Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (October 19, 2025)
Filmmaker Ari Aster started his feature career with two horror films before he ventured into an oddball dark comedy via 2023’s Beau Is Afraid. Via 2025’s Eddington, Aster again melds genres to combine satire and Western.
As the COVID pandemic romps across the US, Eddington, New Mexico Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) implements lockdown and mask mandates that came from the governor’s office. This doesn’t sit well with all the locals.
In particular, Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) feels these actions violate the Constitution. As Cross decides to run for mayor against Garcia, tensions exacerbated by COVID, the death of George Floyd and long-simmering friction among residents threatens to destroy the town.
While not a massive hit, 2018’s Hereditary got great reviews and found a good horror audience. That meant the $10 million movie took in a nice profit via its $90 million worldwide gross.
2019’s $9 million Midsommar got a less positive reception and made less money. Still, its $48 million meant it still went into the black.
With a $35 million budget and a $12 million gross, Aster’s financial winning streak ended with Afraid. Eddington failed to reverse that trend, as it made only $13 million off a cost of $25 million.
Maybe this means Aster should head back to horror. Or maybe it indicates he simply exists as an art-house style director who created certain expectations because his first film did well.
I liked Hereditary, though I didn’t think it seemed as amazing as its fans believed. I felt Midsommar turned into a self-consciously “artsy” piece of nonsense.
I never saw Afraid so that leaves Eddington as my first experience with Aster in six years. Does it bring us the intriguing filmmaker of Hereditary or the pretentious poseur of Midsommar?
Not really. The Aster of Eddington desperately wants to create a “both sides” take on the more insane aspects of US society circa 2020 but he fails to hit the mark.
Despite the impression my plot synopsis might leave, Sheriff Cross becomes the dominant focal point of Eddington. Perhaps because Pascal worked on 923 other 2025 projects and lacked much time to appear here, Mayor Garcia plays a surprisingly small role, especially given that his conflict with Cross acts as a catalyst.
While Aster wants this to become a character piece, instead he prefers to focus on those social domains. This feels simplistic and he never figures out an insightful way to address these topics.
Let’s face it: we all went a little nuts in 2020. After four years of the Trump administration, the combination of COVID and the unrest sparked by George Floyd’s murder set off the proverbial powder keg.
Eddington wants to mock responses to these areas, and some of that seems fair. As we look back, a lot of our COVID-related behaviors in spring 2020 seem silly.
But this neglects the legitimate fear so many of us felt as this new virus ransacked the world. Sure, it now feels ridiculous that we’d wipe down our groceries before we brought them in the house, but we flew blind and did what seemed necessary to survive.
Aster doesn’t appear to appreciate that. Shot in 2024, Eddington enjoys the distance of a few years and while this allows him to highlight the absurdity of 2020, it also means he detaches the story and characters from the anxiety of that weird era.
Eddington tries to “both sides” matters, and that means the movie mocks left and right wing extremists. However, Aster seems more focused on the former, as they receive the most attention.
We do get moments with wacky right wing conspiracy theorists – primarily via cult leader Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler) – but most of the overt political commentary seems aimed at the left. The movie lampoons an apparent obsession with masks in the COVID era as well as the simplistic liberalism of young and privileged white kids as they embrace the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
In the hands of a more subtle director, this could work. Unfortunately, Aster handles this in such a ham-fisted manner that any social commentary fizzles.
Really, Aster seems unsure where he wants to go, especially because Eddington takes some twists that send it even more off course in its second half. The tale feels more like a stab at quirky Coen Brothers territory and Aster can’t make it work.
Eddington does enjoy a strong cast. We find Oscar-winners Phoenix and Emma Stone as well as Pascal and Oscar-nominated Butler, among others.
They do fine, though everyone but Phoenix seems a bit wasted in their small roles. None really get all that much to do so their star power doesn’t match their screen time.
Honestly, I think Eddington would fare better if it stayed as a small-town conflict between the liberal mayor and the conservative sheriff. That framework would allow Aster his picture of 2020 but not seem as excessive as the story becomes.
I can’t say more unless I want to include spoilers, but Eddington’s drama eventually spreads beyond just its residents. This becomes a mistake that sends an already erratic narrative off-track.
I should respect Aster’s ambition, but sometimes smaller works better. A more tightly focused film seems like a superior choice.
As it stands, Eddington becomes too inconsistent and unfocused to hit the mark. It throws a lot at the wall and not much of it sticks.
