If you’ve ever found yourself reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and thinking how it felt like a lifetime ago, you’re not alone. The conversations during that time, certain actions taken, and how people treated others seem like a dystopian past I long to forget but cannot. For the Competition section of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, Ari Aster brought his contemporary Western film, Eddington, to satirically tackle the political and social turmoil during 2020 in New Mexico.

The synopsis is simple. In May 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff named Joe Cross (Joaquin Pheonix) and mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) breaks out in a way that evokes danger for all its inhabitants. Of course, like most Aster films, the story is far more complicated. Cross and Garcia disagree on a number of things that have incited this one-on-one war including topics relating to public health, native land, and racism in sociopolitical matters after the murder of George Floyd.

Their first difference of opinion is based on how to handle the COVID-19 pandemic. Garcia wants to follow the mandate on masks and safe distancing while Cross believes this to be the first of many ways to strip citizens of their freedoms. Sound familiar? There’s also a residual conflict from Garcia’s past relationship with Joe’s wife, Louise (Emma Stone) who seems standoffish due to her inability to desire touch from even her husband. Finally, there’s the simple fact that two egotistical men won’t admit to the problems in their respective departments. Rather, they take pleasure in blaming each other while claiming to know the solutions.

Eddington is a hilarious Western that often leans into extreme satire territory.

Given all the layers of turmoil surrounding these two characters, it’s no wonder Aster’s depiction of a fractured America comes off as extreme satire. But after having seen Eddington, it couldn’t have been more on the nose. Rather than overtly criticize our inability to cooperate during desperate times, Aster crafts a hysterical depiction of a tetchy society. We aren’t willing to work together to find common ground for action planning, but indulging in conspiracy theories and anti-humanity rhetoric is all the better. It’s bleak yet still so unbelievable to realize that this was our lives 5 years ago. What better way and who better to capture this hellish, dysfunctional decline?

As the feud between Cross and Garcia exacerbates—due to Garcia’s sneaky dealings as part of his re-election campaign and Cross’ farfetched methods of controlling racism and inequality in his town—so does the town’s weariness. These two can’t handle much of anything, and the thing standing in their way is each other. Surprisingly, Cross decides that the only way to solve all the ongoing problems is to run against Garcia himself, a decision backed by his two deputies, the ever-suspicious Guy (Luke Grimes) and Michael (Michael Ward) who is seemingly the only Black person in town. He also bears the burden of being the person everyone goes to for understanding the Black Lives Matter “mayhem.”

One way or another, Aster’s direction will make you reflect back on your role in the mayhem of 2020.

It’s a crazy script, indeed, and one that evolves to drastic proportions throughout its 145 minutes of runtime. But ultimately, it worked for me. This hilarious western has plenty of moments that made me role my eyes, laugh out loudly, and huff & puff throughout its absurdity when it comes to recalling the times of COVID. Eddington isn’t just an entertaining body of work, it’s one that truly made me question how the hell we got here, and how will we ever dig ourselves out from this nightmarish grave.

As Aster navigates his characters’ journeys through conversations centered on the pandemic, police brutality, and assault, here comes a sinking feeling that none of this could possibly end well. Sequences where violent riots by white liberals who have centered themselves on institutional racism conversations (this is so damn good, by the way) are just the start. While ridiculous in nature, these moments are highlights thanks to Aster’s direction, where every character seemingly wallows in a desert of stupidity and fright.

Eventually, and as suspected, Joe does eventually take matters into his own hands. This leads to one of the most striking sequences in the entire film, where I couldn’t help but hold my breath. Meanwhile, as a viewer, it feels both plausible and undeniably off-beat to see how this conflict finalizes. It’s not entirely shocking that Aster would go all-in on an aberrant style of revealing societal truths, but that’s what makes him an exciting filmmaker as he continues to tackle different genres.

Joaquin Pheonix takes his talents to another level in Eddington.

Director Ari Aster leaves just enough narrative gaps to keep us on the edge of our seat for the chaos to come. In doing so, this enables Joaquin Pheonix to run wild with his talent. Eddington may not be the type of film that works for everyone, but there’s an irrefutable chance that you’ll walk away from this film unphased about the memories of 2020.

This translational work intersects humanity, fear, and connection in ways that allow us to make fun our ourselves. Unfortunately, it also evolves into that discomforting feeling of knowing we are no closer to cooperation. The pandemic may have led us to a political and social crisis, but we can’t, nor do we seem to want to get ourselves out of it.

Eddington premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.