Eddington is the fourth feature by Ari Aster but his first to compete in the Cannes Film Festival. I guess I wasn’t alone in thinking that this would be the long-awaited film about the doctor Mark Eddington from Alain Resnais’ Providence (1977)—no such luck. Instead, we have a contemporary Western set in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico, during May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The story (I use the term lightly) focuses on Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix), an asthmatic and defiant anti-masker who refuses to enforce lockdown protocols, sparking tension with the town’s mayor, Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal). Suddenly, Joe decides to challenge Ted and run for mayor against him, driven by emotionally muddled reasons.

With the possible exception of the first forty minutes in Hereditary (2018), I have never been a champion of Aster’s oeuvre. The doubts I had about his first two offerings were strongly amplified by Beau is Afraid (2023), which was also his first film as a producer. He would also go on to produce Kristoffer Borgli’s misguided Dream Scenario. He is one of many contemporary directors who seem to be given carte blanche to do anything, no matter how thoughtless and bloated the project may be.¹Other examples include Damien Chazelle, Robert Eggers and David Robert Mitchell, among many others. Many of these projects involve A24, which has literally become a warning sign for films to avoid.

A town called Eddington

Joe is married to Louise (Emma Stone), who was previously involved with Ted. Aster also throws in a stranded couple, Lindsay and Marc, who arrive in Eddington seeking help after running out of gas. “Throws in” is the operative expression as the film piles elements like COVID-19, conspiracy theories, George Floyd, and the subsequent Black Lives Matter riots, among far too many other things, which the director doesn’t even try to keep in check. If the Lanthimos fans were quiet during last year’s Cannes after the Kind of Kindness screenings, The Aster fans (yes, they still exist) seemed disappointed and even appalled by Eddington. Since I entered the screening without any expectations, I could enjoy those reactions from a distance.

The entire affair lasts 148 minutes. I surprised myself by staying through the entire duration. One of the reasons was that there wasn’t much else to watch during the first Friday. Still, there is not much to say about Aster’s latest offering. The attempts at satire are half-baked at best. I found myself thinking about Robert Altman during his worst moments. Think O.C. and Stiggs (1985) rather than Nashville (1975), and you will get a sense of how inept Eddington is. Even on the SCREEN grid, which rarely gets anything right, it ranked as the second-lowest film, only “beaten” by Martone’s Fuori.

The most unfortunate aspect is that the topics involved are all worthy of satire. I vividly recall the hysteria surrounding mask mandates at the 2021 Cannes Festival. The few Americans who managed to get there posted pictures on social media of people not wearing masks during the screenings. Quite a few of the purported culprits were Swedes who never experienced a mask mandate. However, such a script would have to be written by someone with actual talent. The biggest mystery is not why critics have overrated Aster for so long but, more alarmingly, why he continues to receive funding for his sloppy projects. Hopefully, Eddington will prove to be the nail in the coffin.

No Hindsight in sight.

Some critics have evoked the Coen Brothers, which I find misleading, even if the setting might recall Blood Simple (1984) or No Country for Old Men (2007). It makes little sense to compare Aster with such consummate masters of the medium. I attended the press screening of Beau is Afraid in 2023 with some film critics from the same outlet. Typically, they tend to fight over who will get to review the film, but in this case, they rather played tag. Nobody was interested, and they pointed at each other to review it. Still, even though that film is a mess, that is nothing compared to the failure of Eddington. You don’t need a 20/20 vision to realise that.