Ari Aster's Eddington Trailer Takes You Back To The Early Days Of The Pandemic

2020. Weird year! Not great! Didn't care for it! In fact, I'd rather never think about it again, thank you very much! Well, unfortunately for me and any other cinephiles out there who feel similarly, writer/director Ari Aster is here to put those preferences to the test. 

A24 has released the first trailer for "Eddington," Aster's upcoming Western that's set in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and watching it instantly whisked me back to that first summer of being inside, not knowing what the heck was going on, and trying to distract myself from the fact that a whole lot of people were dying. The division that was already tearing the United States apart became supercharged during that period, and it seems like that scenario is serving as the foundation of Aster's new movie, which features a star-studded cast.

A24

It's been five years since the pandemic began, and movie theaters are still feeling the aftershocks of everything that went down at that time. I don't know about you, but it takes a lot for me to purposefully watch anything that's set around 2020 and prominently features Covid these days. Rian Johnson's "Glass Onion" figured out a clever way to bypass the problem of watching characters go through the same precautions most of us were taking at that time, but most of the other movies I've seen that deal with that era just remind me of how bad everything was. (One film that does so while still being 100% worth watching? Bo Burnham's "Inside," a genuine masterpiece.)

Ari Aster, the director of "Hereditary," "Midsommar," and "Beau is Afraid," is one of the most exciting new(ish) voices in American cinema right now. As a film lover, he's earned my attention, even if he decided to set his movie during the one period I'd rather not revisit. That trailer, which shows Joaquin Phoenix's character scrolling through social media posts, makes me feel bad. But with an outstanding cast that includes Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Luke Grimes, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone as part of what Aster has previously referred to as a "Western-noir dark comedy ensemble," I'm choosing to put my faith in Aster as a storyteller and go along for whatever ride he's cooked up here. Whether enough people will join me or if we have another "Beau is Afraid" box office situation on our hands remains to be seen. 

"Eddington" is coming to theaters sometime in 2025.