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In May of 2020, during the height of the COVID pandemic, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in the fictional city of Eddington, New Mexico. With an impressive supporting cast (Austin Butler, Emma Stone, Luke Grimes, Deirdre O'Connell, Michael Ward, and Clifton Collins Jr.), Eddington incorporates the genres of neo-Western and political films with darkly comic elements to depict how the pandemic creates social and political turmoil.
Eddington premiered at mid-May’s Cannes Film Festival, played in Australia at the Sydney Film Festival mid-June, and at Revelation Perth International Film Festival less than a week ago. Reviews have been mixed with Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called Eddington a “disappointing dud” that tediously masks drama and mutes its stars, whereas Damon Wise of Deadline finds it “explosive” in “its approach to American politics; from Bitcoin to Pizzagate, TikTok to vaccine denial, Eddington takes aim at all the quirks and absurdities of President Trump’s administration and how its compliant MAGA zealots have radicalized whole generations of a country once known for its compassion.”
At Slant, Rocco T. Thompson writes: “Eddington is especially pointed in the way that it views our online connectedness as a social cancer rather than an engine for progress. Aster asserts that, even in spite of increasing awareness of social media as a form of self-surveillance, people are behaving worse than ever before, and, in the director’s version of 2020, there are no good faith actors. Everything across the spectrum of politics and rationality, from support for the Black Lives Matter protests to the need to speak out against satanic cabals of child-traffickers, is exposed as coming from a mercenary desire or unresolved trauma rather than stated principles or genuine conviction. Those seeking a political screed that toes the Democratic party line or crusades against the supposed sins of woke culture should look elsewhere.” Fantasia audiences get to decide yay or nay for themselves at this opening night special screening.
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While the film was in production, Ragozar was interviewed by Alex Dudok De Wit of Cartoon Brew, wherein he stated: “Unfortunately, international people are looking at Iran from a political point of view; all the news is bad and toxic. Yes, we have lots of political, social, and economic problems. But Iran is a great and beautiful country with great history and amazing people who have a great culture. I want to note that there are lots of beautiful things that people around the world can learn from and remind each other about.”
Juliet & The King fancifully fictionalizes Naser-al-Din Shah Qajar’s 1873 visit to Europe (the first Iranian ruler to do so). Reigning for close to 50 years in the second half of the 19th century, Naser-al-Din Shah Qajar was an accomplished painter, poet, and photographer and his passion for the arts and patronage of European culture provides the thematic thrust of a cultural contact between East and West. As synopsized by Fantasia: “The frisky spirit of Shakespeare’s complicated ensemble comedies is ever-present, as are the exquisite delights of classical Persian aesthetics, as Juliet & The King counters the Orientalism in Western animated visions of West Asia and celebrates cross-cultural curiosity with love, laughter, and catchy tunes!”
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As synopsized by Fantasia: “After the disappearance of her younger sister, a woman with a hearing impediment experiences bizarre happenings and frightening encounters when mysterious noises echo throughout the building. With brilliant sound design and perfectly-dosed jump scares, first time director Kim Soo-jin blends real-life anxieties with stark, supernatural elements to create genuine tension that never lets go.”
I was happy to read Panos Kotzathanasis’ assertion at Asian Movie Pulse that Noise “delivers a thriller/horror that frequently ventures into J-horror territory.” Kotzathanasis continues: “Kim Soo-jin places heavy emphasis on sound design to create an atmosphere of disorientation and fear, with sound functioning as a character in its own right. Rhythmic, jarring, often mundane noises are employed to startle and disturb, and although jump scares are present, they are relatively restrained. At the same time, sound becomes a metaphor for trauma, grief, and unresolved tension, with its lurking presence beneath the floors and behind the walls contributing to both the atmosphere and the narrative’s emotional subtext.”
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Benjamin Lee of The Guardian calls Lurker “a darkly compelling breakout from Alex Russell, writer for Beef and The Bear”, asserts it is “deviously entertaining”, and describes the film’s plot as “a contemporary pop-culture riff on an obsessive psycho-thriller, the kind we were flooded with in the 90s in which an outlier enters the life of someone who has something they want, recalling Single White Female and The Talented Mr. Ripley as well as something more recent and comedic like Ingrid Goes West. Russell takes this formula and extracts most, if not all, of the heightened genre elements to give us something a little more grounded, dialogue more rooted in reality and a canny realization that murder isn’t always needed to create menace.”
At Slant, Marshall Shaffer writes: “The democratization of celebrity in the 21st century has accelerated the process of audience capture: Tell fans what they want to hear and reap the rewards. Lurker portrays an even more contemporary permutation of this feedback loop by dismantling the presumed hierarchy of its participants. The artist and audience member are coequal—and codependent—in this perceptive drama about a parasocial relationship that enters the realm of reality.” Fantasia synopsizes: “When a twenty-something retail clerk (Théodore Pellerin, Nino) encounters a rising pop star (Archie Madekwe, Saltburn), he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death. A stunning feature debut, at once unsettling and entertaining, tense and captivating, Lurker is a brilliant deconstruction of fame and need in Instagram-driven times.”
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