Eddington follows the story of a small-town sheriff at odds with a social media-savvy mayor over COVID-era masking mandates — with their public spat soon devolving into a mini-war.

The first and maybe only true jump scare in Ari Aster’s “Eddington” comes right at the start. A barefoot old man trudges down the center of a road running through an empty Western town. He’s ranting and incoherently raving as he climbs a craggy hill silhouetted against a twilight sky. He gazes, or maybe glares, out at the town below.

The film takes place in May 2020 in the fictional town of Eddington, New Mexico, and becomes a battleground when Sheriff Joe Cross (Joaquin Phoenix) clashes with Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) over plans to bring an artificial intelligence data center to the community.

Joaquin Phoenix couldn't figure out his Eddington character, Joe Cross, until director Ari Aster did something that inadvertently unlocked the role for him.

Eddington will only available to watch in a movie theater, when it opens in the U.S. in theaters on Friday, July 18. You can find a showing near you via Fandango. The Eddington movie is not yet available to watch online or on streaming.

He's collaborated with everyone from David Fincher to the Safdies, but the Iranian-born cinematographer, most recently of "Eddington," wants them all to feel like family.

Writer-director Ari Aster's fiendishly funny film stars Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as a sheriff and mayor on politically opposing sides in a well-off community during the summer of 2020. "'Eddington' has something to offend (or annoy) just about everybody,