CANNES, France (Reuters) -The premiere of indie director Ari Aster’s latest film, “Eddington,” attracted a particularly glitzy crowd to the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet on Friday night, with Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix in attendance.
“Eddington” pits Pascal, who plays a small-town mayor, against Phoenix’s downbeat sheriff in an election campaign that kicks off as tensions over COVID-19 mask policies and the Black Lives Matter protests were both reaching their apex in 2020.
Industry publication IndieWire gave the film set in the U.S. state of New Mexico top marks, calling it the “first truly modern American Western” while the BBC said the “deranged,” star-studded thriller would leave audiences breathless.
“Dune: Part Two” star Austin Butler, who plays a new-age guru, and Emma Stone of “La La Land,” who plays Phoenix’s wife, were also in Cannes for the film’s premiere on Friday, as were Phoenix’s partner, Rooney Mara, and actor Harris Dickinson, who is in Cannes to promote his directorial debut “Urchin.”
Like Aster’s three other features, “Eddington” will be released by independent distributor A24 and is set to hit theatres in the United States on July 18.
The new film marks the U.S. director’s second time working with Phoenix after 2023’s “Beau Is Afraid.” He made his name as the maker of elevated horror films “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.”
(Reporting by Miranda Murray; Editing by Sandra Maler)
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