BEAU IS AFRAID Review

“You just feel like you’re being punk’d”

After the one-two punch of Hereditary and Midsommar, so many people have been waiting patiently for filmmaker Ari Aster to make a movie. Going into Beau is Afraid not knowing very much, other than the fact it stars Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix, is likely to lead to as many head-scratching “What the F?!” reactions as both his previous movies. For some, that would be a good thing; for others, well, let’s just say that I hope the major theater chains playing the movie will offer some sort of ticket refund. For those who read this review and decide to give it a look anyway, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Phoenix plays (wait for it) Beau Wasserman, a man living on his own in a crazier version of New York City, who is (get this) afraid of just about everything. These aren’t just normal fears – I could more than relate to the bathtub overflowing one – but the most irrational fears possible, and we learn later that one of those fears is to have sex, because his wonderful mother Mona (played by an unrecognizable Zoe Lister-Jones – it’s amazing what a red wig can do, huh?) has told him since he was a young boy that his father died while having sex to conceive him, as well as his father’s father, etc. etc. Now, if you’re someone who hasn’t led as secluded a life as Beau clearly has, you’ll realize how preposterous that is. Maybe you’d even Google it, and end up at some porn site and go ahead and give sex a go anyway. For Beau, he’s remained a virgin his whole life, despite having met Elaine, a potential soulmate on a cruise with his mother decades earlier.

To say much more about Beau is Afraid would likely get into spoiler territory, but Aster has taken his ideas so far afield that even calling the movie a comedy (clearly his intention) could be questionable depending on your own sense of humor. I could definitely relate to some of the New York City portion of the movie, and even when he’s taken in by Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane’s do-gooders Grace and Roger, things start to unravel. Once Beau leaves their home, we get into a long animated section, an odd forest-dwelling theater community. Oh, and then the awesome Parker Posey shows up as the adult Elaine for maybe ten minutes.

Phoenix certainly gives his all for this performance, whether it’s just allowing himself to be the butt of the humor or adding some real pathos and drama to Beau’s situations, but his character is the only one we get any clear sense of where they’re coming from. All the other characters 

Despite the marketing, the movie doesn’t involve any sort of Benjamin Button-like twist on time or ageing, nor does it get nearly as weird as Alex Garland’s Men from last year. Using the latter as a comparison, that felt like Garland had a much better handle of how far out there his premise was but never shied away from it. The marketing for Beau makes it look like something that’s far stranger.

In many ways, Aster seems to have ventured into Todd Solonz territory, having made Welcome to the Dollhouse, found many fans through that, and then gone down a deeper and deeper well of weirdness to the point where many of his more recent films are almost unwatchable. Aster hasn’t reached that point yet, but considering how much more his movies cost, he better hope Beau is able to recoup, since it’s generally inaccessible and hard to enjoy.

It’s also exceedingly long, even if you are fully on board, since there’s absolutely no reason why Beau is Afraid had to be nearly three hours long. Nothing in the story dictate we have to spend so much time setting up Beau in such a comically outlandish way, only to toss all that aside to become more about his journey to get home to his mother. And then not doing much once he finally does, other than having the amazing Patti Lupone portraying his older mother Mona and almost salvaging what is an otherwise horrid final act. (In general, Aster’s cast is great across the board, including Stephen McKinley Henderson as Beau’s beleaguered therapist.)

As a “comedy,” Beau is Afraid starts out fine and actually has more than a few amusing moments. As it drags on into its second and then third hour, you just feel like you’re being punk’d, and Ari Aster is getting the last (and only) laugh. 

Rating: 5/10

Beau is Afraid will open in New York and L.A. on Friday, April 14 and then nationwide on April 21