Written and Directed by Ari Aster 
Starring Joaquin Phoenix, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Denis Ménochet, Patti LuPone, Armen Nahapetian, Hayley Squires, and Parker Posey

Beau Is Afraid takes viewers down a dark, demented, and winding road filled with fear, paranoia, and heartache. The premise is quite simple. Over the course of the next three hours, Beau will travel for several hours to his mother’s hometown of Wasserton and reunite with her. However, because of our titular character’s steeping insecurities, both Beau and his audience are held captive in an unsettling, disorienting and nightmarish reality that could only have been invented by genius filmmaker Ari Aster (Midsommar, Hereditary).

When confronted by the thought of visiting his mother for the anniversary of his father’s death, Beau falls down an endless rabbit hole of anxiety, self-doubt, and further insecurity. His fear paralyses him, as hopes and glimmers of healthier days or happier moments are repeatedly hindered by his own shortcomings. Relationships are explored across timelines with his therapist, medicine, family, a childhood crush and above all else, with himself. Joaquin Phoenix embracing himself on the film’s promotional art might hint towards a journey of self-exploration, but really, we’re presented with a man well aware of who he is, is conscious of the fact his mind is what brings him terror yet is constantly seeking aid to overcome himself.

There is no escape for Beau from the deranged line-up of horrors that await his arrival. These are as much his destiny as is the reunion with his overly loving mother and his unrelenting mental battle with himself. His chronic condition is certainly stressful to live with and manage at the best of times. Even to watch. But it escalates when he inadvertently doesn’t take his medication as it was prescribed. When you consider this and the confronting and surreal world in which Beau lives from the outset, one doesn’t need to use their imagination to know what Beau is afraid of and why. Ari Aster’s wildly imaginative project and the incredible detail in it takes care of that for us. However, thinking caps are indeed required for when trying to determine what is reality vs what is Beau’s reality. That’s where a great deal of the fun to be had watching Beau is Afraid lies.

During sessions his therapist, Beau is glued to the present. When frequently stuck inside his own head, Beau’s caught wandering anywhere between his past to the present where so much has and continues to go wrong. While in one of those present moments though where Beau listens to a stranger’s story during a play he is watching, he suddenly finds himself in it. Quite literally! Seeing his own life through someone else’s eyes might prove to be the epiphany he needs and proposes the question – Who is truly to blame for Beau’s anguish? His mother certainly remains a mystical beast. What became of that childhood crush? Where is his father in all of this and what role did he play in the making of his mother? 

Beau is Afraid is undeniably tough to watch but will heavily reward audiences who embrace the ways in which it is disconcertingly funny, freakishly bizarre, and outstandingly detailed. It also features an extraordinary sequence set in a forest that is brilliantly animated and worth the price of admission alone!

Beau is Afraid is showing in cinemas across Australia from April 20th.

Moviedoc thanks Roadshow Films for the invite to the screening of this film.

Reviewed by Zak Wheeler and Leigh for Moviedoc

©