“Beau is Afraid” Review

Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) tries to make his way home amidst a sea of nightmares and monsters in “Beau is Afraid,” the third film from writer/director Ari Aster.

The best way to describe a film like “Beau is Afraid” is that it’s cinematic hypnosis. As I watched the film in a dark theater, surrounded by fellow A24 fans, I found it impossible to turn my head from the screen. It’s an experience that very few films have managed to replicate. While I imagine this film will polarize both moviegoers and fans of its director, I can say that the experience I had with “Beau is Afraid” will stay with me for a long, long time. 

In this surreal nightmare, Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is an anxiety-ridden man who is traveling home to visit his mother (Patti Lupone). However, this seemingly ordinary journey is full of danger as Beau’s addled mind is pushed to its limits. 

When I look at how the film starts versus how it ends, I realize just how insane this film was. Writer/director Ari Aster has made a name for himself making unhinged films that are exercises in dread, like “Midsommar” and “Hereditary,” but this film seems more unhinged than usual. With a budget of $35 million, the largest budget for a film from A24, “Beau is Afraid” seems like the story Ari Aster has been building towards for his whole career. If that’s the case, remind me not to meet Ari Aster. From all the interviews and accounts I’ve seen, he seems like a nice guy but, based on his films, he scares the abstract shit out of me. 

The levels of craziness that this film reached cannot be overstated. “Beau is Afraid” makes  “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” seem sobering by comparison. The fact that it’s told from Beau’s unreliable perspective makes the film all the more unpredictable with its imagery and originality. 

Joaquin Phoenix is fantastic in this demanding role that must have been physically and mentally difficult. His performance as Beau is brimming with fear, paranoia and dread and Phoenix has to keep this energy throughout the entire film. It’s certainly one of his most compelling characters and Phoenix is able to take the viewer on this journey into a hell akin to a classic horror novel like something out of Edgar Allen Poe or Franz Kafka. 

I was also amazed at just how many well-known people looked at this script and agreed to be in this film. They saw something special and unique in Aster’s screenplay and wanted to be a part of it. Seeing people like Bill Hader, Amy Ryan, Richard Kind, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Nathan Lane and Patti LuPone in this film was wild as you realized that these people drank the same Kool Aid you drank when you bought a ticket to see “Beau is Afraid.” 

In particular, Patti LuPone is a character that is so layered and so irredeemable that I completely forgot how lovely LuPone was. I just wanted God himself to smite this horrendous tormenter of this poor man. Also worthy of significant praise is Kylie Rogers. While she’s been working in the industry for some time, including a recurring role on “Yellowstone,” this is certainly Rogers’ biggest film role and she aces it. Her character is so mean and so cruel. I don't think I’ve hated anyone this much in a film in quite some time which just shows how good Rogers is. 

Like Aster’s previous work, the film has his usual stamp of surrealism except you can never predict what you’re going to see. So much of the imagery in “Beau is Afraid” is so unique and you know that no other film is going to affect you like this one. Compare this film to, say, “Evil Dead Rise,” a recent horror film I loved. Despite immense creativity and a great sense of fun, it is part of an ongoing franchise and we’ve seen this kind of gorey excess before. There is no film like “Beau is Afraid.”

I don’t expect a lot of people to enjoy this film. I’m not even sure it’s meant to be enjoyed. At least in the literal sense. Some may think this film is overindulgent. Some may think it’s the worst thing A24 has put out. While these opinions are valid and I can see where critics of this film are coming from, “Beau is Afraid” gave me an out of body experience that entranced me. I found myself melded with my seat, staring at the screen as a terrified man wandered in search of understanding and I was truly afraid. If that’s what Ari Aster was trying to achieve, he succeeded.