Beau is Afraid

Directed by Ari Aster, Beau is Afraid follows Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau Wassermann as he embarks on an off-the-wall odyssey to his family home after his mother is suddenly (and violently) killed. It’s immediately clear that Aster, armed with his own screenplay, isn’t looking to deliver a standard, run-of-the-mill road movie, as Beau is Afraid boasts a perpetually (and aggressively) surreal atmosphere that’s reflected in its myriad of attributes – with the pervasively nightmarish (and completely alien) landscape in which the narrative unfolds certainly ranking high on the picture list of oddball elements. And while Aster admittedly does an effective job of infusing large swaths of Beau is Afraid with an unsettling, anxiety-inducing feel and enhancing the off-kilter vibe by offering up several electrifying sequences, including (and especially) a riveting interlude detailing Beau’s phone call with the delivery driver who found his mom’s body, Beau is Afraid progresses into a meandering, hit-and-miss midsection that’s often as tiresome as it is intriguing – with Aster’s continuing emphasis on digressions of a decidedly idiosyncratic bent lending the proceedings a rough-cut vibe that grows more and more problematic (ie there are just so many scenes that go on and on and on). By the time the thoroughly larger-than-life (and predictably head-scratching) final stretch rolls around, Beau is Afraid has cemented its place as a well-made yet increasingly uninvolving art-house misfire that might’ve worked at roughly half the lenth (ie an endeavor this bonkers has no business running a full three hours).

** out of ****