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16h ago

Ari Aster’s Eddington Expands to Cinemas Overseas as Critics Divide on Its Pandemic Satire

A modern‑day Western probing pandemic‑era polarization uses a sheriff–mayor clash plus a Big Tech allegory.

Joaquin Phoenix as Sheriff Joe Cross in Eddington (Photo: Richard Foreman/A24 via AP)
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Eddington
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Overview

  • Eddington, Aster’s fourth feature, reaches new territories this week following its U.S. July run, with reviews continuing to sharply diverge.
  • Set in May 2020 in a fictional New Mexico town, the film blends farce, black comedy and Aster’s horror sensibility across a 150‑minute runtime.
  • Joaquin Phoenix leads as libertarian sheriff Joe Cross opposite Pedro Pascal’s progressive mayor, with Emma Stone and Austin Butler in key roles.
  • A controversial sequence depicting a masked militia framed as Antifa arriving by private jet is presented by Aster as a deliberate satirical provocation.
  • A tech‑company subplot involving a massive SolidGoldMagikarp data centre serves as a metaphor for algorithmic influence, pushing the story toward conspiratorial unreality.