Have you seen BeauIsAfraid? Do you have some questions? Maybe a lot of questions. Two of The Times’ resident movie lovers explain exactly what is going on in Ari Aster’s surreal horror-comedy and present some theories of their own.
Joaquin Phoenix plays a man dreading a visit to see his mother in this latest and most wildly unhinged feature from writer-director Ari Aster .As I watched “Beau Is Afraid” for the second time this week, armed with a notebook and our mission to “explain” Aster’s trip to hell, I began to formulate something I couldn’t on the first watch, mesmerized/bored as I was with our protagonist’s meandering homeward journey: a unified theory of “Beau.” Well, two of them.
Which is all to say that, as I cast my eye back over the film from perspective of the trial, I can just as easily see Beauthat his mother would have directed the entire staff of a major multinational conglomerate to beat the s— out of him, in ways both obvious and subliminal, as I can imagine herDid I forget to take my Zypnotycril with eight ounces of water this morning, Josh, or am I on to something? Which of my theories seems more likely to you, or do you have one of your own? And are there...
At this point I feel as though I am just listing facts about the film hoping they’ll add up to something more than, “Wow, this guy’s mother did a worse number on him than Norma Bates.” Then again, if there ispoint to “Beau Is Afraid,” I suppose it’s that parent-child relationships, particularly mother-son relationships, are so elemental, so Oedipal, that there can be no rational understanding thereof.
In her desire to control every aspect of her child’s life, Mona has filled Beau with deep-seated fears about his own sexuality, stunting his development. The story she has told him about his father’s death serves to keep him an infantilized, dependent man-child. As Mona tells Beau moments after Elaine’s death, “You’re in my house, and my house is your house, which it always will be.” Again, in a movie where locks, keys, chains and surveillance technology are recurring motifs, there is ultimately no escape.
At first, I felt uncomfortable about Beau’s paranoia. It struck me as infelicitous at best that Aster’s “hero” should be “subjected” to the very sort of inner-city crime fantasy that so often misrepresents urban life in American pop culture. The more I chew on it, though, the more I see Aster’s vision as a critique of that paranoia, and of attempts to address social inequality through policing and “private-sector solutions.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
‘Beau’ director Ari Aster is not afraid to freak people outOf the many words used to describe the writer-director’s previous two films — “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” — timidity was never of them. This is a filmmaker who has se…
Read more »
Ari Aster’s ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Short Shows the Film’s Surprising OriginsAri Aster's latest horror-comedy is a full-length expansion upon his older—and stranger—short film. And in it, Beau has something totally weirder to be afraid of. More from beastobsessed:
Read more »
“Beau is Afraid and Ari Aster is Unwell”Plus, Hulu's new limited series Tiny Beautiful Things, and the state of the music business.
Read more »
Nathan Lane & Amy Ryan Discuss Working On Beau Is AfraidAri Aster seems so harmless, Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane say you'd never imiagine him writing twisted tales such as Hereditaty, Midsommar, or BeauIsAfraid:
Read more »
‘Beau Is Afraid’ Captures Living With Anxiety Better Than Almost Any Movie I’ve Ever SeenIf you see BeauIsAfraid, here is how to to make sense of its wild plot:
Read more »