I knew nothing about this film other than the people that were starring in it when I started watching. I didn't even read the synopsis because sometimes I like to go into a film completely blind.
While this film didn't disappoint I almost felt like it brought out some non-soldier PTSD in me and perhaps many other people because if you were alive in 2020 you probably witnessed a great deal of the craziness that this film portrays and it is tough to watch because you know that you lived it.
The film stars Joaquin Phoenix and of course Pedro Pascal, who just has to be in everything these days.
The story here is that it is sometime in 2020 and the Covid lockdowns and notions of disease prevention were spreading like wild as were the notions of the people that decided to be either in favor of the rules, or those that were very opposed to them. Phoenix plays the role of Sheriff Joe Cross, who is very anti-mask, anti social-distancing, and anti lockdown. He is basically anti-everything-related-to-Covid. Pedro Pascal plays the role of Mayor Ted Garcia, who is very pro-all-of-these-things.
After a spat related to lockdowns and masks, Joe Cross decides that he is going to run for mayor in order to free the town from the lockdowns and everything related to it. In such a small community as Eddington, everyone knows everyone, so things get pretty dirty, pretty fast as far as their campaigns go. They are also really low-scale and a lot of things happen that kind of make fun of politics. I think most people will be able to get behind that!
Another thing that is focused on in this film is how the protests about (just whatever) turned into riots and this quickly became something that was almost fashionable for people to get involved in just so that they could score some social media points and put something online. There were scenes of people who were hardcore pro this or anti-that but as soon as the "cameras weren't rolling" they showed themselves to be the hypocrites that they actually are. The time in 2020 was an internet-controlled one, and one that I think that a lot of us would probably prefer to forget.
This film is meant to be uncomfortable and it is meant to make people angry. One reviewer said "it is designed to be divisive now in 2025. If you hate it, it's kind of done its job." I think this is probably very true because a lot of people out there are not really fond of the memories of what they did during those times or how they turned their backs on friends and family because they weren't on the "right side" about masks or lockdowns or other such things that were never a part of any of our lives prior to this.
Things reach a boiling point in this small New Mexico town and the mild mannered Joe Cross gets to a point where he also starts to lose his cool even though he has kind of seen himself - and others did as well - as a voice of reason up to the point that he simply can't take it anymore.
I think a lot of us can at least in some way, relate to this feeling as the movie goes on. I know that there were times that I had to fast-forward the movie because it was making me feel too uncomfortable.
one thing that I really thought was a good idea about this film was that at no point in time was it preachy and it didn't ever take "a side" as far as anything was concerned related to Covid. It presents both sides as being absurd in their own way and the movie at no point tries to paint either one as being dead wrong. This is a good thing because I think now, even 5 years later, that there are a lot of people that are very sensitive about this subject matter.
I do think the film was significantly longer than it needed to be though and at times I felt myself getting really bored as there wasn't a lot of progression in the story, sometimes for 20 minutes in a row. Almost any non LOTR film that is 2 and a half hours long is too long in my opinion.
I don't really want to say any more about the story than that because some stuff is going to happen that you definitely don't expect. This is a total work of fiction, just keep that in mind. There is no Eddington in New Mexico and none of the stories depicted about it are true.
Should I watch it?
This is where I might end up surprising you a bit: While I did enjoy this film after it was finally over, it is so long and drawn out that I think most people are going to bail on it before it is over. I mean it REALLY drags on too long. This film could have easily been a 90 minute movie and it would have been a lot better (in my mind) if that is what they had created instead of this.
I think that for many, if you do sit down to watch it, keep the remote in hand and scan through great swaths of it because I would say at least 50% of what happens on screen, isn't actually something you need to see to get the full story.
tl:dr: It's good subject matter and since it doesn't take sides I feel it is a good representation of what Covid times were like in a lot of USA and many of us should be ashamed. That being said, it's too long and quite a slog
as is the case with many films now and probably for the foreseeable future, this film is not streaming on any platform at the moment but can be rented or purchased on nearly all of them