Ari Aster’s Absurd, Batty ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Is Wackadoodle Tedium

Ari Aster’s Absurd, Batty ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Is Wackadoodle Tedium

By Lynn Venhaus

“Beau Is Afraid” is an unwatchable exercise in excess.

This absurdist black comedy-drama-horror about an anxiety-riddled man-child going through personal crises makes a mockery of the real psychological issues on display, Why is any of this funny when it should be a tragedy?

Writer-director Ari Aster has created a self-indulgent, meandering narrative that straddles reality and fantasy in a very bizarre way, designed to shock like his other works – “Midsommar” and “Hereditary.” These two polarizing films were disturbing with extreme horrific violence.

The rambling story follows the sudden death of Beau’s mother, which sets off a chain of events, as he embarks on a Kafkaesque odyssey back home that manifests his darkest fears. It appears to be a sequence of nightmares strung together in such an incoherent fever-dream way that the film becomes unbearable during its ridiculous 2 hours, 59 minutes runtime. It is no clearer at the end than it was in the beginning.

Joaquin Phoenix is hardly at his best in this ill-suited role as the arrested development afraid-of -his-own-shadow recluse, Beau, who is in serious mental distress and is either in a catatonic stupor or having major panic attacks and meltdowns in public places.

And neither are the actors playing the peculiar-agenda grown-ups – the normally dandy Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan as affluent strangers who rescue him during an assault, and their chic home is where he recuperates in a captive-like situation. Their Good Samaritan effort seems tinged with menace, but they are no Annie Wilken in “Misery.” However, their Fun House is anything but, particularly with their deranged daughter Toni (Kylie Rogers) and a soldier suffering from PTSD, Jeeves (Denis Pinochet).

Not unlike Lewis Carroll’s whacked-out writing in “Alice in Wonderland,” Aster strings us along with poorly drawn characters attempting to make sense of a script that has no point except to be weird for weirds sake.

However, Armen Nahapetian is fine as the sad and confused teenage Beau, who is schooled about life by a forward girl, Elaine, during a summer vacation – and so is Julia Antonelli as Beau’s first crush. As his young over-sharing histrionic control freak mother, Zoe Lister-Jones is Mona then. Patty LuPone is his monstrous, neurotic mother later in life.

In minor roles are Bill Hader as a UPS guy, Parker Posey as Elaine Bray, who works for his mom, Stephen McKinley Henderson as a therapist, and Richard Kind as a doctor.

The random bursts of violence are upsetting and the shouting, screaming and the maniacal behavior unsettling. Imagined demons roam, Beau is either terrified or trembling, and the paranoia is rampant.

We’ve seen a wide array of movies where people spiral out of control because of their less-then-normal upbringing or society’s pressures, but this scenario is not cohesive in the least and mostly incoherent.

In Aster’s world, rules of form, function and ordinary behavior are thrown out the window in favor of a provocateur making a meal out of what’s in the fridge. This is jump-out-of-the-closet scares and off-the-charts anxiety that can actually trigger viewers.

This is someone’s therapy session that we should not be eavesdropping on, and all the mommy and daddy issues raised won’t be solved any time soon. Why should anyone care about these people?

“Beau Is Afraid” is a 2023 comedy-drama-horror film written and directed by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Nathan Lane, Amy Ryan, Parker Posey, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Kylie Rogers, and Patti LuPone. It is rated R for strong violent content, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and language. Its runtime is 2 hours, 59 minutes. It opened in theatres on April 21, is available video on demand and DVD, and began streaming Dec 1 on Showtime/Paramount+. Lynn’s grade: F.

Nicolas Cage Is In Top Form in ‘Dream Scenario’ – a Dark, Intriguing Satire

Nicolas Cage Is In Top Form in ‘Dream Scenario’ – a Dark, Intriguing Satire

By Alex McPherson

A creative, darkly comic story of self-destructive ego and fame’s dehumanizing effects, director Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario” is never less than engaging — with an outstanding Nicolas Cage performance — but can’t meld its timely ideas into a fully cohesive whole.

Borgli’s film follows Paul Matthews (Cage), a tenured university professor teaching evolutionary biology to disinterested students — he’s unfulfilled professionally and seeking recognition in his field. Paul wants to publish a book on his research and fumes that a former colleague (that he hasn’t seen in 30 years) beats him to the punch, allegedly stealing his theory of “Ant-elligence” for her own writing venture. It’s a critical blow to his ego.

At home, Paul has a loving wife, Janet (Julianne Nicholson), and two daughters, Sophie (Lily Bird) and Hannah (Jessica Clement). By most accounts, Paul has a pretty privileged life, but he seeks more — quietly experiencing a midlife crisis within his self-loathing headspace. His seemingly simple yearnings belie a misguided sense of entitlement and ungratefulness.

Out of the blue, Paul appears in Sophie’s dream: he casually observes as random objects crash onto their outdoor patio and Sophie is lifted into the sky, making no effort to rescue her. Randomly, old connections, students, and, eventually, people all over the country he’s never met start seeing Paul in their dreams as well. Just like with Sophie, Paul awkwardly (and humorously) observes in the background as the dreamer experiences some dramatic event — such as crocodile infestation, tooth extraction, or a not-so-friendly neighborhood demon.

Paul is initially thrilled by the attention, albeit disappointed at his “inadequacy” within the situations themselves. He’s on the news, students line up to take selfies with him, and his family sees him in a new light. Janet, especially, sees glimmers of the confident man she fell in love with, yet grows increasingly jealous, since Paul doesn’t appear in her own dreams.

Paul is even contacted by a PR group (called “Thoughts?”), led by Trent (Michael Cera), who wants Paul to sponsor big brands so he can “dreamfluence” people in their slumber. At the end of the day, all Paul wants to do is get a book published on his scholarship, which he hasn’t actually started writing yet, and maybe get invited to dinner by a wealthy colleague.

Before long, Paul’s narcissism grows. His dream-world persona suddenly takes on a more nefarious role in peoples’ sleep states; he’s now a monster haunting with gleefully violent abandon. Thus begins Paul’s descent into the throes of Cancel Culture, digging his own grave as society ostracizes him — initially for forces beyond his control — reckoning with celebrity and his own self-absorption as his previously stable lifestyle falls apart.

Indeed, “Dream Scenario” certainly has a lot on its mind. Although the film doesn’t hit bullseyes on all its targets, Borgli crafts a trenchant commentary on society’s mindlessness — oscillating between hilarity, horror, and pathos that keeps viewers on their toes. And there’s no more fitting person than Cage to lead the way, in a role that gives him space to showcase his considerable range as a performer.

Cage — himself a celebrity who’s been “memeified” by the masses as an over-the-top cartoon character — lends both humanity and zaniness to his portrayal. He renders Paul (balding, with a nasally whine of a voice) a character that’s easy to poke fun at, but also to empathize with. Cage successfully portrays Paul as an irritating, sympathetic, fragile person, going effectively bonkers in the frightening and at-times shockingly violent nightmares. Whether unhinged or grounded, Cage clearly relishes the role as an opportunity to reject being pigeonholed into one acting style. Borgli, too, refuses to paint Paul in black-and-white absolutes.

Borgli’s screenplay encourages viewers not to root for or against Paul as the collateral damage piles up. Nor does Borgli vilify the masses who launch Paul into stardom and, subsequently, the cultural garbage bin. Rather, “Dream Scenario” depicts a world that abuses the idea of celebrity, simultaneously punishing Paul’s dependence on being seen and admired without taking responsibility for his own happiness. 

It’s also quite funny, containing one of the best cinematic farts to ever grace the silver screen. This tonal imbalance can be distracting, for sure, though maybe that’s the point, reflecting Paul’s separation from his modest beginnings. Paul’s world is crumbling before his eyes — the public plays satirical whack-a-mole with his feelings. This brings comedy and tragedy to the table, making laughs catch in viewers’ throats.

Additionally, by matter-of-factly depicting the film’s nightmare sequences, “Dream Scenario” dares viewers to separate the monstrous incarnation of Paul from his true self. As viewers weave in and out of “lived experience” (jumping into victims’ dreams, which cinematographer Benjamin Loeb frames as slightly-heightened reality), perhaps, the film says, we cannot. 

Overall, “Dream Scenario” reveals itself as an absurdist take on human folly that shares similarities with director Ari Aster’s  “Beau is Afraid” in manifesting its protagonist’s worst fears (Aster’s a producer on “Dream Scenario”) and punishing them for their cowardice and lack of accountability. 

The film’s fatalism, however, is a double-edged sword. Borgli sends Paul down a path with no easy exit or opportunities for redemption (throwing in on-the-nose cultural references meant to provoke). To its credit, what plays out seems plausibly true-to-life in terms of Paul’s reactions and how society treats him. This predictability also breeds hopelessness and lack of resolution, becoming less involving due to its inevitabilities. Once Paul’s life has been suitably demolished, the film seems unsure what to do with him — reflecting Paul’s own sad aimlessness, yet remaining incomplete as a story. 

Besides Paul, supporting characters of varying complexity are brought to life by an ensemble committed to the craziness. Nicholson brings warmth, sass, and heartbreak to her role as Janet, dealing first-hand with the fallout of Paul’s declining mental state and selfishness. Cera is excellent at delivering his dryly comedic dialogue, as are Kate Berlant and an uncomfortably hilarious Dylan Gelula as his associates. Tim Meadows steals scenes as Paul’s department head reconciling his friendship with Paul with the pariah he becomes.

Altogether, “Dream Scenario” is a bizarre, unconventionally compelling watch — calling out people like Paul and our social-media-obsessed, consumerist society at large — content to unsettle and leave threads dangling. Third-act clunkiness notwithstanding, it’s a one-of-a-kind work difficult to forget.

“Dream Scenario” is a 2023 comedy written, directed and edited by Kristoffer Borgli and starring Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Tim Meadows, Michael Cera and Dylan Gelula. It is Rated R for language, violence and some sexual content. and its run time is1 hour, 43 minutes. It opens in theatres Dec. 1.Alex’s Grade: B+.

‘Beau Is Afraid’ Is Challenging, Vicious Swing for the Fences

‘Beau Is Afraid’ Is Challenging, Vicious Swing for the Fences

By Alex McPherson

An imaginatively sadistic plunge into a tortured psyche, Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” is a grueling watch, but one that’ll wind up impossible to forget, for better and worse.

The film unfolds through the eyes of Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix), a middle-aged man-child with near-paralyzing guilt and anxiety stemming from Mommy Issues. He lives in a run-down apartment within a city overrun with crime and squalor. Onlookers livestream a suicide attempt; a dead body is left in the street for days on end; a psycho known as “Birthday Boy Stab Man” lives up to his namesake; lewd graffiti adorns any available wall; Beau’s elevator practically catches fire anytime it’s used; a Brown Recluse spider roams inside Beau’s apartment building (the list goes on and on… and on, reveling in bad taste and reactionary fears). It’s an urban hellscape straight out of a conservative’s nightmares. And oh, that naked man gouging someone’s eyes out across the street? He’ll come for you next, especially if you’re unlucky enough to be Beau.

Portrayed with sadness and numbed passivity by Phoenix, who looks beaten down by the “reality” that surrounds him, Beau is supposed to visit his business-titan mother, Mona (played in the present-day by Patti LuPone and by Zoe Lister-Jones in flashbacks), on the anniversary of his father’s death. It’s clear, however, that there’s tension between them, driven home by Mona’s palpable passive-aggressiveness to Beau’s timidity on the phone. After posing the question of whether Beau ever feels the urge to kill his mother, Beau’s therapist (Stephen McKinley Henderson), prescribes Beau a “cool new drug” to calm his nerves — stating that it must be taken with water, or else.

Through a Rube-Goldbergian chain of events involving sudden tragedy, lost house keys, and plenty of bloodshed, a butt-naked Beau is hit by a car driven by suburban couple Grace (Amy Ryan) and Roger (a hilarious Nathan Lane), who care a bit too much and nurse him back to health in their daughter’s bedroom, much to the daughter’s chagrin. Nothing’s ever easy for poor Beau, and proceedings only get crazier from there. Pressure mounts for Beau to return to Mona as soon as possible, or, at least, for him to “grow up” in a world that aggressively resents his existence, all while we viewers watch him suffer for our entertainment.

Indeed, Aster’s latest passion project is a nerve-wracking, visually inventive, and strangely repetitive piece of work. It’s full of his usual flair for the grotesque presented in vivid detail, but self-indulgent to a fault, as seeing the world through the eyes of a person so profoundly unstable for three hours becomes an endurance test. 

“Beau Is Afraid” isn’t a “horror” film likes Aster’s previous efforts (including “Hereditary” and the masterful “Midsommar”), but there’s plenty of nightmare fuel on display, dressing up its shocking sights and sounds as pitch-black comedy where the ultimate punchline is the loss of hope. We’re all just passive observers, watching Beau undergo numerous trials as an inverted hero’s journey where his trauma is an all-encompassing prison that informs his every waking moment. 

And whew boy, does “Beau Is Afraid” lean into trippiness. Like his other films, Aster takes full advantage of the medium’s stylistic possibilities to make “Beau Is Afraid” a disorienting experience. Scenes progress with a twisted dream logic. A turn of the head can launch Beau into a different time and place, and heinous acts of callousness take place in the background, treated with the absolute driest of deadpan humor. An encounter with a wandering theater troupe seemingly predicts Beau’s possible future, transitioning the film into an extended animated segment straight out of a messed-up storybook, and specific childhood memories come crashing into the present at random intervals — intrusive thoughts that Beau’s mind is trying to make sense of, to no avail.

Pawel Pogorzelski’s cinematography frames the absurdity with unflinching precision, using long takes that let the craziness simmer, if not be processed in a timely manner. The film’s sound design is also outstanding, amplifying sources of Beau’s fear and occasionally rendering voices like hissing daggers piercing sides of the screen.

Whether or not the film’s satirical, phantasmagorical imagery is taking place in the “real world” or not isn’t the point — “Beau Is Afraid” is uncompromisingly framed through Beau’s eyes, as we witness his every fear and anxious thought manifested in his moment-to-moment experiences; informed by a narcissistic parent whose overprotectiveness and blatant manipulation has left him being a vulnerable punching-bag in a world rife with cruelty, both at micro and macro scales.

So, yes, “Beau Is Afraid” is worth watching in a theater if possible. Story-wise, though, it’s a more complicated beast, largely boiling down to Beau’s lack of agency and Aster’s refusal to provide catharsis. Phoenix is typically great in the role, but Beau isn’t the sort of individual who undergoes much of a traditional arc during the runtime, which makes his terror-stricken reactions and fever-pitched paranoia redundant after a while. We want him to change, to stand up for himself, but “Beau Is Afraid” doesn’t care, and as much as the film engages stylistically, it ends up bloated and unwieldy. This is especially true of the third act, which piles on reveals and even more ghoulishness that, by that point, doesn’t hit with much force thanks to the relentless, numbing happenings preceding them. 

Perhaps Aster’s making the point that Beau’s trauma is inescapable — turning the camera back at us to point out how we’re indulging in his travails; the screen on which we view the film itself reflects Beau’s lack of freedom from his mother. There’s no solace or comfort in Beau’s reality, and, in a sense, within Aster’s film overall. 

“Beau Is Afraid” is a difficult film to grade as a result — the tedium is intentional, driving its points home with oppressive force and leaving plenty of doors open to additional interpretation (such as the power corporations have over daily life). It’s just that in the process of conveying these themes, Aster tells a bitterly cynical yarn that leans into mercilessness and fatalism over telling a satisfying, compelling narrative in itself. Three hours is too long for such an ordeal, and “Beau Is Afraid” forgets to put as much care into its characters as the funhouse of chaos it puts them in.

All of this combines to make “Beau is Afraid” Aster’s weakest film to date. Regardless, you’ve never seen anything truly like it before: a gargantuan swing for the fences that should be commended for its confidence and bravado alone.

“Beau Is Afraid” is a 2023 horror comedy directed by Ari Aster and starring Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Zoe Lister-Jones, Amy Ryan, Nathan Lane, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. It is rated R for strong violent content, sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use, and language, and the runtime is 179 minutes. It opened in theaters April 21. Alex’s Grade: B.