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Rating: After the intriguing debut of the controversial Hereditary (2018) and the sumptuous Midsommar (2019), which unlike Hereditary did not convince me, Ari Aster returns to directing with his most ambitious film: Beau Is Afraid.
Both the duration (three hours!) and the budget are impressive, which includes the main character, a top player like Joaquin Phoenix, who is at “ease” playing such extreme characters (The Master and Joker just to name a couple).
It is damn complex to “tell” the film due to its unfolding in “shocks.”
We are in the realm of nightmare cinema, I compare it to two other films that have a similar setup: The House That Jack Built and INLAND EMPIRE. Although in my opinion, it is inferior to these two, it has several things in common with both (the metaphorical cinema, the allegory, the journey into the mind) but again, in my view, just like these two, it stays with you and settles. It is a film that needs to be watched multiple times…
Beau is a middle-aged man with psychiatric problems, he is a phobic person in every way, he simply has a FEAR OF EVERYTHING and moreover, he lives in a seedy neighborhood where serial-killers roam, assorted ultraviolent folks, an (American) hell in the open-air… or perhaps it is only what he imagines and transfigures.
He regularly visits a psychiatrist, has an Oedipus complex, his father died during his conception (!!!) the mother (mind you) he sees every few months, he is stuffed with psychotropic drugs… I wouldn’t want to reveal too much. Indeed, because the twists come early and the first hour (I loved it) is a continuous delirium. Things happen, in a nutshell, and they are almost all as absurd as they are surprising, disorienting.
In this sense, there is really a lot to be amazed at. Only that since the film lasts three hours, at a certain point, once you get the hang of it, you think: “and now what will happen?” Well, you practically never guess, in this regard Aster is very skilled at catching you off-guard, at confusing you deliberately and repeatedly, also because you never know if it’s really happening or if it’s Beau who’s… however, the pace is infernal, you're almost in a video game. The sequences change and the tone changes, then the pace changes, it slows down and speeds up again. Beau’s journey, already compared by many to an odyssey and a descent into a Dantean hell, does not admit pauses. Oh yes, because I haven’t told you yet that we witness everything through Beau’s point of view and, believe me, it is truly nerve-wracking and heartbreaking.
Aster’s direction is to die for (he is praised by Martin Scorsese) oh… but really skilled, right? The sequences of the metropolitan hell, the escape into the woods, and the delirious and very long pre-finale and finale, just to name a few, are superb. The sound department and the soundtrack are also exceptional. In short, technically we are at very high levels. However, in terms of writing, I was disappointed again. In short, I do not like how he “resolves” his films, with these amplified, emphasized delusions. Yes, since he has moved like this three times out of three, it is somewhat his trademark, his style I would say at this point, but it leaves me perplexed, it makes me wrinkle my nose a bit.
What a pity (at least for me) because this is my point of view.
Does the film deserve to be seen? Absolutely, really a great film. Original, full of ideas, surprises (which however I repeat, in three hours could become tiring). In short, there is a lot, a lot of stuff in Beau Is Afraid.
Ah, I almost forgot to say that Aster also throws in several “comic” moments that, however, left me puzzled.
Anyway, it's quite a trip. Highly recommended.
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