Review: 'Eddington,' depicting the self-inflicted madness of the COVID-19 pandemic, is a horror show dressed as a satire

For much of its running time, writer-director Ari Aster’s darkly comical drama “Eddington” captures with brutal accuracy a part of the recent past — the panic and animosity that poured out when our brains broke during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

And if you thought Aster’s earlier movies — “Hereditary,” “Midsommar” and “Beau Is Afraid” — were horror movies edging into surrealism, you haven’t seen anything yet.

It’s May 2020 in the small town of Eddington, New Mexico, and nerves are frayed by the fears of the pandemic and the resentment of those told they have to wear masks or socially distance themselves. The main source of that resentment in Eddington is the sheriff of Sevilla County, Joe Cross (played by Joaquin Phoenix). Joe gets belligerent when he’s told he has to wear his face mask in public places, like the town grocery store. And a lot of his anger is directed at the town’s mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal).

Ted is running for re-election, on a platform of economic growth — mostly by touting the big data center that a tech conglomerate wants to build on the outskirts of town. The data center isn’t universally loved, as some in the city council are suspicious of Ted’s enthusiasm for the tech company’s plans, as well as the enormous water usage such a center requires.

Joe bundles up his grievances, and his personal beef with Ted (which is explained later), into a campaign to run against Ted for mayor. Joe turns the sheriff’s office into his campaign headquarters and orders his two deputies, Michael (Micheal Ward) and Guy (Luke Grimes), to become his staff. He even covers his official sheriff’s SUV with campaign slogans that are notable for their conspiratorial messages and random punctuation.

Joe’s problems aren’t limited to his issues with Ted. At home, his mother-in-law, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), is sleeping on their couch and pumping out conspiracy theories she finds online. These theories find a receptive audience in Dawn’s daughter, Ted’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone), who becomes fascinated by a New Age preacher, Vernon (played by Austin Butler). 

And to raise the tension level, some of the high school kids are starting street protests inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement. One of the kids leading the movement is Sarah (Amèlie Hoeferle), who recently broke up with Michael, Joe’s deputy, who’s Black. Ted’s son, Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka), and Eric’s best friend Brian (Cameron Mann), both have crushes on Sarah, and decide joining the protest movement is a good way to impress her.

Aster evokes the anxiety of those first COVID months, where people grasped onto whatever information they could find — and frequently found disinformation and took it for the truth. The town is a powder keg, and the leader who should be defusing the situation, Sheriff Joe, is lighting matches.

Phoenix gives a riveting performance, portraying Joe as the original emasculated incel, transmuting his home frustrations into a political statement. Phoenix leads a powerful ensemble that delivers strong performances, with O’Connell’s web-addicted conspiracy-monger topping the list.

The tension Aster builds up in the first 90 minutes — in a two-and-a-half hour movie — is so nerve-wracking that a viewer wonders how he will sustain it. The annoying thing is that he can’t, and Aster overcompensates with a hard swerve, from mocking conspiracy theories to leading us into one. The most terrifying thing about “Eddington” is Aster’s mind game, in which his depictions of right-wingers’ fever dream of a left-wing cabal lead us to the same messed-up government and public square that the non-fiction world got to through haphazard stupidity.

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‘Eddington’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, July 18, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong violence, some grisly images, language, and graphic nudity. Running time: 148 minutes.