Review of Beau Is Afraid (2023) by Liusy — 22 Apr 2023

While it's runtime and some sequences are unnecessarily long, Beau Is Afraid is a weirdly wonderful movie that's hard to categorize. Definitely don't watch it expecting a horror movie like Ari Aster's previous 2 movies.

I wouldn't call it a horror movie, but it incorporates elements or horror and has some parts that might make you squirm. It's more of a absurdist black comedy adventure movie. It's unclear whether what's happening is our world warped by Beau's fearful worldview, or some alternate universe where almost everyone is horrific, but the world shown is clearly very hostile and confusing for Beau.

The movie does a good job of portraying this in an over the top way, from the streets full of people casually murdering and stabbing others, to the characters who actively try to set up and break Beau.

Beau is meek and mild mannered to an absurd degree, yet people are literally out to get him at every turn. My favorite part of the movie is how the audience is able to both sympathize with Beau and laugh at the misfortune that befalls him.

Beau is afraid of almost everything and everyone, and his worst fears get exaggerated tenfold and end up being reality. You genuinely feel bad for him and want things to get better for him, but the absurdity of what's happening makes you laugh too.

It makes the ending that much more jarring. Some parts, namely the play sequence, definitely went on for too long, and I could tell the audience tuned out a bit there. While it's beautifully animated, its purpose wasn't clear to me and it didn't need to go on for as long as it did.

Some elements didn't make much sense to me, like the giant penis monster (can't believe I wrote that), and the ending felt abrupt. In all honesty, if it weren't for how much I liked Beau's character and how much I enjoyed the exploration of guilt and anxiety, I probably would've rated this a 6 or 5.

This is a very weird movie and many people will dislike or even hate it for valid reasons.