As movies go, this is a long drawn out dark pseudo comedy about day to day life in small town America during the global pandemic. Its scope is breath taking in its attempt to cover a wide range of political, social and cultural issues which had been simmering away prior to, and erupted during the pandemic. In many ways these issues remain, and have become synonymous with a fragmented, and should I say, a somewhat deranged American mind-set when it propelled the current US President into office for a second time in 2024.

The movie is directed by Ari Aster. He also wrote the screen play. In its 2 hours and 25 minutes (give or take a few minutes) he covers the stress and anxiety caused through government mandated rules around social distancing and face masks; the emergence of conspiracy theories, not just limited to Covid-19, but inclusive of the great hoax that the world (in particular America) is run by an elite group of pedophiles, who enlist parents to abuse their children and/or hand them over to this influential group. Online conspiracy theories permeate the whole film, along with the emergence of cultural wars around Black Lives Matter following the death of George Floyd, the flawed unsubstantiated neo- eugenics theory of white privilege, and the ever present deranged cult leaders whose self-serving delusions prey upon naïve minds, or those who lack the capacity for critical thinking. The film depicts the naivety and vulnerability of youth who subscribe to and adopt these unhinged and dangerous ideas. Young people demonstrating for faulty ideas without any judicious understanding of them, is a message of warning in the film, about the dangers of the uncritical mind, and the perils of the mass psychology of fascism. One of my favorite brief scenes is of ordinary white folk sitting at the dinner table while their teenage son rants about white privilege, and how it needs to be overthrown. The mother listens and looks at her son incredulously, while the father says “what the fuck is wrong with you! You’re white!”

Woven throughout the subplots of the film is the idea that big data, driven by billionaire tech owners will save small town America, and the planet through crypto currencies, wind and solar power, and inevitably, America from itself. A subtle, yet relevant reference to 2025.

Focusing on a small New Mexico town (Eddington) is clever; because, Aster is able to show the crazy American psyche through a small cast of main characters, (Joaquin Phoenix as the paranoid and quite mad Sheriff Joe Cross, Emma Stone as his equally disturbed wife, Deirdre O’Connell as her mad conspiratorial driven mother, Austin Butler as Vernon, a sleazy, not so clever cult leader, Pedro Pascal as Eddington’s do-gooder Mayor, Luke Grimes as Guy the sheriff’s side kick, and Michael Ward as Michael, the black underdog sheriff’s trainee and Clifton Collins Jr, as Lodge, an itinerant, psychotically mad vagrant).

The movie begins at a pace, and takes the viewer on a roller-coaster of a ride, as it introduces plot, subplots and its cast of characters. We’re first introduced to Lodge, muttering inanities as he wanders into the town. As we meet Sheriff Joe, his wife and mother-in-law, subplots are drawn out superbly, leaving the audience to create the connections and attempt to weave a story-line in their head. The tensions which arise as the Mayor attempts to enforce mandated sanctions due to Covid will resonate with all of us who lived through the pandemic. In almost every country affected by the pandemic, many people across generations voiced their opposition against the often draconian and severe restrictions imposed on their day-to-day lives. The fictitious town of Eddington captures this on a micro level very well. In the town rumors, innuendo, scaremongering and gossip build up to the climax of the film, where Sheriff Joe assassinates the Mayor and his son, and attempts to frame Michael his trainee sheriff.

The denouement of the movie begins quite well, as their deaths are investigated; however, I thought it began to unravel as much as Sheriff Joe’s mind did at this point. There was an over reliance on quite gratuitous violence, and the long scene of Sheriff Joe trying escape an assassin’s bullet, and eventually being brutally stabbed in the head was farcical. As was his being saved from the assassin by the young Brian (Cameron Mann) and eventually recovering, but living in a vegetative state.

The final scene, where the Governor opens the new big tech data centre, and Michael reappears as the under or Deputy Sherriff, shows Joe lying awkwardly in a wheel chair drooling, but with perfectly coiffured hair and dressed impeccably in a suit. Joe’s carer is his mad mother-in-law, who has a live in nurse companion for Joe. The full frontal naked Joe being helped onto the toilet, was quite quirky, although unnecessary. But, I suppose, at the end of at the day, we all get to see a very well hung Joaquin Phoenix (unless it was a prosthetic).

Like any movie or book the viewer and reader take away from it many different perspectives. The key takeaway for me was how the global pandemic changed our lives, and not always for the better. Also, the themes around cultural wars, cancel culture, and the political and social manipulation of society through technology and social media, are portrayed accurately in the film. These remain a serious existential threat to our freedoms and liberty today. Overall, an excellent film, in my opinion.