Beau Is Afraid
2023movie
Beau, the addled midlife wreck played by Joaquin Phoenix in “Beau Is Afraid” (now available on demand) isn’t just afraid, he is terrorized: harassed, beaten, stabbed and even kidnapped in a surreal black comedy that often feels less like a conventional film than a three-hour panic attack. (In the hands of high-anxiety auteur Ari Aster, of “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” fame, consider that a compliment.)
Beau is Afraid is a nightmare of a film that sees Ari Aster at his most technically masterful, but also his most narratively baffling and unfocused.
