‘Eddington’ (dir. by Ari Aster) | Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone | A24

[valet]

The action for the last 30 minutes was good. Other than that

 

[Jmare007]

Loved it the most when the film keyed in on the political rivalry and boiling tension between Joaquin and Pedro’s characters. That shyt was gripping. It does some things later on that lost me completely and particularly in the last act.

Aster does black comedy really well though. This was the most I’ve ever laughed in a film from him. He was on some Coen Bros type shyt here. Either subtle shots like Pedro hoarding rolls of toilet paper or something as loud as Joaquin navigating his way through protest chaos with a fukkin’ gimbal in his hand. These moments conjured up some surreal memories from the pandemic, some I’m witnessing even now in 2025 sadly, but Ari’s style of humor made what was a cold-hearted, cynical take on the world more digestible to me.

Spoiler

The way Pedro got clapped.

Scenes like this are dope af but nerve-wracking at the same time because I always wonder if the film will either rise to the occasion onwards or crumble apart.

With Eddington, I thought it was the latter. It feels so contradictory to say the story lost edge as soon as gunfire is introduced, but it really did for me. Pedro played a confident a$$hole well enough to be the perfect foil to Joaquin and just like that, he’s gone. Nobody else could step up. Not even the over-the-top “Antifa” terrorist attacks.

It wasn’t the politics that was the problem for me here. TSC fam would get the comp, but this felt like the equivalent of watching a wrestling match that’s teetering on the edge of being a classic, only to end in a DQ. The DQ to me was Ari sniffing his own farts in that last hour and while I appreciate his swings in filmmaking, I can’t help but feel as if he is simultaneously drowning creatively ever since Hereditary and Midsommar.

I agree with most of this. Felt like the movie had 3-4 different short films inside of it and each one got progressively worse.

Started really good, then started to get a little shaky and then by the end it goes off the rails and not in a good way. But I gotta say that the last 5-7 minutes it manages to finish in great fashion.

 

[Poetical Poltergeist]

I agree with most of this. Felt like the movie had 3-4 different short films inside of it and each one got progressively worse.

Started really good, then started to get a little shaky and then by the end it goes off the rails and not in a good way. But I gotta say that the last 5-7 minutes it manages to finish in great fashion.

Im the opposite. I thought the movie started slow and boring. Got better as it went on then just just kind of ended and I wasnt sure what I just watched lol