Beau is Afraid (2023 man being afraid film)

[Armin Meiwes]

I've used my usual system to decide whether to see this, the system being Peter Bradshaw gave it 2/5 which almost always means it'll either be really good or at least definitely worth seeing.

Haha very much work on the same system, that guy is unbelievably clueless about films for a professional film reviewer (I still haven't forgiven him for giving Kumiko the Treasure Hunter one star).

[Mister Six]

Is this a horror film? Is it scary?

It's more anxiety-inducing than anything else, but it is gruesome here and there. Beau lives in a nightmarish Skid Row area that's like a rural Fox viewer's fever dream of inner city life, with rotting corpses in the streets and guys gouging each other's eyes out in gutter fights. And there's a particularly grotesque (though funny) monster at one point.

It's quite emotionally intense (though funny), but it's not really scary per se, no.

(I think that might be part of its failure at the box office - people want another horror movie with big dollops of exposition like Hereditary and Midsommar, and instead they're getting a weird surrealist existential comedy that actively works against the usual heroic plot beats.)

[Timothy]

Great, thanks! Was a bit afraid of it being quite jumpscare, nightmarish scary but think I can handle this. Cinema it is!

[Timothy]

Absolutely loved this. Thanks again for your comment Mr Six, otherwise I wouldnt have bothered seeing it in cinema.

Is Midsommar like this? Or way scarier?

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Midsommar is a straight up horror film. I didn't actually find it all that scary, but most other people seemed to.

[Timothy]

A, shit. Well thanks for the reply.

Any other films from A24 or other companies that are similar to this one?

[Mister Six]

Glad you enjoyed it @Timothy! Yeah, Midsommar is a horror movie, although like Claude I don't think it's very scary so much as it is odd and tense.

I can't think of much that's exactly like Beau is Afraid. As I mentioned before, Eraserhead has a similar aim of conveying a particular emotion/viewpoint, although it's more abstract and less frenetic than Beau. Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things has a similar "world gone slightly askew" vibe, as does another of his films, Synechdoche New York. The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man is very Jewish and very anxious, like Beau, although it's more of a character-led comedy drama.

My brain's a bit knackered out at the minute, so that's all that's coming to mind right now, but hopefully it'll give you something to be getting on with.

[Timothy]

Glad you enjoyed it @Timothy! Yeah, Midsommar is a horror movie, although like Claude I don't think it's very scary so much as it is odd and tense.

I can't think of much that's exactly like Beau is Afraid. As I mentioned before, Eraserhead has a similar aim of conveying a particular emotion/viewpoint, although it's more abstract and less frenetic than Beau. Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things has a similar "world gone slightly askew" vibe, as does another of his films, Synechdoche New York. The Coen Brothers' A Serious Man is very Jewish and very anxious, like Beau, although it's more of a character-led comedy drama.

My brain's a bit knackered out at the minute, so that's all that's coming to mind right now, but hopefully it'll give you something to be getting on with.

Thanks! I've seen Synedoche and thought it was great. Going to put the others on my list.

Might give Midsommer a try as well. Can always turn it off if it becomes too much.

[Mister Six]

It opens on a very spooky image, but I think everything past that is much more bearable. But YMMV + I watch a lot of horror.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

There's some pretty graphic injury detail, as the BBFC calls it. The cliff scene is memorably gruesome.

I'm booked to see Beau is Afraid on Friday. I'm looking forward to it but, blinking heck, it's a long film! Three hours, not including adverts and trailers.

[Timothy]

I was dreading the running time as well but it felt way shorter then that! Time flew by.

I am mostly bad when it comes to supernatural horror stuff so Midsommar might be fine? I watched Nope a few weeks back and that was alright and doable besides the

Spoiler alert

claustrophobic spaceship scene

[close]

.

[JamesTC]

Absolutely bloody brilliant. Baffled by the general lukewarm response. People need to stop enjoying cinema wrong.

The first hour in particular was so visceral and nerve wracking. The tension it builds in an over the top parody of a bad neighbourhood. It made me think of how the recent Evil Dead film tried something similar and was so flat and lifeless in comparison.

At times, this felt like Jon Waters character being plunged into a David Lynch world.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, the first hour is amazing. I did wish the rest of the film had been able to maintain that pace and tone, but that probably would have been too much.

I am mostly bad when it comes to supernatural horror stuff so Midsommar might be fine? I watched Nope a few weeks back and that was alright and doable besides the

Spoiler alert

claustrophobic spaceship scene

[close]

.

What is it that bothers you - tension, characters' fear, gore, violence (implied or shown), suffering? If you let us know what it is you're trying to avoid, it might be easier to figure out what would work for you.

[Timothy]

Yeah, the first hour is amazing. I did wish the rest of the film had been able to maintain that pace and tone, but that probably would have been too much.

What is it that bothers you - tension, characters' fear, gore, violence (implied or shown), suffering? If you let us know what it is you're trying to avoid, it might be easier to figure out what would work for you.

That opening scenes

Spoiler alert

with the walk through the streets, the noise complaint letters and the water

[close]

were so so good. I saw a Dutch reviewer describing it as a dull and humourless opening, which truly baffled me. Most of the reviews do.

When it comes to horror movies it's mostly supernatural stuff (paranormal, haunted houses, living dolls, exorcism) and scenes with scary kids. Heriditary and Insidious for example look terrifying. Something like Nope or Scream are films I can watch.

[Noodle Lizard]

If you were fine with this, you'd be fine with Midsommar I think. Hereditary less so because it's got more supernatural horror DNA.

[Mister Six]

Yeah, Midsommar doesn't have any supernatural elements, IIRC, so you're safe there. Give Hereditary a wide berth, by the sounds of it, although the most harrowing bit is relatively mundane.

I saw a Dutch reviewer describing it as a dull and humourless opening, which truly baffled me. Most of the reviews do.

That's insane.

[tourism]

is this worth a go if I detest aster and phoenix?

[Timothy]

I don't think so, no.

That's insane.

Yeah. One guy saying he nearly fell asleep after an hour, another saying the film was humourless. Quite happy I read this topic otherwise I might have given it a miss.

Gonna watch Midsommar later this week, thanks for all the advice all!

[Mister Six]

Anyone saying they nearly fell asleep in this film should be barred from criticism. Or checked out for narcolepsy.

is this worth a go if I detest aster and phoenix?

What do you detest about them?

[tourism]

What do you detest about them?

to me aster's films feel underwhelming and pessimistic about people in this kind of meanspirited rich kid way. I don't like phoenix's clammy 'look how hard I'm acting' vibe.

[Mister Six]

Then you will definitely not enjoy Beau Is Afraid.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

This was an experience, to say the least. I felt the 3 hours in my lower back, but I certainly never got bored. It's like something Wes Anderson or Spike Jones would make, while in the grip of a psychotic episode.

Strangely, I thought the humour added an extra layer of tension, as I never knew quite how to feel about what was happening.

is this worth a go if I detest aster and phoenix?

Definitely not. I think there was only one scene in the whole film that didn't have Phoenix in it.

[tourism]

Then you will definitely not enjoy Beau Is Afraid.

haha fair enough

[Noodle Lizard]

to me aster's films feel underwhelming and pessimistic about people in this kind of meanspirited rich kid way.

This is the apotheosis of that, I think. It feels properly nasty most of the time. It gave me a similar feeling to Uncut Gems, where everyone and everything is just horrible and in a state of perpetual anxiety for the duration, but I don't think I'd ever watch Beau Is Afraid again.

[Mister Six]

Conversely, I don't think I'd watch Uncut Gems again. Beau is so densely packed, especially at the start, that it rewards rewatching. I don't know what I'd get out of a second screening of Uncut Gems.

[Armin Meiwes]

Just watched this (thanks MubiGo!), would love to get Asters mums take on it but I thought it was great. Like a lot of people (well anyone that's a world class catastrophiser) the first third probably spoke to me the most directly but I was on board from start to finish. Could probably do with a rewatch (not any time soon tho).

[Armin Meiwes]

Funny because I thought it was sort of the opposite of Uncut Gems in that regard - it was about anxiety but I didn't find it at all anxiety making.

[checkoutgirl]

What in the holy testicle was that all about? 3 hours. 3 hours. At 1.40 I thought this has to be over soon. At 1.50 I thought the same. By 2.15 I stopped clock watching and just gave in. It had elements of Jacob's Ladder, The Lost Highway and a few bits and pieces like that.

I'm sure I've got the wrong end of the stick but was this just a fever dream after he took some pills in the bath and died? It was a bit repetitive and could have been wrapped up in 2 hours easy. Fuck it, that's the game when you don't watch any reviews.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I'm sure I've got the wrong end of the stick but was this just a fever dream after he took some pills in the bath and died?

I took that to be the implication when he got knocked out in the woods and there was a shot of water churning about.

[checkoutgirl]

I took that to be the implication when he got knocked out in the woods and there was a shot of water churning about.

I thought it was a hallucination or dream when he was convalescing in some strangers house, which with hospitals being more usual, I thought stretched credulity. The madman running around and the girl making him smoke that joint pushed it further and by the time she drank the paint it was obvious this couldn't be real.