Rent Beau Is Afraid on Amazon Video (paid link)
Written by: Ari Aster
Directed by: Ari Aster
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Parker Posey, Richard Kind, Bill Hader
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic odyssey back home.
Verdict
What starts out as a surreal study of anxiety and how it's perceived becomes a journey through past trauma that grows more absurd the further into the movie. I often wondered what was happening, or rather what is this supposed to mean? Are we watching Beau's perceptions of the world or is this some kind of dream? Aster is a master at creating a mood but the increasingly loose connection to reality is going to severely limit the audience. This creates an image of how the world appears to someone with extreme anxiety, and it's frequently uncomfortable. I like this for the creativity and surreal nature it creates; the goals more than what it actually accomplishes.
It depends.
Review
From the very beginning I was never sure how much of what I saw was Beau's (Joaquin Phoenix) perception or an actual reality. His apartment building has to be an exaggeration, a result of Beau's extreme anxiety. This movie shows how his mind perceives and amplifies the dangers of the world. We see a fabrication of the world as imagined by Beau. For Beau, everything is scary and bad.
A flight to see his mom causes extreme stress, and this is the start of the plot as Beau tries to get to his mom's house. The movie is uncomfortable, and that has to be the intent. It's a weird goal, as I don't like the feeling this movie generates. It's not likable. I wondered numerous times what is going on. Where does perception and reality start and stop. This very well could be some kind of dream, and it makes just as much sense. This is such a trip, but it is creative.
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| Joaquin Phoenix plays Beau |
Beau begins watching a play, the context of which is of course odd. He becomes enthralled in this play and at this point we lose the line of whether he is watching the play, imagining the play, or has created an addition to the play in his mind. This is where an odd story becomes completely surreal. The pace and escalation of the weirdness coincides with Beau's increasing stress. This has to be an attempt to show how someone with extreme anxiety perceives the world.
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| Joaquin Phoenix plays Beau |
The last third of the movie makes a direct link to Beau's anxiety and it being a result of his mom. This movie is Beau's journey in addressing his fears and traumas created by his mom. While the journey is presented as trying to visit his mom, it just as well could be Beau addressing the role of his mother in his life. If you wondered how closely this was linked to reality, at this point that link isn't just tenuous, it's gone. These are Beau's thoughts and memories intertwined and visualized.
As wild as this movie is, when Beau enters the attic this takes it up a level, figuratively and literally. Is this some kind of dark comedy? If the tone wasn't rooted in horror and dread, the events could be a comedy. You would just need to change the tone. It's this mismatch that contributes to the uncomfortable feeling. The attic sequence could be comedic, but we're already rooted in Beau's fears, biased to fear what he experiences instead of finding the humor. While several sequences might sounds like a comedy, it doesn't seem that way while experiencing the movie. It's unfortunate that several people will write this movie off as just 'weird' but it's also not unwarranted.
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