Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal face off in "Eddington." Credit: A24 Comedy is tragedy plus time. There may be a day when critics look back on Ari Aster's COVID-19 comedy Eddington with kinder eyes.

Paul Haggis’ Crash (2004) is a shallow film; its characters nothing more than reductive racial tropes colliding into and screaming epithets at one another. Somehow, the film defied the odds and beat out the heavily favored Brokeback Mountain to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

A New Mexico sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and the town mayor (Pedro Pascal) butt heads in the early days of COVID in Ari Aster's Western "Eddington."