Eddington
Year: 2025
Rating: R
Length: 148 minutes / 2.47 hours
Making a film set in and somewhat about the effects of the COVID pandemic feels far too close for comfort. And yet, Eddington (2025) paints both sides of this culture war in a way that highlights their hypocrisy while also taking a huge left turn in the third act that was so far from the realm of the possible that it almost made the whole movie pointless. Of course, perhaps that was the point: that citizens ultimately don’t have control over the results that large corporations want for this country.
Set in the early months of the 2020 COVID pandemic, the titular New Mexico town of Eddington is facing the same left vs. right arguments about the virus and what to do about it. Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) clearly wants to help people but is portrayed as a low-intelligence right-wing believer in individual rights. In contrast, Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) is running for re-election and feels the only way to get his community through this pandemic is to obey the distancing and masking restrictions—albeit with caveats when it suits his needs. Both sides have their flaws, but conspiracy theories definitely influenced one side.
While being cringeworthy to watch, I enjoyed the Native American law enforcement officer Butterfly Jimenez (William Belleau), who seemed to be the only competent individual in the area. Other sub-plots involve the hollow activism that the youth take part in, which can switch sides at a moment’s notice just to be noticed by others. Basically, no political leaning was safe from satire, and the whole thing goes south in a series of shocking events. Unlike Civil War (2024) which had an apolitical framing, Eddington unfortunately gives no way to point fingers in a black/white right/wrong dichotomy.
A weird movie about the COVID era where everyone is wrong, I give Eddington 3.5 stars out of 5.
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