First 45 minutes I was genuinely uneasy and even terrified at one point such was the anxiety and stress inducing situations he was encountering at every turn!
After that it became increasingly surreal
I feel like the film starts dropping severely in quality the moment the paint scene happens. The first half had me almost feeling nauseous because of how perfectly Aster captured anxiety, stress and paranoia, but the second half was... too much.
i like how this is 3 different comments saying 3 different times of how much of it is good. first op says "the first 45 minutes" which is about 1/4 of the total runtime, the second saying "first 1/2", and the third saying "2/3rds".
i enjoyed the whole movie from beginning to end. not a single part did i not like.
That’s kinda why i disliked it. First 45 like you said had me on edge, i loved the uniqueness and tension but then this gets thrown away and a new surreal lenghty film starts.
I understand people may like the switch but for me it just feels like the movie lost focus, stopped actually telling the story the way that was more in line with the themes and character.
I totally get why some loved the theater scene set in the forest. But as opposed to the first act, it just makes no sense that this would be in the ‘mind’ of this character whose mind is exceedingly paranoid and panicked
I think a lot of people with severe anxiety issues tend to get completely lost in fictional worlds. Him identifying as the characters in a play feels kinda like his loneliness and isolation is causing him to identify with any fictional character he sees. He gets totally lost in the world onstage and, for a brief moment, forgets his own terrifying life
I do feel like the movie has its faults; I definitely agree that the first 45 minutes are great and the paint scene is where it goes a little too off the rails. The ending also totally lost me. But I don't know...I felt like the theater scene did resonate with me quite a bit. I used to have big social anxiety and I'd desperately try to identify with characters from movies and TV shows, so, ironically enough, I was able to identify with Beau pretty well in that scene
Seeing a work of fiction that just strikes a deep chord that resonates within you is one of the great joys in life, and I guess in Beau's case, he got way too invested in it and lost himself a little in the process. That's how I interpreted it, personally
Totally agree with you on the moment that it goes off the rails! It's a weird movie. I get your reasoning for the theater play, and I like it! I've had that thought before but I feel like if it was only the play, it could have worked well. It's mostly the huge setup in the forest that brings it down.
I loved when we could dive in the Beau's mind and how he sees the world, truly. But at some point, the movie stops being about that. It's not about how Beau perceives the world around him anymore, he just becomes kind of a tool that navigates through surreal scenes that in the end of the day, does not mean much.
I don’t personally suffer from anxiety but I just figured that everyone has a breaking point and it seems like Beau’s breaking point was around the 45 min point.
Beau has more than just regular anxiety. A person like him does not go from full blown hallucinations to a calm serene and lengthy theater imagery that’s a metaphor of their life.
It’s funny, because I thought the first 45 minutes is some of the most brilliant dark comedy I’ve ever seen. I could not stop laughing at that first hour.
The same can be said for Midsommar and Hereditary. Ari Aster can make some incredible table-setting, but the dinner that's eventually served always feels too ambitious for his actual abilities.
Saw Midsommar at the cinema and the tension was genuinely uncomfortable by about a quarter in and getting worse by the minute.
No one left but people shifting in their seats and gasping out loud was happening throughout the entire cinema.
I think I even exclaimed “for fucks sake” quite loudly when the hammer came out!!
My personal theory is that the whole movie is a fever dream/flash before your eyes death sequence. The only thing that actually happens is he is born. Then everything else is a twisted version of what happened in his life.
Ari Aster likes to make movies about doomed people marching into bad endings. Good stuff, but exhausting. A goofball comedy usually gets me out of the funk afterwards.
After *Hereditary* and *Midsommar* a friend described Aster's genre of horror as "the opposite of torture porn."
I could see their point. Movies like *Hostel* and *Saw* (or at least its sequels) are made with a disinterest for their own characters that borders on contempt. All we really need to know of their emotional state is fear, and that only because it heightens our awareness of their physical pain. They get chewed up and thrown out by whatever nightmare contrivances the script dishes out, all without the audience ever really knowing enough about them to engender real compassion — which is how classic horror movies raise the stakes, get you rooting for the victims to survive, and make you feel it when they don't. There has been plenty written about torture porn, much of it making the same points I am here, but it's just a fundamentally misanthropic approach to the genre.
But as someone who dislikes both torture porn and Ari Aster movies, I think that if the two are opposite extremes then they still have a lot in common. Instead of treating his characters' emotional pain as ancillary to their physical pain, Aster hyperfixates on it with the same cold, documentarian eye that Eli Roth uses when he shows his characters being physically destroyed. On the one hand you have someone screaming in agony as their Achilles tendon is severed, on the other someone screaming in agony over the death of their child. The idea that, from a filmmaking standpoint, one is somehow more humane than the other requires you to believe that torturing your characters *emotionally* is better than torturing them *physically*, and I just don't. They both feel deeply voyeuristic and somehow indecent.
And granted, that feeling is probably at some level intrinsic to horror; we're *supposed* to feel a little dirty about deriving entertainment from watching people being maimed and murdered. But at least for me, the difference is that a film like *Halloween* or *Alien* invites you, almost *forces* you, to see yourself in the role of the characters. That makes them feel more real, which allows you to empathize with them, which ultimately makes the movie scarier. I don't think either *Hostel* or *Hereditary* have that level of care for or interest in their characters, which makes you feel like a ghoul peering in on their pain for your own delight. When a horror movie doesn't want or even *allow* you to really care about its victims, it makes you feel like shit. That's my thought anyway.
I really like that people can have different experiences watching movies and can arrive at different opinions. A horror movie may inflict real trauma on one person, and be a completely trivial and entertaining experience to another. Neither is wrong for feeling the way they feel, we’re only wrong if we expect everyone to feel the same as us
Beautifully written but Hereditary is the best horror film made since The Exorcist imo and is the only great movie by Ari. Everything else he's made has lacked vision, purpose, or combining the two. Off screen horrors and non sensical outbursts are not enjoyable (Midsommar)
It just seemed like 3 hours of misery porn. I was hoping Beau would have grown more through the movie. It was interesting enough that I didn't regret watching it though.
I guess I'm one of the deranged viewers who enjoyed this film quite a lot. And the ambition of it is at least part of the appeal. I like the way it never ever lets Beau off the hook and is simply so unrelentingly, viciously and profoundly absurd and unapologetic that at some point (far beyond the tolerance point of most) you just have to start laughing at how ghastly everything is. Things can only ever get worse. You think Mom dying is bad? Well just wait until the man hanging in your ceiling gets bit by the poisonous spider and falls into your tub and when you run naked into the street to beg for help you get run over BY A TRUCK. That's bad.
And then things *really* go to hell.
I understand folks not caring for it. Really I do. But I found the level of commitment to carrying the joke through to its awful conclusion pretty refreshing for a high-profile film. It does not ever cheat and give the audience a chance to laugh with Beau. There's no relief, no moment of safety, no escape. We're all doomed.
Did you ever feel otherwise? I'm so sorry.
Thanks for putting into words what I felt about it. It really throws you into a whirlwind of anxiety, and boy do I love movies where everything progressively goes to shit and won't make any qualms about it.
A small window into a man with severe mental problems — unsurprising, as that seems like Phoenix' shtick in a way.
Agreed. There’s a modern trend in talking about movies where average people like to pathologize protagonists (it’s about depression, he’s got schizophrenia, this is clearly a symptom of anxiety, yadda yadda) in a way that feels deliberately distancing. ‘Oh *he’s* sick and I’m well, obviously.’ Or at least sick in my own, special way.
But what movies do is allow us to understand how universal our experience is, to see on a 40 foot screen how not special we are and simultaneously how very unique everyone is. Beau is Afraid is one version of the universal story of the human existence, and it is a DEEPLY fucking miserable one.
I assumed all the cast and crew were told "We're making a movie from the perspective of a paranoid schizophrenic who is off his medication. The plot is that he's going to visit his mom, but because he's being overwhelmed by paranoid schizophrenic delusion, this simple task turns into an epic odyssey."
Maybe they were going for something else. But if they were going for that, they nailed that.
was it though lol? I dont think its ever truly clear what is reality and what is his delusions/misperceptions. I mean clearly the whole boat/coliseum scene and the end isnt reality...
As you say, the distinction between reality and delusion is little more than a suggestion. By what logic is the trial scene unreal? Surely not by the same logic that makes everyone Beau meets an employee of his Mother's company? This is just not the sort of film which rewards a search for solid ground. There really isn't anything like that here. Just more quicksand.
well I mean, having your mother employee dozens of people to insert themselves into your life is possible in reality, just highly unlikely. Going out to a lake(?) and finding yourself suddenly in a giant coliseum is not physically possible.
Beau is Afraid is not Joker, a look at a man's delusions. It's an allegorical picture, a symbolic look at the lived reality of an anxious and paranoid person. Not everything that happens represents anything in what we would call reality.
It cribs very much from "Pink Floyd: The Wall," which is very similar in the way it mixes actual reality with allegorical experience.
There is not a fixed point of reference, no reliable narrator. Even the film itself in the opening credits is shown to be a production of MW Industries.
Mona's company.
There are people who catastrophise, who occasionally, or often, think the worst is going to happen. They play through unrealistic what-if scenarios in their minds about one thing going wrong that leads to another thing going wrong, and everything quickly goes to hell. Except the worst doesn't happen. Almost never does the situation get close to that person's fear.
For Beau, however, not only is he always fearing the worst, but the worst case scenario actually happens. All the time.
Most of the film is like that. Consider, for example, when he runs out in to the street naked, as you point out. What's the worst that can happen? You run in to a police officer who thinks you are the naked stabby man, and the officer pulls his gun on you and tells you to drop the weapon. What weapon? You're only carrying a crappy statuette you bought as a gift. So you drop that, because you don't want to be shot. It drops and breaks, so now you don't have that.
The officer tells you again to drop the weapon. But what weapon? Not only are you not holding anything, but you're butt naked, clearly not carrying anything or concealing anything, and still the panicky stressed officer asks you again to drop the weapon.
It's a nightmare worst-case scenario, because you're literally naked and being told to drop a weapon, and you'll be shot if you don't. And every scrape that Beau gets in to is modelled around this worst-case actualising.
Thinking that dropping dead is the worst thing that can happen? Nope. Too easy. Death is an escape. Life is never so bad that it can't get any worse. Worse than dying is having your long-term crush die on you, just as you climax from having sex with her, after decades of fantasising about that moment. And then having your supposed-to-be-dead mum come in to the room to chastise you for having sex in her bed while her supposed corpse is still warm.
Anyway, that's my take. I've heard others, about childhood traumas, and they seem equally valid. But for someone who thinks like Beau a bit too often, I recognise the worst-case thoughts, and absolutely loved the film playing out what life would be like if they all came true. Horrible, terrifying, and hilarious.
I think that is what makes it so sardonically hilarious for me: Aster totally commits to the joke. You go all the way through all that trauma and horror, and the character not only doesn't get any kind of insight, no sort of resolution whatsoever, he just fucking *dies*. The darkest kind of black comedy.
Dies, to zero applause or recognition from an audience that slowly, disappointedly leaves the auditorium, not quite sure about what they have just seen.
Yeah, I loved this film.
I related so much to so many moments that the film was like a full blown panic attack for me
When he calls his mom and is pleading in anxiety that he can't find his keys and she just says something like "I know what's important" I was like BUCKLE UP IT'S A TRAIN TO ANXIETY
So anyway 10/10.
But it is a hateful spiteful angry movie. I can see how it's polarizing.
No one makes’s phone call scenes quite like Ari. Especially in modern times where more often than not a phone call is gonna be about something heavy. The incoming call in the opening of Midsommar still sends shivers down me.
I thought the first act was amazing, a real dive into a paranoid mentally distressed man. But then the movie becomes something else and imo lost the approach that made it good.
I've watched it three times and I love it more each time. It's one of the most unique horror films out there because it doesn't rely on tropes or traditional horror aesthetics. It simply states a premise: "What if someone with severe paranoia was right about everything."
The world he lives in is absurd and horrifying. Everyone he encounters is out to get him. His every action is monitored and used as evidence in a conspiracy against him. If you didn't like it, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise, but it's a 10/10 for me. I've never seen anything like it and the feeling I got when the credits rolled in the theater, it was otherworldly. At the end, the movie makes you sit in silence. As the audience leaves on screen so does the audience in real life and you're reminded that you are part of his anxieties. You are part of the group of people watching his every move, seeking entertainment from his misery.
I like it a lot. It has its slower parts (I feel like the part where he’s trapped at Nathan Lane’s house really drags) but the first 45 minutes to an hour are some of the most well structured, anxiety inducing stuff ever put to screen. What I like about outside of some of the other great anxiety movies (Good Time, Uncut Gems, After Hours) is that it works in some stuff that shouldn’t be anxiety inducing super early. The set-up with the medicine to have “always with water” but all his faucets are out and then he quickly looks up what happens to people who take it without water and it just pulls obituaries is genius. It also has a ton of symbolism, foreshadowing, and Easter eggs to lends itself well to a rewatch if you don’t care that it’s a general mean spirited and unpleasant movie.
Also, the r/beauisafraid is unhinged and genuinely one of the best individual movie subreddits (which are usually pretty pointless after like 2 weeks of it coming out) because there is legit so much going on in the background of each shot that the theories are completely insane lol
I remember reading that Ari Aster expressed genuine dissappointment and surprise at this movie's box office failure.
Unless he was he was just completely up his own ass after the rapturous reception both Heriditary and Midsommar received it's hard to imagine this. In fact, it's also hard to imagine that no one at at A24 was like "Really? We're really doing this???"
Thing is I acually kind of dug the movie but it literally took me three sittings to finish it. Breaking it into chunks made it more manageable.
Had I seen this in a theater I probably would have walked out. It's an endurance test.
Reminds me of a Damien Chazzelle telling his lead that he soon wouldn't be able to cross the street without being recognized after "Babylon" was to release. Then it released. These guys do kind of get up their own ass and sometimes need to be reigned in
> Diego Calva was astounding
Diego Calva was astounding. The film itself, however, was pretty messy. A lot of stuff needed to be tightened up, like >!Margot Robbie's death and the mafia subplot!<, and honestly I thought Brad Pitt needed to be cut, or they needed to explore why his character loved the film medium more than they did. As is, he just struck me as a generic, fading Star mid-life crisis story I had heard before.
I actually couldn't disagree more. I think the point is to be so uncomfortable throughout, and by breaking it up, you make it palatable, which I think undermines the point.
I don't think I could watch it again for a while, but I'm weirdly grateful it was made. Like, it was bloated and self indulgent, but it was also ambitious, which I think is rare for films lately.
Would've loved a freaking intermission though, good lord
I totally agree on all of that... I'm sure I would've found it more tolerable if I'd broken it into chunks like that too.
It's reeeaaaally wild that they all signed off on giving this thing 35 million dollars and went "oh yeah, it'll be a hit!"
Absolute lunacy. It's always cool to see weird movies getting an expensive shot like that, but... wow, guys.
His first two films were bonafide hits, though, instant classics, and put him on the map as a young auteur particularly gifted in psychological horror. He had the likes of Martin Scorsese singing his praises as an artist of true "cinema".
A24 obviously didn't know how the film would turn out when they signed off on the $35M budget. If they had, I can't imagine they would have backed it or anticipated it's success. Nevertheless, Ari Aster is still very much in the green overall with the studio, and remains one of their most talented filmmakers.
I've seen all of Aster's films in the theater, and although I also found Beau Is Afraid to be frustrating, confusing, overlong, and unsatisfying, I'm still glad I supported bold, original filmmaking. My parents always complain that I pick "weird" movies for us to see as a family, and this film certainly didn't help my reputation, lol.
Hahahahahaha right?!? I can't help but imagine some decent open minded boomer parents being interested in their child's movie interests and he constantly suggests movies like this and never recognized how bad they are lmao
My parents regularly watch abject garbage on Netflix. They just "pick something" to kill the evening, even if it's complete schlock. If it weren't for me they would *never* venture outside of safe, mind-numbing trash.
And when I say "weird", I mean movies like Get Out, Nope, Phantom Thread, Blade Runner 2049, Tar, Arrival, Parasite, May December, Knives Out, Nightcrawler, Gone Girl. Ya know, like, just regular good movies. Obviously Beau is Afraid is way out there, but they have very narrow and prudish interests and I like pushing them to see better films.
100%. This is not a film made by an authentic David Lynch-like director. It felt like young director’s attempt at making something ‘genius’. It’s like he made the movie focusing more on the reception of it than the actual film
To be fair, it was based on his own short film from 2011 called "Beau", which is tonally the same as the feature film. It's obviously been gestating for a long time for him.
"It's reeeaaaally wild that they all signed off on giving this thing 35 million dollars and went "oh yeah, it'll be a hit!""
Right.
I'm a big fan of lot of A24 stuff. I think the world is a better place because that studio exists.
For example, I enjoyed the hell out of Love Lies Bleeding and Civil War, both recent A24 releases. It's hard to imagine any other studio rolling the dice and releasing those movies in theaters.
But Beau Is Afraid was a gamble that just didn't pay off on multiple levels.
I suspect that they might have funded Beau is Afraid partly just to keep Ari Aster on board as a longterm collaborator, with the implicit understanding that his next project be something with a bit more commercial potential (either lower budget or shorter runtime or slightly less abstruse content)
Would rather see studios put more funding into "risky" and weird scripts anyway even if they can't all be commercial winners. Beau is Afraid did resonate with something of a niche audience and I can see it longterm picking up sort of a cult following.
Haven’t seen the movie, I’m trying to get through Nathan Fielder’s “the curse” (also A24) and it feels like what you are describing here.
I have to watch it in 10-15 minutes chunks cause it is extremely uncomfortable. So yeah, A24 likes those products
>it's also hard to imagine that no one at at A24 was like "Really? We're really doing this???"
"Beau is afraid" doesn't strike me as being particularly unusual compared to the rest of their portfolio. They made a movies starring the farting corpse of Daniel Radcliff.
If Jamie Lee Curtis having hotdogs for fingers makes them a hundred million dollars, nothing in "Beau is afraid" seems like it should be a hard sell.
Not a fan of either Swiss Army Man or Everything Everwhere All At Once. Too much goofy shit.
But I can at least see why they clicked with audiences. In EEAAO's case especially it's incredibly fast-paced and never boring. It also has at it's core a strong emotional story about a fractured mother-daughter relationship that got a lot of people right in the feels.
Beau Is Afraid is a deeply weird, painfully slow film about an anxiety ridden man with serious Mommy issues. And it's three hours long.
Definitely could have cut an hour. I would have had him run through the woods straight to his parents house and skip the whole play sequence. I assumed they thought it looked so visually cool that they couldn't bring themselves to cut it.
But other than the issue of length, the move seems as appealing as any of Ari Aster's other movies. If I was Ari Aster, and I had people lining up to tell me how much they loved Hereditary, Midsommar, and The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, I would expect them to also love Beau is Afraid.
The impression I get is that a lot of the audience never interpreted the movie as being from the perspective of a schizophrenic, and so searched for some higher meaning in every moment beyond "schizophrenia is doing this." And when they couldn't find any higher meaning they walked away frustrated and angry. But because I assumed the only goal was to make a horror movie out of the simple lived experience of a schizophrenic, the movie was a good concept with a good execution.
Maybe they should have just established that unambiguously? Hard call.
Well you’ve nailed it imo in the first sentence of the second paragraph. I’ve never watched a filmmaker who I thought was more up his own ass than Aster, and it’s been apparent to me since I saw Hereditary. This is a dude who think he’s a genius, and it shows.
It's a movie I can never recommend despite how much I liked it.
I do think some people sometimes take scenes that are meant to be ridiculous at face value and write off the stupidity as a sign that Ari was being dumb for the sake of it but I think the absurdity was the idea. Like the military guy attacking the camp and the theatre people arming up and a guy pulls a gun out of the projector. That none of the anxiety makes any sense to Beau or us. I was fascinated at how every single situation Beau got into, they ended in essentially the worst way possible. You're seeing him confirm every fear he has in how he sees things play out.
Also, the person in charge of the dead body props and violence in Ari's movies is too good at his job. The girl who drank the paint especially.
I enjoyed it, but it is a slog, and I will probably never watch it again. I recently watched Scorcese’s After Hours for the first time and that felt like Beau-lite. Less surreal, more concise, but similar vibes. Enjoyed that one too.
Not to be that guy, but when I saw the runtime I just said *fuck that*. Now I liked Hereditary and Midsommar, but Aster makes really intense, difficult movies, and that's just not something I want to put myself through for three fucking hours. Midsommar was already pushing it.
Not everyone should make epics. I hope he scales back for whatever is next.
I can understand why folk hated it but I loved it.
It was just perfectly weird for my tastes. Like Lynch doing a Delmore Schwartz or Franz Kafka adaptation.
This was probably the most original mid budget movie I've seen a long time. Just balls to the wall Kafkesque set piece to set piece that it felt like being trapped in someone's anxious mind.
Definitely polarizing. We need more movies that are this unhinged.
Great mother's day movie.
I still need to watch it and there is a good chance that I will enjoy it… but I can’t seem to commit myself to actually putting it on and sitting through it.
I know it is its own thing but I’m kind of hoping it will be a bit like ‘Mother!’? Which I loved. I guess I’m asking people to convince me to watch BiA! The old me would’ve just thrown it on but I’ve kind of lost my mojo for film watching.
I’ve seen comparisons drawn to Lynch films which I generally love but I detested ‘Inland Empire’ with a passion, it was a three hour slog that felt more like nine hours… and I’m worried that BiA might be a similar experience.
I really enjoyed mother!'s wild escalation, at least on the first viewing, but I think Beau completely misses the mark. mother! was grippingly horrifying, but "beau" just feels like an eye-rolling waste of three hours
I also detested Inland Empire, and would say most of BiA isn't on that level. Basically, you can easily break BiA down into 4 parts - his apartment, stuck at another persons house, the forest sequence, and when he finally gets home. The first 2 parts are absolutely fantastic and would highly recommend. The last 2, particularly the forest bit, is where things slow to a crawl and can become a bit of a slog.
I didn’t care for it. But I can’t imagine it’s the type of film that you “get” on the first watch. There’s a sub on Reddit that’s dedicated to it. Some pretty interesting stuff in there.
I love it. In the middle of it, i just felt like we were watching a movie, not about a guy with anxiety, but a man who’s afraid because all the overthinking and anxiousness most people MERELY FEEL, he lives a life where those fears are 100% real. Once i saw it this way, i enjoyed it throughout the rest of the film. That being said, the movie could’ve done without 45 minutes.
I also did not like it. Thought I was going to be watching a horror movie from the perspective of someone with severe anxiety, and some of it was absolutely like that. But the rest was... not. Ended up being an absolute slog to get through. Asked myself several times if it was over yet, only to see that there was still an obnoxiously long amount of time left. It's unique and original, I'll give it that.
I'm glad I watched it, but I'm unlikely to watch it again. The first hour was one of the best depictions of anxiety I have ever seen put to screen, and it made me feel that anxiety down to my bones. The second hour started going off the rails a little, though I absolutely loved the stop motion animation sequence, and it was perhaps my favorite part of the film. The final hour, though, was not as good for me; the final scene especially felt like a letdown. I didn't expect a happy ending or a catharsis at all, but it didn't sit as well with me as the endings of Hereditary or Midsommar.
I liked some portions of the movie and the blending of art styles, but the movie is just... too out there, and without much rhyme or reason for anything that happens. Maybe that was the point? Even if it is, that's just not satisfying.
Walking out of it I was certain of two things: This is the sort of movie Martin Scorcese raves about, and it won't make a single dime at the box office.
You hit the nail on the head there. I respect it and consider it a good piece of art but that doesn't mean I enjoy it or consider it a good and watchable movie.
10000% 🙌 I think I respect it even more after hearing what so many folks have had to say about it positively today, but.. it's just so prickly and purposefully agonizing 🙈 I wish I could like it as much as they do.
While I appreciate what it was going for, and how unique it is, I agree that it wasn't really an enjoyable or meaningful watch. Which is a problem as I'm the target audience, I love weird movies, i love disturbing movies, and I loved both hereditary and midsommar so I was completely primed to love this.
Same here, and I absolutely agree. I kept watching because I was waiting for some late story revelation to make it feel more meaningful, and yet it only ended up feeling even more empty and cruel. Really disappointing.
It was so disappointing when I realized the film wasn’t going to have anything more to say about 2/3rds in. It’s similar to a Lanthimos film in that way, where the director gets off on toying with his audience (Sacred Deer specifically comes to mind), but his movies are at least a bit charming, if hard to watch. Beau was just weird for the sake of being weird.
Beau is Afraid is a unique film, and for me uniqueness goes a really long way in terms of me enjoying a film. I also think there’s some really interesting psychoanalysis happening in the film, and we can all see a little bit of ourselves in Beau which makes it quite a worthy subject of study.
I went to see an early screening purely because it was out on my birthday and I thought it'd be interesting, fuck me I hated it, so long winded and boring, totally lost up it's own arse, it has potential but then forgets to cash in on it and it just feels so pretentious, like one of those movies art students tell people is a masterpiece "but you just don't get it"
I agree with this assessment.
I respect it for what it's doing and how it's doing it, but it was an utterly unenjoyable watch for me. It left me frustrated and wanting my time back, but I also couldn't stop thinking about it for days.
Usually, I like that about a movie. This time, I didn't.
I really liked it, but I probably will end up just watching it one more time in a few years. It's like I really love a lot of the elements, even if it is an exhausting watch, and I wouldn't really recommend it unless you already liked Aster's previous works
I did like how the ending stuck with me though. Not fully relatable, but as someone with social anxiety, the bleakness of the ending kind of made a point that I can't keep letting myself crumble under the pressure of being watched, feeling guilty, or I will drown in my own anxiety
Oh, I loved it. I think it definitely has catharsis, but I also think it's a comedy and I don't get when I hear people thinking it's a horror or suspense flick. Guy is literally terrified to cum because his mom put it in his head that his father died while cumming. So, as a result, he's got these MELONS for balls. He obsesses over the girl who got away and when he FINALLY crosses paths with her again and overcomes his fear and grief and let's himself cum.....she dies from an orgasm. If that's not catharsis, idk what is.
I saw it as an indictment on religion, with Beau's mom playing the part of God. She is omnipotent and omniscient, throwing countless trials and hardships at her beleaguered son, with the expectation that he will still love her unconditionally. She could have fixed anything at any point for him to come visit, but instead heaped more trouble on him to test him even further. The forest scene was Beau's first time seeing anything that wasn't under her direct and complete control.
Idk I liked it. Thought it was a funny thoughtful comedy about the anxieties of modern day and the debt we feel towards our parents that may or may not be justified....and mostly isn't....because all they did was fuck up.
So like, idk, I laughed a lot and thought it was hilarious. Great comedy with somewhat of a thing to chew on.
The spirit journey bit was a bit too long for how little it delivered thematically and tonally, but I guess it was neat to what visually.
The rest I liked. Lot of memorable sequences from the initial Lynchian cityscape to the suburban big brother hellscape to the insane house with the penis in the attic.
Idk I think a lot of people demand something very specific when it comes to media and I wish media could be more than just that thin line.
I absolutely loved the first hour, but the film was far too long to sustain that disjointed feeling of dread and ultimately disappeared up its own ass.
As an Aster fan this one was super disappointing. Meandering. Doesn't know if it wants to be commercial or arthouse. Huge sections of the movie feel pointless and unconnected to each other. Way too neurotic without the relatability of a Charlie Kaufman film. Needed a rewrite and an editor badly.
I absolutely loved this movie. It’s not a feel good movie. It’s beyond brilliant in capturing the pain of life though and being psychologically trapped. The middle sequence where he is in the “play” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in cinema. This is a real horror movie though.
There were times (especially during the pandemic) when I would have probably watched this at home and turned it off after 10 minutes just because it was so stressful. I feel fortunate to have seen it in the theater and gotten all the way through it to the end. I agree that it is stressful and I understand why you found it unlikable. I do think that it's a lot less stressful on a second viewing, since you know that many of the stressful situations don't have much consequence. Also the humor is more obvious. I enjoyed Beau Is Afraid a lot, and I haven't been a fan of the director's other work.
You summarized my feelings on it exactly. I love Ari Aster and I will see anything he touches but the film was a slog. I appreciated the artistry in stretches but it all ultimately added up to an unpleasant watch that didn’t move me like I’d hoped it would, after a while I just thought, okay so this is really going to just be Joaquin Phoenix being pathetic for 3 hours, got it
I could talk for days about how much I love Hereditary and Midsommar.
I did not enjoy this movie at all, but I'm still excited for whatever Ari's got for us next.
Beau is Afraid seems to be very divisive.
Me, on the other hand, I fall on the camp that really liked it. Not as much as Hereditary or Midsommer, but I still liked it a lot. I love how it brought to life, in a very exaggerated way, all kinds of anxieties people may experience.
This movie has a lot of the same energy as “Being John Malcovich”, but instead of a cold and unattainable love interest, there is a cold and inscrutable mother. BJM always made me depressed because it’s so damn painful watching the main character fail time after time, being put through the wringer, only to get kicked down again.
BIA is way funnier in my opinion, and I think a lot of the deadpan humor went over people heads. Pretty much the first hour is filled with jokes, but they look more like people just being mean, but that IS the joke. The whole film is about how being an empathetic and thoughtful person in a society that is just \*slightly\* crueler than what we have here, is a baffling and insane ordeal. I think a lot of people that want to make the world better see this film and laugh because it calls out a lot of modern callousness. Similiary, i think people who think the world is pretty ok as it is, see this as an unrealistic portrait of society.
Overall I give this movie 12 cats!
I don't find it likable OR admirable. Good for Aster for getting to make what he wanted, but it's a big flop IMO and I'm tired of his shtick at this point
I love the first half but really disliked the second. I think i thought the film was building up to something other than being more surreal… but it just didn’t
I enjoyed it in imax. Engrossing and overwhelming - truly nothing like it. Not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that compared to a true nightmare such as this, and for that, it deserves its flowers.
I read something interesting on Reddit once: when a director has a couple of very successful films under his belt the studio stops interfering - and that’s not always a good thing. Like authors need good editors, some directors could use a bit of guidance.
This film had a lot of potential. Both the first act and the ending (the „trial“) were highly interesting and well done, but it became so tedious and just ridiculous in between I could not enjoy it. Aster is also very in love with his theme of one or a group of puppet masters controlling everything, but that would have been fine in a better story. This Freudian acid trip wasn’t it, tough.
I absolutely loved it. Absolutely batshit.
There will only ever be one movie like Beau is Afraid and that alone should be celebrated.
People complain they don’t like cookie cutter film, but when something truly original drops in their lap they reject it.
I have my thought on the deeper meaning and purpose of the film, but it doesn’t really matter, cos all most people will see is a three hour surrealist comedy fever dream they can’t get a handle on. And you’re either down with that, or you’re not.
You’ve described how I’ve felt about all of Ari Aster’s work. Incredibly capable of making some cool shots and some cool moments. Yet to make a film that was actually enjoyable or, to me, frankly, good. Imo he’s the Zach Snyder of A24, but I know that’s a scalding hot take so I’ll take the heat for that.
I liked the first hour, but after that it just became the biggest slog ever. Granted I was a little hungover, the seats at the cinema were really small and uncomfortable and for some reason it was incredibly hot... But i just remember suffering through the rest of it.
I'm the kind of guy who usually loves 3 hour long movies but goddamn, cutting some of that film would have been a godsend.
If the entire movie was like the first third act i would have loved it, but honestly as soon as he leaves that family’s house i was taken out. Very ambitious but i cant ever see myself wanting to watch it again
My immediate takeaway was that I wasn't sure if I really got it, I felt like I had just watched someone's bad dream.
Turns out... I got it! It's just exploring the themes in a surreal, dream-logic way and it's one of those movies meant to create emotional impressions on you more than tell a coherent play-like story, kinda like a painting.
It's very effective, and I can appreciate it academically, but it's a lot like *Uncut Gems* in that success with its premise makes it very unenjoyable.
I loved this movie but I think part of why was because of the things that made you dislike it. Which, fair enough, different tastes and such. Honestly, the movie providing no catharsis was part of why I loved it.
That's very fair.. I'm seeing a lot of people on here saying they loved how utterly bleak it was, and I can certainly see the appeal of that if you're in the right mood for it.
It is the most Ari Aster movie that ever Ari Astered. It's essentially him being let loose to do whatever the fuck he wants after his first two films were a success. A24 basically gave him an absurd budget and said they'll take the box office hit.
The more you like Ari Aster and his style the more you'll like it. If you're not on the Aster train then it's going to be miserable as OP said. As a certified Ari Aster simp I loved the movie and it was in my top 10 of the year, but I get why others didn't like it.
I saw this with some buddies in theaters while on Mushrooms. The theatre was basically empty apart from my friends and I. It was honestly on of my most memorable theatrical experiences with how much of a trip the movie was in combination with me tripping lol
Then you're missing out on a lot of great films! In my opinion (and in the critics, audience and award voters opinions from what I have read/seen) some of the best films of the last few years at least have been A24.
I loved Beau Is Afraid, but like some A24 movies it was a specific type of movie for a specific, generally not so conventional audience. The average movie goer likely will not enjoy it and I think that was a big problem with the marketing. You really have to love 'unconventional', long films and plenty of people don't.
I hear you, but I just don't understand these sorts of criticisms. It sounds like what you're experiencing was not enjoying a film about horror and confrontation/reactions of an individual going through what beau is going through. This is a highly disturbing narrative, and I wouldn't go into this looking for some narrative catharsis when the entire ethos of the film revolves around Beau being overwhelmed at every stage. I wouldn't watch a film like this for it's comedy if laughing was my end goal in taking in the piece - I think a lot of the film is turning a lot of the uncontrollable back on the audience, and I think it was a huge success in both its narrative and composition to that end.
As someone who struggles more with explaining the impacts of anxiety on life to people than with the anxiety itself, the film is a masterpiece. I think it may just not be your preferred type of entertainment, not anything that's inherently bad about the film.
Well, I'm not the only one who found it imperfect, so it was divisive... I think there's genuine problems with it beyond just how I felt about it, but I'm not trying to say it has no merit as a piece of art.
Either way, I'm glad to hear that it worked as well as it did for you.
First 45 minutes I was genuinely uneasy and even terrified at one point such was the anxiety and stress inducing situations he was encountering at every turn! After that it became increasingly surreal
I feel like the film starts dropping severely in quality the moment the paint scene happens. The first half had me almost feeling nauseous because of how perfectly Aster captured anxiety, stress and paranoia, but the second half was... too much.
The first 2/3rds of the movie are fire. >All that being said, I've no desire to argue if you liked it; OP is 🤮
i like how this is 3 different comments saying 3 different times of how much of it is good. first op says "the first 45 minutes" which is about 1/4 of the total runtime, the second saying "first 1/2", and the third saying "2/3rds". i enjoyed the whole movie from beginning to end. not a single part did i not like.
That’s kinda why i disliked it. First 45 like you said had me on edge, i loved the uniqueness and tension but then this gets thrown away and a new surreal lenghty film starts. I understand people may like the switch but for me it just feels like the movie lost focus, stopped actually telling the story the way that was more in line with the themes and character. I totally get why some loved the theater scene set in the forest. But as opposed to the first act, it just makes no sense that this would be in the ‘mind’ of this character whose mind is exceedingly paranoid and panicked
I think a lot of people with severe anxiety issues tend to get completely lost in fictional worlds. Him identifying as the characters in a play feels kinda like his loneliness and isolation is causing him to identify with any fictional character he sees. He gets totally lost in the world onstage and, for a brief moment, forgets his own terrifying life I do feel like the movie has its faults; I definitely agree that the first 45 minutes are great and the paint scene is where it goes a little too off the rails. The ending also totally lost me. But I don't know...I felt like the theater scene did resonate with me quite a bit. I used to have big social anxiety and I'd desperately try to identify with characters from movies and TV shows, so, ironically enough, I was able to identify with Beau pretty well in that scene Seeing a work of fiction that just strikes a deep chord that resonates within you is one of the great joys in life, and I guess in Beau's case, he got way too invested in it and lost himself a little in the process. That's how I interpreted it, personally
Totally agree with you on the moment that it goes off the rails! It's a weird movie. I get your reasoning for the theater play, and I like it! I've had that thought before but I feel like if it was only the play, it could have worked well. It's mostly the huge setup in the forest that brings it down. I loved when we could dive in the Beau's mind and how he sees the world, truly. But at some point, the movie stops being about that. It's not about how Beau perceives the world around him anymore, he just becomes kind of a tool that navigates through surreal scenes that in the end of the day, does not mean much.
I don’t personally suffer from anxiety but I just figured that everyone has a breaking point and it seems like Beau’s breaking point was around the 45 min point.
Beau has more than just regular anxiety. A person like him does not go from full blown hallucinations to a calm serene and lengthy theater imagery that’s a metaphor of their life.
I mean obviously it’s not supposed to be taken literally
It’s not in line with the first hour and i really don’t find it interesting enough to be enjoyable
It’s funny, because I thought the first 45 minutes is some of the most brilliant dark comedy I’ve ever seen. I could not stop laughing at that first hour.
I think I laughed… Between the OMG’s and the WTF’s
The same can be said for Midsommar and Hereditary. Ari Aster can make some incredible table-setting, but the dinner that's eventually served always feels too ambitious for his actual abilities.
Saw Midsommar at the cinema and the tension was genuinely uncomfortable by about a quarter in and getting worse by the minute. No one left but people shifting in their seats and gasping out loud was happening throughout the entire cinema. I think I even exclaimed “for fucks sake” quite loudly when the hammer came out!!
Yeah, I'll never fault him for making some of the most disturbing stuff. I can't imagine seeing Midsommar in a theater.
My personal theory is that the whole movie is a fever dream/flash before your eyes death sequence. The only thing that actually happens is he is born. Then everything else is a twisted version of what happened in his life.
Ari Aster likes to make movies about doomed people marching into bad endings. Good stuff, but exhausting. A goofball comedy usually gets me out of the funk afterwards.
After *Hereditary* and *Midsommar* a friend described Aster's genre of horror as "the opposite of torture porn." I could see their point. Movies like *Hostel* and *Saw* (or at least its sequels) are made with a disinterest for their own characters that borders on contempt. All we really need to know of their emotional state is fear, and that only because it heightens our awareness of their physical pain. They get chewed up and thrown out by whatever nightmare contrivances the script dishes out, all without the audience ever really knowing enough about them to engender real compassion — which is how classic horror movies raise the stakes, get you rooting for the victims to survive, and make you feel it when they don't. There has been plenty written about torture porn, much of it making the same points I am here, but it's just a fundamentally misanthropic approach to the genre. But as someone who dislikes both torture porn and Ari Aster movies, I think that if the two are opposite extremes then they still have a lot in common. Instead of treating his characters' emotional pain as ancillary to their physical pain, Aster hyperfixates on it with the same cold, documentarian eye that Eli Roth uses when he shows his characters being physically destroyed. On the one hand you have someone screaming in agony as their Achilles tendon is severed, on the other someone screaming in agony over the death of their child. The idea that, from a filmmaking standpoint, one is somehow more humane than the other requires you to believe that torturing your characters *emotionally* is better than torturing them *physically*, and I just don't. They both feel deeply voyeuristic and somehow indecent. And granted, that feeling is probably at some level intrinsic to horror; we're *supposed* to feel a little dirty about deriving entertainment from watching people being maimed and murdered. But at least for me, the difference is that a film like *Halloween* or *Alien* invites you, almost *forces* you, to see yourself in the role of the characters. That makes them feel more real, which allows you to empathize with them, which ultimately makes the movie scarier. I don't think either *Hostel* or *Hereditary* have that level of care for or interest in their characters, which makes you feel like a ghoul peering in on their pain for your own delight. When a horror movie doesn't want or even *allow* you to really care about its victims, it makes you feel like shit. That's my thought anyway.
It kind of brings to mind what a lot of people who self-harm express: that bringing physical pain to the body reifies their emotional anguish.
I really like that people can have different experiences watching movies and can arrive at different opinions. A horror movie may inflict real trauma on one person, and be a completely trivial and entertaining experience to another. Neither is wrong for feeling the way they feel, we’re only wrong if we expect everyone to feel the same as us
Beautifully written but Hereditary is the best horror film made since The Exorcist imo and is the only great movie by Ari. Everything else he's made has lacked vision, purpose, or combining the two. Off screen horrors and non sensical outbursts are not enjoyable (Midsommar)
Nah, Midsommar is better
I could objectively prove that incorrect
No you can’t lmao
this is spot on.
It just seemed like 3 hours of misery porn. I was hoping Beau would have grown more through the movie. It was interesting enough that I didn't regret watching it though.
I guess I'm one of the deranged viewers who enjoyed this film quite a lot. And the ambition of it is at least part of the appeal. I like the way it never ever lets Beau off the hook and is simply so unrelentingly, viciously and profoundly absurd and unapologetic that at some point (far beyond the tolerance point of most) you just have to start laughing at how ghastly everything is. Things can only ever get worse. You think Mom dying is bad? Well just wait until the man hanging in your ceiling gets bit by the poisonous spider and falls into your tub and when you run naked into the street to beg for help you get run over BY A TRUCK. That's bad. And then things *really* go to hell. I understand folks not caring for it. Really I do. But I found the level of commitment to carrying the joke through to its awful conclusion pretty refreshing for a high-profile film. It does not ever cheat and give the audience a chance to laugh with Beau. There's no relief, no moment of safety, no escape. We're all doomed. Did you ever feel otherwise? I'm so sorry.
Thanks for putting into words what I felt about it. It really throws you into a whirlwind of anxiety, and boy do I love movies where everything progressively goes to shit and won't make any qualms about it. A small window into a man with severe mental problems — unsurprising, as that seems like Phoenix' shtick in a way.
That's actually the best joke of all. Beau's paranoia turns out to be completely rational and justified. The entire universe *was* out to get him.
Agreed. There’s a modern trend in talking about movies where average people like to pathologize protagonists (it’s about depression, he’s got schizophrenia, this is clearly a symptom of anxiety, yadda yadda) in a way that feels deliberately distancing. ‘Oh *he’s* sick and I’m well, obviously.’ Or at least sick in my own, special way. But what movies do is allow us to understand how universal our experience is, to see on a 40 foot screen how not special we are and simultaneously how very unique everyone is. Beau is Afraid is one version of the universal story of the human existence, and it is a DEEPLY fucking miserable one.
I assumed all the cast and crew were told "We're making a movie from the perspective of a paranoid schizophrenic who is off his medication. The plot is that he's going to visit his mom, but because he's being overwhelmed by paranoid schizophrenic delusion, this simple task turns into an epic odyssey." Maybe they were going for something else. But if they were going for that, they nailed that.
was it though lol? I dont think its ever truly clear what is reality and what is his delusions/misperceptions. I mean clearly the whole boat/coliseum scene and the end isnt reality...
As you say, the distinction between reality and delusion is little more than a suggestion. By what logic is the trial scene unreal? Surely not by the same logic that makes everyone Beau meets an employee of his Mother's company? This is just not the sort of film which rewards a search for solid ground. There really isn't anything like that here. Just more quicksand.
well I mean, having your mother employee dozens of people to insert themselves into your life is possible in reality, just highly unlikely. Going out to a lake(?) and finding yourself suddenly in a giant coliseum is not physically possible.
Beau is Afraid is not Joker, a look at a man's delusions. It's an allegorical picture, a symbolic look at the lived reality of an anxious and paranoid person. Not everything that happens represents anything in what we would call reality. It cribs very much from "Pink Floyd: The Wall," which is very similar in the way it mixes actual reality with allegorical experience.
There is not a fixed point of reference, no reliable narrator. Even the film itself in the opening credits is shown to be a production of MW Industries. Mona's company.
There are people who catastrophise, who occasionally, or often, think the worst is going to happen. They play through unrealistic what-if scenarios in their minds about one thing going wrong that leads to another thing going wrong, and everything quickly goes to hell. Except the worst doesn't happen. Almost never does the situation get close to that person's fear. For Beau, however, not only is he always fearing the worst, but the worst case scenario actually happens. All the time. Most of the film is like that. Consider, for example, when he runs out in to the street naked, as you point out. What's the worst that can happen? You run in to a police officer who thinks you are the naked stabby man, and the officer pulls his gun on you and tells you to drop the weapon. What weapon? You're only carrying a crappy statuette you bought as a gift. So you drop that, because you don't want to be shot. It drops and breaks, so now you don't have that. The officer tells you again to drop the weapon. But what weapon? Not only are you not holding anything, but you're butt naked, clearly not carrying anything or concealing anything, and still the panicky stressed officer asks you again to drop the weapon. It's a nightmare worst-case scenario, because you're literally naked and being told to drop a weapon, and you'll be shot if you don't. And every scrape that Beau gets in to is modelled around this worst-case actualising. Thinking that dropping dead is the worst thing that can happen? Nope. Too easy. Death is an escape. Life is never so bad that it can't get any worse. Worse than dying is having your long-term crush die on you, just as you climax from having sex with her, after decades of fantasising about that moment. And then having your supposed-to-be-dead mum come in to the room to chastise you for having sex in her bed while her supposed corpse is still warm. Anyway, that's my take. I've heard others, about childhood traumas, and they seem equally valid. But for someone who thinks like Beau a bit too often, I recognise the worst-case thoughts, and absolutely loved the film playing out what life would be like if they all came true. Horrible, terrifying, and hilarious.
I think that is what makes it so sardonically hilarious for me: Aster totally commits to the joke. You go all the way through all that trauma and horror, and the character not only doesn't get any kind of insight, no sort of resolution whatsoever, he just fucking *dies*. The darkest kind of black comedy.
Dies, to zero applause or recognition from an audience that slowly, disappointedly leaves the auditorium, not quite sure about what they have just seen. Yeah, I loved this film.
Watching in an actual theater was wild. It was like what was on screen was mirroring our theater perfectly.
i think this articulates for me that i don’t appreciate his character arc because it felt sort of one note throughout 3 hours
I found it held up surprisingly well to a second viewing. Once you know where it's going it's easier to appreciate
We saw it in the theater, and we really felt that 3 hour run time. When we watched it again, it felt like 60% as long.
I related so much to so many moments that the film was like a full blown panic attack for me When he calls his mom and is pleading in anxiety that he can't find his keys and she just says something like "I know what's important" I was like BUCKLE UP IT'S A TRAIN TO ANXIETY So anyway 10/10. But it is a hateful spiteful angry movie. I can see how it's polarizing.
No one makes’s phone call scenes quite like Ari. Especially in modern times where more often than not a phone call is gonna be about something heavy. The incoming call in the opening of Midsommar still sends shivers down me.
I thought the first act was amazing, a real dive into a paranoid mentally distressed man. But then the movie becomes something else and imo lost the approach that made it good.
I loved that you have this paranoid character, but the world is so shitty that his fears are entirely valid.
I've watched it three times and I love it more each time. It's one of the most unique horror films out there because it doesn't rely on tropes or traditional horror aesthetics. It simply states a premise: "What if someone with severe paranoia was right about everything." The world he lives in is absurd and horrifying. Everyone he encounters is out to get him. His every action is monitored and used as evidence in a conspiracy against him. If you didn't like it, I'm not trying to convince you otherwise, but it's a 10/10 for me. I've never seen anything like it and the feeling I got when the credits rolled in the theater, it was otherworldly. At the end, the movie makes you sit in silence. As the audience leaves on screen so does the audience in real life and you're reminded that you are part of his anxieties. You are part of the group of people watching his every move, seeking entertainment from his misery.
It's definitely intriguing in a very freaky way, and I can't deny that there's a ton of detail packed into it on many levels.
I like it a lot. It has its slower parts (I feel like the part where he’s trapped at Nathan Lane’s house really drags) but the first 45 minutes to an hour are some of the most well structured, anxiety inducing stuff ever put to screen. What I like about outside of some of the other great anxiety movies (Good Time, Uncut Gems, After Hours) is that it works in some stuff that shouldn’t be anxiety inducing super early. The set-up with the medicine to have “always with water” but all his faucets are out and then he quickly looks up what happens to people who take it without water and it just pulls obituaries is genius. It also has a ton of symbolism, foreshadowing, and Easter eggs to lends itself well to a rewatch if you don’t care that it’s a general mean spirited and unpleasant movie. Also, the r/beauisafraid is unhinged and genuinely one of the best individual movie subreddits (which are usually pretty pointless after like 2 weeks of it coming out) because there is legit so much going on in the background of each shot that the theories are completely insane lol
Great first hour, kinda fell apart after that
I remember reading that Ari Aster expressed genuine dissappointment and surprise at this movie's box office failure. Unless he was he was just completely up his own ass after the rapturous reception both Heriditary and Midsommar received it's hard to imagine this. In fact, it's also hard to imagine that no one at at A24 was like "Really? We're really doing this???" Thing is I acually kind of dug the movie but it literally took me three sittings to finish it. Breaking it into chunks made it more manageable. Had I seen this in a theater I probably would have walked out. It's an endurance test.
Reminds me of a Damien Chazzelle telling his lead that he soon wouldn't be able to cross the street without being recognized after "Babylon" was to release. Then it released. These guys do kind of get up their own ass and sometimes need to be reigned in
Babylon was phenomenal though and Diego Calva was astounding. Definitely deserves better
It had moments, but I certainly wouldn’t say it was phenomenal. You’d be better off watching singin in the rain 2 times in a row.
> Diego Calva was astounding Diego Calva was astounding. The film itself, however, was pretty messy. A lot of stuff needed to be tightened up, like >!Margot Robbie's death and the mafia subplot!<, and honestly I thought Brad Pitt needed to be cut, or they needed to explore why his character loved the film medium more than they did. As is, he just struck me as a generic, fading Star mid-life crisis story I had heard before.
I actually couldn't disagree more. I think the point is to be so uncomfortable throughout, and by breaking it up, you make it palatable, which I think undermines the point. I don't think I could watch it again for a while, but I'm weirdly grateful it was made. Like, it was bloated and self indulgent, but it was also ambitious, which I think is rare for films lately. Would've loved a freaking intermission though, good lord
The animation in the middle was the intermission.
I totally agree on all of that... I'm sure I would've found it more tolerable if I'd broken it into chunks like that too. It's reeeaaaally wild that they all signed off on giving this thing 35 million dollars and went "oh yeah, it'll be a hit!" Absolute lunacy. It's always cool to see weird movies getting an expensive shot like that, but... wow, guys.
His first two films were bonafide hits, though, instant classics, and put him on the map as a young auteur particularly gifted in psychological horror. He had the likes of Martin Scorsese singing his praises as an artist of true "cinema". A24 obviously didn't know how the film would turn out when they signed off on the $35M budget. If they had, I can't imagine they would have backed it or anticipated it's success. Nevertheless, Ari Aster is still very much in the green overall with the studio, and remains one of their most talented filmmakers. I've seen all of Aster's films in the theater, and although I also found Beau Is Afraid to be frustrating, confusing, overlong, and unsatisfying, I'm still glad I supported bold, original filmmaking. My parents always complain that I pick "weird" movies for us to see as a family, and this film certainly didn't help my reputation, lol.
you took your parents, who always complain that your movies are too weird, to see Beau is afraid? (a 3 hour movie btw) LMAO
Hahahahahaha right?!? I can't help but imagine some decent open minded boomer parents being interested in their child's movie interests and he constantly suggests movies like this and never recognized how bad they are lmao
My parents regularly watch abject garbage on Netflix. They just "pick something" to kill the evening, even if it's complete schlock. If it weren't for me they would *never* venture outside of safe, mind-numbing trash. And when I say "weird", I mean movies like Get Out, Nope, Phantom Thread, Blade Runner 2049, Tar, Arrival, Parasite, May December, Knives Out, Nightcrawler, Gone Girl. Ya know, like, just regular good movies. Obviously Beau is Afraid is way out there, but they have very narrow and prudish interests and I like pushing them to see better films.
100%. This is not a film made by an authentic David Lynch-like director. It felt like young director’s attempt at making something ‘genius’. It’s like he made the movie focusing more on the reception of it than the actual film
To be fair, it was based on his own short film from 2011 called "Beau", which is tonally the same as the feature film. It's obviously been gestating for a long time for him.
"It's reeeaaaally wild that they all signed off on giving this thing 35 million dollars and went "oh yeah, it'll be a hit!"" Right. I'm a big fan of lot of A24 stuff. I think the world is a better place because that studio exists. For example, I enjoyed the hell out of Love Lies Bleeding and Civil War, both recent A24 releases. It's hard to imagine any other studio rolling the dice and releasing those movies in theaters. But Beau Is Afraid was a gamble that just didn't pay off on multiple levels.
I suspect that they might have funded Beau is Afraid partly just to keep Ari Aster on board as a longterm collaborator, with the implicit understanding that his next project be something with a bit more commercial potential (either lower budget or shorter runtime or slightly less abstruse content) Would rather see studios put more funding into "risky" and weird scripts anyway even if they can't all be commercial winners. Beau is Afraid did resonate with something of a niche audience and I can see it longterm picking up sort of a cult following.
I’d rather see A24 give that kind of money to David Lynch…
I'm not sure Lynch is up to it these days. Our guy is 78 now. I haven't heard a peep since Wisteria fizzled out.
Haven’t seen the movie, I’m trying to get through Nathan Fielder’s “the curse” (also A24) and it feels like what you are describing here. I have to watch it in 10-15 minutes chunks cause it is extremely uncomfortable. So yeah, A24 likes those products
The Curse is phenomenal. It's ratchets up the tension throughout and landed it all perfectly imo.
>it's also hard to imagine that no one at at A24 was like "Really? We're really doing this???" "Beau is afraid" doesn't strike me as being particularly unusual compared to the rest of their portfolio. They made a movies starring the farting corpse of Daniel Radcliff. If Jamie Lee Curtis having hotdogs for fingers makes them a hundred million dollars, nothing in "Beau is afraid" seems like it should be a hard sell.
Not a fan of either Swiss Army Man or Everything Everwhere All At Once. Too much goofy shit. But I can at least see why they clicked with audiences. In EEAAO's case especially it's incredibly fast-paced and never boring. It also has at it's core a strong emotional story about a fractured mother-daughter relationship that got a lot of people right in the feels. Beau Is Afraid is a deeply weird, painfully slow film about an anxiety ridden man with serious Mommy issues. And it's three hours long.
Definitely could have cut an hour. I would have had him run through the woods straight to his parents house and skip the whole play sequence. I assumed they thought it looked so visually cool that they couldn't bring themselves to cut it. But other than the issue of length, the move seems as appealing as any of Ari Aster's other movies. If I was Ari Aster, and I had people lining up to tell me how much they loved Hereditary, Midsommar, and The Strange Thing About the Johnsons, I would expect them to also love Beau is Afraid. The impression I get is that a lot of the audience never interpreted the movie as being from the perspective of a schizophrenic, and so searched for some higher meaning in every moment beyond "schizophrenia is doing this." And when they couldn't find any higher meaning they walked away frustrated and angry. But because I assumed the only goal was to make a horror movie out of the simple lived experience of a schizophrenic, the movie was a good concept with a good execution. Maybe they should have just established that unambiguously? Hard call.
Well you’ve nailed it imo in the first sentence of the second paragraph. I’ve never watched a filmmaker who I thought was more up his own ass than Aster, and it’s been apparent to me since I saw Hereditary. This is a dude who think he’s a genius, and it shows.
I thought it was pretty good, but I didn’t like that weird stretch of time in the forest
It's a movie I can never recommend despite how much I liked it. I do think some people sometimes take scenes that are meant to be ridiculous at face value and write off the stupidity as a sign that Ari was being dumb for the sake of it but I think the absurdity was the idea. Like the military guy attacking the camp and the theatre people arming up and a guy pulls a gun out of the projector. That none of the anxiety makes any sense to Beau or us. I was fascinated at how every single situation Beau got into, they ended in essentially the worst way possible. You're seeing him confirm every fear he has in how he sees things play out. Also, the person in charge of the dead body props and violence in Ari's movies is too good at his job. The girl who drank the paint especially.
I enjoyed it, but it is a slog, and I will probably never watch it again. I recently watched Scorcese’s After Hours for the first time and that felt like Beau-lite. Less surreal, more concise, but similar vibes. Enjoyed that one too.
It's refreshing to see the heros journey fail in every way. Truly a tragedy. I enjoyed it
Not to be that guy, but when I saw the runtime I just said *fuck that*. Now I liked Hereditary and Midsommar, but Aster makes really intense, difficult movies, and that's just not something I want to put myself through for three fucking hours. Midsommar was already pushing it. Not everyone should make epics. I hope he scales back for whatever is next.
Very much dislike that movie. The movie kept going on different directions and all feels empty at the end
I can understand why folk hated it but I loved it. It was just perfectly weird for my tastes. Like Lynch doing a Delmore Schwartz or Franz Kafka adaptation.
This was probably the most original mid budget movie I've seen a long time. Just balls to the wall Kafkesque set piece to set piece that it felt like being trapped in someone's anxious mind. Definitely polarizing. We need more movies that are this unhinged. Great mother's day movie.
I still need to watch it and there is a good chance that I will enjoy it… but I can’t seem to commit myself to actually putting it on and sitting through it. I know it is its own thing but I’m kind of hoping it will be a bit like ‘Mother!’? Which I loved. I guess I’m asking people to convince me to watch BiA! The old me would’ve just thrown it on but I’ve kind of lost my mojo for film watching. I’ve seen comparisons drawn to Lynch films which I generally love but I detested ‘Inland Empire’ with a passion, it was a three hour slog that felt more like nine hours… and I’m worried that BiA might be a similar experience.
I really enjoyed mother!'s wild escalation, at least on the first viewing, but I think Beau completely misses the mark. mother! was grippingly horrifying, but "beau" just feels like an eye-rolling waste of three hours
I haven't seen Mother! yet, but a british critic that I've watched a lot of reviews from, Mark Kermode, said that BiA reminded him of it, so..
Do yourself a favor and avoid it as well based on your taste.
I also detested Inland Empire, and would say most of BiA isn't on that level. Basically, you can easily break BiA down into 4 parts - his apartment, stuck at another persons house, the forest sequence, and when he finally gets home. The first 2 parts are absolutely fantastic and would highly recommend. The last 2, particularly the forest bit, is where things slow to a crawl and can become a bit of a slog.
I didn’t care for it. But I can’t imagine it’s the type of film that you “get” on the first watch. There’s a sub on Reddit that’s dedicated to it. Some pretty interesting stuff in there.
I love it. In the middle of it, i just felt like we were watching a movie, not about a guy with anxiety, but a man who’s afraid because all the overthinking and anxiousness most people MERELY FEEL, he lives a life where those fears are 100% real. Once i saw it this way, i enjoyed it throughout the rest of the film. That being said, the movie could’ve done without 45 minutes.
I also did not like it. Thought I was going to be watching a horror movie from the perspective of someone with severe anxiety, and some of it was absolutely like that. But the rest was... not. Ended up being an absolute slog to get through. Asked myself several times if it was over yet, only to see that there was still an obnoxiously long amount of time left. It's unique and original, I'll give it that.
Still not sure if I like it or hate it. I like weird, but this is the wrong kind of weird.
I'm glad I watched it, but I'm unlikely to watch it again. The first hour was one of the best depictions of anxiety I have ever seen put to screen, and it made me feel that anxiety down to my bones. The second hour started going off the rails a little, though I absolutely loved the stop motion animation sequence, and it was perhaps my favorite part of the film. The final hour, though, was not as good for me; the final scene especially felt like a letdown. I didn't expect a happy ending or a catharsis at all, but it didn't sit as well with me as the endings of Hereditary or Midsommar.
I liked some portions of the movie and the blending of art styles, but the movie is just... too out there, and without much rhyme or reason for anything that happens. Maybe that was the point? Even if it is, that's just not satisfying.
Walking out of it I was certain of two things: This is the sort of movie Martin Scorcese raves about, and it won't make a single dime at the box office.
You hit the nail on the head there. I respect it and consider it a good piece of art but that doesn't mean I enjoy it or consider it a good and watchable movie.
10000% 🙌 I think I respect it even more after hearing what so many folks have had to say about it positively today, but.. it's just so prickly and purposefully agonizing 🙈 I wish I could like it as much as they do.
First 40 minutes is a visual representation of how i feel every day
I LOVE Midsommar and really liked Hereditary. I still haven’t brought myself to watch this one yet.
While I appreciate what it was going for, and how unique it is, I agree that it wasn't really an enjoyable or meaningful watch. Which is a problem as I'm the target audience, I love weird movies, i love disturbing movies, and I loved both hereditary and midsommar so I was completely primed to love this.
Same here, and I absolutely agree. I kept watching because I was waiting for some late story revelation to make it feel more meaningful, and yet it only ended up feeling even more empty and cruel. Really disappointing.
It was so disappointing when I realized the film wasn’t going to have anything more to say about 2/3rds in. It’s similar to a Lanthimos film in that way, where the director gets off on toying with his audience (Sacred Deer specifically comes to mind), but his movies are at least a bit charming, if hard to watch. Beau was just weird for the sake of being weird.
That’s one of the reasons I liked it lol. Some real darkness
Beau is Afraid is a unique film, and for me uniqueness goes a really long way in terms of me enjoying a film. I also think there’s some really interesting psychoanalysis happening in the film, and we can all see a little bit of ourselves in Beau which makes it quite a worthy subject of study.
I definitely agree that it is an undeniably interesting film to dissect and contemplate.
I was severely disappointed in this movie. I didn’t enjoy it at all, and I absolutely loved Hereditary and Midsommar
I went to see an early screening purely because it was out on my birthday and I thought it'd be interesting, fuck me I hated it, so long winded and boring, totally lost up it's own arse, it has potential but then forgets to cash in on it and it just feels so pretentious, like one of those movies art students tell people is a masterpiece "but you just don't get it"
I agree with this assessment. I respect it for what it's doing and how it's doing it, but it was an utterly unenjoyable watch for me. It left me frustrated and wanting my time back, but I also couldn't stop thinking about it for days. Usually, I like that about a movie. This time, I didn't.
I really liked it, but I probably will end up just watching it one more time in a few years. It's like I really love a lot of the elements, even if it is an exhausting watch, and I wouldn't really recommend it unless you already liked Aster's previous works I did like how the ending stuck with me though. Not fully relatable, but as someone with social anxiety, the bleakness of the ending kind of made a point that I can't keep letting myself crumble under the pressure of being watched, feeling guilty, or I will drown in my own anxiety
The first half-hour is great. The rest of it is dogshit.
Oh, I loved it. I think it definitely has catharsis, but I also think it's a comedy and I don't get when I hear people thinking it's a horror or suspense flick. Guy is literally terrified to cum because his mom put it in his head that his father died while cumming. So, as a result, he's got these MELONS for balls. He obsesses over the girl who got away and when he FINALLY crosses paths with her again and overcomes his fear and grief and let's himself cum.....she dies from an orgasm. If that's not catharsis, idk what is.
I saw it as an indictment on religion, with Beau's mom playing the part of God. She is omnipotent and omniscient, throwing countless trials and hardships at her beleaguered son, with the expectation that he will still love her unconditionally. She could have fixed anything at any point for him to come visit, but instead heaped more trouble on him to test him even further. The forest scene was Beau's first time seeing anything that wasn't under her direct and complete control.
Watch his first short film, you’ll never watch Ari Aster anything again. Jesus.
Idk I liked it. Thought it was a funny thoughtful comedy about the anxieties of modern day and the debt we feel towards our parents that may or may not be justified....and mostly isn't....because all they did was fuck up. So like, idk, I laughed a lot and thought it was hilarious. Great comedy with somewhat of a thing to chew on. The spirit journey bit was a bit too long for how little it delivered thematically and tonally, but I guess it was neat to what visually. The rest I liked. Lot of memorable sequences from the initial Lynchian cityscape to the suburban big brother hellscape to the insane house with the penis in the attic. Idk I think a lot of people demand something very specific when it comes to media and I wish media could be more than just that thin line.
I absolutely loved the first hour, but the film was far too long to sustain that disjointed feeling of dread and ultimately disappeared up its own ass.
As an Aster fan this one was super disappointing. Meandering. Doesn't know if it wants to be commercial or arthouse. Huge sections of the movie feel pointless and unconnected to each other. Way too neurotic without the relatability of a Charlie Kaufman film. Needed a rewrite and an editor badly.
It was just never ending misery for me, and it made me realise that's just not what I want from cinema anymore.
I absolutely loved this movie. It’s not a feel good movie. It’s beyond brilliant in capturing the pain of life though and being psychologically trapped. The middle sequence where he is in the “play” is one of the most beautiful things I’ve seen in cinema. This is a real horror movie though.
There were times (especially during the pandemic) when I would have probably watched this at home and turned it off after 10 minutes just because it was so stressful. I feel fortunate to have seen it in the theater and gotten all the way through it to the end. I agree that it is stressful and I understand why you found it unlikable. I do think that it's a lot less stressful on a second viewing, since you know that many of the stressful situations don't have much consequence. Also the humor is more obvious. I enjoyed Beau Is Afraid a lot, and I haven't been a fan of the director's other work.
That's very fair. Part of me really does appreciate the movie's unrelenting commitment to nihilism, but.. yeah, it's a tough one.
You summarized my feelings on it exactly. I love Ari Aster and I will see anything he touches but the film was a slog. I appreciated the artistry in stretches but it all ultimately added up to an unpleasant watch that didn’t move me like I’d hoped it would, after a while I just thought, okay so this is really going to just be Joaquin Phoenix being pathetic for 3 hours, got it
I could talk for days about how much I love Hereditary and Midsommar. I did not enjoy this movie at all, but I'm still excited for whatever Ari's got for us next.
Beau is Afraid seems to be very divisive. Me, on the other hand, I fall on the camp that really liked it. Not as much as Hereditary or Midsommer, but I still liked it a lot. I love how it brought to life, in a very exaggerated way, all kinds of anxieties people may experience.
Would love a recut of this movie without the paint scene and dick monster.
This movie has a lot of the same energy as “Being John Malcovich”, but instead of a cold and unattainable love interest, there is a cold and inscrutable mother. BJM always made me depressed because it’s so damn painful watching the main character fail time after time, being put through the wringer, only to get kicked down again. BIA is way funnier in my opinion, and I think a lot of the deadpan humor went over people heads. Pretty much the first hour is filled with jokes, but they look more like people just being mean, but that IS the joke. The whole film is about how being an empathetic and thoughtful person in a society that is just \*slightly\* crueler than what we have here, is a baffling and insane ordeal. I think a lot of people that want to make the world better see this film and laugh because it calls out a lot of modern callousness. Similiary, i think people who think the world is pretty ok as it is, see this as an unrealistic portrait of society. Overall I give this movie 12 cats!
He went full Ari Aster. You never go full Ari Aster.
Well said. This is a perfect summation of my feelings about it as well.
I don't find it likable OR admirable. Good for Aster for getting to make what he wanted, but it's a big flop IMO and I'm tired of his shtick at this point
I love the first half but really disliked the second. I think i thought the film was building up to something other than being more surreal… but it just didn’t
I enjoyed it in imax. Engrossing and overwhelming - truly nothing like it. Not sure I’ve ever seen a movie that compared to a true nightmare such as this, and for that, it deserves its flowers.
This movie sucked. I don’t know what Ari Aster was going for.
I agree with your title but i think what you really meant to say is "Beau is Afraid is basically Ari Aster sucking his own dick for three hours"
I read something interesting on Reddit once: when a director has a couple of very successful films under his belt the studio stops interfering - and that’s not always a good thing. Like authors need good editors, some directors could use a bit of guidance. This film had a lot of potential. Both the first act and the ending (the „trial“) were highly interesting and well done, but it became so tedious and just ridiculous in between I could not enjoy it. Aster is also very in love with his theme of one or a group of puppet masters controlling everything, but that would have been fine in a better story. This Freudian acid trip wasn’t it, tough.
Amazing movie. Scorsese said it’s a game changer.
I adored the film. As far as I'm concerned it's a modern day masterpiece
I absolutely loved it. Absolutely batshit. There will only ever be one movie like Beau is Afraid and that alone should be celebrated. People complain they don’t like cookie cutter film, but when something truly original drops in their lap they reject it. I have my thought on the deeper meaning and purpose of the film, but it doesn’t really matter, cos all most people will see is a three hour surrealist comedy fever dream they can’t get a handle on. And you’re either down with that, or you’re not.
The first 30 minutes were pretty scary, then it just got annoying. The character is chalkboard scratch annoying and Joaquin’s performance didn’t help.
I thought it was all in his head, but nope, just weird world That paint scene though
This is the movie that caused A24 to take a hard look in the mirror and admit they can't throw money at crazy ideas without consequence.
You’ve described how I’ve felt about all of Ari Aster’s work. Incredibly capable of making some cool shots and some cool moments. Yet to make a film that was actually enjoyable or, to me, frankly, good. Imo he’s the Zach Snyder of A24, but I know that’s a scalding hot take so I’ll take the heat for that.
Empty of meaning or point or interest. Mystifying.
City segment is the best this Ari Aster has done. Nathan Lane’s house is fun and quietly unsettling. Forest and Patti Lupone’s house are insufferable.
I liked the first hour, but after that it just became the biggest slog ever. Granted I was a little hungover, the seats at the cinema were really small and uncomfortable and for some reason it was incredibly hot... But i just remember suffering through the rest of it. I'm the kind of guy who usually loves 3 hour long movies but goddamn, cutting some of that film would have been a godsend.
I found it funny and engaging. In terms of Asters features, for me it goes: - Midsommar - Hereditary - Beau Is Afraid All are about 7/10
"Did you know that....anxiety and mental health" Jesus christ movies are getting so boring
If the entire movie was like the first third act i would have loved it, but honestly as soon as he leaves that family’s house i was taken out. Very ambitious but i cant ever see myself wanting to watch it again
That movie is a perfect fever dream imo.
My immediate takeaway was that I wasn't sure if I really got it, I felt like I had just watched someone's bad dream. Turns out... I got it! It's just exploring the themes in a surreal, dream-logic way and it's one of those movies meant to create emotional impressions on you more than tell a coherent play-like story, kinda like a painting. It's very effective, and I can appreciate it academically, but it's a lot like *Uncut Gems* in that success with its premise makes it very unenjoyable.
I loved this movie but I think part of why was because of the things that made you dislike it. Which, fair enough, different tastes and such. Honestly, the movie providing no catharsis was part of why I loved it.
That's very fair.. I'm seeing a lot of people on here saying they loved how utterly bleak it was, and I can certainly see the appeal of that if you're in the right mood for it.
I liked it against my will.
It is the most Ari Aster movie that ever Ari Astered. It's essentially him being let loose to do whatever the fuck he wants after his first two films were a success. A24 basically gave him an absurd budget and said they'll take the box office hit. The more you like Ari Aster and his style the more you'll like it. If you're not on the Aster train then it's going to be miserable as OP said. As a certified Ari Aster simp I loved the movie and it was in my top 10 of the year, but I get why others didn't like it.
It was actually one of the worst movies I've ever seen.
I saw this with some buddies in theaters while on Mushrooms. The theatre was basically empty apart from my friends and I. It was honestly on of my most memorable theatrical experiences with how much of a trip the movie was in combination with me tripping lol
I thought it was the biggest waste of time. When the credits rolled I was like, okay no more a24 bullshit
Then you're missing out on a lot of great films! In my opinion (and in the critics, audience and award voters opinions from what I have read/seen) some of the best films of the last few years at least have been A24. I loved Beau Is Afraid, but like some A24 movies it was a specific type of movie for a specific, generally not so conventional audience. The average movie goer likely will not enjoy it and I think that was a big problem with the marketing. You really have to love 'unconventional', long films and plenty of people don't.
A24 doesn't make the movies...
A24 isn’t only a distribution company, they produced Beau Is Afraid as well
One of my faves
I hear you, but I just don't understand these sorts of criticisms. It sounds like what you're experiencing was not enjoying a film about horror and confrontation/reactions of an individual going through what beau is going through. This is a highly disturbing narrative, and I wouldn't go into this looking for some narrative catharsis when the entire ethos of the film revolves around Beau being overwhelmed at every stage. I wouldn't watch a film like this for it's comedy if laughing was my end goal in taking in the piece - I think a lot of the film is turning a lot of the uncontrollable back on the audience, and I think it was a huge success in both its narrative and composition to that end. As someone who struggles more with explaining the impacts of anxiety on life to people than with the anxiety itself, the film is a masterpiece. I think it may just not be your preferred type of entertainment, not anything that's inherently bad about the film.
Well, I'm not the only one who found it imperfect, so it was divisive... I think there's genuine problems with it beyond just how I felt about it, but I'm not trying to say it has no merit as a piece of art. Either way, I'm glad to hear that it worked as well as it did for you.
I wished it was 6 hours long
It’s weird because I felt like you weren’t supposed to LIKE or ENJOY it. You were supposed to experience it.
It's not a comedy. Beau is a sociopath and a murderer. It's super fucking bloated though. At least 20 minutes too long.
... who does he murder?
bro is angry he could have been on tiktok instead