Eddington: Ari Aster's Latest Over-Stretched, Meandering Ordeal (Blu-ray)

The Film:

Writer/director Ari Aster has had a series of ups and downs in his relatively short theatrical career thus far. He started in 2018 with the intriguing "Hereditary," which had a few issues with its third act, but had a good sense of mood & atmosphere throughout. Unfortunately his next two efforts, "Midsommar" and "Beau is Afraid," were rather bland projects that were heavily over-extended and showed that Aster didn't have a great understanding of pacing. This lead to some concern over the direction that his filmography was heading, along with the hope that his next film would help get him back on track, which brings us to his latest effort, a bizarre dark comedy/thriller called "Eddington." Will this be the one to reignite what had started off as a somewhat promising career?

Taking place in Eddington, New Mexico in May 2020, we find that Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) has implemented a lockdown & mask mandates as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, policies that Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) strongly disagrees with. As a result, he decides to run against him in the upcoming election, a move that his emotionally-unstable wife Louise (Emma Stone) disagrees with.

As Joe goes about setting up his campaign with the help of his deputies Guy (Luke Grimes) & Michael (Micheal Ward), other events begin to occur around town, including Louise and her mother Dawn (Deirdre O'Connell), a conspiracy theorist, inviting cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler) to dinner, and Ted's son Eric (Matt Gomez Hidaka) getting involved with Black Lives Matter with his friend Brian (Cameron Mann) and Sara (Amélie Hoeferle), who's into social justice. Meanwhile, the campaign escalates after Joe makes some rather serious claims about Ted that involve Louise, which could prove quite damaging if true, but also quite damaging to Joe if not.

"Eddington" is indeed a rather bizarre dark comedy that wants to be a commentary on the pandemic, the intense divisiveness that it caused, and the general mess that it left in its wake. As far as its exploration of these themes, Aster never really seems to get past the superficial level by generally just having his film be a kind of messy, confused mish-mash of storylines that don't go particularly well together. In fact, it's most accurate to say that there's really only one engaging storyline in the whole lot, the one involving Joe's bid to become the next mayor of Eddington, but sadly it gets drowned out in a sea of superfluous subplots that don't get anywhere, including the two mentioned above that involve a cult leader and Eric & his friends.

As a result, the film unfortunately becomes one big meandering ordeal that's the very definition of being all over the place, with Aster once again proving that he doesn't understand the concept of pacing by over-stuffing the film by quite a bit and stretching it out to an entirely unjustified runtime of about two and a half hours. Aside from its rather obvious themes, it truly makes one question what Aster was trying to accomplish here, with the biggest question of all likely being why he thought anyone would want to see a film that explores such a trying time in recent history. It's hardly a surprise that it ended up being a massive misjudgment on his part, for all one has to do is look at the extremely poor box office returns to see how many were interested in revisiting those events.

It's a pretty big shame too because he was able to assemble quite an impressive cast to bring it to life, including Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix, two-time Oscar winner Emma Stone, Oscar nominee Austin Butler, and multiple Emmy nominee Pedro Pascal. However, even a remarkably talented ensemble like this was unable to lift up this mess of a screenplay, which is likely to test even the most patient of movie-goers.

In the end, for those who were hoping that this latest outing would be the one to help Aster get back on track, it's unfortunate to have to say that it will be nothing more than another disappointment to go along with his last two features. At this point, we'll simply have to hope that he takes the criticisms regarding his recent works and learns where he went wrong. That way, perhaps he can finally at least return to the level of his debut feature, or perhaps achieve something even better that will completely surprise everyone.

Video/Audio:

"Eddington" comes to Blu-ray in a 1.85:1, 1080p High Definition transfer of outstanding quality. The picture is beautifully sharp & clear throughout the entire 148-minute duration, perfectly highlighting some of its intriguing locations. Likewise, the Dolby Atmos audio track is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue and music in excellent quality. Overall, A24 has done a marvelous job in both departments for the film's Blu-ray debut.

Special Features:

Made in Eddington (33 Minutes): A featurette that delves into the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast & crew.

Conclusion:

Ari Aster's "Eddington" is an unfortunate mess of a film that merely explores its obvious themes in a rather superficial manner, while burying its one intriguing storyline under multiple superfluous subplots, ultimately making for an over-stretched, meandering ordeal that even its remarkably talented ensemble can't save.

Score: 2/5

Now available on Blu-ray.

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