What is “Beau Is Afraid,” exactly, you ask? Well, it’s the new film from indie horror auteur Ari Aster, known for the big A24 hits “Midsommar” and “Hereditary,” and it stars Joaquin Phoenix. But is it a horror film? Because until now, the first trailer, most of “Beau’s Is Afraid,” was mainly under wraps.
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The answer is… maybe a little bit? Aster previously described the film as a four-hour “nightmare comedy,” and that looks and sounds about right. Still, it doesn’t explain the complete picture of a movie that looks surreal, sinister, super ambitious, and out there, maybe like Aster’s version of Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York,” with more color, less dour elements, but still just as existential and deeply weird.
Once titled “Disappointment Boulevard,” While the current run time is unknown, editing down the film to shape was rumored to be one of the reasons the film was delayed last year as it was expected to hit the fall film festival circuit. One of the early loglines for the film was that it was” a decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” And while that’s somewhat unclear from the trailer, with four different Joaquin Phoenix’s in the trailer and the recent poster—ranging from the ages of childhood, early adulthood, middle age, and ancient—this is a film that indeed spans eras and a lifespan.
Here’s the very pithy synopsis:
A paranoid man embarks on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother in this bold and ingeniously depraved new film from writer/director Ari Aster.
On top of Joaquin Phoenix as the lead, “Beau Is Afraid” stars Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Stephen Mckinley Henderson, Hayler Squires, Denis Ménochet, Kylie Rogers, Armen Nahapetian, with Parker Posey, and Pattie Lupone. Is it based on Aster’s 2011 short film, “Beau”? If you read the original synopsis and how it’s about a strange trip to visit a man’s neurotic mother that goes horribly wrong, the answer definitely seems like a yes.
Regardless, “Beau Is Afraid” is set to land in theaters on April 21 via A24, which means no Cannes Film Festival debut. Its only major festival options would be a Sundance surprise, Berlin, or SXSW unless the studio is brave enough to forsake these routes entirely. We shall see. In the meantime, get your hair blown back by the new “Beau Is Not Afraid” trailer.