Review | Beau Is Afraid movie review: Joaquin Phoenix delivers acting masterclass in Ari Aster’s once-in-a-generation psychological drama
- Violent, hallucinogenic, twisted and with one of the best movie sex scenes ever, Beau Is Afraid is a work film students will be picking apart for years to come
- Joaquin Phoenix is riveting as a fragile, single New Yorker who must confront his darkest fears in Midsommar director Ari Aster’s hugely ambitious film
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5/5 stars
American writer-director Ari Aster made a significant impact with his chilling 2018 debut Hereditary and his folk-horror follow-up Midsommar (2019).
His new film, Beau Is Afraid, is a huge advance on both – it is a three-hour, anxiety-riddled tale of matriarchal neuroses that is frequently surreal, puzzling, indulgent and jaw-dropping.
Joaquin Phoenix delivers another masterclass as Beau, a fragile, single New Yorker who lives alone.
In therapy when we first join him, talk turns to his domineering mother, Mona (Patti LuPone), who he is planning to visit the very next day.
“Do you ever wish she was dead?” inquires his therapist.
He looks horrified, but by the end of this nightmare odyssey of the mind, it might be considered a fair question.
What immediately follows almost defies description, as a series of events – involving noisy neighbours, stolen keys, a deadly spider, a home invasion, a naked madman and more – conspire against him.
It is both blackly funny and horrifyingly intense, a truly impressive collaboration between Aster, his editor Lucian Johnston and production designer Fiona Crombie, among others.
And yet that is just the opening gambit of Beau Is Afraid, as Phoenix’s character discovers something shocking about his mother and seeks to get home whatever the cost.
It is a journey that soon sees him encounter Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan’s Good Samaritans, their rebellious teen Toni (Kylie Rogers) and their late son’s PTSD-affected military buddy (Denis Ménochet, going full Terminator).
“Feeling sad about going home, Beau?” asks Lane’s surgeon. “Must feel totally unreal.”
Frequent flashbacks to Beau’s childhood – especially a cruise holiday where he developed a crush on a girl named Elaine – thicken the mix.
It is arguably the most indulgent segment of the film, despite some remarkable animated visuals.
The final act begins with a great appearance from Parker Posey, who spearheads probably one of the best sex scenes in movie history.
That Aster has even got a film this wilfully perverse made is miraculous. Violent, hallucinogenic, twisted – there are not enough adjectives to even scratch the surface of this hugely ambitious psychological drama.
It is the sort of work that film students will be picking apart for years to come, a once-in-a-generation kind of movie.
