Rating: 4.5 / 5 ☆☆☆☆.5
Last night I went to see Ari Aster's surrealist tragicomedy Beau is Afraid.
The movie follows Beau, played by Joaquin Phoenix, as he attempts to make it home, through a series of satirical and exaggerated events. Everything about this movie is extraordinary, never intent on being believable. Not once did I know what was going to happen next. In fact the opening itself, the birth of a baby, from the perspective of the baby was so unexpected and wild it set the audience up for the ride we were about to experience.
It’s clear from the outset there is a strained relationship between Beau and his mother and the film goes on to explore this through the journey Beau is taking, as well as the flashbacks into his childhood.
What I took from this movie personally, though, was the very concise and poignant exploration of anxiety and how it can manifest. The way it can cause paranoia, and distrust - viewing the world around you as such an magnified and elaborate threat. Whether it's your home being broken into, being trapped in a strangers house, food anxiety or intimacy issues - this movie presents them in the most unrealistic way possible, almost satirising Beau’s fears. It also accurately portrayed the guilt - in form of a public trial - that one can feel after letting such fears get in the way of personal relationships.
This movie will definitely split audiences, the approach seems to be ‘why not?’ and made me question, as a creative myself, ‘I didn’t know you could do that.’ But it was so inspiring and enlightening to me - every ridiculous stupid and mad thing you could imagine can be made, can be told in a story, and it does, despite my friends reaction, follow a clear and concise plot.
To me it is just exciting to watch a movie that is decidedly un-formulaic. In a sea of carbon copy superhero movies it can feel tiresome as a viewer of action and adventure films, but Beau is Afraid, much like Everything Everywhere All At Once, took action and made it exciting again.
There is a lot to say about the film itself. About its genius dialogue, the beautiful cinematography and mise-en-scene. The delicate balance between tension and humour and the nostalgic calm that washed over me and made sitting for 3 hours easy. But what is most admiral is how it breaks these chains of what the audience might expect, and has set out a path for writers, film-makers and artists to recognise that you can have fun with your creations and gritty realism is no longer at the forefront of cinema.
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