Eddington film reopens the national group chat
The Eddington film has reached Cannes with a Covid-era satire full of conflict. According to Sight and Sound, it punches in every direction and mostly discovers fresh air.
Ari Aster’s story places Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone inside a divided New Mexico town. However, the review says those comic talents receive thin roles. That is like hiring a brass band and asking it to portray wallpaper.
The film piles chaos onto conspiracy, politics and lockdown memory. Consequently, viewers can revisit 2020 without cleaning a cupboard or pretending that a video quiz counts as human contact.
“We have reconstructed every argument from the internet,” said Lavinia Subtext, Curator of Expired Discourse. “Sadly, the internet declined to collect it afterward.”
At the Museum of Recent Events That Feel Ancient, staff placed hand sanitiser beside a phone showing 147 unread family messages. The installation won an award for making everyone leave quietly.
Meanwhile, the review objects to dated jokes and disingenuous political messaging. Satire needs a target and a blade. Otherwise, it becomes a crowded room where every character points at every other character.
Finally, the film asks audiences to remember a period they have barely finished trying to forget. The greatest fantasy may be that anyone left lockdown with enough spare patience for another local Facebook argument.
Read the real story: the BFI Sight and Sound review of the Eddington film.
