Displaying items by tag: Luke Grimes

EDDINGTON

US, 2025, 148 minutes, Colour.

Joaquin Phoenix, Deirdre O'Connell, Emma Stone, Micheal Ward, Pedro Pascal, Cameron  Mann, Matt Gomez Hidaka, Luke Grimes, Amelie Hoeferle, Clifton Collins Jr, William Belleau, Austin Butler.

Directed by Ari Aster.

Writer-director, Ari Aster (Heredity, Midsummer, Beau is Afraid) is not afraid of making demands on his audiences, a lot of thinking, a lot of discussion. He urges us to remember where we were in May 2020, the early covid months and lockdown, masks, vaccinations, controversies, conspiracy theories.  He immerses us in Eddington, New Mexico, May 2020, and invites the audience to make comparisons.

But, this is the US, compliance and protest, the story of the sheriff, some American righteousness with devious intentions, campaigning to be mayor. While there is his storyline, the atmosphere widens with Black Lives Matter protests, some screaming left wingers, some disruptive right-wingers and increasing chaos and Antifa interventions. (It is amazing to know that President Biden was elected five months later, but then January 6th seven months later.  Actually, with the second Trump presidency, it all looks strangely more familiar than we might have imagined.)

Aster stressed that he saw the pandemic as an inflection point that merely accelerated an inevitable series of events. Our brains were already broken by technology and media polarization, 2020 just provided a lethal dose of social isolation that permanently destroyed the societal norms we had been living with for the past century.  Christian Zilko IndieWire

We see dramatised anger, paranoia, distortions, insanity, violent calculations and eruptions, conspiracies. A Rorshach test – beserk.

For over 30 years Joaquin Phoenix has been giving complex performances and this is amongst his best, playing the sheriff. Pedro Pascal, frequently present on our screens at this time plays his rival, the mayor. There are some interesting casting is, Emma Stone as the sheriff’s disturbed wife, Austin Butler as a right-wing evangelical agitator, British Michael Ward as the deputy sheriff.

There is always movement during the film but, as it moves towards its violent climax, it becomes, literally, all guns blazing – and an emotional unexpectedly calm but ominous ending.

1. The date, may 2020, Covid, locked down, conspiracy theories, the Trump presidency? Seen in retrospect and memory?
2. Eddington, New Mexico, the town itself, the streets and neighbourhoods, homes, mansions, offices, the hillside, the industrial complex? The musical score?
3. The challenge to American audiences, international audiences observing, the 2020s, Covid, the Biden years, the second Trump presidency? Extreme right and conspiracies, militant action? Left-wing demonstrations? Political atmosphere?
4. Joe Cross, an Everyman American, sheriff, his attitudes and behaviour, his views, relationship with his wife and tensions, with his mother-in-law, the sequences at home? With his deputies and relying on them, the racial mix? His clashes with the Mayor, the confrontations in the street, ideologies, business interests and development? The campaign for mayor? His decision, his posters, his billboards, those of the Mayor? His attitude towards masks, vaccines, spaces in lines, his behaviour in the supermarket? His wife unstable, the tensions and meals at home, issue of children, his mother-in-law and conspiracy theories?
5. Industrial background, the financial interests, the buildings, the plants, work, development?
6. Joe and his campaign, meeting people, confrontations with Ted, his two deputies and his reliance on them, their characters and behaviour, race issues?
7. Ted, Mayor, his place in the town, contribution, his family, travelling with his son? Indications of the previous contact with Louise and its consequences for Joe? The campaign? His son and his relationship with him, the son’s friendship with Bryan, Brian and his background, political stances, demonstrations, Sara, the demonstrations, her political stances, Bryan wanting favour with her, a relationship?
8. Vernon, his visit and meal with the family, his religious stances, the religious right? His interventions? His campaigns and rallies? On television? Ultimately Louise leaving home, joining him, seen on the television, pregnant?
9. The situation of Black Lives Matter, Minneapolis and the demonstrations, the death of George Floyd? The occasion for demonstrations, protests, the involvement of citizens in the town, Joe and his dealing with the demonstrations?
10. The switch in tone, Joe confronting tent, the slap, the humiliation, Joe and his killing the vagrant and putting his body in the water, confronting Ted, killing him and his son? Going to the house, setting up the robbery scenario, and his writing on the wall (and that later being the revelation of his guilt)?
11. The further switch in tone, the plane load of protesters and their arrival? The intervention of Butterfly humane is, the people and nation, his authority, the shooting on the land, his investigations, examining the house, confronting Joe?
12. Beginning of the mayhem, the armed pursuers, the protesters, Brian and Sarah and their interventions, Joe, covering himself, the clashes at home, getting the guns from the store, the transition to an all guns blazing scenario? Joe and his being wounded? And is being unmasked by Butterfly who sees the campaign poster in the office and makes the connection with the house?
13. Joe, his involvement, the guns, his being stabbed, saved by Brian?
14. A year later, Joe and his injuries, quadriplegic, cared for? His mother-in-law and her presence? Status, authority?
15. Brian, symbolising ambitions and complacency? The television program with Vernon and his right-wing religion, Louise present? And Michael, surviving the fires and explosions, deputy sheriff?
16. An American response to the film, depending on stances, political issues, conspiracy theories?