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Following his breakout hits Hereditary and Midsommar, writer-director Ari Aster is back with a new movie, Beau Is Afraid, which releases this month and stars Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix. Reviews for the film have begun to appear online. We’re rounding up review scores and excerpts here to help you determine for yourself if the film is worth spending your time and money on.
The “Jewish Lord of the Rings” movie stars Phoenix as Beau, a man living in a “nightmarish apartment” who is motivated to get out after he learns that his distant mother has been “crushed by a chandelier.” The story involves Beau’s wild journey to his mom’s house, and the trailers have suggested it will be a surrealist nightmare.
In addition to Phoenix, Beau is Afraid features Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Patti LuPone, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Richard Kind, and Parker Posey. You can see the latest trailer below along with a roundup of review scores. For more on the critical reaction to Beau Is Afraid, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic and more scores on Rotten Tomatoes.
Beau Is Afraid
Directed by: Ari AsterWritten by: Ari AsterStarring: Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Richard Kind, Patti LuPoneRuntime: 179 minutesRating: RRelease Date: April 21 (in theaters only)
IGN — 9/10
“A surreal three-hour dive into writer/director Ari Aster’s anxieties, Beau Is Afraid is a deeply personal horror-comedy at a wildly ambitious scale.” — Siddhant Adlakha [Full review]
The Verge — No Score
“Beau Is Afraid is so distinct from Aster’s other films and ends on such a bewildering note that it’s more than likely to throw quite a few people for loops they aren’t expecting. But even as it’s spiraling in its final moments, and raising more questions than it ever feels interested in answering, there’s a mesmerizing, captivating quality to it all that makes it hard not to get drawn into the strangeness of Aster’s vision.” — Charles Pulliam-Moore [Full review]
Variety — No Score
“With its indulgent three-hour running time and telling no-festival release strategy, the A24 darling’s latest reflects what happens when a technically gifted artist is given too much creative freedom.” — Peter Debruge [Full review]
The Hollywood Reporter — No Score
“It’s Phoenix who keeps you glued even through the film’s sometimes challenging longueurs, in a performance as fully, insanely committed as any he’s ever given. If the character invites more cringing pity than emotional investment, that’s more to do with the distancing effect of Aster’s surreal approach than anything lacking in Phoenix’s raw, gaping wound of a characterization. If you have mother issues, watching Beau’s Homeric humiliation will trigger them.” — David Rooney [Full review]
The Guardian — 2/5
“This three-plus-hour tale of Oedipal misery sees Phoenix on uncharacteristically boring form and ultimately collapses into silliness.” — Peter Bradshaw [Full review]
The Film Stage — D
“No doubt Aster;s latest will, like his last two, be divisive amongst audiences. Yet Beau Is Afraid proves its director much crueler than tasteless decapitations or bodies exploding against rocks: his latest exercise is a devotional study of love’s punishing tenure.” — Fran Hoepfner [Full review]
