Beau Is Afraid
Directed by Ari Aster
★★★
DB_00516.jpg(L-R)Nathan Lane,Joaquin Phoenix, Amy RyanCredit:Takashi Seida
Beau may be afraid, but not as afraid as I am to try and create a coherent review for this 3-hour surrealist anxiety attack, simply named Beau Is Afraid.
From accolade-laden auteur Ari Aster, comes his latest cerebral venture into the psychoses of a neurotic and ultimately passive character called Beau. And guess what? Beau…you know the guy from the title? Yeah, well, he’s afraid. Beau is afraid of literally everything. He’s afraid of the naked guy loose on the street stabbing people (fair). He’s afraid to leave his apartment and make the trip he had planned to see his mother after his keys were stolen. He’s even afraid of his mother. If this sounds a little overwhelming or redundant, that’s because it is. And so is the movie.
Aster is undoubtedly an ambitious filmmaker with an unmatched eye for detail. His unique way of framing shots in unsettling yet beautiful ways is unparalleled by his peers. After two successful bouts in the horror genre, Hereditary and Midsommar, Aster is given a budget that is double the amount of his two previous films combined. On top of A24 trusting him with their biggest production budget to date, he also seemed to be given almost complete creative freedom and control. And similarly to last year’s Damien Chazelle helmed Babylon, it was perhaps a little too much creative freedom.
The film goes on for a staggering three hours, and while this can work if the running time is merited, in Beau’s case, it's anything but. Aster almost seems to dare the audience to walk out of all of his films, but it's never more so been the case than it is here. While Beau might be afraid of everything, Aster leaves the audience in fear that this movie may never end.
Coupled with the film’s overlong stature is the troubling fact that Beau just isn’t a character we want to root for. Sure, we don’t always need a likable protagonist, but we still need to have some sort of empathy or care for what they are going through and what will happen to them by the end of the film. Unfortunately for Beau, by the end, we just don’t give a flying fuck. Beau is an unfathomably passive character. All his decisions seem to be made by those around him rather than by himself. Even a random unseen but heard UPS driver makes decisions for this guy.
Fortunately, despite all of its major flaws, Beau Is Afraid isn’t a bad film. Luckily, Aster is such an extremely talented cinema craftsman that he is able to elevate even the shakiest of narratives into a worthy watch. Not to mention, Beau is played by the ridiculously gifted Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix channels similar emotional outputs that he found within his character from Joker, which warranted him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Luckily, Beau Is Afraid is a much better film than the Scorcese knock-off that earned him that bragging right. Phoenix shines in these singularly neurotic roles, digging deep into an emotional core that not many other actors could find. He’s also paired with some insanely talented co-stars, such as a welcomed return from Parker Posey, the always incredible Patti Lupone, and both Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane, whose entrance sparks the film’s best parts.
Much like Babylon, Beau Is Afraid has a one-of-a-kind score that heightens the film's tension and emotional moments. The way Aster utilizes the droning sounds he’s popularized in his previous films continues to be an unsettling highlight.
Despite its overlong runtime, random and unnecessary shocking plot points, and the ridiculous amount of biblical Job-like trauma that Beau endures, there is enough talent both in front of and behind the camera, stellar visuals, and dark humor that keep the film from being completely unwatchable, including an (again, too long) animated sequence towards the film’s final act that is strikingly beautiful and somewhat unnecessary. Unfortunately, Aster didn’t develop a final project that was quite on the level of his previous two films.
