Joaquin Phoenix in a scene from Eddingotn: Ari Asner's new film (Midsommar, Beau's Afraid) is in theaters

EDDINGTON, POPULATION 11 THOUSAND INHABITANTS, it's a square spit of dust, concrete and lime a desert away from Albuquerque. Eddington is the new film by the very trendy Ari Asner: presented at the Cannes Film Festival, it is in cinemas.

Right in Eddington, during the scorching and pandemic May 2020, the "thoughtful" sheriff dashed as one Human Pressure Cooker by Joaquin Phoenix clashes angrily with the local elite. To "embody" her, the mayor (Pedro Pascal) populist Latin, I like itproud of his success. In the background, a populace of bullies, teenagers and demonstrators, determined to protest, but undecided between acting or filming. Plus one sheriff's wife (Emma Stone) estranged and prey to mother and conspiracy-minded friends.

The duelists: Sheriff Joaquin Phoenix and Mayor Pedro Pascal

A crescendo of distressing events. Coughing fits. Asthma attacks exacerbated by real respiratory anxiety object to the use of the mask... All this accompanies the sheriff in a slow but progressive simmer of small humiliations and a sense of helplessness. The point of no return is when the delightful but alienated wife, with Emma Stone's wide eyes, leaves the curtains. And jumps aboard a truck driven by lifestyle conspiracy guru (the young Austin Butler who charismatically devours every scene).

The speed with which the situation will deteriorate hand in hand with the sheriff in psychosomatic free fall, culminates after a long simmer - without spoilers - in a gruesome ending from exasperated, grotesque shooting. A bit like Paul Thomas Anderson's blockbuster with Leonardo DiCaprio, too Eddington use one as your last battle because chase has three. With a mocking coda to the story that brings everything back toTrumpian channel of this America of rednecks, wetbacks and datacenters.

Produced in A24's very hip style, it's a riot of fluid situations on the edge of chaos (the Antifa protesters, the young white people who after the Floyd George case agitated for the "abolition of whiteness"). Add i party sorrentiniani of the candidate Pascal and the plots of his diabolical mother-in-law (Deirdre O'Connell). Shake with all the "digital coterie" of Insta-youth, chaotic messaging and communication strategies... In the end this mental saga of the director of Midsummer e Beau fits well in the wake of One battle after another.

In both films ainsurrectionist perspective to talk about America today. Divisions, manipulations, prevarications on the part of those in power, to which we respond by taking the field, arming ourselves well for a frontal attack. As will the sheriff who in the end we no longer know well, with actions that will quickly bring him to the wrong side whether to disgust or pity. Suspended between drama and social satire, farce and grotesque post-meatloafRambo, Eddington it is a bomb charge that breaks away from conventions. One battle mush after another. An oblong story full of clips of humanity cooked to the blood that we encounter in the midst of that desert subspecies.