Movie Review: ‘Beau Is Afraid’

‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ director Ari Aster takes a big swing with his third movie and delivers something destined to divide.

Joaquin Phoenix in director Ari Aster's 'Beau Is Afraid.'

‘Beau Is Afraid’ on wide release now, represents filmmaker Ari Aster cashing in the creative credit he’s earned with the buzz and box office of horror movies ‘Hereditary’ and ‘Midsommar’ and taking a gigantic swing for the creative fences that will surely end up in the “love” or “hate” column for most viewers.

Beau Is Afraid

"From his darkest fears comes the greatest adventure."

R2 hr 59 minApr 21st, 2023

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What is ‘Beau is Afraid’ about?

Aster’s latest is the story of nervy, milquetoast Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix), who lives alone in a downtown apartment building where every moment is a waking nightmare. His home is squarely in a city block that might be a war zone for all the chaos that seemingly constantly breaks out on the streets.

Prone to anxiety and paranoia, he visits his longtime therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who prepares him for his imminent journey to visit his mother Mona (Patti LuPone). But mayhem ensues on the eve of Beau’s departure, spinning his life in a surreal new direction.

Unable to reach his destination in a world gone insane, traveling on roads that don’t appear on any map, Beau is forced to confront his own life and the lies he’s been told by those closest to him.

And that’s the most basic description –– there is so much more lurking within here, including weird, grieving suburbanites (played by Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan) who initially help and then effectively adopt Beau, much to the endless frustration of their teen daughter Toni (Kylie Rogers). A forest-dwelling theatre troupe with whom Beau links up end up shattered by tragedy. And when he does finally get to his mother’s house, there is some truly surreal weirdness to follow.

Wreathed through it all are flashbacks to his time as a teenager (where he’s brought to life by Armen Nahapetian), spending time on a cruise ship and elsewhere with his demanding, highly strung mother (here played by Zoe Lister-Jones). It’s on the cruise that a crucial moment in Beau’s development –– or the arrest of it, at least –– occurs, when he meets and falls for Elaine (Julia Antonelli), only for her to be snatched away by her mother. It really gets to the roots of his problems.

(L to R) Nathan Lane, Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Ryan in 'Beau Is Afraid.'

Cast Performances

Beau is such a sniveling, seemingly unlikable protagonist that it’s credit to Aster and Phoenix that he’s actually watchable on his crazy journey. While it often feels like things are more happening to Beau than he’s ever driving the story, he remains a worthwhile anchor for our attention.

Indeed, it’s credit to the actor that he holds your attention, and he’s joined by some suitably skilled co-stars, including Richard Kind, Hayley Squires, and Parker Posey, who arrives late on as the adult Elaine, and makes an impression with her limited screen time.

Some of the cast –– especially Kind –– feel like they’re wasted in tiny roles, but you can see why they might want to come and play in Aster’s strange sandbox. Lister-Jones, meanwhile, has more to chew on as Beau’s overbearing “smother” who evolves into the more distant version played by LuPone.

If you were expecting an easy, entertaining watch or something simple to take a date to, this is not the movie for you –– unless you’re a fan of complicated, weird, and downright standoffish arthouse fare.

(L to R) Joaquin Phoenix and director Ari Aster on the set of 'Beau Is Afraid.'

Themes and Direction

‘Beau’s driving themes are guilt, fear and the endless, driving chaos of the modern world, reflecting on how we internalize our feelings, and they start to poison us. There are rampaging killers, Freudian images, and stories of how Beau’s father died in the act of conceiving him.

This is, as we’ve said, not a film that will inspire mild responses. You’re likely to either love or loathe it, depending on whether you get on board. And even then, the abrupt ending (after near three hours of surreal oddity) might jolt you out of that positivity.

Long tracts of the story are likely to invoke boredom if you’ve no tolerance for whimsy or ideas that appears to be weird for weirdness’ sake. Aster throws every cinematic trick in the book at this one, including animated sequences, and an opening scene that makes Beau’s journey through the birth canal into an unforgiving world appear like a battlefield thanks to a discordant soundtrack. There are grotesques and grime, and even a sequence where Phoenix, naked, wrestles with a man who unexpectedly drops into his bath.

Given the director’s history, there is also bloody violence, a big dose of satire and some real shocks here and there, though it’s also shot through with a lot more humor than either of his previous works. Through it all, you can feel like Aster has big issues on his mind but isn’t always able to communicate them in a way that makes you want to listen or understand.

And that’s a big problem at the core of ‘Beau’ –– though it’s good to see a director given free rein to make the movie he truly wants to –– there’s a big question of whether anyone really needed to see it in the first place. Plenty of films have explored child/parent relations, guilt, and emotional crises, and in a way that tries to connect with the audience. Aster seems more interested in the strangeness he can invent to get those concepts across.

Yet even as large swathes are almost designed to turn you off, there’s something to be said for the tone and the soundscape, which end up trickling into your subconscious and, unless you truly reject everything the movie has to offer, could still have you thinking about the story days after you see it.

Final Thoughts

What we have here is a confronting, unique movie, but not always for the good, and with . In all honesty, we’d say watch it if you’re in the mood for something challenging, but don’t say you weren’t warned.

‘Beau Is Afraid’ receives 6 out of 10 stars.