“If you ever stop experimenting with the form, then where are you, right?”
IF YOU READ ANY OF the reviews of Ari Aster’s third feature Beau Is Afraid, you’ll likely encounter the word “departure”. In Hereditary and Midsommar, Aster gave us a pair of instant-classic horror movies; Beau is a three-hour comedy (of sorts) which its writer/director has flippantly referred to as “a Jewish Lord Of The Rings”.
But is it really such a hairpin turn? Like his first two films, is obsesseda man so crippled by anxiety, he struggles to leave the house – must travel cross-country to the funeral of his mum (Patti LuPone), the woman largely responsible for his splintered psyche. And while it’s certainly Aster’s funniest film, it’s also, arguably, his most discomfiting.
