Beau is Afraid (2023)

Rating: 6.0

TL;DR - I love bold, original filmmaking… so it breaks my heart to say that Beau is Afraid really did not work for me. I went in wanting to like it, but came out confused, exhausted, and ultimately disappointed.

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Film Info:

Premise: Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.

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A24

Written & Directed by Ari Aster

Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rodgers, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Parker Posey, Armen Nahapetian, Richard Kind

Runtime: 2hr 59min

Rating: 14A

Comedy, Drama, Horror

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IMDb Rating: 7.3/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 70%

RT Audience Score: 73%

RT Critic Average: 6.8/10

RT Audience Average: 3.7/5

Metacritic Score: 62

Letterboxd: 3.6/5

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Fun Fact: In an advance behind-the-scenes featurette uploaded by A24, Ari Aster described "Beau Is Afraid"'s plot as "a Jewish 'Lord of the Rings', but he's [Beau] just going to his mom's house."

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Review:

written by Tyler Park

Couple things:

1. I don’t like being negative about movies.

2. I love when filmmakers and creators take big risks and make original, creative movies that we haven’t seen anything like before. Watching directors take huge swings, even when they miss, is infinitely more compelling than safe mediocrity.

That being said… I thought Beau is Afraid was terrible. I might even say… unwatchable.

And that really disappoints me. I love seeing big risks pay off and love to champion those films, and I really hate having to say I didn’t like a movie. I’d usually give a wildly original film like this the benefit of the doubt for taking a big swing even if it doesn’t fully pan out… but to me, Ari Aster missed the mark in every possible way with this film. The film felt like it was someone telling you all the unnecessary details of a nightmare they had as you slowly lose interest. The story had no rhyme or reason, and stuff just kept happening that never made sense to me. I really admire the originality and the skill behind the camera — it is still a technically well-made movie, and Joaquin Phoenix really commits to the role. The movie does do a good job of immersing you in the psyche of its protagonist. But overall, it just did not work.

This is a perfect example of when art-house cinema becomes too much — the movie is inaccessible. If I as a cinephile struggles to get through the third hour of the movie, I can’t imagine what it must be like for a member of the general moviegoing public. Like, the first 45 minutes were promising, but everything after was almost unbearable. Nothing worked for me, and I even questioned whether I could sit through the rest of it. The movie is far too long and is a slog to get through. It is also so obnoxiously self-indulgent. I do need time to digest it and think about it, but overall my gut feeling is that this movie really did not work for me. To me, it was terrible, which is such a surprise since I thought Aster’s previous films, Hereditary and Midsommar, were quite excellent (albeit disturbing).

I see why this film is so divisive, and I am very upset to say that I ended up on the negative side on this one. It's 100% an original and unique movie — I’ve never seen anything quite like it…

…but maybe that was a good thing.

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Trailer: