BeauIsAfraid Review: An Overindulgent Mommy Issues Odyssey For The Ages
Ari Aster has become the poster child for A24 horror with Hereditary and Midsommar, but in his latest feature, Beau is Afraid, the director is given carte blanch to explore his thematic concerns. Some of those are familiar — mothers, attics, decapitations, the lineage of madness — while others are unique to this Odyssean journey that sees Joaquin Phoenix's title character journey to the depths of his tortured psyche.
Aster's growing oeuvre of motifs is ever-present in Beau is Afraid, establishing a visual language that speaks to his previous works while letting him run loose in a world of his own creation. Beau lives in a world like ours, except everyone seems to have lost their minds. This is the genius of Beau is Afraid's horror — it emanates a deeply unsettling aura even while nothing all that terrifying is happening.
Similarly, Ryan and Lane's suburban couple remains a stand-in for ideas Aster is playing with. Grace and Roger don't feel quite like fully fleshed-out characters, but they do serve as an interesting foil when all is said and done. What's hard to justify is a middle act that, save for a small break amidst the tension, does little in the way of moving things forward.
Beau is Afraid will certainly be divisive; what three-hour movie isn't? That it was designed to be this way won't ease some people's complicated feelings, but letting Aster take full control is part of the ride. There is so much detail to take in that it becomes overwhelming at times, a mirror of the way that Beau sees the world around him. An overabundance of choice leads to listlessness, which is how it feels to watch the film at times.
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