Filmmaker Ari Aster is back, and this time modern American politics is in his crosshairs.
After scoring a hugely successful feature directorial debut with Hereditary , and then avoiding the sophomore slump with Midsommar , Aster positioned himself well. He’d made two distinct and compelling horror films, broad in scope and substantial in theme. It wasn’t hard to imagine that he’d move into other genres, or alternatively doubling (or in this case tripling) down on horror. Beau Is Afraid came next, and it’s safe to say it is not just a horror film. It’s a thematically dense, nightmarish, familial metaphysical odyssey. It’s possibly one of the best films of the decade, but the point is, he’d achieved exploring outside the boundaries set thus far in his career.
Eddington , Aster’s latest project, is a western-thriller-political satire set in the titular fictional southern town. And with its hint of horror, it’s evident that he is unconstrained as an artist.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross, the hapless, half-respected, right-leaning town sheriff. Pedro Pascal plays Ted Garcia, the genuinely well-liked left-leaning mayor.
Eddington takes place over the course of a few days in May 2020. Mask mandates are in full effect. Garcia is running for re-election on a campaign one would generally identify with the Democrat and the pro-mask side. After wrestling with his own personal beliefs about life in the town and the government’s apparent overreach during the pandemic, Sheriff Cross decides he’s going to campaign against Garcia.
Seeing how the political and personal lives of the townspeople — with a few outsiders thrown in the mix for good measure, including Austin Butler as a Russell Brand-esque cultish influencer — intersect to make a dog-legged narrative reminscent of the Coen brothers’ films, is the joy of Eddington . However, this kind of plot structure means that some characters don’t get quite as much depth (or simply screen time) as you’d expect, considering the actors involved. For example, Emma Stone plays the deeply unhappy wife of Sheriff Cross. She makes a few moves, but she mostly serves as a motivator for her husband. The same goes for a few other familiar, famous, friendly faces.
On The A24 Podcast , in an interview with past collaborator Bill Hader , Aster noted that, in a way, Eddington answers the question, “What is it like to be living in the Internet?”
This explains the surrounding New Mexico hills that seem to multiply and shroud and provoke. Locked in a land cage, what is there to do but rattle it? What if America’s brand of extremism on the Internet was brought to life as a fictional city, populated by people who speak like they’re quoting Reddit threads?
Eddington finds dynamic depth by taking heightened, hypothetical discussions offline, personifying them, and seeing if they play nicely.
The result: It is scary.
Fear-based politicking and reminders of COVID aren’t necessarily more frightening in the moment than the “little sister scene” in Hereditary , the falling elders in Midsommar , or the naked man in Beau Is Afraid , but there are two aspects of Eddington that make it equally, if differently, off-putting. One is seeing a reflection of the maelstrom that was Summer 2020. The second is recognizing a film about 2020 is as or more relevant now in 2025.
Go on X. You will see Eddington .
Eddington is in theatres July 18, 2025.
Want more? Watch Editor-in-Chief Jason Gorber’s review from Cannes 2025 .
