A One Mann’s Movies review of “Beau is Afraid” (2023).
The latest Ari Aster film, “Beau is Afraid”, is without doubt a challenging watch. And not only because it is a 3 hour film. It is, to excuse my French, a complete mind-fuck. A study of paranoia and mental health that veers from terror to farce to bat-shit craziness.
Is it any good? I honestly have no idea! A few weeks ago, in episode 9 of the “Flickering Dreams” podcast me and my co-hosts predicted the films that would make up the shortlist of 10 Best Films at next years Oscars. And I wildly suggested “Beau is Afraid” as possibly being one of those. And, who knows, it still might be! It is brilliant in places. But is it akin to an overcooked souffle, rising spectacularly before collapsing in on itself in a soggy mess?
I’ve not struggled so much in a while to put a rating on a film. (Tár was probably the last). With one frame of mind I could go for 5 stars. And with another frame of mind I could go for 2 stars. This will, I think, be one of the definitive Marmite movies of the year. But overall, I have to commend a movie that’s been made with such a surprising degree of chutzpah and has made me think about it so much since.
I saw this as a Cineworld Unlimited preview. The film launches nationwide in the UK from tomorrow, Friday 19th May.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Beau is a middle-aged virgin (for reasons we won’t go into!) living in a bad area of a US city. Chaos reigns around him, which does not help his extreme paranoia. He is due to visit his mother. But this simple trip will turn into a life-changing odyssey.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC: “Strong threat, violence, sex, drug misuse, language, nudity, injury detail”. Given the range of sins on display in this one (look at that BBFC classification!) and the generally dark tone of the film, I think this is one that should be bordering on the ’18’ certificate).
Talent:
Starring: Joaquim Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Kylie Rogers, Parker Posey.
Directed by: Ari Aster.
Written by: Ari Aster.
Twitter Handle: #BeauIsAfraidMov.
Beau (Armen Nahapetian) about to meet Elaine on a cruise. With Patti LuPoned as his mother Mona. (Source: A24.)
“Beau is Afraid” Review:
Positives:
- It’s difficult to know where to start with the Positives! But let’s start with the performance by Joachim Phoenix. Clearly, he’s one of the most ferociously intense actors around. And here he gets to give full force to that intensity. If he doesn’t make it onto the Best Actor Oscar list for 2024 for this, I will really despair of the Academy. It’s just extraordinary.
- The frenetic pace of the film, especially in the first 45 minutes or so, is exhausting, heightening your stress as a viewer in parallel with poor Beau. The situations are often ludicrous but, then again, somehow plausible too. And the screenplay is just so, so clever, making this a film that I feel I will have to go back and see again, just to spot all of the stuff that I missed the first time.
- There is so much detail on the screen, some of it subliminal but important to the plot: a building notice about a deadly spider is only partially shown, but then comes back to bite you (literally).
- The film illustrates through Beau’s eyes how our society’s inherent stress-levels are being ramped up by the constant stream of 24-hour news. The insidious nature of this stress made me think of “The Truman Show”.
- There is so much random stuff to get your head around. In his mum’s house, for example: one of the company brochures seems to show a (very smart version) of Beau’s apartment. Why! (It was too quick to read the blurb around the picture); we zoom into at one point a collage of portraits that make up Mona’s face… who are we supposed to focus on?; more bizarrely (and I might have been making this up in my stressed mental state) I thought one of the pictures on the staircase waved (Harry Potter-style) just for a subliminal moment!
- Flashbacks to Beau’s youth (excellent performances by the slightly unearthly Armen Nahapetian as Beau and Julia Antonelli as Elaine) are extremely well done.
- The film is extraordinarily unsettling. You expect somehow for some of the more bizarre events to be happening as a figment of Beau’s imagination, and things will suddenly revert to the previous state. But (aside from a deviation into an animated story section) the film just plows on assuming that everything that you have just seen DID actually happen.
- This is also at times a VERY funny film. It well passed the ‘6 laughs test’ for a comedy, and there are some moments of extreme (albeit at times grotesque) black comedy. The ending of a (very graphic) sex scene involving Beau and Parkey Posey’s Elaine is both shocking and hilarious in equal measure.
Negatives:
- The film feels waaaay overlong at 3 hours and in need of a severe trimming. The whole animated ‘play within the film’ section, while all very clever, must take a good 20 to 30 minutes and adds nothing to the overall story. It could have been cut and left for the “Extended Blu-Ray Director’s Cut”. The length of the film is a problem, particularly for us older folks. Irritatingly, this is NOT a film where it is easy to nip out for a loo-break. Lose even 3 minutes, with a quick dash, and you would likely be irrevocably lost!
- Some of the scenes are just over-the-top crazy. What lurks in the attic of Beau’s family home was a step too far into insanity for me. Ari Aster is both the writer and the director (I trust he has a good analyst!). And it feels to me like he needs a co-director/writer (like Daniels) to say “Hang on a minute Ari… don’t you think…”. (Not that that seemed to stop Daniels going over the top at times with “Everything, Everywhere All at Once“!)
Triggers?
It’s mental health awareness week, so this seems a very opportune time to release this film. But it does cover paranoia and depression and so might prove too stressful for some sufferers of those conditions.
Monkeys?
Note that there are NO monkeys in this film. I say that, because the ending is so bizarre, and the final scene continues to play throughout the end titles. I stayed, wondering if there would be “something else”. But no. Just the A24 logo and a fade to black.
Summary Thoughts on “Beau is Afraid”
I have to say that, while I have my reservations, I was impressed at the quality of the acting and the extraordinary film-making on show. It’s a really interesting film that some will love and some will hate.Which side of the fence will you be on? I think the only way to tell would be to go and experience it for yourself.
By the way, as an aside, there is a very interesting A24 podcast available called “Nervous Laughter” in which Ari Aster and Joachim Phoenix are in discussion about making the film. I listened to it before seeing the film. I probably need to listen to it again now!
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Trailer for “Beau is Afraid”
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuiWDn976Ek .
