Ari Aster’s Eddington Turns Pandemic Paranoia into a Small-Town Standoff

Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal face off in Ari Aster’s fictional 2020-set pressure cooker, Eddington.

Hindsight really is 2020 in the latest feature from acclaimed filmmaker Ari Aster. Eddington stars Joaquin Phoenix as a small-town sheriff locked in an escalating standoff with the town’s mayor, played by Pedro Pascal—a confrontation that sets off a powder keg, pitting neighbor against neighbor in the early days of the pandemic.

While Eddington isn’t based on a true story and the town itself is fictional, the film taps directly into the social unrest, isolation, and division many experienced at the onset of COVID-19. Aster originally conceived the story as a contemporary Western, but as real-world events unfolded, he reshaped it into a dark, pressure-cooker portrait of 2020—filtered through media paranoia, online misinformation, and collective dread.

Today, A24 dropped the first teaser for Eddington, which is set to make its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival before arriving in U.S. theaters on July 18.

Written and directed by Ari Aster, Eddington features a stacked cast including Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone.

Watch the official teaser trailer for Eddington now.

In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.

STARRING

Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Amélie Hoeferle, Clifton Collins Jr., William Belleau, with Austin Butler and Emma Stone.

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY

Ari Aster