Beau Is Afraid – Film Review

A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother.

Well, folks, Ari Aster has gone ahead and done it. He’s officially made a film that makes his previous two efforts – Hereditary and Midsommar – look like films that were made for kindergarteners. Seriously. It’s no exaggeration whatsoever when I say that his latest feature Beau Is Afraid is one of – if not the – most bizarre films I’ve ever seen.

It’s a three-hour-long plunge into insanity that constantly feels like you’re watching the most unsettling and anxiety-ridden nightmare imaginable that also manages to have perfectly placed comedic moments in there as well. Simply put, Beau Is Afraid showcases that Aster knows how to make polarizing films and that’s why he’s my favorite director.

Sure, this may be the weakest of his three films but it’s still a highly unnerving and deeply disturbing dive into just how insane one man’s life is. It’s probably the most intricate and highly detailed exploration of crippling anxiety that you’ll ever see in any piece of media.

A lot of general audiences are going to go and see this movie and walk out complaining and demanding a refund, but there are also going to be people – like myself – who fall in love with just how bizarre and complex the film is. All of the answers that you want are presented to you, you just have to dig extremely deep to get them, and I love that.

I love when a director appreciates the audience to the point where they don’t dumb anything down. Here, Aster does the opposite of dumbing things down. He truly wants viewers to spend countless amounts of time picking this movie apart and examining every frame, and I just may have to do that.

Joaquin Phoenix does a truly terrific job in the titular role of Beau, a man who is just trying to get home and visit his mother, with whom he doesn’t get along with. However, along the way, Beau encounters some horrific things and must face his fears to get there. He absolutely deserves an Oscar for this performance but sadly, since the Academy doesn’t recognize horror, he won’t get one.

There is so much to love about this movie and I love how it’s all entirely Aster’s vision which is why I think you should go to your local theatre as soon as possible to check this one out. I do hope Aster goes back to the straight-up horror that was present in Hereditary one day, but at this point, I’ll watch anything Aster puts out and I’ll know with complete confidence it’s going to be good.

Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid is perhaps the strangest movie you’ll ever watch in a good way. It’s a dark, unsettling, emotional, highly disturbing, and sometimes even hilarious, exploration of one man’s deepest fears.