'Beau is Afraid' movie review: A performance worth savouring

Beau is Afraid still

Film: Beau is Afraid
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, Armen Nahapetian, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Richard Kind
Director: Ari Aster
Rating: 3/5
Runtime: 179 min

Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) is a paranoid schizophrenic given to hallucinations. This film is basically about his attempt to get to his mother who lives in a different city and it's an epic odyssey of wildly fluctuating moments of esoteric and quixotic drama, the likes of which we've never seen before. And it's not an easy watch at all.

The narrative is indescribable as it plays out in messed-up, weird, outlandish, absurd, and insane extremes. It's a dark comedy but you may just end up crying at the end of it all. Given the 179 min runtime, this filmed experience is a marathon of sorts. The structure feels like four movies combined into one.
Beau is a man plagued with an insane amount of anxiety. He has arranged to visit his mother on the anniversary of his father's death by buying a plane ticket, but his fears and other incredibly cryptic circumstances prevent him from making it to his Mother's. Beau's mental demons come into play and we see him having to confront them as the narrative plays out.

'Beau Is Afraid', exists in a hellish landscape of a sick rotten world defined by violence and madness. It's a mind-altering design created by Aster, Production Designer Fiona Crombie, and long-time collaborator Pawel Pogorzelski wielding the camera. The downtown neighborhood where Beau lives has dead bodies strewn around, People fighting in the middle of the streets and some even threaten to jump off buildings. His apartment complex is no less weird. The underlying theme here is of Beau's Mommy issues. This is about Beau being doomed from birth and it's Aster's darkest movie yet. The world-building here may seem chaotic but it makes sense when you understand it as emblematic of Beau's state of mind. The towering anxieties we see in present-time and in flashback include a lack of personal space, the threat of being unable to please others and being plagued by rampant bad luck. But it's all drawn out from his phone conversations with his mother, Mona Wassermann(Patti LuPone). The mega-successful Mona only ends up making Beau feel even smaller with every call she makes to him. Beau has this overwhelming need not to disappoint his Mother and that comes out in so many dysfunctional ways.

"Beau Is Afraid" is told in chapters of various lengths and tones, elaborating in vivid detail Beau's many experiences of fluctuating insecurity. The film's many acts highlight the emotional and psychological trauma with moments of terror, absurdity, and sometimes even song. Aster packs in characters, revelations, and psychological explosions that make this work rather pungent and wearisome.

'Beau is Afraid' is definitely a unique film but it's not really an enjoyable one. You might be able to appreciate the artistic visual design, creative thought, and performances (Joaquim Phoenix's exceptionally immersive one) but it's certainly not a film that you can sit through in one go - despite its pervasive hypnotising effect on the mind.

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