First of all, let me say the burgeoning filmmaker Ari Aster did not achieve artistic greatness in my eyes with his first two feature length films Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019).
Those films explore daunting themes of inherited family tragedy, cults and death, but the mechanics of those films fell very short for me (like the choices of editing, pacing and foreshadowing). Now Ari Aster has released his latest project, which he wrote and directed, called Beau is Afraid and my skepticism and expectations for this film were completely destroyed.
Beau is Afraid begins with total darkness for what seems like at least a full minute. Only a faint heartbeat can be heard growing in volume, along with some distant voices, until you see the shaky, blurry perspective of an infant realistically emerging from its mother's womb. When that's the beginning of this three-hour film, you realize quickly you're in for a lot of unpredictability.
Joaquin Phoenix (Joker, 2019) plays the titular role of a nervous man trying to get home to visit his mother. But living in a world of volatile, heavily medicated people, who dismiss Beau's needs and feelings at every moment, makes his journey home a nightmare of suspicion, danger, and suffering.
I use the word nightmare weightily because Beau is Afraid feels more like a nonsensical dream that is one third Franz Kafka, one third Lars von Trier (Antichrist, 2009), and one third David Lynch (Blue Velvet, 1986). This film has no intention of giving a logical or traditional narrative with one event smoothly leading to the next (although the jarring transitions work to keep viewers on their toes).
Instead, it's an abstract mixture of psychological horror and very dark humor that will make you crinkle your nose one minute, then laugh the next minute, then raise your eyebrows the next minute! Leaning boldly into the abstract, bizarre, surrealist tone makes Beau is Afraid an exciting film, because the surrealism is balanced well with the realistic emotions and purposeful dialogue from the actors.
Being such a splendid work of originality, Beau is Afraid is not for everyone. Like a modern dance production, I imagine many viewers will leave the theater saying, "I don't get it." I even thought that myself when reviewing parts of the film in my head while driving home.
But if you manage to let go of any preconceptions about storytelling structure or a film's intended message, some understanding might be in your reach (like it was for me). Kind of like the understanding viewers can reach from films like 8 ½ (1963) directed by Federico Fellini or Mother! (2017) directed by Darren Aronofsky.
Beau is Afraid is largely about difficult emotions and how those emotions stay with a person through different stages of life. It's a contemporary odyssey of what the world looks like through a lens of crippling anxiety, doubt and panic. And when those feelings stay with you through much of your life, bad things can happen.
(This film forces viewers through some imaginatively bad things from a suicide of paint to an attic of graphic emasculation to a deadly orgasm.) Sometimes they can even destroy you.
