Beau Is Afraid: A mixed bag in extreme ways
Ari Aster’s latest film takes the form of an odyssey through a man’s neuroses – with varying results.
Still from 'Beau Is Afraid'
Courtesy of A24
The theme of familial dysfunction is not new to director Ari Aster. In the harrowing Hereditary it's
explored through a coven, while in folk horror Midsommar Florence
Pugh’s family die in a murder-suicide before the title screen even appears. In
Beau Is Afraid, the relationship between mother and child forms the
foundation to build an anxiety-inducing three hours upon.
Beau Wasserman (Joaquin Phoenix) is the mild mannered and paranoid son of the head of a conglomerate empire, Mona Wasserman, played by Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone. When Beau is told that his mother has died in a gruesome accident, he sets off on a Kafkaesque odyssey to be there for her funeral.
The
film's title is explored very literally, as every scenario that Beau finds
himself in reaches the most negative outcome possible. This is
illustrated early on when a task as simple as leaving for the airport
leads to his apartment being torn apart by the deranged vagrants of
the crime-ridden neighbourhood he lives in.
It's Beau’s brief
interactions with his mother as a child which explain this state of
mind. Smothered and poisoned by her with stories of
his father dying while conceiving him, it's no wonder he is an
anxious, whimpering mess in every situation.
The film’s sense
of reality is stretched almost to the point of non-existence. With
fantastical sequences involving tsunamis, wolves and naked
stabbing sprees, it feels like a nightmare that thrusts you
from situation to situation without the chance for resolution. The result feels like a twisted sketch show. After
exercising relative narrative structure to hold up the surreal
fantasy, the film loses its way and leaves you feeling like the
majority of the three-hour runtime has been inconsequential.
Beau Is Afraid proves to be a mixed bag in extreme ways. It is over-long, muddled, ambitious and fascinating. And while its flaws are clear, Beau Is Afraid is a testament to the experiences that can come from allowing a filmmaker to execute their singular vision.
