A tense, darkly comic portrait of American fracture, Eddington is the latest provocation from visionary filmmaker Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau Is Afraid), turning his gaze toward power, paranoia, and civic breakdown.

Set in a small New Mexico town during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, the film centers on a volatile standoff between a deeply unhinged sheriff and the town’s charismatic mayor, as local grievances spiral into something far more dangerous. What begins as a conflict over public health and authority metastasizes into a broader reckoning with masculinity, ideology, and the performance of control in modern America.

Led by a formidable ensemble including Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler, Eddington blends satire, menace, and existential dread with Aster’s unmistakable formal rigor. Unsettling, caustic, and uncomfortably funny, the film offers a nightmarish reflection of a country at war with itself—where reality fractures, narratives harden, and chaos feels disturbingly close to home.