‘Beau Is Afraid’ explained: A disturbingly in-depth analysis of Ari Aster’s guilt trip to hell
If you’ve just watched Ari Aster’s new horror-comedy “Beau Is Afraid,” you probably have a few questions. Or maybe a lot of questions. Like, what was that?
As with his previous films, 2018’s “Hereditary” and 2019’s “Midsommar,” Aster packs a lot into his surreal, alternately funny and nightmarish three-hour head trip through the mind of a middle-aged man named Beau (Joaquin Phoenix), whose attempt to return home to visit his mother turns into a hellish odyssey of anxiety, guilt and shame. But he would rather not do the unpacking for you. “I made something for an audience and I hope that it is exciting and fun and makes people feel things,” Aster said in a recent interview with the Associated Press. “I just cannot speak to what those things are, and shouldn’t.”
Aster’s full intentions with “Beau Is Afraid” are known only to him — and maybe his mother and therapist. But we have each seen the film twice in an effort to crack its code, and we have some thoughts. (Needless to say, major spoilers ahead.)
Toward a unified theory of ‘Beau’
Matt Brennan: As I watched “Beau Is Afraid” for the second time this week, armed with a notebook and our mission to “explain” Aster’s (guilt) trip to hell, I began to formulate something I couldn’t on the first watch, mesmerized/bored as I was with our protagonist’s meandering homeward journey: a unified theory of “Beau.” Well, two of them.
Theory 1: Mona Wasserman is behind it all (and not just faking her own death)
Beau’s mother (Patti LuPone), as chief executive and namesake of the ubiquitous MW Industries, certainly has the resources — and the marrow-deep bitterness — to pull off such a feat. MW, which appears to be a cross between Pfizer (pharmaceuticals) and Proctor & Gamble (personal care and hygiene), appears on billboards, posters, appliances, frozen food boxes and beyond. This is one powerful corporation, and one powerful woman. What Mona wants, Mona gets.
Indeed, she so convincingly fakes her own death that Beau finds published obituaries online, in addition to an “MW Digital”-watermarked news clip reporting
