March 29, 2024

DB_00661.ARW

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

BEAU IS AFRAID

Rated R, 179 minutes

Directed by: Ari Aster

Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Patti LuPone, Richard Kind, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Kylie Rogers, Denis Ménochet, Zoe Lister-Jones, Parker Posey, Armen Nahapetian

With BEAU IS AFRAID, filmmaker Ari Aster perfectly balances wildly varying tones, deeply enlightened themes and audacious, out-of-the-box concepts. Part gorgeous nightmare fuel, part comedic odyssey, the unrelenting 179-minute-long trip into the higher consciousness of a 40-something man is an astounding pillar of artistic genius. If you’re not left hyperventilating, you’d better check your pulse to make sure you’re not dead.

Mild-mannered Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) is nursing a paralyzing case of anxiety, especially over traveling home to visit his overbearing mother Mona (Patti LuPone). The trip falls on the anniversary of his father’s death – a dad who died before Beau was born. From his washed out wardrobe to his gray balding hair and fading skin complexion, the life looks like it’s been sucked out of our hero. Beau’s concerned therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson) has given him the psychological tools and new meds to help combat his crippling angst over travel and his mother, who may or may not be at the root of his condition.

However, Beau misses his flight because of a psychotic next-door neighbor and missing keys – and that’s when his real journey begins. Mona lays a guilt trip on her put-upon son, which causes him to spiral and make mistakes, starting with unintentionally leaving his apartment vulnerable to the wacky street-life that invades his sanctuary, turning it into a disaster zone. But the worst is yet to come. When he calls his mom’s cell phone the morning after (on the day he was supposed to be home), he learns she’s perished in a freak accident. He needs to return home immediately for the funeral – his mom’s only request. Hijinks and hilarity ensue, leading him into a mayhem-infused adventure filled with complex relationships with myriad strangers.

Joaquin Phoenix in BEAU IS AFRAID. Courtesy of A24.

Far more daring than his already bold and ballsy previous features (HERIDITARY and MIDSOMMAR), Aster’s kitchen sink approach to this narrative (which began as 7 minute short film in 2011) and its characters yields large dividends. Beau’s travails resonate through the picture’s oppressive themes of dread, grief and generational guilt, which glide alongside the liberating levity of its pitch-black comedic upticks. The protagonist’s triumphs are fleeting but palpably poignant. It’s a Kafkaesque “Choose Your Own Adventure,” only giving the hero the wrong path each time, with calamities both heartbreaking and hilarious, delightfully sadistic and sad. Though the animated sequence (directed by THE WOLF HOUSE’s Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León) brings in an elegant mixed media element, it’s a fantastical aside that slightly overstays its welcome.

The auteur makes horror and humor two sides of the same coin from the jump, showing Beau’s external environment as a broadly drawn apocalyptic tapestry with a chaos of colorful characters usurping his sanity. This is explored further through Roger (Nathan Lane) and Grace (Amy Ryan), the sickeningly sweet suburban couple who take in a battered Beau as their surrogate son after accidentally hitting them with their car. Their pain over losing their real son dwells under a sugar-coated façade, but their surly teen daughter Toni (Kylie Rogers) and PTSD-stricken guest Jeeves (Denis Ménochet) show that the couple’s coping mechanisms may not be helping anyone. The third act, involving a woman from Beau’s past (Parker Posey) and memories of his younger self (Armen Nahapetian) and mother (Zoe Lister-Jones), plunges us and the protagonist into the deep end.

Not only does Aster mold his own iteration of THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN (and doubles down on it, making it even longer than Apatow’s movie), Phoenix’s top shelf character work also seems to pull glimmers from that film, where Beau’s misunderstood mishaps carry a good bit of tangibility. His naiveté is stuck in a shattered case of arrested development, as told through everything from his physicality and ill-fitting, drab clothing to his unfolding backstory – a mysterious truth and redemptive validation he seeks. His reactions, captured in slowly paced close-ups, paint a destabilizing portrait of a confused hero. Plus the porcelain figurine he totes, depicting a woman and child, reflects his delicate relationship with his mother.

Supporting performances also earn high marks. Lane and Ryan make a meal out of their roles, as do Rogers and Ménochet, who seem like they were transported from a Coen Brothers comedy. Lister and LuPone’s Mona – who sits at the center of a Venn Diagram of MOMMY DEAREST and HEREDITARY – hints at a sinister nature bubbling under her nurturing surface. Posey and Richard Kind, who plays an abrasive family friend, both carve out memorable Movie Moments for themselves in the 3rd act.

Aster’s signature is expectedly all over each frame, showcasing an immersive superficial landscape as well as a deeper psychological one. He employs an outlandish, tactile vision and pristine sound design (replete with expertly crafted soundtrack cues and Bobby Krlic’s compelling score that cradles and repels) to examine family and how they can as easily fracture as unite. His practically trademark Freudian view of motherhood once again not only pervades, but innovatively teeters on a razor-sharp edge between fear and cringe-com. And his hallmark, surreal sting of panic and paranoia compounds our daily anxieties. It’s clear that Beau has every right to be afraid.

Grade: A-

BEAU IS AFRAID opens exclusively in New York and Los Angeles on April 14th. There will be a special Q&A screening in NY with Martin Scorsese and Ari Aster on Monday, April 17. It will be in theaters everywhere on April 21st.

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