Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Beau Is Afraid Blu-ray Movie Review

Is there a Dr. Freud in the house?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 17, 2023

Those of us who work in some form or fashion of film related journalism are used to receiving all sorts of PR blather and news related articles via both press agents and ostensibly more objectively reliable sources like industry publications such as Variety and/or The Hollywood Reporter, but I was actually just a little surprised to see more than one piece about Beau Is Afraid in a rather unlikely place, namely The Forward, a publication aimed (largely) at Jews and which actually began its life as a Yiddish publication. These articles were in English, and suffice it to say they were not always favorably inclined toward writer-director Ari Aster, who, at least according to one of the articles, said that Beau Is Afraid is "a Jewish Lord of the Rings, but he's just going to his Mom's house". The Forward was also mightily troubled by Aster's further statement to the audience that "I want to put you in the experience of being a loser," which The Forward alleged at least subliminally implied all Jews were in fact "losers". Somewhat hilariously, though, The Forward managed a nice punchline (a Jewish provenance if ever there were one), stating that the film offers (to paraphrase them) Sophie Portnoy as Sauron, a Philip Roth inspired reference to Beau's monstrous mother Mona, and in that regard, I kind of comically imagined none other than Sigmund Freud slogging through this three hour series of unfortunate events in an attempt to understand Aster's psyche, at which point the famed psychoanalyst tells the auteur, "You're going to need someone seriously more skilled than I am to help you with these problems."

Aster's two previous features Hereditary and Midsommar were both exercises in at least somewhat more traditional horror, with both in fact having some pretty clearly derivative aspects that I mention in my reviews of those films. Beau Is Afraid is considerably more sui generis, but that may actually be one of its problems, as the film seems to want to meld a certain "Bizarro World" magical realism with supposedly more realistic psychological elements. That odd combo platter contributes to the results being increasingly gonzo as the film pretty much jettisons any form of reality after a while and becomes a freakish "road trip" (emphasis on the trip part) as Beau (Joaquin Phoenix) does in fact attempt to get to his Mom's house, first for the yahrzeit of his father's death, but then, after a domino effect of disasters starts occurring, for his Mom's funeral.

The film begins in a relatively normal fashion, albeit with what I assume is a birth vignette from Beau's POV that may suggest his troubles started as soon as he popped out of the womb. An adult Beau meets with his portly analyst (Stephen McKinley Henderson), who promptly prescribes Beau a new wonder drug for Beau's anxiety, a drug which perhaps gives credence to the feeling that much of what happens after Beau starts ingesting it may be more than a bit hallucinogenic. One way or the other, that aforementioned series of unfortunate events not only prevents Beau from (to slightly rejigger a famous lyric from My Fair Lady) getting to the synagogue (and/or his Mom's house) on time, he ends up badly injured and ultimately finds himself in the care of an, um, unusual family headed by Roger (Nathan Lane) and Grace (Amy Ryan).

Roger and Grace would seem to be a post modernist update on Ward and June Cleaver in a way, but as Nathan Lane intimates in the making of featurette included on this disc as a supplement, there's just the hint of something nefarious going on underneath, and it's that subliminal feeling of inchoate restlessness that informs much of Beau Is Afraid. By the time Beau has pretty much matriculated into an "alternate universe" of sorts once he stumbles upon a traveling theatrical troupe in a forest, I felt like I was watching some psychedelically infused mash up of Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead and, yes, Portnoy's Complaint, as filmed perhaps by Federico Fellini.

Suffice it to say that Ari Aster in the same making of featurette mentions this as his "dream project", which may in fact be a more Freudian allusion than he perhaps intended. What is one supposed to make of the relationship between a harridan mother like Mona (Patti LuPone, leaving no shred of scenery unchewed) and a son who can perhaps be charitably described as a classic nebbish? It's kind of interesting to see that the slates shown briefly and even one director's chair in another shot in the making of featurette offer the title Mona's Choice, which itself is a semi-hilarious reference to another Jewish mother.

But even aside and apart from some of these aforementioned ultra outré elements, it's the film's climax that provides the biggest "WTF?" factor of the film, and may perhaps unavoidably recall the memorable The Thing and I section from The Simpsons' eighth season Treehouse of Horror VII episode, with the salient caveat that the Groening enterprise does not offer an additional "surprise" in the attic awaiting Beau.

It's almost hard to know where to begin with Beau Is Afraid, a film which manages to stuff so many familial and sexual neuroses into one story that it should win some kind of Woody Allen Award, so to speak. In that regard, it's notable that Aster and several of the other talking heads in the making of featurette go to some lengths to assure the potential viewer that this is a horror comedy, but if it is, a lot of the humor may be derived from whatever the "experience of being a loser" version of Schadenfreude might be.

Beau Is Afraid Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beau Is Afraid is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of A24 and Liongate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The IMDb lists the Sony CineAlta and a 4K DI as the relevant data points, and this presentation is often gobsmacking, if occasionally on the disturbing side. A somewhat dowdy, tamped down and slightly yellowish palette can accompany some of Beau's early "adventures" in his apartment house and in the frighteningly dystopian urban environment surrounding it, but later in the film when he encounters Roger and Grace, things can become almost candy colored and pastel laden. An even later surreal sequence finds Beau surrounded by blatantly theatrical sets and other accoutrements, which even includes some brief animated moments. The result is probably intentionally heterogenous, but the transfer offers secure detail levels and a really lushly saturated palette virtually all of the time. There is some very brief flirtation with Liongate's bugaboo of banding in the very opening vignette which I'm assuming purports to give a womb's eye POV of a birth, with some washes of light.

Beau Is Afraid Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beau Is Afraid features a robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which gets off to a surreal bang with at least one booming LFE sound effect that is certainly in the "startle" category. The film's cartwheeling style offers great opportunities for washes of chaotic city noise early in the story and then, later at Roger and Grace's abode, more of a rural country feel. The score is as anachronistically diverse as the rest of the film and fills the side and rear channels engagingly. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

Beau Is Afraid Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Finally Home: Making Beau Is Afraid (HD; 15:48) is a fun EPK with some enjoyable interviews and peeks at some of the VFX.

Additionally, DVD and digital copies are included, and packaging features a slipcover.

Beau Is Afraid Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I've mentioned before with some A24 enterprises how it's interesting to see how Lionsgate releases some, and A24 itself releases some, including some exclusive A24 releases after wider Lionsgate releases, and I have a sneaking, anxiety ridden, premonition that we're going to get a "very special edition" of Beau Is Afraid. I'm not sure everyone is going to be along for the ride that an extended director's cut of this particular opus may bring, but all joking aside, this is a really audacious film on any number of levels. I'm just not sure it means much, if anything. Technical merits are first rate and the sole supplement very enjoyable, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.