Beau Is Afraid

Not Ari Aster's strongest compared to his two masterpieces of the horror genre before, however it is definitely worth a look. It's confusing and unrelenting nightmare structure, as well as the message of trauma being brought down from family (similar to Aster's first work "Hereditary") of the movie gives Beau Is Afraid my respect.

Garbage. Interesting idea in the beginning, but it proceeds to go nowhere for 3 hours. New worst movie for me, previously was Amsterdam. Save your time.

It is an overlong movie. Great cinematography but erratic plot lines. It seems the writer/director Ari Aster was more enamored with the vision of specific scenes than the writing and editing. The result is a repetitive and disjointed trip to nowhere.

Based on these reviews I think Beau is afraid seems to be for an audience who understands Beaus own personal purgatory. In my interpretation that is what this is. If your soul is just your consciousness and purgatory is a place that consciousness goes, that's where Beau is. He is being judged on this other plane of existence by himself, with an extremely damaged tool, his mind, built around a narcissistic, psychopathic, machiavellian Mother. The Dream like essence of the movie is explained in this way, it's his mind replaying events that really happened in his life, dramatized by the effect remembering the most difficult parts of our lives has on that retelling. The play scene is a representation of his idealistic concepts of Male virtue that we as a society have built for him, the part that wasn't poisoned by his Mother. The ridiculous "creature" in the attic of his consciousness animated his ideas of his own masculinity and his relationship to himself being a man. The ending was the judgement of himself vs. himself, how I see purgatory is a place where we punish ourselves with our own memories and pain for near eternity. After the trial, he loses, once again, to the way his own Mother has painted him into a box. And once again we the viewer stand up in the audience uninterested in helping him, maybe incapable. As he drowns in his own self image. He will remain there for eons and most will feel unsympathetic to his inability to help himself. Not brave in the way we expect him to be, because Beau is Afraid.

this entire thing is a giant fever dream - i still don't know if any of it actually happened, lol. i think if you're a fan of the surreal & the bizarre, i think you'll love it, but if you aren't you'll hate it. sometimes these types of films come across as pretentious, but i actually quite liked this one - i bet if i watched it again i would appreciate it even more.

A bizarre movie that gradually becomes more bizarre until it climaxes with a bizarre ending. It is unapologetically atypical.

This film is a long, weird mind-altering experience packed with twists that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a wonderful performance; it truly feels like a never-ending nightmare. Ari Aster does not disappoint.

I won't waste your time dragging out this review like this movie did. Utter crap. I could see critics liking it. It's all theme and extremely bizarre tone over character arc and plot; the type of movie that critics like because it's original (it's only slightly redeeming quality) and pretends to be saying something important, but the audiences usually want something that is engaging and makes sense. I'm very surprised it's rated this well by audiences. After 3 hours of nonsense of course it also has a terrible ending. The type that makes you think, so what? Nothing wrapped up, no reveal, no arc. It wasn't confusing at all; it was an extremely simple plot, it was only confusing in that I was thinking, who thought it was a good idea to make this movie, and how the hell do so many people like it?

Nothing to see there, a 'David Lynch' wannabe but fail dramatically.

I have never been so disappointed to see such a bad reaction to a film. "I loved it!" Doesn't even come close to the feeling I have after just finishing. Was it long? Yes. Was it crazy? Absolutely! But how on earth could these be considered bad things? This movie was so full, from beautiful shots, to shocking moments that make you giggle uncomfortably and we'll timed comedy that takes the edge off, all the way to unexpected tender moments that felt like another story entirely. Each part of the movie feels like a different world, all centering around the phenomenal acting in the titular character Beau. I don't tend to like Joaquin Phoenix, and a number of the other names in this movie. Here, under Ari Aster's expert direction I barely could even tell who the actors were, nevermind pull myself away from the iron grip of fantastic storytelling to bother feeling anything but enjoying the rollercoaster this film was. It was brave, bold, beautiful and compelling. It's been quite some time since a movie has given me so much to think about. From beginning to end it was like a classic fairy tale wrapped in a tortilla of metaphor, with sprinklings of hot modern comedy and raunchy fun. I don't think I've ever been so thoroughly entertained by a movie this long since Alien! Beau is Afraid deserves more love, people!