This is the basic set-up of the film, and across an admirably light-footed 2 hours and 15 minutes it charts the incremental (but perhaps inevitable) process of American degradation via its to-do list of sacred cow targets. These range from fervent 2nd Amendment champions, small government proponents and shady white supremacists to BLM protesters, White saviour complex types and even Antifa, who in this world are portrayed as an elite, well-funded commando unit posted by private jet to take down specific irritant targets. With Joe’s spiralling, ideologically-driven antics now receiving national coverage, he duly courts the ire of the Antifa enforcers.
Eddington is a deeply cynical film for deeply cynical times, and if you’re looking to find a hero to root for in this fucked-up fresco, then you need to keep on walking. Perhaps the closest we come to a locus for empathy is Micheal Ward’s newly minted police-sergeant Michael, who is trapped between working for a racist, ignorant, self-serving menace, and his white millennial ex-girlfriend who has at the front of BLM protests and wants him to join the as a Black officer who acknowledges the rot in the system.
This avowedly switched-on film is gorgeously shot by the great Darius Khondji and packed to the gills with easter-egg like gags which emphasise how the collective brain-rot that comes from obsessive posting has almost reached Defcon One. The film certainly is rare in actually offering an authentic depiction of social media and its noxious capabilities, even if its insistence on proving there’s no righteous moral that can’t be swiftly liquidated does become a little tiresome by the home stretch. Phoenix, as ever, commits to the bit and then some, and he keeps his gallon-hat sporting tinpot demagogue anchored with enough downhome charm to keep you second-guessing his motives.
I wouldn’t say that Ari Aster has entirely won me over with the full buffet, amuse bouche, entrées, two deserts, cigars, digestifs and petit fours that is Eddington, but the needle is set closer to zero for his next madcap, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink offering slides down the chute.