I was bored by Cannes’ most divisive film of 2025

Ari Aster has come back with a whimper and not a bang thanks to Eddington (Picture: A24)

Eddington, Ari Aster’s Covid cowboy movie, is a challenging watch which is destined to end up as one of the most divisive films of the year.

No one is making movies quite like Aster today – or taking some of the risks that he does, such as releasing one of Hollywood’s most high-profile films to date reflecting on the social fallout of the pandemic, five years after we all went through it.

That alone will have people tapping out, but the additional disappointment in my book is that we end up with a weaker-than-expected lampooning too, which doesn’t stick its landing – even if its climactic final act is the strongest part of the movie.

In Eddington, Pedro Pascal’s mayor is pitted against Joaquin Phoenix’s sheriff in small-town New Mexico as they both run for office – from opposite ends of the spectrum – as the pandemic rages in May 2020.

By its very nature this is a divisive topic, with Eddington aiming to be a biting satire that robustly addresses hot-button issues that flared at the time, like mask-wearing mandates vs personal freedoms and the Black Lives Matter movement.

With fear constantly in the background, and emotions and misinformation running rife, Eddington’s population is pushed to breaking point and a dramatic face-off between its residents.

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Previous Page Next Page The film concerns rising tensions in a small town during Covid, which come to a head thanks to Joaquin Phoenix’s sheriff and Pedro Pascal’s mayor (Picture: A24)

But sadly, this is a big swing and a miss, with the Hereditary and Midsommar director seemingly still stuck in the same sluggish territory he was for 2023’s Beau is Afraid, leaving my high hopes for the film disappointingly dashed.

It’s a pretty messy affair which will test the patience of many audience members with its slowburn nature as it builds towards its inevitable big stand-off-cum-shoot-out. 

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It’s no spoiler to mention that either as it’s clear from the start that it’s what events must surely be building to, even if just to reward the audience for sticking with the film for its grinding 148-minute runtime (you’ve already watched a normal-length film before anything much happens, basically).

Eddington is not enough the biting satire it wants to be (Picture: A24)

I’ll be blunt and say it: I was bored for most of Eddington.

However, the Western description rings true – if only it were a more disciplined movie to begin with – and the last act finally makes you feel like you’re watching an Ari Aster movie.

That’s where the usual bonkers and blood-spattered nature you’d expect from him is unlocked, with violence unleashed, bullets spraying and limbs flying.

But it doesn’t excuse the tedious, meandering path we took to get to this point.

Eddington isn’t as bleak and black with its comedy as you would expect – there are certainly some notable moments, with the ridiculousness of people skewered ruthlessly, but it doesn’t feel like Aster goes as far as he should.

The denouement the movie finally builds to its its strongest part, with Aster back on surer footing (Picture: Getty)

And these moments where punchlines are delivered are fewer and further between than I anticipated – and not enough to sustain interest and tension throughout.

The characters are unlikable by design, emphasising the worst that came out of people in such a tense time as 2020, from violent impulses to an obsession with conspiracy theories.

But somehow Aster’s stellar cast struggles to get any of the parts to make much of an impression, be it Emma Stone as Phoenix’s listless wife Louise or Austin Butler as wannabe cult leader Vernon, created as a kind of personal embodiment of the internet (Aster does use social media to grimly entertaining effect in the film).

Emma Stone and Austin Butler (pictured with Aster, Phoenix and Pascal) fail to make an impression with their unlikable characters (Picture: Marc Piasecki/FilmMagic)

Pascal also struggles as mayor Ted Garcia, who’s basically just stuck being angry or annoyed. Phoenix is the only one who manages to emerge with the bit firmly between his teeth, injecting some colour and empathy into playing the most tortured man in the whole of Eddington.

But it’s not enough.

Eddington premiered at Cannes Film Festival. It releases in the US on July 18. It is yet to receive a UK release date.

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