Eddington Review
Eddington (2025) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Cameron Mann, Matt Gomez Hidaka, Luke Grimes, Amelie Hoeferle, Clifton Collins Jr., William Belleau, Landall Goolsby, Elise Falanga, King Orba, Rachel de la Torre and Keith Jardine.
What is it with the conclusions of Joaquin Phoenix’s latest films? They seem to end in unsatisfying ways. I may just be referring to the recent Joker sequel and Phoenix’s latest thriller, Eddington, which is directed by the one and only Ari Aster. Eddington was truly a near-perfect film for almost its entire duration, but the ending almost pulls the rug out from everything Aster was trying to accomplish. Here’s a movie that I wish I didn’t see the ending to. That being said, when Phoenix’s character in the new film, Sheriff Joe Cross, comes out of a guns and ammo store late in the picture firing off rounds at anyone who crosses his path, there is pure originality and brilliance to be found in Eddington. Picture The Terminator meets Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with a dash of Fargo and you get an idea what Aster is trying to do here, but he does it in such a way that the inspiration of those films on him is only felt very slightly.
Eddington, New Mexico is the town where the movie lays out its intelligent story line. It’s a few months into 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and masks are required to enter supermarkets. Joe Cross doesn’t think he needs to follow the rules and wear a mask like everyone else so when he’s most likely infected with the virus as he’s firing away at people near the end, one may say his hubris has gotten the best of him. Eddington doesn’t play games. It meanders a bit in the beginning for one purpose only: to develop its layered characters. Phoenix’s Joe is married to Louise (a miscast Emma Stone) who carries a history of abuse with her. Joe is trying to beat out a local political candidate named Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal, who’s in everything this summer) to run the town.
This movie, like Fargo, is about characters who run the gamut of being both pathetic and being just a tad bit respectable too. When Joe, an oddball cop, starts taking the law into his own hands and killing whoever he wants to, the movie feels Shakespearean in its ambitions to be about things much more grander than what appears on the surface in the many minor details that the movie zeroes in on.
One scene has Katy Perry’s song, “Firework,” blasting at a party as Joe answers a complaint call to turn down the music. Ted doesn’t give into Joe’s demands which marks a most likely soon-to-be fatal decision by Ted. Joe is slapped and walks away from the scene feeling a bit defeated, but like any great villain, he’s got a master revenge plan that will play itself out as Joe’s thought-process ultimately comes together.
Deirdre O’Connell superbly plays a pivotal part of the action as her mother character believes that Louise was abused by Ted which causes Joe to make a local speech that could have enough false information in it to make Louise abandon him forever and cause Joe to lose the political race he’s running in. Let’s not mention the younger and wiser, Vernon (Austin Butler), who may try to steal Louise for himself in some way, shape of form.
There are two scene-stealers in the supporting cast. William Belleau as Officer Jiminez Butterfly who doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to playing by the rules book and collecting evidence after some key characters end up dead. Belleau is extraordinarily competent in his role which could play a major barrier to Joe getting away with some crooked things he does here. Michael Ward as Michael, a Black man framed for murder, is also compelling in a thought-provoking part of the script that ultimately features some of the most interesting scenes of the film. Luke Grimes’ Guy who calls Joe constantly is also really solid although he doesn’t carry the weight of the film in the same manner Belleau and Ward do.
I would say that this is Phoenix’s best work since The Master, hands down. Joker was a great role, too and won him an Oscar, but in Eddington, Phoenix takes his character places even more unpredictable than the ones he took the Joker. You don’t know whether to respect him or hate him, but in some weird way, you could end up rooting for him, much like the way his role in Joker was executed. Nobody can do a weirdo like Phoenix can and he plays the role to the max. Pascal, in the less showy part, more than holds his own beside Phoenix in a role that Pascal could do so well after his diverse experiences in many recent Hollywood and independent films. Pascal’s name in a film is becoming a staple of quality these days.
Whoever thought Eddington would have some of the best action in movies this summer towards the end? These gun-blazing scenes are brilliantly edited and Aster makes some genius choices in terms of how he develops his complex story line. The scenes where town members protest are also authentically executed and the COVID-19 angle works terrifically. A crooked Sheriff with COVID-19 wearing him down, Joe Cross was a role Phoenix was born to play.
I regret to say the ending of Eddington is Aster trying to outdo himself again. Still, the racial and political tensions the movie presents against the backdrop of a virus which is taking over the country makes for one of the most intelligent movies of the year until logic is tossed out the window for a conclusion where Aster tries to make Joe pay dearly for his life choices. You know how the Coen Brothers handled William H. Macy’s character in Fargo? They did it better than Aster does with his handling of Joe’s ultimate fate. That’s all I’ll say, but if not for the last minutes of Eddington, it would be an almost perfect picture. Yes, Emma Stone gets lost in the shuffle, but if she wasn’t such a big name actress, you would probably hardly notice.
Eddington is a largely character-driven film and makes valid points about the lengths people would go for goals that are ultimately sort of meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Trying to get to the top of the political ladder in a tiny town as a virus with no vaccine is killing people is ultimately rather desperate and then some. Eddington knows desperation like the back of its hand and plays on it to successfully pull off a winner.
Rating: 8.5/10
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