Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal face off in fiery, haunting pandemic satire Eddington

Open this photo in gallery: Joaquin Phoenix, left, and Pedro Pascal star in Eddington.The Associated Press Eddington Written and directed by Ari Aster Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone Classification 14A; 149 minutes Opens in theatres July 18 Critic's Pick As far as anyone knows, filmmaker Ari Aster was nowhere near Wuhan, China, in December of 2019. Yet the COVID-19 pandemic and its many attendant crises of the body, soul and spirit seem so queasily and perfectly aligned with the director's pitch-black sensibilities that even if the novel coronavirus did not exist, Aster might have eventually invented it…