Ari Aster’s latest Film ‘Eddington’ Sharply Divides Cannes

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May 19

Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix ignite debate with a Western built on America’s deepest divides.

Ari Aster has never been afraid to provoke—but with Eddington, his latest and most polarizing film yet, he’s stepped directly into the cultural minefield. Premiering to both fervent praise and pointed criticism at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, the 145-minute fever dream of a Western—set during the height of the 2020 lockdown—left the Palais des Festivals either shaken or exhausted. There’s little in between.

After receiving a mixed standing ovation and taking the stage, Aster gave a characteristically dry thank you: “I feel very privileged to be here. This is a dream come true. Thank you so much for having me. And, I don’t know, sorry?”

Eddington unfolds in a fictional New Mexico town where a mayoral election devolves into an ideological war zone. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Joe Cross, a conservative sheriff running a mask-averse, anti-lockdown campaign against Pedro Pascal’s progressive candidate Ted Garcia. Quarantined at home with his wife (Emma Stone) and her far-right mother (Deirdre O’Connell), Phoenix’s character becomes a caricature of 2020 paranoia, stubbornness, and disconnection.

Pascal, who delivers one of the film’s more grounded performances, addressed the tension at the press conference: “It’s very scary to participate in a movie that speaks to issues like this... I felt like [Aster] wrote something that was all our worst fears... there’s a point of not going back.”

The film is unrelenting in its portrayal of American breakdown, lampooning both liberal performance activism and right-wing conspiracy. Amélie Hoeferle plays a social-justice-obsessed teen who performs Baldwin quotes for TikTok. Meanwhile, Austin Butler portrays Vernon Jefferson Peak, a QAnon-style cult leader whose presence introduces a darker undercurrent of violent populism. It’s absurd, surreal, and often painfully familiar.

Aster, speaking bluntly about his motivations, described the film as a product of “fear and anxiety.” He added, “I wanted to try and pull back and show what it feels like to live in a world where nobody can agree on what is real anymore.”

Emma Stone, whose shaved pixie cut drew attention on the red carpet, spoke about how researching her conspiracy-addled character disrupted her own digital experience. “Once you start Googling it, you start seeing more and more things... unfortunately, I’m still getting fed some crazy shit,” she said.

The response at Cannes has been nothing short of a cultural collision. Variety called the film “brazenly provocative.” Screen Daily labeled it “wan satire.” David Ehrlich of IndieWire hailed it as a daring social mirror, writing, “few other filmmakers would have the chutzpah required, and we should probably all be grateful that none of them have tried.”

But others have found Eddington abrasive, unwieldy, and exhausting—a cinematic purge of a traumatic year many are still reluctant to revisit. Its current Metacritic score sits at 63, signaling a divided critical field and a potentially challenging road ahead for its distributor, A24.

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Only a cryptic teaser has been released, showing Phoenix doom-scrolling through pandemic news footage. Whether A24 will lean into the controversy or repackage the film as high-minded satire remains to be seen. Last year’s Civil War proved that discomfort can sell; Eddington may find a similarly intrigued audience, though not without friction.

With its bold performances, unflinching tone, and caustic worldview, Eddington may not be the film Cannes expected—but it’s certainly the one people are still talking about. In an age where culture feels like a battleground, Aster’s film enters as both a grenade and a mirror.