way through the U.S. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, the sheriff for Sevilla County, where Eddington resides, and Pedro Pascal as Ted Garcia, the mayor of the small town of a couple thousand people.
At this point, the pandemic has already set everyone on edge, with some, like Joe, thinking that too many freedoms are being rescinded and others, like Ted, thinking that it's what is required for the town to survive.
But that's not the only force at work here. Joe is friendly towards conspiracy theories, and both his wife (Emma Stone) and his mother-in-law (Diedre O'Connell) fully go down the rabbit hole. Meanwhile, Ted is trying to get an AI data center built to bring money to Eddington, but it's unclear how much of that money might make it his way directly.
These factors all combine to convince Joe he needs to run against Ted in the upcoming mayoral race, and he deputizes his deputy sheriffs (Luke Grimes, Micheal Ward) to help him take down Ted. But those plans get thrown into chaos once the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, begin in Eddington.
After reading that synopsis, you could see why people might take issue with this movie. COVID-19, political polarization, conspiracy theories — these are all subjects ripe for pissing off just about anyone.
But I felt Ari Aster did a masterful job holding up a mirror to the way we were — and still are.
I don't think any particular group of people comes off looking good in this movie, and that's intentional. Nor does anyone come off as wholly evil and irredeemable until the third act of the movie (more on that later).
You'd go into the movie expecting the liberal Ted to be the good guy, but he's clearly flawed. He's politically ambitious, has some skeletons in his closet, and is possibly in the pocket of a big tech company.
He also spouts COVID-19 information more than once in an effort to highlight how serious the disease is, and despite his liberal facade, would love to see the local homeless man, Lodge (Clifton Collins Jr.), locked up and off the streets.
You'd also expect right-wing Joe to be the bad guy, but it's clear that he's got some good intentions in his heart. He buys groceries for a man who wasn't allowed to shop without a mask, and when the Sheriff's office learns the news about George Floyd, his first reaction is to ask his Black sergeant, Michael, if he's doing okay after seeing something so traumatic.
Then there are the townspeople, and they're just as flawed. This movie really shines as a black comedy when it focuses on the high school students in the community, who organize the protests in Eddington and don't really know the substance of the chants and ideology they're spouting. It's genuinely hilarious, and had me and the rest of the theater laughing out loud.
For most people, this is why they hate "Eddington." They either don't want to revisit the traumatic time that was 2020 yet, or they're pissed that the liberals in the movie are portrayed in a bad light.
But for me, this is what worked about the movie. What didn't work was the tonal shift the movie takes in the third act.
I don't want to spoil what happens, in case you decide to see this movie. But in the final third of "Eddington," things take a turn from a black comedy/modern Western to a shocking horror movie.
Granted, that's a type of movie Ari Aster typically excels at ("Hereditary" as a prime example), and if "Eddington" had been a horror movie from the start, then perhaps it would have worked.
But the shift is so jarring when it happens, and by the time I walked out of the theater, the same people who were once laughing were talking about how much they didn't like the movie. I wouldn't go as far as the person I overheard calling it the "worst movie they've ever seen," but I was definitely checking my watch by the end to see how much longer I'd need to sit through the movie.
So I can't recommend you sit in a theater for two hours and 28 minutes to watch this story play out, especially since it's probably about 28 minutes too long in the first place. If you want to watch "Eddington," wait for it to hit HBO Max in the coming months and stream it then.
Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made.
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