‘Beau Is Afraid’ is a Nightmarish Adventure into the Subconscious
It almost worked for me, but not quite.
We just wrapped up A24 August on the Movies & Us Podcast. We spent the month of August reviewing some of A24’s films that have been on our watchlist for a while.
Beau Is Afraid had been high on my list for some time, so I was thrilled that we ended our month-long exploration of A24 with this film. What could Ari Aster have for us in his latest feature film?! I didn’t quite know what to expect, but I was certain it would be a doozy.
And indeed it was. This one is a doozy, and I absolutely applaud and respect the way Beau Is Afraid absolutely swings for the fences. It is unhinged in all of the best ways. And yet, I didn’t adore this film the way I wanted to.
I have some theories on why this might be and have reflected on some of the components of this film that could have made it more of a slam dunk in my book. Let’s explore some of those further.
Note: spoilers for Beau Is Afraid ahead.
Tighter and Punchier
Beau Is Afraid is nearly 3 hours long. And my two cents is that it didn’t need to be.
I believe this would have been a more effective film if it were 2 hours. There are many sequences in this film, particularly the scenes at Grace (Amy Ryan) and Roger’s (Nathan Lane) home and in Beau’s mother’s (Patti LuPone) home that really seem to drag. The point has been made, the themes are clear, and the metaphors are no longer layering upon themselves in interesting and fascinating new ways.
The sprawl of these sequences makes the film lose momentum. And the impact of this is made more severe when the subject matter is so intense, such as a man’s nightmarish trauma.
When the subject matter is so visually and emotionally jarring, the lack of punchiness in these scenes actually curbs the film’s visceral power. The shock value and the ignition of an emotional response in me as the viewer is stale, and the net effect is that these scenes feel emotionally exhausting instead of emotionally invigorating.
Tightening up these sequences and trimming the excess would have helped maintain the film’s forward momentum and also given me the continued stamina to endure through Beau’s (Joaquin Phoenix) traumatic 2-hour escapades.
The Framing Device
I interpreted Beau Is Afraid as the descent into Beau’s subconscious, arising out of his fears, anxieties, and past traumas, in the form of a nightmare that he truly can’t wake up from. While this was my chosen interpretation of this film’s wild series of events, I desired slightly more contextual framing.
In the first third of the film, during the section where we spend most of our time with Beau in his urban apartment, it was thrilling for me to wonder, “Is this really happening? Or is Beau imagining these things? Are we in his subconscious? Or is he just an utterly unreliable narrator?”
These questions are fun in the early sections of the film, but by the second half of the film, these questions become frustrating and distracting. I had to make a choice to let myself go and give in to the interpretation that this must be a nightmare in an entirely dream-like sequence where the rules of the real world no longer apply.
Only when I let go of the fundamental questions about what I was seeing onscreen did this film become more meaningful to me. Every wild and whacky visual onscreen became a visual representation or metaphor for Beau’s trauma, and my mind was able to wander to more exciting places. This is actually where the film shines most, the visual portrayals of these raw experiences that humans face: anxiety, embarrassment, fear, existentialism, shame, trauma, and a whole slew of more difficult and vulnerable emotions that the film explores.
But I wish I could have hopped on this train sooner. With a slightly more intentional framing of this film, I believe that I could have given myself over to this film sooner, and my experience of this film’s kaleidoscope of underlying meaning and metaphor would have been far richer for me.
Overall, I have a lot of respect for what Beau Is Afraid accomplishes. I have a feeling that this film will grow with me over time. My critiques of this film are based upon the fact that this film was a meaningful experience for me, and these areas that I’ve highlighted would have simply made this film-going experience even more fulfilling for me as a viewer.
This is an absolutely bonkers film, but it’s one that I haven’t stopped thinking about since seeing it for the first time. It almost works for me, but there are just some key choices that would have made the difference between it being a good hit and a complete home run.
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