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.

The director’s polarizing new film comes after the commercial failure of ‘Beau Is Afraid.’ He’s not not worried.