July 18, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Ari Aster
Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020 and 2021, in the fictional small town of Eddington, New Mexico, the dramatic film “Eddington” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people, African Americans and Native Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A politically conservative sheriff decides to run for mayor of Eddington against the politically liberal incumbent mayor, and it sets off a firestorm of controversies and deaths.
Culture Audience: “Eddington” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, filmmaker Ari Aster, COVID-19 movies and movies that are political satires.
Although the movie’s last 15 minutes drag for too long, “Eddington” is a suspenseful and well-acted dark satire that provokes and skewers various political beliefs. The fictional small town of Eddington represents many real communities. And the movie astutely shows that the height of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed and ignited discontent that already existed.
Written and directed by Ari Aster, “Eddington” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. It’s a divisive movie where viewers will find something that will be entertaining or offensive. How much viewers will actually like or dislike “Eddington” will depend on how much they are entertained or offended. Many real-life controversies and people’s reactions to them are put on display in various portrayals that hold up a mirror to uncomfortable aspects of American society that some people might not want to see.
The fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico, is a suburb of Albuquerque and is a desert town in Savilla County. (“Eddington” was filmed in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.) In the spring and summer of 2020 (when most of the movie takes place), Eddington’s population is 2,345. “Eddington” begins in late May 2020, about two months after the world went into lockdowns of quarantines, social distancing and mask wearing that affected people in various ways.
Joe Cross (played by Joaquin Phoenix) is the sheriff of Savilla County. Joe thinks he’s an above-average good guy and believes that wearing masks should be optional and a “freedom of choice” issue during this pandemic. He doesn’t like institutional policies that require people to wear masks in public during a public health safety crisis. Joe doesn’t want to enforce these policies because, technically, these policies aren’t laws, as he points out in one of the movie’s many confrontational scenes.
In stark contrast to Joe is Ted Garcia (played by Pedro Pascal), Eddington’s incumbent mayor who is seeking re-election. Ted not only believes in the mask-wearing policies, he also believes that these policies should be supported by law enforcement officials. Ted is also a businessman (he owns an Eddington pub called Garcia’s Bar), who thinks he’s more intelligent than the average Eddington resident. Joe and Ted have multiple conflicts in the story about their opposite beliefs.
The movie begins by showing a mentally ill, disheveled and barefoot vagrant named Lodge (played by unrecognizable Clifton Collins Jr.), who is trudging along in the hills above Eddington, as he rants out loud to himself. Lodge is a familiar sight in Eddington, but he’s mostly ignored by the residents, unless people think he’s causing trouble. In the movie’s opening scene, Lodge passes by a large sign announcing a “proposed hyperscale data development center” called Solidgoldmagikarp.
It’s later revealed that Solidgoldmagikarp is a mysterious technology company that wants to set up an office in Eddington to do projects for artificial intelligence. Ted and other Eddington officials want this business because they think it will significantly boost the town’s economy. Other town officials and several other Eddington residents don’t trust what Solidgoldmagikarp is about and don’t want this company in Eddington.
Joe and his homemaker wife Louise Cross (played by Emma Stone), who do not have chilren, live in a modest house with a guest who’s staying longer than expected: Louise’s widowed mother Dawn (played Deirdre O’Connell), whose deceased husband used to be the sheriff of Eddington. Dawn (who seems to have bouts of depression and talks out loud to herself) was originally going to leave in April, but the pandemic has prolonged her stay. Joe and Louise aren’t thrilled about this arrangement, because it’s apparently affected their marital intimacy, but Louise convinces Joe that Dawn will leave when things get safer during the pandemic.
Louise makes unusual-looking stuffed toys as a hobby. And through conversations in the movie, it’s hinted that she has mental health issues, including a nervous breakdown in her past. Louise has been using the Internet to semi-secretly follow a conspiracy theorist named Vernon Jefferson Peak (played by Austin Butler), who has a cult-like group of supporters. Dawn is also a believer in conspiracy theories.
The word “QAnon” is not mentioned in the movie, but the group led by Vernon has beliefs that are a lot like QAnon. Louise is a survivor of sexual abuse that happened when she was 16 years old. It’s also hinted that she could have experienced sexual abuse at a younger age. And so, she’s triggered when Vernon preaches about pedophiles who are in positions of power, especially government officials.
In contrast to Joe’s personal life, Ted is a divorcé whose ex-wife left him and their son Eric Garcia an untold number of years ago. Eric (played by Matt Gomez Hidaka) is now about 17 years old. Eric is at an age when he wants to be independent, but he’s legally a child who’s under the responsibility of Ted, who is a somewhat strict and very image-conscious parent.
There’s a scene where Ted and Eric argue about Eric wanting to borrow Ted’s car to visit Eric’s best friend Brian Frazee (played by Cameron Mann) at the house where Brian lives, but Ted is concerned about Eric possibly getting COVID-19. Ted also tells Eric that if the mayor’s son is seen flaunting the town’s social-distancing policies, it could reflect badly on Ted’s campaign. After some back-and-forth arguing, Ted reluctantly lets Eric borrow the car for this social visit on the condition that Eric only meets up with Brian.
Of course, Eric isn’t just meeting up with Brian alone in Brian’s house. Eric and Brian go to a bonfire party attended by other teenagers. It’s at this party where Brian and Eric meet 19-year-old Sarah (played by Amélie Hoeferle), who is every stereotype of a left-wing social justice warrior. For example, she constantly feels the need to point out her “white privilege,” and she thinks that most white people are racist oppressors.
Brian is immediately attracted to Sarah and pretends to have the same political beliefs as Sarah, in order to impress her. (For example, when Brian sees Sarah with an Angela Davis book, he uses his phone to look up who left-wing political activist Angela Davis is before Brian approaches Sarah for a conversation.) Despite Brian’s best efforts to date Sarah, she ends up being more attracted to Eric, who is smarter and more confident than Brian.
Meanwhile, after Joe has two separate public incidents where Ted scolds Joe for not wearing a mask in public, Joe decides to run for mayor against Ted. (A subtle joke in the movie is one of Joe’s negative campaign slogans against Ted is misspelled as “Your being manipulated” instead of the correct spelling of “You’re being manipulated.”) For his mayoral campaign, Joe enlists the help of his two subordinates, who are as woefully inexperienced as Joe when it comes to running a political campaign: Guy Tooley (played by Luke Grimes) is Joe’s deputy. Michael Cooke (played by Micheal Ward) is a police officer whom Joe promotes to sergeant.
Guy and Michael are competitive with each other when it comes to which one will get the most approval and perks from Joe. This rivalry will play a crucial role in something disturbing that happens later in the story. Guy is very much a Blue Lives Matter type of law enforcement official who is likely to automatically side with cops in police brutality cases. Michael tries to remain neutral and uses the excuse that racist hate crimes happen in other places, not in Eddington. Michael doesn’t say anything in protest when Joe and Guy make racially ignorant comments to Michael.
However, Michael’s racial identity as an African American (and the only African American in Eddington’s small police force) becomes a big issue for some people, especially during the confrontational Black Lives Matter protests that happen in Eddington after the May 2020 police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Michael can no longer use the excuse that Eddington isn’t affected by racist police brutality that happens in other cities. Joe, Guy and Michael all have to respond as law enforcement officers when these protests look like they could erupt into violence.
Michael is a supporting character who is sure to inspire many questions and discussions from “Eddington” viewers: Does someone like Michael need to “pick a side” in the racial social justice wars? And what about the idea that black people don’t all think alike and have the right to individual opinions? As just because Michael is a police officer, does that automatically make him a “traitor” to his race in a job that’s frequently accused of racial profiling against black and brown people?
“Eddington” goes further down a rabbit hole of complications when it’s revealed that social justice activist Sarah has been telling people that Michael is her boyfriend. What does that mean for best friends Eric and Brian, who both seem to be vying for Sarah’s affections and have joined her in Black Lives Matter protests? The movie shows how this love quadrangle is handled.
Meanwhile, personal grudges are stirred up because of a disputed incident that happened several years ago between Louise and Ted, long before Louise and Joe got involved with each other. According to what Ted has told people, he and Louise went out on a few platonic dates, but he distanced himself from her because she was acting obsessive toward him. Ted also disliked the way Louise’s mother Dawn treated him. Other people have a different version of what happened.
“Eddington” has subtle and not-so-subtle ways of showing how “being territorial” and the existence of borders can cause a sense of community pride for some people or toxic entitlement for other people. An early scene in the movie shows Joe getting into a tense argument when he drives into the city of Santa Lupe Pueblo, and the Santa Lupe Pueblo sheriff (played by David Midthunder) and his officer colleague in a patrol car order Joe to wear a mask now that he’s in Santa Lupe Pueblo. Joe puts on the mask so the conflict doesn’t escalate, but as soon as the other cops drive away, Joe angrily rips off the mask.
Later in the movie, Joe throws his own territorial weight around when a Native American tribal reservation officer named Butterfly Jimenez (played by William Belleau) offers to help Joe in an investigation of a crime that technically took place on tribal land in Santa Lupe Pueblo. Joe is very hostile and disrespectful to Butterfly and orders Butterfly to stay away from the investigation, for reasons that are shown in the movie. “Eddington” also has several of the liberal activists mention “stolen land,” in reference to indigenous people being the native inhabitants of what is now the United States of America.
Although “Eddington” has flaws in its screenplay and direction, the performances from the cast members consistently range from satisfactory to riveting. Phoenix, Stone, O’Connell, Butler and Ward make the most out of the scenes that they’re in, by giving their characters very intriguing non-verbal aspects to their personalities that will make viewers curious to know more that isn’t necessarily told in the movie. And although the movie’s subplots about the romantic rivalries veer a little into soap opera territory, nothing about these subplots is unrealistic.
“Eddington” is told mainly from Joe’s point of view, since he’s the character who gets the most screen time. The part of the movie that might turn people off the most is an extended shootout scene that is briefly shown in the trailers for “Eddington.” The gun violence and explosions that ensue look like a Quentin Tarantino wannabe movie. “Eddington” uses the frustrating trick of making it look like someone dies in an extremely violent scene, only to later reveal that the person survived.
“Eddington” is being described as a movie in the Western genre, but this film also wants to be an American political story that’s trying to be like a Greek tragedy—and it all results in tonal shifts that are sometimes clumsy. The movie’s epilogue would have been more effective as a quick-captioned montage instead of awkward, slow-moving scenes. Even with these flaws, “Eddington” has some sharply incisive and comedically acerbic scenes that hit their intended marks. People don’t have to like “Eddington,” but most people would agree that it’s a movie that’s not forgettable.
A24 released “Eddington” in U.S. cinemas on July 18, 2025.
