Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Eddington

This film is another polarizing story told through the lens of Ari Aster! Okay I have so so much I wanna express about this film I will say this film is very polarizing and will divide people on what they think of the contents of this film due to it’s heavy handed political tone that is woven into the narrative but just like Alex Garland’s no sugar coating attitude when it comes to filmmaking Ari Astra is in that same mindset when he crafted Eddington. Their is tons of themes that are touched on in this film about the COVID pandemic and how we all socially lost the ability to treat people normally when speaking to one another and how so many people became to slip into a sense of frantic behaviour due to the overwhelming stressful situation that was surrounding the world and that paranoia and anxious fear he captures so well with this story and some may say it is his worst film some may say it is his best film I think it is one of his strongest structured films for sure and also at the centre of it has a great leading performance from Joaquin Phoenix giving a fantastic job onscreen Eddington will have people torn on their thoughts on it but film is supposed to spark conversation then Ari Astra did his job at having this create deep rooted discussions picking apart the themes of what he had to say with this well layered film about the human condition during a pandemic.  

Firstly, This film delves deep into the emotional turmoil people felt during the Pandemic times and how hard it was on people mentally to wrap their head around it and their has not been a film to really depict that social shift that we all went through and Ari Astra captures it so damn well as I was watching the film I was sitting shaking my head and feeling so seen in terms of the way we all saw how people were to one another during that time. The fear of not knowing and then the conspiracy theorizing that went on online was intense along with the protesting in the streets and then the stuff with the police authority it was a lot to take on and Ari Astra wanted to stuff as much as he could about how that impacted this small town and explore the mental depths of it. A ton of people will feel this film is to politically charged and feels it is hitting you over the head with what it has to say and how it goes about doing it but I like the blunt way of storytelling he is not holding back he wants to show how at times how ugly we were towards people and how to an extent we forget our ability to treat others with respect and be civil and it is shown through the lens of the characters of Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal and I think the way he explores it was so well done it never felt preachy to me as I have seen his past work he likes delving into deep thought provoking stuff I will admit this is the most he has ever gone into political themes and that is maybe why seem so off put by it but somebody eventually was going to say something about the nature of living we all went though at some point. The film does not operate as a horror film like his past works have this film is more a slow burn about this sheriff who slowly looses his mind due to his way of dealing with his issues and his entire world unravels around him. Their are themes of abusive of power, gaslighting others, broken relationships and so much More that is the forefront discussions being had in this film as the centre of the film is when faced with a global pandemic how torn people became and put under the magnify glass of Ari I thought was greatly presented and he really calls out a ton of people and makes them feel seen through the relatability of the content that is being covered or the characters to an extent. The way this film goes about telling its story was greatly done and I think it is for sure one of Ari Astra’s strongest films in terms of storytelling and exploration of themes. 

Secondly, The casting for this film was huge! You have the likes of Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal now that is a massive amount of big name actors that being said the only gripe I give the film is not giving some actors more screen time to properly become attached to them. For instance Austin Butler comes in for a very deep monologue halfway through the film and then we don’t really see him until the last few minutes of the film after that and Emma Stone also has a supporting role too where we barley get to know her arc which is a missed opportunity as I was hoping to see more from those two. Now the real anchor of this film is very much Joaquin Phoenix who plays this sheriff with erratic ways of dealing with things and only goes further and further into madness as the plot progresses and Joaquin slowly turns the dial up on his level of denial and insanity throughout the course of the story which I think is one of his strongest performances in the last couple years. Everyone else gave a great performance but the show is very much stolen from Joaquin in terms of performance. 

Lastly, Eddington is one of the most polarizing and honest depictions of the madness that was 2020 and how everyone socially lost sight of how to treat people with decency and the sheer obsessions we had during that time is greatly captured in blunt honest depictions from Ari Astra’s point of view. In many ways it is shocking how badly some of us treated people and the sheer anxiety of the times that went on and it is all strung together by great tackling of themes and the solid performances from the entire cast involved especially Joaquin Phoenix. Eddington is one of Ari Astra’s strongest films and sure it may divide viewers on the quality of the content but I think it is his most creatively well written film since Hereditary overall a truly great depiction about social hardships we all faced during the pandemic and it is a solid film I  enjoyed. I recommend anyone that Is a fan of Ari Astra’s work to check out this film I find there is so so much to enjoy with what he has to say with this film. 

This film centres around May of 2020 and with COVID protocols going into place a sheriff in a town called Eddington resits at the changing social times and tries to make things be as they used to be but once he does so is met with a ton of challenges that come his way

Rated R : for strong violence, some grisly images, language, and graphic nudity.

Joaquin Phoenix : Joaquin gives his finest work I have seen in quite a while which is shocking for me to say as I usually praise most of his performances but lately he has had quite the slump with Napoleon and then Joker 2 so to see him bounce back with Eddington made me happy to see.  He plays the Sheriff of the town who is constantly at this emotional tug of war with the current Mayor and his handling of making people Mask during the Pandemic as he finds the behaviour to far and that it shouldn’t have to be a mandate people need to follow. First time we meet the character he is having a disagreement with authorities about following protocols in terms of mask wearing and when he sees that it is a new reality for people he becomes more and more upset about this whole thing and rejects the mask regulations and tires going about his life like nothing affects him. Eventually he does snap and feels that he needs to spread his “truth” and become mayor in order to bring balance back to the town and in his mind he feels if he is put into a political position order will be restored which is the opposite effect that happens when he goes about running for Mayor he creates mayhem and total madness due to his really eccentric ways of getting people to listen and to gain attention. He feels if he just stirs up anger in the town they will rally behind him and he can win this election by creating controversy with the current mayor by poking into his private life and exposing that but in the long run it just shows he is playing dirty to just get his way which then as the audience we see him go to these lengths to oblation political power but where is the line he won’t cross as he passes moral and ethic things that most people wouldn’t dare cross in order to get what he has always wanted. But by doing this destructive behaviour he destroys everything in his path his reputation is tarnished after trying to expose his political enemy only for it to backfire, his personal life is a disaster and his colleges only seem to listen to him out of fear. The more frustrated he gets within his personal life he brings that burden into his work life and it shows as the state of what is also going on in the world at the time also is unraveling around him which again only makes him even more agitated. As with the protests in the streets over Black Lives Matter he starts questioning the loyalty of his black police officer and he starts making it a racial thing at work he just cannot help himself he becomes so consumed in what he feels he wants he does not see the huge damage he is doing to others around him and when he eventually sees the disaster he has caused it is to late for him the damage is done by then. Joaquin Phoenix channels this bubbling sense of anger from the moment we are met with him we know he hates listening to authority and will do what he feels is best for him and it is frustrating to see his character progress as he just constantly is making things worse for himself and he does not need to be so difficult but he chooses to be that is the thing he is so self obsessed with his own things he has going on he has no sense of social awareness or boundaries when speaking to people. again Joaquin is able to bring that social deafness to the screen in a believability that makes your blood boil as he hears what people are saying to him but chooses to ignore it. We see how he treats his colleges he semi respects them but not really and his political targets he just will do whatever he has to to squash them and the searing jealously he has for them you can see is written all over his face even though he refuses to acknowledge that his deep rooted anger and jealousy will eventually be his downfall. Phoenix plays the role with such a great sense of denial of what is going on around him and he explores the layers of this man that basically goes about destroying is own life without knowing he is even doing it and it is one of the most compelling and despicable characters I have seen him play and you can see all the areas of the character that he explores and he goes across the full spectrum of emotions with this character from madness, anger, anxiety, depression all of it and shown in such raw ways. He never makes the character sympathetic but he has you learn to an extent why he is the way he is and again I think this is one of Joaquin’s strongest performances we have seen in this decade if I am being totally honest it is one of the most interesting characters he has played and he really sunk his teeth into this part Joaquin is truly astonishing in this role. 

Ari Astra : Ari Astra takes on a far different approach in terms of style with his latest film Eddington! Now he is known for Horror films that are not your typical scares he likes working in the places of psychological horror and having deep rooted messages and themes put into his stories as Hereditary was about grief, Midsommar was about the worlds worst boyfriend I am kidding it was about a pagan cult. And here the film is about what happens when a community crumbles and has no idea how to treat one another when in a crisis like a pandemic. He really decided I want to put all the most hot topic issues in one film from Black Lives Matter protest, police brutality, sexual scandals in the political arena, political angst and the COVID pandemic I don’t know many filmmakers today that would take on all of those themes I just named in one singular film and be able to not have it be taken as controversial or a hot topic film especially in the climate we are in. Ari Astra felt he had to acknowledge the poor human behaviour that went on as each character in this film has things going on and to a extent you can all disagree with their ways of handling things but at the centre of what the film is about his how socially we didn’t know how to treat others during the pandemic and also the amount of heavy social issues that were going on it eventually made some people go a little stir crazy and the film shows that yes to a extreme extent in many ways but their is still a layer of reliability  to the material that is being talked about onscreen. Their is no redeeming quality about any character in this film all of them are horrible people because they all go about their business in the wrong ways especially the main character played by Joaquin he thinks his racist, anti government stance will make people support him due to his strong disagreement with the COVID pandemic and a ton more of his opinions he puts online yes he causes quite the ruckus in his town but not in the way he intended it to go. What I like so much about the film is that so many people are disagreeing with the film I feel because they see themselves to much in the content that Is in the film Ari Astra is not sugar coating anything he is saying it for how it is and I respect that he shows the social awareness going on was so poor people became essentially unaware of how to treat people like decent humans. He didn’t just do another horror film he instead went out of his zone and made a bold move to make a film about the social shifts that happened in a backdrop of the COVID pandemic and sure some may of just wanted a straight up horror film like usual but I like the fact he is finding new ways to tell new narratives without him just repeating what he has already done. Ari Astra wants to explore different genres and not be confined to just one thing and I love that I give him massive credit for going to the places thematically he did with this film it may not be his best film but writing wise it is pretty close the film feels at times like a Neo noir western mixed with a slow burn drama he does a exceptional job with this film both from a writing point of view and direction.