Ari Aster’s Western of Pandemic Paranoia Hits Theaters After Dividing Cannes

A24 has dropped the trailer for “Eddington,” Ari Aster’s modern western that divided the Cannes Film Festival after its Croisette premiere. The film will hit theaters nationwide July 18 — and it very well may “hit” with heated debate.

The film takes place in 2020 — yes, that 2020 — in the most visceral way, with the anti-mask local sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) of the fictional Eddington, New Mexico, facing off against the town’s COVID-guideline-advocate mayor, played by Pedro Pascal (the second of his three summer releases). The heavy-hitter cast also includes Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Amélie Hoeferle, Clifton Collins Jr., and William Belleau, all of whom represent various perspectives on the pandemic spectrum.

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IndieWire reported last month on the film’s polarizing audience response, with people truly either loving or hating the film, and few in between. The cast and crew addressed the controversial COVID epic’s hot-button reactions at a Cannes press conference.

“It’s very scary to participate in a movie that speaks to issues like this,” Pascal said. “It’s far too intimidating a question for me to address. I’m not informed enough. I want people to be safe and protective. I want very much to be on the right side of history … I felt like [Aster] wrote something that was all our worst fears as that lockdown experience was already a fracturing society. This was building toward an untethered sense of reality. There is a point of not going back. I was overwhelmed by that fear, and it’s wonderful that it was confirmed by Ari.”

“I wrote this movie in a state of fear and anxiety. I wanted to try and pull back and show what it feels like to live in a world where nobody can agree on what is real anymore,” Aster added at the same presser.

IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote in his A- review that the director is “exclusively interested in making the kind of films that should be reviewed straight onto a prescription pad, is too beholden to his neuroses for his latest movie to play like a cheap provocation. This time, however, there’s a good chance those are your neuroses, too.”

Prior to its release, “Eddington” will open the Fantasia International Film Festival on July 16. It will be in theaters everywhere July 18. Watch the trailer below.

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