Joaquin Phoenix’s new dark comedy is a long, strange trip about mothers and the kids who disappoint them.
For writer-director Ari Aster, the biggest compliment from people who see “Beau” is that they feel inspired to text their parents afterward out of pure panic.
“I’ve heard a couple times that it’s activated a lot of guilt in people,” Aster says. “I think that’s great.”
Ari Aster wanted to make himself laugh with the bleak ‘Beau Is Afraid’
“Beau” follows a timid middle-aged man (Phoenix) who suffers from extreme anxiety and rarely leaves his dilapidated, crime-riddled apartment building.
But when he learns his mom (Patti LuPone) was involved in a tragic chandelier accident, Beau warily ventures out to go see her.
On his odyssey, he encounters bizarre obstacles such as a hippie theater troupe, a sinister suburban family, and at one point, a giant penis monster.
Aster wrote a version of the script roughly 12 years ago but didn’t have the finances to make it at the time.
After the success of his horror movies Hereditary (2018) and “Midsommar” (2019), he decided to revisit the story, which finds humor in its increasing absurdity.
“This character came from my guts,” Aster says. “Really, I was just trying to make myself laugh. I wanted to make something funny and sad.”
