Eddington (2025)

It's very good to remember that films featuring immoral characters do not make the films themselves, or the film-makers, immoral. We can have stories featuring bad and unpleasant characters, and the best stories can use those characters to explore society and humanity in ways not always possible with bland, "good", heroes. I also have to note, however, that presenting those characters in a way that doesn't do enough with them, isn't good. And, as is the case here, it can sometimes feel quite irresponsible. I get exasperated enough with the news lately mistaking impartiality with equal screentime for opinions that are unequally-informed (or simply incorrect, which means giving equal time to truth and lies). Having to tolerate it for the duration of a 148-minute movie was not a great time for me.

It's 2020. A global pandemic is happening. In Eddington, New Mexico, this creates ongoing friction between a mayor (Ted Garcia, played by Pedro Pascal) who wants to abide by the rules and a sheriff (Joe Cross, played by Joaquin Phoenix) who believes that people should be allowed to maintain their personal freedoms. Everyone is forced to take a side on the issue, and tempers rise, especially when Cross decides to run against Garcia for the chance to be mayor.

There's plenty to laugh at here, and writer-director Ari Aster does enough to justify taking viewers back to the madness of 2020 in the first half of the film. Arguments about what is and isn't permissible, the rabbit holes that people went down when they had too much time on their hands and access to the global asylum that is the internet, and the clarification of the divide between the haves and the have-nots are just a few of the things that Aster explores well enough in the earliest scenes in the film. Sadly, Aster then throws more into the mix (including the ease with which people can try to win arguments by throwing out triggering words that stain others forever, but also looking at protest, counter-protests, false flag operations, agendas and agitation, and domestic terrorism) until it all boils over to create a huge mess that he cannot clean up by the time the end credits roll.

Phoenix is absolutely brilliant in the main role, as expected (considering his usual level of talent, as well as the fact that Aster seems to have placed a lot of faith in him for the two movies that have allowed them to collaborate). He's cowardly, smart enough to make him a dangerous idiot, and constantly pushing back against more powerful people without ever considering just how he is being manipulated by so many others. Pascal is also very good, although he isn't given enough to really sink his teeth into before the film moves beyond him to start reminding viewers of a bigger picture.  Emma Stone feels wasted, as does Austin Butler, but there's a turn from Deirdre O'Connell that makes up for that disappointment. Others caught up in the madness are Luke Grimes, Micheal Ward, Matt Gomez Hidaka, Cameron Mann, Amélie Hoeferle, and William Belleau, and none of them drop the ball.

The one dropping the ball is Aster. What could have been an effective skewering of a situation that turned so many people into temporary lunatics (and I count myself in that demographic, considering there's a big reason why I have now been sober since May 2020) becomes sadly neutered and defanged with each subsequent story beat. Cinematically, there are moments that work when viewed out of context. But none of this should be viewed out of context. The context is key, and the context should have been the target that Aster kept in his sights for the duration. He doesn't. Which means that viewers can, metaphorically, examine the target once the movie has finished to see that it retains the marks of only one or two lucky strikes.

5/10

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Noir November: Cool World (1992)

Mixing live action and animation to tell a tale featuring a detective, a femme fatale, a confused artist, and a whole heap of bad toons, Cool World is an interesting failure. But it will always be quickly forgotten in a cinematic landscape that also holds Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and rightly so.

The story focuses on a young man (Frank Harris, played by Brad Pitt) who ends up living in Cool World, despite the fact that he's a flesh and blood human now stuck in a world full of cartoons. Frank ends up taking on the role of guardian/protector. He becomes a detective, and his main concern is stopping other real people from coming over to Cool World, or vice versa. If a human and cartoon end up having sex, for example, then the results could be disastrous. But that doesn't stop Holli Would (Kim Basinger) from trying to make that happen, especially when she has the opportunity to bewitch the man who believes that Cool World is his creation (Gabriel Byrne).

Written by Michael Grais and Mark Victor, the script for Cool World is a hodge-podge of cliches, potentially intriguing ideas, and thin characters (aside from the three leads). Director Ralph Bakshi puts his fingerprints all over it, of course, with the style of animation, and the constant use of cartoon characters in very adult situations, and fans of his work will at least want to give this a viewing. It's just a shame that everything potentially good (even great) in the movie is often covered over by sub-par animation and a constant urge to make things silly. Not that ALL the animation is sub-par. There are some moments that are pretty good, really, but the quality just isn't consistent as it needs to be.

Pitt isn't exactly on top form, but he does okay. Likewise, Byrne. Both men perhaps spent most of their time making sure that they were looking at the right spot and interacting convincingly with characters that were to be drawn in later. Basinger, on the other hand, gives a great performance. In animated form, she's a real hottie, and in human form . . . . . . . she's Kim Basinger. It's a win win, and she effortlessly makes her character a memorable sexy seductress who convincingly winds men around her little finger.

Wild 'n' whacky in a way that will surely put off as many viewers as it pleases, Cool World feels very much like an experiment gone wrong. That may have something to do with the fact that it was seriously altered (read = watered down) once Basinger became attached and voiced concerns about the original tone. While not exactly kid-friendly, it would have been interesting to see this given a distinctly more adult feel. Whether that would have greatly improved it or not, we'll never know.

5/10

http://www.amazon.com/Cool-World-Gabriel-Byrne/dp/B0000AUHQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1415891181&sr=1-1&keywords=cool+world

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