An excerpt from Reals’ script review for Eddington which will be available 07/21/25:
What Needs Work
A COVID-19 Western – Look, it says this on the title page, and that description does not really inspire confidence in what I’m about to read.
Could it be an interesting combination of Western genre tropes set in the very recent past?
Sure.
Will it be?
Well, that remains to be seen…
148 Pages – Man, I just can’t with this guy…
Breaking the 4th Wall – At the very beginning we have a man standing in front of the camera talking directly to the audience.
If I was reading this from an amateur writer (which I still contend Ari Aster is because the quality of his work leaves a lot to be desired) I would put it aside immediately.
Unless you’re writing a Deadpool movie, or have a darn good reason for this, avoid breaking the fourth wall, especially on the first page.
Joe – I guess he’s supposed to be our protagonist, but he has absolutely no redeeming qualities: he’s a jerk to everyone, he’s a coward, he doesn’t respect COVID protocols, and I don’t understand why the story is focused on him.
We spend a big chunk of our opening dealing with who is going to take the case of a dead body found on contested jurisdiction between the Reservation and the town of Eddington.
I would much rather have seen that story, or followed the Reservation Officers. At least that would be something a little different.
Instead, we follow Joe, the least interesting character we’ve been introduced to thus far.
Character Descriptions – It’s like Aster isn’t even trying with these descriptions: handsome for the men, beautiful for the women.
You don’t have to come up with a Shakespearean sonnet to describe each character in your script, but make an effort to describe their characteristics, something unique about them, and/or their main character trait(s).
Otherwise, you end up with a generic description that a reader will skim or skip altogether.
Pretentious – The script is about as on-the-nose as you can get. We all had a terrible time during the pandemic, and it certainly wasn’t helped by the rampant spread of misinformation, and completely crazy conspiracy theories.
That said, I don’t need (or want) Ari Aster to tell me what a mess 2020 was.
I lived it.
As did most of you.
Which makes this whole script tone-deaf on a special level. This thing is right up there with the Celebrities Singing “Imagine” Video (HERE for anyone who missed it) or Madonna’s totally unsolicited and unwelcome musing on the state of society (HERE).
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