A rather grey black comedy starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal

If someone, halfway through this film, has the intrusive thought that if, instead of Eddington, the town that appears was called Springfield and, instead of a film, this was an episode ofThe Simpsons All of this would be funnier, there would be little to argue with. Because as a black comedy about the behavior of ordinary American citizens in specific situations, Eddington fair. And be careful, because that would still be a benevolent analogy. If instead of the perspective of satire, one wants to evaluate Ari Aster's new film as an allegory of the United States based on the events that take place in the microcosm of a small town, as John Sayles, for example, has done repeatedly (Lone Star, The Promised Land, Silver City…), then the comparison would be bloody.

It doesn't come out very well, Ari Aster, that very promising director of horror films (Hereditary,Midsommar), in this record of a misanthropic and sarcastic chronicler of social tensions in the United States. He lacks focus. It starts from a clear thesis, yes: in periods of uncertainty, such as the difficult months of Covid-19 in which the film's action takes place, society becomes stressed, and it is then that disorientation, fear, and anguish engender hate speech and violent behavior. From that dust comes this mud, the director from New York seems to want to warn us. But it happens that in this panorama of human stupidity, Aster does not discriminate. He mixes and ridicules everything: QAnon and antifa, Black Lives Matter and anti-vaccines, MAGA and social media, the fake news and civil disobedience. A position without a position that might have something to offer if it weren't for the fact that the film drags on, becomes excessive, and never finds its center of gravity. Amidst all this dispersion, two or three well-placed jokes or a few surprising explosions of violence aren't enough to make the film a success.