By Matthew Moorcroft

Solid Recommendation

• Directed by Ari Aster
• Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, Emma Stone
• R

Online brainrot is everywhere in Eddington, both the movie and the titular New Mexico town that it’s set in. The pandemic is in full force, with mask mandates everywhere, the town in complete lockdown, and an election on the horizon. And everybody is on their phones, their computers, the internet, unable to just log off. Cause what else are you supposed to do – go outside and possibly get infected? Get rightfully lambasted for breaking social protocol? To Joe Cross, the villain protagonist of Eddington whose increasingly rash decisions are at the heart of the film’s central ideas, you run for mayor against a guy who humiliated you and upended your fragile ideas of masculinity, of course. And when that doesn’t work, you just keep going deeper and deeper into the hole of conspiracy to get what you want.

And, of course, everybody else is lonely, stuck inside, and trying to find something, anything to latch onto in the midst of one of the dumbest times in human history.

It’s no coincidence Eddington both opens and ends on the image of a massive tech firm. The looming threat of capital and AI infiltration is constantly over this, especially with the modern day knowledge that ultimately this will become the norm, our water being dried up to farm… what exactly? A data center that provides more brainrot and misinformation to us, a species of people so dumb that we can’t even spell “Your” or “You’re” correctly?

With Ari Aster at the top of his craft for much of this, the first two-thirds of Eddington make the case for some Aster’s most engaging, entertaining work ever. Unshackled by the horror genre and instead diving straight into dark, pitch black comedy, Eddington feels like the best Coen Brothers movie never made; a movie about the dumbest people alive somehow stumbling through life in a somehow dumber period time. There a joyful glee in how Aster sends his characters into one increasingly tense situation to the next, forcing them to reckoning with large political issues that many of them are not reasonably smart enough to dissect or even qualified to discuss. Some of these, like the social justice influencer Sarah, have their heart in the right place – for the most part – while others, like the young man Brian who is in love with her, is only there for the possible approval of others. Guess how that ends?

This bluntness in it’s messaging is Eddington‘s greatest strength and it’s greatest weakness, as once you figure out the themes here Eddington begins to click into place maybe a little bit earlier then Aster likely wants. While it’s story is certainly twisty in ways that are unexpected and fun – particularly a midway genre shift that makes up much of the film’s best material – it’s actual final endpoint feels obvious and maybe takes too long to get there. Once the shoe drops in it’s final act, Eddington is much more concerned with knocking your socks off and making you feel as anxious as possible then making any kind of greater point.

But is there really a point to Eddington‘s madness? And does there need to be? Cause as Eddington dumps you into conspiracy central and forces you to listen to every single crazy thing that Joe begins to believe, you start to believe Joe himself is right that he’s being targeted and attacked. As a full representation of that kind of thinking, Eddington succeeds with flying colors like most of Aster’s work; like how Midsommar was the best representative of the worst drug trip known to mankind, Eddington is what happens when you watch too much stupid crap on TikTok that completely breaks your thought processes.

If as a mood piece Eddington is fantastic, it’s really where it’s attempted satire that it begins to mostly falter off. It’s mostly a case of there being one too many threads, one too many knots, one too many side stories that ultimately don’t lead much of anywhere. The film’s initial focus on the pandemic is honestly something of an afterthought by the film’s halfway point as the film dives headfirst into conspiracy territory, and the lack of commitment to a particular plot thread feels less cowardly then it does a missed opportunity. This also really extends to some cast members like Emma Stone, Austin Butler, or even William Belleau, who all are fascinating figures that never get the chance to breath with the sheer breadth of characters here.

Eddington certainly does collapse under the weight of it’s own pressures by the end, not doubt about it. In fact, leaving the theater and pondering it days later I find myself more baffled by certain choices more then anything else – mainly a last minute reveal about a certain group that feels haphazard and almost impossibly stupid, and not in the brainrot way – but I also find myself immensely curious to learn more and once again impressed by Aster’s directorial prowess. He’s yet to truly make a film that I 100% love, but he’s also yet to make a film that isn’t anything else then worthy of full discussion, which more then can be said for many filmmakers. And while Eddington certainly isn’t perfect – far from it – it’s by far one of the most effective discussion starters of the year and must watch for anybody even remotely interested. And frankly, that’s more then enough for it to get some level of solid marks from me.