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- All Ho's fears: Ari Astaire's "Eddington" with Phoenix and Pascal was shown in Cannes
All Ho's fears: Ari Astaire's "Eddington" with Phoenix and Pascal was shown in Cannes
The creator of "Reincarnation", "Solstice" and "All the Fears of Bo" presented a new work in the Cannes competition — the heartbreakingly creepy and funny in equal measure "Eddington". The action takes place in a pandemic, with the virus, heat and political passions driving the characters' "roof" down slowly but inevitably, turning into a bloody nightmare. The filmmakers personally presented the film at the festival, and most importantly, the film should be officially released in Russia, although the exact date and other details are not yet known.
How to watch "Eddington"
For those who watched "All the Fears of Bo," one of the most striking films of 2023 at the Russian box office, "Eddington" will seem like almost a sequel. Indeed, Joaquin Phoenix is back in the title role, with whom the most incredible events happen. However, at first it seems that the ruthless embodiment of Freudian ideas in "Bo" is like a passed stage, and we will have a modern western in front of us, because the hero of Phoenix behaves suspiciously sane. But, let's say, "Solstice" also began as an innocent tourist ethno-excursion, and everyone remembers what happened after that, because no one could see it anymore.
So it is here: at first, everything is quite innocent. Here's Eddington, a completely uninteresting hole somewhere in the state of New Mexico. The main characters are Sheriff Joe (Joaquin Phoenix) and Mayor Ted (Pedro Pascal), who hate each other with all their hearts, with the only difference that Joe does not hide it. And the reason for this hatred isn't just Joe's strangely beautiful wife, Louise (Emma Stone).
A shot from the movie "Eddington"
Ted is the epitome of democratic values. Since the time of action is the 2020 pandemic, Ted urges everyone to wear masks, maintain social distance, and lead an indecently exemplary lifestyle. But Sheriff Joe doesn't believe in all this modern stuff. He is convinced that, firstly, Ted once abused his wife, secondly, he probably wants to cash in on selling local land plots to large corporations, and thirdly... Straightforward and not too brainy Joe does not know what is "thirdly", but he I really, really don't like Ted. So Joe decides to run for mayor and make Eddington great again.
Ari Astaire has never been so satirical and angry about the modern United States. At the same time, he is tactful enough to highlight the absurdity, leaving it for the time being within the framework of realism. And so he painstakingly, as if verbatim, reproduces through his characters pandemic dialogues, all these arguments for and against wearing masks and maintaining social distance, surfing the Web in search of arguments, domestic conflicts on this basis. And it works in a strange way: we watch an asthmatic who has difficulty breathing through a mask being kicked out of a supermarket, almost to the point of a fight — and today it seems like a fantasy, because the brain has long since displaced these memories. But Aster actualizes them by addressing what we would prefer to forget (this is his usual method), and then goes on to the following fears, unwinding them until they form a tangle together.
A shot from the movie "Eddington"
While Joe is shouting that masks are not needed because no one has ever been sick in Eddington, other ulcers are coming to the city along with the virus. For example, through social media, local youth are joining the BLM movement, pickets are starting in the city, and pretty female students with banners are yelling at a black policeman that he is being harassed and insulted, and they will not let it go. But the black cop can't get it right: he's fine, he's just been promoted to sergeant, everything is going well, and if the chief becomes mayor, it will be even better. Or was there something he hadn't noticed? Was he racially outclassed somewhere? There are more and more social networks, newspaper headlines and conspiracy theories in the plot, and Sheriff Joe himself is learning to record stories in order to get votes, but as we understand it, all this has completely Gogol-like manifestations, so you laugh and feel sorry for these simple, naive people, and see yourself in them, and here Astaire reminds us that, by the way, he is the headliner of the new wave of American horror and is not shooting "Three Billboards" here. It won't seem enough, especially sensitive people are asked to leave the hall.
How was "Eddington" received at the Cannes Film Festival
On the red carpet in Cannes and later in communication with fans, Joaquin Phoenix demonstrated, as always, the complete opposite of his on-screen image. If in the movies he most often plays psychopaths or, at least, sociopaths with great mental difficulties, then in Cannes he stood out sharply from the rest of the group by the fact that he was animatedly communicating with ordinary people. He signed autographs, took selfies with those who were able to break through to the star, and when one of the fans dropped things, Phoenix calmly picked them up and gave them to a fan. In general, one gets the feeling that Phoenix has basically forbidden himself any semblance of arrogance or stardust and is trying to be a kind of ethical guideline, which is expressed both in his public speeches and in such details as signing autographs.
People wait after the screening of the film "Eddington" as part of the competition program of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2025.
Cannes critics are more likely to scold "Eddington", with rare exceptions. To some, the film seems drawn out, to others the violence in the frame seems to follow a certain cinematic fashion, to others it seems that Phoenix is given the same type of roles. Plus, Astaire's satire has struck a chord with professionals, who reproach him for presenting the most important problems of modern society too rudely and primitively and at the same time not saying anything significantly new about them. In the critics' rating of Screen magazine, the most popular indicator of success during major festivals, Eddington has the lowest score. However, the critics' ratings almost never match the jury's decision anyway, so that doesn't mean much.
Actors Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, Michael Ward and Luke Grimes, as well as producer Lars Knudsen pose on the red carpet after the screening of the film "Eddington" as part of the competition program of the 78th Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, May 16, 2025.
To the author of this text, on the contrary, the balance of the film seems very balanced, and the ratio of the plots "election race", "love triangle" and "massacre" harmoniously coexists over a distance of two and a half hours. Oddly enough, it was much more comfortable than the audience's favorite "All the Fears of Bo" (three hours). Hopefully, Eddington will be released uncut in Russia, unlike Bo, and the audience will be able to get exactly the same wide range of emotions as the picky Cannes audience.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
