Following the sudden death of his mother, a mild-mannered but anxiety-ridden man confronts his darkest fears as he embarks on an epic, Kafkaesque odyssey back home.
Beau Is Afraid - FILM REVIEW
Nick Allen, rogerebert.com
"The film includes many surprising performances that blossom in the movie’s off-kilter environs, from the likes of Parker Posey, Denis Ménochet, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. But the most important figure in “Beau Is Afraid” is Aster, who is openly wrestling with his work here. No rule says one needs a certain amount of features before reckoning with their authorship. “Beau Is Afraid” is, appropriately, like a fever dream through the museum of Aster's previous creations and fascinations—it’s not just the 2011 original short film “Beau,” but the premise of his short “Munchausen,” the hellish city landscape of “C’est la Vie” (starring Bradley Fisher, the man playing the role here of “Birthday Boy Stab Man”) and Aster’s fixation with head trauma, communes, etc. Part of the movie becomes like a retread of what built “Hereditary,” which is rendered all the more intensely personal by this film’s jarring use of first-person point-of-view shots (a terrified boy nodding to his mother) and its bookending scenes." For the full review CLICK HERE.
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