Parents' Guide to Eddington

Filmmaker Ari Aster's story of COVID, paranoia, conspiracy theories, and nightmares doesn't click in a satisfying way, but it's darkly mesmerizing. Eddington comes as close as any movie has to date to capturing the fevered, surreal atmosphere surrounding the early days of lockdown in 2020. But it also leans heavily into the negative aspects of that time: the arguing, the bickering, and the fear, misinformation, conspiracies, and people with an inflated sense of victimization.

Phoenix's Joe Cross navigates this jagged landscape much as he did as Beau in Aster's surreal Beau Is Afraid, giving his all to the role. (He's unafraid to look foolish or weak.) And Aster cranks up the noise and tension so that viewers feel a deep sense of unease for the movie's entire two-hour-and-28-minute running time. Bad stuff happens at left turns, and most of it feels plausible, at least until the final stretch, which becomes a phantasmagoria of gore and violence. In the end, it appears as if Aster is trying to balance competing viewpoints by calling them all ridiculous, which seems neither useful nor interesting. It's like an essay that goes on too long and has no end. But Aster is a filmmaker of considerable talent, and even a lesser movie of his—such as Eddington—still has many dazzling flourishes and moments of visceral impact.