‘Eddington’ starring Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone depicts the fragmentation of American democracy during the pandemic

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As a result, Eddington, which will be released in Brazilian cinemas this Thursday, November 13, is not exactly a drama about the coronavirus era, but the film is depicted as a critical breaking point between two worlds.

— For the past 20 years, we have lived in an era of hyper-individualism. The power of community, which was supposed to be the center of democracy, has disappeared. The coronavirus appears to have finally severed that connection, the director said in May during the Cannes Film Festival, where “Eddington” won its world premiere. — I wrote this story out of fear and anxiety about the world. I wanted to make a film about what America represented to me and how I felt at that moment. I tried to distance myself from facts and simply explain what it’s like to live in a world where no one can agree on what’s true and what’s not.

Set in the fictional New Mexico city that gives the film its title, “Eddington” is set during the first months of the pandemic and depicts the feud between neoliberal mayor and local bar owner Ted Garcia (The Last of Us’ Pedro Pascal) and conservative village sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) as a microcosm of the country’s political, social and ideological divisions. At that time.

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Amid stay-at-home orders and mask mandates that sheriffs are challenging, cities are being bombarded by echoes of the Black Lives Matter movement, conspiracy theories and fake news spreading online, and the threat of data theft by big tech companies.

Already suspicious, fearful and divided, the city’s residents will now see the sheriff boldly announce on social media that he is running as a mayoral candidate.

Two other characters add fuel to the drama and vanity of the election dispute. Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone), has had a romance with the current mayor in the past. The sheriff’s mother, Dawn (Deirdre O’Connell), is staying at her son’s home, where she furiously spreads conspiracy theories about the origins of the pandemic and misinformation.

The complex conspiracy constructed by Astor suggests that all these forces fueled the powder keg that shaped this nation.

— People cling to their religious and political doctrines and shut themselves in bubbles. They feel very powerful in this bubble, but also very scared. The film is about what happens when people become isolated from each other and start living in a reality they’ve constructed for themselves – something New York-born Astor understands. — As these groups, these bubbles, collide and attack each other, a new logic begins to emerge. Since then, people have started to increase their fear and paranoia, which is extremely dangerous.

The 39-year-old director is a genre recycler. He used horror aesthetics to examine dysfunctional family dynamics in Hereditary and the end of a romantic relationship in Midsommar (2019). His previous film, Beau is Afraid (2023), was a surrealist dark comedy about a man struggling with the loss of his mother.

With Eddington, Auster was finally able to fulfill a long-held dream of working with Western elements. That’s because, he says, “this is a genre that talks about the building of America, and what we feel is that we’re going through the collapse of something and the birth of something, and that’s reflected in other governments around the world these days.”

There’s even a duel of sorts between Ted and Joe, in the style of Fred Zinnemann’s Kill or Be Killed (1952), to top off the references to American Westerns. This sequence is one of the key points in the debate over values ​​between Joe and Ted, who plan to attract big business to the city. The sheriff also despises the residents near the Eddington Indian Reservation, who fight only to protect their territory and traditions.

At the same time, the current mayor is allowing large high-tech data centers to be built in the city without considering the social and environmental impacts of the projects.

— I like how Ali talks about feeling disconnected from the truth and collective consciousness, said Pascal, a naturalized American from Chile. — As a foreigner, I’m used to observing American culture from the outside, and there are many ways to view political and sociological issues in this very complex culture. I think Ali functions as an informant, someone who internally says, “This is what’s happening here!” This movie is about a world where there is no longer a common sense of truth, and I think that’s a very brave thing for him to do.

Phoenix, who co-starred with Aster in Beau Is Afred, said he felt “warmth and love for the character of Joe, who desperately seeks approval and connection with others.”

This sheriff isn’t necessarily a hero. He convicts the only black police officer in the precinct of murder, tries to shut down a local manifesto associated with the Black Lives Matter movement, and confronts an alleged anti-fascist terrorist attack with a machine gun.

However, all of the characters in Eddington have some kind of moral or ethical ambiguity in one way or another. The director says he did not intend to privilege ideological or partisan aspects.