Beau is Afraid (2023) (dir. Ari Aster)
I know I’m going to keep thinking about Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid for years to come. The fact that it’s already divisive could potentially allow for cult classic status as well. I found the response at the screening I attended to be a litmus test or a rorschach-like experience. You could hear groans, laughter, people saying “WTF,” or other critics frantically scribbling notes.
My response was surprisingly muted on first viewing. I neither loved it in the way I expected nor felt the kind of anger that those on Twitter have already expressed in a very reactionary and dismissive manner. It’s a movie that is intended as push-and-pull cognitive dissonance, less of a provocation and more like an exercise in anxiety while laughing at mental deterioration.
Which is why I’m so conflicted. I heard uproarious laughter and indeed, this is an extremely dark comedy. But perhaps I had trouble connecting with it on that level only because sometimes I actively think about a filmmaker’s intention as I’m sitting there. However, I will openly acknowledge that being befuddled and dazed by a movie is often a good thing and future revisits could be rewarding. I’m eager to see if I warm up to it more.
The film starts quite strong, placing audiences in the middle of Beau’s (Joaquin Phoenix) frantic life that’s akin to the manic energy of Scorsese’s After Hours. Anything that can go wrong does go wrong for Beau. Pay attention to his therapy session including the one word that his therapist jots down. While preparing to visit his mother Mona (Patti LuPone), he also navigates the crime-ridden city he resides in and interacts with several terrifying individuals living in the area that hold him up and make it almost impossible for him to leave. This entire sequence is masterfully crafted, but once Beau leaves the city to embark on his quest, it becomes a series of vignettes in a Picaresque manner that sometimes works and sometimes is alienating.
Between Beau, Freddie Quell in The Master and Joker‘s Arthur Fleck, Phoenix has never been better as two very different middle-aged characters displaced by society. He’s terrific in this movie as expected. Added to that is the rather underrated You Were Never Really Here in which the lead character in that also has a challenging relationship with his mother. There’s something about Phoenix’s offbeat energy and tendency to mumble that is challenging to connect with but there’s also a lot of fascination in what he brings to each role even if there are a lot of similarities.
I was very focused on Phoenix because he is nearly in every scene. Then we veer into some wild detours including a section of the film that plays a bit like Todd Solondz but in a good way, thanks to acting stalwarts Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane as parental figures who take to helping Beau after hitting them with their car. There’s a Lynchian moment that I won’t entirely spoil but it was hard not to think of this whole movie as being an exercise in nightmare logic. Some parts of the dream are memorable like the suburban home extended stay, others kind of leave you in a state of confusion such as the animated sequence. All of it is visually assured throughout but part of me was a little surprised by the lack of horror given Aster’s last two films.
Beau is Afraid is astonishing in its audacity but it’s also a deeply-flawed film that can’t decide what to convey to the audience in the end. Or I’m just not able to comprehend it with just a single viewing. I’m still not sure about the out-of-left field sex scene with the great Parker Posey late in the film (the song choice sure makes it hilarious). Overall this is a visually orchestrated symphony that does become a challenging slog (kind of funny considering the original title was Disappointment Blvd). Yet it’s absolutely worth your time if you can handle the overlong running time. Beau is Afraid does tackle themes of trauma, anxiety and family dynamics similar to his previous films, but does so in a very surface level (albeit Freudian) way that always seems to play second fiddle to the ridiculous manic mayhem on screen.
By the time a certain attic visit comes into play, I checked out a bit since tonally and I couldn’t get a handle on the overall intent by suddenly deciding to veer into that level of obvious imagery. The final act also seems to directly call back to a particular Albert Brooks movie that I also won’t spoil here. Beau is Afraid is a surreal dark comedic experiment that will certainly have its fans and may attain some level of cult status, but the majority of viewers will consider this to be an anomaly, granted in ways that will likely make you laugh if you have a complicated relationship with a parent.
