The two face off in Ari Aster's 'Eddington'—a heightened black comedy neo-western that finds them re-living 2020, battling anxiety, and Pascal "smacking the sh*t out of" Phoenix.

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."

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.