Beau Is Afraid

 

Beau Is Afraid 2023

• Director: Ari Aster
• Seen by this director: Midsommar, Hereditary
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, Kylie Rogers, Armen Nahapatian, Stephen McKinley Henderson
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in
• Joaquin Phoenix – Many
• Patti LuPone – Last Christmas, Union Square, Driving Miss Daisy, Witness
• Amy Ryan – The Wire, Birdman, Dan in Real Life, Gone Baby Gone, War of the Worlds, You Can Count on Me, I’ll Fly Away
• Nathan Lane – Swing Vote, Absolutely Fabulous, Love’s Labour’s Lost, The Birdcage, Frankie & Johnny, Ironweed
• Kylie Rogers – Skin
• Stephen McKinley Henderson - Dune, Lady Bird, Fences, Manchester by the Sea, Lincoln, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Why? Joaquin Phoenix
• Seen: 18 September 2024 

Beau (Phoenix) is a slightly overweight middle-aged man with serious phobias, anxieties and paralysing mum issues. In an attempt to visit her (LuPone) on the anniversary of his dad’s death everything in the cosmos conspires against him. Stolen keys. Blocked pay cards. Dead bodies. Poisonous spiders. Flooding bathtubs.

And it gets worse. And worse.

It’s absurd to the point of ludicrous, nightmarish but funny as nightmares can be. If it’s a film.

Poor Beau. Phoenix is phenomenal.

I’ve maybe seen weirder films but not recently. No doubt when I saw Midsummer by the same director. 

4* of 5