Eddington

Eddington is writer-director Ari Aster's fourth feature, a sprawling neo-Western black comedy released by A24 that trades the domestic dread of Hereditary and Midsommar for the wide-open anxiety of the American Southwest. Set in the fictional small town of Eddington, New Mexico in May 2020, at the disorienting height of the pandemic, the film uses a local feud to dissect a country coming apart at the seams — a place where every argument is refracted through social media, conspiracy, and mutual suspicion.

Joaquin Phoenix plays Joe Cross, the town's beleaguered sheriff, whose simmering grudge against the slick, progressive mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) escalates into a chaotic and increasingly violent campaign for the mayor's office. Emma Stone plays Joe's fragile wife, with Austin Butler as a magnetic online guru who worms his way into their lives, and Luke Grimes and Deirdre O'Connell rounding out the ensemble. What begins as satire curdles, over the film's length, into something far darker and more unnerving.

Eddington premiered in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it drew a lengthy standing ovation and sharply divided critics between those who hailed its ambition and those who found its provocations exhausting. It became one of the most debated releases of the year, a lightning rod for arguments about how — or whether — cinema should depict the pandemic era. Eddington is streaming on HBO Max.