by James Mottram
The first thing you might think after watching Ari Aster’s new film Eddington is, poor old Joaquin Phoenix. Aster already put the actor through the ringer on his last film, 2023’s Beau Is Afraid, a Freudian nightmare that takes Phoenix’s Beau on a cross-country matriarchal quest that defies belief. This time, he’s playing Joe Cross, the sheriff of a fictional New Mexico town, who comes to blows with the local mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) during June 2020, when Covid was gripping the globe.
While movies can be illusory when it comes to what pampered actors actually go through, it’s easy to believe that Phoenix was a spent force at the end of the exhausting shoot. “I think he was,” agrees Aster, speaking to FilmInk over Zoom. “But Joaquin doesn’t want anything to come easy. That’s not the kind of actor he is. I have a feeling that if he made a movie that went easy on him, or was pleasant to make, he would feel something lacking. He would leave it feeling disappointed in some way.”
No doubt, there’s little to be disappointed about working with Aster, the visionary director who started his feature film career with 2018’s possession horror Hereditary, a film that sees Toni Collette quite literally clambering up the walls. He followed it with Midsommar, a folk horror to rival The Wicker Man for Pagan weirdness. By the time Beau Is Afraid hit cinemas, the maestro himself, Martin Scorsese, was proclaiming the New York-born Aster as “one of the most extraordinary new voices in world cinema”.
Eddington may come as a surprise to fans of Aster’s earlier work, given it draws from the Western genre. “I think Joe is somebody who’s conscious of the Westerns that came before him,” Aster says. “And I think that might be why he’s sheriff. He was intoxicated by those stories growing up. And that picture of the lawman, who is a man of action, a man of integrity, a man of duty… And he’s a very romantic person, very sentimental. He sees himself in very generous ways and I think for that reason, he’s also pretty lost, not really looking at his own life.”
While Eddington may have the trappings of classic cowboy confrontations, it’s very much a film that skewers contemporary America. Set in the very month when Black Lives Matter protestors took to the streets after the unlawful killing of George Floyd, it’s a state-of-the-nation address that shows just how entrenched we are now in internet conspiracies and social media bile. “We all agree that smartphones are bad,” says Aster. “Social media is bad, but we talk about it on social media, on our phones, because that’s the only way…that’s where the hive is.”
As Cross and Garcia come to blows, initially because the sheriff refuses to wear a mask to prevent the spread of Covid, the violence escalates. Given how bonkers and bloodthirsty the film’s third act becomes, we wonder if Aster is a fan of First Blood, the first (and best) of the Rambo movies, starring Sylvester Stallone as a damaged Vietnam veteran. “I’m a big fan of First Blood, but I think Joe is an even bigger fan,” laughs Aster, before nodding to First Blood’s director, the late Ted Kotcheff, and another of his classics. “A movie I love more than First Blood is Wake in Fright. That’s a great film.”
Eddington also dives into online gurus, in the shape of Elvis star Austin Butler, who plays Vernon Jefferson Peak, a cult leader who bewitches Cross’ ailing wife Louise (Emma Stone). “Austin is a very interesting actor because he’s so sincere,” notes Aster. “He’s an earnest person. He’s funny and smart, but disarmingly sincere. When I first met him, I was really struck by that, where I thought ‘God, if I didn’t believe this, I would be alienated. But I do believe it. I believe you. I find you thoughtful and caring and present and kind and sweet.’ And as I was having that experience of talking to him and fascinated by his brand of charisma, I just thought, ‘man, this guy would be a great cult leader.’”
Ironically, the same could be said about Pedro Pascal. One of the internet’s favourite pastimes right now is to swoon over The Last of Us actor, from his fashion sense to his social conscience, something Aster can appreciate. “Well, Pedro is such a great guy, and it’s one thing to see his press and his videos online, and then it’s another to meet him and realise that this guy is authentic and comfortable in his own skin, and just a decent person. Joaquin and I were both so struck by him.”
Eddington was not about creating a Pedro Pascal love-in, but using his charisma in favour of the story. “It was interesting to me to take his popularity on the internet, and weaponise that baggage. Because, in this film, he’s a politician. So, it’s all about selling himself and being public-facing, outward facing, and unlike Ted, Pedro is somebody who is authentic and he knows who he is, but Ted is somebody who is kind of lost. He doesn’t really know who he is, beyond what he’s selling.”
Dealing with a smörgåsbord of political, technological and social topics, Eddington primarily deals with freedom of speech and what that means now. “That’s used as a cloak and a shield and a weapon, and I feel like one way or another, people are being muzzled because nobody agrees with each other and nobody wants to hear,” says Aster. “People distrust anything that conflicts with their view of things. But they’re also looking at the world through these strange windows, these old windows. There’s a lot of history that is holding up all of this. An excess of history. Too much.”
Eddington is in cinemas on 21 August 2025
