BEAU IS AFRAID (2023) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Ari Aster
Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuP0ne, Amy Ryan,
Nathan Lane, Parker Posey, Kylie Rogers,
Bill Hader, Stephen McKinley Henderson
Beau is also deeply fucked-up and racked with a truckload of crippling guilt. Beau is in a nightmare he can't escape, because the nightmare is his life. Beau is played by Joaquin Phoenix in an ambitious, surreal psychodrama that might be more compelling if it had a running time shorter than 179 minutes. The pure nightmare stuff is the best. (The first couple of reels are truly frightening.) It loses something the more it tries to explain itself. And then there's Beau's mother. And the monster in the attic. (Don't ask.) Psych majors will want to take a look.
