I felt the movie was going along nicely, really developing the plot around the 2020 pandemic, and the differences between a sheriff and a mayor, and the small town issues when a governor of the State of New Mexico tells his little mayor puppets to shut down their towns. The choice of actors to portray these roles was well done, and I thought that one actress portraying Joaquin's wife with her conspiracy-laden mother was good. The movie was going around really well. Developing the plot, showing the skirmishes, showing the arguments, showing the differences in worldviews, those who are compliant, and those who rejected masking and social distancing orders from the state and the air. And then it all went to shit.
And although the movie after it went to shit was pretty good, that one moment when Joaquin Phoenix sharpshoots the mayor ruined the film for me, and yeah, it was interesting enough, watching the chaos ensue after that, but so unnecessary, so plot-dissolving, so useless. Meaningless and not in the... Oh my God, I'm getting the tone of the film with the meaninglessness, the nihilism, or anything like that. No. It just needed to be handled with not a comedic touch, but with a dramatic touch that stayed well within the lines of the everyday crazy of the pandemic. You did not need to have a murder. In fact, that just smacks of the inability of the writer-director to understand the crazy of the pandemic in and of itself and how crazy it can make people, so perfectly done until that clock point that causes them to go off the rails.