The official synopsis reads “In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbour is pitted against neighbour in Eddington, New Mexico.”
Eddington is described as a “contemporary Western” and is set during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Aster described how he wrote the film during a state of “fear and anxiety about the world.”
The director said “I wanted to try to pull back and show what it feels like to live in a world where nobody can agree on what is real anymore […] I wanted to make a film about what America feels like at that time, and it felt bad. I'm very worried. We need to re-engage with each other. That's the only hope […] We're on a dangerous road, and I feel like we're living through an experiment that's gone wrong.”
Ari Aster rose to fame with his 2018 horror film debut Hereditary, which subsequently became A24's highest-grossing film. It was surpassed in 2022 by Everything Everywhere All at Once. His next feature film was the 2019 folk horror Midsommar starring Florence Pugh, Jack Reynor, and Will Poulter.
