Eddington

Ari Aster's neo-western period-piece-about-today stars Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff of the titular New Mexico town, who makes a series of reactionary decisions as a result of his town's COVID-19 mask mandates. One not well thought-out choice he makes is mounting a campaign against the mayor (Pedro Pascal) without first talking it over with his emotionally unstable wife (Emma Stone). Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) is far better at conveying emotional states than exploring narrative concepts. His storytelling skills and Phoenix's rudderless acting technique are not up to the task of sustaining a 149-minute snapshot in which the eponymous small town serves as a microcosm of how America lost its mind in 2020 and why it may never recover from that psychotic break.

Part of the issue is that for such a lengthy film, it has far too many two-dimensional characters, some of whom are little more than anthropomorphized talking points. The picture is meant as a look back at a specific point in time, but we never moved on from that point. Hence, everything that the film stirs up in the viewers is already hyper-present in most of us. Eddington comes across as a filmmaker processing thoughts and feelings in real-time rather than a rumination on complex situations and ideas. That might be interesting if the film presented observations different from what we all witness and think about every day. It's not funny enough to be satire, not realistic enough to be drama, not engaging enough to be a thriller, and too morally ambiguous to be a western. I'll call it still-life cinema; a depiction of contrasting textures deliberately arranged to evoke emotions. I craved a little more depth.